Should Americans Have A Duty To Die At 75?

October 13, 2014

Good morning.  It's gray outside today but it is warmer.  We are at the beginning of a week of warmer temps.   Days will be in the high 60's to mid 70's, and nights will be in the low 50's.  Oh my, I just love it!

Did that title grab at you?  It was the headline (big big headline) on a page in this weekend's newspaper.  According to the newspaper:

"Ezekiel Emanuel, a physician and one of the architects of Obamacare, writes in the October issue of the Atlantic Monthly that Americans are too obsessed with living long lives.  For many reasons, including diminished mobility, a ""tsunami"" of dementia, and sparing adult children from the pain of a long decline, Emanuel argues that 75 is a pretty good age to aim to stop"

"Emanuel insists he isn't advocating death at 75 as a way to ration health care or save money.  But with health care costs outpacing official estimates, conservative critics of the Affordable Care Act worry Emanuel's musings might eventually become law."

In a commentary by Ben Boychuk, Mr Boychuk writes:  "Emanuel coauthored a 2009 article for Lancet, a widely read and well-respected medical journal published weekly in the United Kingdom, which laid out ""Principles for Allocation of Scarce Medical Interventions.""   Emanuel and his colleagues considered how best to allocate resources based on several different models before settling on a ""complete lives system."" Put simply,  it prioritizes young people at the expense of old people."

Is it any wonder that I have more crabby days than I should?  This year I will reach that magic age where, according to Mr. Emanuel, I should dig myself a big hole and jump in and pull the dirt in over me.  Gosh, that only leaves me a few weeks to finish my Christmas afghans.  I don't know if that's going to be enough time.

I'm sorry to disappoint Mr. Emanuel and Obamacare, but my meds are expensive because I have asthma.  Being old has nothing to do with it.  Furthermore, if I'm really that decrepid and useless, why do I have to still pay taxes?

It costs the health care system  (my tax dollars)  more to give free drugs and medical care to all the illegal aliens than it does to pay for our senior citizens' health care.  If the government would take back just one teensy weensy bag of the billions of dollars that it gives away each year, it would have plenty of money to take care of our Social Security system and health care for us old geezers.

Regardless of how little this government thinks of old farts like me, I think I'll just hang around a while and see if I can't throw a monkey wrench into their plans for us useless citizens.

I'm done ranting for now.  If I keep on, my blood pressure will just go up.  Oh no!!  Then I'll have to take some more medicine!!  Oh dear, my bad!!  $ $ $ $

I had an inquiry as to what "Wildflowers" looked like as yarn.  So here's a swatch that I downloaded from the Red Heart Yarn website.  Pretty, yes?

Pogo has been in the pantry barking his little head off for the past ten or fifteen minutes.  So, I think I need to go see what is annoying him.  Most likely, Sunshine is in the laundry room taunting him.  I think it's time I took another "crazy pill."  (This image download from the web - author unknown)

That's it for this morning.  So, till tomorrow, Y'all have a magnificent day.

Hugs, Edna B.