Nothing Much...

I'm still generally feeling better than I was before the defibrillater/pacemaker was installed. There's been good days and bad days, of course, but all-in-all the good days have been more common this month.

This isn't to say I'm feeling anything like I did before the heart attack. I get up to do stuff at 10 in the morning, and by 2 PM I'm just about ready to nap for the rest of the day. *sighs* Oh, well. I do what I can.

One sad thing is that I used to be a neat freak. Well, that's gone now, given my inbility to do more than the minimal amount of stuff around the house. (Can you say sty?) Piper and Pickles do their best to help, of course, but the bottom line is that there's lots of things I used to be able to do that I can't do any more. At one point the two of them decided to give my place a good housecleaning. I tried to help, just a bit, and within less than ten minutes I'd collapsed and wound up in the emergency room that evening (and inpatient for several days, too!).

In cooking, well, lets just say that the microwave has been my friend. And no, modern pacemakers don't freak at microwave ovens. Much. (err...) I have to worry more about things like, of all possibilities, security arches. I've been told by the doctors that, reassurances in the literature to the contrary, it would be a Bad Thing for me to dawdle in a store's security arch, and, oh yeah, don't even think about going through a metal detector. *shrugs* I'm told that I show them my "implanted device" ID card and the TSA folks will take me around the arch and do a 'pat down' search. Oh, that sounds like fun.

Enough of the 'pity party'. I'm alive and vertical, which is a whole heck of a lot better than the alternative. Piper and Pickles have been better friends than I deserve, and it's largely through their efforts I'm doing as well as I am.

Been a while...

Dang! Has it REALLY been a year-and-a-half since I've left a posting? Umm, yeah.

There's reasons. There are always reasons. It's the GOOD ones that are harder to come by.

Yeah, the '04 election was more than a bit demoralizing. It'd be even more demoralizing if I thought it was an honest result. Uh, wait, maybe the other way around. Um, let me think on this a bit.

Actually, the biggest contributor to my long silence has been my declining health. Given my heart condition, and then pneumonia, that pretty well knocked the props out from under me for quite a while. In terms of strength, I went from working on the treadmill and doing some weight training three times a week to doing them... um... never. Literally no strength available. I've had all sorts of surgical procedures (lungs scrubbed, anyone?), diagnostic procedures (if you turn out the lights I might just glow a soft green), all of which only helped modestly if at all, and as I went through this all, leaving me with no enthuseasm to do anything.

So, the past few years have had no stories, no blog posts, and darn little of anything else.

Mea Culpa, Mea Culpa, Mea Maxima Culpa.

About ten days ago I had another round of surgery, this one to implant a defibrillator/pacemaker into my chest. It seems to have gone well. Everything, (I keep being told) is healing nicely. Best of all, though I had been warned to not expect this, I've got a lot more energy to do things, and the motivation to make use of said energy. I s'pose it could be psychosomatic, but if it is I'll take it. It's really nice having the taste to do things again.

Beyond this post, I'm working on a petty-much-total redesign of my web site. There'll be a few new features, if anyone cares. Instead of being primarily for my readers and fasns, this version will be primarily for me. There'll still be my stories and etc, my blog will be linked in, there will be a guestbook (this time for sure!), and the links are ones I use on a quite frequent basis. The reader will be welcome to use them too, but that's not their main reason. (Hey! Look how erudite I am! Lookit alla da classy links!) They'll be there to make it easier for me to organize and use my favorites.

The 'journal' is gone forever. I'll be blogging as the whim takes me, and it'll be about whatever I'm in the mood to vent upon. I'd suspect politics are going to be a part of this, as will selected events in my life, the occasional rant, and whatever few observations I may have worth sharing.

I really don't need to worry about censoring the comments. I'm living off social security disability, and as I understand it that's not likely to change. So no boss to be looking over my shoulder for me to be telling tales out of school. Of course, there are my partners in PP&F NetWorks (Bill and Piper) who aren't necessarily happy with this philosophy, but I don't report to them, just as they don't report to me, and besides I've never actually made a nickel off the company. It's doing well, well enough to be self-sustaining, but not so well that it's providing me with the lap (or any other body parts) of luxury.

Just for the record, what I blog here is my personal opinion, and doesn't represent the views of my partners nor of PP&F NetWorks, LLC. They do represent my personal opinions, though, and despite the fact that I have no desire nor intent to defame nor libel anyone, my comments might be a bit harsh. (Darn! I miss having a moustache to twirl.)

