Restive State

Blockbuster is getting sued for its No More Late Fees campaign. The NJ Attorney General says the ad campaign fools consumers into thinking there are no repercussions for returning the movie late. Which there is, laid out in fine print. But they're claiming the end of late fees which really doesn't jibe with the real deal.

Would really like him to get a load of crap that our local Blockbuster is pulling. While nationally the No More Late Fees program is being implemented, our local franchisee has "decided not to take part in this program." What?! Oh so you can choose whether too or not? The only reason why they won't is because they can make a ton of money off of late fees here in town. It does them no good to implement the program due to the loss of great revenue they get from late fees. So they didn't. Another wonderful thing about living in this damn town.

Stay cool...

Unless you're a very creative thief who masquerades as a legit company. In this story, ChoicePoint reveals that thousands of records have been accessed by identity thieves posing as the real deal. Wait a sec now...a company who collects our personal information, supposedly keeps it secure then sells it to thieves. And we have no recourse, and unless you live inCalifornia, no way of knowing about it.

So if this can happen at a private company, whatt happens when the government (anybody remember "Total Information Awareness"?) gets involved? It goes to show that we have no privacy and no right, in the minds of corporate America to that right. Our information, things that directly affect our lives, can be bought and sold like a prize pig at auction. In the age of information where every decision is based upon you credit rating, including employment, seeing such breaches of trust and security as this is not only outrageous, but devastating. The real question is if this is possible, how can the validity of any of the information presented be verified? Who is it really that you say you are?

As a wise man once said, the only defense against identity theft is having an identity that no one wants...

It seems that our lives outside of work are no longer safe. Weyco Inc. just recently fired 4 employees over their refusal to quit smoking. Not because of bad job performance, mouthing off to the CEO, or smoking while on the job, but smoking at all. Their CFO said something to the effect of "they can smoke, but not smoke and work here." To me, this brings up huge warning signs. The question of where the employee's privacy ends/begins and how far into that realm the employer can reach is paramount. What's next? Banning beer and alcohol? Maybe fried chicken and low-rise pants.

What realy irks me is the reasoning behind it all. While the company maintains that they want "healthy" workers, the things that are hidden from view are the real reason. First, smokers cost more. In terms of insurance premiums and average costs of care they are more than non-smokers. Second, along those lines, they can be less productive due to lost time due to illness. So what it really boils down to is money. Cold hard cash and the bottom line. The company really didn't care about the workers, they cared that they could reduce the expenditures for health care premiums and costs.

Our sciety has become so obsessed with social engineering that we've lost sight of essential rights. It is our right as individuals to do stupid things, right or wrong. Too many places are enacting legislation that does the social engineering for us, call it social engineering by proxy. People, given the opportunity are smart enough to do the right thing, although they usually don't because it is never the easiest thing to do. But what you and I do when we are not at work shouldn't matter. If I come to work and do the best job I can, but eat red meat, smoke heavily and engage in unsafe sex outside of work, that's my deal and I'm going to have to deal with the consequences of my actions. It is not my employer's right to tell me that I can't do those things. Especially if it is only to help their bottom-line. If I'm negligent or incompetent at my job beacuse of it, then yes, go for it, if not, leave me alone. Losing my job because of those things shouldn't have to be a major worry on my mind.

Tell me what you think...

I realize that it has been quite a long while now since my last post. School is more than just insane, work about the same and free time is relatively non-exisitent. Now I should be doing homework, but I can't. There is no way I can do that right now.
The perfect analogy I have heard to describe it all was this: in a 4 year program it's (the information) like drinking from a garden hose. In a 2 year program it's like a firehose. The sheer amount of information that is coming in does no justice to it all beacuse you barely have time to digest it. It becomes a random jumble of facts, figures, patholigies and medications. But when the light bulb goes off, there is a moment of clarity where it all makes sense, if only for a moment.

That moment came to me twice this weekend. The current study topic is cardiac & vascualr disorders. So between the actual disorders and the study of the circulatory system we're having in Anatomy, my head was swimming in information about that system. Friday night I'm checking out my assignment for Saturday clinicals and things are starting to click. I'm looking at the meds going, "ok, that's a diuretic and that's a beta-blocker, where's the ACE inhibitor" and thinking what these drugs were doing to the body. And the light bulb was burning bright. The pieces fell into place as I understood the diagnosis, the treatment and what was going on with the patient. For a moment, the clarity of vision and thought overwhelmed the aching burning of exhaustion.

Of course, when I arrived the next morning, my paitent had changed and all that work was for nothing. The clarity was a farce, nothing more than a glimpse of what could happen. But something far greater happened as a result of that. Too often you have so little time with your patients that you almost become robotic and job focused. You forget that instead of just treating the disease you are treating the person, the whole person, not just a collection of symptoms. That is more important that anything else. If we can't treat our patients, mind, body and soul, we're doing little more than assembly line nursing. It's not always easy or possible, but it should be a goal. My instructor said that we should always try to be present with our patients. To give that little bit of ourselves and our time to let the patient know that we are present with them, regardless. I came to the realization that I hadn't been doing that as well as I should have. Call it one hand on the door sydrome, or whatever, I realized there that I had not been doing that, and my patients could tell. So now it becomes my burden, no, my responsibilty to my patients to be present with them, even if it's just a little.

p.s. this was written over several days and may not be as coherent as I had orignally hoped, but at least something is out there.