The State of Lavender Address

The State of Lavender Address

He lies with me like lavender

On a sleepless sultan's eve

With the masks of marvels plundered

The oaths of love's offices retrieved

O Love and Ardor, stately shine

Like a flute and pipe with choicest wine

Speak to me with words divine

Steep, high ether of empirical chimes

In a measure of silent wonder

He flows my eyes to face

The sole spell that I am under

Ebbs as his most faithful grace

O Love and Ardor, stately shine

Like a flute and pipe with choicest wine

Speak to me with words divine

Steep, high ether of empirical chimes

My Sunshine by Christie Elise Jones

http://www.amazon.com/My-Sunshine-Christie-Elise-Jones/dp/1453613668/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1325959942&sr=8-1

The Smallest Matey

Long ago and far away

A tall magician packed a sleigh

Children dreamed in a deep, high sleep

As pixies pranced with tiny feet.

Mighty rivers flow and flow

'Til frosty winds blow and blow.

Ten tall masts set at sea

Watched the magic pageantry.

The wintry sky hung like looms

As inland children slumbered safely.

Whilst the wand of winter bloomed,

The seafarers lulled the smallest matey.

Healthcare: Universal Conditions, Universal Qualifications, and Universal Ramifications?

Healthcare in Spanish-Speaking Countries vs. Healthcare in the United States of America  September 2011, C.E. Jones
HEALTHCARE IN SPANISH-SPEAKING NATIONS (THOSE WITH AND WITHOUT UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE) I.  MEXICO Public health care delivery is accomplished via an elaborate provisioning and delivery (Obstetrics [OB]) system instituted by the Mexican Federal Government. Public health care is provided to all Mexican citizens as guaranteed via Article 4 of the Constitution of Mexico. Public care is either fully or partially subsidized by the federal government, depending on the person's (Spanish: derechohabiente's [right to citizenship]) employment status. All Mexican citizens are eligible for subsidized health care regardless of age, gender, or employment via a system of health care facilities operating under the federal Secretariat of Health (formerly the Secretaria de Salubridad y Asistencia, or SSA) agency. Employed citizens and their dependents, however, are further eligible to use the health care program administered and operated by the Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social (IMSS) (English: Mexican Social Security Institute). The IMSS health care program is a tripartite (See:  Black's Law Dictionary, 8 ed.) system funded equally by the employee, its private employer, and the revenue and reserves of the federal government. The IMSS does not provide service to employees of the public sector. Employees in the public sector are serviced by the Instituto de Seguridad y Servicios Sociales de los Trabajadores del Estado (ISSSTE) (English: Institute for Social Security and Services for State Workers), which attends to the health and social care needs of government employees. This includes the tripartite branches:  local, state, and federal government employees. The government of the states in Mexico additionally provide health services independently of those services provided by the federal government programs. In most states, the state government has established free or subsidized healthcare to all their citizens.  In the states that have not done so, the citizens are treated via federal funds. On December 1, 2006 the Mexican government created the Health Insurance for a New Generation also known as "life insurance for babies," assigning prenatal policies. On May 16, 2009 Mexico to Achieve Universal Health Coverage by 2011. On May 28, 2009 Mexico announced Universal Care Coverage for Pregnant Women. II.  TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO A universal health care system is extant in Trinidad and Tobago and is the primary form of health-care available in the country. It is used by the majority of the populus seeking medical assistance, as it is free for all citizens. VS. THE LACK OF UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE IN THE UNITED STATES The United States does not have a universal health care system; it is a proposed reform. The Congressional Budget Office and related government agencies scored the cost of a universal health care system several times since 1991, and have uniformly predicted cost savings, probably because of the 40% cost savings associated with universal preventative care and elimination of insurance company overhead costs.  In 2009, a universal health care proposal was pending in Congress, the United States National Healthcare Act (H.R. 676, formerly the "Medicare for All Act"). The Obama administration health care reform, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), as amended by the Health Care and Educational Reconciliation Act of 2010, seeks to have near-univesal healthcare insurance coverage to legal residents, as well as mandatory neccessary health care, including immunizations.  Exceptions to these medical practices may and will occur due to religious reasons.  An officially recognized religion of 200 or more persons is what comprises a rligious corpus that has legal rights and recognition.  Individuali preferences and beliefs that differ are usually addressed psychiatrically.  