The Otter Side

Reflections from a year's distance

2006-08-27T19:48:00.000-04:00

As part of one of my classes, earlier this month I had to write a narrative on a personal experience that relates to public health. No surprise, I wrote mine on my experience in New Orleans. Here it is uncut:

On August 29, 2005, I was a pathologist practicing in a small town in central Georgia when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, Louisiana (NOLA). I watched the news intently since I had a long history with NOLA. My brother was stationed at the nearby Naval Air Station when Hurricane Camille hit in August 1969. As a Naval Reservist in the 1980’s, I did my annual two weeks’ service at the Naval Station on the West Bank. NOLA had always been a place to which I would escape when I needed good food, good music, and a devil-may-care atmosphere. I watched with increasing anger and a feeling of impotence as the Katrina tragedy developed with no response from the Federal Government.

I remember a specific pair of events—on Tuesday August 30, ABC News covered the story of Biloxi resident, Harvey Jackson. He was tearful as he told the reporter that storm surge split his house in two, and although he tried to hold on to her, his wife was swept away. The next story showed President Bush live in San Diego hamming it up on stage with a guitar given to him by a country singer. I continued to watch the news coverage, getting more and more angry until September 1 when the Louisiana Board of Medicine (BOM) put out a call for volunteer physicians. My wife and I discussed it, and I volunteered to go in five days, as soon as my business partner returned from vacation. The next day, federal disaster personnel finally arrived in NOLA.

My first day in the city was spent at the NOPD Second Precinct house. It was now nine days after Katrina’s landfall, and there had been no logistic support—no food shipments or medical care—to the precinct until that day. Their main medical problems were podiatric and psychiatric. The flood waters contained a mixture of industrial waste, waste from the inundated sewer system, gasoline, and oil. They described it as black, opaque, and “stinking like Hell.” They called it simply “The Water” in a way that you could hear the capital letters. Chemical dermatitis was common on exposed skin, most frequently the feet. Fortunately, the BOM sent us out in two-man teams, and my partner was a podiatrist that had done a podiatric dermatology fellowship. That left me to handle the psychiatric problems.

All NOPD officers are required to live inside the city, but they are not paid enough to live in the nicer areas. In NOLA, socioeconomic status and elevation are directly correlated, so the flood disproportionately harmed the less affluent. Every cop in the precinct had lost everything he owned. Most of what I did was to listen quietly and let them lament. Their stoic machismo prevented them from sharing these feelings with their fellow cops, and their families had evacuated, so in most cases, I was the first one to hear them talk of their pain and loss.

That was also the day food arrived. Up until that time, the police had relied on donations from residents (The Second Precinct was largely above the flood line.) and food from ruined markets. That day, a load of chicken breasts and ground beef arrived from Atlanta. They pulled out the massive smoker they used for Mardi Gras, and a huge cop (Think John Henry with a big spatula.) made burgers and grilled chicken for everyone. I felt guilty taking mine—I had eaten well at home less than 48 hours earlier—but they wanted us to join the fun. They temporarily looked less careworn.

I made it a point that day to have at least some time alone with every cop in the precinct. They all had the same top wish: a good, uninterrupted night’s sleep.

While shortages of some necessities were common, there were three things that were in ample supply—stories, rumors, and hearsay. Back at the Command Center in Baton Rouge that evening, I talked with someone who said he was on a body recovery team about to go into the Convention Center. He was told beforehand, "There are hundreds of dead on the second floor of the CC." He had heard that the walls were covered in blood from the carnage of a complete breakdown of social order. The next day while awaiting our ambulance crew, other ambulance teams told me much the same thing about the Superdome. They recounted stories of roving bands of murderous youth running amok in its dark, hot, humid interior with the bodies of their victims scattered about the huge building. We began to fear that the violent fatalities would outnumber the deaths due to wind and flood, but we would have to wait to find out.

My next assignment was to visit several Red Cross shelters in St. Tammany Parish on the North shore of Lake Pontchartrain. We were handicapped by a lack of medications. The BOM had faxed a request to the U.S. Public Health Service pharmacy depot, but they said they never got it. They refused to give us anything, even after we presented our credentials and told them of our assignment, so we went by a CVS in Baton Rouge and bought such over-the-counter remedies and wound care supplies as our personal cash on hand would buy. I held clinics that day in a school counselor’s office, a high school auditorium, and an elementary school cafeteria. It was embarrassing trying to render meaningful medical care with nothing but CVS generic Robitussin and Dimetapp, some Tylenol, and a few gauze pads and tape. I was lucky in that a nearby pharmacy had reopened that day, so I was able to handle my patients’ most common request, replacement of prescription drugs that had been lost or spoiled.

One woman in her thirties came in with an 18 month-old girl for a minor problem. I told her, “Your daughter is fine.” She looked at me dully and said, “She’s my daughter’s girl. Her mother was taken by The Waters.” She said it with an absolute lack of emotion, as matter-of-factly as if she had said that the child’s mother had gone outside for a smoke.

I spent the rest of my time in NOLA at an outdoor clinic under the pavilion of the Canal Street ferry terminal. For most of my time there, I was one of two physicians, two nurses, and six to eight Emergency Medical Technicians seeing 350-375 patients a day. Most were for immunizations, but we saw multiple cases of heat exhaustion and one evolving heart attack. One day, I was assigned to a National Guard tank team manned by ATF agents for “welfare checks.” When I got the assignment, I was incredulous that they were delivering welfare checks in the midst of disaster. The assignment officers rolled their eyes and explained that we were going to check on the welfare of residents whose families had called the Red Cross. “Oh,” I replied sheepishly.

We cruised into the flood zone down Canal Street. Within just a few blocks, we were in water that covered the roofs of cars. Most of the city was still too deep for wheeled vehicles, even military ones. The routine was for one tank to pull up to the front of the house while riflemen on the other tank provided cover. An ATF agent would go to the door, knock loudly, and call “Police! Do you need assistance?” At all but one address, there was no response. The agents would look in all accessible windows to see if there were bodies. Initially, they would then break down the door to check, but later in the day someone figured out that the agent could just break a window and smell carefully for decay. If none were detected, they could safely assume there were no bodies. They would spray a symbol on the front of the house that gave the date, number of living extracted, number who elected to stay, and number of dead requiring recovery. Fortunately, we found no bodies, but a heartbreakingly large number of abandoned dogs and cats. Whenever we shut down the tanks’ engines to listen for a response to the agent’s call at the door, we would hear barking in all directions.

It would have been a very depressing day but for one person. One house we visited had a jazz musician of some local renown. His daughter lived four blocks away, deeper into the flood zone, and he was not willing to leave in case she came to find him. The agent asked him if his daughter had a cell phone. The agent pulled out his cell phone, called her, and handed it to her father. She was in a shelter in Houston and had been worrying about him. He grabbed his trumpet and immediately left with us.

Even so, the ride out was somber. I spent 17 years in the Navy, many of them with Marine units, but I never served in an area of conflict. At last, I was on a tank with armed guardsmen, going through completely abandoned neighborhoods that stretched out in all directions as far as I could see. Looking up, I could see a constant flow of military helicopters criss-crossing the sky above us, freight slung beneath them. For the first time in my life, I felt like I was in a war zone. We drove down Tulane Avenue surrounded by inundated cars, flooded buildings, and the occasional floating, bloated body. This was my favorite city for R&R in the country, and we had let it be destroyed through lack of planning beforehand and inaction afterwards.

I spent three more days working at our open-air clinic. The last day we enjoyed an embarrassment of riches—the outgoing, spent volunteer physicians overlapped the incoming batch of fresh, eager volunteers by one day. I was really extra personnel, so I went into the Quarter with a three-part mission:

See how much damage it sustained.
See if my favorite places were okay.
Find the only bar that did not close at any time during the entire disaster, Johnny White's, at the corner of Orleans and Bourbon.

All my hangouts, as well as all the famous tourist spots, were intact. The Saint Louis hotel looked like it could have been open. The Café du Monde looked strange with no tables and the doors closed. (They are open 24/7/365.) It was really weird walking around Jackson Square—I was the only person in the entire square on a beautiful, mild, sunny day.

I found Johnny White's to indeed be open and busy. Here we were in a federal disaster zone, and a cold Bass Ale was $2.50. (I gave him a five and told him to keep the change—one should reward performance above and beyond the call of duty.) As I sat there, I realized that there were three types of patrons:

A fellow named Larry and I, i.e., ostensibly normal.
World media types (Japanese and Spanish at the time of my visit).
Raving loonies actively engaged in self-medication with alcohol.

