June 11, 2014

WE, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY need to GOTV this off-year!

This is probably the only post I've ever made that I think I'll get little disagreement with.

I see Cantor is losing to a Tea Bagger. We have to GOTV in races like the one to replace him in order to keep the real fringe nuts OUT and to get Dems IN!

We sure as hell don't need more Tea Bagger nuts in the mold of Cruz in office - say like Joni (pigs are squealing) Ernst.

May 31, 2014

Okay, I'm an SOB and totally baited/trolled my old frat brother.

Trent McCullough I wonder if that includes farm subsidies?
33 minutes ago · Like


Dave Ballance Trent McCullough, I grew up as a farmer on my family's small farm in TN.

Getting up early and in the cold, regardless of weather in deference to the creed of the USPS to feed and take care of animals. This is one of the things that helped put me through college

Things have changed quite a bit since then. I know you as great person so I'm going to take that your comment was meant to point out the absurdity of farm subsidies that benefit large land owners and corporations.

To take it in any other context would be disrespectful of you as the person I know.
8 minutes ago · Edited · Like

May 30, 2014

A post to my friend on FB in response to his comments about Snowden.

You know I love you.

I have to disagree with you on your conclusion Snowden is a coward. He gave up his ENTIRE, VERY COMFORTABLE LIFE to expose the rabid spying that our government perpetrates upon us.

Exposing that has caused a world-wide discussion about government spying and has inspired bills that will, if passed into laws, protect us from the same sort of data gathering used by the Nazis to identify the Jews, Roma, Polish and, yes, Gays. These data were later used to round up and exterminate people who were thought to be antithetical to the state. YES! the same sort of data collected to separate "patriots" from people who were deemed dissidents - like us queer folks.

Snowden tried his best to hand the data over to organizations that, in the past, served as protectors of our rights in concert with the real meaning of the 1st Amendment. The Washington Post was brave and pivotal in our understanding of the Vietnam War through publishing the Pentagon Papers that Daniel Ellsberg exposed. Oh yep, that was illegal too in case you may have not noticed.

Not so much these days as we've seen that the Post and NYT have become a puppet for the government propaganda under people like Judith Miller. Also very afraid and reluctant to publish anything really critical of the government.

After 9/11 the "news" organizations have largely been cowed to toe the corporate news or be shunned by an overwhelming set of people who proclaim to believe in "democracy" and "representative" government but don't, at all, practice what they preach.

Snowden is a PATRIOT. NOT a Benedict Arnold OR COWARD. He's quite brave to have put his life in danger. In danger it is. Off the cuff comments by our politicians and the administrators of the NSA make it quite clear they'd like to silence his voice by killing him. That is certainly at odds with our founders' intention.

Also note that the only person who has served jail time in exposing the horrors in Abu Ghrab was the person who EXPOSED our use of torture. Not a single one of the people who actually used torture in your name and my name.

----
The response to my post and arguments on his thread - crickets. Not a single post to argue against my points.

Facts are a curious thing. They do tend to support the views of liberals in the common light of day.

May 29, 2014

"Milk the AFA" A new campaign for equality.

Let's start a campaign to send the AFA mail with Harvey Milk stamps.

Wouldn't it be fun to flood their mailbox with thousands of letters sent with Harvey Milk stamps. I'm game. Who wants to join me?

Make sure you write on the letter "Donation Inside" and don't put on a return address label. We don't want to burden the good folks at the USPS who are mainly our union sisters and brothers.

Share this idea on your FB and other social media.

March 7, 2014

A Real Obamacare Success story – Me

As some of you know I've been unemployed on and off (mostly unemployed) for the last couple of years so things have been difficult overall. In December I signed up for Oregon's health care plan because Oregon was one of the states that extended Medicaid. Since I've been paying Social Security Medicare and Medicaid insurance out of my paycheck for over 30 years really don't feel guilty signing onto the plan.

I got my insurance card from the administrator called Family Healthcare in early January. I put the card in my wallet like I always do with insurance cards. Since I'm a relatively healthy non-smoker, non-diabetic I pretty much thought that was last I'd see of that card for some time. Well, the Spaghetti Monster or whatever God, Goddess, demon, etc. decided otherwise.

On January 26 I slipped and fell and broke my left humerus. I did quite a number on it. In the ER they just looked at it, through me in a sling and scheduled me for surgery the next day. The break was so bad there was no chance of just setting it and putting it in a cast or brace to heal. At the ER they took my Family Healthcare card just plug it into the system and I was all good to go.

I had my first surgery on January 28. It seemed to go okay. Except the following Tuesday I was back at the doctor's office because it was oozing pretty bad. They cleaned it up change the dressing and set my next follow-up for one week out. At that follow-up, it was determined that the first surgery wasn't working. So they scheduled me for a revision surgery. That was done on Feb 12. Turns out that didn't go any better than the first one. And to add insult to injury I got a staph infection. The effect of that was they had to schedule a third surgery to rip out all the hardware clean out my wound thoroughly and start me on a 6 to 8 week antibiotic regimen.

