I’m late to the game on this, but it really makes no sense to me whatsoever:
This brings me back to my issue with Palin. The name on her black memorial bracelet — one, like the gold star, a demonstration of a friend or associate who was killed in action — is that of her oldest son, Track. Track served honorably in Iraq, and both he and his parents should be thanked for his selfless service to his country. He is also alive.
Commemorating Track’s service by wearing a a black memorial bracelet which is reserved for those dead or even a red bracelet for those missing in action, demonstrates a horrifying contempt for those who gave their last full measure of devotion or an almost unbelievable ignorance of the importance of symbols in American history.
As it turns out, bracelets for currently deployed soldiers are quite common, making this an even dumber nontroversy that it was.
But putting aside the fact that Palin did nothing wrong, on what planet do left-wingers think going after her son, currently deployed overseas in the military, is smart politics? Even if she had been wrong, who here thinks going after after her for this made sense? I understand the feelings Palin generates in people, but goodness, I can’t think of any situation in which attacking a mother regarding her son in a combat zone makes any sense.
Just stupid. There are so many real reasons to go after Palin, I’m just kind of dumbfounded that anyone would even think to make this an issue.
Mike Kay
I can honestly say, I didn’t know it was an issue.
This is the first I’m reading about it.
And yes, I saw the bracelet, it was in all the photos of her palm-reading,
So I guess I am saying, is an issue an issue if no one cared?
J.W. Hamner
You seem to be acting like it was some sort of organized fauxrage, NRO/Malkin style, but as far as I can tell it’s just that dude.
I mean, I don’t know what to tell you… people say some stupid things on the Internet. Is DKos or FDL running with this or something?
J. A. Baker
I must be out of the loop, but I didn’t see any of the blogs I frequent carping about this. I am, however, perfectly capable of being surprised.
OT – I’m having a FYWP moment. I can’t seem to bring up the home page. All I’m getting when I try to access the home page is a blank page. I only managed to get here via a link from the GOS.
Notorious P.A.T.
Yes. Yes there are.
jenniebee
/agree. That is fucking retarded.
Dan Robinson
Stupid blogger put his keyboard on auto-get’m.
Everybody knows that you don’t need auto-get’m to go Palin hunting.
Bubblegum Tate
Well, I’d say the Firebaggers are the photo negative of teabaggers, but yes, this is completely fucking retarded.
Violet
I saw something about this on some other blog today. They got it wrong and issued a correction. Seems like it didn’t get a lot of play.
As for why do it, it’s certainly consistent with the Rovian technique of “attack their strengths.” Lady Starbursts proclaims to be a huge “supporter of the troops,” yet she insults those who have lost military family members by wearing the missing/dead bracelet when her son is alive and well.
I can imagine that those who have lost family members might be a little shocked to see her wearing such a bracelet when her family didn’t have to pay such a price. But the people who made an issue of it got their facts wrong. If they’re going to go full Rove, they should at least get their facts right.
I think it’s kind of stupid and there are so many things for which she could be attacked. It seems dumb to go after her for this.
Notorious P.A.T.
People who are having trouble getting the home page: are you using Firefox or Explorer? Just curious.
Cassidy
While this isn’t a controversy, you are leaving out a few things.
1) The writer of the opinion piece is a vet of OIF/ OEF.
2) This is one of the ways, we remember our dead.
I have one of these with three names on it. And to reiterate, this isn’t a controversy. But once again, it shows a very glib attitude towards symbolism. She doesn’t wear it to commemorate her son; it’s a prop. And for a lot of us, it’s a way to remember our friends and not violate uniform policy. So every day, we can have a reminder of those who didn’t get to come home with us.
And I don’t think an opinion piece from the Yale newspaper counts as the
General Winfield Stuck
People aren’t getting enough sunshine.
cat48
I had not seen this either on any blogs.
gnomedad
Unless it gains prominence, ignore it. Why bird-dog for the nut-pickers? It’s Murphy’s Law, Blogosphere Edition: anything stupid that can be said, will be said.
Eric U.
I wouldn’t do it, but I’m thinking a liberal veteran blogger has a little more leeway to get outraged about something like this. I don’t know anything about these bracelets. I’m a veteran of Desert Storm where less than 300 of us were killed, mostly in motor vehicle accidents. There seems to be a difference between the black ones and what she is wearing, which looks like it is brass or silver but looks black because it is reflecting her black coat. Is that the source of the outrage?
Personally, all the paraphernalia people display “honoring veterans” seems more like it is about themselves or making some other political statement. And if I never see another one of those made in China yellow ribbon magnets on a car I will have seen too many.
