November Week 1, 2008
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November Week 1, 2008
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Daylight Savings Time: When I was a kid it was explained to me. It's like the Indian that cut off one end of his blanket, and sewed it on the other to make it longer.
Sunday, November 02, 2008 The paradox of courage is that a man must be a little careless of his life in order to keep it. G. K. Chesterton I took Lexi, Grace, Christian and Christy down to Newport to pick up Mike. He Lexi and Gracie will live in the basement for a while. Gott'a love those open-minded Republicans... I wonder how many
Republicans will read this story and say to themselves, "Why didn't I think of
that"... GROSSE POINTE FARMS, Mich. ___ Information from: WJBK-TV, http://www.fox2detroit.com To me, I thought it perfectly exemplified the Republican "Win at any cost, the end justifies the means" philosophy, this is the personification of where Republican hate-speak is headed. I got mine the hard way, I can do whatever the hell I want to do with it, and I say, screw you! If you don't think what I think. Vote like me. Believe like me... then go hungry... Get out. Oh well. They had their choice Har Har Har. I know of no Republican who would be this spiteful but I really don't think many Republicans think their actions through. Shoot first, get the facts straight later. There has been rancor on both sides but from my perspective it seems like most of the hateful rhetoric has been coming from the right, I have not seen one Pro-Obama email accuse McCain of being a terrorist sympathizer, Anti-American, Panamanian, incompetent, not one single derisive e-mail! I have saved all the Hateful, racist, demeaning email I have gotten from McCain Supporters, calling me ignorant, stupid, uninformed for not supporting McCain. I haven't thought very highly of McCain since he went over the the Rove/Swift-boat camp and did a 180 on virtually all of his core beliefs, but I didn't hate him, I am beginning to hate him now. I got this tonight, part of an e-mail: Did you see where Barack has a half
sister, living in How does Obama combat this? Folks are apparently content to let the Rightwing talk media define him without question.
I certainly hope SOME PEOPLE come to their senses by Tuesday. I hope this is my last rant before the election, I really have no choice... I can't go to sleep with this stuff on my mind. I go to see the surgeon tomorrow, hope he cuts this damn thing off my back.
Monday, November 03, 2008 Wealth has never yet sacrificed itself on the altar of patriotism.
Bob LaFollette, congressman, senator, governor (1855-1925)
The article by E. J. Dionne describes better than I what I believe to be 'truth'. One other thing I feel I must mention. If all things were equal and McCain and Obama were neck and neck in every aspect and I could not make up my mind. I would vote for Obama because he is half African and half English American. It is time for the racism, fear and hate to end. For four centuries, our nation has poisoned itself with the corrosive venom of racism. From the slave trade, to our still-segregated schools. To me though, things are not equal I wish it were the case, unfortunately I can come up many reasons to vote for Obama and many more reasons not to vote for McCain. It is impossible for me to be dispassionate about this election. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyPDHh4d1Xo&feature=channel http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcDsd_sMtiw&feature=channel He cut that damn thing out... nasty... don't want to talk about it... Tuesday, November 04, 2008 When you battle with your conscience and lose, you win.
Henny Youngman, comedian and violinist (1906-1998)
Christy and I went to Spokane to see the Oncologist she originally went to. He has been in Scottsdale, Az. doing research and conducting trials for two years. She never completely comfortable with the fella she was seeing and always hoped he would come back. She found out a month ago that he was opening his own office and managed to get back with him. He is a little concerned about the processes and wants to get a PET Scan to look at that 'cyst' where her ovaries used to be. I feel better now that he's back too. We listened to election results all the way home and turned on the TV as soon as we got home, We heard that Pennsylvania went to Obama and Christy and I were almost holding our breath until Iowa went to Obama too...We listened to John McCain's concession speech which was gracious and statesman like. He sounded like the John McCain I wanted to vote for in 2004. Then I listened to Obama's speech to the nation in Chicago's Grant Park, I hope the world listened to it. I still have a lump in my throat and tears in my eyes. America has turned a corner, I know we have a long way to go to bind the nation into a unified, committed, respected, power in the world but we have taken one hell of a first step. I never thought I would see the day. I have never been more proud of my countrymen. Wednesday, November 05, 2008 "In order that all men might be taught to speak truth, it is necessary that all likewise should learn to hear it." Dr. Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) - Source: The Rambler, 1750-52 Not much accomplished today, I was still 'up' from the election. My take is that this was the 'Perfect Storm' for McCain and Obama, worst case scenario for McCain and best for Obama.
