I love the military.
I don’t come from a military family per se, but my daddy was a SEAL in Vietnam, and I’ve been taught a healthy respect and gratitude for the men and women who keep me safe everyday.
I do not tolerate careless, salacious, or hypercritical, ignorant comments about the United States Military.
So, needless to say, when I saw this little gem today (h/t to Janis for bringing it to my attention) I not only spat Diet Coke all over my laptop…I also fought the urge to puke onto my keyboard:
Last year, bureaucrats at the VA’s National Center for Ethics in Health Care advocated a 52-page end-of-life planning document, “Your Life, Your Choices.” It was first published in 1997 and later promoted as the VA’s preferred living will throughout its vast network of hospitals and nursing homes. After the Bush White House took a look at how this document was treating complex health and moral issues, the VA suspended its use. Unfortunately, under President Obama, the VA has now resuscitated “Your Life, Your Choices.”
Lovely. A while into the article, Jim Towey gives us a few glowing examples of exactly what’s included in this friendly little document:
“Your Life, Your Choices” presents end-of-life choices in a way aimed at steering users toward predetermined conclusions, much like a political “push poll.” For example, a worksheet on page 21 lists various scenarios and asks users to then decide whether their own life would be “not worth living.”
The circumstances listed include ones common among the elderly and disabled: living in a nursing home, being in a wheelchair and not being able to “shake the blues.” There is a section which provocatively asks, “Have you ever heard anyone say, ‘If I’m a vegetable, pull the plug’?” There also are guilt-inducing scenarios such as “I can no longer contribute to my family’s well being,” “I am a severe financial burden on my family” and that the vet’s situation “causes severe emotional burden for my family.”
I’ll give you a minute to clean up the vomit.
Until I Googled it, I didn’t really know what the VA “Death Book” was. Now I know, and I’m afraid of it. I have to admit that until today, I haven’t really been afraid of what’s going on in Washington. I’ve been concerned, and I’ve made a lot of noise about what I feel are irresponsible policy decisions, but I never even came close to fear.
This thing scares me, and here’s why: if the Administration holds such little regard for the lives of people who put their lives on the line to defend America’s right and ability to exist, how does the Administration regard my life? (Sounds selfish, but I’m really not. Just hear me out.) America’s soldiers are heroes: they spend a great deal of time living in the gutter of global society, putting their lives on the line (and sometimes even taking lives, which is unimaginably horrifying no matter how you look at it) so the rest of us don’t have to go to bed at night wondering whether or not there will be a tomorrow.
And these are the people that the self-righteous bastards inside the beltway want to put to sleep, just as they would an old, lame dog.
I can’t imagine what they’d do to me if I was somehow incapacitated or otherwise rendered useless to the well-being of society, or however it is they’ve decided to sugar-coat this monstrous initiative. Wake up call! I wonder if any of the people who support this policy have thought about it that way.
Since I’m in the mood to make dramatic declarations, here’s one you can write down and hold me to:
I promise, here and now, that if I can use my law degree to do so, I will take down each and every one of the disgusting, soulless monsters who wrote and support this despicable document. I will be graduating law school in 2012 (go figure) so if Obama gets reelected, I’ll have my work cut out for me. I will not in good conscience allow this sort of thing to happen if I do indeed have the power to fight it.
Got that? That means you, Dr. Robert Pearlman, and you too, President Barack Hussein Obama. I am not prepared to be nice about this. What you have done with your death book is demean, impugn, and disrespect those for which you should fall to your knees every night and thank God; without them, you might be dead. Or under the rule of a totalitarian dictator. Without them, our country would have gone down in flames a long time ago–and you would have gone down with it.
Crossposted at The Minority Report
Look through Amy's window. See the mindless, soulless
redneck_hippie Saturday, August 22nd at 12:45PM EDT (link)bureaucracy.
“We must not lose our faculty to dare, especially in dark days.” - Churchill in March, 1942.
Remember NY-23.
VA Hospitals Are Run By Obama's Kind of People
farstar99 Sunday, August 23rd at 7:14PM EDT (link)Appointees and bureaucrats too odious to get work anywhere else. Of course he wants to unionize and socialize health care. What better place to dump his cronies and eliminate the older generation which is wise to him?
My father was left to die at a Clinton-era VA hospital in Florida by his second wife. We went to visit him, and the conditions were so vile we had to break him out.
