Curse of the Black Cat

I can’t remember the last time I had a good night’s sleep. Lately, it just seems so much worse. I feel so agonizingly tired all the time and my fibromyalgia had been getting better but now it’s back with a vengeance. I know what the doctors said — no rest, no ease of pain. I just feel like everything hurts, even my eyeballs.

This morning I finally accepted the truth.

Aloof is a lot to blame for my lack of sleep and something has to be done about it whether I like it or not and whether he likes it or not.

Non-stop for months now he has been on a tirade about his food. I guess it’s just been getting worse and worse since I cut off the cat food ever-dispenser and went to feeding them twice a day on a vet-recommended restricted diet that the vet insisted that he’d get used to. He hasn’t lost any weight though Needy has but Aloof’s attitude has just gotten worse and worse.

How does he tirade? He goes around knocking things off of the furniture, whatever will make noise or spill — he’s figured out that cans sometimes have fluid in them.

So he starts anywhere between 3:30am and 5am and he starts sliding things off of my bed stands and dresser and he’s found other ways to make noise that annoys me too. He’s discovered the right amount of time from when I wake up and yell at him and he runs away to just before I’m about to fall asleep again so I never quite get back to sleep. Clearly he’s learned some sort of sleep deprivation torture from Dick Chenney’s people.

This is why I never want to get up in the morning, why after the animals have been fed in the morning at 6am, I can drift back to sleep, sleep through my alarm and be late to work, and sleep through half the weekend. It’s why I never feel rested through the work day. It’s why my eyes feel so tired that when I blink I feel on the edge of dreaming almost constantly and it’s getting worse.

So tonight, I’m going to start putting Aloof in Pugly’s kennel when I go to bed. Pugly and Needy always sleep quietly through the night or if they don’t, they rest or play quietly near me while I sleep and don’t wake me up until the alarm goes off — or until I start chasing Aloof. Aloof is the one that has to learn that bed time is bed time.

Of course, catching him is going to be the hard part. Catching him more than once, will be near impossible. But I think it’s this or part ways and I’m not ready to think about that.

Tags: the cats, the puppy, sleep deprivation, black cat, retraining a cat, photo blogging, flickr

Hello, Goodbye

The Canon PowerShot S3 IS has arrived. The Canon PowerShot SD110 is out. Yay!

I have a lot of buttons to figure out. There’s a lot of features to learn. However, I can already tell just from toying with it even in the dreary, rainy, overcast light we have today that the new camera is 100 times better. It’s going to be so much more fun to use.

Tuesday night my mother pointed out that I was really hard on the SD110. I’m going to have to be much nicer and kinder and carefuller with the S3. I guess that means it might be a few weeks before I start being really daring with it.

Here are a few of the 100 photos I took in the first day. I can already tell an amazing difference in the quality of the photographs the new camera produces. These were all taken from my living room through my picture window. I used to have to stand about a foot away from my bird feeder very still and wait without breathing for a very long time to get a close up of a bird…and still the photo wouldn’t be sharp enough to really identify the bird.

Tags: bird watching, Rusty Blackbird, Blue Jay, Northern Cardinal, Chipping Sparrow, photo blogging, Canon PowerShot S3 IS, camera, Canon PowerShot SD110

Adventures At Starbucks

A couple of days ago, FW, MJ and I went down to Starbucks to get our morning salvation.

Inside there was this elderly black woman, the kind of woman you look at and just immediately assume is one of those wise old women who has wonderful old stories to share and some sort of fascinatingly wickedly fun past full of adventure and daringness and history, the kind of woman you think must be one of the last remnants of true human compassion, enlightenment, and tolerance.

