No one's coming up smelling like roses here.
Jenny Bea has done an amazing job rounding up the identities of some of the questioners at the Democratic debate earlier this week. This one's a must-read.
Doug Ross also has a very interesting write-up. Including the fact that one of the 'undecided Democratic voters' may not even be a U.S. citizen, and therefore would be INELIGIBLE TO VOTE. Yep, that's me screaming there.
(h/t AoSHQ, where both of these stories were linked.)
18 November 2007
The Font Thing
The Font Thing is a piece of software that doesn't suck. Really, it's pretty indispensable. The Font Thing is a tool for viewing fonts, and runs on Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP. No word on whether it will be updated for Vista, or even whether it needs updated - it appears the developer (Sue Fisher) hasn't updated her website in several years.
I end up using this just about any time I need to choose a font for a project. It's got a fairly easy to understand interface, and allows viewing of multiple fonts with whatever sample text you choose, so if I'm trying to match a font on a graphic a client has provided and the graphic is too trashed to actually used, I can easily scroll through all the fonts on my system to choose the closest match.
The font info is also accessible through the app, so I can get information ranging from who owns the copyright on the font to the metrics, such as the smallest readable size and the average character width.
And the absolute bestest part of it? It's FREE. Not shareware or spyware or adware, it's FREE. And there's not even anyplace on the developer's website to indicate where to throw a few bucks in gratitude. Really odd.
I end up using this just about any time I need to choose a font for a project. It's got a fairly easy to understand interface, and allows viewing of multiple fonts with whatever sample text you choose, so if I'm trying to match a font on a graphic a client has provided and the graphic is too trashed to actually used, I can easily scroll through all the fonts on my system to choose the closest match.
The font info is also accessible through the app, so I can get information ranging from who owns the copyright on the font to the metrics, such as the smallest readable size and the average character width.
And the absolute bestest part of it? It's FREE. Not shareware or spyware or adware, it's FREE. And there's not even anyplace on the developer's website to indicate where to throw a few bucks in gratitude. Really odd.
15 November 2007
Non-sarcastic PSA
Bonfils Blood Center is teaming up with the Food Bank of the Rockies and Community Food Share to help save lives multiple ways at once.
Bonfils is waiving the fee to register with the National Marrow Donor Program for bone marrow donation (normally $30) if you bring in a can of food when you come in to donate. The food banks will be helping families in need through the holidays with the canned food, and I'm sure all two of my regular readers have been eagerly waiting for the opportunity to donate bone marrow. A list of Bonfils donation locations are here. Most, if not all, of the donation centers have evening and/or weekend hours, and the staff has always been fantastically super-nice and very competent - I've only had one painful needle stick in three gallons of donation with Bonfils.
Bone marrow transplant is an essential part of treatment for lymphoma, leukemia, and other blood and bone marrow cancers. Only about 30 percent of patients needing a marrow transplant can find a suitable donor within their family; the other 70 percent are left to the whims of who has registered with the NMDP. Since a match will most likely be found in someone with the same genetic background as the patient, it can be especially hard for minorities to find a suitable donor. This is why it's especially crucial for as many people as possible to register.
Bonfils is waiving the fee to register with the National Marrow Donor Program for bone marrow donation (normally $30) if you bring in a can of food when you come in to donate. The food banks will be helping families in need through the holidays with the canned food, and I'm sure all two of my regular readers have been eagerly waiting for the opportunity to donate bone marrow. A list of Bonfils donation locations are here. Most, if not all, of the donation centers have evening and/or weekend hours, and the staff has always been fantastically super-nice and very competent - I've only had one painful needle stick in three gallons of donation with Bonfils.
Bone marrow transplant is an essential part of treatment for lymphoma, leukemia, and other blood and bone marrow cancers. Only about 30 percent of patients needing a marrow transplant can find a suitable donor within their family; the other 70 percent are left to the whims of who has registered with the NMDP. Since a match will most likely be found in someone with the same genetic background as the patient, it can be especially hard for minorities to find a suitable donor. This is why it's especially crucial for as many people as possible to register.
14 November 2007
Time to invade Venezuela
Hugo Chavez is apparently still smarting from being told to shut up by King Juan Carlos of Spain. He's now threatening to nationalize Spanish banks in Venezuela.
I hope he goes through with it, and I hope Spain invades as a result. And I hope the US is asked to participate. I think we're long overdue a war for oil, and it would be really nice if I could fill up my gas-guzzling SUV, with its 16 mpg in the city and 19 on the highway, for less than $60.
So please, Hugo Chavez, keep rattling sabers. You think you can call our president the devil with no repercussions, but can nationalize another country's banks for being told to shut up? We'll be smiling when businesses no longer invest in Venezuela due to your threats.
(h/t AoSHQ)
I hope he goes through with it, and I hope Spain invades as a result. And I hope the US is asked to participate. I think we're long overdue a war for oil, and it would be really nice if I could fill up my gas-guzzling SUV, with its 16 mpg in the city and 19 on the highway, for less than $60.
So please, Hugo Chavez, keep rattling sabers. You think you can call our president the devil with no repercussions, but can nationalize another country's banks for being told to shut up? We'll be smiling when businesses no longer invest in Venezuela due to your threats.
(h/t AoSHQ)
12 November 2007
Lefties don't have a sense of what's appropriate
There are appropriate times and situations to express your views, and there are times that are not.
It is not appropriate to use your children to further your political point of view. Brainwashing your child that the President and the troops and America are evil is not teaching your child to be a free thinker. Teaching your child to be deceitful to further a political point is not teaching your child to be moral and honest. Using your child as a pity story to increase your free government handout teaches your child that he/she is a tool, not a person that you as a parent cherish and protect.
