After four applications over a period of three years, I finally met the income requirements to be accepted into VA Healthcare. Every year, I must submit a form to requalify for the coming year. I am also approaching my 65th birthday, which raises the question of how does VA dovetail with Medicare, especially in regards to Medicare Part B and D. The answer to Medicare Part D was easy, but not so for Medicare Part B. Read the rest of this entry »
VA Healthcare or Medicare
January 26th, 2010
Dealing with Medical Bills
January 26th, 2010I retired at 62 just to have a stable income in a horrible IT job market. The boom days of IT training had ended, and training contracts were few and far between. Health insurance was one of the expenses that didn’t fit in a drastically reduced budget. As I approached 65, the insurance companies wanted $500 a month for a minimal plan. I applied for VA Healthcare, but I still earned too much under the old rules. We were in a state of virtual middle-class poverty. The energy companies and insurance companies were killing our budget. The only hope was to not get seriously injured or sick until I was eligible for Medicare. Read the rest of this entry »
Hanging on by a Thread
January 26th, 2010Since writing”The ‘Oh Shit’ Moment” post, I had another appointment with Dr. Erpelding at the VA Clinic in Billings. This time, I was able to get a CD containing the X-rays from the visit. The CD auto-starts the X-ray viewer used by the doctors to view digital images. It is a really cool tool. When I travel, and hoping that occurs sooner rather than later, I will have the X-rays of my leg should anything happen to re-injure it. Read the rest of this entry »
The “Oh Shit” Moment
January 19th, 2010My wife, Monica, and I were building our own house. We were the designers and the workers, except for hiring a people to help with pouring concrete. We built and finished the basement first, and are living in it. In 2008, we started building the main floor. Monica injured her back in December of 2007. On July 23 off last year, she had surgery to relieve the pressure on the nerve. A Montana winter was quickly approaching, and I was trying to get the roof on before it snowed. I did not want to spend another winter shoveling snow out of a partially framed house. Read the rest of this entry »
Support the Opposition in Iran
June 24th, 2009If you’re on Twitter, set your location to Tehran & your time zone to GMT +3.30. Iranian security forces are hunting for bloggers using location/timezone searches. The more people at this location, the more of a logjam it creates for forces trying to shut down Iranians’ access to the internet. Cut & paste & pass it on pls…
Religious Intolerance
May 16th, 2009In the Bill of Rights, the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof … .” Freedom of religion doesn’t mean that we need to agree with every religion. It does mean that we need to respect the right of an individual to worship in a manner of their choosing. It means respect of other religions. Whether Christian, Jew, Muslim, Hindu, or one of the thousands of other religions, they all deserve respect.
Freedom of religion is one of the freedoms for which every American soldier has fought to preserve, and many have given their all to preserve that freedom. Religious extremism that denies the rights of other to worship as they choose is not acceptable.
The above was prompted by an article in an Egyptian newspaper and reported in Palestinian Media Watch. The Title of the article was “All Pigs Must Die because they descend from Jews: According to an Egyptian Islamic scholar.” The article actually refers to “People of the Book,” which applies to both Jews and Christians. The article was actually a justification for the killing of all pigs owned by the Coptic Christians in Egypt, as a result of the swine flu. The article also give justification for killing all descendents of Moses. This Fatwa illustrates the dangers of extreme religious views that justify the killing of all who do not believe as they do. At about the same time, a Taliban leader made the statement that they only kill those who are not pure. In this case, they define who is pure. This is the basis of all extreme religious groups. The Holocaust is our reminder of the dangers of ideological extremism.
Because of the extreme views of a few, we cannot brand all Muslems as extremists. Every religion has its extremists. It is our duty to insure religious freedom by never letting the extremists of any religion to determine the beliefs of all people. The war we are fighting against terrorism is a war to protect our freedoms.
Direction Changing Events
March 26th, 2009About three weeks ago, I ordered a bunch of new DVDs and CDs to update my Linux collection. If I am going to blog about Linux, it helps to blog about current versions and not those that are over six months old. Part of that order included Knoppix 6.0. When I booted the live CD, it booted to ADRIANE. I had no idea what was happening, and I had never heard of ADRIANE. I just wanted to look at how Knoppix implemented LXDE as desktop. Listening to the voice feedback, while checking out the LXDE desktop was very disconcerting.
