If you live in my tree...

If you live in my tree, then you agree that letting someone die when they don't want to die, and there are treatments that could help them, is unequivocally wrong.

That being said, there are many things wrong with the "health care bill" that was signed into law this morning. When, my friends, is there not something wrong with legislation passed by our government? The answer is never. Never is legislation "perfect", there are compromises made and a veritable red tape gauntlet to get through on the path to make any change, legislatively speaking. The fact that this bill is by no means good enough should not come as a shock.

But my concern is not of this bill, nor any other bill. My concern is with the separation this bill, and others cause, with respect to dividing our country and creating petty arguments instead of dialogue that would aid in continuing to shape our flawed society into that which we want. I want, above all else, a humane society... so let's dialogue about "humane" and see what ends follow instead of arguing, because we know what end follows from that: division and more arguing.

I love Kieth Olbermann's 'Special Comment' portion of his show. I had written most of the above prior to viewing Olbermann's comment from last night but find it to be a powerful statement that cuts through a great deal of the b.s. arguing surrounding the passage of this "health care bill"

"Leo Loves Doing Karate Kicks!"

This is ridiculous!! My friend posted this on my fb page because I made the mistake of telling him that I, um, "strongly dislike" Leo. But let me first clarify. DeCaprio and I share the same birthday, November 11 and I used to have a crush on him (like circa the time this video was put out) and he was amazing in 'What's Eating Gilbert Grape', among scads of other movies. It is not his acting, BUT RATHER his being, that I have issue with... there's no elucidating this complicated matter coherently...so please to enjoy


***Prime viewing @ 45 seconds***

What if a yam is all that I am?

Delicious when cooked properly.


Disgusting when not.


What if a yam is all that I am?

Waste Not

PG&E, our power company has a planned blackout scheduled for this weekend. Great timing! Not. Hopefully the combination of an ice chest and dry ice will be enough to save to $300 plus worth of groceries we acquired about a week ago.

And what if it doesn't?

Well, rest assured that PG&E will be the recipient of a bill from Matt and I demanding a reimbursement. I am just grateful that neither of us are on a permanent ventilator that we would have to put on a backup generator for the weekend; talk about extra costs!

And why are they doing this? Well, our neighborhood (colloquially referred to by the police as "The Grow Show" for the mass amounts of illegal marijuana growing that takes place) experiences blackouts due to this excessive power usage and surges also due to the growing. Due in large part to this, PG&E must revamp our neighborhood in order to provide the correct wattage for continued prosperity of "The Grow Show"... I must say that not only am I inconvenienced by this (as I am a sick girl and TV offers my only relief (aside from brief cpu reprieves) as my eyes have a very difficult time focusing on, well, anything right now) but I am also sickened at the prospect of wasting so much food; particularly at a time when our cups do not runneth over.

At least it is clear here that green talks, and since PG&E makes a killing off of "The Grow Show", they want to protect it. "Rule followers" be damned!

When the Going Gets Tough, the "Weak" Go Virtual

** This is so disturbing on so many different levels! Makes me think of the psychological coping mechanism called displacement, which involves emotions, ideas, or wishes being transferred from their original object to a more acceptable substitute, unconsciously. It is most often used to allay anxiety. In this case it seems the couple could not cope with the reality of being jobless new parents to a special needs baby and, therefore, focused upon raising this virtual baby; a task at which they would be successful. ***

Couple Let Baby Starve to Death
While Raising Virtual Baby Online

from Huffinton Post Online

A Korean couple allowed their child to starve to death because of their addiction to raising a 'virtual' child in a Second-Life-style game online known as Prius, reports say.

Kim Yoo-chul, 41, and Choi Mi-sun, 25, would feed their three-month-old baby only when not at 12-hour-online sessions in a local internet café. The pair were obsessed with raising their internet child, called Anima, resulting in the neglect of their unnamed real daughter.

After one such session in September the couple found their daughter dead and called police. An autopsy found the baby died from prolonged malnutrition.

"The couple seemed to have lost their will to live a normal life because they didn't have jobs and gave birth to a premature baby," Chung Jin-Won, a police officer, told Korean press.

"They indulged themselves in the online game of raising a virtual character so as to escape from reality, which led to the death of their real baby."

The pair were arrested in the city of Suweon, south of Seoul, on Friday after months on the run.

"Online game addiction can blur the line between reality and the virtual world," Professor Kwak Dae-kyung of Seoul's Dongguk University told press. "It seems that taking care of their on-line game character erased any sense of guilt they may have had for neglecting their daughter."