Friday Open Thread

I'm still having internet connection problems. It's been months now. Apparently, Shaw prefers to send out an endless stream of technicians who are only authorized to do one thing at a time. Now it seems they're finally going to replace the main line outside after another neighbour complained. Right. We'll see what that does.

Worst.customer.service.ever.

Anyway, here's a bit of news to chew on (and it will probably be the only thing I'll be able to post in the 2 minutes of internet connection time I'm being granted a few times a day until they get this thing fixed):

Loonie closes above parity

The Canadian dollar closed above parity Friday for the first time in almost 31 years, as the U.S. greenback continued its dramatic fall against major world currencies.

According to Bank of Canada data, the loonie closed at $1.0052 US, up two-thirds of a cent from Thursday's close.

I'd sure like to know when Canadians are going to start seeing the benefits that reality should be bringing to the retail sector, especially since we've been over-charged for things like books and magazines for years.

What's on your mind? Got any news you'd like to share?
 

Tuesday Open Thread

Alrighty. I know some of you have missed me.

Exhibit A:



I'm still having intertubes connection problems and Shaw's extra-speedy customer service department booked a service call this past Saturday for Wednesday. They obviously don't realize that my fans are going through serious withdrawal. The brutes!

While they have deemed it worthy to provide me with at least a few hours per day of access to this paid service (and a costly service it is), I guess I'm supposed to bow down in front of the Jim Shaw Temple to express my undying gratitude.

Right.

Screw that.

Anyway, a few things:

It's about damn time that Steven Truscott's name was cleared. The court, however, could not bring itself to deem him "innocent". The phrase "miscarriage of justice" seems so empty after almost 50 years. Imagine if his death by hanging had been carried out.

Truscott had this to say:

Truscott said he was "just elated" when he heard the news while travelling from Guelph to Toronto. "It didn't immediately sink in because I was prepared for the worst, which has happened every time in the past."

"I never in my wildest dreams expected in my lifetime for this to come true, so it's a dream come true," he told reporters.

When asked whether he'll fight for compensation, he said, "I haven't even thought of that. I've learned over the years you fight one battle at a time."

Truscott's lawyer, James Lockyer, said, "Steve should get every penny he can out of the government after what he's been through.

"I'm glad Ontario's attorney general has acknowledged that he should be compensated, as he has today."

I can't even begin to ponder what a relief this news is for Truscott. I read his story when I was a kid and it left me wondering about the process of so-called "justice" and the belief in the death penalty in this country (which I've always opposed). It really is unconscionable that it took this long for Truscott to finally experience something nearing true justice. May he find some peace.

If you're not familiar with the case or how it ended up back in the court system after all of these years, visit The Fifth Estate's site for a look at their 2000 in-depth investigation which was a catalyst.

Update: The Fifth Estate will be covering the story once again this evening.

**************

Two new blogs to announce:

penlan, a regular commenter here who has also become a long-distance friend of mine (ie. she puts up with my insanity), has started a blog called political dots. Check it out.

Also, if you're into no-holds barred discussions, Political Fleshfeast may be the place for you. It's hoping to define itself as a true free speech zone for the left in defiance of bigger American blogs like Daily Kos, My Left Wing and others known for banning people and stifling debate. We'll see how that experiment turns out. Bring your popcorn, your wit and a thick skin.
 

Saturday Open Thread

A beautiful Tibetan sand mandala

patience, unity, focus, beauty, impermanence...life
 

Apparently, I do have a spine

Unlike the Democrats. *cough cough*

So, I made my way to my doctor's this morning and then went for xrays of my knees, hips and (thoracic) spine. Every time I went by a Calgary Sun newspaper box I could see Harper's beady eyes staring out at me over the caption "So sue me" which, I assume, referred to the Atlantic Accord promise that he broke. I've been out of the news loop the past few days (and there's no way I'm buying a Sun newspaper) so I see I missed another huge Steve Scandal (tm).

Harper, meanwhile, signaled his impatience with allegations from Nova Scotia Premier Rodney MacDonald that the government was reneging on its commitment to his province. MacDonald pulled the plug on talks with Ottawa over the weekend.

