Sonic Nurse

Waste, Idiocy, and Murder

2005-05-25T08:32:00.000-05:00

● Let me see if I have this straight: Because of community outrage towards convicted sex offenders, many cannot live outside prison walls because we have a talent of making it impossible for these folks to function in society, yet Medicaid was paying for prescription Viagra.

Not a good use for it, folks. Medicaid is the last source for the poor and indigent to recieve vital medical care and some dipshit decided to okay Viagra. Watch the GOPranos bring this up at the next session of review. "Look! This is the kind of abuse we are talking about! Let's cut this NOW!" That is, after the House and Senate are done pushing the next four judicial crypto-facists into positions in federal courts. They have their priorities, ya know, and I am a liar.

Medicaid pays pennies on the dollar, which is the main reason that many healthcare providers reject or push recipients away.

So, misappropriation of Medicaid funding is occuring here. There are many impoverished Americans that recieve minimal (if any) healthcare. Those that aren't abusing the system will be punished. Just swell.

Yes, as many folks, I am cautious when it comes to paroled sex offenders (the system has done a superb job of instilling fear into us), yet at some point you would think that a community would keep a closer eye on their own little blue heaven (i.e. house and kids) instead of posting pictures of someone on every telephone pole, store front, and potential employers. These folks may as well stay locked-up on the taxpayer's dime, recieving Viagra.

Impulsiveness and a lack of priorities strike again.

● Here's something for the "Honorable Mention" category of the Darwin awards:

Man Leaps From Car to Retrieve Cigarette

FOREMAN, Ark. - A leap of faith proved hazardous for a smoker in need of a cigarette fix after a night on the town.

Jeff Foran suffered trauma to his nose, eyes and chin after jumping from a car traveling 55-60 mph. Authorities said he was trying to retrieve a cigarette blown out of the passenger-side window.

This is the kind of thing that promotes the thought that lab values should have a "dumbshit" profile.

● According to Charles Cullen, there is an epidemic of active euthanasia carried out by America's nurses.

One could infer this from a four hour meeting he had with New Jersey Attorney General Peter Harvey.

"Once we complete our discussions with him, we are going to compile a series of recommendations that we're going to give to the Board of Medical Examiners and the Nursing Board with suggestions of how to better protect patients and hospitals," Harvey said. "We're going to ask for their input and action."

Like this asshole suddenly has the know-how of a JCAHO quality-surveyor. By the way, did I forget to mention that this was part of a plea-agreement?

Mechanisms of American Medicine

2005-05-23T09:29:00.000-05:00

In his book The Year of the Intern, Dr. Robin Cook (author of medical thrillers such as Fever, Coma, and Godplayer) wrote in the introduction:

Americans cling to their myths. Nowhere is this more evident than the emotion-charged realm of medicine and medical care. People believe what they want to believe, what they have always believed, and either ignore or dismiss as false anything that threatens their comforting confidence in their own doctors or the kind of medical treatment they may be receiving.

Only recently, and with reluctance, has the public at large begun to stir out of its smug assumption that medical personnel and care in the United States are the best in the world. And even this unwelcome awakening has been accomplished more by economics than reason, more by the rising costs for medical care than by the quality of that care.

This was written in 1972. Before Roe v. Wade. Before the economic Billy-club known as managed care. Back when doctors were able to make decisions and recommendations when it comes to patient care and not have to have an HMO rubber stamp approval.

Make no mistake about it: We do NOT have the best health care system in the world. Canada and various European nations have proven otherwise. The problem is though, it is socialized medicine.

In this nation in this day and age, ‘socialized medicine’ is the worst profanity ever to be spoken. Insurance companies have been squeezing every last cent out of the system, doctors in particular. I’m no great fan of physicians, but the days of the Wednesday afternoon golf games are over; they have been for a long time. These days, the only stable employment in the health care industry is nursing and administration.

How it generally works is that if you break your right fibula, the HMO will place you in a DRG (abbreviation for Diagnostic Related Grouping) for that condition and estimate an average it will pay, outside a PPO. You cover the rest.

“Hey, be grateful you live in America...more accessibility to healthcare than in the Third World.”

Hey, news flash: We are well on our way towards Third-world substandard healthcare not to mention housing, employment, and educational opportunities. Wake up America, you have been lied to. You are continuously lied to. And you continue to bend over for it. Again and again. Reagan’s “Trickle- down Economics” is the biggest myth since Creationism. It didn’t work then, it’s a total failure now.

Folks, there are plenty of pros and cons to socialized medicine. The profits won’t be as high, but it is a lot better than people dropping dead in the streets. Don’t think for one second that your current socioeconomic status will save you and you family: at this rate, healthcare will be “cash-up-front, or piss off.”

Yes, managed care has cut costs. It has done so by cutting quality of care, and availability of care.

The Bush administration has paved the way towards this. Pharmaceutical companies are getting kickbacks, tax-breaks and in return, this Neanderthal mafia known as the GOP are allowing companies to set prices, strong-arming drug companies outside their contributors and making “tort reform” an arbitrary weapon for the benefit of the top 1%. Angry physicians will not benefit from civil litigation caps: reforming the corporate structure will. The same clowns that cried about anti-monopoly regulation are now controlling the free market with a Goebbels-style boot.

As much as the Rightards would like to believe otherwise, the United States isn’t a Darwinian nation in that only the strong shall survive. If that were the case, W would have dropped-dead over the thought of having to make an honest living. This pampered frat boy is making sure that the top 1% will get their butts wiped through their elderly years, as well as…since they were born.

Drug companies, Insurance companies, managed care organizations and their control and use of big-government are what will destroy our beloved system of health and well-being.

It's a brave new world, and the cowards are at the helm.

Does this shit give anyone else the creeps?

2005-05-19T06:41:00.000-05:00

The movie Coma comes to mind here:

Use of Foster Kids in Experiments Varies
By JOHN SOLOMON
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Current regulations are adequate to ensure that foster children enlisted in federal medical experiments are protected, a Bush administration official said Wednesday.

"We are not aware of any changes that we believe need to be made," said Donald Young, a deputy assistant secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services. "But if there are (problems) identified, we'd be very happy to consider them and make decisions on how best to proceed."

If children (much like American voters, hence the electoral college) are labeled as unable to make their own decisions concerning their well-being, then why the HELL is this even being allowed, let alone looked at and not viewed as inhumane.

Yes, this type of research is necessary sometimes...but its rather damned convenient that the test subjects don't have any protections under the law. Speaking of which:

Rep. Pete Stark, D-Calif., said prisoners are guaranteed more protections under the guidelines concerning clinical trials than foster children. Prisoners must have an advocate expressly appointed to represent their interests on local institutional review boards. Foster children don't have such an advocate appointed to look out for them, he said.

That is unless you are an embryo or fetus. Once again, it is proven that the right-wing's "Culture of Life" ends at birth.

Dr. Alan R. Fleischman, a top medical ethicist, told the panel that research on foster children can be conducted safely and ethically and that it would have been wrong to exclude foster kids outright from AIDS drug testing during the height of the epidemic in the 1990s.

"The only way to provide the best treatment to any child with HIV at that time was through the clinical trials - the drugs were just not available any other way," Fleischman said.

Get real, Doc...there's money to be made, GOP coffers to fill.

