Blast from my USENET Past: Sexual Abuse and the Pillars of Society

[[Another in an occasional series of republishing some of my old USENET essays (in this case, someone reminded me about this as I'd forgotten it). Sadly, its even more relevant now than it was back in 1992, particularly when you think of the Jerry Sandusky case at Penn State. Some attitudes never change]]

Last week, a former Catholic priest admitted to a reporter that he had raped between 50 and 100 children in Massachusetts churches in the early '60s. This week, a local minister goes to court, accused of raping three exchange students living  in his house. 

We, as a society, have a terrible time dealing with child abuse, especially child sexual abuse.  We may admit that sexually-warped characters exist in the seamy underside of society, among the poor, the drug abusers and the prostitutes.  But when accused sexual abusers are among the "pillars" of society, among the clergy, doctors, police, and educators, people become apoplectic.  The accusation of sexual abuse, especially when the accused is a "good man," forces most into absolute denial of the issue.

As a society, we have to be willing to listen when our children or our friends tell us that they are being abused.  We have to support the people bringing the allegations, and, when the allegations are proven in court, we must be willing to sentence the perpetrators to long jail terms and to develop programs that attempt to rehabilitate them.

We must all do what we can to stop the attitudes that promote sexual abuse. These attitudes include:

the idea that people own one another.  A husband does not own his wife, parents do not own their children, and youth leaders do not own the children in their care.
the "blame the victim" mentality.  Children do not seduce adults, and a woman in a miniskirt is not an invitation to a rape.
the "if I want sex, I'll get it" mentality.  Sex should be an act between consenting adults, not a power play between individuals, one of whom may be too young or too scared to resist.
the "pillar of society" trap.  In a community's haste to "be fair to" the accused, the victim is often ridiculed, harassed, and blamed for the situation

Our society makes it almost impossible for victims to come forward.  But the consequence of our silence is tacit permission, leading to even greater tragedies.  A few years ago, in Massachusetts, a middle-aged man took to   picking up teenaged hitchhikers and exposing himself to them.  He raped at   least one of them. No one ever reported him. 

When his 13-year-old neighbor vanished, he helped to search for her. The teenager's body was later found in his cellar.  If one of his previous victims had felt comfortable coming forward, Melissa Benoit might still be alive, and Henry Meinholz might have gotten into treatment.  Instead, this ex-church deacon has been sentenced to life in prison without parole, and the judge regretted the lack of a death penalty.

Sexually abusers are sick, but they are not usually insane.  Sexual abusers need to be held accountable for their crimes, and they need to be rehabilitated.  And we, as members of this society, must take a more active role in discouraging sexual abuse, encouraging its prosecution, and supporting sexual abuse survivors.

Related postings:

They Said/They Said
Creeps in Society
Dealing with Anonymous and/or Abusive Comments

My Chicon Panels

I'll be on a couple of panels at Worldcon:

Thu Aug 30 12:00:pm-1:30:pm 

How to Moderate a Panel

Addams

Veteran panelists discuss how to be an effective panel moderator, and offer suggestions on things to avoid.

Janice Gelb Laurie Mann Teresa Nielsen Hayden

Thu Aug 30 4:30:pm -6:00:pm 

So You Think You Want to Run a Convention?

McCormick

A panel on the basics of con-planning and con-running.

Deb Geisler Howard Scrimgeour Laurie Mann Milt Stevens Vincent Docherty

Sun Sep 2 12:00:pm-1:30:pm

Science Fiction In Memoriam

Haymarket

A remembrance of authors, fans, artists, and actors who the science fiction community has lost since we last convened at Renovation.

Laurie Mann Mike Glyer Steven H Silver

Sun Sep 2 3:00:pm-4:30:pm

Worldcon Heritage Project

Fannish history exhibits are a way to connect fans of the present with mementos of the past. The Worldcon Heritage Project is working to collect, catalogue, and repair the publications, T-shirts, and other items from Worldcons past.

Kevin Standlee Laurie Mann Mark Olson

Tale of Two...GROAN...Three Surgeries

Original Version: February 1978
Updated: July 2007
Updated Again: July 2012

2007 was a bad year for health issues in our household. Leslie started off the year on January 3 with her car accident (not her fault), and we got to know the Emergency Room over at Ohio Valley Hospital. Jim's had some annoying neck pain, so he's been over there for tests. And, since January, I had chronic pelvic pain. I was diagnosed with ovarian cysts in March. I'd had ovarian cysts removed previously in 1978. It turns out ovarian cysts are very common in DES daughters; my sister and I, both DES daughters, have had them twice during our lifetimes (so far).
2012 was a rotten year for me healthwise. Cysts came back big time. So...this essay is a comparison of how ovarian cyst surgery was done in 1978, and how it was done in 2007, and if the process changed any in 2012.
What follows is probably way too much information about medical conditions, so don't say you weren't warned. Or just skip to here, where I talk about how the surgeries were different.

---

1977-1978: In about October of '77, I had a routine gynecological check-up and was told I seemed to have some sort of growth near my left ovary. The doctor said he thought it was a cyst, and told me to get a sonargram. A few weeks later, the sonargram confirmed the cyst. The doctor prescribed surgery, and I wound up scheduling it for my 21st birthday.
The cyst was mostly asymptomatic, though I was working a sales job where I stood up most of the time, and I had occasional dizzy spells. That might also have been from stress over the surgery, as I'd never had surgery any more serious than a tonsilectomy before.
The afternoon before surgery, I went to Magee Women's Hospital and had prep done - lung X-ray, blood tests, more exams. As Magee was a teaching hospital, I had my pelvic exam observed by a bunch of interns, which was kind of embarrassing. I was a little concerned about all the consent forms I had to sign, because they basically said I was signing away all future reproductive rights if they found cancer. I couldn't not sign, but reminded the doctor I did have hopes of having a child some day.
I think I was in one room pre-surgery, and was in another room post-surgery. Unlike almost everyone else on the floor, I felt fine. I remember talking to the woman across the hall who was scheduled for a late term abortion the next day. She was very sick and had several small children at home already (she'd pretty much gotten the "having this baby will kill you" talk). Whenever I hear about medical procedures getting politicized, I think of her.
After various other surgical prep in the evening, they gave me a sleeping pill and I slept pretty well. Early in the morning, they took me into surgery, and I don't remember anything until I woke up in the recovery room. I think I was told that everything was OK, and I'd just had a cyst. I was in recovery for a couple of hours, then brought to a new room. I don't remember too much about the first day, other than Jim and a friend from our club, Dave, stopping by. The reason why Dave could stop in so soon after surgery was because he was a student minister; clergy could pretty much come and go in the hospital as they pleased.
Next day, I was detached from various tubes and encouraged to walk, which I did. I remember being extremely sore and unsteady walking, but I practiced faithfully. The surgical floor was near the obstetrics floor, so I'd pass by the nursery and look at the babies. Periodically, someone would check my dressing or take my temperature. Meals included soup and Jello (which I avoid). I don't remember what I was given for pain; I only had a standard IV for hydration, and, periodically, a nurse would shoot various drugs into a tube in the IV. Twice a day, I'd get a vitamin K shot in my abdomen. I learned you can't cough or laugh after you have abdominal surgery. Let me correct that - you have to cough, but you have to cough carefully. It's important to cough to keep your lungs clear so you don't develop pneumonia. But you need to avoid coughing using all the muscles in your abdomen.
Seeing my roommate's condition spurred me to keep walking. My roommate was much older than me and had to have a total hysterectomy. She had her surgery the day after I did. I never saw her get out of bed over the next few days, and she wound up getting a special breathing apparatus to help keep her lungs clear. I'm not sure what happened to her afterwards, but I wouldn't have been surprised to learn that she didn't recover.
So after about five days of hanging out in the hospital, I went home. A nurse removed the top layer of stitches (this was a "bikini scar" - horizontal) which kind of tickled in a funny way. I was still a little sore, and getting in and out of bed at home was really tough (our bed in those days was very low). As my job involved standing and carrying things, I couldn't go back to work for a month, even though I was only working part time.

