Tim Russert Dead At 58

Wanted to pass along this sad news: Tim Russert collapsed at work and later died from cardiac arrest. I'm so sorry for his family. Life, even a long one, is short. He was 58 years old.

A quick note--Tim Russert always struck me as fair-minded and incisive. He seemed to be one of the few sensible journalists. He will be missed.

Cross posted at Right Wing News

And Then She Came Out Of The Closet

One of my favorite bloggers, The Anchoress, has always blogged in anonymity. It mattered not to me. She's a genius and a wonderful person, to boot. Well, she has decided to come out of the closet. She even has a picture. In addition, one of her best pieces of writing was written under her real name: Elizabeth Scalia. She discusses suffering and nihilism. Europe precedes America on the slope toward embracing death rather than choosing life:

But this is too sad, it is. Life is so very sad and so very beautiful. Some will scoff: "Beauty? What beauty? What kind of sick mind can find beauty in this pietà? It would be more beautiful to help your brother to end his suffering. Real love has nothing in common with pain. What is to be gained from all of this beside some medieval Catholic satisfaction in suffering?"

I can only answer that question with a question: Do you think that giving my lionhearted brother a "compassionate" needle would truly lessen our suffering, or his? By cutting short the process, do we step off the Via Dolorosa and avoid it all, or do we merely thwart a plan for our own lives? Should we steal from our brother the opportunity for him to reach out a hand and have it immediately grasped, to have everything about his existence affirmed, over and over?

Should we steal from ourselves the opportunity to love?

This is a great article to read if you've watched a loved one die or if you're in the process of facing such a trial. Her perspective caused me to pause and consider. That's usually my reaction, in fact, it is almost always my reaction to her writing: careful consideration.

I'm glad she came out of the closet. It's such a lovely face to put with such lovely writing.

Stuff You Should Know

Did you know that if things don't change you'll be required to use fluorescent light bulbs? Did you know that because so much corn and other grains are being used in biofuels that people in third world countries are starving? There are consequences to "feel good" policies that are economically and ultimately, morally, stupid.

Remember Ollie Johnson, dead at 95. I do. He's the guy who poured his soul into my favorite Disney film: Jungle Book.

If, you're so inclined.....a round-up from last nights stupid Democratic debate. Okay, I had to come back to this. Harrumph. Ann Althouse said the only quotable thing I've read, here it is:

2. Obama has always had a blandness about him. When you're feeling good about him, you project your hopes onto that blandness and he seems wonderful. When you're anxious about him, you think he's effete and ennervated. He's always the same.

A reader chastised me for leaving Neo-Neocon off of my list of favorite bloggers with ovaries. Dude, I'm including a link here, but that kinda proves my point. There are lots of awesome female bloggers. Am I misogynist to forget her? And, by the way, I had forgotten that Neo was a girl. So there. I'm gender blind....or at least stupid.

I listened to the President's and the Pope's address yesterday and was profoundly moved by both. I considered blogging about it, but knew the Anchoress would do a better job and so I just lazily waited for her to get her posts up. Hell, I do the same thing with weather and Brendan Loy or Maxed Out Mama and economics (she says to hold the mass suicide) or Ann Althouse and law (the Supreme court considers the death penalty for child rapists). I know my limitations and they are myriad.

The Kos kids threaten a revolution if Obama doesn't get the nomination. They fatigue me.

I talked about abortion before and the topic just won't die. And, it shouldn't. This link goes to one of the most disturbing things I have read yet, about the subject. But you should know. Can you imagine a college girl inseminating herself over and over, inducing abortions and then using the dead embryos and fetal tissue in an art project? Guess the college....Yale. Money quote:

"I hope it inspires some sort of discourse," Shvarts said. "Sure, some people will be upset with the message and will not agree with it, but it's not the intention of the piece to scandalize anyone."

And on that happy note, I'll got teach my kiddos something rational. We're learning division.