Last week, Verizon was havisng a problem with their cell tower on Red Lodge mountain, and I didn’t have an Internet connection for a day. Since the weather was not exactly warm, I couldn’t work outside. So, I read a book on CSS. The author kept mentioning the need to style for the visually impaired. I realized that I hadn’t really written my style sheets to conform to these guidelines.
This lead to reading the guidelines, and making the decision to change the sytle sheet I wrote for mtlegion.org. Of course, I need to blog about it, as I learn more, so that others become aware of the needs of the blind and visually impaired. It also brought back memories of a blind programmer, who worked for me in the 1970′s. He was my best programmer, my best keypunch operator, and a great friend. He tried to teach me braille and how to use a braille output device, but my fingers weren’t sensitive to the little bumps. Forgot to mention, he was a great cook.
Limbaugh Madness
March 26th, 2009Wish for the failure of our President is a sign of weakness and not of strength. It is wishing for our country to suffer and not to succeed. The statement yells, “We don’t have a plan, so our only hope for success is for the other party to fail.” This is not a plan, it is an admission of weakness.
I have stuck with the party, since the late 60′s, and never have I been so disappointed by the words that I hear. Rush Limbaugh statement was enough. Bobby Jindel and Fred Thompson jumping on the bandwagon is just too much. It is time to be an Independent, until the Republican Party regains its sanity.
War Memorials and Religious Symbols
January 25th, 2009The current conflict between The American Legion and Jewish War Veterans should not be. We are all veterans, we all continue to serve America. Race and religion do not change this fact. Although I am a Jew, I disagree with JWV on this issue.
The memorials were established to honor the veterans who sacrificed all to serve their country. To destroy those memorials is to dishonor the memories of those veterans, and is an insult to those who established those memorials. If we destroy memorials are we any different than the Taliban who destroyed the ancient Buddist temple. Religions freedom does not mean the distruction of all religious symbols, it means the respect of all religions. If those symbols happen to be on public property, so be it. We are still obligated to respect the symbols, and honor those who served this country without regard to race, religion, or color.
What really upsets me is the attorneys who use tax payers money to bring this lawsuits. I am not challenging the right to sue, I am challenging the right to use tax payer’s money to pay the attorney fees. It is time to support Public Expression of Religion Act (PERA), and put an end to these attorneys getting rich off our money. If a group wishes to bring suit, let them raise the money to pay the attorney fees and court costs.
Serving our Country
January 20th, 2009What drives each of us to feel that we have offered service to the community, and not just taken from the community? It makes no difference whether that service is to your family, your house of worship, your school, your local community, or the country. Service is what adds something special to our lives, not for the recognition, but for the feeling that you helped improved somebodies life.
We each belong to multiple communities, and may offer service in one or more communities. For me those communities are amateur radion and The American Legion. Both are topics unto themselves, so I want to focus on the Legion at this time. I already have an amateur radio blog at http://ww7ba.wordpress.com/.
I started my military service in Air Force ROTC at the University of Idaho. Prior to the lottery system, every mail was elegible to be drafted, untless they were 4F (physically not fit to service). I didn’t have any doubts about serving my country, I just didn’t want to be a ground-pounder. As part of the university graduation ceremony, I received my commission as a 2nd Lieutenant in the United States Air Force.
Every Vietnam Veteran knows the hostile and cold reception that those who served the country in Vietnam received from the community-at-large. It was difficult, and left a lasting impression.
At that time, I didn’t join the Legion, because nobody asked me. I didn’t even receive a mailing for years, and years. Finally, I received mailings from both the Legion and VFW, but always but them aside for later consideration.
It was 9/11 that really changed my feelings. I wanted to service again, but thought I was too old. I didn’t know until I was too old that I could have joined the National Guard. Had I known, I would have done it in a heart beat. Still nobody had asked me to join the Legion. It was my wife Monica, who kept pushing me to join the Legion. I finally did send in the direct mail card, and was assigned to the Headquarter’s Post for American Legion of Montana.
It took another year to transfer to the Carbon Post 17, and another year before I started regularly attending meetings. I started attending meetings in January 2008. The Spring District meeting was my first district meeting. At that time, Vice Command Elmer Palmer was looking for someone to be the Webmaster. I volunteered my services. After several emails, I became the Webmaster at the Department Conference at the end of June, which was the first Department Conference I have ever attended.
One year later, the Sprint District meeting is once again approaching. The one difference is that I was asked to throw my hat in the ring for District Commander.
Life changes fast. It really helps to keep the seat belt buckled to steady the course.
