I’ve only been admitted to a hospital once (knock wood), and that was to have a baby. Hospital births demand the woman enduring it to surrender any vestiges of modesty for the duration of the event. But it’s about damn time ass-exposing hospital gowns got an overhaul, and in 2014, they finally have:
DETROIT – A Detroit-based health system is rolling out a new patient gown that aims to offer a little more style, comfort and rear coverage.
Resembling a wrap-around robe, the “Model G” gown closes the once-drafty back. The gown was developed by the Henry Ford Innovation Institute. A version of the gown was introduced in 2013 on a few inpatient floors at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. Since then, the institute has worked to update the design based on feedback from patients and staff.
I’m glad a sufficiently powerful brain-trust was available to develop this important innovation. Seriously.
Please feel free to discuss whatever.
Villago Delenda Est
Wow, what an amazing innovation!
You’re right about that brain trust, Betty. Truly astonishing. I am slack-jawed in amazement.
BGinCHI
Any idea whether the Ford Model G has a heated seat?
Karen in GA
I had a closed-back gown when I was hospitalized in 1999. Or maybe I just wore it backwards. Fuck it — I was sick.
Anyway, my husband is working an earlier shift now. This makes Iggy very, very happy.
Belafon
@BGinCHI: It comes in any color you want, as long as it’s black.
schrodinger's cat
Why do the prints on the gowns have to be so silly? Just the hospital’s way of letting you know who is the boss.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
I’m working on hiring a cover designer and looking at the covers of successful books for the same audience to be ready for a design meeting. I’ve found that I have much stronger opinions about some elements of cover design than I thought I would.
Also coming up with promotional text for the Kickstarter. I pulled a few excerpts from the novel that might work to convey its theme and I’ll probably write something original in Phoebe’s voice with that specific goal in mind. I also want to write a piece in my own voice about how the story came about.
I’ve been a lot more productive today than usual.
CONGRATULATIONS!
Fucking finally. I’ve been in hospitals more often than I’d like over the last few years – minor bullshit mostly – but the gown is unforgivable. Nobody needs or wants to see my ass, those days ended about fifteen years ago or so.
Big ole hound
Pick any politician and give he/her the “cover your ass” patent. No study required.
Lee
The gowns my wife had for my 2 kids born in the 90’s (’96 & ’99) were not the back closing types but front closing (more like a robe).
D58826
Stop the presses – if Obama does anything about immigration Ted Cruz (aside from having his head explode) will place a hold on all Obama nominations in the next Senate. Isn’t that what they have been doing for the past six years?
Paul Ryan (aside from having his head explode) says that the order would sour relations between Obama and the GOP.
Now let me see according to the GOP Obama is a spineless tyrant who hates America because he really is a Kenyan communist who wants Americans to either die from Ebola or have ISIS sneak into their bedrooms and chop off their heads, besides which he hates white people (well except for the most white people in his cabinet) and wants to extract reparations fur slavery by allowing Ebola (again) to ravage the country.. By issuing this order he will allow all of those watermelon legged terrorists to come and stay in America.
Surely Obama wouldn’t want to risk his warm relations with Congress now would he.
mai naem mobile
When my parents have been in the hospital ive always just made them wear two gowns. One rightward and one backwards. Takes care of the ass problem.
mai naem mobile
@D58826: why is it that Obama is considered to be playing politics now with the . immigration issue or Keystone or whatever, but those pure innocent Republicans are never never playing politics. Arrrggh.
The Dangerman
All this Cosby stuff makes me thankful I learned early on to never (never, never, NEVER) be alone in a closed door room with a woman that isn’t my GF/Wife. For her protection as well as my own.
Not saying Cosby is innocent (I heard some things back in the 80’s from when he was doing shows in Vegas, or maybe it was Reno/Tahoe) but I do find it a little odd to accuse someone of rape from 19fucking69.
What a mess.
Amir Khalid
I has seen Interstellar twice, the second time on IMAX. I like (and understand) it even better now. It’s a better movie than 2001: A Space Odyssey: actual cutting-edge science; no fancy light-show substituting for plot; main characters with personalities and relationships (David Bowman seemed to have neither); and in IMAX, audio that makes your trousers flap. Although if Chris Nolan wanted full-on sentiment, he could have had Anne Hathaway sing a song.
On to Big Hero 6, Horns, and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1.
Suzanne
@mai naem mobile: Yes, this is how I insist on wearing them, too. Or wearing my own clothes. They can’t stop you from wearing your own stuff. I don’t think hospital gowns are warm enough.
Roger Moore
@mai naem mobile:
IOKIYAR. Always.
Villago Delenda Est
@D58826:
The stupid. IT BURNS!
Villago Delenda Est
@mai naem mobile: That’s absolutely the Village narrative.
Which is why my nym.
Roger Moore
@D58826:
What else are the Republicans supposed to say, “If Obama does anything on immigration, I’ll hold my breath until I turn blue!”? The problem with turning the rhetoric up to 11 all the time is that there’s nowhere to go when you’re talking about something you actually consider vitally important.
Mnemosyne
A friend of mine who had her baby at UCLA hospital said it was quite an experience because, as a teaching hospital, they would bring groups around to take a look at her privates and discuss them. After a certain point, she was hoping they were all actual medical personnel, because for all she knew, the janitors were coming in to take a look and she was so jaded she wasn’t asking any more questions.
Helen
Memorial Sloan Kettering lets you wear your own pajamas. And they have flat screen TVs in every room. And if you have visitors during feeding time, your visitor can order too. Not that any of that would make up for being in MSKCC. But still; anything that adds to you confort and/or dignity while you’re in the hospital helps.
different-church-lady
Good grief, I was given a side-tie gown with a bit of overlap when I had surgery in 2011.
Amir Khalid
In Malaysian hospitals, public and private, they loan you a sarong — unisex, comfy, modest, and easy to put on/loosen/remove as needed.
schrodinger's cat
@Amir Khalid: What about the top half?
D58826
@Roger Moore: ‘What else are the Republicans supposed to say, “If Obama does anything on immigration, I’ll hold my breath until I turn blue!”? ‘ sigh one can always hope
Tree With Water
@mai naem mobile: I don’t understand why the president didn’t announce his adamant opposition to the death funnel long ago. Not only is it a stance that would have enjoyed the solid support of the rank and file, it would have rallied voters outside the rank and file to its ranks. If you doubt that, go talk to those rock ribbed republican property owners in Nebraska who lands need be stolen in order to construct the monstrosity. The president should have courted a big fight with republicans, and shined a spotlight on an issue in which his party could not only rally with pride, but come out smelling like a rose doing it. It was a missed opportunity, and a pretty big one at that.
Amir Khalid
@schrodinger’s cat:
I suppose they might loan a woman a top if she needed one, but that situation would occur only rarely. A shirtless man, most likely not.
