Dash Cam Video Of Crash

And a couple more pictures. In looking at the video we realized that she blew through TWO red lights at speed.  Fortunately for the people at the other light they hadn't started moving yet.  They probably were sitting there blinking in surprise.

Poor 26 year old was driving his grandfather's SUV when he took the first hit.  He kept apologizing for something completely out of his control.

The perp's car.

Amelia got off lightest because she was in a good quality car seat.  She has an abrasion on her collar bone from the strap but she says it doesn't hurt.  She was a trooper through the whole thing.  They took her out in the seat and strapped it into the ambulance jump seat.

We are so grateful for that car seat.  It was expensive but proved itself worth every penny.

Dash cam video:

If It Weren't For Bad Luck...

The brown is oil.  There was kind of a lake's worth of it in the road.

That would be my daughter being loaded on the stretcher.

Daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter were on their way to granddaughter's eye doctor appointment this morning when a woman blew through a red light just as everybody in the cross street was pulling into the intersection.  She clobbered the SUV on their left - in the dash cam video it looks like the front of the vehicle just explodes - and spun one vehicle into another until at least four cars were totaled.  They spent the afternoon in an ER with three others that were involved.  The only good thing other than the lack of serious injury was that the woman who caused the accident was in the next bay and we got to hear the responding officer chew her out when she admitted she was looking at her GPS:  "YOU PUT SIX PEOPLE IN THE ER BECAUSE YOU WEREN'T PAYING ATTENTION TO THE ROAD!!!"

And now I know about the idiocy of a no-fault state.  Despite the fact that SIL's dash cam clearly shows in a rather spectacular way that they didn't cause the accident, despite numerous witnesses who stopped and gave statements to the police, despite the fact that the driver admitted to the police that she was looking at her GPS and not at the road, this is all on my family's auto insurance.  They had one payment left on the SUV, and now the SUV is gone.  Their rates may go up because they've made a claim.  What a stupid system.  Every bit of this should be on HER insurance.  If she even has insurance - it was clearly a Middle Eastern accent.

And the day continued its downhill slide when we finally got home and discovered that the dog had gotten into the Christmas chocolate and eaten enough to send her into tachycardia.  Pancake is now in the emergency vet hospital connected to an iv trying to slow her heart down.

There aren't enough swear words in the world to express my opinion of 2018.

What Scares You?

Day 7 of the tragedy of a "government shut down."  On Wednesday, the essential workers who were not on duty through Saturday, Sunday, Monday (holiday), and Tuesday (holiday) reported for duty.  Which means that more government employees were on  duty Wednesday, Thursday, and today than had been or will be this coming Saturday and Sunday.  During this catastrophe my retirement check was deposited in my bank account as usual this morning and the funds are available. Businesses and restaurants are open as usual.  It's obvious that the people who make it possible for the self centered D.C. bubble to exist just do not understand that their lives and businesses are supposed to grind to a halt because they can't function normally with just 80% of the federal government open.  Maybe they need another lecture from Maizi Hirono about how much smarter the dems are than them.

Woot!

I'm free I'm free I'm free at last!  And on my way to Detroit.

May all of you have a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

Well, That Was Fun - Update

Chemo gives all sorts of gifts.  Recently, one of the gifts has been fluid in my feet and legs.  Talked to the oncologist - he prescibed Lasik if it began causing problems.  Last week it started getting worse.  Took Lasik.  No help.  Increased the dosage.  Still no help.  Of course, I'm still dragging from chemo and the infection.  And trying to get ready to head for the kid's for Christmas.  I headed out yesterday, and 4 hrs of driving did not help my legs at all.  Fortunately, because I didn't trust my strength enough yet to do Detroit in one shot, I had reserved a hotel room at the half-way point north of Pittsburg.  I was checked in by 5 pm, dropped my bag on the bed, and thought I might as well stop at the local urgent care and see if they could give me a different diuretic or at least some advice.  Of course, particularly given my recent medical history, they weren't going to do anything without blood work, to be performed at the ER down the road.  And there's where everything went sideways.  Somewhere around 9 the ER doc walked in and I asked if I was broken.   He laughed and said "Yes, but it's something that can be fixed."  "Oh, good.  So I can go get dinner."  "Well, we have to talk about that."  First thing - the fluid is building up because my protein levels have plummeted.  Protein assists in moving fluid from tissue into the veins.  Without it, the fluid just builds up.  Second, and more importantly, my potassium levels are at a dangerously low level (severe hypokalemia) and I'm at serious risk for my heart going fluey.  At which point he dated both of us:  "It's the same condition that killed Karen Carpenter."  I get to be wired to a heart monitor and pumped full of potassium - nasty orange drink (No, no, that does NOT taste like Tang! Liar!), two IV rounds, and horse pills.  I ain't seeing that hotel room until I'm out of the danger zone.  So, here it is, 4 pm the next day, and a blood draw at 6 will tell me if I'll be kicked loose.  I won't be heading on to MI tonight.  My bag is in the hotel office and I'll just pick it up, check back in, and hopefully actually get some rest tonight.  Hospitals are not restful.

At least the food is decent.  I'm good with salisbury steak for dinner.  And I'll be really focused on nutrition from here on out.

Update:  No joy.  The potassium is coming up but somehow since last night I've become anemic.  Apparently my system is having a hissy fit.

Did I Hear That Right?

I haven't been keeping up much with details of the news.  Just haven't felt up to it.  But a couple things caught my attention over the last couple weeks.  They made me go "Huh?"

The first, of course, is that the media and never-Trumpers, in their never-ending quest to overturn the 2016 election, are hyperventilating that Trump is going down for campaign finance violations.  But it's for a payment made out of his own pocket, not campaign funds, as part of a non-disclosure agreement.  Which the other party has flagrantly broken.  So, 1)  Why isn't the party that broke the NDA in court for breaking the NDA?  2) How can it be a campaign finance violation if it was Trump's own money that paid for it?   And, finally, 3) How can the same people who told us "It was just sex" when Bill Clinton was disgracing the Oval Office look any Trump voter in the eye and use Stormy Daniels as an example of Trump's corruption?  (I'm talking directly to YOU, George Steponallofus, as an example). Guess what, folks, Trump voters knew what they were getting when they voted for him, and we did EXACTLY what YOU told us to do when it was a dem:  we got over it, we ignored it because it was "just sex".  In other words, we treated Trump just like YOU treated Bill Clinton.  Oh, never mind, it's the same people who wail about pedophile priests while advocating homosexual scout masters.  They are good at not bothering to think.  It's the "superiority 'r us" crowd.

