Don't we all hate change. Daylight savings time, falling back and springing forward, creates a major disruption in our lives. And it is just adjusting the clock one hour! Our family is going through some big changes.
Michael and Neil have moved into their own apartment. Liberation day! -for them and us. Yet it is also a time for reflection, the passing of the years, boys growing into men. Teresa and I growing into senior citizens (I am 55 now and can get the Sr. menu at Bob Evan's). The river of time moves on and no one can slow it down or make it reverse. One can become sad or melancholy with such thoughts. The past year has been exhausting-moving south, getting DBS surgery, moving back to Terre Haute. So now it is time for a change.
Some New year's resolutions early:
1. Pray more. If there were but one thing I could do better, it would be this. "For prayer is nothing else than being on terms of friendship with God." by Saint Teresa of Avila
2. Exercise more. Daily walks, running, lifting weights. All are good for the soul as well as the body. “Saying is one thing and doing is another”
―
Michel de Montaigne
3. Minimize my life. Throw away, give away, or sell all that I have not used in the past year. I live with too much baggage.
"He who will not economize will have to agonize." by Confucius
4. Read more. Read everything, especially books printed before 1900.
"Don't
join the book burners. Don't think you're going to conceal faults by
concealing evidence that they ever existed. Don't be afraid to go in
your library and read every book..."by Dwight D. Eisenhower
5. Be of good cheer. There is something about an optimistic, upbeat person that the world can not defeat. We are made in God's own image and likeness, so act like it.
“The finest souls are those that have the most variety and suppleness.”
―
Michel de Montaigne
Finally, I will try to write more, so here goes.
A Love Story
A little girl, one of many to be sure, whose green eyes glowed, filled by the light of a lovely love, precious and pure, desiring his presence, to be in his sight.
Unseen, she waited night and day. Unbid, she polished his shoes with care. Unnoticed, time spent with him is her pay. The daughter gives wholly with nothing to spare.
His demons called louder than the cry of the child; his attention diverted and consumed. And deeply hurt, the little girl wonders why? I must be bad or worthless, she presumed.
Family life was life without rule except for the law of the jumgle, survival of the fittest, pitted brother, sister, and mother, neighbors and school. The green-eyed girl didn't realize Dad was the sickest.
A woman now with the passage of time and her Dad's rehab fresh on her mind, forgets the pit from which the family had to climb, sees her Dad now as giving and kind.
Name it, call it what it is, "Be not afraid". She can't heal it without knowing its name. Broken and "hole-y", she needs more than first aid. Ask the Great Physician, he heals and loves all the same.
The green-eyed girl is a child of God and worthy, A unique individual; with gifts and talents, made to love and to be loved. A vocation for all God's family
In surrender and acceptance, she comes to see that it all fits like a hand in a glove.
We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give.Sir Winston Churchill
Since retiring from active duty and the practice of dentistry four years ago, I have been at loose ends. Yes, I know I have Parkinson's Disease but I have worked at a job since I was 14 years old. Many different occupations took up my days: student, dental assistant, shipyard fitter's helper, teamster dock worker, warehouse manger for a sporting goods company, college student, dental student, Army dentist, private practice dentist, correctional dentist, and Public Health Service dentist. I always worked to earn my keep and my family's.
The past four years have been an adventure in self-discovery. The road has led to the depths of perdition and to the heights of glory. At these glorious heights on which I now stand, I have come to accept my situation. My worth is not determined by my paycheck, the number of patients I treat, or having a job, a place that requires me to be there each day. Henry David Thoreau said, "But men labor under a mistake. The better part of the man is soon plowed into the soil for compost. By a seeming fate, commonly called necessity, they are employed, as it says in an old book, laying up treasures which moth and rust will corrupt and thieves break through and steal. It is a fool's life, as they will find when they get to the end of it, if not before." For what did I labor so hard and so long? Did I truly enjoy the pleasant experience of entering a maximum security prison each day, walk the deck of ship so hot that wooden sandels would have to be strapped onto my work boots just to keep my feet from being burned, or being called at 1130 pm to be at work at midnight at the truck line?