---

2007: Early in January, I started having pelvic pain not related to my period. This was very depressing, as my periods had been getting very painful, and to be in pain almost every day was annoying. And it was yet something else to disturb my sleep. Between the move and everything else that went on last year, I hadn't seen a gynecologist in nearly two years. Luckily, it turned out there was one nearby, and I arranged to see her in early March. Dr. Rosado thought I probably had a cyst. "Been there, done that."
She sent me for a sonargram. Sonargrams haven't changed a whole lot over the last 30 years, except for the addition of the "transvaginal probe." Think vibrator-like device on a wire, that provides a slightly different angle on the pelvis. The sonargram tech said she found at least three cysts near the right ovary, one uterine fibroid, but nothing that looked particularly bad (tumors tend to show up as dense spots on sonargrams, while cysts are more diffuse). They said I had to go back for a follow-up sonargram in about two months, to make sure the cysts didn't just go away. Apparently, in some cases, they do.
So I arranged for a follow-up test and waited. The pain wasn't all that bad most of the time, but it was chronic. I wound up having to take Aleve about twice a week when it got particularly bad. The cysts showed up again on the May sonargram. And then I was told it might be another six months of wait and see, since they weren't getting any bigger.
*Groan*
My gynecologist sent me for additional tests to make sure that we were only dealing with cysts. Additional tests sometimes make some straightforward things not so straightforward. And, after the second sonargram, I started having pain on the left side as well as on the right. But the good thing about the extra tests was that they, temporarily, put me on the fast-track for surgery. I was hoping to have a laparoscopy, but my doctor said I'd need a full incision as I was now having pain on both sides.
So surgery was scheduled and I went for pre-op tests - a chest X-ray, an EKG and blood work. But then other insurance issues, and my doctor's busy-ness (she's an OB/GYN and a surgeon) kept delaying the surgery. In the middle of all this, I saw Sicko. I was very relieved my insurance company did not appear anywhere in the documentary! I can deal with being jerked around, and even delays, both of which were very annoying, but it's not nearly so annoying as ultimately being denied care.
Finally, surgery was confirmed by the insurance company, the doctor and the hospital. My doctor tends to be fairly conservative, and I did say I'd prefer to have the bare minimum removed. She thought I'd have to have one ovary removed because it looked like some of the cysts were actually in the right ovary. But unless she saw major problems (like cancer), she thought it was unlikely I'd have anything else beyond the cysts and an ovary taken out. Being older and having had a child, I didn't feel quite as uncomfortable about signing the surgical permission forms this time. I also felt better because my gynecologist and my surgeon was the same person, rather than being two different people. And I think it helps to have a woman do gynecological surgery, because I suspect they'd be a little more conservative in this area than a man might be.
I spent the night before surgery at home, not eating, and drinking the ever popular "Go-Litely" (if you've had a colonoscopy, you know the drill). We had to get up at 4:30 the next morning, so I could get to the hospital by 5:30.
The OB/GYN floor at Ohio Valley was new and very quiet. I had a room at the very end of the hall; at the time I thought that was because there were many patients there. However, the hall was almost empty. All the rooms appeared to be private rooms, which was very nice. I'd never had a private room in a hospital before.
Two nurses came in to help get me ready for surgery. I have tough veins to find, and I hadn't been allowed to drink anything after midnight. So I was dehydrated, which makes the veins even harder to find. Getting an IV line inserted is tougher than just drawing blood, and the nurses tried three times before giving up.
You also have to keep repeating who you are, what your doctor's name is and what surgery you're about to have. I remember meeting with the anesthesiologist and talking to him briefly. My doctor stopped in to say hi, and then I was wheeled off to surgery. They finally got the IV in and I was out pretty fast after that.
I remember waking up while I was still intubated, which was psychologically tough for me to handle. I remember my doctor saying everything was fine, but was too upset by the breathing tube to be calm at that moment. I was taken to recovery, and went through about the longest 10 minutes of my life (I have a terrible gag reflex). Finally, they decided I was awake enough to be extubated, which was tough but fast.
I was only in recovery about an hour, and I was much more comfortable once I was breathing on my own. There was a guy to my left, and at one point two heavily gowned nurses brought a patient with a staph infection (a jolly thing to hear in a recovery room!). Before I left recovery, Dr. Rosado gave me the good news in great detail - the cysts weren't in my ovaries at all, so she didn't need to remove either ovary. But the right Fallopian tube was filled with fluid and twisted, so she removed that tube and the cysts. Some of my pelvic pain had been caused by endometriel adhesions, most of which she removed. It turns out I have endometriosis, which shouldn't be a huge deal since I don't plan to have any more kids and menopause generally stops endometriosis. But that does help to explain why I have such bad menstrual cramps every month.
Back in my room, I just laid back and watched TV. I called Jim (I'd foolishly only given the hospital his work number and not his cell phone, which meant they couldn't get through since he was always in phone meetings). He was relieved everything was fine and went around notifying folks (I'd left my cell phone home; it generally didn't work in the hospital anyway).
This time, I was on a morphine drip for pain relief. It's the sort of thing that administers morphine in your IV, but if you feel particularly uncomfortable, you can press a button and get a tiny hit. I can't say morphine did anything for me other than suppress the pain and give me an odd sense of time. So I was in bed all of Friday. Jim and Leslie came to visit in the evening; the only other patient on the floor went home that afternoon. It was very quiet. But I slept very poorly. The ventilation was very noisy, and I was in some plastic leggings that inflated and deflated to help prevent clots. They also helped prevent sleep!
I finally fell asleep and woke up with a little headache and general sinus discomfort. When a nurse came in to take my blood pressure and temperature early in the morning, I asked if I could have some saline nasal spray (remember, this isn't a medicine). She said the doctor would have to order it (sigh).
Dr. Rosado stopped in around 8:30 or so, and she said I was looking good enough that I could get generally detached from bags and IVs and the like and could start to eat again. I told her my sinuses were acting up, and she said Jim could bring in saline spray and Pseudofedrine. She also removed my dressing and said everything looked fine. This time, I have a vertical incision a few inches below my navel. With staples. Now, they take the dressings off early, and you have to look at it to make sure it's not infected. I don't like to look at incisions, but take a quick look at my reflection (I know, this is silly, but...) when I'm in the bathroom. So far, it looks uninfected. The staples come out on Thursday.
Once off the IVs, I took Percoset about every four hours. It does a good job suppressing the worst of the pain. There was some incision pain, but it was minor. And I've found walking and moving around much easier than last time. Not sure if it's because I knew what to expect this time, or if the pain medication is better at relieving the pain while leaving you reasonably steady on your feet. Or maybe a vertical abdominal incision is ultimately less painful than a horizontal incision (which gives better cosmetic results). However, they do tell you not to drive while you're on Percoset, and since I'll be on Percoset for about 10 days, I can't drive until late July.
The main weird side effects I had post-surgery had nothing to do with the surgery itself. My blood pressure has stayed high throughout my hospitalization, to the point that they couldn't use the standard automatic blood pressure cuff on my starting on Saturday night. My right arm still has bruises from the automatic-inflate cuff. They started using the old fashion hand-pump pressure cuff and got results that were high. My doctor prescribed blood pressure medication, which brought my blood pressure down in about 12 hours.
Worse than that, after Dr. Rosado said I could go home Sunday morning, I developed a horrible migraine. I hadn't had a migraine so bad in a few years (for that matter, I hadn't had any kind of a migraine since our cat died (I was very allergic to her)). Since my blood pressure had been so erratic, I couldn't take a Pseudofed (my migraines are always related to sinus problems and Pseudofed helps). They gave me Coricidan, and I sat with Jim my darkened room for about an hour until the worst of the nausea went away and the headache diminished slightly. Hot compresses also helped some. But I was surprised that the worst pain I had during the whole hospitalization was from the migraine, not from the surgery. And I still don't quite understand why the Percoset did almost nothing for the migraine.
About an hour after Jim arrived, I was ready to go home, but I was so uncomfortable that I sat with my eyes closed and my head in my hands when my doctor stopped by to say so long. She said I could stay longer if I needed to, but I reminded her that since I thought the hospital air was causing the migraine, I'd rather go home. After an afternoon of sitting on a chair in the family room with hot compresses, the headache finally went away at about 4pm.
Now I'm three days post-op, I feel a little dazed and slightly in pain, but I wound up taking a walk around the block twice today (this "block" is nearly half a mile). Today I'm treating myself to watching all of the LOTR movies and doing some minor Web catch-up. I think I'm writing reasonably coherently (maybe a bit much on the "TMI" side, but I did warn you).

 

---

 
2008-2012: The ovarian cysts came back about a year after the second surgery. Since I assumed I was getting ever closer to menopause, I felt I would wait them out this time. I kept changing gynecologists because they kept telling me the same thing - more surgery. After 2008, I didn't have any major trouble with the cysts, so I had a sonogram every year to make sure they didn't grow. Gradually felt a little worse over the winter of 2012 with more pelvic pain. On March 12 (Jim's birthday), I felt awful, with severe pelvic pain, diarrhea and a urinary tract infection all at once. I went to a doctor for some tests and had to choose another new gynecologist who could see me that week. I was miserable and even spent a few days on the couch or in bed, not really doing anything than trying to make it to the bathroom. The new gynecologist, Dr. Rock, sent me for tests. A cyst we'd been watching for four years had grown from 3cm to 12cm over the last year.
And that meant surgery.
I did decide to defer the surgery until after a long-planned trip to Alaska was over, as sometimes it can take longer than 2 months to be fully recovered from a hysterectomy.  This turned out to be OK as the pain/illness from March was much better in April, May and June.
 