Where the adhesive from the bandage touched my shin it ate it away, like acid burns... hurts like the blazes. I have apparently developed an allergic reaction... Mike and Lexi moved out of the basement and back into their old apartment. Thursday, November 06, 2008 "Every man who says frankly and fully what he thinks is so far doing a public service. We should be grateful to him for attacking most unsparingly our most cherished opinions." Sir Leslie Stephen - (1832-1904), literary essayist, author Source: The Suppression of Poisonous Opinions, 1883 Christy and I took Calie in to see Rick about her infected toe. He wagged his finger at her for cutting her toenails too short and gave her a prescription for an Antibiotic... told he to soak her foot in hot water and Epsom Salts. All say, 'How hard it is that we have to die', a strange complaint to come from the mouths of people who have had to live. Mark Twain; From 'The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson and the Comedy of the Extraordinary Twins' When he was done he asked her to leave the room so he could talk to me and Christy. That golf ball the surgeon took out of my back on the 3rd is something called a Soft Tissue Sarcoma... Cancer. The next step is consultation with and an Oncologist and with an Oncology Surgeon. They have to go in and remove the 'margins'. This is kind of bad timing with Christy's Surgery coming up on Monday and Winter coming on... I want to get this done before the end of the year. I will write more when I know more. Friday, November 07, 2008 The man who is always waving the flag usually waives what it stands for.
Laurence J. Peter, educator and author (1919-1990) Christy is burning up the telephone this morning, she got me hooked into Dr. Anthony, her Oncologist, she has been FAX'd the pathology report, she got hold of Anthony's office and they are scheduling a PET Scan for me, ASAP, she talked to Rick and he concurs. She tried to contact Dr. Schafer, the surgeon, he is not in the office till Monday. She has FAXed releases to Colville Clinic and Dr. Anthony's office. I have been busy too, I dropped Monica off at the place where she is working for a lady who is moving back to Oregon. I went to the Falls Market for Bagels and Cream Cheese, stopped at Can Am to schedule the tire change from summer to Winter on Calie's car and an oil change on the Trailblazer, ordered some studded tires for it too. The PET Scan is scheduled for Tuesday, Christy is getting one too. We will have a consultation with the Oncologist on Wednesday. I read the Pathology Report, might as well have been reading the Cairo Phonebook in Sanskrit. Seems like the 5 year survival rate is in the 70% range, I probably will be getting radiation, not confirmed though. I talked to my sisters and gave them a briefing on what we know so far. I had a nice talk with both of them, Katie is pregnant again... I am happy for her. Saturday, November 08, 2008 The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity. I should go to the dump today, but there really isn't enough trash to justify it at the moment. I need to put tires on Christy's Van. I have to set up a bedroom downstairs for Christy... it will be a while before she can get up and down the stairs. I have an inflatable bed in the shop that should work fine Sunday, November 09, 2008 Another nation is made out to be utterly depraved and fiendish, while one's own nation stands for everything that is good and noble. Every action of the enemy is judged by one standard - every action of oneself by another. Even good deeds by the enemy are considered a sign of particular devilishness, meant to deceive us and the world, while our bad deeds are necessary and justified by our noble goals, which they serve.: Eric Fromm We have a busy week coming up, Christy gets her heel operated on, the operation is called a Achilles Tendon Repair / Debridement Calcaneal Exostectomy. She will be in a cast for 6 to 10 weeks with no weight on her foot at all. After giving her about 14 hours to recover from the surgery I will put her in the van and take her down to Spokane for her PET Scan, I will get one too, we need to know what that 'mass' in the area that used to be her ovaries is. (I hate ending a sentence in a preposition but I can't think of a more concise way to say it) I need to find out if the area where the Fatty-tissue Sarcoma was is the only area to be concerned about. Then, we will wait till 1500 Thursday for the results to be explained to us at Dr Anthony's office. The toughest part of a tough week will be waiting 48 hours for the results of the scan...