MRK 32.95 32.95 -0.06 (-0.18%) 10,865,700
LLY 60.36 60.36 +0.80 (+1.34%) 5,411,500
ABT 49.35 49.35 -0.06 (-0.12%) 3,220,000
PFE 28.44 28.43 +0.24 (+0.85%) 20,670,200
WYE 44.27 44.27 +0.04 (+0.09%) 4,231,600
BAXPR 55.75 55.75 +0.05 (+0.09%) 25,100

Red means panic, and no child below the poverty line will ever get access to any working meds that these hucksters put out.

...and now, a word from our sponsor:

2005-05-17T13:43:00.000-05:00

An oldie, but a goodie. Heh.

The Unknown Conservative

2005-05-17T11:47:00.000-05:00

Bartcop, The Smirking Chimp, Democratic Underground, and numerous blogs have used this guy to drive their point that the GOP's voting base is filled with people that have the brain matter of a block of wood.

He has been used probably since 2000, where Dubya was selected (not elected) as president of the United States.

So here we are, another election stolen, our nation being run by oil execs and pharmaceutical companies (essentially a nightmare that you can't wake up from), and one question remains: Who IS this guy?

I wonder if he even knows that he's the object of ridicule. I wonder if he has any idea that he's had more than his fifteen minutes; Hell, he's as popular as Endocrine Coulter. I wonder if he knows that at least 51% of our nation is laughing at him.

In the event that some may find this post and its subject matter "mean" I ask you to remember that many of these RW lunatics/fascists would like to make hunting of those who don't agree with them commonplace, without the necessity of accountability.

"Not all conservatives are idiots, but most idiots are conservative."

Lars von Trier calls Dubya "asshole" at Cannes

2005-05-17T06:22:00.000-05:00

Charlotte Higgins in Cannes
Tuesday May 17, 2005
The Guardian

It may be set on an Alabama cotton plantation, but so few African-American actors would touch Lars von Trier's latest film, premiered in Cannes last night, that nine of the 12 black actors cast as slaves are British.
"We tried several [Americans] who thought it was a good thing that the film was being made and that it was interesting. But they didn't take part it in because it's explosive stuff in the USA," said Von Trier, whose Manderlay is vying for the Palme d'Or.

Von Trier's film steers clear of presenting the black characters as saintly. "It's a shame for the coloured [sic] actors if they're only allowed to play heroes. If they aren't allowed to be human as well."

The British actors include Clive Rowe, winner of an Olivier award; Dona Croll, currently starring in the West End in Elmina's Kitchen; and Ginny Holder, recently seen as Calpurnia in Deborah Warner's Julius Caesar at the Barbican.

Danny Glover, one of the three American actors, initially turned down the part. He was uncomfortable with the film being "told exclusively and entirely from a white perspective ... the images were very strong from that perspective".

Asked about the paucity of American films tackling the subject of slavery, Glover said: "It would be extraordinary for [the American] film culture to unravel [slavery] but it doesn't. People are afraid to deal with it. There is no framework for people to unravel it."

The film is Von Trier's follow-up to Dogville, in which Nicole Kidman stars as Grace. In Manderlay, Bryce Dallas Howard, who replaces Kidman, appears at a cotton plantation where the black workers are still treated as slaves, 70 years after their legal emancipation. Full of idealism, she steps in to help them take control of their own destinies, teaching them to vote on community decisions. But things do not go to plan.

Von Trier has said it is "quite clear" his film can be seen as alluding to President Bush's efforts to impose democracy in Iraq.

Explaining why he chose the US as the subject matter for his trilogy - despite never having visited it, since he is famously disinclined to fly - he said: "A big part of our lives has to do with America. In our country it is overwhelming.

"I feel there could just as well be an American military presence in Denmark. We are a nation under a very bad influence, because I think Bush is an asshole and doing a lot of really stupid things.

"America is sitting on the world and therefore I am making films about it. I'd say 60% of the things I have experienced in my life are American, so in fact I am an American. But I can't go there and vote. That's why I am making films about America."

Umm...thanks for stating the obvious sir...in more ways than one.

The latest insanity in my hometown

2005-05-16T00:04:00.000-05:00

This made the San Francisco Gate:

Milwaukee Making Progress on Stray Condoms

After spending more than $1.8 million for a temporary system to catch stray condoms slipping through a sewage treatment plant, a Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District spokesman says officials are fairly confident a majority of condoms are now being caught before they can reach Lake Michigan.

As opposed to cryptosporidium getting into the waterways.

Bill Graffin commented Thursday, more than two years after a fisherman reported seeing what he called a slick of thousands of condoms floating in the lake following a heavy rainstorm in April of 2003.

What I would like to know is how a 'slick' of condoms got into the Milwaukee sewage system. It's not like there is a place near Jones Isle for several thousand teenagers to get their rocks off on prom night.

Initially, a single laborer armed with a swimming pool skimmer was posted at the chlorine tanks at the Jones Island treatment plant to capture condoms that survived earlier phases of screening at the plant.

And somehow this became a cost of $1.8 million to Milwaukee taxpayers...how? Did the head of the MMSD threaten to take his department out of state?

There are many reasons I don't live in Milwaukee anymore: Stupidity far and wide is one of them.

A Story of Recovery

2005-05-15T00:18:00.000-05:00

I got this from Lea-p, a fellow "leftist" at Liberal America, one of several forums that I go to on a regular basis.

It started out innocently enough.

I began to think at parties now and then-- to loosen up.

Inevitably, though, one thought led to another, and soon I was more than
just a social thinker.

I began to think alone -- "to relax," I told myself -- but I knew it wasn't
true. Thinking became more and more important to me, and finally I was
thinking all the time.

That was when things began to sour at home. One evening I had turned off the
TV and asked my SO about the meaning of life. He spent that night at his mother's.

I began to think on the job. I knew that thinking and employment don't mix,
but I couldn't stop myself.

I began to avoid friends at lunchtime so I could read Thoreau and Kafka. I
would return to the office dizzied and confused, asking, "What is it exactly
we are doing here?"

One day the boss called me in. He said, "Listen, I like you, and it hurts me
to say this, but your thinking has become a real problem. If you don't stop
thinking on the job, you'll have to find another job."

This gave me a lot to think about.

I came home early after my conversation with the boss. "Honey," I confessed,
"I've been thinking..."

"I know you've been thinking," he said, "and I want a divorce!"

"But Honey, surely it's not that serious."

"It is serious," he said, lower lip aquiver. "You think as much as college
professors, and college professors don't make any money, so if you keep on
thinking, we won't have any money!"

"That's a faulty syllogism," I said impatiently.

He exploded in tears of rage and frustration, but I was in no mood to deal
with the emotional drama.

"I'm going to the library," I snarled as I stomped out the door. I headed
for the library, in the mood for some Nietzsche.

I roared into the parking lot with NPR on the radio and ran up to the big
glass doors...

They didn't open. The library was closed.

To this day, I believe that a Higher Power was looking out for me that
night. Leaning on the unfeeling glass, whimpering for Zarathustra, a poster
caught my eye. "Friend, is heavy thinking ruining your life?" it asked.

You probably recognize that line. It comes from the standard Thinker's
Anonymous poster. Which is why I am what I am today:

A recovering thinker.

I nevermiss a TA meeting. At each meeting we watch a non-educational video;
last week it was "Porky's." Then we share experiences about how we avoided
thinking since the last meeting.

I still have my job, and things are a lot better at home. Life just
seemed...easier, somehow, as soon as I stopped thinking. I think the road to
recovery is nearly complete for me.

Today, I registered to vote as a Republican.

