This is kind of long, but you can skip to around 4:30 to get the real point.

Seriously? Check This Out

“Every life matters” until it needs food stamps, or affordable medical care, or a decent education. Wendy Davis may have started out in less-than-optimal circumstances, but she went on to change her life for the better. Rick Perry may have started out life as a dick, but he hasn’t changed at all. Once a ‘patronizing, condescending, holier than thou, better than you’ dick, always a ‘patronizing, condescending, holier than thou, better than you’ dick.

From here: The Backlot

Greg Gutfield on Fox News The Five calls the striking down of DOMA a conservative victory. “I feel this is a huge conservative victory, because you can no longer deprive someone of an extremely traditional value that makes your life better. Talking about myself, marriage to my wife made me a better man. I want to impose that value on others, because that’s what rightwingers do.”

Two days on 5 mg. Woke up today with all of the pain back. Very upsetting. Back to hobbling around like a 99-year old. Called the doctor, back to 7 1/2 mg for a month. One week and then drop is clearly too quick a cut-back. Don’t know what I would have done if he just wanted me to stay that way. I don’t think I could face going back to the constant pain, not being able to do anything, barely able to walk with a cane. Very, very upsetting.

I did work today. Actual, real, work. Something I’ve not been able to do since it all went to hell the Monday after Thanksgiving. A long time to be in constant pain, let me tell you. So doctor wants me to cut back to 5mg Prednisone for the next month. I hope, hope, hope that this doesn’t make the good go away again. It is so great to actually be able to do something. My homemaker and I cleaned the bedroom, redid the bed’s many mattress components (futon mattress, another futon mattress, memory foam, feather bed.) Rearranged a couple of things. I am still standing, still have energy, still ready and able to do more. I cannot even tell you how great this feels. I will never be ‘normal’ again, but functional at any degree is….wow. I want to cook. I have several things in mind that I have all the ingredients for, but most of them involve the oven, and we are in a heat, humidity, bad air situation and I am NOT turning the oven on. The air conditioner has to work hard enough as it is. Oh, well. I am a happy camper today, people. Yes. Yes I am.

1. The difference in time between when the Tyrannosaurus Rex and the Stegosaurus lived is greater than the difference in time between when the Tyrannosaurus Rex lived and now.

Awww. Who doesn’t love a little TRex?

So today I had another email from MoveOn.org letting me know that I can start a petition for free, no strings attached, should I so desire to do so. I would love to start a petition asking the government to fund schools better, with a particular emphasis on money to teach critical thinking skills, which I believe are sadly lacking in the good ole USA. But I don’t think enough people would get it. Understand it, I mean, or the reasons it is necessary.

Makes you think. Yes. Yes it does.

Feminism

From here:  http://www.thebacklot.com/meme-katy-perry-josh-duggar-family-research-council-armie-hammer-judi-dench/06/2013/

We’ve talked about 16-year-old Jake Andraka before, when he invented a cheap, accurate test for cancer. He doesn’t think he’s all that smart though. “I wouldn’t call myself smart. “I know people who are way smarter. But … I guess it’s how you use information. It’s about creativity rather than facts. I’m a creative thinker. My parents never told me answers. They told me how to think, not what to think. I disagree with our bulimic education system: learning by rote and then puking up all the facts in an exam.” A rather clueless reporter then asked him if he ever got into trouble with girls or alcohol, and Andraka didn’t even blink. “I’m gay, so no. And I wouldn’t know where to find alcohol.”

A great youtube channel.  Really.  Check it out:

Science Stated Clearly
 

Edit:  And who doesn’t love Tim Minchin?

Tim Minchin

Trying something new:  Zzzquil for sleeping.  It actually works.  I get to sleep within about 90 minutes after I drink the disgusting, grape cough syrupy tasting thing.  Taken it twice now.  First night slept almost straight through and last night only woke up due to pain which then kept me awake.  No grogginess, and actually have been able to Get Things Done.  Yesterday I rearranged and cleared out the frig, washed and sliced two pounds of strawberries.  Not all at once, but still.  Today had a headache but then managed to make pizza (frozen dough) and sangria with about half the strawberries and some red wine that is about to go off.  Also not all at once, but all of this is more than I’ve been able to do for some time.  So I am a relatively happy camper.  Doctor tomorrow.  Why?  He’ll just want me to take more meds and have no real answers or coping ideas.  But I’m going anyway.  Glutton for punishment, me.

I have been struggling, I admit it.  Been circling the ‘rabbit hole’ as my friend Tess calls it.  For the first time since I became ill with whatever it is I have, I feel like there is no hope for ever getting better. I’ve never felt this discouraged before.  I no longer have the occasional ‘good’ day, I have the rare ‘good’ moment.  Never pain-free, but sometimes the pain level is low enough that I can actually get something done, like cook something simple.  Something involving little or not prep, and never including the clean-up afterwards.  You can only take so many Excedrin and/or ibuprofen without causing serious side-effects, and they don’t always lessen the pain anyway.  And they never make me pain-free.  Never.  I am in pain before I’ve even moved after waking up.  Sometimes the pain wakes me up.  Sometimes the pain keeps me from getting to sleep in the first place.