The other is the caravan of rather demanding migrants at our door.  I only heard bits and pieces the other day while I was cooking, but it made me blink.  A written demand that the US speed up the asylum process OR give them $50,000 apiece to go home.  To begin with, we don't HAVE to give ANY of them asylum - Mexico offered, they declined.  They can just stay in Mexico if we decide not to grant them entry.  Except Mexico wants them to go home.  Then there's the little issue of ASYLUM supposing to be for those who are in fear of their lives.  If they are given $50,000 and go home, how are their lives in less danger?  If Jewish refugees had been given $50,000 and they went home to Germany would THEIR lives been in any less danger?   And then there was the kicker: the money is for reparations for US interference in Central America.  That would be one thing, but the complaints about US interference are FOLLOWED by a demand for, get this, the US to go in and remove the current Honduran president, Juan Hernández.   Huh?  You want us to pay reparations for interfering AND interfer? If I heard that right, that's a head scratcher, that is.           

That Was Icky, But Things Are Much Better

So Urgent Care put me on 2 different antibiotics for my infected toe and said to see a podiatrist.  I was amazed at how much better I felt physically after just a couple doses of antibiotics.   There's always been 4 or 5 days of hell after chemo, then I start pulling out of it.  This time I only stepped up from hell to serious purgatory and just stuck there.  Cue the antibiotics and I bounced right into normal post-chemo recovery.  I think what I was blaming on the chemo was the effects of the infection on a run down body.

I was fortunate enough to get into see a podiatrist yesterday afternoon.  At least I thought I was fortunate until she took one look and said "OK, let's clean that up and see if I need to take all or just part of the toenail off."  WHAT!?  TAKE THE TOENAIL OFF?!  OH EW OH ICK OH YUCK!!!!"

You have to understand - I have this strong reaction to nail things.  Snagging one, bending it back, even if it's not enough to hurt, makes me queasy.  And it makes me jump around while saying "Ew ew ew ew!"  As it was, my foot was twitching, and that toe had a force field of pain around it that caused even air to hurt.  The idea of the toenail being taken off made me want to throw up.

But it had leaked nasty stuff and had to be cleaned out. The blankety blank anesthetic injection hurt like the devil, but she then pulled a makeshift screen around so I didn't have to watch the rest.  And then the nail basically fell off when she touched it - it was already completely detatched from the nail bed.

Today that toe was really, really angry about being fooled with but even hobbled I have felt so much better and stronger that I was more mobile than I have been in weeks.  I've spent the time cooking from scratch - nothing tastes right but I'm no longer having to force myself to eat and so I can concentrate on nutrition.  Not to mention that there's nothing wrong with my sense of smell and good food cooking all day makes a house smell lovely.

Owned

And folded, spindled, and mutilated.

The media is trying to spin Trump's meeting with Pelosi and Schumer every which way but the way it happened.  Trump was loaded for bear when Schumer and Pelosi walked into the White House and he wasn't going to be rolled by those two.  My favorite pic I've seen from that encounter:

Yes, Chucky, elections have consequences, and Donald Trump was elected president.  Not you.  So don't lecture him on the subject, 'K?  Even if you and your disgusting and contemptible party HAVE worked for two years to deny us our 2016 vote.

And oh, by the way, didn't Pelosi announce that they were going to have a transparent House?  If so, then why did she and Schumer demand that the debate over the wall funding be off camera?

Chicago Jesus found $150 billion to give to Iran so they could develop the nuclear capibility to eradicate Israel.  You were fine with that, democrats.  So you can find $25 billion just as easily as he did.

It's Probably Not A Good Thing...

...when the urgent care staff starts recognizing you.

One infection, one afternoon spent in urgent care dripping sticky, stinky ooze on their table, 3 new medications because the infection is both fungal AND bacterial.

And then I managed to drop my cell phone, edge down, right on the nail.  Bellowing was involved, followed by contemplation of crying. When I could breathe again.

No Matter How Bad A Day It Is...

...it's still better than having an eel stuck in your nose.

Dante Was Wrong

There are 10 circles of hell, not nine, and the 10th circle is full of chemo patients.

Once More Into The Breach...

... and the major chemo will be done.  There's still radiation and maintenance chemo to get through, and possibly physical therapy, but none of that can be as bad as the full chemo has been.  This time, at the end of what I, completely without affection, refer to as "hell week", I'll know as I crawl out of it that the cycle won't repeat.  Which is a good thing, because both physically and mentally, I'm fried.

I'd say I'm a walking side effect, but it's getting very hard to walk.  The weakness has been bad enough, but now my legs and feet have decided to make like the Goodyear blimp.  I suspect that I'll be on another pill after talking to the oncologist tomorrow.  And will get lots and lots of exercise trotting to the bathroom shortly thereafter until the fluid is dumped.

Some of the side effects have been pretty bad but controllable once we knew I was having them.  Hence lots of pills.  Some haven't been controllable: the weakness has left me needing a walking stick when I'm out because I can't trust my legs right now and I can't stay up long.  There's also peripheral numbness of toes and fingers: I haven't had contact with the middle three toes of my feet for a couple months and I'm getting rather used to constantly dropping things because I can't feel them.  The only good thing out of the numbness is that when I burned my hand while cooking the other day it didn't hurt nearly as bad as it should have - I was surprised when it blistered.  But that has a serious down side that means I have to be watchful of even small injuries because of infection.

Then there's the weird things.  Jaw muscle spasms.  They didn't warn me about that.  Twitching eyelids and constantly running eyes.  Which is better than the twitching eye BALLS some people get - yeah, that would be freaky.  My skin periodically announces that it's unhappy either with a fungal infection or just weird, painless splotches:

And my hands stink.  Took me two days to figure out what was going on.  Was doing the sniff test all over the house - the fridge, the toilet, my clothes, my arm pits... Then I realized it was my hands.  Scrubbed and scrubbed, thinking I'd somehow gotten something on them.  Smell didn't come off. Finally made the connection:  because of chemo damage, all of my fingernails and some of my toenails are separating from the nail beds.

The smell is from the nails as they separate, I guess from the dead tissue underneath.   Lovely.

