Weighty Matters

I sometimes make surprisingly long posts in other people's blogs. I responded to a posting and some comments in the blog The Skeptical Scalpel: "Institute of Medicine: Obesity is not caused by lack of willpower" and thought I'd reprint them here. The quote that set me off was not made by the blogger, but was made by one of the commenters.

[[Fall 2012]]

"We are way too accepting of the obese. We should be sure to mock and scorn the obese more often. We should make fun of those who don't exercise or who frequent McDonald's. "

Harassment is never helpful (unless you're pulling a "Modest Proposal" here and I'm missing it).

I've been thin, fat, obese, morbidly obese, obese and now am merely fat. I've lost 65 pounds over the last 16 years, and have about 45 more pounds to go to be roughly average. I was harassed constantly about my weight in school, and, trust me, it did not help make me a thin person. It made me really pissed off. On the other hand, it did train me that most people's opinions do not matter. [[small clarification - I wrote most of this in the fall of 2012. I regained the 20 pounds after writing this.]]

I have a mixed viewpoint on the issue of obesity and health.

Genetics do matter, but they are not necessarily destiny. I come from a long line of fat people. Carbs and proteins taste great to me. While I've learned to eat some vegetables and fruits, I never, ever crave them, as much as I should. I'm still learning.

No matter what your weight is, you have to accept yourself, be reasonably active, and eat sensibly. There are a lot of self-hating thin and fat people out there.

Gym classes in school need to be dramatically rethought. When I was in school in the '60s and '70s, they focused on sports. Some of us were and have always been wretched at sports. They ought to be focused more on activities and health. They should expose kids to sports, but if the kids happier walking the track than trying to hit a baseball, that should be considered an acceptable gym activity.

The interaction of obesity and the medical community is, frankly, awkward. During the 90s, I remember being shocked by being asked "do you mind if we weigh you?" While people need to be respected by clinicians no matter what their weight, information like their weight, height, cholesterol, blood sugar (and so on) need to be recorded. Fat people should not be harassed, but they do need to be reminded about good eating habits and activity no matter what their weight is.

I think the thing that made me finally start to lose weight was the introduction of gastric bypass. While I eat less than I used to and do exercise more, I love a good meal. I still find eating very pleasurable, despite its potential dangers. I was at the point where gastric bypass was an option, and I knew I didn't want to have eating be that unpleasant.

I opted to start walking. I just did little things at first, like parking across a parking lot from my work or a store. Right now, I'm unemployed and am walking 3-4 miles a day.

I think one of the other big problems with attitudes towards obesity and dieting is this idea that loosing weight can be easy and fast. It isn't. Relearning how to eat is hard. But, the more we can non-medicalize loosing weight (focusing on diet and exercise rather than drugs and surgery), but better we all be in the long run.

I don't think there is "a" solution. Obesity/anorexia are tricky conditions and relate to upbringing, education, community planning, marketing...there are many unrelated pieces to a person's size. Medical personnel need to be respectful (and generally are), but need to have good information about nutrition available. And I understand nutrition isn't generally taught in med school.

---

[[Spring 2013]]

I don't really agree with the anonymous poster who said "it has to do with hunger." It has to do with our REACTIONS to hunger.

At some times of the day (morning), if I'm hungry I'll have a glass of water and feel fine with it. At other times of the day (afternoon), I need something to eat. It used to be junk food...and sometimes, it still is. But, generally, my afternoon snack is hummus and crackers or some peanuts.

Last year, I lost 20 pounds, but most of that was due to illness. However, in the fall, I went off of one medication, and noticed I was really craving carbs badly, which meant I was again eating more carbs. Also, it seemed like I was gaining weight no matter what I did (I walked 90 miles one month last fall and still gained 5 pounds that month). So I gained back the 20 pounds in 5 months.

I realized the obvious thing (beyond I was eating more than I should) - I'm now through menopause, so of course I'm going to gain weight a little more easily. I am being more careful again, am not craving carbs quite so much, and am back to really slow weight loss.

For many people, maintaining an average weight is easy. You're VERY lucky. For many of us, it's hard. To blame JUST the individual or JUST the environment is wrong-headed - weight is a very awkward combination of personal and societal.

Petition to Oppose Politics in National Science Foundation (NSF) Funding and a Letter to the White House Petition Site

On April 29, I was disgusted (though not surprised) to read that a Republican Congressional Representative wanted to do away with using peer-review to determine National Science Foundation funding of projects. So, I started a White House petition and asked people to sign it.

Even though I publicized it as I had an earlier petition, I got almost no response. So, I wrote to the petition site.

To: White House Petition Site:

I'm sad that this petition site seems to be going the way of many other Obama policies - it's a good idea, it's talked about and then it's ignored.

Several of us started petitions about the Westboro Baptist Church last year. Mine was the request to investigate its tax exempt status. I got the then-required 25,000 signatures in a couple of days. The petition is still up and has over 96,000 signatures.

No response from the administration.

With the later increase to 100,000 signatures, people clearly see that starting a petition here is a waste of time. I started a petition about the fact that a Republican Congressional representative is trying to do away with peer-review for NSF grants. I have many friends into science, and publicized this petition the same way I had the Westboro Baptist Church petition.

I've gotten almost no response. After 2 days, I'm up to 29 signatures.

This is sad, but, clearly, people don't want to waste their time with petitions that the administration will then completely ignore.

It's true we got very used to being lied to during the Bush administration. It's sad the Obama administration seems to be going in the same direction. If you have to lie about the little things (and, I know, the petition site is a "little thing"), how can we trust you about the big things?

Who Voted to Kill Gun Background Checks in the Senate?

After months of arguing, and a rare bipartisan proposal between conservative Democrat Joe Manchin (WV) and conservative Republican Pat Toomey (PA), a minority of Senators got together to filibuster a bill to have background checks on gun purchases. Here's a list, in a ready-to-use Twitter format (thanks to Huffington Post for providing the list of Senators and their Twitter handles), so you can tweet about these people who believe criminals and insane people should always be able to buy any guns they want:

@SenAlexander @KellyAyotte @SenJohnBarrasso @MaxBaucus @SenatorBegich

@RoyBlunt @JohnBoozeman @SenatorBurr @SaxbyChambliss @SenDanCoates

@TomCoburn @JeffFlake @SenThadCochran @SenBobCorker @JohnCornyn

@MikeCrapo @SenTedCruz @SenatorEnzi @SenMikeLee @SenatorFischer

@GrahamBlog @ChuckGrassley @SenOrrinHatch @jiminhofe

@SenatorHeitkamp @SenDeanHeller @SenJohnHoeven @SenatorIsakson

@Mike_Johanns @SenRonJohnson @McConnellPress @JerryMoran

@lisamurkowski @SenRandPaul @robportman @SenMarkPryor @SenatorRisch

@SenPatRoberts @marcorubio @SenatorTimScott @SenatorSessions

@SenShelbyPress @SenJohnThune @DavidVitter @SenatorWicker

Also, the folks at DemandAPlan have a form where you can write a letter to express your unhappiness with the Senate's lack of action on gun control and the letter will go to all of the Senators on this list.

And, to no one's surprise, half of these "leaders" also voted against the Violence Against Women Act, but, luckily, enough rational politicians voted for it, so VAWA is again the law of the land.

Who Voted Against the Raise in Minimum Wage

And the answer is...every single Republican in the House.

So when you want to know why the minimum wage continues to stagnate at a time when companies are making huge profits...ask a House Republican.

Who Voted Against the Violence Against Women Act, 2013

We must always remember who voted against this bill - especially during the 2014 election. I know my representative, Tim Murphy voted against it, which means I am very glad I never have voted for him and never will. Both senators, Bob Casey, and, to my shock, the usually super-far right Pat Toomey, voted for it.

MotherJones has an excellent analysis of the VAWA votes, including some interesting (but depressing) maps.

Here are the senators (all Republicans) who voted against VAWA:

• John Barrasso (Wyo.)
• Roy Blunt (Mo.)
• John Boozman (Ark.)
• Tom Coburn (Okla.)
• John Cornyn (Texas)
• Ted Cruz (Texas)
• Mike Enzi (Wyo.)
• Lindsey Graham (S.C.)
• Chuck Grassley (Iowa)
• Orrin Hatch (Utah)
• James Inhofe (Okla.)
• Mike Johanns (Neb.)
• Ron Johnson (Wisc.)
• Mike Lee (Utah)
• Mitch McConnell (Ky.)
• Rand Paul (Ky.)
• Jim Risch (Idaho)
• Pat Roberts (Kansas)
• Marco Rubio (Fla.)
• Jeff Sessions (Ala.)
• John Thune (S.D.)
• Tim Scott (S.C.)