I think back on my life and recall those halcyon days of my youth. Care-free, long-lasting days that stretched out before me with limitless possibility. In those days, I was busy from sun-up to sundown and yet nothing seemed like work. Not that I did not have chores to do. But one could scarcely call them work. I played, rode in the back of pick-up trucks, went fishing, and attended school. It was a joyous, special time in my life in which I felt the ineffable possibilities of the world. This is my epiphany, that an idyllic existence suffused with the freedom of just being and of the possibilities of life. From the depths, I am at a zenith looking out on the future. The road will not be easy, often nebulous and desultory. Yet the evocative nature of the call to be, to live, to experience will carry me and lift me.
All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind.Aristotle.
So I now am busy with life, trying new things, taking a nap if I need one, and laughing again. I carve wood, paint with watercolors and acrylics, still love fishing. When you see me sitting in the shade, being still, know that I am having the time of my life.
Take everything you like seriously, except yourselves.Rudyard Kipling.
Protests. Huh. The far-out left is trying to provoke violence by "occupying Wall St." and creating a genenral nuisance by disturbing a nice neighborhood's peace and clean air standards. Many of the unwashed, putrifying protestors are having a drug-induced holiday during the beautiful October weather. I believe that it's Mayor Bloomberg's strategy to wait them out for the cold rains of November are not far off. I think America should do what it's doing and continue to ignore these protests. They will go away.
Even worse than their smell is the total lack of knowledge displayed by the "protestors". Nary a one could comment on Dodd-Frank and its implications for finance. Most were well-educated having graduated college, yet unversed in history, economics, and politics.
The most absurd piece of news was the guy who claimed Cuba had a far better medical system and that their citizens were better off for it. He obviously has watched too many Michael Moore movies, Sicko comes to mind. So does Al Sharpton, with his Marxist views, encouraging blacks to "join the Revolution".
Yes, join the revolution. Not the Marxist, liberal one; not the stoner out-of touch with reality revolt. Join the tea party revolt. Embrace American ideals and values as set forth by the founders. As history has shown Ronald Reagan said it best:
My hiatus has ended. My return to blogging is due to my recent upturn in health. Having brain surgery can do that. My new birthday is April 26, 2011, the day that I had DBS (deep brain stimulation) surgery at the VA Medical Center, San Francisco. It has changed my life.
To recap, I have YOPD (young onset parkinson's disease) which began in 2002. I worked until 2007 when the difficulties made it impossible to do my job. After 4 years in retirement, my condition had deteriorated dramatically. I was taking such high levels of Sinemet that I began to experience the awful side effect of dyskinesia. Walking more than a few steps was impossible. I used the electric cart at places like Wal-mart. And so, I looked into DBS.
2 weeks post-op with holes on forehead
DBS is no small thing like getting a haircut or having an in-grown toe nail removed. My surgery lasted about 12 hours from start to finish. At the hospital for 6 am, went into the OR area at 7 am for the cage to be screwed into my head (i was asleep for most of that), had a pre-op CAT scan, and probably around 830 am was finally wheeled into the OR. I awoke during the surgery, held in place by the head cage bolted to the table, to the doctor talking to me as he maneuvered a sensing electrode which beeped as he passed different neurons. When he had finally (about 2 hours later) decided it was the correct location, he placed the permanent electrode. That was my left side. Then, while fully awake, he drilled the hole for the right side into my skull. This may vibrate a little was the understatement of the year. Then they did the same thing with placing the electrode only it didn't take quite as long as they had the measurement from the left side as a guide (maybe 1.5 hours). I then blissfully went back to sleep while ran the wires under my scalp, behind my right ear and down to my chest where they connected it to surgically implanted battery (like a pacemaker) in my right chest wall.
