Posted by voolavex in Jesus, Jews, Jews, Social Issues, Tributes, Yarhzeits.
Yesterday a friend posted this moving tribute and memory of his late sister Jill who died one year ago June 7th. breast cancer.
Our tribe lights candles called yarzheits every year to remember, with love, those who have passed on. He told me I could share it and so I have done here. This stopped my heart for its shining light and the love he felt for his sister. Here is his memory of Jill Kogen Arons, from the heart of her brother Jay Kogen.
‘It’s been a year since, my sister, Jill Arons died of breast cancer. And, now, with 12 months to reflect on what she meant to our lives, it can be boiled down to one thing: Jill was weird.
Growing up in an upper-middle-class Jewish house our parents exposed us to what you’d expect — sophisticated movies, literature, TV shows, the great American songbook, and the higher end of culture. Occasionally they liked to dress up and go to fancy restaurants in Beverly Hills and socialize with funny comedy friends. They liked trips to New York and Europe. As a kid, Jill liked none of those things. She liked Chocolate Frosted Pop-Tarts, Monopoly, KROQ, needlepoint, symmetrical rainbow art, and boys with long hair. She liked bowling and bingo and the Saugus Speedway to see stock car races and the Demolition Derby. My parents were shocked and baffled. Instead of a Jewish American Princess, they were raising a Hillbilly and I hated having her for my big sister.
How could someone so different and be a Kogen? Jill preferred Disneyland to New York. McDonald’s to Chasens. Las Vegas to, well, anywhere. When the rest of the family was into “A Chorus Line,” Jill loved “Jesus Christ Superstar” about the death and resurrection of Jesus. My parents were concerned that she wasn’t getting the Jewish cultural indoctrination they hoped. But it wasn’t Christianity she loved. I think she thought Ted Nealy was hot. Still, she wasn’t that into being Jewish either. That was clear the year she begged for and got my parents to put up a Christmas Tree. Jews didn’t have Christmas Trees but we did. Jill insisted. We put an odd spiral cone at the top instead of a star but everyone knew it was not a Hanukah Bush. People don’t put presents under the “bush” and open them on Christmas morning.
Jill was big on presents. Giving and getting. She liked them wrapped and plentiful. This may have stemmed from her birthday is three days before Christmas and she often got one gift for both days from people. She wanted two like everyone else. She didn’t care about big-ticket items. She just wanted the present to reflect her. The best thing I ever got her was a case of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese when she was 13 because that is all she ever ate for years. She LOVED that gift because that’s who she was. Her all-pasta and fake cheese diet was a deficit to others, but she wore the badge of picky eater proudly. If she got Jewelry or a fancy sweater she’d smile politely but we all knew that wasn’t really for Jill. That was for another imaginary Kogen daughter who didn’t exist. Jill didn’t like shopping or designer clothes. She liked the LA Kings and Magic Mountain and dating a guy who was almost 30 when she was 16. Some people march to the beat of their own drum. Jill River-danced to the whine of her own bagpipe.
Jill was fearless, and unstoppably her own person. She dropped out of Cal-Arts, got married and had a kid at a ridiculously young age, ran a typesetting business and eventually went to work at the Bingo Bugle. That was a life path attempted by no one else from Encino, ever. I, of course, took the safe and pre-approved path of going to UCLA and then getting a job in show business. While I was bending to the mold my parents unconsciously created for me, my sister was breaking the mold. She was a pioneer. And if you knew Jill, you’d know she didn’t make a big deal about doing her thing. She just did it, stubbornly moving forward. Jill’s dreams just happened like they were inevitable. And on the few occasions when they didn’t work out, like her first marriage, she dusted herself off and moved forward.
Jill was goofy. Little things made her happy. Literally. She collected tiny bottles of ketchup and other miniature stuff. She also loved items that had “AS SEEN ON TV!” on the box. Snuggies and Hallmark Collector Sets and knickknacks were her jam. I think she also collected small bottles of jam. Admittedly she wasn’t the most motherly of mothers but somehow she managed to raise one of the best people of all time, her daughter Samantha. This may have to do with one of her greatest super powers. Jill was honest… very very honest. If I gained weight she’d asked why I gained so much weight. If I lost out on a Job she’d never beat around the bush. She’d asked if I was sad I didn’t get the job. Good or bad, Jill called it like it was. It was never said with malice or jealousy, always with love in her eyes, but she wasn’t putting up with anyone’s bullshit. If you had a zit or a divorce it was going to get talked about. If you had a victory, that was going to get some airtime too. And in her honesty, she was one of the funniest people I ever met.