On 26 February I had my third surgery. As I said they took out all the hardware, and the top of the humorous that is the ball part. At this time I was officially diagnosed with osteomyelitis – a bone infection. They kept me in the hospital for five nights to give me antibiotics and monitor the cultures they took to see if they grew any new bacteria. I got released on March 3.

Now, I'm on a 6 to 8 week home infusion regimen of antibiotics. When the nurse came to train me how to do the infusion she looked at my insurance and said "You are on Family Care, so you're 100% covered."

You are 100% covered is the theme of my insurance coverage right now. So far, I've had three surgeries, one ER visit, four office visits and the associated pain meds (oxycodone). All with zero expenses to me. Which is great since there's no way in hell I could have paid anyway. I would become yet another person who had to file bankruptcy because of a medical problem.

Here's a pic of my x-ray from 26 January at the ER. Hopefully I got the link to work properly. If you are thinking "OUCH" then you got it right.

March 2, 2014

Alternet provides this weeks top 10 right wing idiots.

Putting aside all of the nutjob reactions to the veto of Arizona’s crazy anti-gay law, some of which were chronicled here, right wingers were still plenty busy mouthing off this week.

http://www.alternet.org/10-biggest-right-wing-idiots-week-not-even-including-arizona-homophobes?akid=11560.1084699.Vaewxd&rd=1&src=newsletter964793&t=3&paging=off¤t_page=1#bookmark

Sorry for only having a link, I was having trouble pasting a snippet.

February 21, 2014

An example of how not to be a parent.

Here's a link to a Huffington Post story about an advice columnist responding to a parent whose kid is gay. The calmness advises them that it's wrong to try this change their sons orientation.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/19/ask-amy-homophobic-mother_n_4302316.html

I'm also including a link directly to the parents letter. The parents letter kind of frames the parent as a self-centered jerk. In the letter you will see that the parent seems to be more concerned about the parent being made fun of by the church group than about the kid. Also the parent apparently forgot the kid's birthday for the last three years. There will not be a parent of the year award for this one. "I have a busy work schedule" is not really a good excuse for being a bad parent. And yes, you are a bad parent if you forget your kid's birthday three years in a row. I hope you don't have a dog.

link:http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/ask-amy-parent-pressures-gay-son-to-change/2013/11/12/a46984d0-4815-11e3-bf0c-cebf37c6f484_story.html

February 20, 2014

Dog nail cutting tips - any help appreciated.

My dog absolutely hates having his nails cut. I know this is something that many of us encounter. Does anybody have some good suggestions for how to work with the dog to make it less stressful for both him and me?

February 20, 2014

Exoskeleton helps paralyzed skier walk again. Exciting stuff!

Cross-posted from science forum.



link: http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-57619037-76/3d-printed-exoskeleton-helps-paralyzed-skier-walk-again/

Amanda Boxtel's doctors told her she'd never walk again. But her new 3D-printed exoskeleton says otherwise.
In 1992, Boxtel was paralyzed from the waist down in a catastrophic skiing accident. But 22 years later, thanks to a groundbreaking 3D-printed robotic suit developed by 3D Systems and EksoBionics, she's able to stand up and move around on her own.

Boxtel's new exoskeleton, the first of its kind, was custom-built for her. Designers from 3D Systems scanned her body, digitizing the contours of her spine, thighs, and shins, a process that helped them mold the robotic suit to her. Then they combined the suit with a set of mechanical actuators and controls made by EksoBionics. The result, said 3D Systems, is the first-ever "bespoke" exoskeleton.

This is really exciting stuff. If we can make the same sort of advances with this type of technology as we have with computers and networking people with disabilities like this skier have a much better life to look forward to.

February 20, 2014

Exoskeleton helps paralyzed skier walk again. Exciting stuff!

link: http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-57619037-76/3d-printed-exoskeleton-helps-paralyzed-skier-walk-again/

Amanda Boxtel's doctors told her she'd never walk again. But her new 3D-printed exoskeleton says otherwise.
In 1992, Boxtel was paralyzed from the waist down in a catastrophic skiing accident. But 22 years later, thanks to a groundbreaking 3D-printed robotic suit developed by 3D Systems and EksoBionics, she's able to stand up and move around on her own.

Boxtel's new exoskeleton, the first of its kind, was custom-built for her. Designers from 3D Systems scanned her body, digitizing the contours of her spine, thighs, and shins, a process that helped them mold the robotic suit to her. Then they combined the suit with a set of mechanical actuators and controls made by EksoBionics. The result, said 3D Systems, is the first-ever "bespoke" exoskeleton.

This is really exciting stuff. If we can make the same sort of advances with this type of technology as we have with computers and networking people with disabilities like this skier have a much better life to look forward to.