I love cats but ...

This opinion piece from Newsweek enraged me. I know it's his money, he has the right to spend it however he wants, yada yada yada. The guy spent $11,000 on vet bills for his 11 year old cat. It's always bothered me that people would spend that much on a pet when there are children in this country who aren't receiving adequate medical care.

But I didn't get enraged until I read this line:

How do parents tell their children that they cannot afford to treat a beloved pet?

Hey, asshole! The question should have been, How do parents tell their children that they cannot afford to treat them?

How about the parents who have to tell their children, Sorry, Bobby and Janie, but Mommy's going to die. She has cervical cancer which could have been prevented if she got annual pap smears but Mommy couldn't afford a pap smear because she had to pay rent and buy food for you.

And Bobby and Janie, please don't be mad at the mean man down the street who could have donated $11,000 to a charity that funds medical care for poor families. He thought his cat was more important.

What makes me so angry isn't that this guy used his money the way he chose. It's that he, and the majority of Americans, are completely oblivious to how many normal, patriotic, hard-working citizens are going without health care. Even those who think they're insured don't realize, until they're in the middle of a crisis, that their insurance may not cover the care they need when they need it. If everyone understood the problem, they would be screaming for a change.

Liberal media - Americans go overseas to find it

From an online article:

It’s old data, but this new research study from City University, London, online journalism researcher Neil Thurman is the first to illustrate why British news organizations are courting U.S. readers ... The Guardian is launching dedicated American news and comment websites, Times Online is using search engine optimization to reach Americans, while The Independent and Daily Mail get more visits from across the Atlantic than from at home ...

Amongst a clutch of "unlikely dependencies", The Drugde Report is the biggest single referrer of U.S. traffic to U.K. news sites at 25 percent, with Fark coming second at three percent. In fact, Drudge refers more than three times as many people to U.K. news sites as Google does, the study claims, and also more than Google News and Yahoo News ...

Liberally-slanted stories covering U.S. politics do well at U.K. sites, underpinning what Guardian Unlimited has frequently said about a dearth of "liberal opinion" in the States.

It's not only bridges in Iraq that are burning

This is from a BBC article about how evangelical Christians are starting to realize that the Democratic party may reflect their true values better than the Republicans:

... in last November's Congressional races - where Democrats regained control of both the House and the Senate - some Republican defeats came at the hands of a new religiously-inspired movement, which some are calling the "evangelical left" ...

The reality may be that the new movement is more centrist - and fed-up with being lumped in with the orthodox religious right leadership.

It is not so much that swathes of once Republican-supporting evangelicals are switching allegiance but more a question of taking a sceptical look at the narrow agenda that has defined their relationship with the Republican Party, according to John Green, of the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

"Questions like climate change, poverty and international human rights are coming to the fore, in a community that didn't used to talk about these things at all," Mr Green said ...

"We want to build a culture of life - but that includes the vulnerable outside the womb, as well as the vulnerable inside the womb. We've had too long a time where we make people who disagree with us into enemies," [Pastor Joel Hunter] added.

"I think that's not Christ-like or even intelligent. This whole thing is not a struggle over ideology, it's a struggle over power."

... But back in Florida, the evidence on the ground is that voters who identify strongly with the religious right cannot be taken for granted and will not be told what to think anymore ...

Evangelical Christian Gary Whitlock: "I'm not so sure the political affiliation of the person that's elected is important, so much as what the person who's elected believes.

"What the political process needs to have more of is bridge-builders, rather than people who are blowing bridges up and trying to create chasms between us."

I came back to add to this post after looking at the picture. Do you remember this scene? Bush spoke at a news conference. When he tried to leave, the door was locked. So what did he do? He just stood there looking stupid until someone explained to him there was another way to get out.

The man doesn't know how to get out of Iraq so he's going to stay there. We need military leaders who will tell him how to get out.

Dammit

I finally got my apartment manager trained to stop being so fucking rude.

She was always knocking on the door early in the morning and waking me up. And when I'd finally wake up (it's hard to even hear the knocking from my bedroom), find my robe and stumble to the door, she'd be pissed that it took me so long so she'd yell. Well, she learned the hard way - yell at me, bitch, I'll yell right back and I'll add a couple of F-bombs.

