The Native Iowan

I’m watching an old flick…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Treasure_of_the_Sierra_Madre_(film)

I know it well and am going to watch it closely… a lot to miss in this flick….

A lot to miss – everywhere, in life, everywhere…

It’s a great flick. Worth the time…

I am thinking this will be the last post for this month. Not many days left… this month… this year… until the USofA election…

We just went through a State election here in QLD.

Elections here are much, much more low key than in the US. In the States it is as though the electioneering never ends. Its a constant cycle of campaigning, or so it do appear. I find it quite wearisome.

Here we saw the pendulum swing. The liberal party, Labor, has been in power for a decade. Ample time to “do something”… make a change for the positive… ??? But, like other lands where liberal policies are implemented, we end up with a situation where a lot, much, much is not cool, not good, not bueno. Namely, specifically the “Youth Crime” situation. And the housing/ homeless situation, and the lack of infrastructure development, the running inflation, cost of living… The list is long.

Like Liberals are prone to do, we have been seeing cheque-book problem solving. But, when does throwing $$ at a problem solve the problem?

Youth Crime is a good topic… There are towns, cities that are terrorised by unruly, uncontrolled young folks wreaking havoc. Townsville, Mt Isa, Alice Springs, Goondiwindi, Gold Coast, etc, etc… Some suburbs of major cities are out of control to the point where folks are afraid to go out after dark. Or open their door. It’s not a good situation, made worse by the Liberal Policies such as releasing young offenders to reoffend, again and again.

The conservative party, The Liberal National Party, has come back into power. Let’s see if anything changes. I shan’t hold my breath.

I am compelled to comment, again, on this foolish meme that is meant to make folks in the USofA feel short changed…

I am the first guy to admit I am aging. That I need medical attention a whole lot more than I used to. And, as a card carrying member of the Australian Club I receive “universal health care” in the form of a plastic card. Medicare is part of the socialise system here, but… big BUT… It dont guarantee everything, or even much at all…

Sure, better than nothing at all, Medicare ensures attention when needed but not always free of charge. Medicare covers somethings but not all. Though medicare may cover all or part of your breast implant it might not cover your dental. To get the real benefit of the socialised universal health care offered in Aus you need to buy insurance.

I have really good insurance that costs me thousands of $s.

So, like I say, I’m getting old. Have been wearing glasses for quite some time. Recently, in the last couple years, my eyes have been failing me. I have been warned about cataracts for ages and now, as I fight to see and admit the old grey mare just aint what’s she used to be… my friendly and very good optometrist, Rebecca, has referred me to a specialist.

When I saw Rebecca Saturday, after. a heap of testing she says I’ll need to go to the next stage and look at getting my cataracts removed. She gave me what I felt was a pat-spiel saying, ” There 2 ways to do this… the public path or the private path. The public path will cost very little but will take at least 2 years. The wait list is long. The private path means pay to play.”

My insurance is good so I said I’d go the private path.

I called the referred Doctor’s office Monday, had a chat, gave them my numbers and info and have an appointment this coming week.

It will cost, but I’ll get my 20/20 vision (with glasses ) back – hopefully.

Gotta love Universal Health Care.

Smiles