A few more behind my ear
71 staples across my head
and 12 more in my chest
I awoke a new man. For a week, I needed a minimum meds, didn't tremor, felt great. I could walk again. Granted I had 71 staples in the main incision, 30 more in the other sites but who cares. It is now 6 months post-surgery. I feel great, except for needing a nap in the afternoon. The battery pack comes with a programmer that you use to set the current for the electrodes. My left side of my brain (the right side of my body) is the worst and requires 5.0 volts, the right 2.0 volts.
This has been nothing short of a miracle for me. Being able to run, go for walks, work in the yard, think about other things than Parkinson's disease is a reversal in time. And yet, it's not. For now those long walks on the beach, working hard, no pain or tremor mean something more to me. I have been renewed.
I still have PD and for now always will. But thanks to the doctors and nurses at the VAMC San Francisco, I have been given 10 years back. Back to the future!
Gary Coleman,child star of Different Strokes, is dead. The story is here. We'll long remember his signature line, much like Harry Karay"'s, "Cubs win!" and "I'll drink to that" or Jimmie Walker's "Dyn-O-mite!". Gary, no relation to the outdoors Colemans, will be missed. Enjoy some of his more memorable moments:
What you talkin' 'bout Gary? St. Peter is in for a interesting day.
Sleeping dog at her master's feet,
oblivious to cares, her life complete.
What more could she need?
Her master is the one to take heed.
A dog can be a companion for life,
or so says my lovely wife.
A life of leisure, the run of the house,
I speak of my dog, not my spouse.
When she comes to nap, her pad on the floor,
moving in circles, tail hitting the door.
She paws and scratches the pad on the ground,
in spiraling circles, round and round.
Somehow she knows when it's just right
Curls up on her bed, snug and tight.
I watch this ritual of preparing the bed,
instinctively done 'ere she lays down her head.
With her, by the foot of my easy chair,
I sometimes nod off, a nap to share.
She snores, sighs deeply, seeming to talk,
deep in dreams, reliving her favorite walk.
Barely disturbed, if on her sleep I intrude,
voicing cares and concerns, seeking solutions that elude.
She offers no trite or unwanted advice,
a companion who listens is rare and nice.
"A dog is Man's best friend" ,said my old Grandpa.
And she peers at me intently, her chin on her paw.
She teaches me, with her puppy dog stare,
that to be a friend, a companion, one has only to be there.
Friends don't complain, criticize, or compare
to others about failings, fears, and feelings you share.
My dog for one, understands the essence,
friends are meant to be a reliable presence.
This title is not a bait and switch, but represents a stunning affirmation of the Constitutional limits of the Federal government. The decision, made by the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, is remarkable on two counts.
First, it limits the regulatory power of a federal agency. The FCC, under the guise of "net neutrality", would expand to control Internet Service Providers (ISP) and their management of their company's business.
Second, the decision was rendered by the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia! Unless I''m mistaken, it's located inside the Beltway. I wonder how the left is going to blame this on George W.
Mike Brownfield writes about the details on Heritage.org's blog, The Foundry. To paraphrase Neil Armstrong, this is one small step for Comcast, one giant leap for the Constitution.
Pres. Obama's Homeland Secretary Janet Napolitano created a "newspeak" (see Orwell's 1984) changing the vocabulary of the department. The term global war on terror is now called overseas contingency operations. Acts of terrorism are "man-made disasters".
This has been a busy week dealing with "man-made disasters" within the continental U.S. The unsung heroes of the FBI, through a sting operation, arrested 4 Muslims in New York after they bought what they thought was plastic explosives and a Stinger missile from undercover agents. The would-be terrorists planted explosives at several Jewish synagogues and then moved on to shoot down an Air National Guard aircraft. By the way, 3 of the 4 converted to Islam while in an American Prison.
In Little Rock, Arkansas. a Muslim convert who trained in Yemen killed Pvt. William Andrew Long, US Army, outside the Army recruiting office. Pvt. Long had just returned from Basic Training and was assisting the local recruiter before moving on to his advanced training, much as my 2 sons had done. The terrorist was promptly arrested and had plans to attack other recruiting stations, a child-care center, synagouges, and churches. The country's prayers go to Pvt. Long's family for their horrific loss.