There's a corollary to this - it's not appropriate to drag someone's kid into an unrelated debate. It's especially not appropriate to make sexual comments about someone's kid. It amazes me that I repeatedly see supposedly educated, smart moonbats targeting a kid with sexual comments, and then trying to blow it off as a joke. It's creepy and weird.
Parades and services to honor someone or a group of people are not times to express your political opinion. Specifically, acting out at a Veterans Day parade is inappropriate. Yes, we understand that you are veterans too. This does not give you the right to disrespect other veterans, or our country, during a parade to honor veterans. You got outraged when the Westboro Baptist Church picketed funerals of gays, you should understand that there's a corollary here.
So next time, lefty, before you go screaming your political views in whatever forum you can find, using whatever mercenary means you can dream up, ask yourself: is this really someplace where I'm being asked to air my ideas, or is my lack of judgment by spouting off wherever I feel like it going to turn people away from my ideas, whether they're valid or not? Are my children going to hate me later in life when they realize that I used them instead of protecting them? Am I creating hate for my political position by inserting my ideas at a time when I shouldn't be in people's faces?
It is not appropriate to use your children to further your political point of view. Brainwashing your child that the President and the troops and America are evil is not teaching your child to be a free thinker. Teaching your child to be deceitful to further a political point is not teaching your child to be moral and honest. Using your child as a pity story to increase your free government handout teaches your child that he/she is a tool, not a person that you as a parent cherish and protect.
There's a corollary to this - it's not appropriate to drag someone's kid into an unrelated debate. It's especially not appropriate to make sexual comments about someone's kid. It amazes me that I repeatedly see supposedly educated, smart moonbats targeting a kid with sexual comments, and then trying to blow it off as a joke. It's creepy and weird.
Parades and services to honor someone or a group of people are not times to express your political opinion. Specifically, acting out at a Veterans Day parade is inappropriate. Yes, we understand that you are veterans too. This does not give you the right to disrespect other veterans, or our country, during a parade to honor veterans. You got outraged when the Westboro Baptist Church picketed funerals of gays, you should understand that there's a corollary here.
So next time, lefty, before you go screaming your political views in whatever forum you can find, using whatever mercenary means you can dream up, ask yourself: is this really someplace where I'm being asked to air my ideas, or is my lack of judgment by spouting off wherever I feel like it going to turn people away from my ideas, whether they're valid or not? Are my children going to hate me later in life when they realize that I used them instead of protecting them? Am I creating hate for my political position by inserting my ideas at a time when I shouldn't be in people's faces?
08 November 2007
Twelve becomes eleven
If you haven't heard about the Aqua Dots recall, get out of your cave.
The Aqua Dots Super Studio was named one of the twelve best toys of 2007 by Toy Wishes magazine in their holiday issue. More information about the recall can be found at the official Aqua Dots Recall website.
Part of me is wondering if there's any profit to be made by getting a list of all toys made in China, buying "xxxxxtoyrecall.com", and offering to sell it to the toy distributor so they'll have it ready for when their toy faces a recall. Yes, when, not if. Is there any doubt in anyone's mind that China's doing at least some of this stuff on purpose? How often can accidental injuries occur before someone starts recognizing the pattern?
Millions of Chinese-made toys have been pulled from shelves in North America and Australia after scientists found they contain a chemical that converts into a powerful date rape drug when ingested. Two children in the United States and three in Australia were hospitalized after swallowing the beads.
The Aqua Dots Super Studio was named one of the twelve best toys of 2007 by Toy Wishes magazine in their holiday issue. More information about the recall can be found at the official Aqua Dots Recall website.
Part of me is wondering if there's any profit to be made by getting a list of all toys made in China, buying "xxxxxtoyrecall.com", and offering to sell it to the toy distributor so they'll have it ready for when their toy faces a recall. Yes, when, not if. Is there any doubt in anyone's mind that China's doing at least some of this stuff on purpose? How often can accidental injuries occur before someone starts recognizing the pattern?
Boycott Lego (?)
I never thought those words would be coming out of my keyboard. Lego is a staple in our house, and has been since before the kids were born.
From NRO's The Corner:
I hate to quote someone's post in entirety, but there's no succincter way to put it than how James Robbins did. There is some question as to whether Brett Kimberlin's claims to have sold marijuana to Dan Quayle were true or just an attempt by Kimberlin to harm Dan Quayle's political career. And just how much do we want to reward someone who put a bomb in a high school parking lot? Of course, Lego is too cowardly to outright admit that they hate our president and our soldiers - they couch their anti-USA sentiment thusly:
They're too cowardly to even mention the full title in their press release. Frankly, after having skimmed through the video, I don't see any indication that a child had much of anything to do with the production of it. It looks to me like the entire video is a vehicle for giving the Speedway Bomber recognition and money.
(h/t Discarded Lies)
Update Nov 12: Lego sent me an email claiming they had no idea of the content of the video. Apparently they decided that they were going to judge the essays as a standalone effort, and "made the decision to not regard, consider or otherwise evaluate any ancillary materials, including pictures, collages, paintings, songs or online videos". Whether this decision was made prior to someone at Lego seeing the video is unclear, but they claim they had no knowledge of the video.
Leave it to someone on the left, and a terrorist to boot, to exploit their child and deceive or collaborate, depending on how involved you believe Lego is, for personal gain and to push a message on to a toy company that now claims they take no political positions.