After being so awakened several times, I put a sign on my door that said, "Please do not disturb before noon," but she kept doing it. So I added her name to the sign with a veiled threat, "Gina, please do not disturb before noon. If you want me to respect your schedule and not call you after hours, please respect mine."

So she stopped doing it.

But there was still the thing about coming around to collect the rent on the 3rd of every month.

In the first place, my rent is not due until the 5th. That was the agreement I had with the people who owned the place when I moved in. The next owners honored the agreement. The new owner said he would honor it too. Yet Gina still showed up on the 3rd of every month.

In the second place, I've lived in rental housing for 30 years - in this very apartment for 20 - and I've never had anyone come to the door to collect the rent. In the past, I always mailed the landlord a check or they provided a drop box where we could leave it. But no, she wanted the check placed directly in her greedy little hands.

I have a much longer list of complaints, but I'll spare you. After several confrontations and several other long-time tenants moving out and me threatening to do the same, Gina and I have been getting along just fine.

Then today the landlord slipped a note under everybody's doors saying, DO NOT PAY YOUR RENT TO GINA. (capped and bolded by him)

He's temporarily taking over management of the building. Looks like girlfriend got fired.

Which would be good news, except the owner is a self-absorbed prick. After overhearing a couple of phone calls and having my own conversation with the maintenance guy, I realized Gina was neurotic because the owner was calling her 10 times a day, nagging her to death. He's from out of state and bought this complex without doing any market research first. There are dozens of empty apartments in this part of town, many of them much nicer than this one and renting for less. At least 20 of the 45 apartments in our complex were vacant when he bought it.

Gina still managed to fill all but 6 apartments but that wasn't good enough for him.

I've paid the rent every month for 20 years (depressing to think what that adds up to). I take care of my apartment. I'm quiet and I get along with the neighbors. You would think I have nothing to worry about. You'd think he'd treat me with appreciation and respect.

But judging by what I've seen since he bought the place, you'd be thinking wrong.

I would have moved out a year ago, but I have no money and I'm so depressed most of the time that I can't keep up with normal day-to-day activities. I also have two cats and it's hard finding a place that would let me keep them. Getting rid of them is not an option.

And it always comes down to the knowledge that wherever I go might end up being worse than where I am.

If your cat starts sniffing you ...

I thought this was an interesting article. Oscar, a cat who lives in a nursing home in Providence, RI, seems to be able to predict when the patients are going to die.

He's normally antisocial, but he goes into patients' rooms and sniffs them. If he leaves, the staff knows the patient is going to last another day. But if Oscar curls up in bed with them, they die"

Doctors say most of the people who get a visit from the sweet-faced, gray-and-white cat are so ill they probably don't know he's there, so patients aren't aware he's a harbinger of death ...

No one's certain if Oscar's behavior is scientifically significant or points to a cause. Teno wonders if the cat notices telltale scents or reads something into the behavior of the nurses who raised him.

Nicholas Dodman, who directs an animal behavioral clinic at the Tufts University Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine and has read Dosa's article, said the only way to know is to carefully document how Oscar divides his time between the living and dying.

If Oscar really is a furry grim reaper, it's also possible his behavior could be driven by self-centered pleasures like a heated blanket placed on a dying person, Dodman said.



Turn ons: Big fuzzy kitties who curl up with you
Turn offs: Self-centered kitties who sit and stare at you until you feed them. Yes, I mean you Ms. I'm-too-tired-to-cuddle-but-you-can-feed-me-now.

Was that a compliment?

From the NY Post:

July 23, 2007 -- A former Mitsubishi executive is suing his ex-em ployer because a co-worker allegedly took a picture of his penis after a booze-fueled karaoke bash - and his boss compared it to an "Italian sausage."

That's pretty much the whole story.

No Rape Trial in Case of Scalded Girl

That's the actual headline and this story will devastate you:

Cambridge, Minn. The man accused of raping a young girl when she was 8 years old won't stand trial because the girl was later scalded to death and can't testify against him, an Isanti County District Court judge has ruled.

