This morning I read the following statement in the New York Times:

The Federal Reserve chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, warned on Wednesday of a “huge financial calamity” if President Obama and the Republicans cannot agree on a budget deal that allows the federal debt ceiling to be increased. – Tensions Escalate as Stakes Grow in Fiscal Clash

Unbelievable!  Apparently our financial system is so totally broken and we consumers (er, I mean citizens) are so totally accepting of this that Bernanke can basically threaten collapse if we try to turn this sinking ship around.  And no one is taking him away in a straight jacket! Or handcuffs.

As proof of how crazy things have gotten, I am awash in credit card offers so that I can slide ever deeper into debt along with the Federal Government.  My email spam filters are doing a pretty good job of filtering out crap but I am battling snail mail spam tooth and nail with little to no progress.

I send a letter to direct marketing every couple of months in an attempt to remove our names and address from marketing lists but the junk mail keeps on appearing in our mail box.  This used to work.  Just a few years ago, the new junk mail was addressed to new forms of our names and address and I was able to routinely fend them off with a new letter.  Not so these days.  Despite my letters, I continue to receive mail to the very same addresses.

Our good friend Shaun on Maui taught us a great trick.  Whenever he got a postage free return envelope in his junk mail, he took some of his trash, inserted it into the envelope and mailed it. I’m pretty sure this little trick helped him win the Zero Waste Challenge.

Last month, I took some unwanted advertising coupons to the post office window and asked if there was any way to stop this monthly wad of odd sized junk and they said, “No, we’re required to put that in your box.”  You probably get the same kind of thing, a loose insert with lots of different sized coupons, envelopes and offers from local and not so local advertisers.  It’s so easy to get real mail shuffled in with this pile that I have to look through the whole mess just in case, before I take it to the recycling bin.

My latest battle is with slatefromchase.com.  We’re receiving three to six pieces of mail from these bozos each week!  I picked up three envelopes on Monday and decided to do something.  So I called the toll-free number they include under “You can choose to stop receiving “prescreened” offers from this and other companies by calling 1-888-567-8688.

Not surprisingly I reached a fully automated line which did not respond to my repeated attempts to reach a human being by pushing “0”.  I hung in there, stating and spelling my name and address, listening to the computer repeat what I’d said until they asked for my social security number.

“No!” I said into the phone to which the computer replied, “We did not understand your answer, please state your social security number.” I couldn’t help myself.  I answered again, “No, I will not give you my social security number!”  The computer repeated itself and I hung up.

This morning, I googled “chase slate scam” and a few other choice word combinations to see if these bastards have been reported to the Better Business Bureau and/or the Federal Trade Commission.  And to find an address for them so that I can report them because, of course the mail itself does not come with any form of return address.

While I didn’t find an address nor any hint or mention of a scam, I did find the online version of the automated opt out line I called on Monday.  With high hopes, I filled out the online form, skipping the (not required) social security, birthday and phone number fields and opted out of financial offers like the crap I’ve been getting from Chase.

On the one hand, I’m kicking myself to daring to hope and on the other I’m looking forward to the day I stop getting credit card offers in my mail.  In the meantime, I’m stuffing garbage into their return envelopes and mailing them back. It’s futile, I know but it makes me smile nevertheless.

The last time I went to a doctor was four years ago.  My girlfriend thought I might have a kidney infection, so I went.  It turned out to be a sore back muscle, but the doctor was nice enough to write me a prescription for Cipro anyway.  You never know when you might need a broad spectrum antibiotic sometime on down the road.

I wouldn’t even be thinking about getting health insurance if Bob’s new position at Central Carolina Community College didn’t come with a plan for him and an option for me.  After reviewing my CCCC options, we decided to ask the folks down at Farm Bureau for a quote.  They insure our home and car, we thought, why not our kidneys, too?

So I find myself comparing health insurance plans this morning.  It’s a distasteful business no matter how you slice it.  First off, I’d rather be supporting a single payer national health-care-for-all plan than the health insurance industry.  I don’t really want health insurance; I want affordable health care.