Roger Moore
@Helen:
Inpatients in a cancer center are likely to be in for longer than most of the inpatients at a general hospital. I think they’re also likely to have less done to them daily, so the physicians have less need to have quick access to their bodies, which is a big justification for the easy-open hospital gowns.
That said, the relatively swank atmosphere is getting to be fairly standard at high-end hospitals. My employer- also a comprehensive cancer center- now has exclusively single rooms, and they come standard with a cot so a visiting relative can spend the night. AFAIK, they all have flat-screen TVs, and the rooms in the pediatric ward all have reasonably up-to-date video game consoles.
NCSteve
The one thing I’ve always wondered is why the designer and manufacturers and orderers of hospital gowns all feel that one thing doctors need most is instant and unimpeded access to your ass specifically as opposed to any other part or side of you? And I say that even as a middle aged guy.
JMT
Pet adoption option! I just got forwarded this photo of a lovely lab mix, Namaan, in the Atlanta area. He’s a graduate of the Canine Cellmates program. He’s been through training, earned his Canine Good Citizen title and is ready for an active home:
href=”https://www.facebook.com/CanineCellMates/photos/pb.465721546796122.-2207520000.1416427875./881628601872079/?type=3&theater”>
Unfortunately, his foster family can’t keep him past Saturday, so he may be moving to a kennel. If you’re interested in fostering or adopting Namaan, contact [email protected]
And please pass the word!
Betty Cracker
@Mnemosyne: That’s hilarious! I had my kiddo at the hospital where my mom was working as a nurse, and that turned out to be both a blessing and a curse. I was probably more coddled than Princess Kate, but I had no privacy whatsoever because my mom kept bringing colleagues to my room to show off the grandbaby.
Pogonip
I think those stupid paper gowns that tear at the slightest move ought to be outlawed. They always want you to wear those for a physical. Why bother? As soon as the dr tells you to take a deep breath the thing will fall apart anyway.
skerry
@The Dangerman: I was a child in 1969, but as a young adult woman in the workforce beginning in the late 70s, I am quite familiar with sexual harassment and assault and people’s attitudes. For some insight into the reality around sexual assault and how it was/is viewed, you might want to take a look at this GOS post: What It Was Like To Report Sexual Harrassment & Rape in the 1980’s. Maybe you’ll grow a little empathy.
(You might want to read it with your GF/wife in the room for everyone’s protection.)
Another Holocene Human
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN): Make sure an artist friend looks over that cover before it goes to print.
Manyakitty
@Amir Khalid: Really? That’s good to hear. I’ve been wavering about Interstellar. Have you see Birdman?
scav
@NCSteve: I always had a vague suspicion that it might have something more to do with nurses and bed pans and ease in changing clothes on recumbent patients than the convenience of mere physicians , plus elements of the whole control thing. Habit sometimes goes a long way too in understanding stuff that makes little real sense.
gbear
@D58826: We’re going to all miss Obama so much when he’s gone. I’m looking forward to the books that come out about his presidency after the fact.
Another Holocene Human
@Karen in GA: I got wrap-around close at the shoulder gowns through the 2000s for X-rays. The X-rays were unnecessary, though, so who gives a fuck.
I used to be super-embarrassed but no more. I figure doctors work on bodies all day long. Seen one, seen ’em all. I’m always surprised when a doctor gets grossed out by a rash or something. ‘Really? Thought you desensitized that nerve years ago. Where have you been?’
Manyakitty
Who are the commenters in the Madison, WI area? I’m trying to write an article about Occupy Madison and the tiny houses they’re building. My boss would like something exploring the pros and cons of the idea, and he’s skittish about the whole “Occupy” connection. Here’s a link to the site.
Another Holocene Human
@The Dangerman: Please read this post:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/11/18/1345720/-What-It-Was-Like-To-Report-Sexual-Harrassment-Rape-in-the-1980-s
Iowa Old Lady
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN): You’ve probably already thought of this, but the cover should look good in a thumbnail if you want to use it in an icon. Also it should be readable in black and white because e-readers often display that way.
Sounds like you’re making progress!
The Ancient Randonneur
@D58826:
Surely not. He could have easily fixed the hospital gown debacle with an Executive Order, but nooooo, he had to drag his feet on this one too.
Mnemosyne
I like my co-worker, I really do, but it’s very frustrating that when we’re working on a project together, I tell her, X is going to happen because it’s happened every other time before on this project and she overrides me because she doesn’t want X to happen and somehow she’s going to be able to change the behavior of others through force of will. Then I have to scramble because, guess what? X happened, just like I said it was going to. Feh.
Another Holocene Human
@Dangerman
Dunno if you’re familiar with Star Trek. Nichelle Nichols was the victim of an attempted rape when she was working the lounge circuit. Grace Lee Whitney was raped by a crew member when she was an actress on Star Trek (which led to her leaving to show abruptly). Nobody knew about it until years later. There were no prosecutions. Nichols felt lucky to get out of there alive. Whitney had a breakdown.
Manyakitty
@Mnemosyne: mumble mumble definition of insanity mumble mumble…
Another Holocene Human
There’s a serial killer who was arrested in the early 70s in California. He had tried to gore a teenaged girl on the beach with a screwdriver. Nasty, nasty case. He should have been in prison for years but they more or less let him go. He went on to kill over and over. Why? Well, of course he didn’t just try to kill her, he had raped her. So prosecuting the whole thing got ugly.
The majority of rapes don’t get reported to the police to this day.
FlipYrWhig
@Tree With Water:
HuffPo today cites a poll:
Numbers have jumped around on it.
ETA: Pew sez 43% of Dems. See National Journal from last week.
I’m not sure “solid support of the rank and file” can be presumed. And that’s probably why it’s been a prolonged and delayed decision-making process.
Mnemosyne
@NCSteve:
My assumption? Bedpans. These days, most private and semi-private rooms have bathrooms built in so most reasonably ambulatory patients use those, but back in the old days, it was all bedpans, all the time.
Mnemosyne
@Another Holocene Human:
I once had a gigantic cyst on my forehead that I went to see the dermatologist about. I swear he took one step into the room and flinched backwards away from it.
In his defense, it was a really nasty cyst — about the size of a quarter and dark red. He ended up having to drain it and it was quite the task.
feebog
@The Dangerman:
In my experience (which is considerable) women do not report sexual harassment, sexual assult or rape for many reasons. Primary among them is that they will not be believed. Other reasons include embarrassment, fear of retaliation from the perpetrator or others in power, and in many cases, simply not knowing who to report the incident to. I investigated sexual harassment charges for a number of years for a large federal agency, and it was not at all unusual for additional women to come forward once one woman filed a complaint.
catclub
Pierce’s admonition to not go to sleep on Walker gets a follower.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2014_11/walker_16_death_by_vanilla052997.php
No charisma? Check – no different from Pawlenty
Sufficient hatred of and from the opposition? Double Check – very different from Pawlenty.
