Dragonfly's Open Salon Blog

Health Care Choices are Like the Tooth Fairy, Imaginary

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 11:11:36 -0500

I am smack in the middle of my open enrollment period and I have to pick a new health plan, as my company has decided that my old one was too expensive and dumped it. So instead of actually working, I spent the morning comparing plans, trying to figure out which way I wanted to go.

Remember a few weeks back I talked about how socialized medicine, aka the public option, didn’t bug me one bit? This open enrollment period has served to teach me that I was totally and completely right.

First off, let’s talk choice for minute. This will be my 3rd plan in 2 years. I stated off 2009 employed by a different company than the one that currently pays my salary. At old company I had health plan H. Once the old company cut me loose and I came to my new company, plan H was not an option since new company did not offer it. So I switched to Plan C. Now Plan C is getting the boot and on 1/1/2010 I have to switch to plan A. Please note: I have never once changed health plans freely by my own choice, it’s been forced on me each time.

So glad I have all those choices!

No, I actually have no choice in the matter if I want to keep my doctor. If I want to switch to plan K, I would have to give up the wonderful doctor who delivered both my kids and the person has been my doctor for 25 years. Oh, hell to the no.

So, not only do I have to deal with the fact that I really have no choice, I also have to deal with the hassle of changing health plans. I’ll have to get new cards, which I can’t order until 1/1 and it will take a couple of weeks to get; which means I’m going to be praying that nothing happens in the meantime and I have to take someone to the doctor before I get the cards. (Yes, I know I they will treat us without the cards, but it’s a huge horking hassle, and I have enough hassle in my life, thankyouverymuch.)

I’ll have to update the insurance information with the doctor and the pharmacy, and I’ll have to get a yet another login with yet another insurance website. I’ll have to learn how the new health plan does things and which drugs are on their list. Wonder if I have to change meds again? And how much you wanna bet my first claim for medication in January will be refused? Happens every time I change plans.

Oh, and my costs are going up too. Every paycheck will be short an extra $24 bucks, or $2426 per year.

And I’m supposed to be scared of the public option, WHY?

It’s OK to pick on Carrie Prejean

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:11:25 -0500

Recently Carrie Prejean, the disgraced former Miss California has been making the rounds of the interview shows, whining about her treatment at the hands to the media and the public. To this I say, “Tough (artificially enhanced) titties. You asked for it, cupcake.”

In case you have been living in a cave, Carrie Prejean, up for the Miss USA title, during the question and answer portion of the pageant was asked about gay marriage. Her answer was barely coherent but she was definitely con on the matter because she is a Christian, don’t cha know. Since then, she has not shut up on the matter, traveling around to speak out against equal rights for gays to just about anyone who will listen (and pay), citing her Christianity as the foundation for her philosophy.

Turns out the feet that Carrie crams into those designer pumps every morning are made of clay. Carrie, who loves to flaunt her Christianity, has not exactly led the life that Jesus would approve of. She had a boob job for the pageant, and her entire career is based on objectifying herself for money and prizes. She’s done a topless photo shoot and she send a “sext” of herself to a boyfriend.

Oh, but this is all a vast left-wing conspiracy to discredit her and her beliefs! The nasty gays are using her personal life to discredit her political beliefs! She has even goes so far to assert the only conservative women get this kind of treatment. (Obviously this chick has never heard of Hillary Clinton or Nancy Pelosi)

Here’s the problem with Carrie, America loves to beat up on hypocrites, and it’s obvious that she is squarely in that category. If someone wants to prance about the country, telling everyone how Christian they are, that person had better well live up to it, or the American public will eat them for lunch. There have been plenty of examples that have been chewed up and spit out before now, so Carrie’s can’t exactly say she wasn’t warned.

Can you imagine if Al Gore or Ed Begley, Jr. got caught driving a Hummer? Barney Frank or Jon Stewart got caught in a hood at a Klan rally? Those pictures would be on the front page of every newspaper and be the lead story on CNN in a heartbeat.

