Post #190,599
1/18/05 2:29:39 PM
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Not One Dxxn Dime Day
[link|http://www.notonedamndimeday.com/|http://www.notonedamndimeday.com/]
Since our leaders don't have the moral courage to speak out against the war in Iraq, Inauguration Day, Thursday, January 20th, 2005 is "Not One Damn Dime Day" in America.
On "Not One Damn Dime Day" those who oppose what is happening in our name in Iraq can speak up with a 24-hour national boycott of all forms of consumer spending.
During "Not One Damn Dime Day" please don't spend money, and don't use your credit card. Not one damn dime for gasoline. Not one damn dime for necessities or for impulse purchases. Nor toll/cab/bus or train ride money exchanges. Not one damn dime for anything for 24 hours.
On "Not One Damn Dime Day," please boycott Walmart, KMart and Target. Please don't go to the mall or the local convenience store. Please don't buy any fast food (or any groceries at all for that matter).
For 24 hours, please do what you can to shut the retail economy down. The object is simple. Remind the people in power that the war in Iraq is immoral and illegal; that they are responsible for starting it and that it is their responsibility to stop it.
"Not One Damn Dime Day" is to remind them, too, that they work for the people of the United States of America, not for the international corporations and K Street lobbyists who represent the corporations and funnel cash into American politics. --- Of course, this is pretty much like every other day for me. I only patronize small independent business whenever possible and spend as little as I can.
"The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them." --Albert Einstein
"This is still a dangerous world. It's a world of madmen and uncertainty and potential mental losses." --George W. Bush
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Post #190,630
1/18/05 5:04:17 PM
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Ooh, great idea
Lets make all the working stiffs suffer cause we don't like George.
If you push something hard enough, it will fall over. Fudd's First Law of Opposition
[link|mailto:bepatient@aol.com|BePatient]
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Post #190,635
1/18/05 5:21:35 PM
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Oooh - cliche-time? OK:____Commerce R'US
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Post #190,638
1/18/05 5:32:04 PM
1/18/05 5:32:29 PM
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Perhaps the working stiffs should be put on notice . . .
. . that all is not well with the status quo. Maybe just a few will think before voting (or actually vote) next time.
[link|http://www.aaxnet.com|AAx]
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Post #190,640
1/18/05 5:45:53 PM
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Four years ago...
...I would have been with you. Hell, I flamed some idjits into oblivion over that stupid "buy no gas" stuff that went on a few years back.
Now, I think this doesn't go far enough - I think each and every person who voted against the current Junta should stand up and take a week off in protest - a general strike, if you will.
"Here at Ortillery Command we have at our disposal hundred megawatt laser beams, mach 20 titanium rods and guided thermonuclear bombs. Some people say we think that we're God. We're not God. We just borrowed his 'SMITE' button for our fire control system."
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Post #190,647
1/18/05 6:15:29 PM
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And who is supposed to get this "message"
Unfortuntately, we pay the ranch-hand for life.
Think boardroom America cares about a day?
How about the hourly guy sent home cause there wasn't any work for the day?
Who feels it more?
Chances are he voted your way. What the hell...penalize him anyway...you are, after all, making a POINT.
If you push something hard enough, it will fall over. Fudd's First Law of Opposition
[link|mailto:bepatient@aol.com|BePatient]
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Post #190,649
1/18/05 6:26:18 PM
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Granted: there is NO 'ideal painless protest' devisable
OTOH: it is impractical to ferry a million or so of the disgruntled half-the-population to DC, to stand about and clog all the sidewalks, buses and other conveyances (as would give lots of work to the drivers, food concessionaires, cops, first-aid stations and trauma centers - after the cops riot 'clearing the streets', say.)
So why don't *you* design a suitably Ez comfortable, above-all Safe National Protest Against Dumbth in High and Low Places?
Perhaps, run up the flagpole - some may Salute It. Might even garner title, The Beep Memorial Massacree?
:-0
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Post #190,651
1/18/05 6:28:04 PM
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I think a week-long general strike might do the job
a lot better IMO.
The system is out of control. When a patient is in cardiac arrest, and you use the defilibrator, you kill a few cells, but you save the patient.