The law's a priori conditions include the almost unconditional requisite of almost everyone to have insurance by 2014, closing the gap for universal healthcare during that interim, and prevents insurers from capping their liability for a person's health care needs, a move which is expected to rectify medically induced bankruptcy, or the usual way to total a hospice or hospital check out. The CBO issued an estimation that the bill would reduce the number of nonelderly people who are uninsured by about 32 million, leaving about 23 million nonelderly residents uninsured (about one-third of whom would be unauthorized immigrants). Under the scope of the board on mortality (which actually does have an office and commitee) the legislation, the share of legal nonelderly residents with insurance coverage would rise from about 83 percent in 2010 to about 94 percent by 2019. National health insurance Publicly-funded health care Single-payer health care Two-tier health care Universal health care:  Not Yet There have been a number of different health care reforms proposed during the Obama administration. The first of these reform proposals to be passed by the United States Congress is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which originated in the Senate of the 111th Congress, and passed the House of Representatives in an amended form on March 21, 2010 (with a vote of 219–212).President Obama signed the reforms into law on 23 March 2010. Key reform topics include post-operative wounds, corpulence, prevention and treatment of chronic conditions, defensive medicine (e.g., martial arts)or tort (judicial system) reform, incentives that reward more care (higher quantity of treatments and longer natural life span) instead of better care (an actual cure), redundant payment systems (recurring charges for the same problem or condition), tax policy (which affects ability to pay), rationing (which affects who is at the top of the organ recipient lists), a shortage of doctors  and nurses (usu. called staph infections which result in bedsores and are due to medical neglect and/or abuse), intervention (or coercion) vs. hospice (or medical isolation)and fraud (false claims and falsified treatments [malpractice]). Healthcare rationing in the United States exists in various forms. Access to private health care insurance is rationed based on price and ability to pay.  Healthcare, just like justice, is a commodity that is bought and sold. Those not able to afford a health insurance policy are unable to acquire one, even if those persons are full-time employees who have no health problems.  Furthermore, sometimes insurance companies pre-screen applicants for pre-existing medical conditions and either decline to cover the applicant or apply additional price and medical coverage conditions.  De facto, medical facilities can and do sometimes disclose the cause of death of an employee or applicant pre mortem.  Access to state Medicaid programs is restricted by income and asset limits via an analysis of the pragmatics of providing health care, under federal and state guidelines for eligibility. Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) that commonly cover the bulk of the population, restrict access to treatment via capacity of the facilities. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act passed in March 2010 and will prohibit insurers (HMOs both private and public) from limiting coverage to people in the future tense with preexisting conditions beginning in 2014, which will alleviate this type of medical experimentation and correctional rationing. Some in the media and academia have advocated rationing of care to limit the overall costs in the U.S. Medicare, Medicaid, and related social programs.  These entities argue that a proper rationing mechanism is more equitable and cost-effective.  The assignment of risks and of benefits in a world that does not have access to of knowledge for self-healing is like juggling mortality within a population.  The Congressional Budget Office, whose acronym is CBO, argued that healthcare costs are the initial determiner of governmental spending of tax revenues over the long-term, which means for the duration of that government.  The failure of a government to stand indefinitely is not the same as the failure of a people to exist.  For example, the Roman Empire ended with the decay of its social mores, codes, and practices.  The Roman Empire enjoyed Pax Romana for a long time, and some sources vary on the duration of the peace.

Phylum Porifera: An Introduction

  
     The phylum Porifera, consisting of about 10,000 known species, more commonly called “sponges,” are aquatic animals that first appeared in Precambrian (approximately 5 billion to 570 million years ago) times, characterized by much volcanic activity, in marine environments.  Sessile (mostly immobile) animals that rely upon water currents for oxygen and food deliveries of dissolved organic matter, sponges have many pores (hence, the phylum nomenclature of Porifera).  These animals are asymmetrical, lack tissue or organs, are classified taxonomically mainly by variations of spicule patterns into three major groups (Hexactinellida, [glassy sponges with 6-rayed spicules], Demospongia [which secrete a collagen-form called spongin], and Calcarea [calcareous sponges with excreted 3-4 rayed spicules and crystalline calcium carbonate{CaCO3}]) (Starr).