Mike Kay
@Bubblegum Tate:
Are the Firebaggers still around? I thought they went to the hills after Jane stepped into Grover’s propeller (Gawd, that was messy).
danimal
Before I scrolled over the linky, I thought this was Sully level stupidity. I find Sully’s usually ok, but he is the photo negative of teabaggery when it comes to Palin.
jenniebee
Having said that though, reducing a soldier in a combat zone to a politically advantageous fashion accessory is pretty tacky. I’m sure that she feels for and worries about her son and misses him, but the chance that it hasn’t occurred to her that it helps her politically to remind the public at every opportunity that he’s serving overseas is slim to none. It’s the same with Trig – she isn’t doing anything to work on behalf of special needs children, she just implies all the time that she did something super-giving and virtuous by giving birth to him and not setting him on an ice floe afterwards.
Ash Can
When I first heard about this, it gave me the heebie-jeebies. I didn’t consider it a faux pas so much as simply creepy that she’d wear a memorial bracelet for a son who, thankfully, was alive and well. I’m honestly relieved to hear the initial report was erroneous. And as far as I’m concerned, everything else about this issue is meaningless and unnecessary kerfluffle.
cleek
though i’m a card-carrying lefty, i hereby swear that i had no idea that there was any much controversy.
i suspect the molehill is being viewed from a misleading angle.
General Winfield Stuck
Apparently, this bracelet is for parents with children serving in a combat zone. The people that delivered them, also sent one to Joe Biden while his son was in Iraq. Score one for Sarah.
About Ms. Palin’s HeroBracelet.
We sent her those bracelets during the last election. When we learned that her son, Track and Senator Biden’s son were both being deployed overseas, we sent them both Deployed HeroBracelets with their son’s names.
We’ve been providing Deployed HeroBracelets since 2004 for families to wear while their loved ones were serving. They can be made from sterling, copper, leather or bronze colored anodized aluminum (black is reserved for KIA).[..]
So she isn’t out of line for wearing the Deployed HeroBracelet. There are ten’s of thousands of families around the country wearing them right now. On the HeroBracelets web site, we’ve got hundreds of letters from families, many vowing to not take the bracelet off till their loved one comes home.
Chris Greta
Director HeroBracelets.org
http://www.herobracelets.org
Mike Kay
The one interesting part is how Palin made a big show of her bracelet of a soldier killed in action during the Veep Debate.
Then, like the phoney she is, she stopped wearing it after she resigned from office.
http://www.daylife.com/photo/0fQK6V6ee6gQg?q=palin
http://www.daylife.com/photo/01M67CNdMmcBH?q=palin
http://www.daylife.com/photo/07Ge0IC8501pW?q=palin
Now, that she was doing a tee bee appearance she puts on bracelet for effect.
Mr Furious
@jenniebee: You’re reading WAAYY too much into this.
Palin is simply wearing that bracelet so she can remember her son’s name, what he’s doing and where he’s doing it.
Also.
El Cid
From the original piece at the Yale Daily News:
Maybe it’s just me, but this just seems more like the sorts of hasty, impulsive, ill-thought out pieces I often saw in daily college papers.
Or anything by David Broder.
Mr Furious
@El Cid:
Well played, sir.
mcd410x
Pinko, commie bastards … always hating our troops. Man, I hate those commies.
Oh, wait, it was a … soldier? Screw you, Scott Beauchamp!
SpotWeld
Confusion fueled in anlready drama filled atmosphere.
The post you quote is by someone who thought Palin’s bracelet was black (denoting KIA)
Instead it was copper (denoting deployed according to the company) I think it was the shiny copper against Palin’s suit made it look black in most photos.
Essentially it’s really a non-issue.
It should be dropped, and not right-wingers will site this as left-wingers attacking for no reason, left-wingers of the more drama-prone set will defend (somehow) as a reflex.
Yeah…
Drama..
Dammit.
CalD
One would think that in any kind of civilized society, there would be some kind of limits to the infantile shit people are willing to say about their enemies. And I don’t accept the fact that Sarah Palin goes around saying infantile shit about other people as any sort of excuse for anyone else doing it.
Not only is the notion that two wrongs make a right a very common fallacy of critical thinking, but she could easily get a lot of sympathy and raise money off this if the MSM picks it up. So strategically speaking, I’d put it right up there with going after Joe Lieberman’s wife.
dan robinson
Uh,,,, no.
In the early days of our republic, the newspapers of the day were often named after political parties and were filled with inuendo. Burr and Hamilton fought a duel over some such stuff.
These days, we need two ass puppets and a motherfucker just to get warmed up.
El Cid
The original author seems also to distinguish himself from “left-wing critics” of Palin who focused on her hand-writing. Though he did mention that he had watched MSNBC’s “Hardball”, which could indeed be signs of membership in the Fourth International.
Hiram Taine
@CalD:
Civilized societies do not condone torture, indeed civilized societies punish those who perform and authorize such barbaric acts.