Comedy in my family is highly prized. It’s a big deal. It was so big I went into the business and my style was formal and calculated. Jill was naturally funny because she saw the truth and talked about it. She knew it was a little crazy so she laughed and that made the rest of us laugh. She had hope and joy.
She moved to Canyon Country because that deep suburban world was the good life to her. She met and married her amazing husband Rich on J-Date, (maybe the only time she identified as Jewish) and it was a great match. How could it not be? Rich knew exactly who he was getting from the first date. Maybe this is why he fell in love. Jill was always Jill. She had the clear-eyed authenticity I was never brave enough to employ.
Our relationship had twists and turns. When I was a baby, Jill adored me. She loved my little fingers and toes. She liked to dress me up in weird outfits. She liked to play games with me. She thought I was a cute toy. I was kind of shy and didn’t speak much. I was kind of like a cute toy to her. But then, at some point, maybe around 5, I started talking. And from that point on we started fighting and didn’t stop until she moved out when she was around 18. I know why we were at odds. I was the goody-goody to my parents, which made her seem more out of step. I made it harder for Jill to be Jill and part of me knew what I was doing. She liked to claim I was secretly bad. She said I pushed her out of a moving car on the way to Camp Fun Time. She did fall out of the car but I didn’t push. My bad was more covert. I might tell on her or act out in ways that were just short of the line where I could get in trouble. She always compared me to Tad Martin on “All My Children.” If you know the show, he wasn’t a nice guy. One day when I was 16 she chased me out of the house with a steak knife in her hand, which I’m sure was a fight I started. I thought we’d always be like prisoners in a family chain gang, uncomfortably forced together for our entire lives. But then once she moved out we suddenly became friends. I’m not sure how it happened. Our differences seemed to melt away. I finally saw Jill for the fearless warrior she was and she liked me because I still had stubby fingers.
She finally took an interest in show business when I went into it. We took a few excursions together. Went to concerts. We watched our hometown hockey team, the Kings, finally win the Stanley Cup. (Jill was a fan since she was 10. And one year, my parents arranged to have some of the Kings including Butch Goring sing her happy birthday and bring out a cake at the Forum Club.) We rented a boat on July 4th a few times to watch fireworks. We talked about taking other trips together in recent years but it never happened because I couldn’t find the time and part of me didn’t want to spend a week at “The Biggest Loser” camp.
In the last half of her life, this rebel was the rock of our family. Jill took care of all of us, especially my mom and dad. She would find tricks and coupons and the best life hacks for all situations. If you were going to Istanbul she’d tell you where to go even though she’d never have been there. She’d find a website or forum and get you the coolest tour for the Hagia Sophia that includes snacks. There was nothing she couldn’t become an expert on fairly quickly. She became the keeper of technology and finance for my parents. She knew all the passwords and had trackers on everyone’s phones. When she wanted to learn something new, she took charge and did it. One year, she decided she hated paying someone to do her taxes so she took classes on doing taxes and did it herself. (I think she was even a notary.) And she took pleasure in the things she loved: her family, husband, Samantha’s dog, and online coupons. And she did all this with clear-eyed Joy. One of her greatest qualities was being able to see the good in the simple fun things in life. She didn’t need to exaggerate what was happening to make anything seems cooler or more impactful to make it worth doing. No drama. Just reality. Real sorrow when things sucked and real joy when things were good. Mostly there was joy.
Even when the breast cancer came, she kept her spirits up. She did what the doctors said and waited for good news, which ultimately never arrived, but she plowed ahead anyway. Through painful surgeries and chemo and radiation that ravaged her body she somehow got through it hoping for new treatments to save her but the disease beat the cure. The day she decided to start hospice she met it with the usual combination of complete honesty, humor, and a determination to get on with the journey. She talked about hoping there was a heaven and joked about how embarrassing it will be to see some of the relatives we didn’t like but how great it would be to see the people we loved and missed. In those last days, we watched movies and game shows when she wasn’t sleeping or trying to move to a position that wasn’t painful. She didn’t go out of her way to be anything more than what she was, a person who loved us who was dying. She was honest about that too.