Full text of the two emails below. I forwarded the first one to James Robbins, but did not receive a reply, although he posted the text of the email on NRO. I'm still waiting to hear if Lego has provided kits for therapy for the soldiers at Walter Reed. (Which is NOT a political move, leftwing moonbats - keep in mind that claiming you support the troops but oppose the war actually means supporting the troops, whether you agree with their ideology or how they ended up in Walter Reed.)
From NRO's The Corner:
A few days ago I posted a bleg asking for ways to reach out to Lego Systems, Inc. to see if they would donate Lego sets to wounded warriors at Walter Reed who use the sets for therapy. Quick response from Lego — forget it. Now we learn that Lego has awarded $5000.00 to eight year old Kelsie Kimberlin, as part of their first annual Creativity Awards. Her entry — a 5 minute anti-Bush video set to an altered John Lennon tune ("Happy Springtime/Bush is Over").
Problem: the video was actually produced by her father, Brett, who runs Justice Through Music, a civic engagement nonprofit. Brett is also noteworthy for being a convicted bomber (aka terrorist), and for having claimed to have sold pot to Dan Quayle in 1988. Just the kind of person you want associated with your child's favorite toy. Some free advice to Lego — want to fix this PR nightmare? Do the right thing and help the wounded warriors already.
I hate to quote someone's post in entirety, but there's no succincter way to put it than how James Robbins did. There is some question as to whether Brett Kimberlin's claims to have sold marijuana to Dan Quayle were true or just an attempt by Kimberlin to harm Dan Quayle's political career. And just how much do we want to reward someone who put a bomb in a high school parking lot? Of course, Lego is too cowardly to outright admit that they hate our president and our soldiers - they couch their anti-USA sentiment thusly:
Kelsie encourages other kids to sing about peace and her choir sang a re-make of John Lennon's song, 'Happy Xmas, War is Over.' The video of 'Happy Springtime' has been viewed on YouTube almost 50,000 times and the song has played on MySpace almost 200,000 times.
They're too cowardly to even mention the full title in their press release. Frankly, after having skimmed through the video, I don't see any indication that a child had much of anything to do with the production of it. It looks to me like the entire video is a vehicle for giving the Speedway Bomber recognition and money.
(h/t Discarded Lies)
Update Nov 12: Lego sent me an email claiming they had no idea of the content of the video. Apparently they decided that they were going to judge the essays as a standalone effort, and "made the decision to not regard, consider or otherwise evaluate any ancillary materials, including pictures, collages, paintings, songs or online videos". Whether this decision was made prior to someone at Lego seeing the video is unclear, but they claim they had no knowledge of the video.
Leave it to someone on the left, and a terrorist to boot, to exploit their child and deceive or collaborate, depending on how involved you believe Lego is, for personal gain and to push a message on to a toy company that now claims they take no political positions.
Full text of the two emails below. I forwarded the first one to James Robbins, but did not receive a reply, although he posted the text of the email on NRO. I'm still waiting to hear if Lego has provided kits for therapy for the soldiers at Walter Reed. (Which is NOT a political move, leftwing moonbats - keep in mind that claiming you support the troops but oppose the war actually means supporting the troops, whether you agree with their ideology or how they ended up in Walter Reed.)
Thank you for your interest in LEGO® brand toys. We are always delighted to hear from a loyal LEGO enthusiast.
A blogger at the National Review incorrectly wrote that LEGO Systems had denied a donation request from Walter Reed Hospital to support troops and their families. The company’s community relations department responded favorably to the request via voicemail, and details have yet to be finalized on that donation request; however, it was not denied. In fact, the company has historically contributed to several organizations that support the families of men and women who serve the country, and continues to do so. For many years, LEGO Systems has taken great pride in making contributions to such programs as the United States Marine Corp’s Toys for Tots program and Operation Gratitude, which sends care packages to U.S Troops.
LEGO Systems does not endorse one political perspective over another. In its November 8, 2007 issue, The Washington Post ran a story implicating LEGO Systems’ recognition of an 8-year old girl’s creativity through an essay contest as endorsement of a political agenda.
LEGO Systems sponsored a contest to identify and honor 10 children’s creativity. One of the winning entries told of a girl’s endeavors to “sing for peace” by rallying her choral group to sing a peace song. She indicated she would use the money to “spread the word of peace and music and get more kids involved in saving the planet,” which the company finds compelling and commendable. Because the contest was essay-based, LEGO Systems did not regard, consider or otherwise evaluate any ancillary materials, including pictures, collages, paintings and online videos, and as such, was not aware of the specific content of the song.
While LEGO Systems does not ever endorse any extreme messages, it does always endeavor to encourage creativity among children. The intent of the contest was to highlight and celebrate children’s creativity, and LEGO Systems regrets any confusion the Washington Post article causes.
Alice, thank you again for contacting us. We wish your family many happy hours of creative building with LEGO brand toys in the years to come.
Thank you for your follow up email.
The girl mentioned in her entry that her song was shared on MySpace and YouTube, which supports her claim that the prize money would be used to “spread the word of peace and music and get more kids involved in saving the planet.” As previously mentioned, because the contest was essay-based, LEGO Systems made the decision to not regard, consider or otherwise evaluate any ancillary materials, including pictures, collages, paintings, songs or online videos, and as such, we were not aware of the specific content of the song or the video. That decision, intended to promote equity among all entrants, some of whom had not submitted ancillary materials, is being re-evaluated for future programs.