And taste buds.  That one I did expect.  I just didn't know it would come in the form of always having a mouth full of very salty tasting saliva and a tender mouth that can render trying to eat something as simple as bread into having a mouth full of sandpaper.  There's a weird visceral reaction to certain foods, too.  I go "off" things.  One day eggs are as OK as any food is right now, the next just looking at them causes my whole body to go into a clench that's not exactly nausea but is a clear "Nope!  Don't even THINK about it!"  When the chemo started I thought, well, I need to make sure that what I DO eat is healthy.  Yeah.  Right. Now it's just whatever I CAN eat:  currently Ball Park hot dogs are classified as a "health food" in my house.  I'm not eating them often because of the salt content, but I CAN eat them, and as tired as I'm getting of meat (you need high levels of protein when on chemo) they are a welcome relief to just the texture of meat.  I'll be really glad when I can go back to my semi-vegetarian life that includes way more beans, home made paneer, and tofu. 

Well, I should stop pissing and moaning.  The worst is almost over.  I'm almost anxious to get there tomorrow because I know that a month down the road I should be heading, however slowly, into recovery from their dedicated attempts to poison me.  When I was at the bottom the last two cycles I was thinking "I don't think I can do this again."  Now I know I won't have to.

Whut?

Speaking of Data. And Legalization of Pot

Heard that recreational pot became legal in MA today.  Apparently there was quite a crush at the first legal pot shop when it opened this morning.

No, I don't feel that alcohol and pot are equivalent.  Alcohol has been much more deeply ingrained in human culture than other drugs have been, which is why making alcohol illegal failed.  And, anyway, how can adding a layer of people who toke and drive because they can openly buy and toke now to the layer of people who drink and drive be... helpful?

I've heard there's a lot of things that people who have been pushing legalization of pot (and stand to make money off of it) haven't been mentioning about what's happened in Colorado, the state that led the dubious way in the US a few years back.  Like an increase in DUIs - the layer of tokers I'm concerned about.  Worse, apparently Colorado has seen an increase in emergency room treatment of small children who have gotten hold of Mom/Dad's pot laced goodies and eaten them.

I haven't chased specific numbers to verify those counter-pot claims yet, but I did do a quickie check on something more general:  I found a report posted by the Colorado DOT that covers all deaths (including pedestrian) due to vehicle accidents from 2002 through 2018.  I dropped 2018 since we aren't done the year yet and plotted deaths per 100,000 population for 2002 through 2017.

Colorado's law went into effect in January 2014.  Note that fatalities had been declining, hiccuped up a little, then look what happens at 2014 and after.  Maybe it just indicates that too many Californians who can't drive in Winter had moved there by then.  Don't know.  But it is an interesting bit of information.

And I do find it pretty hypocritical that it's OK to suck marijuana smoke (you know, particulate matter) containing a drug (you know, THC) into your lungs and to expose the people around you to  secondary smoke from it but if you do the same thing with tobacco you are EVIL and will be confronted by pissy people who object to you doing it.

And then there is the raising revenue via taxes for health care argument for pot legalization.  Not hearing good things about where our tobacco taxes go in various states, either.  Apparently, not where they were supposed to.

Found It! For Borepatch...

I can't get the email thingy at Borepatch's profile site to work because, um, Luddite probably, but we had a brief "conversation" after one of his blog posts.  I thought he'd posted one of the examples but turns out it wasn't him and I actually had it buried on my own computer.  So this is sort of for him.

I spent 35 years crunching data.   At core, my former agency produces high accuracy data points on the earth's surface that create a network from which surveyors and mapmakers of every level of accuracy can hang their work.  For that you use data points, observational data, a certain amount of smoothing, and a sense that I can't explain, maybe it was experience, of what the numbers are telling you.  That sense was what had me worried about the agency's product when I left.  It was often clear that the younger data crunchers were seeing ONLY numbers, not information. There's a difference. They're not just numbers.  It's information that tells you something and sometimes what the numbers tell you is subtle.  The computer output from an algorithm doesn't flag that subtlety.  It's there in front of you but you have to recognize it. 

Anyway, I've seen this a couple places, and it pissed me off.

On the right, actual data locations, although I'm dubious about how much is really there.  There aren't a bunch of airports with weather kits close together in those areas - betcha.  On the left, complete misuse of the available data by maximum smoothing.  I suspect the computer program couldn't handle that little data over those large distances and did the computer program version of throwing up without crashing.  I've had it happen.  The output is useless because you drove the program crazy.

But gee whiz that computer barf creates an impression, doesn't it?.  An impression that guarantees employment.  Because that's how it works.  The primary purpose of a government agency is to continue its existence.  The work it was created for is gravy.  The primary job of every agency director is to get the money out of Congress needed to maintain the agency's existence with staff numbers at the highest possible levels.  This, of course, varies in degree and what the agency does and there are tons of government employees out there who just want to do the work and do it right.  I was one of them.  But you know those committees that are in charge of the purse strings for science agencies?  They probably know nothing about the subject matter they are doling out money for.  That's BEFORE you get to the "dumb as a post" part.

There's no validity to the map on the left.  They've manipulated data over huge distances in a way they should be beat with a stick for.

NOAA is a huge agency. My little agency is a part of it.  Most old-timers felt we were misplaced - DOT would be more appropriate.  When asked who we worked for, we never said NOAA.  But, whatever, I can guarantee that NOAA  has no intention of going away.  It does do many good things.  Good luck boating along our ever-changing coasts without their updated nautical charts or coming in and out of an airport without the surveyor who mapped the runways and the elevations of  the flight obstructions around it.  One of the face palms of one meeting with the purse holders of Congress was when one of them said that the Weather Service could be gotten rid of because people now had access to things like the Weather Channel.  None of the NOAA folks at the meeting said what they were thinking:  "WHERE DO YOU THINK ALL THE DATA FOR THINGS LIKE THE WEATHER CHANNEL COMES FROM YOU IDIOT?!!!!!!"  But most people don't know the details of things as deeply entwined with their daily lives as how the road they drive every day was laid out from Point A to Point B and so egregiously bad work like that map is how they are now keeping their staffing levels.  It is a dishonest and horrible misuse of data that makes me angry and gives me the desire to beat someone with a stick.

Dashing Through The Snow...

I Has A Sad

And my toes are cold.

Another Kavenaugh Accuser - Update

Oh wait.  Let's change that to "accuser is accused"...

Apparently good ol' Michael Avenatti is sitting in an LA jail on a felony domestic battery charge.  Scuttlebutt is he messed his wife's face up pretty good.

How about that karma thing?  Trouble is, I'm afraid this will just increase his fan base.  He's a dem and an anti-Trumper.  They only discard the ones that they think aren't serving a purpose anymore.  The rest they just think are sexier.  Remember Bill Clinton?

But I still can't stop laughing.

Update:  Apparently it wasn't his wife.

