Commonly held myths about end-of-life issues

Some people don’t have a health care power of attorney or living will because they don’t realize how important these documents are. Others worry that such documents mean they are signing their lives away. Not so.

These powerful documents make sure that you get the treatment you would want for yourself if you couldn’t communicate your wishes. Here are a few myths that shouldn’t get in the way of creating a health care power of attorney or living will:

Myth: More care is always better.

Truth: Not necessarily. Sometimes more care prolongs the dying process without respect for quality of life or comfort. It’s important to know what interventions are truly important. It’s often impossible to know that in advance. That’s where the advice of a healthcare team is invaluable.

Myth: Refusing life support invalidates your life insurance, because you are committing suicide.

Truth: Refusing life support does not mean that you are committing suicide. Instead, the underlying medical problem is considered to be the cause of death.

Myth: If medical treatment is started, it cannot be stopped.

Truth: Not starting a medical treatment and stopping a treatment are the same in the eyes of the law. So you or your health care agent can approve a treatment for a trial period that you think may be helpful without fear that you can’t change your mind later. However, be aware that stopping treatment can be more emotionally difficult than not starting it in the first place.

Myth: If you refuse life-extending treatments, you’re refusing all treatments.

Truth: No matter what treatments you refuse, you should still expect to receive any other care you need or want — especially the pain and symptom management sometimes called intensive comfort care.

Myth: Stopping or refusing artificial nutrition and hydration causes pain for someone who is dying.

Actually, what is listed here as TRUTH is not.  You can find valid studies that state removing hydration from a dying person increases their pain.

[Truth: Unlike keeping food or water from a healthy person, for someone who is dying, declining artificial nutrition or intravenous hydration does not cause pain.]

Harvard Health Beat, Sept. 26, 2013

Agenda 21 is growing while we squabble over Obamacare

We the people will get Obamacare, even if Congress, the unions, and hundreds of crony political donors don’t—and even they will too, eventually.  At least the Democrats and the President voted for it, even if not a single Republican did. And while we’re spinning our wheels on a power grab for one sixth of the economy, a bigger prize is out there ready to gobble us up, and that’s Agenda 21. For that there will be no vote.  We have no say, even if you try to stomp it out at the local level, which is nearly impossible because people are even more apathetic locally than they are nationally.

To see what’s going on there you only need to attend your local school board meeting or city council. For Agenda 21 we have no one in charge, because no has been elected. But every time you hear the word “sustainable,” or “smart growth,” or even something that sounds as positive as “government grant for a new bike path” you are being conned. http://www.offthegridnews.com/2013/08/31/private-property-seized-under-eminent-domain-for-ohio-bike-path/  In northern Ohio a $75,000 “planning grant” is planning to grab millions of federal dollars for bike paths in just one area of one state.  These are wonderful and scenic, unless you need to get to work in a bitter cold, northern Ohio winter storm. 

Eventually, it is hoped to remove automobiles and replace them with mass transit and biking or walking.  We’ll hear various reasons—Ohioans are too fat, or the air quality, or there’s an endangered animal, or farms are causing too much run off in the water, but do not be fooled; as with Obamacare, it is about power.

Voting will be a thing of the past, as will private property, the family farm, local control of zoning (zoning is now considered racist and HUD will come after you.) The push for mass transit, “pack and stack” housing even in the suburbs, control of all local meat and produce, Common Core education plans—it all leads to the global plan.

So that you don’t think this is just one more crazy, paranoid blogger, check out what has happened in Westchester Co., NY, one of wealthiest, and best integrated regions to live in the U.S.  A lot of liberals live there.  There are 253,000 registered Democrats, 135,000 Republicans and 120,000 not affiliated to any party.  After negotiating with Westchester to build 750 low income housing units (HUD sued under an 1863 law), the feds (HUD) decided Westchester really needed to absorb 10,768 low income housing units. Skip to about minute 39 in this video to see the “grand experiment” of the federal government taking over a local community by deciding that zoning is racism. http://www3.westchestergov.com/state-of-the-county  If they can do it in wealthy, liberal Westchester, what chance does your county have?

While our representatives in Washington are squabbling over a break the bank take over, something bigger is coming down the path.  A country we can no longer use.

Cooking the books, secret deals

What benefits babies more than this OSU health plan?