It’s perfectly legitimate to flog someone for not living up the ideal they want to hold you to. If you are going to tell gays they aren’t moral enough for civil rights, don’t be shocked when your immorality gets the front page of the National Enquirer. That’s not persecution for your beliefs, that’s a richly deserved cosmic bitch slap. Ask Ted Haggard, that’s how these things work, honey. That’s it’s worked for a very long time now and if you can’t handle it, sit down, and shut up.

Carrie can handle this one of 2 ways, she can stop being the scoldy finger of morality and learn a valuable lesson in tolerance here. Or she can continue with her Whinefest 2009 tour and not learn a damn thing. Bets?

Flog away people. Carrie deserves every lash. TWACK!

Why I Hate Carly Fiorina

Wed, 4 Nov 2009 18:11:03 -0500

Well, she did it. After months of speculation, Carly Fiorina, ex-CEO of Hewlett-Packard has thrown her hat into the ring for a run at Barbra Boxer’s senate seat.

This is going to get ugly.

Speaking as a woman in high tech, nobody wanted Cary to succeed at being the CEO of a Fortune 50 company more than me. I was tired of being the only woman in the room at meetings, I was tired of testosterone charged work days, I was tired of trying to out-guy the guys. I wanted someone who could be the face of women in high tech; to show the world that, hey, a girl could do this. Carly was charismatic, a dynamite speaker and seemed tailor-made for the role.

Then she actually tried to do the job. Cue the screeching tire and car crashing sounds.

Allow me to spill my guts here: I worked for HP during the Carly years and if there is anything I can do to assure this woman never is in a position of responsibility ever again, I will do it. During her tenure, I went to work with a knot in my stomach. Seeing someone in the cafeteria whom I had not seen in a long time was cause for celebration, because my friend was still employed! Lay-offs became routine, mundane occurrences, along with dropping stock prices and morale. Bonuses and raises were a distant memory.

When I joined HP, my dad actually bragged to his co-workers, “My daughter works for HP!” and they were pissed because their kids all wanted to work for HP and couldn't get jobs there. HP was considered THE place to work when I was in college. They did cool things and they treated you right. Carly turned HP into the opposite of HP. In pre-Carly days when I told someone where I worked, they would inevitably say something along the lines of “I hear that is a great place to work”. Post Carly, it would be a sneer and a,”Oh, so you haven’t been laid off yet”. Something very precious was lost there, and it will never be regained.

“Train wreck” doesn’t quite cut it when describing Carly’s tenure at HP. “Epic fail” works better. During her tenure at HP, the stock nosedived 44%. She spent billions to acquire Compaq, promising big gains, which never materialized. She chased the last of the Hewlett and Packard families out of the company. She laid off over 28,000 people, and completely destroyed HP’s reputation as quality company to work for. She racked up over $100 million in compensation, including her $21 million severance.

Shit, I would have ruined the company for half that.

What has she done lately? Well, she was on John McCain’s staff for his failed presidential bid. She got sidelined, however, after she admitted that neither John or Sarah Palin was qualified to run a major company. (Because no one knows “un-qualified to run a major corporation” like a failed former CEO)

Anyone notice a theme emerging here? (Hint: FAIL) And this woman thinks she can take on Boxer?

I can tell you that people in Silicon Valley will be lining up to vote against her. I know I will.

Oh, Lord! Stuck (praying) in Lodi Again

Thu, 1 Oct 2009 14:10:46 -0400

If you live outside the Central Valley of California you are probably wondering where you have heard of Lodi before. My bet is that you are thinking of the song, “Stuck in Lodi” by Credence Clearwater Revival where the singer laments his misfortune in getting stuck in the self proclaimed “Zinfandel capital of the World”.

Lodi has tiptoed back into the spotlight, for all the wrong reasons. The city council has been sued for their public, Christian only prayers before council meetings. Yes, you read that right, even today some people don’t get that it’s uncool, constitutionally speaking, to have public prayer that is exclusively Christian.