So it’s been exactly a year since Jill left us. The hole in my heart is as big as ever. We all miss her. But her legacy remains. She’s a beacon of truth and joy and beauty that I will forever hold up as a role model for how to live — free and daring and authentic. She became one of my best friends. I could never ask for a better big sister.
This is a week of yahrzeits for me too. I wish I had the eloquence of Jay Kogen to say how I feel about those I have lost But he allowed me to share this and it is exquisite. As the Boston Irish say – “Gawd love ya”.
And I must add – Jill, your brother is one of my favorite people. Rest in peace, look down from the cosmos and know he is still being loved as he loved you and Gawd, this is starting to sound Jesusy. Thank you, Jay.
![]()
![]()
Like this:
Like Loading...
Posted by voolavex in despicable, Election 2016, Idiots in Government, murder, Politics & Religion, Putin, sins, Social Issues, The 45th.
So the 45s have turned into the Borgias. This may be one of the best examples of diverting attention from the now to events in then. Instead of concentrating on the immediate issues at hand; the lack of action in the Congress and the White House, the lack of intelligence in the government, the never-ending suspicions – yea – beliefs that the 2016 Election was a joint effort by The US and Russia, the lies, high crimes and misdemeanors that rouse no anger or suspicions, we dig up the good old “Who Killed JFK” tamasha. This one never crossed my mind, but the plan is brilliant and evil.
Those who still remember that day in Dallas – 54 years ago(!!!!!) are still fascinated by the entire story. Theories, conspiracies, facts, lies, the size dress Mrs. Kennedy wore, the grassy knoll, the unanswered questions, Jack Ruby and the weeping are a never healing suppurating wound in the side of this nation.
Is this the fiddle that the 45’s have found to accompany the nation’s perpetual dirge? Gone are the perps ; their due process null and void. The people in the painful images of those days are mostly dead. The last child standing is a grown woman. Does he want really yearn for this “history” to be further told. Why not just disinter the corpses and have them be questioned. Or preserved under glass and laid in the rotunda? Was this one of “promises” and did I miss it. No wonder he stays up all night. Stephen Miller at his finest hour (his folks must be so proud). Or maybe he had never heard of it before?
I must note that of all the dirty, nasty red herrings the 45’s have tossed, stinking, into the last 22 months – this one defies description.
Like this:
Like Loading...
Posted by voolavex in Anti-Semitism, Holocaust deniers, Israel, Jews, Jews, Nazis, Social Issues.
Recently, I learned that a person, married into my family ( and we are all very estranged) is a Holocaust denier. At the time I found out (quite by accident) I actually thought I would vomit. I shook. I knew this person was opinionated and narrow-minded but this is one that never even occurred to me. Coincidentally, I had just recently seen “Denial” (read the book quite a few years ago) and “Remember”; both of which impressed me and both of which presented aspects of this hideous event in detail. Each was excellent. I should add I am a Jew. although quite secular and I am very pro-Israel – but this is not really the point when it comes to this event. Is it?
Holocaust denial is a crime in many countries – for its ugliness but also for its enormous lie. It did happen and it has been proven to have happened and continues to be written about and substantiated repeatedly as fact. I have read extensively on subject from my teens.
It is a felony in many countries to express Holocaust denial and people go to jail. I imagine this is a case for many who run into one. They can try to call them out to those in authority and it is very tempting. I shall leave it at that.
It actually doesn’t make much sense for Jew Haters to deny it. In the process of their hate, it should be something they cherish. After all if you hate Jews, the death of millions should fill you with delight. For some reason those bigots don’t express this. They have decided that the Jews made it up for sympathy? Profit? Publicity? I have no idea what they think. But when it hits close to ones own life – in any way – it baffles and disgusts. Not enough to debate or argue the point with the bigot -that’s a losing proposition. Deniers are cemented to the denial. And I find them sickening. Period. I don’t want to know them. But it is important to know who they are.