Married parents. It’s been confirmed in numerous health, welfare, and financial studies.  Better health, less poverty. There is a 50 to 80 percent difference in child well-being between cohabiting and married families. Most government transfer programs encourage the parents to NOT marry.

I noticed this announcement at OSU health plan.

The Ohio State University Health Plan Inc., together with Your Plan for Health (YP4H), encourages all benefits-eligible expectant mothers to sign up for the Buckeye Babies program–designed to support moms-to-be during their pregnancy, through the delivery of a healthy, full-term baby, and to guide moms through the initial stages of breastfeeding and infant care. Post-partum health coaching is also available.

A trusted nurse, well-versed in evidence-based maternal-child health care–will work with you every step of the way to answer questions and ensure the moms receive needed support. Services are complimentary and confidential.

http://www.urban.org/publications/311001.html

Ladies—it’s up to you. You control the financial and physical health of your children.

Comparing the health care law with other important legislation, all of which had bi-partisan support

The original draft of the 1935 Economic Security Act, which established the Social Security Administration was 64 pages

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 - forbidding discrimination based on race and sex: 8 pages

The 19th amendment to the Constitution, giving Women the right to vote in 1920: 1 page

The Emancipation Proclamation, with which Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves in 1863: 5 pages

Or, if you really want to get back to basics: The Declaration of independence came in at 1 page in 1776

And the Constitution: 4 pages long in 1787

Health care reform, Pelosi version - almost 2,000 pages, and she admitted she hadn’t read it.

Cavuto and Obama on the health care disaster

OBAMA:  “If you’ve talked to somebody who said, ‘Well, I don’t know. I was watching FOX News and they said this is horrible…”

NEIL CAVUTO:  Mr. President, we at FOX News are not the problem. I hate to break it to you, sir. you are. Your words are, your promises are. We didn’t sell this healthcare law, sir. You did. Remember this?

OBAMA: “If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor, period.”

NEIL CAVUTO:  Not so.  Mr. President, tell that to tens of thousands of retirees at IBM and Time Warner and dozens of others, who have been dumped from their coverage and told to find their own coverage. Now, FOX News didn’t break that news to them, Mr. President, their companies did.

FOX News didn’t push more of those firms to hire part-time workers, your healthcare law did.

FOX News didn’t incentivize fast-food restaurants to scale back their benefits, your healthcare law did.

FOX News didn’t make doctors want to opt out, your health care did.

FOX News didn’t make insurance premiums skyrocket, your health care law did that.

Just like FOX News did not grant hundreds of exemptions to companies that needed them, you did.

And FOX News didn’t delay one key provision after another, including (just today) online enrollment for those small business exchanges. You did that, sir.

Just like it wasn’t FOX News that said, “We had to pass this to see what was in this.” You did. Or, was that Nancy Pelosi?   Sometimes, I’m confused. but of this I am not.

FOX News didn’t redo basic math. sir, you did.

FOX News didn’t say you can cover 30 million more Americans and not see a hit in premiums, you did.

FOX News didn’t say you could throw in those with pre-existing conditions and not have to pay for it, you did.

FOX News didn’t all but say you can get something for nothing. You did.

FOX News didn’t come back years later and say, “Oh yeah, we did raise some taxes.” You did, Â just the other night.

Here’s where you are right about FOX News, however, Mr. President. We were on this very early. We can do math, and did. You cannot and did not. We said it and proved it. You didn’t and we’re suffering for it.

Take it from the numbers guy here at FOX. Numbers don’t lie. The number of Americans working part-time and nervous, the number of retirees days away from being dumped on exchanges, and anxious. The number of company bosses with news to pass along on those exchanges, still clueless. The number of doctors who want out. The number of congressmen opting out.

No, Mr. President, none of those numbers lie, but with all due respect, sir, I can only conclude, you do.

I know, I know, I know, you hate us at FOX, but please, please, look in a mirror and fast. You think we’re the skunk at your picnic, but that does not mean we are the ones that stink, because that smell account isn’t coming from the folks reporting on your law. Mr. President, that smell is your law.

More on bread pudding

I’m always on the look out for bread pudding that tasted like my mother’s.  I’ll just jot this one down. Haven’t tried it yet. I probably wouldn’t do the sauce.

