PittsburghThoughts

[Dick] Gregory turned to me: “This man [Lenny Bruce] is the eighth wonder of the world. You have to go back to Mark Twain to find anything remotely like him. And if they don’t kill him, or throw him in jail, he’s liable to shake up this whole fuckin’ country.”

A year later, Gregory published his book Nigger dedicated to “Dear Momma - Wherever you are, if you ever hear the word ‘nigger’ again, remember they are advertising my book.”
[source]

"Hear, Hear George! You've virtually destroyed the federal government. I salute you!"

Hear ye, hear ye, 

In a previous blog, through a misunderstanding or perhaps a poorly worded sentence, I dissed Whatever It Is, I'm Against It. The author was man or woman enough to explain what he meant and agreed with me that it could have been worded better.

Therefore, I am once again recommending Whatever It Is, I’m Against It to my readers in the hope that you'll visit. He (or she) has some great entries and you would be as remiss to not drop in from time to time as I have been.   Gene

 Today's treatise,

Here, on the left, we're waging war on what we see as the perversion of our government's responsibility to its people. But, it was a Republican President, Abraham Lincoln, who said at Gettysburg,

We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.  Abraham Lincoln, "Address Delivered At The Dedication Of The Cemetery At Gettysburg," November 19, 1863.

David Wills, a prominent citizen of Gettysburg charged with cleaning up after the grisly battle of July 1-3, urged the president to attend the ceremony. Lincoln's presence, Wills stated in a letter of invitation, would,

"... kindle anew in the breasts of the Comrades of those brave dead, who are now in the tented field or nobly meeting the foe in the field, a confidence that they who sleep in death on the Battle Field are not forgotten by those highest in Authority; and they will feel that, should their fate be the same, their remains will not be uncared for."

We were a nation torn asunder by a civil war that had been brewing for years, the last straw came when Lincoln was elected on the anti-slavery platform, The wealthy English planters that had settled in the Province of South Carolina would not yield their English birthright; slave labor.

Oddly, slave ownership in the south (in the North slavery was largely outlawed before the civil war but it had been just as brutal and heartless as in the South) was considered to be an anti-capitalism enterprise by George Fitzhugh, in his book, Sociology for the South, or, the Failure of Free Society (1854). From George Fitzhugh - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

Sociology for the South, or, the Failure of Free Society ...took on not only Adam Smith, the foundational thinker of capitalism, but also John Locke, Thomas Jefferson, and the entire liberal tradition. He argued that free labor and free markets enriched the strong while crushing the weak. What society needed, he wrote, was slavery, not just for blacks, but for whites as well. "Slavery," he wrote, "is a form, and the very best form, of socialism." Fitzhugh believed that slavery reduced the pressure on the poor and lower class, in other words, advocating slavery for poor whites as well as blacks.

In his mind, capitalism in the form envisioned by Adam Smith was the enemy and it was slavery that served the common good. His sentiments resonant with the whack jobs of today, only today, since slavery in this country has become, superficially, taboo, it has been replaced by cheap labor and capitalism has achieved the revered status as the savior to the world. The times have changed, the names and faces have changed but somehow a justification for a wealthy elite never wavers.

It would be nice to think that, then, unlike now, people knew where the stood and why, that you either believed you were entitled to exploit other people through fear of death, or, you believed slavery was morally reprehensible. In reality things were probably like they are today, only then most people were illiterate, and now, most people may as well be.

One thing that never changes, there will always be enough rich and powerful people to propagandize and intimidate the rest in order to protect their own interests. From Propaganda In The Civil War:

In their efforts to win popular sympathy and combat Northern propaganda, the Confederates bad established such agencies of publicity as their resources would permit. English writers were employed in the newspaper and magazine field; spokesmen in Parliament were sought; pamphlets and books were published and freely distributed; news agencies were presented with prepared material; and a special newspaper, the Index, was set up by the chief Confederate propaganda agent, Henry Hotze...

Slavery was good until it wasn't, war is useful until it isn't. The southern aristocrats lost their war but had still managed to convince enough of the poor and brave to wage it. This conflict of ideology, even with its biblical justifications, was put to rest and the 13th, 14th, and 14th amendments were given birth. While today we still struggle with our brutal past, our hangings, floggings, hate prejudice and fear, equal rights are only given begrudgingly or through court action and public outcry.

This brings us back to the greatness of Lincoln, willing to wage war, not for plunder or spoils, not for empire and not for oil, but so that a unified country that adhered to the principles set forth in the constitution would prevail and a "government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." 

Today, the federal government is too powerful for states to consider seceding and the motivation to keep the country unified, if they did, would not be as noble as in Lincoln's time. Today, the rich are extravagantly richer and the internal workings of the government have been adjusted to accommodate them.

