A very sordid tale

[Names and minor details changed slightly for privacy reasons. This is a sad story, don’t read it if you are down]

Yesterday me and another friend stumbled onto the semi-conscious body of a dear friend of ours, S/he was face down, face white as a ghost, lips so blue they were almost black. I thought for sure my friend was already dead. But when we carefully turned the body over a slight exhale came out. I had 9-11 on the phone, I’m certified for CPR. So were trained and went through the classic routine, putting my head on the chest and looked, listened, felt. When I heard/detected a barely audible thready pulse and shallow breathing I almost cried out in relief.

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The Village on the Beltway

Unlike most of my progressive digital riff-raff buddies, I generally give the Beltway media a pass. Yes the news celebrity centered part of it can be annoying or worse, but the bulk of “the beltway media” is gum shoe reporters and editors busting their asses for dwindling market share and job security. Nevertheless, now and then a spectacle of such dismal import comes along that even I can’t look the other way. So it was with Meet the Press yesterday morning: [Read more…]

Religion: A question of comfort?

I had breakfast with an old friend yesterday whose father died recently. The tragedy, the brutality, of the experience was all too clear on her face and in her voice. I wouldn’t call her super religious, but she’s definitely found some comfort in prayer and counseling with religious authorities. There’s no way I’d go an atheist rant in a discussion like that, and I doubt she’ll ever invite one. But let’s say hypothetically after the worst of the pain has passed, someone you know in that position did.

What would you say? Or more to the point, if you could persuade someone suffering a terrible loss that there are no supernatural beings, and by extension places where their loved ones live on in some way, would you? Should you? [Read more…]

How to reduce stress and be happy

During his extended battle with mylodisplacia, Carl Sagan wrote something to the effect of, “I would almost recommend almost dying to everybody. It’s a character building experience like no other. You get a much clearer perspective of what’s important and what isn’t, the preciousness and beauty of life. I say almost because of the irreducible and essential element of risk”. I’ve actually had a similar epiphany, but being so much more vindictive than Sagan, I’m employing it in a different way. I’m finding it’s just as therapeutic though. [Read more…]

My mysterious chest pain is about to turn into a dream day

I’ve been walking on egg shells ever since the mysterious chest pains two weeks ago described here. The symptoms didn’t match a classic MI, but they didn’t respond quite like an ulcer or a gall bladder deal either, and they seem to get a little worse when my heart rate increased. That last thing scared me shitless. It started when I saw my PCP last week, she suspected some sort of upper GI issues and did a routine EKG as a precaution. A few minutes later she came back in, looking grim, and told me I needed to see a cardiologist immediately. She wouldn’t say what her concern was, I’m not sure if she knew, but the look on her face scared me. So off I went to the cardio and found out I DO have a serious condition … [Read more…]

Guntimes at Redneck High

Back in the day I lived in a podunk rednickish suburb and went to a podunkish redneck school. This was Texas, mid 70s, think Dazed and Confused and you have it dead on. Needless to say there were plenty of gun owners. One day I was riding around with one of them — we were all just starting to get our driver’s licenses so driving anywhere was fun and cool — when my buddy asked me to open his glove compartment. A dark bundle fell out and I heard a snap, it sounded exactly like a bullwhip cracking. There was a gentle spritz of moisture across my legs and some dark droplets hit the kick panel to my right. I looked down baffled, it took a slow count of ten before it hit me, I had just been shot. [Read more…]

What pray tell is a conservative then?

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Watching honest conservatives flail around trying to face the many elephants in their house has been a bit entertaining these last few days. Two such moderates I listen to more than others are Megan McCain of House McCain and Steve Schmidt from MSNBC, they both seem pretty straight forward and accurate. And listening to them and others like David Frum, it struck me, if the GOP does what they collectively suggest, excise the anti-science morons, get rid of abortion-under-no-circumstances as  a 100% do or die issue, tamp down on hatred of gays and immigrants, address racial prejudice, all while holding out an olive branch to minorities, and accept that sometimes, taxes might have to go up and down in some brackets, plus try to remove the worst of grifters … what is left that defines a conservative?

I mean … that’s pretty much it man. You strip out all that hatred and exploitation, most of the willful ignorance and monolithic, stubborn stupidity out of the GOP, and, well, they’d be democrats or democratic leaning indies. Or maybe just completely non political. Right? Because the entire modern Republican Party is a con job wrapped around giving rich people more money and power, and tricking the rest of the electorate to vote to give rich people more money and power.

That’s sad to say, but if we’re doing some intra-party soul searching on the heels of a crushing defeat, that’s the truth.  So yeah, I think the GOP may be way, way more fucked than even McCain or Schmidt realize and it’s hard to see how they ever get out of that trap.

Texas, August, Hell & Reprieve

Texas in August, it’s a bleak, sizzling time of year. There’s really nothing good about it. After 90 days of blistering sun even local lakes and swimming pools are reaching for near body temperature. Short of a few springs and river bottoms stirred up by turnover or dams,  there’s no relief outside of air-conditioned shelters or a nice walk in freezer. And forget anything you’ve heard about a “dry heat.” Once the temp gets uncomfortably above a 100 degrees, it doesn’t matter that much how dry it is, it quickly gets hot enough to kill a person in direct sunlight in as little as an hour or two if they aren’t used to it. [Read more…]

Domestic terrorist attack in progress

There’s been multiple shootings at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin with fatalities. It’s being called a domestic terrorist situation. Events are fluid and developing. Live coverage here. Apparently at least one guman entered the temple during a Saturday morning service and started blasting. Cops arrived and there was a shootout — the gunman and chief suspect was killed, at least one officer was injured. It’s unclear if this thing is completely over though. Police are actively clearing out entire neighborhoods.