     Sponges are mostly found in saltwater; however, many sponges thrive in arctic waters and in freshwater (Starr, et al.).  Of saltwater marine Porifera, abiotic conditions are not a determining factor of aquatic community habitats.  Some sponges are suited for reefs, as these sponges have a slower growth rate, while others thrive in mangrove habitats (Wulff).  Evidence supports that marine sponges have a uniform worldwide microbial habitat, as well as a common history of evolution from ancient metazoans (Hentschel, et al.) The species of Spongilla lacustris is an interesting example of a sponge that thrives in brackish freshwater in places such as a sphagnum bog, a bog inhabited mostly by mosses of the genus Sphagnum (Sphagnales), in New Hampshire, USA (Frost, et al.)  Porifera in extreme conditions of a sphagnum bog or of an Arctic sea have adapted to the harsh environments in many ways, especially by the means of reproduction via gemmules, a hard-coated minute mass of cells that survive the harshness then grow into mature sponges.  Most sponges, however, are hermaphrodites, producing both sperm cells and egg cells.  Many others reproduce asexually, breaking off into pieces, and, much like a severed piece of a hologram contains the information of the part as the whole, the piece of a Porifera that reproduces in this manner is capable of reproducing the whole.

     Ecologically, sponges are threatened by the over-consumption of many Porifera in the $40 million dollar economic industry of their harvest.  Mankind and womankind have found uses for Porifera since the ancient days.  For example, most Classical Latin students know that the ancient Romans used a Porifera-on-a-stick in the public latrines of the Roman Empire.  An ancient Roman on a latrine would dip the Porifera (one of the mostly spongin Demospongiae that lack spicules) into a stream of water powered by aqueducts in order to cleanse him/herself.  (One would not wish to be downstream of too many others!)  A recently discovered medical use of Porifera, especially of the Okinawan marine sponge (Agelas Mauritianus), is the medical use an extract of the sponge’s glycolipids (glycosphingolipids) has anti-tumor, anti-diabetes (type 1), as well as the property of stimulating the immune system (Haaf).

Works Cited

Frost, Thomas M.; De Nagy, George S.; Gilbert, John J. "Population Dynamics and
   Standing Biomass of the Freshwater Sponge Spongilla Lacustris." Ecology. 63.5
   (1982): 1203-10.  http://www.jstor.org/stable/1938844 Web. 5 Jul. 2011.

Haaf, Wendy.  “Sponge compound found to protect against diabetes.” Medical Post. 2
   Oct. 2001: Health Module, ProQuest. Web. 5 Jul. 2011.

Hentscel, Ute; Hopke, Jorn; Horn, Matthias, Friedrich, Anja B., et al. “Molecular
   evidence for a uniform microbial community in sponges from different oceans.”
   Applied and Environmental Microbiology. 68.9 (2002): 4431. Sciences Module,
   ProQuest. Web. 5 Jul. 2011.

Starr, Cecie, Ralph Taggart, Christine Evers, and Lisa Starr. Biology: The Unity and
   Diversity of Life. 12th ed. Belmont, CA: BrooksCole Pub Co, 2009. Print.

Wulff, Janie L. “Trade-Offs in Resistance to Competitors and Predators, and Their
   Effects on the Diversity of Tropical Marine Sponges.” Journal of Animal Ecology. 74.2
   (2005): 313-21. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3505620  Web. 5 Jul. 2011.

My New Book: My Sunshine

Check out my website.  It has a link to a YouTube interview with me and a link to purchase my new book.  My Sunshine--get your copy.

CLICK HERE to visit my website.

Confucius Say:

Confucianism is the system of thought that originated in China from Kong Fuzi (551-479 B.C.E.), more commonly called Confucius.  The Analects are a collection of his adages that were recorded by his disciples.  Confucianism arose in a time of Chinese societal chaos, and Confucius, although never attaining his desired position as a powerful minister, influenced Chinese society immensely.  In understanding the restructuring of Chinese society, it is imperative to be familiar with the system of thought that Confucius and his disciples employed in returning order to society.

 The fundamental triad of Confucian thought, applied to microlevel and macrolevels of society, are:  ren, or humanistic compassion; li, or deference to and compassion for elders and superiors; and xiao, or a familial code of honor.  These core principles of interpersonal conduct allowed Confucian leaders to establish social harmony and equilibrium by public and private example, the Confucian junzi, or superiors who possessed the fruits of the triad principles, which include the qualities of courtesy, integrity, perseverance, self-control, an indominatable spirit, and an egalitarian worldview.