Loud Loft

Seriously, I’m kidding . .

I was talking with a new neighbor the other day. They had just moved here from Nebraska with a job change and had bought a house down the street. The talk turned to the options available in the area for police, fire, EMT, school services and whatnot.

I told him that I went with the "high deductible, thirty minute response, felony only" police coverage. I’ve got several handguns placed strategically around the house and what with the external security camera system that I installed with my police coverage tax credit last year I just didn’t see the need to get the five minute response, armed home invasion rider. Seriously, I can protect myself - why should I pay for extra coverage? Besides, this is a gated community with armed guards and those cool concrete barriers at the entrances so that no one can bust through and gain access to the neighborhood.

We are careful around the house with open flames though. I decided to only get the "fully engulfed with flames, whenever we get there" coverage. I  selected the option that says that the fire department will swing by when they get a chance, connect up the hose to the hydrant and then hand it over to me to put out any flame ups.

However, I shared that the emergency medical response coverage was a little harder to choose.  I didn't tell him, but I do have a few health issues which would make it nice to go ahead and get the full ambulance coverage WITH a fully staffed crew. I told him that I was going to just go with the coverage where they call you a cab but my wife had a fit so I decided to pony up and go for the big ticket item.

When it came to the school services I told him that since we don’t have any kids it didn’t apply to me. Like I’m supposed to contribute to paying for education of kids who are not my own! What kind of country do you think I live in? I have heard that if you do opt in for school services that it’s better to go with 20:1 kids to teacher ratio than the much less expensive 40:1 ratio. Evidently there really is something to having a smaller student to teacher ratio that allows the kiddos to learn better. Whatever.

I hadn’t planned on bringing it up but he asked about the Armed Forces coverage. He said that since Kansas was a land locked state without any coastline he had never bought the Navy coverage. He was wondering what most folks do who live up here in North Texas. I told him that it was up to the folks in Houston, Beaumont, Galveston, Corpus Christi and such to pay for the protection of our coast line. For us here  . . . we might as well be in Oklahoma. That got a good laugh from him as he’s a huge Cornhusker fan and doesn’t like the Sooners. I told him that I did get the Army and Air Force coverage but opted out of the Coast Guard coverage. I know - they also handle all the “aids to navigation” on our rivers in addition to search and rescue operations on the coast . . . but I don’t go out on the lake or rivers and I would much rather spend my vacations in the mountains than at the beach, but that’s just me.

The last thing we discussed was whether to buy the full access toll road package or go with the cheaper limited access option. For me, the limited access choice was the one for me. I don’t get out of my neighborhood much and only have a few places that I go like the market, church and work. I don’t really care to mingle with folks that are different. Especially the ones who don’t seem to be able to afford much in the way of services. I mean, really, it’s their responsibility to provide for them selves. I’m not my brothers keeper, seriously?

You can imagine my shock when asked me  what kind of health care coverage I had bought for me and my family! I told him to go to #$%& and that it was none of his @#$% business what went on between me and my doctor.

He understood and apologized for bringing up such a sensitive and personal decision. I accepted his apology but. . . I don’t know about him now. I’m going to have to keep my eyes on him pretty darn close for awhile. There’s all kinds of weirdos with crazy ideas moving into the neighborhood. It’s not like it used to be . . .

Drugs, healthcare and illegal immigrants . . .

There was a lady that used to work for me, she grew up in a pretty tough neighborhood in San Antonio. She told me about a group of guys there that both used and dealt drugs. They were harmless for the most part and actually got on well with everybody  . . . but they weren’t the sharpest knives in the drawer if you know what I mean.

One day, they are laying around the house enjoying some of the fruits of their labor when another, more aggressive group of guys burst in with guns drawn, stole their money and stole their drugs. Nobody was hurt but the guys were shaken - as you can imagine. So they did what seemed like the natural thing to do when you are robbed . . . they called 911 and reported that a home invasion and armed robbery had just occurred . . . and then sat back down and waited for the police to arrive.

As they heard the sirens approach it finally dawned on them what was going to happen when the police got there and they had to explain what had been stolen. Two guys got out the back window as the cars pulled up but a couple of the other guys were caught.

So here’s the deal, one of the points of contention during all the hoopla about health care reform is the insistence by just about everybody on both sides of the aisle that illegal immigrants must be excluded from any sort of access or coverage.

Personally, I can’t imagine why someone's nationality should have any effect on the health care that they receive but that’s another post for a later date.

Anyway, back to the hoopla. 

Let’s pretend that I’m a citizen of another country living illegally in the United States without the proper visa or with no visa all. Do you really think that I would go to a Federal Government agency and try to either purchase coverage or get any sorts of benefits from that agency? Seriously?

Remember those guys up in the beginning of the story? That’s who would try . . . and then they would be arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and sent back to their native country. Isn’t that what so many of the folks who are beating the “no services to illegal immigrants” drum want?

Here’s another thing to consider on the topic of illegal immigrants. My intuition tells me that most folks working here illegally probably work for a legal citizen of the United States. That person is dodging their own tax responsibility. They are taking jobs from legal citizens and giving them to workers who will work for just about anything and under any conditions. That person is making a very loud statement that the only thing that matters is their own gain at the expense of their country, their fellow citizens and the citizens of other countries who will work for wages paid “off the books”.

When a person breaks the law there is usually another crook somewhere up or down the food chain just as culpable . . .