A few days ago, my mother-in-law, her daughter, and I visited our suburban City Hall because she wanted to attend an informal open-house presentation of a proposed curb-and-gutter project the City was scheduled to soon provide for and impose against her in her poverty, and her income-limited neighbors.

We mostly conversed with two younger men, a shorter one and a taller one named "R.J." - the latter of whom seemed more knowledgeable and honest about discriminating as to what was pleasant contrasted to what is less or not pleasant for residents.

For example, R.J. only admitted the difference between the taste of tap water coming out of the City water tower in comparison to Ice Mountain bottled water, and was not surprised (compared to the shorter guy next to him) to hear that the barrier wall along Highway 169 did not muffle traffic noise as much as the shorter one presumed (and not assumed) it did or should have.

Admittedly, the prospect of laying new sewer and water pipes underground alongside the streets as part of the infrastructure relating to the curb-and-gutter project sounds worthwhile, rather than leave the old pipes in place which have burst here and there, now and then, during the frozen Minnesota winters. And even the putting in of curbs along both sides of the street on which my mother-in-law resides has some value in certain ways.

But NOT at an overwhelming $6600 expense to her with her limited financial resources, and in that obvious way the proposed curb-and-gutter proposal turns out to be somewhat of a childish tinker-toy project concocted in the insensitive, oppressive, and tyrannical minds of some yuppie planners (like the shorter guy standing next to R.J.?) who are oblivious to the lack of money available to poor residents who will have a $6600 assessment tax forced upon them. Income-affluent "Vote No Against Heterosexual-Only Marriage" homogay mansion owners infesting the metro suburb of Golden Valley have no problem paying for landscaping alterations in the City where my mother-in-law resides, but a substantial number of residents in the same Suburb will have a possibly-insurmountable financial burden imposed against them.

It smacks of the foreboding overall plot to incrementally force non-businesses-owning older residents on tax-free SS retirement out of their homes by various connivings from City Hall gestapo, with the intent that such home-departing oldies have no recourse but to relocate into association senior condo ghettos not their own (and, strangely, many of such have recently been constructed in Twin Cities suburbs) -- reminiscent of how it was when Nazis ousted Jews away from their homesteads in the late 30s and early 40s in the 20th century, flagrantly ignoring or despising:

Leviticus 19:13 "You shall not oppress your neighbor or rob him..."

Jeremiah 7:5 "For if you truly amend your ways and your doings, if you truly execute justice one with another,
6 if you do not oppress the law-abiding alien, the fatherless or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own hurt,
7 then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your fathers forever."
8 "Hey, you trust in deceptive words to no avail.
9 Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, worship materialistic or prestige or political idols, and go after other gods that you have not known,
10 and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, 'We are delivered!' --only to go on doing all these abominations?"

Micah 2:2 They covet fields, and seize them; and houses, and take them away; they oppress a man and his house, a man and his inheritance.

Zechariah 7:10 do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the traveler, nor the poor; and let none of you devise evil against his brother in your heart.

All this while my dad is languishing in a suburban hospice facility within the Twin Cities.

This morning I called his room number at 8 a.m. and was going to ask him: "Has my feminist dad been raptured yet?" - which probably would have been responded to quite negatively. In retrospect, I'm glad that he was still sleeping, and so I instead asked the head nurse on his floor about his current status, with her satisfactory response being: "We're soon getting him ready for breakfast."

The question I would have posed to my dad is loaded with spite and sarcasm.

He, as many others (like his neighbor on the south side of his suburban house) who I have had the displeasure of encountering and associating with, embrace an anti-Biblical presumption that women are equal with men as to them being in charge as much as men in church-related and legal or government decision-making situations, contrary to Scriptural directives and inferences such as: RSV's/NASV's Numbers 5:31 - "The man shall be free from iniquity, but the woman shall bear her iniquity," the patriarchal Numbers chapter 30, Isaiah 3:12, Ecclesiastes 7:26-28, the anti-female-soldiers Nahum 3:13, the husband-not-wife-authority hierarchy of First Corinthians 11:1-16 (KJV), the women-keep-still-in-churches First Corinthians 14:33-38, the women-not-allowed-to-teach-nor-be-in-authority-over-men mandate of First Timothy 2:8-15, and the women-are-the-weaker-gender statement of First Peter 3:7).