IMO. I will gladly admit the possibility I may be wrong, unlike some others here and at other sites. (not targeted at you, Bill)
"Here at Ortillery Command we have at our disposal hundred megawatt laser beams, mach 20 titanium rods and guided thermonuclear bombs. Some people say we think that we're God. We're not God. We just borrowed his 'SMITE' button for our fire control system."
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Post #190,654
1/18/05 6:35:50 PM
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One Week -
seems to be the general span of General Strikes I've heard to be, on occasion Very Effective.
Unclear whether spontaneity is a necessary ingredient for such as are effective. Planning.. especially lengthy planning as invariably generates counter-planning and counter-counter yada yada -- especially in today's mond-comm world -- seems to be a built-in conundrum.
But were a General Strike to begin on Inauguration Day, with no smoking comm-guns tying its inception to ANY recognizable tired-old PAC of any kind:
Now THAT would be something to See, Support, maybe foolishly even.. out-Righteous the Outright-Righteous over !? just for the Fuck of it.
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Post #190,662
1/18/05 6:52:45 PM
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7 weeks didn't cause Chavez to change.
[link|http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/01/30/wven30.xml|Telegraph UK]: Chavez 'beats' general strike as the oil flows By Jeremy McDermott in Medellin (Filed: 30/01/2003)
Venezuela's president Hugo Chavez appeared yesterday to have beaten the seven-week general strike aimed at ousting him, as oil production reached a million barrels per day. \t The core of the opposition strike was the oil industry, the country's economic lifeblood. But with 5,000 striking oil workers sacked and production back up to a third of normal output, opposition figures privately admitted the strike had been broken.
"It seems Chavez has won this round," said one. "We never thought he would be able to hold on for long. But it's not over, we will beat him in August."
[...] The people whose minds need to be changed can afford several weeks. The "little people" can't. Now, a week boycott of TV by [link|http://www.nielsenmedia.com/|Nielsen] raters, or a 7 day TurnOffYourCellPhone protest, well that might have an impact. :-/ Cheers, Scott.
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Post #190,673
1/18/05 7:34:03 PM
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Why.. It's.. Reagan VS Air Traffic Controllers deja vu
I said, 'generally'.
Nor would I suppose that One Month.. would penetrate the layer of Osmium-impregnated ceramic around the head of The Chief and his acolytes, in present case. No, that is beyond human intervention - it's a God<-->Gawd Party Line thing, we're told.
But others might notice. Something. Maybe not. But there's not much (left) to lose - finding out. I'd participate.
Sadly - quite right you are, re What Really Matters. (We must all? once have done something pretty Ugly - for those who like the idea of karma)
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Post #190,700
1/18/05 9:56:54 PM
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Didn't mean to rub you the wrong way, Ash.
It's just a counter example that popped into my head.
And I honestly think that general strikes are much less effective than they were ~ 50-75 years ago. IIRC, they still happen occasionally in France (e.g. the farmers). They cause some chaos in Paris for a few days, people get pissed off, but little changes. Large-scale strikes and boycotts are almost unheard of in the US (at least since the early 1960s). There's a huge cloud of apathy covering the country. (This is one of the reasons why I shrug off (what I've heard about) Kevin Phillips' recent tracts on US income distribution and the like).
The US is a huge, diverse society. The east coast blackout caused quite a disruption in the area affected, but was barely a blip in the country as a whole. Strikes are generally similar.
It's very difficult to get people involved enough to change their routine. For example, does anyone pay attention to the [link|http://www.cancer.org/docroot/PED/ped_10_4.asp?sitearea=PED|Great American Smoke-Out] day anymore? Not that I can see. Even something as painless (and that clearly has almost no downside) seems to be met with apathy.
Too many people distrust politicians, labor leaders, citizen's activists, the press, etc. for there to be much of a mass-movement any more it seems to me. It'll take a long time to change that.
There probably is something to the lack of correlation of [link|http://www.davidmyers.org/happiness/Excerpt.html|happiness and affluence]...
Gloomily, Scott.