(from HuffingtonPost)

And here are their Twitter handles, to remind them that you remember how they voted against VAWA:

@SenJohnBarrasso @RoyBlunt @JohnBoozeman @TomCoburn @JohnCornyn

@SenTedCruz @SenatorEnzi @GrahamBlog @ChuckGrassley @SenOrrinHatch

@jiminhofe @Mike_Johanns @SenRonJohnson @McConnellPress

@SenRandPaul @SenatorRisch @SenPatRoberts @marcorubio

@SenatorTimScott @SenatorSessions @SenJohnThune

Here are the representatives (all Republicans) who voted against VAWA:

• Aderholt
• Amash
• Bachmann
• Barton
• Bentivolio
• Bilirakis
• Bishop (UT)
• Black
• Blackburn
• Bonner
• Brady (TX)
• Bridenstine
• Brooks (AL)
• Broun (GA)
• Burgess
• Campbell
• Cantor
• Carter
• Cassidy
• Chabot
• Chaffetz
• Collins (GA)
• Conaway
• Cotton
• Crawford
• Culberson
• DeSantis
• DesJarlais
• Duncan (SC)
• Duncan (TN)
• Ellmers
• Fincher
• Fleischmann
• Fleming
• Flores
• Forbes
• Fortenberry
• Foxx
• Franks (AZ)
• Garrett
• Gingrey (GA)
• Gohmert
• Goodlatte
• Gosar
• Gowdy
• Graves (GA)
• Graves (MO)
• Griffin (AR)
• Griffith (VA)
• Guthrie
• Hall
• Harris
• Hartzler
• Hastings (WA)
• Hensarling
• Holding
• Hudson
• Huelskamp
• Huizenga (MI)
• Hultgren
• Hurt
• Johnson (OH)
• Jones
• Jordan
• Kelly
• King (IA)
• Kingston
• Labrador
• LaMalfa
• Lamborn
• Lankford
• Latta
• Long
• Lucas
• Luetkemeyer
• Lummis
• Marchant
• Marino
• Massie
• McCaul
• McClintock
• Meadows
• Mica
• Miller (FL)
• Mullin
• Mulvaney
• Murphy (PA)
• Neugebauer
• Noem
• Nunnelee
• Olson
• Palazzo
• Perry
• Petri
• Pittenger
• Pitts
• Pompeo
• Posey
• Price (GA)
• Radel
• Ribble
• Rice (SC)
• Roby
• Roe (TN)
• Rogers (AL)
• Rogers (KY)
• Rohrabacher
• Rooney
• Roskam
• Ross
• Rothfus
• Salmon
• Scalise
• Schweikert
• Scott, Austin
• Sensenbrenner
• Sessions
• Smith (NE)
• Smith (NJ)
• Smith (TX)
• Southerland
• Stewart
• Stockman
• Stutzman
• Thornberry
• Wagner
• Walberg
• Weber (TX)
• Wenstrup
• Westmoreland
• Whitfield
• Williams
• Wilson (SC)
• Wittman
• Wolf
• Womack
• Woodall
• Yoho

Not voting

• Coble
• Granger
• Hinojosa
• Johnson, Sam
• Miller, Gary
• Reed

(from clerk.house.gov)

Many of these same people failed to vote for Sandy relief and failed to vote on raising debt ceilings (as they traditionally did for Republican presidents) or jobs for years.

In a rational society, sexual assault should never be condoned. As usual, the Republicans who represent us, are badly out of touch with Americans who support VAWA.

Annual Look at the Oscars 2013

For the last 44 years or so, I've made predictions about Oscar winners. 2012 was a good year for movies, but there are very few "Oscar locks" this year, which may make the show a little more interesting I saw most of the Best Picture nominees, and liked most of them (haven't seen Amour (and would really like to) or Life of Pi (and have very mixed feelings about that, much as I love most Ang Lee movies or Zero Dark Thirty or Django Unchained (again, mixed feelings on those two))

I noted several hopeful trends in my last year's Oscar notes, including several movies with large, strong casts of actresses. Sadly, I can't say I noticed that trend this year. There was some interesting, ambitious SF - Hunger Games, Looper and Cloud Atlas. Sometimes, Hollywood remembers it takes a little more than strong production values or a superhero to make a science fiction movie. Sadly, Cloud Atlas tanked at the box office. I think it's the sort of movie people will look back at and appreciate as it's a fascinating movie.

I'm going to an Oscar party again this year, and expect to be there for all of it as I'm going to the Hollywood Theater Oscar Party in Dormont.

[[Comments made after the show.]]

Best Picture

• Amour
• Argo WON (will win)
• Beasts of the Southern Wild
• Django Unchained
• Les Misérables
• Life of Pi
• Lincoln (should win)
• Silver Linings Playbook
• Zero Dark Thirty

This is a tough category but for weird reasons. I really loved Lincoln. I'm a huge history buff and love it when a movie gets so much of it so right. Some of the complaints about Lincoln are on the strange side - it shouldn't win because of Spielberg - it shouldn't win because 20th Century Fox (AKA Rupert Murdock) was involved. I liked Argo very much, and Ben Affleck really captured the chaos around the Iran hostage crisis very well. However, upon a second viewing, its flaws really bothered me (lack of distinctive characterizations outside of the Hollywood guys, severe Hollywoodization of the last half hour of the movie). Beasts is simultaneously the most naturalistic and the most fantastic movie of the lot. I loved Q. Wallis' fierce performance (and, I'm sorry, you can't call it anything but that). Silver Linings Playbook had a very smart script and terrific performances all the way around, but is a little light for a Best Picture Oscar. This might be the year of the surprise winner, so maybe something like Django Unchained or Silver Linings Playbook could win. However, I think Argo will win, mostly as an apology to Ben Affleck who didn't get nominated for Best Director, but I think Lincoln deserves to win.

[[By the end of the show, it looked like Life of Pi could have pulled a massive upset.]]

Best Actor in a Leading Role

• Bradley Cooper - Silver Linings Playbook
• Daniel Day-Lewis WON - Lincoln (should win, will win)
• Hugh Jackman - Les Misérables
• Joaquin Phoenix - The Master
• Denzel Washington - Flight

There are two Oscar locks, and this is one of them. Daniel Day-Lewis will be the second person to win three Best Acting Oscars (after Katharine Hepburn (4) (Meryl Streep has only won 2 + 1 for supporting). His performance as Lincoln was spot-on and very moving. And, remember, DDL is only 55 so he could be winning them for decades to come. Both Bradley Cooper and Hugh Jackman gave strong performances in their respective movies.

[[After a rocky night of humor onstage, Daniel Day-Lewis, who's often kind of shy in public, told a great joke when he said that he was supposed to have played Margaret Thatcher (Meryl Streep had given him his Oscar) and Streep was due to play Lincoln. He knew who he was talking to. Seth McFarlane struggled with this all evening.]]

Best Actor in a Supporting Role

• Alan Arkin - Argo
• Robert De Niro - Silver Linings Playbook (should win, will win)
• Philip Seymour Hoffman - The Master
• Tommy Lee Jones - Lincoln
• Christoph Waltz WON- Django Unchained

I'm really not sure how Oscar voters are going to go on this one. I've heard a lot about De Niro possibly getting an Oscar for this as he's only won 1 for support and 1 for leading. That's possible; also, this is one of his comic roles, and he's become a brilliant comic actor over the years. If Django Unchained or The Master don't get other awards, perhaps Waltz or Hoffman will win here. I liked Tommy Lee Jones, but I found his performance much weaker the second time I saw Lincoln.

Best Actress in a Leading Role

• Jessica Chastain - Zero Dark Thirty
• Jennifer Lawrence WON - Silver Linings Playbook
• Emmanuelle Riva - Amour (will win)
• Quvenzhané Wallis - Beasts of the Southern Wild
• Naomi Watts - The Impossible (should win)

Naomi Watts gave one of the best performances ever in the little-seen The Impossible. It's about the most harrowing performances since Meryl Streep in Sophie's Choice (though for slightly different reasons). I liked Jennifer Lawrence very much in Silver Linings Playbook, but I think I liked her performance ever more in Hunger Games. Quvenzhané Wallis was perfect in Beasts. Jessica Chastain (based on the many ads I've seen for Zero Dark Thirty) gives a solid performance.