On Death And Dying

My senior year of High School, a good friend's father died from a brain tumor after suffering with brain cancer for more than a year. It was absolutely excruciating to watch her suffer, and a lot to handle at 17 for myself. I read the classic by Kubler-Ross On Death and Dying. She talks about the stages of grief. I have seen these stages played out too many times now, both personally and professionally, and there are ways to help make passing easier for those left behind.

Life is awfully short. A blink. And no one wants to die, not even those who are desperate and suicidal. Death is a means of escape for some, but it comes at a permanent cost. Well, only permanent in this physical sense.

The father of my friend did some wonderful things for his family. He set them up financially. He fought as hard as he could for as long as he could. And when it became clear that he wouldn't last, he called each child in, talked to them individually, and told them how much he loved and cared for them. They did not have to doubt as they grew up. They knew love.

Today, a friend of ours died. He had been told a year and half ago that he had three months to live. He had a rare form of cancer. Medicine held no hope. He was a powerful man. He grew up sleeping on dirt floors and grew a formidable business. He had everything, physically, a person could dream of. He got to fulfill his secret hopes--something many people don't get to do in their life.

His fierce spirit and questioning nature served him well. He turned to medical alternatives, changed his diet and changed his attitude and spirit. He managed to stave off the inevitable over eighteen months. Only weeks ago, we were at a basketball game with him, having dinner together and remarking at his amazing vitality. He had gained weight. He looked better than he had in over a year. It was our last time together in his health. Over the last days, a tumor literally strangled the life out of him. And he died.

It happened quickly, which was a mercy. He wasn't in pain, which was another mercy. His family was with him and could be there for him. He was loved. And he could share love. He had so many plans and so much to do. He was young, relatively speaking. He's gone and all that remains is his work and the lives he's touched.

We get too caught up, I think, in the temporal and immediate. Life can be snatched away in an instant and to not be fully present in it is a waste.

Today, a loved one is having a birthday. Today, babies are born. Today, there is hope for those who have life in them to hope. If nothing else, mortality seems to be the best reason to live.

Don't Get Sick In The Hospital

Certain things are common knowledge if you've had the unfortunate experience of spending much time in the hospital: 1) bad things happen on the weekend and 2) bad things happen at night. If I had to do one thing over again at the hospital when my premature sons were there, it would have been to trade off and stay all night with my son. That's when the shit hit the fan, and when stupid mistakes were made. As it was, I stayed at the hospital until midnight every night. But the real drama happens from 1 to 5 a.m. 

Now this conventional wisdom is supported by research:

The current study examined cardiac arrests among 86,748 adult hospital patients at 507 hospitals during a seven-year period ending last February. The researchers compared survival rates by the time of day and day of the week that cardiac arrest occurred. Among patients who had cardiac arrest between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m., only 15 percent survived long enough to be discharged. That compares to about 20 percent of day-shift cardiac arrest patients who were discharged. Other measures, including 24-hour survival and favorable neurological outcomes, also were worse if the patient had a heart attack at night. The study also confirmed earlier research showing that weekday cardiac arrest survival was better than if cardiac arrest occurred on weekends.

Worthwhile Reading

I'm wandering around the web today. This last week has been challenging--sick kids and other concerns--so I haven't been reading and/or blogging much.

I still find myself sick of politics. My bottom line: this election seems exceedingly important to me and I have never seen such a weak field on both sides. Mark Steyn says "it's a shame one of them has to win". Indeed. On the Left, both Clinton and Obama are untested. Clinton has everything the Clinton name implies which so does not interest me. Four years of that, again. Obama seems a mile wide and an inch deep. There just doesn't seem to be any there there. Lot's of people love him, though. McCain strikes me, above all else, as still angry. Others use the word "briny". I know it's a cliché, but he just doesn't have a presidential temperment--his refusal to buckle on anything seems recalcitrant not righteous. Romney, has business experience sure, but I just feel uneasy about him. Is destroying the conservative movement worth any of these people?

This all sounds vague and nebulous, I know, but those are my overarching impressions--never mind the policy decisions they've all made. Other impressions:

Betsy gets at why Bill Clinton has been so wheels off lately.

