At the end of last year, I wrote a series called “Ten ways to take a stand against ignorance.” Many of the suggestions there are especially important during election years.  An informed electorate is the best defense against political claptrap of all kinds.

After seeing some of the idiotic finger-pointing and “yes you did, no I didn’t” carryings-on from this current United States presidential election campaign, I offer the following suggestions (in conjunction with the other ten) for anyone who wants to become a better informed voter.

1.  Do not rely on one source for most, or all, of your news.

It is essential to pay attention to multiple viewpoints, because no one source has a lock on the facts.  If you see a comment that intrigues or annoys you, go see what some other news source (preferably one that leans toward “the other side”) has to say on the matter.  There’s guaranteed to be more to it than any one news source offers.

2.  Do not take one side’s word for what the other side thinks or does.

If you didn’t see the original, make it your business to find out what it was, before you form an opinion.  Filtering all your information through someone else’s biases leaves you no option but to think like they do.  Make up your own mind.

3.  As an adjunct to items 1 and 2, become a fact checker.

There are many web sites available to help you, such as snopes.com and factcheck.org.   Don’t just nod at things that sound plausible.  The people we agree with can slip hogwash past us faster than anything.

4.  Pay attention to what the candidates actually say.

Do not try to explain away or excuse statements that make no sense.  If you can find transcripts of interviews and debates, read them.  What might sound good while a candidate is saying it may turn into gibberish when you see it written down.

5.  Do not be too quick to condemn “flip-flopping.”

Intelligent people change their views if new information makes it feasible.  People who stubbornly cling to the same old views regardless of how the situation changes are living proof that Emerson was right:  A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.  The person who’s willing to keep learning and willing to change his or her opinion is light-years ahead of the person who says “I know all I need to know” or “My mind is made up, don’t confuse me with the facts.”

Help yourself, help your country

It helps to have a working knowledge of recent history, but that’s not something that is accomplished overnight.  Too many of us were bored silly in history classes in school.  Too many of our classes had to slog through ancient history for too long and never got close to the present day.

Call your local public library and ask to speak to a librarian.  Ask for a good book on 20th century history.  Make sure your preferences are clear.  Not too long?  Not too technical?  Not too focused on single issues?  Whatever will appeal to you–ask for it and listen to the recommendations.  Then, of course, read the book.  Once you have a feel for what happened in the 20th century, you can better appreciate what makes sense in the 21st.

Above all, regardless of your choice of candidate, make it a point to go and vote on Election Day.  In many states it’s not too late to register if you haven’t already.  If you think it’s too difficult for you to get to the polls, request an absentee ballot.  It’s not too late for that, either.  Let’s stop putting dimwits in office, by not being dimwits ourselves.

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5 Steps to becoming an informed voter

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Everyone seems to be having a field day skewering the McCain/Palin ticket these days. There is, after all, such a wealth of material to choose from. David Letterman’s having a field day. But then again, the Republican candidates seem to be skewering themselves as well, as any number of clips from that infamous Katie Couric interview will attest.

I often wonder where all the good politicians have gone.  Did we ever actually have any?  How many presidents in the 20th century had no slimy dealings in their political lifetimes?  They weren’t all as bad as Lyndon Johnnson and Richard Nixon, but they weren’t all that much better, either.  They associated with crooks, got involved in shady deals, cheated on their wives, tried to use the power of the presidency to form imperial fiefdoms for themselves, were obsessed with other countries who were no real threat…   the list of idiocies is a long one.

The biggest problem today is that so many people have fallen for the anti-intellectual world view, in which any kind of higher learning is suspicious in and of itself, and there’s no point in knowing anything about any history farther back than yesterday.  (George Wallace would be proud to see what he hath wrought.)  “The only thing new in the world is the history you do not know,” said Harry Truman.  I think if ol’ Harry could see We The People today he’d be sick.

