Kansas Advance Directive: Fill & Download for Free

A2AIt depends on the airport you're flying out of, the airport you're flying into, time of year, how far in advance you're booking, and a few other smaller factors.Flying from New York to Delhi? Cool, have a cheap and direct flight.Flying from Kansas City to Goa? Be prepared for 3 layovers and an expensive flight.My most expensive was around $1500, cheapest was around $650.Once you're there, you can live comfortably on $50 per day (including food and accomodation). I've heard of people doing it for $5 per day, but I feel like tourists should give money into the economy so try to not be so stingy and enjoy your time.

The best way to describe someone who believes there are somethings in the universe beyond our ability to conceive or perceive yet doesn’t believe in a deity is to describe me and my three experiences of the mystical.My grandmother’s mystical experience that she related to me.My grandmother had two children, my mother and my uncle Ken. He lived in Los Angeles; she in Kansas. Ken enjoyed hunting large game. One year he had a trip planned to the Canadian Rockies to hunt bighorn sheep and elk. He wanted a worthy trophy.He and several hunting buddies were going to fly in, rent a 4x4 Land Rover and drive as far as the road went then pack in on horseback as far as the horses could get. There they would establish a base camp from which they would range on foot far into the ragged, craggy mountains.She told me that the day before his departure she had a terrible foreboding feeling. She was suddenly filled with dread. A black cloud of apprehension descended on her. She inexplicably felt Ken was in danger.She called him, told him of her feeling, and asked him not to go. He brushed aside her anxiety saying he was experienced, he would be with several other experienced men, and there was nothing to worry about.He went on the trip. One day, hiking along a scarcely accessible goat trail on a ridge high in the mountains with full backpack paraphernalia and scoped rifle in hand, he slipped and slid down a 50 foot crevasse. He lay at the bottom unconscious and bleeding. His friends had to rappel down, rig a makeshift rope sling, and manually haul him back to the top. They drug him, still unconscious, on a makeshift travois back to the base camp. They hauled him by horseback to the Land Rover and drove him to the hospital. It took 4 days to reach a hospital.He had no broken bones, however improbable that was. He did have internal injuries. His spleen was bruised, His liver had been shifted out of position. His peritoneum was ruptured. His intestines were ripped from the mesentery lining holding them in place and shifted out of position.The doctors repaired what they could but could not repair the mesentery. Later, he went to Johns Hopkins hospital. They positioned a mesh sling to hold his intestines in place.My grandmother’s premonition of impending doom proved correct. She told me about it once. She was a proper lady raised at the turn of the 20th century in rural Iowa by first generation German farmers. They had a strong, orthodox moral code which they taught her. She would never have invented such a story, not even to captivate a young grandchild. I’m certain her foreboding was real. Some connection with her son, some inexplicable facet of Mother Gaia had been at work.My lover’s perception of his grandmother’s death 1500 miles away.My lover Loy was remarkably close to his grandmother. We lived in San Diego; she in Arkansas. He and I were asleep in bed one night mid way through his battle with AIDS. His dementia had progressed to the point that his mind had regressed to his late childhood.We were asleep when he suddenly sat bolt upright and said his grandmother’s name. I asked what was happening. He just laid down and went back to sleep. The next morning, he told me he had had a vivid dream about his grandmother. Later that morning, we learned that she had died in the night.Loy was convinced that her soul had come to say goodbye to him.As a story related to me by some third party I would instinctively have distrusted it. But I was there. I saw it happen. I couldn’t deny that something awe inspiring, some connection unexplained by our current understanding, had happened. Perhaps there is a soul. Perhaps some of us have such a bond with another as to feel death when it happens.If Loy was so connected to his grandmother as to sense her death from 1500 miles away, I was not going to gainsay my grandmother.My experience upon Loy’s death when his soul touched mine.I found spirituality in the night of April 28, 1995, which was the day Loy died in the hospital bed that had been put in our bedroom next to our bed so that I could be near him in his coma. That night I was asleep on my right side, naked as I had slept with him, my back to the place where the hospital bed had been.I awoke to something in the room. I opened my eyes but otherwise did not stir, feeling that if I moved it would flee. I sensed an exquisite, airy, unearthly presence floating behind me. It slid slowly down, aligning itself with the curve of my back and stayed there a moment, a moment of intense anticipation. It advanced directly into me, melded itself with every muscle, every nerve, every tissue of my being.I felt the most fervent, ecstatic rapture, an expansive oneness with all that was, all that had ever been. There was complete calm, perfect rectitude in the way things were. I fell back asleep knowing that Loy’s soul had touched my own one last time.I am an INTP personality type. I believe in the physical world, in things one can touch and feel and heft. I believe in science and mathematics. I believe in the rational, sensible, practical, and pragmatic. I’m not given to mysticism, the anagogic or arcane.If these three stories had been related to me by some third party, I would discount them. I might accept that he believed but I would not. However, they are my stories. I can not deny them. They make a believer out of me.There is something magical in the universe, some unseen, rarely experienced connection between people, and some incorporeal essence lying just out of reach of most of us. They challenge my disbelief. They invite me into a realm I would not otherwise credit. I’m open to the suggestion of more.

