So at Christmas dinner I heard a young fella say, "Well at least Obama won't get re-elected," and I laughed and said, "Sorry to disappoint you but I think he will."
I do not think this is true because I am voting for him. I do not think this is true because the republicans are putting up a bunch of roadkill, stiffs, scary old guys, dudes wearing foil hats and guys almost smart enough to be a lamp.
I think this because a sitting president is already 78.8% re-elected. I mean we already voted the guy in once and barring a total collapse of... well everything, he is going to be reelected.
In the history fo the USA there have been 44 presidents and 15 were not re-elected. Of those W H Harrison, Taylor, Garfield, Harding and Kennedy died in their first term leaving nine. Out of those nine; one, Grover Cleveland, was president during what was probably the worst depression in the history fo the country and so was defeated by republican Benjamin Harrison who did so poorly in handling the crisis that he then was defeated by the same Grover Cleveland who became the only man to not be re-elected twice.
This does not include Andrew Johnson who, having inherited the office after Lincoln's death, was never elected but was impeached and did not seek re-election. Joining him in holding the office but not having been elected to it is Gerald Ford who pardoned Nixon... enough said.
So out of the remaining nine we have John Adams who was so paranoid he oversaw the passage of the alien and sedition acts while having Thomas Jefferson (who was a democrat and in the other party) constantly undermining him because Adams refused to enter the French Revolution. This led to Adams being so wildly unpopular and universally hated that he lost the election in a landslide and retired from political life.
John Quincy Adams' presidency was racked with scandal and he was defeated by Andrew Jackson and a populist swell whose policies caused the collapse that sank...
Martin Van Buren who was president three months when the collapse of 1837 happened because of unscrupulous credit practices which caused the economy to collapse. Incidentally the Great GREAT Depression of the late 19th century happened for the same reason as did (in large measure) the Great Depression in the 1930's
Gee 4 times in 175 years and we still haven't figured out this is a bad idea.... but I digress.
Taft lost to Wilson because Teddy Roosevelt started a third party.
Herbert Hoover... well Great Depression anyone?
Jimmy Carter was president at a time when the economy was so bad that inflation was up and the economy was shrinking. That actually shouldn't be able to happen as expanding economies drive inflation and shrinking economies, well... shrink it. And we boycotted the olympics. Iran hostage crisis. And Reagan ran... again.
Perfect storm.
Aside from that is George Herbert Walker Bush. This guy failed to win a war, the economy was crap, Dan Quayle was his VP, "No new taxes!", he only won because the Democrats put up Dukakis who couldn't have beat Hoover (and Hoover was dead), and still he lost his bid for re-election because Perot started a third party (basically) and carried 19% of the vote and many swing states including Ohio, Wisconsin, New Jersey, and Iowa Clinton won by fewer than 5% with Perot taking 18-20% of the vote.
In other words, without Perot... wait for it... Clinton may not have beaten George H W Bush. Clinton for pity's sake.
And why? Cuz Bush was the guy already there and people fear change.
44 presidents and five died, one is sitting, two chose not to run again, two lost because of splits in their own party and Cleveland did get re-elected... eventually. Meaning out of the 33 remaining 26 got re-elected good or bad. That's a .788 winning percentage and that means that guy already there almost always wins.
Don't believe me?
We re-elected W.
Monday, December 26, 2011
Saturday, December 24, 2011
Christmas Eve 1:30 AM 2011
I was listening to wife sleep and the dog snore and thinking all these things at a thousand miles an hour and figured if I could just bore myself to death then I could sleep too. So I got up to write it all down.
Enjoy.
In 2007 I was diagnosed with a Chiari 1 malformation. What that means is that the part of my skull where the base of my brain and my brain stem and spinal chord all come together is constricted because by cerebellum is too low in the back of my head. This creates pressure in the area resulting, most commonly, in migraine headaches. I had my first migraine when I was fourteen years old.
For those of you who have never had a migraine this is not the same thing as having a headache. A migraine is when your head declares war on your life. It makes the little things like light, sound, motion, etc intolerable at best and nauseating at worst. The best thing is that when vomiting occurs it makes the migraine worse thus making vomiting more likely... you get the point.
The reason why I found out I had this condition was because I had torn up my right shoulder and by the grace of God the MRI just happened to barely glimpse the malformation thus alerting my doctors to my condition. It was decided shoulder surgery was the more pressing need and so that was performed, most admirably, by a lovely doctor who looked like Cameron from Ferris Bueller's Day Off whose name I cannot remember anymore.
I was scheduled to have the surgery for the Chiari 1 the following winter and was ten days out from my surgical consult on Feb 1 2008 when I was run over in the parking lot at work. Of course being laid up in bed put off the surgery and while I was in the hospital I got a migraine and the nurse gave me tylenol and phenegran for it which cleared it up quite nicely. My surgeon decided that if my headaches, which were still the worst of my symptoms, could be handled with medication then surgery was unnecessary. I figured if a guy who stands to make a not inconsiderable amount of money on me tells me to not do it, then that advice is worth taking.