Anne Laurie
@Cassidy:
Have to agree with Cassidy — it’s a non-troversy, but it’s disrespectful both to those who have lost family / friends and to her own son, because it turns his service into yet another flashcard for his mother to wave at her idiot followers. (And when I say “idiot”, I include those of the Media Village who treat the Wasilla Grifter as the second coming of St. Ronnie.) Of course, that just means her “favorite” child is getting the same treatment as the rest of the litter — Bristol for her teen pregnancy, Willow as a sham victim of brutal mouth-rapist David Letterman, Piper as tiny victim of imaginary paparazzi, and of course TRIG, all-purpose anti-choice, pro-motherhood, simple-Heartland(tm)-values prop for all seasons. In a better world, Sarah’s stunts would be treated as borderline child abuse, but as with so much of the Sarahpalooza, she’s just taking the usual level of politico family-abuse up to eleven.
de stijl
The tchotchke-fication of of war has a long and honorable tradition.
(Is it juvenile to point out that the Firefox spellchecker wants to replace “tchotchke” with “crotchless?”)
robertdsc
Bracelet-gate fo lyfe, cuzz.
Anne Laurie
@General Winfield Stuck: What you did there, I saw it. Snerk! — I mean, sneak!
General Winfield Stuck
I’m going to turn in and dream of shiny Purple Unicorns and Kate Beckensdale or Blanchette. Either will do. Must get beauty sleep for another day of saving world by blog. Later Alligators.
General Winfield Stuck
@Anne Laurie: Just fillin’ in for ya :-)
Yutsano
@Anne Laurie:
Borderline child abuse? Have you SEEN how she carries Trig? I have NEVER seen a mother who cared about her children carry a baby like that, much less a Down’s Syndrome baby who can have breathing difficulties. She carries him like the accessory he is rather than as a special child to her. Not to mention when she appears with him she strokes him in some token fashion then passes him off when he’s serves her purpose. It’s beyond disgusting.
jenniebee
@Mr Furious: I guess it’s possible that if she had to write “tax cuts” on her hand to remember that she’s for ’em that she’d have to wear a bracelet with her son’s name and deployment on it to remember that she has a kid in the service.
Also. Too.
freelancer
@General Winfield Stuck:
Agreed. The entire narrative media meme-conjurers of this culture (left and right) have SAWD.
Seasonal. Affective. Wingnut. Disorder.
http://crooksandliars.com/nicole-belle/sarah-palins-bracelet-i-do-not-think
But even usually fauxtrage prone C&L has updated to somewhat distance themselves from this nonsense.
El Cid
Is the definition of “left wing” now that you don’t like Sarah Palin?
tgeb
It’s not like we needed a bracelet to figure out Palin had all those qualities anyway.
de stijl
Even if FDL, C&L, GOS & co. totally disavow the fauxtrage over the bracelet, the likelihood that “Teh Left Hates America and American Soldiers” is the takeaway message from the rightbloggers is exactly 100%.
Hob
Is this some kind of flashback to Republican Cole or something? I mean, I agree that this guy’s article was hasty and sloppy and not worth making a thing of, but what John said about it makes no sense at all: this guy is clearly not a “left-winger”, and he was in no way “going after [Palin’s] son.” Take a deep breath.
Church Lady
@Anne Laurie: Does the acid you spew ever burn your tongue?
Shalimar
Is Track Palin still in Iraq? My brother was in the same general unit (deployed at the same time from the same place, not sure how close beyond that) and he got home before Christmas.
Bender
Yeah, you “Palin hates her prop children” loons are really proving your ethical and intellectual superiority to those stupid birthers! Way to go!
Morons.
jl
first I have heard of this, and I also didn’t know about the meaning of bracelet colors in this context.
But, I agree with Cole’s bottom line, it is silly line of attack. And one that seems mean spirited to me.
But the reason for this kind of attack should be clear: many people, left, right and center, cannot resist symbolic gotcha politics.
I don’t want to see any of you kids here playing that chump game.
asiangrrlMN
@Hob: He’s cranky from the 500+ emails about the front page not loading and because people pissed on the Dead.
I, myself, am cranky because there has not been a picture of Tunch in forever and a day.
However, I am listening to Leonard Cohen, so that makes everything better. Democracy, bitchez!
southpaw
I’ll take a contrarian view and suggest that this is potentially very damaging to Palin in a Republican primary.
Before I jump into that, I want to make clear that I think Palin has done nothing improper here and the whole thing is blindingly stupid.
That said, this is exactly the kind of zombie lie that can take hold in the fever swamps of the chain-emailing Republican base. It has the key elements of a strong winger email: (i) a stark image that can be conjured into a scandal, (ii) questions about an political figure’s expressions of patriotism and (iii) a message that reinforces a subconscious narrative about the political figure.