Grandma's Old-Fashioned Bread Pudding with Vanilla Sauce
• 4 cups (8 slices) cubed white bread
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 2 cups milk
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 eggs, slightly beaten
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Sauce Ingredients:
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1 tablespoon vanilla

Directions for Pudding:
Heat oven to 350°F. Combine bread and raisins in large bowl. Combine milk and 1/4 cup butter in 1-quart saucepan. Cook over medium heat until butter is melted (4 to 7 minutes). Pour milk mixture over bread; let stand 10 minutes.

Stir in all remaining pudding ingredients. Pour into greased 1 1/2-quart casserole. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes or until set in center.

Directions for Sauce: Combine all sauce ingredients except vanilla in 1-quart saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until mixture thickens and comes to a full boil (5 to 8 minutes). Stir in vanilla.

To serve, spoon warm pudding into individual dessert dishes; serve with sauce. Store refrigerated.

 

Remembering Mollie Orshansky

Who invented the government's definition of poverty? Mollie Orshansky. She liked to say she was very poor, however, she managed to get a college degree in 1935 and landed a nice government job, something neither of my parents, who were about her age, were able to do during the Great Depression (extended to “great” by FDR, when the rest of the world just had a plain old depression).

Because of her research and government service, poverty will never go away, it will just get redefined with an ever rising threshold.  In fact, under Obama a higher percentage are poor than in 1965 when the War on Poverty began. If you have an ounce of common sense you know that's a lie because we have 126 federal programs that transfer money from the middle class to the bottom classes.

Here’s a bibliography of her work. http://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/ssb/v68n3/v68n3p79_bib.html

He calls Republicans terrorists . . .

The cupboard is bare! Pelosi

NEARLY 20 PERCENT OF NEW OBAMACARE WAIVERS ARE GOURMET RESTAURANTS, NIGHTCLUBS, FANCY HOTELS IN NANCY PELOSI'S DISTRICT....OH, AND HER WEALTH GREW BY 62% IN 2011 TOO....HUMMMMM.   Blacksphere on Facebook

http://dailycaller.com/2011/05/17/nearly-20-percent-of-new-obamacare-waivers-are-gourmet-restaurants-nightclubs-fancy-hotels-in-nancy-pelosi%E2%80%99s-district/

“Crony capitalism at its most basic. Create onerous regulations and then give out exemptions to allies and constituents. The only wrinkle in this case is that the demographic subsection unburdening itself of ObamaCare is the same demographic subsection that has been most pointedly exuberant in advocating health care reform, with California Democrats even passing symbolic health care laws just like the ones that their most liberal supporters are now opting out of.”

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2011/05/18/pelosi-district-gives-20-percent-of-obamacare-waiver/

I was created; and you?

What if the Declaration of Independence said "all men evolved equally" instead of "all men were created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights." Wouldn't that sound silly--some might be more evolved, some less. Some might still be slugs or worms trying to catch up after a few billion years in the slime (I don't believe in evolution--I'm just funning you). From the preamble to the final amendments, our founding documents say our rights don't come from the government, but from God. As wonderful and wise as those documents are, they don't give us anything and they are supposed to protect us from tyranny and over reaching of the government.

Senator Byrd and Paula Deen

Because I was in high school in the 1950s, we did learn about black Republicans, new civil rights laws passed after the civil war, and we knew that it was Ike that desegregated the schools, but I never at that time thought much about parties. Now when I read liberal websites I see "youngsters" under 40 seem to think Jim Crow and the KKK were Republicans, but they were laws and the terrorist arm of the Democrats. A prominent Democrat remained in the Senate for years who had a history with the KKK, having been a Kleagle, a Klan recruiter, in his 20s and 30s, and used the term "white nigger" in the 21st century, but a TV chef lost her job because she said the N-word in her past. Aren't political standards strange?

Margaret Thatcher on freedom

Doctors pressured to push Obamacare

"With open enrollment set to begin next week, enrollment groups and medical societies are hoping America's doctors can inform patients about their options for expanded coverage under the 2010 health law." Medpage.

So far, I haven't met a doctor who liked Obamacare or thought it was a good idea, so why ask them to push it? Some plan to by-pass insurance plans all together.

So I asked self, "I wonder what an 'enrollment group' is?" I looked it up, and here is one called "Enroll America."

