Stormy weather
Well, the cook 'out' turned out to be more of a cook in, but we did get enough of a break in the wild weather to get the burgers and dogs done. Ryther's friends from childhood came by, one with his wife and 2 children that we met for the first time (the kids that is). They are 2 and 4. WOW, you forget how much watching a 2 and 4 year old take. Oh, unless you are Mrs. Moose and you just leave your kids for someone else to watch that is, because you wouldn't want to hover. lol
The two were really cute, but non stop go from the time they got here. And because it was raining or wet out, we couldn't just go out back and let them run around while the adults talked. So it fell on the two 'mommies' to amuse and watch the kids while the boys caught up. Which was OK, they don't get together often. But it would have been nice to have more time to be part of the conversation. Oh well. By around 7pm, the two year old was getting tired cranky and they had to go. One will be back in a short while as his mother is dying of lung cancer. But I'm hoping that Ryther and his friend will get together and go out and visit the third one in his home state maybe next year. I think it would be nice for them to get out to visit. Not sure how often they will be back by this way once the last parent is gone.
One of the topics I was going to write about is the Right to Die. There is some talk of trying got get a bill passed here like in Oregon. This being Irish Catholic country, I don't know how well that will go over, but as with the case of my father and Ryther's friend's mother who has terminal lung cancer, the idea that you might actually get a chance for a quick death rather than forcing people to suffer to the last is mighty appealing. I know so many people, especially in the older generations, the practical generations, who have always wanted some kind of assisted suicide provision. But I think what they want is really for a doctor to give them a shot or a pill to just end it, and that isn't what assisted suicide laws seem to be. They seem to end up as laws that you can have the stuff to administer to yourself, but no one can help you do it. That's just wrong, because if you are alive enough and able enough to give yourself a shot or take a pill, you probably are alive enough to want to hang on a little longer. It's when you get to the point that you are helpless that you really want someone to end your life quickly, and that's exactly when they cant legally do it. Again, we treat pets better when it comes to end of life care.
Which brings me to my next subject, choice in care. We have the boy and his mother on the run because they wont submit to Chemotherapy for his cancer, and we have the mother who was convicted of second degree murder in the case where she didn't get adequate care for her diabetic daughter. In both cases, the kids are young, 13 and 11. I think the difference in the two cases is that diabetes is a very manageable disease, and there is no reason that the child should have died from it. In the second case though, the court has ordered the 13 year old boy to have chemotherapy, which itself is a poisoning of the system, and a rather hap hazard way of treating cancer if you ask me. Granted there are not always good options, and maybe this would be an effective treatment for some cancers, but I wonder if it's wise that a court can order a person to basically poison themselves when the cure rate is so hit or miss. I just spent a few minutes looking at another case of a boy running away from his cancer treatment, that of Billy Best. Which then led me to look at the treatment he did choose Essiac, which is a supplement of herbs that supposedly cure cancer. I say supposedly because there have apparently been no studies to determine the effectiveness of this combination of herbs. It's an interesting dilemma. At what point do you step in on the behalf of a child? At what point is it negligence to not treat, or to treat differently?
The other day I was listening to NPR and they had a segment on about spirituality and such. I found the part about quantum particles particularly interesting. You can read the whole story here.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104351710
After running 36 couples through this test, the researchers found that when one person focused his thoughts on his partner, the partner's blood flow and perspiration dramatically changed within two seconds. The odds of this happening by chance were 1 in 11,000. Three dozen double blind, randomized studies by such institutions as the University of Washington and the University of Edinburgh have reported similar results.
The 'Quantum Entanglement' Of Love
So how do you explain this? No one really knows. But Radin and a few others think that a theory known as "quantum entanglement" may offer some clues.
Here's how it works. Once two particles have interacted, if you separate them, even by miles, they behave as if they're still connected. So far, this has only been demonstrated on the subatomic level.
The rest of this is going to be about Massachusetts politics, so you can skip it if you'd like.
So as people have less money and fewer jobs, our state is raising the sales tax. Ok, that's fine. but I hope you know this whole economy is a catch 22. The more you lay people off, the less they buy, the less they buy, the more people get laid off.
Slot machines at the dog tracks. Well, here we have the good people of MA who decided that dog racing was cruel so they have banned it. But then the Senate has a chance to at least save the jobs of many of those people who work at the dog tracks by letting them have slot machines there. They vote no, because god forbid we allow gambling in this state. It might get out of control, like the LOTTERY!
What the heck do they think people were doing at the tracks before, admiring the dogs?
You want to bring you kids to the beach because you cant afford to go to Disney this year? Well hey, you can now pay $10.00 to park at Nantasket, and if you want to go to some of the ponds, well, forget it because they are closed to swimming because they cant hire lifeguards. How about "SWIM AT YOUR OWN RISK" signs? How much to they cost?
They want to get rid of the Quinn Bill which gives police added benefits for getting degrees. My uncle used the Quinn bill and did very well. He became a Lieutenant, and would have made Captain but for office politics. The rational is that you get a better police officer with more education, and that can be very true, and you have to realize that most cops work two jobs, but if you are taking classes, you loose that chance to earn the extra detail money, but you make it up in salary with the Quinn bill. If the colleges were just passing the cops without teaching them, penalize them. If the amount of money the Quinn bill bestows is too much, then lower it, but an intensive for cops to be more than just beat cops is a good thing I think. The law is so complicated these days that you have to know more than just a person's Miranda rights.
