Tag Archives: hate

"Socialized Medicine" – Better red than dead.

So I watched Sicko (I don't usually acquire movies without paying for them but I plan on getting it on DVD. It comes out the day I close on my house so there's absolutely NO WAY I will end up seeing it in theaters because I'll be busy moving and my money will be focused elsewhere too)

It just sorta angered me. It's stunning that all these other nations are doing better than us in universal health care. It's infuriating. I've heard plenty of right wing nonsense where they talk about how bad they have it in other countries. Well, guess what, in other countries if you *need* private doctors, you can pay for them. If you can't pay, or don't mind getting the same treatment as everyone else, go to the normal doctors. Anything is better than this shithole where becky gets diagnosed with diabetes shortly after she gets on my insurance, and now they're starting to try to catch her in a preexisting condition clause. And where we get all sorts of bills from all sorts of companies, and I never know what I'm supposed to pay, and by when. Half of it shows up as "past due" the minute I get it, because the procedure was 2 months ago and insurance just paid out, etc. It's all bullshit and what we have isn't working.

And so of course, after watching that, I ended up going to the hospital for some long overdue x-rays on my foot. It's not broken, just sprained. I may have to see a podiatrist. But it's not broken. Yay! I'm sure I'm gonna get a $500 bill because an ER doctors assistant told me to take over the counter painkillers and rest my feet as much as I can, and if it doesn't go away, see another doctor. Fucking broken.

Also, for those who haven't seen it (NSFW, if your work is cranky about videos depicting drug use and guitar playing involving puppets) Kermit does a cover of "hurt".

We close on the house June 29 in the morning.

Damn the USPS (or, Wow, my assets are cold!)

Again, my stupid postal dude didn't properly deliver my registered mail. Evidently, I missed some critical stuff. Like say, a notice of intent to levy and right to hearing.

So I got a letter today notifying me that the IRS has frozen my bank accounts and is seeking to collect armloads of cash from me.

Fortunately, I called my bank and my accounts hadn't yet been frozen so I got on the horn to the IRS, who notified me that all they have to do is TRY to send it registered mail, and that's good enough (which seems like absolute bullshit to me, I have been served better for piddly shit like the old apartments trying to sue me because I broke my lease with them (they were slumlords, see posts back in 2001 for details). The amount they wanted is less than the IRS wants (which is an amount in the low 4 digits). But I can't even get served by affixing the notice to my house? Stupid IRS. I hate them. So instead I get no notice whatsoever.

Anyway, I am TOTALLY reaming out my postmaster tomorrow. This is the 5th time I've complained about this. I don't think I should stop this time until I get confirmation that I have a new carrier. This is absolute bullshit. The guy consistently delivers mail to us that isn't ours (it's for the guy down the street with a dissimilar address and name), only puts those "we missed you" cards in my box half the time for oversized shit (and NEVER tries to knock on the door, I know because there's someone here at all times), and about 1% of the time, they'll deliver at most a card saying I have to go to the post office to get registered mail (none of it recently, for the record, being from the IRS, and I generally go retrieve the mailings when I do get the card).

And as an aside, the IRS has gotten decidedly less lame about things like automatic drafts on my checking account. I've been asking them to do that for years because I'll lose a stub or forget a check, then they'll insist I catch up by sending everything at once, or terminate the payment agreement and then start sending me increasingly ominous letters for the next year until they generally then start sending me angrier stuff in registered form, which I may or may not get). Now, they'll actually just take it from me and that's that. It never made sense to me that they could garnish my wages or levy my bank accounts, but couldn't do a simple electronic draft against it. I know they're different things, but it's so damn illogical.

Anyway rant mode off.

(and in case you missed it, the IRS and I are friends again. No worries that they're gonna come take my car or sell my wife into the sex trade or anything nasty like that)

Dear MCI/UUnet

You mean well, I'm sure, but you're fucking retarded.

I appreciate the idea of faxing me when you have a service issue affecting my employer's office internet connectivity. It takes balls to admit something's broken that the customer didn't notice, and I totally admire that.

I could have, however, lived a long and happy life without you trying to send these two faxes to my work cell phone at 4am.

grr.

Do you know what your sin is, Doctor? It's pride.

Gonzales said that Congress was aware of the program's scope and that it had been approved "under the authorization to use military force" against terrorism.

His remarks echoed the comments of President Bush, who said Monday that he had briefed key members of Congress on the program.
— http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/01/24/nsa.strategy/index.html

Key members of parliament have personally observed this subject. I was told that
the Alliance's support for the project was unanimous.
— http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/s/serenity-script-transcript-joss-whedon.html