"Enroll America is a nonpartisan 501(c)(3) organization whose mission is to maximize the number of uninsured Americans who enroll in health coverage made available by the Affordable Care Act. Enroll America is a collaborative organization, working with partners that span the gamut of health coverage stakeholders—health insurers, hospitals, doctors, pharmaceutical companies, employers, consumer groups, faith-based organizations, civic organizations, and philanthropies—to engage many different voices in support of an easy, accessible, and widely available enrollment process."

You should see the fancy website. My goodness--one of the best. Clicked all over the page, but not a peep on how it is funded (except the donate button, and I seriously doubt this staff, offices, website, training sessions, etc. are covered by donations). I bet this group didn't wait 3 years for their non-profit tax status.

If you like your health care plan, tough.

Blue Cross Blue Shield Nebraska informed Todd Blome  (and 46,000 policy holders) his health care plan will terminate at year’s end, and if he wants to move to a similar plan his new premium will go up 65 percent, costing him nearly $4,000 more per year.

He distinctly remembers President Obama looking into TV cameras and assuring Americans “If you like your health care plan, you’ll be able to keep you health care plan. Period.” Blome’s letter says otherwise.

“Stupid me, I took the president literally,” Blome said.

http://watchdog.org/107894/some-nebraskans-premiums-to-triple-under-obamacare/

And those subsidies that are buying off some states won’t be permanent.

Wired and transmitting

The heart monitor I’ve been wearing since September 16  apparently transmitted something I was ignoring, the doctor was contacted by the company, and then I was called about 7 p.m. Wednesday evening and told to go to the ER. Isn't technology amazing--all sorts of things going on behind our backs we don't know about!

I'm home now--released from the hospital late yesterday afternoon. When the cardiologist walked in with the flock of young docs in training, I'd already heard the discussion held outside my room. I don't know how often Huffington Post is listed in the record as a possible cause of heart problems, but it's in mine. Because of the medical school down the road at OSU, you see a lot of doctors coming through the ranks. They all seemed to know what Facebook and blogging are.

I met the most interesting people--asked most of the staff who had the time how long they'd been working at Riverside, career goals, etc. The woman cleaning my room turned out to be a former neighbor in the 1970s when we lived on Abington Rd. One guy had changed careers from real estate after the 2008 downturn; he began in a very low level job (which he hated) and kept applying within as jobs opened up. The echocardiogram guy had relocated from Cleveland where there were many med tech schools but no jobs, and we had a good laugh about Columbus residents and the first snow flake to fly.

One lady doctor looked to me to be 15, so I just had to ask--she was 28. One lady intern had the most fabulous bedside manner and special touch, that I hope she's around the next time I need her.  And I got to give my name and birthdate at least 30 times. 

The food was excellent—fresh and tasted “homemade”--and you could order any time.  All the staff seemed to have special training in being friendly.  When I raised the blind, I looked down on the new addition to the hospital.  It is always expanding.

“Atrial fibrillation is an irregular and often rapid heart rate that commonly causes poor blood flow to the body. During atrial fibrillation, the heart's two upper chambers (the atria) beat chaotically and irregularly — out of coordination with the two lower chambers (the ventricles) of the heart. Atrial fibrillation symptoms include heart palpitations, shortness of breath and weakness. “ http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/atrial-fibrillation/DS00291

Illinois crooks

Cook County Commissioner William Beavers was convicted on March 21, 2013 on tax-evasion charges at the federal courthouse in downtown Chicago. A jury found Beavers guilty on one count of corruptly impeding the Internal Revenue Service and three counts of filing a false federal income tax return for 2006, 2007 and 2008.

Others and there are many.

Cruzing

He did a great filibuster (it was actually a non-filibuster thanks to Harry making up more rules, but you know what I mean).

Generation X Becoming Less Christian, Less Republican

HARTFORD, CT, May 31, 2012 – Members of Generation X – the 35 million Americans born between 1965 and 1972 – have become less Christian and less Republican over the course of their adult lives, a new study [2012] by Trinity College shows.

Striking declines in the number of Catholics and Baptists combined with sharp increases in the number of non-denominational Christians and those claiming no religious affiliation (Nones) show increased religious polarization in this generation, even as its political re-orientation towards the Democratic Party has been accompanied by modest growth in the number of political independents.

Born in the wake of the Second Vatican Council in 1965, the Gen X-ers constituted the most Catholic generational cohort in American history, with fully one-third of them identifying as Catholics in 1990. But two decades later, approximately one out of five had fallen away from the faith. It was only thanks to the addition of approximately one million Latino Catholics their own age that the proportion of Gen X Catholics decreased to only 26 percent of the cohort.