I started making inquiries of the last group. One fellow had a huge boil on his arm, surrounded by angry, red swelling. He was a piercing artist, so he had lanced it himself with his largest needle, but he needed antibiotics, badly. Another fellow, who offered me a shot of Jameson's, told me that he had been without his Lexapro for 3 days "and I become homicidal without it." There were patrons on anti-psychotic meds, anti-depressants, and major tranquilizers, and they were all out or almost so. Even Larry was out of his Insulin and oral diabetes drugs. I took down everybody's name and their medications. I went to our clinic and found oral diabetic drugs for Larry, and all the others’ anti-depressants (especially the Lexapro for the potentially homicidal guy). I then returned to Johnny's and handed out meds. Unfortunately, the one woman with prescriptions indicating some serious psychopathology was out of luck. We did not have the major tranquilizers. I told her to go to Ochsner, the only open hospital in Orleans Parish. In essence, I went out for a beer and wound up running a psych clinic in a bar.

Needless to say, I have already reflected a lot on such a dramatic experience. Some of my reflections concern public health in general, while others relate directly to several of the concepts from our course.

Any discussion of anything that affects NOLA must consider race and socioeconomic status. NOLA ranked fifth among cities with more than 100,000 residents for percentage of the population that is African-American (67%) and eighth for percentage living in poverty (26%).[i],[ii] The Lower Ninth Ward is 99% African-American and 36% of its residents live in poverty.[iii] I am convinced that the reason for the Federal Governments’ inaction stems directly from this. The largely African-American poor of NOLA had no money and no influence, and were treated as being of no consequence. The lackadaisical response to Katrina was one more instance in an already shameful, long history of the U.S. government ignoring the plight of minorities and the poor.

What was the effect of the Federal government’s indolence? Four days of inaction allowed survivors to later die in their attics waiting for rescue. Four days exhausted the ability of hospital personnel to ventilate patients manually. Four days added victims of official neglect to the death toll from wind and water, and I doubt there will ever be any official accounting of their numbers.

I fear NOLA will never be the same. In my opinion, its culture, more so than any other major American city, is a product of its African-American heritage, Mayor Nagin’s so‑called “chocolate city.” With the involuntary demolition of so many flooded homes and the meager resources of their residents, I doubt that many will be able to return. My ultimate fear is that the neighborhoods I rode through with the tank crew—blocks of small, crowded, but well-kept houses—will be destroyed and supplanted by townhouses and condos far beyond any of the prior residents’ means.

Soon after my return home, several body recovery teams pulled up to the Superdome with refrigerated trailers, ready to remove the reported “hundreds of bodies.” They found six bodies—four dead of natural causes, one of a drug overdose, and one suicide. Only four bodies were found in the Convention Center, one of which was the result of a violent death. I then realized to my shame that I, too, had unknowingly shown prejudice. The stories of murder and mayhem by refugees gone feral were simply bigoted fantasies of how poor African-Americans would react to overcrowding, stress, and absence of authority; and I had believed them.

Finally, my reflecting on this experience had a major effect on me and my family. I hope I have gotten across the enormity of the events in NOLA. Witnessing them kept all of us in a state of stunned amazement, or even shock, the entire time. This was especially true during my ride with the tank team. That evening, I sat and contemplated what I had seen and what it meant. I remember thinking that this was quite literally a life-changing event, and that I could not simply go back to pathology practice. When I was in medical school, my first love was infectious disease. Being at Emory, many of our instructors were from CDC. They would come in, practically brushing harmattan dust from their khakis, and tell us about the work they were doing in Timbuktu or some other exotic place. I had often fantasized about such a career, but I played it safe and followed a conventional path. Now, I knew that I had just felt more alive and satisfied with my work than I had in years. I made a decision to discuss a career change with my wife when I got home. On my return, I told her that I wanted to leave pathology and pursue a career in International Health, and that I wanted to do whatever was necessary to return to my original dream. My wife is a former U.S. diplomat, so her reply was quick. “Sure. Let’s check the Web for jobs.” Later she told me, “I wondered when you’d decide giving money wasn’t enough and that you needed to give of yourself.”

That brings me to this course. When I decided to pursue my new career path, I left private practice naïvely thinking that my experience and skill set would allow me to find a position in communicable disease control somewhere in the developing world without further training. I have not, so I am going to remain unemployed, take a full course load every term, and focus all my time and attention the MPH program. Well, almost all—I am also going to be a stay-at-home dad to our two daughters, 3 year-old Eleanor and 16 month-old Brigid, for the next year.

Volunteering for Katrina had an effect on me beyond any I might have expected. In 11 months, I have gone from being the extremely busy, founding partner of a very successful pathology practice to being a stay-at-home dad and full time graduate student intent on eventually going to a developing country to work on communicable disease control and child survival. I’ve also never been happier.

[i] U.S. Census Quickfacts, http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states22/2271.html.

[ii] Wagner, P, Edwards, S. “New Orleans by the Numbers” dollars & sense [sic], Mar 06, web archive, http://dollarsandsense.org/archives/2006/0306wagneredwards.html.

[iii] Ibid.

Friday Baby Blogging!

2006-08-25T21:33:00.000-04:00

At long last, they're back! I had to share these with everyone. We just had formal pictures taken,and here are the proofs.

Brigid is now 16 months old. She is a delight.

Eleanor is now 3 years old and in Montessori school. She loves it.

I am now a stay-at-home dad, working on my MPH on the internet and in 2 week intensive courses between semesters. Mrs. O is still teaching at our local university. Life is good.

"I'm not dead yet!"

2006-07-16T14:59:00.000-04:00

Still chilling.

Don't worry about us. The kids are brilliant. We're doing well, and our hopes are high.

Ready for Check-in

2006-03-13T12:10:00.000-05:00

Oh, Mr. Bush. Your room is ready.

Wahoo!

2006-03-12T14:23:00.000-05:00

I saw my cardiologist this week. My LDL cholesterol is down to 65, and HDL is up to 45. My triglycerides (previously 400-600) are only 130! I considered celebrating with a huge rack of pork ribs, but thought better of it.

Write your Representative

2006-03-12T13:59:00.000-05:00

Write your representative and urge him/her to co-sponsor Rep. John Conyers's proposed HR 635 (html or pdf)

Creating a select committee to investigate the Administration's intent to go to war before congressional authorization, manipulation of pre-war intelligence, encouraging and countenancing torture, retaliating against critics, and to make recommendations regarding grounds for possible impeachment.

Even if your representative is Tom Delay or John "Please Don't Pronounce It Like It's Spelled" Boehner, seeing many emails supporting the impeachment of the President may weaken their already faltering support for his agenda. Here's the text of my letter to Rep. Jim Marshall (semi-DINO, GA-5):

I strongly urge you to co-sponsor and otherwise support Rep. Conyers's proposed HR 635. When last I wrote to you expressing my opinion that the President should be impeached, you said that there was insufficient cause at the time. Here is a bill to provide an investigation to determine whether there is cause. It is designed to seek the truth and that is always worthy of passage.

As we have heard said time and again, especially by those that see "no problem" with warrantless wiretaps, "The innocent have nothing to fear." If Bush has done nothing illegal, then no harm can come of an investigation. If he has, then he should be impeached.

Thoughts on this day

2006-02-16T11:06:00.000-05:00

After my visit to the Palais de Nations and all the good feelings it engendered, today I saw on CNN International (which is much better than plain CNN) that new pictures of Abu Ghraib torture have been made public and the UN has recommended that the Guantánamo Gulag be shut down. Perhaps instead of The Pet Goat, Bush should read this children's book instead. In it, he would learn that we are signatories to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, specifically:

Article 5.
No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

Article 6.
Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.

Article 7.
All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.

Article 8.
Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.

Article 9.
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.

Article 10.
Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.

How far we have fallen from this goal! There is only one course of action that can ensure justice for Bush, Cheney, and the rest of their cabal: first impeachment, then extradition to the International Court of Justice in The Hague for war crimes. Then we may be able to hold our heads high on the world stage again.

Bienvenue de Geneve!

2006-02-15T04:29:00.000-05:00

During some down time yesterday, I visted the Palais de Nations. This was the headquarters of the League of Nations and is now the HQ for the UN in Europe. It was very moving. Talking with another physician taking the tour, I compared it to a hospital—if the Headquarters in New York is the front office, Geneva is home to the wards. It is here that the real work of the UN is largely based. I sat in a gallery above a session of the UN High Commission on Human Rights regarding child labor prohibitions. We also sat in the original Council chamber of the League of Nations with its huge murals on the progress of man and cost of war. While I was there, I bought a book for Eleanor, For Every Child a Better World. It's probably a little heavy for her right now, but it contrasts what she enjoys (sufficient food, shelter, education, medical care, and peace) with what much of the world's children endure.

