(no subject)

[gwydion]

* Ron Paul is the only Republican Presidential Candidate who agrees with the president and 77% of Americans that we should honor the agreement George W. Bush made with the Iraqi government and pull all troops out. The others all think that we should occupy Iraq against the wishes of the Iraqi government and people and in the face of their united and justified anger against that occupation. After all, eight years of pointless waste of lives, sanity, health, and money is not nearly enough.

* Republicans continue to block the pay roll tax cut extension on the grounds that it helps people who work for a living rather than only benefiting the extremely wealthy.

* Republicans have added repealing Habeus Corpus into the defense department authorization. Why a defense authorization should be able to repeal the sixth amendment has not been explained. This repeal of the sixth amendment was added over the objections of the intelligence community who say it will make it harder to stop terrorism. Republicans insist that making us less safe while over throwing a core American principle will somehow magically fight terrorism. The President says he will sign it anyway.

* Gary Busey has backed off endorsing Newt Gringrich; Christine "I am not a witch" O'Donnell has endorsed Romney.

* Mitt Romney has called the President weak for not invadibg Iran. After all, it's not like randomly invading Middle Eastern countries could have any negative repurcussions, right?

* Reminder: Invisible disabilities, main portion cross posted because this comes up now and then, with small changes:

Some disabilities are invisible. My sister has a placard because of her heart, and before my Mom went on oxygen full time, her disability was invisible too. There are a variety of lung and heart conditions that can seriously limit mobility that are not visible to the naked eye. Some conditions can also be more debilitating some days than others. (I'm in this category. I can not predict whether my legs are going to be cooperative when I wake up tomorrow). It makes sense to park close at home because there is no guarantee one is going to get up tomorrow with much mobility. A lot of chronic pain and movement disorders are like this. Also, even if one is above average mobile, extra spoons spent crossing a big parking lot are spoons one doesn't have later for making dinner. There is also a tiny minority of placard holders who are albino or have a similar danger when exposed to the sun, who have a placard meant for use on bright sunny days because the hike across a big parking lot can have terrible consequences. They aren't meant to use it at night, but parking at home in the handicapped spot makes sense, again because you don't know what conditions might prevail when one leaves the house.

This is not a statement one way or another about whether any particular person deserves a placard, just a set of explanations for why people who don't look disabled might still need one. Individual assessments get made by individual doctors.

* I've gotten fuck all done the last two days. I'm still feeling cruddy, and Mache's arthritis is bugging her. All she wants is to sleep either in my lap or on my feet and I haven't the heart to deny her, poor thing.

* "Museum scared to open ancient Roman wine:" http://www.thelocal.de/society/20111209-39405.html

* "Ancient beds designed to ward off insects add to evidence modern man evolved in Africa:" http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/ancient-beds-designed-to-ward-off-insects-add-to-evidence-modern-man-evolved-in-africa/2011/12/08/gIQAjG0bfO_story.html

* "'Witch's cottage' unearthed near Pendle Hill, Lancashire:" http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-16066680

* "Plot thickens in Swedish king's grave mystery:" http://www.thelocal.se/37846/20111209/#

* Lion statue sex controversy: http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,802415,00.html

* Preserved brains: http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-century-old-brains-future-treatment-mentally.html

* "Rare Egyptian coffin identified in Torquay Museum:" http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-15980296

* "Ancient Coptic city discovered in New Valley:" http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en/node/528756

* History of Board Games: "http://news.discovery.com/history/board-games-history-romans-egypt-111206.html

* I just found out Dylan McDermott is 50. O.o He appears naked or near naked on two separate shows on a regular basis. 50!

* O.o: http://twolumps.net/d/20111212.html

Comments

[deepseasiren.livejournal.com]

I'm in this category. I can not predict whether my legs are going to be cooperative when I wake up tomorrow).

Do you have MS? My good photographer friend Art has had MS and he's getting progressively worse at 48 years old. He has his days when he literally can't move...and some days when he's fine.