Personally, I think health insurance is a racket whose goal is making enough profits to keep their investors happy and their CEO’s in stock options and million dollar salaries.  One third of every dollar paid into the for-profit Health Insurance companies goes towards administration, marketing, lawyers, CEO salaries and stock options while health care could easily be provided using only three cents out of every dollar to cover administrative costs.

To insure healthy profits, the health insurance plans come with yards of small print, loopholes designed to help them avoid paying claims.  And then there’s all the stuff they plain refuse to insure from the get go.  Click on “more” to see the impressive list of health care benefits excluded by the Blue Options HSA plan.

I think the recently passed H.R.3200 – America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009 is really just a pre-emptive bailout for the health insurance companies.  Since mandated insurance coverage doesn’t come into effect until 2014, I’m not sure I’m ready to stop wearing my black rubber “uninsured” bracelet.

Furthermore, I’m healthy and invested in keeping myself that way.  My health care plan has been my local food diet, lots of sleep and a good balance between desk, yard work, friends and down-time.  Putting money into good food and leisure time makes more sense to me than putting it into a Health Savings Account.  Investing money into a plan designed to pay off if something terrible happens just feels wrong.

Sure, I realize most people will say that paying $175 a month to insure against something catastrophic is simply smart risk management.  One bad car wreck could easily send us into bankruptcy and cost us our home.  But every time I write that check, I’ll feel like I’ve just walked up to the betting window at the track and put my money on a horse to lose.

BlueCross BlueShield of North Carolina

Your plan for better health

Limitations and exclusions

Like most health care plans, Blue Advantage and Blue Options HSA has some limitations and exclusions. When your application is approved, and you become a member, you will have access to your benefit booklet online. It will contain detailed information about plan benefits, exclusions and limitations.

This is a partial list of benefits that are not payable.