Also last Sunday, Dr. George Tiller of Wichita, KS, was gunned down in his Lutheran church by a nut-case. Tiller was the controversial abortionist who routinely performed late term abortions and partial birth abortions making him the focus of many pro-life protests. The maniac who killed him is no better than Tiller, violating the 5th commandment and the sanctity of life. Tiller's murderer denied him the opportunity of repentance, in the way Jane Roe of Roe v. Wade has and is now staunchly pro-life.
Three acts of terrorism and murder/attempted murder in our country. The interesting observation is Pres. Obama's reaction to them. After Tiller's murder, Obama offered his condolences to the Tiller family and ordered US Marshall's Service agents to provide protection and security to abortion clinics nationwide. As of this writing, Obama has not issued a statement to Pvt. Long's family nor ordered US Marshalls to protect recruiting facilities. And he's the Commander-in-Chief? More like the Abortionist-in-Chief!
This week while the Long family grieved their loss to radical Islamic terrorism, Barak Hussein Obama explained to the Muslims of the world that America is the nation with the largest Muslim population of 7 million. He explained that they need to understand America's Muslim heritage and our recognition of Islam's contributions to civilization. Aaron Klein reported on WorldNetDaily.com, "The number of Muslims in the U.S. would make America "one of the largest Muslim countries in the world," claimed President Obama in an interview released last night.
His assertion, which is factually inaccurate, comes one day before he is set to deliver a much-anticipated address to the Muslim world from Cairo, Egypt.
Teasing the speech with the French television network Canal Plus, Obama commented.
"Now, the flip side is I think that the United States and the West generally, we have to educate ourselves more effectively on Islam. And one of the points I want to make is, is that if you actually took the number of Muslims Americans, we'd be one of the largest Muslim countries in the world. And so there's got to be a better dialogue and a better understanding between the two peoples."
He continued that his Muslim outreach aims to establish "better dialogue" so the Muslim world understands more effectively "how the U.S. but also how the West thinks about many of these difficult issues like terrorism, like democracy, to discuss the framework for what's happened in Iraq and Afghanistan and our outreach to Iran, and also how we view the prospects for peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians."
As the Weekly Standard points out, Obama's claim American Muslims could make the U.S. one of the largest Islamic countries is not demographically true. The most generous estimates put America's Muslim population at about 8 million, which would barely place the U.S. in the top 42 Muslim countries."
Barak Hussein Obama showed himself this week for what he truly is, a Muslim-schooled, secular humanist Marxist. Note that he has not attended church since entering the White House, yet takes Michelle on a date to NYC thereby negating the argument of security issues for attending church. He did not attend the National Prayer Breakfast. On his apology tour of the Mideast this week, he issued one ultimatum. Not to an Islamic country sponsoring terrorism or trying to obtain nuclear weapons, but warning Israel not to build more settlements.
The defintion of fascism is state-control of privately owned industry through regulation, policy, fiat, and coercion. Obama's government controls the financial industry, the automotive industry, and has its sights set on energy and healthcare. We are far along the path to fascism and most Americans don't realize it. As long as Americans keep their heads stuck in their computer screens, iPods, Wii's, and don't seek to educate themselves, we are doomed to the loss of personal freedoms our forefathers enjoyed. You see, the fascist relies on human weakness and using human nature to blame others for our failures which the fascist will "fix" for us. In return, we give up a piece of ourselves as the government assumes responsibilities for us that God intended for each person.
Fascism is a type of socialism. In socialism, there is no pretense of private business because the government controls the industries, that is, the means of production. It doesn't work. Check the ashbin of history and you'll find the USSR, Fascist Spain, Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, and Castro's Cuba. Winston Churchill said, "Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery."
This is not the American experience that Pvt. Long volunteered to defend. It is the antithesis of what the founding fathers had in mind, for what Pvt. Long paid the ultimate sacrifice. Instead let us return to what William J. H. Boethner wrote in 1916,
"You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot help small men by tearing down big men. You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer. You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatreds. You cannot establish security on borrowed money. You cannot build character and courage by taking away a man's initiative and independence. You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves."