All through the 08 campaign, the wingers furiously traded emails questioning whether Obama had appropriately saluted the flag at Tom Harkin’s steak fry. These emails included an allegedly damning photo, and their allegations that Obama wasn’t paying due respect to the american flag gave fuel to the festering rumors about Obama’s national origin (which themselves were probably an epiphenomenon of racism).
The Palin smear John is outlining here has the same elements. In order to adopt a message that Sarah Palin is a fraud, potential winger emails could adopt this seemingly incriminating picture containing both the bracelet and the now infamous crib notes on Palin’s hands, which reinforces a message that Palin’s communications with voters are contrived, deceptive and manipulative.
I wouldn’t be surprised if this crops again come 2012 primary time.
Yutsano
@Bender: I can haz betr trollz plz?
AhabTRuler
Now that Broder has opined on the subject, yes.
asiangrrlMN
@southpaw: I agree with your argument in general, but not about this particular subject. It really seems like a non-issue to me. I bet it won’t even be remembered in a month if she quits doing it.
@Yutsano: No kidding. I even prefer…forget that. He might take it as encouragement. How did the interview go?
@AhabTRuler: Fuck. David. Broder. Since he’s old, I will leave it at that.
Cassidy
She loves what they’ve done for her career.
de stijl
And he is not handling it very effectively…
Mr. Cole,
I’m here to call you out on the “site issues.” But (hopefully) constructively so.
1. Don’t ignore the issue. More importantly, don’t appear to ignore the issue.
Your last post on the matter was two days ago. Obviously, you are not ignoring the issue, but since you haven’t communicated anything about the problem no one has any idea what you are doing to resolve it, which makes you look like you are ignoring the problem. I realize that the resolution is likely entirely out of your control, but to the vast majority of people Balloon Juice = John Cole.
Until the matter is resolved, every third or fourth post should be a very brief update on the issue and the actions you are taking to resolve the matter. Disable comments on the post (if you can) unless you want specific feedback that will help you with the problem.
2. Don’t appear to be pissed off about people e-mailing you about the problem.
In your quote above you’re very clearly venting your frustration, but you are also implicitly blaming the people who e-mailed you as being the problem.
The issue is that many people cannot access Balloon Juice.
That is your problem and not theirs.
If people cannot get Balloon Juice to load properly, they are going to try to contact Mr. Balloon Juice aka John Cole. They are your friends, not your enemies – they want to read your stuff and are frustrated that they cannot.
Ignore them at your peril.
Blaming them (or appearing to do so) makes you look like an asshole. (Is there a constructive way of informing someone they look like an asshole?)
3. You have devoted readers.
They’ve searched for and found obscure and inventive ways to connect to Balloon Juice even though the default entry point did not work for them.
Ignore them at your peril.
Recap: Communicate, Acknowledge, Own, Communicate, YP not MP (thanks Boogie Nights!), Don’t be an asshole, Communicate. Did I mention “Communicate?’
Constructively and respectfully,
de stijl
(This is the second and last time I’ll post this comment.)
freelancer
Lucky for us, no one who’s not retarded under the age of 45 takes Broder seriously.
#Rtardsatire
Yutsano
@asiangrrlMN: It went decent. I was told that I interview very well (whatever the hell that means) and that I had skills they were not aware of before. I think I made a good impression, possibly more than they were expecting. Overall not too bad, but we’ll see.
I stand by my comment BTW. Children are your family not your political tools.
@freelancer: I don’t think those who are retarded take him seriously either.
asiangrrlMN
@Yutsano: I agree with you on this. My comment about it being a nonissue was that the traditional media will give a collective shrug and move on.
I hate the way Palin treats her children. Taking…Piper? I think it was Piper, to the hockey game because she (Sarah) thought the fans wouldn’t boo a seven-year old was heinous.
Plus, it seems that the daughters are the mothers of Trig more than is Palin herself. People used to give me shit for not having kids. I think they should go after the shitty moms instead.
P.S. Way to go on the interview.
The Populist
I guess it’s not as big a deal as we all thought (I am guilty too for posting a link to the writer at Yale).
She’s still a clod though.
ruemara
Because we’re Democrats, dammit! If there’s a way to shoot ourselves, our allies and everything but the deer in our sites, we’ll find it. At least we have passion. I’m just glad it isn’t the new left internet meme.
The Populist
@asiangrrlMN:
The fact her kids all have really stupid names proves she must hate her kids.
Track?
Trig?
Argh.
freelancer
@Yutsano:
Yeah, you could do to meet some of my Midwestern peers. And being someone who talks to y’all on the TRON filled interwebs, I’m not even gonna get into the areas of the ignorant Dumbfuckistan population that I don’t even bother to interact with.