But here is a far more provoking question. How would one even go about creating such a hoax? The Nazis who created the factual Holocaust eventually got what they deserved at the war’s end. Those who tried to deny it or escape the legal system hid. And what a life that must have been! Determined men, like Wiesenthal and his dedicated seekers pursued them relentlessly. They routed out so many and were so diligent – a Nazi criminal on the lam must have been a nervous wreck (just like the Jews and others they sought, found and murdered). But think about the idea of a hoax itself. What would have inspired anyone to imagine this horror and supply specious evidence to prove it? How could be done? There was no social media or iPhones to create rumors or photoshopped evidence and who would have volunteered to take on the role of a skeletal, tortured victim or a corpse? The denier’s usual comeback is that the numbers were inflated. That it was not possible for such a thing to have been carried out on anything (that sort of insults their heroes) but a small scale and it was therefore okay for something of this nature to take place – but not the way the attention starved bleeding hearts claimed. But the facts betray the denial. Not just anguished survivors told their stories; educated, erudite and relentless men – not wanting to simply take a survivors word did the research. They made it their business to dig deeply into the material that existed and supported the facts.
David Irving was one notorious man who insisted it was a hoax. He was revealed in British court to be a liar and a bigot. Neo Nazis, who should be proud of their clever and inspiring German forebears , should embrace it as a stellar accomplishment. Which makes the deniers an even more deluded crowd. They can’t have it both ways. On the one hand these race-pure monsters did a very substantial job of making the Reich Judenfrei and at the same time, the deniers want it be a mythic hoax created by Jews to exaggerate exactly what? Do they think the Reich did a monumental job or did they get blindsided by the Jews who made it up; this very act they love the Nazis for doing. Which is it?
My recently discovered denier insists that the latter is true and the “Jews” made it much worse than it was – but how could even one murdered person, murdered for their race alone be okay? A town of Jews or the starvation of a Jew (or a homosexual, or Rom or impaired person?) is okay? What they would like us to believe is that it was an okay thing to murder Jews, but the ones who survived spun it to be a crime against humanity. That damaged humans who escaped, invented their own history to match that of other survivors. That Jews share a cosmic consciousness that psychically collaborated to tell the same story when questioned? Seriously? That we all think alike and remember the same things that, in their minds, didn’t happen?
This apparently is what my own personal denier believes. This is what made me shake and fight nausea.
No, I did not say the name or the relationship. It is enough for me to know and it is enough for that person to know I know. And now you know. If you know me you may wonder and may even realize. But I now know and that is more than I ever wanted.
Like this:
Like Loading...
Posted by voolavex in Election 2016, Politics & Religion, Putin, Social Issues.
For those who imagine it gets better post-election; I believe it is just the start of worse. The GOP obstructionists have now honed their cones on the eight years of Mr. Obama. They have perfected roadblocks, diversions, subterfuge, lies and blackmail to an art and if that’s what we get – then we have also done it to ourselves. Democrats talk the talk but they don’t always walk the walk. Dealing with a con man (more accomplished than Mr. Madoff at that) requires more than we could or should have done. We relied on experience, professionalism, common sense and dignity. What were we thinking ?
The GOP are so fucking focussed it scares me. Tunnel vision unfettered by those tiresome and ridiculous socially important agendas . And the rank and file buy into the fast talk of a Three Card Monte dealer.He repeats their worst nightmares in every GOP speech. Ignorant, stubborn, religious, too white? Bigots. Urban poor. DJT/the GOP’s finest doesn’t speak with a forked tongue he speaks with a forklift encompassing so many groups of citizens whom, by the way, all hate each other, it’s damn near simultaneous translation time at the Tower of Babel. But they let him loose.
I do think the GOP could have stopped DJT; but confused, they refused. They couldn’t dredge up a single appealing candidate to run. A name picked from a hat would have been better. Are they humiliated? I doubt it ; because if DJT wins – they win (in their tiny minds) and we reap the fouled fruit of their techniques. And this is the year, lined up and ready the true believers pay to slide down the razor blade ride of the 2016 Sideshow and Snake Oil Offers. The Year of the Bigot, Bias and Buffoon.
Top kudos, though, should rightly go to social media as the fountain from which this swamp of slime and sleaze oozed. Bi-partisan rock throwing, braid pulling, pussy grabbing, deniability; because we too – every person, every opinion, every tweet and post have enabled this to happen. BOTH SIDES. Oh and the entire world. Surprised – don’t be – turns out we have proven – beyond a doubt that the pen is mightier than the sword. It simply has been upgraded to a keyboard and send button.