She wasn’t ready to pay yet as she was searching through her bags — one of those carry-ons on wheels with the pull out handle and a stuffed-to the gills totebag — so MJ and FW went on and ordered and paid and got their coffees. She was ready right as I was stepping up, so she stepped right on up and managed to roll over my foot, but I just smiled, because she was older and I’ve been taught to have patience with my elders. Despite the two cash registers, she managed to edge me away from the counter with her bulk and baggage and by rolling over my feet another couple of times, but I just smiled and waited my turn.
More

Tags: WTF, Starbucks, ACLU, coffee, crazy

First Sunny Saturday of Spring

Yesterday was the first sunny Saturday of Spring after a month of false starts and Spring snow snowstorms and Nor’Easters. And while I admit that I understand that Winter came late and wanted to stick around awhile, my Seasonal Affective Disorder was really tired of it all, despite the lovely photographs I managed to take.

So, with Spring literally in the air, while my new neighbors were blowing the remnants of last Fall’s leaves into my yard, Pugly and I hopped in the Jeep and headed down to Portland to the Eastern Prom where everyone and their dog was out and about enjoying the day. Pugly and I took end the sights of the Eastern Prom Trail near East End Bench including The Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad. Pugly saw the beach for the first time and got slapped in the face by a wave for the first time, much to his surprise.

All in all, a great day.
More

Tags: The Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad, Eastern Prom, East End Beach, Portland, Maine, Spring, photo blogging, Pug

Quote of the Day: On Computers

“I do not fear computers. I fear the lack of them.”
– Isaac Asimov

Tags: Quote of the Day, Isaac Asimov

Radioactive Eggs

I got all distracted telling you about the alternative medicine and nutrition thing and forgot to mention how I spent Monday afternoon.  That’s when my stomach emptying test was scheduled.

So, I went to the Nuclear Medicine department at the hospital and they had me eat radioactive eggs.  I’m not kidding here.  I had to wear a bib and latex gloves so as not to get any on me, only in my mouth and the guy doing the test stood like 5 feet away from me while I was eating them.  They were kind of flat scrambled eggs like they’d been made in a microwave and they definitely needed some sort of salt and pepper.  They weren’t green, much to my disappointment.  I also got to have a slice of regular toast and some Dasani water.

You do have to eat it all in 10 minutes so there is some pressure there and I’m kind of a slow eater.  I didn’t eat all of the toast or drink all of the water.

Then you have to sit on this table with your legs wide open and hug this machine that takes an x-ray of your insides — concentrating on your stomach.  Then they take on from your back.  They did this again 50 minutes later, I think and then 20 minutes after that.  Really I’m not sure on the timing.  I do know that the way I had to sit messed up my leg muscles and I walked funny for 2 days and the radioactive eggs sat in my digestive system ruminating for 2 days.  Talk about your toxins.  Not particularly fun with all the news about the dead Russian spy who’s been poisoned by digesting radioactive something or other…

Anyway, I won’t know the results until next week or something.  I’d have to check my calendar.  The question isn’t how fast the eggs left my body but how fast they left my stomach.

Tags: digestion, stomach emptying test, nuclear medicine, green eggs, wellness

Quote of the Day: On Concentration

Nothing interferes with my concentration. You could put an orgy in my office and I wouldn’t look up. Well, maybe once.
– Isaac Asimov

Tags: Quote of the Day, Isaac, Asimov

Trying Something Alternative

I spent Monday focusing on my stomach.

Well, sort of.

Monday morning, I met with two GPs, who specialize in alternative medicine, specifically nutrition.  Rather, I was referred to them to get counsellings on what changes to make to my nutritional diet to decrease inflammation in my body since I can no longer take anti-inflammatory drugs due to my kidney disease.  I guess I kind of expected to get a list of foods to avoid and a list of foods to eat and a sample diet and have that be it, but that’s not really how it went.

First, I’m being referred to an acupuncturist for the pain.  I’m going to try it out.  I’m not all that excited about the needles thing, but at this point, I’m willing to try it.  They got me after a week of moving and being slave-driven by my parents who don’t believe in taking rest breaks, so I was particularly tender and in no mood to argue.

