Budget Cutbacks

Due to recent budget cutbacks, the rising cost of electricity, gas, and oil, plus the condition of the economy, the "Light at the End of the Tunnel" has been turned off.

We apologize for any inconvenience.

Blame Doug. That's the "Before" picture.

Image from 4urpets.

My Day

10:00 AM: Appointment with orthopedist for steroid shots in my knee and my foot to prop up the appendages of this old body for lotsa walkin', because I leave for England next Wednesday. Yes! THE BIG TRIP is getting close! I did not get out of the orthopedist's office until 11:30 AM (he's the doctor of the long waits) which made me late for...

11:00 AM: Appointment with audiologist, who was kind enough to see me, although I did not arrive until 11:45 AM. She did what needed to be done for me there, and I went home to make several important phone calls and eat lunch between phone calls before heading to...

3:15: Appointment with otolaryngologist to have the crap cleaned out of my ears before THE BIG TRIP.

Tomorrow, I have an appointment for a haircut, so that my unruly hair will be easier to manage on THE BIG TRIP, and then I'll be done with appointments, and I can begin to plan what I'll pack for THE BIG TRIP.

I haven't done much online or with email today. Sorry.

From Roseann - A Little Good News

From Roseann at Give Peace A Chance:

A little good news for a change

One of the reasons UAMS turned me down for transplant is the fact that I've had gastric bypass surgery. Gary got online last night and did some research that shows gastric bypass patients actually live longer with a kidney transplant than the general population. Did UAMS just miss those studies? I think they are only interested in low risk transplants because it keeps their numbers looking good. Better numbers, better chances of research grants. Way of the world, huh?

I'd like to call on my blogger friends to help if they can or if they have time to find any research on gastric bypass and kidney transplant. Good or bad it will help make our case.

I will fight as long as God gives me breath and strength and the will to go on. I slept almost 20 hours yesterday
which rested my soul and my heart. I will not give up. I will not go gently until God tells me it is time.

I love you all. You sustain me. You inspire me. I pray for you all daily. Until Terri sings I'm not giving up.

Love, Roseann

Roseann, this is good news. I knew you were a fighter. I knew you would not go gentle. I love you back, my dear friend. Prayers for you and Gary continue. May God bless you both.

To my readers: If you want to send a message to Roseann, whether encouraging or informational, please go to her blog, which is linked above.

Hillbilly Kid In The Marines

Dedicated to Arkansas Hillbilly.

Dear Ma and Pa,

I am well. Hope you are. Tell Brother Walt and Brother Elmer the Marine Corps beats working for old man Minch by a mile. Tell them to join up quick before all of the places are filled.

I was restless at first because you get to stay in bed till nearly 6 a.m. But I am getting so I like to sleep late. Tell Walt and Elmer all you do before breakfast is smooth your cot, and shine some things. No hogs to slop, feed to pitch, mash to mix, wood to split, fire to lay. Practically nothing.

Men got to shave but it is not so bad, there's warm water. Breakfast is strong on trimmings like fruit juice, cereal, eggs, bacon, etc., but kind of weak on chops, potatoes, ham, steak, fried eggplant, pie and other regular food, but tell Walt and Elmer you can always sit by the two city boys that live on coffee. Their food, plus yours, holds you until noon when you get fed again. It's no wonder these city boys can't walk much.

We go on 'route marches,' which the platoon sergeant says are long walks to harden us. If he thinks so, it's not my place to tell him different. A 'route march' is about as far as to our mailbox at home. Then the city guys get sore feet and we all ride back in trucks.

The sergeant is like a school teacher. He nags a lot. The Captain is like the school board. Majors and colonels just ride around and frown. They don't bother you none.

This next will kill Walt and Elmer with laughing. I keep getting medals for shooting. I don't know why. The bulls-eye is near as big as a chipmunk head and don't move, and it ain't shooting at you like the Higgett boys at home. All you got to do is lie there all comfortable and hit it. You don't even load your own cartridges They come in boxes.