Another Holocene Human
@skerry: Oops, ya beat me to it.
There are a lot of situations where being alone with somebody could be an issue. I don’t really blame people for taking precautions. It’s easier when there’s institutional support. Especially youth-adult interactions or when there’s a power differential. MCC doesn’t allow adults to be alone in a room with youth. More churches should follow their lead.
But then there’s taking it to far, like the union steward who had known me for years who wouldn’t drop off some shit at my house … delusional.
The Dangerman
For those that think I lack empathy for the Cosby accusers, far from it; it’s entirely possible they are telling the truth (indeed, on balance, I’d say that is probably most likely)…
…and it’s also entirely possible Cosby is innocent. After ALL these years, regardless the statute of limitations, prosecution is impossible so it will always be a “he said, she said” (actually, since he is saying nothing, I guess it’s just a “she said”). Trying to defend saying nothing contemporaneously because of what it may have been like in the 60’s, 70’s, or 80’s is weak.
This thread was about CYA and I think the ultimate CYA in these situations is to make sure there can’t be any accusation, ever, by having a 3rd Party witness.
sparrow
@Amir Khalid: As a PhD astrophysicist, I have to burst your bubble a bit and say that the science is pretty crappy, actually. But I guess it wasn’t off-the-charts stupid. I enjoyed the imagery. Some of the personal dynamics also didn’t make any sense (the “big scene” with the brother towards the end made zero).
Another Holocene Human
@Mnemosyne: Imagine you are on a 6-person board and you tell them X is going to happen and 5 out of the 5 not-you people insist that X isn’t real. This is my life.
Oh well, experience is starting to teach them. At least they are teachable. And one of my sociopaths moved to Atlanta. Good riddance. Worried about what she does in the future, though. If you ever meet a woman with an insipid smile that doesn’t ever reach her eyes….
Amir Khalid
@Manyakitty:
No, I haven’t even seen posters for it yet. I do hope we get to see it here as well as the Stephen Hawking/Alan Turing biopics. Eddie Redmayne and Benedict Cumberbatch are getting Oscar buzz for their performances.
Another Holocene Human
@FlipYrWhig: A lot of lies were being told about the project and they were working. It took years for dedicated local activists to expose and publicize the truth.
JCT
@Mnemosyne: re: bedpans, yup – that was the original reason.
Your friend’s experience at UCLA is a bit appalling, when I round with my team I make them introduce themselves to each patient. If you are going to touch someone they should know who (and what) you are…
And to combat some of the crazy stuff today I share this – been chuckling over it all AM.
http://the-toast.net/2014/10/28/women-terrible-time-parties-western-art-history/
Shakezula
I do consider this a BFD. Hospital gowns are merely annoying if you’re in them for a few hours.
At about hour 35 or 10 hours after you’re well enough to notice your surroundings, they become a fucking pain in the ass. Putting one on backwards to cover the bits that are exposed by the one put on the right way round just adds to your discomfort.
I never understood why they couldn’t make something that closed along both shoulders and down one side. That would allow plenty of room for all of the tubing and such and easy access if they needed to cut you open real quick.
Amir Khalid
@sparrow:
I’m well aware that liberties were taken with the science; but if Kip Thorne says he’s okay with what was done in this movie, who am I to differ?
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
@Iowa Old Lady: I have a friend that’s been in publishing for 20 years whose company I’ve hired to help me with the process. She put me in contact with a professional cover designer they use regularly. We have a meeting on Friday to discuss ideas and then he goes off and puts something together that Beth and I both approve before he does the whole thing. They do both ebooks and print and this will be both.
The cover is going to cost me $1,100. I’m doing this as a professional project. “Self-publishing” is a bit of a misnomer here.
Another Holocene Human
@Mnemosyne: I guess that’s the ole “bedside manner”. In my profession you’re supposed to – not have to, I guess – hide your reaction to stuff like that. Well, I always did. Some healthcare professionals don’t care how the patient feels about anything. Some patients would be just as off-put by indifference, nerdly fascination, or disgust.
About those gowns, I’ve encountered them in plenty of outpatient facilities that close up at 6pm nightly … buuuut they may be doing genital or rectal exams on some patients.
NCSteve
@scav: Ah! That does make a kind of sense in an inconsiderate hospital bureaucrat kind of way. What we call “exam gowns” are actually “hospital gowns” for patients so sick or injured they can’t get out of bed and, rather than have a different kind of gown for people who are just in for an exam, they buy a zillion of the one kind.
dr. luba
Hospital gowns are for when you are having procedures/surgery done or are medically unstable. IVs, EKGs, X-rays etc. don’t alway play well with civilian clothing. Also, too, when there is incontinence, emesis or bleeding going on, you don’t really be wanting to wear your own nice clothes from home. You want stuff that can be tossed into the hospital laundry.
Normally, once you have recovered and can care for yourself, you are free to wear your own clothes, and people do, if they remembered to bring them.
Tree With Water
@FlipYrWhig: You ask those voters who know the score because they are informed, and I tell you the vast majority of them oppose the death funnel. Most voters aren’t informed, however, due in no small part to the fact the president never saw fit to inform them, and congressional democrats followed his lead. To repeat myself, it was a blown opportunity.
Mnemosyne
@The Dangerman:
If what you’re proposing is that men who don’t want to be accused of rape or harassment make sure that they have a chaperone with them at all times, and that any accusation that’s made against a man is automatically more credible if he can’t prove he had his chaperone with him … I think I’m on board with that. It seems more sensible than the old days when the woman was the one who had to be chaperoned even though she was more likely to be the victim than the perpetrator.
Pogonip
@NCSteve: Because if they don’t have instant access to your butt, the terrorists win!
sparrow
@Amir Khalid: Well Kip was consulted on how the black hole looked — which they did a good job on. Also the parts dealing with relativity were mostly correct. I don’t want to spoil people so I won’t go into the problems, but there were many. I’m not sure they could have made the movie without those essentially “magic!” parts, so fine, but I won’t be giving it a realism award anytime soon!
Belafon
@sparrow: What are your views on warp bubbles?
Another Holocene Human
@feebog:
Case in point, Michael Kennedy!!!Oops, my bad, William Kennedy Smith. Michael Kennedy was fucking a teenage servant girl which as we know is totally kosher and not at all coercive, amirite?
Three women came forward but evidence of the serial behavior was excluded at trial. One woman had had questionably consensual sex following being raped by this guy so she was a liar pants liar or crazy or a ho but probably a liar. Very similar to this Cosby thing. Wow. I was a kid when this happened and thought the emperor had no clothes. But maybe it was growing up in an abusive household with an abusive parent so I knew exactly how you end up in these serial situations with someone who has ultimate power over you and in a relationship where you expect something other than tricks and kicks.
But, hey, this stuff happened in the 80s, very similar pattern, and same reaction. Wow!
