Lovely day ends in near disaster.

It was a nice day as far as Thursdays go.

Put the screamers on the bus, take velcrodog for a walk, hiss at sauerkraut, and then off to get some work done.

Nice day outside, sunny and not much wind.  But I spent most of a fine day inside away from the sun that had given me the look of burnt toast from the prior two days.

In the evening, it was a nice piece of bbq’d chicken (gazebo room dressing, not tomato base) accompanied by fresh cauliflower and some garlic bread.  Then it was off to the big band bash.

Dropped the teener off on time and saved a row of seats in the new auditorium.  Sat to the various bands, clapping along the way and laughing at the humor.

One song to go and I was already thinking of which ice cream place we’d stop at to treat the teener for all the effort he put into playing with the various bands he didn’t want to play with just to get a seat in the ensemble.

Then I realized something wasn’t quite right.

I leaned over to herself and muttered I am about to have a big problem.

What happened next I do not know.  What I remembered next was the ride in the buggy to the med center.

Are you diabetic?  Have you ever had this problem before?  How do you feel?  Any chest pain?  How much do you weigh?  Did you throw up?  When did this happen?  Do you mind if we insert a catheter?  Heart rate down to 30!  Let’s get that IV going!  What’s your normal heart rate?  Can you move your fingers?  Squeeze my hands, squeeze my hands!

So many questions so quickly that I became confused.  What the hell was going on?

Faces were going by.  Jim Fixx.  Bruce Ellis.  Andy Kelly.  Jim Sapienza.  Eddie Sheehan.  Runners all, felled by sudden heart events.

Stick a needle here.  Stick a needle there.  Man, I was getting needled something fierce but there was nothing humorous about it.

It’s nearly 24 hours later and I feel like shit.  But it wasn’t a heart attack or a stroke.  But that didn’t stop them from giving me more tests than britney spears has underwear.

Damn!

And I have to go back for outpatient testing!

After being home for about 3 hours, I realize that I smell like the ER.  Blech!

I’m getting a shower and going to bed.

 

 

 

Former Foster Child, now a movie star, Recalls Her Past

 

FAIRFIELD, ME – Agatha Wooten Armstead didn’t drive a car, but she drove a farm tractor.

Agatha, as she was called by her foster daughter Vicky, was a woman who at age 56, bent from surgeries and hard work, took in the young girl and raised her as her own on a farm in rural Maine.

There was organic gardening, music and poetry. There also was a mother’s love, and the little girl never forgot her.

Victoria Rowell, film star, dancer, NAACP Image Award winner and perhaps best known for her role as Drucilla Winters on TV’s daytime “The Young and the Restless,” was that little girl.

Rowell spoke Tuesday to a full house in Prescott Hall at Good Will-Hinckley on the virtues of the women who raised her and on the responsibility of foster youth to be patient — because one day they, too, will look back at the people who raised them and remember.

“We don’t always say ‘Thank you’ because sometimes we need to be taught to say things,” she said. “We don’t always say ‘We love you’ because it’s easier to stay angry, because we’ve been through a lot.

“But deep, deep down, we really appreciate those people, but we may not be able to put it into words today.”

Rowell, 48, was back in Maine promoting and signing copies of her memoir “The Women Who Raised Me,” a tribute not just to the women with whom Rowell grew up, but to the foster care system that brought them to her.

Her visit was done in collaboration with the Maine Children’s Trust, a statewide non-profit organization whose mission is to prevent child abuse and neglect.

The trust raises money for community-based groups and advocates for increased services for Maine families.

Good Will-Hinckley is a residential school serving young people with academic or behavioral challenges.

Rowell was a foster child in the Portland area for the first 18 years of her life.

An advocate for foster children like herself, she founded the Rowell Foster Children’s Positive Plan in 1990. The foundation enriches the lives of foster children through artistic and athletic expression.

Also among the women who raised her, Rowell remembered Tuesday, was Bertha Taylor, who took her in as a very young child and who later had to give her up because of government regulations.

Taylor’s daughter Colleen Taylor, now of Fairfield, was in the audience Tuesday.

She said later that as a teenager herself at the time, losing Vicky as a little sister was traumatic.

“Vicky came to my parents when she was two weeks old and we had her for 2 1/2 years,” Taylor, 63, said. “I wanted her to be my little girl. When she left, I wanted to die. It has horrible.”

The two women met again several years ago for the first time since Vicky was little. Seeing her again Tuesday was very emotional, she said.

