Grandma's New Roomies

by: MelKlein

Tue Feb 08, 2011 at 08:55 PM CST

Everything you thought you knew about nursing homes is wrong. They are nothing like that darling Chevy Super Bowl commercial ("Turn up the volume...").  They have come to resemble third world prisons.

Intergenerational activities can be fun; intergenerational housing can be hell.  Disease eventually catches up with the junkies you see on the downtown streets and highway off ramps. They get AIDS. They have strokes. They get infections from dirty needles. They lose limbs to disease, trauma, frostbite. When they grow too feeble for life on the mean  streets where do you think they go to live out their golden years? Meet Grandma's new roomie.

Inevitably drug abusers wind up in the emergency room. They are hospitalized and treated. This transformation usually takes a few days, weeks at most. Then they are discharged. To nursing homes. They arrive still strung out. They have no benefits - disability benefits, if they qualify, take months to get approved. That means no money for cigarettes, for Cokes, for payphone calls to the girlfriend. If you were a street thug where would you turn to raise fast cash? Thug vs. Grandma - who do you think wins? Jewelry disappears. Clothing. Even family pictures.  Extortion flourishes - yes, nursing home protection rackets!

But wait, it gets worse. In a sincere effort to reform the barbaric insane asylums we've seen on 60 Minutes, and cynically to save money, mental institutions have been shuttered nationwide. Of course that didn't cure mental illness, it just dispossessed the insane. The community couldn't tolerate them, so they were sent to nursing homes. There was a transitional period when there were dedicated nursing homes for the insane, but Medicaid in some states decided it was more humane to integrate them into their community, so the specialized nursing homes were phased out. Now the insane share bedrooms with Grandma and the junkies.

Many of these junkies and crazies have something in common - they crave drugs. Either because of addiction or the urge for self medication, they are on a constant hunt for pharmaceuticals. If you were a junkie or a crazy where would you turn to get some fast drugs? Thug vs. Grandma, Round II  - who do you think wins?

Demographics takes on a whole new meaning here. The elderly die off; the thugs live on. These are people who, while disabled, have decades left to live. Since they live on, their numbers increase. It is not uncommon to have more than half the population of a nursing home under the age of 35, and most of those are junkies or crazies.

The staff of nursing homes is ill equipped to deal with them. Unlike the frail elderly, these people demand their rights. They complain about everything. They call the state's complaint line over every late meal, every missed field trip, every perceived insult, precipitating inquiries and inspections. Otherwise powerless, this population has found a new way to entertain itself.
There is no justification for housing drug addicts or the mentally ill with the frail elderly. Their needs are different. The old are the most vulnerable; junkies and crazies the most predatory. Nursing homes are staffed by nurses, nurse-aids, therapists and social workers. They are ill equipped by personality or training to deal with this population. This job is more suited to prison guards.

Read my blog at www.65StillAlive.com

The Minivan Doctrine -- A Game Changer

by: MelKlein

Thu Dec 16, 2010 at 00:25 PM CST

Congress will not reform itself. No congressman will cede power. Even when congress, in an
uncommon moment of bipartisanship, passes a law ceding some power, as in campaign finance
reform, the Supreme Court strikes it down. We flail and moan and cry that bipartisanship is dead.
It's not. The Minivan Doctrine will save the Republic.

The Minivan Doctrine is based on a familiar scenario: kids in the back seat fighting over what
they want for lunch. Pizza. Hamburgers. Pizza! Hamburgers! Pizza!! Hamburgers!! They scream.
They flail. They fight and kick. Finally, Mom has had enough. She pulls over, shuts
the engine, looks into the rear view mirror and announces we're not moving until you agree on
what we're having. After much groaning and bickering, hunger overcomes pride; the kids settle
and they're off again.

The President has the ability to do exactly that. He needs no new authority; Article 1 of the
Constitution gives him all power he needs. He need only determine and announce that for the
duration of the 112th Congress he will veto each and every bill. Period. Regardless of whether he
favors the legislation, he will veto it. Regardless of whether the bill is critical, he will veto it.
Even if it is a must pass bill, such as the budget or the military spending bill, he will veto it.
Nothing goes into law except by override.

Under Article 1, Congress can override a presidential veto by a  two-thirds majority in both
houses. Since neither party has such a super majority, both parties would be forced to find
common ground. Let's not fool ourselves; they will kick and scream; they will scheme and
threaten; they will hold their breath and predict doom. But the President must hold his ground no
matter what. He must be strong and not capitulate.

People will criticize him. He'll be portrayed by some as a traitor. He'll be decried for destroying
America. He'll be hung in effigy. But the grumbling stomachs will eventually prevail. The people
will turn to Congress and ask, "Why can't you just get along?" Congress will eventually come
together, whether on pizza, or hamburgers, but perhaps on chicken or tacos. And by forcing them
to compromise he will be hailed as the president who saved America. And he might be reelected.
Or he might not be reelected. But if he saves America, that won't much matter.

Mel Klein
Dallas, Texas
mel@melklein.com