Y’all need a new set of threads!
schrodinger's cat
@sparrow: How did you like the movie, flaws and all?
D58826
@feebog: Since some of these accusations go back to the 60’s and 70’s it was still the era of Hollywood casting couch’s and ‘candy is dandy but liquor is quicker’ . This was long before the idea of date rape, spousal rape, and ‘no really means no’. ‘Slipping her a mickey’ was acceptable if not legal. The idea of calling it what it really was – date rape drug – was still 30 years in the future.
That being said it was still wrong and in most cases illegal. Believe me I’m not unsympathetic to the victims. My girlfriend and later wife experienced just such an event. She went out with a girlfriend, had a few to many (given how she drinks one was to many) and was raped. When I found out that her folks were not in the DA’s office demanding action, my future father in law explained how the world really worked. He was a minister, who worked for the churches social service agency, and he saw these types of cases all the time. The short version is she would have been blamed because she was an drunken slut. case closed.
gelfling545
@Mnemosyne: When they discovered that my first daughter’s birth was going to be breech and not a C-section (it was far too late), they put out the call to all & sundry & the delivery room was packed. Afterwards, the crowd stood around congratulating the doctor.
Said daughter gave birth to her daughter at a teaching hospital & the ob in charge gave a …sewing lesson to the assembled students.
All this reminds me that menopause can be your friend.
askew
Those gowns offer no dignity at all.
So, Obama wants to give a primetime address tomorrow on EO on immigration and ABC, CBS and NBC are all refusing to air it. That has never happened with a white president. It is disgusting the disrepect the media shows to Obama.
MomSense
@Mnemosyne:
I walked all around Brigham and Women’s Hospital because the midwives told me it would help my labor progress. You see some interesting people in the middle of the night in a city hospital and they all saw my ass but that was the least of my worries after a day and a half spent in agony. They may have given me a backwards gown to try and protect my modesty but nothing exactly fit me very well and I seem to recall it kept shifting.
SWMBO
@Roger Moore: @D58826: Bring me another smurf!!
Another Holocene Human
@The Dangerman: How can they be telling the truth – “on balance” – and yet he’s innocent.
If he’s innocent, why did he settle out of court?
It’s funny how our reactions to people color these things. Michael Jackson is a weirdo so we believe every accusation against him even when the local police determined with some pretty good evidence that the first accusation against him, for which he was arrested, was a confabulation. A lie. The man fought these people in court over and over again and won.
Bill Cosby settled out of court.
He settled. Out of court.
He settled out of court.
He is not “innocent”. He is whistling past the graveyard because the statute of limitations has expired.
You know who was probably innocent but nobody ever believed? Michael Jackson. You know why? Because they told fanciful stories about seeing his pee-pee but none of them were aware that he had an auto-immune condition that destroyed the melanin-producing cells in his skin and at the time of the accusations created a piebald appearance, which is why he was covered up neck down and wore gloves.
That’s why the cops let him go. That’s why the civil suits failed. There was probably some inappropriate stuff going on but not the criminal behavior alleged. Not because it was he said he said but because they couldn’t have possibly seen what they said they saw.
When Cosby was bigger there were always stories about him in the tabloids. Everybody knew he was a dog off the set. The rape thing, though? The roofies? Didn’t hear about that until a few years ago. That’s what nobody wants to think about.
It’s true, though. There are no “innocents” except for a few very young, trusting women whom showbiz chewed up and spit out.
MomSense
@askew:
And people complain about the Obama WH messaging capability. Pretty tough to successfully message when the media won’t even broadcast an address on a major policy issue. Ronnie on the other hand could have announced that he had a PB&J for lunch and all broadcasting would have been interrupted to air it.
Media are probably just pissed he announced it on facebook.
Another Holocene Human
Bullshit. Read the WaPo story. Read their accusations. There were A LOT OF FUCKING WITNESSES. A lot of people enabled the behavior. A LOT OF FUCKING PEOPLE. That’s part of what’s so fucking sick about it.
Amir Khalid
@sparrow:
Thorne did a bit more than that, according to the publicity: he co-wrote the original “treatment” (story proposal) that was developed as a project for Spielberg, and has an executive-producer credit on Interstellar. I doubt a science-fiction movie will ever be made that doesn’t “magic” the science up at least a little, so I don’t expect to see rigorously correct physics in the cinema. But in Interstellar we saw more of it than many “science” fiction moves ever try for.
The Other Chuck
@Another Holocene Human:
You really think having the truth on your side is enough?
Omnes Omnibus
@Another Holocene Human:
That, in and of itself, establishes nothing.
Another Holocene Human
@JCT: Omg, I’ve seen this meme around and now you’ve pointed me to the source. That was hilarious!
dance around in your bones
Betty, my husband shamelessly took pics of me having our baby in Amsterdam. He was sitting in the garden of the Kweekschool voor Vroedvrowen (a training school for midwives) – the only guys who worked there were doing alternative military service…..(P.S – husband was down in the garden smoking a big hash spliff when they came and got him and said “Do you want to see your baby?” – it was a false alarm, since they had just hooked up some chingadera so you could see the baby inside me)…
Anyhooo – I used to show those pictures to everyone who looked at our photo books……my younger sister looked at them and saw my nether parts, and we both laughed and said “well, we’ll never worry about getting that big dump out again!” hahahahahahaw! and my mom said “These are my daughters”.
HAHAHAHA!!!!
ETA: I quite enjoyed seeing Jack Nicholson’s old ass in that movie….with Diane Keaton??
D58826
@askew: Not to defend the MSM in how they have covered Obama but I’m not sure this is the first time that they have refused to cover a presidential address and that goes back to Bush 43. The feeling seems to be that short of a state of war, the political junkies and the somewhat interested bystanders will tune in on CNN,MSNBC or FAUXC. Those who don’t care will get their weekly dose of the Big bang theory or Dancing with Bristol, oops I mean dancing with the stars
Another Holocene Human
@Tree With Water:
Are you aware of Cleek’s law?
Are you aware of what happens with public opinion when Barack Obama comes out against something?
Belafon
@askew:
And yet, one of the accusations from the left is that Obama never talks about what he’s is going to do, is doing, or has done.
Tree With Water
@Another Holocene Human: So because the people’s airwaves (hardee har) have also been bought and sold, it’s no use to fight? Because it sounds to me like that’s what you’re saying. And it is an absurd position to take in light of the people’s right to vote (such as it is). It defeats the entire purpose for having a party in the first place.
dance around in your bones
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN): Good on ya, mate!!
Omnes Omnibus
Does anyone have any idea why this blog is particularly troll infested today? Some high schools closed because of cold or snow? New block grants from the Koch Bros.?
dance around in your bones
Ok, one more thing I’d like to say is that once your are going through ‘transition’ you could give a fucking fuck if you are being broadcast on one of those huse screens at a football game,.