Best Actress in a Supporting Role

• Amy Adams - The Master
• Sally Field - Lincoln
• Anne Hathaway WON - Les Misérables (should win, will win)
• Helen Hunt - The Sessions
• Jacki Weaver - Silver Linings Playbook

OK, this is the other lock. Anne Hathaway gave a short but amazing performance in Les Mis. I thought Sally Field also gave a very strong performance - I half wish this category could see a tie.

Best Animated Feature Film

• Brave WON - Mark Andrews and Brenda Chapman
• Frankenweenie - Tim Burton (should win, will win)
• Paranorman - Sam Fell and Chris Butler
• The Pirates! Band of Misfits - Peter Lord
• Wreck-it Ralph - Rich Moore

This is a surprisingly tough category. I loved the design and voice casting of Brave, and the script was a little stronger than a typical kid's feature. Frankenweenie is marvelously weird. While I didn't see Wreck-it Ralph, it's very clever.

Best Cinemetography

• Anna Karenina - Seamus McGarvey
• Django Unchained - Robert Richardson
• Life of Pi WON - Claudio Miranda
• Lincoln - Janusz Kaminski
• Skyfall - Roger Deakins (should win, will win)

Moderately tough category.

Best Costume Design

• Anna Karenina WON - Jacqueline Durran (will win)
• Les Misérables - Paco Delgado
• Lincoln - Joanna Johnston
• Mirror Mirror - Eiko Ishioka (should win)
• Snow White and the Huntsman - Colleen Atwood

This category has the most bizarre nominees. The costumes in Les Mis and Snow White were so-so. I liked the costumes in Mirror Mirror since everything in that movie was meant to be over-the-top and on the cartoony side, and the nominee died before the movie even opened.

Best Directing

• Amour - Michael Haneke
• Beasts of the Southern Wild - Benh Zeitlin
• Life of Pi WON - Ang Lee
• Lincoln - Steven Spielberg (should win, will win)
• Silver Linings Playbook - David O. Russell

Despite the anti-Lincoln backlash, I think Spielberg deserves the Oscar.

[[This was the biggest surprise of the night. I generally like Ang Lee movies very much, but didn't like the sound of Life of Pi]]

Best Documentary Feature

• 5 Broken Cameras - Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi
• The Gatekeepers - Dror Moreh, Philippa Kowarsky and Estelle Fialon
• How to Survive A Plague - David France and Howard Gertler (should win, will win)
• The Invisible War - Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering
• Searching for Sugar Man WON - Malik Bendjelloul and Simon Chinn

I haven't seen any of these documentaries this year, but the two movies I've heard the most about are How to Survive a Plague (about AIDS) and Searching for Sugar Man (about an obscure American singer/songwriter whose works were huge in South Africa). One of these two is the most likely to win, and I think it's more likely to be How to Survive a Plague.

Best Documentary Short Subject

• "Inocente" WON - Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine
• "Kings Point" - Sari Gilman and Jedd Wider
• "Mondays at Racine" - Cynthia Wade and Robin Honan
• "Open Heart" - Kief Davidson and Cori Shepherd Stern
• "Redemption" - Jon Alpert and Matthew o’Neill

I think I'll ever skip guessing on this one as I have no idea.

Best Film Editing

• Argo WON - William Goldenberg (should win, will win)
• life of Pi - Tim Squyres
• Lincoln - Michael Kahn
• Silver Linings Playbook - Jay Cassidy and Crispin Struthers
• Zero Dark Thirty - Dylan Tichenor and William Goldenberg

I thought the editing for Argo was especially good.

Best Foreign Langauge Film

• Amour WON - Austria (should win, will win)
• Kon-Tiki - Norway
• No - Chile
• A Royal Affair - Denmark
• War Witch - Canada

Hope to see Amour.

Best Makeup and Hairstyling

• Hitchcock - Howard Berger, Peter Montagna and Martin Samuel
• The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - Peter Swords King, Rick Findlater and Tami Lane (should win, will win)
• Les Misérables WON - Lisa Westcott and Julie Dartnell

This has the single worst nominee - Les Mis. Sorry, the make-up was good here and there, but mostly way, way overdone. But The Hobbit has a similar problem - some of the make-up is good, and others of it is overly cartoony.

Best Music (Original Score)

• Anna Karenina - Dario Marianelli
• Argo - Alexandre Desplat
• Life of Pi WON - Mychael Danna
• Lincoln - John Williams (should win, will win)
• Skyfall - Thomas Newman

My favorite score was ignored - Cloud Atlas was the best from last year.

[[The little snippets they played from Life of Pi sounded very nice.]]

Best Music (Original Song)

• "Before my Time" Chasing Ice - Music and Lyric by J. Ralph
• "Everybody Needs A Best Friend" Ted - Music by Walter Murphy Lyric by Seth MacFarlane
• "Pi’s Lullaby" Life of Pi - Music by Mychael Danna Lyric by Bombay Jayashri
• "Skyfall" Skyfall WON - Music and Lyric by Adele Adkins and Paul Epworth (should win, will win)
• "Suddenly" Les Misérables - Music by Claude-Michel Schönberg Lyric by Herbert Kretzmer and Alain Boublil

Best Production Design

• Anna Karenina - Production Design: Sarah Greenwood Set Decoration: Katie Spencer (should win, will win)
• The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - Production Design: Dan Hennah Set Decoration: Ra Vincent and Simon Bright
• Les Misérables - Production Design: Eve Stewart Set Decoration: Anna Lynch-Robinson
• Life of Pi - Production Design: David Gropman Set Decoration: Anna Pinnock
• Lincoln WON - Production Design: Rick Carter Set Decoration: Jim Erickson

Lincoln had detailed, accurate production design, and I wouldn't object at all if it won. But Anna Karenina was fresh and inventive and I love its playing around with stagecraft.

Best Short Film (Animated)

• "Adam and Dog" - Minkyu Lee
• "Fresh Guacamole" - PES (should win, will win)
• "Head Over Heels" - Timothy Reckart and Fodhla Cronin o’Reilly
• "Maggie Simpson" in “The Longest Daycare” - David Silverman
• "Paperman" WON - John Kahrs

I hadn't seen any of these, but Sunday Morning played "Fresh Guacamole" this morning and it was very inventive

Best Short Film (Live Action)

• "Asad" - Bryan Buckley and Mino Jarjoura
• "Buzkashi Boys" - Sam French and Ariel Nasr (should win, will win)
• "Curfew" WON - Shawn Christensen
• "Death of a Shadow" ("Dood van een SchaduW") - Tom Van Avermaet and Ellen De Waele
• "Henry" - Yan England

"Buzkashi Boys," about boys in Afghanistan, has had incredible buzz.

Best Sound Editing

• Argo - Erik Aadahl and Ethan Van der Ryn
• Django Unchained - Wylie Stateman
• Life of Pi - Eugene Gearty and Philip Stockton
• Skyfall WON - Per Hallberg and Karen Baker Landers (should win, will win)
• Zero Dark Thirty WON - Paul N.J. Ottosson

Haven't seen most of these so I'll guess Skyfall.

[[A very rare tie]]

Best Sound Mixing

• Argo - John Reitz, Gregg Rudloff and Jose Antonio Garcia
• Les Misérables WON - Andy Nelson, Mark Paterson and Simon Hayes
• Life of Pi - Ron Bartlett, D.M. Hemphill and Drew Kunin (should win, will win)
• Lincoln - Andy Nelson, Gary Rydstrom and Ronald Judkins
• Skyfall - Scott Millan, Greg P. Russell and Stuart Wilson

[[Now, that's a Les Mis win I really can't complain about, particularly given that the songs were sung live during the filming and the music sounded great.]]

Best Visual Effects

• The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton and R. Christopher White
• Life of Pi WON - Bill Westenhofer, Guillaume Rocheron, Erik-Jan De Boer and Donald R. Elliott
• Marvel’s the Avengers - Janek Sirrs, Jeff White, Guy Williams and Dan Sudick (will win)
• Prometheus - Richard Stammers, Trevor Wood, Charley Henley and Martin Hill (should win)
• Snow White and the Huntsman - Cedric Nicolas-Troyan, Philip Brennan, Neil Corbould and Michael Dawson

I'm torn on this category. It was a year when the most visually interesting movie (Cloud Atlas) was completely shut out. Movies like Prometheus and Snow White weren't very good movies, though the effects in Prometheus were really great. The Hobbit has strong effects...but, sometimes, they, like its make-up, were very cartoony and out of place.

Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

• Argo WON - Screenplay by Chris Terrio
• Beasts of the Southern Wild - Screenplay by Lucy Alibar and Benh Zeitlin
• Life of Pi - Screenplay by David Magee
• Lincoln - Screenplay by Tony Kushner (should win, will win)
• Silver Linings Playbook - Screenplay by David O. Russell

A very tough category with four very strong options (haven't seen Life of Pi). I think ultimately it goes back to Lincoln, but if the Oscars turn out to be an Argo or Silver Lingings Playbook sweep, this award will go to one of them.

[[Much of the script for Argo is pretty good...but...*sigh*]]

Best Writing (Original Screenplay)

• Amour - Written by Michael Haneke
• Django Unchained WON - Written by Quentin Tarantino (will win)
• Flight - Written by John Gatins
• Moonrise Kingdom - Written by Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola (should win)
• Zero Dark Thirty - Written by Mark Boal

Moonrise Kingdom was one of my favorite films of last year. I'm still surprised it wasn't nominated for its unique production design. I would love to see this win, but I expect this is the award Tarantino will get.

---

2/25/13

The show was kind of a mixed bag. The focus was on movie music and it went very well - Shirley Bassey, Jennifer Hudson and Adele really rocked the hall. Seth McFarlane is a decent singer and song and dance man, but..."I Saw Her Boobs" went on for too long. His opening joke about "Making Tommy Lee Jones laugh" was great, but it went down hill from there. It was a very glittery night, both set design and gown wise.

I had a very good time at the Hollywood Theater Oscar party. I won a mini Oscar statuette for answering some movie trivia questions correctly. Comfy seats, snacks and watching the Oscar show on a large screen.

I had one of my worse years of making Oscar predictions ever - I probably only guessed about 20% right. Mostly, it was from my failure to appreciate Life of Pi, which I haven't seen yet. [[[And, when I finally saw it, I really didn't like it that much, though it looks great.]]]

A Woman's Right for All Health Care

It's that simple - an important part of woman's health care is access to pre-natal care, fertility treatments, birth control and abortion. Access to health care, and what types of health care she wants to use, is up to her.

I'm part of the 70% - I believe Roe vs. Wade should not be overturned and that abortion should stay a woman's choice.

Sleep Schedule for an Insomniac

This is a little extreme even for me, but here's what happened last night:

• 10:45: Get into bed, turn on House Hunters
• 10:50: Fall asleep (I was tired, but not that tired)
• 10:59: Wake up, watch the news
• 11:15: Fall asleep
• 11:34: Wake up, feel wide awake, consider watching Jimmy Kimmel
• 11:36: Fall asleep
• 11:55: Wake up, turn off the TV
  Toss and turn for at least 20 minutes (yes, I know they tell you not to have a TV in your bedroom, but TV sometimes helps me sleep)
  Jim gets into bed sometime after this, but he doesn't wake me up.
• 1:00: Wake up
• 1:10: Fell back to sleep
• 2:20: Wake up. I might have fallen back to sleep quickly except Jim has a cold and he was breathing very noisly. Tried various sleep positions, counting things, any other quiet trick I could think of. Nada. Wide awake.
• 3:20: Got out of bed, went to the guest room, started reading The Signal and the Noise (great first chapter, too much baseball in the second but I know Nate Silver loves baseball)
• 4:30: Decided I was tired enough to go to sleep, so I put the book down and turned off the light
• 4:50ish: Fell asleep
• 6ish: Wake up after having an odd dream that I now can't remember
• 6:10ish: Fell back to sleep
• 7:04: Wake up, went downstairs

So, I was in bed for a little over 8 hours, and I slept about 5 hours of that. Usually, I'm in bed for under 6 hours. Have had 3 nights in a row of 5 hours of sleep, but this was the most disrupted sleep night I've had in a couple of weeks.

Deer Attack

We have some very nice bushes near our door, as a photo from last spring indicates.

Or I should say "had," because this is what they look like now:

Upon closer inspection, we saw the deer prints. I guess they took the reindeer sign literally.

   

Sunrise Photography (1/9/13)

One small advantage of chronic insomnia is I see sunrise almost every morning. And we have a nice view of sunrise from our deck (actually, our sliding glass doors just now as the deck still has a few inches of snow):

Living Among the Gas Wells

In 2011, I didn't think we lived very near any gas wells. About a year ago I realized one was being built south of me (I don't tend to drive that way very often). By April, I was seeing gas burn-off from, not one, but from two nearby wells. Luckily, burn-off and the reek from it is only a temporary phenomenon.

So, for the last nine months, there have been two active wells within a few miles of my house, two more planned...and something being built on a nearby hill (the question mark)

Map courtesy of Independent Water Testing.

About that question mark...we live in modern residential neighborhood in a fairly rural area. Last winter, a small dirt road went in between two houses, which was odd. The area behind the houses is acres and acres of pasture land and some small groves. This week, the dirt road was extended to the top of the next hill, about a half mile away.

I'd like to believe some rich person is building a dream house out that way. Maybe so. But the way land is being gobbled up for gas wells, it wouldn't surprise me at all to see the land will be permitted (though, at this time, it seems it hasn't been yet). [[By March 2013, it was clear the ? is for someone's dream house. I was very relieved, and the house looks very cool.]]

I worry about the pollution from this, but I worry more about the water. Luckily, we're not on well water.

I'm disgusted by the goings-on around the gang rape of a drunk 16-year-old in Steubenville, so I went to #occupysteubenville today. I got there early and took a number of pictures:

More photos.

Next #occupysteubenville rally is planned for February 2. Groundhog day as a symbol for rape makes sense - we've heard about incidents like the Steubenville gang rape where the woman is not believed many, many times and we're sick to death of it.

My Year in Exercise

I probably won't get to walk tomorrow, though I may wind up doing some shoveling, so here's my walking(mostly)/kayaking(a little) stats for 2012:

• 600.5 miles
• 352 workouts
• 227 hours walking/kayaking
• 61,843 calories burned

And I do recommend mapmywalk.com for tracking your waling/running/biking distance statistics.

I have been, very informally, participating in an activity called "Walk to Rivendell," where a group of Lord of the Rings fans have calculated distances in Middle Earth. I walked at least 700 miles between 2003 and 2011, and 600 miles this year, for 1300 miles total. That's 9 miles short of Rauros (the end of Fellowship of the Ring).

My goals for 2013:

• 800 miles (1,000 if still unemployed) - use treadmill more in bad weather
• start adding some weight training and XBox workouts
• try to learn a little yoga (have a book that says it MIGHT help with insomnia)
• do more kayaking
• walk on the Montour Trail - we've done about 5 miles of it in years past, but should do more. Maybe try to do more good weather weekends and attempt to do 20 miles over the next year
• eat more spinach and fewer carbs and meat

Weightwise, I wound up loosing about 10 total pounds...but I had lost 20 and regained 10 over the fall. Ug. Main issue seemed to be when I stopped taking Ambien back in September, I started craving carbs again something fierce. Also, a bunch of travel, depressing life events, etc which tends to make me eat more. However, over the next six weeks, we won't be traveling and I should be able to get my eating back under better control. If I start to lose weight over the winter (and I never lose weight over the winter), that would be a very good sign indeed.

Who Said "Religious Freedom Doesn't Mean You Can Force Others to Live by Your Own Beliefs"?

Even in the days when I was still religious, I was never evangelical. I generally believed in "live and let live," but, well, religions that restricted women's rights and advocated beating children have always offended me.

When I can find quotes about life that are meaningful to me, I like to add them to my Good Quotes page. I also try to find the original person who said it, so that the quote is properly attributed.

I ran into "Religious freedom doesn't mean you can force others to live by your own beliefs" and liked it. It was on a graphic passed around that attributed it to President Obama. I thought I'd check...and, it looks like, he didn't say it.

Since we on the left are constantly reminding people that "facts matter," we need to be more careful about our facts. I'm about 99% sure he never said it, as I went to whitehouse.gov, and this quote is not attributed to him at his own site.

Now, he did give a talk back in February 2012 over health care and reproductive rights, where he clearly never made this statement. If he had made this statement, he would have probably included it in his concluding remarks:

Now, I've been confident from the start that we could work out a sensible approach here, just as I promised. I understand some folks in Washington may want to treat this as another political wedge issue, but it shouldn’t be. I certainly never saw it that way. This is an issue where people of goodwill on both sides of the debate have been sorting through some very complicated questions to find a solution that works for everyone. With today’s announcement, we've done that. Religious liberty will be protected, and a law that requires free preventive care will not discriminate against women.

We live in a pluralistic society where we're not going to agree on every single issue, or share every belief. That doesn’t mean that we have to choose between individual liberty and basic fairness for all Americans. We are unique among nations for having been founded upon both these principles, and our obligation as citizens is to carry them forward. I have complete faith that we can do that.