What place does faith have in elections? I mean, we vote, asserting our point of view. If we were truly faithful, would we vote or get involved with politics at all? Well, Christians do have dual citizenship, feet in two worlds, so it stands to reason to be fully present in both, voting would happen here and praying would happen for there. But how to do this? Does the shrieking hysterics from the likes of Ann Coulter constitute a lack of faith or is she asserting her place in this world? The Anchoress writes on the "hand wringing" and urges conservatives to pray. Like me, she thinks we'll be missing G. W. Bush after he's gone. I think that's a given at this point. Her post calls to mind my favorite scripture: I John 4:18. "There is no fear in love. Perfect love casts out fear." Fear just doesn't go away, it must be replaced with something and that something is love.

That brings me to something else. My Australian friend and I were Skyping last night (isn't technology amazing?) and contemplating the election. For what it's worth, her friends think that McCain will be the American president. Meh. A friend in France was calling it for Giuliani and that's not going to happen. Back to the point. We agreed that people rise to the occasion, that the Presidency forces a person to grow. Now, some Presidents refuse to grow--Jimmy Carter strikes me as one. He chose to stay the peanut farmer. Part of my worry about Mike Huckabee was just that. We don't need a President who refuses to grow into the role. I do feel that for all their faults, any of the people now seriously considered as candidates would attempt to grow (except possibly for McCain), but I do think the Democrats would put forward horrible policies for the nation. The economy is shaky. We don't need shaky leadership.

Back to faith and life. My friend Maxed Out Mama is alive today because someone believed she was worth saving. She discusses forced starvation by dehydration, the medical version of doing harm without actually "doing" anything. It is barbaric and wrong and almost incomprehensible in this day and age, but it happens all the time. I have two friends who were severely brain injured--one in a car accident, the other thrown from a motorcycle. In both cases, they came out of their problems different than they went into them. They are both whole and both could have been left to wither away. Meanwhile, the 35 year anniversary of Roe v. Wade was this last week. What we do to the innocent.

Quote of the week via LaShawn Barber:
I freed thousands of slaves. I could have freed thousands more, if they had known they were slaves. – Harriet Tubman

Her whole post is worth reading, but I'm taking the idea in a different direction. To one extent or another, we are all slaves. Most of us are enslaved by our own beliefs and dogma. For those of us trying to live aware lives, it can come as a shock when we are blind-sided by a blind spot. But we are ready to see when we're ready. When the shake-up happens, the experience begs the question: where else am I enslaved? The benefit of friends, and of therapy or coaching, can be to see the blind spots and change.

But the fact remains: we must acknowledge that we are slaves. To get to freedom, we have to admit we're not free now. It's still the beginning of a new year and a good time to reevaluate beliefs. Are they helpful? Are they true? Do they build joy and happiness or do they limit and create misery?

And with that, enjoy the game. There are winners and losers in life, but the biggest losers are the ones who refuse to play. This week, get in the game!

Young & Dead

Just want to note here, the loss of Heath Ledger actor. It is a sad day when someone so young ends too soon without fulfilling his potential.

The Death Penalty: Data Backs Common Sense

You know how everyone intuitively understands that the death penalty stops some (not all) criminals? Among friends, I've had discussions where people wonder why anyone would commit a murder in Texas. Criminals seem absolutely terrified of being extradited to Texas for good reason. In Texas, they get killed, good and dead.

You know how all the pointy heads said that the death penalty isn't a deterrent it's just society's blood-thirsty need for vengeance? And you know how you thought to yourself, whatever, that scum-sucking psycho murderer rapist has zero chance of hurting anyone else and maybe some other scum will think twice.

Turns out, conventional wisdom was right.

According to roughly a dozen recent studies, executions save lives. For each inmate put to death, the studies say, 3 to 18 murders are prevented.

The effect is most pronounced, according to some studies, in Texas and other states that execute condemned inmates relatively often and relatively quickly.