As for nutrition:

• Gradually decrease the caffeine in your diet.  For some reason, they think I’m an addict.  Who didn’t see that coming?  They said not to do it cold turkey though…apparently I’m not as young as I once was.
• I have to do half my morning coffee as decaf.  Bah!  That’s just wrong!  A crime against nature.
• I need to start cutting my Diet Pepsi with Diet Rite (which is not caffeinated).  Another crime.
• Take out foods with aspartame.  Substitute with non-aspartame products.
• Again with the Diet Rite.  Though Pepsi One is made with Splenda.
• I need to find a yogurt I like that doesn’t sweeten with aspartame.  I loved Blue Bunny in the South but haven’t been able to find it here.  I’ll be making my own again once I get settled in my house, so it’s just for a short time.
• Use Olive and Canola Oil.  (I already do that.  Vegetable oil is too heavy.)
• Decrease how often you are eating out down to 1-2 times per week to keep dinners healthy.  They got me there.  I had gotten to the point where I was eating out pretty much every night and you can’t control what other people put in your food.  It’s a good thing I love cooking.
• Add Ginger and Tumeric to foods.  Apparently these have anti-inflammatory properties but they take a few weeks to build up in your system.  They said to just toss a little into my soup or whatever I’m having for lunch.
• Substitute Soy and Seafood for red meat and poultry.  Apparently red meat and poultry have pro-inflammatory properties.  I already wasn’t eating much red meat.  The poultry will be harder to give up.  I find it a little odd that I already had been unconsciously making this move toward semi-vegetarianism.  I’d been naturally making the choice to use Soy substitutes of meat for about half a year on my own, not out of any pro-animal or anti-meat industry ideology but just because I felt it was better for “me” personally.  Who knew?
• Increase fruits and vegetables.  The goal in anti-inflammatory diets is 6-8 servings a day.  Damn, 5 servings a day was hard enough.  Well, I just have to work at it.  V-8 here I come.
• Try adding small amounts of nuts or seeds (especially almonds) for a snack.  About a handful a day would be good.  Almonds have particularly good anti-inflammatory properties.

As for exercise, they checked on my water physical therapy referral which is still in the queue and suggested I start wearing my pedometer again and start increasing my steps.  Like I’m going to be able to find my pedometer in the chaos.  The idea is that I should take short walk breaks at work.  Do these doctors have time to take short walk breaks at their job?
They wanted to suggest some vitamin supplements but decided to hold off until my next appointment so they could do some research on how the supplements my affect my IgAN.  I like doctors that research how things will affect your illnesses.

Tags: Wellness, alternative medicine, nutrition, acupuncture, IgAN, fibromyalgia, anti-inflammatory diet

Thursday Thirteen Things To Worry About (#13)

I’m a worry-wart. I worry about all kinds of things and I can’t turn it off. I worry about whether or not my cats hate me. I worry about whether or not my co-workers are talking about me. I worry about whether or not the world is going to blow up today or if my house is going to burn down or if my headache means I’m getting a brain tumor.

I’m in therapy. At least I’m trying to get a grip, but it turns out that there are a lot of people who worry about a lot of things out there. Some things are worried about far more than they need to be and some things aren’t worried about enough. That’s what this week’s theme is.

