| Veterans and PTSD |
[Nov. 6th, 2008|05:17 pm] |
Private health insurance companies try to exclude the more expensive patients. This Orange County Weekly article explains that a significant number of war veterans are losing their publicly funded medical benefits as well. Since lifelong psychiatric care weighs heavily on the Veterans Administration budget, eligibility has been taken away from those who received dishonorable discharges. It seems obvious that people in that situation, mostly men, are seriously in need of care. It could be argued that disciplinary problems made them less deserving than others, but that conclusion will not make their health problems go away. As some of them have a history of violence, providing this care, even simply monitoring their condition, is more than a gesture of compassion, it is in the interest of everyone, a matter of selfish public safety.
I don't want to discount compassion. Access to medical care is essential for non-veterans too. If we need a public interest reason to justify it, I think that some of the people who receive good care, will go on to pass on care and support to the rest of society.
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| Rolled Oaths |
[Jun. 16th, 2008|07:31 pm] |
A current Slate article http://www.slate.com/id/2193359/ discusses the practice of California State public colleges of requiring that new hires sign a loyalty oath as a condition of employment. Two teachers objected this requirement based on their religious beliefs. They are both Quaker, and the oath includes a provision that they will "defend" state and federal law against "enemies." To them, this terminology would commit them to engage in violence should the constitution of California or of the U.S. government ever come under attack. These two instructors have had some success after drawn out negotiations, in becoming eligible to work while objecting to that specific part of the oath.
This solution appalls me. Citizens and those with visas allowing them to work in this country are eligible to work in this country. Their employment should be based solely on ability and performance. While something like this may be appropriate for military and possibly for law enforcement, teachers should not be required to serve as a reserve militia. If their area of study extends to exploring possible constitutional changes, the product should be treated the same as any other researched opinion.
The problem is the loyalty oath, not one specific item within it. |
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| Ov Glove, Kitt Mitt |
[Feb. 19th, 2007|05:21 am] |
(Click here for a transcript of the Feb 18th Interview)
Not being from Massachusetts, I haven’t had much occasion to witness Mitt Romney in action. Now, thanks to This Week with George Stephanopoulos, I know how Mitt and his wife Ann perform in response to a gentle fawning delivery of what might have been tough questions had they not rehearsed answers to them all.
Before looking at their answers, The questions deserve attention. It has become George’s standard practice to ask Presidential candidates how their faith “informs” their politics. This is an incorrect use of the English language. It is true that one can glean information from a non sentient source such as a book, or by observing the natural world. But informing is volitional. For it to happen, a thinking being must act. George, until you change your question to: What does God inform you as (He or She) whispers into your ear, choose a different word. Stop taking the lyric, “for the Bible tells me so” as as anything but colloquial.
The candidate’s shift from support for the availability of abortion and of same-sex marriage that was required to be elected Governor of a liberal state, to opposing both, as is required of a national Republican candidate was covered well. Romney answered unapologetically. It was perfectly natural, he had simply evolved in his thinking. In fact all of his responses were like that. It was a policy of sidestep some things, but convey all experiences as positives. Changes in heart are not evidence of past mistakes, but purely of current victories. Rhetorically it was quite effective.
In Massachusetts he supports public funding for “faith-based institutions” when they are performing a “non-faith role.” I would have liked to see Stephanopoulos ask about specific examples. Does Romney think these non-faith functions could include schools? And do they include the “Crisis Pregnancy Centers” many of which currently receive public monies.
Quite aside from picking up votes from the faithful, and a sometimes justified perception that non-government soup kitchens can do tasks efficiently, kicking in money to private and non-profit concerns is easy on a State budget. The people doing the work will not be added to State employee healthcare or retirement, it’s up to their own employers. They might even be volunteering their time! Romney is opposed to universal healthcare, he favors a system where more people could buy insurance policies. Interestingly, the topics of retirement and Social Security were missing from this interview.
Most amusing to me was that Stephanopoulos introduced Romney as “movie star handsome.” He does have a certain charm to his speaking style. Then I noticed those little flighty Reganesque flourishes. His speech is metrosexual! Voters went for it in the 1980s, I wonder if will do the trick now.