Fortunately for us, we were able to document the abuse he suffered at the hands of his wife and the hospital personnel, so that when threats to prosecute were hurled at us, the Virginia state’s attorney countered on our behalf.
He lived another five years, with people who cared about him. I often think of all those we had to leave behind.
I had a different experience
SteveLA Sunday, August 23rd at 7:26PM EDT (link)farstar99
My condolences, but I will say that my father too passed away in a VA hospital, and we had the opposite experience. Dad had a long illness and was treated well by the VA staff despite his sometimes hard to deal with ways.
Some of the VA hospital system is great, so not so great, sorry to hear that things did not go well for your family.
______________________________________
Competency over ideological purity
Awesome diary, Amy
wordsarepower Saturday, August 22nd at 12:50PM EDT (link)I don’t think Obama worries about being under totalitarian rule…he wants to BE the ruler over all, including life and death.
I agree that to treat our military this way is beyond deplorable. I also believe that you will fight injustice with everything you have in you. Sic ‘em girl.
Too often people don't get it, do they?
Steph C Saturday, August 22nd at 12:53PM EDT (link)The very people who demean and belittle our military and conservatism, general, don’t understand that the thing they so take for granted was achieved only through the sacrifices of our fighting men and women and our founding fathers. Our founding fathers had any number of examples to choose from to garner great power from the Revolution. They didn’t. Our military fights, not just in battle but every day in a thousand different ways, to keep what we were given safe and whole.
I feel more sorrow than fear that our descendants will never know what was lost.
“[I]f the public are bound to yield obedience to laws to which they cannot give their approbation, they are slaves to those who make such laws and enforce them.” –Candidus in the Boston Gazette, 1772
Hillbilly Politics
Don't give up yet, Steph!
janis Saturday, August 22nd at 1:09PM EDT (link)We have only begun to fight them, and we’ve had to do it largely without any meaningful leadership from the “leadership.” So far, it’s not bad for a strictly homegrown effort. Those for whom this diary was written would not countenance even the notion of surrender at this point–if ever.
Very powerfully written, Amy, you did the topic full justice. Then again, was there ever any doubt that you wouldn’t? ;-0
"VA has resuscitated"-has anyone noticed how these...
penguin2 Saturday, August 22nd at 1:04PM EDT (link)abominations occur under Demoncratic administrations? created in the Clinton years and now resuscitated under Obama. Deciding who lives and who dies is not similar to…? It is about absolute control and power of the State. Unfortunately, we have in Obama and his radical leftists co-rulers the same seeds of destruction.
Powerful diary Amy. I hope the “Death Book” becomes part of the discussion like the non-existent “Death Panels.”
Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God.
Benjamin Franklin
These people have absolutely no regard for human life.
Brian Hibbert Saturday, August 22nd at 1:08PM EDT (link)See their support of abortion including late term abortions.
Obama’s oposition to the born alive act in Illinois.
The death panels in the socialist health plan.
And this……
Socialism doesn’t work. It looks nice on paper, but it’s been tried and it’s failed miserably every time (usually accompanied by widespread death and suffering).
Proud member of the V.R.W.C.
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It gets even worse when you really look at the details on the worksheet, Amy.
janis Saturday, August 22nd at 1:36PM EDT (link)GatewayPundit has it if you scroll down quite a way. The vet is asked to fill it out to ” enable family and healthcare workers to know your last wishes.” Uh-huh. Then the vet is given a series of conditions to check off on with a series of degrees of the condition.
M. I can no longer think clearly. I am confused all the time. (How do you know you can’t think clearly if you can’t think clearly?)
N. I can no longer recognize family and friends (How the hell would anyone know if they can’t recognize them if THEY CAN’T RECOGNIZE THEM?)
Q. I am a severe financial burden on my family. (May the compassionate soul who wrote that one burn in hell forever.)
Under these tender inquiries are the “Instructions.”
If you checked “worth living but just barely” for more than one factor, would a combination of these factors make your life “not worth living”? If so, which factors? (How can we make you miserable enough to choose death if you don’t mind sharing that with us?)
If you check “not worth living”, does this mean that you would rather die than be kept alive? (Please say yes, please say yes. You did? Yaaay! We Won again.)