So, who did say "Religious freedom doesn't mean you can force others to live by your own beliefs" first? It's not clear. I wish I had. But, certainly, people like Thomas Jefferson and James Madison pretty much said it in the First Amendment over 200 years ago:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Do You Think a Group That Practices Harassment Like the Westboro Baptist Church Should be Tax-Exempt?

I started a White House Petition 14 days ago to tell the IRS to investigate the tax-exempt status of the Westboro Baptist Church. Since then, 72,000 people have signed it. A person named Ralph W from Maine was number 72,000. It'll be online another 2 weeks, and I hope to reach 100,000 signers by then. https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/investigate-irs-tax-exempt-status-westboro-baptist-church/YrKbHYtV

From Holidaysburg to Newtown...

Since moving back to Pittsburgh in 1993, I've probably done the drive between Western Pennsylvania and Central Massachusetts 50 times. I take 22 to 220 to 80 to 81 to 84 to the Mass Pike, meaning I drive across the very rural parts of Pennsylvania and New York, and near many cities/suburbs in Connecticut and Massachusetts.

So I've driven through many small towns in these areas many times without giving them a second thought...until this month.

Just off of Route 22, Holidaysburg was the site of gun-nuttery last Friday (just before Wayne LaPierre's infamous diatribe/non-press conference), when a man took a gun, shot into a church, murdered a woman, murdered two men out walking and shot three police officers who killed him.

A few hours later, we drove by the familiar sign for Newtown/Sandy Hook in Connecticut on Route 84. Someone had put a large wreath on it. I couldn't stop on 84 to take a photo of the sign due to traffic. The incident is now so well known that I don't need to say anything about it.

Except now I'll always think of my drive from Pennsylvania to Massachusetts as just another tour of gun-related mass murder.

When you live in Pennsylvania, you know people like their guns. Pennsylvania is full of hunters. Since moving to a more rural area of Pennsylvania a few years back, we hear target shooters and hunters in the woods behind our house much of the fall. While I would never own a gun myself, I have no issue with game hunters owning guns...except when they want to own people-hunting semis. That's got to stop.

Follow-up to It's Time to #StopTheNRA #StopTheGOP #StopTheWBC

A few days after the Newtown Massacre, I decided my anger over the situation needed more than 140 characters, so I wrote a blog post. A number of things happened over the last week to the WBC/NRA/GOP this week, so I thought I'd update.

A week after the Newtown Gun Massacre, after a week of hiding away in an undisclosed location, NRA president Wayne LaPierre claimed he was going to have press conference. In reality, he spewed 20 minutes of a gun fantasyland, that included that America should have armed security guards in every school. He blamed everything he didn't like in America, never blaming the actual murder weapons themselves - the guns the NRA promote. While the easily-terrorized ran out and bought more guns, it sounds like more rational people have quit the NRA.

Just before LaPierre started to speak, a gunman murdered three people in rural Pennsylvania - a woman helping to decorate a church and two men, a man and his father-in-law, just out for a walk. He also shot (but did not kill) a few cops before the cops took him out like the mad dog he was.

There was even an excellent editorial in The New York Times by Richard Painter The NRA Protection Racket. And another one on gun control by Daniel O'Shea. And Andrew Sullivan is mad as hell and he's not going to take the stupidity and fanaticism of the Republican party anymore!

The GOP didn't have its best best week either. The far-far-right Tea Partiers deserted John Boehner's far-right Republicans and wouldn't vote in favor of his bad plan B because it still asked for more taxes from millionaires. So the House of Representatives couldn't vote, even though the right-wing Senate had approved a bill with rational concessions to avoid sending the country over the fiscal cliff. Boehner may be out of a job, but whoever replaces him will probably be worse given how highly the Tea Party thinks of itself and how utterly incapable they are of dealing with modern times.

My Investigate the IRS Tax-Exempt Status of the Westboro Baptist Church petition has 58,629 signatures. Thanks to everyone who has signed it.

The Westboro Baptist Church did try to protest a few of the Newtown funerals, but the word was that good, local people came out to shield the mourners from the morons.

Karma's a bitch, ain't it?

Let Your Senator Know How You Feel About Semiautomatic Weapons

Mother Jones published a list of Senators and their opinions on semiautomatic assault weapons ban.

My Senators, Bob Casey & Pat Toomey, both call themselves pro-life. But, Toomey really cares about the NRA, and Casey...well, there might be a little hope for him. So this is what I wrote to both of them:

I hope you will take your "pro-life" attitude seriously and vote in favor of any legislation that bans semiautomatic weapon/ammunition and any legislation that repairs the gun show sale background check loophole. Your constituents are more important than an NRA rating.

It's Time to #StopTheNRA #StopTheGOP #StopTheWBC

For me, the Newtown massacre was the tipping point.

It's time to stop pretending that the NRA is good for this country. It's a stain on the country, in much the same way that Grover Norquist, the Westboro Baptist Church and even the Republican Party are all stains on the country.

Without the NRA caring more about gun companies than gun owners and buying a number of politicians, this country would have had a semiautomatic gun/ammo ban, and hundreds if not thousands of people murdered in this country with semis wouldn't have been killed. I know banning semis will not end gun violence, but it will end massacres as we've had in Connecticut, Virginia and Colorado over the last few years. It will end the murder of mass numbers of random people.

The Republican party has done nothing but show that loyalty to Grover Norquist and big business and rich people is more important than supporting the country. It is utterly out-of-touch with the people, who should thoroughly reject it. Many of us have, but more need to. The Republicans have been convincing people to vote against their own self-interest for many years. The facts don't matter to Republicans. The facts should matter to the people -- we're the ones who have to live and die by facts.

The Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) is a self-proclaimed church, but is not a real church. It is a group of raving, litigious homophobes. They picketed funerals of soldiers, and they are so low that they plan to picket the funerals of people murdered in Newtown. Enough is enough. If these people still have a tax-exemption, it should be revoked. I applaud the group of anonymous hackers who broke into the church's computer system and posted the names and addresses of members of this "church" online.

Enough is enough. We need to have a rational country. We do have a rational president, but, sadly, not a rational Congress. We must do everything we can to vote out the NRA-loving, gerry-mandering, women-hating Republicans and replace them with rational representatives who care more about the country as a whole than about the rich as a group.

But talking and tweeting is not enough. We must be advocates for people rather than for guns or for big-money interests. We must support groups like DemandAPlan and Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence to make semi-automatic weapons and ammo illegal. Remind the White House to take action on semi-automatic weapons by signing this petition (by the time I'd signed it on the afternoon of 12/14, I was around number 14,000). Sign the White House Petition to declare the Westboro Baptist Church a hate group and revoke its tax-exempt status.

As we Americans showed in the 2012 election, when we all work together, we can bring sensible people to government. We need to do this more consistently.

If you think it's time to stop these groups, add #StopTheNRA #StopTheGOP #StopTheWBC to your tweets and other messages. Let's start a movement - stop these groups that have brought (in the case of the NRA with its loose gun laws) or tried to bring so much terror to our country. It's time.

---

By using a lot of social network reminders (especially Twitter), I collected 25,000 signatures in less than 33 hours telling the IRS to investigate the tax-exempt status of the Westboro Baptist Church. The White House has gotten a number of anti-Westboro Baptist Church petitions in the last few days, and I'm glad mine is one they will have to read and respond to.

---

Related Essays

• My Letter to President Obama After the Murder of Children/Teachers in Connecticut, December 14, 2012
• A Letter to Any Republican Congressional Representative, December 2012
• Republicans Still Can't Come to Grip with Voters, November 2012

My Letter to President Obama After the Murder of Children/Teachers in a Connecticut School

I am horrified by yet another gun-related mass murder in this country.

But, President Obama, this is yet another fight you must take on.

I know, it's a hard fight. I know the NRA has many politicians in utter thrall, in much the same way Grover Norquist has many politicians in thrall. But it's time to stop letter guns be such a common splatter on our society and start controlling guns more rationally.

Enough is enough, sir. You are wrong to say that now is not the time to talk gun control. Now we must discuss gun control. I demand that the federal government starts dealing with gun control. http://www.demandaplan.org/.

A Letter to Any Republican Congressional Representative

You won your gerrymandered district. President Obama won a majority of the national vote. I trust President Obama - I do not trust you in Congress who consistently put the wishes of your party (and Grover Norquist) in front of the needs of your constituents. The top 2% can afford to pay a little more in taxes to help the country. Move us away from the fiscal cliff - serve the country for a change.