As a toy company, LEGO Systems does not take political positions. We are disappointed and deeply regret that our good intentions of rewarding children’s creativity has been used by others for political purpose. This certainly was not the intention of the contest, nor should this situation be perceived as a corporate position on politics. LEGO Systems does not endorse any political or extreme messages. It does always endeavor to encourage creativity among children. The intent of the contest was to highlight and celebrate children’s creativity, and LEGO Systems regrets any confusion or unintended sentiment that this situation causes.
Please do not hesitate to contact us again if we can be of additional assistance to you.
07 November 2007
Please help Weber Elementary
This slipped under my radar until a fundraiser at my son's school this week.
I kited this pic from the school's website, but I'm hoping they won't mind.
Weber Elementary School in Arvada, CO sustained an estimated $3 million in damage due to an arsonist last June. Most of the damage was in the library. I have been told by a Scholastic Books representative that their library has no books. Parents were being asked to donate a dollar at my son's school's book fair to help purchase books for Weber.
I know how much I enjoyed the library at my elementary school growing up, and how much I hated it when we moved to a school that had a poor library. And I've seen how much MadLibs loves checking out and bringing home books from the library at his school. It almost makes me want to cry to think there's an entire school of kids that are missing that opportunity this year.
So if you've got some spare pocket change, or some gently used books that are lying around, please help Weber rebuild their library.
The mailing address for the school is:
Weber Elementary
8725 West 81st Place
Arvada, CO 80005
I kited this pic from the school's website, but I'm hoping they won't mind.
Weber Elementary School in Arvada, CO sustained an estimated $3 million in damage due to an arsonist last June. Most of the damage was in the library. I have been told by a Scholastic Books representative that their library has no books. Parents were being asked to donate a dollar at my son's school's book fair to help purchase books for Weber.
I know how much I enjoyed the library at my elementary school growing up, and how much I hated it when we moved to a school that had a poor library. And I've seen how much MadLibs loves checking out and bringing home books from the library at his school. It almost makes me want to cry to think there's an entire school of kids that are missing that opportunity this year.
So if you've got some spare pocket change, or some gently used books that are lying around, please help Weber rebuild their library.
The mailing address for the school is:
Weber Elementary
8725 West 81st Place
Arvada, CO 80005
Flippity flippity flop flop flop...
...kinda like a dying fish.
I think John Edwards has just removed himself from Hillary's VP list. This video is from the Edwards campaign. It may be the ballsiest thing John Edwards has ever done.
(h/t AoSHQ)
I think John Edwards has just removed himself from Hillary's VP list. This video is from the Edwards campaign. It may be the ballsiest thing John Edwards has ever done.
(h/t AoSHQ)
02 November 2007
How to solve the China problem
Why doesn't America just make it a rule that we only import things from China that should actually contain lead? It seems like they have a surplus of it, since it's ending up in everything else. For instance, we could make sure we have plenty of kryptonite shielding. And bullets. I'm certain China could make some bullets that contain lead.
31 October 2007
Hillary's the scariest
But I'm going to bet most of the twelve regular readers here knew that already.
An AP Survey revealed that Hillary Clinton is the strong front-runner for scariest political Halloween costume. She beats the next politician, Rudy Giuliani, by two and a half fold.
Yesterday, I almost bought the mask they show in the link for Halloween, but MadLibs told me it was too scary to wear to his school. No joke. He thinks my flaming skull mask is less scary. I'm truly amazed at what a smart kid he is.
28 October 2007
It's like he could see the future
Two years ago, Bill Whittle wrote an excellent essay called Tribes, part of which discussed the events that happened at the Superdome in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. I'm sure some people read his essay and were enraged; after all, how in the world could anyone predict what would happen if ten thousand people were shoved into a situation like that?
Well, it's happened again. Ten thousand people were shoved into Qualcomm Stadium as refugees from the fires in southern California. Sure, it's not quite the same situation - there's a road in and out, so people can bring supplies, but from the sound of it Qualcomm Stadium has turned into a place of hope, caring, and mutual support, while the Superdome was described as hell.
As much as I like to slam California, I'll be surprised if we hear reports of residents shooting at police officers or Guardsmen who come to keep order in the aftermath of the fires. And I'll be surprised if we hear too many reports of people using their aid money for strip clubs and tattoos, and I'm guessing that people who double-dip by claiming their house burned twice, or accepting payments for rentals while they're living in free housing, will be the widely-publicized exception to the rule rather than what seems to be the norm in Louisiana. But what do I know, I can't tell the future. Maybe we should ask Bill Whittle, he seems to have a good handle on it.
Well, it's happened again. Ten thousand people were shoved into Qualcomm Stadium as refugees from the fires in southern California. Sure, it's not quite the same situation - there's a road in and out, so people can bring supplies, but from the sound of it Qualcomm Stadium has turned into a place of hope, caring, and mutual support, while the Superdome was described as hell.
As much as I like to slam California, I'll be surprised if we hear reports of residents shooting at police officers or Guardsmen who come to keep order in the aftermath of the fires. And I'll be surprised if we hear too many reports of people using their aid money for strip clubs and tattoos, and I'm guessing that people who double-dip by claiming their house burned twice, or accepting payments for rentals while they're living in free housing, will be the widely-publicized exception to the rule rather than what seems to be the norm in Louisiana. But what do I know, I can't tell the future. Maybe we should ask Bill Whittle, he seems to have a good handle on it.
23 October 2007
Go Fred Go!
Fred's plans for border security and illegal immigration reform have been posted at Fred08.com.
Mark Krikorian does a great job of penning the Cliff's Notes for it, if you're not inclined to read the whole thing. I agree with Krikorian, Fred's going to do a bang-up job of attrition through enforcement if he sticks with this plan.
