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Thinking Thursday (hilariously updated postscript)

laocoon — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 19:26:58 +0000

Looking for a Hero by George Oswalt

You will find me at the JRB Gallery on the Paseo tomorrow evening. I can’t wait for this opening.

Tonight, I’ll be on lower Bricktown in front of the Harkins Theater from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. watching Cami Stinson. Watch this and you’ll know why I’ll be out tonight.

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Daily Kos on Oklahoma’s 2d Congressional District election in wake of Rep. Dan Boren announcing he won’t seek re-election:

Yesterday morning, ex-Rep. Brad Carson emailed me to let me know that his plans have changed and he will not be seeking his old seat back in the wake of Dan Boren’s retirement. Fortunately, Democrats have a strong bench here despite the red hue of the district, and there are several other possible candidates, including ex-state Sen. Ken Corn (who previously said he’s “very likely” to run) and state Rep. Ben Sherrer. The Hotline also mentions state Sen. Josh Breechen as a possible GOP candidate.

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When Ezra Klein at Washington Post looked at the deficit negotiations, he found the GOP rejected their own proposals and walked out. Who’s the dick?

So when the GOP’s economic policy team sat down to make the strongest case they could for growth-inducing deficit reduction, they recommended a mix (of) 85:15 (blogblah’s note: of spending cuts to tax increases), not a 100:0 mix. And then, when the Obama administration agreed to an 83:17 mix, the Republican leadership walked out of the room and demanded that taxes be excluded from the deal altogether. How do you negotiate with that?

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Here’s a novel way to get past the debt ceiling crisis: rely on the 14th Amendment and just ignore it. According to CNN Money, it’s one of the answers to the puzzle proposed by the Treasury Secretary, Tim Geithner.

The 14th Amendment states: “The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned.”

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The chairman of the state legislative ethics committee in Indiana may have a slight problem, according to local reports.

a very attractive 26 year old woman who has connections to a strip club in Lawrenceburg, Indiana was in the car with 59 year old Republican State Representative Robert Mechlenborg at 12:08AM when he was pulled over by the Indiana State Police and subsequently tested positive for alcohol and Viagra.

Blogblah note: enjoy the schadenfreude my droogies.

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Time magazine editor and MSNBC political analyst for the Morning Joe show Mark Halperin gets suspended and apologized for saying President Obama was “kind of a dick” during last night’s press conference. Obama should consider the source.

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If you do nothing else today, please watch THIS VIDEO. Please, please please. DO IT! It’s the most inspiring thing I’ve seen in an age. It will change your attitude.

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Post Script:
I haven’t really had much to say about the New York legislature passing gay marriage equality legislation because, well, I don’t know much about it. However, I couldn’t resist the video below. In it, Howard Zinn, a counter-historian (my formulation), introduces part of an oral history of the so-called Stonewall Rebellion and actor Tim Robbins reads (with such wonderful verve) the eyewitness testimony of Martin Duberman. This is just so good, it’s awesome sauce!

Tim Robbins reads Martin Duberman, “Stonewall” from Voices of a People's History on Vimeo.