Fuckface's rantings are OVER

2005-05-12T17:16:00.000-05:00

...at least on TV. I won't be surprised if he puts out another stupid book.

Miller Time over at CNBC

Dennis Miller has something new to rant about.

The comedian's daily CNBC talk show has been canceled due to low ratings.

Dennis Miller will tape its final episode Friday in Burbank, leaving CNBC with a prime-time slot likely to be filled by a new business-themed program in the third quarter of this year.

A repeat of CNBC's Mad Money with Jim Cramer will air in its place in the meantime, according to an internal CNBC memo obtained by MediaBistro.com.

Dennis Miller bowed in January 2004 to lukewarm reviews and mediocre ratings, which have slipped in recent months to around 114,000, per Nielsen Media Research. Overall, the show has averaged 168,000 viewers, which, to be fair, is nowhere near as low as John McEnroe's canned CNBC yakfest, McEnroe, a show that sometimes registered an abysmal 0.0 rating....

Wow. You really have to suck if the even the right-wing retards won't watch you. But then again, they are too busy having crap shoveled into their empty heads from Bill O'Rielly, Ann "Hyperthyroidism" Coulter, Rushbo, and the man with a face that scares small children and feral cats, Sean Hannity.

Buh-bye, Dennis.

Agitprop strikes again!

2005-05-04T08:42:00.000-05:00

In the post "Big Pharma Strikes Again", Agitprop strikes the GOPranos below the suspenders.

Excellent work!

Integrity, Honor, Respect, My Ass

2005-05-01T09:04:00.000-05:00

Some may recall the stories I related about how two army recruiters called my house based on information from Chippewa Valley Technical college. My guess is that CVTC was required to give out that info in order to gain some federal financial incentive.

The first call was before my 35th birthday. I told him my age, the recruiter said "no problem...just register before October 15th and you'll be all set to go." Yeah, to Iraq: the quagmire that is based on nothing but LIES that the Bushitas have sold to America.

The second call was a bit more detailed: this time a recruiter said "regardless of age, we are looking for men to serve in the Army Nursing Corps." That sent up a red flag and I hung up on the twat after telling him I was also epileptic.

I thought that was low and depraved for them. But GUESS WHAT.

ARVADA, Colo. (CBS4) -- Last month the U.S. Army failed to meet its goal of 6,800 new troops.

Aware of this trend, David McSwane, a local high school student, decided he wanted to find out to what extent some recruiters would go to sign up soldiers who were not up to grade.

McSwane, 17, is actually just the kind of teenager the military would like. He's a high school journalist and honor student at Arvada West High School. But McSwane decided he wanted to see "how far the Army would go during a war to get one more solider."

McSwane contacted his local army recruiting office in Golden with a scenario he created. He told a recruiter that he was a dropout and didn't have a high school diploma.

"No problem," the recruiter explained. He suggested that McSwane create a fake diploma from a non-existent school.

McSwane recorded the recruiter saying that on the phone.

"It can be like Faith Hill Baptist School or something -- whatever you choose," the recruiter said.

So the kid goes ahead and spends $200 on a fake diploma with transcripts from the recruiter's suggestion of Faith Hill Baptist High School.

"What was your reaction to them encouraging you to get a phony diploma?" CBS4's Rick Sallinger asked.

"I was shocked," McSwane said. "I'm sitting there looking at a poster that says 'Integrity, Honor, Respect' and he is telling me to lie."

Hold on! It gets better.

McSwane also pretended he had a drug problem when he spoke with the recruiter.

The Army does not accept enlistees with drug problems.

"I have a problem with drugs," McSwane said, referring to the conversation he had with the recruiter. "I can't kick the habit ... just marijuana."

"[The recruiter] said 'Not a problem,' just take this detox ... he said he would pay half of it ... told me where to go."

Drug testers CBS4 contacted insist it doesn't work, but the recruiter claimed in another recorded phone conversation that taking "detoxification capsules and liquid" would help McSwane pass the required test.

"The two times I had the guys use it, it has worked both times," the recruiter said in the recorded conversation. "We didn't have to worry about anything."

So...when is America going to get sick of the lies and the tactics of the Bush administration? Take a look around a place like Eau Claire, Wisconsin, for the answer: Never.

A marjority of these folks are mindless fucks who slap yellow-ribbon stickers on their SUV's about supporting our troops...when the REAL support comes from: Support our troops, BRING THEM HOME.

Mindless fucks that refuse to own up to the fact that they have bought the Bush b.s. hook line and sinker, and condemn those who dare to question GOP authority.

If you still have the stomach left, read the rest.

German marching music is playing in my head

2005-04-29T19:48:00.000-05:00

Here's the latest crime against culture and liberty by the RW lunatics:

Republican Alabama lawmaker Gerald Allen says homosexuality is an unacceptable lifestyle. As CBS News Correspondent Mark Strassmann reports, under his bill, public school libraries could no longer buy new copies of plays or books by gay authors, or about gay characters.

"I don't look at it as censorship," says State Representative Gerald Allen. "I look at it as protecting the hearts and souls and minds of our children."

Wrong, asswipe. It IS censorship. You just don't like it. He's one of these facists that thinks that our liberties should only protect the culture of the status quo.

BTW...as for this "protecting the hearts and souls and minds of our children" crap, if they actually think that their their genetically-defective spawn are in danger of becoming gay just from books and movies...maybe they are too fucked-up to be PARENTS in the first place. The meandering of these people says a lot about their parenting skills.

Books by any gay author would have to go: Tennessee Williams, Truman Capote and Gore Vidal. Alice Walker's novel "The Color Purple" has lesbian characters.

Allen originally wanted to ban even some Shakespeare. After criticism, he narrowed his bill to exempt the classics, although he still can't define what a classic is. Also exempted now Alabama's public and college libraries.

Pay attention to that last line: although he still can't define what a classic is. Well, no shit. This bonehead should try reading books, not burning them. Something tells me this clown never read anything other than the children's version of The Turner Diaries. Probably had to have his cousin Lurleen explain it to him.

And now for something completely different...

2005-04-24T22:07:00.000-05:00

I'm in the process of finishing up my last developmental psychology assignment. At this rate, I will have an A, no problem. I need everyone to answer the survey below. Thank you so much.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Sex:

A. Male

B. Female

2. Your age

A. 18-40

B. 41-65

C. 65+

3. Your educational status:

A. High school

B. College

C. Graduate school

4. Marital status:

A. Married

B. Single/divorced/widowed

C. Cohabiting

5. Type of marriage/home:

A. "Traditional marriage" (one spouse is the breadwinner, the other a homemaker)

B. Dual-earner marriage

C. Not applicable

6. Do you have children?

A. Yes

B. No

7. As a parent, are you/were you:

A. Permissive (little/no boundaries)

B. Authoritative (set boundaries, but will negotiate some aspects of them.)

C. Authoritarian (A rule is a rule, no matter what)

8. According to Galinsky, there are six stages of critical periods in the parental-child relationship that are part of coping with a child’s developmental stages. The first is the image-making stage, where expecting parents create images of the kind of parents they will be and will measure their anticipated performance with their own standards of perfection. Have you gone through this stage?

