Frank's Niece!

[Cathy]

Has anyone heard from or about Ginny yet?

[Cathy]

Has anyone heard from Ginny yet????? Or anything about her?????

[Cathy]

Does anyone know how to write a memoir? I started writing one, and it went smoothly, I had about 20 pages done of it and accidently deleted it. Now I am having trouble because I am upset that I did something so stupid and I am also worried about Ginny. But my sister is remembering more and more and I write notes just in case we forget again. Ellen asked me once if Aunt Alice wore a jacket when she came to visit when she taught us the prayer. Conny said she had on a navy blue jacket and pink shirt under it when she came in the house. I must not have seen her come in, I just remember the pink short sleeved shirt. I don't know if I say this to all of you, but the saddest thing I remember about Aunt Alice was that day...and I cant get it out of my head. I asked her why she talked funny, she said she came from Russia and ask me if I knew where it was. I said no, she said it was a long long way from here and that her family was still over there. As she was talking she was smiling...but then I asked her if she missed them. The first and only time I ever seen her look sad was when she said ....everyday. I don't know what family members she had left in Russia or she was just remembering the ones she left behind, but I'll never forget the sad look on her face. I have been reading about societies opinions about her back in the time I lived in my father's house. I can understand why my father kept us away from her philosophy. But I read someone saying that Ayn Rand ate babies for breakfast. I instantly got mad! I know she preached altruism was bad and self serving was good. And in some ways she was like that...but not in all ways. She did have empathy for other's, she did have a heart and she was human. I wonder if there was anything nice that people have to say about her as a person, not just good things about her philosophies and bad things about her. Has there been anything said about her as a person? I don't want my grandchildren growing up thinking she was a bad person with a great philosophy. If anyone can help me with this part and an outline to write a memoir I would appreciate it. And if anyone knows anything about Ginny...thx ~Cathy~

[Mikee]

Cathy,

If you were writing on a computer your 20 pages may still be salvaged. The body of a file will remain on the hard drive until it gets written over by something else. There are utilities that can uncover deleted files and restore them. You need to find a computer savvy person to help you.

You write well, I enjoy your stories, just keep doing it. If it's in your head you can get it down. Thank you for doing this.

[caroljane]

If your 20 pages went smoothly, you already know how to write your memoir. When you start again it will be your second draft.

Hemingway lost an ENTIRE NOVEL because his wife accidentally left it on a train - and he forgave her. So forgive yourself and start again. If I got upset over every stupid mistake I make here, I could never write another word.\\

I am worried about Ginny too, I don't even know where she lives.

[Cathy]

Cathy,

If you were writing on a computer your 20 pages may still be salvaged. The body of a file will remain on the hard drive until it gets written over by something else. There are utilities that can uncover deleted files and restore them. You need to find a computer savvy person to help you.

You write well, I enjoy your stories, just keep doing it. If it's in your head you can get it down. Thank you for doing this.

Thank you so much Mikee! I did take it to a computer expert...he cant find it. He suggested I call aol for help in trying to get it back. Conny says...maybe it was meant to be...that's her answer for everything lol. She is not thrilled that I am writing a memoir, but says she wants a copy of it. You see, we are a lot like the O'Connor's...our children doesn't know much of our past. My feelings about it is, I don't want the O'Connor legacy to die with us. All the O'Connor's are part of mine and my sister's children, and I am going to let them know the good the bad the ugly the everything, after all no family is perfect. Really its me that needs to thank you and the other's, when I say I would never have came this far without all of you, I truly mean it. So a BIG thx to you Mikee and to all of you!

[Cathy]

If your 20 pages went smoothly, you already know how to write your memoir. When you start again it will be your second draft.

Hemingway lost an ENTIRE NOVEL because his wife accidentally left it on a train - and he forgave her. So forgive yourself and start again. If I got upset over every stupid mistake I make here, I could never write another word.\\

I am worried about Ginny too, I don't even know where she lives.

Thank you Daunce, you are always so witty yeah it was only 20 pages...its not like it was 40 pages I think Ginny lives in Chicago. God, I hope and pray she is alright!

[ginny]

Cathy, hon, sorry. Don't even ask about the past month. No computer was the least of it. Will read stull asap. Gin

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Ginny,

Man am I glad to see you!

Everybody was worried.

Michael

[Ellen Stuttle]

Ginny!!!

Whew, it's a relief to see a post from you.

Welcome back.

