It started out at the home center.  I had a single reason to be there.  At the stroke of a midnight hence, you will not only get the cloying notes of Guy Lumbardo but will no longer be able to buy standard light bulbs.   Contrary to myth, the $3 ones don’t last for years when they are in an outdoor light.  Neither do they last in the john where they experience multiple on/off cycling.   But we have a green congress and a greener white house.  I guess that makes it the Lime House.

So, I was also annoyed with the medical profession and myself and well, go down the list there.  I was running out of my hypertension meds.  Not wanting to bust gaskets, I had to find a scrip.   The old doctor was out.  So, I went to one of those corporate mills.  I thought I’d get in and out without hassle.  So, I fill out the stupid paperwork — including that I wasn’t planning on taking my life in three different places.   Good thing they didn’t ask about going Rambo in a medical clinic.

So, I get all that accomplished — we are one hour into it.  I am waiting for the doctor and see the sign.

No refills on normal meds — limit supply to 90 days and must return

Standard daily meds can get a 2 week “emergency” refill beyond the 90 days

So I get to see who I came for.  This is a Nurse Practitioner. I tell her I want a 1 year scrip or I will need to find another “caregiver”.  She says that Family Practice people might accommodate but their type of practice — assembly line doctoring, I guess — is constrained by law.  I said I’d sign a waiver and that got sneered at.  I said that I consider her view had nothing to do with that oath and that it was  at best an annoyance and at worst an abusive  lack of respect.

My mother controlled my life when a child.  Mom, can I have 50-cent to go to the show Saturday?  EAT YOUR BROCCOLI!   I outgrew that era and had 40 or so years of being my own man.  Then medicare hit.  Mom was gone and I’d even grown to like broccoli.  But, I was in the grasp of an evil bureaucracy that I need Mom to straighten out.   “Not to my boy…”

The medical profession, like congress, does not believe I have a decision and they have the final say.  Wrong!  You can tell me my options.  You can tell me the one I am choosing is possibly the stupidest decision ever made on the planet.  It is still mine to make.  Your denying me the medication that does good and doesn’t leave me suicidal, watching my liver fall out, or keeping me excited over 4 hours but just keeps my blood pressure in check isn’t a privilege to grant or deny.  I’ve been taking it for 5 years and it keep me close to 120/80.   And this asshole outfit say come back every 90 days or blow a gasket — your choice.  NO!   I’ll start photoshoping,  before it comes to that.  If I get caught, they can throw me in jail and then they have to provide the med.

P.S. The stores were a wall to wall zoo too.

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A new government law has created an unusually precise list of injury codes for billing purposes. Currently there are 18,000 standard billing codes; the new law would expand that list to around 140,000. If you’ve been injured at the Opera, walked into a lamppost, pulled something while playing a trumpet, or have been attacked by a turtle, there’s now a code for that. From the article: “The federal agencies that developed the system—generally known as ICD-10, for International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision—say the codes will provide a more exact and up-to-date accounting of diagnoses and hospital inpatient procedures, which could improve payment strategies and care guidelines. “It’s for accuracy of data and quality of care,” says Pat Brooks, senior technical adviser at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Snow White biting the poisoned apple may be a case of T78.04, “anaphylactic shock due to fruits and vegetables

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It is part of Putting America back to Work and is a novel solution to helping out the depressed housing and building industry.  It will be a laboratory for smart traffic control.  The list of features seem endless for this “community” for 35,000 lucky residents (not sure what to put here) in a town a fictional Mayberry could aspire having.  It is going to be a little Edan. But, you and I (and everybody else) won’t get a chance to live there.

This government fund project will be built in New Mexico.  The examples are ridiculous in what it can/will/proposes to provide.

It will have smart traffic control but no traffic.  It will let them study energy requirement in unoccupied houses.  It will have store and service business with nobody needing their services.  It reminds me of a fantastic model railroad miniature built full size.  But this little layout will be 20 square miles.

If it is really important to study what heating at 78 or 68 results in, do they need to build 100′s of vacant houses?  With all the foreclosures, there are plenty of vacant ones available for their study at bargain prices.  It could be done in different climates than just the one.  Just throw the solar on the roofs.  They could be operational next week for a fraction of the cost.