Just sayin’
Another Holocene Human
@askew:
edited to fix tags, fywp
The fix is in. Don’t let Barack talk because people tend to agree with him. So put out your own version of what was said and rile people up to rage against the straw president.
It’s more olds vs youngs though because if youngs are paying attention at all they’re watching the internet feed.
What’s left besides corporate news and right wing fascist propaganda? The Black press (radio), what’s left of the gay press (blogs), and labor, which is still pissed at the Democrats for not giving them a pony 2009-2010, facts be damned.
This is not adding up to 50% reach.
We’re fucked.
D58826
@The Other Chuck: Clinton would have saved himself a ton of grief if he had settled with Paula Jones in 1994 rather than trying to tough it out. For someone famous like Clinton or Cosby there is always the possibility of a false accusation (and I agree 14 false accusations is about as plausible as waiting for the Titanic to arrive in New York) so buying silence with a settlement is usually the prudent thing to do. It is probably cheaper in both monetary terms and damage to reputation as well. Unfortunately it lets the truly guilty hide behind the non-disclosure agreement while continuing to misbehave as his peers turn a blind eye to events.
Shakezula
Men who make statements like this never, ever say, “I would never be alone in a room with another man because he might accuse me of committing a crime.”
They’re fixated on the myth that women make up rape accusations out of boredom or pique and should be treated accordingly.
Fuck you.
Another Holocene Human
Oops, my bad, forgot about the Spanish language press (tv, radio, newspapers). If Barack Obama does anything like what the immigration activists are hoping for that will get put on blast. That’s a few more percentage points. It’s not all about the Democrats anyway, for now Spanish language press has been pretty independent of the English-language groupthink and the English-language press only occasionally even remembers they exist.
Another Holocene Human
@Shakezula: Maybe he doesn’t trust himself and needs an “accountability partner”. For the best, I would say.
The stuff he is saying about other people is pretty vile, though.
Another Holocene Human
@D58826: Clinton was flipping delusional.
D58826
@Another Holocene Human: He may well have been but if he had bought off Jones in 93 we would never have heard of Monica and her blue dress. The Ken Starr pornography report would never have been written and the GOP would have had to find some other hobby horse to us as a basis for impeachment
Shakezula
@Another Holocene Human: If he’s that bad he might assault his chaperone and the woman he’s alone with. Best to stay the hell away from other human beings.
Betty Cracker
@Omnes Omnibus: Are you talking about Zandar’s personal troll downstairs?
Another Holocene Human
@The Other Chuck:
He had everything else on his side including assistants who helped cover up his crimes.
Why does he settle? Because the story she’s telling is true and ex-assistants will come out of the woodwork to corroborate. And other victims. Which is eventually what happened.
The story she tells is false? His people would be all over that. A few calls to the press and it’s all over, baby.
Like Savile, he was surrounded by servants all the time.
Another example, check out the stupid Bieber accusations. There was a lot of rubbernecking because a lot of people hate him, opposite situation to Cosby. But word came out immediately that this person was disturbed and had a history of accusations of that sort. When the genetic test came out, it was all over. Police in Britain finally did a study and found out false rape accusations were really, really rare and of the ones they did find, some of them were people with mental illness issues who HAD been assaulted or misused in some way but had difficulty communicating exactly what had happened.
I’ll give you that in jurisdictions with bad divorce and custody laws, there is an advantage for parents to unleash false accusations to gain an advantage. But there is no ‘game’ here for false rape accusations made in a public forum. The victims come forward because they want justice and “the system” does nothing for them.
Omnes Omnibus
@Betty Cracker: That one, the Paradise by the Dashboard Light is a rapey song guy in the Don Lemon thread, and couple of others.
Another Holocene Human
@Omnes Omnibus: It does when party A is thousands of times more powerful than party B.
Take nuisance patent suits. Small entities will settle all day long because Ack! Litigation!
Don’t try that on Apple or ATT or Samsung or IBM, though.
They will crush you.
Powerful entities don’t settle shit they can prove isn’t true.
Many many many people have attested to the fact that Cosby was surrounded by servants. He had an army of them. He’s not alone for days, vulnerable. He has people to shave him, people to dress him, people to arrange all of his meetings, etc, etc.
The servants who were closest knew about the roofying and the rapes. Fighting that shit is a no-go for him.
And he made sure to target people who were looking for a leg up in the business. He didn’t come after giant stars who could have made life difficult for him with loyal fanbases of their own.
Much like Jian Ghomeshi.
The pattern is obvious. We are pattern matching apes. If you don’t see it, you don’t want to see it.
dance around in your bones
Well, I always liked ‘Dick In A Box’ but of course that’s not anything like rape, which is twenty ways fucked up.
eta: Course, I always liked ‘Jizzed in my Pants” too.
Why the fuck can’t you link from the edit chingadera??!!
Mnemosyne
@dance around in your bones:
I still suspect one of the reasons we never got around to having kids is that poor G was traumatized at a friend’s co-ed baby shower by hearing all of the horror stories. Though the one comment I remember most is a woman talking about her delivery room pictures saying, And you can tell it was the 80s because I have this enormous bush in the pictures!
Mnemosyne
@Omnes Omnibus:
Zandar’s back. The poor guy has some persistent embedded trolls that seem to have nothing else to do all day but check the blog to see if he posted or not.
Another Holocene Human
@Tree With Water:
Lol, are you always this obtuse? Good thing BO listens to his gut and not to you. When BO comes out on a topic it tends to galvanize public opinion one way or another because everything he says becomes very politicized in American’s minds. All it takes to be an article of the faith on the Right is for the leader of the Democratic party to say something. And they will fight to the death because liberals hate it (cleek’s law).
Yeah, that’s really fighting back, rootin’ tootin’ firing that gun we know ain’t right and blowing our hands off ag’in.
Another Holocene Human
@Mnemosyne:
Nuke them from orbit. Only way to be sure.
Omnes Omnibus
@Another Holocene Human: In Cosby’s case, there is enough smoke that I believe the fire is there. I am not defending him. I am saying that there are many reasons to settle even a nuisance suit rather than litigate it. Cost is one. Preserving privacy is another. Litigation is also uncertain – you could always lose even if you did nothing wrong.
Seanly
@mai naem mobile:
When my wife was on the cancer ward, she wore them like that for getting out of bed and walking the halls.
She’s had her fill of robes. When she was doing better, they would let her wear scrub & pajama bottoms. Eventually she was able to wear V-neck t-shirts (nurses could access her port easier with a V-neck).
Speaking of my wife, she talked Vanderbilt into releasing her early from the 100 days of monitoring after the peripheral blood stem cell transplantation (formerly called bone marrow transplant). I’m going to visit her for Thanksgiving and now she can fly home with me. We had originally thought she might have to stay in the area longer than the 100 days, but she harangued the doctors into telling her she can come back home early. Part of it was that she was going nuts staying with her parents.