"If you are really serious in the allegation that we have broken a contract, then I think you have to follow that allegation up with action," Harper said during a joint news conference in Ottawa with Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende.

Harper warned that if the province didn't take legal action, the federal government "will consult tribunals ourselves" in order to secure a ruling on whether it is respecting the accord. His spokeswoman, Carolyn Stewart Olsen, would not say what court or tribunal Harper meant.

MacDonald shot back that Nova Scotia will "not be bullied," and that the court that matters in this case is the "court of public opinion." He warned that Harper's intransigence would cost the federal government political support in Nova Scotia and elsewhere in the next election.

Danny Williams, premier of Newfoundland and Labrador, mocked Harper's challenge to decide the issue in court, dismissing the legal route as too time consuming.

"I find it really ridiculous for a prime minister of a country to turn around and say, 'Sue me or I'll sue you,'" Williams said in an interview.

Frankly, I think someone should take him up on his offer and sue him...for something...anything. Arrogant ass that he is. I got back home in time to catch the budget bill vote and the fact that even though Nova Scotia Tory MP Gerald Keddy had a little tantrum, he still voted for the budget anyway. Danny Williams should take him out to the woodshed for a good talking to.

Time for summer holidays now?

Control freakish Steve's antics reminded me of this article I read on Philip Slater's site the other nite: "Temporary Insanity: The World in Transition". It's interesting. Check it out and read it all the way through. (That's an order.) Here's a snippet:

This attempt to control nature was an addictive drug, requiring bigger and bigger hits. For before long it’s not just plants and animals and insects that have to be controlled—it’s other people. And ultimately, yourself. Control requires a lot of splitting—ourselves from the earth, ourselves from other people—from ‘enemies’—and our egos from our bodies, our feelings, our instincts. “Control yourself, child!” becomes the core of childrearing.

In the 18th century, what I call Control Culture began to be challenged—just as it was reaching its peak. But before discussing its challenger I want to say a few words about how this system—so familiar to us all—operates.

If your life revolves around getting control--over Nature, other people, and your own body and feelings--you can't look at the world around you as one great indissoluble, ever-changing Unity. How could you ever control such a thing? So Control Culture tended to split it up ("divide and conquer"), to see the world as a static collection of paired opposites: friend/enemy, master/slave, mind/body, man/nature, aristocrat/peasant, good/evil. It was a world that fit the Bible and Newton's Clockwork Universe equally well.

Another problem for the Controller is that living things aren't all that crazy about being controlled, so you're going to have to fight a lot. Control Culture was a warrior culture--competitive, belligerent, macho. And a culture based on war tends to be authoritarian. Slaves and serfs have to be kept in line, and fighting men--trained to be competitive and quarrelsome--have to be controlled. So rigid hierarchies with rigid rules of behavior became the norm. And because war was viewed as the most noble masculine profession, parents raised their boys to be 'from Mars'--that is, stoic, rigid, and aggressive, while women were expected to specialize in cooperation, intimacy, and nurturance. And since women weren't doing soldierly things they wound up at the bottom of the social hierarchy. Even the lowest serf was expected to dominate his wife.

I mention the position of women last, but in fact it’s the foundation of the entire system. You cannot have an authoritarian, war-like society unless women are devalued and oppressed.

Slater briefly but, I think, effectively touches on the many aspects of our society that constitute this "Control Culture" and concludes that we may well be at a breaking point in history which will usher in a more "Integrative Culture". That's not going to happen overnight, obviously, but it certainly looks more positive than the nightmare we're currently living through.

Which brings me back to my personal situation (in its own little way: temporary insanity, control, breaking point, integration and finally healing). My doctor had a good laugh when I told him about the useless twit of a doctor I saw at the walk-in clinic on Friday who had decided there was nothing he could do for me, so why run tests to find out what was wrong? Gotta love that so-called "logic". Dr "it's the lupus". I'll give him "it's the lupus". I'll bet he voted for Steve and if I had let him ramble on, I'm sure he would have found a way to blame my pain on the Liberals eventually.