Ellen

[Cathy]

Cathy, hon, sorry. Don't even ask about the past month. No computer was the least of it. Will read stull asap. Gin

Cathy, hon, sorry. Don't even ask about the past month. No computer was the least of it. Will read stull asap. Gin

OMG Ginny, I have been so worried about you! I have prayed over and over that you were alright! I am so happy to finally hear from you! Take your time, I will be here, I just so happy you are ok! I have the information I told you I would get from my friend...I couldn't wait to give it to you. Just let me know when your up to it all...and for goodness sake, stay in touch somehow on this site....you scared the living hell outta me! Happy happy happy your back! ~Cathy~

[ginny]

Thanks so much. So nice that people care. I'm all better. Did I miss interesting stuff. DOUG IS GONE FROM SLOP!!!!

[ginny]

Cathy, are you serious? You got info on my family? Damn. Watcha got woman?

[caroljane]

Ginny, so great to see you back girlfriend! Doug just came back to SLOP! Complete with fake name and photo!

[Cathy]

Cathy, are you serious? You got info on my family? Damn. Watcha got woman?

Ginny, I sent you a private message

[ginny]

Thanks, Cathy. Horrible picture, isn't it? The sad thing is, she was a raging beauty. See what a life of bitterness and anger can do? Maybe you should show the pic to Connie.

DAUNCE: He's BACK! What's his new name.

[Cathy]

Thanks, Cathy. Horrible picture, isn't it? The sad thing is, she was a raging beauty. See what a life of bitterness and anger can do? Maybe you should show the pic to Connie.

DAUNCE: He's BACK! What's his new name.

Thanks, Cathy. Horrible picture, isn't it? The sad thing is, she was a raging beauty. See what a life of bitterness and anger can do? Maybe you should show the pic to Connie.

DAUNCE: He's BACK! What's his new name.

Ginny, I should show her this and the pic lol...if you knew my sister, she is so worried about aging. She gets shots above her lips so she doesn't wrinkle from cigarette smoking, wears sunglasses, so she doesn't get wrinkles by squinting, uses Mary Kay make up and soap...me, I don't care, Ive earned everyone of my wrinkles! To each there own I guess ~Cathy~ p.s. your mother is just very old in the picture...I can tell, she have very pretty features.

[Cathy]

Does anyone think they know what my aunt would say about the government shut down? I sure do wish my father would have let her tell us her philosophy! What would she say about Obama care? My sister and I do not agree with Obama, she is for him, I am against him. I am totally against Obama care. I maybe wrong, but I think the government and the insurance companies run America. I think his health care plan is a gimmick for the insurance companies and for the debt ceiling. Conny says she now receives health care for half the deductibles that they had a year ago. I'm happy for her, but I told her for now its good, wait until everyone has to have it. She says its about time the insurance companies makes it affordable for all of us. She thinks the insurance companies are going to take a loss. I tried telling her that now they are guaranteed more money because all of Americans have to pay for it. I asked her, what kind of care do you think your going to receive from doctor's who are over booked and over worked...or how long its going to take to get an appointment? I am against being force to pay for something I didn't ask for or vote in. I am against that if I don't pay for it I could be fined or jailed or both or my tax check be taken. Why cant the government over see the lottery and take a percentage of it and make health insurance free for all of us. Some people win that lottery and win more than they could spend in a life time. I just can see many other solutions to this problem than bullying Americans into something I think they should have a choice in having. How I wish Aunt Alice was alive today. Anyone with some input on this, I would appreciate anything anybody has to say about it, for and against. Thx ~Cathy~

[caroljane]

Hi Cathy, I do not know what your aunt would have said, and what I think as a Canadian is not applicable to America. Our single-payer total medicare works fine for us and our doctors are good and not dissatisfied. But we do not have the ideological divisions that you do about whether there should be middlemen between the doctors and the patients.

I wonder how is your memoir going? I hope you have continued with it.

[Cathy]

Hi Cathy, I do not know what your aunt would have said, and what I think as a Canadian is not applicable to America. Our single-payer total medicare works fine for us and our doctors are good and not dissatisfied. But we do not have the ideological divisions that you do about whether there should be middlemen between the doctors and the patients.

I wonder how is your memoir going? I hope you have continued with it.