Preparing for Death Online - How ISPs and Social Media Companies Can Help People Plan

I'm a realist - we all die and we ought to have a few clues about how we handle the material we've written/developed online over time.

I'm maybe a little more conscious about this fact as I've been running a site called Dead People Server since 1997. This is a trivia site about celebrities, but it is a daily reminder that we all come to an end sometime. I've also had two surgeries over the last five years, and while I've recovered well from both, chronic pain, hospital visits, and putting advanced directives and living wills into effect remind you how fragile life can be.

I've been following, slightly, the "Digital Death" folks, who've been trying to remind people about the importance of being aware that "your online stuff" survives you. And Jaweek Kaleem wrote good article on Huffington Post called Death On Facebook Now Common As 'Dead Profiles' Create Vast Virtual Cemetery. Yes, the article was a little too Facebook-centric, as many of the same issues apply to other types of online sites, even Huffington Post itself.

So there are several simple additions sites like Facebook and Tumbler and Huffington Post can make to their profile software, to help remind people that their digital material will survive them - and what do they want to do about it?

• Add an option for "my account's executor" - a name and E-mail address (or maybe multiple names and E-mail addresses) so the account owner, before they die, can assign a person (or people) the right to control their material after their death. We all die some day. Many of us will have an idea (we're old or sick), but some die in accidents, sudden death, war or natural disasters. Plan ahead.
• Add an option for "make archive site" - it retains the site, but marks the site "archive" (for people who might quit a site while keeping their material up) or "memorial" (for people who've died - it might pin a note to the top of the site, saying how/where/when the accountowner died and keep the site open for comments from friends and relatives).
• Add an option for "remove all accountowner content," with an option to download it by the account owner or executor if desired. Some people like their papers burned after death and this is the virtual equivalent (even if some of it still survives in archive.org).

Creeps in Society, Part II

Last weekend, I was in Philadelphia, co-running Smofcon 30, a small conference for conference planners (yeah, that does sound a little self-referential). As I still have bad insomnia, I tended to shower, dress, take my laptop and go find breakfast and free WIFI. I found a nearby 24-hour diner where I'd have an omelette and get caught up on my E-mail.

The second morning I was there, I was busily typing away when the man at the next booth got up and asked, "Can you look something up for me?"

This guy was probably 50-something and was a little scruffy-looking, but, what the hell. I'm 50-something and often a little scruffy-looking myself. "Sure."

"I have to see if my lawyer listed my company."

"OK."

He gave me the name of his company. It was only listed in some public database of Pennsylvania companies. He had me look up a second company name, which was also just listed in the same public database.

Then he asked me to look up his name (which, while I do remember it, I will not mention it here). OK, this was getting a little odd, but, I did.

We concluded I probably didn't find him in particular because he's not online and his name is relatively common.

"Let me buy you breakfast."

Now, that was weird. "No, I'm all set."

"I want to buy you breakfast."

A little louder. "No."

"I insist on buying you breakfast."

WTF!! "ABSOLUTELY NOT!" I said it loud enough that it probably echoed through the room.

The man skittered back to his booth.

I returned to my computer, and it was quiet in our part of the restaurant. About five minutes later, the guy yelled, "I have a cell phone."

I looked up but otherwise ignored the creep. It's just occurred to me that he might have taken my photo. Ugh.

The waitress stopped back, I asked for my check, paid it quickly in cash and got the heck out of there, taking a quick look behind as I went to make sure the guy wasn't following me. He wasn't.

It was annoying example that many other women experience way more often than I have - that some men are sufficiently stupid that they don't understand the word "NO." Women need to be rude and loud when a man doesn't comprehend "NO." No apologies.

Later that day, I was going out to lunch with a friend from out of the country and she wanted plain old local food. We went over to the diner, as the food was about as local as you could get. We had a very pleasant lunch. At one point, one of the waitresses stopped by and said, "You were here this morning, weren't you?"

It turned out the guy was a known quantity in the diner and was a bit of a problem. She wanted to make sure I was OK, and I assured her I was.

Being firm to clueless men is just part of being an adult woman. If I'd had to do anything more than yell "NO" at the jerk, I bet the laptop would have been a fine weapon of self-defense.

Republicans Still Can't Come to Grips with Voters

The Republicans are still pretending that they lost many of the 2012 elections, especially on the federal level, because they were not conservative enough.

Since they don't like dealing with facts, they are ignoring both the vote and many exit polls that indicated the following facts:

• Voters believe in keeping abortion legal - roughly 60% in favor
• Voters want improved rights to health care by implementing Obamacare
• Voters don't believe that women magical powers over their bodies, like mystically becoming non-pregnant if they become pregnant as the result of a rape
• Voters believe people shouldn't be subject to different laws because they are gay
• Voters believe the rich should pay more in taxes
• In many areas, voters will vote for candidates without worrying about their race or gender

I heard the Republicans complaining over these issues time and time again yesterday.

The Republicans lost the big elections because they are completely out-of-touch with the average American. Yes, they do have very vocal supporters, there's no doubt about that. But most Republican politicians cannot relate to people who do not share their regressive views.

Even now, the Republicans are still playing the "we can't increase taxes" card. This is bull. Grover Norquist and his famous "no new taxes" pledge is crippling this country, threatening to send it over the famous fiscal cliff at the end of December. An awful lot of our hideous national debt is due to Bush, Cheney and Norquist, but to hear the Republicans talk, it's all the Democrats' fault.

Reality check - when was the last time we didn't have a high federal debt?

Under President Clinton, a Democrat.

My Hopes for the Second Obama Term

Watching the returns after the 2012 election was mostly a thrilling experience.

I'm so happy that the billions the Republican noise machine spent trying to discredit Obama were wasted! I'm very happy that the Website 538 was spot on with its meta-analysis of polls. I'm very happy that the members of the Rape Caucus lost and that Chuck Fuqua ("Parents should be able to execute their disobedient children") lost and that Michelle Bachmann almost lost. Women won all over the place - Warren, McCaskill, Baldwin. Paul Krugman has been nothing but right for years. Twitter was heavily overloaded and did not crash and burn Election Night. And Faux News was completely discredited as anything like a news source all night long. Millions of us already knew this, but I think millions more finally caught on last night,

Mostly, I'm glad we'll have four more years of President Obama. Like other developed nations, we'll have a more inclusive healthcare system. Yes, some people (and we might be some of them) will need to pay more taxes. The long "tax holiday" is over. Yes, I'm sure we'll still have some obstructionism, but I don't think the gridlock will be quite as strong as it was.

And, I do look forward to the coming civil war within the Republican party. The TPers are still as delusional as ever and think the American public wants them. They don't. More Republicans don't even want them anymore. For the next four years anyway, the country will progress and not regress. I think the TPers will try to start their own party, and will become increasingly less relevant. America voted for more women, voted for gay rights and legal pot, and re-elected a black president with both plenty of electoral votes and a clear popular majority.

The people who lost will continue to whine and cry - heard a few minutes of the Akin "concession" speech and it was amazingly juvenile. They can whine and cry all they want, but democracy and rationality basically won the day yesterday, and we can be very happy about that. Vote suppression and vote buying did not win - the voters won!

It looks like our country will finally not be involved in multiple wars simultaneously. While Romney and the hawks seem to want nothing more than a war with Iran, there are ways around that, and I'm sure Obama would not start a war with anyone unless absolutely necessary.

Perhaps our country will finally raise enough in taxes to improve crumbling infrastructure, improve the schools, contribute to science research and NASA. America can be a great country again, but it needs the tax money to do so.

Forward!

The Importance of Pollworkers

Good pollworkers are the lifeblood of every election. It's a thankless job with long hours. Getting sharp pollworkers is vital, particularly given voter intimidation, voter suppression and voter fraud efforts. The pollworkers are there to ensure we have a fair election and that every vote is counted (at least in most states) and that every voter votes only once.

We live in the suburbs west of Pittsburgh, in North Fayette Township. It's a very white, fairly Republican area. We've voted there without any problem since 2006 when we moved here. Usually, we're in and out in under 20 minutes, maybe a half hour.

We decided to vote early, got there before 7:25 and were shocked to see the many cars parked illegally and the long lines. We also parked illegally and got in line for our precinct. One line moved reasonably well, but our line moved extraordinarily slowly. One rumor that went down our line was that there was only one working voting machine for our precinct. It felt a little like voter suppression, except that we're in a Republican area in a state where Governor Tom Corbett has said he supports voter suppression in Democratic areas like Philadelphia. It seems unlikely they would try to suppress votes in a majority Republican area.