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| Slow Suttee |
[Feb. 8th, 2007|10:25 pm] |
Tomorrow the Regis and Kelly show will do their annual Valentine's week wedding. It will feature a young viewer couple chosen for their endearing qualities. Along with the excitement of a glorious gown and the latest fashion in cake, we know that an element of tragedy accompanies this nuptial feast. The groom suffers from an autoimmune disease that destroyed his kidneys. His kidney transplant (from his father) is failing, and without another one, he may not be long for this world. Luckily, his bride-to-be is a perfect match.
Using organs from living donors with relative safety from immediate mortality is still a new technology. Practitioners describe the long-term health effects as “minimal,” I think it’s likely that there have not been enough multiple-year follow-up studies.
Going strictly by my perceptions of news reports, there seems to be a trend of kidney donations between spouses in a female to male direction. It may be that the underlying diseases are more prevalent in men. It’s certain that older men who can afford extensive health care often have younger spouses. If there really is a disproportionate flow of working parts from women to men, it should be stopped. Tissue banks could easily balance the numbers according to sex, and I believe that they should.
When a family member or acquaintance wants to donate a kidney but isn’t a match, sometimes another twosome can be found who aren’t a match for each other, but can be cross-matched with the first pair. To prevent donors from changing their minds after their own partner has received an organ, all four people are anesthetized and operated on simultaneously. This swapping can be done with more than two pairs. I found an article about five transfers done at once. Judging by the first names, the recipients included two women and three men, the donors were all female.
The Valentine groom’s mother may donate one of her kidneys before they resort to harvesting (yes, harvesting is the word used in the transplantation world) one from his bride. But it must be so comforting to have one in reserve. |
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| Mourning becomes Electric |
[Jan. 24th, 2007|08:03 pm] |
Today I saw a flag flying at half-mast. I wondered if someone important had died.
Then I remembered.
It's still shaloshim for Gerald Ford. |
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| It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad Mad Maxina World |
[Dec. 17th, 2006|01:30 pm] |
You have just experienced the Great Windstorm of ‘06. OK, I have have. Those of you who live outside of the Prisstopolis area were only able to watch it on TV. It started with some rainy weather earlier in the week. Wednesday was quiet as were the daylight hours of Thursday. My son got home at his usual time, then my daughter came home from school early, they had canceled extracurricular activities.
At 4PM the sky went dark except for lightning, which is a rare phenomenon around here. Looking out of the windows, I could see the 200 foot Douglas Firs bending back and forth. Every few minutes the lights would dim and then come back to full. I made dinner early, then checked out my usual internet interests. At 9:30, the power went down completely. I heard groans from the rec room, the PrissKids were going to miss tonight’s episode of My Name is Earl, they were desolated. Since I just find that show annoying, all I could do was laugh.
While the PrissKids kept themselves amused by dancing LED flashlight patterns on the walls to the beat of their MP3 players, I found that I was able to stay on the internet. The laptop was fully charged, and my telephone landline connection was solid. I finally shut it off after midnight with 20% battery reserve remaining. On Friday morning, Zbiggy turned the machine on, clicked on schoolreport.org and found that classes were canceled. The district site had crashed.
Midday I took the car out in search of coffee and wi-fi, and a working electrical outlet. The Tulleys’ coffee isn’t very good, but they have free wi-fi, and we could always order cocoa, it’s hard to mess that up. But the outage was widespread. Most stores were closed, and the traffic lights were off.
After driving around and getting stuck in traffic, I stopped at a grocery store. They had partial power from a generator, and everyone was shopping in the dark. My check card scanned and debited without a problem. Infrastructure for separating people from their money has suddenly leapt forward. At home, I used the last of my firewood to warm up and make mocha java. That’s when I made my last post. We lit Holiday and Shabbat candles, watched the fire, and eventually went to bed early.
By Saturday morning, the house was getting cold. Letting the PrissKids sleep late, I was on the road by 8:30. My first objective was more Chanukah candles, then maybe some lappy power, and oh yes, firewood. Unlike Prissville, Seattle had power, so candle-shopping was no problem. Then I went to StarWars, but their wi-fi required me to sign up online for tmoblie. A conversation with someone who was actually drinking their coffee, led to trying another coffee spot, one with really good bagels, but their wi-fi was suffering from messed up settings. Plus, I didn’t want to stand in line.
Taking a different route home, I espied that elusive animal, the roadside stack of free wood. There were jagged one and two-foot sections of two by fours and one by fours in the corner of a construction site. Wet and muddy, but not green, I knew that they would burn. My next stop was ye olde peace vigil.