Yutsano
@asiangrrlMN: This particular issue is a non-starter I agree. But Anne Laurie got me going there (though I wasn’t saying anything to disparage her there) and I just had to comment on that. Plus Bendah can’t refute the argument so s/he just goes off on whatever regardless of whether it makes or not. One of the few things that get me hot under the collar is how parents treat their children (going back to the thing that got me practically fired from summer camp thingy) and I won’t stand for anyone who uses their children, whether in a divorce or a political situation. Hell I winced when Obama dragged out Sasha and Malia, even though they really are teh cute. He got (deserved in my opinion) heat for those instances. But he doesn’t make huge political hay out of his children the way Bible Spice does. That sets me off to no end.
I’m not as moody as I was yesterday, I just felt the need to explode there.
Martin
@de stijl:
Actually, it was this afternoon, and then he mentioned it again 2 hours before this post.
What peril? You’ll stop coming to the site? That’s not perilous. You’ll siege his house? Shiv him in the shower? Land mine in the driveway? Let’s not get carried away, okay?
asiangrrlMN
@The Populist: Heh. Yeah. I can see Willow and Piper. Bristol, Trig, and Track? Not so much. I am the last one who should talk about odd names, but that won’t stop me!
Yutsano
@asiangrrlMN: Actually the girls’ names I kinda understand. I doubt she realized Bristol is an old British town that has a musical history in the US. But Track? Trig? Really? They’re kinda vague hunting names honestly. Otherwise I don’t really get it.
asiangrrlMN
@Yutsano: Agreed. In fact, I am glad that for the most part, the Obamas keep the girls as far from the spotlight as possible. The Clintons did a great job of that, too.
There are so many bad parents out there. That’s why I never understand all the grief I got for not having kids.
@Martin: Punch him in the neck? Sic Tunchie on him in the middle of the night to sit on his bad shoulder? See, I can play, too!
de stijl
When I was a kid, there was a neighborhood family that named their kids Dirk, Dack, and Drake. All about a year apart.
No one could remember which kid went with which name so they all got referred to as “Dirkdackdrake.”
Xenos
@Church Lady: Acid?
It is bile, and if Palin does not stir yours up then you are likely a damn fool.
Yutsano
@asiangrrlMN: It’s kinda funny. My good friend (the UU I mentioned a few threads back) swore that while she would consider adoption, she had zero desire to have children of her own. Of course now she’s pregnant (on purpose) so things change over time. Not to mention certain gay cowboys in Wyoming…
I’m very seriously considering ordering Thai food for dinner tomorrow. Apparently my fix wasn’t satisfied from last weekend.
Ripley
Thanks, de stijl. Seconded.
The Palin thing? Guy was trolling his own blog, and now it’s here, which is too bad.
asiangrrlMN
@Yutsano: UU? Huh? Link, please? I knew from a very early age that I didn’t want children. I really need to get my tubes tied soon.
John Cole
@de stijl: I’m not ignoring the issue. The tech folks are on it. In fact, the emails have stopped, so I think it may have been fixed.
And another thing that has me grumpy is that other than the hospital, rehab, doctor’s appt’s, and walking the dog, I HAVE NOT BEEN OUT OF MY HOUSE IN A MONTH. I took a couple weeks off for the week before surgery and afterwards to recover, and now the entire damned town is a sheet of ice covered by snow and is basically closed down, and even if it weren’t, I can’t drive in shitty weather with one arm and I can’t walk on ice because I have no balance with only one limb and the other in a brace, and were I to fall an d land the wrong way I would destroy my shoulder worse than the original fall.
I’m a misanthrope, but I have my limits. Now my sleep patterns are all messed up because I am not tired at night because I have gotten little to no exercise, my eating is all out of whack because I have scaled down how much I eat so I don’t become an ever fatter bastard, and I AM SICK TO DEATH OF BEING IN THIS DAMNED HOUSE.
I swear to God, if it snows this weekend I’m going to cry. Or at least let off a Dean Scream.
ruemara
@John Cole:
Do what you need to, man. I once rubbed the skin off my armpits, trying to be outside doing stuff on crutches, because I’d been housebound for 2 weeks. I feel your pain and do not want you to spend 2 more weeks waiting for your pits to grow skin before you can use deodorant. Make someone come entertain you or drive you out for coffee or something. It’s mandatory.
asiangrrlMN
@John Cole: Yeah. I forgot to mention that you have a messed up wing, too. I feel you on the whacked eating/sleeping schedule, Cole. Hope the arm is getting better at least.
Yutsano
@asiangrrlMN: Unitarian Universalist. I don’t think you were around for that, I’d have to hunt for the exact thread, might take me a bit to find. It was a religious discussion.