After about a half hour, someone who seemed to be working for the town said that the slowness of our line was due to "trainees." So they didn't see if their "trainees" could comprehend alphabetical order before they gave them a job as pollworker? That wasn't a good sign.

When we got inside (after a very cold hour and 15 minutes outside, we could finally get warmed up), some of the pollworkers looked pretty familiar to me. It was taking each person almost a minute to get processed to vote. When I got up to the table, it was already 8:50 (and, remember, the polls opened at 7:00) and I was voter number 102. That meant it was taking nearly a minute to process each voter before they even got to vote!

I don't like to criticize older people for being a little slow, and I appreciate the work they do. Heck, I'm middle aged and I'm slower than I'd like to be. But the woman who was in the critical position of having to look up people in a book that was in alphabetical order had trouble doing so. She couldn't remember that "M" was at the beginning of the second book. She couldn't find my husband's name right away, but once she found it, I said "and I"m after him" so she'd keep the book open to the same location.

They say with age comes wisdom, but it isn't wise to put a person on a voter processing table who slowed down hundreds of voters today. What if we lived in an area without enough voting machines, or if genuine voter suppression efforts were in play? How much longer would the line have been? How much longer would people have waited? But, most people waited.

Finally, we got to the voting machines, selected our candidates, pressed the big VOTE button and pressed CONFIRMED. We were out of there.

And the line outside was longer than ever.

So, if you're voting in North Fayette Township today, dress warmly, wear comfortable boots and maybe bring along a thermos of hot chocolate or coffee - you're probably going to need it. But vote anyway. Everyone's vote is too important to be deterred by slow processing.

---

Twelve hours later, I was tweeting with a neighbor who was in line at the same precinct after 8pm (PA polls close at 8). She said 150 people were in line in front of her. She didn't get to vote until 9pm. Her husband tried to vote earlier. They told him they couldn't find him on the voter lists, told him he was in the wrong place (when he wasn't) and did not offer him a provisional ballot. Residents of North Fayette Township need to talk to the County Board of Elections about this. It may not be deliberate suppression but it is gross incompetence.

Get Out and Vote, 2012 Edition

It's interesting how terrified Republicans are of all adults voting. It's as if they've finally realized how irrelevant they'd be in a true democracy. I frankly don't care who you vote for (well, of course I'd prefer that you vote for Obama), but I've always believed, whether I've tended to vote Republican, or gone the straight Democratic ticket (since 2000), that it's the civic responsibility of all adults to study the candidates and vote. Voter suppression, as already seen in Ohio and Florida, and will probably see in parts of Pennsylvania (especially Philadelphia) tomorrow is just plain evil no matter which party is doing it (but, over the last 20 years, it's been Republicans).

There are been times in our country's history when the Democrats have been the party of idiots, and now it's been the Republican party for over 20 years.

On the federal level, they've obstructed President Obama at every turn, including when he tried to bring more federal aid to job creation...and then they claimed in their political advertising that Obama failed to create jobs. I'll grant you, President Obama has had problems, but when I compare what he actually accomplished in the poisoned atmosphere of the Congress, I'm amazed.

In some states and localities, Republicans have gone out of their way to make it difficult for people to vote. Witness the long voting lines in Ohio and Florida. Why is that? These area with lines are in areas that tend to vote Democratic. You'll never see voting lines like that in Republican enclaves.

Republicans keep claiming they're for freedom...unless you're a woman, of course. Or a Muslim. Or an atheist. Or trying to vote for someone other than a Republican. Or...whatever minority they want to control this week.

The Republicans are trying to turn the United States of America into a tax haven for the rich and a hell hole for the poor. We're on our way to being a third world country because of the way they've turned "taxes" into a four letter word. I want to live in a place where there are good roads, good schools and good health care. Infrastructure matters - have you already forgotten what Sandy, Irene and Katrina did to areas that failed to have the cash to make needed improvements?

I want a government that's forward-thinking, and not one that only wants to go fight another war somewhere.

I want a government that's paying attention to environmental issues, not one that's busily polluting our water and air.

I want a government that's realistic and admits there are problems and wants to correct them, and work across the bureaucracy and with businesses and citizens to correct them. We need a big tent approach that's inclusive to deal with the future, and not a little estate that supports only the 1%.

I want four more years of Obama. While I'm not a big fan of Bob Casey, he has my vote for Senator as he's less bad than his opponent. Ditto Larry Maggi for Congress, Matt Smith for PA House and Mark Scappe for PA House.

Insomnia, Ambien and Me

I've had insomnia, on and off, since I was 5 years old.  Also had issues with depression and, at times, anxiety.  Been on and off of Prozac a few times, but not in this millennium.  Started having really chronic insomnia about 10 years ago when I was 45.  Went through temazapan and something else - both stopped working within months.  The one time I took Lunesta, it made me sleep much less.

In the meantime, I went from working full time to working part time to getting fired from a contract job because my concentration was so poor.  I work occasional odd jobs and do a lot of volunteer work.  Luckily, my husband has a job, but I'd really like to be able to work full time again.

In early 2008, I got involved with a medicine sleep study at the University of Pittsburgh, run by Dr. Douglas Moul (now of the Cleveland Clinic).   I spent three nights getting my sleep recorded and observed.  While it is frequently assumed that the sleep problem of all fat people is sleep apnea, I do not have it (which is good because I know I could never sleep with a CPAP machine). They found no reason for my persistent insomnia at all.  The only symptom they observed was that my blood oxygen decreased slightly just before I woke up.

I was put in a randomized group and given either a mystery drug or a placebo.  Within days, I was sleeping about an extra half hour to hour a night without any side effects.  Eight weeks later, I found out I was in the Ambien group.

Not that Ambien solved all my problems, but any extra sleep was very helpful.

So, since I wasn't having any side effects, I stayed on Ambien.  Every few months, I'd take an Ambien vacation where my sleep would drop to 2-3 hours from the 5-6 hours I'd get on Ambien.  So I'd go back on it.

Over time, though, I was getting less sleep on Ambien.  After 4 1/2 years on it, I finally took my last Ambien a month ago, at a time when I am unemployed, walking 2-4 miles a day, not drinking anything caffeinated and drinking maybe a beer or glass of wine a day.

Other than the insomnia being worse than ever (never sleeping more than 2 hours at a time), I feel OK.  No depression, just frustration.  I have tried Melatonin and it does nothing for me.  Ditto Benedryl.  Ditto Valerian. Ditto a white noise machine. Ditto a variety of specialty pillows. Ditto wearing orange safety glasses for a bit in the evening to cut out "blue light" (though I'm still giving that odd trick a try). Ditto buying a high-end mattress 10 years ago after 17 years of a water bed. Ditto not having a phone in the bedroom. Ditto...well, you think of any odd sleep trick and I've probably tried it over the last 10 years.

I do break down and take Nyqil once a week as that helps a little. Sometimes, having some tuna as a snack in the evening seems to help due to tryptophan. 

The only side effect (other than sleeplessness) from getting off of Ambien I've had is craving sweets.  I'm walking enough that I haven't gained any weight, but I'm currently not loosing either. Ambien was also a very slight appetite suppressant for me and helped me lose about 30 pounds while I was on it.

The insomnia I'm having now is somewhat different from the insomnia I was having pre-Ambien.  Ten years ago, I'd sleep 3-4 hours, wake up for 2 then, sometimes, sleep for an hour.  Now, It takes me an hour to fall asleep, I wake up 4-6 times a night and I haven't slept for more than 2 hours at a time in over a month.

During the day, it is pretty much the same as when I was on Ambien.  Some days, I get a lot of things done.  Other days, I get very little done.  My concentration is, generally, a little better when I can concentrate, so that's a good sign.

So, during a particularly bad bout of insomnia tonight, I went to our computer and looked up "Ambien withdrawl."  I ran into some pretty bad horror stories.  I'm having a somewhat different experience than many.  I don't feel depressed, suicidal or confused. I'm just very tired.  The fact that my insomnia is so different means that I agree with the point many of have made - Ambien can alter the sleep receptors.  I never had any of the bad side effects of Ambien people mention - no sleep walking, no sleep eating - other than not remembering dreams.  And I'm still not dreaming. I did have those odd "shocky" feelings at night sometimes, but those are also reported by menopausal women who aren't on Ambien.

The root cause of my insomnia is probably due to estrogen.  My mother had terrible insomnia in her 40s, but it got better in her 50s, and she said her grandmother had the same experience.  So I'm hoping, now that I'm through menopause as well, that that will also help get my sleep back into some sort of normal pattern.