Just remember to apply the administrations mantra. If you like what I'm doing, I dood it all myself and the credit and glory goes all to me. Iff'n you hate it, well there were many hands contributing, mistakes were made, and IT'S NOT MY FAULT!

What, again?

Yeah, it has occurred to me that so far my posts are overwhelmingly about politics. Ah, well, the election season ends next week (although it might be superseded by a judicial season) and then I can get to other topics.

I've been doing a fair amount of reading this week:

How much failure will it take for this country for realize that George W. Bush is a security risk? How many weapons and explosives must slip into the hands of murderers? How many terrorist leaders must slip out of our grasp? How long will Osama Bin Laden sit laughing at Bush for his incompetence? I like to think I understand this country. But this one is beyond me. How can anyone take Bush seriously as Commander in Chief? The man is a coward, personally and professionally. He has done more to undermine the armed forces of this country than any president in American history. We are vulnerable as never before. And for some reason, Bush still gets credit for "leadership." - Siva Vaidhyanathan from today's Altercation.

Haven't you seen enough political ads YET?

The latest video tape of al Qaqaa unearthed by a local ABC affiliate and now picked up nationally seems like pretty much game, set, match.

Then there's the annoying trait of the Bush folks to take whatever his opponent says and twist it into some strange Orwellian version of "spin".

And, of course, here's what George thinks of You:

'Nuff said!

- Kim

Creating his own reality...

It's nice to know that George W. has complete faith in our soldiers ability to dodge bullets.

- Kim

Another Lie...

Watching the news (MSNBC, BTW), they ran a clip of President Bush from yesterday, saying there are millions of doses of flu vaccine available for elder and at risk citizens.

Interesting. Mainly because Monday I tried to track down a single dose of the vaccine. (Note: while not a senior, I do fall into that "high risk" category, thanks to some ongoing cardiac problems.) Doctors don't have any. Health department doesn't have any. The state health department's emergency hotline says there should be some vaccine in-state within the next several weeks.

Where are they keeping these "millions of doses"? A vault in the White House basement?

- Kim

The Big Lie...

Who am I? Why am I here?

Oh, wait, no. That was James Stockdale.

***

Okay, confession time. I'm a lifelong Republican. The first election where I was eligible to vote was in '76. Ford v. Carter. Not only did I vote (for Gerry Ford), I was a campaign volunteer in Milwaukee. Mostly I worked the phone banks, which will astound anyone who knows of my distaste for telephoning.

Only once in my life have I voted for a Democrat for president. That being said, I do NOT intend, under any circumstances, to vote for George W. Bush in this election.

It's not because his administration is corrupt, incompetent, or even comically inept, although any one of these would be more than sufficient to back someone else. It's not even because of his regressive positions on so many different issues. I live on Social Security, so I have no direct stake in his tax policies; I have neither the desire nor the intention to marry another woman, so I have no stake there, either. I merely find his policies abhorrent.

All that pales, however, before what I'd consider the prime issue. The man and all his surrogates lie. Not just "white" lies that don't really hurt anyone (though even that concept is problematical in an election), but massively and constantly, on a continuing basis. He denies saying things that have been captured on tape, and when confronted by that fact, he continues to deny. (So who DID say them, a really good actor pretending to be Bush?)

When confronted with unpleasant facts he at best denies them and accuses his questioner of lying (or "exaggerating"), never feeling the need to deal with reality. When the buzz about his pattern of lying grew too strong, his tactic was to start accusing the other campaign of "persistent and scurrilous" lying.

Has George W. Bush no shame? Seemingly not.

What he's been doing is something I was taught about in grade school. It was (and is) known as "The Big Lie". Basically what it amounts to is that one tells a lie repeatedly and loudly. Repeat it long enough and a certain proportion of the population will believe it. Another proportion of the public will be unsure, but their faith in the target of the lie will be shaken. In the end, at "worst" the opposing factor will be neutralized, at "best" they will be defeated by the lie.

I won't belabor the point. Many of you are of age to remember (or remember being taught) about the political forces in the past century who honed "The Big Lie" into a singularly effective tool of governance.

I shouldn't even need to draw the other obvious parallels between them and the Bush administration and it's "Homeland Security" excuses for erasing centuries of hard-won liberties.

- Kim