So for two plus years this was how I dealt with it. I missed more work than I should because I would get bad migraines which would lay me up for a few days at a time. I took sick time some times because of them but I managed to scrape by and be a reasonably productive person. Our family sacrificed vacations etc because I invariably used up that time being ill but my wife, saint that she is, did not complain inordinately, at least not to me. So we pressed on.
Until this year. When even the pain pills stopped working. Understand I don't take codeine or vicodin because I am allergic to them so I have to take non-narcotic pain pills which are little more than really strong tylenol, but they did the trick when needed. This year however they stopped working. My doctor and I began to discuss surgery again and tried to make contact with the surgeon I had before only to be put off again and again before finally being told that he is only a spine specialist now and so would not be able to help me. We switched to another doctor and targeted trying to have the surgery at the turn of the year.
Then in October I slid off the edge with my health.
The first thing I noticed is that I was tired all of the time. No matter how much i slept or how early I went to bed, foreswearing coffee and five hour energy etc I was tired all of the time. Then my migraines got worse. Not only had they been bad all year, but I reached the point where my head hurt all the time no mater what I did. I had a low level headache or migraine at all times and consequently I had even more trouble sleeping because laying down on my hurting head made it hurt worse which made my exhaustion even more pronounced. Then I started forgetting stuff, and I mean really simple things like things at my job that I have known for years I would forget how to do and would sit for a half hour and try to remember how to do. Then I started falling. For no reason I would be walking along and suddenly I would just be on the ground. Now my hands shake, my vision is messed up and my equilibrium is so shot I feel like I'm drunk every time I walk across the room.
The result of this is that I have missed, besides the last three months of my life, a lot, A LOT of time at work and am currently on disability because my doctor doesn't think I am safe to drive a truck and my boss can't give me light duty. Of course my company is not in the habit of paying people to sit on disability while they wait for surgery so who knows if any of this time off will be approved. I sure don't know. My surgery is scheduled for the first week of January and I spend my time mostly hoping for no more setbacks.
And do you know what the worst part is? My sister.
My sister destroyed her back in a work accident when she was nineteen years old. She is now forty-three and is permanently disabled after struggling with this for twenty-three years. She just became disabled in the last year and is now in school so she can get off the government dole. I remember when I walked a little prouder and talked a lot louder how I used to think, "Oh yeah your back hurts... Bitch we got rent to pay!" And now the shoe is on the other foot.
The problem is that you can be sick with anything in this country as long as other people can see it, or have heard of it enough to know it is serious. No one dares call a person with MS or Cancer or HIV lazy because they just can't do the front yard today. But if you are sick with pain... People get headaches and they get backaches but they don't understand that it is possible for pain to take the world away. They don't understand that your body will steal your life and force you to surrender so much ground that you can't even make it to the front door anymore.
I didn't used to, but I do now. I watch my kids play in the yard and I worry terribly about my family's future as I wait for the surgery I hope fixes my illness; wondering what will happen if it doesn't, and I would like to tell you that this has given me new appreciation for Christmas and what it means.
But that's not true.
I am not any more thankful for the love God has shown me than I was before, I couldn't be. And I am not thankful for this trial, I couldn't be. I have no idea what the future holds I just know I'm too tired to hold onto it so I pray.
And I complain a little and write an "O poor me" bit, but I'm done now.
I am very sad and very scared and I feel very alone because there is nothing I can do and consoling words won't fix this. So if you have read this and are the praying sort then please do. And if you know someone who is sick with pain, try to believe them.
I am out of things to say.
God Bless
Merry Christmas
Enjoy.
In 2007 I was diagnosed with a Chiari 1 malformation. What that means is that the part of my skull where the base of my brain and my brain stem and spinal chord all come together is constricted because by cerebellum is too low in the back of my head. This creates pressure in the area resulting, most commonly, in migraine headaches. I had my first migraine when I was fourteen years old.
For those of you who have never had a migraine this is not the same thing as having a headache. A migraine is when your head declares war on your life. It makes the little things like light, sound, motion, etc intolerable at best and nauseating at worst. The best thing is that when vomiting occurs it makes the migraine worse thus making vomiting more likely... you get the point.
The reason why I found out I had this condition was because I had torn up my right shoulder and by the grace of God the MRI just happened to barely glimpse the malformation thus alerting my doctors to my condition. It was decided shoulder surgery was the more pressing need and so that was performed, most admirably, by a lovely doctor who looked like Cameron from Ferris Bueller's Day Off whose name I cannot remember anymore.
I was scheduled to have the surgery for the Chiari 1 the following winter and was ten days out from my surgical consult on Feb 1 2008 when I was run over in the parking lot at work. Of course being laid up in bed put off the surgery and while I was in the hospital I got a migraine and the nurse gave me tylenol and phenegran for it which cleared it up quite nicely. My surgeon decided that if my headaches, which were still the worst of my symptoms, could be handled with medication then surgery was unnecessary. I figured if a guy who stands to make a not inconsiderable amount of money on me tells me to not do it, then that advice is worth taking.