Correct me if I am wrong but to study human activity don’t you need humans?

Extra! Extra! Read all about it!

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Sarah Palin did what she knows how to do — run her mouth.   The other side jumped all over that.   Then it ran to point-counterpoint ad nauseum. Nauseum is something we expect in this political era.   But it got me to thinking over the weekend — a dangerous act.   I was going to avoid the entire subject as something that only interest those pursuing a news bite. But, Barnes and Nobel on Fridays gives away a free ebook.  This week it was Stupid History by Leland Gregory and the very first one was about Paul Revere and Mr. Longfellow’s poetic license.

• Three men set out for Concord
• Silversmith Paul Revere
• Cobbler William Dawes
• Dr.  Samuel Prescott
• They were intercepted by a British patrol
• Revere was arrested; Dawes retreated to Lexington; Prescott continued to Concord with the warning.

The next day Revere returned home on foot as his horse had been seized.

The best commentary on all this didn’t take place until the 1850.  A historian did 2 volumes about Revere based on information from his grandson and review of available papers.   It is on Google Books in two volumes.  There is a recap I reviewed that’s is more concise.  It is there if you want to read it.

The thing is that they made the real warning what was up with the British on the 16th and the arms stored in Concord where being moved before the British march.  It is noted that the militia from adjoining areas couldn’t have made it to the battle if they hadn’t been picking up the arms that were being distributed to their area.  But, Dr. Prescott at least confirmed that the action pending was in process.

The 18th activity was sort of what you or I might have done.  It was poorly planned and executed.  About the only interesting bit of new news that I encountered was that they hadn’t thought to get something to muffle their oarlocks.  They ended up rowing right under a British ship so that seemed a necessary addition.  They went out of their way to the house of someone they knew.  A window in the upper floor responded to their knocking and a patriotic lady threw down her woolen underwear for tuse in said need.

That seems more interesting than anything Palin and friends came up with on the subject — especially true for those of us inspired by ladies underwear.  Oops, my secret is out.  I and a certain NY congressmen need to ride for it.

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After any number of exchanges where I’d say something and there would be a canned response that was as close as that particular indivdual thought pertinant. We finally got to the point of sending the validation crap.

I sent them the data. The bill was the local municipality’s bill.

I blanked out the address here; but they got it uncorrected.

You’d think that would do it, right? Wrong! Their problem was they said they could not identify it as a current bill because it was not dated for the date it was issued. The fact that it is now due in just under two weeks didn’t register.  Or the guys who wrote their policy was anal to a fault.

So, I responded. But, I responded using a different email address. I did it because the email was checking their address with Spamhaus. Now a few days ago that wasn’t happening. Evidently their techs mucked with their account and switched this department to a working but unacceptable account setup. So, I switched from that email to one that would send it. They didn’t care I was responding to an email they’d sent to the registered account. So, I had to do 3 cut and pastes to use the online version of composing mail that bypassed the remote entry checking they do.

Now back in prehistoric times with computers, the next great thing was called expert systems. That idea was to take some wizard on a topic and store their knowledge in a computer to process. Long story, short…it didn’t work. Problems like these poorly trained humans are making would happen in the electronic brain. It was knowledge used with out art or common sense. And that in a nutshell, describes FullTilt support.

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I occasionally read a “war blog” that has some interest to me.   But, rather than ‘the war’ they’ve been covering one closer to home.   We bemoan the mentality that brought about the UIGEA but we’re lucky.   Sadly, all sides seem to be going above and beyond rational thought.

Is this what we want for our country and our neighbors?   How about our own family?

The following is a quiet night in Mississippi that didn’t stay that way.   Be warned it is graphic.   They found a bit of pot and they charged the parents with child endangerment.  Be warned it is graphic.  Two pet dogs are killed in the process.

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 The mid-life redirect is taking place over on PokerStars.  Yes, the site that has banned me for life.   Stars did seem to have the class sponsorship program and added to what's looking more like a myth when they added Daniel Negreanu.  Full Tilt has seemed like the biggest house on our campus – the one we called Sigma Alpha Everyone. 

So, it was interesting that Stars program came under the spotlight when they dumped (or she dumped) a sponsorship.  I'm not sure which but she can turn mole hills into mountains.