Thirteen Things about N. Mallory

1. Don’t worry so much about getting a brain tumor. Apparently there’s less than a 1% chance that you’ll develop a cancer originating in your brain. If you must worry about cancer, worry about lung cancer; it’s the leading cancer killer of women. (Check out cancer.gov)
2. Don’t worry so much about being in a plane crash. As big a deal as I make of it here, the fact is that as few as 18 people died for every 41.7 million who flew on U.S. air carriers last year. The truth is that most people’s fear of flying stems from a fear of lack of control (like mine). The odds of you dying in an automobile accident are one in 237 over your lifetime, compared with one in 1.25 million over your lifetime for a commercial plane crash, according to the National Safety Council in Itasca, Illinois.
3. Don’t worry so much about having a miscarriage. One out of five pregnancies that is confirmed in a doctor’s office ends in miscarriage. Most miscarriages occur because of chromosomal abnormalities in the fetus and not because of something the mother ate, drank, or did.
4. Don’t worry so much about having bad breath. Only about one in seven people suffers from chronic halitosis. You wouldn’t know it from the gum, mint and breath freshener advertisers. Apparently the advertisers are winning because up to 1/3rd of the patients who see their doctor about chronic bad breath don’t have it.
5. Worry a little about being in a car crash. Motor vehicle accidents are the number-one cause of accidental death for women and the number-one killer of women under the age of 35. (whew! Just missed me!) Each year, 40,000 Americans die on the road. In fact, fear of vehicular death is unbelievably low in this country because Americans are familiar with cars and think they’re “in control” — so “in control” that one in five Americans still don’t wear a seat belt.
6. Worry a little about becoming disabled. One third of all Americans between 35 and 65 will become disabled for more than 90 days, according to the American Council of Life Insurers in Washington, D.C. A 20-year-old worker’s chances of becoming disabled are approximately twice as great as her chances of dying before retirement age, yet only 28 percent participate in group long-term benefits. (My mother was surprised to learn that I always carry both short-term and long-term insurance in case something happens to my hands or arms. Can’t imagine what a programmer would do without them.)
7. Worry a little about getting breast cancer. One in 13 American women will be diagnosed with breast cancer (one in eight if their mom or sister has the disease). It is the second-leading cause of cancer death in U.S. women, after lung cancer. But 94% of new cases of breast cancer are in women age 40 or older. My grandmother and great-grandmother both had breast cancer. I’m not waiting for my mother. If breast cancer runs in your family, find a doctor who will begin regular mammograms as early as 30 or 35. (To learn more, go to BreastCancer.org)
8. Worry a little about contracting diabetes. Diabetes is the fifth deadliest disease in America. The death rate due to diabetes has increased by 45 percent since 1987, due to the rise in type 2, the kind traditionally developed later in life — only more and more kids are getting it now. It’s also the leading cause of blindness, amputation and dialysis, and increases a person’s risk for heart disease.
9. Worry a little about going blind. An estimated one in 200 Americans is legally blind. Sixty-seven percent of blind Americans are female, mostly because women live longer, but other factors, such as genetics, sex hormones, and lifestyle differences, may put women at increased risk.
10. Be very afraid of getting skin cancer. Cancer of the skin is the most common cancer. One in five Americans will develop skin cancer, including nonmelanoma cancers, which are more common and rarely fatal, and melanoma, which accounts for the majority of skin cancer deaths. The rate of nonmelanoma cancers, including basal cell and squamous cell varieties, has nearly tripled in women under 40 in the past 30 years.
11. Be very afraid of contracting an STD. Your lifetime chance of getting an STD is greater than one in two. How scary is that? Made me cross my legs when I read it.
12. Be very afraid of having a heart attack. Two in five women will die from heart disease. And women are less likely to make a big deal about it while it’s happening.
13. Be very afraid of being in a fire. You have a one in 1,179 chance of dying in a fire from exposure to smoke or flames. Fires in homes caused 82% of fire deaths in 2004. Less than 1/4th of households have a tested escape plan, and almost a third think they’d have at least 6 minutes to escape. Most likely you’d only have two or three minutes. (For more information, go to NFPA.org) This one is particularly timely for me as I prepare to move into my first home with thoughts of my friend’s housefire on my mind. You can bet your wet-willies I’ll be making extra certain to fire-proof the house.

Source: Self, August, 2006.


Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!
View More Thursday Thirteen Participants Thanks to Denise for the Pug graphic!

Tags: Thursday Thirteen, meme, bloghopping, risks, accidents, health, cancer, fear, interesting trivia

19 comments See also in Interesting Trivia, Geekery, Blogging & Other Blogs, Thursday Thirteen, Memes

How Long Do You Have To Work To Earn A Big Mac?