I was moved by the whole experience, which made the follow-up even more ruefully funny. I walked out of the Palais toward the Avenue de la Paix (Peace Avenue), and there on the back of a city bus stop was spray-painted in large, red letters: F**k Bu$h!
Wow—these people really do love peace!

Avoir! Updates later.

Updated Feb 16: Corrected spelling of "Bu$h."

Leap of Faith

2006-02-09T20:35:00.000-05:00

Back on the Treo--I'm sitting in a Shoney's in Franklin, NC typing away. I'm at our cabin doing some maintenance. No phone, no web, and no cell coverage.

I've decided to try to make my own luck. After spending this weekend at our cabin, I'm flying Sunday night to Geneva for a 5-day visit. I'm going to go to the WHO offices to talk about my aspirations and my determination to do international medicine. ("I happened to be in the neighborhood and thought I'd drop by.") I'm also going to seek audiences with the various medical humanitarian agencies that surround the WHO like outparcels at a mall.

I'll try to post if I get web access. Comment moderation will be off tonight if I can do it on a Treo. I'd appreciate any prayers, positive energy, or well wishes you have to spare.

The Island of Dr. Moreau Moron

2006-02-01T16:25:00.000-05:00

Save us, Commander Codpiece, save us!!!

Seriously, what the hell was that about? Apparently the Bush Administration has run out of at least quasi-real threats to scare the electorate, so he promises to protect us from heathen scientists "meddling in God's domain."

He definitely scared me! After all, Humulin® is made by laboratory strains of E. coli into which the human gene for insulin has been inserted, creating a human-bacterial hybrid organism. Do you trust the Republicans and their radical cleric allies to compose a law that won't threaten this? How about Humatrope®, recombinant Human Growth Hormone, produced by the same ungodly melding of man and germ? It's okay, though—diabetes and pituitary dwarfism are simply punishment for sin, so it is meddling in the affairs of God to treat them, only made even more blasphemous by using chimaeric abominations.

Still alive, but on hiatus

2006-01-29T21:15:00.000-05:00

This is moving weekend so we can close on our house sale on the 31st. Don't lose hope, but I'm still on hiatus for at least a little while longer.

Great Christmas card

2006-01-09T16:33:00.000-05:00

From John Hlinko:

From my buddies Tawnya Dudash, Annabel Dudash, and Russell Baldon (photo by Geoff Douglass.)
Russ and Tawnya have been doing brilliant cards for over a decade now, and it's great to see that their daughter Annabel is joining in the fun.

Click on image for full size.

This post is an experiment

2005-12-28T16:13:00.000-05:00

I just got home from the hospital after my surgery. Everything went well, but more on that later--first my experiment.

I am currently typing while under considerable influence of Oxycontin, duly prescribed by my physician for the management of post-operative pain. Despite the presence of Oxycontin in my system:

I am not proclaiming to love America while hating 49% of Americans.
I am not defending a war criminal president who openly admits to flauting the Constitution when it suits his purposes after having claimed another president was the Antichrist for getting a BJ.
I am not dismissing Jerry Garcia as "just another dead junkie."
I am not composing pages-long lies while simultaneously planning to deny ever having said them if called on my mendacity.

In short, when the revolution comes and it's Rush's turn to have his back against the wall, don't buy any claims of "diminished capacity." You can take Oxycontin and not become a Brownshirted Moron.

"Happy Christmas to all,..."

2005-12-24T23:26:00.000-05:00

"... and to all a good night!"

Friday Baby Blogging, Christmas edition

2005-12-23T23:20:00.000-05:00

We are visiting my mother for Christmas. Mother is 82 years old and lives in the house her father built in 1939. It sits 6 feet from the site of the original house (built mid-1800's) in which she was born. She taught school for 36 years, starting in a one-room schoolhouse. She taught grades 5-8 as her older sister taught grades 1-4.

She was telling Eleanor some stories about her life as a little girl when I got an inspiration. I lit a kerosene lamp she keeps on the mantel (in case of power outages) then turned off every light in the house. Mother read Christmas stories to Eleanor by the light of the lamp. It was magical for everyone, but you can see that it was especially so for Eleanor.

Hi, friends.

2005-12-20T00:15:00.000-05:00

I think I may be back.

In the past 3 months, a lot has been going on. During this time, I just didn't have it in me to blog. I don't seem to have the wherewithal to stay as outraged at the Bush malAdministration as I once did. I've come up with a couple of ideas for posts that I thought about putting on line, but then I'd hear Eleanor call me to "Read it, book!" or Brigid's grin would beckon me down to the floor to watch her rock to-and-fro trying to crawl. I've dropped to just reading one blog (Eschaton), and that only irregularly. I have commented occasionally, but usually just socially because many in that community have become friends as surely as if we had met.

So where are we now?

I'm in my 3d month of unemployment. I am, perhaps unwisely, unwilling to seek a "normal" job until I know whether I've gotten a job with WHO. I don't want to go back to private practice. I enjoyed "being in the fight" in New Orleans, and I want to stay in. (Mrs. O, thank God, has wanted the same thing for herself, so we are in this together. She has agreed to teach next semester, but she has applied for positions at UNHCR, WTO, and the Global Fund for AIDS, Malaria, and TB.) As it is, I'm taking care of the kids while Mrs. O is at work. The girls are really enjoying having me around. I was never inattentive, but there were days at work when I would not get to see either of them awake. I am also giving my culinary muscles a real flexing--this is the first time I've ever had a lot of time to devote to efforts to really cook well.

We are trying to sell our house and our cabin in the mountains. Mrs. O's mother lives nearby, but she has been away 95% of the time for the past 4 months (a topic for a different post), so we can stay at her place for Spring semester, no problem. Regarding the cabin, it kills me to let it go, but there's nothing for it. If you know anyone who would like a nice cabin in the NC mountains on 45 acres with about 1/2 mile of wild trout stream down its middle, send them to this web site to check it out.

Trust me, I'm chuckling as I type this because readers are going to ask "what else can go wrong?", but stick with me to the end of the post--it gets better.

I've got a badly herniated disk in my neck that is pressing on the spinal cord causing some leg discoordination and a constant feeling of burning on both hands. I saw a neurosurgeon last week and he scheduled me for surgery on Dec 22. He was a bit displeased with me--I've had symptoms for 18 months, but I never felt I could take time off from my practice to take care of it. Well now I have time, but a cold I caught last week from Brigid developed into bronchopneumonia over the weekend, so the surgery had to be put off until December 27.

In summary, I'm still unemployed, our cash reserves are almost depleted, Christmas is coming, I'm facing surgery, and I'm coughing my fool head off, yet I have never been happier in my life. My first years in private practice, I was making insane amounts of money, yet I was miserable. I continued making the money after wooing and wedding Mrs. O, and we were fantastically happy. Now, I'm not making any money, but we are all just as happy as before. I'm getting to know my babies better than I ever would have otherwise. We have the assurance of having made an unquestionably right decision to try to go into service. Rather than bemoan the chain of events that led to this or worry about the future, I'm making good on all those times I called home from work and said, "I wish I could be there with the girls instead of here." Our lives are good, and they only look to be getting better.

Now, you tell me what's important in life.

UPDATE 12/20/05: Added UN links and the firm date for my surgery.

Your moment of snark

2005-12-18T12:51:00.000-05:00

On CNN Headline News, Kathleen Kennedy just reported on Bono and the Gates's being named Time Magazine's "Persons of the Year." She then said of Time's list of "People Who Mattered in 2005."

They run the gamut from President George W. Bush to Star Wars villain, Darth Vader.

Since when does a range of "six" to "a half-dozen" qualify as a gamut?

Comments

2005-10-11T15:09:00.000-04:00

I have to turn comments off for a while. I'll bring them back when things are not in so much flux. I'm not trying to be unfriendly--please feel free to e-mail me directly anytime.

Random comments

2005-10-10T01:52:00.000-04:00

Go Dawgs!

Damn those Braves!

I'm in Seattle networking at a conference and looking for leads. There are jobs available, but I'm not motivated to apply yet, still hoping for an NGO job. I think this is my mid-life crisis. Oh, well. Trying to get a job with the WHO beats getting a red convertible and a mistress.

Sorry for the word verification thing on comments, but I was getting comment Spam.

When I get back Wednesday, I have 2 days to get my entropically gifted office in shape for us to start showing the house Saturday. After that, I'm going to try to start blogging again. Thanks to all for your patience and encouragement.

Still kicking.

