Glad I'm not Ben Nelson....

A Nebraska doctor’s message for Ben Nelson, along with an update, re-posted from Michelle Malkin.

Dr. Becky Hollibaugh of Friend, Nebraska e-mailed me her message for sellout Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) this morning:



Hello Michelle:

I’m a family practice doctor in Nebraska. I sent the following (angry,I admit) letter to Senator Nelson. I urge your readers (from Nebraska and elsewhere) to do likewise, in their own words!

Dear Senator Nelson:

I send this message under “Tort Reform” because the current monstrosity you have pledged your support to says nothing whatsoever about Tort Reform. You have sold the physicians of Nebraska for zilch (zilch for us, but beaucoup federal bucks for you and the liberal partisans in this state). As a family practice physician in Small Town, Nebraska, I was counting on you to be the lone voice of Democratic sanity on this issue, but you sold me out. I will dedicate
every spare minute of my time and every spare dollar I have to defeating you, should you run for re-election. The long hours I spent on my medical education and the long hours I spend treating my patients are nothing but chump change to you and your Democrat colleagues in Washington. I especially can’t wait for your equivocation and milquetoast evasion when your “compromises” on the abortion language in the bill are silently erased or quietly (on-little-legislative-cat’s-feet) eviscerated in the House/Senate give-and-take. Go on: Bet me that you won’t wuss-out on this issue!

I know you won’t give two-seconds to this letter, but I had to write it. I’m a primary care doctor in YOUR state, and you sold me out. I didn’t slog through 4 years of college and 4 years of medical school and 3 years of residency just to have you hand my career and my patient/doctor relationships over to government lifers. Your gutless acquiescence to Obama and Harry Reid and ‘Nanny’ Pelosi will NOT be forgotten.

Thank you, Ben, for forcing doctors like me to earn less than the repairmen who fix our appliances. Case in point: We recently had our dishwasher fixed. The repairman who came to our house charged $65 just to come and ‘diagnose’ the problem, then charged another $180 to ‘fix’ the problem. You and your fellow lawmakers have fixed MY going rate (Medicare) at $35 per-visit. Thank you for securing such a ‘lucrative’ rate for me! Thank you so much for making me–someone with 8 years of education!–make less than a mechanic or appliance repair technichian. And thanks especially for falling in line with Obama and the rest of the Democrats to make such a socialist system permanent.

You have my disgust and disdain forever, you socialist-coddling coward.

Sincerely,
Becky F. Hollibaugh, D.O.
Warren Memorial Hospital
Ziimmerman Clinic
Friend, NE 68359


***

Dr. Hollibaugh adds in an e-mail update in response to left-wing critics:

Thank you so much for making it more widely available.

…To those who would accuse me of greed: I don’t make as much as you think I do. I give every one of my patients the very best care I can offer, regardless of their ability to pay. And I do NOT begrudge my mechanic or my appliance repairmen their salaries. Not one bit. I gladly pay them what I owe them. What you leftist idiots don’t understand is this: I am forced to accept $35 for an office visit by a medicaid or medicare patient. I. Can’t. Afford. It. On that enforced wage, I can’t pay my nurses. I can’t pay my billing secretaries. I can’t pay my receptionist. I. Can’t. Survive. On. Obamacare. Get it?! I. Can’t. Pay. My. Nurses. On. Ben. Nelson. Wages. Get it? I hope so. You think I’m greedy? I went to medical school as a former nurse at age 36. I have over $180,000 dollars in student loans. I. Can’t. Survive. On. Obamacare. I hope this helps. I don’t make as much as you might think. And most
of what I earn goes to repaying my student loans. I love my little family medicine clinic in Friend. I love being a doctor in rural Nebraska. I love my patients and I love rural family medicine. But Ben Nelson sold me out. Thanks again for letting me vent. I’m not greedy. I don’t envy the wages of my blue-collar friends. But I can’t survive or pay my employees on Uncle Sam’s reimbursement rate for my services.