Her name was Jordan Gonsioroski. She was taken away from her mother after her mother's boyfriend raped her and sent to live with her father and his girlfriend. And this is what they did to her:

Meier tearfully admitted that she didn't seek help after she said Gonsioroski forced Jordan to spend up to 7 minutes in a bathtub of water so hot that the girl bled. Meier said when she went to check on Jordan, she found the girl's skin floating in the water.

That night Jordan was sent to bed, where the medical examiner determined that she died. Meier called 911 a couple of hours later. Meier, a trained medical assistant, said they gave Jordan Tylenol and treated her with a sunburn spray to soothe her ...

Gonsioroski, however, said at his plea hearing in March that Meier hit Jordan while she was in the tub and kept her in the water. He said he went outside to smoke marijuana while Meier tended to Jordan's burns. A pathologist said she wouldn't have died if she had received proper medical care.

She was ten years old.

Dad and stepmom are now in prison. Mom is now married to the (alleged) rapist and has two kids with him.

Moose Briller

My friend in Seattle writes movie reviews under the pseudonym Moose Briller. He took his name from Bruce Miller, a movie critic in his home town, Sioux City, Iowa. This is the latest review Moose sent me:

Moose Briller gets on his high horse and rides again!

Moose Briller used every last thread of his emotional blackmail and got in to see the repertory screening of "The Searchers," the most Anti-Native American Film ever made. Oh, he wanted his Indian friends to go with him & shout John Wayne off the screen, but his Indian friends wanted to maintain their "Noble Savage" personas and remarked that they wouldn't waste their time. So Moose Briller sat lonely and watched John Wayne kick some brown ass.

"The Searchers," on many critics lists as "one of the greatest," is about John Wayne and the teenaged Jesus looking for a captive white girl. Throughout the movie Moose Briller watched the sickest acts (what would be sicker than mutilating a Native American corpse?) all in the name of John Wayne's ruffled up honor. How about the teen aged Jesus' Native American bride, a young woman who is thrown away? Or seeing captive white women turned into some kind of Manson family?

When John Wayne finally scores his niece, she turns out to be Natalie Wood, thank God for Hollywood, but Uncle John Wayne pulls his gun on her.

Moose Briller isn't sure how the movie ends; no, there is no penetration, because the movie was made in the 1950s, and Moose Briller got no penetration either. As if the reader cares. But he did get to smoke his cigarette palm upward when the whole thing was over. Is it? Not with repertory screenings and "one of the best" lists!

The 70s version of Dr. McDreamy

Remember when James Brolin played Dr. Kiley on Marcus Welby? Some things get better with age.

When I was in junior high, JB appeared at the grand opening for Toy National Bank. My mom knew I had a huge crush on him so they took me. My whole family stood in line for half an hour or longer - there were hundreds of people waiting.

When we finally got in, he was sitting behind a table and we walked past him. I don't remember if I shook his hand. I got an 8x10 black and white photo with his autograph pre-printed on it. I think I still have it.

My whole Marcus Welby obsession is kind of funny but too embarrassing to talk about here.

By the way, did you know Robert Young (Dr. Welby) suffered from chronic depression? He attempted suicide in 1991.

Turn ons: TV doctors
Turn offs: the real ones

The 70s version of Dr. McSteamy

Chad Everett from "Medical Center"

Another kindred spirit

In 2004, writer Spalding Gray committed suicide by jumping off the Staten Island Ferry. The guy who found his body recently told his story to Esquire, including this tidbit:

I got in touch with his wife, and I mentioned that I'd never try to exploit my discovery. She said, "No, please, do whatever you like. You don't have to be tasteful. This is Spalding Gray. All he ever talked about was his own death."

Hillary's cleavage

Robin Givhan, a fashion critic at The Washington Post, noted that Hillary Clinton showed a little bit of cleavage in the Senate on Wednesday. According to Givhan:

Showing cleavage is a request to be engaged in a particular way. It doesn't necessarily mean that a woman is asking to be objectified, but it does suggest a certain confidence and physical ease. It means that a woman is content being perceived as a sexual person in addition to being seen as someone who is intelligent, authoritative, witty and whatever else might define her personality. It also means that she feels that all those other characteristics are so apparent and undeniable, that they will not be overshadowed.