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Post #190,719
1/18/05 11:18:42 PM
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Not at all -
as the idea of a National Strike was just as insubstantial, here. Besides, I concur with the general conclusions your specimens suggest: Apathy Rulez. But then, that too is a word freighted with nuance. I have no brainstorm re some means of coalescing any meaningful 'protest' (either); so little consensus, so many in jobs they Despise - and with no time for reflection on any topic whatsoever. Maybe not even once a week, for some? What I feel is that, simply -- we have, via our manic goals of wretched competition 24/7 and the urge for #1-ness: succeeded in driving ourselves collectively insane, a word which doesn't admit well of quantization or sort well into sub-categories. And I suspect that the near-insane are incapable of expressing (honest?) Wrath - even less capable of - devising the subtle means for making that a simultaneously constructive endeavor. Ergo - probably no National Strike could happen here, such as we are. Pity, that. Pity US. Have to take primal issue with this excerpt from the Meyers's opus: The list goes on, and the scientific task is clear: to ask which of these competing ideas fit reality. Sifting the actual predictors of happiness from the plausible hunches requires research. Dunno where to start on that compilation.. yes, the philosophy of 'science' can aid a bit, when dealing with homo-sap behavior - but only a bit, for all ovious [?] reasons.. without going into 'experiment', peer review, etc. 'Happiness' in the "world of dualities" - some definition thereof!? - is a matter I can't imagine ever saying anything useful about: the prerequisite for teaching Happiness 101 appears to be: that your only sententious answer will occur from your death bed (quite possibly a not unpleasant place to be, just then), at a ripe old age. (But whatever might be said about happiness - it seems alien to immersion in a milieu which has no concept of Enough - but only More --> and More. Donald Trump / Billy, Bally. Rest case.) Still, there are some interesting stat-factoids there; the 9. Gratitude Journal - seems most ept of the how-tos, as its implications are deepest. I cringe nowadays at most usage of the word reality; especially 'Reality'! as it is a manifestly metaphysical concept, but is used so sloppily - it means nothing at all. Smothered in its crib. Manifestly, and whether 'rich', medium or poor - the US in '04 is populated by hordes of the un'happy'. For there being thus, a shortage of the pheromones and endorphins necessary to exhibiting (say) Sweet Charity: thus Bush Is, the Neocons Are and a truly bellicose face is turned both outwards and.. in the hood. I am not clever enough to conjure up a Rx for dysfunction on so massive a scale, alas.. (Am also grateful that I feel no such Need --> as to try / imagine I Should :-) May we all squeak through, even if Clarence T. be our new Chief Justice. Even then. Only antidote to madness I know is: find ways to grab on to some period of authentic peace, often enough. Cheers, moi
"While I'm still confused and uncertain, it's on a much higher plane, d'you see, and at least I know I'm bewildered about the really fundamental and important facts of the universe." Treatle nodded. "I hadn't looked at it like that," he said, "But you're absolutely right. He's really pushed back the boundaries of ignorance." -- Discworld scientists at work Terry Pratchett, Equal Rites -- Thanks, Tom Sinclair
(Now that I've read it in the original Sanskrit)
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Post #190,721
1/18/05 11:50:35 PM
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Thanks. :-) Old Age is over-rated though. :-( 18 kb .gif
My father-in-law is continuing his slow decline. His wife is getting more and more forgetful.
I just saw an article in this month's [link|http://secularhumanism.org/fi/index.htm|Free Inquiry] called, "Why I am not a Catholic" by Arthur R. Miller that mentions the obvious reference to [link|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertrand_Russell|Bertrand Russell]. He was 97 when he died. My in-laws are 87 and 85. Every evening we wonder how much longer they'll be around.
They've been living with us for 30 months now. It's hard. :-(
Thanks for your note. I have trouble sometimes knowing whether my feedback is regarded as an annoyance or not.
It would be wonderful to hope that in the end we'll figure it all out. Seeing my inlaws though, I fear that's not the case. As the brain slowly goes it takes the self with it. :-(
But on a lighter note...
[image|http://images.ucomics.com/comics/bo/2005/bo050118.gif|0|Irony thy name is Huey|191|600]
:-)
Cheers, Scott.