---

July 2012 Surgery

I had a complete hysterectomy on 7/12. I had other issues in addition to the cysts, and since I was 55, I was in agreement with my doctor that I needed to have one - that waiting for menopause to finish wasn't going to work. The surgery went pretty well, though it was more complicated and I was under anesthesia for about 4 1/2 hours. I was very nauseated when they woke me up (and, luckily for me, they had extubated me before waking me up), muttered "nausea" and they gave me something for the nausea right away, so I didn't throw up.
As I've lost over 20 pounds since 2007, walk more, eat better, and take a Benicar every day, my blood pressure was very well controlled. No BP spikes this time.
I brought saline spray for my nose and used it frequently once I was in my room after surgery. I also had arranged for a standing order of anti-migraine drug (probably Compazine) that I could take if I developed one. I did have mild sinus discomfort about 2 days post-op and a little headache, but no migraine!
Getting over a hysterectomy is more involved than getting over a cyst surgery. I'm still walking slowly, but I've generally had less pain than in previous surgeries, which seems counter-intuitive. 2 1/2 weeks post-op, I stopped taking 200mg of Ibuprophen at night.
Lost another 5 pounds since the surgery. I was told to eat whatever I wanted to, including more red meat, so I've been doing what I was told. Just walking about a mile a day. Have a follow-up with my surgeon on 8/1, and should be cleared to drive at that time (which I was).
Felt well enough to go to Confluence about 2 weeks post-op, which I enjoyed even though I was in my room more than usual and left around noon on Sunday. It was just good to get out and see people. I should be more with things by Chicon.
8/7
Feeling pretty good and am walking about 2 1/2 miles a day.  Incision is healing slowly but it is healing.  Surprisingly little pain - a few twinges, that kind of thing.  Felt better than pre-surgery on 8/6 as I spent the morning out running errands and had lunch out.  Also bought myself a gift - a new knapsack as the old one is about 10 years old and is getting frayed.  Today, I am tired, but have been doing some light housecleaning and watching Third Rock from the Sun DVDs.

---

The main differences for the same surgery between 1978 and 2007/2012 were:

• more pre-op testing
• more surgery delays (in 2007, due to insurance; in 2012, due to my wanting to wait until after the Alaska trip)
• better pain management in 2007 (the self-administered option is probably a good idea), tolerable in 2012
• many fewer nights in the hospital
• private room
• radically different wound management (removing the dressing after 24 hours; staples instead of stitches)
• woman surgeon (2007), male surgeons (1978, 2012)
• better hospital food in 2007 (Ohio Valley made a lovely BBQ pulled pork sandwich and didn't serve Jello!), but the one solid meal I had at UPMC Mercy in 2012 was a massive plate of carbs and the glueist oatmeal I have ever tried to eat
• in 2012 at UPMC Mercy, nurses came in every few hours to take your BP, which was less annoying than being on a autocuff overnight. However, I didn't sleep the first night after surgery in 2007 or 2012 due to being required to wear "pneumatic boots" to prevent formation of blood clots.
• The recovery room at UPMC Mercy had windows. Even though it was a dreary day out, having some connection to the outside world during recovery was very nice.

I was bored out of my mind by 5 or 6 nights in the hospital the last time; 2 nights in 2007 and 2012 was just about right.

Pathology Report

I also finally remembered to ask for my pathology report. I thought sure I also had fibroids, but I guess not:

• Adenomyosis (enlarged uterus - 231 grams (60-70 is normal)
• Proliferative endometrium (meaning I still could have had a period if I hadn't had a hysterectomy)
• Unremarkable cervix (with a tiny cervical opening)
• Abscessed left ovary
• Lutein cyst and follicular cysts of right ovary (the largest cyst was 6cm, meaning one had shrunk since the March sonogram found a 12cm cyst)
• Unremarkable Fallopian tubes (though the pathologist could only identify one tube and said the other tube was difficult to discern. One had also been partially removed in 2008).

Related Postings

July 2013: My Uterus - A Look Back

Blast from my USENET Past: Women's Clothing

I joined USENET newsgroups in April 1988 due to the good graces of Massachusetts-based geek Jim Murray.  He was running USENET on a home system and wanted to offer it to others.

I'm pretty sure I made a USENET post or two on Rodney King back in 1991, but I haven't been able to find them.  But I did find some other old posts.  So, from time to time, I'll go back and grab old posts I made.  There was no date attached to this posting, but, based on the signature, it was from the spring or early summer of 1993 (before we moved to Pittsburgh).  The issue I was complaining about here is something I've never changed my opinion on:

Downloaded from a USENET archive:  http://fooo.fr/~vjeux/epita/search/20news-bydate-train/rec.autos/101603

From: lmann@jjmhome.UUCP (Laurie Mann)

Subject: Clothing (Was  Re: male/female mystery [ Re: Dumbest automotive...])

Lines: 41

In article <1pima2INN180@gap.caltech.edu>, wen-king@cs.caltech.edu (Wen-King Su) writes:

> This has me thinking.  Is there a biological reason why women can't put

> their keys in their pants pockets like men do?  I have two pockets on the

> back of each of my pants.  I put my keys in one and wallent in another.

> Many of the pockets even have a botton on them so I can close them securely.

> Everything is that much simpler for me.  Why can't women do the same?

> Is is biological (ie, not enough room for a bigger bottom plus keys and

> a wallet) or is it the way they are raised by the parents? 

Oh PULLEEZE!

It's not biology at all, it's clothing design.  Women's clothing is

generally designed to be as non-functional as possible.  It's only been

in the last five years or so that you could buy women's pants with

pockets deep enough to carry anything in.  Previously, deep pockets were

virtually unknown in women's clothing.  Skirts generally have better

pockets now, too.  Dresses, espcially fancy dresses, are still pretty

hopeless.  I often hand my driver's license over to my husband if we're

dressed up to go out somewhere, so I don't have to be encumbered by a

purse.

If women consistently bought functional clothing, and boycotted the

manufacturers who refuse to make functional women's clothing, I think

manufacturers would tend to bow to market pressures.  There's

an interesting chapter in Susan Faludi's Backlash that described

what happened the LAST time clothing manufacturers ignored the

need for functional women's clothing.  The manufactuing industry

lost millions.

From a woman who would rather buy men's clothing WITH decent pockets and

long legs and high waists than women's clothing without....

-- 

******** lmann@jjmhome.uucp (Internet) Laurie.Mann (GEnie) *********

** Claiming that sex education leads to irresponsible sex is like **

*****  claiming that driver education leads to car accidents.  *****

Rodney King, 1965-2012

I think Rodney was basically a decent man who did some bad things but was treated horribly by many people in Los Angeles. The cops used him as an excuse to savagely beat a black man. Angry people used his trial as an excuse to behave savagely. On the day of the LA riots 20 years ago, King could have gone into hiding, but instead, clearly very shaken, stood before the cameras and begged for calm. He could look beyond the injustice done to him to ask people to not do injustice to others.

Write Your Representatives to Keep Student Loan Rates Low

Dear Representative Murphy


I'm writing to ask you to think of a clever way to keep student college loan rates low.

It is not at all surprising that Republicans are suggesting "raiding a slush fund," this "slush fund" being money set aside for preventative medical care for women and children.  Please remind me why we're not supposed to believe that you Republicans are waging a war against women, when your leaders like Boehner want to fund student loans by defunding medical care.

Why aren't you funding student loans by defunding subsidies to industries making obscene profits, like much of the oil & gas companies and factory farms?

Middle class and poor college students need cheap college loans.  It frequently looks like the Republicans want a permanently  uneducated underclass without health care.  Remember, while you have won your district in the past, many of the people you are supposed to be representing are not Republicans.



*****

Dear Representative Boehner



I'm writing to ask you to think of a clever way to keep student college loan rates low.

It is not at all surprising that you have suggested "raiding a slush fund," this "slush fund" being money set aside for preventative medical care for women and children.  Please remind me why we're not supposed to believe that you Republicans are waging a war against women, when people like you want to fund student loans by defunding medical care.

Why aren't you funding student loans by defunding subsidies to industries making obscene profits, like much of the oil & gas companies and factory farms?

Middle class and poor college students need cheap college loans.  It frequently looks like the Republicans want a permanently  uneducated underclass without health care.  Remember, while you have won your district in the past, many of the people you are supposed to be representing are not Republicans.

Which "We" Are You Talking About?

Commentator Charles M. Blow wrote an interesting essay called "We Are Not Stupid," in which he wonders how people can follow Romney.

The answer, sadly, is that some Americans are profoundly stupid when it comes to voting.  In 2008, one set of "we" voted for McCain even after his team chose Palin.  A larger set of "we" (including me) voted for Obama.

This year, a surprising number of "we" came out for Santorum, one of the most stunningly out-of-touch presidential candidates in recent memory.  Many more still support Romney, despite not having done anything for the people since helping to set up state-wide health care in Massachusetts when he was governor there.  I think at that point in time, he was trying to out-Kennedy Ted Kennedy, a rich man with at least a few clues about government supporting people in need.  Now, like most other Republicans, Romney wants to reduce the debt on the backs of the workers (especially government workers) while giving the rich a pass on tax increases.

Some of "we" seem completely incapable of figuring out that an America constantly at war, with an ever-widening gulf between poor and rich, consistently vote against their own self-interest by voting for Republicans who are only interested in helping the rich and not the whole country.

Politicians, religious leaders and business leaders have been flim-flamming Americans for generations.  Sometimes, they're just after our money or our support, but the politicians are also after our vote.  We have to carefully evaluate where the politicians come from, and how they've evolved over time.  While Obama has made mistakes, I have more trust in him, particularly after getting an initial health care bill passed through an incredibly hostile Congress, than I do for any Republican candidate.

Tenth Anniversary Blog: Increasingly Aggravated by Google

April 2012 marks 10 years of my erratic blogging, 17 1/2 years of being active on the Web, 24 years of being a USENET participant, and 28 1/2 years of having an E-mail address.