We’ve got a lot to be thankful for next week.
Mnemosyne
@Another Holocene Human:
I’m still more than half convinced that this is what happened to the woman who accused the Duke lacrosse team of raping her. I think she may well have been assaulted that night by someone else in a different place, but between her drug use and her mental illness, she wasn’t able to accurately describe what had happened and an unscrupulous prosecutor decided to use her for his own purposes.
And for people who say that nothing happened to her at all, how were the guys cleared using DNA evidence if there was no DNA?
Iowa Old Lady
@Seanly: That’s terrific! Hope all goes well.
Mike in NC
@askew: Any of the networks would jump at the chance to interview George W. Bush in prime time to discuss ’41’, his latest attempt to deal with the love-hate relationship he has with Poppy.
sparrow
@schrodinger’s cat: Overhyped, somewhat. I really felt most disappointed in the realism of the characters. I’m sorry, but the daughter’s character was so, so obviously written by a man. She did not make sense. The brother also, though, so I think it was just bad writing mainly. Some of the dialogue was cringe-worthy. The “fight scene” was also very WTF. So I “enjoyed it” the way I’ve enjoyed Indiana Jones movies. Wouldn’t buy or re-watch anytime soon.
Mnemosyne
@Seanly:
Great news! I hope you guys can enjoy Thanksgiving away from overanxious parents. ;-)
dance around in your bones
@Mnemosyne: Well, Amir Khalid and I were talking about just that very bush thing just the other night!!
It was actually quite common to take photos and videos of births back in the 60’s/70’s…… I remember some lil kids I know watching their own birth videos over and over. Always wondered how it affected them :)
JCT
@Another Holocene Human: My daughter and some of her FB pals were having a grand old time with that site- damned funny.
tsquared2001
@Villago Delenda Est: My NYM IS My NYM! – Marlo Stansfield
Seanly
@Mnemosyne:
It’s not so much that they’re anxious as that 1) the house is tiny, 2) her dad is a cantankerous 79-yr old & 3) they’re both retired. She had originally thought about staying through to his 80th birthday. I said nothing & a week later she was singing a different tune.
Thanks for the good thoughts everyone. Almost our entire 2014 was taken up with treating leukemia, but things have gone as well as possible. She still has to do monthly monitoring for another year & has to get all the childhood vaccines again in 9 months, but we can do that much closer to home.
FlipYrWhig
@Tree With Water: I didn’t say “don’t fight.” I’m just trying to let the air out of your balloon a bit. You suggest that Obama should have opposed the project because the “rank and file,” who also oppose it, would laud him for it. But the rank and file don’t overwhelmingly oppose it, and, as AHH was pointing out, when Obama supports or opposes things, that changes the calculus. All of which means that opposing the project isn’t actually such a no-brainer. And that was the way you began, by declaring that it was such a no-brainer it was quizzical why he didn’t do it.
kc
@Another Holocene Human:
You do know that Michael Jackson settled as well?
Another Holocene Human
@Omnes Omnibus:
The rape victim’s dilemma. Make that probably lose.
Betty Cracker
@Seanly: That’s good news. Best of luck to you guys.
Schlemazel
@Seanly:
Beating back cancer is a hell of a chore, congratulation. Things will get better and I hope you all have a long and happy time forgetting about all of this crap.
As for the gown, I have spent at least a year of my life in hospitals (the longest stretch was 21 days) and have become immune to the embarrassment of my bare butt hanging out or being poked & prodded but various medical personnel. Thats probably not a good thing.
Another Holocene Human
@dance around in your bones: I watched a younger brother get born.
How it affected me? Not at all. Probably demystified things quite a bit. It’s just part of life.
This isn’t the Russell quote I wanted but he’s touching on the same theme: http://www.newrepublic.com/book/review/education-without-sex-taboos
He has a famous dialogue about what happens to a young child’s imagination when all matters of sex and reproduction become taboo … rather than take a passing interest in the matter and moving on, the child becomes preoccupied with it. Don’t see how that’s healthy.
Morzer
@The Dangerman:
It’s not odd at all. Far too often, rape victims have been ignored, disbelieved, or simply pressured out of their right to a day in court because the man was powerful, rich or “a beloved entertainer”. Cosby even had a routine (in 1969!) in which he talked about spiking a woman’s drink to get sex from her – which is exactly what the majority of the claims against him said was his modus operandi. There are now 14 allegations of rape/sexual abuse against him, including one by a young woman who was on the Cosby Show and filed her claim four days after it happened. Cosby settled the one claim that did come to court, for which multiple women had indicated a willingness to testify.
Here’s the routine from 1969, by the way:
http://www.nkornitankwa.com/bill-cosbys-1969-stand-up-routine-about-drugging-womens-drinks-and-the-14th-woman-to-come-forward/
Morzer
@Seanly:
That really is wonderful news. More power to the both of ye!
kc
@Another Holocene Human:
Michael Jackson also settled.
So he must be guilty, too.
Gin & Tonic
@askew: That has never happened with a white president.
False.
From a paper written in 2006 for Harvard’s Kennedy School:
Paper here.
dance around in your bones
@Another Holocene Human: Wow – what a great reply to my rather off-handed comment!
I’m going to go listen to the Russell Brand comment now. I think he’s rather brilliant, in that British way – don’t know why he gets so much grief from people.
And yes – I think demystifying sex and birth and all that jazz is rather good for kids. We used to see dogs fucking all the time and it gave us a clue about what was going to go down later in the lifetime :)
ETA: Uh, Bertrand Russell. Gads, I am stupid sometimes.
scav
@Morzer: There’s the whole Jimmy Savile and related cases in the UK for compare and contrast as well. Rolf Harris.
Morzer
@dance around in your bones:
Russell Brand gets grief because he’s had some pretty questionable and, IMHO, misogynistic dealings with women (notably Andrew Sachs’ grand-daughter and the extremely unpleasant call he and Jonathan Ross made to Andrew Sachs about her) – and because people strongly suspect that his latest talk of revolution is empty posturing that does nothing but promote the Brand brand. His latest stupidity is to tell people in Britain not to vote, because… well, the system will just fall apart out of shame at itself. Totes obvs, really.
CONGRATULATIONS!
@askew: Nope. Happened to George the Dumbfuck and Clinton both. Shit, in fact it happened to Reagan. He might have been the first.
Yep, I was right. Here you go. Reagan got the treatment too. Over the contras, no less.
Morzer
@scav:
I think it’s fair to say that Rolf Harris was also a “beloved entertainer” who got away with it because well, he looked as cuddly as a koala and played folksy musical instruments.
MomSense
@Seanly:
Hooray! I’m thrilled for you and your wife. I hope her health continues to improve and that you can enjoy a truly thankful holiday together.
WereBear
@Seanly: That’s great to hear. Wishing you Happy Holidays!
