...is my choice for Obama.

I'm gonna' go way out on a limb here and admit that's not going to get a lot of traction.

Just sayin'...

...on these old Mason jars.

Good point! Need any jars?

"Will there be anything left for the Obama administration to try and fix, when it takes over on January 20?"

Part of me wonders if the right hasn't decided to go nuclear on the economy in order to make an Obama success impossible as a way to hold on to some chance at 2012...cynical, I know.

...just being checked for hernias...

Yeah well see...some of us WANT a bloodbath. Someo of us want to see the blood of 'Red' America running through the streets, specfically, the blood of the sumbitches responsible for their crimes. And some of their most vitriolic supporters.

I would submit that it didn't include what you mention because Shrub's crimes and those of his ilk are beyond the pale. You're right that we're not all stupid. Those still clinginig to an assumed Bush legitimacy, however, are idiots of the first order. Blood, blood, blood.

I am sending you an armadillo.

...I worry his eyebrows seem a bit thin.

...we must go after Napolitano. About the only thing she hasn't given in the way of support for Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his atrocious human rights abuse and abuse of authority and just plain abuse is a blow-job. But then I don't know everything that goes on in the back seat of the Arizona Governor's car...

...him to the homeless.

No, YOU shut up!

...I am just wondering if the during the backstory to your column, if when she walked into your office she was wearing a skirt screaming her legs spelled trouble and if her face wore a look only the devil could describe as innocent. Nice Spillaning!

...but I haven't experienced any sexism directed toward me by my mother's providers, and I am her 24/7 caregiver. (This may be because I always bring her in wearing a suit and tie and a fedora and a trenchcoat, which I do so I get an 'authority figure' thing going.) I see much more sexism directed toward her, generally because women get shit healthcare compared to men. The sexism is muted. What's worst is the ageism. I have yet to see a provider, male or female, who has once displayed compassion. They're all young providers, so they can't be jaded yet. I think, like I've seen in the medical student population for many years, that may be because the new underlying reason to get into the medicine business is first financial, second prestige, third pressure and a distant fourth an actual wish to help sick people fell better. And they just don't seem to like old people.

Well it's true - She's cranky and independent as a dog on ice. Part of that is dementia presentation. Part of that is she hates being sick. Part of it is that she is SO non-compliant: will not treat her diabetes, won't quit smoking, doesn't trust doctors, doesn't trust drugs or drug companies (she does present a hx of very bad reactions to many classes of meds). And doctors don't want to hear all of that. They want to treat a disease, not a person. There are so few geriatric specialiasts practicing, and very, very little is taught in medical school with regards to gerontology. As a long term care ombudsman, I would never put her in a home unless a totality of care requiring more than I (or whatever services I can bring into my home) made it necessary. The Long Term Care industry is to the elderly what the Oil industry is to the environment: murderous. Mine is so cranky, anti-social and...um...invective-prone that they would immediately get a dr. to approve chemical constraints. And I won't have that. Plus, some of the things I've had to investigate, I could never in good faith recommend it to anyone. It's a profit-based industry, and the residents (or patients) are not considered residents, patients or persons. They are units of profit or loss, depending on the level of treatment required and either delivered, or not delivered.

And yes, we do pretty much put our lives on hold to keep them out of that environment. I have to believe that it is worth it.

Good questions. I'll blog over at Open Salon regarding what LTC really is all about so I'm not responding to a bunch of stuff repeatedly...

...um...that was pretty mysogynistic. Just sayin'...

a Science and Enviroment correspondent for the BBC? That makes no sense...

...that since the election, Peggy is just in the period of time where she and her psychiatrist are just waiting for the thorazine and klonopin to level out in her system.

...Paula Dean!

...about these goddamned pigs flyin' past my window...making it really hard to re-read Animal Farm.

...they will drop the rate to -5, and start paying people to borrow.

I'm ordained in the United Church of Atheism.

That's all.

Piffle.