Amnesia

Anyone who has children can understand how helpless you feel when your little one is sick. Perhaps it is high fever that won’t come down with a lukewarm bath or an ear infection that is keeping you both up in the middle of the night.

I had the unfortunate experience of taking my son to a children’s hospital ER over the weekend, (yes, he’s fine now as his “problem” has been resolved) and waited 6 hours in the middle of the night for tests only to be sent home without a diagnosis.

As we sat in the waiting room for a good hour around midnight, parents with children came and went. To my left was a woman who brought her entire family (including another adult), and called a nurse over who had come out looking for the patient next in line. She mused that her daughter had been seen by triage and was told she most likely had a mosquito bite upon her stomach. She then asked when she would be seen; putting two and two together and figuring out that a bug bite would continue to get bounced down the list as more important cases came in throughout the night. The nurse calmly told her to wait and that it would be useless to leave since she was already there.

She left.

There are two issues I found rather odd and frustrating in this scenario. My kids have had the usual slate of maladies associated with childhood. While I may rush my child to an ER should she have the croup and couldn’t draw a breath, or a fever spiked over my comfort zone and would not come down with alternating Tylenol and Motrin and a lukewarm bath; I would never bring my child in for a common bug bite unless she suffered an allergic reaction. Even before then, I’d douse her with some Benadryl and unless she couldn’t breathe or was swollen like a marshmallow; I’d call my doctor.

I don’t understand why this mother found it necessary to drag her whole family down to an emergency room in the middle of the night so that her daughter could be looked upon by a tired doctor and given some anti-itch cream.

Furthermore, when she was brought into the triage area, I am curious as to why the hospital found it necessary to make her wait. I guess that had I been the nurse, I would have ripped a doctor away, told him to confirm the diagnosis of a bug bite, give her the cream and send her home. I don’t suppose I’d last too long at said facility.

So you wonder why your insurance premiums are going up? This is a fine example. Parents: Please know when to take your children to an emergency room. Stop using your neighborhood hospital as your own private doctor. Find a free clinic if you do not have proper insurance. There are plenty of other options, here. Doctors: Please dedicate someone to send frivolous cases that come in through triage, back home, as to keep the patients with more serious injuries or sicknesses revolving in timely manner.

I hesitate to even mention that the woman and her family left without paying. How do I know this? They didn’t even grab our insurance information until we were settled in the room with a bed. By the way they handle the influx of families, I’m wondering if they aren’t specifically set up the way they are because, Ms. Bug Bite has a tendency of bolting before actually being seen by a doctor.

I don’t know what makes me more sick to my stomach.

WTF?

This is almost as bad as FOX’s blunder with Michelle Obama last week. Let’s take serious news, twist the headline and then sell it as a shirt with our branding. Seriously, what is going on in the heads of marketing over there?

Who wants a t-shirt that says, ” Clerk plans to marry same-sex partner?” or ” Furor erupts over guns in national parks!” I’m not kidding here, if you go to the news site and click on the little shirt icon next to the video camera, you can make yourself a t-shirt.

It’d be nice if you could alter a headline to say, “CNN has no class!”

Furthermore, who’s the lucky soul who chooses the headlines? Will they get raunchy and more ‘tongue-in-cheek’ as time progresses as some asshat buys the merchandise? Why can’t it all be equal opportunity either? “Police shoot man beating to death toddler” has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?

Give me a fucking break will you please? This type of money making scheme would maybe work on “The Daily Show” or “The Onion”, but CNN? I’m officially cutting myself off from reading/watching news in all formats.

Someone please tell me when the world starts to end, cause I’m not going to know about it.

****This will contain spoilers for “Battlestar Galatica”, so don’t read if you aren’t up to date on the show. ****

In the comment thread of my “I Hate Ron Moore” post, Vince asks me why I currently hate the man responsible for one of the best shows on television. I’ve had a bit of time to reflect on why last night was so disappointing, so with a deep breath to control my rage, here we go.

I’ve been on board BSG since the very beginning. I’ve seen friends and enemies alike air-locked, or killed in senseless battles and accidents. I’ve been Admiral Adama’s personal assistant and have watched him grow in both stature and wisdom only to see every strand of strength whittled away in the brief moments of deeply personal betrayal. I’ve stood next to Caprica Six as she’s talked and fucked a deranged and selfish Gaius Baltar. I’ve shared in the disbelief and wholly disturbing personal secrets of Col. Tigh, Anders, Tori and Chief. I too was shut away with D’Anna and let fear rule my decisions when I was “unboxed”. I’ve felt the intense passion that guides Leoben and the frustration and curiosity that make Kara Thrace. I’ve also counselled and questioned every decision Laura Roslin has made since the initial destruction of the 12 colonies.

I am a part of each person, each crew, each cylon and have been from the very beginning.