:)
Doug r
@Amir Khalid: yeah the astronauts in 2001 weren’t exactly founts of emotion. Matt McConaughey really connects much better emotionally.
CONGRATULATIONS!
@Morzer: Also the insane levels of drug abuse and his obvious issues with self-medicating bipolar syndrome. The guy is funny as shit and pulls the ladies like few can, but he’ll be dead in ten years unless he figures it out and either gets sober or learns moderation. HINT: I don’t think he’s capable of moderation.
Another Holocene Human
@CONGRATULATIONS!: I followed your link (did not know about that) and the situation is a bit different, except for the whole 2nd term thing. The first paragraphs contains the networks assertions that Reagan wasn’t going to be discussing anything new, whereas Obama is supposed to be dropping a new policy that will affect a lot of people. Not saying askew is right, but, yeah. It’s not exactly the same situation.
Mnemosyne
@CONGRATULATIONS!:
He’s been sober for a while, actually — he’s written about it before. But I don’t think he’s done anything about the bipolar.
dance around in your bones
@Morzer: Thanks for that informative reply because I always just listened to him to laugh….which is pretty much what I always do.
Laugh, that is. Makes life more pleasant. I’m about finished with politics – I got interested when Bill Clinton was running (and voted for him because HEALTH CARE!!) and then checked out again until Obama came on the scene (admittedly, I was living in Mexico, and while I stayed informed (AND told my Mexican neighbor who came over with an LA Times saying Dubya invaded Iraq – that THAT man was EVIL!!!!)
I found Balloon Juice about the time Obama came on the scene (never had an Internet connection before) and this is my home..
Y’all are so smart and funny :)
Another Holocene Human
@kc: I think he had boys overnight at his complex without other adults around and gave some of them porn, which is a crime, yes.
I don’t think there was any fondling/molestation going on, though. He was cleared of criminal charges in that way multiple times.
I think he had abnormal psychology and was surrounded by people who didn’t have his best interests at heart.
dance around in your bones
@Mnemosyne: Why do we hold addiction against anybody? It’s a health issue!
Of course, I guess the bi-polar thing is, too.
Mnemosyne
@Morzer:
When Johnny Rotten is telling you that participation in the system is important …
JPL
@Seanly: Sweet!
Roger Moore
@Seanly:
There are actually some minor differences between a PBSC transplant and a bone marrow transplant. PBSCs are closer to pure stem cells, while marrow has a wider mix of other blood cells mixed in. There is some debate among the transplant doctors about the likelihood of success for one vs. the other. The last thing I heard about it, they generally recommend marrow for juveniles and PBSCs for adults.
And there’s a big difference from the donor’s standpoint. For a marrow donation, you bank a pint of blood, they puncture into your hip with a giant needle (usually under general anesthesia), pull out a bunch of marrow, and then transfuse you back with your banked blood to make up the difference. For a PBSC donation, they pump you full of Neupogen, hook you up to an apheresis machine for hours and hours to take out the stem cells, and you are pretty much good to go. I’m a donor (7 years next month), and I’m quite glad I donated PBSCs rather than marrow.
Morzer
@Mnemosyne:
I guess reality done punked us all.
CONGRATULATIONS!
@Another Holocene Human: My counterargument would be this: Reagan got the treatment first. That was kind of a big deal. And in the wonderful link provided by Gin & Tonic just a little upthread, well, you can see that this very quickly turned into a torrent of denials for presidential access to the network platform – President 911 got denied 7 times.
Morzer
Apparently the free market is…a SODOMITE!!!
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/national-organization-marriage-debt
kc
@Another Holocene Human:
Jackson paid millions of dollars to the family of a boy who accused him of molestation. I’m just sayin’, if you think settling a case out of court is evidence of guilt (I don’t necessarily think so), then Jackson’s just as guilty as Cosby.
dance around in your bones
@Mnemosyne: Jeebus Christ, what I learn from you guys!!!
Johnny Rotten (I am an anarchist!) and what was the other one, about ‘God save The Queen, the fascist regime! I Mean it Man! And England’s DREAMING!
There ain’t no future.
I was young once, too.
kc
@Another Holocene Human:
I do agree with that. He really was a great artist, but his life was such a wreck.
Another Holocene Human
@Morzer: The Churches pulled out.
Which sounds really wrong when you put it that way.
McMaggie left NOM (maybe to spend more time with her husband? nahhhh, who would believe that) but I always wondered why she was wasting her breath about gay guys when her real beef was with guys who wouldn’t pay child support. Seriously, if you got her off her talking points that’s what she really wanted to talk about. Oh, and having sex with a dude and getting dumped. Boys lie, it’s a civil rights issue! Okay maybe not but Strong Feelings!
Like, Maggie, maybe there’s another way to work through personal betrayal than to start ragging on the last people on Earth who would be motivated to pressure you into hooking up with them with sweet nothings and then leave you alone and pregnant.
Morzer
@Another Holocene Human:
A fitting climax to the NOMsters reign of error.
Another Holocene Human
@kc: Not so fast, because you settle because of what might come out in court and I believe he DID have something to hide, just not the winner winner chicken dinner headline accusation the cops had already excluded. He didn’t take a plea in the criminal court, no sirree.
And the reason I brought MJ up is that his situation was very different from Cosby. He was already a subject of ridicule. He had no friends and his family was a landmine. He did trust his mother to some extent but his father and his siblings saw him as something to exploit. The one caveat in all this is that LA authorities had a way of protecting celebrities. However, the facts in his particular case have been pored through by a pack of journalists and there’s other evidence to indicate that what was in that police report so many years ago was true.
Mnemosyne
@kc:
One of the most poignant comments I saw about Jackson after he died was from Lisa Marie Presley, his first ex-wife. Reading between the lines, she basically said that she fell in love with Jackson because he was an immensely talented drug addict, just like her father was.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Tree With Water:
You don’t remember his June 2013 Climate Speech at Georgetown?
Emphasis added.
Obama is a pragmatist. He wants people in government to do their jobs and to follow the procedures that have been laid down by those who came before.
I think he’s always wanted to use the Keystone XL as a bargaining chip to get real CO2 reductions to offset it. I assume he’ll veto any bill that short-circuits the State Department review process, and I think he’s been delaying the decision to see what he can get in return.
Even if it ends up getting approved, it’s not the end of the world. The world uses about 90 M barrels of oil a day. ~ 0.8 M barrels/day from the Keystone XL is a big jump, but it’s not going to destroy the planet on its own. We still can control our destiny even if it is built.
We’ll see what happens.
Cheers,
Scott.
