June 19, 2014

Happy Juneteenth, everybody!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juneteenth

June 17, 2014

During lunch, I was reading the wikipedia article about the Barack Obama 'birther' "controversy".

It reminded me a little of the 'controversy' surrounding the Shakespeare authorship question.

All I can say is: the shit some people choose to believe...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama_citizenship_conspiracy_theories

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakespeare_authorship_question

June 15, 2014

In the play and movie 'Driving Miss Daisy', there's a character named 'Boolie'.

Any Southerners know what given name this is a nickname for?

June 12, 2014

Thursday. Mental Health Day in clinic. Ask me anything.

Mainly because I'm gonna need some moral support to get through the day.

I'll check in between patients.

Have a good day, Loungers.

I love you all.

June 5, 2014

I had an interesting discussion with a patient yesterday who is a black conservative.

The subject came up when I encouraged my patient (who is homeless) to register for the Affordable Care Act. He was resistant to the idea, he said, because he is a conservative. He doesn't want any Democratic "handouts".

He went on to say that most black people are welfare cheats. He knows, because his whole family, except for him, are welfare cheats.

So, okay. He's good at arguing from the specific to the general. He thinks that people are poor because they don't work. He knows, because see above. His whole family are poor, lazy, shiftless, unemployed takers. So every poor person must be, too. I avoided mentioning the fact that even though he works, and is "pulling himself up by his bootstraps", he is still homeless, and that the blame lies not with poor people who take handouts, but the employers who refuse to pay a living wage.

He would have none of it. He displayed the unassailable self-assurance of someone who has never attempted to see someone else's point of view. Pretty common among right-wingers.

I ended the discussion by pointing out that the ACA would pay for the diagnostic workup his problem requires. And if he wants any of it done at all, it's either the ACA or financial aid, which would be, in his own words " a handout". I don't know what he's going to do, but I do know that every right-wing media personality would give his or her right arm to be able to put this guy on the air to validate their rather cruel outlook.

June 1, 2014

Ugh! Sick. And in need of company. Ask me anything...

May 31, 2014

Anybody up late? Got a nice Midas Touch buzz-on...

May 27, 2014

Let's bring back mandatory state and local militias, and disband the U.S. Armed Forces.

If you are not willing to see this happening, then stop telling me about your sacred 2nd Amendment rights.

May 27, 2014

I'm not a surgeon like this guy, but, boy howdy, is the back pain part correct!:

http://www.cracked.com/article_21177_5-things-your-doctor-really-wants-to-say-to-you-but-wont.html

Not looking forward to the ICD-10 conversion, either...

May 27, 2014

My current earworm. Three days and counting...

It's one of the more frightening earworms I've ever had. It's almost impossible to sing this song yourself and not feel a little rush when doing so. A little kick, a slight swelling of the chest, a little pride.

Because that's what the song is supposed to do. Make you feel good.

I saw a revival of Cabaret at the Paramount in Seattle in 1988. It was Joel Gray's last tour in the role of the Emcee. Back then, I was still a fairly straight-laced, conservative, Southern-raised boy. I was a little put off by the crazy, highly sexualized goings-on at the Kit-Kat Club for the first part of the play.

Then, a small group of young waiters came out on the stage, wearing a uniform of short red waiters' jackets. And they sang this lovely song. Beautiful, pastoral, optimistic. I loved it. It was such a contrast to the tawdry acts of the Berlin cabaret.

Then my dad, who had taken me to see the show, leaned over and whispered: "That's a Nazi Hitler Youth Anthem." *

I was instantly horrified. And I understood then, dimly, in my naive 19 year-old way, how it was that the German people - highly educated, enlightened, sophisticated, cosmopolitan, humane - could be drawn to the monstrousness of the Nazi regime.

* - I found out only recently that "Tomorrow Belongs To Me" is not a Hitler Youth song. It is an original song, written specifically for the Cabaret musical. (By Jewish songwriters, no less.) But it certainly captures the nationalistic spirit of the Nazis, as it was supposed to.