Too many people get all their information second hand from broadcast blowhards.  They don’t read (and undoubtedly can understand why Sarah Palin doesn’t either).  They don’t check facts.  They agree with anything that sounds logical and rings true with their biases.

Wouldn’t it be nice if the media blowhards could be compelled to defend their positions against people who do know what they’re talking about?  Live on national TV.  No rehearsals, no commercial breaks, no “lifelines.”  Let’s put Vincent Bugliosi up against Rush Limbaugh and Gore Vidal against Bill O’Reilly.  No, it wouldn’t be “fair and balanced” because the windbags couldn’t stack the deck.

Katie Couric was a softball interviewer and Sarah Palin still fell right off her spike heels and onto her face.   Isn’t it time someone took on the ignorant right-wing blowhards and knocked them off their wingtips as well?
photo credit: GregPC

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political chit-chat

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Over the years, my position on many social issues (that of someone who does know American and world history) has often been sneered at for being “liberal.”  Of course, the fact that someone would sneer in that fashion simply marks that person as uneducated to the extent that he or she accepts without question the liberal-bashing of various media blowhards.  (A thorough education in history is the best antidote for right-wing claptrap.)  It doesn’t bother me.  Thomas Jefferson was a liberal.  Benjamin Franklin was a liberal.  Teddy Roosevelt was a liberal.  Dick Cheney is a conservative.  ’nuff said.

On fiscal matters, however, I line up with the real conservatives, not the neocon poseurs.  The conservatives who are against deficit spending and in favor of zero-based budgeting for all government agencies.  The conservatives who believe that CEOs who mess up should suffer the consequences, in spades.  The conservatives who believe that just because the feeble nobody in the White House got bailed out of every single thing he ever failed at (and that IS everything he ever tried) doesn’t mean he should expect we-the-people to bail him and his cronies out this time.

Jon Stewart played back-to-back clips of Shrub saying “we need to pound Iraq” in 2003 and “we need to bail out these incompetent managers” in 2008.  They’re the same speech.  Today in Congress, according to CNN, Lloyd Doggett from Texas said “Like the Iraq war and patriot act, this bill is fueled by fear and haste.”  He’s right.  Act in haste, repent at leisure!

Hooray for Congress for voting down the bailout.  The deregulated greedheads got their companies into this mess, let them start fixing it by giving up their salaries and perks.  No golden handshake for people who have earned nothing better than a golden shower.

photo credit: Cayusa

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Yo, Dubya! Bail THIS!

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My mother had the hots for Paul Newman from the get-go.  People used to tease her about it, we four kids included, but that bothered her not a whit.

I find it somewhat melancholy to reflect that Paul Newman died of lung cancer, just like my mother, and within a few months of each other.

I do hope Mom is getting to meet him in the afterlife and, um, express her appreciation for his talent.

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Farewell, Paul Newman

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I have a hearing problem.

My father was mostly deaf, but leave it to me to be contrary; to me things sound much louder than they actually are.  I also can’t tolerate sharp or shrill sounds for long.

My husband worked for public radio stations for many years, and those stations played mostly classical music.  As I’ve gotten older, I am less and less able to tolerate the sounds of violins sawing away, so I tend to shy away from the local classical-music station, which seems to lust after violins the way the local classic rock station lusts after Led Zeppelin. (About whom I feel the same way.)

Last night, as we were listening to a recording of a fabulous concert featuring the new pipe organ in Orange County, I brought up (once again) my idea of a violin-free day.

If I had the money, I would underwrite one full day of programming, with the stipulation that there be no violins.  My husband raised the objection that that might be difficult to do, given the love of classical composers for stringed instruments, but as we got to talking about it, we realized it wouldn’t be that hard at all.  The organ concert we were listening to was a prime example of good music that would fit into a violin-free day.