• Not medically necessary
• Investigational in nature or obsolete, including any service, drugs, procedure or treatment directly related to an investigational treatment
• Any experimental drug or any drug not approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the applicable diagnosis or treatment. However, this exclusion does not apply to prescription drugs used in covered phases II, III and IV clinical trials, or drugs approved by the FDA for treatment of cancer, if prescribed for the treatment of any type of cancer for which the drug has been approved as effective in any one of the three nationally recognized drug reference guides:
  1. The American Medical Association Drug Evaluations
  2. The American Hospital Formulary Service Drug Information
  3. The United States Pharmacopoeia Drug Information
• Side effects and complications of noncovered services, except for emergency services in the case of an emergency
• Not prescribed or performed by or upon the direction of a doctor or other provider
• For any condition, disease, illness or injury that occurs in the course of employment, if the employee, employer or carrier is liable or responsible for the specific medical charge (1) according to a final adjudication of the claim under a state’s workers’ compensation laws, or (2) by an order of a state Industrial Commission or other applicable regulatory agency approving a settlement agreement
• For a health care professional to administer injectable prescription drugs which can be self-administered, unless medical supervision is required
• For inpatient admissions primarily for the purpose of receiving diagnostic services or a physical examination. Inpatient admissions primarily for the purpose of receiving therapy services, except when the admission is a continuation of treatment following care at an inpatient facility for an illness or accident requiring therapy
• For care in a self-care unit, apartment or similar facility operated by or connected with a hospital
• For custodial care
• For domiciliary care or rest cures, care provided and billed for by a hotel, health resort, convalescent home, rest home, nursing home or other extended care facility, home for the aged, infirmary, school infirmary, institution providing education in special environments, in residential treatment facilities, except for substance abuse treatment, or any similar facility or institution
• For respite care, whether in the home or in a facility or inpatient setting, except as specifically covered by your health benefit plan
• Received prior to the member’s effective date
• Received on or after the coverage termination date, regardless of when the treated condition occurred, and regardless of whether the care is a continuation of care received prior to the termination
• For telephone consultations, charges for failure to keep a scheduled visit, charges for completion of a claim form, charges for obtaining medical records, and late payment charges
• Incurred more than 18 months prior to the member’s submission of a claim to BCBSNC, except in the absence of legal capacity of the member
• For cosmetic purposes except as specifically covered by your health benefit plan
• For any services that would not be necessary if a non-covered service had not been received, except for emergency services in the case of an emergency
• For benefits that are provided by any governmental unit except as required by law
• For services that are ordered by a court that are otherwise excluded from benefits under this health benefit plan
• For care that the provider cannot legally provide or legally charge or is outside the scope of license or certification
• Provided and billed by a licensed health care professional who is in training
• Available to a member without charge
• For care given to a member by a provider who is in a member’s immediate family
• For any condition suffered as a result of any act of war or while on active or reserve military duty
• In excess of the allowed amount for services usually provided by one doctor, when those services are provided by multiple doctors
• For palliative, cosmetic or routine foot care
• For dental care, dentures, oral orthotic devices, palatal expanders and orthodontics except as specifically covered by your health benefit plan
• For dental implants
• Dental services provided in a hospital, except when a hazardous condition exists at the same time or covered oral surgery services are required at the same time as a result of a bodily injury
• For any treatment or regimen, medical or surgical, for the purpose of reducing or controlling the weight of a member or for treatment of obesity, except for surgical treatment of morbid obesity
• Wigs, hair pieces and hair implants for any reason
• Received from a dental or medical department maintained by or on behalf of an employer, a mutual benefit association, labor union, trust or similar person or group
• For sexual dysfunction unrelated to organic disease
• Treatment or studies leading to or in connection with sex changes or modifications and related care
• Music therapy, remedial reading, recreational or activity therapy, all forms of special education and supplies or equipment used similarly
• Hypnosis except when used for control of acute or chronic pain
• Acupuncture and acupressure
• Surgery for psychological or emotional reasons
• Travel, whether or not recommended or prescribed by a doctor or other licensed health care professional, except as specifically covered by your health benefit plan
• Heating pads, hot water bottles, ice packs and personal hygiene and convenience items such as, but not limited to, devices and equipment used for environmental control
• Devices and equipment used for environmental accommodation requiring vehicle and/or building modifications such as, but not limited to, chair lifts, stair lifts, home elevators, and ramps
• Air conditioners, furnaces, humidifiers, dehumidifiers, vacuum cleaners, electronic air filters and similar equipment
• Physical fitness equipment, hot tubs, Jacuzzis, heated spas, pool or memberships to health clubs
• Eyeglasses or contact lenses
• Orthoptics, vision training, and low vision aids
• Fitting for eyewear, radial keratotomy and other refractive eye surgery, and related services to correct vision except for surgical correction of an eye injury. Also excluded are premium intraocular lenses and services related to their insertion beyond what is required for insertion of conventional intraocular lenses
• Routine hearing examinations and hearing aids or examinations for the fitting of hearing aids except as specifically covered by your health benefit plan
• Routine hearing examinations except as specifically covered by your health benefit plan
• Evaluation and treatment of developmental dysfunction and/or learning differences
• For routine eye examinations, except as specifically covered by your health benefit plan
• Medical care provided by more than one doctor for treatment of the same condition
• Clomiphene (e.g., Clomid), menotropins (e.g., Repronex) or other drugs associated with conception by artificial means
• For maintenance therapy. Maintenance therapy includes services that preserve your present level of function or condition and prevent regression
• For massage therapy services
• For holistic medicine services
• For services primarily for educational purposes including, but not limited to, books, tapes, pamphlets, seminars, classroom, Web or computer programs, individual or group instruction and counseling, except as specifically covered by your health benefit plan
• For genetic testing, except for high risk patients when the therapeutic or diagnostic course would be determined by the outcome of the testing
• Services whose efficacy has not been established by controlled clinical trials, or are not recommended as a preventive service by the US Public Health Service, except as specifically covered by your health benefit plan
• Shoes of any type, unless part of a brace
• For any condition, disease, ailment, injury or diagnostic service to the extent that benefits are provided or persons are eligible for coverage under Title XVIII of the Social Security Act of 1965, including amendments, except as otherwise provided by federal law
• For conditions that federal, state or local law requires to be treated in a public facility
• For vitamins, food supplements or replacements, nutritional or dietary supplements, formulas or special foods of any kind, except for prescription pre-natal vitamins or prescription vitamin B-12 injections for anemias, neuropathies or dementias secondary to a vitamin B-12 deficiency