It was the usual the hour of waving at drivers and holding antiwar signs. I caught up on whose power was still off, and discussed the latest Jimmy Carter book. Across the parking lot, one of the peaceniks was loading a hand truck of freshly sawn logs into his pickup. I went over to investigate. Just out of sight, around the corner, another activist was chainsawing and splitting a windfall tree. I asked if some of it was available. He said that there would be plenty, but that I shouldn’t burn it yet.
Seeing that I had every intention of trying to burn it right away, he directed me to the smaller branches, and then offered to bring me some dried wood from home. This was seriously cool.
Back home with wood both scrounged and shared, things were cheery. The PrissKids lit candles for day two. I toasted turkey sandwiches and made an awesome fruit compote. Power came back in the early evening, we were out for 45 hours. Some neighborhoods within a few miles still haven’t been restored. |
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| Dancing in the trees |
[Dec. 12th, 2006|09:09 pm] |
It’s reforrestation for your airport vacation
A chance to see a tree
They’ll be red lights blinking
And glasses clinking
And smatterrings of greenery
It doesn’t matter where you were born
Or where you are headed today
Just walk your feet in a vector
Through our metal detector
A tannenbaum will send you on your way
Everyone will be dancing, to celebrate the trees
It’s a fascination with conifloration
And a natural antifreeze
A medication for your irritation
As we check you through security
It doesn’t matter where you were born
Or where you are headed today
There’s a pine scent in the air
As we x-ray your hair
And a tannenbaum to see you on your way
All over the runway
Next to the coffee pot
Can’t forget the people mover
And the parking lot
Everyone will be dancing, to celebrate the trees
Everyone will be dancing, to celebrate the trees |
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| Flying in a Winter Wonderland |
[Dec. 10th, 2006|09:13 pm] |
Greetings from the Pacific Northwest.
In a developing news story around these here parts, some frequently flying Rabbis found that the seasonal greenery decorating Seatac airport diminished their travel experience. One of them, a cheerful black-hatted beard-wearer, notified the Port Authority that unless a Menorah fitted with electric light bulbs were installed next to the Christmas tree, he would be forced to file suit.
The airport responded by removing the trees. This disappointed the Rabbi, he wanted equal interior decoration. It also infuriated airport workers. No longer would their bleak existences be brightened by a triangle of green above the door to the concourse. Today they are buttonholing travelers and asking them to militate for tree-instatement.
Taken to its extreme, fulfilling a request for equal representation in decoration would lead to ever expanding collages of religious symbols posted in our public places. In my book, that would make for an overly graven image laden environment. |
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| Driving while ursine |
[May. 21st, 2006|04:42 pm] |
The speciesist Seattle police attempted to arrest a bear this morning. They tasered it for resisting arrest and before they could haul it away to jail, it died at the scene. The Bear and Human Alliance and Bears and Humans against Tasering (BHA and BHT) will be holding a protest vigil tonight at Greenlake. Bring a candle and some kind of noisemaker. |
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| Deli Meat Monkey on Your Back |
[Apr. 18th, 2006|07:18 pm] |
Hu Jintao
Who?
Yeah.
Who's in town?
Yeah, he landed in Everett.
Ok, there's this guy in town. And he's important in some way.
Right.
Well, what is he famous for?
He's the president of China.
Who is?
Yeah.
I didn't know that China had a president. But he's here in Washington right now huh.
Yeah.
What's his name?
Hu.
Who?
Yeah.
So he landed in Everett. Is he going anywhere else?
He's going to Redmond to visit Gates and tour Microsoft.
Who is?
Yeah.
Where is his next stop?
It says that The Seattle Trade Development Alliance is hosting him for lunch. They will be serving traditional American deli foods like corned beef and tongue and dill pickles. There's a rumor that the party elite in his country regard those foods as aphrodisiacs and even shoot them up intravenously.
Husan Tung?
No, not the turn of the century emperor, the current president!
Who?
Yeah. |
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| Endangered species |
[Feb. 12th, 2006|02:03 pm] |
Fascinating article in Salon today:
"As kids in New Orleans are turned away from filled schools, the city gambles its future on charter schools." http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/02/13/n_o_schools/#
It's not how schools are funded that's important, it's whether they exist at all.
Also...
I saw an eagle today!