Then we have what they call hand-to-hand combat training. You get to wrestle with them city boys. I have to be real careful though, they break real easy. It ain't like fighting with that ole bull at home. I'm about the best they got in this except for that Tug Jordan from over in Silver Lake . I only beat him once.. He joined up the same time as me, but I'm only 5'6' and 130 pounds and he's 6'8' and near 300 pounds dry.

Be sure to tell Walt and Elmer to hurry and join before other fellers get onto this setup and come stampeding in.

Your loving daughter,

Alice

Thanks to Lapin

Lord, Have Mercy!

I have rather strong personal feelings against abortion. I don't know if I could ever have had one, but I was never faced with making that decision. However, I dare not judge women who choose to have abortions.

Having said that, I am appalled by the decision of Roman Catholic Archbishop Don Jose Cardoso Sobrinho to excommunicate the mother of the nine-year-old girl, weighing 80 pounds, who was pregnant with twins, and the medical staff who performed the abortion on her. Such hard-heartedness and lack of compassion, seconded by the archbishop's superiors in the Vatican, is difficult to take in.

The girl was raped repeatedly by her stepfather from the age of 6. The step-father is not excommunicated, because what he did was not an excommunicable offense. If repeatedly raping a young girl from the age of 6 to 9 is not grounds for excommunication, then it should be.

A reader called to my attention this story today from CNN:

However, the stepfather was not excommunicated, with Sobrinho telling Globo TV that, "A graver act than (rape) is abortion, to eliminate an innocent life."

The child was not excommunicated, Sobrinho said, because Catholic Church law says minors are exempt from excommunication.

"The church is benevolent when it comes to minors," he told Globo TV.

Apparently, the benevolence only goes so far, as the church would subject the girl to the risk of the death or severe damage to her health by forcing her to continue the pregnancy in which, in the end, the survival of the twins would have been doubtful.

Dr. Olimpio Moraes, one of the doctors involved in the procedure, said he thanked the archbishop for his excommunication because the controversy sheds light on Brazil's restrictive abortion laws. He said women in Brazil's countryside are victimized by Brazil's ban on abortion.
....

A new report by Brazil's IPAS, a non-governmental organization that works with the health ministry, indicates that more than 1 million women undergo illegal abortions in Brazil each year. About 250,000 are treated by doctors for traumas due to botched abortions, said Beatriz Jalli, an IPAS official.

I hope that Roe v. Wade is not overturned here in the US, for I would hate to see women forced, once again, into back-alley abortions with disastrous consequences.

Senator Vitter, Get a Grip!

From The Raw Story:

The Republican senator who found himself on a DC madam's client list is drawing new attention over "impulse control."

After missing a flight last Thursday from Washington to New Orleans, Louisiana Sen. David Vitter opened an armed security door and went off on a United Airlines employee, according to a report filed Wednesday by (paid-restricted) Roll Call.

The door sounded a security alarm.

Oh my! That's not nice, Senator Vitter. Every time you get in the news, your past history of associations with prostitutes comes to the fore. A spell of counseling on "impulse control" might be in order. The "do-you-know-who-I-am" rant was out of order. Get a grip, Senator. You've embarrassed the citizens of Louisiana quite enough.

H/T to IT for the link.

UPDATE: From the Times-Picayune comes a statement from Sen. Vitter about the incident:

"After being delayed on the Senate floor ensuring a vote on my anti-pay-raise amendment and in a rush to make my flight home for town hall meetings the next day, I accidentally went through a wrong door at the gate," Vitter said in a statement. "I did have a conversation with an airline employee, but it was certainly not like this silly gossip column made it out to be."

Oh, well, I guess he's OK, then.

UPDATE 2: Read the comments to the post at TPM.

Sad News From Roseann

Roaeann has been ruled out as a candidate for a kidney transplant. Go read her latest post at Give Peace a Chance. It's very sad.

Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

From Margaret...

...at Leave It Lay Where Jesus Flang It.