So for two plus years this was how I dealt with it. I missed more work than I should because I would get bad migraines which would lay me up for a few days at a time. I took sick time some times because of them but I managed to scrape by and be a reasonably productive person. Our family sacrificed vacations etc because I invariably used up that time being ill but my wife, saint that she is, did not complain inordinately, at least not to me. So we pressed on.
Until this year. When even the pain pills stopped working. Understand I don't take codeine or vicodin because I am allergic to them so I have to take non-narcotic pain pills which are little more than really strong tylenol, but they did the trick when needed. This year however they stopped working. My doctor and I began to discuss surgery again and tried to make contact with the surgeon I had before only to be put off again and again before finally being told that he is only a spine specialist now and so would not be able to help me. We switched to another doctor and targeted trying to have the surgery at the turn of the year.
Then in October I slid off the edge with my health.
The first thing I noticed is that I was tired all of the time. No matter how much i slept or how early I went to bed, foreswearing coffee and five hour energy etc I was tired all of the time. Then my migraines got worse. Not only had they been bad all year, but I reached the point where my head hurt all the time no mater what I did. I had a low level headache or migraine at all times and consequently I had even more trouble sleeping because laying down on my hurting head made it hurt worse which made my exhaustion even more pronounced. Then I started forgetting stuff, and I mean really simple things like things at my job that I have known for years I would forget how to do and would sit for a half hour and try to remember how to do. Then I started falling. For no reason I would be walking along and suddenly I would just be on the ground. Now my hands shake, my vision is messed up and my equilibrium is so shot I feel like I'm drunk every time I walk across the room.
The result of this is that I have missed, besides the last three months of my life, a lot, A LOT of time at work and am currently on disability because my doctor doesn't think I am safe to drive a truck and my boss can't give me light duty. Of course my company is not in the habit of paying people to sit on disability while they wait for surgery so who knows if any of this time off will be approved. I sure don't know. My surgery is scheduled for the first week of January and I spend my time mostly hoping for no more setbacks.
And do you know what the worst part is? My sister.
My sister destroyed her back in a work accident when she was nineteen years old. She is now forty-three and is permanently disabled after struggling with this for twenty-three years. She just became disabled in the last year and is now in school so she can get off the government dole. I remember when I walked a little prouder and talked a lot louder how I used to think, "Oh yeah your back hurts... Bitch we got rent to pay!" And now the shoe is on the other foot.
The problem is that you can be sick with anything in this country as long as other people can see it, or have heard of it enough to know it is serious. No one dares call a person with MS or Cancer or HIV lazy because they just can't do the front yard today. But if you are sick with pain... People get headaches and they get backaches but they don't understand that it is possible for pain to take the world away. They don't understand that your body will steal your life and force you to surrender so much ground that you can't even make it to the front door anymore.
I didn't used to, but I do now. I watch my kids play in the yard and I worry terribly about my family's future as I wait for the surgery I hope fixes my illness; wondering what will happen if it doesn't, and I would like to tell you that this has given me new appreciation for Christmas and what it means.
But that's not true.
I am not any more thankful for the love God has shown me than I was before, I couldn't be. And I am not thankful for this trial, I couldn't be. I have no idea what the future holds I just know I'm too tired to hold onto it so I pray.
And I complain a little and write an "O poor me" bit, but I'm done now.
I am very sad and very scared and I feel very alone because there is nothing I can do and consoling words won't fix this. So if you have read this and are the praying sort then please do. And if you know someone who is sick with pain, try to believe them.
I am out of things to say.
God Bless
Merry Christmas
Monday, December 19, 2011
Funny Church Signs
I like it when well meaning people say silly things while trying to mean well.
Nothing says holiness and peace quite like this does.
Cuz man have you seen the cost of gas these days.
This one is funny because I found it on a Calvinist website.
I am sure the Almighty appreciates being compared to a soft drink. By the way does God go well with bourbon?
Ever hugged a cactus?
I think this one speaks for itself
When are the martians gonna beam you guys up? This is the THIRD one of these I have seen.
eeeeyeah...
I am not joining this Church
I can't decide what is more insulting...
A) God's love is best expressed with fridge magnets
B) God just might be too poor to buy a fridge.
Merry Christmas
Nothing says holiness and peace quite like this does.
Cuz man have you seen the cost of gas these days.
This one is funny because I found it on a Calvinist website.
I am sure the Almighty appreciates being compared to a soft drink. By the way does God go well with bourbon?
Ever hugged a cactus?
I think this one speaks for itself
When are the martians gonna beam you guys up? This is the THIRD one of these I have seen.
eeeeyeah...
I am not joining this Church
I can't decide what is more insulting...
A) God's love is best expressed with fridge magnets
B) God just might be too poor to buy a fridge.
Merry Christmas
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