According to today’s Parade magazine, the UBS Bank calculated how long it takes an average worker around the world to earn enough to buy a Big Mac. If you live in Tokyo, apparently you can have a Big Mac soonest.

More

Tags: Big Mac, McDonalds, world economy, interesting trivia

Packing Pain

I’m having trouble packing.  The mind is willing, but every time I start, my back starts hurting.  It’s a sharp pain and it feels like my back is breaking.

So far, all I’ve got done is the giant bookshelf in the living room, all my CDs and DVDs, and my cookbooks in the kitchen.  I’ve been bringing all of my knick knacks into the living room and putting them all on the entertainment center so they can all be packed at once.  There’s a couple.  I decided to purge a couple of cookbooks and I put the one cookbook that has my Thanksgiving recipes in the basket with the books I’m reading.  My living room looks like a disaster area and I really need to do some dishes and wash some clothes today.  Plus, I really want to have the office packed today, but the painkiller doesn’t seem to be kicking in.

I’d be willing to pay someone to pack for me but I don’t have the money to do so and I’m to old to get away with paying with brownies and gumbo.

Tags: packing to move

40

40 - Percentage of employees who say they eat more unhealthy snacks at work than they do at home.

Source: Careerbuilder.com via Eating Well, December, 2006.

Tags: snacking, health

They Want Me To Eat Green Kryptonite

It’s been a day.

The office is being repainted this week so I’ve been breathing in fumes since Tuesday.  To top it off on Tuesday I forgot to take my morning meds which was like the 3rd or 4th thing I forgot that morning and by that time I really couldn’t go back home again.  It’s been a week of forgetting at least one or two things every morning — stupid time change.

Anyway, normally missing one day doesn’t really affect me.  Missing two in a row is a nightmare.  Well, apparently those days are over with the new blood pressure medicine.  Or it could have been the Italian food I picked up on the way home.  Who really knows at this point?  The real point is that Tuesday night I started feeling sick to my stomach and completely bloated, like stick me with a pin or I’m going to explode bloated.  I cradled my throw-up bucket all night and despite taking my usual night meds, including the ambien, I didn’t get any sleep — and no I don’t think that it had anything to do with being anxious about the elections — and really, what’s with Mainers?  Why wasn’t any money spent on getting Snowe out and why do they love her?  I don’t understand.

But I digress.

So, Wednesday, I was exhausted but feeling less queasy.  I ended up going home early and went straight to bed.  I kind of slept for about 12 hours, but I had the runs so there was a lot of getting up and running to the bathroom.

Today I felt rested and not quite so queasy or “runny” but still bloated and thanks to the paint fumes, I’m feeling like a nice migraine.  Yay.

But that’s not all.  Today I went to meet the GI Specialist.  We discussed my condition, my history, what’s going on, etc.  He thinks it might not be IBS or IBF or Crohn’s or colitis or whatever the previous doctors have labeled me with or whatever is trendy these days.  He thinks there might be something wrong with my stomach muscle.  He said it sounds like my stomach muscle might not be squeezing properly and digesting properly and food might be hanging around way too long in there which would cause the bloating, gassiness, acid reflux, 90% constipation/10% diarrhea episodes.
So how do they determine if this is the case, you might wonder.

Well, they feed you radioactive food after you’ve fasted for 4 hours.  Then they take x-ray pictures every 30 minutes of your insides to see how fast your stomach and digestive system processes it.  Yum.

Having fed on the Green Kryptonite before (only it was white and chalky and tasted very, very nasty no matter what they claimed), I’m fairly sure it’s going to be an unpleasant experience about 4 - 8 hours later.

In the meantime, he wants me to start taking the Prevacid twice a day since it isn’t really working completely anymore.

This would be o.k. except that when I went to get the prescription filled since I’m out of Prevacid, it turns out that my insurance doesn’t agree with the doctor.  It thinks I should only have 30 of those little pink and black capsules in a 30 day period.  Prevacid apparently isn’t cheap either.