Trying To Decide What I Think Of It

My doctor tells me that sometimes by this point in this chemo regime they have to stop because the patient simply can't take any more.  I'm trying to decide if that makes me feel good about feeling like hell...

So.

I don't have regular TV.  I just have internet.  Which hasn't protected me from the never ending political ads.  Before every YouTube video.  At random moments during Roku movies.  And then there's my physical mailbox.  Whole forests turned into slicky paper ads.  And they go right into the trash.

Here in WV we have a battle between multi-millionair professional polititician  Joe Manchin and our state's attorney Pat Morrisey.

I've noticed two things because I can't escape them: Manchin's main arguements are 1) Morresy isn't a native West Virginian so he is BAD and 2) he was a lobbyist for drug companies and we have a major opiod epidemic so that makes Morrisey BAD.

So...1) I live in the eastern panhandle of WV.  I'd be very happy if everybody who moved here because of our lower taxes etc etc but wants to bring their stupid liberal voting here got the hell out. Stop shitting in our nest.  I'm originally from Preston County, WV.  My family has been in WV for nearly 200 years. We weren't gimmedats.  We built our lives out of the wilderness.  We are still farming the same land.  I was there in August.  I can't wait until this crap I'm going through is over and I can go back for another visit.  I'm already thinking about what I can take to our next reunion.  If you don't like our freedom and our country ways then you can get the hell out of our state.  But if you come here to build a life in that freedom then you are welcome and you can lay down right next to me in our family graveyard when the time comes. #&@!$%× anyone who thinks someone shouldn't be able to come here and build a life.

But 2.  2) REALLY pisses me off.

This is MY tie to the drug companies.

That's only a piece.  It doesn't include the drug that boosts my white cell count so that I have a chance to fight infections.  It doesn't include the 4 drugs plus antihistamines and steroids that get pumped into me for 5 to 6 hours every 3 weeks so that I can LIVE.  Because not that long ago in history I would just be preparing to die.  The cancer had spread. The drugs make me feel like hell but it's better than the alternative.

And the anti-drug adverts don't mention Joe Manchin's daughter.  She's a CEO of a drug company.  But that's OK if you are a dem.

When YOU go through a major health crisis THEN you get to say that drug companies are bad and shouldn't be in WV.  Until then you are just one more intellectually dishonest liberal.  And I am SO done with that.

So This Is OK

Armed New Black Panthers campaigning for Stacey Abrams:

But Republicans are violent.

Where Did He Go?

Is it me, or did the mad bomber story go very, very quiet very quickly?  Sort of like the Las Vegas shooting story.  I understand that they were trying to determine if Sayoc had an accomplice, but a week after snagging him it's like it never happened.

Don't You Find It Interesting?

We were told all during the Obama years that the Constitution is a "living document."  Or that it was "outdated."  And I actually had someone say to me in response to a statement I made about something being unconstitutional: "Oh, that doesn't matter anymore."

But, suddenly, when there is a possibility that the flow of new slaves for the Democrat plantation might be cut off, the same people are screaming that the Constitution is sacred, immutable, and should be taken exactly as written.

Obama declared he had a pen and a phone and his supporters cheered.  Well, suck it up, sunshines:  Trump has the same tools.  Goose.  Gander.

100

100 being the number of Isis members that the Honduran government has told ours they have snagged trying to join the so-called caravan heading north towards us.

Leaving aside that Mexico has offered that mob everything on a silver platter and they've rejected it, that alone is enough that the soldiers being placed on the border should be authorized to do anything necessary to stop them.

Isis cut the head off of this 14 year old boy in front of his parents because  he missed religious services.

A Halloween Decoration Suggestion For Murphy's Law

H/t my daughter

Whelp - Right On Three Counts.

I'm hearing that the guy they snagged for the fake bombs was partially identified by DNA left on envelopes.  Dunno for sure - the so-called news just make it up as they go - but if that's true then I'm confident they've got the right guy.  So my prediction that they'd find the perp quickly was right.

The mentally ill and stupid - also right.  Although I guess the stupid is so so, since bat-$#!+ crazy leads to less than clever actions.

The false flag part, not so much.  But I failed to factor in the mentally ill and stupid in that one.

A thought or two about Sayoc.  Body builder:

Steroids?  That's a fair amount of mass.  And steroids and Very Bad Behavior often seem to be tied together.

And the van (although this is more about me than him):

I won't put a SINGLE Trump bumper sticker on my suv because I live too close to DC.  I can't afford the deductible for repairs for vandalism.   

I hope Sessions wakes up long enough to nail this guy to the wall.

Update:  DNA or partial finger print?  Fake or real?  Still hearing both.  Somebody definitely has been just making it up as they go along just to have something to say.

It Is A Head Scratcher

Multiple bombs.  Or fake bombs - don't know what's what yet.  Delivered to people who never open their own mail, using Debbie Washherhair Schlitz as the return address.  Two weeks out from an election where the party of asses has so truly proved that their symbol is appropriate over the last 2 years that they are in trouble.  Slaves are leaving their plantation and they need time to import more. Or at least sign up more dead people.

But it's so dumb, it's approaching being a joke.  There was no chance the bombs would reach their targets.  The places the bombs showed up most likely have security cameras up the wazoo.  There is probably forensic evidence all over the bombs and envelopes.  This isn't like Robert Mueller's botched anthrax investigation after 9/11 - I think they'll have a suspect pretty quick.    Yes, I believe it's a false flag sort of attack: the timing is too perfect, particularly with a perfect example of what the Americans who don't live in an arrogant bubble full of a misplaced sense of superiority (i.e. liberals) DON'T want marching north.

Personally, I'm inclined to think that it's someone who has some serious mental issues simply because I have a lot of trouble believing that the person who has been passing out bombs the last few days could really believe they'd get away with it and still have any serious contact with reality.

Nope

Not fun at all.  The effects of the chemo are becoming culminative.  Fourth round was Tuesday.  I feel like hell.  Two rounds of this misery left to go.  Getting harder to remind myself that when it's done I will live instead of dying of cancer.  For that matter, it's getting hard to think.

It Got a Bit Stormy

Or is it that Stormy got bit?

H/t weaselzippers.us

Heh

One of the joys of being retired:  I have to be told that a particular day is a holiday.

Overheard on the radio this morning:

Columbus was the original Democrat:  He didn't know where he was going, when he got there he didn't know where he was, when he got home he didn't know where he'd been.  And he used somebody else's money to pay for it all.

The Woo Woo of The Polygraph, Part 2

Yes, I know I was rambling in the first post.  This is sort of organic.