WHEW!

For over 10 years, Google was the best search site.  It still is, but its other features are increasingly hard to use.

There I was, trying to give feedback about a company on Google places.  I was logged into my Google account, I wrote up my comment, and this odd little box popped up:

     Set your appearance to start rating

With little graphics the type of which you'd see on early '80s video games.

My options were "Get started" or "Cancel your rating."

On the one hand, I really wanted to rate a local business.

On the other hand, I really have no interest in "Getting started" with some sort of bizarre little Google Places account.

On of the options should have been "Rate."  

Google always likes to say "Do no evil" or "Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful."

I believed that for a long time, but I'm not so sure these days.  Increasingly, Google seems to only look for ways to monetize every bit of information anyone many be willing to share without listening to any user feedback.

Maybe I'm just an old computer user and tired.  I don't object to change.  And I understand that companies need to make money.  I've had Google ads on my sites for many years, and that basically pays for my ISP account.  But once I'm logged into one Google account, Google should not demand for me to create another account just to rate a local business.  I can see where people might want the option to create another account for such ratings, but it should not be required.

Annual Look at Oscars, 2012

2011 was a good year for movies, but it was not a great year for movies.  Last year, I found The Social Network, The King's Speech and Inception to basically be instant classics.  I knew when I was watching them that these were the great movies of not just of last year but they were some of the best movies of our very young millennia.
This year...generally I found movies to be triumphs of style over substance, notably The Artist which has one of the lightest scripts I've ever seen for a serious Best Picture contender. I liked it but did not love it. While many people had mixed feelings about The Help, it was grounded by its performances and by avoiding melodrama. It was a movie I liked even more the second time I saw it. I liked The Descendents very much. Like The Help it had excellent performances and a script that was layered instead of flat. Finally, while Albert Nobbs and A Dangerous Method were overlooked, in many ways they were bookends of late Victorian and early-mid-Edwardian sexual mores in Europe - in short, movies for history-loving adults.
There were two hopeful trends in moviemaking:

• The re-emergence of movies with strong casts of actresses.  Movies with strong, female-dominated casts were more prominent in the '30s, '50s and late '70s, then pretty much died out except for, maybe, one movie a year. This year, we had The Help, Albert Nobbs, Young Adult, Bridesmaids and even, when we want to talk about very strong female characters in a man's world, The Iron Lady and Friends with Benefits. While Bridesmaids ultimately was flawed by humor more suitable for 10 year old boys, it shows there may be hope for more comedies featuring women. Just, please, Hollywood, don't sit there and remake The Hangover or other gross-out buddy-boy movies with women. Listen to Diablo Cody, she generally gets it, and Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo seem to as well. We need more outrageous and committed women both in front of and behind the camera. Make smart flicks about women, not stupid gross-out-flicks and rom-coms.
• The willingness to take risks with different kinds of movies. While I don't think The Artist was the best movie of 2011, it took risks and it looked great. Ditto Hugo for being one of the rare movies to do 3-D correctly.

Unlike most Americans, I actually went to more movies last year. I saw a few junk movies (the Razzie-nominated I Don't Know How She Does It and Abduction, and at least two other bad movies - the most recent Pirates movie and Extremely Close and Incredibly Loud). But I'd really like to see more movies for adults - movies like Albert Nobbs, The Descendents, The Help, A Dangerous Method, Margin Call, even Young Adult - movies that are thoughtful and don't rely on gore and explosions.
In short, I'd go the the theater more often if I got to see more adult movies and less junk. That would include, for example, the reboot of The Muppets that was frequently a sly and subversive exercise.
Things multiplexes could consider - dedicate some of the multiplex for movies and drinks for adults and keep the kid movies, video games, candy and party rooms in another part of the multiplex.  Have a weekday with special screenings for retired folks and for people who might have to attend a movie with a baby.  You have all that space - target its use a little better.
Now, my look at this year's Oscar nominees. I'll be at an Oscar party this year so I won't be online during the Oscars, but I'm sure I'll have some things to say about the show later tonight or tomorrow. [And I was at the party, briefly. It turned out that there was basically no place to sit and watch the Oscars at this Oscar party. So, I flew home, got out of my party dress, but on my pajamas and watched the show from the comfort of my chair.]

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role

• Demián Bichir - A Better Life
• George Clooney - The Descendents (should win)
• Jean Dujardin - The Artist (will win * * WON)
• Gary Oldman - Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
• Brad Pitt - Moneyball

Jean Dujardin has a very expressive face...but Clooney's performance was great and he deserves the Oscar. Kudos to Gary Oldman for playing such a cipher in TTSS. [[Caught a bit of an interview from the Oscar lunch with Demian Bichir and he is very funny and bold. He'd be good working on a movie with Clooney and Pitt - he has that same attitude in real life. Excellent to see a likely future Oscar nominee, Benedict Cumberbatch, in a bit of the Gary Oldman scene. "When you get the answer you're looking for, hang up" - great line from Brad Pitt's scene in Moneyball. I do admire Jean Dujardin's performance, but...I just preferred George Clooney's for 2011. It's amazing how good Dujardin always looks when he much be terribly jet-lagged.]]

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role

• Glenn Close - Albert Nobbs
• Viola Davis - The Help (should win, will win)
• Rooney Mara - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
• Meryl Streep - The Iron Lady (WON)
• Michelle Williams - My Week With Marilyn

I have loved every single performance Meryl Streep has given on film. I think I've seen them all. She could win every award every year because she consistently makes good choices. However, the performance I thought the most about this year was Glenn Close's amazing performance in Albert Nobbs. She's also added a great deal to movie-making for nearly 30 years, and still has never won an Oscar. But...when I rewatched The Help, Viola Davis was even better than I'd remembered. She had a very tricky role, and, like Glenn Close's performance, it was all about being very quiet and very internal, except when you looked at her eyes. Michelle Williams also captured Marilyn Monroe in a way I did not think she'd be able to. This is one of those categories that if any of these women won, I would not be upset. But, I'm rooting for Viola Davis. [[They chose the perfect note from Albert Nobbs for Glenn Close. They chose an odd bit for Viola Davis because people who didn't see The Help had no clue what she was talking about. Lovely comments for Meryl Streep by Colin Firth (well, they've worked together so it sounds somewhat natural). Great scene for Meryl from The Iron Lady, though it could confuse Americans. Sweet comments for Michelle Williams. I'm not sad to see that Meryl won, but I did rather think it might have been Viola's year. Lovely that Meryl remembered to thank her husband first, and then her make-up artist second. ;-> Good speech all around.]]

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role

• Kenneth Branagh - My Week With Marilyn
• Jonah Hill - Moneyball
• Nick Nolte - Warrior
• Christopher Plummer - Beginners (should win, will win * * WON)
• Max von Sydow - Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

I do a little extra work, and have can say now that I worked on an Oscar-nominated movie(!) - the Pittsburgh-made Warrior. I was in Nick Nolte's AA meeting at the very beginning of the movie, and if the camera shot had stayed fixed on the church stairs as Nolte drove away for another 3 seconds, I would have stayed in the movie. It was interesting to watch Nolte work, and he wound up giving an incredible performance in Warrior. Neither Branagh nor von Sydow really did that much for me. So as much as I enjoyed Nolte's fine work, I think I'll go along with the crowd and say Plummer will win for Beginners as he's owed for a lifetime of mostly great work. [[Really delighted - he is so owed, especially for The Last Station a few years back. Wonderful speech.]]

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role

• Bérénice Bejo - The Artist
• Jessica Chastain - The Help
• Melissa McCarthy - Bridesmaids
• Janet McTeer - Albert Nobbs
• Octavia Spencer - The Help (should win, will win * * WON)

Saw all of these performances and they were all very good. Janet McTeer who was utterly magnificent in Albert Nobbs and Melissa McCarthy was deliciously fearless in Bridesmaids. But I was very drawn in by Octavia Spencer who was so wonderful in The Help [[YAYAYAYAYAAY Octavia!! ]].

Best Animated Feature Film

• A Cat in Paris - Alain Gagnol, Jean-Loup Felicioli
• Chico & Rita - Fernando Trueba, Javier Mariscal
• Kung Fu Panda 2 - Jennifer Yuh Nelson
• Puss in Boots - Chris Miller
• Rango - Gore Verbinski (should win, will win * * WON)

I saw none of the Best Animated Feature nominees, but heard good things about both Rango and Puss in Boots so Rango is my guess.

Best Art Direction

• The Artist - Laurence Bennett (Production Design); Robert Gould (Set Decoration) (will win)
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 - Stuart Craig (Production Design); Stephenie McMillan (Set Decoration)
• Hugo - Dante Ferretti (Production Design); Francesca Lo Schiavo (Set Decoration) (should win * * WON)
• Midnight in Paris - Anne Seibel (Production Design); Hélène Dubreuil (Set Decoration)
• War Horse - Rick Carter (Production Design); Lee Sandales (Set Decoration)

While I can't speak for War Horse, the art direction for each of the other movies was excellent at capturing a specific time and place. Hugo had more interesting Art Direction, but I expect The Artist will win, though that wouldn't be that bad. But this is an example where I wish Harry Potter would get a special Oscar - its Art Direction and Special Effects have been consistently excellent over eight movies. [[Great to see Hugo win the first two awards of the night!!!!!]]