- Wicked Chops

It isn't a huge shock.  Her amount of press has really dropped off this side of Pittsburgh.  Seems a Cloonie type decision.

The not so shocking part if you've been following Rini and my little discussion of  poker's As the World Turns (also in the crapper) is regarding poker site merchandising. It is the redirection of funds from US loyalty programming toward the rest of the world


But, I am a bit shocked by the replacement.  Yes, I know sports stars fit the image for a draw and added press. NBA, NFL, NHL are contributors.  We even have a cricket player.  But, Field Hockey?  Oh, I get you.  It a T&A replacement.

- Wicked Chops

I do wonder what she looks like.  Only her air brush artist know for sure.  The fact that both pics are compliments of Wicked Chops defines all about Ms Fatima Moreira de Melo addition to the professional ranks.

If you've read Bill and my little exchange the last couple of days, it is obvious. Pathetically obvious.  Stars went shopping at Euro Bimbo's R Us. Now the lass may donate time to charity and be considering entering a convent.  But, those aren't the reason she's now a PS pro.  She becomes a part of the strategy that Stars has to take over the world.  Sadly, their ideas aren't even as good as Pinky and the Brain in that regard.

Yeah, Stars is now a cartoon – a caricature of sound business practices.  When you are a cash cow it is looking like your thought processes sink to bovine levels. 

I can see it now:

How do we get more dumb Euros to play our site?  Easy-Peasy, Boss.  Throw some of our rake kitty at a T&A kitty.  Those EU guys are hornier than even our US degenerates.  That rakeback deal we have with TonyG's gang isn't getting us profitable players.  This should lower our cost to acquire more warm, continental bodies.  We'll just can that US promo and it'll be a net-net move.


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 This once a day Google Alert is brought to you by Google.

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Riggs has a nice followup to his followup followup.

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Any legalization of online gaming will come with a regulatory body who will determine who can and cannot offer gaming to US citizens. One of the big assumptions at the moment is that because Party Poker paid a fine that they are clean. Actually, part of the settlement was an admission of guilt. That admission may come back to haunt them if companies like Harrah’s lobby for licensing requirements that state that any company allowed to offer gaming cannot have illegally offered gaming previously. It’s a perfectly logical requirement and one that many people would agree with so I don’t think it would be too difficult for a land based casino to attempt to get it inserted into any licensing requirements.

The online poker press has been getting giddy over the prospects and pining their hopes on a gay, New England liberal.  It wasn't the obvious choice but he has the committee chairmanship to pull it off.  We all look at that as the cure all to online poker.  But, there is a good possibility we're being slow played.  

First off.  It fits the Harrahs mindset regarding gambling/poker.  Their first look is always at the bottom line and maximizing it.  They like the WSOP not only for the rake but for its captive nature.  They will perform song and dances galore to maintain the brand.  Beyond that...

Next, you have to consider the government involvement.  You saw the AON and car guys pounding their foreheads before the mighty intellect of a house committee.   You see the politicians  also erode rights, right and left, and that in their creation of a new and politically correct world.  The UIGEA drove poker into the shadows.   The ones we see and have access to are outside our control or any control.  That will change and the skill set moves from the online entrepreneurs to the corporate law guys with help from their PAC of choice.  It is like you or I being Hold'em players and taking that skill set. to the Badugi table.   You go from shark to minnow and end up scrambling.

What is worse than being drawn out on repeatedly?  “I'm from the government and I'm here to help.”

ADDENDUM:
The miracle of the $18.45 bankroll on FullTilt came to an end the other day.  I am busto there. It was a miracle  that I managed to keep that active through thousands of hands using total ignorance of bankroll management.  Se la vie.

I also took everything off of Ultimate bet except (accidentally) $4.45.  With Stars making me a non-person, that it for cash games at the moment.  I have to now wait 30-days after the withdrawal to be able to deposit and get bonus.

I am playing .05-.10 and showing a profit.   A couple of years back they sent Felicia and me a free ten-spot at the same time.  We competed to build a bankroll from that.  She won.  But, I grew the roll nicely right up to the point of tilting over the micro world and donk that away too.  We'll see.  I won't play a lot of hours but I'm – so far at least – remaining patient.

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