Breaking a Leg

I suffered a very bad fall on October 15 and broke two bones in my left leg, each several times.I was in the hospital on two separate occasions and had two separate surgeries (one for each bone). During my first hospitalization (five days), the price of gasoline dropped by 52 cents a gallon. During my second hospitalization (one day), the price of gasoline dropped 10 cents a gallon I am glad to be of service to my fellow Americans but I believe that this is as much sacrifice as I can humanly make now.
During my first stay in the hospital, I followed the news on my BlackBerry and its rather limited internet access. This was the week when all the speculation was about whether Scooter Libby or Karl Rove would be indicted for leaking the name of a CIA agent. Since it is well understood now that these men did in fact tell other people Valerie Plame’s name, in violation of their oath to protect classified information, the question now is whether any crime was committed. In my hospital bed, I had a much more basic concern. Aren’t these men’s salaries being paid by the taxpayers? Don’t they have written job descriptions that say what they are to do for these salaries? So is engaging in political smears and leaking included in these men’s job descriptions? I have a hard time believing that it is. Regardless of any formal legal issues involved, I think the taxpayers have been ripped off.
I also had the opportunity, in various pain-killing drug-induced nightmares, to see what it would be like if the Bush administration had been in charge of my medical treatment. If Donald Rumsfeld had been in charge of my surgery, he would have directed a quick, overwhelming action to put the bone fragments back together again. But with this done, he would have ignored any inevitable issues resulting from orthopedic surgery, like the need for drainage and blood thinning, accommodation of inevitable swelling, and casting of the leg to prevent any further damage. My ability to walk again would have been significantly delayed or perhaps lost forever. If George Bush had been the senior administrator for the hospital, he would have resisted making any changes when my surgeon called to complain about the lack of suitable equipment in the hospital for orthopedic emergencies (this actually delayed my first surgery for 15 hours).He would have just said, “We must stay the course. Our plan is working and brings us closer to success every day.” When the surgery was over, he would have donned surgical garb (as if he’d done all the work himself) and paraded in front of an assembly of the entire hospital staff under the banner “Mission Accomplished”. And if Karl Rove were in charge of my nursing care, I wouldn’t actually have people trying to relieve my pain, look after my basic needs, and help me recover. I would only get endless speeches and written memos telling me how well my recovery was going and what a great job the hospital was doing for me. If I or anyone in my family dared to complain that I was not getting better, Rove would react by telling everyone who would listen that I and my family were pathological liars, and that I personally was a coward, with absolutely no true American grit inside me.
What a crew. A whole outfit devoted to nothing more than manipulating the perception of reality, instead of just perceiving reality and reacting to it (and improving it where possible). Fortunately, I have had very competent medical care throughout this ordeal, and the prospects are good that I will be able to walk again in a couple of months.