paranoid...

I've mostly withheld comment on the victims of Katrina, but I feel now that I should say something. I really only have to opinions on what's happening and they are that:

A) It was bad, the victims are in my prayers, and I hope things get better real soon for those affected.

and

B) This was only *partly* a natural catastrophe. After reading a lot of the posts that thete1 has made and following a lot of the links she's posted - I'm realizing that a lot of the horrific nature of this disaster could've been made better by certain agencies that have completely failed to do their jobs.

But mostly, the federal government.

I'm now even more furious at The Shrub for going to New Orleans for a photo-op. Excuse me?

This man wants you to see pictures of him comforting old ladies and such - I think we should be seeing pictures of him waist high in water with a bloated, water-logged body floating past him. Or huddled, dirty, tired, and sick in the Superdome with thousands of others.

And when trucks of supplies are turned away by FEMA - the problem becomes obvious.

A Federal agency has turned away supplies, cut off emergency lines to an area that desperately needs every little thing it can get.

Which is why I really cannot sit by and nod my head while my fellow Americans suffer because their government and other agencies that they trust to help them are so incompetent and corrupt that they can't even get over themselves to save lives.

I'm thinking of writing to his Shrubness, but I'm thinking that's gonna be a Deaf Ears situation. I mean, I didn't even lose a son in Iraq like Cindy Sheehan, so who am I to rate the Great Bozo's consideration?

Just a voting American citizen. Not anybody the Shrub would care about.


....

I also think that eliade should get a big round of applause for being brave enough to share her medical misfortunes publicly in order to warn others.

Her story is pretty much case in point of why I don't really go to doctors and why I don't trust them. Also, short of vomiting blood or needing birth control, I don't go see them. And don't think I don't get on my knees and thank whatever benevolent diety is out there that I am fortunate enough not to require drugs to allow me to function on a daily basis. Because I know it's not easy when you do, and you're at the mercy of doctors who are not always competent - either by virtue of stupidity or some other form of human fallibility.

I once had an eye doctor that accidentally dilated my eyes because he didn't wash his hands in between dilating the eyes of the patient he'd just seen and putting a new kind of contacts into my eyes. After that I just decided that doctors aren't worth trusting.

And I advise careful viligilance for anyone who does need to see a doctor for whatever reason. Check out what they give you and what they tell you. Be proactive. Ask questions. Ask LOTS and LOTS of questions. For what doctors get paid, they owe you *that* at least.

- Meg