May 15, 2010 archive

Sausage WIN! Senate votes against Banksters in favor of everyone else!

On a vote to buck the Banksters and help out everybody except our financial wizards, the Senate passed the Dick Durbin Amendment to reform Debit fees with a whopping 64 votes. In even more unlikely anti bankster behavior, 17 GOP Senators voted FOR the bill.

   As of the typing of this article, hell has yet to begun to freeze.

The final vote tally was 64-33.

Voting in favor: 46 Democrats, 17 Republicans and Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders [I, VT].

Voting against: 9 Democrats, 23 Republicans and Independent Sen. Joseph Lieberman [I, CT].

   Good ole Joey Lieberman. He’s with us on everything but the war and Barack Obama.

   But this is a great win that will benefit everyone who isn’t a MegaBank or n executive or a servant of them, and a win for everyone else, but, as always, politics make strange bedfellows.

More below the fold.

This Week in Health and Fitness

Welcome to this week’s Health and Fitness. This is an Open Thread.

Friends of Stroke Victims Reluctant to Call 911

Hesitation in Calling for an Ambulance Could Delay Lifesaving Treatment

May 13, 2010 — Stroke victims need immediate emergency attention, but a new study shows that most people who realize stroke warning signs are occurring in a friend or family member may not call 911, thereby delaying potentially lifesaving treatment.

This is alarming, Michigan researchers suggest, because people who suffer strokes need immediate assessment and treatment.

But people who would call 911 if they thought a friend or loved one was having a heart attack don’t seem to realize that strokes are deadly, too, the researchers write; strokes are the No. 3 killer in the U.S.

Stroke victims who are candidates for the clot-busting drug called tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) may receive this treatment if they get to a hospital within three hours (and in some select cases up to 4.5 hours) of the time the first warning signs show up.

The Two Types of Stroke


   

*   Symptoms of an ischemic stroke (caused by a clot blocking a blood vessel) usually occur in the side of the body opposite from the side of the brain where the clot occurred. For example, a stroke in the right side of the brain affects the left side of the body.

   * Symptoms of a hemorrhagic stroke (caused by bleeding in the brain) can be similar to those of an ischemic stroke but may be distinguished by symptoms relating to higher pressure in the brain, including severe headache, nausea and vomiting, neck stiffness, dizziness, seizures, irritability, confusion, and possibly unconsciousness.

Signs and Symptoms of a Stroke

 

 Sudden numbness, paralysis, or weakness in your face, arm, or leg, especially on only one side of your body.

New problems with walking or balance.

Sudden vision changes.

Drooling or slurred speech.

New problems speaking or understanding simple statements, or feeling confused.

A sudden, severe headache that is different from past headaches.

Do not disregard any of these symptoms even if they pass quickly. Symptoms of stroke can develop over minutes, hours or days. The symptoms can be progressive starting with a little tingling that evolves into paralysis.

Call 911 immediately. The faster you get to an Emergency Room at a hospital with a Stroke Center, the better the chances that there will be a good recovery. The Paramedics know where these centers are and it may not be the closest hospital It is important that the patient get to a Stroke Center within 3 hours of onset of symptoms.

As is now custom, I’ll try to include the more interesting and pertinent articles that will help the community awareness of their health and bodies. This essay will not be posted anywhere else due to constraints on my time. Please feel free to make suggestions for improvement and ask questions, I’ll answer as best I can.  

On The Quirkiness Of Autism, Or, “Best.Story.Ever.”

So I’ve been away for a couple of weeks, and it’s time to get back to a more demanding schedule…but before I do, I have a story to tell you that is so hilarious that we need to put it on the front burner so we can get the weekend off to a truly great start.

To protect the innocent we’ll leave out all the names, but suffice it to say that this story takes us to the intersection of religious evangelism, childlike innocence, and the idiosyncratic nature of autism.