The studies, performed by economists in the past decade, compare the number of executions in different jurisdictions with homicide rates over time — while trying to eliminate the effects of crime rates, conviction rates and other factors — and say that murder rates tend to fall as executions rise. One influential study looked at 3,054 counties over two decades.

“I personally am opposed to the death penalty,” said H. Naci Mocan, an economist at Louisiana State University and an author of a study finding that each execution saves five lives. “But my research shows that there is a deterrent effect.”

I know. Shocking. But still, it's nice to have data back up common sense.

Child Mortality Hits Record Low

Child mortality dropped because of easy, low-tech, and mostly nutritional improvements:

1. Breast-feeding
2. Vitamin A drops
3. DDT spraying, draining swamps, and mosquito nets
4. Immunizations
   

If hygiene and nutrition improve, babies live. If they aren't bit by nasty bugs, babies live. Pretty simple solutions, actually. But the most difficult solution is to end war:

Despite the improvement, two sets of countries have worsened, Unicef said: those in southern Africa that have been hit hardest by AIDS, and those that have been at war recently, like Congo and Sierra Leone.

Iraq is worse, too, but the numbers come from 2004 and the situation has dramatically changed. It also depends on the part of Iraq. Experts expect better overall numbers the next time the study is released:

Interestingly, Unicef officials said, the new estimate comes from household surveys done in 2005 or earlier, so they barely reflect the huge influx of money that has poured into third world health in the last few years from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; the Gates Foundation; and the Bush administration’s twin programs to fight AIDS and malaria. For that reason, the next five-year survey should show even greater improvement, they said.

This is good news.

Leona Helmsley Roars To The Grave

LEFT: I wonder if she is in the hot seat? Look at that face; pure contempt.


I gave Leona Helmsley the benefit of the doubt during her trial and incarceration which I had attributed to class warfare and rich-people hatred, but now, I'm beginning to think that she is one of those mean, petty, vindictive, manipulative, condescending, imperious people who would be little less than nothing were it not for loads of money. I suspect she came from the plebe class and despised her working-class roots. They're the worst sort when endowed with unearned cash.

Ah, and after a little peak at Wikipedia, what do you know? I swear I did not look at this entry before typing the above. Of course, this doesn't make me a genius. She's pretty easy to deconstruct, I mean, even the Donald had her figured out:

She was born Leona Mindy Rosenthal in Marbletown, Ulster County, New York, to Polish Jewish immigrants, daughter of a hatmaker, and raised in Brooklyn. As an adult, she legally changed her surname to Roberts, according to an obituary in the New York Times.[1]. Helmsley would later claim that she appeared in billboard ads for Chesterfield cigarettes, but there is no evidence of this, and her claim remains entirely unsubstantiated.

So this woman pretends at wealth and fame and will do anything to get a name. Ambitious in the extreme and tyrannical to those "beneath" her, her disrespect of the help just masks her own fear of loss and self-loathing. To mask her powerlessness, she feels powerful by abusing everyone around her. Her family makes nice soft targets. Most people attempt to be nice to grandma, but she would have none of it. No doubt, kindness was viewed with suspicion. Anyone nice is just after money--just like Leona was herself. That's what people do, project their secret weaknesses on others. (Watch what the Clintons accuse others of, it's very telling.) Anyone who met her disdain with disdain was cast aside. Her child and grandchildren had no chance with her. She was only about herself.

Her only child, a son from her first (lesser) marriage died of a heart-attack. This is what Leona did:

On March 31, 1982, her only child, Jay Panzirer, died of a heart attack. Leona then sued her son's estate for money and property that she said he had borrowed, and her son's widow Mimi received an eviction notice. Mimi Panzirer - the mother of Leona's four grandchildren - later said the legal expenses wiped her out and "to this day I don't know why they did it."

I know why. Her son was not of sufficiently bred stock. She hated her past and he was one big reminder of that. Once he died, she could absolve herself of bringing his wife and family to nothing.