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Post #190,726
1/19/05 12:18:52 AM
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think of the bright side
all the drugs you wanted to try in your misspent youth put a dollar on the end of a stretch of fishing line for the nudie bar leering at every healthy looking chest you see without a gomer slapping you down my sympathy's truly felt. Watched my fsther take 2 years to die at 14. Ma is fine in her late 70's, been certifiable for the last 25 years or so but still functional. My instructions are incoherent and have terminal piddles? Buy the best kyak made, give me a sleeping bag and a 3 day supply of food and a push into ship creek in Anchorage AK as the tide goes out. regards, daemon
that way too many Iraqis conceived of free society as little more than a mosh pit with grenades. ANDISHEH NOURAEE clearwater highschool marching band [link|http://www.chstornadoband.org/|http://www.chstornadoband.org/]
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Post #190,727
1/19/05 12:23:42 AM
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The ice flows do have an appeal... :-)
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Post #190,882
1/19/05 8:10:16 PM
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20+knot currents 4 minute survival rate in the water
by the time someone notices a kyak drifting upside down and gets a boat out, yer toast regards, daemon
that way too many Iraqis conceived of free society as little more than a mosh pit with grenades. ANDISHEH NOURAEE clearwater highschool marching band [link|http://www.chstornadoband.org/|http://www.chstornadoband.org/]
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Post #190,886
1/19/05 8:35:09 PM
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My luck, it would happen that Jonah 1:17 would be repeated.
[link|http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=jonah|Jonah Chapter 1].
;-)
Being unable to breathe is very unpleasant. Panic is such a natural reaction. I have memories at a swimming pool of trying to swim when I was a tot, heading off underwater - trying to breathe underwater, being lifted out by my arm by someone. I don't know if I'd like to go out that way. Maybe something on land. It might be better [link|http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/London/Writings/LostFace/fire.html|to build a fire]....
I'm hoping that government and society will be more tolerant of the end of life by the time my time comes. Which I fully expect to be 40+ years from now. :-)
Cheers, Scott.
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Post #190,892
1/19/05 9:33:32 PM
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well they have orcas and belugas
one is too small and the other would find you a nice snack, remember I would already be incontinent and drooling so wouldnt notice the liquid air. regards, daemon
that way too many Iraqis conceived of free society as little more than a mosh pit with grenades. ANDISHEH NOURAEE clearwater highschool marching band [link|http://www.chstornadoband.org/|http://www.chstornadoband.org/]
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Post #190,920
1/20/05 12:45:02 AM
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Or there's this
[link|http://www.shortstories.computed.net/londonlaw.html|http://www.shortstor...et/londonlaw.html]
Ooh look, free literature.
"Whenever you find you are on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect" --Mark Twain
"The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them." --Albert Einstein
"This is still a dangerous world. It's a world of madmen and uncertainty and potential mental losses." --George W. Bush
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Post #190,946
1/20/05 8:56:42 AM
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Thanks.
[link|http://www.gregfolkert.net/pics/iwethey/GreenEyedLady.jpeg|Colleen] is a bit like that when she's hungry.
;-)
Cheers, Scott.
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Post #190,928
1/20/05 5:32:52 AM
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To Build a Fire
99% sure that was also the exact title of a somewhat abbreviated version of a similar mishap, a story which is among my earliest recollections of reading ahead (we never got to it in class, nor several others I thought more memorable than the assigned stuff).
Vocabularly was a bit simpler, probably a 5th grade? reader used in 3-4th grade. An early, fortuitous Lesson: Read. Ahead. Screw 'assignments', where feasible - or try to work out a deal with Teach to skip the pabulum.
(This was, of course quite prior to my realizing that the central theme of many lives seems to be Ohhh... SHIT! Maybe several times before the final one.)
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Post #190,942
1/20/05 8:42:30 AM
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The earlier version was simpler. Maybe that's it?
[link|http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/London/Writings/Uncollected/tobuildafire.html|Here]: This is the first, more juvenile version of a story later published for an adult audience in The Century Magazine in August 1908. TBaF really struck a cord with me. I've only read it 3-4 times but in the last ~ 30 years I can still remember quite a bit of it word for word. Cheers, Scott.
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Post #190,985
1/20/05 12:48:30 PM
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Sure is great to have free literature in the public domain
Too bad there won't ever be any more of it.
"Whenever you find you are on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect" --Mark Twain
"The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them." --Albert Einstein
"This is still a dangerous world. It's a world of madmen and uncertainty and potential mental losses." --George W. Bush
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Post #191,049
1/21/05 4:51:28 AM
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Probably it's as close as I can remember
Assuming this title was \ufffd Jack London (Wolf House is just a few miles from here) - I have to suppose that the story couldn't have been Bowdlerized by a textbook pub. But the little grey cells fail me re the exact ending, with the fistful of matches.
deja Brrrrr
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Post #191,220
1/22/05 11:26:27 PM
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Re: Thanks. :-) Old Age is over-rated / underappreciated?