Like this:
Like Loading...
Trump?
November 4, 2016
Posted by voolavex in Politics & Religion, Social Issues.
He could win.
As we near the day of decision the fear – for me – becomes very much a possibility. I say this because on my FBPage I sing with members of the choir. We are bright, erudite, informed humans with an ability to dig until we have read and discussed all the angles. We have weighed the words and the pantomime and the evasive answers and the performance art of Donald J. Trump.. We are not the folks to whom he preaches. Those folks are scared too – but they are scared of things they have always held in anger and contempt. Foreigners, Dark skins, women, Jews and dozens and dozens of offshoots of these same targets of anger, violence and hate. To be in 2016 and watch this unfold is beyond bizarre to those of us who have lived somewhat longer and have the ability to compare and contrast. But we are heading for heaven’s door and one day the Social Media will name the last Baby Boomer and their end.. We all know that. We are not smarter or better – we just have an ability that only time provides – reflection, experience and for many – plain old common sense. Electronics and Technology have not dulled that. In a sense we are at devolution – not moving forward but – at best – running place – at worst – running amok. If we could run backwards we might kickstart our evolution again. But there will never be another generation that has lived and seen both forks in the road. And the road more travelled is crowded. Trump’s message does not have to have substance. The listeners don’t have substance. He is a brilliant huckster but unlike PT Barnum he is fooling more of the people more of the time. And I hardly need mention that great civilizations rise to glory and fall in hubris and despair. I am fearful that Barack Obama was our last President. I fear for the United States of America – because today – we are anything but.
Like this:
Like Loading...
Posted by voolavex in Elections, freedom, guilt, Health, Medical, Politics, Politics & Religion, sex, sexist, Social Issues, vagina.
Donald Trump can kiss my ass. How dare anyone – man or woman – imagine a punishment for an abortion? What could be worse than the entire situation itself. Somehow the self-righteous right (and many others, sacred and profane) think women have abortions when there is nothing good on sale at Bloomingdales or K-Mart? Is that what they imagine. Well imagine this – you are pregnant and it is not a thrilling fact of your life. Rich,poor, any ethnicity and no one is faced with this truly except women. Casual sex, marital sex, oops sex, rape, you are knocked up. And you had no intention to become a parent – actually – a mother. Your choices should be unlimited in a normal society. But in the eyes of mostly men – you are so low and foul – even in Chanel – you not only are a slut to be shamed but you should be punished if you can manage to make a personal choice. Hoe dare he. How dare they? I will not face this decision again in my life but I have in another time of my life. I have chosen and if you do not think that choice was a difficult and emotionally wrought one – then you are ducky. Women may be relieved after this choice – but they carry it inside them forever. In their minds, their hearts and their body’s memory. I do.
So despite this being a medical decision for the doctor and an emotionally medical one for the woman what more is there to exact? A fine, probation, stay 30 feet from a penis for the rest of your life, have it stitched shut, have a tattoo on your face like Hester Prynne? Community service in a creche or nursery? Lose the children you have and love because you didn’t, wouldn’t, couldn’t have another that you did not want to bear. Birth defects – how dare you – you MUST have a baby with no quality of life – including yours and that of your family? That would be an agony that covers a lot of ground.
Was he quick to retract his statement? WOW. You betcha’ because he knew he had crossed a line of voters who do not play that period. And I suspect he actually was sorry about the pressure he bore for it. I think he believes all his pompous, dangerous demagoguery. I’ll bet he had a laundry list of nasty punishments for bad women who chose choice. But Donald is not alone. He just bleats his ideas (?) more easily. I suspect this is the stance of most GOP men and some women. And I also bet they have paid for numerous terminations about which they have no guilt, whatsoever.
Men. Stay out of our vaginas unless you are invited in. Men. Stay out of our wombs unless your opinion is requested. Men. Worry about your frequently out of control dicks and refrain from making medical decisions for females. It is not your right. You have no standing to do so.
And this: Back once more – hectic few months. Hating this Election Season 2016
Like this:
Like Loading...
