Category Archives: Health and Medicine

Veterans Day Heartwarmer

There have been tons of stories in the press in the last year or so about the epidemic of suicides among veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.  Folks who come home to changed lives, different family structures, who have trouble finding jobs or happiness or peace have been killing themselves at a level never seen before.  It is a national tragedy and it has become a mental health priority for all branches of the military, for the federal government and for mental health professionals.

Part of our society, I’ve felt for a long time, has become less personal, as we rely more and more on our computers to stay in touch and less and less on actual contact and touch.  Facebook, blogs, emails are great, but they lack the human contact that we as a species need.

But I realized when I read this article that maybe I was misjudging.  Because this is the story of how a soldier, alone, desperate and planning his suicide was saved by his fellow veterans when his desperate condition was noted on Facebook.

Dan, the founder of a Military Humor page on Facebook called “Awesome Shit My Drill Sergeant Said,” noticed a posting on his page as he was just about to turn it off.

“I don’t know where else to turn,” read a new message from Michael, a National Guardsman, Business Insider reported. “I’m 100% certain that my friend is planning on killing himself tonight and I cannot get a hold of him or anyone that can get to him. Can you help me?”

The troubled vet had financial problems, relationship problems, job problems.  All hallmarks of a desperate situation he could no longer face.

Dan rallied the troops, literally.  He updated the blog to say:

“TROOP IN TROUBLE”

“We just received a request for help from a troop that turned to us in desperation because it is the middle of the night and no one in the chain of command is picking up the phone and he sincerely believes his battle [buddy] is planning to take his own life tonight.”

The folks reading in the middle of the night rallied, figured out the general location of the troubled soldier, and went to help a man that they didn’t know.

When Dan received a text from the soldier, they were able to track him via GPS.  They found him, alone and ready to die.

The article reports that the soldiers who went to him said:

“Let’s talk about what’s going on and figure out what we can do to get you on the right track,” fellow soldiers said from underneath the door.

At 5 a.m., 14000 comments and hundreds of calls and texts later, there was resolution:

“We picked him up. The soldier is safe.”

There are some truly brave and wonderful people in the world.

I wish Dan, the vets who rallied to help a stranger, and the troubled soldier a very happy Veteran’s Day.

 

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In our house, Veterans Day, 11/11 is a special day for another reason.  This year it is the 21st anniversary of when we adopted Jacob.  So it is a special day indeed.

Last year I wrote about Adoption Day, and well, here’s the post for anyone who didn’t know me then:  https://fiftyfourandahalf.com/2011/11/10/adoption-day/

Happy Adoption Day, Jacob! 

With much love from Moms and Padre.

53 Comments

Filed under Family, Health and Medicine, Mental Health

Don’t Take It Just From Me

I’ll be busy for the next few days.  So I will let one of my idols remind you of what you’re sick of hearing me say:

Elections matter. 

VOTE on November 6 if you haven’t already!  If Obama wins, which I hope he will, I will be able to get off my soapbox and re-establish myself as a humor blogger instead of a political one.  You can thank me later!

VOTE!

46 Comments

Filed under Campaigning, Childhood Traumas, Elections, Global Warming, Gun control, Health and Medicine, History, Politics, Sandy, Voting

Back in the Saddle

Hi everybody,

Just wanted to let you know that we were really lucky when Sandy came to visit.  She wasn’t too bitchy around my ‘hood.

Power was out for about 24 hours, but all those trees that were standing Monday morning around my house remain upright.

Thanks to everyone for your good wishes.  Let’s forward all our good thoughts and wishes on to the folks who are really dealing with some serious shit.  Because, as you know:

Blogger karma is awesome!

Good luck to anyone still hangin’ with Sandy, or cleaning up after such a rude guest.  Hope you are all safe.

And if you can, here is a link to the American Red Cross to donate to folks who are gonna need it, cause sometimes karma isn’t enough:

http://www.redcross.org/charitable-donations

48 Comments

Filed under Bloggin' Buddies, Climate Change, Fashion, Global Warming, Health and Medicine, Humor, Neighbors, Real Estate, Sandy, Science

Oh, Now I Get It!

It’s  getting really confusing.

Here’s my problem:

If it is God’s will that  a woman gets pregnant when she’s raped, how do these lady parts that shut down and prevent pregnancy fit in?

You see why I’m confused now, don’t you?

But naturally, Bloggers have saved the day.

Yup, they answered my question.  Illustrated the situation.  And now you too will understand it all.  You’re welcome.

Here is a guide posted on one of my favorite blogs, DailyKos.com  (that’s where I learn all kinds of fascinating things).  I just had to share this illustration so you won’t be confused either.  It was originally posted there by Connecticutie but updated by brainwrap today in light of Richard Mourdock’s comment at last night’s debate.

Understand it now?  Good.  I knew you would.

*     *     *

Full disclosure here.