A. Yes
B. No

9. According to Galinsky, there are six stages of critical periods in the parental-child relationship that are part of coping with a child’s developmental stages. The third is the authority stage, where parents begin to question the kind of parents they have been and will be. Have you gone through this stage?
A. Yes
B. No

10. According to Galinsky, there are six stages of critical periods in the parental-child relationship that are part of coping with a child’s developmental stages. The sixth is the departure stage, where once the children leave home, the parents face the difficult and sometimes unpleasant task of taking stock of their worth as parents. Have you gone through this stage?
A. Yes
B. No

11. What occupational category do you fit?

A. Executive (businessperson, banker, physician, CEO, government, etc: “White-collar”)

B. Academic (teacher, professor)

C. Skilled labor (contractor, medical professional, machinist, computers, etc: “Blue-collar”)

D. Civil worker (police officer, fire fighter, local politician, social worker)

E. Self-employed

F. None of the above

12. Erik Erikson’s stage of generativity versus stagnation as it applies to the work world states that many people achieve a sense of being through their trade or profession. When researchers ask adults what is important to them about their work, they often fit into one of the two categories below. Which best describes your sense of being in the workplace?

A. Intrinsic factors of work: Satisfactions workers obtain from doing the work itself

B. Extrinsic factors of work: Satisfaction in the form of pay, status, and other rewards for work

13. Daniel Levinson emphasized that maintaining a sense of excitement and commitment to work throughout adulthood is essential to mature job satisfaction. Loyalty, however, develops as young adults begin to identify personally with their occupation and loyalty to an employer will grow to the extent that employees want continued employment and rewards from the employer (expectation of reciprocity).

A. Yes, I am excited and satisfied with my job and consider myself loyal to my employer

B. No, I would like to do something else, and my boss sucks ass

C. Not applicable (self-employed)

-----

Nurses:1, Gropenator: 0

2005-04-17T14:49:00.000-05:00

I don't know about anyone else, but I'm looking forward to the possibility of Wisconsin (as well as other states) becoming unionized.

Nurses Union Leader Is a Tonic for Governor's Foes

OAKLAND — Her name is Rose Ann DeMoro, but in Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's office she might be better known as Trouble.

DeMoro is the 56-year-old, Missouri-born, Bruce Springsteen-loving executive director of the California Nurses Assn., a 60,000-member labor union that has led the fight against much of Schwarzenegger's policy agenda. In David-vs.-Goliath fashion, the battle appears to be going DeMoro's way.

Schwarzenegger's once-soaring approval ratings have indeed plunged, and his sweeping proposals to revamp state government have stalled.

He can't seem to attend a fundraiser free of boisterous union protesters, with chanting nurses often in the front ranks. And one of his favorite lines for diminishing his opponents — "I am always kicking their butts" — has come back to haunt him, thanks to angry RNs mobilized by DeMoro.

In December, Schwarzenegger used the taunt to belittle nurses who picketed his speech at a Long Beach women's conference. He lumped them in with Sacramento's "special interests."

His remarks proved to be a rallying cry for DeMoro and her devoted troops, who have grown accustomed to victory. During DeMoro's 12 years heading the association, the union has defied labor-movement trends by tripling its membership.

Ha! You are losing, Girlie-Man.

NYU Law Student asks Scalia if he has anal adventures with wife

2005-04-13T23:06:00.000-05:00

I cannot think of anyone less qualified for an award for their judicial career than Antonin Scalia, infamous crypto-facist justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Close to 50 NYU law students and members of the New York community lined the sidewalk outside of Vanderbilt Hall yesterday afternoon to protest Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who was being honored by a student-run law journal.

Scalia visited NYU to receive an honor from the members of the NYU Annual Survey of American Law , which is dedicating their 2005 issue to Scalia.

...prior to the dedication ceremony, Scalia met with law students for a Q-and-A session in Tishman Hall. The Q-and-A had limited seating - the audience was chosen randomly from students who RSVPed - and was closed to the press, though the discussion was simulcast on a projector across the hall.

As he fielded questions from the students, Scalia defended his methods of judicial interpretation, known as originalism, or interpreting the Constitution to mean what the framers originally intended.

"The constitution is not a living organism," Scalia said, espousing his belief that the Constitution's interpretation should not change over time. "It's a legal document."

This theory of judicial interpretation supports change through legislation and persuading fellow citizens to pass laws, rather than using decisions of the Supreme Court to create legislation.

"The Supreme Court is essentially writing a new Constitution," he said.

The Q-and-A opened with hostility as audience members expressed frustration with many of Scalia's opinions.

In asking about Scalia's dissent in Lawrence v. Texas and his view that privacy is not constitutionally protected, Eric Berndt, a law student, shocked the crowd by asking, "Do you sodomize your wife?"

Scalia refused to answer the question while the crowd gasped and the administrators promptly turned off Berndt's microphone.

As for the question from Mr. Berndt, it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. RW hypocrisy reigns supreme in the Supreme.

When the Boomers start wandering the halls

2005-04-12T20:42:00.000-05:00

When I was working in DHC's Restorative Dept., I got a good look at a tee-shirt of one of the residents I was doing work with. It was titled "Top Ten Reasons to go into Health Care." I don't remember any of them with the exception of "Because the Baby-boomers will be going into nursing homes soon."

Well holy shit, that got my attention. And it is the reason that when I finish nursing school, that I want to work in a hospital, not a nursing home.

Wait! Before you start thinking "screw this asshat," let me set a disclaimer here: There are many Boomers who meet and exceed Erikson's stage of generativity. What I am talking about are the fruity Boomers that have the rest of the nation in a tailspin of insanity.

So anyway...there I was one day, sharing some ideas with Judy, the Unit Secretary for the second floor, about what the Boomers would be like in a place like DHC. I always spend a few moments talking with this lady: She's somewhere between being a Boomer and a Buster.

*Banana Republic will have to begin their own line of incontinence pads.

*Wheelchairs with bumperstickers plastered all over them: Visualize Whirrled Peas, We are the proud Grandparents of an honor student at ______________ (insert scholastic institution), Whoever has the most toys wins, etc.

"Jesus Christ on a bike, Judy-there's gonna be 100 whiny gezeers on this floor all wearing leather loafers without socks!"

*The piped-in music will be playing the Mamas and the Papas, Steely Dan, ELO, Grateful Dead, Rolling Stones, etc.

*Dietary departments will have to invest in cappuccino machines

*Ensure will have to merge with Ben & Jerry's

Well, there was a lot more discussed, which had Judy in stitches as well as I. The bottom line is that these Boomers will be nothing like the generation that is in nursing care right now. Before I end up pissing-off everyone that reads my stuff, I'll just say peace.

Bush Family Values, #182,309,398 (and counting)

2005-04-09T16:53:00.000-05:00

JENNA BUSH CAUGHT UP IN DIRTY DANCING SCANDAL
America's First Daughter Jenna Bush is at the
center of a new Internet scandal after she was caught
dirty dancing in a New York club.

The socialite, who has been criticized for
her partying and boozing ways, was celebrating
a friend's bachelor party at hip club Nerveana
when a sneaky cameraman captured footage of
Bush down on all fours, showing off her thong
as dancers looked on in disbelief.

The unnamed snapper is now selling his footage
to the highest bidders, and hopes to have the
film in cyberspace by the weekend.

How to distract the sheeple: Ann Coulter writes more of her drivel about how those evil liberals are destroying such a morally upstanding girl like Jenna.

How to become Physician of the Year

2005-04-08T14:56:00.000-05:00

I seriously doubt that any docs stop by this board, but for the rest of us, a little FYI: it isin't all that hard to become Physician of the Year...to the GOPranos, that is.