Posted by voolavex in Egypt, Health, hippies, Medical, Social Issues, solutions.
Tags: $84, 000, ACA, AIDS, Big Pharma, cancer, Egypt, felons, Gets my goat, Hepatitis C, Hippocratic Oath, HIV, insurance companies, liver transplants, medicare, oral cure, Pharma
I grew up in the age of “wonder” drugs. New discoveries for diseases that needed eradication. Dedicated researchers who had devoted decades to finding cures. Period. In the words of Jonas Salk, when asked about patents for his polio vaccine, he replied, “There is no patent. Could you patent the sun” and with those words the Salk vaccine eliminated – for the most part, polio. Albert Sabin developed the Sabin vaccine with the help of the Russians and it too was given freely – I received both while in grade school. I have never had polio. There was time when kids could not go swimming for fear of polio; couldn’t play with others for fear of polio and people whose lives were lived in a contraption called an “iron lung” that breathed for them. It was not a good thing. The moral compass and integrity of Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin pointed in a different direction and they found a cure that was made available to everyone. Polio is largely gone from the planet and with the efforts of the Gates Foundation may soon be simply extinct.
Doctors take the Hippocratic Oath which includes the words “First do no harm”. I don’t think it includes the words – do not treat those with no money. I could be wrong. I am not certain what Big Pharma swears to do – but one thing it knows how to do is make money. In my very skewed way of thinking if you are in the business of finding treatments and cures for deadly diseases, your motives should include making sure as many of those afflicted get them. My first hint of the slippery, slimy slope Big Pharma had chosen were the TV and print ads for prescription drugs – to the public. I couldn’t figure out whyBig Pharma was appealing directly to consumers for medications that had been the sole domain of the prescribing physician. And the laundry list of side effects – read by a serious voice – was a legal requirement. And scary. In print it required pages. Humans are gullible. We want quick fixes. Better, quicker fixes; an app for a cure. Sneeze? Wheeze, scratch, fidget, get the runs – watch and listen – an ad will tell you which med to “ask your doctor about”. (One appears to come with two free bathtubs but I am not sure). I have a suspicion doctors do not like to asked about these things. But Pharma spends a lot on consumer ads. Does this expand profit or eat into it. Someone should ask.
It used to be that Baby Boomers, who were usually old Hippies, had the PDR or the US Pharmacopeia stored away in their heads somewhere. I did. In the 60’s we knew who made what and the side effects, the contraindications and the uses to which these meds were put. Words like “sulfate, hydrochloride, spansules, tartrate and indole rings” flowed poetically from many of us who chose an alternative lifestyle. And FYI – the “meth” we spoke of was not the meth cooked in kitchen and garages. Ours came straight from drug companies; as my son used to say: “Back when drugs were good for you”. He was not far wrong. Such was our mindset. Bad drugs were cocaine and heroin. For me they still are.
Which takes us to 2014 and BIG Pharma – the profit stream that can mean life or death – your very own.
Recently a small “pharm” created a “cure” for Hepatitis C (for certain genotypes. and not a 100% cure – more like 95%). It made it through clinical trials, appeared and appears to be very beneficial and was approved for use by the FDA. Millions of us have this virus which didn’t even have a name before the 90’s. Millions didn’t know they had it. Millions still don’t. It is global. It is a slow progressor and can be asymptomatic for some and the virus is only interested in the liver. Unlike HIV – it does not wreak the same havoc with the immune system but many with HIV also have HCV and this is a horrid situation. Adding insult to injury. Unlike HIV (in its early days) HCV is possible to acquire by anyone who might be exposed through blood transfer. Unlike certain cancers it can afflict males or females equally. So,unlike many more publicized viral infections it can get lost in the shuffle. But if you have it – you could be facing cirrhosis, liver cancer or chronic fatigue and for many, a liver transplant. It is more complicated than this but that is a nutshell.