August 19, 2010

laocoon — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 16:29:08 +0000

Just this week, I’ve been busted on the East, West and Gulf coasts and also locally about not blogging. Sorry.
I have three or four “good” days a week, days when only one Lortab every six hours handles my pain well and I feel like doing something. I have three or four “bad” days a week, days when even two Lortab every six hours don’t seem to keep my pain in tolerable levels and also days when I just can’t do much of anything due to the distraction of the pain and the fogginess of my mind from the drugs.
One of the problems with this is that I never know from day to day which it will be. Just because I feel good today doesn’t mean that tomorrow will be worth a darn. That means it’s very difficult for me to make any plans and sometimes appointments are just a wish list.
For that period of time when it’s been 100+ degrees here in OKC, I was a virtual prisoner in my house. Even a very few minutes — five minutes, say — out in that weather just wilted me. Even brief exposure from the car inside the grocery could almost take me off the boards for the rest of the day. On the other hand, when the cool front brought rain this past week, my bones could feel it and the ache in my side from my ribs was off the charts.
In short, most of the time I’m not doing much. I’ve read some books and watched some movies and I sleep a good bit on the days I take more than 4-5 Lortabs in 24 hours. Opiates are like that.
It’s probably TMI, but I spend a lot of time fretting over money. I have thousands of dollars of medical bills that I simply can’t pay, not even if I liquidate everything I own. I’ll have to admit that I am both hurt and very angry that I’m one of those people who face bankruptcy due to medical bills, but my depression had me headed in that direction in all events and this series of medical bills just accelerated the process. I’m hurt and angry because I feel like I did all the “right” things. I had my first paycheck job at age 14, bagging groceries for LynneX’s father. I worked and got married and raised two kids and put myself and my wife through graduate schools. Both my kids got college educations. I owned a house and paid taxes and voted. Yet, here I am on the verge of retirement and instead of cashing out, visiting Europe and retiring to a beach, I’m a destitute pauper. I faced and stayed alive addiction, depression and cancer and my “reward” is bankruptcy.
You wanna know how I’m doing? Well, I spend some time seeking serenity in the face of the time-honored “life ain’t fair” problem.
Some good and some bad things have come down the pike since I last wrote.
The best was that my daughter brought the grandkids for a lovely visit and that is a full and complete joy all in itself.
This joy was compounded in the event because my old friend from gradeschool (YES! from almost 50 years ago), Rush Riddle visited from California and that brought another close friend, Ultimate Fastpipe, down from Stillwater. We had a grand time, or, at least, I had a grand time. There was some of me kind of drifting off into chasing the dragon stupor that slowed things down at the very last for me, but I must say I enjoyed all of the visits beyond my ability to write about.
My mother’s health has taken a turn for the worst lately and that concerns me. It’s a long story, but she’s being treated for some dangerous blood clots that have moved from her leg into her lungs and she requires daily injections. This seems to be the year God wants me to have an in the face reminder of the mortality of humans.
On another front, I’ve been divorced for 10 years and I’ve had my share of relationships, good and bad, during that time. None of those relationships lasted more than three years. I’m the one common denominator. Between my health and my finances (and my age), I think it likely I will not have romantic relationship that lasts “until death you do part.” I’m sorry about that. Some very good women have tried to put up with me and apparently I was beyond all redemption. Seems to me the best thing I can do is just withdraw from the field and not engage in that behavior again, thus saving some unknown draft choice in the future from having to undergo whatever it is I do to sabotage myself. Between my anti-depressants and the pain meds, it’s going to be awhile before that seems like a problem for me. (Now, we really ARE in the TMI category, so I’ll quit.)
I’ve already written that I’ve given up on politics. About a fifth of the country believes our president is a Muslim (the same people who howled about his Chicago pastor/church) and even more think Obama lacks the citizenship qualifications to be president. This has NOTHING to do with his race, of course. Jobless claims rose to 500,000 this week but we’re focused on the building of a recreation center in lower Manhatten and worried that the Imam praised by George Bush is a secret ally of the 9/11 terrorists. This presumably is because the media has such a liberal bias. Ann Coulter is not conservative enough for the sponsors of CPAC and is banned because she accepted a paid gig speaking to gay Republicans. According to all reports, these are the people who will claim a mandate wave victory this November. God save the Republic.
Sinatra has had a good week. He can jump straight up in the air and take out a cicada and I’ve seen him do it twice. He caught a field mouse somewhere and came hauling ass over the fence with it in his mouth. Thanks for the present, big guy, but no thanks. In this hot weather, he’s practically nocturnal; he sleeps most of the day and won’t come in at night. He’s often cocked off at me for not leaving open windows or doors for his convenience, but he does like to curl up beside my legs when I take afternoon naps. He doesn’t care about you. Sorry, that’s just the way he is.
Moving on and speaking of blog entries, I have very much enjoyed MCARP lately. I don’t get to see him in person all that often, so I like getting to find out what he’s doing and thinking about and I find a good bit of what he writes about is thoughtful and thought provoking. Keep up the good work, Mike.
So, that’s today’s view from St. John’s Infirmary.

July 25, 2010

laocoon — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 21:29:57 +0000

It’s a lazy Sunday afternoon here at St. John’s Infirmary. It rained here despite the sunshine and that makes it all the more humid. I can’t even get outside for a little while without wilting.
On the medical front, went late last week to the endicrinology clinic to check my adrenal gland function and the first of the three tests came back aces. The doctors keep telling me that my recovery is way ahead of schedule.
From my perspective, I’m still skinny and still often hurt on the right side. One change in the pain management picture is that my complaint has moved from the incision itself to the deep ache of having my ribs pried apart.
Unless someone has kicked you full force three times with steel toed boots while you lay on the floor writhing, you have no idea. Of course that’s never happened to me, so I’m projecting just like you.
My grandchildren are expected to be here the first week of August and that’s good news with exponential increase for the likelihood that son Jack and/or sister MindOverMary will follow suit. Also, my neice Katie may be bringing her children this way to visit her father about that same time, so family fun can explode in many directions.
Speaking of family fun, one of my sisters is staying with my Mom while awaiting damage repairs from the hailstorm. Yeah, the hailstorm from the last of May. That’s a long time to wait for workmen to do something at your home, but that’s the situation. I’ve got plenty of my own problems, so I’m glad that’s not one of them.
I’ve been too lazy this weekend to even shave. I bought the Sunday New York Times and haven’t looked at it. Now, you have to admit THAT is the very definition of lazy.
If you hear someone found me dead in my home, crushed by piles of unidentified stuff, I just want you to know I am not yet a hoarder; I’ve just got that many medical bills rolling in that fast. Who knew hospitals charge by the square for toilet paper even when you’re constipated?
I want to go see Despicable Me, but I’m putting that off until a weeknight so I can watch it undisturbed by small children with sticky hands and squeaking voices. When I see a 3D cartoon about small children with sticky hands and squeaking voices, I want them on screen and not kicking the back of my seat, and that’s my final word on that subject.
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July 17, 2010

laocoon — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 00:14:05 +0000

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It’s been gangster movie festival here at St. John’s Infirmary lately.

