Category: Uncategorized

I’m sure you’ve heard it said that art resembles life, or something like that. Well, it didn’t take very long for people to draw comparisons between Star Wars, and Iraq Wars. And while George Lucas wrote the movie during the Viet Nam war era, he mentions that similarities could be applied to today’s war. I’m sure that George Lucas was surprised when Reagan referred to the anti-ballistic missile system as the “Star Wars” defense system.

Could this be somewhat of the Catch 22 of the 2000’s? Catch 22 was made into a film, released in 1970, that followed the life of a WWII pilot who just wanted to go home, but couldn’t because of the dreaded Catch 22.

While Catch 22 poked fun at the military’s “circular logic”. The bigger questions are about who runs these wars? But at the end of the day, the people who watch a war movie and don’t realize that War movies are supposed to leave you thinking about how they affect the individuals involved have missed something. They should consider that the men and women who enter into battle in defense of their country are individuals with hopes and dreams and families. War movies generally show one side as good and one side as bad. Yet plainly, as shown in the current Star Wars movie, who is good and who is bad is a matter of perception.

Hope you don’t boycott Star Wars because someone else might have read something into the movie that you don’t agree with. After all, it is a movie, and a good one at that.

I was in Key West this last week. While visiting the Custom house, I saw a display that talked about Yellow Journalism and references to the USS Maine.

Here is the picture.
Well… it seems that in this modern era, Yellow Journalism has hardly gone away. But you know, it’s too bad that the term has not been used as of late.

I think that if we want a change from these news gathering/reporting organizations, then we need to call them what they are. Newsweek put American lives at risk, without having all the facts straight. So when I see Yellow Journalism, this Blog is going to throw out the YJ alert! This is kind of like a bullshit flag, except, I’ll keep it specific to YJ.

I think that when News outlets use there tremendous resources to arbitrarily get convince you to have a specific view, then they are guilty of this.

This goes beyond erronous reporting, this goes to the heart of journalism integrity, which many agencies have lost.

Wednesday, April 27th 2005, I had surgery to remove my Gallbladder. I am finishing up my first day of recovery. I am restless and bored for the most part. This is a great chance to watch some movies, and write in my blog, when I can stand the pain in my stomach from sitting up.

The reason that I had my gallbladder removed was because it became enlarged and non-functional. No one really knows why it stopped working, but after significant amount of testing, it was clear to see it didn’t work. The ironic thing was that there were no stones, but I did have associated pain.

I’m getting better, but it’s happening slowly.

Cheers,

J

It seems to me that passing a high school civics class should be a requirement for all Americans. I always find it interesting that there is this confusion about the “Bill of Rights”. Many Americans think that we have these rights. Well, maybe we have “infered” rights, but really, those savvy founding fathers had a better plan. They realized that the authority of the government is inherently given by the people. Without the people, our government doesn’t work. So with that premise, it’s easier to remember what the bill of rights say.

Let’s look at the 1st Amendment:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

This is some pretty straightforward stuff. Government should be restricted and forced to stay an arms distance from getting involved in the affairs of the citizenry. And Congress better not try to abridge our rights, because the Judiciary will strike down any attempt at doing that, or at least we should belive that they would.

As you read through the rest of the Amendments, you finally get down to numbers 9 and 10. While they are rarely quoted in their exact format, when you read them, you can plainly see that it was never the intent of the Federal Governement to usurp government at the lowest level, the people.

Amendment IX

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

Amendment X

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

Check out billofrights.com

I wonder how many Congressmen/women can tell you what the Bill of Rights even says.

Well, as we bear witness to the end of Terri Schiavo’s life, did we learn anything?

How will we remember this person? I hope that she become synonymous with the problems of bulimia, rather than this right to die case. If we are so concerned with saving lives, we need to start with saving people who could fall victim to a similar fate.

We need to ensure that we maintain a living will, and ensure that everyone in our family knows what our exact wishes are.

Maybe, we will use this as a time to reflect on the need to do more in the neurosurgical research departments so that maybe at the onset of a persistive vegetative state, we can have some progress in have a roadmap toward any sort of recovery.