We need to have all Doctors stand up and voice their opinion and maybe we can get this crap sandwitch overturned.

Obama’s December Gitmo surprise

Don’t you love our open, transparent, most ethical ever White House?

Team Obama chose the weekend before Christmas, with Americans wrapped up in the holidays and the Senate occupied with its dead-of-night Demcare deal, to release 12 Gitmo detainees back to their home countries:



Add a middle of the night vote on health care and now we see the true color of their eyes. They all have to be voted out of office or we as a nation are screwed.

The Perfect Grilled Cheese

A week ago my wife and I had an interesting conversation regarding the art of making a grilled cheese sandwich. Now she knows I love em with cream of tomato soup, and generally makes fun of me whenever I order that combo at any number of watering holes we frequent. So I felt it was time to turn the tables, since she has an entirely different approach to this tasty sandwich. We will agree to disagree on what goes in one, since she prefers adding ketchup and oregano to hers along with processed American cheese. I on the other hand prefer to lather one slice of bread with Hellman's, then a layer of sharp cheddar cheese. She prefers to butter her bread first and grill accordingly. I have always preferred to add butter to the frying pan prior to cooking. I use the term butter but we all know it's margarine.

That changed with the discovery of the following recipe. I shall never again use margarine with my grilled cheese again. So for the grilled cheese aficionados enjoy the following recipe I discovered. I did.


Borrowed from "Big Girls, Small Kitchen Blog" The Quarter-Life Cooks.
Serves 1 (easily doubled)


I like to use a mixture of cheeses, but of course you can stick with whatever your favorite happens to be.


Ingredients
2 slices whole wheat bread
2 teaspoons butter
1 oz Jarlsberg, thinly sliced
1/2 oz sharp cheddar cheese, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon grated Parmesan
Freshly ground pepper
pinch of sea salt


Lightly toast your bread. Butter each slice with 1 teaspoon butter. Layer the slices of cheese in the middle, then sprinkle the Parmesan, pepper, and salt, and cover with the second slice of bread.


Cook in a frying pan over medium-low heat, flipping once, until the bread is golden and the cheese is melted. Serve immediately—and fill out your plate with veggies to even out the cholesterol intake.

For all the Navy Vet's out there

Detroit Teacher Union hits snooze button on wake-up call of disastrous student test scores

The last couple of days I've been writing on the disgusting test scores of DPS students in mathematics, where not a single student - not ONE! - scored "advanced" and a whopping 77% of 8thy graders couldn't even score into "basic." The scores were not only the lowest in the nation, but the lowest ever recorded in the NEAP test. Ever. In all its 40 year history! By far! So bad were the scores that Michael Casserly, executive director of the Council of the Great City Schools, had this to say:

"These numbers are only slightly better than what one would expect by chance as if the kids had never gone to school and simply guessed at the answers"

The teachers unions simply couldn't stay silent. So they made a statement which I will sum up as this:

Don't blame us.

Here is the graph of the disastrous results:



My post of the other day highlighted the ineptness of our Governor, this points out the ineptness of the Detroit Public School system. Draw your own conclusions.

Granholm on Hardball: Government can't create jobs, that's why I'm happy Obama is spending money to create jobs

And we in Michigan wonder why our state is so F***ed up!

EPA: Greenhouse gases are harmful to humans

Obama's solution: Stop Breathing

"You can't leave, all the plants are going to die..."

I told you not to slam that door!

Science tells you that for every action there is a reaction, so when I attempted to slam the Red Door shut, it did as expected, it sprung back. My intentions were to close this blog. Feeling it had run it's course, served it's purpose, and with nothing further to add, it was time. For some reason I didn't post this right away, and in the mean time I've had a change of heart. I will continue to post "things" as might my sister Joey and whomever else wishes. I am going to try and stay away from politics, try I said, but use this to post whatever I think is news worthy. Recently I started another blog called "Recipes from behind the Red Door" because of my love for cooking, but in all honesty one is enough for me. I will merge the two, keeping this name, and offering various items that interest me and hopefully interest you.