If you checked “Can’t Answer Now,” what information or people do you need to help you decide? (Nurse Ratched now has notary powers. She’ll be in to see you after lunch today. Don’t make plans for supper.)
These people are scary
Amy Miller Saturday, August 22nd at 1:45PM EDT (link)They’re devaluing the worth of a human life in such a way that they’re actually trying to make people feel guilty for wanting to live!
This is evil, and I don’t care how many people call me crazy for saying so.
~A
Tweet Me, It’s Trendy!!!: @amy_m_miller
“Ah, yes, it’s the apocalypse alright. I always thought I’d have a hand in it.”
So who would call you crazy for saying they're evil?
janis Saturday, August 22nd at 1:49PM EDT (link)I see no other way to interpret this. They’re preying on the emotions of very physically and emotionally depleted veterans to lure them into agreeing to euthanasia by hook or by crook.
The stuff I listed above has GOT to be illegal, at least in part. Especially if you’re getting permission from someone who already checked that they were confused all the time and couldn’t think clearly.
It's coercion
Amy Miller Saturday, August 22nd at 1:55PM EDT (link)Especially when the person you’re trying to manipulate into pulling their own plug is suffering or in pain. We’re not allowed to push people into donating organs, blood, or even TIME, and yet we’re allowed to coerce a soldier into giving up his right to live? I THINK NOT.
~A
Tweet Me, It’s Trendy!!!: @amy_m_miller
“Ah, yes, it’s the apocalypse alright. I always thought I’d have a hand in it.”
I guess one more lawyer might be alright, so long as its
Mike gamecock DeVine Saturday, August 22nd at 5:10PM EDT (link)Amy Miller!
great work here gal
No one is safe from the one-man death panel named Obama
Mike DeVine’s Examiner.com, Charlotte Observer and The Minority Report columns
“One man with courage makes a majority.” - Andrew Jackson
Thanks Mike!
Amy Miller Saturday, August 22nd at 5:20PM EDT (link)It really means a lot to hear something like that, especially coming from you :o)
I really think that’s the key issue here…NO ONE is safe. I mean, consider it. In theory, someone like Audie Murphy would be put to sleep by the Obama Administration!
Unless we keep screaming, we’re done for.
~A
Tweet Me, It’s Trendy!!!: @amy_m_miller
“Ah, yes, it’s the apocalypse alright. I always thought I’d have a hand in it.”
and GC highly reccos - computer crashed - nt
Mike gamecock DeVine Saturday, August 22nd at 6:22PM EDT (link)Mike DeVine’s Examiner.com, Charlotte Observer and The Minority Report columns
“One man with courage makes a majority.” - Andrew Jackson
I think not either!
Cheryl Saturday, August 22nd at 8:56PM EDT (link)Thanks Amy, great post.
BOHICA comes to mind!
From ME to You Saturday, August 22nd at 1:52PM EDT (link)As a current and future (hopefully a looooong time from now) user of the VA health care system, I am sure that the worst is yet to come!
Every time we have a Democrat in the White House and a Democrat controlled Congress the military will always get the short end of the stick.
I've seen this go awry
Uma Richie Saturday, August 22nd at 1:53PM EDT (link)and I’m sorry that I can’t find the news story to back me up, but I’ll keep searching.
A veteran with early Alzheimers filled out a generic advance directive. He checked the block for not wanting a feeding tube without really understanding the consequences. He appointed his wife as his decision maker.
In a few years, his wife who was unable to provide care for him at home anymore, placed him in a nursing home. Around the same time, the Schiavo case alerted people to the need to pay close attention to the provisions in their advance directive. Additionally, the man and his wife were very Catholic, and PJP II”s unequivocal objection to starving people to death became widely known. Unfortunately, the man’s Alzheimers had progressed to a point where he was not be able to change his will legally.
Fast forward to later stage, but not bitter end, Alzheimers. The man was unable to feed himself and the short staffed nursing home was inconvenienced by the need to feed him his meals. His wife, who was the primary feeder for at least one meal per day, said that they should insert a feeding tube to make things easier. The nursing home said that his “living will” forbid it.
It went to court. The wife lost. They continued feeding the man manually for the rest of his life.
……………………………………………………………………………..