Yes I have about 30 pages and Im not even halfway through. I didn't know that I had so much to say lol! But I want my children and grandchildren to know each and everyone of them, like Aunt Agnes did for us. I don't understand why it is so important for me to have my family know about their long a go family, but it is. I guess when your older, you don't want to die without leaving a family legacy. I would do this anyway with or with out Aunt Alice. Its more of the stories Aunt Agnes told us, it was important to her, so I guess its important to me. But right now I am more concerned over our country. I never use to be...my thought use to be, whatever comes my way. But now I see my family and friends struggling, working hard and getting no where. We use to own a concrete business when Bush was in office and we thrived. As soon as Obama was elected we slowly went under two and a half years ago. I maybe be blaming Obama for everyone's troubles, but I just cant see it any other way, and I try to...hope your doing well...~Cathy~

[caroljane]

That is the great thing about writing, you do not know everything you have to say until you start saying it..it is so important and empowering, to fully express yourself.

[Cathy]

That is the great thing about writing, you do not know everything you have to say until you start saying it..it is so important and empowering, to fully express yourself.

I hope the kids appreciates it...some parts of it I was going to leave out because it was so hard to put it in writing...but I wrote it anyway. Hopefully it will help them to understand me one day. But I don't think I will let them have it until after I die...I don't want all questions, and believe me they will have them. Maybe Conny will still be around and she can answer them for me ;) But then she will be force to remember, LOL, ironic isn't it? Love the thought tho

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Cathy,

About Obamacare, I could say oodles. But here is a passage from Atlas Shrugged that says it all. It is the story of the Twentieth Century Motor Company as told to Dagny Taggert by a bum. Just scale down "all wealth" to healthcare and you can easily see the parallel.

I'm giving you a link to a Christian site (for obvious reasons ). They quote the whole story and you have to go there to read it.

Liberal Progressive Vision

Here's a moral truth about humans in general. If you're the one getting the spoils of someone else who got screwed, you feel perfectly moral, that all is right with the world and people who disagree are evil or terribly confused. If you're the one who got screwed, you feel those who screwed you are evil and not confused at all.



But there are unintended consequences for those enjoying the spoils of The Screwed Ones. Like Rand said in the tale:

There wasn’t a man voting for it who didn’t think that under a setup of this kind he’d muscle in on the profits of the men abler than himself. There wasn’t a man rich and smart enough but that he didn’t think that somebody was richer and smarter, and this plan would give him a share of his better’s wealth and brain. But while he was thinking that he’d get unearned benefits from the men above, he forgot about the men below who’d get unearned benefits, too. He forgot about all his inferiors who’d rush to drain him just as he hoped to drain his superiors.

Wait until the people who now get a bargain on healthcare have to give up their privilege and pay through the nose because the poor people in the ghetto need it for free.

I don't think the USA will degenerate to that point, though. Maybe, but I doubt it.

Not because the USA takes magic pills that allow it to operate with poor market practices and stay above it all. Instead, I believe Obamacare will fail as a law (meaning everybody will be screwed for a while) because a good portion of the American public is hopping mad about it, especially the way it was passed in the dead of night with dirty procedural tricks and backroom horse-trading. Note that not a single Republican voted for it. And not a single member of Congress (both houses) read the bill before voting on it.

That is not a good moral foundation for such a sweeping law. On the contrary, that is an invitation to war.

I dearly hope this does not get violent, but I fear it might. Not a full civil war, but instead, sporadic outrages (both sides).

Michael

[Guyau]

Hi Cathy,

History of health insurance and medical costs in the US from the beginning of health insurance is summarized here. The history covered there includes the introduction of Medicare, which your aunt opposed. She acknowledged that gaining health insurance under that proposed program would be a good thing for the individuals gaining it, but she argued against provision of that good thing through the government.

She argued that the only proper function of government is protection of individual rights, which meant police, courts, and national defense, not any of the other activities of government. She saw the morality of altruism, the accepted virtue of sacrificing the better-off to those in need, as the fundamental reason for the appeal of socialized medicine, including Medicare. I agree.

In my estimation, that was the fundamental reason by which the expansion under the Affordable Care Act had the popularity it did have among the electorate. I expect Ayn Rand would concur. It was a close contest to get the law passed and (largely) upheld, as you know. The blind spot—silent spot, really—of most Republican legislators was that they could not answer “But what about the good thing that about eighty million Americans who cannot afford health insurance would have it if we pass this law?” The reply that there were other ways to get them covered rang hollow, and the culture had not (yet?) been turned around against the virtue of altruism.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Some excerpts from The Objectivist Newsletter, the publication of Rand and her associates 1962–1965, all content approved by Rand:

“Doctors and the Police State” – Leonard Peikoff (June 1962)

Having eroded the value of everyone’s savings through decades of inflationary deficit spending, the statists have now decided to pose as champions of their own victims—specifically, those over 65 years of age. The Kennedy Administration’s King-Anderson bill proposes to finance hospital and nursing home care for the aged out of the tax money collected through the Federal Social Security system.