When I was speaking about these people who did not appear handicapped to me in any way, they are a young family...a heavy set single mother with two kids who is incredibly rude not just to me, but to my friend and to a lot of other people around the complex. And while it may be true that she has a condition that merits you cannot see it immediately nor is it obvious, my anger was not directed at her 'invisible' handicap if she has one, but at her continually parking carelessly over into my friend's space and worse, just being a bitch. She treats her kids like shit, too, and if I see her hitting her kid one more time I swear I'm calling CPS.

[gwyd.livejournal.com]

AS (Ankylosing Spondalytis). It's an aggressive, early onset form of autoimmune arthritis. It attacks the hips first and moves progressively up the spine. As a result, I sometimes only have trouble with one random leg. At others, it's like cutting the strings of a marionette as all power cuts out for random intervals below the really bad patch on my spine. It still hurts sitting down, but the power cuts only happen when I'm standing or trying to stand up. I also have random amounts of fine muscle coordination trouble from the bad patch in my neck down. I have days now and then when I literally can't turn over for the pain, but that's rare. More often, it takes a few hours to get things under control enough to function.

AS hurts a lot and limits mobility, but MS is so much worse, I think. We have a family friend with it who is now full time in a wheel chair. My CF carrier syndrome will likely take me out before I'm completely wheelchair bound.

I absolutely agree on the parking assholery, and if you see something you can report to CPS, go for it. I worked with so many kids damaged by scary ass parents who I would have happily throttled. I'm all in favor of rescuing kids from bad situations. Much as I found dealing with CPS emotionally exhausting, frustrating, and deeply depressing, I do not blame the social workers, but the shitty funding that leaves them over worked with not enough placements for too many kids in danger.

Honestly, I do the invisible handicap thing every year or so, because it's good to remind folks that things like a dangerous heart defect can be invisible. It's a good thing for healthy folks to be asked to think about now and then.


Part of why I do it is, I often see people on TV or the Internet railing against people abusing the system "for being fat," for example. You absolutely didn't do this, and I wasn't trying to single you out. It's just that people with invisible disabilities often become overweight because things like disintegrating lungs, movement disorders, chronic pain, or a serious heart defect make exercising difficult and sometimes dangerous. People mistake effect for cause and use it as an excuse to verbally beat up overweight folks and discriminate against them and folks with invisible disabilities. I like to remind folks every now and then, that it's impossible to know what's going on in people's lives if you just see them on the street.

Your asshole, rude, entitled, abusive neighbor may be faking and abusing the placard system, or she or one of the children could have a heart defect. I can't possibly know. That really was all I was trying to say. Seeing your post reminded me I hadn't done one of my invisible disability reminder things in a while.

It's like my periodic reminders not to use "tranny" to mean "ugly," and that if you aren't trans, you can't use "tranny" in a reclaiming sense, so best not to use it all, and a bunch of other mini-rants I do at least once a year. I genuinely didn't mean to attack you, and we are in full agreement on the neighbor being out of line on the parking assholery and likely unhealthy for her kids.

[deepseasiren.livejournal.com]

I have heard of AS. In fact I belong to this huge website ( it's an anime thing) and one of the moderators there has the same thing. He mentioned that it was very painful ( he's in his 30's I think) and affected his mobility.

The two people I know with MS have different degrees of it. My friend in his 40's has it quite severe and he had to have his entire house equipped with railings, his shower with handicap bars, and he took the rugs out so he wouldn't trip and fall, although I thought if he DID fall now, falling on a hardwood floor might be worse. Now, I know a lady who's 82 who's had MS since she was 52 and she moves very slowly, with a walker, but she said the MS made her feel like she was 'burning', and a recent MRI scan showed spots in her brain that were damaged by MS. Still, she seems to be able to function much better than my much younger friend in many ways.

[gwyd.livejournal.com]

MS can be pretty random like that.