Yesterday I rested as much as I could. I’m current with replies. I’m scheduled for a colonoscopy on Tuesday morning. No worries. It’s routine, because of my age. Because of it, I’m likely to be gone for two days, so expect no more articles, until early Thursday morning. This morning and early afternoon, I’ll sleep all I can. This afternoon and tonight I’ll be taking the medications to purge me for the test. I will not be able to sit on one place long enough to concentrate on anything, except for the place made of porcelain. I’ll be up all night taking medicine. During the test I’ll be under a twilight anesthetic, so I’m likely to he groggy afterwards, in addition to sleepy from being up all night. By Wednesday I should be able to research again. I am not looking forward to this at all.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today it took me 3:39 (average 4:23). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From CBS: Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum stood by comments he made Saturday opposing prenatal testing, saying it leads to selective abortions, and he said the president is "continuing" policies that encourage such abortions.
How much more invasive into privacy can these Republicans get?
From Minnesota Public Radio News: Mitt Romney returned to Salt Lake City on Saturday to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the 2002 Winter Games he helped lead, but the GOP presidential candidate has come under attack for urging the federal government to provide big bucks for Olympic expenses.
Republicans believe in limited government spending, but not on anything they want.
From Think Progress: During an appearance on Fox News Sunday this morning, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) couldn’t explain why the public rejects large parts of the Republican legislative agenda and instead blamed Democrats for opposing it.
Cantor is full of Santorum. This is why the public rejects their programs. Republicans govern exclusively for the benefit of millionaires, billionaires and corporate criminals. They do NOT represent YOU!
Cartoon:
12 Responses to “Open Thread–2/20/2011”
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Personal — Stock up the porcelain library with good reading material and plenty of water at hand for those few hours you may be able to drink. Too bad it couldn’t be stronger than water, but I know you don’t drink. Will be thinking about you. Good luck!
Cartoon — Now if we could only get the entire country to sigh with relief at the demise of the Republicans in Congress and state Assemblies/Senates!! And here I thought the noise I heard was a release of pent up gas. Good cartoon.
Santorum — In Canada, one of the issues currently talked about is the abortion of fetuses based on gender by certain ethnic groups. This and the abortion of disabled fetuses I believe to be wrong. However, in the case of gender, the solution is relatively simple — do not disclose the sex of the fetus. Any doctors that I know do not do amniocentsis routinely unless the mother is older or there is good reason to suspect there may be an issue. Amnio does not mean automatic abortion. The parents still have a say and any good and compassionate doctor will provide honest advice but cannot make the decision. A distant family member of mine found out through amnio that her son would be severely deformed and not likely survive. She had the choice to go to term or have an abortion. She went to term and the baby was born deaf with bearly any ears, blind and had no eye lids, no nose, adouble cleft palate and one other thing that I can’t remember. Knowing the test results gave the parents a chance to partially deal with feelings and do some needed planning. Feeding the baby was extremely difficult and exacting so that he didn’t choke. There weren’t enough hours in a day for one person to deal with the baby’s needs, a household, and 2 other young children. The baby finally choked to death in hospital at the age of 4-5 months as a result of the deformities. These parents stuck with it but other parents don’t have the support systems or emotional strength to deal with such devasting eventualities. I firmly believe that the testing should be allowed and the parents be told and receive balanced advice from the doctor. Is this really any different from having an abortion of a healthy fetus? I do not agree with abortion for myself but I believe in the right of the woman to make that choice.
Rmoney — And how heavily did Rmoney financially invest in the Salt Lake City games? Or was he just a co-leader? He can’t have it both ways — smaller government with low taxes for the 1% OR more government with heavy expenditures for the Olympics and a tax on the 1% to help with costs.
Cantor — Damn it! Now I have to clean my keyboard from Cantor’s projectile vomiting of Republican bile! His answer just proves that he has no understanding of the middleclass’s concerns, and that he isn’t prepared to listen to them. It would have been interesting to see if the Faux Noise interviewer pressed him on it, but I doubt it. Further he tried to divert attention by throwing the blame on the Democrats. What a little worm!