Your coverage may be canceled by BCBSNC for failure to pay premiums and for false statements on your application, among other reasons. Coverage for dependent children ends at age 26. Members will be notified 30 days in advance of any change in coverage. A waiting period for coverage of pre-existing conditions may apply to your coverage.¹ These pages contain available benefits only. They are not your insurance policy. Your policy is your insurance contract. If there is any difference between these pages and the policy, the provisions of the policy will control.

1 – Pre-existing conditions are defined as those for which medical advice, diagnosis, care or treatment was received or recommended within the 12 months prior to the date that this coverage begins. You may receive credit toward the 12-month waiting period, if we receive your completed application within 63 days of the termination of your previous creditable health coverage.

What President Obama proposed today is nothing more than outright sustained murder for profit. Seven more years of destruction to bankrupt the common man and profit the war industry!

Out of respect for my many friends who campaigned long and hard to get someone they could believe in into office, I had remained silent. I didn’t write about the failure of our new hope to reinstate habeas corpus. I said nothing about his decision to keep Guantanamo open. I pulled my punches. I told myself to “wait and see.”

I said nothing because I shared some of their hope. Hope that someone strong and smart cared enough to start making things right again. Hope that there was a chance for a President to steer us in the right direction.

But no matter who you vote for, the government always gets in. And our government is run by the military industrial complex, the pharmaceutical industry, the health care industry, the banking and real estate industries and Wall Street.

Now I have waited long enough and seen enough. My lips are unsealed. I draw the line at premeditated murder, at outright bloodshed. This I can no longer support with silence.

I will now openly say that this administration is the continuation of the Bush agenda in every way. From Clean Coal to Health Insurance for All, we are being lied to and stolen from. Once again. Still. Forever.

“Mr. President, it is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts.” Patrick Henry, 1775 – from his speech, Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death.

Most people will admit that their life is hectic, and I’m no exception.  I think it’s because we have so much technology at our fingertips.  Because we are capable of doing things quickly and concurrently, we end up getting trapped in a swirl of multi-tasking.

On an average day, between the hours of 7am and 10pm, I receive fifty emails and write twenty responses, have fifteen face-to-face conversations, answer ten phone calls and make five stops in the car.  I once counted sixteen stops in one day.

If not for our cars, cell phones and email, I’d be living my life at walking or biking speed, without constant interruptions.  Sadly, it seems normal to drive down the street while talking on the phone. It seems normal to sit at my desk, parsing my time between the person in front of me and my computer screen.  It seems normal to turn away from a conversation to answer a call I feel compelled to take.

Twenty years ago, my Uncle Frank told me with regret in his voice, “Nowadays, everybody goes everywhere all the time.”  Only it’s gotten worse since then.  Nowadays, everybody communicates with everybody all the time.  Often while driving.

Life without my car, cell phone and computer is hard to imagine, because in the industrialized world, they are essential.  I can, however, make a choice to use them one at a time.  “Moderation, dear,” I hear my mother saying, “Technology isn’t bad unless we abuse it.”

It’s up to me to decide at what pace I want to live my life.  I can turn off my computer monitor when someone comes into the room.  I can refuse to answer calls while in conversation with others.  I can ignore work emails between the hours of 5pm and 9am. Most importantly, I can stop using my phone while I’m driving.

