Blaze

by on February 19, 2017 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Art, Character Profiles

One of the things I have always appreciated about Blaze is just how professional she is. She hides it under a devil may car attitude that complements her pilot well, and she plays with Jack like she is just as much a juvenile delinquent as he pretends to be. But when you dig below the surface, she is a true professional. She could have stayed on Earth as one of the most elite fighters defending our home from attack with all the resources of the entire Western Alliance to support her. Instead she chose the much more dangerous route of becoming a Cowboy. We fought beyond the edges of the fleet, preparing ground for their arrival, and she was one of the factors that made it all possible. Her knowledge and experience made all of us better at our jobs. I do not believe the Cowboys would have the reputation we do now without her influence.

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Katy

by on February 18, 2017 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Art, Character Profiles

Me and Katy fought together before she joined the Cowboys, you know. She was part of the Space Force detachment defending Fort Wichita, while I was one of the Marines that came out of hyperspace and helped save her shapely rear end. I like to remind her of that regularly, and she likes to question my intelligence regularly. Purely coincidental, I’m sure. She became the first Space Force pilot to join the Cowboys, and she had more experience than any of us. Best of all, she could hide a teaching moment behind a wicked sense of humor and a deprecating air that never once questioned the crazy politics that left inexperienced pilots like us in command of a veteran like her. She was pretty much the perfect wingman. She’s saved my life more times than I count, though she’s always quick to suggest that I could get closer if I took my boots off. Yeah. I love her, too.

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Healthcare

by on February 17, 2017 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

As I have said before, I had health insurance before Obamacare. It was around 100 bucks a month, covered the first 1,000 bucks a year, and then stepped away until I hit the deductible of 6,000 or 8,000 dollars. It’s been a while, so my memory is a little foggy on the deductible. Obamacare ended that plan and I couldn’t afford the replacement that was four times the cost at the time.

Fast forward six years and I got a cash settlement from the insurance company for the accident I was in last year. I paid those medical bills and put the remainder in a savings account to pay for a new Obamacare plan. It has a premium of over SEVEN hundred dollars a month, but I have enough from the settlement to pay the plan for one year. Then I have to figure out what to do after that. But having insurance is good, right? It helps pay your medical costs if you have them, right?

Well, I went to my local clinic for my first “yearly checkup” in six years and I seem to have some issues. Some of them include lovely little side effects like “dead” if not treated, and they are trying to figure out what will help. I just got the bill for the first 2,500 dollars of the testing. My brand new Obamacare insurance paid 160 dollars of it. Total. Not joking. And there are more bills coming. The Clinic isn’t even close to being done with me yet, and I don’t know what the cost is going to go up to. And I don’t know how I can pay what Obamacare refuses to cover.

This is life under Obamacare. The premiums are higher, and the insurance covers less. This is the Affordable Care Act in practice. Neither affordable, nor caring, nor acting. Just a giant vacuum sucking money out of the pockets of the working class at an ever-increasing rate.

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Blaze

by on February 16, 2017 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Art, Character Profiles

Blaze is one of the older cybernetic intelligences that joined the Cowboys during The War. She was born half a century before it began, started life as an old Blackhawk fighter, and then upgraded to a newer Hellcat-class starfighter. Five decades of experience allowed her and her pilot to kill six Shang fighters at the Battle of Fort Wichita. That was an impressive feat for a Pre-War American fighter, and significantly better than most of her compatriots. When I received approval to expand Cowboy squadron, she was on my short list of people I wanted to bring on board. I made certain she received an invitation and waited to see if she would come. I was most pleased when she did, and similarly pleased with her performance in Jack’s little screening process. She always has kept a few tricks up her electronic sleeves.

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Katy

by on February 15, 2017 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Art, Character Profiles

Kathleen Reynolds is an old lady. Or so I like to tell her. She grew up in Iowa, on some family farm near Dubuque. She spent her youth dragging boys into cornfields or barns to keep her daddy and brothers from seeing them, and from what she tells me never thought about leaving home. She loved it. Then the Peloran made Contact and her world changed. She was one of the first to take the Peloran Treatments, and got the real shiny side effects. Like I said, she’s an old lady. Not that she acts like it, but I enjoy teasing her on the subject. And she happily rubs it right back in my face. Katy’s got one very important rule, you see. Always give better than you get. That’s why we named her Mischief when we first met her.

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