Whether you admit it or not,
your best friends are those who hold your feet to
the fire. Fortunately, I have a buddy who
mercilessly ribs me about my mistakes, so I do my
best to never make one around him. One nice October
morning on Pryor Creek I saw someone openly admit
their error and then amazingly ask Steve’s help
correcting it because they did not know Steve as
well I did. Here is the scene.
Mike is a cattle buyer. For those of you unfamiliar
with which end of the cow gets up first, cattle
buyers are the middle men handling the purchase of
calves from ranches in the remote sections of the
hinterlands for delivery into the feedlots in the
American corn belt. Earlier that fall, Mike had
secured the purchase of Steve’s calves, so he drove
to Pryor Creek to oversee the weighing and shipping
process.
I was there to inspect and issue a health
certificate allowing the calves to cross state
lines. Paradoxically, my presence is outside
free-market forces because veterinarians are
required to be there by the full force and power of
law; a questionable regulation passed many decades
prior to my tenure in the Montana legislature. The
buyer, seller, and middle man are not giddy about
paying the vet to drive 35 miles from his office,
inspect the calves and sign the health certificate.
All three parties view the health certificate as a
necessary evil preferably paid by either of the
other two and this scale house negotiation is where
Steve really shines. Imagine a redneck Don Rickles
with a mustache, boots and chinks. Mostly I ignore
the good natured harassment while waiting for
someone to crack and say, “Okay, I’ll pay the
health…how much was it again…geez, that’s awful…the
vet up home does it for half that.” Being a country
veterinarian collecting money on shipping day is all
sugar plums and lollipops; however it is one step
above the poor brand inspector waiting to collect
the Beef Check-off fee. He gets crucified.
As I said earlier, Steve’s place is 35 miles from
town and as Mike was gathering his paperwork to
leave he said, “Steve, my car is about out of gas. I
should have filled up before I left town, but I was
in a hurry. Could I borrow a couple gallons of
gasoline from you?” My mouth fell open in disbelief.
If it were my vet truck running on fumes I would
coast out of sight, push it into a brush patch and
walk home before I would admit my short-sightedness
to Steve. Apparently, Mike did not realize how this
incident would haunt him every day for the next
decade. This little misstep will never die and this
brings me to my point.
Your closest advisors should have the wisdom and
courage to harass you when you screw up. Sadly, this
quality of confidants does not exist in politics as
the ruling class mostly surrounds themselves with
“yes” minions. President Obama intends to destroy
the world’s greatest healthcare system and replace
it with a state run bureaucracy where care is
rationed based upon a patient’s demonstrated
allegiance to the great master. Unfortunately,
everyone in the president’s inner circle is a
Marxist who believes it is a proper function of
government to steal from those who work to give
freebies to those who sit on the sofa. All are
followers of Saul Alinsky, so expect no help from
them. Now, even the Republican cocktail caucus is
softening on their desire to repeal Obamacare.
Instead they are considering tweaking it for when
they return to ruling class status.
To see what is coming, look at the recent VA
scandal. Dozens, to hundreds, to possibly thousands
of veterans have been denied services. Their plight
has been purposely hidden by an elaborate rationing
system where your case moves from list to list until
ultimately, you make the final list—you die. Logic
dictates it is impossible expand healthcare services
while simultaneously lowering costs without
rationing care, yet the left promised Obamacare
could do exactly that; apparently all by magic. For
the moment, medical services outside the VA and
Obamacare do exist, but what will you do when
government healthcare is your only option? You will
die; I tried to advise you but you wouldn’t listen.
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