Nobody bothers much any more to deny that this is only a first step. There is no principle by which the State can claim to be responsible for the hospital expenses of the aged, but not for their doctors’ bills—or for the costs of those under 65 with chronic diseases—or for the psychiatric expenses of those in mental institutions— . . . or, ultimately, for everyone’s medical expenses. The leaders of the Canadian province of Saskatchewan name their purposes more openly: Premier Woodrow S. Lloyd has announced that, as of July 1 of this year, full-scale socialized medicine will be instituted throughout the province.

The statists in both countries seek to counter the protests of the medical profession by claiming that government-financed medicine is compatible with perfect freedom for the doctors. Said Secretary Ribicoff: “It should be absolutely no concern to a physician where a patient gets the money . . .”

The truth is, that it is a matter of life and death concern. He who pays the money for a service is morally obligated to see that he receives full value in return: he must set the terms, conditions and standards governing his expenditures. . . . If it is the government that does the paying, then the government has to decide who is qualified to receive its money—how much a particular service is worth—under what conditions that service is necessary and under what conditions it is merely a squandering of State funds . . .

. . .

By what moral principle are the doctors to be deprived of their right to practice their profession as free men? By the principle of altruism: the principle that man is a sacrificial animal, that the only justification of his existence is the service he renders to others, and that any consideration or concern for the men who provide the services is irrelevant. . . .

. . .

When altruism reaches so corrupt a stage, its full meaning comes out into the open. The emphasis changes from love to obedience, from handouts to handcuffs, from the Welfare State to the Police State.

It is happening now in the United States. Some two hundred New Jersey doctors, led by Dr. J. Bruce Henriksen, signed a petition of protest against the King-Anderson bill. They declared that they would continue voluntarily to treat the indigent aged without charge, but that they would refuse to treat anyone whose medical care was financed under the government’s plan. The meaning of their action was clear-cut; it cannot be evaded and it had nothing to do with the needy. It was the action free men have always taken to protest an advancing dictatorship: the statement that they will not sanction, help, or participate in the growth of slavery.

What was the response they received? “Greedy private doctors,” charged Zalmen J. Lichtenstein, executive director of the Golden Ring Council of Senior Citizens. “A breach of ethics as bad as anything else I could imagine,” declared New Jersey Governor Hughes. . . .

“The attitude of these doctors in opposition to a basic national need is shocking,” said Secretary Ribicoff. . .

Harry S. Truman summarized the humanitarian viewpoint in its most eloquent form. Asked what he thought of the doctors’ revolt, he replied: “I think they ought to be hit over the head with a club.”

The club was not long in coming. . . .

In February of 1963, Ayn Rand addressed a meeting of the Ocean County Medical Society, which included among its members Dr. Henriksen and his associates in the protest. Portions of her address appeared in The Objectivist Newsletter the following month.

“How Not to Fight against Socialized Medicine”

I am happy to have this opportunity to express my admiration for Dr. Henriksen and the group of doctors who signed his resolution.

. . . More than any other single factor, it was Dr. Henriksen’s group that demonstrated to the public the real nature of the issue, prevented the passage of the King-Anderson bill and saved this country from socialized medicine—so far.

. . .

The majority of people in this country—and in the world—do not want to adopt socialism; yet it is growing. It is growing because its victims concede its basic moral premises. Without challenging these premises, one cannot win.

. . .

Consider, for instance, the outcome of the Canadian doctors’ struggle in Saskatchewan. The doctors had gone on strike against the full-scale socialized medicine instituted by the provincial government. They won the battle—and lost the war; in exchange for a few superficial concessions, they surrendered the principle for which they had been fighting: to permit no socialized medicine in the Western hemisphere.

They surrendered, even though the overwhelming sympathy and support of the Canadian people were on their side (except for the intellectuals and the labor unions). They were defeated, not by the power of the socialists, but by the gaping holes in their own ideological armor. . . .

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The text of Paul Ryan’s convention speech is here. . . .

