HeiressofBickworth
HeiressofBickworth's JournalMy concern about 23andMe
is a question of privacy. Is this an anonymous test, such as the HIV tests are (were?). Such personal information in the wrong hands can mean anything from loss of a job to identity theft and bank account and other financial theft. Their TV ads certainly do nothing to assure security, privacy and anonymity.
And they will have to invent
some kind of "treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors" upon which to bring charges and, of course, secure conviction in the Senate.
A belief that Obama was born in Kenya or a belief that he is a Muslim, don't fall into any of those categories. Opposition to the ACA does not fall into any of the categories. After multiple hearings, Bengazi hasn't produced any criminal charges. Hatred of a Black President isn't sufficient either. A manic desire to reverse two presidential elections isn't sufficient either. They can't just say, we want to be the party in power so let's impeach the sitting President -- and it would have to be VP Biden, too, before the Boner could become president. The list could go on and on. So what charges will they bring in order to start impeachment proceedings?
Yes, the crazy runs strong in Tea Party circles.
Not very visible
My little town has a population of 20,090 (2012 estimate) near Seattle. There are 21 churches with a mailing address in our town. There is also one mosque. The town has an ordinance prohibiting church bells or calls (mosque) or other noises emanating from a religious location. I occasionally get something in the mail from one of the local churches, but it is in the recycling bin before it even comes in the house. I rarely get door-to-door religious salespeople. My house is close enough to the LSD church that I've always believed I'm within their "zone" and over the past 35 years, I've had fewer than 5 such calls. Much to my surprise, last week I had a Jehovah Witness pair knock on the door to offer me literature (all the while claiming they were not trying to change anyone's religion to which I said, well, of course you are otherwise you wouldn't be here). The man asked why I wasn't interested in reading their pamphlet. I told him that I've read the beliefs of many different religions but I am an atheist and their message is meaningless to me. He asked me if I always felt this way. We had a nice chat about the belief in god being similar to the belief in Santa Claus -- a mythology that originated in childhood but for many disappears over time due to the lack of relevance, plausibility and evidence. It was a pleasant chat -- he was very curious about my beliefs. At the end, he even shook my hand and thanked me for being willing to share. It was the first such call in many years.
P.S. Oops. Make that LDS church. Fingers not working in proper order.
Just possibly the most frightening event I've ever seen
None of you may have noticed, but I've been involved in RL for the past month. Three hospitalizations and I'm not out of the woods yet (infected, blocking kidney stones).
While in the most recent hospitalization, the wards were pretty full so they put me (67 years old) in a semi-private room with a 98-year old woman. I doubt anyone knew what the evening would bring. She was cantankerous most of the day, but not out of control. At some point, she got around to asking the nurse who was on the other side of the curtain (curtain was between the beds). She was told it was another patient. All hell broke loose!!! She started screaming (and for such a little thing, she had a powerful yell) that it wasn't a patient but a reporter collecting stories about her to spread around the hospital. So far, I was shocked but not alarmed. The nurse left the room for a very brief time, but in that time, the lady used her TV remote as a tool to try to open the curtain between the beds, muttering that she could hear me whispering stories about her and was going to get out of her bed. I became alarmed because she was leaning over the side of her bed and I feared she was going to fall out and seriously hurt herself. The more unsuccessful she was in moving the curtain, the more agitated she became and continued to scream AT ME!! I realized that my very presence in the room was making things worse for her. By this time, my blood pressure was very elevated and they put something in my IV to bring it down. I was crying.
Although nurses reassured me that she would have had the same melt-down whether or not I was in the room, I still felt awful that somehow I was a trigger for the outburst.
It's hard to describe the feelings I had afterwards. Horror that I was somehow involved, saddened that she was experiencing full-blown "sundown" dementia (at one point she demanded to know if she was in jail), and realization that she was not the only person in the world suffering the horrors of dementia/Alzheimers. I still tear-up with sympathy for anyone dealing with this fearful situation. I can't imagine how stressful and challenging it would be to witness this, sometimes for years.
Now a word about the nurses (saints, all of them). They were the absolute soul of patience and kindness with the woman. She was talking gibberish and they continued to speak respectfully with her. She demanded to see a nurse -- one of them said, I'm a nurse, what can I do for you? The woman said she needed to go to emergency. The nurse told her that she had already been to emergency and was sent to this floor where they would take care of her. These conversations were circular but the nurses remained professional and caring. I was also impressed that they quickly saw that I needed to be moved to a different room and reassured me that they would move me as soon as possible.
Once I was moved, my BP came down and with a bit of pain med for the surgical procedure I had, I was able to sleep.
Real Life was just too real that night.
Profile Information
Gender: Do not displayCurrent location: Snohomish County, WA
Member since: Wed May 18, 2011, 02:12 AM
Number of posts: 2,682