To receive his award as "Physician of the Year," Dr. Rudolph Mueller learned he would have to make a $1,250 contribution to the National Republican Congressional Committee. He also learned he wasn't the only "Physician of the Year." (ABC News)

Are Honors for Physicians the New Political Diploma Mill?

Wow. Holy Pope-shit, Batman

2005-04-05T21:25:00.000-05:00

On the Yahell main page, the "news" section contains the line: Eclipse set for same day as pope's funeral like it is some kind of godammed privilage for a celestial event to occur.

Click on the link and you get to another headline: Boost for superstitious: Sun to darken on day of pope's funeral.

Here's a more approprite headline: Rome plans Pope's Funeral during Lunar Eclipse.

One thing that stands out from my childhood under the thumb of the Roman Catholic church is the line "Let us proclaim this mystery of faith."

Mystery? Bullshit. Try fairy tales written by masogynistic dickheads that propogated a culture of repression of the frightened.

The Workday, pt. 2

2005-03-28T04:08:00.000-06:00

By 10:00 the rush to get our Hoyer residents up begins. In the 2300 dining room we have eight people that require assistance with eating-some actually need feeding, others constant encouragement. The Hoyer machine is a hydraulic lift that elevates or descends patients that are too frail, too heavy or too awkward to do a one or two person transfer with, from bed to wheelchair and vice-versa. Its metal "claw" attaches to a canvas sheet that is placed under the person, supporting the body below the shoulder blades to the mid-buttocks posterior. Most know the routine and have accepted it, but there are a couple of folks at DHC that are uncomfortable or downright terrified of the Hoyer.

RW is still not eating: when she was placed in supervised dining she was very picky, then she was distracted, and now she spits out her food that my partner or I spoon-feed her. RW has lost five pounds in less than a week. The moment she gets loose stools, her electrolytes will be insufficient to sustain her which means an immediate trip to Luther ER. She doesn't even get her ensure down enough before calling out to Jesus again. MA screams for ice cream, and nothing else. FO is barely touching a scrap, but is drinking all of her fluids, spilling some on her shirt. MH is eating, but with rotten teeth: she hasn't the financial resources to have then pulled out, and dentists don't take Medicaid or Medicare. Her mouth smells like stool half the time, making it rancid and undignified. I give her a good rinse with an oral sponge and toothpaste every morning to no avail.

I do after-brunch rounds, where a number of residents are either napping, with activities, or are in the "bird room," a small aviary set up in a day room near the nursing station.

It is during this time of day that I realize things such as JW's service to his country; a certificate of appreciation from Harry S. Truman hangs on the bulletin board near his bathroom.

It is during this time of day that I learn about generations of folks in northern Wisconsin that have four, five children, seventeen grandchildren and maybe one or two great-grandchildren. Many are married, making children, continuing the hopes and defining dreams Levinson-style and building bases of social conformity similar to their grandparents.

It is during this time of day that I wander and find my way into the room of one of my twenty people and enter a world of stories, both good and bad.

Lightening the day always is HH-a little old lady about 55 inches tall. White shaggy hair that covers her ears, bangs down to her eyebrows, and coke-bottle glasses. HH laughs and smiles at everything except her arms and knee pain. When you suggest that she go to an activity or nap, she chuckles and says "...well, that sounds like a good idea." When bored, she wanders the five hallways of the unit, and at times will stop and talk with a resident or a staff member, spreading her charm that lights up the mood or even calms down someone like MA: after brunch she walked down the end of the hallway and spoke with her, MA in her wheelchair. MA stopped her continuous screaming and looked up at HH in sheer fascination and was quiet the entire day. When escorting HH to breakfast and brunch, she likes to put her arm around my lower back, and converse either with me, or the people we walk by.

The second half of this dynamic duo is HH's roommate LM: LM must have been the class clown in grade school and the most popular girl in high-school. She always is telling funny stories, or jokes, or anecdotes that she observes or has compiled over the years. Having survived a severe stroke, she keeps her sense of humor even though the entire left half of her body is dead weight. One time, LM kept having the urge to use the pan. Each and every time, it would come up dry. The third time, she said "...sorry, kiddo. I really thought I had to go. I really tried."

"Well Lil, that's all you can really do." I said.

"That's what they'll probably put on my epitaph-" LM responded "-She Tried. Hey, they may even make my tombstone in the shape of a bedpan." Hilarious laughter follows.

Sometimes I wish that "God" would give some of my people the ability to walk, talk, be sound of mind at least for a little while. I have often thought about how cool it would be to go fishing in Minnesota's Boundary Waters with someone like RM: I'm sure he would love to catch a few and have throw some filets over a camp fire. I once had a dream that PM, a resident of 1st floor that has been rendered at 40 years old (he's 50 now) quadriplegic due to multiple sclerosis, said "Dammit, enough of this!" and actually got up and walked away on two working legs.

I think these folks feel the way I do: they need to feel free. They would like to go dancing, take a run through the prairies in spring that they know so well, wildflowers in bloom to smell, having fun they haven't had probably since I was in diapers.

I wish I had theability to correct the wrongs in the world, and make things right. At this point of my career, I feel like I am doing nothing more than existing as a emotional sponge as they prepare to go somewhere that baffles us all.

When I punch out for the day, though, I remember what LM often says to me because besides being funny, she is also very receptive to the emotions of others: "You’re gonna be all right, kiddo."

The Workday, pt. 1

2005-03-27T16:54:00.000-06:00

It has been nearly two weeks since BW passed away, his bed sanitized and filled by a guy bigger than me, but angry about having to be here. For the most part, he’s an okay guy, but since he is able to get up to go to the toilet, change the channel on the TV, wash himself in the morning and walk to the dining room, he sees no reason to be at DHC. I try to be congenial to him, for he-like everyone else down 2300-deserves it.

WW is his roommate, and try as hard as I do to keep his spirits up he’s getting angrier and more aggressive as the days go by. I have seen this type of behavior many times before: it precedes a very painful death.

Where I work can be extremely depressing sometimes, but I go in with the attitude that I would hate to have people come in my room in the middle of the night, or early morning to take my clothes off and throw a diaper on me after putting a wet washcloth down on my manhood and where the “Good Lord” split me.

I try to prioritize what to do from 6 to 10:30; specifically who to do cares with. Some people don’t care when they get up, others want to get up early and others have family members that have specifically requested to my unit manager that it be made official on the daily care plan when they want mom or dad up.

I try to get to my first three planned residents done after filling 18 cups with ice water plus 2 honey and nectar thickened waters. But there are the usual interruptions: it usually begins when JL is trying to get to the bathroom, even though he has been classified as a fall risk-which is pretty much the main reason many folks like him are in this place: old age brings about confusion, dementia, and a deteriorating body that doesn’t want to cooperate with them. JL’s personal and pressure alarm is screeching at high-volume, the alert that there is an old man who is about to have a dangerous accident.

RW is crying and repeatedly saying “help me, help me” and “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus” Usually when I enter the room and get her bed light on, she has her hip protectors and her incontinence pad around her ankles, sometimes filled with waste, sometimes not. She lays naked and confused in her bed having a hard time with what life she has left. Her husband David is a very loving and patient man that comes to see her everyday (something that can’t be said for other residents who would love nothing more than their children to give a shit about them and stop by to visit). But every once in a while when she gets stuck in a rut of words and thought, tries to get out of her Broda chair and gets angry David buries his face in his hands and sobs. This is not the same woman he married fifty-years ago, and it hurts when another human being you have been through good times and bad with is becoming a mere shadow of what they once were.

