Ben Wisdom

What's that big lump in your cheek?!!

*L*

Hmmm....

Wiggle pastries?

Brings back memories! Scott used to call Easter Eggs "Oyster Legs". Kids make life so interesting! Write the "pickle donuts" down....you can't imagine the things you will forget as time goes on! This is a Gram speaking! LOL

Mystery solved! I just asked Jack what he had for breakfast, and he said "pickle donuts" . Trying to figure it out I said, "what do they look like?" He said, "circles". Hmm. I asked what you do with them. He said, "you open them up, and then you eat them" I asked, "do you put anything on them?" He said, "chocolate. That was in my blue house". So I knew we'd gone into the realm of dreams...

Let me know how it turns out. I have some too!

WOW.

:)

fromage blanc - i may need the recipe! love the stuff!

Oh, yum. Now you've made me hungry.

when are you coming to get Kat? She and Tank started playing together this week :-)

Glad to hear it! I found your charger and a toy of Nora's. I'll send them to you hopefully tomorrow. Might have to call you for your address though!

Jennifer, we'll come pick up Kat either Friday night or Saturday sometime at your convenience.

Emily, thanks in advance, and I hope you feel better soon!

Glad you're safely back!

So Cute!

Heheheh...

I am glad we are friends now, at least from that.

Good. Patient care should come first, not a Dr. worrying how much $ he'll make from insurance. As for the "death panels," the insurance companies already do this. -> http://www.pajamadeen.com/health/teen-dies-after-cigna-denies-liver-transplant

I'm wondering if you even read the article. According to the expert cited, a government-run "public option" will "require medical practitioners to document their dealings to the extent that they won't have enough time to adequately treat their patients." If you think that patients don't get enough doctor attention now, just wait until they have to fill out form #W-356849-Z in quadruplicate and file it with the federal government for each and every patient. Patient care will still come last.

First of all, the "expert" they cite is not a practicing doctor anymore, thinks that the swine flu vaccine is more dangerous than swine flu itself, and I'm willing to bet, since he's been on the 700 Club a bunch of times, is probably a far right wing Republican.

Second of all, what exactly is the documentation that they're going to be looking for... Read More? Considering that most doctors have an office staff that keep track of things like that (my GP and his partner have a staff of 7) I really doubt that it's going to affect patient care. Also, all medical forms are now transmitted electronically and standardized (thanks, HIPAA.) Nobody is going to be filling out things in triplicate. Way to fearmonger.

It just sounds like whining: "Waah, we don't want to have to take the public health care option. We'll have to do too much homework!!"

OH, and he also writes for Newsmax, which is where the article you cite comes from. Hardly "objective reporting."

Add to the "hardly objective" part CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, ....

So, when CNN writes an article about say, AOL, they mention that they're owned by the same company. Newsmax, as a part of responsible journalism, should have mentioned that the "expert" they cite is on their payroll. It's shoddy journalism.

Yes, and NBC regularly has "green week" to promote the CFLs and wind turbines that its parent company GE makes without the necessary disclaimers. Shoddy journalism and propagandizing hackery know no partisan divide. But it sounds like we can all agree that it is the people that protest the loudest that they are "objective" are the ones of which we should be the wariest, because they are the ones who aren't honest about their own biases.

Sure, that's why I laugh at Fox's "Fair and Balanced" schtick. :)

What concerns me about the paperwork that this article mentions is that it "raises the lowest rung of the ladder", for smaller medical practices who want to give more
personal care. Considered in the abstract, the proposed system will nudge doctors in the direction of organizing into larger and larger practices to lower the average overhead ... Read Morecosts per doctor and per patient. And larger medical practices seem to be more likely to treat their patients like numbers instead of people. That has been my experience anyway. So how does that make for higher quality patient care?