With all that said, you can imagine my joy, relief and disbelief when Felix Gaeda exclaimed that the constellations were a match. You can imagine the tears of those overwhelming emotions flowing like a cleansing river when Admiral Adama confirmed we had found our new home. I danced in jubilation with Lee in the CIC. I hugged my comrades in the hangar bay, and I wept with those who have lost so much and for the first time in years have had something for which to hope.

Yet the moment I bent down and held the soil in my hands with Adama, and heard the familiar tick of an active Geiger counter, was the moment my hope turned into rage and despair. Couple this with the fact that I am now frozen in time for an unknown period until the forces that be decide I can continue the rest of our journey, and well, it makes for a pretty pissed-off Kate.

I understand the need for dystopia when creating a show or writing a novel. Yet, if you are like me, you have invested yourself in watching, debating and discussing this show. With those countless hours, entitlement arises that you are owed a payoff for your efforts. You should be allowed to experience the most precious of human emotions; hope. 

Apparently, Ronald Moore believes otherwise. I feel ultimately betrayed in that despite the relevant social and economic issues the writers have sprinkled throughout the seasons, they found it necessary to remind us that we are hell bent on destruction no matter how much we try and redeem ourselves.

We are destructive. We’ve known this from the very beginning. We know this as we read our daily news and surf our internet.  I don’t see why it was necessary to offer another glimpse into what looked like nuclear holocaust when it was exactly what we were running from years ago.

So yeah Ron, would you kindly go fuck yourself. I wanted to hold onto my happy ending as long as possible and just as you took families and homes away from my friends and foes alike, you took the only driving force capable of bringing us back from the brink.

Right now, my hope is gone as I sit upon my Earth and look out upon a wasteland I so desperately wanted to call home.

Part of me is relieved the series isn’t over just yet, but part of me dreads where this will lead all of us in the year to come.

…deny teenager entrance into senior prom. I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t classify this as a dress. The following statement may seem like an angry tirade, but that’s because it is. This poor excuse for a proper vestment screams “I really have no caring parents who give a shit as to how I present myself to my friends.”

We need to stop letting our daughters dress like prostitutes. I’m not talking about dressing them in the stunning fashions of the FLDS but there are elegant dresses out there to showcase beauty, instead of flaunting sex like slutty whores.

Don’t even pull the racist card out on me either. Had this girl been white, yellow or purple, my reaction would have been the same. Show your children to respect themselves and their bodies, please.

Edit: I’ve removed the “rape me” comment, as I can see how some people would take issue that a dress is never the main reason that the violent act occurs. You may see my arguments in the comments below as I’ve left it up for discussion.

This is just disgusting and needs to be rectified immediately. How can we expect the men and women to lay down their lives for this country when they are forced to live in such deplorable conditions upon their return?  I want to vomit. Write your congressman, hell, write the President who signs each order to send these heroes off to war, and let them know how mad this makes you.

Can you feel it too? Every nerve ending in my body is waiting for something major to happen in the next year. Its sort of like a dog who can sense an earthquake, or horses going stir crazy when the pressure drops signalling a tornado.

I don’t know if its going to be another major terrorist attack or if the war with Iran will actually happen, but the famed biblical four horsemen are certainly saddling their horses. I really don’t like being a harbinger of doom, but if you look at all the strife happening about this entire world right now, the only thing missing is the sheer panic of an impending apocalypse. The western world is too busy gawking at their plasma screen TVs while the poorer countries are scrimping enough food together in light of the odd weather. My son came home from church this morning talking of the end of the world.

With the decline of the dollar, the current economic downtrend, inflation, the price of oil, the ongoing expensive cost of the war in Iraq, the earthquakes, the floods, the fighting, and the strife plaguing the globe, I’m surprised more people aren’t building bomb shelters in their backyards. At this point, I’d welcome an alien invasion. It might be the only thing that keeps the human race from destroying itself.

It’s almost as if apathy is going to be our biggest downfall. We’ll argue until we’re blue in the face that global warming does or doesn’t exist, and in that time we could have planted a few trees.

We cringe at the price of gas, and yet we still seem to need our full size SUVs.

Governments continue to send in their troops to an untenable war and as long as we have Starbucks and McDonalds, we’re content to debate instead of actually doing anything.

So in an effort to make you feel slightly guilty and kick your ass into action, here is what I did the last few days (while sick mind you.)

I gave my umbrella to a woman carrying a child in heavy rain. Four people watched as she stood at the bus stop carrying a 4 month old little girl with nothing but a drenched blanket to cover them both. The bystanders all had large umbrellas and I was the only person who offered my dry bright red sanctuary. Seeing that she’d have to walk further, I gave her my umbrella to keep.

I donated a turkey to a hungry family for this Thanksgiving this weekend. I sent an f-ton of books and toys and video games to the Boston Children’s Hospital via Child’s Play, so that kids who may have to spend the holidays in a hospital bed will have something to do by themselves or with their families.

I donated money to a bake sale for the food share program in my community. I even played the word game that donates rice to under-developed countries for every word definition you correctly select.