RM was a man of the earth: the consummate Wisconsin dairy farmer who, since taking up residence at DHC, has had to sell the farm he worked decades to preserve. His wife J is there to visit everyday and to make sure that we are doing our job right. I like and respect that woman, and make sure that he, like everyone else, is getting the best care that this body and soul of mine can exert. J has had to move into a tiny apartment in town because our illustrious leaders in Washington over the years have made sure that we get screwed when it comes to decent, affordable health care. After having had three consecutive strokes and being hit with Parkinson’s disease, he is spooned twice a day via applesauce the plethora of drugs manufactured by the same soulless bastards that cost him house and livelihood to begin with.

RM has the ability to pick up a spoon with his left arm and bring oatmeal to his mouth, but swallowing it is a whole different matter: as hard as he tries, a lot of it runs down his chin and on the towel covering the clean shirt that I had put on for him a little while ago. He isn’t able to say much-his main source of communication is low-pitched growling-but I know just from looking at him that he is frustrated. The man can’t sit up straight, can’t walk, and can’t move his head so the demands of ADL’s must exhaust him to no end. When not in bed, he sits slumped in his wheelchair watching the world goes by.

FJ slaps. MH babbles. RB sings the Lord’s Prayer in German all day, every day. MA screams and moans, for she gets upset just from being awake. She lies in her bed or in her reclining wheelchair in a contracted fetal position all day.

JW is A&O x3 (alert and oriented to time, place, and events). He, like many of these folks, is a WWII vet, and often tells me about life in America as a soldier, a husband, a father and as an old man. He also has some really good dirty jokes. And funny observations: one day he told me that the incontinence pads we change for him reminded him of a cheap hotel-“…no ballroom.” So why is he here at DHC? Due to a bad course of diabetes, he had to have his right leg amputated below the knee. He’s able to cath himself when he needs to void, but has to roll from one side of his bed to the other as someone else helps him with his bowel movements. He’s uncomfortable talking about it and having to have someone else take care of it for him.

To be continued.

The best of nurse lists

2005-03-27T14:55:00.000-06:00

I have gove over several of those "you might be a nurse if..." lists and came up with my faves, did a bit of cutting-n-pasting in the attempt to lighten things up.

You Might Be a Nurse If...

You believe that not all patients are annoying....Some are dead.

You believe all bleeding stops....eventually.

You believe every waiting room should have a valium salt lick.

You have your weekends off planned a year in advance.

You have ever had a patient control his seizures when offered some food.

The hems of your scrub pants are held in with 3-0 chromic

You believe that every patient needs a little TLC (thorazine, lorazepam, compazine)

You make dinner plans while performing gastric lavage

You believe the lab should have a "dumb shit" profile on the requisition form.

What a crock of shit this is:

2005-03-27T12:32:00.000-06:00

I have a lot of really sarcastic thoughts on this, but will digress. For now.

I actually got this in my Yahell account. Normally, I spam stuff from people/sources I don't recognize...but the title of this email was "Eliminate debt the Christian Way", so I couldn't resist the potential of a good laugh.

Bad beds

2005-03-26T09:57:00.000-06:00

Thanks to Dom at Network 54's CNA forum for bringing this to my attention:

Vail Products' beds have trapped, killed patients

I wonder if managed care orgs chose to cover these. That would explain a lot.

The NRA finally responds...

2005-03-26T08:54:00.000-06:00

Most of us know of the latest shooting rampage that took place in a high school in Red Lake, Minnesota several days ago. As usual, there were several different versions of Jeff Weis' personal profile; shock at how the kid would ever do such a thing, commentary about how the kid was known for depression, etc. They didn't, however, say as to whether or not he was a member of the Trenchcoat Mafia.

And of course, you wouldn't know anything about this if the media didn't need something new to pounce on to test how stupid people are.

I'm assuming that many of us saw Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine, where Moore attempted to put a smear on the gun issue.

School shootings like this puts uncomfortable issues on the table that no one can really ignore. Littleton, CO. was shocked and dismayed by their shooting, a frightening aspect of how America's attitude towards violence has become commonplace.

But on the other side of the coin are guns. One of the main ideas behind the Second Amendment was to allow citizens to protect themselves from our own government when it choses to do away with posse comitatus.

Self-proclaimed protector of the 2nd Amendment Charlton Heston made sure that Moore knew very well that he (Heston) had a right to carry a gun even though his house in southern California has more security than Ft. Knox. And to make this point clear to the citizens of Colorado (and the nation), Heston held a rally on behalf of the NRA without mentioning that the shooting at Columbine was a disaster tied to our much love of violence.

Unfortunately, I am tied-up about the gun issue: these last few years have taught me just how dangerous the federal government can be when they want to take away your liberties (and I'm not talking just about semi-automatic weapons here...I'm talking about "Free-speech zones") on behalf of some bullshit premise of "...national security."

And Heston was pretty proud of his Colorado rally: he got the "gun nuts" all fired up and he acted as though Columbine wasn't a thought in his mind. That's the non-response.

NOW they respond. Try to reason as to whether or not it is a completely stupid idea, or the only one that may be a viable solution.

As for the repubs with guns that still claim that "the Left" is trying to take away their weapons, I remind them of the BFEE's tracking of gun owners with the same methods of information retrival brought about by every presidential administration since the begining of J. Edgar Hoover's FBI.

Pay attention, Pugs...someone is watching you....and it isin't that "adulterer, Bill Clinton."

This just in...

Bush praises slain Minn. security guard

Bush said he and the first lady are praying for the victims and that the federal government is helping the community.

Oh yeah, this REALLY helps the situation, not. Fucking retards.

Scott Peterson has "gots to pay"

2005-03-22T04:55:00.000-06:00

I have been under the illusion that because the only U.S. media I have allowed myself to be exposed to is PBS, that somehow I am an informed American. Well, when I'm wrong I must admit it: I was full of shit; even Jim Lehrer spoke one word too many on the judicial circus of Scott Peterson. When you work in a skilled-nursing facility who's residents eat, sleep, and watch TV all day, it is near impossible NOT to see that every media whore has jumped on the Scott Peterson trial like rabid wolves...All day, everyday. I have seen various snips on Fox, CNN, MSNBC, CourtTV, etc., ad nauseum.

Peterson is like the tsunami and Terry Schavio: fodder for the elite's war on maintaining control of their status, the prime weapon being the media. And it has been doing a bang-up job in keeping the average American stupid, misinformed and compliant.

I was under the impression that a "...Trial by a jury of one's peers" meant that twelve people, not 250 million, decided the guilt of the accused. In the case of Peterson, every fat-assed white Christian housewife has been keeping up on the trial like it was a mission to Jupiter...All day, everyday. The element of a murdered white woman with an unborn baby had the likes of Rupert Murdoch soaking their skivies. Our laws were not enacted with Fox and CNN in mind, obviously-the whole idea of "public trial" being that the average citizen could sit in the gallery of the courtroom. The average citizen has been replaced with television cameras.

As for the foreign media? Forget it. The Guardian jumped on this bandwagon, too.

Technically, the defense attorney could argue that Peterson didn't get a fair trial because finding twelve people that haven't heard about the Laci and Scott Peterson ordeal was like finding a needle in a haystack. A tainted jury has prosecutors doing high-fives over fifths of scotch when the day is done-their job has been made a lot easier when the whole nation is outraged over despicable crimes like this. This sort of fiasco also creates political futures for everyone involved. Crime doesn't pay, being a shill for the Man does. And don't be surprised if even Peterson's defense team start filling the bookshelves at Barnes & Noble.