2005-10-03T13:07:00.000-04:00

Just a note to let everyone know that we're doing well. "Survivors survive best in times of chaos."

A brief hiatus

2005-09-25T15:56:00.000-04:00

Back soon. Will ~~blogwhore~~ post an announcement on Eschaton comments when I'm again actively posting.

Don't erase your bookmarks; I shall return. Thanks.

Arrrrrrr!

2005-09-19T09:57:00.000-04:00

It be the day ye've been waiting for! If ye don't talk like a pirate today, ye'll find yerself keelhauled.

Pictures from New Orleans later today. Arrrrrr.

I'm off

2005-09-16T12:23:00.000-04:00

Off to a prayet retreat to recharge. I'l be back Sunday afternoon.

If you'd like, use this as a Katrina open thread. I couldn't bring myself to listen to Chimpy last night. What did y'all think?

A key difference

2005-09-15T11:12:00.000-04:00

I spoke to a group of college students last night, most of whom were in one of Mrs. Otter's classes. I mentioned this juxtaposition of news stories as my inspiration to go to NOLA. Mrs. O told me afterwards that her students are mostly very conservative, and I undoubtedly lost some of them at that very early point. This led me to a realization of the major difference between them and me--I would be equally furious if it were Clinton playing saxophone, Truman playing piano, or JFK playing around. They bristle at the mere suggestion that Fearless Leader's every act might not be unassailable.

Charlie Manson and David Koresh had nothing on Bush.

St. Otter of the Loonies

2005-09-14T21:48:00.000-04:00

Click on image to see full-size.
These are my people. (I'm the one without tattoos.) My arm is around the potentially homicidal fellow.

Photography tip: for unblurred pictures, never hand your camera to someone crazier than you are.

UPDATE 9/15 @ 1337: I want to make something clear. The title of this post is pure sarcasm. Everybody has been saying such nice things to me in the comments, I thought it would be funny to juxtapose the concept of "St. Otter" with me drinking beer in a Federal Disaster Area. I don't want anyone to think I'd put on airs.

Back home again

2005-09-14T11:01:00.001-04:00

Got in around midnight last night. Wonderful to be with Mrs. O again. 'Nuff said.

This morning, Eleanor was all smiles, hugs, and kisses. She then demonstrated how she learned while I was gone to go to the potty, empty it into the toilet, and rinse the pot, all by herself. Both of us were barely able to eat breakfast for all the grinning. Brigid had not yet awakened when I had to leave for work so our reunion will be this afternoon.

Those of you who have bolstered me with such encouraging words, thank you from the bottom of my heart.

I get mail

2005-09-14T10:57:00.000-04:00

In my e-mail yesterday [emphasis mine]:

Thanks for appearing on the Ed Schultz show, today. I am a registered nurse in Arizona, and was so pleased to hear a physician speaking about issues other than the new Hummer or golf. Yep, we're a red state, here, ya betcha!

All quetsching aside, I shared your zeal and concern over this horrible disaster. I also have spent time in Louisiana; Lafayette, actually, at University Medical Center. My wife and I agreed that I would have been gone ASAP, except for lack of resources. I'm glad you could do it. The point to which I am getting is this: I am a veteran paramedic and critical care nurse, with experience going back to the seventies. I have been red carded by the Forest Service as a wild land firefighter-EMT(paramedic), medical unit leader, and hellitack qualified. I have six seasons under my belt. I've served in New Mexico, Arizona, and Idaho. I'm on some list with FEMA somewhere. Each time I have been called up (literally, by phone), the event was only a couple of hours old, and I was gone in fewer than six hours. I was always deployed at least by the next morning, fully equipped. We had air support and ground support, always. Law enforcement was with us. So was logistics. This is routine. To say that no plan existed for New Orleans is a lie. There is even a pre-plan for Maricopa County, should Hoover Dam fail. Frankly, I doubt the powers that be really gave a shit. These weren't what 'dub' calls his base, were they? Thanks again. I hope my point of view is useful to you. Take care.

The fun never ends

2005-09-13T15:01:00.000-04:00

I'm on I-10E about 30 mi from Mobile. About 100 yds ahead, a van is in flames backing traffic. On the way, it set off a brush fire directly alongside my right. I'm safe in the left lane, but I'm shaking my heas ruefully at this dramatic event on the drive home.

Safe at the end.

2005-09-12T17:48:00.000-04:00

It took us 5 minutes to break down a clinic that takes 1 hour to set up. We hauled butt and were on the I-10 within 12 minutes from the Deputy Sheriff's warning. When we got back to Baton Rouge 1 1/2 hours later, we were told that it was a small break and already plugged.

Today, we had an embarrassment of riches since we had a 1 day overlap between the docs coming in and the docs going home. I was basically extra personnel, so I went into the Quarter with a mission:

See how much damage it sustained.
See if my favorite places were okay.
Find the only bar open in the Quarter, Johnny White's, at the corner of Orleans and Bourbon.

The results of my damage survey: All my hangouts, as well as all the famous tourist spots, are intact. The Saint Louis hotel looks like it could be open. Amazingly, the doors weren't locked, but I'm not stupid enough to enter a dark spot in the Quarter in these times. Cafe du Monde looks strange with no tables and the doors strangely closed. (They are open 24/7/365.) K-Pauls is fine. It was really strange walking around Jackson Square; I was the only person in the entire square on a beautiful, mild, sunny day. I felt like Charlton Heston (but without a gun and Alzheimer's).

I found Johnny White's to indeed be open and busy. In the midst of disaster, a cold Bass Ale was $2.50. (I gave him a five and told him to keep the change--performance above and beyond the call of duty should always be rewarded.) As I sat there, I realized that there were 3 types of patrons:

A fellow named Larry and I
Media
Raving loonies actively engaged in self-medication.

I started making inquiries of the last group. One fellow had a huge boil on his arm, surrounded by angry, red swelling. He is a piercing artist (with OOO earlobe hoops), so he had lanced it himself with his largest needle. Another fellow, who offered me a shot of Jameson's, told me that he had been without his Lexapro for 3 days "and I become homicidal without it." There were patrons on anti-psychotic meds, anti-depressants, and major tranquilizers, and they were all out or almost so. Additionally, Larry was out of his Insulin and oral diabetes drugs.

I took down everybody's name and their medications (and yes, I did ask to see the bottles, except for Larry). I went to two of our makeshift clinics (at Toulouse and Rampart and in the Omni Royal hotel) and found oral diabetic drugs for Larry and all the anti-depressants (especially the Lexapro for the potentially homicidal guy). I then returned to Johnny's and handed out meds. Unfortunately, the one woman with prescriptions indicating some serious psychopathology is probably out of luck. We just don't have the major tranquilizers. I told her to go to Ochsner, the only open hospital in Orleans Parish. I gave the list with all the other drugs listed to my replacement. He will bring it back to the Harrah's clinic, where the sanest of the loonies will pick it up for distribution.

Having completed all three of my stated missions, I returned to Harrah's clinic. I had time to vaccinate 5-6 people when the Deputy ordered us to bug out. That brings us back up to this moment.

I am now done here. Tomorrow, I'll drive the 8 hours home and Wednesday, I'll be in my office as usual. This has been an enlightening, and I think maturing life event. I will spend tomorrow driving home and processing the events of the past week. After a few day's respite, expect many pictures and a digest of lessons learned. I can already divulge one thing that I am going to do after I'm settled--I am going to my Hospital Administrator and our county Emergency Preparedness Officer with a medical logistics plan that I am going to draw up over the next few days. I have seen every logistically bad idea played out here. I intend to personally ensure that at least our little county will be ready if tornados come through or the dam breaks.

I hope you have all enjoyed my account. Thanks for all the encouragement, prayers, and good thoughts. I'll see you all back in a couple of days.

BUGGING OUT!!!

2005-09-12T14:56:00.000-04:00

Sheriff just told us a levee just broke and to bug out! Details later.

Breaking News

2005-09-12T08:59:00.000-04:00

NEW ORLEANS (R'otters): Dr. Otter, 48, a Georgia physician and volunteer assisting with Hurricane Katrina relief, "just scored" a case of Thin Mints for his clinic. The clinic is located at the foot of Canal Street, across the street from Harrah's Casino. The cookies were donated by area Girl Scouts. Although the cookies were very slightly stale, Dr. Otter told us that the cookie coup was "Schweet!"