Actually the council had a policy of non-sectarian prayer, but didn’t enforce it, so all the prayers were of the Jesus Squad variety. This was fine when Lodi was the sleepy little pit of the CCR song, but it’s not that dinky anymore. It’s grown; there are actually a few non-Christians among it’s citizens now, so it was inevitable that someone was going to say, “Hey, wait a minute…”

As you can imagine, as soon as the issue came up, all the right wing Christian nutjobs slithered out from underneath their rocks and immediately started in the “Bullies for Christ” routine they so adore.

One Bully for Christ, a former Navy Chaplain, Gordon James Klingenschmitt of the national Pray in Jesus' Name Project said he was going to advertise the final vote on billboards if the council "does not stand up to atheists." I think Gordon should return his WWJD bracelet, I don’t think he is quite getting “it”. I seriously want to ask him, “When you were in the Navy, did you really understand what defending freedom of religion actually meant?” Think about it, we are about to enter into the Christmas season, at a time when unprecedented numbers of people are out of work and going to have to rely on a helping hand to get through the season, a so-called Christian organization is going to spend money on a fucking BILLBOARD?

In the end, the City Council of Lodi wimped out and decided to allow prayer that doesn’t favor any one religion and to encourage participation from all religions and non-religious groups. I’m hoping some Atheist offers up a prayer to science, but then they would probably be lynched.

If you have some time and want to good laugh, be sure and check out the comments in the linked article, and see all the wonderful Christians in action. One of them told me to eat pooh, which cracks me right up. Not very Christian and very childish at the same time.

I do however want end by to giving a shout out to associate pastor Kevin Suess of Vinewood Community Church in Lodi, who had the guts to and tell the council sorry for all the un-Christian like behavior by the Bullies for Christ. Kevin, you rock. Gordon, take notes.

Meg Whitman for Governor? NO WAY!

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 15:09:38 -0400

Well, she did it. Ending months of speculation Meg Whitman, former CEO of EBay, has thrown her hat in the proverbial ring and is running for governor of the formerly great state of California. If the current pools are any indication, she will be the Republican candidate to succeed Arnold when he limps out of office.

I will not be voting for Meg. I can’t vote for her in the primary anyway since I am a Democrat, but I would not vote for her to be the official door stop for the Legislature (though she would at least be harmless in that role). Honestly it has nothing to do with the fact she is Republican, it has to do with the fact that she is promising simple solutions to complex problems. Arnold went that route, and he had his ass handed to him by a bunch of “girlie men” (his words, not mine). Meg thinks she is going to succeed where Arnie, who has twice the charisma, failed.

Meg, honey, you might want to look up the word “hubris” before it’s too late.

Meg’s entire platform seems to consist of

1) trashing state workers as over-paid and over-benefitted

2) trashing regulations on business

3) um…

In her kick-off speech, it became quite clear that Meg is making the same mistake her predecessor, and his predecessor and the predecessor before that made, that is to think that the solution to California’s problems is a simple matter of doing running California like a business. Small problem, CA is not a business, it’s a big unwieldy state with complex, diverse people and complex diverse problems.

Being a governor is very different than being a CEO. As CEO, you have the power, the ultimate authority. The only check and balance on you is the Chairman of the Board and a few large stockholders, otherwise you pretty much do what you want. Being governor, one has to work with, not dictate to, the legislature, various civic groups and the unions, not to mention being answerable to those pesky courts. The government has to protect the weakest members of society, the CEO eats them for lunch and enjoys every bite.

The voters of this state have only themselves to blame, they keep demanding services, but chew up and spit out any politician who suggests that maybe we ought to raise taxes, and you know, actually PAY for those services. That’s the reality of being California governor.

Now Meg Whitless is trying to pass off that old tired shell (all we have to do is lay off 40,000 state workers and life will be beautiful!) as something new and shiny. I’m not falling for it and I certainly hope the electorate doesn’t fall for it again.

I am not hopeful.