But back to polygraphs.  That word's been tossed around a lot about recently.  People seem to think they are magic. However, the New Lindsey Graham, who seems to have grown a pair over the last few days, actually hit the nail on the head when he fired back at a protester:

A polygraph is about as reliable as a dunking chair.

Ever hear of Gary Ridgeway?  Better known as the Green River Killer.  Passed a polygraph.  A bookend to Gary Ridgeway that you are less likely to to know: Melvin Foster.   Foster, a cabbie, made the mistake of going to police with some suspicions.  They immediately made HIM the prime suspect.  And he flunked a polygraph.  As a consequence YEARS of time and resources were wasted trying to pin the murders on him while Ridgeway went on killing.

Maybe other names are also familiar:  Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen both went through regular polygraph screenings as part of their jobs at the CIA and FBI.  In fact, the final report of the National Academy of Science on polygraphs stated that they were:

“unreliable, unscientific, and biased” and that in national security matters and for law enforcement use, the level of accuracy drops to such a level that “its accuracy in distinguishing actual or potential security violators from innocent test takers is insufficient to justify reliance on its use in employee security screening in federal agencies."

In other words, flip a coin, roll the dice, use phrenology.  While you're at it ask your local psychic to send my hellos to Aunt Martha.  Oh, wait.  I never had an Aunt Martha.  But they won't know that - it's all woo woo. 

And back around to James Randi, in case you were wondering.  In stumbling around Al Gore's Amazing Internet looking for info on the subject, I found an article written just last year by my favorite skeptical investigator - the quote above is from it.  He's 90 now, and still sharp as a tack.  You can read the full article here.  It actually has some pretty concerning information about the growth of the use of something that is so unreliable.

Oh, by the way, you know that pen a lot of places use to check for counterfeit bills?  It's woo woo, too.

P.S. - Before anyone asks, yes I do know James Randi is both an atheist and a homosexual.  My love of his research and his teaching skills do not mean I'd make him a scout master even though his life shows no signs of having an inclination towards minors.  We could have stopped 80 out of every 100 sexual assaults on children by clergy if that one rule could have been followed.

Apparently I Moved

To a third-world country governed by mob rule.

Personally, I think the affected office buildings in D.C. should be closed to visitors because there is a security risk to employees.  That includes the protesters invited in by Elizabeth Warren and others of that ilk to do as much damage as possible.  The buildings should be cleared, arrests made on disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.  If ANY sign of rioting starts outside, then they should be taken down old-school HARD.  As many as possible should be crammed in cells and should not go before a magistrate until sometime Monday at the earliest.  They want to pretend that we're in Venezuela, let's play it that way.

Orrin Hatch made one mistake when confronted with harpies at an elevator yesterday.  When that harridan screamed out "How dare you talk to women that way!" he should have calmly replied "I'm not."  They aren't women.  They carry xy chromosomes but they don't deserve to be called women.

And of course Linda Sarsour showed up to "lead."  That is all you need to know to know that liberal women are dumb as posts.

My 5 year old granddaughter gets about 30 seconds of this behavior and then is sent to her room until it stops and she apologizes.  She is much more an adult and a much better person than any of the screaming beyotches downtown.

Perjury

No woo woo part 2 today.  The one or two people who might have been anxiously awaiting it will have to wait - this is more important.

Anybody out and about has heard all sorts of bits and pieces about Christine Ford having possibly committed perjury during her testimony under oath.   Jeff Kuhner in Boston has actually been digging and following tips from his sources.  And he has some serious sources.  Today he published his report.  It should be read by all and posted everywhere, not just for the information, but for his spot-on conclusion.

She needs to be arrested for committing perjury

By Jeffrey T. Kuhner

The media is on the verge of pulling off one of the greatest propaganda coups in history. For weeks, our media elites have claimed that Prof. Christine Blasey Ford is “credible.” In fact, she is so credible, they say, that Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court must be defeated. They are wrong for one simple reason: Ford is a liar and a charlatan—a perjurer, who should be arrested for perpetrating a fraud upon Congress, Kavanaugh and America.

Ford claims that, when she was 15-years-old, she was sexually assaulted by Kavanaugh, who was then 17-years-old. This fundamental allegation has thrown the Senate confirmation process in chaos and risks derailing Kavanaugh’s nomination (and career). Due to her accusations, Kavanaugh is now the butt of national jokes. His life, reputation and good name are ruined. The media and popular culture mock him as a drunken rapist and lying sexual predator. He can no longer coach girls and boys basketball. Harvard does not want him to return to teach. His future as a federal judge is uncertain. In short, Kavanaugh—and his family—have been destroyed.

Yet, the media refuses to ask one seminal question: Is Ford telling the truth? The answer is: No. She is unable to identify the date, time, house or location of the alleged attack. Ford cannot even state how she arrived at the house party or how she got back home. The three witnesses that Ford cites—Mark Judge, Patrick Smyth and Leland Keyser—have repeatedly (and under oath) said the party never happened and that they never saw Kavanaugh do what Ford alleges. Keyser, her long-time friend, says she never knew or saw Kavanaugh—ever. Hence, Ford’s allegations are not just uncorroborated and unsubstantiated. They have been completely and directly repudiated.

Moreover, her story is full of holes and changing, false statements. In May 2012, Ford told her therapist—during a couple’s session with her husband—that the alleged assault took place in the mid-1980s, when she was 18- or 19-years-old. This means Kavanaugh could not have assaulted her. He was at Yale at the time in a different state. Yet, in her letter to Sen. Dianne Feinstein and in her testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Ford reversed herself, claiming the attack took place in the early-1980s when she was 15. On her polygraph test in the summer of 2018, Ford cancelled out “early 1980s” and replaced it with simply “1980s” when she discussed the time-frame for the alleged attempted rape. Ford also told her therapist that there were “four boys in the room.” Now, she says there were only two—Kavanaugh and Judge. In other words, her therapist’s notes hold the key to proving that Ford deliberately lied to the Senate. No wonder Ford’s lawyers are refusing to release her full therapist’s notes and polygraph results. They would expose her for the con artist that she is.

Ford claims that what triggered the 2012 therapy session was her trauma of the alleged Kavanaugh attack. The specific cause was a disagreement between her and her husband over whether to install a second front door to their house. She says the reason she wanted it was because a second door provided an “exit” in case of a future attempted rape. This is how traumatized Ford claimed she was. That is another lie. Building permits reveal that the second door was built at least one year before the therapy session—and maybe as far back as 2008. Ford and her husband were running a business/practice out of their home. This is why they needed—and installed—a second front door. One was for commercial use; the other residential use. It had nothing to do with her alleged anxiety and “sexual assault survivor” syndrome.