No, I’m not saying these things because I want to be recognized for my selflessness, I’m basically saying this to make you go out and do something. In fact, why are you still reading this? Stave off an impending apocalypse of apathy by helping someone, planting something or being an overall generous person today.

Please, because between you and me, I’d rather not hear the sound of approaching hooves.

Reverend Dollar rakes in the big bucks!

I consider myself a loving Christian. I believe in Jesus Christ, and I believe in God the Father. However, there are some things that just scare me about organized religion. While some may find solace in its ritualistic embrace, it’s the Mediavangelists that really give me the creeps. On the rare occasion that I’m channel surfing on a Sunday, or oddly enough, late at night, it’s akin to the big top coming to town.

It looks like my fears are not that crazy either, according to the article linked above, some of the late night peddlers of God’s word are raking in the dough from generous contributions given by needy people.

The Good Reverand Creflo Dollar, (yes, that’s his last name) with the World Changers Church International raked in the moolah totaling around a cool 69 million last year alone.

Out of this article comes one of the best quotes I’ve ever heard from someone who claims to be a preacher:

“Without a doubt, my life is not average,” he said. “But I’d like to say, just because it is excessive doesn’t necessarily mean it’s wrong.”

How is anything in that quote not hysterical? I’m hoping if we ever get to see the second coming of Christ, he beats and casts aside the almighty Dollar like the gamblers and debt collectors in the temples of old, and shoves that Rolls right up his…

Okay, that’s not becoming of a Christian. By the way, last time I spoke with the big man above, Creflo, there was no valet parking in Heaven.

There is however plenty of special valet parking in Hell.

I don’t know what to make of it. I was informed today that one of my son’s classes was left unsupervised. During that time, a few kids decided to beat the crap out of someone they considered a ’snitch’. The pushed the poor boy to the floor and started kicking him.

I don’t know at this point if William knew he was out-numbered and couldn’t intervene, or if his first instinct was to get a teacher, but he ran from the room and grabbed the closest adult who then broke up the fight.

While I am proud of him for trying to fix the situation the only way he knew how, this has left him vunerable to the same prosecution that had befallen the first victim.

So as you can see, with school only one month in session, things are not going so well.

Hopefully with a little parental intervention, and some academic punishment for the bullying students, William won’t end up curled up in the fetal position while being kicked by his fellow students.

If he does end up eating dirt, by God, I’ll take this up with the authorities. While it’s happened since the first school bell rang, children should not be subjected to this behavior.

Parents need to step-up and take responsibility for raising their children not to do this kind of thing from a very early age. Those who don’t, are neglecting their offspring.

High school bans the American Flag from School Apparel

Colorado Elementary bans the game ‘Tag’ from playground

Birthday cupcakes banned from classroom

Are you kidding me? Lets discuss these one by one, shall we?

A high school bans the American flag from apparel as not to offend other students who can’t wear flags from other countries.

When has showing patriotism ever been inappropriate for this country? You may not like it’s politics, but by God in Heaven, you will never convince me that showing support for this country is ever in bad taste! This out of all of the stories really upset me.

The superintendent of schools in Sampson County calls the situation unfortunate, but says educators didn’t want to be forced to pick and choose which flags should be permissible.

Huh? As far as I’m concerned, there isn’t a time where the American flag isn’t permissible considering the small inane fact that we just happen to live in the United States. This ‘poor baby’ mentality will kill this country if we’re not careful. Pretty soon, you’ll see the banning of books in English because not all people here can read the native language.

This gets a 10 out of 10 on the WTF scale.

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The next article was about banning the game of ‘tag’ on a Colorado playground, because some children complained they were being chased unfairly.

It creates conflict on the playground.

Ummm, what? I can see measures being taken if the game is getting violent and kids are being hurt, but banning tag because you’ve got some kids who feel awkward about playing?

Again, this punishing all for the needs of the few mantra is getting out of hand. These kids need to stop being coddled and let alone to experience what growing up actually consist of, lest we start raising another generation that can’t take responsibility for themselves.

If the kids don’t want to play, then don’t play, but don’t take a fun, excercise-filled game away from the kids who want to play just because some babies can’t handle it.

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Lastly, we get to the article of birthday cupcakes being banned from a Waterford, CT classroom.

I can understand that kids have allergies, I really can. But as a parent, you need to take the proper precautions. Inform the teacher of your child’s allergy. Have the medication in case of contact with a school nurse. Offer other suggestions at the beginning of the year as to what your son or daughter can have in lieu of the normal celebratory fare.

Are teachers so overwhelmed with authoritative measures like checking to see if anyone is wearing a flag on their shirts that they can’t compromise in situations like these?

This stuff makes me angry, only because we’re allowing the legal system to run our schools. Ops, can’t wear that flag, Michael, it might offend someone in your own country! Ooops, can’t play tag, Jenny, you might make little Tommy cry. Ooops, can’t have those birthday cupcakes, Amy, because of Chrissy’s unprepared parents, everyone has to miss out on your special day.

Give me a break.