I am not pro-abortion.  I have never had an abortion, and I recall how when I was young and single that I grappled with the question:  “If I get pregnant, what will I do?”  It was never a question that needed an actionable answer.  I was lucky.  Many others weren’t.

You know, I don’t know or know of anyone who is, actually, pro-abortion, come to think of it.  And you know what?  I think that the moniker “pro-choice” is a poor one.  It’s part of the problem.  It sounds too much like a casual decision.  And of course, it is anything but.  I think that the poor name choice demeans the difficult decision that women, either alone or with their partner or their parent or a caring friend, must grapple with.  Richard Mourdock, Todd Akin, Paul Ryan and the rest of the jokers in the GOP shouldn’t be in on this very personal crisis resolution.

We should call it something else.  But I’ve been  unable to come up with a better name, either.  Maybe that’s why we got stuck with the one we got.

Nevertheless, we fought the battle over abortion 40 years ago.  Forty Fucking Years Ago.  And people who knew that it was better to have it safe and regulated as opposed to done in back alleys under unsanitary conditions at the cost of many women’s lives, well they/we won it.  It happened just over a decade after the first contraceptives were approved for use in the United States.

And of course, the GOP is against contraception, too.

A Romney presidency will basically guarantee that the folks who don’t really understand how human biology works will control all the things we women need to control our reproductive health.  Which, of  course, significantly impacts our economic health as well.

[Hey!  Maybe this is the GOP jobs plan — keep women barefoot and pregnant and out of the workplace!]

Many of these Republicans don’t even quite understand how basic human biology works, but they are willing to legislate it nevertheless.  They don’t actually know when in the, ummm, process, conception occurs and/or how contraception actually occurs.  They don’t understand that oral contraceptives do not prevent the sperm from fertilizing the egg but rather prevents the fertilized egg from implanting in the womb. 

So that fertilized egg?  If the GOP has its way, that egg becomes more important than the mother.  Yup.  That’s what the “Personhood” Amendment does.  The one VP Candidate Paul Ryan sponsored along with Senate Candidate Todd Akin.  It gives property rights to fertilized eggs.  Human ones, that is.  They haven’t made any inroads in giving chicken eggs the keys to the henhouse. Yet.

A Romney presidency will guarantee Supreme Court appointments will overturn Roe v. Wade.  Everybody knows that.

And Obama victory will prevent that.  A Democratic Senate will prevent that, too.

But there is more.

In the last 2 years while the GOP has controlled the U.S. House of Representatives, they have passed 55 bills outlawing abortion.  They have passed 0 jobs bills.  Yeah, that’s a ZERO.  A big goose egg (ahem).  And of course, they campaigned on JOBS, JOBS, JOBs! in 2010.  That’s the promise that gave them the House of Representatives.  And then they blocked all bills that would have helped create jobs.

We really need to get rid of these crazies.  We need to get rid of the nutcases, the fanatics that want to control our bodies, eliminate our liberties, stop on our freedoms and who then wrap it in the flag and sing The Star Spangled Banner.

Well, Damn it, that’s my flag too, and my national anthem.  Keep your crazy ass hands off of them both.

64 Comments

Filed under Campaigning, Childhood Traumas, Criminal Activity, Elections, Family, Health and Medicine, History, Hypocrisy, Law, Politics, Science, Stupidity, Voting

Wait, Wait, I have a Question!

OK, I am not even going to try to be cute or funny or anything of the sort.

Here are my three questions for Mitt Romney:

Q:  If I move to the Middle East, do I get to control my own lady-parts andget equal pay for equal work?  Because you don’t think I am entitled to do that here in the U.S., do you?

ROMNEY: Well, my strategy is pretty straightforward, which is to go after the bad guys, to make sure we do our very best to interrupt them, to — to kill them, to take them out of the picture.

But my strategy is broader than that. That’s — that’s important, of course. But the key that we’re going to have to pursue is a — is a pathway to get the Muslim world to be able to reject extremism on its own. […]

And how do we do that? A group of Arab scholars came together, organized by the U.N., to look at how we can help the — the world reject these — these terrorists. And the answer they came up with was this:

One, more economic development …

Number two, better education.

Number three, gender equality.

Number four, the rule of law.

Q:  If you change your position on every issue based on who you are talking to, how the hell can any foreign leader know when you mean what you say, when you’re pandering, and when you are telling an outright lie?

And lastly, at least for the moment,

 Q:  You frequently talk about all your record in Massachusetts, about which you claim to be very proud. If you did such a bang up job, Why are the folks in Massachusetts going to vote for President Obama?

 

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If you live in the United States and would like to help GET OUT THE VOTE, you can make calls no matter where you live through the Obama website:  http://www.barackobama.com/

Remember, Elections Matter.  So do results.

 VOTE DEMOCRATIC!

37 Comments

Filed under Campaigning, Criminal Activity, Elections, Health and Medicine, History, Hypocrisy, Politics, Voting