I was hoping something like this would be coming out of Fred's campaign. And I'm hoping this prompts some of the people who un-registered as Republicans to re-register so they can vote in the primaries, because it'd be a shame to have a candidate who's got any less than Fred's plan for immigration reform running as the Republican candidate.
(h/t Ace of Spades - I hadn't gotten around to reading my the weekly update in my email yet, and didn't realize this had been posted. I'll be hopping on those things in the future.
Mark Krikorian does a great job of penning the Cliff's Notes for it, if you're not inclined to read the whole thing. I agree with Krikorian, Fred's going to do a bang-up job of attrition through enforcement if he sticks with this plan.
I was hoping something like this would be coming out of Fred's campaign. And I'm hoping this prompts some of the people who un-registered as Republicans to re-register so they can vote in the primaries, because it'd be a shame to have a candidate who's got any less than Fred's plan for immigration reform running as the Republican candidate.
(h/t Ace of Spades - I hadn't gotten around to reading my the weekly update in my email yet, and didn't realize this had been posted. I'll be hopping on those things in the future.
Another reason Giuliani is not my favorite...
Giuliani is rooting for the Red Sox over the Rockies. Not that baseball's really my thing, to be honest, I wasn't even sure who was playing the Rockies. But this is just unforgivable.
I question this definition of romance...
Hillary told Essence mag that Bill is romantic because he brings her gifts when he's away.
Funny, I always thought a big part of romance was keeping pants zipped in the face of temptation, because you'd never ever want to hurt the person you're in love with. And Hillary, we already knew Bill was a gift giver, since he gave several gifts to Monica Lewinsky during their affair. The fact that Bill gives gifts is not something unique and special to your marriage.
I'm not sure the message the African American community needs is that romance is about what you get materially from a relationship rather than what you get from a stable, faithful relationship.
Funny, I always thought a big part of romance was keeping pants zipped in the face of temptation, because you'd never ever want to hurt the person you're in love with. And Hillary, we already knew Bill was a gift giver, since he gave several gifts to Monica Lewinsky during their affair. The fact that Bill gives gifts is not something unique and special to your marriage.
I'm not sure the message the African American community needs is that romance is about what you get materially from a relationship rather than what you get from a stable, faithful relationship.
22 October 2007
A moment of wild speculation
Does the fact that many Malibu residents are ignoring evacuation orders, instead expecting firefighters to somehow mysteriously bring the fires under control, and barring that, expecting the firefighters to rescue them despite the fact that it puts firefighters at risk and keeps the firefighters from spending their time fighting fires have anything to do with Malibu's overwhelmingly liberal population?
Blending Chuck Norris
In honor of/Despite Chuck Norris's recent endorsement of Mike Huckabee (which isn't necessarily a bad thing, I like Mike Huckabee, but he's not Fred Thompson), I feel the need to post the Will It Blend video featuring Chuck.
Oh, and if anyone feels so inclined, I'd definitely take a BlendTec blender mysteriously showing up on my doorstep.
Oh, and if anyone feels so inclined, I'd definitely take a BlendTec blender mysteriously showing up on my doorstep.
21 October 2007
So nurturing
Hillary hates little fuzzy kittens. I'd be willing to bet she had a hand in poor Buddy's death too.
UPDATE: Harvey does it much better (as usual) over at IMAO.
UPDATE: Harvey does it much better (as usual) over at IMAO.
Geiger's febrile seizure
Now that I'm all up in arms about nationalized health care, I might as well share our final experiences with Kaiser Permanente.
Dr. Michelle Glasgow, after agreeing to continue to treat my hypothyroidism to the levels where I was losing weight, did an about-face when it came time to actually up my medication dosage. She would never answer my question about why she said previously that she would, only stating that I was within the TSH levels that Kaiser considered normal, despite the fact that those levels do not reflect the current guidelines from the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists. I'm not sure what her reasoning was for refusing to raise my dosage, other than playing God - Kaiser wasn't paying for my medication so it's not like they were out any cash.
We had already decided to find other health care (and had taken the steps to purchase it through our LLC, at half the cost of what the school district was charging for Pacificare insurance) when the incident happened that completely sealed our decision to leave Kaiser.
(You're going to be wondering what we did with MadLibs during all this - fortunately my father-in-law was visiting, and so we just shouted into his room for him to watch MadLibs, got a "Huh? I need to watch MadLibs?", and ran out the door.)
In late June, 16-month-old Geiger started running a fever. She was teething, and despite what some doctors say, MadLibs had run crazy high fevers when he was teething, so we just assumed it was due to teething, gave her some Tylenol, and put her to bed at 9 pm. Although we keep a baby monitor running, it hadn't been necessary to actively listen for a while - Geiger is pretty good about hollering when she's ready to get out of bed. About an hour after we put Geiger to bed, my husband (R) happened to walk by one of the monitors and heard what sounded like rhythmic sighing, and brought the monitor to me. We joked that she must be singing herself to sleep, and listened for probably a minute or two before R. decided to go check on her - we usually have a policy of not going into the kids' rooms after they go to bed, but if she was having that much trouble falling asleep maybe she just needed some playtime). R walked into Geiger's room and immediately shouted for me to come up.