Seeing the doctor on Monday, but I have no hope that he can do anything.  So here I am.  Made of misery, but still trying desperately to hang on and not fall into that rabbit hole.   Monday both my homemaker and Tess were here, and there was a lot of fun and laughing, so it is not hopeless.  It just feels like it on those days where it is just me, trying to make it to the kitchen for water to take more pills, oo-ing and ow-ing all the way.  I mean the kitchen is like ten steps from where I am sitting.  Seriously?  This is my life?  Apparently so.  It’s a hard pill to swallow, but you play the hand you’re dealt, and go on.  I am struggling, but I am NOT giving up.  Not yet, anyway.  I hope.

Reduced shifts. Worse hours. No raises. Being fired.

These are just some of the ways Walmart has retaliated against workers who have spoken up for their rights.

Workers like Vanessa Ferriera, who worked at Walmart for 8 years, until she was fired earlier this month — having done nothing wrong beside standing up for herself and her coworkers.

Or workers like Carlton Smith, a Paramount, California, Walmart employee of 17 years, who was just fired for speaking up to make positive change.

So today, Walmart workers across the country are on strike, standing up against Walmart’s retaliation against and attempts to silence those who speak out. They’ll be caravaning to Bentonville, Arkansas — what they’re calling the “Ride for Respect” — to bring their complaints directly to the Walmart shareholder meeting on June 7th.

And the more of us who stand with them right now, the louder their voices will be.

Sign their petition to Walmart today, and it’ll be delivered to Walmart HQ during the shareholder meeting.

Even though Walmart makes more than $16 billion in profits each year, the retailer is creating jobs that keep its associates without enough hours, without healthcare, and struggling to get by on poverty wages.

As a result many employees can’t even support their families without relying on government assistance, while the Walton family, which controls the company, has the wealth of 42 percent of American families combined, and its CEO rakes in more than 1,000 times the salary of the average Walmart worker.

That’s why these workers are calling for Walmart to publicly commit to providing jobs with full-time hours and a minimum salary of $25,000 — and why your support is so important.

Because we know what happens to workers when they speak out — just ask Vanessa or Carlton.

The “Ride for Respect” — to take their concerns directly to the executives and shareholders who could make change happen — will be a huge effort.

And having you with the workers from the start will make a huge difference. Add your name today:

http://action.changewalmart.org/page/s/stand-with-strikers

Thanks so much,
Silvia Fabela
Assistant Field Organizer, Making Change at Walmart

Brownies from a box.  Not so great.  Have been feeling kind of not up-beat for a bit.  Pain is tiring, and depressing, especially when there doesn’t seem to be any connection to anything I do.  It just is there, and then is there only more so, in totally random places, i.e. foot hurts, then hand hurts, then shoulder hurts, etc., and pills don’t work and sleep is impossible and it just sucks.  Plus, the hot and stickies have arrived in spades.  I hate the hot and stickies.  It’s barely June, anyway.

On the other hand, I had a really fun time with my homemaker, in which there was  a lot of conversation and hysterical laughter about a show Animal Planet ran that was supposedly proving there are mermaids, and only belatedly letting it be known that it was a mockumentary, also known as fake, fake, fake.  Too late for the apparently loads of people who were taken in and now believe there are mermaids because they saw it on Animal Planet with real (fake) scientists and everything.  Which station used to be about real animals, and real science, and now is a clone of tabloid tv, like every other used-to-be legit station before they were all bought by the same low-life lowest-common-denominator programming company.  Discovery channel used to be about science, SciFi used to be about science fiction, TLC used to be The Learning Channel.  Now they all fall under the umbrella of drekiest drek of the drek.  Makes me happy I dumped Comcast a few years ago.    Anyway…discussion involved much laughing and myriad other only tangentially related subjects.

Quote from Slate:

“This week, Animal Planet aired two fake documentaries claiming to show scientific evidence of mermaids. I say “fake documentaries” because that’s exactly what The Body Found and The New Evidence are. The “scientists” interviewed in the show are actors, and there’s a brief disclaimer during the end credits. However, the Twitter conversation surrounding the show (#Mermaids) reveals that many viewers are unaware that the show isn’t real. (Sample Tweets: “After watching the documentary #Mermaids the body found … I believe there are mermaids!!!” and “90% of the ocean is unexplored and you’re telling me #mermaids don’t exist”—which has been retweeted more than 800 times.) It is, after all, airing on a network that claims to focus on educating viewers about the natural world. “The Body Found” was rightfully described “the rotting carcass of science television,” and I was shocked to see Animal Planet air a sequel.”

Two articles from the same Google page:

http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/mermaids.html

U.S. CONFIRMS EXISTENCE OF MERMAIDS

My homemaker said she overheard several people in the grocery store discussing the program and stating how they now believed there really are mermaids, so part of the discussion involved checking other sources, asking questions, not just taking something as truth based on one source of information.  Critical thinking, it’s my pet peeve that it doesn’t seem to be considered part of education any longer.  Think for yourself, it’s harder to be manipulated and conned into doing things that are against your own best interests.  And you’re much less likely to wind up looking like an idiot.  /End of rant.  Sheesh.