Sunday, July 26, 2015





I just really like tulips.

From Freeacre



They Got Me

I just spent ten minutes trying to decide whether to begin  with “They Got Me” or “It got me.”
… whatever, I have been “got.”  I have been diagnosed with a rare form of breast cancer. Adenoidal cystic carcinoma.

Yup. Me.

This is in addition to one of my best friends and neighbors, Julia, who is currently dying of 4th stage lung cancer. She's about ten years younger than me and hasn't smoked in over ten years. And then there is Steve, one of our oldest friends from Michigan who is in hospice care now due to dying of pancreatic cancer. One of our other friends from the Grange is a cancer survivor who keeps on getting it, but keeps managing to survive so she can get it again. Another couple from the Grange is on the way out. The wife has stage four brain cancer and now her husband has a critical heart problem.

I bet you have friends and relatives who are going through the same thing.

Do you think it is paranoid to think that we are being killed off on purpose? Or is it simply greed that accounts for the regulatory agencies being staffed with former employees of Monsanto and the pharmaceutical companies? Thus, the FDA approves the use of glysophate which poisons our food, mercury, barium, and aluminum in the mandatory vaccines, outlaws the labeling of GMO foods, feed lots are the biggest user of antibiotics (there-by creating drug-resistant bacteria), carcinogenic additives used in almost all processed foods, and on and on. Greed, design, or both?

Let's see. In 1972 or so, I worked in one of the most prestigious children's mental hospitals in the world – the Nicholas J. Pritzker Children's Hospital in Chicago. It took them two months to figure out what was wrong with this little kid. He was over-weight, didn't talk, and had “transition anxiety.” That meant you had to drag him between rooms. He would also get up early and stand outside the nurses' station in anticipation of them posting the new shift schedule on the wall. He loved lists. When a new one would go up, he would squeal in excitement. When agitated, he would slap his knees together, flap his hands, and moan. He was seven. Turns out, he had autism. First case anyone there had seen. Now, it is one in fifty-eight. Why is there no concerted effort to end this hideous ailment?

And cancer. Wow. What an industry. Just about the most lucrative thing going – next to the arms industry. Have you been to a cancer center? Ours reminds me of when Katnis and Peata went to the Capitol and saw all the opulence that had been denied to the outlying Districts in Hunger Games. Incredible buildings – double etched glass office windows, beautiful artwork all over the place, brand-new furnishings, nothing looks even mildly worn.

Where is all the money coming from? Oh, yeah, us. We are not just getting sick and dying. We are being fleeced of everything we have on the way out.

The fine print on Oregon's medical health plan says that all the money that the State subsidizes your medical care with will be reimbursed from your estate upon your death. Nobody I have talked to about it, realizes that. So, I did not sign up for it.

I now have Medicare. I have to look up what that actually pays for. I think there is a $5,000 deductible. If paying for all this would lead to disenfranchising the Murpinator and my son from the home and property, I just won't do it. 

I did ask the oncologist what would happen if I didn't do anything. She told me that my breast would eventually fill up with cancer and that this is a kind that hurts. Then, it would burst through my skin. The tumors would stink like rotting meat, and would draw insects! Fuck me! She made a real strong case for surgery. The radiologist will probably do the same thing.

I asked about drinking baking soda and water to change to a more alkaline system. From what one reads on the internet, an alkaline environment kills cancer. She said that was all bullshit. No matter what you eat, cells stay at 7.0 ph. Period.  I'm drinking it anyway. I'm also doing a liver cleanse tea to strengthen my immune system.

But, enough about me. What about the program to kill us off? It seems pretty obvious that the Earth cannot sustain unrelenting “growth” based on commodities that are limited. It was estimated that for every household in the world to have a refrigerator, we would need three Earths to produce all the damn things if we have a population of seven billion, on the way to eleven billion. And, that doesn't even factor in the robotics. What? They figure that at least a third of our jobs will be replaced by robots real soon. Not just manufacturing. Doctors, teachers, waiters, hell, even hookers will be replaced by robots.

So, what's a motherfucker to do? Get sick, get relieved of every dime you have been able to save first, then die. Oh, and along the way, be assailed by all the “support” teams in your face at every opportunity. Cancer Runs. Cancer support groups. Cancer Society. Oh, it's all so inspiring. Again, a lot like “The Hunger Games.” We could call them “The Cancer Games.”

What if there were a rebellion? What would it look like? I have some ideas, but if I wrote them down, I'd probably get rounded up.