Geiger was having a seizure, and was burning up with fever. I took her out of R's arms and told him to go call the pediatrician, because I really wasn't sure what to do other than to try to get her fever down. I ran into the bathroom and started pouring cold water on her. R couldn't decipher the phone system to reach anyone (our previous pediatrician's phone system just had you press 0 to reach someone, and in my opinion any phone system you might call in an emergency should work this way) and we decided we could get Geiger to a hospital faster than an ambulance could get to our house and get her there, so we loaded her up in the Jeep and drove as fast as we could to Good Samaritan, which obviously was not my first choice, but it was closest, and there's a toll highway that runs practically from our house to the hospital so we wouldn't have to worry about the traffic of going into downtown Denver. It took fifteen minutes from the time we realized she was having a seizure to arriving at the hospital. Geiger was still seizing.
(Note: if your child ever has a seizure, call 911. We weren't sure if a seizure was considered enough of an emergency to call 911, and didn't take into account that your urge is to drive like a maniac to get your child to the hospital. Plus they can stabilize your child in the ambulance - if Geiger had stopped breathing on the way to the hospital there would have been nothing we could have done.)
R dropped Geiger and me off at the door to the ER and went to park the car. I ran in and told the receptionist, "My daughter is having a seizure, we need help NOW!" The receptionist just sat there slack-jawed for what felt like an eternity but was probably only a couple of seconds before a nurse came out and took us to three different rooms before finally deciding where we needed to be. It took almost twenty minutes and two doses of Ativan to make the seizure stop. Geiger's temperature was 103.5 degrees, which is actually low for a febrile seizure and is lower than what MadLibs' temperature runs when he gets sick.
Once we were actually in the right room and the staff had figured out what to do with us, the care was excellent. They got the seizure stopped and had a nurse pretty constantly with us. They even gave us some socks with treads on the bottom (I didn't even know they made those for adults) since we had made it out the door with no shoes or socks, just pajamas. They did seem a little incredulous that she had a seizure with a temperature so low.
Good Samaritan didn't have a pediatrician on duty past 2 am, so R and Geiger rode in an ambulance downtown to Children's Hospital while I drove home to grab a cell phone, let my father-in-law know what was happening, and grab some real clothes, blankie, binky, bunny, etc. Geiger was still unconscious from the Ativan, and she needed to be observed until she regained consciousness.
The staff at Children's was also wonderful. R and I took turns staying awake and fielding phone calls (R had called my mother-in-law from Good Samaritan and asked her to call my mother for some affirmative prayer, so word was getting out). The resident at Children's sat me down while R was asleep and discussed in depth what had happened, what we needed to watch out for, and told us that despite the long duration of the seizure it was unlikely that there was any damage. We were instructed to give Geiger alternating Tylenol and Motrin to try to keep her temperature down. We were told to follow up with a pediatrician at Kaiser at the end of the day (it was now very early Friday morning) so she wouldn't go all weekend without a followup.
At about 7 am, Geiger regained consciousness. Her first word waking up, of course, was "Daddeeeee!" (Mommy's pretty ubiquitous, and I'm OK with that.) She was still very groggy and unable to walk and focus, but they let us take her home. We called Kaiser to find out that Dr. Merrill was on vacation, so we would have to see Dr. Bruce Doenecke, who had scoffed at me for being overconcerned and not knowing to just apply some hydrocortisone when I brought MadLibs in for a rash a few months before - a similar rash a year before had been strep. We got an appointment for 4:45, so as to get us as close to the weekend as possible.
At about 2:30, Geiger started screaming like her bones were being ground into glass. Nothing calmed her down. We called Kaiser and were told to wait for our appointment at 4:45 (which I understand; they probably wouldn't have been able to get us in any earlier anyway and by the time we got there we would have only saved a half hour). Dr. Donecke really didn't know what to do with us or about us - I had assumed a pediatrician would have at least a rudimentary knowledge of febrile seizures, but he honestly seemed clueless. He at least had the good sense to call Children's to talk to a neurologist, who said that it could be a reaction to coming off the Ativan or it could be post-ictal nastiness, but we would have to wait another 24 hours before another evaluation would be necessary. We could try Benadryl, but since she had never taken it before it was possible it would wire her even more.
The real kicker was when we asked Dr. Donecke what to do in the future, especially if we were up on a mountain or at my mom's, which is miles from the nearest paved road and at least 30 minutes to the nearest hospital, if an ambulance can even find the place (FedEx sure can't!). His profound, reassuring answer? "I don't know." Dr. Donecke didn't even offer to try to find out what our alternatives were. I don't know if it's just that we weren't his regular patients, or that he's really that unconcerned with the wellbeing of his charges and their parents' peace of mind. Even after we asked him if he expected us to never be out of reach of a phone and hospital, we received no answer.
Ten days later, we had left Kaiser Permanente for good and were back with our old pediatrician. Here's the plan our pediatrician laid out for handling this in the future:
Second seizures don't require a trip to the emergency room unless the seizure lasts for more than five minutes. We were told we don't need to call 911 until after the five minutes had passed, but I think we will probably call right away.
If Geiger starts running a fever, we immediately begin alternating doses of Tylenol and Motrin every three hours. There's some debate on whether this actually prevents a seizure, but if we can keep the fever down we're hoping that will help.
We carry a thermometer and Motrin with us at all times. The Motrin has the current dosage written on it so we don't have to think.
Geiger's pediatrician wrote a prescription for rectal diazepam (diastat), which we immediately filled. A few notes on this - talk to your pharmacy about what dosages they are able to get before you get your prescription written - the dosage the diazepam came in required that we purchase the refill at the same time (two to a package) so we ended up having to pay full price for the refill, and the whole prescription cost us $200 with insurance. Your pharmacy probably doesn't stock this, so be sure to bring in your prescription a few days before you will need it. When we hike, fly, go to mom's, etc., essentially whenever we go someplace where we might be out of reach of a hospital or doctor or a phone, we carry the diazepam and some rectal acetaminophen (marketed as Fever-All, ask your pharmacy for this too) to handle the seizure and bring down the fever long enough for us to get back to civilization.