Lots of Good Stuff in the links and sub-linkies; must peruse anon. I may have worked out some of these, but it's always good to read any articulate ones.
Long time since I read Bertie's epistle (and contrasted same with the sly-doggery of the supra-imaginitive CS Lewis; one goes for the intellect; t'other for the emotional brain, with 12-gauge scattershot). I treasure BR's little -Very Clever- tract, signed and sent me ~ the time of the Aldermaston Peace marches..
Sorry to hear of a problem I've had some experience amidst. One always Hopes that elders in one's care: have gone through enough triage of all that babble about us - and are not paralyzed-fearful by the prospect of leaving. One hopes, but - Murica has strange ideas on this-all, as we've noted here many times. I was Conservator for both an aunt and uncle, simultaneously. By the time my 85 yo namesake-Uncle fell before mine eyes, as we returned from a shopping expedition -and just a few feet from my being able to intervene- my aunt had pretty much Lost It .. though for a lengthy period she could sorta fake 'It'.
Uncle's mental acuity was ~fine, though he too said a while later that, "he hadn't realized.." just how far his mate had strayed from 'It'. {sigh} How Can That Happen? ""Mate""
I was *most fortunate* in the fact that these two had earlier, been most helpful to an (ex-) family member-by-marriage - who happened to be an RN! or LVN, not clear. So while she was tending one post-op {usual broken hip} she was also tending the other mobile one. I made sure she got paid for a fraction of the 24/7, at least.
I did experience what it's like to see a regression to.. near-perfect replaying of the interests? mindset of a young girl (omitting the saga of my uncle, in parallel - who was cogent til the end). Then too, the other fiduciary duties were eased by association with a quite Fine Person (who happened to have gone into the law. Oh well.) Often, today especially, a dearth of $$ is as huge an impediment as one's ignorance of All the possibilities.. and much depends upon what is one's view of AMA 'advice', alternatives, life experience. All that uncatalogueable stuff.
This was not my problem, as there weren't any Heroic options to be tried. I spent what seemed appropriate of their funds with 0-thought re 'conserving' those for heirs. (This is not hard if one recognizes that we are responsible for what we Know - but I've seen some choke on the imaginary Zero-sum game, especially within the constipated MBA mindset-of-Life.)
All would have been Much harder, had there not been this RN - in it for love not $. So I sympathize with what must seem a quandary. [my first name -curlicue splat- vom -splotch- com] if I can offer any items from experience - will try.
Natch, every detail is guaranteed different in every case. All you have are your wits - fortunately you're well-equipped, even if it may not seem so .. especially when trying to estimate "the next few weeks/months" :-/
(You also get a Free Review of all that stuff you thought you 'knew' - minus the weasel-phrases all about, in the air, even. The earnestly-delivered Presumptuous Ones are hardest to smile through, I wot)
Luck!
moi
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Post #191,224
1/23/05 12:45:22 AM
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Thanks. I mean that. :-)
It's been an education, no doubt about that.
We're lucky in that they did very well in the sale of their home (near Concord, MA) and she was able to get a long-term-care insurance policy a few years ago. They also have good health insurance and Medicare, so their hospitalization costs and doctors appointments have been covered. We're very fortunate that money hasn't been an issue. We have hired CNAs that help out and they are here about 20 hours a day, except on Sundays. Even with all the help, it's still hard - especially on my wife. She works so hard to keep the supplies stocked, the appointments kept, research their conditions and try to understand the treatments, research the drugs and side effects, and them in as good a mood as possible, etc., in addition to her 9-5 job. She's always been very close to them. I help out, but she carries most of the load.
They both have fallen several times in the last 30 months. Luckily, the last time was many months ago. About 2 years ago he cracked some ribs falling on a coffee table (when my wife was not more than 2 feet away); she cut her head falling about 6 months ago. Luckily, it hasn't been more serious. I sympathize with your experience. Even if you're right there they can still fall. :-( They're so frail now that a major fracture would probably do them in.