It looks like many of us who were Leona defenders (the legal case was weak) were wrong. She might just be one of those people who deserve to spend time sleeping on bunk with a public toilet. Seems Paris Hilton learned more lessons from her bunk-time than Leona did. Justice is cruel, though. She may have stipulated a golden sarcophagus, but she's still dead. Even Leona's money and arrogance can't save her from that humble fate.

"Texans are doing just fine governing Texas."

Governor Rick Perry responds to European critics of the death penalty:

“230 years ago, our forefathers fought a war to throw off the yoke of a European monarch and gain the freedom of self-determination. Texans long ago decided that the death penalty is a just and appropriate punishment for the most horrible crimes committed against our citizens. While we respect our friends in Europe, welcome their investment in our state and appreciate their interest in our laws, Texans are doing just fine governing Texas.”

Yes, we are. Thank you. Just last week, I cited this example of why I believe in the death penalty. The Europeans should just eat their crumpets and croissants in silence. When they criticize they make themselves look stupid.

H/T Glenn Reynolds

Miners Being Left

I haven't posted about this topic. It's too awful for words. And now, it looks like the six miners will be left there:

Mine officials had sustained hope for two weeks that the miners would be brought out alive, even after three rescuers were killed and six more hurt in another "bump" inside the mountain.

Family members of the six miners trapped in the initial Aug. 6 collapse accused the mine's owners and federal officials of abandoning their loved ones.

Lives have been lost in the rescue effort. It seems like a needle in the haystack kind of job. And yet, my instinct is to say keep looking. I suppose I'm imagining these men having enough air and water to survive and dying from starvation not being crushed. I don't know the odds of either possibility.

I would hate to be the person making this excruciating decision.

Eight Missing In Minnesota Bridge Collapse

Eight is down from twenty. This is still eight too many. Perhaps there will be a miraculous outcome where all eight are accounted for.

Healthy Skepticism

There is little doubt that the American health care system doesn't do a very good job of keeping people healthy. Modern medicine and many medications and surgeries exist so a person won't die, not so they can live well. And while that, in itself, is noble, the opposite outcome happens, too: medications and surgeries meant to save lives actually contribute to deaths.

I think the problem in medicine reflects those who seek cures: it is a system that externalizes responsibility. People have health problems that happen to them. They are victims of their own bodies. The solution happens to them, too. But the vast majority of American illness is entirely preventable (80% with 90% of health care expenditures spent on preventable illness). A passive mentality results in giving power to those who would "cure". And people willingly do it so that they can continue their lifestyle.

So, here is a video from Dr. Mercola about health care in America. It is sobering. While I don't go in for the conspiracy theories--I actually believe that scientists and doctors want to save people with innovative technology and medication and they dedicate their lives to saving their fellow man (often from their own stupidity) I also believe that good intentions pave the road to hell. Our health care system can be hell:

Libya Releases Doctor and Nurses Accused of Infecting Children With AIDS

Finally.

V-Tech: Time Helps, Time Doesn't Heal and Other Idol Thoughts

I'm watching American Idol right now. So far, nothing too impressive, but Simon seems unduly harsh on poor Chris. This Virginia boy is on the verge of tears. I would be, too. Melinda knocked it out of the park. Wow, can she perform! LaKisha undersung. That is, the song was too small for her voice. You know how Carrie Underwood has to free her voice to sing Jesus Take the Wheel? Well, LaKisha had to rein in her voice for the song. She needed a bigger, gutsier song. And I know the Anchoress doesn't get it, but I like Blake. I think he's held back by nerves. That could hamper his career, too. He'll have to get over it. Whatever "it" is.

Still, and all, I can't concentrate on Idol tonight. I'm thinking about when bad things happen to good people. Every day bad things happen to good people. Lives are changed permanently, irrevocably, painfully. And everyone, eventually, has those moments. The moments stretch out and change the perception of time. Surreal. Out of body. A flash. An instant. Pain.