First, the Godfather trilogy of course; followed by Pesci and DeNiro in Casino with Sharon Stone; then, Goodfellows with that knockout Ray Liotto performance. I branched out with the Coen Brothers’ Millers Crossing, but came right back to the good stuff with Pacino and Depp in Donny Brasco and then Nicholson, DeCaprio and Matt Damon in The Departed. Just when I think I’m out, they keep sucking me back in and Public Enemies found its way into the DVD player.

I’d like to get out of the house and do something. Maybe go to the mall and see Inception for something different. Uhmm. There’s a bit of irony in that sentence, but I can’t quite parse it out. Maybe some reader like RebL will be able to help me with that.

I complained in the last post about what a stick figure I’ve become, but to be honest I just don’t feel like eating in this 100 degree and humid weather we’ve been having. By the way, does this hot weather mean that Al Gore is still fat but that climate studies are maybe just a little right? I keep getting mixed up when I don’t watch Glen Beck every day and need someone with mainstream thinking to help keep me on the straight and narrow.

Read an interesting piece about how the radical right is now interpreting the Constitution in the same way religious fundamentalists treat the text of the New Testament. Who knew John Calhoun would take the place of Elijah in legal thinking? I can’t get over this 10th Amendment talk from the Tea Party folks. I suppose they slept through that whole 1860-1865 week in high school U.S. history. Maybe they had the flu or the dog ate their homework. That’s the ticket, as some SNL guy used to say.

I’m really sorry I missed Lady GaGa in town. No, really. I would have liked to see that show. In fact, I would have liked to be the guy who confirmed her gender up close and personal. I might be a sick old guy, but I’m still a sick old guy. Speaking of newer singing acts, will the fact that Pink fell mean that from now on, it’s after the fall?

It’s been one week

laocoon — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 18:29:23 +0000

Time flies when you’re having fun here at St. John’s Infirmary and I can hardly believe it’s been one week since I looked at you. My sister has been blogging more than me? MCARP blogging more than me? No No No, that’s just not possible. It is? Drat!

So, what up? Well, it ain’t my tale to tell, but both my son and my daughter received some good news lately. I can’t take any credit for it, but I really find it easy to enjoy it. I love my family, so both me and MindOverMary got that going for us.

That image a bunch a y’all got of me in a convertible? Trash it. I am currently driving an old Ford pickemuptruck. Blue with wheezy noises and no air conditioning. Not exactly the rakish figure I once sported, but it gets me to the grocery store to buy Sinatra cat food, which seems at this point to be my sole purpose in life.

I keep following uber-webmaster Fastpipe’s Twitter feed, but I’ll be darned if I can understand what he’s got his panties all twisted up about except that I certainly get the part about being on tech support and not being able to fix the problem. My problem is that if Fastpipe can’t figure it out, what’s the chances for a guy like me? Maybe my friend MichaelH’s idea of just moving out to the lake and being off the grid ain’t such rotten potatoes after all…

Speaking of going to the company store, to which I owe my soul, the other day I was there getting some cat food and coffee when I bumped into a display of cans and some started falling. I instinctively twisted and reached out to stem the damage. Not only didn’t I catch any of the cans, but that twist and reach move with my right arm was not the thing for me to do. It hurt like the dickens and I don’t mean Charles Dickens. Not even my beloved Lortabs makes it go away. Ouch and I do mean ouch.

Also, while I absolutely LOVE Oklahoma thunderstorms and lightening and rain, when it all stops and it’s 90F and that rain starts being humidity, this is not a good formula for my daily walks. Seems I can’t get up early enough or stay up late enough to walk in the cool and/or there just ain’t any cool under these conditions. I’ve been lucky lately to get in 8 blocks before I’m tuckered.

Politics has me bumfuzzled and gobsmacked lately. Are the Republicans not only going to win but also repeal the entire New Deal? In the name of cutting deficits will we really get rid of the Department of Education and Department of Health and Human Services? What do they think will happen if they try to balance the budget during the worst recession since 1937? How is it possible that such nonsense is so popular? I can’t even comment any more. There isn’t anything to say. No one listens to anyone they don’t already agree with. I will certainly be casting a whole bunch of throw-away votes this time, but by gosh and by golly, I will be casting my votes.

One last thing about that rakish, convertible driving image … have you ever seen kids draw stick figures? That’s what I look like in summer shorts. I am literally a lightweight these days, even if you thought I was skinny before.

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