Anyway, as I mentioned, my doctor is concerned that I may have a compressed thoracic (rhymes with Jurassic, which is how old I feel) disc which I guess is kind of rare because that area of the spine, which doesn't have the flexibility of the lumbar and cervical spinal areas (I Googled), isn't usually prone to such things unless caused by some sort of injury. Hopefully, he'll find out what's going on with my hip as well. As for my knee (these are all on the right side), I noticed that it's been swollen compared to my left one the past month or so (who knows wtf is going on there??). As I told my doctor when he walked in: I'm a mess. (And don't even ask me about my stress level. Really. Don't.)

I had to stop taking the heavier painkillers (Toradol™) because they can cause kidney damage (apparently) so you can only be on them for 5 days (and "the lupus" affects my kidneys). Maybe my head will clear up a bit so I can actually think now as well - although the pills did help a bit with the pain. Now I'm back to regular ibuprofen and Tylenol™. According to the new teevee commercials, the people who make Tylenol ™ "LOVE" it. They're freaks. There's been too much "loving" stuff and products in commercials lately. I find it nauseating. Do the people who make the anti-nausea pills "LOVE" them too? Should I fucking care?

Alrighty then.

So, there you have it. I should have my test results by Monday (maybe?). If everything looks fine, I'll be (secretly) paging Dr Kevorkian (wouldn't want to make him violate his probation publicly) because everything isn't fine, obviously.

Pain sucks. Chronic pain - even more so. Thanks to those of you who have shared your aches and pains with me too. There are so many of us. You can just never tell what's going on behind a person's screen name. (Maybe now you know why I'm so damn cranky sometimes. Okay. Well I'm like that naturally too - but that's beside the point...).
 

Open Thread

Off to emerg with me today. I've had so much pain in my neck and right shoulder the past 2 days that I can barely get around. I strongly resemble the hunchback of Notre Dame. Arthritis? Ruptured disc? I don't know. All I do know is that this is unbearable.

It's been a bad week with a lot of pain in my right hip too from the humidity. My regulars know that I have fibromyalgia and lupus (which can come with a lot of complications), so it isn't like I'm not used to living with chronic pain. That makes it hard to figure out if the pain I'm experiencing is par for the course that might just disappear tomorrow. I rarely go for extra medical help since I'm used to having to cope with the symptoms, but I feel like I have a knife in my back so I guess I should probably find out what's up.

I'll update you later on. First I have to suffer my way through a shower and then I'm off.

Hope your day/week is going a lot better than mine!

Update: What a day. I just met the second most aggravating doctor I have had the serious misfortune to encounter in my life. I'll write more about it later - maybe. In the meantime though, I still don't know exactly what's wrong because this useless doctor (whom I saw in a walk-in clinic after I decided I might not be able to sit through hours of pain waiting in emerg) refused to do any tests. No xrays. No blood work. Nothing. "It's the lupus". "You seem depressed."

Well, screw you.

Update #2 - after my nap:

I swear that was the most ridiculous doctor I have ever met.

Gems:

"If what you're telling me is true."

"You're just growing up." (I'm 47 years old.)

"I don't want to send you for tests if you're in pain since you're using the bus. Even if you had a car, I wouldn't send you."

That, along with telling me that I wanted "magic". Repeatedly asking me what I wanted him to do. My answer: "tell me what's wrong and what my options are -it's not like I can rely on Google - you are a doctor".

As for his "it's the lupus" bullshit - all the while claiming he has lupus too - he should know, one would think, that all kinds of problems can come up with lupus that aren't just "the lupus" and that require further investigation through those things called "tests". Why was an xray too much to fucking ask for??

Seriously. When I realized he wasn't going to do squat to at least find out what it was, I suddenly burst into tears because he was telling me it was hopeless. (I was thinking "fuck, I'm in pain and you don't even want to investigate it??) That's when the "you seem depressed" so "I'll give you an antidepressant" came up. If his fucking center or he had even taken a history they would have known I've been on an antidepressant for years for a complicated history of depression, including PTSD, and that upping my dosage was absolutely pointless and unnecessary.