There’s organ, and vocal, and brass, and woodwinds.  There’s music written before the violin was invented.  There’s piano, harp, and guitar.  I could probably tolerate some of the larger stringed instruments (cello and bass) if they were used sparingly.  The local classical music station long ago fell into a rut of playing Classical Top 40, and the announcers don’t coordinate with each other on what they pick to play on any given day, so on any given week you’re going to hear a lot of old warhorses you’ve heard five times already in the past week.

A violin-free day would be a challenge to them to think, for a change.  It would give the listeners a chance to hear music that doesn’t get played all day, every day.

Sure wish I had the money to bribe them underwrite that day.  Anybody want to join me in a letter writing campaign? 

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Sax and Violins

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My mother would have been 79 today.  She always told us she wouldn’t make it to 80 and we always told her she was being silly.  I guess she got the last laugh.

This poem always reminded me of her.  Don’t take it literally; Millay was referring to the Greek version of “hell,” not the Christian one.

Prayer to Persephone

by Edna St. Vincent Millay

Be to her, Persephone,
All the things I might not be:
Take her head upon your knee.
She that was so proud and wild,
Flippant, arrogant and free,
She that had no need of me,
Is a little lonely child
Lost in Hell,—Persephone,
Take her head upon your knee:
Say to her, “My dear, my dear,
It is not so dreadful here.”

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Happy birthday, Mom

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Last night I finally got around to watching the most recent episode of “American Chopper.” They made a bike for a company called McCuff. Now, most of the time OCC makes a bike for someone it’s either a company I never heard of, or a company that only minimally impinges on my consciousness.

McCuff, though, I am way ahead of the game!

I read an ad for their product in a motorcycle magazine when I was still working at the library, and when my daughter was still living in Irvine–so, that’s prior to June 2004. At that time, the company that made the McCuff had an address not far from where my daughter lived. So, besides the fact that it looked like a very practical product and ideal for a scooter riding klutz like me, it was kind of a home town deal. So I bought one.

What’s a McCuff? A little yellow donut shaped piece of rubber that keeps you from pouring gasoline all over your scooter or motorcycle when you fill the tank. That may not mean much to the average person, but believe me, I poured enough gas on the Vespa to make this the purchase of a lifetime.

If you want one, you can get it here.

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infmom in the vanguard

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One of the tech blogs I read on a regular basis mocked a gizmo today. The gizmo (a cuckoo clock that dispenses chocolate balls once an hour) deserves to be mocked. But the writer included a comment to the effect that eating too much chocolate could make a person diabetic.

It doesn’t work that way.

Obesity is one of the major triggers for Type 2 diabetes, and that’s undoubtedly the main reason why more and more people are diabetic. We’re all fatter. But diabetes isn’t caused by eating too much sugar. It’s caused by eating too much, period. Put a layer of fat around your middle and you might just be seeing your doctor for more than you bargained for.

I know this because I was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes ten years ago. I’d had my suspicions for a while before that, but every time my doctor tested my blood sugar levels, it was done while I was fasting and my readings were in the normal range. It wasn’t till I had an appointment after lunch (that included a can of Pepsi) that I got an accurate reading–and the bad news.

What it’s really like

Diabetes is a progressive, pernicious disease. In the beginning, if the diagnosis is made early enough before the person’s blood sugar gets so high it requires major medical intervention, it is often possible to keep one’s blood sugar readings under control by a combination of diet and exercise, without medication. That’s the way it was for me for a few years (despite the best efforts of my boss to remain ignorant on the subject and buy party food that was mostly grease and sugar). Eventually I had to start taking medication that pushed my body to produce more insulin.

Of course, insulin can be considered a growth hormone and many people who get started on that kind of medication gain weight. I did. But my blood sugar was under control, at least for a while. Eventually that medication didn’t do the job and a second one was prescribed. That combination held the line for me until late last year.