It's amazing what a pediatrician who's actually interested in helping a parent maintain their kids' active lifestyle and who is actually concerned about her patients can do. The odds are good that Geiger will have another febrile seizure, since she has three of the risk factors for a repeat - she was under 18 months old, her fever was relatively low, and her seizure lasted more than fifteen minutes. With the current plan we've developed with our pediatrician, we can rest assured if we go someplace that is out of reach of phone and hospital, we can handle a seizure.
(And in case you're wondering, as if anyone read this far, Geiger is fine. She oddly lost her attachment to her bunny lovie for a while, but that either came back or redeveloped, I'm not sure which. She's still beating all the curves for learning and development, and her head is still way too big for her body.)
Dr. Michelle Glasgow, after agreeing to continue to treat my hypothyroidism to the levels where I was losing weight, did an about-face when it came time to actually up my medication dosage. She would never answer my question about why she said previously that she would, only stating that I was within the TSH levels that Kaiser considered normal, despite the fact that those levels do not reflect the current guidelines from the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists. I'm not sure what her reasoning was for refusing to raise my dosage, other than playing God - Kaiser wasn't paying for my medication so it's not like they were out any cash.
We had already decided to find other health care (and had taken the steps to purchase it through our LLC, at half the cost of what the school district was charging for Pacificare insurance) when the incident happened that completely sealed our decision to leave Kaiser.
(You're going to be wondering what we did with MadLibs during all this - fortunately my father-in-law was visiting, and so we just shouted into his room for him to watch MadLibs, got a "Huh? I need to watch MadLibs?", and ran out the door.)
In late June, 16-month-old Geiger started running a fever. She was teething, and despite what some doctors say, MadLibs had run crazy high fevers when he was teething, so we just assumed it was due to teething, gave her some Tylenol, and put her to bed at 9 pm. Although we keep a baby monitor running, it hadn't been necessary to actively listen for a while - Geiger is pretty good about hollering when she's ready to get out of bed. About an hour after we put Geiger to bed, my husband (R) happened to walk by one of the monitors and heard what sounded like rhythmic sighing, and brought the monitor to me. We joked that she must be singing herself to sleep, and listened for probably a minute or two before R. decided to go check on her - we usually have a policy of not going into the kids' rooms after they go to bed, but if she was having that much trouble falling asleep maybe she just needed some playtime). R walked into Geiger's room and immediately shouted for me to come up.
Geiger was having a seizure, and was burning up with fever. I took her out of R's arms and told him to go call the pediatrician, because I really wasn't sure what to do other than to try to get her fever down. I ran into the bathroom and started pouring cold water on her. R couldn't decipher the phone system to reach anyone (our previous pediatrician's phone system just had you press 0 to reach someone, and in my opinion any phone system you might call in an emergency should work this way) and we decided we could get Geiger to a hospital faster than an ambulance could get to our house and get her there, so we loaded her up in the Jeep and drove as fast as we could to Good Samaritan, which obviously was not my first choice, but it was closest, and there's a toll highway that runs practically from our house to the hospital so we wouldn't have to worry about the traffic of going into downtown Denver. It took fifteen minutes from the time we realized she was having a seizure to arriving at the hospital. Geiger was still seizing.
(Note: if your child ever has a seizure, call 911. We weren't sure if a seizure was considered enough of an emergency to call 911, and didn't take into account that your urge is to drive like a maniac to get your child to the hospital. Plus they can stabilize your child in the ambulance - if Geiger had stopped breathing on the way to the hospital there would have been nothing we could have done.)
R dropped Geiger and me off at the door to the ER and went to park the car. I ran in and told the receptionist, "My daughter is having a seizure, we need help NOW!" The receptionist just sat there slack-jawed for what felt like an eternity but was probably only a couple of seconds before a nurse came out and took us to three different rooms before finally deciding where we needed to be. It took almost twenty minutes and two doses of Ativan to make the seizure stop. Geiger's temperature was 103.5 degrees, which is actually low for a febrile seizure and is lower than what MadLibs' temperature runs when he gets sick.
Once we were actually in the right room and the staff had figured out what to do with us, the care was excellent. They got the seizure stopped and had a nurse pretty constantly with us. They even gave us some socks with treads on the bottom (I didn't even know they made those for adults) since we had made it out the door with no shoes or socks, just pajamas. They did seem a little incredulous that she had a seizure with a temperature so low.
Good Samaritan didn't have a pediatrician on duty past 2 am, so R and Geiger rode in an ambulance downtown to Children's Hospital while I drove home to grab a cell phone, let my father-in-law know what was happening, and grab some real clothes, blankie, binky, bunny, etc. Geiger was still unconscious from the Ativan, and she needed to be observed until she regained consciousness.
The staff at Children's was also wonderful. R and I took turns staying awake and fielding phone calls (R had called my mother-in-law from Good Samaritan and asked her to call my mother for some affirmative prayer, so word was getting out). The resident at Children's sat me down while R was asleep and discussed in depth what had happened, what we needed to watch out for, and told us that despite the long duration of the seizure it was unlikely that there was any damage. We were instructed to give Geiger alternating Tylenol and Motrin to try to keep her temperature down. We were told to follow up with a pediatrician at Kaiser at the end of the day (it was now very early Friday morning) so she wouldn't go all weekend without a followup.
