My Career as a Pharmacy Tech

I spent eight horrible months as a pharmacy technician in a small-town outlet.  When I finally saw the handwriting on the wall, my main thought was, Why didn't I cut my losses sooner??  I should have been gone in four months, not eight.  I was introduced to a world I hardly knew existed.  I learned that a large percentage of the population lives from prescription to prescription.  Pain-killers are a very great portion of all scripts, and the people who are addicted to them (read: ALL OF THEM except a few post-op patients) are frantic if they don't get them.  The abuse is so widespread that we had a standing rule to double-count pain meds.  This got to be very tedious when the script called for 240 tabs (30 days x 8 tabs/day).  I'm in my sixties and on NO meds (a rarity, I'm told).  There were patients in there who were younger than me on as many as sixteen meds!  No, they didn't look healthy.  If YOU were on 16 prescriptions, do you think you'd look healthy?  My boss (pharmacist) was a walking stress test.  I can't believe he had been living like that for his forty-year career.  Like I said, at the eight-month point, it was time to GO...  I've never looked back and never regretted that decision.

Re: Isaac and Ishmael

 This was my comment on John Little's excellent article, The Heart of Darkness on Omegashock.com:


Great, great article and analysis! Such good material on so many fronts I can’t enumerate them all without fear of leaving someone out.
But I would like to add my second to your take on Islam. My wife and I spent several years overseas in Islamic countries and I can testify you’re spot on.
At one time I was thinking about the surface similarity between Islam and Judaism. There are so many parallels, e.g., fasting, almsgiving, food purity (halal=kosher), animal sacrifice to name a few. I remember thinking, There are so many similarities–why didn’t they just become Jews? Then a light went on...Ishmael would rather eat dog doodoo than join forces with his hated half-brother Isaac! So he concocted this religion, this counterfeit Judaism, both to establish his own brand and to get back into the good graces of his father Abraham, which he’s been trying to do for the last four thousand years. Remember, he was the firstborn, the heir, and was disenfranchised by his father in favor of his younger brother. You, having lived in the Middle East for as long as you have, understand that in these societies there is NOTHING that trumps inheritance. It’s all-important. Ishmael has been smarting over this all these centuries, and the enmity will never go away outside of Christ.
That’s my story and I’m sticking to it! Blessings to you.

Re: Bank Bailouts, etc.

Observations: 

Mortgage debacle:  If the money given to the bankers (in 2008) had been given INDIRECTLY via paying off mortgages instead of directly into the banksters' pockets, the net result as far as the banksters were concerned would have been the same, but the effect on the economy would have been far, far different. Actually, even the banksters would have been better off, since their balance sheets would have been looking a lot better without all the defaults and foreclosures, AND they'd have the money to boot! Win-win-win. But then, how would we perpetuate the indebtedness with which the public is shackled? Such a dilemma!

Foreign Policy and Blowback:  As I view the madness with which our foreign policy is being conducted, I can't help but wonder if the opposition will be content to just watch us collapse economically into chaos, or if they'll be vindictive enough to attack when we're in that weakened state. My bet's on the latter.

Gold and Silver:  I'm amazed at the unwillingness of the public to buy at low prices, although the physical market is showing signs of rationality.