“I absolutely adored her — I loved her,” Taylor said. “It just warms my heart.”

Rowell said the emotions of separation from one’s biological roots are not easy to overcome.

“People underestimate children — we feel that pull, we feel that void — I knew someone loved me and they took a risk. That’s how deep love goes — government or law or people cannot change hearts.

“It’s also our job as beneficiaries of such extraordinary love to reach back to thank those people. Try to remember the people who made a difference in your life.”

That sentiment was shared Tuesday by Waterville Mayor Paul LePage, who was a foster child himself after leaving his abusive home in Lewiston at age 11, he said.

“I thought she was wonderful, absolutely wonderful,” LePage said of Rowell. “Having been somewhat in her shoes, much of what she said about anxiety and stepping up and finding yourself is absolutely true.

“There is always a void, and the whole issue of giving back is one of the voids I’ve been trying to fill for my whole life.”

Anti-science School Board Directors create controversy

Just when you thought it was safe to teach your kids sound science after the Dover, PA, Intelligent Design fiasco, along comes Linkletter and Luce the Dumb-Ass Cable guys.  Well, not really, but seriously…  why is it that it often appears that a community’s stupidest people make it onto the local school board??

“MADISON, ME – Neither creationism nor evolution belongs in a high-school science curriculum, a School Administrative District 59 director believes.

Matthew Linkletter of Athens says that both are merely theories that represent “personal beliefs and world views,” rather than proven science. Linkletter suggested during last week’s SAD 59 board meeting that the board discuss evolution, the “Big Bang Theory” and other studies he believes should be deleted from the curriculum.

The school board tabled action on the science curriculum at the April 28 meeting, and will reconsider the issue when it meets at 7 p.m. May 19.

Linkletter, a Christian, said there is no way to prove either evolution or creationism.

“You can’t show, observe or prove it,” Linkletter said of the belief systems. “It’s something you have to believe by faith. It doesn’t meet the criteria of science.

“If it’s not scientifically verifiable, then maybe we should leave it out of the science classes. When you make a statement that’s not backed by facts and just represents a world view, then it has no place.”   [Note to Dumb-ass:  evolution is not a "world view;" rather the theory is sound science in action.  Frankly, if you cannot understand the basics then you have no business being on a school board.  Science in high school isn't about being "armed with the truth" but about discovering "the truth" using the scientific method.]

Linkletter said he wants the best science for SAD 59 students, who should “be armed with the truth.” They should be able to explain the origins of life according to evolution if it is taught in the schools, he said.

“Nobody has the answer to the origins of life. It’s a philosophical question.”

High-school science teacher Jessica Ward disagrees.

“The empirical proof of evolution is in the study of genetics and how genes relate between organisms,” said Ward, who teaches advanced-placement senior biology, senior anatomy/physiology and 10th-grade biology. She said evolution is proven, as an empirical matter of science, through studies of the human genome.

“My personal, as well as the National Science Teachers position, is that you can’t teach genetics or ecology without evolution.  [Note to Jessica Ward:  you cannot teach anything related to biology without teaching the basic theories of evolution.]

“The basis for it is the theory of evolution.”

Ward noted that the Maine Learning Results mandates instruction in the theory of evolution. Schools would not be accredited without it, she said.

An effort to remove the theory of evolution from a high-school curriculum actually won temporary approval from the Kansas Board of Education, Ward noted.

In 2005, the Kansas Board of Education approved new public-school science standards that cast doubt on the theory of evolution. Two years later, however, the Kansas board repealed the ruling.

SAD 59 Board Chairman Norman Luce said that a high-school science curriculum might not be the correct forum for the study of evolution.

A philosophy class might be a better fit, the Starks resident said.

“It’s OK to have it somewhere, but it depends on how much time they’re spending on it in the sciences curriculum,” Luce said. “I don’t care if everybody else in the country uses it. Science is about proving things. (Linkletter) has a good point.”

Luce added that he is not necessarily opposed to the study of evolution, but is not sure how much time should be devoted to it.”

Miley Cyrus, Mindy McCready and Roger Clemens take center stage

What’s the big deal about the Vanity Fair photo’s of Miley Cyrus?

Is it because the talented, yet provocative Annie Leibowitz took the shots?

Or are the photo’s just marketing on the part of the Cyrus family?

