bad habit

God seems to be speaking to me (again) about dealing with conflict. I HATE conflict and I react by getting angry. The bank situation is the major case in point. But I was almost civil the last time on the phone.
But then the phone company sent me a bill after I had stopped that service. I called and talked civilly, even nicely, to the lady over the phone. She said it would be taken care of. I would get a new bill in a few weeks. Did being civil help? I’m not sure. But it did not hurt.
So now I checked the prescription and found that they only put 30 pills when they should have put 90. Again I called. Again I was civil. She apologized at the end and said come in for the rest. I then noticed that it did not show more refills. Good thing I kept my last doctor prescription forms. They were doing these prescriptions from older computer entries. I need to get by and show them the newer one. Again, trying to be friendly. Conflict can be handled in a friendly manner. Lord help me.
I did come by late Wednesday night to the pharmacy. It turns out it was my fault, which I heartedly admitted. But they did not want to enter the new scripts. It would sort of work they way it worked this time but my doctor would be called automatically by the computer for approval. I hoped to avoid this next time. They did it finally and this time gave me copies of my scripts, not the originals back. Last time they only entered the ones actually needing to be refilled. The other were not going to need it for a month.
Now, in contrast I have a situation where I am on the other end. A mortgagee got very angry about the situation with the mortgage they have with my company. They have been past due. They have reacted by getting mad at me. They expected the impossible and called me all sorts of names. But we did finally work things out. Their anger did probably get them some concessions. But when they finally paid off I have held off from filing the "release of lien" because they said something about our not deserving this money. So that made me afraid they would stop payment on the check. It’s been two months and I am finally about to do the release. Usually it would only take three weeks or so.
The banker that I am mad at is treating me the same way. He is treating me gingerly. He is delaying actions I guess for similar reasons. I cannot read his mind. But he is acting a lot like I am acting towards these mortgage holders.
In sum, I am trying to be nice when I have to confront conflict situations. It’s a bad habit, long cherished, to get angry in such situations and it will be hard to break.

RANT really not base on Revelation 1:4-20 at all

Rant time: The commentator concludes with one of her examples, "Do you despair of the rulers of this world ever 'getting it right' of dealing responsibly with the horrors of poverty and caring for the environment?"

That makes the assumption that it is the "rulers" responsibility doesn't it? So many assumptions in that comment that I think deserve discussion. What rights do we have that we must demand from our government?

The constitution says we have inalienable rights given by our creator. We demand our government do things it cannot do well. Nor should it.

If we have family that need help why shouldn't we help them? So many people would rather try to pass responsibility on to our government. After all, they say what do we pay taxes for? What indeed.

We should be paying taxes for infrastructure, defense, education, and an efferor to make capitalism a level playing field. All this entitlement stuff is us trying to get out of our own responsibilities.

What is it Paul Harvey used to say, democracy will not work without self discipline. That aphorism is still true today. When we refuse to be respoonsible as a people we make our country more and more impossible to govern.

This Goldman Sachs thing is certainly an example. Assuming they are guilty of something the problem can only be "fixed" after the fact. No law or regulation will really stop something like this from happening again. People need to act responsibly on both sides of the table. Those making these complicated instruments should be honest. And that will not happen 100% of the time.

It rests on us the ones buying these instruments to resist the sales talk which essentially relies on greed. A greedy fool will most likely get taken. Warren Buffet and Louis Rukeyser before him said "stay out of investing in things you do not understand." But we are lazy, impatient, and greedy and we do not listen.

The people defrauding the investor does deserve punishment but there will be new ones. So you must always be wary. Take time to understand the investment. And if it is too complicated stay out. And if it is too good to be true, it probably is.

I have little patience for those decrying the world and people like this new "wiz" who got GS into trouble. If we didn't listen to them they could not be the swindlers they seem to be. We let them because we want to believe.

Then we have this new health care. To me it is funny (sad) listening to the Obama administration complaining about GS when they have just sold us a ponzi scheme much bigger. They are still trying to claim this will be cheaper and it will come less in the long run. Do they really believe this? Don't we have other countries with universal health care to show us it is not true?

Many people think they are getting free or cheaper health care. It can only happen if they take the money from others. It is essentially stealing. But it will be called fees and taxes.

I hear a lot of commercials on the radio proclaiming relief from credit card and mortgage debt. These are debts that you chose to make. Surely you can be responsible and pay them off. These commercials tell you you are innocent and have a right to get some kind of federal bail out money. Even if it is true aren't you just stealing money from fellow citizens?

Did Obama and the congress really pass such a bill? If they did it is not free. It is costing our government a lot of money. Money that they took from productive people in taxes. We have nothing against paying our taxes for legitimate expenses. I think most of think it is not legitimate to spend our money to bail out foolish people who ran up too much debt so they could buy a house they could not afford or a big TV they could not afford.

This rant is too long, if you got this far, God bless you.