Now that that is out of the way I do believe there needs to be a transition from the old to the new, so I am posting below my original post siginaling the end of the Red Door because there are so many people that I need to thank and give credit to. So witout further ado:


As the old saying goes, all good things must come to an end and I am sorry to say it’s time to close the door. The Red Door Journal will be no longer. Along the way it has been an amazing trip, and a great learning experience, so much so that I’ve decided to go back to school and seek a degree in the para-legal field. Maybe I can make a difference for someone else faced with the same issues we have had to deal with for the past three years. Good heavens there can’t be that many incompetent judges and shyster attorneys still left out there can there? Oh God!

But…..I can’t just close the door without giving some credit and thanks for so many who supported us, encouraged us, laughed with us, sometimes questioned our wisdom, but most importantly stood by us. You’re faithful reading of this blog, your comments; both negative and positive were always welcome. I may have come on a bit stern from time to time regarding questional comment, threatening to stop all comments, but truth be told, I couldn’t do that. My dilemma is to not leave out a name or two, and if I do, I apologize.

Mother, you could have just as easily said, let’s keep this quiet and not expose our “laundry” for all to see and hear, but you didn’t. And I am certain there are many who applauded you for taking that risky position to fight this when all the odds were against you. There were days when you scratched your head and wondered why, but you fought and in the end, we all know you’re the better person for it. Your brother and his family will have the rest of his lives to ponder why they have no friends; a position you will never be in.

As you discovered this past summer, renting can be cheaper than owning. So, I am having plaques made that will be available to cottage owners to proudly display that says: “Josephine Symons Lee slept here”. And who knows maybe in a few years "most" cottages will proudly display one.

To the eighty percent of the Lakeside Board who found themselves in a no win position yet managed to do all the right things, say all the right things and offered us their support, we appreciated your efforts, and your thoughts, we thank you. To the best caretaker an association could have. We put you in the middle of a bad situation which was never our intent, and you were diplomatic in your efforts, we thank you.

To every single member of Lakeside, Cottage Grove and Pinewoods, our thanks for your support and encouragement, we felt it and appreciated it. And to the few I left out, you know why.

It’s only fitting that I leave with a photo tribute to the past three years and highlight some of the serious issues as well as the fun ones. Enjoy and remember the immortal words of Donald Rumsfeld: “There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns. These are things we don’t know we don’t know.”

However, the one thing that I do know is once you’re a Lakesider you’re always a Lakesider. Thank you again for your sincere support.



The begining...



From where we came









It's about Thyme cookbook, an overnight sellout, ready for another?



Your choice, David or Stu



The last great cocktail party at the cottage...




Lakeside auction queen!



This past summer 2009








Sorry Sara









Christmas at Lakeside, didn't someone say it couldnt be done?





Decorating the old girl for another holiday season.




The last supper, well not "Thee" last supper but dam close to it!





Oh yea, someone did try to prevent a last Christmas didnt they?

Parsley Sandwiches

These could become extinct, and I'm not kidding. This is serious. The reason being the bread that we have been forced to use is no longer being made. The original bread, was discontinued several years ago, now the same company has ceased production of what we had been using. Now what?

The original recipe called for homemade bread, like I got time for that. Plus I think my grandfather insisted on that as a way to keep others from making them. And he had plenty of time to make bread. Guess I will be dusting off that bread maker I felt I couldn't live without several years ago and see what happens. Damn that Koepplinger's bread company.

And on top of that what is with all the clumps of mud secretly hidden in the center of these bunches of parsley?. I didn't think they were being sold by the pound. Oh well, off to seek a better bread, and find my slice a slice.

Is the parsley sandwich soon to become extinct?