The United States military budget is a good case in point.  We keep on putting money into the machine so that the machine can keep on fighting.  Sadly, our efforts to police the world have had the unfortunate side effect of making us a hated target for terrorists.  According to the Council on Foreign Relations:

“Defense spending today comes to about 3.7 percent of GDP—and the combined total, even after including both war-spending supplements and “Global War on Terror” expenditures, comes to 6.2 percent of GDP.”

If you think that’s bad – we pay even more for health care.  And yet we have poor coverage compared to countries which pay half to a third as much as we do.

Connect the dots between the following news stories:

The questions our healthcare debate ignores – Salon.com
“Nations with comparable standards of living like France, Germany, Sweden, Finland, the United Kingdom, Canada, Norway, and Japan spend roughly between half and two-thirds per capita what we spend annually. They cover everyone and their results are measurably better.”

Medical Bills Cause Most Bankruptcies – American Journal of Medicine
“62.1% of all bankruptcies have a medical cause, according to the American Journal of Medicine’s study titled “Medical Bankruptcy in the United States, 2008: Results of a National Study”

Comment to the above: “The amount of misinformation being spread to the American people on health-care is staggering and there is little political will to do the right thing, thanks to the enormous amount of money being spent to lobby Congress. The public is being bombarded with the usual scare tactics about losing their freedom to choose doctors and to choose from among many plans. The Federal Government is portrayed as “big brother’ taking away your rights again. The insurance companies are making billions under the current system and will do anything to keep their 30% of the enormous pile of money.”

Ex-CEO Agrees To Give Back $620 Million – Wall Street Journal
To top it all off, former UnitedHealth Group Inc. Chief Executive William McGuire, one of the highest paid executives in the U.S at $35 million per year for 15 years (that’s $525 million) felt he needed to make even more money.  He played dirty with his company’s stock options, got caught and has agreed to $620 in stock options gains.

The Truth About the Insurance Industry – Washington Post
The issue isn’t that insurance companies are evil. It’s that they need to be profitable. They have a fiduciary responsibility to maximize profit for shareholders.  >snip<  The best way to drive down “medical-loss,” explains Potter, is to stop insuring unhealthy people.

Analysts say number of uninsured Americans to grow – Real Clear Markets
“This year, health spending is expected to reach $2.6 trillion and will account for about 18 percent of the nation’s economy. That spending comes to about $8,300 a person.

Without changes in federal policy, the number of Americans without health insurance will grow from about 45 million this year to about 54 million in 2019, the Congressional Budget Office said Tuesday.”

So, that’s the big picture.  Here’s the more personal side. Bob and I have not been able to afford health insurance since leaving Hawaii five years ago, where our employers picked up the tab.  Count us among the forty-five million Americans without health insurance.  Add to that figure the fifty million under-insured Americans and one out of every three Americans do not have access to adequate health care.

Many of the uninsured Americans are in that situation because they have pre-existing conditions like my friend Nancy.  Nancy has a pace maker which has never once fired since she had it installed six years ago after a freak experience with some massage chairs.  She can’t prove it, but she thinks the forty-five minutes she spent testing chairs for her editors job at Family Circle caused her heart to stop three times during the next twelve hours.

There was only one company willing to insure Nancy after she retired and they set her premium at $1600 a month.  For those who aren’t good at head math, that’s nearly $20,000 a year.  So Nancy decided to cross her fingers and wait five years until she qualifies for Medicare.  But for the grace of God, there go all of us.

The truth is, health insurance once came with every job and the co-pays were ridiculously low.  I was quoted an $8 co-pay for a $4,000 tubal ligation on Oahu just 9 years ago.  That would probably fall under ‘elective surgery’ or a ‘pre-existing condition’ today.

Here’s what I’d like to to see happen.  Our policy makers put an end to endless war to feed the war industry and re-tool for peace.  We adopt a single-payer universal health care plan, ending astronomical health care costs to feed the bloated incomes of health care executives.  We use our savings to pay off our debts and invest in sustainable agriculture and energy.