We've seen how good a rare doctor can be in helping to try to figure out the best way to treat him; we've seen aids in nursing/recuperation homes be in such a rush that they crushed time-released morphine tablets (leading to a 6 hour dose being absorbed all at once) and shovel food into him faster than he could swollow it (leading to aspiration pneumonia within a week on 2 separate occasions). We've seen how expensive hospital and nursing home care is, how poor the care is in too many cases, and how much better it is to have them at home. No matter how good the facility is, you can't be there to watch all the time to make sure that the over-worked or over-tired staff is not making a mistake. :-(
"Underappreciated?" I dunno, Ash. Certainly, as a society we don't appreciate the elderly as much as we should in many respects. But getting old seems to be something that humans aren't really designed to do. For every Bertie that does wonderfully into their 90s, there are thousands of others who slowly lose themselves long before then. The brain - seat of the mind - wears out, but their bodies keeps going. Dementia treatments probably won't solve the problem - merely slightly delay the inevitible in most cases, IMHO.
There are times when he doesn't know my wife's name and thinks she is one of the aids that takes care of him. For the last month or so she has been concerned every evening wondering where her young daughter is that she sleeps with every night. :-(
[link|http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/05/02/issue/feature_aging.asp|Do you want to live forever?] - I would have to say No.
Thanks for your indulgence and support - I guess I needed to vent a little. I appreciate it. :->
Cheers, Scott.
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Post #191,226
1/23/05 3:17:47 AM
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Food.
Our culture spews out so many words/day - no one Could keep up. Even re just.. tracking down all the titles of so-called Professional societies! Publish/perish guarantees an infinite supply of words. Decisions.. decisions..
My experience in early '80s, of going out-of-country with a friend, so she could try the techniques of a Dr. Gerson (too long a story for sound bites) showed me what 'nutrition' can do regarding so-called incurable so-called 'diseases'. (Yes I have er Issues with much of the pill-formulizing / especially pill-Selling approach; trouble with the 'disease' characterization and then with -- the treatment of symptoms: the very pardigm of allopathic medicine.)
I have even more 'trouble' with the massive %iatrogenic deaths, accepted as 'normal' throw of the dice. (And my disdain for the products of Murican med schools became solidified - while working with same, delivering heavy-ion beams to real patients.. along with real physics. I saw how they worked and how little most understood of even - the consequences of the ability to use a 'beam' with the precision of a scalpel -- and how it was that these usually regressed to "what they'd been taught" - about protons, etc. etc.) 'Science' ken is not anywhere near #4 even, in what gets you through US Med schools - though non-stuttering pronunciation of sodium ethylmercurithiosalicylate is a big Plus.
Fresh, organically grown vegetables, meat treated as a source of the little *needed* protein (as a daily %total) + some bio-active enzymes and a few other things like goats-milk yogurt, sweetened for Murican tastes: such a regimen {there are books} has produced results which even I have witnessed. Quite fewer grains than we suppose are nice - or even, hardly-any - another surprising one. Lo-carbs - now seeming to be as much about vanity weight-loss (for many) as about general nutrition.. is another plank in the platform, but never the sole principle. (We have to bear in mind that carbs --> sugars and Muricans are rife with varying degrees of diabetes, mostly untreated until well-along..)
Last I was around a US hospital, any knowledge or concern-about 'human nutrition' (from chiildren through old people) was apparently well off any radars. One needed only to look at the crap served to reach that inference. Could be a little better today (?) ever since Sen. ___? tossed $100M into NIH some years ago and mentioned loudly to the boffins (as described in a quite recent Frontline), some results of a survey:
Showing the %Muricans who regularly employ alt.medicine approaches to their health AND a certain other factoid: only 28% of those in a large-enough study for decent stats: ever TOLD their AMA guy about what they were doing! (if they had an AMA guy).
Relevance: there's some evidence too, that the sort of sane nutrition as has been seen to promote robust health generally, and as is seen to assist the immune system in doing what it does best .. can, apparently also effect changes in cognitive faculties. (No 1st-person experience of such changes, BTW. 2nd person/ long-time observer hearsay, though.)
It's not my style (not much of an innate Interest) to follow the progress / and lack of same of this complex matter of Good Health over years and years - but circumstances have rubbed my nose in aspects. I have visited 'havens' where the PDR is Not the bible nor is "what Rx to prescribe today?" the question often asked.