Not two weeks ago, I commented on the racey photo’s of Miley Cyrus that were circulating on the Internet.  Photo’s of her in her undies, photo’s of her spread across a male friend, photo’s of her pulling down her shirt to teasingly reveal her green lace bra.  Some taken when she was 14 (perhaps younger) and some taken more recently.

Miley Cyrus is 15.  Did her parents really expect that having Annie Leibowitz do a spread would result in age-appropriate photo’s?  I mean, really.  What the hell are they thinking?  She can apologize all she wants but, frankly, I do not believe her.  She and her parents have seen the attention paid to Lohan and Spears and Hilton.  She’s just being set up for when people decide those skanks are too old to still be salaciously sexy.  She’s not.  She’s only 15.

Speaking of 15 year olds…  the New York Daily was reporting on Sunday night that former baseball star and accused steroid taker Roger Clemens had an alleged secret affair with country music star Mindy McCready beginning in 1991 or so.  The alleged affair began when the arrogant jackass, who was a baseball star with the Boston Red Sox at the time, was a married 28-y.o. father of two young boys.

The big problem with his affair - unlike that of his former teammate Wade Boggs at about the same time - is that Mindy McCready was only 15.

That’s right.  Roger Clemens was allegedly boffing a 15-y.o.

News reports out this noon suggest that McCready is either not denying the affair or has confirmed it.

I wonder what his wife, Debbie, is thinking right about now?

I wonder if Clemens ever brought the 15-y.o. across state line for the purpose of having sex?  Remember Eliot Spitzer?  Oh boy…

One thing is for certain:  Roger Clemens’ claims of innocence in the steroid scandal are about to take a huge, huge hit.  Funny thing about Roger Clemens…  he always has a knack for making his accusers look like they - not he - are telling the truth.

From the AP:  “
<1>McCready Confirms Affair with Clemens

AP

Posted: 2008-04-29 11:23:04

Filed Under: Star Scandals, Music News

NEW YORK (April 29) - Roger Clemens had a decade-long relationship with country star Mindy McCready that began when she was a 15-year-old aspiring singer and the pitcher was a Boston Red Sox ace, the Daily News reported. Now the singer confirms it.

Clemens’ lawyer, Rusty Hardin, confirmed a long-term relationship but told the newspaper it was not sexual.

“He flatly denies having had any kind of an inappropriate relationship with her,” Hardin said. “He’s considered her a close family friend. … He has never had a sexual relationship with her.”

The News’ original story, which appeared on the newspaper’s Web site Sunday night and in editions Monday, quoted several people who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the situation.

Clemens was 28 and a married father of two when he first met McCready, the newspaper reported.

In its story Monday night, sources told the News that McCready went with Clemens to his hotel room in Fort Myers, Fla., after their first meeting but that they did not have sex. The relationship turned intimate after she later moved to Nashville and became a country star, the paper said.

The story could undermine Clemens’ reputation, which is central to the defamation suit the former pitcher has filed against former personal trainer Brian McNamee. McNamee contends Clemens used performance-enhancing substances during his major league career.

“If true, it’s just another example of Roger’s pervasive prevarications which will be at the core of any defamation case,” said McNamee’s attorney, Richard Emery, in an e-mail to The Associated Press.

“If the case heads to trial and is not dismissed, as we feel it should be, we will be calling (McCready) as a witness,” Emery told the News.

The newspaper said Clemens sent cash to McCready to help her with legal issues and reached out to her when she was in jail last year in Tennessee. Clemens sometimes sent her amounts of $25,000, the paper said.

The 32-year-old McCready was sentenced last September for violating probation from a 2004 drug arrest and was released from jail last Dec. 30. The violation occurred in July when McCready was accused of scuffling with her mother and resisting arrest at her mother’s home in Fort Myers, Fla. She still must serve two years’ probation.

McCready had a No. 1 single in 1996 with ‘Guys Do It All the Time.’”

Jena 6: finally, a measure of justice

Caught a quick blurb that a man from the Jena, LA, area plead guilty to federal charges related to the hanging of nooses on September 20, 2007.

At first, I thought it was related to the hanging of the nooses on the tree reportedly reserved “for whites only” at the Jena high.  That incident resulted in a school-yard brawl that itself resulted in the filing of ridiculous charges against 6 black Jena students but none against the white kids who also were involved in the brawl or against the racist assholes who hung the nooses from the tree (which has since been cut down because the high school administrators felt it was “divisive”).