Rather than amputate that gangrenous leg, it has festered and infected our thinking to the point that now we have come to export our wars and while never having completely eliminated our rich, white, birth-right, mentality we pursue its goals  elsewhere around the world. We are the fading world economy. Somehow democracy and capitalism became synonymous in our sucker's paradise of consumerism. Could our abandoned beliefs of freedom and brotherhood be the root cause?

 A country born and bred of war may, very well likely, perish in one too.    Gene

When sperm is deposited in the vagina, it travels through the cervix and into the Fallopian tubes. Conception usually takes place in the Fallopian tube. A single sperm penetrates the mother's egg cell, and the resulting cell is called a zygote.

The zygote contains all of the genetic information (DNA) necessary to become a child. Half of the genetic information comes from the mother’s egg, and half from the father’s sperm.

The zygote spends the next few days traveling down the Fallopian tube and divides to form a ball of cells. Further cell division creates an inner group of cells with an outer shell. This stage is called a "blastocyst". The inner group of cells will become the embryo, while the outer group of cells will become the membranes that nourish and protect it.

The blastocyst reaches the uterus at roughly the fifth day, and implants into the uterine wall on about day six. At this point in the mother's menstrual cycle, the endometrium (lining of the uterus) has grown and is ready to support a fetus. The blastocyst adheres tightly to the endometrium, where it receives nourishment via the mother's bloodstream.

The cells of the embryo now multiply and begin to take on specific functions. This process is called differentiation, which produces the varied cell types that make up a human being (such as blood cells, kidney cells, and nerve cells).

However, it is a scientific fact that stem cells only occur, and can be harvested, before differentiation takes place, whether it's at 3 days, 5 days or whether you call it a zygote or a blastocyst.

If you've stayed with me after that rather bizarre blog of two days ago, thanks. Now it's time for something really BITCHING!

No, I'm not using "bitching" in the 1980's, adjective sense, such as, "That's a bitching stereo system," I'm going to bitch, (again.)

Yesterday, my wife and I sat in a University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, (UPMC) facility waiting room for 3 hours in order to be told we might have to wait. If you're familiar at all with Pittsburgh, you know that UPMC is the mega-medical monster that has gobbled up (by my count) all but two of Pittsburgh's hospitals and Pittsburgh is, or was, a city of hospitals.

Pittsburgh is part of Allegheny county and Allegheny county has the 2nd largest elderly population in the country, so we need lots and lots of medical care but what we get is a gigantic, supposedly non-profit (meaning: they pay no city tax) monopoly that made 1/2 billion last year, after expenses.

Medical care? Well, they did transplant my liver and I am still alive, so I did receive it. But, here's my problem; the waiting room was full, stuffed with sick and some not-so-sick people, but, if you're in that particular waiting room, the odds are you have something serious and you're scared even if symptom one hasn't appeared yet. You're scared and you're from out of town. You're scared, you're from out of town and you've been told, "Pittsburgh is the place for you," because Pittsburgh has it all." Thomas Starzl, research, world class, you name it, we got it.

It's not unusual to talk to people that have come from out of state and from out of the country. This is their, last, best hope to be healed. The people sitting next to me only traveled 100 miles from Erie, Pa., a wife, grand daughter and an older looking gentleman that had a liver transplant only two days previously. They had been sitting well mannered and patiently for several hours. They were one family out of a family of families, sitting, waiting, scared, and confused in this sprawling, seemingly endless new world of medical mystery.

The big black woman at the desk seemed to be an exception to the standard, bureaucratic, medical functionary rule. I sensed that she was disgusted with the way things were going too. She looked at me and ask, "Have you had your blood work yet?" "No," I said. "Go see Zack," she said.  I walked the 100 yards to the blood lab and took a seat, Zack must be their premiere Phlebotomist. He was busy trying to stick a pretty young girl whose arms were a series of bruises from repeated needle pokes. She was use to it, she seemed calm and composed, she said that the record was 9 attempts to unearth a buried vein. 

Her mom came in to check on her. The woman that was preparing to draw my blood talked to her and did her best to empathize with her, except, she ended up sounding hollow and cruel. She didn't know what to say and made an inappropriate joke. The mother didn't react. Being impervious to stupidity and incompetence is a prerequisite for victims of disease and to the systems that combat disease.

UPMC advertises a lot. They seem to want to counter or preempt any negative word of mouth publicity that may circulate. They say lofty things about their care, they are saints in their own minds. They talk about, "making every effort, putting themselves in your shoes, accuracy, emotional support, treating the 'Whole person' accessibility."

Because of a mix-up they said they wouldn't be able to see me, unless I was willing to wait 2 more hours, even though, I had scheduled my clinic visit 2 months prior. I rescheduled, filled out the survey / complaint card and we left.  Gene