Best Cinematography

• The Artist - Guillaume Schiffman (will win)
• The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo - Jeff Cronenweth
• Hugo - Robert Richardson (should win * WON)
• The Tree of Life - Emmanuel Lubezki
• War Horse - Janusz Kaminski

This should be Robert Richard's for Hugo, who, I'm sure with help from director Martin Scorsese figured out the right way to do 3-D. This movie looked absolutely amazing. Instead of using that old and annoying 3D trick of "throwing" things at the audience, the photography in this movie gave the train station great depth. The cinemetography for The Artist was very good, but not ground-breaking. I suspect The Artist will win. [[I'm especially glad that Hugo won this award!!]]

Best Costume Design

• Anonymous - Lisy Christl
• The Artist - Mark Bridges (should win, will win * * WON)
• Hugo - Sandy Powell
• Jane Eyre - Michael O'Connor
• W.E. - Arianne Phillips

I don't have a problem with the likely win of The Artist for its costume, but I would like to observe that Hugo walked a fine line for costuming what had started off as a kid's book and delivered a costume look that was slightly "hyper-real" without being "surreal."

Best Directing

• The Artist - Michel Hazanavicius (will win * * WON)
• The Descendants - Alexander Payne (should win)
• Hugo - Martin Scorsese
• Midnight in Paris - Woody Allen
• The Tree of Life - Terrence Malick

Alexander Payne keeps directing small gems of the human experience. Love his work, wish he'd win an Oscar for The Descendants. My hope is that The Descendants gets Best Director and The Artist gets Best Picture. But, I have the feeling The Artist will get most of the awards it's nominated for, including this one. Hugo is a wonderful movie, with a somewhat more complicated script than The Artist and great performances, especially from the kids. I very much enjoyed Midnight in Paris, but I don't believe it would be in this category if it hadn't shown such a return to form by Woody Allen. It is too bad. Because the other person who deserved to be in this category is Tate Taylor for The Help. I made a point of rewatching The Help this weekend, and it's even better on a second viewing. [[Oh well...well, maybe it'll go the other way, and something like Hugo or The Descendants will win Best Picture? I don't begrudge The Artist winning some awards, but I just didn't think it was great enough to win loads of awards (which, as it's turned out, it did not)]]

Best Documentary Feature

• Hell and Back Again - Danfung Dennis and Mike Lerner
• If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front - Marshall Curry and Sam Cullman
• Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory - Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky (should win, will win)
• Pina - Wim Wenders and Gian-Piero Ringel
• Undefeated - TJ Martin, Dan Lindsay and Rich Middlemas (WON)

Haven't seen any, but I'm guessing Paradise Lost because documentaries that point out injustices tend to win. There's a chance for Wim Wenders' artistic experiment Pina to take the prize. [[The producers of The Undefeated gave a funny speech. Ahh, the Undefeated is related to Weinstein. Oh well...]]

Best Documentary Short

• "The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement" - Robin Fryday and Gail Dolgin
• "God is the Bigger Elvis" - Rebecca Cammisa and Julie Anderson
• "Incident in New Baghdad" - James Spione
• "Saving Face" - Daniel Junge and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy (WON)
• "The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom" - Lucy Walker and Kira Carstensen (should win, will win)

Haven't seen any of them, so this is a guess. [[If I'd remembered what "Saving Face" was about, I probably would have thought that one would have won.]]

Best Film Editing

• The Artist - Anne-Sophie Bion and Michel Hazanavicius (should win, will win)
• The Descendants - Kevin Tent
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall (WON)
• Hugo - Thelma Schoonmaker
• Moneyball - Christopher Tellefsen

Will give a "but" - Moneyball has many fans, and maybe it'll win this Oscar. [[Well I was completely wrong on this one - but was bound to happen. I also didn't like the editing of The Social Network last year.]]

Best Foreign Language Film

• Belgium - Bullhead - Michael R. Roskam, director
• Canada - Monsieur Lazhar - Philippe Falardeau, director
• Iran - A Separation - Asghar Farhadi, director (should win, will win * * WON)
• Israel - Footnote - Joseph Cedar, director
• Poland - In Darkness - Agnieszka Holland, director

A Separation has great buzz, and In Darkness seems to have some. [[The Iranian director gave a wonderful acceptance speech]]

Best Makeup

• Albert Nobbs - Martial Corneville, Lynn Johnston and Matthew W. Mungle
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 - Nick Dudman, Amanda Knight and Lisa Tomblin
• The Iron Lady - Mark Coulier and J. Roy Helland (should win, will win * * WON)

I think it'll go for a smaller movie, and make-up made Streep look uncannily like Thatcher.

Best Music (Original Score)

• The Adventures of Tintin - John Williams
• The Artist - Ludovic Bource (will win * * WON)
• Hugo - Howard Shore (should win)
• Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - Alberto Iglesias
• War Horse - John Williams

Not sure...wonder if the interesting Hugo score has a chance?

Best Music (Original Song)

• "Man or Muppet" - The Muppets - Music and Lyric by Bret McKenzie (should win, will win * * WON)
• “Real in Rio” - Rio - Music by Sergio Mendes and Carlinhos Brown; Lyric by Siedah Garrett

Haven't heard "Real in Rio" but "Man or Muppet" worked perfectly. [[At least they showed a little of "Man or Muppet," but not the part with Jim Parsons. Yay Bret McKenzie!!!!]]

Best Picture

• The Artist - Thomas Langmann, Producer (will win * * WON)
• The Descendants - Jim Burke, Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor, Producers (should win)
• Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close - Scott Rudin, Producer
• The Help - Brunson Green, Chris Columbus and Michael Barnathan, Producers
• Hugo - Graham King and Martin Scorsese, Producers
• Midnight in Paris - Letty Aronson and Stephen Tenenbaum, Producers
• Moneyball - Michael De Luca, Rachael Horovitz and Brad Pitt, Producers
• The Tree of Life - Sarah Green, Bill Pohlad, Dede Gardner and Grant Hill, Producers
• War Horse - Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy, Producers

I expect The Artist to win, but I really preferred The Descendents, The Help and Hugo to it. The Artist is a nice, inventive movie, but it isn't great. [[Nice blend of Best Picture nominated scenes just before the award was announced. ]]

Best Short Film (Animated)

• "Dimanche/Sunday: - Patrick Doyon
• "The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore" - William Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg (should win, will win * * WON)
• "La Luna" - Enrico Casarosa
• "A Morning Stroll" - Grant Orchard and Sue Goffe
• "Wild Life" - Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby

A guess - haven't seen anything in this category. [[The winner looks so cool. "Wild Life" also looked very good.]]

Best Short Film (Live Action)

• "Pentecost" - Peter McDonald and Eimear O'Kane
• "Raju" - Max Zähle and Stefan Gieren
• "The Shore" - Terry George and Oorlagh George (WON)
• "Time Freak" - Andrew Bowler and Gigi Causey (should win, will win)
• "Tuba Atlantic" - Hallvar Witzø

A guess - haven't seen anything in this category. [["The Shore" was made by a friend of Michael Moore's]]

Best Sound Editing

• Drive - Lon Bender and Victor Ray Ennis (should win, will win)
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Ren Klyce
• Hugo - Philip Stockton and Eugene Gearty (WON)
• Transformers: Dark of the Moon - Ethan Van der Ryn and Erik Aadahl
• War Horse - Richard Hymns and Gary Rydstrom

Like Moneyball, I expect Drive to win something, somewhere...

Best Sound Mixing

• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - David Parker, Michael Semanick, Ren Klyce and Bo Persson
• Hugo - Tom Fleischman and John Midgley (WON)
• Moneyball - Deb Adair, Ron Bochar, David Giammarco and Ed Novick (should win, will win)
• Transformers: Dark of the Moon - Greg P. Russell, Gary Summers, Jeffrey J. Haboush and Peter J. Devlin
• War Horse - Gary Rydstrom, Andy Nelson, Tom Johnson and Stuart Wilson

20-time Oscar nominee (and no wins) Kevin O'Connell managed to not be nominated (he worked on The Muppets this year). Maybe this will be Moneyball's Oscar?

Best Visual Effects

• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 - Tim Burke, David Vickery, Greg Butler and John Richardson
• Hugo - Rob Legato, Joss Williams, Ben Grossmann and Alex Henning (WON)
• Real Steel - Erik Nash, John Rosengrant, Dan Taylor and Swen Gillberg
• Rise of the Planet of the Apes - Joe Letteri, Dan Lemmon, R. Christopher White and Daniel Barrett (should win, will win)
• Transformers: Dark of the Moon - Scott Farrar, Scott Benza, Matthew Butler and John Frazier

I keep going back between Harry Potter and Planet of the Apes. Hugo's effects were fine, but Real Steel and Transformers were so-so. I think I'm going with Planet of the Apes for its excellent integration of San Francisco and apes.

Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

• The Descendants - Screenplay by Alexander Payne and Nat Faxon & Jim Rash (should win, will win * * WON)
• Hugo - Screenplay by John Logan
• The Ides of March - Screenplay by George Clooney & Grant Heslov and Beau Willimon
• Moneyball - Screenplay by Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin. Story by Stan Chervin
• Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - Screenplay by Bridget O'Connor & Peter Straughan

A tough category. The Ides of March had two great first act and a great scene in the third act, but a horrible, horrible, horrible third act. I found Tinker Tailor... very engrossing despite my strong dislike of spy movies. Really caught that mid-70s angst very well. Hugo was about the only movie I had a slight "instant classic" vibe about this year. Ultimately, I have to go with The Descendants for its excellent characters and for the sense that life is always a little off-kilter. Because often it is.

Best Writing (Original Screenplay)

• The Artist - Written by Michel Hazanavicius (will win)
• Bridesmaids - Written by Annie Mumolo & Kristen Wiig
• Margin Call - Written by J.C. Chandor (should win)
• Midnight in Paris - Written by Woody Allen (WON)
• A Separation - Written by Asghar Farhadi

And, actually, this category isn't so tough, but it'll probably go to The Artist anyway even though the script is very cliched throughout. There was much to admire about Bridesmaids and it's nice to see a comedy be nominated, but there were too many scenes that were, frankly, juvenile. Midnight in Paris was a sweet ode to 1920s Paris intellectual life, and it has a chance. However, Margin Call was the sharpest script of last year, and that's the script that deserves to win. [[Nice to see they showed a very good scene from Bridesmaids. At least The Artist didn't win - Midnight in Paris was a lovely flick.]]

Governor's Awards/Honorary Oscars

• James Earl Jones
• Dick Smith
• Oprah Winfrey (Gene Hershalt Award)

---

Comments on the Show

Two tech awards were given out in the first 20 minutes. They could have saved another five minutes by dropping the Billy's Oscar song which was pretty awful this year. Liked the small clusters of musicians on the balconies.

I liked Sandra Bullock's presentation, but didn't she speak German as a joke during a presentation a few years back?

Liked the acknowledgement of the love of movie-going, and the popcorn girls were amusing.

The JC Penny ads with Ellen were all very amusing.

Enjoyed the short inserts with actors talking about movies they loved.

Sad to see there are still so few women who work in the technical end of movies.

Good to see Michael Douglas looking better!

Award Counts

• The Artist - 5
• Beginners - 1
• The Descendants - 1
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - 1
• The Help - 1
• Hugo - 5
• The Iron Lady - 2
• Midnight in Paris -1
• The Muppets - 1
• The Separation - 1

My guesses - 12 out of 24 - 50%

Living Erratically...

I can't blame everything on my lack of sleep. After all, things are going well, but inadequate sleep makes such a difference! I've been very unfocused for a while, mostly due to the sleep. I've been on a low dose of Ambien for nearly 4 years, but drugs for insomnia don't work permanently. Luckily, I have my annual physical tomorrow, so I might be able to change to a different drug. Otherwise, things are going pretty well. I've been managing some Websites. I got an idea for a novel during NaNoWriMo, and while I only got a few thousand words into it, I think it shows promise. I also have an idea for a short film script for the Steeltown Film Factory Competition. I hope I'll be able to write it, but since only 12 pages are required, I might be able to finish it.

Election Day 2011: Remember Before You Vote

Don't forget to vote today!  And always bring your photo ID with you.

Remember Before You Vote

LAURIE D. T. MANN

Many politicians make it clear they don't care who dies,

so long as the wealthy and corporations pay less in taxes.

They don't care when people die from lack of medical care.

They don't care when women die from backroom abortions.

They don't care when soldiers die in pointless wars.

They don't care when citizens die in war,

or industrial hazard,

or from a failure to plan well,

or from poor infrastructure,

or from a lack of education,

or from bad water, food or air.

They don't care when the harassed die from murder or suicide.

Don't elect the ignorant who make it perfectly clear they don't care about

"Government of the people

by the people

for the people."

It's still your choice.

Vote smart!

Investors Should (Dis)Occupy Wall Street - Dump Bank of America, Citigroup (et.c.) Stock

The average investor who profited from stock market roller coaster of 2008 and 2009 in no way caused it - we're investors, we have 401ks, we have diversified portfolios and we have a home that we bought with a 20% down payment.  We were doing the things every rational investment advisor had been telling small investors to do for years.

And many of us who invest reasonably in the stock market do believe we should be taxed more, even though we aren't millionaires.  Most investors hate the way America is becoming a third world country, and understand the only way to fix that now is to increase taxation for people making above, say $100,000.  We want a stable, educated America.

So many millions of investors agree with most of the the Occupy Wall Streeters.  But the way investors should act is to Dis-Occupy Wall Street.

Now is the time is to take the power from financial companies by refusing to invest in their financial products.  If you hold stock in BankAmerica, Citi, etc., dump the stock.  Invest in small companies rather than in financial firms.  The financial firms have been bringing this country down for years, and we can fight that by selling all of their stock.  Review the companies your 401k is invested in and shift your funds away from financial companies.

The Blog for Equity Blog

Of course any consenting adults who want to get married should be able to get married! What's so hard about that?

It should be obvious. Why is any rational person still fighting about it now?

Remember Before You Vote

Laurie D. T. Mann

Many politicians make it clear they don't care who dies,

so long as the wealthy and corporations pay less in taxes.

They don't care when people die from lack of medical care.

They don't care when women die from backroom abortions.

They don't care when soldiers die in pointless wars.

They don't care when citizens die in war,

or industrial hazard,

or from a failure to plan well,

or from poor infrastructure,

or from a lack of education,

or from bad water, food or air.

They don't care when the harassed die from murder or suicide.

Don't elect the ignorant who make it perfectly clear they don't care about

"Government of the people

by the people

for the people."

It's still your choice.

Vote smart!

Annual Look at the Oscars 2011

I saw and liked most of the movies nominated for Oscars for last year (of the major flicks, haven't seen True Grit, 127 Hours or Black Swan). If anything, last year was a better year for movies in a few years. It seemed like there were a few more movies for grown-ups out there.

I liked Social Network very much, but I liked The King's Speech a little bit more. Both are classics.

Best Picture: The King's Speech [[[WON!!!]]]
Best Actor: Colin Firth [so owed, especially for last year] [[[WON!!!]]]
Best Supporting Actor: Christian Bale [Geoffrey Rush is a definite possibility; he and Firth were terrific together] [[[WON!!! - I was so surprised when he wasn't nominated years ago for Empire of the Sun]]]
Best Actress: Natalie Portman [the so-owed Annette Benning could win for a terrific performance in The Kids Are Alright] [[[WON!!!]]]
Best Supporting Actress: Melissa Leo [though she may be hit by some backlash due to some badly-timed promotional advertising, so Hailee Steinfeld is still a possibility] [[[WON! - I'm sure the producers are reminding potential winners not to swear onstage]]]
Best Animated Feature: The Illusionist [I know, it's not Toy Story 3 - it's so much better!] [[[Toy story 3 won]]]
Best Art Direction: Inception [[[Alice in Wonderland won - thought it was a bit too weird]]]
Best Cinemetography: Inception [[[WON!]]]
Best Costume Design: The King's Speech [[[Alice in Wonderland won - still think Alice was too over-the-top in its costume design, too]]]
Best Directing: Tom Hooper [The King's Speech] [[[WON!!!]]]
Best Documentary Feature: Gasland [[[Inside Job won]]]
Best Documentary Short Subject: Strangers No More [[[WON!!!]]]
Best Film Editing: 127 Hours [I found the editing for Social Network sloppy] [The Social Network won]
Best Foreign Language Film: Outside the Law [Algeria] [[[In a Better World - Denmark - won]]]
Best Makeup: The Wolfman [[[WON!!! - always nice to see Rick Baker win an award]]]
Best Original Score: The Social Network [though I didn't really care for any of the music this year - loved the scoare for Up last year] [[[WON!!!]]]
Best Original Song: If I Rise [haven't heard that one, but the other songs were pretty bad] [Whatever Randy Newman wrote for Toy Story won...]
Best Short Film (Animated): The Lost Thing [go Shaun Tan! 2nd year in a row, I'll get to cheer an Oscar nominee I've met!] [[[WON!!! - Absolutely delighted about this one]]]
Best Short Film (Live Action): The Crush [[[God of Love won]]]
Best Sound Editing: Inception [[[WON!!!]]]
Best Sound Mixing: The Social Network [Inception won (so that's fine - it had amazing sound work all the way around)]
Best Visual Effects: Inception [[[WON!!!]]]
Best Writing (Adapted): The Social Network [[[WON!!!]]]
Best Writing (Original): The King's Speech [[[WON!!!]]]

The Long, Slow Suicide of Borders

I'm a longtime book fan and I married a serious book collector back in 1977. Even when we had little money, we usually found a way to buy books. When other people might visit fine restaurants when they went to a new place, we'd look for bookstores.

During a trip to Ann Arbor in the late '70s, we made our first trip to Borders. It was the single best bookstore I'd ever been to, except for The Strand in New York City. Eventually, we did get to Powell's in Portland, which is the bookstore Mecca for readers. But Borders had an amazing selection of books and cozy chairs for reading, which wasn't anything you ever saw in a Waldens.