There is a misconception that people who have experienced lots of pain acclimate to pain. This is untrue. In fact, people who have experienced chronic pain are more sensitive to it and more reactive under the threat of pain. It is not just physical either. Emotional pain can literally cause heart ache. That is, the part of the brain that registers pain in a body part, will register heart pain, when a person is distraught. Is that so strange? We've all had knots in our stomach or pains in our neck or heart-breaking, gut-wrenching sorrow. And we've all experienced it going from bad to worse and the pain doesn't lessen, the quality of the pain just changes.

In Virginia and all over the nation, there is pain. Watching the mystified, shocky victims talking to the press makes me feel revulsion. These people will wake up from their surreal experience and wonder who the hell it was talking to Stone Phillips. It wasn't me, they'll think. And it isn't them. Or rather, it isn't the people they now will be. They are changed. And the press and photographers exploit them all.

The V-Tech students, faculty and families will wake up tomorrow and be stunned to find that the world keeps on rotating. Life is cruel that way; the world keeps going while hell swirls around. Lance Armstrong described this phenomenon best in It's Not About The Bike. Going out and riding or doing anything seemed like such small potatoes after fighting for his life in a hospital, where time is suspended.

I'm rambling now. I'm tired of people having to suffer this way. And yet, there is no miracle cure for these types of situations--not in this life, anyway. A friend told me that time helps. Neither one of us is sure if time heals. Time fades the memories. Time gives a person the space to construct a context in which to place the trauma. Time is not magical. It doesn't erase anything--unless dementia or Alzheimers sets in. The years will pass and these resilient people will find ways to integrate even something so awful as this.

May they be conforted during their loss.

Remember the families of these people.

Anna Nicole Dead

You know how the first thing that came out when her son died, is someone saying they heard her yelling, "This is all your fault!"? Well, I'm just wondering who supplied Anna and her son medication/drugs. She looked so bad the pictures I saw of her a week or two ago. My husband and I turned to each other and said, "Drugs".

TrimSpa very likely didn't help her lose that weight, but I bet crystal meth did. There will be debate in the coming days whether the press killed Anna or Anna killed herself (a local talk-show already is debating this). I vote for the latter. She fomented the fame thing. Anyone who has seen her show knows she was definitely not right mentally.

Some are already casting Anna Nicole as a victim. Are we going to lionize a woman who used drugs, sold her body for fame and seemed completely driven by money? She was a troubled woman, to be sure, but she sure appeared to be in charge of her own life.

And she does have a surviving five month old. Calling Brittney Spears, are you seeing this?

More here.

UPDATE: And Dr. Helen wonders about the custody battle. I think she means the money battle.

UPDATE II: What a sad, sad story. More information here.

Funeral Songs

Ann Althouse has a laugh-out-loud post about what music (or pop muzak as the case seems to be) to play at one's funeral.

• For those who are vertically challenged: Randy Newman's Short People Got No Reason to Live.
• For those who are goodness challenged: Pyromania by Def Leppard.
• For those who are prone to sin but repent a lot: Sin Wagon by the once famous Dixie Chicks.
• For the optimist: Let the River Run by Carly Simon.
• For the perversely vindictive: Mr. Mistopheles from Cats by Andrew Lloyd Webber. (Yeah, all you survivors can let that song roll through your cranium over and over forever. How's that for living pergatory?)
  
• For those who want to stick around: Possession by Sarah McLaughlin.
• For those who want to let the world know their dead spouse was less than a nice person: Since You Been Gone by Kelly Clarkson.
• For those who want to surrender to the inevitable: The Long Day is Over by Norah Jones.
  
• For those who want to describe the next life: What a Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong.
• For the hero: I Would Die 4 U by Prince.
  

Got any ideas? Actually, the hubby and I have talked extensively about this--I guess it's a by-product of the cancer thing and losing a child. We both have our wishes. Some of them are pretty conventional, some not.

Also, I want everyone notified here and now that we both want to be put in pine boxes (the cheapest possible) and cremated. Please do NOT judge the surviving spouse for the ignominious box. The funeral industry is a racket. It will piss me off on the other side to find out that 20Gs were spent on a beauty box. What a waste! Go on a vacation...buy a toy...something.