But my initial impression of the incident resulting in the guilty plea was incorrect.  The guilty plea of Jeremiah Munson, of Colfax, LA, was the result of nooses hung from the back of a pick-up truck that Munson and an unidentified juvenile from Dry Prong, LA, then drove around while threatening marchers during the Jena 6 protests in Alexandria, LA, on September 20, 2007.

Munson faces the possibility of a year in prison plus a 100k fine.  Sentencing is not until August 15.  But sentencing is likely to take place before those same federal prosecutors ever move against the jackasses who hung the nooses on the tree at the high school.

 

 

Rev. Jeremiah Wright wows them at the National Press Club

Are you satisfied with the explanation given by Rev. Jeremiah Wright in his recent interview with Bill Moyers and during the Q&A before the National Press Club?
	Yes, it’s very clear the media got him wrong
	What’s the difference? Is anyone going to believe him or Obama?
	Who cares? I intend to embrace mediocrity by voting for Hillary.
	No, he’s a clever lying skunk
	Oh, I’m sorry. I was looking for the racey Miley Cyrus pictures.
pollcode.com free polls

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Hillary Clinton projected to take Pennsylvania Primary

It was expected but it’s disappointing nonetheless.

Hillary appears to have won pennsyltucky.  But by only 6 percentage points.  Two months ago, she was expected to win it by at least 15%.

Ah, well.  At least I no longer have to operate a phone bank out of my house.  Hate getting those calls; don’t much like making them, either.

Life continues and I am going to bed.

Enjoy Indiana and North Carolina, Obama.

I am burnt toast.

 

Rumor mongering idiot endorses Hillary Clinton, et al.

“The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, owned and published by Richard Mellon Scaife, endorsed Hillary Clinton as the Democratic presidential nominee Sunday. Scaife personally funded many of the investigations that led to President Clinton’s impeachment in 1998.”

This is also the same guy who is credited with starting the “Hillary killed Vince Foster” rumors, among others.

Bruce Springsteen - whose E Street Band recently lost Danny Federici to melanoma - endorses Obama.  Guess who has more credibility in my book?

Meanwhile, in the real world, slightly racey photographs of Miley Cyrus are circulating…  big deal except that she’s only 15.  Where the hell is her father?  Is he paying attention?  Since this is not the first time Miley’s taken pics of herself in her undies, I wonder if Billy Ray Cyrus will take the camera away.  Or is he looking at them with a big grin on his face?

Also, today is the Boston Marathon.  Yesterday, Mainer Emily LeVan ran in the US Women’s Olympic Marathon Trials - also held on the Boston Marathon course.  Emily’s daughter, Maddie, continues her battle with accute lymphoblastic leukemia.  For LeVan, an ER nurse from Wiscasset, the marathon wasn’t about herself but about her daughter.

You see, Emily started a blog and fundraiser, “Two Trials,” for the Maine Children’s Cancer Program.  The goal was to raise $52,400, but as of last Thursday night, the fund had already collected over $64,000.  Thanks to efforts like Emily LeVan’s, Maddie’s type of cancer shows a cure rate of about 90% among kids under the age of 5.  At one time not so many years ago, A.L.L. was a death sentence.

As for how Emily did at the Women’s Olympic Marathon Trials, she ran 2:45.  As they say in Maine, that’s not half bad.

http://twotrials.org

A good story: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/17/AR2008041703332.html

 

 

 

Flag-onfloor socio-art project causes big flap

From Waterville, Maine’s newspaper, the Morning Sentinel at http://morningsentinel.com

“FARMINGTON — For the third day in a row, a student art project centered around the American flag sparked emotions in this college community, drawing town and university residents into another day of peaceful but intense contention.

About 100 people attended a rally called by Vietnam veteran Charles Bennett of Farmington, an American Legion commander. On Tuesday, he had challenged the University of Maine at Farmington administration’s decision to allow an art project that used flags made of duct tape and plastic to be placed on the corridor of the student center.

Ultimately, the project generated debate about the flag and what it means.

“I think there is a renewed sense of patriotism on campus and appreciation of the flag,” said student Austin Cookson, 20, of Kittery, who was holding up a large American flag with two friends.

“We’re not saying the administration is un-American, but they are saying it is just a piece of cloth. It is a lot more than that. It represents freedom,” he said.

Munroe Hawkins, 88, of Farmington and a UMF alumni, is a World War II combat veteran.

“I am here because this flap about the flag is about my country. Had I known that art project was there, I would have been there and stood by Charlie,” he said.