Ford has not only repeatedly lied, but committed perjury. She told the Senate Judiciary Committee—under oath—that, prior to the summer of 2018, she has never taken or helped coach/assist anyone to take or beat a polygraph test. This is false. Her ex-boyfriend, who dated Ford from 1992-1998, sent a letter to the committee signed under the penalty of a felony. He says he personally witnessed Ford coach a close friend, who had applied for a U.S. government job, on how to beat a polygraph. He asserts that, being a trained psychologist, Ford knew how to pass such a polygraph test.

Furthermore, he details all of Ford’s other lies—that she often flew on planes, including those with small-engine propellers, all over the world and never expressed any fear of flying; that she had no problem with confined spaces and living in small rooms/apartments with no exit doors; and that she never—not once—mentioned being sexually assaulted or Brett Kavanaugh’s name.

The evidence is overwhelming—and damning: Ford is an incorrigible liar, who has defamed an innocent, decent man. She has lied under oath. She has committed a serious crime. It’s time that Democratic smear operatives be held accountable for their slanderous, vile and false accusations. Ford must not be allowed to get away with it; she should be indicted and sent to prison.

What is truly frightening, however, is the media’s immense power. Through ceaseless character assassination, they are on the cusp of sinking Kavanaugh’s nomination. He is hanging on by a thread. Democrats are sensing blood. Key RINO Republicans, such as Sens. Jeff Flake, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, are wavering. Americans should beware: If the Democratic-media complex can transform a boy scout like Kavanaugh into a younger Jack the Ripper, then no conservative (and non-liberal) is safe.

It is not just Kavanaugh’s fate that’s at stake. It is that of traditional America itself.

By the way, the death threats against Kuhner and his family were already bad.  They've now reached the point where his wife has asked him to consider changing careers.

h/t WRKO

The Woo Woo of the Polygraph, Part 1

James Randi specializes in exposing woo woo.  A fine conjurer and escape artist, he followed in Houdini's steps and has dedicated his post-stage life to exposing what he calls "woo woo" - the fakes, the frauds, the charlatans that so infest society and that have gotten even worse with the advent of modern media and advertising campaigns.  If you were a Johnny Carson fan, you saw him take on a variety of fraudulent claims.  The likes of Uri Geller, various famous psychics, and nonsense like psychic surgery were all easily exposed by him.  He hates the "faith healer" charlatans the most:  he did excellent work with Peter Popov.  Unfortunately, the psychics, the channelers, the mediums and the faith healers simply found different audiences and they go merrily on fleecing people.  And earning big bucks.

I've been doing a lot of medical exploration when the chemo knocks me down.  I've been horrified at how otherwise intelligent and educated people are still falling for the huckster selling his elixir from the back of a wagon.

Snake Oil Salesmen

Also Purveyors of Quckary

We are surrounded by billion dollar industries that are being boosted by the buying public's willingness to believe in and rely on word of mouth rather than on actual documented scientific studies.  It sounds good, so, HEY, it must BE good!  And that guy with the YouTube video says THOUSANDS have benefited and SUPPLIES ARE ALMOST GONE SO ORDER NOW! They have a "Dr." in front of their name, so they must know.  Yeah.  Right.  Cigarette companies used to hire doctors as "consultants" to push their products, too. They paid them in cartons of cigarettes.  Modern snake oil salesmen like Mehmet Oz and Stephen Gundry take home cold, hard cash.  As do the marketers of fish oil, turmeric, high dose vitamin C, and the other fads du jour.

And people die.  Because someone on the web said do this instead.  Or they are marked for life because, hey, that stuff called black salve that EVERYBODY is recommending is better than going to the dermatologist, right?

I already had a particular antipathy for the nonsense known as homeopathy.  The little problem with it is that there is no way it can work.  A troublesome thing called Avegadro's Number gets in the way.  But, oh my, do homeopathic remedies sell.  Check out the pharmacy and the shelves next to checkout, especially come cold and flu season.

As Randi says, the only symptom that any homeopathic "medicine" can cure is a lump in the wallet and he does the best job I've seen explaining this particular bit of woo woo.  Take 15 to watch.  He's entertaining as well as enlightening.

To be continued...

A Laugh In The Midst Of It

A perfect response delivered from Grassley's chief counsel to ambulance chaser Avenetti.  I hope this is for real - I laughed out loud.

h/t weaselzippers

The Word I Was Searching For...

...is trivialized.  Feminists have trivilized women and they have trivialized abuse.

Oh, Just STOP!

I am so tired of the #MeToo thing.  Whatever it started as, it is no more than #LookAtMe! and  #I'mAVictim!

I really don't care about your trauma anymore.  I don't care about your victimization.  Bad coffee is somebody's trauma these days.  I'm tired of it.

Guess what?  Over the thousands and thousands of years of human history, millions and millions of people, both men and women, have been assaulted in many ways.  And I guaran-damn-tee you that millions of men and women have been assaulted in much greater ways than an unwanted grope - gropes women have encouraged by their behavior.  Here's a hint - don't drink and then be alone with males who have been drinking.  Don't dress like a slut and then come on to some guy you don't know and then think he's going to be fine when you try to walk away.  And stop gasping and saying I'm blaming the victims.  If I put on dark clothes and walk down the middle of a darkened street at night and get hit by a car, THAT'S COMPLETELY ON ME!  I set up the situation where it could happen.

Women declared years ago that they are exactly equal in ability to men.   And then they started whining.  SUCK IT UP OR SHUT UP!!!  YOU ARE AN EMBARRASSMENT!  You are an embarrassment with your pussy hats.  You are an embarrassment with your demands for free contraceptives.  You are an embarrassment with your demands for abortion on demand.  You are an embarrassment with your crying and whining and demanding that your actions have no consequences. You are a complete and total embarrassment with your endless laziness that allows you to constantly spout factual errors and feel superior in doing it.  YOU ARE A DISGRACE!  Japanese soldiers assaulted the hell out of my uncle on Iwo Jima and believe me they tried to do more than hurt his feelings.  He came home, had a family and built a long and successful life.  Sometimes life is hell.  It's up to you whether you decide to settle there and roast or walk on through and keep going.

I am not minimizing true sexual assault.  But even though its always been around we have for decades lived in a culture that encourages it by declaring women objects to be used.  Women have supported this.  And then they have whined and cried because it happened.  It took about 10 seconds for me to get tired of my daughter's whining when she was little.  I'm way past that now.