Voila!!! Someone finds a really effective oral treatment that can nail and rid many a body of it without the hideous side effects of previous treatments (interferon and ribaviran are two). A ORAL medication that is shown to be extremely effective, short regimen and now what? Oh, now here’s the price tag for this: $84,000 for an 84 day course. ACA, Medicare and insurance companies are not happy campers. I am not a happy camper. I have the right genotype and I have Medicare – but I am short about $84,000. Which brings me back to Big and small Pharma and their duty of care to cure if they can ,incurable diseases that will hugely reduce organ transplants, hospital care, rejection drug costs and generally better this country, both financially and medically . Do they even have a duty of care or do they first shun no profit. A drug company will tell us the costs for developing effective and important new drugs is astronomical – but who ever asks to see a breakdown of those costs? Seriously. The company I have in mind is publicly traded so showing investors a HUGE profit is, I suspect, far more important that cleaning up some sick livers. The Pharm contrasts the $84K spent to the cost of liver transplants but if this drug can reduce dramatically the need for this procedure, it makes more sense to dispense it to more people. And on the subject of liver transplants: donor organs are just that – donated. You cannot go to the doc and say – “okay let’s get me a new liver – when shall I come back” because you may never get one. So a liver transplant v. a high percentage cure is not a bet I would take to my turf accountant. I find it a specious argument.
But it gets better. Oh yes it does. It is perfectly legal for Pharma to sell pricey drugs to foreign countries at very discounted prices. Let’s say Egypt has a large load of cases of – let’s say – HCV – a pharm with a good product that can achieve maximum results can be had at a 90+% discount. Feeling edgy right about now? There’s more. Individual state Departments of Corrections can choose to give their felons and bad folks, let’s say, a certain high result drug for about a $3750 per inmate pop. So let’s say a slammer treats everyone – it could cost up to $315,000,000 to cover them all. Which takes us back to the duty to heal. The duty to cure. The duty to care? And my question is simply this: when does the humanitarian good exceed the addiction to profit. For me, right about now. It gets my goat.
0.000000
0.000000
Like this:
Like Loading...
Posted by voolavex in chasids, despicable, Jews, Politics & Religion, Social Issues.
Tags: Caylee, death, dying, families, grief, Jews, Leiby Kletzky, murder, Orthodox, Religion, sisters, yarmulke
I have been lazy and busy for the last few month – wasting perhaps valuable and pithy thoughts on FB. But today my heart is broken and I am in mourning for a little boy I do not know. His name is Leiby Kletzky and he would have been 9 years old next week. Now he is dead. Like most of this country I paid some attention to the trial of Casey Anthony – an ordeal almost 6 years old and one that resulted in an acquittal based on lack of a case. The DA in Orlando screwed up. Whatever we learn now about this matter will always be fraught with doubts but Casey Anthony is protected by double jeopardy so she may be a pariah – but she will go on her way. I don’t much care to be very honest.
Today I got an email from a list I am on called Hatzolah – a volunteer Jewish ER service and this one caught my eye. It told of a little boy walking home from day camp in borough Park Brooklyn who was kidnapped, murdered and dismembered by a member of the same neighborhood. This happened yesterday – not three years ago. Leiby was a little Orthodox Jewish lad with glasses, a yarmulke and sidelocks and sneakers coming back from day camp. A little boy. The family’s only son. His mother was on her way to meet him but he got lost and a man with a similar look drove by and we imagine Leiby asked for directions. Leiby got into the car. We will never know what he said but tonight he will be mourned and buried.
The man presumed innocent until proven guilty Levi Aron is a quiet, religious loner who lived in his parent’s home. He was not married and he worked full time. He only known crime was pishing in public. I suspect most men have done this. One can only assume that there were very dark parts in his head and where his soul might have once been. He has supposedly admitted to what he did to Leiby. What he did was so heinous and ugly you can read the tabloids to get the details. A parent should never know such things can happen to children. Such things should never happen.
While I write this I am waiting for the real press to tell us about Leiby and his short but beloved life. The sisters who must have adored him, the mother who treasured him; the father who planned in his heart for the 13th birthday on which he would become a man. I am waiting for the outrage and the anger and the fury that accompanied the death of Caylee Anthony. A child no more or less precious than this little boy. I am waiting for the outcry, the keeners, the wailers, the sign carriers who will demonstrate for Leiby and I know I will be even sadder because none of that will happen. And I would ask you who have loved any child to make sure it does. Because it matters just as much.
Like this:
Like Loading...
Posted by voolavex in common sense, despicable, illegal, peasants, Politics & Religion, Scalia, Social Issues.