Ban texting while driving. Since when is texting, which requires you to look at and thing about something in your hand instead of the road, not already driving to endanger? Of course it should be illegal. But hey, lets make sure the text will go through when you travel in the O'Neil tunnel.
The two were really cute, but non stop go from the time they got here. And because it was raining or wet out, we couldn't just go out back and let them run around while the adults talked. So it fell on the two 'mommies' to amuse and watch the kids while the boys caught up. Which was OK, they don't get together often. But it would have been nice to have more time to be part of the conversation. Oh well. By around 7pm, the two year old was getting tired cranky and they had to go. One will be back in a short while as his mother is dying of lung cancer. But I'm hoping that Ryther and his friend will get together and go out and visit the third one in his home state maybe next year. I think it would be nice for them to get out to visit. Not sure how often they will be back by this way once the last parent is gone.
One of the topics I was going to write about is the Right to Die. There is some talk of trying got get a bill passed here like in Oregon. This being Irish Catholic country, I don't know how well that will go over, but as with the case of my father and Ryther's friend's mother who has terminal lung cancer, the idea that you might actually get a chance for a quick death rather than forcing people to suffer to the last is mighty appealing. I know so many people, especially in the older generations, the practical generations, who have always wanted some kind of assisted suicide provision. But I think what they want is really for a doctor to give them a shot or a pill to just end it, and that isn't what assisted suicide laws seem to be. They seem to end up as laws that you can have the stuff to administer to yourself, but no one can help you do it. That's just wrong, because if you are alive enough and able enough to give yourself a shot or take a pill, you probably are alive enough to want to hang on a little longer. It's when you get to the point that you are helpless that you really want someone to end your life quickly, and that's exactly when they cant legally do it. Again, we treat pets better when it comes to end of life care.
Which brings me to my next subject, choice in care. We have the boy and his mother on the run because they wont submit to Chemotherapy for his cancer, and we have the mother who was convicted of second degree murder in the case where she didn't get adequate care for her diabetic daughter. In both cases, the kids are young, 13 and 11. I think the difference in the two cases is that diabetes is a very manageable disease, and there is no reason that the child should have died from it. In the second case though, the court has ordered the 13 year old boy to have chemotherapy, which itself is a poisoning of the system, and a rather hap hazard way of treating cancer if you ask me. Granted there are not always good options, and maybe this would be an effective treatment for some cancers, but I wonder if it's wise that a court can order a person to basically poison themselves when the cure rate is so hit or miss. I just spent a few minutes looking at another case of a boy running away from his cancer treatment, that of Billy Best. Which then led me to look at the treatment he did choose Essiac, which is a supplement of herbs that supposedly cure cancer. I say supposedly because there have apparently been no studies to determine the effectiveness of this combination of herbs. It's an interesting dilemma. At what point do you step in on the behalf of a child? At what point is it negligence to not treat, or to treat differently?
The other day I was listening to NPR and they had a segment on about spirituality and such. I found the part about quantum particles particularly interesting. You can read the whole story here.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104351710
After running 36 couples through this test, the researchers found that when one person focused his thoughts on his partner, the partner's blood flow and perspiration dramatically changed within two seconds. The odds of this happening by chance were 1 in 11,000. Three dozen double blind, randomized studies by such institutions as the University of Washington and the University of Edinburgh have reported similar results.
The 'Quantum Entanglement' Of Love
So how do you explain this? No one really knows. But Radin and a few others think that a theory known as "quantum entanglement" may offer some clues.
Here's how it works. Once two particles have interacted, if you separate them, even by miles, they behave as if they're still connected. So far, this has only been demonstrated on the subatomic level.
The rest of this is going to be about Massachusetts politics, so you can skip it if you'd like.
So as people have less money and fewer jobs, our state is raising the sales tax. Ok, that's fine. but I hope you know this whole economy is a catch 22. The more you lay people off, the less they buy, the less they buy, the more people get laid off.
Slot machines at the dog tracks. Well, here we have the good people of MA who decided that dog racing was cruel so they have banned it. But then the Senate has a chance to at least save the jobs of many of those people who work at the dog tracks by letting them have slot machines there. They vote no, because god forbid we allow gambling in this state. It might get out of control, like the LOTTERY!
What the heck do they think people were doing at the tracks before, admiring the dogs?
You want to bring you kids to the beach because you cant afford to go to Disney this year? Well hey, you can now pay $10.00 to park at Nantasket, and if you want to go to some of the ponds, well, forget it because they are closed to swimming because they cant hire lifeguards. How about "SWIM AT YOUR OWN RISK" signs? How much to they cost?
They want to get rid of the Quinn Bill which gives police added benefits for getting degrees. My uncle used the Quinn bill and did very well. He became a Lieutenant, and would have made Captain but for office politics. The rational is that you get a better police officer with more education, and that can be very true, and you have to realize that most cops work two jobs, but if you are taking classes, you loose that chance to earn the extra detail money, but you make it up in salary with the Quinn bill. If the colleges were just passing the cops without teaching them, penalize them. If the amount of money the Quinn bill bestows is too much, then lower it, but an intensive for cops to be more than just beat cops is a good thing I think. The law is so complicated these days that you have to know more than just a person's Miranda rights.
Ban texting while driving. Since when is texting, which requires you to look at and thing about something in your hand instead of the road, not already driving to endanger? Of course it should be illegal. But hey, lets make sure the text will go through when you travel in the O'Neil tunnel.