Musing: In the wild and free states like Montana and Alaska there is a common sense of both individuality and community and people feel the obligation to stop senseless violence.  There firearms are like cars or power tools: dangerous but part of making life work.  They are tools responsible people maintain and secure.
In the "TV states" like NY and CA people's association with firearms is that only criminals have them.  It is a dangerous assumption to perpetuate as criminals/predators need to know there may be consequences to criminal behavior.
I take inspiration from the Monarch Butterfly-- as do many species that mimic them.  Monarch's contain the toxins of the plants they ate as caterpillars and are unpalatable to many predators.  Google "Batesian mimicry."  Society benefits from the knowledge of the presence of ethical armed people.  Thats where the free states seemingly confounding statistic of crime decreasing with more guns/less gun laws originates.  Like the French Paradox in health where the French eat a high fat diet and drink alcohol and live longer than Americans who appear to do the same: the mechanisms are obscure on paper but more obvious in life.  The source of the food and moderation are likely key.
Maybe working in healthcare I've seen more of the equation of life-- e.g. for a time I gave shots (long acting antipsychotic IM injections)  to formerly psychotic pedophiles that allowed them to have normal lives in the community-- maybe near you.  I've helped the so called good and bad and seen them both behave completely out of character.  And felt the pater/maternal instinct to protect loved ones and employees with less than favorable odds.  I currently pay the rent by selling narcotics-- as a pharmacist-- in a higher crime area in a pharmacy with bullet holes in the windows.  Mostly in California we are blessed with abundance and live violence free lives.  I love it here.
But I know it has not always been the norm in human history and it didn't get this way without strong ethical people.  And it wasn't  John Wayne and the Lone Ranger and an amazing justice system.  It was a lot of good people.  And many of them were armed.

P.S. Cool link: https://kimsmithdesigns.wordpress.com/tag/monarch-butterfly-migration/

"Healthcare" or the War on Health.

I met a passive aggressive tech who put Rx labels on crooked but only on bottles containing Paxil for customers treated for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

I searched all the Paxil patients on the shelf, reapplied the labels and wondered....who has OCD?



 ...wasting.



The acquisition cost of medication is rising faster than the reimbursement schedules...for months independent pharmacies lose money to fill regular customers scripts.  This seems to happen cyclicly routinely.
Is it even a profession if a person/business cannot set their own rates and prices?


...our.


New computer generated prescriptions... I am happy they are legible.... but still without quantities or strength noted or with conflicting directions.   No one goes to the bank with a check that is not signed or dated or has no amount written.  How can these clarification phone calls be necessary?


...lives.


Certified Techs with AA degrees introduce themselves looking for jobs.

"Run away!" I want to say.

"Be healthy and be free."

Ahhh.  My eyes are hungry for beauty again.

Looking out the kitchen window
the morning sun streaming through trees
a quiet house. A quiet  house!

A pulse of creativity
a surge of gratitude.
Life. is. good.



The senses had been so congested
after a thousand phone calls and complaints
and some days of only shallow hurried breaths.

Ahhhh. To breath deep.
To feel the space around me.
I'll just type one observation, play a tune,
do a little art?

Then I'll get back to the phone calls.
And the complaints.

For now I'll take in this visual feast of beauty.
And enjoy some deep full breaths.

Gratitude.

There are only a few dedicated pain doctors in my community.  One in particular pushes the envelope of prescription guidelines.  But he does genetic testing and keeps pain contracts and faxes back when pharmacists ask questions.  Still the BNE and DEA have put him on watch and some pharmacies worried about their license have stopped filling for him.
Meanwhile it seems opium production in Afganistan is doubling every year since the Taliban was bumped out. And somehow there is a heroin and opiate problem burgeoning in my little seaside community.
I am disgusted that a patient of mine with 10 tumors in his spine has to run around and find a new pain doctor while illicit drugs flow in.  This patient will head to a medical marijuana dispensary hopefully with good results.