Both the parents and husband of Terri Schiavo have gone through a very tough time, and now are in mourning. They no longer need the circus of the media to continue this charade of following a story. Both parties need to have the space to mourn as they need to without the prying eyes of the public, and if not for them, then out of respect for Terri herself.

I don’t see her as a public citizen. She didn’t ask for people to even know her name. It has only been through the court system and the media circus that has played through the political system that has enabled this to occur. We can’t fix the past. It’s over. But we can do something about the future. As quick as politicians were to “politicize” this situation, I don’t think we will see their same alacrity in doing anything more to save other people from a similar fate.

For those of you who feel that you need to place blame I say this! Go Away. Where were you 15 years ago? What did you do to save this person from being bulimic? There is plenty of blame to go around if that is what you chose to get out of her death, but we should consider something greater. Blame never solves the real problems.

In death, I hope this helps saves people from becoming victims of bulimia.
In death, I hope this sends out the message to young people to get a living will, or at least communicate to your friends and family very clearly, your final wishes.

It seems that people who have a political motive in the Terri Schiavo case would have us view anyone who is involved in this right to die decision as a murder. I’ve heard the term, court sponsored murder used. Yet our government seems to be in the business of life and death decision making everyday.

The business of War, albeit messy, is one where the government can make a conscious decision to have members of the society give up their lives to support the greater good of the society. During this current war with Iraq, we have had over 1500, young and healthy Americans give up their life. They will never see their families again. They will never have another birthday.

When you look at the Viet Nam Memorial Wall in Washington DC, you see the vast number of names, and it is emotional and overwhelming.

But my point is that we can easily ask the youth of this great nation to make the ultimate sacrifice, in the name of ideology; freedom, democracy, the American way, yet we seem so wrenched when it comes to ending the life of a person who has been in a PVS for an inordinate amount of years.

I suppose I am just upset that the energy that was spent to try and save this one person is never used to save a greater amount of people. What about the homeless, the underinsured, or victims of violent crimes, etc…? But it seems that the US Government, specifically the legislature, that is happy to stop the business of government on behalf of a single person. I don’t think that is right, unless the plan is to stop the business of government for every single case of its type. We have a court system that is designed to interpret the law, and it has done that many times over.

The other aspect of this whole right to die thing is that there are two sides of this debate, the right to life-rs, and the pro-choice communities.

I would imagine that the right to life side lives with a bit more hypocrisy than the pro-choice community, but none the less, they both have some. Right to life says life is precious, except in the case of the death penalty, then they say, fry ’em, and shooting/killing a doctor here or there seems to be part of the stamp of approval of the pro-life folk, as well as maintaining your dead pool online.

Now the pro-choice folks, say government stay out of my business, but then tend to walk the anti-death penalty line. Obviously the reason is to prevent innocent people from being executed. Yet there are times when justice is only served when the death penalty is carried out. While it is proven not be a deterrent for future criminal activity within the community, it does deter one person from committing that crime again.

The people have spoken, and overwhelmingly support the Florida courts rulings with the Terri Schiavo case. I agree with the majority on this one.

It seems that for the Lay person, it is easy to be convinced that the removal of a PEG tube is potentially the equivalent to “murder”. Mrs. Schiavo is in Hospice care, and there are those who would prefer to vilify this hospice as doing misdeeds because it does not fall in line with their own personal and political agendas. We hear reports that the family is denied the ability to give ice chips and other nutrition to help comfort/prolong her life. I don’t know what the whole story is. I am convinced that we may not even know when we watch the TV movie of this crazy event.

But to classify the removal of a PEG tube as murder could change the face of Hospice care in America. This would criminalize the health care workers who bring comfort to our loved ones and ourselves in the end of days. America seems hung up on usurping individual freedoms and decisions, because some politicians believe they know what’s better for you and I.

So far, it looks as if the Justices have disallowed the political grandstanding to rue the day. Hopefully they (the politicians) won’t criminalize Hospice, there by forcing the doctors to make a decision about either putting the PEG tube back in, or face prosecution themselves. Of course this would the ability of people to die in dignity in America.

But let’s be honest, if Michael Schiavo really wanted to take care of this without all this political crap, he could have sought advanced medical attention in a country that doesn’t have all of these hang ups, then if nothing worked, requested to end the feeding tube.