And despite being a very independent woman who had a successful career in a hard science that was male dominated, I will, never, ever allow myself to be called a "feminist".  Because today's women have turned that word into an epithet for me.

Nothing Has Changed

The Democrats were pro-lynching then, they are pro-lynching now.

They are also among some of the most anti-woman people in existence.  Ford will be discarded like the used piece of toilet paper the Democrats think she is, as will Kavanaugh's wife, daughters, mother.  And their feckless, lazy syncopants will chant on, noses in the air, still happily lying as they always have about abortion and what ever else has struck their fancy over the last few decades.

Still Denying... - Update

Update - It's fixed now, but this is why I hate bureaucracies.   BCBS in WV had to communicate with BCBS in VA because I live in WV but am being treated in VA.  Nobody knows why the claims were held up with Medicare queries.  The chemo bills were the only ones from VA denied.  I hate bureaucracies.

... payment for chemotherapy.  Blue Cross Blue Shield sent me a 2 page document that had a single question on each page.  Do I receive Medicare?  No.  Signed and dated and sent back immediately.  Got a call Friday.  Still denying payment for chemo.

Everybody and his brother has my birthdate. Except, apparently, my health insurance. 

Maybe if you have other options than BCBS you should consider changing your health insurance.

R. e. The Nomination

"As we know, he has refused to release his tax returns. If a person coming before this body wanted to be a Cabinet officer, he couldn't be if he had the same refusal Mitt Romney does about tax returns. So the word is out that he has not paid any taxes for 10 years. Let him prove he has paid taxes, because he has not."  Harry Reid on the floor of the Senate in 2012 just prior to the election.

 and

"I was told by an extremely credible source that Romney has not paid taxes for 10 years."  Harry Reid in a statement released the same day.

After the election, when asked if he regretted making untrue statements about Romney and taxes:

"He didn't win, did he?"

That's all you need to know about Democrats r.e. the Kavanaugh nomination.

And they aren't even able to recognize the irony of threatening Sen. Collins' female staffer with rape if Collins votes for Kavanaugh at the same time they are using a claim of sexual assault in order to block Kavanaugh.

To The Fool In the Potomac Today

I heard your cries for help across the river.  I jumped off the towpath and headed down the bank so I could look for a landmark I could use to guide rescue to you when I dialed 911.  The banks of the river are covered with a slick sticky goo because of flooding.  Halfway down my feet flew out from under me and I fell hard.  My back wrenched and my head slammed hard.  But I still scrambled and slid down because I could still hear you yelling "Help!  Help me!"  Only to finally see you and your buddies at a dock across the way.

That's not funny.  Not funny at all.

I'm having trouble getting around right now - I've pulled a muscle in my lower back.  And I got mud on my favorite hat.  The hat REALLY cheeses me off.

Sometimes People Should Be Punched in the Face...

...just as a penalty for being stupid.

OK, I shouldn't say that I guess.  It being all un-Christian and all.  But I am wading through the aformentioned PA Attorney's report and sometimes all I can think is "ARE YOU STUPID?!!!" and "YOU OUTTA GO TO JAIL JUST FOR STUPID!!!"

One that really chaps me is where you see copies of letters and notes that include references to knowing how violent one particular priest could be.  AND YOU LEFT HIM IN MINISTRY ARE YOU STUPID?!  Comments about other priests being afraid to work with him because he could be violent.  AND YOU LEFT HIM IN MINISTRY ARE YOU STUPID?!   Robot was running around waving his arms and yelling "Danger! Danger! Danger, Will Robinson!" even before sex abuse allegations AND YOU LEFT HIM IN MINISTRY ARE YOU STUPID?!

You'd think that a pricey psychiatrist/psychologist would recognize a sociopath. But apparently not.  You'd think about the umpteenth time someone got SENT to a psychiatrist/psychologist that the boss would figure out he was permanently broken. But apparently not. 

There are about 5,100 bishops in the world, and more than 414,000 priests.  Because some of them have been corrupt, or incompetent, or just plain stupid, they are ALL going to be condemned in the eyes of many.   And that's just one of the many tragedies that have been caused by the corruption, the incompetence, the stupidity of a few.

Here Comes Florence

My go-to meteorologist, Joe Bastardi, says Hurricane Florence is going to be Very Bad.  Like, Hurricanes Hugo or Hazel Bad.  And that, folks, is Bad.  Despite going through several hurricanes after my folks retired to NC, Mom still talked about how bad 1954's Hazel was in central WV to the end of her days.  And I'm familiar with Hugo because of my never-ending love affair with Charleston, SC.  They were still recovering when I first started going down there and reading Lunatic Wind convinced me to never, ever play with a hurricane.

Bastardi, who avoids hype and prefers just the facts, ma'm, does a good job of explaining how and why they've been expecting September to fire up and how Florence is pretty well doing exactly what they predicted days ago here  My sister, who lives east of Raleigh, is supposed to leave for a conference in Orlando Wednesday night.  I hope they still go - there's not a thing she will be able to do about her house and her dogs will be sheltered further inland.  The trouble with where she lives is not just that hurricanes don't always get knocked down below hurricane strength by the time they get there but that they spawn tornadoes across that flat, East Carolina land.

Here in the Eastern Panhandle we are looking at a whole bunch of inches, possibly FEET, of rain on top of days of  rain that hit us out of the west and has just sat.  Southern WV hasn't recovered from the flooding of a couple years ago.  And West Virginia is second only to CA in landslides.  Oh goody.

We won't have to worry as much, of course, about hurricane-force winds here.  But everybody is talking about what catagory Florence will make landfall as.  Finally saw an easy-reference wind-scale chart that I completely understand.

Guardedly Optimistic

Second round of chemo was Tuesday.  Thursday and Friday (I seem to get a day's grace period before it kicks in) I was extremely weak, but the stomach problems backed off before they could really fire up, and I haven't felt sick.  Today my legs were weak but I was able to get out and putter about.  I walk like Granny Clampett sometimes and I can't trust my legs - yesterday they just ceased to be useful and dropped me to the ground at one point - but even that is better tonight.  By this time the last cycle I was just down and miserable.

I even still have an appetite.  Everything tastes like that nasty salt substitute they tried to get people to switch to, but I'm still getting hungry.  Last time the appetite left for a 2 week vacation.

I've read that some people's bodies can adjust to chemo rather than it being an accumulative misery.  I'm trying not to get my hopes up, but today was a very good day for this point in the let's-poison-you-every-3-weeks cycle.

