Yesterday I had a difficult day. PT was working me on fall recovery techniques. I was able to get back up to stationary objects, but when I tried a one person assist from ground to wheelchair, I found that I lack the physical strength to lift myself without being able to support more weight with my arms. I tried so hard that I strained the knee on my good leg in the process, but it’s almost better today.
Short Takes:
From Daily Kos: According to his 2nd ex-wife Robert Luis Dear, the accused Colorado Planned Parenthood murderer, was a violently abusive extreme right-wing neo-Christian anti-abortion zealot end-timer who after committing an act of rape believed every thing vile he did would ultimately be “forgiven” by God.
Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christian politicians and pundits, the blood is on your hands!
From NY Times: …Democrats, including President Obama, emphasize the need to address America’s problems with guns. Republicans talk about the need to address mental health. Both are right.
First, guns, the central issue: We need a new public health approach based not on eliminating guns (that simply won’t happen in a land awash with 300 million guns) but on reducing the carnage they cause.
We routinely construct policies that reduce the toll of deadly products around us. That’s what we do with cars (driver’s licenses, seatbelts, guardrails). It’s what we do with swimming pools (fences, childproof gates, pool covers). It’s what we do with toy guns (orange tips).
It’s what we should do with real guns.
I reference this Republican hack only to demonstrate how biased he is.. Kristof is twisting some crucial facts in his article. First, while Republicans SAY we need to address mental health needs, they keep slashing the spending on mental health. Only Democrats are actually trying to address those needs. Second Republicans are blocking all attempts by Democrats to treat guns as a public health problem.
From Upworthy: Ironically, the rate of Arctic melting has essentially snowballed — the factors add up exponentially, and the effects get bigger and bigger and bigger (even as the snow itself disappears). So while yes, there are still winters and it still gets cold, the ecosystem is disastrously out of balance, and it’s only getting worse.
But fear not! There’s still hope!
Or maybe do fear a little bit, if that’s the kind of motivation that you need to make sustainable environmental changes in your life or to urge President Obama to take action before it gets too late. Because we seriously need to do something — and fast.
Here’s a little more information, courtesy of National Geographic.
The need us deadly serious. Please join me in signing the NDRC petition, supporting green initiatives, and reducing your own carbon footprint as much as possible.
Cartoon:
8 Responses to “On the Edge–12/3/2015”
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I'm so sorry the day was difficult! I guess my previous advice of "Whatever you do, if you fall, don't hurt your shoulders" may make a little more sense. Trying hard from the ground is probably not the best way to strengthen the arms though. I expect they have exercises for you.
DKos – What blows my mind is the way the MSM have quoted one of his wives as saying he is "not perfect, but a good man." Compare that to the way they trumpeted that Mike Brown was "no angel." – a phrase which they trot out whenever someone is a POC. Barf.
NY Times – Yes, Republicans only talk about mental health as a way to avoid talking about guns. I must say, though, that our national ignorance about mental health is so overwhelming we barely notice that those who are trying to talk constructively are ignorant too. Barf.
Upworthy – We started having extraordinary snowfalls here in the 90's, but I didn't start drawing conclusions until the mid-2000's. But when I did, the conclusions were, "OMG, all that melting polar icecap is coming down here!" Not that we were getting the whole icecap all by ourselves, you understand, but that everything we were getting had come from that icecap, and it wouldn't be going back there any time soon. Those are, alas, not the conclusions most people drew. But what can you expect. I live among Republicans. Barf.
Cartoon – Barf!! Not trying to say you needed to put in a barf bag alert – we should be expecting it without that.
The penalties in Bhopal remain unpaid sadly…
Petition already signed–thanks for promoting TC. I just scheduled installation of putting on solar panels even though it is about an economic break even because of all the other energy efficiency improvements and practices I've done (e.g., kitchen and other appliances plugging into surge protectors that get turned off when not in use, replacement of light fixtures and external doors, etc.)
Mental health parity in insurance from during Obama's first year in office is the only substantial area of progress on mental health with Congress. A public health approach and permitting the CDC to return to research are key. In the meantime Harvard did some solid research to inform policymakers: http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/hicrc/firearms-research/guns-and-death/
Among the categories of persons where it should be a crime to have a gun, and for others to give or sell a gun to, should be persons with with domestic violence in their backgrouns (yes, this also means mandatory background checks completed before a sale).
Sorry your lessons came with such a consequence. PT and OT should be able to give you exercises you can do on your own to improve arm strength.
A gun violence research petition:
https://www.change.org/p/congress-stop-blocking-gun-violence-research?recruiter=10693393&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink
A congress act (God isn't doing it) petition:
http://petitions.moveon.org/keystoneprogress/sign/prayers-are-not-enough
Getting back on your feet will be difficult in more than one way, TomCat. We call that "with falling and getting up" and I'm sorry to hear you're doing that almost literally. Hang on in there and I'm sure you'll be home before the end of the year, perhaps even for Christmas.
Daily Kos: Religious extremism apparently is interchangeable when it leads to terrorism. This jihadist needed just a little nudge by the Christian Republican zealots to go and kill some innocents for the zealots' delusion. And all will be forgiven.
NY Times: Another Republican ruse. It sounds like a plan, but offers no solution at all. Did we expect one from him.
Upworthy: Signed and pledged just about every thing around. I take global warming very serious.
DK: No one needed to die from his ranting. Dear missed the part of "Go, and sin no more".
NY Times: Mental health and owning guns go hand in hand, but Repugs shut the door on tackling the problem. They'll wring their hands, but do nothing about resolving this.
UpWorthy: Signed petition, we compost, recycle paper, and buy local vegetables. It's a start.
Hope that your PT gets better and better with each passing day, in building your upper strength. Hang in there. Have a good evening, and Thanks, Tom.
NY Times: I did not notice Kristof twisting anything. He said that the Repug's talk about mental health, rtaher than guns, he said that our MH system is poor, he is correct on both points. As I've often said, it was St.Reagan, as Ca. governor, who destroyd the best MH system we had at the time, and went on to defund MH services as president. The mentally ill, except for those in Congress, have no political leverage, so it is easy to take the money that might have gone there and put it into corporate welfare. So,our MH failures are Gopig achievements!
Upworthy: They and Nat'l Geo., which despite its now being owned by Ruppurt Murdoch, recently dedicated a full issue to the global warming issue, and the NY Times Sunday Magazine, last week, in their "future" issue, had a story about the state of the world's ice sheets, that was not bouying. Petition signed. From my perspective, we have already gone past the tipping point. those sink holes in Siberia are just an early symptom thereof.
Thanks all. actually the problem was lack of leg strength, rather than arm strength.