I go back and forth on wanting children. I think I’ll end up with a guy who has them. I’m not exactly gonna lean on the Dawg to break out the turkey baster anytime soon unless he wants to.
asiangrrlMN
@Yutsano: Ah. Got it. Probably not. I try to avoid religious threads. I did get sorta involved in one, but only to say I was agnostic.
The Dawg is younger, right? I have known since I was in my early twenties that I did not want kids. Well, I actually knew when I was a kid, but I didn’t realize I knew it at the time, if you know what I mean.
freelancer
@de stijl:
You forgot Rake.
or was it Dork?
Yutsano
@asiangrrlMN: He’s nine years younger than me. I called him a pup once, he calmly reminded me that he’s almost a foot taller than I am. He’s good at getting me to behave.
asiangrrlMN
@Yutsano: Heh. Sounds like you two are good for each other.
freelancer
@John Cole:
Welcome to the lonely inconsolable moments of your recovery. If it were 70 degrees and pristine outside, my friend, you would still feel as feckless as you do right now. It’s hard to walk a dog in a body brace, even then, it’s hard to deal with the snowpacalypse sequel happening outside your front door.
I, on your recommend, got the first two seasons of Chuck, and I thank you dearly for it, and I have been simultaneously amused and inspired by the show.
Insomnia was a regular feature during my recovery, and for what it’s worth, while hobbling around on crutches, I still found the time to be optimistic, and I knew that while staying in my niece’s bed was driving me insane, and that while reaching out to my parents was bringing me to the point of going bugfuck, I knew one thing:
I knew that reaching out to other people was the best thing that I could’ve ever done. I for one, am glad to have your sass and snark back, but discount the value of other people before you may have already discarded them for the time being.
While this site is yours, and the people here would proudly tend to you hand and foot, you should really call your parents again. Call Tammy and Brian, and let them know what you just posted. There is a space between “I need help” and “I’m doing okay for now” is filled with those you love and who will take care of you. Mind that gap, John.
The Republic of Stupidity
Popped an ACL off the bone in my right knee back in May of ’93. Construction accident. It was kinda like, my knee or my face. I still feel I made the right decision…
I tripped going down a flight of exterior concrete stairs w/ small outside walls that frame them, so to speak. No guard rail (not against code, strangely enough…). I could see myself falling face first into way too many concrete edges and right angles and needing multiple tens of thousands of dollars of reconstructive surgery on my jaw.
So I tried jumping out and away from the steps by planting my right foot and pushing off, hoping to at least land out there, where it was flat (the sidewalk). My foot only caught an inch or two of the step and went right over the edge. I ended up going straight down on that one leg about 2, 2&1/2 feet, and stuffing my whole body weight into the knee.
I knew it was bad instantly. I felt the knee move sideways a LOT. I immediately went down and balled up in a fetal position, hugging my knee w/ both hands. I don’t know how long I was on the sidewalk, probably only a minute or two, but it seemed like 20 and I might have blacked out once or twice.
Strangely enough, I remember thinking that if someone wants to take my wallet right now, they can have it. I can’t do a damned thing to stop them. I don’t think I could possibly, voluntarily make the sound I made that morning – kinda like a dog in pain… this deep, throaty howl… I was drenched in sweat almost instantly.
The emergency room doctor told me he thought I was okay and could go back to work in a couple of days. My knee looked like a cross between a grapefruit and a water balloon at that point. Big, round, and squishy to the touch. I wanted to hit him.
One of the later doctors who looked at it asked if I heard anything when I did it. I said yeah… it sounded like when you stomp on one of those little sealed bags of corn chips and the bag pops and the chips crunch at the same time.
He laughed and said I should be a writer. The popping noise was the ligament snapping and the crunching was the cartilage in the knee tearing.
I had major reconstructive surgery that fall and was a guest of the workers comp system for just about two full years. The doctor always say you’re fine after a year but it actually takes two.
All in all, an interesting experience, once I got over the shock of being badly hurt. By and large, I’m okay, but I still have small issues w/ both feet, ankles, knees… plantar fasciitis is a constant threat, due to collapsed arches. I manage.
I even went back to construction afterwards and did some of the hardest work of my adult life – concrete, seismic retrofits, demo work w/ a jack hammer, on that rebuilt knee… I used to be able to pick up two 90lb bags of concrete mix and walk around w/ them in my hands.
Now days I’m a bookkeeper, ‘n a good ‘un too.
Lesley
I’d go after her for naming him “Track”. Track, Trig… Her name should be Ooga Ooga.
