Oliver C. Damon was kind enough to let me take over his site again:
In today’s post, “I’m Going to Kill You,” blogger Marilyn Armstrong poses the question:
“Under what circumstances might I commit murder — or kill someone — for any reason?”
My immediate response was:
“Normally, I would say I am not a violent person. I have trouble yelling at people, much less killing people. However, if anyone ever hurts one of my kids, there is absolutely no question that I could kill and not regret it.”
At least one other blogger agreed with me. Never mess with any mother’s child!
A little later on, however, I reconsidered the subject. Sure, I could absolutely kill someone who has hurt my child or someone else I love – but the bigger question is: “Would I?”
There’s a huge difference between “could” and “would.”
I hope the situation never arises where I have to face that moral dilemma. Should it happen, however, I suspect that while I certainly could consider murder, something – or someone – would probably stop me.
As another blogger pondered, if you don’t catch the evil-doer in the act of causing harm, would you later be as motivated to cause harm to the evil-doer? I don’t know. I imagine if the criminal went uncaught for, say, several weeks, by then I might have time to consider the consequences of my own choice of actions:
Do I really want to go through a trial and possibly jail? Do I want my family and friends to view me as a murderer, no matter how motivated? Would killing that person bring my child back? Could I be content just sending the criminal to jail? (Should I hope that another prisoner – maybe one with kids of his own – would take care of the situation for me?)
While there would be a strong urge to feel my hands around my enemy’s throat, would it really be worth the consequences? Again, I don’t know. Again, what I could do might not be the same as what I would do.
There are those who would view an act of reciprocal violence, done immediately against someone who has done harm, as understandable and possibly justifiable. Others view any kind of violence as inexcusable. I’m not sure which camp I fall into, and I hope I’ll never find myself on a jury deciding the fate of some mother or father who has killed the killer of his or her child.
(I also hope that I am never on a jury where the accused is someone who has ended the suffering of a terminally ill loved one. That scenario cause me serious conflicting thoughts.)
How about you – under what circumstances could you, or would you, kill another human being? And could you forgive yourself afterwards?
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I love to hear from my readers. You may comment on this post, comment on my Facebook page, or email me at cordeliasmom2012@yahoo.com
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Images by: A J Cann, and Matt Freedman, respectively
“Hi, this is your pharmacist. I just want to let you know that the co-pay for that prescription you dropped off is $400. Do you still want the prescription filled?”
[Sure, why not. I just won’t eat for the next month or so.]
***
That was an actual call from my pharmacist after my health insurance company revised its drug formulary. Asacol HD, which I need for my ulcerative colitis, jumped from a $50 a month co-pay to the $400 a month co-pay noted above. My insurance prescription plan is three tiers – $15 for the first tier, $50 for the second tier, and 50% of the manufacturer’s price for the third tier. The third tier is generally reserved for experimental and/or non-generic drugs.
There is no generic equivalent for Asacol HD, and it used to be that if there was no generic equivalent, a drug was dropped into the middle tier on my prescription plan, but now it doesn’t matter. If it is a brand name drug, it’s top tier. Period. The insurance company doesn’t care if it is the ONLY drug that’s working for a patient’s particular condition.
Well, I don’t know about anyone else, but I can’t afford $400 a month for one drug. I had to call my GI specialist and beg him to find something cheaper for me. God bless the man, he was able to prescribe a drug with a $15 co-pay. It doesn’t work quite as well as the Asacol HD, but it’s better than nothing.
Bear in mind that these drug co-pays are on top of the premiums paid for the insurance (about $12,000 a year) and the deductible ($5,000 a year). Thank heavens my company pays the premiums and the deductible for me as part of my salary package. But I’m on my own for the prescriptions.
Who’s to blame for these outrageous costs? Do the drugs really cost that much to manufacture, or are the pharmaceutical companies just greedy? Is it the fault of the insurance companies, who want to keep as much profit as possible, thereby refusing to pay for necessary medications for their insureds? Is it my fault because I wasn’t born rich? Or married rich? Is it all of the above?
I can’t answer those questions. I can only hope that my insurer doesn’t suddenly refuse to cover my Remicade treatments, because those carry a co-pay of $2,300 a month. A funeral would be cheaper.
Unfortunately, retirement is totally out of the picture, at least for now. Sure, I could possibly take early retirement and squeak by on Social Security if I worked a part-time job, but there then would be the matter of carrying my own insurance costs until I become eligible for Medicare in a few years. I have no interest in changing my diet to cat food so that I can have enough money to pay for medical insurance.
Anyone else want to chime in on this subject? Are you also tired of being gouged by the drug companies and insurance carriers?
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I love to hear from my readers. You may comment on this post, comment on my Facebook page, or email me at cordeliasmom2012@yahoo.com
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Images by: Chris Potter (http://www.ccPixs.com) and Monceau, respectively
(CLICK ON IMAGE)
Cordelia's Mom, Still 
Spam-Bam Thank You Ma’am (September 2014)
And they’re becoming more prolific – according to the Askimet stats, I received 4,147 spam comments last month, as opposed to 155 legitimate (ham) comments. I fail to see what the spammers hope to accomplish – I’m the only blogger I know who actually reads the spam comments that make it to my comments filter, and of course, I delete 99% of them. The other 1% become my monthly targets.
And it’s that time of the month again – on your mark, get set, go:
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Comment:
“Very good! I think the same.”
Response:
I think not.
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Comment:
“It’s nearly impossible to find experienced people on this subject, however, you sound like you know what you’re talking about!”
Resonse:
Well, since you wrote this on one of my Spam-Bam posts, I guess I do know what I’m talking about.
***
Comment:
“This post is priceless. Where can I find out more?”
Response:
This comment was written on the very first post I ever wrote on this blog. Therefore, you have a whole year’s worth of posts to catch up on – start reading and stop spamming!
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Comment:
Response:
This also was written on one of my Spam-Bam posts. All I can say is, I didn’t know they had college courses in spamming.
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Comment (Excerpt)
“If you’ve got made your mind to buy new sofa for your family area then here I am providing you some tips on the way to get bet sofa for your room.”
Response:
*Gasp* How did you know Puppy Cody ate part of my couch?
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Comment:
“This is the right blog for anyone who hopes to find out about this topic. You realize so much its almost tough to argue with you (not that I actually would want to…HaHa). You definitely put a new spin on a subject that’s been discussed for a long time. Wonderful stuff, just great!”
Response:
Smart spammer. It’s always best not to argue with Cordelia’s Mom.
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Comment (Excerpt):
“Greetings from Ohio! I’m bored to death at work so I decided to browse your site on my iphone during lunch break.”
Response:
Last month, you said you were bored at work in Colorado. Guess you still haven’t found your dream job, have you?
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Comment:
“Awesome post.”
Response:
Short and sweet. Gotta love it.
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Comment:
“does white chocolate liqueur go bad.”
Response:
I sure hope not, but I’d never keep any around long enough to find out.
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Comment:
“What a material of un-ambiguity and preserveness of valuable familiarity about unpredicted feelings.”
Response:
Please un-subscribe me.
♦♦♦
I could easily go on for another 3 pages, but I’ll save some for October lest I run out of material (not much chance of that!).
(As usual, apologies to the appropriate commenter if any of the foregoing weren’t, in fact, spam. I realize that some comments suffer in translation, and I try to take that into account when determining what is spam and what is legitimate.)
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I love to hear from my readers. You may comment on this post, comment on my Facebook page, or email me at cordeliasmom2012@yahoo.com
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Images by: Kevin Vertucio, and S Carter, and Christopher Penn, respectively
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