Since tomorrow is a holiday and it’s late in the day, I now have to wait until Monday to call the doctor’s office and see what they can do to straighten it out.

The good news is that my BP was only 106/70 a week after switching my med so my mother can stop harassing me about getting it checked.

Tags: wellness, acid reflux, stomach emptying test

Exercise Your Mind - 11/08/06

Election 2006

• You have your marching orders…. — Nicole Belle @ Crooks and Liars reminds us of the Republican’s “Contract with America” when they took control of Congress in 1994.
  

  This year’s election offers the chance, after four decades of one-party control, to bring to the House a new majority that will transform the way Congress works. That historic change would be the end of government that is too big, too intrusive, and too easy with the public’s money. It can be the beginning of a Congress that respects the values and shares the faith of the American family.

  Like Lincoln, our first Republican president, we intend to act “with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right.” To restore accountability to Congress. To end its cycle of scandal and disgrace. To make us all proud again of the way free people govern themselves.
  

  Let’s hope that the Democrats learn from the Republicans’ mistakes.

• A Remedy for Negative Political Ads — Paul Silver @ Donklephant has a remedy for all of those negative, deceitful ads since there’s not likely to be any law regulating truth in political advertising anytime soon.
  

  Perhaps the solution lies in changing the geometry of the question. Instead of trying to regulate the content of ads, we use public funds (or funds from the Parties) to run a frequent public service message that corrects the inaccuracies of any recent ads - perhaps produced by the Factcheck.org folks. Since a candidate would not want to have the airwaves filled with objective criticism they would be inclined to stay as reasonable and civil as possible.

• A Remedy for Election Tampering– Paul Silver @ Donklephant also thinks there should be a reward for information leading to a conviction in crimes related to election tampering.

More

Tags: 2006 election, Republicans, Contract with America, Contress, ethics, scandal, Democrats, negative political ads, election tampering, politics, factcheck.org, DHS, TSA, passports, Hasan Elahi, FBI, mental illness, anxiety, depression

I Can’t Put It Off Any Longer

The flippers have agreed to fix the window with the broken seal before closing. It was added to the list of items that have to be completed that includes fixing the fire code issue in the basement, installing the smoke detectors, checking the exhaust fan for the oven/stove, and fixing the light over the back of the garage among a few other minor things like adding a garbage disposal.

So…I’ve put it off as long as I can. The packing boxes that I ordered online and thought would be delivered by today won’t be here until Tuesday, but I need to get started packing. I only have 3 weekends, maybe 4 if the closing gets put off until after Thanksgiving. My goal for this weekend is to pack up my CDs, DVDs, knick knacks, file cabinet, desk, and games. I need boxes for this. I tried asking for some on Freecycle and got nary a reply. I grabbed only one paper box from work. So Office Depot or Office Max it is this afternoon.

I think I’ll just start piling the boxes up in a corner in the office upstairs and go from there.

I just am leary. I have this bad feeling that I’ll get all packed and everything will fall through. I have that kind of luck.

Tags: packing, moving, Freecycle, Office Depot, Office Max, luck

Thirteen Reasons (Or Not) You Should Vote For Me If I Ran For Office

This Thursday Thirteen from Carmen’s Gone to Plaid blog just begs to be reposted and forwarded via email all across the Internet to everyone everyone knows before Election Day next Tuesday. There are some excellent reminders in there no matter who you’re voting for (and you should be voting for someone).

(note: my own Thursday Thirteen is a few posts down.)

Thirteen Reasons (or Not) You Should Vote for Me if I Ran for OfficeTuesday is Election Day (GO VOTE!).
[…snip…]
PS: You have the right to disagree with me (isn’t America great?), but not to be mean in my comments.