9/11

2005-09-11T23:09:00.000-04:00

With only 1 hour left in the day, I just noticed that today is 9/11. Given the date and its portent and the work in which I am engaged, I trust you'll allow me the indulgence of sharing a scripture I contmplated today:

While he was yet speaking, there came another, and said, "Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house; and behold, a great wind came across the wilderness, and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young people, and they are dead; and I alone have escaped to tell you."
Then Job arose, and rent his robe, and shaved his head, and fell upon the ground, and worshiped. And he said, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return; the LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD." In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.
Job 1:18-22

End-of-day report

2005-09-11T18:58:00.000-04:00

Another satisfying day. We saw 275 patients today with 3 docs, 1 Tulane med student, and 9 EMT's.

I did not get to heckle Bush. I don't even know if he ever left the deck of the Iwo Jima. Our lack of news means you surely know more about his visit than I will before I get home. I did get interviewed by MS/NBC, AP and Jeff Bolton who does the morning drive show in San Antonio.

Jeff has been featured in numerous publications and on talk radio programs across America. He has also been featured on The Rush Limbaugh Program and MSNBC.

If any of you San Antonians hear me, please e-mail me the time so I can try to get the stream. You'll know it's me--I angrily told how this pairing of events inspired me to try to do something to help.

I am exhausted. Last night, I actually got 5 hours of sleep, the most (by 1 1/2 hours) of any night since my first day working (and I only got it by oversleeping for an hour). It's not that we are working late--when our crew of docs gets back to the church fellowship hall, we start exchanging stories as quickly as possible. It takes a while to assimillate and process the day's experiences enough to settle to sleep. Today, I helped take care of a lot of people, and I handled a lot of press, but I didn't see a single fresh orphan or dead body. I think I'll sleep sooner.

Finally, I really appreciate the prayers and gifts of good energy from all, but some of you have used the word "hero" of me. No, no, no, no! I've always protested that the word is overused and inappropriately applied (There is no such thing as a sports "hero."), but my objections were just intellectual. After meeting the people I have this week--the cops that had been at the station for 8 days straight, knowing their homes were underwater; the EMT working in The Water with huge, angry blisters on his feet; the Cajun airboat drivers and Airborne Rangers, going into the toxic soup with propellers whipping it into a fine aerosol all about them--I know that those and many more here are heroes. Keep sending the prayers and good intentions though--I swear I can feel them.

Sad news

2005-09-11T17:28:00.000-04:00

I met an administrator at the Audubon Zoo. The only animals they lost in the crisis were their river otters. {whimper}

The "Black Hole" Effect

2005-09-11T15:35:00.000-04:00

I have been working at the Harrah's Aid Station all day. A few minutes ago, I suddenly felt dizzy and I couldn't think staight. I joked that I felt like my IQ had suddenly had dropped 50-60 points. I was worried that I was having a heatstroke, when I looked up and suddenly understood--Marine Corps One was flying overhead.

After a constant din for the past 3 days, it is suddenly quiet as all rescue work has stopped in preparation for The Boy Prince's continued search for his "stnding on the rubble pile" photo op.

I have never loathed him more than I do right now. I'm hoping he asks to see our Aid Station--I've been mentally rehearsing what I'll say if he comes by for a visit. I'd hate to find myself tongue-tied in his "august" presence.

Woah! Cool!

2005-09-10T21:43:00.000-04:00

I spent 3 1/2 hours in an LAV (Light Armored Vehicle) driven by National Guard troops and manned by ATF agents. We had a list of 6 addresses from the 911 Center. Five were requests to "check welfare of occupant" and one was reported as "trapped." Five were clear--no one alive or dead at the address. At one, we rescued someone. I'm sorry, but I'm going to hold the story until I can upload my pictures of the event. To do this, we cruised for miles up and down streets filled above the tops of vehicles with black-green, fetid water. At Jeff Davis Parkway, the water became too deep for us to safely go further, so the search stopped there. There is a heck of a lot of inundated NOLA beyond that. Words cannot describe it well enough, but I promise there will be pictures later next week.

The mission would have taken far shorter, but we stopped multiple times to break open MRE's and bottled water for dogs and one cat trapped on their porch. We noted the addresses of many dogs and cats. The Humane Society is here with boats and will retrieve them when we give them the list. Interestingly, they have a command post at Harrah's, right there with the big boys.

Saw two floating bodies, the less description of them, the better.

It's late and I want to go to bed, so I'll just make a couple more observations, this time just about my own profession and how it is functioning here:

There are physicians and nurses here who are complaining about our vaccinating everybody for Hepatitis A. They keep quoting CDC studies that show that only the most heavily exposed personnel are at risk. I finally told one of them to shut up for a simple reason. No study has ever looked at the impact of filling a city of 500,000 with shit and corpses. This is an event unparalleled in the history of public health. I am tired of hearing about studies that can't begin to apply to a toxic event of this scale. Personally, I think everyone in the area should be vaccinated for Hepatitis A & B, and those with the most exposure should get the hyperimmune globulin (lay term, "gamma globulin"). My proof? None. My reason? Common damn sense.

Also, JCAHO, FDA, DEA, American Red Cross, etc. regulations cannot apply when the world turns upside down. Whether physician or nurse, state, federal, or volunteer, the most effective responders in this event have been those competent providers that do what is possible and necessary for the situation, not what the "Book" says they may do. Amazingly, there are some hide-bound fools out here that expect a team to vaccinate hundreds of people in a single day and maintain full documentation and not allow para-professionals (e.g., EMT's) to administer the injections. I had 3 patients today require intravenous hydration. They had a classic "swoon" after the vaccine shots, but they were so dehydrated, they didn't recover until they got some fluids. If we didn't have EMT's doing the shots "illegally," vaccinations would have ground to a halt while the docs and nurses were attending to these patients.

Rant over. Good night.

A correction

2005-09-10T21:30:00.000-04:00

As I said before, I just report what I hear and misinformation abounds in an event this huge with this many players. It is not true that no body recovery has been done. My source (an Army officer) was badly misinformed. It is true that the bodies are still in the stairwells at Charity Hospital, but the Convention Center is supposed to be cleared out. I know nothing about the Superdome.

Back in downtown NOLA

2005-09-10T15:09:00.000-04:00

I'm at the big aid station across the street from THE command post. NOPD, military, DOJ--all have command posts under Harrah's porte cochere.

The main mission here is immunizations. Police, firemen, domestic & foreign press, clean-up contractors--everyone wants their shots.

Chemical corps found Cholera organisms in The Water as well as Hep A, Hep B,& massive coliforms (fecal bacteria).

Just learned that there has NOT been any body recovery yet "except for high profile ones like the one on the steps of the museum." (We couldn't have them photographed, now could we?) All the bodies in the Superdome, Conv Ctr, Charity Hosp stairwells, and attics throughout NOLA are lying right where they died. See post above.

Gotta go--going out on a rescue in an APC!

Shelter visits

2005-09-09T23:15:00.000-04:00

Visited 4 shelters in St Tammany Parish. Did sick call at largest. Saw an 18 m baby girl for a rash. Brought by grandma. Said her daughter (the child's mother) was "taken by the waters." She said it as matter-of-fact as if she were saying she was visiting relatives. Heart-rending. Another patient was overweight, red-faced guy just out from cardiac bypass surgery. Needed LOTS of meds replaced.

Crisis has attracted lots of weird doctors. One guy used one name, but jacket had another name. DHH did due diligence--addresses didn't jive. Also kept trying to recruit other docs to go into NO independent of DHH. On plane back home today by request of the state of LA. First doc I met here is gone now--disaster groupee. Looked like Christopher Lloyd in Back to the Future , but really manic w/ major ADD. Told everyone in first 5 minutes that he "spent 4 1/2 days at 9/11." Given assignments, but bounced willy-nilly from place to place like a Lab chasing a Superball. His credentials were pulled and he too is flying home. Another was determined not to sleep thru entire disaster. He was literally foaming at the mouth as he told me that DDH wouldn't give him assignments because he "saw right thru them." Sent to showers last night. Joke now is that each day, least stable doc is "voted off the island."

On related note, at every shelter we visited today, "the doctors from Connecticut" had been there yesterday. We pieced story together. A group of 11 "docs+EMT's" from CT are going around St Tam parish in an ambulance followed by a van chock full of meds & supplies, completely incognito. They blow into a shelter, see a bunch of patients, give out tons of meds (some completely inappropriately), write no notes, then ride into the sunset to the stirring strains of the Wm Tell Overture. I seriously doubt that any of them are docs. I'm talking to a deputy next time I'm in St Tam.

Delayed post

2005-09-09T19:07:00.000-04:00

0950: En route. No cell, so typing offline to send later.