Moreover, he yet holds tight his noxious and scaredy-cat-wimp pre-Trib-Rapture heresy, while true Scriptural scholars readily ascertain that there will be NO Rapture of the church nor the saints and elect therein until AFTER the Millennium (see Revelation chapter 20), which is obviously one thousand years after Christ's return at Armageddon (see Second Thessalonians 2:8 and Revelation 19:11-21), at which post-Millennial time the heavens and Earth are annihilated with fervent heat (see Second Peter 3:10-13) at about the time The-Great-While-Throne-Seated King descends for Judgment Day regarding and concerning resurrected "sheep" and "goats" as indicated in both Matthew chapter 25 and Revelation chapter 20.

I have gotten great respect for non-mopheaded female rehab aides and nurses who have chosen to and do care for belligerent oldies like my constantly-complaining-about-his-situation dad confined to a hospice bed except when he is urged by a perhaps hard-to-understand-ebonics-jibberish foreigner aide to get out of bed and (if he has enough strength) use his walker to go sit on the toilet for a while and wait for his non-predictable bowels to decide to actually move.

The word "hospice" conjures up thoughts of taking care of people with the intention of expediting their demise, and I have noticed that that is the immentality of particularly a lot of FEMALE advisors and apportioners relating to the hospice issue.

Of course, when one has to manage a patient constantly wishing that they would die, and thus violate:

Deuteronomy 30:19 I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse; therefore choose life, that you and your descendants may live . . .

. . . what can a caregiver do?

Having said that, I have temporarily been sick at times myself, and remember that the effects of my physical malady were very unpleasant to say the least . . . and that it was indescribably boring to lay there continually in bed waiting for my body to automatically recuperate . . . and that it is inevitable that all of us will probably die sooner or later (being that The Rapture will not occur until AFTER the Millennium), so the outlook of both patient and caregiver in a rehab setting should be realistic.

There are two types of hospice. One of which is constructive, and rehab-oriented. The opposite is destructive, and essentially euthanasia-oriented.

Both are referred to by the following Scripture:

Ezekiel 3:18 If I say to the wicked, 'You shall surely die,' and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, in order to save his life, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand.
Ezekiel 3:19 But if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness, or from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you will have saved your life.
Ezekiel 33:8 If I say to the wicked: "Wicked man, you shall surely die," and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand.
Ezekiel 33:9 But if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way; he shall die in his iniquity, but you will have saved your life.

Destructive hospice can be illustrated by the following verses:

Deuteronomy 27:18 Cursed be he who misleads a blind man on the road.

Job 12:20 He deprives of speech those who are trusted, and takes away the discernment of the elders.

Jeremiah 2:25 Keep your [unblanketed chilly] feet from going unshod and your throat from thirst. But you said, 'It is hopeless, for I have loved strangers, and after them I will go.'

Jeremiah 15:2 And when they ask you, 'Where shall we go?' you shall say to them, 'Thus says the LORD: "Those who are for pestilence, to pestilence, and those who are for the sword, to the sword; those who are for famine, to famine, and those who are for captivity, to captivity."'

Ezekiel 33:27 Say this to them, 'Thus says the Lord GOD: "As I live, surely those who are in the waste places shall fall by the sword; and him who is in the open field I will give to the beasts to be devoured; and those who are in strongholds and in caves shall die by pestilence."'

John 16:2 They will put you out of the synagogues; indeed, the hour is coming when whoever murders you by deprivatory hospice euthanasia will presume that she is offering service to God.

Acts 3:2 And a man lame from birth was being carried, whom they laid daily at that gate of the temple which is called Beautiful to ask alms of those who entered the temple.
3 Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked for alms.
4 And Peter directed his gaze at him, with John, and said, "Look at us."
5 And he fixed his attention upon them, expecting to receive something from them.
6 But Peter said, "I have no silver and gold...