At about 7 am, Geiger regained consciousness. Her first word waking up, of course, was "Daddeeeee!" (Mommy's pretty ubiquitous, and I'm OK with that.) She was still very groggy and unable to walk and focus, but they let us take her home. We called Kaiser to find out that Dr. Merrill was on vacation, so we would have to see Dr. Bruce Doenecke, who had scoffed at me for being overconcerned and not knowing to just apply some hydrocortisone when I brought MadLibs in for a rash a few months before - a similar rash a year before had been strep. We got an appointment for 4:45, so as to get us as close to the weekend as possible.
At about 2:30, Geiger started screaming like her bones were being ground into glass. Nothing calmed her down. We called Kaiser and were told to wait for our appointment at 4:45 (which I understand; they probably wouldn't have been able to get us in any earlier anyway and by the time we got there we would have only saved a half hour). Dr. Donecke really didn't know what to do with us or about us - I had assumed a pediatrician would have at least a rudimentary knowledge of febrile seizures, but he honestly seemed clueless. He at least had the good sense to call Children's to talk to a neurologist, who said that it could be a reaction to coming off the Ativan or it could be post-ictal nastiness, but we would have to wait another 24 hours before another evaluation would be necessary. We could try Benadryl, but since she had never taken it before it was possible it would wire her even more.
The real kicker was when we asked Dr. Donecke what to do in the future, especially if we were up on a mountain or at my mom's, which is miles from the nearest paved road and at least 30 minutes to the nearest hospital, if an ambulance can even find the place (FedEx sure can't!). His profound, reassuring answer? "I don't know." Dr. Donecke didn't even offer to try to find out what our alternatives were. I don't know if it's just that we weren't his regular patients, or that he's really that unconcerned with the wellbeing of his charges and their parents' peace of mind. Even after we asked him if he expected us to never be out of reach of a phone and hospital, we received no answer.
Ten days later, we had left Kaiser Permanente for good and were back with our old pediatrician. Here's the plan our pediatrician laid out for handling this in the future:
Second seizures don't require a trip to the emergency room unless the seizure lasts for more than five minutes. We were told we don't need to call 911 until after the five minutes had passed, but I think we will probably call right away.
If Geiger starts running a fever, we immediately begin alternating doses of Tylenol and Motrin every three hours. There's some debate on whether this actually prevents a seizure, but if we can keep the fever down we're hoping that will help.
We carry a thermometer and Motrin with us at all times. The Motrin has the current dosage written on it so we don't have to think.
Geiger's pediatrician wrote a prescription for rectal diazepam (diastat), which we immediately filled. A few notes on this - talk to your pharmacy about what dosages they are able to get before you get your prescription written - the dosage the diazepam came in required that we purchase the refill at the same time (two to a package) so we ended up having to pay full price for the refill, and the whole prescription cost us $200 with insurance. Your pharmacy probably doesn't stock this, so be sure to bring in your prescription a few days before you will need it. When we hike, fly, go to mom's, etc., essentially whenever we go someplace where we might be out of reach of a hospital or doctor or a phone, we carry the diazepam and some rectal acetaminophen (marketed as Fever-All, ask your pharmacy for this too) to handle the seizure and bring down the fever long enough for us to get back to civilization.
It's amazing what a pediatrician who's actually interested in helping a parent maintain their kids' active lifestyle and who is actually concerned about her patients can do. The odds are good that Geiger will have another febrile seizure, since she has three of the risk factors for a repeat - she was under 18 months old, her fever was relatively low, and her seizure lasted more than fifteen minutes. With the current plan we've developed with our pediatrician, we can rest assured if we go someplace that is out of reach of phone and hospital, we can handle a seizure.
(And in case you're wondering, as if anyone read this far, Geiger is fine. She oddly lost her attachment to her bunny lovie for a while, but that either came back or redeveloped, I'm not sure which. She's still beating all the curves for learning and development, and her head is still way too big for her body.)
I wish I could draw like this
Darleen Click has a comic that sums the Democratic congress and the S-CHIP snafu up nicely.
I've almost come to the conclusion that some people really are too stupid to spend their own money. This is why they are OK with the government taking their money and spending it however the government feels is best. I wonder how they'll feel when they don't have the money for fancy cars and dinners out and fancy clothes because instead of being taxed at their current rate, their tax rate jumps up to 40 or 50 percent? But they'll have health insurance! Demanding nationalized healthcare for everyone is no different from saying, "I can't manage my budget and provide for my family, and everyone else is just as personally incompetent as I am." Yes, that's YOU, Mr. and Mrs. Frost.
One only has to look at the disaster that is Kaiser Permanente (and more on that later, we finally managed to shake free of Kaiser but I haven't had time to write up all the fun) and the rampant Medicare abuses, both on the part of doctors and patients, to know what a catastrophe nationalized healthcare would be.
I've almost come to the conclusion that some people really are too stupid to spend their own money. This is why they are OK with the government taking their money and spending it however the government feels is best. I wonder how they'll feel when they don't have the money for fancy cars and dinners out and fancy clothes because instead of being taxed at their current rate, their tax rate jumps up to 40 or 50 percent? But they'll have health insurance! Demanding nationalized healthcare for everyone is no different from saying, "I can't manage my budget and provide for my family, and everyone else is just as personally incompetent as I am." Yes, that's YOU, Mr. and Mrs. Frost.
One only has to look at the disaster that is Kaiser Permanente (and more on that later, we finally managed to shake free of Kaiser but I haven't had time to write up all the fun) and the rampant Medicare abuses, both on the part of doctors and patients, to know what a catastrophe nationalized healthcare would be.
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