Going to 4 shelters w/ ~650-700 DPs. PHS drug warehse 1 min walk from Command Ctr. Office faxed our supply list ~0600. "Never got it." Just have supplies we scraped together from leftovers & CVS. (Aside: CVS will only sell 2-3 items at a time--anti-hoarding. Our nurse bought 2 bags of OTC drugs & wound care mat'ls ringing them up 3 items at a time.)

PHS warehse manned by 1 beleaguered worker-bee w/o authority to buck regs . Worst lack--we don't have the 500 doses of Hep A, Hep B, Tetanus, Flu, & Pneumococcus vaccines we were supposed to give. We can do sick call, make lists of Rx's we can send by courier tomorrow, tend wounds, etc., but prevention? Fuggettaboudit!

Better day today

2005-09-09T08:25:00.000-04:00

NOT going to do body recovery! I get to see patients at a refugee shelter. Waiting for our nurse to arrive and we're (supposed to be) off!

Heard tales from Superdome. Chilling, but leaving now. More later.

Good Morning

2005-09-09T06:57:00.000-04:00

Numbers I cite (like last post) are from what I hear from unofficial sources, like cops, EMT's, and overheard conversations. I hope all understand that rumors are sometimes wrong, both over- and underestimating. If I ever hear an official statement, I will clearly mark it as such. Otherwise, it's scuttlebutt. I don't claim authority, just proximity. Caveat lector.

Just heard two high DHH officials. Being denied security (unsure by whom) to search part of drowned city for bodies. "Political BS."

Chilling news

2005-09-08T20:12:00.000-04:00

I just talked with one of the recovery guys working the Convention Center. "There are hundreds of dead on the second floor of the CC."

A slime machine remedy.

2005-09-08T18:25:00.000-04:00

No single command-and-control mechanism is in place to cover the disparate components here: state, municipal, federal, and NGO. The heads of these organizations will say that they have full comms, and I'm sure they do...between themselves! The boots on the ground, however, are not being adequately informed. There are a couple of nurses here who did Haiti relief. They said that they had advance intelligence on what to expect every time they broke new ground. Here, within the continental US and with working cell-phone coverage, the planners know nothing about the area we are about to survey. They didn't even know if there was power and cell phone coverage. I happen to have a friend who is an attorney in Covington, so I called his office. I learned from his secretary that power and cell phone coverage are both spotty. I think they were a bit embarrassed at the ease an out-of-state physician got intel they did not yet have.

We have to adjust our argument to counter the slime machine. Here are some unpleasant facts that mitigate a little of the blame of the Feds:

Governor Blanco's and Mayor Nagin's preparations and response were not all they could be, but very few city and state heads are up to the destruction of a city of 500,000. I admit to incredulity that hundreds of NO school busses were drowned idle in their lots. Yes, the drivers had evacuated, but you throw the keys to stranded licensed drivers, herd neighborhoods into them, and to hell with the insurance regs.
The violence is nastier than I thought before arriving and it has, in fact, hampered rescue efforts.

However, these pale before the Feds' biggest failing:

As I said below, someone needed to take command of every aspect of the disaster response. State and Local authorities? Hah! If you think they could, you have never been in an multi-level operation involving the Feds (AKA the 1000 pound gorilla). The Feds will not take direction from anyone; therefore, they must, by default, take command (i.e., "Lead, follow, or get out of the way.") Unfortunately, that would entail exposing the Administration to the risk of responsibility, and they want to distance themselves from this colossal failure. Then, they can blame the local authorities for not providing the command-and-control that the Feds wouldn't have heeded anyway.

Drive this home. This is the talking point that eclipses any of their petty objections.

The end of today's sad tale

2005-09-08T17:12:00.000-04:00

I have access to a computer for a few minutes, so I can use articles, polysyllabic words, and fancy formatting. (Typing on a Treo is like playing Wagner's Ring of the Niebelungen on an African thumb piano.)

I finally got an assignment at 1530; go to Covington and do a needs and site survey for a field clinic. At 1545, we were asked to "hold off for a few minutes." It is now 1635 and I was just told that we will depart at 0530 tomorrow. I have seen the waste of at least 64 physician-hours here today. The pediatrician from Tulane deputized to manage us is doing his best, but bureaucratic processes grind slowly, even in the face of crisis. (If he escapes without an ulcer, it'll be a miracle.)

Although good news, it's still delayed. I have been told by our controllers (for what that's worth) that the Covington area has had no medical attention yet. We don't know what we'll find since communications are still non-existant. Mind you, cell phone service, even broadband, is intact. It's just that nobody knows who to talk to. The cops yesterday didn't even know the status of the I-10 bridge to Slidell or the Ponchartrain Causeway.

SNAFU

2005-09-08T13:57:00.000-04:00

Okay, today's timeline:

2200 Wed: relocated from cubicle in Cmd Ctr to Baptist Church outside Baton Rouge. (Wonderful hosts there!)
0200 Thur: Got to bed.
0445: Awake for early mission.
0615: Taken off shelter team for "another" mission.
As of this post: Still waiting for assignment.

Medical logistics for this operation are hopelessly FUBAR. While I'm being wasted by the state, it isn't entirely their fault, nor are they blameless. The problem is the lack of a single, lead agency. LA DHH is in charge of coordinating docs & nurses (since they control licensure). FEMA controls search & rescue assets and the cordon. The military has their own assets. Red Cross has the shelter and part of supply. PHS controls the bulk of supply. Yesterday, a FEMA contract ambulance with DDH docs & nurses argued with PHS for 45 mins to get a box of gauze. I brought 86 vials of insulin, but DDH can't take it and PHS "can't accept less than commercial quantities from authorized suppliers."

Solution: Someone--PHS Admiral, Surgeon General, DHH Head, senior Military Medical Officer present--someone should be able to say, "I am in charge of all theater medical assets. You do this. You do that, and work together, DAMMIT!"

Yes, the state is screwing up, but they are the least ready unit in an weaving pattern of screwing up with much more capable, staffed, and funded organizations without coordination or cooperation.

Today's assignment

2005-09-08T06:33:00.000-04:00

Going to a Red Cross shelter today. I don't know what the workload will be, so I don't know how much blogging I'll do. Stay tuned.

Honey, I'll be late tonight.

2005-09-08T00:11:00.000-04:00

Late leaving precinct tonight. MANDATORY evacuation started and some residents are objecting. One block from precinct, standoff between "group" of armed holdouts and Marines. Came inside to find verbal, but unarmed civilian yelling at precinct captain over evac order. We finally got out through neighborhood cops said to drive quickly through w/o stopping.

I suspected Fox "News" was playing up crime to make blacks look scary. I was wrong. If anything, news coverage is underplayed. Yesterday, my ambulance guys were in the Quarter taking sniper fire from all around. Today, Quarter is secured by Army with APC's at most intersections.

If anyone criticises the NOPD, I may poke them in the eye. They did the best they could with their entire infrastructure GONE.

I listened for a long time today as a Captain told me he and his wife had the 2 cars they used for evac, and the clothes on their backs. His 85 y/o mother lost all as well. As soon as this mess is quiet, he's retiring and moving to mountains. "Easier to move with no possessions. {rueful chuckle}"

Whispered casualty estimate around precinct: 25-35K. Trust as much as most rumors, but no one is thinking just 10K anymore.

NO will not be the same for decades, if ever.

Observations

2005-09-07T13:14:00.000-04:00

Looked at almost all Cops in precinct. Several had chemical burns on feet. They say "The Water" so you can hear the capital letters. "Black, green, and stinks like hell." Several were obviously worried about catching something. Wouldn't ask about it unless private.

Met a local MD. What a cowboy! He commandeered a white hearse from a funeral home, put red crosses on hood, doors, and liftgate with house paint from Home Depot.. "Riding forth to stave off death and disease!" Wouldn't shake hands "because of the epidemic." I asked what had gone epidemic. "I don't know yet, but it's coming soon." A character straight out of M*A*S*H.

Spirits are better--a shipment of ground beef & chicken breasts arrived from ATL. Big, big cop pulled out major-league smoker they use at Mardi Gras. Everyone was eating burgers and looked less careworn. Their #1 request? One night's sleep.

I can see now the significance of Jesus's washing feet. Foot care is a very profound way to show caring. It says "I care enough to touch these moist, stinky things for your benefit."

Listened to police radio for a while. No reports of new survivors. Lots of reports of floating bodies.

In NOLA

2005-09-07T10:35:00.000-04:00

I'm not at triage point. It was closed down last night--too few survivors now. I'm at a NOPD precinct office. Mission is now to care for Cops/Fire/Rescue. They are running on fumes, but deny anything is wrong.

Main problems are podiatric and psych. Psych self-explanatory. Feet problems due to toxic soup. Two NOPD dogs drank from flood water--dead within hours. Cops have chemical burns on exposed skin.