Yes, I think it is an individual responsibility to listen to all sides of any issue and construct an informed opinion as independently as possible. That why for instance I listen to both NPR >>and<< Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh, as I have the time. Hello, my name is Ben Wisdom, and I am a news junkie. :)

Well, from what I understand, the "paperwork" mentioned is only talked about in the abstract. Right now a provider needs to fill out a UB-92 form and send that into the insurance co. to get reimbursed. Presumably that will be the same for the "gov't plan." Until we know if & what the paperwork requirements are (or even if there will be a gov't run ... Read Moreplan) it's not really appropriate to make those sorts of claims. Additionally, we have medicare and medicaid now, which are gov't run/subsidized plans and practitioners seem to be okay with them.

Many small practices don't even take insurance of any kind because of the hassle it is. My former dentist was one. Many counselors/psychologists don't take insurance either. The whole system as it is today is broken.

To be completely honest, I didn't mean to have this posted here on my personal Facebook wall in the first place. I was playing with some facebook plugins on one of my websites a while ago, I forgot to deactivate one of them, and it posted here automatically. By the time I realized it and was going to delete it, you had already left a comment, Ben... Read More.

While I appreciate and enjoy such discussions, I have figured out the way of Facebook enough to realize that I would prefer to have such "impersonal" political discussions somewhere other than my "personal" wall. I would welcome you to join the Facebook fan page I have made for such things, @Full Spectrum Culture. As I said above, all perspectives are welcome there, and since your perspective is definitely one of them, let's continue our discussions there if you are amenable.

Sure. I figured it was some sort of auto-posting thing because of the HTML in the post. I won't be offended if you delete this thread. :)

Same big smile as in High School!

You sure look healthy, Ben.

And you still remind me of the Beatles! ^_^

Nice pic of the both of you!

Have a great week

Wow! You all eat early!

My boss called me yesterday while we were driving home from Virginia to tell me that our customer was paying our company for the R&D team to cancel the six unpaid days off that corporate made us take this year. I had already taken three of them but I am coming in for three days during these two weeks of my vacation so I don't lose a 1/4 of a paycheck.

so cute!

She is great.

Awww, sweeet.

She really is unusually cute!

umm, I don't remember Grover having only one foot.

What a little SWEETHEART! Did you know you had a little one Ben.

If you listen carefully, you'll hear the dulcet tones of "Here we go, Steelers, here we go!"

You may be the only person in the world who has ever been excited to see the Pittsburgh skyline. :)

No skyline this evening. Too rainy. Plus I forgot that I-79 doesn't go through the city, so our pass through the 'Burgh will have to wait until Monday morning. On to GROOOOVE CITYYYYY !!!1!!

Ben's gettin' into the Grooove!

Border...hehe that's funny (not State line). You're getting like your rebel Uncle and I'm proud!

Border AND Mason-DIxon Line!

See you there!

Man, you're old!

Wow, no kidding Beka!

Actually, it's your 14th, if you count the 4 while you were there!!! :)

10 years since you graduated. Incredible! Hard to believe. It was a fun day!

WOW!! Here already!

ha!, I was just going to call and ask if you were "gone" yet! My days are all mixed up!!! have a great time, and say hi to everyone for us!

Oh, no! Any holes in the roof?

It doesn't look like it. It seems to have fallen down flat instead of end down, unlike when a branch hit the hood of the green car late last year.

Be careful getting it off! (Get some help?)

I put a voicemail into the roof guy this afternoon. He'll be able to check if there really was any damage done or not.

Oh good! (ok, I stopped worrying! :)

Brings back memories of the 110' cherry tree that came down on our house a few years back. Not good memories! :(

Hurray for nostalgia and relaxation!

Where are you headed?

I heard it myself! I was about to read it to him, and he said it before I could! Of course, also Rachel's boy... he's "reading" a dessert cookbook for fun! he also read "Red Velvet Cake"!

All in the family!

That's great. Now bring us some samples of his baking!

That'll come soon. he already "helps", of course!