Yutsano
@asiangrrlMN: I don’t want to imply that our relationship is asymmetrical. In fact, someone on here (I forget whom) mused about the fact that I called him Dawg and that therefore defined the relative statuses in our relationship. Nothing could be further from the truth. I believe in equal rights, but some people have strengths in some areas and others show prowess in others. In many many ways he balances me. I’d like to think I do the same thing for him. What’s really funny is how different we both are on paper. I have a big multi-ethnic family, his is small and structured. He’s an only child, I have three brothers. We’re both educated, so there’s a commonality there. I’m considerably more liberal than he is. A friend of mine asked me to define our relationship once. The only word I could come up with is…interesting. It really does fit.
freelancer
@Lesley:
heh. indeedy.
/glenn
This is why we need more Open Threads between 11-3am EST. Are you paying attention Anne Laurie?
Yutsano
@freelancer: Just do what AsianGrrlMN and I do: hijack a thread until they figure out that they need to open another one. Works like a charm every time.
EDIT: Adjourning for the eve. Bring on my Friday!
Anne Laurie
@John Cole:
I think you’ve spoken of having cab service available, at least during business hours? Pay the nice cab service to drive you to the nearest largish mall, where you can at least walk around and exercise your muscles, your eyes, and your temper. Sitting in a eeleetist coffee shop with your laptop is well & good, but there’s a reason creaky old people form walking groups at the malls. Bring your new e-reader or a nice pocket-sized paperback for reading at the food court, and leave the laptop at home.
Speaking of old people, try checking with your doctors / physical therapists about whether there’s a “senior fitness center” where you can at least use the amble-mill (the fragile-bones version of a treadmill) until you’re cleared to do aquarobics or Senior Tai Chi.
Anne Laurie
@Yutsano:
Sometimes I just gotta go with the old Chinese theory of the Red Thread of Fate that connects two souls. The Spousal Unit and I would seem to have so little in common that it still occasionally surprises our separate and mutual friends that we’ve managed to be together for almost 32 years, 17 of them state-sanctioned. A large part of our success is that we’ve always been consciencious about allowing the other as much privacy as they need, which can be… quite a lot. It helped that we were college housemates for some time before we started “dating”, so we had already worked out the worst of the etiquette issues that destroy fragile young relationships. But otherwise — we just, as you say, FIT.
de stijl
John Cole,
This is going to sound counter-intuitive, but think about this approach for the next time you have to communicate about connectivity issues.
Step 1- Acknowledge the problem
Step 2 – Acknowledge the problem & communicate what you’re doing to fix the problem
Step 3 – Repeat steps 1 & 2 until the problem is resolved
I guarantee that you’ll receive less e-mails this way.
Platonicspoof
@Martin:
I wasn’t sure if it wasn’t some kind metaphor / analogy / snark about Obama / the Base(R) / communication flying over my head again.
Just me reading way too much politics.
And a lot of readers mainlining this blog.
(That’s a compliment de stijl !)
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
@Martin:
I don’t know what all the whining is about, I’m having no problems getting around the site so no problem at this end.
Fuck the rest of ya bitchez, I got mine!
soonergrunt
@Cassidy: This.
I have bracelets for each of my fallen brothers. Palin isn’t violating some code or something here. The company that is cashing in on the phenomenon however…but it was ever thus.
former_friend
Thank you Cole, for the reminder you are a two-time Bush voter wingnut who gleefully denounced Spitzer and cheered his being removed from regulatory office right before the financial looting went nova.
You can write well, but I often wonder why you focus so much pique on “our” side. It would be expected that you’d get a little email at some point, offering a batch of wingnut welfare for a little double-agent action. I could understand the temptation. Just saying.
So you should know many here don’t fully accept your conversion. Your gig here is as a shocked convert seeing the light, plus pet entertainment, NOT stirring the pot against Progressives or teh Left.
Of course we want you on the side of The People, not only for your talent but for your humanity, but can’t you lay off the imaginary villains of teh “Left” for a bit? It’s old. It was old in 2001.
estamm
This is the first I’ve heard of braceletgate. Yes, it is kinda stupid. However, I have one question for any winger who is incensed at this ‘attack’ on Palin: Where were you when purple band-aids were passed out at the 2004 Republican convention? I kinda don’t recall any apologies on the right for that disgusting display. So, mocking Palin’s cheap attempt at scoring political points: Bad. Mocking Kerry’s battle wounds: Good.
de stijl
former_friend: Spoof? Reverse troll? Anti-reverse spoof-troll? Who can say? I’m perplexed, for one.
Platonicspoof
@de stijl:
Pringles!
TR
I read the piece, and while its central premise — that the black wristband was to honor soldiers who died in combat, and thus Sarah Palin had no reason to wear one — was inherently flawed, the author went out of his way to *praise* her son. No one ever “went after him,” John.
roshan
Anyone heard the name Cindy Sheehan?