James 2:15 If a brother or sister is ill-clad and in lack of daily food,
James 2:16 and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and filled," without giving them the things needed for the body, what does it profit?

First John 3:17 But if any one has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love reside in him?

It is no wonder that Medicare subsidizes hospice "services" against the aged ailing. Whenever Obamanite feds can get their hospice-operative executioners to stop elders (and their dependent family members) from getting any more payment coverage through Medicare and cease sending SS checks to such, they welcome the "effort" and maybe even give hospice accomplices a monetary bonus for each senior citizen who is no longer around to collect such benefits, so that taxpayer funding can then be diverted to prop up AIDS programs for homogays and homosodomites to perpetuate screwing each other and contaminating society with fiscal impunity, plus Planned Parentlessness/Promiscuity continuing to commit (and not "perform") abortion homicides. Ties right in (NOT!) with the Biblical passages:

Leviticus 19:32 "You shall rise up before the hoary head, and honor the face of an old man, and you shall fear your God: I am the LORD."

Lamentations 5:12 Princes are hung up by their hands; no respect is shown to the elders.

Ezekiel 7:26 Disaster comes upon disaster, rumor follows rumor; they seek a vision from the prophet, but the law perishes from the priest, and counsel from the elders.

Acts 11:28 And one of them named Agabus stood up and foretold by the Spirit that there would be a great famine over all the world; and this took place in the days of Claudius.
29 And the disciples determined, every one according to his ability, to send relief to the brethren who lived in Judea;
30 and they did so, sending it to the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Saul.

First Timothy 5:17 Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching.

First Peter 5:1 So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ as well as a partaker in the glory that is to be revealed.

First Peter 5:5 Likewise you that are younger be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble."

In contrast, constructive hospice is indicated by:

Deuteronomy 15:7 If there is among you a poor man, one of your brethren, in any of your towns within your land which the LORD your God gives you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother,
8 but you shall open your hand to him, and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be.
10 You shall give to him freely, and your heart shall not be grudging when you give to him; because for this the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake.
11 For the poor will never cease out of the land; therefore I command you, You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in the land.

First Kings 19:7 And the angel of the LORD came again a second time, and touched him, and said, "Git up and eat, else the journey will be too great for you."
First Kings 19:8 And he got up off his [bed-ridden?] duff, ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God.

Proverbs 24:11 Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter.

Isaiah 50:4 The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary...
Isaiah 61:1 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the hospice-assisted-death-is-the-only-answer-available brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to hospice-"care"-death-intentioned captives confined with perhaps-"terminal" illness, and the opening of the medical-hospital-beds prison to those who are bound by hospice-death-is-the-only-solution tyrants.

Zechariah 3:7 Thus says the LORD of hosts: "If you will walk in my ways and keep my charge, then you shall rule my hospital or care center, and have charge of my medical-authority courts, and I will give you the right of access to assist those slated for hospice-death mandating among those who are standing here.

Mark 2:17 And when Jesus heard it, He said to them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I came not to call the righteous, but sinners."

Luke 4:18 "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed
Luke 5:31 And Jesus answered them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick

Acts 3:2 And a man lame from birth was being carried, whom they laid daily at that gate of the temple which is called Beautiful to ask alms of those who entered the temple.
3 Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked for alms.
4 And Peter directed his gaze at him, with John, and said, "Look at us."
5 And he fixed his attention upon them, expecting to receive something from them.
6 But Peter said, "I have no silver and gold, but I give you what I have; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk."
7 And he took him by the right hand and raised him up; and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong.
8 And leaping up he stood and walked and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God.
9 And all the people saw him walking and praising God.