Over the last few days, I have been bombarded by news here in Florida about Terri Schiavo. Terri Schiavo has currently been in a persistive vegetative state for over 14 years, and the husband has been attempting to remove a feeding tube from her, which has been necessary to sustain her life. The ultimate result will obviously be her death. The debate is whether or not it is the right thing to do doesn’t seem like it has much more play than a political beach ball (It’s big and bright, but is just a distraction for what’s really going on, on the beach).

The Gallup Poll organization reported that a majority of American’s support the removal of the feeding tube. Our politicians however have sought to ERROR, as it was put, on the side of life. Yet it is an error. There are too many reasons that this person should be allowed to die in dignity.

• Marital Bonds vs Parental Bonds – If the GOVERNMENT is quick to usurp the rights of spouses, then what validity does any marriage have in the eyes of the government. Does this mean that one must divorce their parents prior to marrying their spouse?
• Is removing a feeding tube MURDER? Well, if it is, then we can start to prosecute HOSPICE providers in this country for their humane desire to help people when they are at the end of their life, and have determined that they no longer desire treatments that could prolong their life.
• The decision has been made in the State of Florida, under the Laws of Florida and reviewed by the State Supreme court. The Republican party, which has for decades stood for State’s rights has determined that if they don’t like they out come, they will do whatever it takes to override a State’s lawmakers and judges to make it come out their way. But not only that, but in this case they violated their own doctrine to push a bill through Congress in record time, most likely to no avail but for political gains. Is Congress willing to do this again in EVERY case?

No person wants to lose a loved one. If there was reasonable proof that a person could possibly regain their ability to have their life back, then it would make sense to prolong this persons life. However after 14 years, there becomes a point when one must recognize that the quality of life will not get any better. We can only determine what we would do in the event of a situation involving our own loved ones.

I for one would not want to live in a persistive vegetative state. Every person should have a living will to prevent the angst that this family has had to endure.

Politics and family squabbling set aside, allowing the feeding tube to be removed is the right thing to.

Most people who join the military at 18 aren’t really thinking about Patriotism and all of those issues. At towards the end of the book, “The Cain Mutiny”, by Herman Wouk, he suggests that people select military service, just as a person selects any other way of life to make money, except, there are no great rewards for military service. You’ll never be rich from serving your country. It is just the fact that we have people at the ready during times of peace, so that when there is times of war, a trained and ready military can do something about it.

“See, while I was studying law ‘n’ old Keefer here was writing his play for the Theater Guild, and Willie here was on the playing fields of Prinshton, all that time these birds we call regulars – these stuffy, stupid Prussians, in the Navy and the Army were manning guns. Course they weren’t doing it to save my mom from Hitler, they were doing it for the dough, like everybody else does what they do… Old Yellowstain, for dough, was standing guard on this fat dumb and happy country of ours… Of course, we figured in those days only fools go into armed service. Bad pay, no millionaire future, and your can’t call your mind or body your own.”

It is no different today than it was in WWII. Buy his book today!

I just went to a Concert at the House of Blues, here in Orlando, FL. And while this may seem to be an innocuous entry, yet when you think about it, you may agree that times are a-changing.

They packed us into the house of blues to see Sister Hazel. It was a decent concert, however two things really got to me about the overall “concert experience,” at least at this venue. First of all, people have become extremely rude. I don’t know if I’m just getting older, or if my observation is correct. I do believe though that with people bring cell phones and all sorts of different devises with them to these concerts, that it is way out of hand. But not only that, people just don’t shut up when the concert begins. It was like someone turned on the radio, so everyone started talking louder. The sound guy at the back of the room didn’t even turn up the sound, so much of the vocals were drown out by the conversations and mindless chatter in the room.

OK, so I couldn’t hear very well, but HOB doesn’t provide chairs at their concerts, its standing room only. I suppose that’s ok, but people crowd you out there. You think you have space and you don’t. The more people that move in, the more they push forward and squeeze you out. I thought that I was legally marriage in 14 states after that experience. HOB could provide quite a few more chairs. It would make it so much more enjoyable, but what can you do.

My whole point is that people are not as awed by seeing concerts as they once were. It’s just a club and the music is a secondary event. Maybe a “bigger name” would make a difference, but I’m not so sure.