By the way, the media whores aren't finished with fueling the fires of outrage over Scott Peterson: according to this piece of crap from yesterday's NY post, Peterson has a lot of ass-rape and attempts at his life from sharpened toothbrushes to look forward to.

Scott Peterson, get ready to pay.

"As for killing his wife, that's his business but for killing that child, well, he gots to suffer for that."

So says a fellow death-row inmate at Peterson's new home California's San Quentin State Prison who in an exclusive letter to The Post conveyed words of warning for his new neighbor.

If and when Peterson is not in protective custody, says convicted killer Ricardo "Richie" Roldan, "he'll be a paycheck canteen punk to some crew."

Other than keeping Joe and Tina Six-pack's attention away from other important issues (e.g., Iraq) , someone explain to me why the hell the Post felt the need to put this out.

Peterson deserves to spend the rest of his life in a 10x12 cell to sit and ponder in the dark night as to whether or not he's got a soul. He doesn't deserve to breathe the same air that you and I do. The people deserve justice as it was meant to be administrated: by a non-biased jury. Our judicial system has become subject to public approval and scrutiny via mass-media which pretty much signs off the accused as guilty before he or she faces a preliminary trial. It begins with people like OJ and Scott Peterson, and it grows into the prosecution of those who are deemed as "enemies of the State."

Ring a bell? In the U.S. it was "innocent till proven guilty," in the Soviet Union it was "guilty till proven innocent." At this rate, Ann Coulter will be doing lap-dances with the spirit of Joe McCarthy after all.

Today in Rotten History

2005-03-21T20:49:00.000-06:00

Mar 21 1843

According to Biblical crackpot William Miller, Christ would return sometime in the year following this day in 1843. After Jesus failed to appear by the next March, Miller claimed it was the result of an arithmetic error and recalculated the deadline to be October 22, 1844. The Lord was AWOL on that date also.

"Religion is a crutch for weak-minded people"
-Jesse Ventura

Sex, sex, sex

2005-03-20T16:58:00.000-06:00

When I was a kid, it was rather simple: You'd smoke a few bowls during school hours with some friends and after a couple of hours and a couple of boxes of Oreos, some of us would engage in sexual intercourse. No big deal, no attachments other than best friends. Just friends having casual sex. Taking lessons from our Boomer parents: Generation X at it's finest.

I grew up in the 80's, about the time that fucking was becoming a crime against neo-con king and country-i.e., The Ronald Reagan administration.

This is when sex ed was forbidden. Therefore, Duane's little sister Wanda, or our RHPS-fan Lisa, or Trish and I knew nothing of STD's. This was a time when the Gipper and the rest of the ImmoralMajority ignored the AIDS epidemic as it reached record proportions in the U.S. Condoms? Whattsat? Who needs 'em? "Only fags get AIDS, and they deserve it..." so says our fearless right-wing leaders.

So, yes, we were pretty ignorant of sex and it's consequences. Just following the Boomer's "If it feels good, just do it" mantra...and man, it felt good. Even though the Boomers were starting to sound like their parents, we still did our thing. It was childhood curiosity. It was the id telling our parents "....you are too damned old, mind your business and get your fat ass on the treadmill."

Once again, the right-wing mental defectives promised to get government "off our backs" but failed to mention (or Joe Six-pack wasn't paying attention) to the fact that they were going everywhere else: our bedrooms, our choice of music, our favorite movies and most of all, our libraries. Sound familiar? It's being revived as we speak: It's the Neo-con Love-Fest brought to you by George W. Bush.

"Well, it's not the government's responsibility to tell you how to do the right thing." Yeah, then explain the necessity of the HHS (U.S. Health and Human Services).

It's a sad thing for parents and government to let their kids go ignorant about sex and it's consequences; instead of information, they recieve condemation after the fact. "You should have known better."

Yeah? How?

But then, we have Jesus, don't we? Well, sex-ed is something for those future crack-mothers in public schools who are not saved.

Jesus saves those who abstain from sex until marriage. Think pure thoughts. It really works! And maybe John Q. Redneck won't beat the shit out of his kid for downloading porn on the internet.

On edit: Just a hour ago, the last two links outlining the failure of the GOP's "Abstinence Only" program worked. Now they don't. Go figure.

Scrubs for guys suck

2005-03-17T18:28:00.000-06:00

Everytime I go to Lee's Uniform Center, I am reminded of how the selection of stuff for men is really lifeless and crappy.

All scrubs made specifically for men are solid colors only. I have only two: Ciel and Dark Navy Blue. Ciel is that light powder-blue that is actually unisex, but my guess is that the color itself is what Cherokee had in mind when it came to us.

So I have only two colors. I get to mix or match only two colors. Woo-hoo. Or one of the two in pants and I can wear a dark blue or white DHC tee-shirt...the one that says "T.E.A.M-Together Everyone Accomplishes More" opposite of the DHC logo. Yank-yank.

Other colors? Dark red. Dark teal green. Black-yeah, they actually make black scrubs. Who the hell would want to wear black at a medical facility? It's the traditional color of funeral parlor attendants, fer chrissakes.

White? No one wears white anymore...not unless you are a lab-tech, you are in clinicals or don't have direct patient contact. Believe me, dark navy blue hides blood, urine, and stool long enough till you can get down to the locker room and put on a new pair.

What do the ladies have? Pink, purple, light red, and most of all, designs. Hearts, flowers, Dr. Seuss, SpongeBob Squarepants, Chilly Willy, etc., etc.

Why don't they have designs for guys? Something like NASCAR scrubs. I wouldn't buy it myself, for that isin't my kind of thing, nor would a set of scrubs with Pamela Anderson posing on a beach half-naked (gimme a break, I'm happily married).

Or something appropo to region: In the case of upper-Wisconsin, blaze orange...for the guy who would rather be out in the wild aiming high-powered rifles at furry creatures than dispensing care at their facility. The problem is, there are blaze orange scrubs: they all have "DEPT. OF CORRECTIONS" printed on the back.

How about geometric shapes? Maybe tie-dyed. Or maybe a set of scrubs that shows monster 4x4 trucks running over Saddam Hussein. Cammo sounds like a guy thing, too.

Hey, here's an idea that'll get their attention: Marilyn Monroe...for the Hollywood of the 50's nostalgia. Or Marilyn Manson, for the truly obnoxious. Yeah, that would go over real well with facility administrators...it might be pretty cool for psych nursing, though (COUGH).

Imagine being woken in the middle of the night by a male nurse with Rolling Stones lips scrubs...but that might make some patients uncomfortbale-especially when he's there for reason other than vitals and med passing.

Hey-here's a great idea: Anatomy. I'm thinking along the lines of those drawings you find in books like Gray's Anatomy-that look like pencil and charcoal drawn artwork. That would be pretty cool for PA's: "Well, Jim, right here is where the surgeon is going to cut into you with a stainless steel saw blade..."

Ah, well. You can't win them all. You have to look bland, I guess.

Why I have the Kinsey Institute link in Sonic Nurse

2005-03-17T15:40:00.000-06:00

Because of the man's great works. And because to this day, he pisses-off the religious Right. Long before there was Marilyn Manson, there was Alfred Kinsey.