[ Alternate hospice-version rendition of Acts 3:6-9 =

6 But she said, "You have no funds for rehabilitative treatment, and you are not going to get any freebie help from selfish me. Get yourself up off your lazy butt and walk if you want, but better yet, confine yourself to hospice-assisted death.
7 And she, in mock-innocent superior-attitude pseudo-concern, gawked at him and would not lift her anti-patriarchal feminist-sexist-chauvinist finger to help him up, and so his feet and ankles got weaker and weaker.
9 And finally lapsing into unconsciousness and coma, he helplessly died by himself as the deprivatory hospice-"care-giving" creep looked on, and no one around was praising God. ]

Acts 9:19 and took food and was strengthened. For several days he was with the disciples at Damascus.

Acts 26:18 ...open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.'

Second Corinthians 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,
4 who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
5 For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.
6 If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer.
7 Our hope for you is unshaken; for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.
8 For we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of the affliction we experienced in Asia; for we were so utterly, unbearably crushed that we despaired of life itself.
9 Why, we felt that we had received the sentence of death; but that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead;
10 He delivered us from so deadly a peril, and He will deliver us; on Him we have set our hope that He will deliver us again.
11 You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us in answer to many prayers.

Hebrews 12:13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.

The stark difference between a legalistically-deprivatory hospice jerk, versus a constructive and truly-helpful rehab saint, perhaps can be portrayed by the situation of how a blind man heading toward an open pit is dealt with by diametrically-opposite social workers, nurses, and aides:

The destructive hospice worker wants the blind man to be as comfortable and non-restricted as possible in his lethal walk to the fatal open pit, removes all obstacles in the blind man's path, and does not advise the blind man about the open pit being approached because "that would cause the blind man negative discomfort," and disrupt his walk on the path to what is "obviously and hopelessly inevitable."

The constructive rehab worker wants the blind man to be as comfortable as possible now and later by doing whatever it takes to verbally and physically help the blind man not continue on to the open pit (keeping him warm enough by covering him with blankets, giving him oral or other antibiotics if infection is present, urging him to eat and especially drink liquids for strength, incrementally stand and walk for vital exercise as much as possible, etc.)

But it is pathetic when a hospice patient complains so much, even though it is clear that "the squeaky wheel gets the oil" and no one will help unless the afflicted ones inform others of what is wrong and needing correction or adjustment.

Such incessant and relentless griping is not concordant with the following imperatives:

First Corinthians 10:9 We must not put the Lord to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents;
First Corinthians 10:10 nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer.

Philippians 2:14 Do all things without grumbling or questioning...

Jude 1:16 These are grumblers, malcontents, following their own passions, loud-mouthed boasters, flattering people to gain advantage.

And about the comment of the distraught: "You would complain also if you were in my place and situation?"

James 5:9 Do not grumble, brethren, against one another, that you may not be judged; hey, the Judge is standing at the doors.

And it is even more upsetting and disgusting when the would-be caregivers know what is probably best for the languishing patient (such as eating enough and exercising enough), but the stubborn patients refuse to cooperate and comply.

IS it a question of them not able to do something they could do if they really tried . . . or instead a matter of them not willing to do something they should do?

That is why family members, who some hospice patients misregard as not having the knowledge or authority of "certified and qualified medical experts," cannot help their languishing relative however and as much as they would like to. And, of course, those "certified and qualified medical experts" do indeed have some additional training to cogently and patiently deal with obstinates, plus have the medical equipment and more-than-one-person manpower/womanpower to take turns continuously managing nasty oldies -- giving relief to family members and preventing such family members from breaking down and going down the tube themselves.

Who decides when the goal is to try to do everything possible (within Medicare-covered allowances) to help an ailing person get better health-wise, as to required and administered blood transfusions, antibiotics, physical therapy, and so forth . . . contrasted with a typical hospice immentality of simply "try to help the patient be more comfortable" (whatever that means) by depriving blood transfusions, antibiotics, physical therapy, secretly giving them appetite suppressors and/or shutting-down-body-functions morphine, and more -- merely tucking them away inside some noxious small-space urine-smelling room and essentially leaving them alone (to a significant extent) until they expire?