A good question. I am a Republican voter, but I am by no means a party-line Republican. I am an old school moderate Republican: a small government, rule of law, non-interventionist, pro-immigrant, pro-free trade, civil libertarian type Republican, of the sort that was pretty common through most of the 20th century but is admittedly something of a dying breed today. I have described myself at various times as an Eisenhower Republican, a Bob Dole Republican, a Ron Paul Republican, an Oakeshott conservative, and a few others, all to denote that I’m not THAT type of Republican - the caricature evangelical quasi-racist proto-fascist type that has become something of an avatar for the right. If you’ve ever read “What’s the Matter with Kansas” by Thomas Frank, you might remember that he described in great detail the war in Kansas between the old school moderate technocratic Republicans, and the new wave extremist hard right Republicans (a war that continues to this day). Well, I actually AM a fourth generation Kansas Republican…and one who is squarely in that former camp.All of which is to say that I am a Republican, but I tend to be aggressively at odds with many if not most leading Republican figures. When George W. Bush was president, especially 2003 and on, I was as vigorously against him as any liberal. When I lived in Pennsylvania, you would have been hard pressed to find a more anti-Rick Santorum or anti-Pat Toomey dude than me. When I moved back to Kansas recently, my first order of political business was to do everything in my power to get Kris Kobach the hell away from any elected office. And don’t even talk to me about Donald Trump.So what really, really disappoints me most are those Republicans who I have supported precisely because they were NOT reactionary yahoos, and who ABSOLUTELY know better, but who buckled under the pressure and became not only part or the problem, but LEADERS of the problem. I’ll take a John McCain, who is just naturally erratic. I get a Justin Amash, who I love but who has to play ball with the caucus to stay relevant. I am a fan of Mitt Romney, despite knowing that he isn’t Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, but Mr. Smith’s bosses’ bosses’ boss going to a D.C. restaurant I’ll never in my life get into. I’ll even accept a Susan Collins type who has to conduct their entire careers walking a fine line.But what REALLY kills me are those folks whose entire raison d'etre is to be disruptive in favor of bringing conservatism back to the Republican party, people who gain support precisely on the hope that they push back against the worst impulses of the right, people who promise to bring a spine and a brain back to the Republican party…who then completely wilted.So, in no particular order, here are my current top three.Jeff Flake.Those of you who aren’t small government, libertarian-leaning conservatives may not realize what a knight in shining armor Jeff Flake was.Flake had previously been a missionary in Africa (and a multilingual expert on African poverty), and the executive director of the Goldwater Institute, by the time he ever ran for Congress. When he came to Washington in 2001, he was a guy who was serious about making sure Republicans lived up to their small government responsibilities. He was a founding member of the Liberty Caucus, and in general was a leading voice in favor of small government, civil libertarian conservatism, and an unorthodox right-leaning voice on things like the environment, criminal justice, foreign policy, and more. He promised that, if elected to the Senate, he would be a hardcore firewall against the worst Republican impulses, and would be a check and balance against Big Government from any partisan sector. He was one of the clearest, most robust voices for a new kind conservatism.And then Trump got elected and…not so much.Don’t get me wrong, Flake has been I guess marginally better than your replacement-level Republican when it comes to Big Government, fascistic Republicanism. But more or less, at every point where he could have made a significant difference, he did not have the courage to do so. He feigned tough guy early, but then quickly became a sock puppet. Oh if it didn’t matter, he could be counted on to make some feints, but if there was any real fight involved, he was literally the first guy to tuck tail and run. He practically invented the “I am deeply concerned about…” tweet followed by no action whatsoever. And again it wasn’t not knowing better, it was purely, 100% a complete lack of mettle. Within literally a year of Trump, he decided he didn’t want to represent voters any more at all - he just wanted to go home. So he did, and handed over his seat to the Democrats in the process.There were many, many points where Jeff Flake could have made a difference - could have even been a leader in organizing an anti-Trump small government resistance. At every point where it mattered, he tucked tail and ran away. Despite some feints at opposition - even a few times where he did actually make a little difference - for the most part Jeff Flake suddenly got scared shitless at the thought of actually having to put his neck on the line, so decided, time and time again, not to. He leaves the Senate having accomplished nothing more significant than having disarmed and neutered the Senate Republican opposition against Trump. His entire legacy in Congress will revolve not around his ideology, but around his cowardice.2. Paul Ryan.I know people that know, have worked for, or have worked alongside Paul Ryan.Every account I have ever heard confirms that he is a good dude.He is good to his staff, he is gracious to his supporters, he is congenial with his colleagues…I have never met or heard from a single person who knows him who would