But, it turns out that a few people who had warned me about Ambien were right - it is addictive and it can change your brain in ways you don't expect.

For a lot of discussion on Ambien addiction/recovery, see http://www.topix.com/forum/drug/ambien/T8MMMFNQIK6VHJOV6.  I only wish I'd started reading this area five years ago.

PS (10/28/12): No Ambien for nearly 7 weeks and my sleep is more disrupted now than it was before I took Ambien. Very annoying. Melatonin does nothing. Nyqil helps a little but I only take that one night a week. And now, there's a link between taking sleeping pills like Ambien and cancer.

PPS (3/15/13): No Ambien in over 6 months. Sometimes, I'm sleeping up to 3 hours at a time once during the night, which is a gradual improvement. I generally get about 5 hours of sleep a night with one or two brief wake-ups, but some nights get only 2 or 3 hours of sleep for no reason at all. On the down side, I've gained about 15 pounds since September, but the carbohydrate cravings are getting better so I'm being more "mindful" about my eating. I rarely drink soda (don't have any at home) but sometimes have Diet Coke or mocha drinks when I'm out. Still averaging 2 miles of walking a day. Am writing a little more some days.

Creeps in Society

I would like to be surprised by the way some people are trying to redefine the word "creep."  One person's bad behavior shouldn't deserve being called "the creep," as if he was somehow unique.  Many fans have creepy behavior.

I can think of three types of creepiness:

•      personally creepy
•      generally creepy
•      specifically creepy

Personally creepy is what creeps you out.  It may not creep out anyone else in the world.  Take clowns.  I enjoy clowns, they are generally amusing and often acrobatic.  Now, maybe it was in response to Killer Klowns from Outer Space or It, but, about 20 years ago, people started to say that clowns creeped them out. I still don't understand that one.  I was in the situation for most of the summer of being majorly creeped out by my own body after surgery.  I hate looking at incisions.  In fact, I would not look at my incision if I could possibly avoid it.  As fascinating as medicine has always been to me, I could never consider a career in medicine because of this problem.  But it doesn't seem to bother medical professionals that much.  So I know my response was my problem.

Generally creepy is behavior that people engage in without thinking about it and it's not aimed at any individual.  Wearing clothes inappropriate to a situation, for example, not bathing regularly...general behavior we can point at and say "Weird."  But it's just the way the person is.  We can either accept it or reject it.

Specifically creepy is when one person does something to another that really creeps the second person out.  This happens from time to time in personal interactions, and is more likely to happen when one person is attracted to another, and completely misreads the situation.

Take that Readercon situation again. I respect the fact the man involved really creeped out one specific woman during Readercon. I believe the woman who brought the complaint about him. Given the Readercon rules of conduct, she did the right thing.  But, an awful lot of people have chosen to go beyond being sympathetic and helpful to the woman to being outraged and therefore generally creeped out.   They are trying to project their feelings of outrage on the rest of us by blowing this unfortunate situation out of all proportion.

What's next - burquas? Male bodyguards? Being forced to stay home to avoid the possible outrage of a man making a pass?   Now that's really creepy.

Related postings:

They Said/They Said
Dealing with Anonymous and/or Abusive Comments
Sexual Abuse and the Pillars of Society

Dealing with Anonymous and/or Abusive Comments

I do not engage in any conversation in my blog with anonymous posters.  I normally delete such messages without even reading them.  I started to read an anonymous poster's response to "They Said/They Said" and stopped when the person presumed to tell me how I should feel about things.  If you wish to attack me or anyone else, have the courage of your convictions and sign your name.  Life is too short to enable cowards.

I also don't like abusive comments.  They make me uncomfortable.  If someone makes you uncomfortable, it is OK to say "this makes me uncomfortable" and end the conversation there.  So I won't be enabling abusive commenters here either.

In the case of anonymous (no E-mail) and abusive comments, I guess I can't respond to them personally, but that's no great loss.

Related postings

They Said/They Said
Creeps in Society
Sexual Abuse and the Pillars of Society

They Said/They Said and Plunging all Fandom Into War

[[Error correction - when I first posted this essay, I called it "He Said/She Said"  Not long afterwards, I realized that this title was completely wrong.  Only a few people doubt what she or he said in relation to what happened at Readercon this year.  The real problem has been what "they" said to further incite the situation.  OK, and I may be a "they" in this case, but I would really rather see reasonable discussion of this problem rather than general ranting, which is, sadly, what has often been happening.]]

I've been very active in science fiction fandom since 1975.   We science fiction fans are generally people who love to read, love to speculate and love to argue.  But...an awful lot of us are socially awkward and/or bad tempered.  We don't always read people well.  To use a Big Bang Theory analogy, there are many Leonards and Howards in fandom, and a few Sheldons, and not too many Rajs.  And these archetypes exist in both genders in fandom.

When I got involved, there weren't that many women in fandom. However, I always felt very safe in fandom.  I can think of a couple of times having long discussions with men, sometimes in their hotel rooms during SF conventions.  A few of them came onto me - a kiss, a grope, whatever.  I said no, and we just resumed our conversation.  No meant no, but an unwanted kiss did not mean I'd just been raped.  Fannish men were smart, right?  Fannish women knew how to stand up for themselves, right? By contrast, during my freshman year in college, I knew two women who'd been raped, and a third who was probably raped but was too drunk to know for sure (that was in a fraternity basement).  At the same time, I never heard about a woman being raped at a con.

People in fandom seemed more enlightened about gender issues than people (especially men) outside of fandom.  Generally, but not always.  There was always a lot of discussion about the patriarchy and the move towards equality among some groups of us. The number of women now active in fandom approaches 50%, which is great.

However, there are some trends in fandom that are making me uncomfortable. In particular, there was a recent incident at Readercon which was unfortunate, has been blown up way out of all proportion for a number of reasons.

The basic overview - man follows woman, puts an arm around her, she says no, he follows her some, trying to apologize  (I think he was sent away 2 or 3 times).  I believe the woman involved, because of the way she described the man's actions.  I've known the man for years, and can see him reacting in the way she described - he was really trying to apologize, and she just wanted to be left alone, which was her right.

This incident, which probably happens at every convention every weekend, was blown up because the woman's friends got very angry at the man, but also because Readercon has a conduct code, and, according to the code, the man should have been banned from Readercon permanently.  Instead, he was banned for two years, which caused a huge overreaction.

Here are just a few of the things I've heard about this incident:

• The man was likened to an infamous alleged child sex rapist who was very active in fandom until he got into trouble with the law.  For various reasons, his case has never gone to trial.  
• A Hugo-award winner was criticized for mentioning the name of her longtime friend in her acceptance speech, who happened to be the man involved in the Readercon incident.
• Some people have stated the man did nothing wrong.
• Some people think he should be banned from all conferences for all time.

I'm very much in the middle on this issue - while the man clearly misbehaved, I don't think he did anything close to being banned from all conventions for all time.  But, to liken stupid behavior by a man to a man accused of child rape is particularly enraging. Rape is rape - a bad pick-up line isn't rape.

We need to try to be respectful of each other, but if we can't be respectful, we should just walk away sometimes.  I got involved in two arguments I didn't really want to get involved in again at Chicon.  In both cases, I walked.

I am going to try to walk away from arguing about the Readercon incident in the future.  I've made my argument, I've said my piece, and I don't believe this incident should be plunging all fandom into war.

But, if there can be reasonable discussion of some of the issues around men and women in fandom, I'd like to be a part of it.  We can't be afraid of each other.  Sadly, the level of vitriol around this incident can set the general egalitarianism in fandom back by decades.

Related posts:

• Creeps in Society
• Dealing with Anonymous and/or Abusive Comments
• Sexual Abuse and the Pillars of Society

Ground Rules

I generally agree with Don D'Ammassa's "Ground Rules," though I'm at the point where I don't read Websites like Fox News or other sites not based in reality. I know all of the following are nothing but right wing propaganda: 

• Barack Obama was not born in the US.
• The CIA or other government agency was behind the 9/11 attack.
• Creationism should be taught in schools.
• Being gay is a choice.
• Global warming is a hoax (the extent of human involvement is, on the other hand, a legitimate area of argument).
• The Holocaust did not happen.
• Obama's health care plan included death panels.
• A woman's body can make a rapist's sperm not impregnate her.
• The government is going to take away your guns (I sincerely hope they will limit the kinds of guns/ammunition sold, but that's a different issue).
• Birth control is not health care.
• Americans are taxed now more than ever and taxes for the richest should be decreased even further (there's no evidence from recent tax cuts that "trickle down" helps the economy - it just puts more money in the hands if the rich)

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