My personal experience is that the prep is MUCH worse than the exam itself. Just be sure you have someone to help you get home. That “Twilight Anesthesia” can have some late side-effects. I remember waking up on the couch and having NO idea how I got there.
And since it’s Presidents’ Day, a site that provides 44 songs that cover each one of our Presidents:
http://motherjones.com/media/2011/02/songs-about-presidents-day?page=1
Good luck on the colonoscopy. They are never any fun!
Will miss you. Went thru this a few months ago, not pleasant but results were good so guess it was worth it. Hang in there. Rest assured, the repugs will still be with us upon your return. Now that’s definitely unpleasant, even more so than a colonsocopy.
Santorum is nuttier than a fruitcake. How he’s a nom for the Presidency, I’ll never know.
Romney used that money for extra security – in light of 9/11, I can’t fault him for that.
Cantor is a disgrace to the Congress – I don’t even have to listen to the tape to know that.
3:17 The one minute rule worked for me today.
Using Santorum’s logic, we should outlaw sex because sex could lead to abortions. Yes, we should also outlaw marriage because it could lead to abortions. While we are at it, let’s outlaw puberty.
Jerry, you crack me up! I’d love to see how they would enforce those laws!
They would try, and when they failed, they’d blame the progressives.
Also, Santorum should be in favor of contraception because it prevents unwanted pregnancies that may lead to abortions.
UPDATE TO THE STORY ON PP: Online Surveillance Bill (C-30) Opens Door for Big Brother
The following is an update e-mail I received today. I hope that more will sign the petition and tell your friends about it The response from Toews is typical of the Harper government, and in particular Mr Harper himself. He uses any tactics that he thinks will get people to buckle down. But we have to push back with the typical “Hell NO, we won’t go!!!” As Christian Nadeau, a professor at l’Université de Montréal and author of Rogue in Power says, Harper is remaking Canada by stealth, and this is how! Please SIGN THE PETITION, Canadians and Americans alike, at the end of the original article on Politics Plus. Thanks
“Over 106,000 of you have spoken out against online spying1, but Public Safety Minister Vic Toews still isn’t getting the message. Toews recently suggested that anyone opposed to his legislation (that’s you) is standing with child pornographers. Those critics include 8 in 10 Canadians2 (again, you) and all thirteen of Canada’s Privacy Commissioners and Ombudspersons3—everyone who is against warrantless access to our private information.
Toews is using disgusting tactics and misleading Canadians4. We need to scale up our public pressure campaign to stop him and his online spying plan.
Toews’ comments appear to be part of a coordinated effort to use the safety of children as political cover5, and we need to scale up our efforts to stop it. Instead of apologizing or committing to meaningful changes to the bill, Vic Toews is unleashing a PR storm with the same old talking points.
With your help, we can tell Toews:
– It’s not okay use our fears against us. We’ll fight back with local actions in key ridings across the country.
– It’s not okay to mislead Canadians. We’ll push for meaningful changes to this bill with targeted online ads.
– It’s not okay to invade our personal privacy. We’ll launch a sophisticated online video to ensure Canadians know what Vic Toews is doing.
P.S. We can’t let this truly offensive charade go unchallenged. It’s disgusting, and quite frankly immoral and un-Canadian.
Footnotes
[1] Over 106K Canadians have added their names to the petition at http://StopSpying.ca
[2] A survey from the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada indicates that vast majority of Canadians oppose warrantless online spying.
[3] See this letter to Public Safety Canada from Canada’s Privacy Commissioners and Ombudspersons
[4] See the CBC article, Online surveillance bill opens door for Big Brother
[5] See the Postmedia article, Can you spot the difference on “lawful access” bill?”
Thanks all, for excellent comments and kind wishes.