The reality is, when we are no longer able to comprehend action or anything else at all--dead to this world, it will not be our faith which saves us, but the faith of him who was raised from the dead which shall save us.

Ephesians 3:14-21

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, 21to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, for ever and ever. Amen.

"The 'T' in LGBT"

Watch the video, and then go read Katie Sherrod's remarkable post at Desert's Child titled "The 'T' in LGTB".

The "T" stand for transgender, the letter in the foursome that seems to receive the least attention, although it is the least understood by many of us.

The video is a commercial for a bank in Argentina. It's extraordinary!

H/T to Mark Harris at Preludium and to Ann at The Friends of Jake for the video.

A Little Louisiana History Lesson...

...From the desk of el-meaux:

If Hurricane Katrina causing the levees to break in New Orleans is the only thing you know about Louisiana , here are a few more interesting facts about the Bayou State:

* Louisiana has the tallest state capitol building in the nation at 450 feet.

* The Louisiana SuperDome in New Orleans is the largest enclosed stadium in the world.

* The Lake Pontchartrain Causeway is the longest over-water bridge in the world at 23.87 miles.

* Louisiana 's 6.5 million acres of wetlands are the greatest wetland area in America.

* The oldest city in the Louisiana Purchase Territory is Natchitoches, Louisiana founded in 1714.

* The first bottler of Coca-Cola, Joseph Biedenharn, lived in Monroe , Louisiana and was one of the founders of Delta Air Lines, initially called Delta Air Service.

* Delta Airlines got its start in Monroe , Louisiana when Parish Agent, C.E. Woolman, decided to try dusting the Boll Weevil that was destroying the cotton crops in the Mississippi River Delta from an airplane. It was the first crop dusting service in the world.

* Southern University in Baton Rouge , Louisiana is the largest predominantly black university in America.

* Baton Rouge was the site of the only American Revolution battle outside the original 13 colonies.

* The formal transfer of the Louisiana Purchase was made at the Cabildo building in New Orleans on December 20, 1803.

* The staircase at Chritien Point, in Sunset, Louisiana was copied for Tara in "Gone with the Wind."

* Louisiana is the No. 1 producer of crawfish, alligators and shallots in America.

* Louisiana produces 24 percent of the nation's salt, the most in America.

* Much of the world's food, coffee and oil pass through the Port of New Orleans.

* Tabasco, a Louisiana product, holds the second oldest food trademark in the U.S. Patent Office.

* Steen's Syrup Mill in Abbeville, Louisiana is the world's largest syrup plant producing sugar cane syrup.

* America 's oldest rice mill is in New Iberia, Louisiana, at KONRIKO Co.

* The International Joke Telling Contest is held annually in Opelousas , Louisiana .

* LSU (The Ole War Skule) in Baton Rouge has the distinction of contributing the most officers to WW II after the U.S. Military academies.

* The Louisiana Hayride radio show helped Hank Williams, Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash achieve stardom. It was broadcast from KWKH Radio in Shreveport, Louisiana from 1948 to 1960.

* The term Uncle Sam was coined on the wharfs of New Orleans before Louisiana was a U.S. Territory as goods labeled U.S. Were from "Uncle Sam ."

* The game of craps was invented in New Orleans in 1813 as betting was a common activity on the wharves.

* When states had their own currency, the Louisiana Dix French for ten) was a favored currency for trade. English speakers called
them Dixies and coined the term Dixieland.

* New Orleans is the home of the oldest pharmacy in America at 514 Chartres Street in the French Quarter. These early medical mixtures became known as cocktails (guess they were good for what ails ya?), coining yet another term.

* New Orleans is the birthplace of Jazz, the only true American art form. Jazz gave birth to the Blues and Rock and Roll music.

Vive La Louisiane!!!

You win some, and you lose some. Who knew that the boll weevil destroyed crops from an airplane! I have not checked all these facts out for accuracy, so if you know that one or two are not true - well, good for you.