Some of you are going to think I made this up, but I promise, this is an actual, true, “really, honest, it really happened” story, and every word is as accurate as it could be, considering that it was a tale told second-hand.

And with all that having been said, let’s go to Spokane, where our story has been waiting for us.

Saturday I-Ching

Photobucket

Credit here

I have been wrong in my tags for a long time now!  I had misremembered Rimbaud’s manifesto as calling for the derangement of the senses.  Actually, the manifesto called for the dissolution of the senses.

My apologies.

I inquired of the I-Ching as to what to tell Docudharmaniacs near and far and got Hexagram 59:  Dissolution.

Ha!

There was a changing line in the hexagram which turned it into another hexagram, number 20, “Contemplation.”

Thus the title of this essay.

Revisiting the political economy

  One of the most misused and abused terms in language today is “free market”.

The definition of a free market is business governed by supply and demand, and not restrained by government regulation or subsidy.

  This definition is often used in conjunction with environmental regulation and minimum wage laws, but almost never with trade between firms and corporations. Which is the problem, because without government protections this “free market” wouldn’t exist.

Open Jar

Photobucket

For Your Consideration: New Meaning for the Godwin’s Law

Definition of the Godwin’s Law:

As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1.

On This Day in History: May 15

On this day in 1937 – Trini Lopez (Trinidad Lopez III) in Dallas, Texas) is an American musician, singer and guitarist. Raised in the barrio of Dallas, dropped out of high school in his senior year because hi father needed financial support. He learned to play guitar from his father and it was this talent that he used to help support his family. He rode to local fame playing in night clubs eventually moving his family out of the barrio.

His first record album included the song “If I Had a Hammer” which rode to the top of the charts around the world. The hits, “I’m Coming Home Cindy,” “Michael,” “Lemon Tree,” Kansas City,” “America,” and, of course, “La Bamba”, followed in quick succession.

During the 60’s and 70’s, he appeared in movies (“Marriage on the Rocks”, “The Dirty Dozen”)  and on TV (“Adam-12). He does charitable work and took part in the world wide concert to raise funds for the victims of the 2004 Indonesia Tsunami/Earthquake.

Happy Birthday, Trini

The First Existentialist?

Camile Saint-Saens is another one of those child prodigy musical geniuses who could read and write at 3, was composing at 4, and performing in public at 5.  He was an expert Mathmatician and in addition to scholarly articles on acoustics, occult sciences, Roman theatre decoration, and ancient instruments, wrote a volume on Philosophy, Problems and Mysteries, about Science and Art replacing Religion; the pessimistic and atheistic ideas of which read like an early version of Existentialism.  He also wrote a book of poetry and a theatrical farce as well as several travelogues.

He was considered the greatest organist in the world by Liszt but other contemporaries found his style, while technically flawless, mechanical and devoid of spirit.  When he played he sat rock still, only his fingers, hands, and arms moving.

Speaking of philosophy, he underwent some remarkable changes of mind in the course of his life.  Initially a big fan of Wagner he cooled on him considerably after the Franco-Prussian War.  From being a ground breaking progressive in his early career, he came to despise the work of Impressionists like Debussy, Strauss, and Stravinsky.

Today, of course, his most performed work is the one he most hated- Carnival of the Animals; so much so that he suppressed it’s publication until after his death for fear it would make him look less “serious”.  Now it’s a staple of Children’s Concerts along with Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf and Britten’s The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra.  As a child I loved the 12th Movement, Fossils, because of that crazy Xylophone.

I wanted to find Opus 128, his film score for The Assassination of the Duke of Guise– he was the first major composer to do one.  Alas it appears to be unavailable except to those who have better YouTube search skills than I.  Instead you will have to settle for an episode of The Shadow which uses the middle section of Le rouet d’Omphale Op. 31 as its theme.

This episode, Triangle of Death, features Orson Wells as The Shadow.  Also Borodin.  It was posted by TheRadioGhost in three parts, the last 2 of which are below the fold.