say “I hate Paul Ryan.”I, however, don’t know him. And as a moderate, conservative Republican…I hate Paul Ryan.Like Flake, Ryan came to Congress as a standard-bearer for a certain type of conservatism. He was not a far-right kook - he was an exceedingly intelligent policy-wonk who was looking for real solutions, not grandstanding political positions. He was a technocratic-minded problem-solver, not a partisan bomb-thrower. By the time Mitt Romney picked him to be VP on his ticket, it was because Paul Ryan represented a conservatism that was not reactionary and based on electoral politics, but was moderate and based on governance. He was the guy that was going to deliver the Republicans to the promised land - he wasn’t just against Obama or whoever, he had an actual alternative plan (we kept hearing), a real governing platform and policy toolkit. He would show us the way forward in terms of the Republican position on health care, on tax cuts, on all kinds of things.Again, I cannot stress enough that Paul Ryan is a good dude.But the moment it came time to put his policy-wonkiness to the test - the moment he had the opportunity to actually craft policy - was the precise moment he failed everybody.He had an alternative plan to Obamacare. But then it turned out Obamacare was Romneycare, and Ryan had no Plan B, so he became just another “blow healthcare up and hope it works out” voice in Congress.George W. Bush pushed brazenly tilted tax cuts for crony corporate interest and non-growth focused wealthy interest, and Ryan had a lot to say about it…until the moment it became clear that wasn’t the mainstream Republican position, at which point he became basically a Fox News anchor in favor of any economic plan advanced by Republicans, no matter how stupid or how at odds with his previous advocacy.He was the author of a new Republican House majority, and a steadfast advocate for what that would mean, until literally the second he got it…at which point he decided he had precisely no interest in being an actual proactive check and balance branch of government, and did not want to fight the fights that that might entail, and so became a writer of blank checks for any (R) in power. What’s more, his much vaulted policy toolkit he quickly realized he would never be able to get it past his own party’s voters, so he just kind of gave it all up.At EVERY turn, when it became incumbent on Republicans to present a real policy alternative, Paul Ryan took up the challenge…and then did not do it. Cowered away from doing it. Ran for the hills, rather than define and defend an actual policy alternative.There was a brief window where Paul Ryan might have taken the GOP in a direction of real reform. Where he might have defined the GOP along policy, instead of ideological, grounds. That was what he had been elected for. That was his thing.But when it came time - he punted. Then ran for the hills. Then retired.Every flowery profile of Paul Ryan as a policy-wonk has been a lie.He accomplished nothing. He had nothing. And when it came down to it, he made a conscious decision to not lead, but to cower.3. Any Republican Who Works for Donald TrumpDonald Trump is the death of small government conservatism.He is the version of Republicanism that is just a terrified, reactionary white supremacist crony capitalism big government fascismHe is the coffin nail for real Republicanism. There is literally no version of “conservatism” that Donald Trump represents.And every single person who has chosen to go work for him has done so based on one of three premises:I support him and will work to advance his agenda.I think he’s a lunatic but will serve him to try to keep him in check.I don’t really care much either way I just want to be important.ALL of those folks have been the biggest Republican disappointments in my lifetime.Republicanism used to mean something. There used to be a core ideology that animated it. It used to represent more than just a tribal identity - it used to represent a philosophy, a way of thinking about the world, a core thinking on how citizens and government related and interacted. It used to be about a system of belief.And then it became solely about how you interacted with Donald Fucking Trump.Lindsay Graham. Mitch McConnell. Rudy Giuliani. John Kelly. Mike Pence. Chris Christie. Mike Pompeo. Nikki Haley. Jim Mattis.At one point, all of those people had something important to say about what it meant to be a Republican.Now, all they have to say is what it means to support Trump.For the sake of an appointment, or administrative favor, or even just not getting yelled at or being on the wrong side of a pissy tweet, they have all given up any real Republican philosophy, and have instead devoted themselves solely to the aggrandizement and coddling of a single (very non-conservative and extremely unbalanced) individual. They like to say they are protecting the country. They are doing nothing of the kind. They are protecting Trump, at the explicit expense of the country, the party, and any coherent governing philosophyThey don’t give a fuck if it’s Republican or not.They only care if it’s Trump or not.We’ve had disappointing electoral figures (like Flake). We’ve had disappointing intellectual figures (like Ryan). We’ve even had disappointing star-fucker lickspittles (like Trump’s cabinet and most visible supporters).But rarely have we had all three at once - and never had we had them all at once, at a moment in time where they were not only not helpful, but were actively hostile to the political philosophy they purported to support.I gave you three examples of Republicans that have disappointed me the most. But my real answer?As a Republican voter, what Republican disappointed you the most?My honest answer is: “Basically all of them.”