It was roosted in the bare branches of a deciduous tree just accross the bike path from the lake. |
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| Beware, Don't Swear |
[Nov. 10th, 2005|02:36 am] |
Yesterday (Nov 9) the Senate held a hearing to explore whether the hike in gasoline prices could be condemned as "price gouging" rather than considered business as usual. As they began, Senator Maria Cantwell D-WA stated that she had a written request signed by 7 Senators requesting that the five oil executives be sworn in before questioning. Senator Ted Stevens, R-Alaska replied that her request wasn't a question, at least not of the type that was allowed. She persisted, and he was emphatic that they not be sworn.
Lying under oath is a crime, and we'd hate to see anyone get locked up for fibbing.
   
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| Wealthy Flood Victims In Short Supply |
[Sep. 28th, 2005|03:26 pm] |
Sens. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., and Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., want to suspend the estate tax for people killed in Hurricane Katrina. The only problem: They can't find .... any victim whose estate would owe any tax. More at Slate and the full story at Time
The first $1.5 miillion of an estate is already tax-free, and there are loopholes allow protection of additional amounts as well. Not too many of us will ever have a chance to lose sleep over this tax reducing our standard of living or dying.
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| Priss explains everything in the news |
[Sep. 27th, 2005|08:12 pm] |
John Roberts strikes me as a smarmy smug sneaky sleazy frat boy. He is the complete opposite of impartial scholarliness that we should look for in a Supreme Court Justice.
Ending the U.S. Iraq war:
This little "nation building" project of ours, the one that we can't walk out on, appears to be not only impossible, but unwanted by the locals. Why haven't there been teams of grateful Iraqis visiting the U.S. and praising our generosity for freeing them? My guess is that they feel that at this point we are doing more harm than good. Yet Members of Congress of both parties are in a -we can't quit now- mode. Yes, we can just leave. Ostensibly we were there because they might have had weapons that threatened our safety. Now we've ascertained that such weapons don't exist, so our work is done. If we ever have reasons to believe that they might really have such weapons in the future, we can go in and blow up a factory or two. After that, we'd want to leave right away.
Nation building has to come mostly from within. We can offer financing and temporary military assistance, but we can't force them to love democracy.
Katrina fiasco:
The priority was to protect property. That's appropriate now when New Orleans has hardly any population, and looting might happen because of a perception that no one is looking. So the army is patrolling the streets and limiting who can come into town. But during the first few days the fact that people were crushed together in two large buildings and prevented from leaving the city is something that our nation will not live down. There were high-rise offices or hotels that could have been used as shelters. The police could have escorted some of the people who wanted to walk to safety. There would have a lot of more humane choices. Considering that the police eventually broke into stores to get supplies, anyone that they arrested for looting should be allowed amnesty as well.
Houston evacuation:
Was this a scam to sell more gasoline?
Lynndie England:
Yes, torture is bad. We should not do it. She was just sentenced to 3 years in prison, which is better than the 9 that were possible, and better than longer terms that could have possible depending on what the charge was. She's a single mother of an 11-month-old baby. In this country we don't have any provision for mothers to take care of their children while they are in prison, but she's lucky that her own mother is available to act as a substitute parent. Many women who are imprisoned have their parental rights terminated and their children put up for adoption if they don't have a relative who can stand in for them. None of the commanding officers are facing criminal charges.
Gasoline prices:
Hilarious that Bush went on TV to tell everyone that we might kinda sorta wanna cut out "unessential trips." (He meant driving.) This way, they can continue to raise the price of gas while producing less and still make more profit. And there's finally a solution to those nasty traffic jams! It's win win win. A few small companies might have to go out of business, as their balance sheet suddenly doesn't. But it's a small price to pay.
Another Bush gem was during his (second?) trip to New Orleans when he let us know that hurricane damage should remind us of "WMDs" and "biological weapons." There weren't any, there weren't any. Does he think that there were? Or are we supposed to believe that real ones are going to crop up any minute? Being involved in a "War on Terror" is supposed to motivate us to sacrifice homey comforts like schools and roads and public safety and clean air. But if too many people have to give up driving, the deal will be off.
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| Save the Tiger - GO FAUX |
[Sep. 25th, 2005|10:28 pm] |
The Indian tiger is heading rapidly towards extinction because a new breed of wealthy Tibetans prize the skins as trimming for their traditional costumes, an investigation by a wildlife charity has shown.