In the struggle of Good against Evil, it's always the
people who get killed.: Eduardo Galeano "In order that all men might be taught to speak truth, it
is necessary that all likewise should learn to hear it." Dr. Samuel
Johnson (1709-1784) - Source: The Rambler, 1750-52
By E. J. Dionne Jr. SHIPPENSBURG, Pa. -- Emily Daywalt decided to go to the first political rally of her life because she wanted to cheer Sarah Palin, who was here a few days ago to inspire the faithful. Daywalt said she likes that Palin "hunts and that she believes in God and that she is a strong, independent woman." But ask the 19-year-old from South Mountain, Pa., why she is voting against Barack Obama, and she homes right in on John McCain's closing argument. Obama, Daywalt said, "wants to spread the wealth," which she interprets as meaning that he'd "give it to people who don't do anything." For all of the McCain campaign's relentless use of guilt-by-association techniques, the 2008 campaign is concluding on a remarkably substantive argument. It is a debate about what constitutes social fairness and whether a top-down or a bottom-up approach to economic growth will define the country's future. Obama is often described as cautious, but he has been bold and unrelenting in his criticism of trickle-down economics and tax cuts concentrated on the wealthy. He used yesterday's negative numbers on economic growth to press his case against theories that conservatives have been touting for decades. "The decline in our GDP didn't happen by accident," Obama said. "It is a direct result of the Bush administration's trickle-down, Wall Street-first, Main Street-last policies that John McCain has embraced for the last eight years." Yes, economic populism is thriving right now, and if Obama wins, his election would not simply be a non-ideological verdict against the status quo. It would be a clear repudiation of conservative economic ideas and McCain's claim that a more egalitarian approach to growth constitutes "socialism." McCain's attacks on Obama's thinking have been so forceful and direct that they require this election to be seen as a referendum that will settle a long-running philosophical argument. Obama has presented McCain with a problem. By endorsing tax cuts for Americans earning less than $200,000 a year -- i.e., the vast majority of taxpayers -- Obama has complicated the typical Republican claim that Democrats always support raising taxes. Obama is candid in saying that he thinks the wealthy should pay more so that most Americans can pay less. He also thinks government can help vulnerable members of the middle class and the poor secure health care and go to college. This has complicated McCain's effort to root his argument on taxes in middle-class self-interest, since Obama already has that covered. So McCain has actually had to defend giving large tax benefits to the wealthy and to business, and engage in a wholesale argument against any sort of redistribution. McCain regularly charges that Obama wants to be the "redistributor in chief." Speaking at the rally here at Shippensburg University, Palin was forced to say this about Obama's support for a variety of tax credits aimed at helping the poor and middle class: "He says that he is for a tax credit, which is when government takes your money in order to give it away to someone else." That is, of course, a mighty peculiar definition of tax credits. It is also an odd argument from a ticket that itself is committed to a research-and-development tax credit for corporations. It's true that Obama favors "refundable" tax credits to help low-income workers, including some who may pay no income taxes but do pay many other taxes. McCain has argued that Obama's refundable tax credits amount to "welfare." That, too, is a strange claim, since McCain favors refundable credits as part of his health plan. But the whole idea is to convince voters such as Emily Daywalt that Obama really is just out to help those "who don't do anything." And that is why Obama's 30-minute advertisement on Wednesday night was targeted directly to voters such as Daywalt, or at least to those like her who are still persuadable. It was Obama's tribute to the country's working people who seek nothing more than decent incomes, health care and a chance to see their children succeed. It was less a political ad than a documentary about the value of work and the responsibilities of family life. For years, Republicans have argued that the way to help struggling working people is to give more money to the wealthy. Obama is saying that we should cut out the middleman and help working people directly. My hunch is that Obama's argument will prevail, and that conservatives will then work overtime to try to deny the judgment that the people have rendered.
"There are men - now in power in this country - who do not
respect dissent, who cannot cope with turmoil, and who believe that the people
of America are ready to support repression as long as it is done with a quiet
voice and a business suit": John Lindsay "It's exciting; I don't know whether I'm going to win or
not. I think I am. I do know I'm ready for the job. And, if not, that's just the
way it goes." - George W. Bush quotes (American 43rd US President
since 2001. b.1946)
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