Litlebritdifrnt
@Another Holocene Human: I always tell my husband (a school teacher) NEVER to be alone with any student, ever. All it takes is one bad grade and a student can accuse you of anything to get rid of you. It doesn’t matter if you did nothing the accusation is all it takes. In that kind of situation you are guilty until proven innocent and it doesn’t matter how stellar a teacher you are, beloved by all the students and parents, they will can your ass in a minute.
dance around in your bones
@Mnemosyne: There’s nothing wrong with drug addicts – they are just trying to treat their pain in the only way they know how.
If it weren’t illegal (Thanks, Nixon!!) it prolly wouldn’t even be much of a problem….well, perhaps I am wrong about that, but if we had a sensible drug treatment program for people who feel inclined to ‘alter their consciousness’? and just GIVE them the fucking drugs until they get bored and decide to quit?
Might be a better world. No one breaking into your car to get a gawdamned radio to pay for their drugs.
And yes – people use to put signs in their cars in NYC saying “No radio in here!” to keep people from busting in,
D58826
@Another Holocene Human: One other major difference between the Reagan situation and Obama is the presence of cable news and the internet. The cable news channels can’t say it isn’t newsworthy since nothing new is being discussed. They probably spent the entire day discussing the topic of the speech. They are in the news reporting business (insert as many snarky jokes as you wish here as I am talking theory here) so it would be natural to broadcast the speech. I’m not sure if C-span would cover something like that since they normally just do Congress. They could also live stream the speech on their internet sites. There is also PBS and NPR that might feel obliged to cover it.
The point being there are many more ways to hear/see the speech today than in Reagan’s dayg
Omnes Omnibus
@dance around in your bones:
My favorite was the “No radio. Already stolen” sign I once saw.
Morzer
@Mnemosyne:
There’s a fascinating piece about Presley’s death and drug intake by Joel Williamson:
http://www.salon.com/2014/11/16/the_elvis_presley_coverup_what_america_didnt_hear_about_the_death_of_the_king/
D58826
@Litlebritdifrnt: Heck even in the business world a manager will keep his/her door open in one-on-one meetings or have it in a conference room with glass walls. The company doesn’t want that kind of hassle. It actually protects both the manager from an unfounded accusation and the employee from an all true true assault by the manager.
Morzer
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet:
It should also be noted that one reason, maybe the major reason, for opposing Keystone is the considerable likelihood of a spill from it tainting the Oglalla aquifer, which supplies a fairly high percentage of America’s water across the nation.
dance around in your bones
@Omnes Omnibus: {{{smiley face}}}
It was definitely a thing!!! Although I roamed all around in NYC and never got harassed, busted or arrested. Though I probably SHOULD have :)
I gotta story to tell you if ya wanta hear it :)
Omnes Omnibus
@dance around in your bones: Okay. Tell.
Mnemosyne
@dance around in your bones:
First, you have to understand that my dad was an alcoholic for most of my childhood and teenage years. He eventually stopped drinking but I absolutely cannot buy the line that addicts are only hurting themselves. They hurt themselves, and their friends and family, and everyone around them. There’s a huge ripple effect that a lot of people don’t even think about.
That said, I do think that addiction is primarily a mental illness that needs to be treated, not a “crime” that needs to be punished. I would not be in favor of legalizing opiates because the odds of damage from even casual use are way too high, but I wouldn’t have a problem with giving opiate addicts a place to go where they can get their fix safely and hopefully be coaxed into treatment.
Elvis Presley died at 42. Michael Jackson made it a little longer — he died at 50. My retired boss’s niece just died from an overdose and left her 12-year-old son behind. She was 38. So it’s pretty hard for me to say, Eh, leave people alone to do what they want, who are they hurting?
dance around in your bones
@Omnes Omnibus: Really, mon?
Ok. I was buying a white powdery substance in NYC (you always in a hallway of a building) and the 2 guys I was dealing with saw a cop outside the door.
Naturally, they thought I was bringing the heat on down, and we all started ru8nning up the steps of the building. When we got up top, they saw the black cord around my neck and pulled it out ’cause they thought it was a microphone.
Fuck, you guys!! I said – this is my necklace from the Philippines that my husband gave me about a bazillion years ago. They looked at it and decided I was ok – fucking- kay .
Jeebus – I have a LOT of stories like this!!!!
Omnes Omnibus
@dance around in your bones: Did you run into Keith Richards?
dance around in your bones
@Mnemosyne: Ok, I hear that.
I’ve had friends severely compromised by the addictions of their relatives – I just wish we could treat it more like a health problem, and not a moral issue.
dance around in your bones
@Omnes Omnibus: : Ondale pues!!! (Spanish for ‘get on with it!!)
I wish I had – I would have SO fucked him in a minute!! Perhaps after some white powders….
Morzer
@dance around in your bones:
Pour Some Sugar On Me!
Omnes Omnibus
@Morzer: I don’t think DAIYB is a stripper.
Morzer
@Omnes Omnibus:
I can’t think of another white powder that a nice girl like DAIYB could conceivably be referring to…..
dance around in your bones
@Morzer: Morzer, dahling….
It would have to be heroine (I’m deliberately misspelling it in case the alphabet peeps get on my case) – which actually don’t give you much drive for bumping the uglies ’cause you feel so good already – or perhaps the Coca.
Which always made me feel kinda weird and definitely un-orgasmic.
Oh fuck, I’ve given waaaay too much information, right?!! Why you guys do this to me??!
dance around in your bones
@Morzer: Sugar??!!
I don’t even know what that means. And, I’ve never been a stripper, just a nice girl who had too much fun in her life :).
Morzer
@dance around in your bones:
Ever since Madame Morzer (She Of The Cleaver) read the Aubrey-Maturin series by Patrick O’Brian, she’s taken a distinct liking to Stephen Maturin’s little balls of chewable coca leaves and sometimes asks me whether so benign a thing can really be illegal. She had a habit of speculating cheerfully on the topic every time we walked past the police station.
News for the morning:
Morzer Daddy-in-law has, almost predictably, turned up for another round of Free Tech Support For The Venerable. Of course, he would do this just as we were about to set off for a morning of exploring the Namdaemun market plus the Kyobo Bookstore. Apparently Korea has just changed its laws to prohibit online selling of books at a discount from the instore price, starting tomorrow. I suspect that this is to fend off Amazon wannabes, but I have no further details at this time.
Morzer
@dance around in your bones:
Omnes was the person theorizing about your stripperly intentions/practices/past. I think you should probably call 1-800-OMNIBUS and ask him about it.
dance around in your bones
@Morzer: Well, I like talking to you, too (sorry, Mrs Morzer!)
I had a Mormon family whose condo I took care of in Mexico, and Mrs. Mormon told me about the trips they took to South America to help orphans? And she’d always bring back a couple of pounds of coca tea with her when they came back..
I used to think to myself “How the fuck did they get away with THAT??!!!” But, doncha know, it’s ok if you’re a Mormon “)
What’s that spell:? IOKIYAM. Ha!
Ruckus
@NCSteve:
Maybe they think all Drs are space aliens and need to do a bit of anal probing.