At some point in the early '80s, Borders started to expand. We were living in Massachusetts at the time, and Jim made a trip to Pittsburgh to visit relatives without me. He enthusiastically reported that a Borders had opened just outside of Pittsburgh. While it wasn't quite as overwhelming as Ann Arbor Borders, it had great variety.

A few years later, a Borders opened in Framingham, Massachusetts, not far from where we lived. While we were big fans of the various independent bookstores in Cambridge (especially WordsWorth), it was great having a bookstore nearby with free parking.

In 1993, we moved to Pittsburgh. Not deliberately, we wound up buying a house that was 2 1/2 miles away from Borders. Just after we moved, the deal on our Massachusetts house fell through. I couldn't take months to look for the right job--I needed to get a job quickly so we could make two mortgage payments a month. I went to the Borders, applied, and had to take a test showing that I had a few clues about books. I was hired quickly and went to work.

One of the things that made Borders great in the '80s and '90s was it had a book database that was quite intelligent for its time. Stores were able to rapidly show their inventories and sales trends to headquarters. So Borders management could more easily react to sales trends than many other bookstores could.

But another thing that made Borders great was it demanded expertise from its clerks. Each clerk was responsible for a section of books. You had to shelve them and know about them. In my case, it was the computer book section (for the 10 years before I wound up as a sales clerk, I'd worked with computers). In the mid-90s, the number of books about computers, especially the number of books about this new tool, the Internet, grew rapidly. While an up-to-date online book database was certainly helpful, having people in the stores who really knew certain sections meant customers could get advice from knowledgeable salespeople.

In those days, Borders stressed Community involvement. Each store had a person whose sole job was to coordinate events at the store, both big events (in one year, we had Anne Rice and Oliver North) and small events (book clubs, readings for kids, local author promotions). These events were a great way to attract people who might not ordinarily come into Borders. And, it being the '90s, Borders added coffee bars and music/video sections to their stores.

I worked at Borders for a little over a year full time, then worked a little over the holidays once I got a job with computers again. During the mid-90s, two more Borders opened in the Pittsburgh area. Borders did start to get a bad reputation from independent booksellers in those days. When Borders came into an area, independent booksellers tended to go out of business. Pittsburgh lost many independent booksellers at that time because they could no longer compete. Luckily, some niche sellers, like Mystery Lovers, Bradley Books, and the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon bookstores are still around.

Borders changed hands. Several times. I think it was owned by K-Mart at one point. That was when the notion that the sales management and sales staff really knowing books flew out the window. People were hired to run cash registers and not much else. Instead of individuals being responsible for a section, the books were stocked overnight. During sales hours, all clerks floated, so no one really knew the details of any of the sections. Managers were hired who, in theory understood retail, but didn't necessarily understand books. Borders management had had excellent relationships with its vendors, but started playing games with vendors, beginning with the small presses.

And during the '90s, Borders met up with its own giant-killer - Amazon, which made them even more conscious about costs. A brick and mortar operation like Borders can't sell everything as cheaply as an online operation like Amazon can. But, even now, Amazon can't give you advice about which book to get, it can only give you a list of books by a particular person or about a certain topic.

The one thing Borders lost track of was the idea that a good bookstore was more than just a collection of books: it was populated by people who understood books. Buyers wanted to browse. They wanted to talk to sales people who understood books. While many of us love Amazon, we still would like a place to browse and be surprised by books, the way were often were at Borders in the old days.

Also, Borders made it clear that community relations no longer mattered. People who ran community relations were fired. About the only events at Borders stores these days seem to be storytelling hour. Now, granted, book publishers don't tend to send out many authors on book tours, and they focus tours more on primary markets like New York and Chicago. But, even without the big-name author tours, there are many ways to get the community engaged with the store, and Borders stopped doing most of them.

By 2001, my local Borders didn't feel quite the same, but as I was looking for a part-time job, I went back to work there for a few hours a week. There was a new manager who didn't seem to read much. There were fewer clerks. It was hard to find things as no one really knew any of the sections anymore. I eventually quit.

So bad trends that Borders started engaging in in the late '90s have been exacerbated. Borders started playing games with all of their vendors, not just the small ones. Borders wants to blame all of its problems on outside forces. I won't say that the publishing industry, which has also been rather slow to change, is completely blameless in the Borders (and Joe Beth's) bankruptcy. But if Borders had had the kind of steady, forward-thinking management it had during its early expansion in the year 2000, I don't think Borders would have declared bankruptcy now. Borders has no one to blame but its own ostrich-headed management.

If you're curious, here are Border's biggest creditors as if its bankruptcy filing. It's disgusting when individuals lose their houses over a few thousand dollars that businesses can conintue to run without paying hundreds of millions of dollars of debt in a timely fashion. I hope Borders' mostly underpaid employees are paid as long as they have jobs.

---

One thing that may save Barnes and Noble for now are eBooks. I prefer the Nook to the Kindle, so that's what our family bought when we decided to get e-Readers. However, we still tend to buy books - mostly from Amazon, some from Barnes and Noble, some at science fiction conventions and some from other stores we run into. But, I never liked Barnes and Noble as much as I liked Borders for nearly 15 years.

---

Pittsburgh area note: It looks like the Borders in South Hills (my old store), Monroeville and Penn Circle are closing, but that the North Hills store is staying open. The South Hills store hasn't been doing well recently and has always had parking problems, especially over the holidays.

---

9/17/2011  Borders is really and completely dead.



9/30/2011:  Some employees at Borders 20 (in Illinois) posted a letter about how they felt about Borders.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/52724641@N03/5988917121
 I probably never made this clear in my essay, but I do not blame the failure of Borders on the type of employees who worked there in the '80s and the '90s.  Borders failure can only be laid at its upper management since the mid-'90s.  

Anger, Revisionism and Terrorism

People who know me, either in real life or maybe just online, know I have a bad temper.

In response to a particularly egregious court verdict in 1995, I wrote the following:

In response to my anger, I won't go out and get a gun. I won't bomb a building. I won't hack my parents or husband or child to death. I'll just write, talk and keep writing and talking until this passes.

The mass shooting by a domestic terrorist in Arizona on January 8 makes me very angry for a number of reasons. Its chilling effect on societal freedoms. Its sheer waste. Its reason for happening.

I do not believe the Tea Party is completely culpable for this event, but they are partially responsible. Ultimate, the shooter himself is responsible for buying a legal semi-automatic weapon (with help from the NRA and the Republican party for keeping gun laws so loose), taking it to a public event, trying to kill Gabreille Giffords, a moderate Democratic Representative, then spraying the audience with the gun, killing at least six and wounding a total of 19. A Federal judge (ironically, who'd ruled against background checks for gun buyers), a 9-year-old child (ironically, born on 9/11/01) and four others were murdered in cold blood - but seem to have been "collateral damage."

So how is this not a terrorist act? If an Islamic man did this, Americans wouldn't hesitate to call this an act of terrorism. They'd scream for vengence.

But if people point out:

that the Arizona shooter was an anti-government type [[who praised Palin -- the Palin comment may be a rumor; I was wrong to have included an unverified rumor]]

that Sarah Palin had marked 20 Democratic Congressional
representatives for electoral removal - by using the
cross-hairs symbol (this graphic was, of course,
removed from Palin's Website by late in day on 1/8,
but we should never forget that it was up for many
months and was seen by many thousands if not
millions of people) [[her later "surveyor's symbols" comments have been generally denied by surveyors]]

that Jesse Kelly, Gabrielle's opponent in the 2010 election,
held a campaign event that was advertised with
this line: "Help remove Gabrielle Giffords from office
Shoot a fully automatic F16 with Jesse Kelly." This
archival calendar item was removed on 1/8.

that the atmosphere in Arizon is so poisonous that even the
sheriff of Pima county has said that political vitriol
was partially responsible for the shooter's rampage.

We're accused of politicizing a tragedy.

I don't believe that. The same people who think America should be run by the Tea Partiers also don't hesitate to blame Obama for every problem this country's had over the last two years, seeming to forget that the wars and the economic catastrophe started in the Bush administration.

[[Added later]] And, frankly, I think many Tea Partiers would love to see a revolution in this country - but don't have the legitimate political clout to do anything more than be obstructionists and cause problems locally.

So should we thank them for the reassurance that the attempted murder of Congressional Representative who'd been "targeted" by Palin and the Tea Partiers and shot by an anti-government white guy who then kept shooting is in no way political and is in no way terroristic?

I have a bad temper, and another thing that brings it out is revisionism. Usually, if I've gotten mad or been wrong about the wrong person/thing online/in real life, I've never gone back and re-edited my Website or my life. When real people are involved, I've often had to apologize. Sometimes, I've said, "I was wrong about X." Sometimes, I've changed my behavior about X. But I will always admit to and own my anger - I might have been wrong, but I won't lie about it. But it's amazing how quickly the Tea Partiers have been scrubbing their old publicity to make it seem that they never tried to equate guns with removing people from office.

I don't hear or see the Tea Partiers apologizing for any of the inciting speech they've been engaged in. Because they will never take any responsibility for their part in this act of domestic terrorism. [[Added later]] The one good thing about this horrific event was the way that Sarah Palin has finally demonstrated that she is completely unelectable, and most Republicans may finally realize this. Her attempts to make herself a victim in all this is simply appalling. She's done nothing but demonstrate she has no grasp of history. Eight years of Bush should have proven that it's dangerous to have an ignorant person as president.