“We hold our heads high, despite the price we have paid, because freedom is priceless.” -Lech Walesa
feeding tubes
mom2oneson Saturday, August 22nd at 6:12PM EDT (link)I think are based on if the patient can swallow or not most of the time. If someone can swallow and there isn’t another reason why they shouldn’t take food by mouth, they should be manually fed by a caregiver. There are things like adding thick-it and processing food that caregivers can do too.
I didn’t read the story but the point you makes is scary, what if he could not take food by mouth.
Obama figures they did their duty once...
Erick Brockway Saturday, August 22nd at 2:36PM EDT (link)…maybe they’ll do it again by dying early?
This is another one of those where I sit here, fingers poised to type, and nothing comes.
Soulless bastages
Note to lefties;
“Don’t be afraid to see what you see.”
Ronald Reagan
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Chip in to get rid of “Babs” (Yes ma’am) Boxer.
It it the TRUTH without a doubt the the Democrat Party HATES the military....
JadedByPolitics Saturday, August 22nd at 2:50PM EDT (link)they disrespect them, they use them as political pawns and then they shortshrift their benefits and under this directive hope to shortshrift their lives. It has been my experience since the Vietnam War that the Democrat party will cut the military and military expenditures in such a way as to leave not only them but We The People vulnerable to our enemies. Obama wants to cut missile defense which to our military stationed overseas is like an extra guy with a gun watching their back and that is just the first thing this HATER of our hero’s wants to do.
They make me SICK and I DESPISE them and their little twit leftist supporters. I would like to send them all to Russia for Vladamir to do what he wants with them or better yet to North Korea for Kim to throw them in his concentration camps which they seem to have no problem with!
Whoever has his enemy at his mercy &
does not destroy him is his own enemy
one "the" to many...this topic FIRES me up!..nt
JadedByPolitics Saturday, August 22nd at 2:51PM EDT (link)Whoever has his enemy at his mercy &
does not destroy him is his own enemy
Thanks for this, Amy.
Vegas_Rick Saturday, August 22nd at 3:24PM EDT (link)I am retired Army and had NO clue that this directive existed. I plan to check with Tricare (military retiree health care provider) to see if they are using any such methods. If they do, you’ll hear about it here.
“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan ‘press on’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.” Calvin Coolidge.
Highly recommended.
George Claghorn Saturday, August 22nd at 6:34PM EDT (link)I thought I recommended this earlier, but I guess it didn’t take the first time.
Anyway, excellent diary.
“Victory comes, though we know not when. We must be happy warriors until the end.
For those of you who struggle with what goes on, who see retreat and capitulation, and who feel like not just your political opponents, but those who hold dear all those things you hold as blasphemous — be cheerful. Be happy. Victory is already yours.
You must just have the courage to not get discouraged and have the will to fight on.” – Erick Erickson at RightOnline
SO Amy, Wanna' Hear Something Even Worse
Repair_Man_Jack Saturday, August 22nd at 6:50PM EDT (link)The guy who thought this up probaby did two things.
1) Claim it on his performance appraisal as a cost savings. (THere he was protecting the taxpayers from the people who earlier in their lives had protected the taxpayers.)
2) Get a strong performance appraisal for saving agency resources.
Hope is not a plan. Change is not always good.
But of course...
Amy Miller Saturday, August 22nd at 7:59PM EDT (link)…it’s so unerringly…
…
…
efficient.
~A
Tweet Me, It’s Trendy!!!: @amy_m_miller
“Ah, yes, it’s the apocalypse alright. I always thought I’d have a hand in it.”
It Reminds me of "Death w/ Dignity"
Repair_Man_Jack Saturday, August 22nd at 6:58PM EDT (link)Oregon would like some people to leave faster as well…
Hope is not a plan. Change is not always good.
Everyone needs to read this post
Amy Miller Saturday, August 22nd at 8:00PM EDT (link)Fantastic work, RMJ!!! Made my skin crawl, but fantastic all the same!
~A
Tweet Me, It’s Trendy!!!: @amy_m_miller
“Ah, yes, it’s the apocalypse alright. I always thought I’d have a hand in it.”
This was supposed to "reply to" RMJ's comment above
Amy Miller Saturday, August 22nd at 8:22PM EDT (link)I’m not THAT big of an egomaniac :o)
Carry on…
~A
Tweet Me, It’s Trendy!!!: @amy_m_miller
“Ah, yes, it’s the apocalypse alright. I always thought I’d have a hand in it.”