Tags: 2nd amendment, bear arms, choix du roi, framers, guns
Twelve years ago my husband was pistol whipped where he worked. The assailant hit him several time on the left side of his head leaving him with a closed head trauma, permanent disability, severe headaches and laundry lists of ongoing side effects that have gotten worse instead of better. For many years we thought this injury was caused by a closed fist until an eyewitness mentioned it had been a gun butt that was used. The men were armed. That is the full disclosure part.
When the framers wrote our constitution the second amendment was logical to me. A war had just been fought, trespass and killings still were a part of the landscape of 1776. Added to that many Americans shot for food. Disallowing guns to me seemed like a bad idea. I often think today we confuse the framers with the store front fortune tellers who can see all and tell all for a price. The men who wrote the constitution were not seers. They did not appear to have divine vision neither did they claim to have insider future info that guided them. I think they wrote a damn fine outline for a new and revolutionary country. An untried experiment. Until the American and French revolted royalty pretty much called the shots and it was an iffy business. In France (pre-1789), the birth of prince and then a princess was called the “choix du roi”. First you have an heir and then you marry off your daughter to another crown prince and gain more of everything. Marie Antoinette was an arch duchess of Austria. So one of the jobs of the framers was to abolish this entitlement of one ruling class and make everyone equal (sort of). What I’m not sure of is how long they expected this country to last or grow. Certain inalienable rights however were declared and bearing arms was one of them. You did not have to be a soldier of the king to strike fear into people who threatened your sovereignty.
Sadly the folks who like to shoot guns and desire to own and wear them are not always the good citizens. The bad guys too are equally entitled to have them. The 2nd amendment said nothing about shooting nor did it specify under what circumstances the arms could be used. Talk about your open to interpretation clause. The framers simply (I think) did not want Mr. John Q. American to be invaded by gun-toting foreigners who were going to steal their land and freedom. And I agree.
I am confused today about guns and gun laws and killers (well – not the killers). I do not own a gun for one reason only. I fear I would use it and I do not want that responsibility. Like the bell, once the bullet leaves the chamber it has its own path and once it’s on it, people can get hurt or killed. Like yesterday. So while I respect the second amendment for its desire to protect Americans from all enemies, foreign and domestic – I am not sure enough people really understand and truly respect the amendment and how profound it is. We live in confusing times. And as an aside – I think it is time for SCOTUS member Scalia to have at least the Minnesota Multiphasic
Like this:
Like Loading...
Posted by voolavex in common sense, despicable, Economics, freedom, Golden door, Politics, Politics & Religion, Social Issues, solutions.
Tags: Christian, constitution, GOP, greed, Lies, Obama, Palin, Religion, religious right
Each fabulous empire had it peak and then fell like the ones before it. Without this shit we would not have archaeology. Basic fact.
It is audacious, therefore, for this country to imagine it will last forever as the bright shining symbol of all that is good and great on this planet. We refuse or simply fail to see ourselves reflected in the mirror of history. Other countries learn far better from their pasts and accept truths we think were made true at Disney Studios.
As mentioned today in the media: If the only reason for the GOP is to destroy the Dems – a word of warning; they will also fall on their swords and we will have some kind of new and very scary government. Our vaudeville Congress and “partiers” have made us a joke worldwide for our retro revivalist politics, bigotry and narrow views. Step back a little – We are no longer a great nation of hopes and promises kept – we are a nation of angry, obsolete petty snake oil salesmen – promises are made and the Loyal Opp makes it its job to see they cannot be fulfilled.
This is no longer a country I recognize. One party systems fast become one man systems and in this country we hold our politics in such high esteem we barely pay attention to how many rotten apples sit in the halls of Congress waiting for job. It must smell like hard cider by now. I would advise those southwest of our country – those who think they can achieve the American Dream to pack warmer clothes and keep moving until they hit Canada.
It is hard to continue loving a land that gave so much to so many only to have shot itself in the foot over bigotry and imaginary fears. Those who fear the “Nanny” state are the ones who need supervision and limits the most. People who know what their limits are have no reason to fear anything in terms of grift, graft and greed. It’s not the crime that brings regrets to the political thieves – it’s the getting caught. The United States is out of control. And it scares me to death.
Like this:
Like Loading...
Voolavex 