Muammar Al Khadafi

We are witnessing the decay of America.
I was driving home from work the other day and simply looked at my surroundings.

Our roads are chuck-holed, pocked-marked and ravaged.

Reader boards are always missing a letter or two....or, worse yet, numbers are put in backwards or upside-down.

The garbage day curb reflects us as bein' an unrestrained mob of overindulgent consumers....and the year always brings us new trials, don't it?

I went to fill a prescription, the other day, at my neighborhood Script-Mart.

They handed me back my script and looked at me as if they never heard of me.....right before they told me that my insurance was "inactive" and warned me that, if I tried that again, they would chase me out of there with a broom.....

Did this surprise me?....not in the least.

Mainly because the procurers of my health and welfare benefits are as dumb as monkeys. But the fact remains that I am hangin' out there like a sticky booger on a frigid winter morning.

Incompetence in the world abounds.

I called my insurance company and they assured me that all is right with the world and that I do, indeed, have the benefits that I am dearly paying for.

They could not answer the question as to why the pharmacist refused to fill my request for my daily medication.....nor did they take any steps to correct the mis-communication between themselves and the pharmacy.

Did their simple acknowledgement to yours truly change anything?

Did they think that their "assurance" to me would change the fact that the pharmacy would not fill my request?

In other words, did they do anything to correct the problem?.....NO!

They simply told me that I was covered.

What kind of sick world do we live in?

They feel as if they have done their best by simply TELLING me that I was covered.....it's like,

"Hey,....IF you can get it,.... we might help pay for it....if you can prove that we ever had this conversation".

I cannot stand these people. I cannot stand the people who associate with these people. I cannot stand the people who associate with the people who associate with these people. I do not like their relatives. I do not like their children. I do not like their grandmothers.

They are the faceless denizens of corporate America....they are the ones who continually bastardize their contractual obligations.... and then blame it on the very people whom they swore to protect.

These are people who rape the wallets of guys like me and sit pretty with all sorts of free coverage of their own....that I pay for,.....while blaming the all the ills of the uncontrolled health care system on the very ones who they fought to cover and represent.

Their little shell game of holding up a benefit book.... and then hiding it behind their back.... is getting very old, indeed.

I would have cheerfully smacked the woman on the other end of the phone had it not been for the fact I can't, realistically, reach through a phone line and literally smack the woman on the other end of the phone......but that's part of their whole game, too.

They knew that I wouldn't be able to punch them in the face..... due to the fact that they simply gave me a phone number to call.....between the hours of 8 and 5......Monday through Friday....excepting holidays.

(I gotta say,....I never saw that one comin'..... they got me with that one, boy.)

They must have thought that I would take the "Tina Turner" approach to gettin' royally abused.

They thought that I would just roll over and say,

"Hit me again, Ike!....and this time,....PUT SOME STANK ON IT"!....but I won't do it.

I won't roll over.

Someone has to take a stand against the cold, faceless scourge of unrequited health care "assurance".

I vowed to myself,....then and there....that I will no longer subsidize the four-hour, fat-cat, gentleman's club luncheons of crooked health care insurance administrators.... with the garnishments of my hard-earned farthings.

As I stood in the foot care aisle,.....next to the Dr Scholl's inserts and under the watchful eye of the pharmacist,....I contemplated as to what my next move should be.

I decided that another call to my faux, health-care customer-relations operator should be proffered.

I called back.... and I immediately asked the name of the person to who I was speaking to.....(in case I had to use it against them later).....and I was told by her, that her name was "Rosie".

That question was specifically designed to throw her off-balance, as it were......I'm sure she was asking herself why I would ask such an odd question. I'm sure that a sally of scenarios began to play out in her tee-tiny mind.....she was "en-guard".

Dan: 1

Health-care customer-relations operator: 0

I explained myself,.... who I was....and dutifully submitted the information that was emblazoned on the front of my card.

(This is all part of the game as well.....they knew who I was even before they picked up the phone......they just didn't think that a ne'er-do-well peon, such as myself, would've heard of that new technological advancement known as Caller ID .....they knew who I was alright.....and why I was calling).

I then respectfully detailed the awkward situation that THEY had put me in.

(They knew why I was calling..... I bet that when they found out they were dealin with Dan,.... the flurry of activity that erupted in their office must have rivaled the final moments of Hitler's bunker.....they knew who they were dealin' with).

I then asked "Rosie" what she was gonna do about it.

(I slipped her name back into the conversation because,.... if it wasn't her real name,.... she might betray what her true name really was.....but she didn't....she didn't slip up).

She then put me on hold.....and I stood there....my fury and anguish being soothed into submission by the hauntingly mesmerizing strains of the on hold music.....it was Percy Faith's, "Theme From A Summer Place".

So, I stood there....in the foot care aisle.....reading testimonies about the the fine qualities of the Dr Scholl's Super-Arch Support with Charcoal Dryness..... in a pamphlet designed to proselytize me to the advanced and premature care of my feet.....while listenin' to some kick-ass Percy Faith.

I then began to muse to myself about the age-old question of whatever happened to Ray Coniff.

He was a good arranger for that musical demographic, ya know.....he had some unusual flavorings to his music, didn't he?

Not really edgy enough for me.... but he showed some aplomb behind the mixing board.....his whole syrupy take on Phil Spector's Wall Of Sound style left a little bit to be desired but, on the whole, not really a bad entertain.....

"Hello, Dan"?

"Hi Rosie....yeah, I'm still here".

"I spoke with my "specialist" and they have assured me that your problem will be corrected by one o'clock tomorrow afternoon. I know that this is an inconvenience and we apologize. There was a clerical error and we will do everything we can to correct this problem......If you need to get your prescription filled today, you can go to such and such pharmacy and they will be glad to help you get the medicine that you dearly need."

(Pause)......(still reading the Dr. Scholl's pamphlet and not possessing the cognitive skills to multi-task....that bein', readin' while talkin' on the phone.....)

"I'm sorry, Rosie....what was that"?

"I spoke with my "specialist" and they have assured me that your problem will be corrected by one o'clock tomorrow afternoon. I know that this is an inconvenience and we apologize. There was a clerical error and we will do everything we can to correct this problem......If you need to get your prescription filled today, you can go to such and such pharmacy and they will be glad to help you get the medicine that you dearly need."

"Oh,....Ok....Thanks, man....talk to ya later".

See,....when you stand up to "the man", you can sometimes be pleasantly surprised.

I took the bull by the horns and made like a tree and leaved.....because I really didn't NEED to get that particular prescription filled on that particular day.....I just had an open window of opportunity and a half hour to kill.

I then went home and found that my furnace had taken a dump.

It was 57 degrees in the house.....had to do somethin' about that.....But that's a whole 'nother story in itself......

Anyway,...