What is wrong with this country?

We're having extremely cold temperatures here in San Diego by local standards. Night time temperatures are below freezing and look to stay that way well into the coming week. I realize to people in North Dakota, this may not sound like any big whoop, but the change in the weather is very disconcerting when you're expecting a balmy Mediterranean climate.

As a result, even though the City Council declared that it would not open any shelters for homeless people, the National Guard is providing shelter. Here's the part that got me from this morning's Union-Tribune:

Although the City Council voted against having a shelter, one opened up anyway Friday night at the National Guard armory at 304 E. Park Ave., after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency.

About 35 people spent Friday night in the 50-bed shelter, and by 7 p.m. yesterday, many of those had returned and some new people had come in, said Mel Takahara of the Salvation Army.

One of those people was a man who had just been discharged from heart surgery and was transported to the shelter by hospital workers.

“They made sure they found a safe place for him,” Takahara said. “It's bitter cold, and it would be life-threatening to a healthy individual, let alone a person in frail health.”

What? Someone just recovered from heart surgery has been taken to a homeless shelter and dumped there? WTF? I've had major chest cavity surgery (a chunk of lung removed) so I know that recovery from that kind of invasive event takes months. If the Gropenator had not declared a state of emergency, would this guy have simply been turned out on the street with his healing chest incision and a bag of meds? And what hospital dumped this guy?

What the hell is wrong with this country that it is OK to toss indigent medical patients onto the street in the middle of inclement weather? Would it be because the guy doesn't have insurance? Has profit margin really overcome the Hippocratic Oath? Oh, duh, of course it has. Never mind.

Anglachel