Svensker
@jenniebee:
This is just so wrong. As much as I dislike Sarah Palin, criticizing her for wearing something symbolic for her son is really dumb and unfeeling. I wore a similar bracelet for years for someone I lost in Viet Nam and if you told me I was doing it as a fashion accessory I would have punched you in the mouth.
Sarah may be a jerk, but she’s also a mom whose son is in a combat zone. Get a clue.
Svensker
@de stijl:
Yup. Already seen wingers quoting it to show what horrible people Them Commies are.
Sarcastro
… on what planet do left-wingers think going after her son, currently deployed overseas in the military, is smart politics?
That would be your planet it seems.
Whispers
Black is a color for mourning. Palin was wrong to wear the bracelet.
Cole goes out of his way to pick on liberals. Again.
pcbedamned
For anyone who has ever wondered why Canadians are so enamoured with American politics, This, Also. What can you expect from a Country who’s own PM apologizes to the opposition? And MORE than once?!?
Edmonton Journal, July 10, 2009.
CTV, September 9, 2008 – when we were in the midst of our own election.
Howz that for controversy and animosity in regards to opposing political camps… (and these apologies are from the ‘evil Harper’ you all hear about)
Meg
I also thought it was not smart to attack her on this.
But I thought that her son has already come back from Iraq.
http://tinyurl.com/yelxb73
Besides, since she hasn’t been seen wearing this wrist band before this event (at least from all the pictures or videos I saw), I would say she just wore it to appear patriotic in front of the tea-partiers.
jenniebee
@Svensker:
You know, the world is full of people who rave and rant about how “unfeeling” people are who are put off by politicians going emo (or how unfeeling the pols themselves are if they don’t go all emo). It pisses me off. There are some of us out here for whom feeling isn’t a slobbery mush-fest with lots of symbols and ribbons and costume jewelry and special encore ice dances dedicated to the fallen. There are, in fact, people for whom grief is raw, gritty, and not for public display. If you like the slobbery mush-fest type, that’s up to you, but stop being surprised that that type looks as fake to me as mine looks heartless to you.
That’s first. Second, you are not a politician. Why would I suggest that you have ulterior motives? Palin is a politician. When she appears in a professional capacity, she is a professional image. Why on earth would anybody in his right mind not understand that every part of her ensemble is considered for its impact on that image? If she wore the bracelet all the time, that would be one thing. But she’s had it for a year and only just now brought it out when she was speaking to a political convention on live national television. It wasn’t there to remind her of her son, it was there to remind everybody else about her son. I don’t doubt that she loves him, I don’t doubt that she misses him, and I don’t doubt that he is politically useful to her.
Church Lady
@Whispers: It wasn’t black. It was bronze.
asiangrrlMN
@Yutsano: I didn’t get that impression at all. I also agree with your relationship hypothesis. Equal does not mean the same. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses, and they differ from each other. Why pretend otherwise? Take me, for example. I don’t cook. So, therefore, I have only dated people who cook for me. Then, I do the dishes. Works for me!
@pcbedamned: Wow. That’s enchanting. I think I am about to become enamored with Canadian politics. People apologizing sincerely when they do something wrong? What a concept.
@freelancer: I agree with my fake-hubby. Just talk about whatever you want to talk about. It’s late. There aren’t many people around. Cole is usually asleep. It works for us!
pcbedamned
@asiangrrlMN:
Seriously, don’t bother. It is so boring, we don’t even keep up with. And our elections only last 6 weeks, usually at the whim of whoever is in power. (Mind you, we do seem to have an awful lot of them lately…)
And to reply to what you said yesterday? about Canadians knowing more about American History than most Americans, (I couldn’t reply then coz I have had a hell of a time getting on here…) believe it or not, when I was in school (many, many moons ago) we actually had to take American History in school (we had to memorize all 50 States and be able to place them on a map as early as Grade 6!). Our high school also had a senior American History class. I actually majored in History in high school, taking every course that was offered right up to Grade 13. It is still a major love of mine, even if I didn’t major in it for University (when I was being interviewed I remember being asked why and replied to the interviewer that I had NO plans on either teaching or writing a book – about all you can do with a History B.A.)
Peace
electricgrendel
This is the difference between left of center sorts like John Cole and right of center folks like all of those people who went apeshit over Obama wearing that bracelet during the presidential campaign.
a link to inane newsbusters malarky
See- people like John Cole, and many commentators on the left have things called scruples and integrity. We generally do not realize that in the chimeric world of 21st century politics things like integrity (such as critiquing a critique of an opponent instead of going with it and attacking! attacking! attacking!) are liabilities.
Jason
For what it’s worth, we touched upon it in classes this morning, and student comments were less than charitable. But then, the Leadership Institute is funding a monthly “equal time for conservative viewpoints” newspaper here, so I’m sure conventional wisdom on campus will change soon enough.