Inferior-gender social workers in charge - concerned more about the financial prosperity and reputation of their facility plus authoritatively imposing their demonic chauvinistic whims against patriarchy - than about the welfare of the impoverished patient and his or her limited-financial-resources family members in the process of having their complete life-saving bank accounts wiped out by couldn't-care-less feminist social workers and quasi-negligent slacker aides who in incompetent and/or lazy irresponsibility hide the nurse-call-button device out of reach of helpless patients who need to beckon them whenever for immediate assistance, do not cover them while they are chilly, and much more?

In the ultimate sense, it is the patient himself or herself who decides where to draw the line between help-them-get-better-doing-whatever-it-takes rehab . . . versus leave-them-alone-as-much-as-possible-to-lapse-into-death hospice.

And sometimes the patient becomes a blessed benevolent philanthropist, self-sacrificially intending to maintain the financial well-being of his or her dear family members by deciding to not eat or even drink anymore: (1) to inflict retaliatory vengeance against intense-personal-care-depriving social workers, nurses, and aides who are more concerned with their own employment paychecks related to the health facility than the patient, (2) in the scary but realistic acknowledgement that there is no practical way they are going to stop "treading water and slowly sink," and get out of there, except through death, and (3) to save their family's meager bank-account money for the family themselves without wasting it on social-worker/nurse/aide finaglers and foreigners who do not deserve to deplete the family's precious life-support savings needed for paying recurrent household bills.

John 15:13 Greater love has no man [or woman] than this, that a man [patient] lay down his [or her] life for his [or her] friends [own family members].

Philippians 1:21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
Philippians 1:22 If it is to be life in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell.
Philippians 1:23 I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.

First Timothy 5:8 If any one does not provide for his [or her] relatives, and especially for his/her own family, he/she has disowned the faith and is worse than a disbeliever.

Satan has been allowed by the Lord (within Divinely-decided boundaries) to afflict various dying persons with certain drawn-out sicknessness and illness with at least very discomforting and at worst remarkably painful ramifications of such, in the dastardly diabolical attempt to convince that person to disown and even blaspheme God.

Those who have had difficulty self-suppressing their accusatory tongues in the past are especially vulnerable to that.

Understandably frustrating it is for imminently-dying persons when they know that they are not in control of the realistically-hopeless rapid deterioration of their bodies, the accelerating rate of deterioration, how severe it will get, if they will be able to take it if it gets too much for them to endure, and the lack of knowledge or resources for any relieving cure along with inability to acquire plus pay for such.

In their case, a NON-suicidal NON-euthanasiac, GOD-apportioned-and-designated time and type of death is to be welcomed and regarded as crucially necessary and expedient. . . rather than them blaspheming God in their intolerable misery.

Both of us should recall the initial and temporary complaining that took place within the Old-Testament book of Job, and such abortion-like-desiring passages as:

Job 3:3 "Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night which said, 'A man-child is conceived.'"
Jeremiah 20:14 "Cursed be the day on which I was born! The day when my mother bore me, let it not be blessed!"

However, the end-of-life recorded comments from dying patriarchs (such as Jacob in Genesis chapters 48 and 49 and Elijah in Second Kings chapter 2) certainly did NOT display an aversion nor hostility against either the LORD nor against the doctrines of Jesus Christ:

Second Samuel 23:1 Now these are the last words of David: The oracle of David, the son of Jesse, the oracle of the man who was raised on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob, the sweet psalmist of Israel:
2 "The Spirit of the LORD speaks by me, His word is upon my tongue.
3 The God of Israel has spoken, the Rock of Israel has said to me: When one rules justly over men, ruling in the fear of God,
4 he dawns on them like the morning light, like the sun shining forth upon a cloudless morning, like rain that makes grass to sprout from the earth.
5 Yes, does not my house stand so with God? For He has made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and secure. For will He not cause to prosper all my help and my desire?
6 But godless humans are all like thorns that are thrown away; for they cannot be taken with the hand;
7 but the man who touches them arms himself with iron and the shaft of a spear, and they are utterly consumed with fire in their place."

Instead of Non-Affordable Medicare-Insurance-Policies-Cancelling Obamascare, Medicare should be adjusted to cover the cost of extremely-expensive long-term care with ICU-hospital-quality provision for those nearing the end of their lives.