Ask your representatives in congress to support HR676 which calls for a universal single-payer health care system.  Ask them not to support HR 3200 “America’s Affordable Health Choices Act” which promises more of the same, bloated overhead and profits under the current ‘for profit’ health care system.

Under the current system, one out of every three dollars goes to corporate profits, stock options, and executive salaries, advertising, etc – ten times the administrative costs of the single payer plan called for in HR676.

No one should make $35 million a year.  Everyone should have access to health care.  It’s a no brainer!

Bill O’Reilly comes to mind. He’s perfect, and I’m not the first person to say this. O’Reilly has a loyal following, many of whom would love to see him run for president. Bill Moyers called O’Reilly a “pugilist” which fits him to a tee. Yep, Bill O’Reilly fits the profile. And Sarah Palin – she totally fits the model with her tough, fast talking, god blessing style.

But seriously, I truly believe that the whole political fracas that’s got everyone glued to their TV News/Email Spam/Op-Ed Columns is really just a glitzy circus designed to distract us from the real issues at hand, namely the rise of the facist state, the gutting of the constitution and the plight of the working class. I truly believe that any candidate that makes it to the top has been bought and put in place by the money that runs our world. As Ralph Nader puts it:

The expense of political campaigns creates a clear advantage for the highest spender. Money dominates the dissemination of campaign messages, mainly waged on television in the form of sound bites. This economic stranglehold of campaigns makes politics a game for only the rich or the richly funded. This silences alternative viewpoints and turns off many voters who do not feel represented by privileged candidates.

Count me among those voters who don’t feel represented by either party.

So yeah, the Republicans look different from the Democrats in the same way Mr. Nasty looks different from Mr. Nice on the All Star Wrestling mat. The Republicans play the role of the big, bad bully while the Democrats get to be nice little pansies. Meanwhile, the politicians who speak to my heart are droned out by the roar of the crowd. Bread and circuses, bread and circuses!

Meanwhile, eight Americans were among a group of foreigners jailed after they tried to demonstrate about China’s Tibet policies. The authorities released the Americans on Sunday and placed them on a flight to Los Angeles as the closing ceremony began.

“For the Chinese authorities to sentence them at all shows the government’s insecurity and intolerance of even the most peaceful challenges to its authoritarian control,” Students for a Free Tibet, a New York-based advocacy group, said in a statement.

The nerve! But, let’s think about this for a moment. Obviously, you don’t have to go to China to risk detainment for attempting free speech, as was demonstrated in New York City in April of 2003. At that time, fifty-two anti war activists were arrested without regard for their civil rights. At least justice was served five years later.

NY to pay $2M to activists arrested at war protest

NEW YORK – The city has agreed to pay $2 million to settle a lawsuit claiming 52 anti-Iraq war activists were unjustly arrested, lawyers announced Tuesday.

The activists were arrested in April 2003 outside the Manhattan offices of a military contractor, the Carlyle Group.

Lawyers who represented the activists said that the tactics used by police at the demonstration were similar to those used a year later when hundreds of activists were arrested during the 2004 Republican National Convention at Madison Square Garden.

The city and police department faced backlash after the convention, with critics claiming the aggressive response showed a blatant disregard for the demonstrators’ civil rights.

Lawyers said that in both instances, people were arrested without police warning or without providing an opportunity for anyone to leave.

Yes, the 2004 arrests have become legendary. The site of the detainment, Pier 57 is often referred to as Gitmo on the Hudson. Here’s an account of that fiasco from Wikipedia:

On August 31, 2004, during the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York City, around 1,200 anti-RNC protesters were arrested and sent to a makeshift detention/processing center at Pier 57. Over 1,800 were arrested during the entire event. Medical activists reportedly treated many people held at Pier 57 for chemical burns, rashes, and infections that resulted from direct, prolonged exposure to the motor oil, asbestos, and other contaminants.

