for the last two years or so, i’ve been paying half-attention to the bicycle-vs-car debate that’s been going on in the DC area. with several friends who bike around the metro area, i would like it if cyclists didn’t have to take their life into their hands every time they got on their bikes. as a driver, i would like it if the cyclists out there obeyed the traffic laws when they’re on the streets.

today, i think they should all go to hell.

this morning, a little before nine, i was driving up arizona ave from canal road towards macarthur boulevard. for about a half-block, the road is one lane uphill, two lanes downhill. as the line of cars made its way uphill, an impatient cyclist split the lanes, trying to pass the cars on the right (no shoulder, mind you). stymied by the large SUV in front of me, he proceeded to yell at and pound on it, as though the driver of the SUV were at fault. then he swings out into the left turn lane that diverges, and pulls the same shit with the cars in that lane.

if that asshole ever gets hit by a car, i won’t be crying.

however. not a half-block later, as i’m driving across macarthur, i see the following: in the downhill lane, there’s a cyclist waiting for a break in the traffic to make a left turn. he’s got his arm out, signaling. he’s at a full stop, while cars move around him. then, an impatient driver who was behind him waiting to make the same left turn swings out around him, and makes the left turn inches from his front wheel.

if that asshole ever wraps his car around a tree, i’m going to be crying for the tree.

so. right now, i have no sympathy for anyone in the bicycles-vs-cars debate. we’re all assholes, and we all deserve what’s coming to us.

holy shit life has become a comedy of errors.

G and I are driving my car to STL to attend the memorial service for G’s grandmother. our friend Jesse borrowed G’s car to drive to VT. G’s car was serviced MONDAY by the dealer and we were told it would be fine to drive until a replacement water pump came in. G’s car, with Jesse, is now crapped out on side of interstate in northern MD, 90 miles from dealer, totally dead. Jesse’s cell phone is almost out of juice. We’re at a rest stop in PA trying to coordinate tow, repair at ANOTHER dealer, and payment. best of all: IT’S HAILING, and the windows in G’s car are down.

i expect great things.

it seems something happened out there wherever my laloca database is stored, and content back to early ‘08 got zapped. luckily i last backed up in late june ‘09, and posting for a variety of reasons has been light since then.

google’s cache to the rescue, which has some of the missing posts between mid-feb and last june. stuff will slowly be coming back, but alas, some things may be permanently lost in the ether.

james (a.k.a. “host”) has a touch more info on how it all went *poof* – but in the end, he’s as clueless as i am.

wordpress generally does a good job of filtering spam comments, but every now and then a few slip through. my most recent ones have been… interesting.

Lilly has not wanted, or rather I should say, she has not given in to my grabbing hands for a while now. ,
i can’t help but wonder what’s been going on between the speaker and Lilly. they should talk more. the speaker’s inability to distinguish between Lilly’s lack of desire (no means no, bucko) and lack of action is troubling. Lilly needs to get out of the relationship. or perhaps the speaker needs to stop listening to so much depeche mode. Lilly, are you ok?

And of course a brand-spankin’ new pair of shoes from Maitreya. ,
shoes are an awkward implement for spanking, but far be it from me to question another’s proclivities. especially when the buddha is selling the shoes.

They need to hitch a parasitic ride with whites to stand a chance! ,
i’m so geared to public health that i got caught up with the notion of parasites and only a moment later noticed the racism in the sentence. nice. (by the way, the most recent issue of medical consultant has an article on emerging tropical diseases, including dengue and leishmeniasis. it should really be “worsening tropical diseases,” as they’ve both been around for a long time. but still, fascinating stuff.)

This is an appalling state of affairs. ,
my spammers have apparently carved a window into the last year of my life.

sigh
no, that’s just me.

on that note, i should go bring in the trash cans. this last week’s snow led to a pileup of recycling and the stinkier sort of rubbish. life marches on, doesn’t it?

i love me some medicoliterary geek humor.

i suppose, since i have the post editor open and all, that i should take this moment to apologize for the dearth of posts in recent months. i know i’m letting my loyal reading audience of 3 down, and i’m sorry. it’s just a bit difficult to tread water and type at the same time.

i had signed up for NaBloPoMo with the best of intentions. a post a day for a month? i could handle that. even with some light holiday travel, i could post from my phone. i’m not working right now, so what better way to exercise my photography and writing muscles?

who was i kidding. this is 2009. if there’s been a consistent theme this year, it’s been this: make a plan, have it fucked with. it’s amazing we even got to mexico (the asshattery of acapulco notwithstanding), all things considered.

so what happened to my plans this month? well, i learned two new medical terms, of course. (i hate learning new medical terms. “fetal bradycardia” was the first one of the year, and it’s been a constant suck since then.) these are the new two:

giant cell tumor of the tendon sheath; and
pigmented villonodular synovitis

there’s a school of thought that they’re really the same thing, just in different sites. from a treatment point of view, it doesn’t matter which one it is. neither is malignant; they’re both benign aggressive soft tissue tumors.