Monday, May 18, 2009
There's a new Captain in the H-o-u-s-e-e-e!! (or in the Heezy as our President says). Who would have thought that the officer I voted most likely to be the recipient of an EEO filing would survive to make O6?
CAPT (P) R. Douglas Shepherd will put on his 4th bar 1 July 2009. Unbelievable! There is some justice in the world, some spark of sanity. The PHS's most decorated junior officer is now its newest senior officer. Mary, let the planning begin - for his big pay raise.
The hardest working dental officer in the Corps who still manages to have fun has reached a huge milestone. Doug is the kind of person who, while still in dental school and doing a summer internship at FCI Ashland, hit the Chief Dental Officer in the face with a birthday cake. Yet despite the antics, he has always been the highest producing dentist at his facility.
Congratulations on a well-deserved promotion!
PS to Doug: Hope this was good enough. Make the check out to Teresa - I make the money, she spends it.
Remember this name: Mary Ann Glendon. To learn why, watch:
Ambassador Glendon is a model of faith in action. Her adherence to her moral values and beliefs led to her declination of this year's prestigious honor from Notre Dame University, arguably the world's best known Catholic University. No doubt her name is now on the Homeland Security watchlist of "right-wing extremists" who oppose abortion on demand.
Ronald Reagan said, "Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children what it was once like in the United States where men were free."
Abolitionists knew enslavement of another person was wrong. Their struggle continued through the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and integration of society. Is there irony when we finally elect an African-American President that his first act in office was to eliminate the ban on federal funding of abortion? Abolition is so alphabetically close to abortion and yet the abolitionist is as far away from the abortionist as A is to Z.
A world leader who brought his country out of financial catastrophe and restored the people's sense of pride and self-worth once said, "What luck for rulers that men do not think." The ruler was Adolph Hitler. The citizens of America must remove the iPod ear buds, turn off the Playstation and Wii, and skip the tanning beds to spend some time learning and thinking about the future of America and their lives.
To my thinking, the awarding of Barak Obama an honorary degree in light of his purposeful, deliberate leadership in what Pope John Paul II called the culture of death by a Catholic university like Notre Dame is anathema to church teaching, the moral obligation of Catholic educators, and the natural law etched within all of God's creation. It requires only a modicum of "common sense" to see the fallacy of the abortionist's arguement. Each one of us was a fetus and consider ourselves human. President Reagan said it best, "Abortion is advocated only by persons who have themselves been born."
Thomas Paine, author of Common Sense, wrote a series of essays collected under the appellation, The Crisis. As White House Chief of Staff Rohm Emanuel said, "Never let a crisis go to waste.", meaning to turn any crisis to further their agenda, I agree. The pre-eminient Catholic University in the US honoring a man who facilitates and promotes the deaths of thousands, no, millions of babies worldwide is a crisis of faith, morality and ethics. Paine wrote on December 23, 1776: THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.
My Sons
I must be strong for my sons. "For blessed are you who suffer for my sake." and "Who do you say I am?" In storms that buffet and batter, take up your cross and follow me too.
"My yoke is not heavy, my burden light." "Woe to the one who leads astray the least of mine." and "Let the children come to me." So despite the might and power arrayed as an army in battle line.
Freedom is only a generation away from extinction, as Reagan said, fought for, protected and handed down. The culture of death: euthansia, eugenics, abortion is the threat to our freedom in every town.
For who of us is to say who may live or die, that is reserved for the Creator, "In God We Trust." The opposite of love is not hate, that is a lie! Indifference is its antithesis, not doing what we must.
The trumpets call, the battle met. Good must stand against evil again. Put on your armor, there is time yet. Speak out and stand to pass on freedom to our children.