More at The Standard, Link from The Peking Duck
I've never understood the militant anti-fur movement. If you are vegan or simply opposed to cruelty toward animals, it seems to me that setting a positive example creates better results than becoming a scold, or a vandal. But when an animal is truly endangered, it's tragic to speed its extinction in the service of vanity.
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| My cute Elephant Story was fun. Now back to real news of lies and deaths: |
[Sep. 12th, 2005|12:05 pm] |
[Edit: ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) bram tracked down that this originally came from an sfgate.com story, not the source in the link below.
"...the police commander came across the street to address our group. He told us he had a solution: we should walk to the Pontchartrain Expressway and cross the greater New Orleans Bridge where the police had buses lined up to take us out of the City. The crowd cheered and began to move. We called everyone back and explained to the commander that there had been lots of misinformation and wrong information and was he sure that there were buses waiting for us. The commander turned to the crowd and stated emphatically, "I swear to you that the buses are there." "
The rest is at Ev World.
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| Legionaires Disease |
[Sep. 10th, 2005|08:59 pm] |
Foreign mercenaries with loaded guns are all over the streets of New Orleans. The official explanation for this war against our own citizens is that there might be a terrorist somewhere around.
"When they told me New Orleans, I said, 'What country is that in?,'" said one of the Blackwater men. He was wearing his company ID around his neck in a carrying case with the phrase "Operation Iraqi Freedom" printed on it. After bragging about how he drives around Iraq in a "State Department issued level 5, explosion proof BMW," he said he was "just trying to get back to Kirkuk (in the north of Iraq) where the real action is." Later we overheard him on his cell phone complaining that Blackwater was only paying $350 a day plus per diem. That is much less than the men make serving in more dangerous conditions in Iraq."
I found the link at Hungry Blues. The rest of the article is here.
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| I'm in shock: The New American Prison Camps |
[Sep. 9th, 2005|05:30 am] |
In this link from the Pratie blog, FEMA officials prepare to lock up hurricane evacuees for 5 months. The current plan is that they will be limited to 2 meals a day, and not allowed to cook or to interact individually with the surrounding community.
"But he[the Oklahoma Highway Patrol Officer, representing FEMA] tells my mother she must take all the breakfast cereal back. My mother protests that cereal requires no cooking. "There will be no milk, ma'am." My mother points to the huge industrial double-wide refrigerator the church had just purchased in the past year. "Ma'am, you don't understand... It could cause a riot.
He then points to the vegetables and fruit. "You'll have to take that back as well. It looks like you've got about 10 apples there. I'm about to bring in 40 men. What would we do then?"
My mother, in her sweet, soft voice says, "Quarter them?"
"No ma'am. FEMA said no...
It could cause a riot. You don't understand the type of people that are about to come here...."
The Hungry Blues blog continues to shock me with daily reports of fear driven inhumanity to the hurricane victims. A local radio station was about to be set up in the Astrodome to deliver news by and for the residents. At the last minute it was denied electrical hook ups and prohibited from operating by battery power as well.
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| Compassionate Conservatives |
[Sep. 5th, 2005|07:15 pm] |
Television news tonight reported that security forces in New Orleans went into a liquor store and "smashed all of the bottles to prevent looting." I didn't take note of which network.
I also saw the Nightline where the FEMA director told Ted Koppel that the people in the convention center "are being fed." Then, after Koppel retorted, "They are not being fed!" said that he thought the stadium had been meant.
Based on multiple news stories and eyewitness interviews, it is becoming my impression that at times, people who had entered those two large temporary shelters had been for the most part, prevented from leaving them, and the atrocious conditions within, by armed police in the streets.
Ray Nagin in a television interview said that at one point he "offered" to let anyone in the stadium who wanted to, walk out of town over the one bridge that was safely above water. The idea was that they would eventually meet any buses sent for them, rather than passively waiting in putrid conditions.
A contingent set forth, but armed men wearing shirts that said, "Police", turned them back at the bridge. He is appalled that unfounded fear of looting led to threatening people and trapping them.
The macho thing to do would have been to walk at the head of the column himself; he could have been attended by bodyguards and lackeys. The sensible thing to do would have been to put a police car out in front. Not just throw up his hands in dismay.
All over the country people are giving up space in their religious institutions and many are taking these refugees into their own homes. I have yet to hear of any public official who took a few people out of town in their private helicopter, or let anyone into an upper floor of a hotel or office building.
This blog has very good links to personal accounts of survivors.
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