A few months ago, I attended the Rally 4 Sanity in Washington. It was a great day for people who want to try to find solutions to our country's problems rather than encourage constant vitriol.

After an event like the Arizona terrorism incident, we do have every right to be angry. But I don't think we should be eterally angry. We should try to channel our anger in rational ways, not in terroristic ways.

[[Added later]] I was relieved to see the rational way many Arizonans welcomed President Obama to Arizona when he attended a service in honor of the shooting victims. I hope many of them become more politically active so Arizona has more balanced leadership.

Allegheny County Follies: Christmas Tree Recycling Centers

The government in Allegheny county often has good ideas - then mars the good ideas with lousy implmementation.

Take Christmas tree recycling. A good idea. Many of us don't want years of dead Christmas trees in our backyard, but thought leaving them out on the curb each January for trash pick-up was a little weird.

So when I saw the announcement of Christmas Tree Recycling Centers, I thought "Great!" I packed up our dying tree, loaded it in the trunk, and headed for the Settlers Park Pool parking lot, to have our Christmas tree mulched.

Of course, when I got there, well before the 3:30pm close time, the gate to the Settlers Park Pool lot was closed. No signs, no nothing.

I drove off in the direction of the park office. Along the way, I saw an area off to the side where about ten discarded Christmas trees lay, along with mulch nearby. As it was snowing and the road was getting iffy, I turned around in the first safe location and dumped my tree along with the others. I may have left my tree in the right place, but would posting a sign have killed somebody?

Beer in Pittsburgh

Back in about 1994 (or maybe it was 1995), my husband Jim started to note where to get decent beer in Pittsburgh in a site called Jim's Beer in Pittsburgh. Believe me, if you didn't like to drink crap national brands in a restaurant, you didn't have many choices in those days, beyond one variety of Sam Adams, or maybe Yuengling. Luckily, friends introduced us to the Sharp Edge and Fat Heads so we felt like we had some selection. Jim and I maintained the site for a long time, but as good beer got easier to find, we didn't update it so much. But, it's been up, and despite its lack of updates, it gets about 700 visitors a month.

To be honest, I hadn't really looked at the site in a couple of years.

So, today, I got a note from a person at a bar I'd been to and liked in the last year. I went back and made some site updates. I'll share them with you here, but I liked to go back to the mostly archival Beer in Pittsburgh site and see a little bit about the way things were.

2011: It's been interesting that the number of good beer bars in the Pittsburgh area continues to grow even after restaurant smoking ban (yay!-remember the people who said that would ruin the industry?), the drink tax (boo, but ditto) and during a major recession (double boo). Kudos to the Sharp Edge for opening the best beer bar in downtown Pittsburgh (on Penn, near the pretty decent August Henry's). We've also made a few trips into the Southside to visit places like the DoubleWide Grill, Piper's Pub, and Fathead's. We have made one trip out to Rivertowne, in Monroeville, but haven't gotten to the ones closer to Pittsburgh yet. We thought the beer selection at Jerome Bettis' Grille 36 was much better than
we would have expected.

When you travel Pennsylvania in search of interesting beer, be sure to bring along Lew Bryson's newly updated Pennsylvania Breweries, an engaging look at the places in Pennsylvania that are brewing their own beer.

East End continues to supply craft beer locally.

Probably the most welcome addition to the beer scene has been the Steel City Big Pour, a huge beer and food festival held in early September to benefit Construction Junction. Absolutely worth trying to get tickets for it, but it sells out very rapidly. They've shown they understand how to put a beer festival together and make money at it at the same time.

The main failure over the last few years has been of the Penn Brewery. It closed for a while, and re-opened with a so-so menu, so-so beer, and the single worst beer festival we've ever been to in 2010. They continue to have problems, which is sad. Penn Brewery is a shell of its former self.

Oh, and while I know this is a religious argument to some, I tried and hated-hated-hated Harris Bar's bacon night. Sorry. Bad bacon, bad atmosphere, what's the point?

Fixing the ******* Smart Defragmenter Virus

My system was hacked by the Smart Defragmenter virus sometime during the early evening of 10/29/10. I'm not sure how that happened, but here's how to save yourself a lot of hassle if a program called Smart Defragmenter suddenly shows up on your PC.

I started getting disk error and RAM messages from Smart Defragmenter. As I'd been doing a lot of graphic work, and file transfer that day, I thought all I needed to do was to reboot.

After rebooting, I got the same error messages again. I'd never seen Smart Defragmenter before, but thought maybe it was a Dell or Microsoft product that was added during an update.

So I stupidly ran Smart Defragmenter. It said it had fixed 5 problems, but to fix another 5 problems, which would, of course, cost me money,

This looked like a virus, so I ran my free version of AVG.

My laptop crashed.

Rebooted. Did some quick searches on "Smart Defragmenter," on late 10/29, but except for one comment by one guy, people made it sound like it was a real program.

My husband, who is more technical than I am, thought I was having a disk failure. Since I was away on Saturday, he said he'd get a better external backup drive and back-up my laptop before the disk failed completely.

When I got back Saturday night, he said he'd bought the new external drive, but my laptop kept failing during the backup.

This morning, I logged in again and still got disk failure and ram messages. I foolishly decided to pay for the "Smart Defragmenter" update. Huge mistake. I ran the program and still had the same error messages.

I called my credit card company to dispute the bill. While the invoice for "Smart Defragmenter" claims the name of its company is: SecurityLabSoftware, LLC (SLS, LLC), Professional Circle, Suite 110, CA 10345, clearly that's a bogus address. The phone number isn't findable associated with a company online (877-282-0139 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              877-282-0139      end_of_the_skype_highlighting). My credit card company says they'll note my dispute of the bill but I'll have to call again when it's posted in two days. The credit card company says the name they have for the company was "www.trd-app.com" which is a non-existent URL and their phone number is 888-490-4755 which appears to be a non-existent phone number.

To make a long story short, let me tell you what to look for to dump Smart Defragmenter from your system, without having to pay for some other program.

The problem executable is "winsp2up.exe."

On my system, Windows 7 Professional, this file was in [User]>AppData>Local>Temp
You have to do a Control-Alt-Delete and stop this process. Once you stop this process,
you can go to your temp directory and delete the file.

Another problem file in the same location is 48262185 (I think that had an exe too). This file was installed at the same time as winsp2up.exe, so I deleted that as well.

After rebooting, everything seems to be OK. I'd like to know how I got this virus, but now I know that AVG freeware is unreliable, I'll be installing a much more robust security system and I'll be changing all my passwords.

Weird Year, Great Trip to Australia and Going To Rally to Restore Sanity

I've been very quiet in the blog this year. I was hopelessly exhausted for over the first half of the year, but still managed to keep up with a part time job and an increasingly busy volunteer project.

The good thing that happened this year was Jim and I were able to go to Australia. We had a stupendous time. I survived jet lag, and took 1450 photos (nearly half of which I've edited).

This is my favorite photo from Australia:

September 11, 2010, the Sydney Opera House, Sydney Harbor Bridge, Laurie and Jim Mann, photo by John Maizels

We were in Melbourne for nearly two weeks, and Sydney for five nights. We went to Aussiecon 4 (World Science Fiction Convention), saw great sights, ate great meals and just had a terrific time. The only disappointment was we were going to New Zealand for a few days. To Christchurch. Sadly, our timing was off and the earthquake hit a few days before we were due to go. After dithering (I was eager to see Christchurch, and our B+B escaped unscathed) we decided to stay in Melbourne. Otherwise, we had a spectacular trip.

Also, being in Sydney the day that Oprah announced she was going to bring about 300 Americans to visit later this year was kind of a trip in itself - this was the top news story in Australia that day.

After a very busy two months of traveling, I decided at almost the last minute to go to Washington tomorrow for the "Rally to Restore Sanity."


So I have to go and meet a friend early tomorrow morning.

Atomic Gingerbread

This is a modification of a recipe from The Joy of Cooking - Applesauce Gingerbread. I like more ginger in my gingerbread. Also, since it doesn't have any butter and has only a little oil, it's better for you than most baked goods.
Recipe to print
Preheat oven to 325.

Boil
1 cup of applesauce

Remove from heat and stir in:
1/2 cup molasses
1 tsp baking soda

The mixture will foam and bubble vigorously. Cool slightly.

Sift together:
1 1/2 cup flour
4 tsp ground ginger
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt

In a large bowl, beat on high speed until
thick and pale yellow, 3-4 minutes:
2 large eggs
2/3 cup sugar

Gradually beat in
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 tbl ginger paste

Fold in flour mixture in three parts,
alternating with the applesauce/molasses
mixture in two parts.

Fold in
1/3 cup raisins

Scrape the batter into a 9" x 9" pan. Bake until
a toothpick inserted into the center comes
out clean, 40-45 minutes. Let cool in the
pan on a rack for 10 minutes. Slide a thin
knife around the cake to detach it from the
pan. Invert the cake, let cool right side
up on the rack.

Decorate with some crystal ginger.

You can add any kind of ginger in any amount to this recipe, though sushi-style ginger doesn't work, due to the vinegar.