The big issue today of course, is gay marriage. The Bush neo-cons hate it for the simple fact that two people who happen to love each other and wish for marital bliss is an "abomination" because the two people are of the same sex. They stand on a platform of hot air claiming to be the defenders of morality when in fact is rabid wolves make better dinnertime comapnions than these people do.

Some conservative groups including RSVPAmerica, headed by Dr Judith A. Reisman, and the Family Research Council have stated that they aim to discredit the Kinsey Reports. These groups often accuse Kinsey's work of promoting unhealthy sexual practices or mores.

RSVPAmerica advertises publications such as Kinsey: Crimes & Consequences and Kinsey, Sex and Fraud: The Indoctrination of a People, both by Reisman, and the video "The Children of Table 34", funded by the Family Research Council. The campaign website states that the video "presents the story of Dr. Reisman's discovery of Dr. Alfred Kinsey's systematic sexual abuse of 317 male children".

Libertarians, uncomfortably, don't like the administration's plan of attack on gay marriage because what goes on in the bedroom is no-one's business---especially the federal government's. However, they breathe a sigh of relief when the topic is changed to the latest sale of .50 rifle ammo at Wal-Mart.

In 1948, the Kinsey report estimated that that one in every ten American men was homosexual and that one-third of American men and one-eighth of American women had had homosexual experiences to the point of orgasm at least once in their lives.

Craig, G. (2000). Human Development.
Upper Saddle River, NJ. : Prentice-Hall.

Wow. Holy Jumpin' Jesus. Imagine that. A whole third of Joe Six-Packs have blown a wad over another Joe Six-Pack. No wonder the Right wants to put Kinsey on the chopping-block: his theories make the RW polis get pre-seminal to the point they have to bomb nations of brown people to rid themselves of such unholy thoughts.

Maybe Erik Erikson was a rupub in the making. Freud postulated that the human mind and human psychology is a lot closer to primitive instincts (id, ego, superego). Erikson's eight "psychosocial stages" disected the shit out of Freud's psychoanalytic theory and cleansed it: How someone can go from "Trust versus mistrust" to "Integrity versus depair" without once mentioning how easy it is to pop a woody thinking about someone else (homo and hetero) is beyond me.

Anyway, Kinsey's studies ( and folks like Masters and Johnson) in human sexuality is what keeps us informed in what we are all about. Pyschology and medicine would be lost without it.

Were Kinsey and Freud dead-on-target about all of their research? No, of course not. But they built the foundation that people continue to use today in formulating their own studies on human sexuality and development.

Better to be "evil" than stupid.

2005-03-16T14:19:00.000-06:00

BW d/c'd @ 745.

Feel like I've been punched in the stomach.

Quote of the day

2005-03-16T05:05:00.000-06:00

"Syria must get out, and Lebanon must have unfettered elections, then Hezbollah must disarm. ... There is no place for an armed militia in a democratic society."
-George W. Bush

BW hitting the wall

2005-03-15T17:46:00.000-06:00

BW is a guy who was very anxious to get up out of his wheelchair or his bed every morning to rummage through his belongings, and sometimes someone else's. I would know what the ol' guy is up to, he would set off his pressure alarm every time he wanted to go exploring.

He would go up to Julie, my unit manager and grab her arm and kiss it from fingertips to antecubital while she was sitting at the nursing station charting. He's probably got her blushing and she remarks how flattered she is, what a great way to start out her day. BW thinks her name is Shirley, his wife thinks the whole thing is cute. And it is. One time Flo (his Mrs.) found Julie's gloves wrapped up in a towel in his dresser drawers. She returned them to her with a laugh.

Today, Flo signed orders for CCM (comfort care measures). For those that don't know exactly what CCM means, it's basically means that the person assigned this is going to die. Very soon. It is sort of like DNR, which means "do not recessutate" the infamous check out tag that you or your medical POA signs in the event that keeping you alive is wishful thinking.

Late last week BW was the laughing, goofy character he always has been. By friday, that had all changed: He was lethargic, breathing heavily, unresponsive. Now, when we position him on his side, use the Hoyer-what have you-he responds in terror.

What I always wonder: Do these folks know they are going to be dead soon? I have had a few deaths in my time at DHC, and everytime I ponder this. Some of them were agressive, angry folks who I feel knew it was coming.

I thought Cliff was a grumpy ol' coot until I remembered the distinct possibility that he knew it was coming. Then I also remembered a part in my developmental psych textbook that stated that "Grumpy old people were grumpy young people." Folks don't get grumpy because they get old. I figure some of the folks I have taken care of were totally different at one point in their lives. In the case of Cliff, OS, and DM, they were in pain every waking moment...for what sleep they could actually get.

Well, I'm pretty sure BW will be gone by this friday. It's bummin' me out big time, because the place won't be the same without him.

The Million Dollar Question:

2005-03-13T16:50:00.000-06:00

Q: What's the difference between the people of the former Soviet Union and Today's all-American Joe Six Pack?

A: The people of the Soviet Union knew they were being fed propaganda.

"We'll go through Iran"

2005-03-12T11:37:00.000-06:00

Once again, the Onion does justice to the true intentions of the GOPranos. In "Bush Announces Exit Strategy: 'We'll Go Through Iran'" piece brings about thoughts of how the U.S. insisted on going through Laos and Cambodia to pull out of Vietnam.

Okay, now for some dark reality. Click this with a cup coffee and a prayer left for the human race.

Playing Mr. God

2005-03-12T11:02:00.000-06:00

For those of you who haven't heard of Joel McNally, check him out: He used to write for the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel (or as some call it "The Milwaukee Urinal"). He has since been a regular columnist at the Shepherd-Express, an alternative newspaper. Below is a clip from his most recent piece:

Playing Mr. God
By Joel McNally

We all have a right to follow our own religious or moral beliefs in our daily lives. That’s part of being a good person.
But there’s nothing religious, moral or even particularly good about claiming to be gods ourselves and trying to impose our own personal beliefs on everybody else. That’s the height of human arrogance.

That’s why it’s a complete misnomer to say that a pharmacist who refuses to provide health care is following his conscience.
Conscientious pharmacists do not jeopardize the health needs of patients. They do not refuse to do their job of dispensing legitimately prescribed drugs.

If there are pharmacists whose personal religious beliefs forbid providing medication to heal sickness and preserve health, they’ve made a very bad career choice.

It’s not only bad for them; it’s bad for those unfortunate patients who find themselves at the mercy of these self-appointed gods.

That’s why an administrative law judge for the State Department of Regulation and Licensing properly recommended discipline for a pharmacist who refused to dispense birth control pills to a coed at the University of Wisconsin-Stout.

After grilling the student about whether she intended to use the pills for contraception—duh!—the pharmacist not only refused to fill a doctor’s prescription, but also refused to transfer the prescription to another pharmacy where it could be filled by a conscientious pharmacist.

The administrative law judge recommended that the pharmacist, Neil Noesen, be reprimanded for violating the code of ethics for pharmacists and spend six hours in ethics education.

The pharmacist also would be required to provide written notice to any employer specifying any medications he would refuse to dispense and what steps he would take to assure that patients who needed those medications would still be able to receive them.

The idea of requiring someone who wraps himself in religion to study ethics is a great one. Much of the political confusion in this country about what constitutes moral values would be cleared up with a little ethical education for those who claim to be religious.

Much of the death, destruction and tragedy that has rained down upon the world in the name of religion is the result of the simple inability of some who zealously embrace religion to understand the beautiful poetry and metaphors in what is properly called The Good Book.<<<

More...click HERE.