In addition, shifts in religious identification since 1990 have resulted in the ranks of the Nones swelling by 67 percent (2.2 million persons) and those in the conservative, non-denominational Generic Christian tradition growing by 51 percent (1.8 million). Put another way, the percentage of self-proclaimed Nones increased from 11 percent to 16 percent of this cohort between 1990 and 2008. This increase is surprising since Americans have historically increased their religious identification between early adulthood and their mid-40s, as they marry, have children, and become settled in their communities.

Those were among the key findings of a new report by Barry Kosmin and Juhem Navarro-Rivera at Trinity College, who looked at the religious and political affiliations of Generation X, whose members reached adulthood during an era when American society was much influenced by the Christian Right. The findings are important as predictors about the future of American society, particularly the relationship between religion and politics, issues that have been front and center during this year’s presidential campaign.

The data are derived from the American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS), a large, nationally representative sample of adults in the Continental United States. The surveys were conducted in 1990 and again in 2008, highlighting trends over an 18-year period. The 1990 ARIS involved 113,723 respondents, including 16,959 adults between the ages of 18 and 25 years. The 2008 ARIS had an overall sample size of 54,461, with 6,407 respondents between the ages of 36 and 43 years.

“Generation X has shifted its allegiances to a surprising degree” said Barry Kosmin, director of the Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society and Culture (ISSSC) at Trinity. “Many in this generation of Americans have abandoned their religious roots and political affiliations in adulthood. Historically and sociologically, that’s an unexpected development.”

In terms of political affiliation, Gen X-ers leaned Republican by 5 percentage points in 1990 (34 percent to 29 percent Democratic), but in 2008 they favored the Democratic Party by 7 percentage points (33 percent to 26 percent Republican) This partisan shift away from the GOP was even more pronounced among Generation X  Nones. In 1990, Nones were evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans, but by 2008, Nones leaned Democratic by more than 2 to 1 (33 percent to 15 percent).

“The fact that identification with religion declined among Generation X as they aged suggests that the secularization of Americans is not just about young people from today’s Millennial Generation abandoning religion because it has become too politicized,” said Juhem Navarro-Rivera, a research fellow at the ISSSC. “It is also an ongoing and wider process that involves older generations in American society, as exemplified by Generation X.”

The report’s religion data are based on responses to the question: What is your religion, if any? And the political party data are based on responses to the question: Generally speaking, do you usually think of yourself as a Republican, Democrat or Independent?

For more information about the ARIS series methodology, please visit: http://commons.trincoll.edu/aris/about-aris/metholodogy.
To download a copy of - The Transformation of Generation X: Shifts in Religious and Political Self-Identification, 1990-2008 please visit:
http://commons.trincoll.edu/aris/files/2012/05/ARISGENX2012.pdf

Barry A. Kosmin and Juhem Navarro-Rivera. "The Transformation of Generation X: Shifts in Religious and Political Self-Identification, 1990-2008" Faculty Scholarship (2012).
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/jnr_prri/4

Backlash—Mike Huckabee—Today

“Over the weekend, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her center-right party won the biggest election victory of any chancellor since East and West Germany were reunited. Ordinarily, Americans aren’t that interested in other nations’ elections. But this could be one more domino in an emerging worldwide shift from left to right. First, Australian voters threw out the progressives after six disastrous years and elected a conservative leader who vowed to undo all their job-killing policies. Something similar happened in Norway. In Colorado, two liberal state senators who forced gun control onto the public were recalled. France hasn’t had an election yet, but the voters are drowning in buyer’s remorse for electing Socialist President Francois Hollande. His approval rating is a record-low 23 percent.

And now in Germany, conservative leader Angela Merkel not only triumphed, but support for the progressive Green Party cratered after they proposed a weekly “meatless” meal day. Germans who once lived under communism said they’ve had enough of politicians trying to control every aspect of their lives, even down to what they eat for lunch.

I’ve always said that nothing makes people want to vote for conservatives like putting liberals in charge for a year or two. If this backlash against big government overreach is as widespread as it seems, then our 2014 elections might be very interesting, indeed. And if the Republicans do win big, it might be hard to say who they have to thank more: Barack Obama for trying to force Obamacare down Americans’ throats, or Michelle Obama for trying to force broccoli down our throats.”