That lawsuit is still pending. Meanwhile, the City of Denver prepares for the Democratic National Convention:

City readies warehouse for mass DNC arrests– New lockup has chain-link cages, stun-gun warnings
Some protesters arrested at the Democratic National Convention could be jailed in a city- owned warehouse, complete with metal cages and barbed wire, CBS4 News has learned.

Although the contractors have decided to soften the look of Denver’s holding pens:

No razor wire at Denver convention holding cells
Police have dropped plans to top the holding cells in place for use during next week’s Democratic convention with razor wire after some groups started comparing the site to the detention facility for suspected terrorists at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

“We rethought those plans and came up with a way to put a lid on the cells instead of the razor wire,” Denver Undersheriff William Lovingier said Wednesday as he led reporters on a tour of the cells in a city warehouse that will be the “Temporary Arrestee Processing Site.”

The cells will be topped with chain-link fencing, the same material used to make the cell walls.

Apparently, the Denver police are frothing at the mouth and already on the go. Check out this blog post:

Greetings Fired up supporters,

Yesterday I was verbally assaulted and unlawfully detained by the DENVER POLICE for about an hour for simply walking with a basket of OBAMA BUTTONS on the 16th street mall in downtown Denver. more…

All evidence taken into consideration, I conclude that free speech is as hard to come by in the United States as it is in China.

Notice the appropriate use of the word “consumer.” As in, keep ’em hooked up to the great machine. Or: “Let’s make a Corporate Glory Hogging pyramid scheme that keeps Americans trapped in a deadly, lifelong cycle of working and shopping.” And: “make ’em work ’till they drop and let the insurance companies handle their health care!”
This is our cue to run out into the street and yell, “I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!” as Howard Beale shouted in the 1976 movie, “Network” about Television.

Even better yet, if you don’t want to support the corporate machine, order the coupons and burn them. Seriously.

By the time we dragged our 8 bags into our room at Las Mercedes, we were close to meltdown. Our flight out of Maui had been cancelled, we had been re-routed and shuttled to a hotel where we managed to get 2 hours of sleep before dragging our bags back down to the airport for the next leg.

The worst part of the trip was the security checks, which involved bare feet on cold linoleum and getting “patted” down by unsmiling professionals in order to secure our safety. Please keep in mind that I have not flown anywhere on a big plane since 1999. After two of these episodes, I felt so insecure that I found myself avoiding eye contact with anyone wearing a jacket or a tie. Worse, I began evaluating people myself, wondering if that person in the cowboy hat and sunglass, for instance was the real threat behind all the fuss and should I be afraid of him or perhaps walk over and make a citizen’s arrest.

The security procedure involved removing our jewelry, jackets and shoes and placing them in gray plastic bins. Our laptop computer also had to be removed from its bag and placed in a bin. Then we stood in line for about 15 minutes, hugging ourselves for warmth and clutching our passports and boarding passes. After the contents of our bins and carry-on luggage were X-rayed, we were permitted to walk through the metal detector.

As if this wasn’t enough, we were then (for our safety) taken to a cubicle where our belongings and bodies were searched by hand. I found it impossible to smile during this procedure. I felt that if I didn’t take it seriously, the armed guard nearby would step up and arrest me.

After all was said and done, I felt a lot more insecure than I have in a long time and my appetite for traveling back and forth across the US border had shrunk to nil.

The next day, we got up at 4 a.m. again and started loading our bags. We flew from Managua to Bluefields, where we touched down and then on to Big Corn Island. A small taxi with broken door locks and Spanish music took us and all of our stuff across a potholed street in the rain, passing pedestrians with umbrellas.

Measured in rates per 100,000 people, we looked to the World Health Organization and Interpol for statistics. Here is what we found:

                  Nicaragua           United States             Costa Rica

MURDER…………..3.4……………….7.1…………………..7.2
(Washington DC has 41.8 murders per 100,000 people)

CRIME…………….1,750…………….4,161………………1,234

INCARCERATED….57……………….682……………..no data

SUICIDE…………….6.9………………21.7………………..11.8

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