Random Japan

OPPORTUNITY ROCKS

In an attempt to cash in on the old and decrepit from the rest of Asia, the Japanese government is mulling a “medical visa” that would allow rich folks from places like China to seek long-term medical care here.

A 29-year-old conductor from Israel has been picked to replace Seiji Ozawa as opera director at the Saito Kinen Festival in Nagano. The 74-year-old Ozawa is recovering from treatment for esophagal cancer.

A man who says he was drunk when he snapped a maraca off a statue of popular manga character Ryotsu Kankichi in Katsushika-ku turned himself in after seeing how much attention the incident received.

Osaka cops, rejoice! Krispy Kreme and Mister Donut’s Cafe Andonand have ignited a doughnut war after opening their first outlets in the region.

Ace pitcher Mika Konishi led the Hyogo Swing Smileys to victory over the Kyoto Asto Dreams 8-0 in the first game of the Girls Professional Baseball League.

Let’s Be Very Clear About The Criminal Reality We Are Facing

While it is important to point out the inconsistencies and lies that are the hallmark of most of our public institutions we also need to start with some firm foundations to future essays and comments. I feel one of the first things we need to face is that the situation we face today is no longer a political struggle between conservatives and liberals or even reactionaries and progressives. As has been brought out by several people here at DD the struggle is between criminal entities (most large corporations, big banks, traditional organized crime, the military (yes I believe much though not all of the military has become a criminal enterprise), the covert ops part of the intel agencies, the MSM (the worst of the lot), the federal government and many state and local governments. No, it is not a matter of “incompetence” that has brought us to this situation but of what I consider criminal behavior.

There are two aspects of criminal behavior. The first, obviously, is the breaking of laws on the books–well, in this country with more laws (I’m sure) than any entity that has ever existed, it is pretty easy for anyone to break the law but still even if you look at major statutes the fact is that major corporations and the elites escape the law while the poor do not. The Federal government now no longer even pretends to follow the law, for example, the Geneva Conventions and protocols are routinely ignored despite the fact that they are the law. Of course, laws against fraud were ignored during and after the financial crisis. Disappearance of trillions from DOD elicited no action and no response from the media, criminal fraud by contractors in Iraq almost completely ignored by any agencies and, generally, underreported in the MSM. The list can go on and on and this blog has at one time or another reported on nearly all of them. These aren’t arguments over policy but clear criminality that, in a healthy society, would have been prosecuted. This criminality and corruption has rapidly increased in recent years.

The second aspect of criminal behavior I would like to describe as follows:

The deliberate attempt by private interests to undermine public welfare, public spaces, public health and the future of the species for financial gain.

This aspect of criminality is far worse than simply breaking particular laws. It is about the deliberate destruction of society and government itself. I suggest to you that this has been the conscious and deliberate intention of most (not all) of the ruling elite for the past few decades but particularly since the stolen election of 2000. I believe their intention was then and is now the looting of the entire world and the destruction of American society and any other society for the purpose of instituting a New World Order based on a global imperial system on the macro-level and various modes of neofeudal social arrangements at the local level with most of the population either expendable or in a state of serfdom. This system is not in place yet and can be stopped but this is the agenda of most of the power players.

As has been made abundantly clear on this blog, the Obama administration is only cosmetically different than the previous administration. The differences are largely cultural rather than political. We can mostly agree here that we are no longer fooled by the Kabuki of Obama and his allies in Congress. Obama simply is beside the point.  

Original v. Cover — #25 in a Series

I'm A Hound Dog Pictures, Images and Photos

This week’s selection, recorded in 1952, was remarkable for its association with many firsts. Released in March, 1953, it was the first song ever produced by composers Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, and was to be the biggest hit ever for blues singer Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton. Her rendition would occupy the #1 slot on the Billboard Rhythm & Blues charts for seven weeks. Wasting no time, five country artists would record their own versions of this song during the following month.

Load more