Huh?

So my insurance, Blue Cross Blue Shield, denied payment for my chemo.  Instead they sent me a document asking if I have Medicare.  Um, they're my health insurance.  They have my birth date.  They know as well as I do that I'm not eligible for Medicare.  Or maybe they can't do basic math.

Thar She Blows!

Er...goes!  My hair, that is.

It started Monday morning.

By Tuesday evening I had bald spots and was tired of the constant rain of hair. So...

If You Have Some Spare Change...

Yeah, I know, but every little bit helps.

The 26 year old son of an acquaintance and grandson of a friend from church was in a catastrophic head-on collision a couple days ago.  He is in critical condition with a multitude of broken bones and a de-gloved upper arm but when they don't have him in a medically induced coma he's alert and able to make jokes.

The remains of his car are on the truck and under the guardrails:

Kaz has a Go Fund Me, and anything you can throw that way would be deeply appreciated.   He and his family have a very long and difficult road ahead of them.

STOP Before You Even Start

No, this isn't about chemo.  Although feeling lousy from it has allowed me lots of time read.

I'm embarking on reading the 800-plus page grand jury report released by the PA Attorney General concerning priestly sex abuse in Pennsylvania, which has dropped like a bomb in the media.  Along with the news about Cardinal McCarrick, who, I think, was my archbishop at one point but I can't remember.  Bishops come, bishops go.  Most of those who were pope/cardinal/bishop when I converted are in the realm of very gone and have answered for any sins to another Judge.  But I figure that if I'm going to miserable I might as well add long documents read on a computer to the misery.  And try to offer it as penance.

I always notice that when stories like these hit the news many of the finger-pointers and superior-than-you-revilers are the same ones who dance to the gay pride, must-bake-a-cake, anybody-can-use-the-bathroom-they-identify-with tune.  "Pedophiles pedophiles!" they chant.  And yet the most in-depth study done to date after the Boston scandal, the John Jay Report, clearly found that 81% of the known incidents of alleged sexual abuse were male on male.  Psst - that's called homosexuality.  51% of the victims were between the ages of 12 and 15.  Another psst - that kind of homosexual is called a "chicken hawk" in gay slang.  You can look it up over at the gay wiki - I'm not posting that link.  But people work hard to ignore that because, like so many other things, it doesn't fit their narrative.  And they probably got all upset about the Vatican declaring that no known homosexual should be accepted into seminary because oh the poor gay guys are just trying to serve.  Well, a bunch apparently HAVE gotten to serve, so put up or shut up.

I noticed with interest from a summary of the John Jay Report that "The number of alleged abuses increased in the 1960s, peaked in the 1970s, declined in the 1980s, and by the 1990s had returned to the levels of the 1950s." Gee, I wondered what happened during the 1960s?

Note I use the words "alleged sexual abuse." The #MeToo blow up worried me - all it takes is allegations and your life is destroyed.  Sure Hollywood is sexually corrupt, but everything has gone to a "guilty until proven innocent" footing.  Accusations can be an effective weapon of destruction. Remember Salem?  Funny how the accused tended to be people who had crossed the accusers or their families at some point.  I guarantee you that there are plenty of people out there, including those who call themselves Christian, who will make false accusations just because you pissed them off.

A criticism of the report I'm going to slog through is that it's all accusations with no supporting documentation.  Perhaps that will come next with prosecution.   Accusations are not the same as truth.  If there is evidence of crime then any priest or bishop involved should be defrocked immediately and any civil action against them should be pursued.  It's not a time to whine about the poor gay guys, either.  Any known homosexual in Holy Orders at any level should be defrocked.  Unfortunately, sex crimes tend to have a statute of limitations.  And I don't know if the Vatican still actually has any authority over a priest once they are defrocked.  The fact that they've been defrocked doesn't mean they can't move around and celebrate the Mass anyway - they actually have the equivalent of BOLOs that go out sometimes because a former priest is doing this and trying to gather a congregation.

And, by the way, a Philadelphia judge (you know, that city in the state where that great big mostly homosexual abuse scandal happened) has ruled that religion-based adoption agencies cannot refuse to adopt to homosexual couples.

Now I get to the STOP Before You Even Start.  Like I said, I'm getting lots of reading done, including comments at news sites.  One of the common comments basically is "If priests could get married it wouldn't happen."  Just STOP right there.  That is so shallow that people who otherwise recognize that we have a societal problem should be slapped hard across the face the instant they say it just for a stupid penalty.  (If you don't recognize that we have a cultural problem then you are dumb as a post and a part of the abuse problem.)  At the very core of our culture is "I want what I want" and "Sex is god."  And one thing that the news does not report, including the so called conservative sites, is that Protestant churches are in the midst of their own sexual abuse scandals.  That takes about one minute of searching on "protestant sex abuse."  You hit sites like http://stopbaptistpredators.org/index.htm and http://reformation.com/ and articles like "The Silence of the Lambs."   But I have no patience for shallowness so deep that it thinks a guy being able to bang his honey anytime he wants is a solution to this illness.  My family has WAY too much experience with married abusers to have any illusions about marriage and predators.

There isn't a bit of this that should be unexpected. The "sexual revolution" declared that sex is a pleasure game, nothing more, that everybody had a right to that pleasure, and that the rules were old-fashioned, Victorian, and should be disposed of. Well, If YOU aren't bound by rules you don't like, if there are no eternal absolutes beyond what YOU choose, NOBODY ELSE is bound by rules THEY don't like! If I say it's immoral to shack up with your honey or have sex before marriage, you tell me to sod off - I'm old fashioned, I don't have the right to force my morals on you, I'm way behind the times. Well, guess what? Pederasts that like sex with altar boys or young seminarians have told YOU to sod off. THEIR rejection of rules say it's OK, just the same YOUR rejection of rules says its OK to do what YOU do.  You don't get to cry about abused alter boys.  You helped it happen.

I've Never Had...

... a root canal.  But I'm pretty sure it's more fun than chemo.

And cheaper.  They slapped this little thing on my arm after Monday's infusion:

$14,000. Each.  Battery powered, it startled the heck out of me 27 (why 27?) hours later when it beep-beeped and started ticking as it infused.

And about 24 hours after that goes in, just as you are finally getting your stomach under control (INDIGESTION!!!! REFLUX!!!) and the feeling of being on a bad drunk is easing, your bones and muscles decide to hurt like you've been in a bad car accident.

I've gone from taking minimal medications and nothing otc to having a pill box full of stuff to deal with the fact that I'm being carefully poisoned.