I've also had long chats with a person given '3 mos' to live == 'incurable cancer'. (Her recovery to evidently good, say 'robust' health a year later - was labelled by her ex-MD as it usually is: 'spontaneous remission'. She was pretty young.) Talked to others, there; not all thrived. There is a Murican mindset re medicine. And it is taught assiduously. There are also loonies who are their own worst enemy - foolishly eschewing the utility of standard medical blood work-ups, ignoring diagnoses, etc. One can always use the data / need not follow the PDR 'remedy'. er PDR == Physician's Desk Reference
(Another factoid probably Googleable: the 'average' Murican over (65? years of age, forget #) is on *13* different 'medications'. You do the math for 13! interactions as in factorial. Or even 10!)
I suspect you could Google for more material than a normal person would want to digest.. but the possibility exists that -simply- paying very close attention to what these folks are living-on might produce surprising results -- and is an option highly unlikely to Harm.
And yes: non-contaminated 'live' food is not as cheap or abundant in (most) stores as is normal fare. Wild salmon (not farm-raised, for a number of reasons) costs typ 50+% more. Salmon appears to be right up there BTW in desirability for the protein ration, not only for its improvement of the Omega-3 ratio of lipids.
More would be proselytizing. Trouble is: we are ALL stuck with 'anecdotal evidence' -- especially when we experiment on ourselves (I have - still am).
But if you are seeing no signs of progress - I suggest only that, there are alternatives to much of the pharmchem suggested today as 'normal maintenance' for those the age of your charges. You may not be able to reverse the mental losses, no matter what you do -- still, 'medicine' is pretty ignorant about pretty much, especially when: being Sure "there is no course-of-treatment for ___" IMO.
Alas, there is no Truth.com, except in the eyes of True Believers. I know I could do better than I do, but then I'm lazy - even about further researching. I accept the crap shoot, in any case. Eschewing standard nostrums often demands a prodigious amount of extra work; many lack the time even to begin finding, say, "whom do I trust for assistance/consultation?" (Just as there are few chapels for the spiritually inclined who eschew organized 'religion', I suppose ;-)
Luck --
moi
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Post #191,233
1/23/05 10:30:46 AM
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Few options.
He can't eat now. He has lost sensation in his throat and thus doesn't know when food is going down the wrong way. His cough reflex is very weak now. :-( He has a [link|http://www.chclibrary.org/micromed/00049200.html|g-tube] and his diet consists of 6 - 8oz cans of [link|http://www.allegromedical.com/dietary_supplements/adult_nutrition/ross/jevity_1_2_formerly_jevity_plus_8_oz_cans_case_of_24.P176482|Jevity 1.2 Cal] per day. Modifications to this diet have caused changes in his strength and activity level (with indicators in his blood and urine chemistry) so it's not really an option, unfortunately. Even before his g-tube, his [link|http://www.tracheostomy.com/|tracheostomy] seemed to make eating more of a chore.
"Why put him through all that?" Well, he's still fighting and still seems to enjoy being around. He loves watching Willy Nelson video tapes and DVDs, petting the dog, looking outside. Changes in his condition have been so gradual... We never imagined that we would be doing these things for him (we thought they each would eventually fall and/or have a heart attack). It's not as bad as it looks or sounds, really. The tracheostomy improved his breathing tremendously and the g-tube has eliminated the aspiration pneumonia episodes. He's much healthier with them than he was before. Both have kept him out of the hospital for over 6 months. It's a hassle (weekly oxygen delivery, humidifier and vacuum pump noises all the time, going through a multistep process to feed him 4 times a day, etc.), but it's easier than having to drive to visit him at a nursing home and eliminates constantly worrying about whether they've made a mistake.
She has had trouble swallowing liquids for quite a while and has an aversion to them but can't explain why. She has symptoms of Parkinson's and Alzheimer's and is being treated for both. She has had angina for years but is from a "meat-and-potatoes" background with a family history of extreme obesity (300+ pounds) and heart-attacks at young ages. She's outlived all her siblings. She eats the same food we do, but in smaller portions. She's actually in pretty good shape, considering...
There's no doubt that diet is very important. The skeptic in me is very suspicious of those who claim to have found the [link|http://www.ediets.com/news/article.cfm/cmi_385383/cid_1|magic brain diet] though. For years we were told that cholesterol was bad even though something like 80% of the blood cholesterol level was not affected by diet. More recently we're told that infections of various kinds seem to be the cause of plaques that form in blood vessels. They have suspicions that change over time, but they don't know, contrary to the way drug companies and the popular press present things. :-( As you say, too many who practice medicine don't really bring a scientific outlook to it, and the hoi polloi is in little position to evaluate these things, unfortunately.