Givhan's commentary implied that she didn't think Hillary had these qualities, but I think her recent fashion choices show that she's gaining self-confidence and is more at ease with herself. Maybe she's trying to win over male voters.

The Post provided a blurry photo but I wasn't convinced. Hill was wearing a black V-neck blouse but it looked to me like there was a beige camisole underneath that covered the cleavage. Let's assume Hillary did show a hint of boobs. So much better than being a boob like her Republican colleagues.

On to other matters. My favorite headline of the day from fark.com:

Bush to have colonoscopy as doctors attempt to find his head

Money can't buy you happiness,
but it can buy you a yacht big enough
to pull up alongside it.
~ David Lee Roth

The stuff nightmares are made of

I first saw this story linked on fark.com. A four year old girl sat on the drain in a kiddie pool in Minneapolis and the suction from the pump ripped out her small intestine. She will never be able to eat again but will be fed by tubes.

What's worse: This was not the first time such an accident happened. In John Edwards' biography Four Trials, he talks about a case he tried for a little girl named Valerie Lakey who was also disemboweled by the drain in a kiddie pool. During the 1993 trial, Edwards discovered that 12 other children had suffered similar injuries.

As a result of the trial, the pool drains in question were supposed to have covers screwed on them so they could not be removed. For whatever reason, the cover was missing from the drain in Minneapolis.

No matter how the Bushies try to paint them, not all trial lawyers are evil.

Hair Force One

I thought Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson looked a little odd on "The Colbert Report" Monday night. He's blaming it on his new barber who used a rinse, saying he didn't know it would change the color.

The best part of the story: Nelson's staff refers to him as "Hair Force One."

Nice to see men getting the same kind of ridicule for their appearance that women like Hillary have been dealing with for years.

In other news, some of those missing bees have been found. Ten thousand of them built a hive in a woman's back yard lounge chair in Bangor, PA.

Meet my boyfriend, the virus

From tampabay.com, about a speech Keith Olbermann gave to a television critics meeting:

"We, in many respects, get a nice free ride because Bill just won't let it go," said Olbermann, who has long contended that some of the heat for his show, Countdown, comes from the press he gets when O'Reilly attacks him ...

"It's, to some degree, the way a virus feels about its host."

No bus driver has ever said this to me

But a bus driver in Germany told a 20 year old passenger:

Your cleavage is distracting me every time I look into my mirror and I can't concentrate on the traffic. If you don't sit somewhere else, I'm going to have to throw you off the bus.

Oh yeah. The girl's name? Debora.

Delusions of grandeur

When I was a teenager, I believed that I was destined for greatness - not necessarily fame or wealth, but I truly believed that I could do something important, that I would make a difference in the world. I'm not sure when I stopped believing that. Around freshman year in college maybe. Sometime in my early twenties.

Do all kids think they're special, or was I truly destined for greatness? If I was, is it too late?

It seems beyond hopeless. I'm having another one of those nights where I can't think of a good reason not to kill myself.

My new therapist is a moron. She knows absolutely nothing about writing, yet she keeps giving me advice about how to do it. She knows I'm suicidal, scraping around looking for a reason to stay alive. The one reason I had come up with, my old fall back, is that I believe in reincarnation. If I kill myself now, I'll be reborn in similar or worse circumstances and so I should try to stick it out and try to figure out whatever I need to figure out so I can have a better life next time.

She totally dismissed that, basically said that it doesn't matter if I kill myself, that my next life may or may not be better than this one.

Alrighty then. Might as well get it over with, huh?

God, I need to write. Growing up, I always remember hearing my grandma and others telling stories about their lives and thinking that I had to be the one to write them down. If I write their stories, they're not really gone.

Writing is an act of optimism. Is there anyone who writes a story or a poem who doesn't believe or wish or hope that someday, someone will read it?

Today (or yesterday since it's now Monday), I watched Ken Burns' documentary about Lewis and Clark. Lewis was probably bipolar. The night before he died, he seemed to be hearing voices and having conversations with people who weren't really there. Then he shot himself in the head.

Some of the scholars in the documentary theorized that during the expedition, circumstances forced him to fight off his depression and keep functioning. If only I had an expedition to go on.

Turn ons: Thomas Jefferson
Turn offs: guns