Testing, testing

There’s a test called A1c that measures how high your blood sugar levels have been over about the last three months. The average reading is about 6%, give or take a few percentage points. Diabetics can go a little higher and still be considered within proper limits. My A1c was 8.4%. This was bad news indeed. But it didn’t come as much of a surprise because I had had increasing difficulty with way-too-high readings.

So, two months ago, I started injecting insulin. I know a lot of Type 2 diabetics see that as a treatment of last resort, and if they have to start on insulin they have somehow failed. I thought that way myself for quite a while. Now I know better.

The needles are not much thicker than a human hair, and less than half an inch long. The injections are about as close to completely painless as one could imagine. And best of all, the dosage is infinitely adjustable. With pills, you just don’t have that level of control. Besides, if you’re pushing your body to prodiuce more and more insulin, eventually your pancreas may just give up.

Insulin through history

Insulin was discovered early in the 20th century, and until recent years it was a byproduct of the slaughterhouse, refined from beef and pork pancreases. But drug manufacturers have since discovered how to make human insulin using genetically modified bacteria, and that was first marketed in 1982. The insulins we have today, produced by recombinant DNA, are nearly identical to what the human pancreas creates–they’re just modified a bit to allow for different times of effectiveness. The human insulins, not surprisingly, work better for most people and cause fewer problems. But there are some people for whom the animal based insulins are the best choice, and they are still available, but only under conditions where they are medically necessary. All insulin sold in the USA today is bio-engineered human.

Changes

I’m having to learn a few new things and think ahead. Originally I was just doing one injection at bedtime, but it wasn’t working quite well enough. Now I do one injection before breakfast and one before dinner (different insulin formulation than what I started with). I’ll have to be prepared to take a filled syringe with me when we go out to eat (ordered some cases from the Insulin Case Shoppe yesterday). I have to check my blood sugar more often while I’m making the adjustments in the dose. C’est la vie. I want to live.

I wish there were a good diabetes education program in a nutshell so the average person knew what was going on. Maybe I should write it myself.

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oh, sugar sugar… (diabetes fallacies and facts)

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I think maybe I’m ready to peddle myself as a WordPress guru.  Well, a guru in training, at any rate.  The weird problems I have plowed through in the past couple years of WP blogging have been…  educational.

A few days ago, I was getting “500 internal server” errors on this blog and my tattoo blog.  The tattoo blog proved to be a relatively easy fix (the .htaccess file was messed up).  But this one…  wouldn’t fix no matter what I tried.  So I called my web host’s tech support.

The helpful tech I talked with agreed that the problem was likely the .htaccess file here, too, and said he’d fix it.  I thanked him, he fixed it, everything worked fine.  Phew.  Thought that was the end of it.

Today, trying to add this blog to TwitterFeed, I discovered that (a) in copying over the sig from my tattoo blog I had stupidly not changed the feed link and (b) the RSS link in the banner didn’t work.  Fixing the sig was no problem, after I quit whapping myself on the head, but I was out of my league on the RSS link issue.

So this time my first line of approach was to post a message in the WordPress support forums, which are without a doubt THE best source for WordPress answers.  Especially for off-the-wall problems like this.  It seems like no matter what the problem might be, someone there has the answer that works.

Which was the case this time–within a very short time span I got help.  And it turned out to be a host problem once again, not anything within WP.  And thus nothing I could fix.  So I called the host again.

They said they’d run some diagnostics on the site and email me the results.  I have not yet gotten the email, but everything appears to be working just fine now.  My blogs back themselves up automatically once a day, but I think I’d better go run another backup now.
photo credit: The Flooz

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WordPress, the ultimate learning experience

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Apologies to anyone who wanted to subscribe to my feed!  Bad enough I copied over the address of my other blog into my sig, but I see now that the RSS link in the banner doesn’t work either.

Wow, what a load of stupid all in one site!  Most of it my fault, too.

The RSS link in the sig now works properly and I’m trying to figure out how to fix the one in the banner.  Sorry about that, Chief!

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RSS goofs

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