He's on a dozen or so medications and she is as well. We also don't want to just throw pills at the problems, but they each have multiple conditions that do require treatment. The drugs aren't perfect, but we try to keep an eye on potential side-effects and only give them if we've seen evidence that they help. As you say, it's nearly impossible to understand how all of these things interact. :-(
We can all do better. Eating less is probably more important than eating the Just-Right foods. Exercise and using one's brain - trying to learn something new nearly every day - is important. Moderation is important too, especially in one's emotions - it's important not to be angry or anxious. That's what I think, anyway. Maybe I should write a book. Yeah, that's the ticket! :-)
Cheers, Scott.
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Post #191,252
1/23/05 2:15:16 PM
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"Brain Diet" is missing the latest.
Mainstream medicine is getting on the Turmeric bandwagon now, particularly as a preventative for Alzheomer's (though it's suspected to be helpful in preventing some cancers also).
Unlike the poorly designed and misinterpreted (deliberately or from stupidity) "controlled studies" of modern medicine, Turmeric is backed by strong "hearsay evidence". It's used in significant quantity in the daily diet in India, which has one of the lowest rates of Alzheimber's in the world.
[link|http://www.aaxnet.com|AAx]
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Post #191,297
1/24/05 5:25:04 AM
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Accord
Ah so.. given those details, I can't add anything you haven't well considered.
My way of trying to deal with the plethora of incomplete, conflicting and/or just sloppy data I encounter is most often 'nici nici' ~~ "not his.. not this.." ie. I (now) deem it an axiom that we all are better at bringing experience to recognizing "what seems Wrong" / doesn't fit.. than picking out The Best course (after all, that is what we once believed a Doctor could and would do, with virtuosity). Also, as likely you've seen - it takes subtle linguistic acrobatics to actually induce a rethink of an MD's strategy, even if you spot a clash. Walking-on-eggs, there..
I do see, in combining my observations with those of others who deal with their own triage: that perusal of the voluminous lists of side effects of *every one* of those 'medications' just has to be done; every MD is on full-race. [always frosts me that these suckers are so euphemism besotted that they cannot bring selves to Just Say DRUGS instead of the polysyllabic med-i-Kay-shuns mantra].
Reading the blood workups with comprehension is often revelatory (sometimes need to bug them to ADD some more from blood chemistry menu, with mucho tact) . Where any of these, like say renal function? are flaky -utterly basic, that- there's where the side-effects list can flag. The poor kidneys, liver have to flush all of these drugs and natch, regeneration is least in the oldest.
I guess you've noted these multi-$Billion/yr. -statin variants like Crestor\ufffd - re that Hot focus on EZ roto-rooting of arteries. I've seen these suckers prescribed for people with obv. renal problems - in COMBO with other items equally unkind to kidneys, liver and ___! It also appears that today it is pharmacists who have become the main safety net for the n! problems of over-Rxing. Of course, it should be clear to most folks here, who understand stats: NO ONE is spending more than the token-$ for PR - re all these expectable interactions among popular drugs taken by millions. No profit in That - and proving malfeasance? cf. Firestone Tires VS Rollover-SUVS + lawyers. Did I mention - we are so fucked.
Recent spotlights on the corrupt methodology of FDA just might finally galvanize a few reforms: currently for all drugs - it is not necessary to run a comparo of existing copy-cat drugs VS New one, for relative efficacy. Just the placebo VS New and enough tests for some nominal stats of non-lethality. (And of course - as pitched to the MDs: each new one "Is Vastly Better" cha cha cha.)
Scary, that biz-medicine is just like biz-biz. What a surprise :-0
Hang in there. You're paying more attention than the vast majority (say they do). I don't know many folks who can sustain a constant check on the reasonableness of 'procedures'; even for myself I would likely quickly drop the manic initial followups needed to umm calibrate an MD, and just keep watch on the periodic test data. I don't know any better way to make use of the system as it is, and the fact that my Interests typ haven't much been about biology. Mea culpa - sloth again..
Cheers, moi
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Post #191,050
1/21/05 5:01:13 AM
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Hmm . . forgot all about it and the inauguration too . . .
. . but I didn't spend a dime anyway so I guess it doesn't matter.
[link|http://www.aaxnet.com|AAx]
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