Privatize This

Another winter day...although it is overcast and a chance of snow showers.  Still windy.  This is getting old...

In other news, I just printed off 60 or so pages of stuff related to an old Department of Health and Social Services legal issue - a dispute between Fairbanks Memorial Hospital and the department going back to 2005.  I can only read a couple of pages at a time before I am overcome by emotion - not necessarily of a good kind.  I will be deposed next week and will do my best to be on good behavior and to answer all the questions my memory permits. 

The subject of the dispute relates to a departmental program that was the bane of my existence for most of my 15 years with the department.  There were bills on the subject every year that invariably turned into nasty spats among health care providers and their numerous lobbyists as well as plenty of administrative snarls with the program when the legislature was not in session.  Ugh.

On the bright side, my reaction to revisiting this old news confirms my relative contentment with retirement and my resolve to never again darken the doors of the hallowed halls of the legislature and/or executive branch of state government again.  Been there.  Done that.

Also on the bright side, it appears that mom's cortisone injection has given her considerable relief for her back pain.  And with luck she will continue to improve in the next few days.  It's not a cure for arthritis, of course, but she will be very content if she is able to putter around without almost unbearable pain.  Time will tell...

Finally, one last Hawaii picture which I provide for the purpose of relating a story I meant to tell earlier but that slipped my mind.  The pic was taken on my ATV adventure on the hills above Kaanapali and Lahaina.

 

Lahaina and Lahaina Roads with the Island of Lanai in the background

Note the ship anchored offshore to the left of the tree.  One morning I saw it steam by Kaanapali and then anchor off of Lahaina - three miles off Lahaina.  On the whale watch cruise the captain identified it as an ammunition ship - probably awaiting rendezvous with a carrier battle group.

The next day I was having a burger and a beer in Lahaina and struck-up a conversation with a guy who was a Navy man stationed on the ship.  I was surprised to learn that most naval support vessels are privatized - crewed for the most part by merchant mariners. Some ships are owned  by the government and some not.   I'm not really sure why this dumbfounded me - but it did.  For some reason I had assumed that oilers, ammunition carriers and the like were all commissioned U.S. Navy vessels.  Pretty critical stuff.

What makes me think there's a big fat Halliburton contract in the woodpile here somewhere?