Oh, and he tried to prescribe me Tylenol 3s when I had clearly written on my chart that I'm allergic to codeine. I made it very clear to him that I was not there for drugs - that I've been clean for 20 bloody years - and didn't want any drugs from him. I wanted a proper diagnosis. He told me I had "facet pain". Well, no shit Sherlock. I could have told him that. What I wanted to know was exactly what was causing it.

I wanted to know exactly what was wrong since my entire right fucking side from neck to knee has been causing me excruciating pain - worse than ever before - this week. I had also discovered that lupus can actually cause bone death in things like one's hip joints, but I guess that's nothing to concern myself about since it's just "the lupus".

Fuck.

When I walked out of there, I was in absolute shock.

Just before I'd been called in the office, I heard one woman say to another that "that Dr So and So is nuts". I'm sure now that she was talking about this guy.

I will be getting his name and sending in a complaint.

Oh - forgot to add. He asked me why I didn't go to my doctor.

1. My doctor's office isn't open today and I was in no shape to go anywhere yesterday after this hit, let alone on a transit ride on a bus and train of over an hour to his office. (I recently moved further from his office than I used to be.)

2. Just moved into this area so I chose a 5 min bus ride to that clinic.

3. I had called the clinic beforehand and she told me to be seen by a doctor there who could decide if I needed to go to emerg (along with not wanting to wait forever in emerg. Been there, done that with severe kidney pain and bleeding. No thanks.)

So here I am tonite. Still in pain and mad. Mad that he basically told me to just live with it without knowing what's causing it or how bad it is - without even a referral to physio or any other kind of treatment. I'm not a happy camper.

I know I have lupus. I know there's no cure for that thing called lupus. I do know, however, that problems related to lupus can at least be diagnosed and treated. Treating me like some depressed, lying, clueless patient who hasn't accepted that she's ill for life is not proper treatment.

I'll go see my doctor next week. In the meantime, if the pain is still too much, I will go to emerg.
 

Sunny Saturday Open Thread

Van Gogh's Irises

So much violence in the news today:

4 suspects arrested in an alleged terrorism plot against JFK airport

Lebanon's army "pounds" the Palestinian refugee camp

Protesters, police clash after Rostock anti-G8 demo

2,000 Iraqi civilians died in May

Sometimes, you literally need to step outside and smell the roses or the irises or the lilacs to regain a sense of balance...so that's what I'm going to do.

Sad Update: Blogger Steve Gilliard has passed away at the age of 41. RIP.
 

Crazy Cat Saturday Open Thread

Brought to you by your hostess Joey, who will be 15 years old in June.

"I have lived with several Zen masters -- all of them cats." - Eckhart Tolle

Snow Day Open Thread

Yes, it's a snow day here in Calgary but, as usual, wait 5 minutes and the weather's sure to change.



And in news that would be of interest to bear-hating Stephen Colbert: Woman fights off bear in South Glenmore Park. That's in the city of Calgary.

Police and Fish and Wildlife officers are searching for a bear in South Glenmore Park following a close encounter with a couple on Thursday afternoon.

Police duty Insp. Dale Flemming said the woman used a tree branch to defend herself against the animal believed to be a black bear.

STARS air ambulance, fire crews and paramedics were also on scene to assist.
Flemming likened the encounter to a game of cat and mouse but said no physical contact was made by the bear. Police are warning Calgarians to stay out of the park until the search is called off.

Cat and mouse? That sure was one huge cat!

What's happening in your neck of the woods?

Update: 5:15 pm ET - the house debate on the Iraq funding bill has begun. Joe Biden has jumped into Bush's lap to support it:

"I believe as long as we have troops in the front line, we're going to have to protect them," said Sen. Joseph Biden (news, bio, voting record), D-Del. "We're going to have to fund them."

Biden was alone among the potential Democratic candidates in immediately pledging his support for the bill.

John Murtha, speaking on the floor, has said he'll vote for it as well.
 

The Catnip Addict Open Thread

Or...the "Blogger just ate my other big post so this is all you get for now" Open Thread.