Blackwater Security is here--clean, well-equipped, and armed to the teeth.

2 cop suicides so far. I was told by "head" doc that one was a search & rescue guy who went home to find family drowned.

Tragic stories abound--more tonight

From Baton Rouge

2005-09-07T00:24:00.000-04:00

Will be brief--typing on Treo. May sound like Rorschach (Alan Moore fan inside joke).

Going into NOLA in am. Will be at triage point on I-10 bridge. Leaving at 0500. 0015 now. Will post more after return.

One big irony--readers know my disdain for televangelists. I am sleeping in an office cubicle in Med Command Ctr, normally the HQ of Jimmy Swaggart World Ministries. I guess he has at least one redeeming act to his credit.

Huh?

2005-09-05T11:53:00.000-04:00

I heard a winger friend say that no one should expect FEMA to provide relief or evacuate people when "gangs" are shooting at them. So thousands of New Orleaneans went without food or water for days, babies died of heat exhaustion, and thousands lived pent up like dogs, all because of a few idiots with guns?

Haven't we been told by everyone in the malAdministration that we are "accomplishing amazing breakthroughs in rebuilding Iraq" in the face of a guerrilla insurgency? Does that mean that Iraq Relief is worth weathering automatic weapons fire and IED's, but New Orleans relief can be stymied by a couple of guys with rifles stolen from WalMart?

Friday Baby Blogging (and personal news)

2005-09-02T20:34:00.000-04:00

We went to Tallulah Falls SP last weekend where Eleanor discovered a playground slide higher and steeper than her experience. Don't let the facial expression fool you--she went back for multiple trips.

Click on image to see full-size.

Brigid was in her carrier on a nearby picnic table enjoying the festivities.

Click on image to see full-size.

Last night, I called the Louisiana State Board of Health and volunteered to work at one of the field hospitals they are setting up. Although I'm now a pathologist, I spent quite a few years in Emergency Room practice and in the Navy, mostly with Marine units. I may have forgotten ~~all~~ most of my therapeutic knowledge, but I can triage like a son-of-a-gun.

I am still awaiting notification of my assignment--they said they should let me know by tomorrow. I am leaving September 6 and returning September 13. I have no idea what I'll find there. If I can get internet access, I'll try to blog from the field next week. If not, I have a feeling I'll have some stories to relate on return.

Arrrrgggghhhhh!

2005-09-02T18:48:00.000-04:00

There is a special section of Hell reserved for these SOB's. (Via Atrios).

We must reclaim Christianity from the hate-filled Right.

2005-08-31T21:29:00.000-04:00

From yesterday's Salon:

[W]hen Hurricane Katrina hit land yesterday, we knew it was only a matter of time before we'd be hearing from the lunatic fringe again. And now, here it is. In an e-mail message we just received, a group calling itself Columbia Christians for Life alerts us to the fact that a satellite image of Hurricane Katrina as it hit the Gulf Coast Monday looks just like a six-week-old fetus.
"The image of the hurricane ... with its eye already ashore at 12:32 p.m. Monday, August 29, looks like a fetus (unborn human baby) facing to the left (west) in the womb, in the early weeks of gestation (approx. 6 weeks)," the e-mail message says. "Even the orange color of the image is reminiscent of a commonly used pro-life picture of early prenatal development."

And in case you're not getting the point, the e-mail message spells it out in black and white: "Louisiana has 10 child-murder-by-abortion centers," the groups says, and "five are in New Orleans."

Charming, but for an alternative theory, let's go to today's press release from Repent America:

Just days before "Southern Decadence", an annual homosexual celebration attracting tens of thousands of people to the French Quarters section of New Orleans, Hurricane Katrina destroys the city.

"Southern Decadence" has a history of filling the French Quarters section of the city with drunken homosexuals engaging in sex acts in the public streets and bars. Last year, a local pastor sent video footage of sex acts being performed in front of police to the mayor, city council, and the media. City officials simply ignored the footage and continued to welcome and praise the weeklong celebration as being an "exciting event". However, Hurricane Katrina has put an end to the annual celebration of sin....

"Although the loss of lives is deeply saddening, this act of God destroyed a wicked city," stated Repent America director Michael Marcavage. "From ‘Girls Gone Wild’ to ‘Southern Decadence’, New Orleans was a city that had its doors wide open to the public celebration of sin. May it never be the same....Let us pray for and help those ravaged by this disaster. However, we must not forget that the citizens of New Orleans tolerated and welcomed the wickedness in their city for so long," Marcavage said. "May this act of God cause us all to think about what we tolerate in our city limits, and bring us trembling before the throne of Almighty God," Marcavage concluded.

"[God] sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." (Matthew 5:45)

I am tired of these radical subversive organizations twisting scripture to fit their xenophobic, homophobic, misogynistic, radical, completely unchristian agenda. Just to show how these pharisaical radicals and their fanatical followers distort the true message of Jesus, the scripture passage quoted at the end of the Repent America excerpt means exactly the opposite of the sense in which they used it. It comes from a small portion of comes from the Sermon on the Mount, a message of how to become more in harmony with God. The full passage is:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? Therefore you shall be perfect , just as your Father in heaven is perfect.

Jesus stated unequivocally, God does not distribute rain, drought, etc. unequally since He loves all, not just his "favorites." In David's words, we are all "a little lower than the Angels." Furthermore, if we desire to be perfect (i.e., in harmony with God), we must love our neighbors and our enemies. That means that Pat Robertson has to love Hugo Chavez and Fred Phelps has to love gays--every last one of them!

In summary, Christianity is a religion of love--love of God for Man, Man for God, and Man for Man. These people preach hate; ergo, they are not Christian. Please, don't sully the name of Christ by calling them that. Here, here, here, here, and even here are examples of how Christians should respond to tragedy, not by gloating over the destruction of "a modern Sodom."

How did you spend your Tuesday?

2005-08-31T14:21:00.000-04:00

Biloxi resident Harvey Jackson said his wife, Tonette, was missing after surging waters hit their house.

"The house just split in half. We got up the roof and the water came and just opened up, divided," still visibly shaken Mr Jackson told America's ABC television.

"My wife, I can't find her body, she gone."

"I held her hand tight as I could and she told me 'you can't hold me'. She said, 'take care of the kids and the grandkids'," Mr Jackson said.

"We have nowhere to go. I'm lost, that's all I had, that's all I had. I don't know what I'm going to do."

President Bush plays a guitar presented to him by Country Singer Mark Wills, right, backstage following his visit to Naval Base Coronado, Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2005. Bush visited the base to deliver remarks on V-J Commemoration Day. (AP Photo/ABC News, Martha Raddatz)

"Now watch this chord change!"

Recollections of Camille

2005-08-29T09:41:00.000-04:00

My brother sent this to me this morning.

Katrina hits close to home. I was Officer of the Day at Naval Air Station New Orleans on August 17, 1969, the day Hurricane Camille hit the Gulf Coast with a 33-foot storm surge and winds unofficially measured as high as 240 miles per hour. The highest winds encountered at the Naval Air Station were about 65 miles per hour, but I spent a week in the hardest hit areas of Pass Christian and Bay St. Lewis with a group of 50 or so Seabees clearing roads, getting wells restarted, and looking for victims. I also spent a day in Chalon (son of the legendary Leander Perez, one of last great Louisiana political bosses) Perez's Bell Ranger helicopter touring the area by air and taking pictures from the air and on the ground. I have a great slide collection to share if we ever have the time.

We had 2000 refugees on board the station. The storm hit just after sunset, and by 9:00 p.m. we lost power. Darkness came at least an hour early that night. On a stopover at my room in the BOQ around 9:30, I could pick out the course of the Mississippi River by the lightning strikes hitting power lines along the levee. At the height of the storm, a huge power substation lost a line to the wind. For several hours it lashed around like an injured snake, each time it grounded on a post or a transformer, it flashed a high-voltage green light that lit up my room with an eerie glow. It was as bright as if a neon light were flashing just outside the window, but the substation was 3 miles away. It was as loud as the buzzer at a high school basket ball game.

That unofficial measure of 240 mph was taken at a weather station atop the Naval Hospital at Pass Christian. A retired Navy Captain who was a friend of mine had phlebitis and could not be moved from his 4th floor room. A nurse stayed with him and the two of them watched the storm surge come up the bay. His first hand description of its course up the bay was memorable.

In Pass Christian, I saw a motel where 23 people died during a beachfront Hurricane Party. The only survivor was a woman who was washed out the window of her third floor room. She and her husband were carried for miles on the wave crest clinging to tree trunks. They were bashed and bruised by the debris. She made it. He didn't.

