When Living Costs Too Much

By now, you have surely heard of how the Eskimo elders, once they could no longer care for themselves or once they became a hindrance to their group, would float themselves off to sea on a small block of ice to die.

Now…this is not entirely true. I studied the Inuit (part of my Anthropological studies) and the elders were greatly revered for their oral history. But…there are many cases of suicide or assisted suicides on record. There was even a spoken law in which – if someone asked 3 times to die – their wish had to be granted. It was a harsh area to live in and an extra mouth but little food meant that the group could die as a whole…

As you can see above…this post will be about death…but to be a little more precise- end-of life-care. If we want to be totally blunt…our medical advances have made it possible for us to continue living well past when we should and living with things that would have killed our “lesser” ancestors in the past. People used to die from COLDS and MEASLES! Now-a-days those are fairly common and pose no real threat. Hell…people (Hi Magic Johnson) are living for decades with the virus that is supposed to be the end-all. Science is great….but…what about nature?

There used to be an ebb and flow to this type of thing. Babies are born and grow up. They have babies of their own…then the older generation has surpassed its usefulness and they pass. This struck me in Biology when my teacher bluntly said Once you have kids and get them to the point where they are self-sufficient you are no longer of use to nature. Jaws dropped but then he further explained that nature intended us to procreate similar to the other animals and to continue our species…nothing more…nothing less. Nature used to be able to take care of these things. The older members of the flock couldn’t compete for resources and mates or would get injured/sick and die. This was the case with the Neanderthals (to give them a blanket name) as well and even persisted into the dark ages. With advances in medicine came wonderful things- we could combat these plagues and diseases- but also very terrible things. Food/resource shortage, over-crowding, and stripping the natural areas caused their own problems – namely...well...famines and new diseases.

I often wonder what I’m going to be like when I’m elderly. Am I going to be one of those go-getters who’s still moving and shaking at age 80 or am I going to be sickly and bed-ridden? Are my children going to have to come to help me bathe or help me to simply live my life? Will I have to have a 24-hour nurse? I see people strapped to an oxygen tank or confined to a bed for the rest of their lives. There are people who are essentially vegetables (not just the elderly of course…) who can never move again, can NEVER come off of their medicines or machines, lest they will die. Some can’t even be considered….alive…technically. There’s got to be some point when you’re taking 15 medicines 3 times a day and an additional 10 to combat the negative effects of those medicines, where you start to realize that it is more work to live than it should be. When you can no longer function (and I mean life functions – eat, breathe, expel waste) without the assistance of others…. I personally would not want to be that way…and certainly would not want that financial, emotional, and mental burden to fall on my family members and children. I would rather die than be bed-ridden and semi-conscious for the rest of my life.

Here is an article I was reading about end-of-life care. Its mostly about the costs associated with it ala Obama’s universal medical plan and cost cutting but I’m curious- what do you think about end-of-life care as a whole?? I’m not advocating killing off the elderly but, at what point do you say ‘this is too much’?





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News Reel

All Types of News from the past week or so

some horrid

some sports

some entertainment

some science

all that have some kinda !!! value

you know how i roll

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WHAT THE FFFFFFFFFF is WRONG with kids today?! No seriously. There is something SOCIALLY wrong here. VERY wrong. That poor child they attacked is scarred for life. It would be a miracle if he can have a normal rest of his childhood and adolescence and move onto healthy relationships as an adult. How did they even come up with something so horrendous to do to these people?! What could the victims have possibly done to deserve this torture?! How F'd up do you have to be to think of this atrocity and then exocute it? I just don't understand.



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FIRST ASIAN TO WIN THE PGA CHAMPIONSHIPS!!!

SOMEONE BEAT THE GREAT TIGER WOODS AT THE PGA CHAMPIONSHIPS!!!

That's some insanely happy news! Not that someone beat one of the few minorities in the golf arena, but that more Asians are making a name for themselves in the public arena. WOOH!


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More sports news: You may have been following the Plaxico Burress legal drama. The man shot himself in the leg. The same leg that carried the rest of his athletic body to the touchdown zone to help the NY Giants win the Superbowl two years ago. And for his own stupidity, he gets TWENTY MONTHS IN JAIL!!! People have gotten off easier for more. LOTS of people are outraged at this heavy sentence. I'm also not so sure 20 months is the answer...



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Take a look at THIS:

NOM NOM NOM

Can we get a few of these in the NYC Subway tunnels? Hahaha Seriously.



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How many of you have heard Jay-Z's Run This Town (feat. Rihanna and Kanye West)?

How many of you have been waiting on a hard hitting video to go with it?

Apparently Germany and the UK didn't have to wait too long because it has already premiered over there while us silly Americans are still waiting. So, I bring this to you...a LINK...because I don't know how to rip rando vids from sites yet. Sorry. Until I figure it out, enjoy the link.



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AND...for you travelers... We all know about the SUPER DUPER FAST bullet train in Shanghai that runs...ONLY in Shanghai. It's so expensive that locals generally don't use it to get themselves to the airport. Only gung-ho foreign travelers like me take it. The only reason the Chinese government keeps it running is to show everyone else their accomplishment. Well NOW there is one that is more practical and probably just as fast. This one takes you between SHANGHAI and BEIJING. Lots of business people and the ilk would find great use out of this one. This 220 mi/hr bullet train is the newest show-off project. Can't wait!

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That's all for now folks. Watch. Click. Read. Ruminate. Comment.
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