Adding it up...what a crazy picture.  Eight plus years of school and misguided regulations prevent licensed professionals from treating and managing pain.

I want the flow of foreign illicit drugs to stop and I want local laws and enforcement agencies to support treatment options in medical offices and pharmacies.

Is that unreasonable?


http://www.independent.ie/world-news/afghan-opium-production-hits-record-29750971.html

Two pixel currency.

Currency is valuable especially in our technological world.  Debt currency on a large scale is a dinosaur but what about a gift currency: work is performed and recorded.  That record is traded.  As each trade is made its history becomes a testament to community economy. (*Information regarding debt currency inefficiencies.)

This has been done on paper.  On a small scale it cannot be forged as each transaction is signed.
"Oh I see you cooked meals for old Mrs Smith when she was ill last week, and she had bought a painting from Ana... Yes I'll accept this for an afternoon of landscaping."  And it continues.

I am interested in a medium of exchange created from "tracking pixels" currently used in shipping and advertising.  Any work or trade can be entered into a database and encrypted becoming part of the record of that currency that cannot be forged any more than breaking into a Bank of America's system.  And why forge a history?  Takes too much time.  These can be on phone Passbooks or paper as they would be scanned every time they were used.  Some would have more value than others-- essentially e-denominations.

Such a system would be much easier to program and implement than setting up a bank and credit card system.  Even Nobel Prize and Congressional Medal of Honor winner Muhammed Yunus famous for microcredit could not muster starting a bank in America.  The only fix is innovation.


*Some background regarding how the current system inherently absconds from innovators and laborers.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/its-the-interest-stupid-why-bankers-rule-the-world/5311030
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEZkQv25uEs

I do relief pharmacy work and I come into contact with a parade of tragedy called "health care."
Absurdities of health care include its cost, misallocations of labor and capital, dearth of technology widely available in other economic sectors, legislation that panders to BigPharma at the expense of safety, snail paced advancements from lab to journal to practice, sequestrations and sales of health information and acutely: public apathy and fantasy.

As I work in different venues I am driven to grab a prescription pad and scribble an angry little note regarding how some process or adverse effect might be improved or ameliorated.  Coworkers imagine I am writing all kinds of things in the "care culture" where we work under multiple surveillance cameras and a missing dollar or tablet will go down on a permanent employment record.  But my notes have ended up in a smallish shopping bag next to my hamper.  And now the bag is filling up and it is time to share my scribbles on prescriptions in hopes of raising awareness and making some desperately needed improvements.

Welcome to Prescription Rant--  ℞ant

Please contribute and share and let problems and solutions be put in the open.  Let it be known that we can do a whole lot better.

As my hair grows longer I am experiencing an increased ability to appreciate the beauty in the hearts of others...and myself.
Ironically I am taking on a leadership role in a conservative and philanthropic organization where my growing hair seems to be of concern.   Would my leadership ability in this group be compromised by my lengthening wild curls which seem to grow with an empathic ability and desires aligned with its core mission?
Perhaps it is just a coincidence, my empathy is growing regardless of my hair, and the buzz cut of my youth will allow me to me a more effective listener and giver.
But I think of Biblical Sampson.  And of circumcision...the message clear; "Man up at age zero, we own your most sensitive parts and you-- so stop your crying, do what we say and get used to it."
Much of my life I have shrunk myself to make others comfortable.  Obsequious professional requests to allow physicians to keep their licenses for example.  "Please can we change this drug" code for "not kill our patient?"
Personal strength and synergy.   Am I shelving my vitality with a dying organization when I should be building a new one where individuality and synergy are cultivated to positively affect our country rather than the "clone and control" hierarchical methodology of past generations which is obviously floundering.
I believe all ages, abilities and talents can and should be working together to continuously better our society.  I happen to appreciate the conservative and founding values of this great nation and of the philanthropic organization I admire and am proud to be a member.
But do I have to cut my hair?