1. Being a Democracy isn’t easy. Take free speech. You may not like what I say, and you have the right to disagree. But I still have the right to say it. That includes questioning our leaders without being called “unpatriotic.” Questioning our leaders and speaking your mind is the most patriotic thing you can do. However, these freedoms require responsibility.

More

Tags: vote, Election Day, Democracy, free speech, Patriot

3 comments See also in Politics & Causes, Geekery, Blogging & Other Blogs, The World

Thursday Thirteen Discombobulated Worries This Week (#11)

My brain is way too scattered and full of anxiety to focus on one particular nifty topic this week. So, now you get to see the really true discombobulated, highly anxious me.

Thirteen Things about N. Mallory

1. What if the sale on the little red house falls through and I don’t get it?
2. What if the sale on the little red house doesn’t fall through and I do get it and it turns into a money pit?
3. What if those nice flippers are taking advantage of me because I’m a naive first time buyer and I don’t know what I’m doing?
4. What if my dog is depressed? He’s been lethargic and hasn’t been eating at home, but the doggie daycare folks say he’s hyper and playful there. Maybe he just hates me.

More

Tags: Thursday Thirteen, meme, bloghopping, anxiety, home buying, acid reflux, IgAN, autoimmune kidney disease, discombobulated, the puppy

14 comments See also in My Life, Geekery, Blogging & Other Blogs, Wellness, Discombobulated, Anxiety/Depression, The Puppy, Acid Reflux/Gastro B.S., Thursday Thirteen, Memes, Little Red House, IgA Nephropathy

Work Your Brain — 11/1/06

Tales of the Detainee Kind

• The Case Of Bilal Hussein — Justin Gardner @ Donklephant reports on Bilal Hussein, an AP war photographer, accused by the U.S. military of helping some insurgents kidnap a couple journalists. Only those journalists have been rescued and they say Hussein is a hero. The AP wants to know why he’s been detained since April with no charges having been filed against him while right-wing bloggers call for his head.
  

  Six months is more than enough time to get some facts together and make a case against Hussein. The military hasn’t done that, and they should…or else they should release Hussein without charge.

  As Gardner points out, Hussein isn’t the first journalist to be treated as such.

  More

  Tags: detainees, Bilal Hussein, Abdul Rahim Al Ginco, Afghanistan, Iraq, Guantanamo, al-Qaeda, Insurrection Act, FEMA, Lynne Cheney, Bill O'Reilly, liberals, rightwingers, patriotism, pragmatism, American soldiers, Republicans, Democrats, GOP, Georgia, Genital Cutting, abortion, pro-choice, pro-life, TSA, airport security, bomb-making materials, Christopher Soghoian, Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research, Indiana University, fake boarding passes, Ed Markey, FBI, Police State

  comments See also in Politics & Causes, In the News, Geekery, Blogging & Other Blogs, The World, 9-11 & Terrorism, Iraq & Afghanistan, Hurricane Katrina, Natural Disasters, Women's Rights, The Middle East

Quote of the Day: On Prejudice

“Never try to reason the prejudice out of a man. It was not reasoned into him, and cannot be reasoned out.”
– Sydney Smith

Tags: Quote of the Day, racism

Movie Review: The Insider

I watched The Insider last night. It was one of those movies that’s been traveling up my Netflix queue for awhile. O.K. It’d been on there so long that I’d actually forgotten pretty much what it was about. My vague recollection was that it was about a whistleblower who went to 60 Minutes. That’s a really boiled down summary of what it is.

One man told the truth. Another reported the story. Both paid the price. The Insider — a true tale about a Big Tobacco scientist (Russell Crowe) who exposed industry secrets, and the newsman (Al Pacino) who fought corporate forces that would have squelched the story — offers a glimpse into power, media and money in America. A thought-provoking and thrilling film. [Netflix]

More

Tags: The Insider, Netflix, Russell Crowe, Al Pacino, Christopher Plumber, movie, 60 Minutes, Mike Wallace, Jeffery Wigand, Lowell Bergman, tobacco industry