and i have one or the other in my right foot. it’s about the size of a golf ball. it wasn’t always so big, and only recently has it begun to cause any pain. by now, though, it has enveloped the two peroneus tendons and eaten up part of the cuboid bone (the x-ray and MRI look amazingly like a mouse has been at it). because of this, it needs to be removed before it causes major permanent structural damage. it needs to be removed NOW, because i’m still trying to get knocked up, and i’m not about to undergo general anaesthesia while newly preggers – again (we saw how well that worked out back in april). or, for that matter, hugely preggers (i know i’m getting ahead of myself, but i’m still hopeful). and since it’s an aggressive tumor, if it’s not removed, it’s going to keep growing, getting more painful, and doing more damage to my dainty (okay, size 9 – but it’s long and elegant at the moment) foot. even with the tumor removed, there’s a 45% chance it will grow back. grmpf. the upshot is that the week after thanksgiving (and two days before my birthday, no less – those plans certainly got screwed too), i’m going back under the knife.

that’s right. i’m headed for four surgeries in oh-nine. one for each quarter. yay me.

so i’ve been too grumpy to blog daily, and for the last week i’ve been gimpy due to pain and swelling following an exuberant core biopsy that angrified the tumor and the foot, which cut in on photography, and my plans to start working out again, and my plans to look for a job.

and there you go. the universe is mocking me. doing a damn good job of it, too.

so let’s firedance through the night.

no, really. it is. a new moon on monday. check your calendar.

[this is a recovered post from the great data disappearance of 2009. links, comments, and other html may have been lost permanently.]

(before launching into my outraged diatribe, i’m going to stipulate that safe abortion access is an integral part of not only women’s reproductive health, but our ability to exercise self-determination. many other individuals have written more coherently and persuasively on the subject than i could, so i’ll leave any interested readers to the googles for the specifics.)

with that out of the way, on to the diatribe.

in a press release celebrating the 240-194 approval of his odious abortion restriction amendment, bart stupak exulted,

Now that those voices have been heard we must move forward and pass a bill that provides quality, affordable health care for all Americans.

he’s also said, “All Americans deserve the right to quality, affordable health care coverage.”

all americans? really? apparently stupak doesn’t think that abortion access has any place in women’s “quality” or “affordable” reproductive health care. his amendment (couched in “this just [just! - ed] continues the hyde amendment’s prohibitions on the use of federal funds for abortion” logic) will have the practical effect of denying abortions to any women participating in the health insurance exchange.

how? right off the bat, it prohibits exchange-participating plans that offer abortion coverage from accepting any federally-subsidized customers (estimated at 80% of exchange participants)¹.

oh, but wait. apparently women will be allowed to purchase separate “abortion riders.” that’s great, provided a) women will think to insure against unintended pregnancies (or better yet, pregnancies with complications necessitating an abortion either due to risks to the woman’s health, or abnormalities with the fetus); and b) that there are insurance companies willing to offer those riders in the first place.

and it’s b) that’s really the kicker. via NARAL,

According to the respected National Women’s Law Center, the five states that require a separate rider for abortion coverage, there is no evidence that plans offer these riders.²

so. we’ve got a health reform plan from the house that is intended to create universal coverage by requiring individuals to acquire health care coverage through a national exchange³. and that exchange will effectively reduce women’s access to abortion services. fantastic.

i really, really hate washington right now. a meteor could demolish the entire hill, and i’d only mourn the architecture. okay, i’d feel sad for the families of the members of congress, but the representatives? not so much.

particularly not bart stupak or nancy pelosi, who facilitated the introduction of stupak’s amendment. because of those two (insert foul adjective of choice here… oh, hey… choice!)s, women are going to remain second-class citizens when it comes to health care.

(and finally, because i’m pissed off at the pro-choice democrats who folded and voted for the bill with stupak’s amendment: there’s a niggling voice in the back of my head trying to convince me that perfect should not be the enemy of the good, and that this reform bill is better than none. to that voice i say – there are far fewer anti-choice democrats than pro-choice ones in the house. if the pro-choice dems couldn’t get the antis in line and force a vote without restricting abortion access, they’re a useless political machine. if they’re going to allow abortion to be a political football, they should play the damn game to win.)

_________________________
¹ how ironic that the democrats have brought us our own version of the mexico city policy.
² i’d link directly to the national women’s law center on this, but i can’t find anything on point on their website.
³ it will also expand medicaid access, but that doesn’t help low-income women access abortion. see the hyde amendment.

[this is a recovered post from the great data disappearance of 2009. links, comments, and other html may have been lost permanently.]

really. what’s with all the airports named for recent republicans?

recovered comments:
3 Responses a “just once i’d like to transit through Fillmore Int’l”

1. john Says:
October 19th, 2009 at 2:38 pm

you can fly into Carter Regional Airport for peanuts.

sorry

2. laloca Says:
October 23rd, 2009 at 8:49 pm

eew. that stinks.

3. Patrick Fleury Says:
October 23rd, 2009 at 9:31 pm

Naming public buildings and installations after Republicans is part of Grover Norquist’s grand plan, I believe. He and his ilk want to name post offices, airports and any landmark they can after Ronald Reagan and his pals. For example, they got a turnpike in Florida after Ronald Reagan.

There ain’t no such thing as bad publicity.