Kinda makes Palin's "death panel" comment...
azaeroprof Saturday, August 22nd at 10:28PM EDT (link)seem a little tame by comparison, doesn’t it?
I hope Rush, et al pick up on this story. It needs to go viral big time!
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Socialists devils speak with forked tongue
izoneguy Saturday, August 22nd at 11:18PM EDT (link)Great diary - My daddy served in the Army, my grand daddy served during WWII, my father in-law served during WWII, my sister served in the Army & my brother in-law is a Major in the Army now. He has seen action in Haiti, Bosnia, and two tours of Iraq.
Everyone of these fine folks would like to kick the ass of the people that wrote that book. And everyone of these fine military personal would like to kick the ass of the idiots that brought it back to life.
That is all……
At ease……
“When the government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny.”
Thomas Jefferson
Neil. Help, a bug!
azaeroprof Saturday, August 22nd at 10:29PM EDT (link)Every time I click ‘Recommend’ on a diary, I get an error message and the browser window goes ‘busy’. I have to close the browser window, start a new one and log back in. Commenting is working fine.
I have had this same symptom on my XP machine at work as well as my Vista machine at home, so I don’t think it’s my machine.
Thought you should know. Thanks!
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Try clearing your cache (nt)
Neil Stevens Saturday, August 22nd at 10:51PM EDT (link)Want to run for conservatives? Give.
There Is No Crisis
same, I tried clearing the cache...
DONTREADONME Saturday, August 22nd at 11:30PM EDT (link)no luck, BTW, getting alot of server busy and redstate locking up on the refresh. No other website does this with IE8. Can’t help using IE8, right now machine I am on will not let me install anything. Threadjack over.
“The UN is right? you can’t be any more “un”; Than you are right now, the UN is undone, Another mushroom cloud, another smoking gun, The threat is real, the Locust King has come, Don’t tell me the truth; I don’t like what they’ve done, Just give me ammo for the United Abominations”-Megadeth
Will investigate (nt)
Neil Stevens Saturday, August 22nd at 11:37PM EDT (link)Want to run for conservatives? Give.
There Is No Crisis
Worked fine with FireFox version 3.5.2 (nt)
SteveLA Sunday, August 23rd at 12:23AM EDT (link)______________________________________
Competency over ideological purity
Amy, (& Hoohah Mac, too). Keep writing.
redneck_hippie Tuesday, August 25th at 10:13AM EDT (link)You’ve achieved Fred-level recommends on RedState. And that’s a good thing. You’re in OUR mainstream.
“We must not lose our faculty to dare, especially in dark days.” - Churchill in March, 1942.
Remember NY-23.
Thanks, redneck_hippie
Amy Miller Tuesday, August 25th at 10:00PM EDT (link)I’ll do my best :o)
This one really was for Mac, and all our other guys out there who put their lives on the line and then get treated like commodities.
I don’t know why anyone WOULDN’T want to fight this as loud and hard as they could.
~A
Tweet Me, It’s Trendy!!!: @amy_m_miller
“Ah, yes, it’s the apocalypse alright. I always thought I’d have a hand in it.”
Had the distinct pleasure of meeting
redneck_hippie Tuesday, August 25th at 10:06PM EDT (link)a serviceman today and thanking him. All I kept thinking while we talked was “best and brightest.” And he was so humble and unassuming. What a great country we live in.
“We must not lose our faculty to dare, especially in dark days.” - Churchill in March, 1942.
Remember NY-23.
If anyone is curious...
nilram Tuesday, August 25th at 10:48PM EDT (link)I found the document online at
http://www.rihlp.org/pubs/Your_life_your_choices.pdf. What I found most disturbing was the chart on page 21. It lists a number of scenarios and asks the reader to rate how life would be like this. The ratings are “difficult, but acceptable”, “worth living but just barely”, “not worth living” and “can’t answer now”. So the most positive rating is only acceptable. Not something along the lines of “I could live a full happy life” but my life would only be “acceptable”. And I didn’t find most of these scenarios disturbing.
I’m of the opinion that a veteran should take this pamphlet and scrawl across the front:
“I will never accept defeat!
I will never quit!”
and hand it back to whoever gave it to them unread.
The soldier above all others prays for peace, for it is the soldier who must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war.
–Douglas MacArthur