I must be strong for my sons. We must be strong for our children.*
As junior Senator from Illinois, President Obama often references Abraham Lincoln. The author of the Emancipation Proclamation would be appalled at Mr. Obama's promotion of what amounts to genocide in its scope. Notre Dame University is wrong. Their decision is reflective of the endemic of moral relativism advocated by some in our society.
Ambassador Glendon is a warrior in the struggle for our soul. Rise up, learn, read, arm yourself. Then join the struggle that you may pass liberty to posterity. The struggle of the moral minority is encapsulated in the civil rights movement. Writing from the Birmingham jail in 1964, Martin Luther King, Jr shames Notre Dame's decision with these words. The church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society.
Notre Dame University is a major visible presence of the Church. It fails itself, its Church, and people by honoring the abortion proponent Barak Obama. President Lincoln wrote a dire warning to lovers of liberty, "Those who would deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, cannot long retain it." If the most vulnerable, most innocent of society are allowed to be killed, how long can we retain our freedom for common sense tells me that God is just?
Technorati Profile I must be mistaken, my eyes having deceived me. Was that June Cleaver on stage giving a speech in Denver? You could almost hear Eddie Haskill saying, "My, you look great behind that podium, Mrs. C. !" But it wasn't June, it was Michelle finally uttering those four little words, words Dick Morris calls "magic" in the NY Post today.
Michelle Obama, the educated,articulate woman that she is, delivered a good speech, basically a restatement of her husband's stump speech. She could represent the best of America. Middle-class upbringing to an Ivy League education and now possibly the First Lady.
But Michelle let her true feelings be known earlier this year. Her magic words were political expediency. Just as Barack's selection for veep was.
You can imagine Wally Cleaver asking Ward, "Geez Dad, why don't people say what they mean and stick to it?" Mr. Cleaver clenches his pipe as he thoughtfully contemplates the proper wisdom to enlighten Wally. Before Ward can begin, Beaver chimes in, "Geez, Wally, I always thought when you say one thing and then say just the opposite; well, that's a fib." It's just what the Obama campaign has become.
A senior US intelligence officer describes in detail how Iran and Hezbollah are training Iraqi Shiite's for a return to Iraq in the next few months to kill specific Iraqi officials and US and Iraqi troops. This is continued proof that Iran is a state sponsor of terror and needs to be dealt with severely. Appeasement is not the answer.
Some people would say,"let them rot and throw away the key. The inmate should have thought about potentially losing contact with family and friends before committing the crime." I feel that way too, having worked in prisons for over 23 years because some people are just evil.
However, the majority of inmates today are in prison for drug offenses. They are going to return to society. They screwed up in a bad way. Yet everyone makes mistakes. If they are able to maintain social connections on the outside, "in the world" as they say, then their transition back to freedom is smoother, they have an incentive to follow prison rules in order to have visits, and inmates with a social support system have a lower recidivism rate. All reduce the cost to society.
So you may disagree with the idea of visitation for prisoners (most wardens and correctional staff would just as soon not have it because of the work, expense, and jeopardy to the safety and security of the prison), but it is a necessary evil if not something food and humane.
Check out this site on how to anything! I am a writer for this site. You can see an article I wrote on the use and benefit of acupuncture in Parkinson's Disease. It's at http://www.ehow.com/how_4479409_benefit-acupuncture-have-parkinsons-disease.html.
The site has just about any how to directions imaginable, many with photos and video demonstrations.
Heroes These two men are heroes, that is, men who have stared fear and physical discomfort face to face and decided not to run. They are leaders who have not let physical limitation diminish their contributions to humanity. If parents of today want to enlighten their children on making a difference and of not whining like a victim but taking action, look at Michael and Muhammed. It is ironic but I wonder, would either of them be making this kind of impact if they hadn't gotten Parkinson's Disease?
Michael J. Fox wrote in his autobiography, Lucky Man, that having PD saved his life. It made him slow down and contemplate. It took him away from the Hollywood lifestyle. It lead him to say, "Medical science has proven time and again that when the resources are provided, great progress in the treatment, cure, and prevention of disease can occur." What an attitude, what a gift to people with Parkinson's!