Mr. Ryan walked in the garden extending one hand to doctrines of Jesus, the other hand to doctrines of Ayn Rand. Jesus would not take that hand, neither would Rand take the other. Ryan finds that he and Gov. Romney share the same faith-based, self-evident, and largely equivocal, moral creed. It includes the proposition that “the greatest of all responsibilities, is that of the strong to protect the weak.” Indeed, “the truest measure of any society is how it treats those who cannot defend or care for themselves.” All of them? Or are some of the weak and helpless deserving of assistance (by government, to be sure) and others not? There is some difference here with Obama, evidently, on who should be aided.
. . .

[Cathy]

Cathy,

About Obamacare, I could say oodles. But here is a passage from Atlas Shrugged that says it all. It is the story of the Twentieth Century Motor Company as told to Dagny Taggert by a bum. Just scale down "all wealth" to healthcare and you can easily see the parallel.

I'm giving you a link to a Christian site (for obvious reasons ). They quote the whole story and you have to go there to read it.

Liberal Progressive Vision

Here's a moral truth about humans in general. If you're the one getting the spoils of someone else who got screwed, you feel perfectly moral, that all is right with the world and people who disagree are evil or terribly confused. If you're the one who got screwed, you feel those who screwed you are evil and not confused at all.

But there are unintended consequences for those enjoying the spoils of The Screwed Ones. Like Rand said in the tale:

There wasn’t a man voting for it who didn’t think that under a setup of this kind he’d muscle in on the profits of the men abler than himself. There wasn’t a man rich and smart enough but that he didn’t think that somebody was richer and smarter, and this plan would give him a share of his better’s wealth and brain. But while he was thinking that he’d get unearned benefits from the men above, he forgot about the men below who’d get unearned benefits, too. He forgot about all his inferiors who’d rush to drain him just as he hoped to drain his superiors.

Wait until the people who now get a bargain on healthcare have to give up their privilege and pay through the nose because the poor people in the ghetto need it for free.

I don't think the USA will degenerate to that point, though. Maybe, but I doubt it.

Not because the USA takes magic pills that allow it to operate with poor market practices and stay above it all. Instead, I believe Obamacare will fail as a law (meaning everybody will be screwed for a while) because a good portion of the American public is hopping mad about it, especially the way it was passed in the dead of night with dirty procedural tricks and backroom horse-trading. Note that not a single Republican voted for it. And not a single member of Congress (both houses) read the bill before voting on it.

That is not a good moral foundation for such a sweeping law. On the contrary, that is an invitation to war.

I dearly hope this does not get violent, but I fear it might. Not a full civil war, but instead, sporadic outrages (both sides).

Michael

thank you Michael. I have been very worried about all the drastic and sneaky ways Obama has ran our country. I shouldn't say I am worried about our country in a whole, some people after all voted him in. I am worried about the families I know that are struggling, including mine, that work hard to make a decent living and have the government keep chipping away at our paychecks. I have been with my company now for five years and none of us has gotten a raise. Companies feel they don't have to give one because we should feel blessed to even have a job. But every year my check gets smaller and smaller. I am worried when Obama care kicks in how much I am going to have to pay for it, because by then, there isn't going to be much left if anything at all. My husband says, there maybe a marshal law. I do agree somewhat on what Aunt Alice says about supporting lazy people. But, there are two sides of that coin for me. My daughter Kristen is getting a divorce and has 2 babies, that are only 11 months apart. She has a job and supports them, but she does get food stamps and WIC. I am relieved she gets the governments help and I am happy to pay taxes for such things like that. What I don't like is "mother's" who have illegitimate babies, who our tax dollars pays for DNA to find who the father is and they keep having them to increase their welfare checks. I hate for my money going to taxes to support these types of people and there are many of them. I haven't talked to Conny for over a week because somehow this health care plan keeps getting brought up and we argue. I hope she is right...I would love for all our country to have something good and worth the money put into it. I hope I am wrong, I would be happy if I am. But I just cant see anything good coming from this. Now the government shut down has cause a lot of problems here, trying to get in for WIC appointments, and the babies need those for formula. I just feel the government hits the weak, poor and elderly when things like this happen. I know I should never talk politics, its an open invitation to an argument, and really, I have never been political until now. The Liberal progressive vision I read, is it from Aunt Alice's book, Atlas Shrugged? I like the idea of the drain pipe being forced with water and the pipe getting bigger. I looked at it like the water is our paychecks and the pipe is the government...the more you work to get more water the government just takes the more water you get. In the end you have nothing to show for it, but a government that controls everything. I can see that we are in desperate times and its going to get more desperate I'm afraid. I just cant see why Obama cant see that. I think government is evil, I didn't use to feel this way about it, but now I do. Thank you Michael, I think I have a lot to learn. ~Cathy~