The project that started the uproar was created by education major Susan Crane, 40, of Auburn. It was an assignment by art professor Kate Randall to create a social commentary piece and Crane, a self-described conservative Republican and the daughter of a 25-year military veteran, chose the American flag as her subject.

Her presentation used five large flags placed in a winding pattern down a university building corridor, with another 1,000 handheld flags scattered on the floor. The project was approved after a lengthy review by administrators and an attorney on the grounds that Crane had a Constitutional right of freedom of speech and expression.

Crane said her point was to get people to think about how they felt about the flag when faced with either walking over or around one placed on the ground.

“We would not do anything differently. The student had a project, she got all her permissions and we were correct in supporting her,” said UMF President Theodora Kalikow on Thursday. “It was a legitimate learning experience.”

She said, personally, she would never put a flag on the ground.

“The flag represents our country, along with the Bill of Rights and the Constitution. But do people want censorship if an idea makes them mad? The highest value is upholding the Constitution, even if it means disrespecting the flag,” she said.

During Thursday’s brief, organized part of the demonstration, Bennett spoke about the need to protect the flag and then Lawrence “Jay” Dwight, of Wilton, spoke.

In a lengthy address, he called Crane’s project an “insult” and said UMF administrators “were joining the terrorists who would burn and stomp” on the flag. He then led the gathering in the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance.

Afterward, student Debbie Arsenault, 44, of Anson, said she came from a line of combat veterans. She described herself as a conservative and “extremely patriotic.”

“(The issue) was not just about freedom of speech. It was about censorship,” she said.

“My family fought for an idea and a way of life and for the right for people to have an opinion and to speak about it,” she said. “I had no problem with the flag project — it was only a representation of the symbol.”

She objected to Dwight’s speech.

“It is appalling that he equated terrorists and Nazis with the administration. What has come out of this is that it created discussion. If this is what the artist wanted, then she succeeded. It was a thought-provoking social experiment,” she said.

Student Angela Courchesney of Jay, who said she strongly objected to Crane’s project, also noted the controversy did bring people together.

“A lot of people united around this and said it should not have happened,” she said.

Bennett said he was gratified by the turnout.

“We got our point across. The college heard us. Our main objective now is to get hold of our congressmen and pressure them to support a law that protects our flag,” he said.”

…  better start throwing away those American flag paper napkins, plates and cups you were planning to use on Memorial Day.

 

Hillary and Obama mix it up at Messiah College

Last night was the big “values” discussion at Messiah College just southwest of Harrisburg, Pennsyltucky.

Yeah, that’s the same Messiah College that produced the likes of Monica Goodling of Alberto Gonzales fame.  And the same Messiah College that found itself defending itself against newpaper articles questioning whether one of its main purposes was the granting of the ever-famous MRS degree.

Anywho…  full text of Obama comments and Hillary comments can be found http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2008/04/full_text_of_clinton_remarks.html and http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2008/04/full_text_of_obama_remarks.html

Also, in an appearance in one of America’s former steel towns, Obama addressed his poor choice of “bitter” words.  His comments can be found http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2008/04/obama_fights_back_in_steelton.html

One thing I like to do is read comments around the blogosphere from the different political supporters. 

Ron Paul was over at Gettysburg College (he’s a graduate) during the weekend, drinking beers and shots (shoulda invited homey hillary) with the frat boys.  Someone needs to clue him in about the truth:  his hopes for the republican nomination no longer exist.  He’s acting a bit too much like Ralph Nader.  And his supporters need a good dose of reality.  But I still get some good chuckles from the blogs of his supporters.

Also like to read the writings of Hillary supporters.  Especially the Philly-area people who come into Harrisburg to canvass for her on weekends.  I found the best defense against their aggressive front-door tactics (Mormons and Jehovahs are tame compared to the HRC peeps) is to put up an Obama sign.  They don’t like Obama no matter what they claim otherwise.

And they are unaccepting of Obama supporter comments on their blogs.  I’ve lost count of the times my comments have been deleted from their blogs.  Or the times a response has been along the lines of “if you don’t like Hillary, move to Canada.”  And people don’t believe me when I say that Hillary Clinton is the female version of dickless cheney.

Wake up, America!  And smell the Hillary.  Get off that bandwagon of stupidity.

Comment away, Hillary supporters.  As long as the language is clean and not racist, I will allow your comments to stay.  Which is more than what you divider types allow on your blogs.