I have some of the well-known shots like huge freighters washed across Hwy. 90. I also saw entire neighborhoods shredded to boards and splinters and piled up on levees. Some of the levees were hard to spot under the debris that they captured. One picture I have is of a church roof with a high steeple still intact perched astride a levee. I have another picture of a church that still has its roof and steeple in place, but all the sides are missing. I have pictures of neighborhoods where nothing is left except for the foundations, steps, and the occasional swimming pool. I have another picture of a house that was carried across a levee and dropped into a swamp 3 miles away. It swirled down in a spiral that pushed trees aside as it settled into it new location. Its TV antenna is still undamaged, atop the house. I have a picture of a farm tractor that is so mangled that it is hard to identify it as a tractor. One picture is of a railroad track several miles from the sea that was turned upside down by the storm surge. It looks like a piece of brown ribbon candy. Water borne debris clings from the power lines beside the track. I interviewed a man who managed a water treatment plant sound of Belle Chasse. Like a captain who would not abandon ship, he chose to ride out the storm at the plant. When the storm surge hit, he managed to survive by lashing himself to the smokestack atop the plant. The water rose to his waist and he was on crutches from the battering debris, but he lived to tell the tale.

I helped uncover one body. There were 142 others along the coast. Plus there were almost as many deaths (113) in the floods in the Appalachians that followed.

It was estimated that over 100 tornadoes or more struck in the vanguard of the approaching storm front. I drove a 40-mile or so transect into the interior of Mississippi and saw more damage there from the tornadoes. I swore then, I'd never live in a mobile home. I went to Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi for supplies and saw rows upon rows of damaged hangars fallen like dominoes. I heard that a group of Air Force dependents had taken refuge in the first one to fall. They moved from building to building staying just ahead of the collapsing walls. They found refuge in the last building, which was the only one that held, and its windward wall was leaning at a 45-degree angle.

Until today, Camille may be the only Force Five hurricane ever to hit the US that was classified as such when it hit. Two other Category 5 storms have hit the US. These were the 1935 Florida Keys "Labor Day" hurricane, and Hurricane Andrew, which hit Dade County, Fla., on Aug. 24, 1992. The 1935 hurricane occurred before the classification system was in place, and I've heard that Andrew was upgraded to Category 5 based on the damage it did, but that it was classified as a Category 4 according to its data at the time of impact.

I gained a healthy respect for Hurricanes then, but I must admit, there is something exciting about them too. I can certainly see why some people are drawn to them, but I shake my head when I hear the uninitiated talk about "enjoying the storm." When Emily hit Cancun, I heard one college girl say when asked about her plans: "Oh, I'll just mix a margarita and stand on my balcony and watch the storm go by." I imagine someone in the next building mixing a margarita and standing on his balcony watching her balcony go by.

Friday Baby Blogging!

2005-08-26T20:57:00.000-04:00

Sorry I've been inactive this week, but it has been a heck of a busy time. I'm hoping it will settle down next week so I can be more productive here without hurting my productivity at work.

Now, it's time for babies!

It has been an exciting time for Eleanor with the big girl bed, and now learning to use the potty. As you can see, I'm there to provide the potty-time entertainment.

Part of my ongoing cardiac rehab is to make sure I still have a little angel sleep over my heart occasionally. Brigid is glad to oblige. She's convinced that urping on my shoulder helps too, but I'm not so sure.

My last post on this particular discussion

2005-08-22T13:02:00.000-04:00

I had a short, polite give-and-take with John Koetsier over a comment he made on this entry to which I replied in this post. He then replied to my reply here. (Still with me?) Here is an excerpt from his comment reply reply (all emphases mine):

In that reply, which I appreciate (while not agreeing!), I noticed these words:

The only guarantee of [religious] freedom will be when anyone can engage in any governmental function, at any level, and have not a single religious reference. What these radical clerics don’t see is that freedom of religion exists if and only if there is an equal freedom from religion. Anything less threatens my free exercise as much as it does that of an adherent of any other religion or an atheist.

Whoa. Again, I’ll have to respectfully but firmly (and totally) disagree. My impression? The writer does not understand what religion is....

(And besides which, government will never be entirely free of any religious reference. It’s impossible. I note that the author of “the Otter side” has included some quotes from the Bible. Here’s another, straight from the lips of Jesus: “He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me, scatters.” There’s only two sides in this struggle, and like it or not, you’re on one or the other.)

This excerpt exhibits 2 features of intramural discussions between liberal and conservative/fundamentalist Christians.

If you disagree with them, you do not "understand what religion is." There is no discussion about the merits of one's relative positions. No acknowledgement of the value of a secular democracy with freedom of religion. No concern over the impact of state-sponsored expressions of religion on religious pluralism. Nope--you don't see it as they do, so you don't understand the topic at all.
If you disagree with them, not only are you wrong, but you are not even on "God's side" (and we all know whose the other side is). To some extent, any religious viewpoint divides the world into "Us" and "Them," but with conservative Christians, there are two drastic features:

To them, "Us" is a lot smaller, being restricted to persons who believe exactly as they do.
The degree to which "We" differs from "They" is a lot greater. "They" (liberal Christians included) are not only wrong, but in direct opposition to God. I'm reminded of an Onion headline, "Pope Calls for Greater Understanding Between Catholics, Hellbound."

He ends with this pearl:

And finally … while I’m not American, it’s fairly obvious tht the framers of the US constitution did NOT mean freedom from religion when they said “freedom of religion.” Such a thought would likely never have crossed their minds.

Oh, really? A Canadian layman disagrees with every decision the U.S. Supreme Court has ever made on this topic, and yet "it's fairly obvious." This nation was founded in great part by religious dissidents fleeing the influence of a state church. You can be sure it would have "crossed their minds." Not even our Founding Fathers considered it "fairly obvious."

That's all. Topic closed. There will be no comment reply reply reply reply.

News Flash!

2005-08-22T10:59:00.000-04:00

ARG Poll: 36% of Americans are mouth-breathing morons.

Among all Americans, 36% approve of the way Bush is handling his job as president and 58% disapprove. When it comes to Bush's handling of the economy, 33% approve and 62% disapprove.
Among Americans registered to vote, 38% approve of the way Bush is handling his job as president and 56% disapprove, and 36% approve of the way Bush is handling the economy and 60% disapprove.

From Eschaton.

Frist Urges 2 Teachings on Medicine

2005-08-21T22:38:00.000-04:00

WASHINGTON, Aug. 19 (R'otters) - Senator Bill Frist of Tennessee, the Republican leader, aligned himself with President Bush on Friday when he said that the humoral theory of medicine as well as evidence-based medicine should be taught in Medical schools.

Such an approach "doesn't force any particular theory on anyone," Mr. Frist said in Nashville, according to The Associated Press. "I think in a pluralistic society that is the fairest way to go about education and training people for the future." A Washington spokesman for the senator, Nick Smith, said later that the report was accurate.

The humoral theory of medicine holds that human disease is too complicated to be explained by mere pathophysiology and that imbalances of four bodily fluids must be involved. Critics say Humoral Medicine theorists are trying to supplant science with Classical Hellenic religious beliefs.

The senator's view, expressed after his speech at a Rotary Club meeting, echoed President Bush's remarks of Aug. 2, when he told Texas newspaper reporters that he favored teaching both Hippocratian and Modern Medicine "so people can understand what the debate is about."

Mr. Frist's agreement with President Bush on one of the more contentious educational, social and political issues of the time comes just a few weeks after he broke with Mr. Bush and with Christian conservatives on embryonic stem cell research.

Mr. Frist is widely assumed to be contemplating a run for the presidency in 2008, so his statements on issues that touch on moral as well as political questions are sure to be scrutinized both by Greek classicists essential to a Republican candidacy and by people looking for signals that Mr. Frist is willing to move toward the center.

LINK

Friday Baby Blogging!

2005-08-19T11:03:00.000-04:00

Eleanor all ready for church.

Brigid laughing on Daddy's lap.

A somber prediction

2005-08-16T21:10:00.000-04:00

I recommend reading a recent post by David (Austin Tx) . It says something I've been worrying about as well.

More on Dobson

2005-08-15T13:15:00.000-04:00

After my last post on radical cleric James Dobson, a gentleman from Canada left a comment disagreeing with me. (An aside, it was the first completely dissenting comment I've ever received that was polite and measured in tone. John can disagree with me anytime.) Here it is in full:

I think you are confusing a qualitative issue with a quantitative issue.

What Dobson is saying is that qualitatively, Nazi experiments on human beings that result in their death is roughly equivalent to medical research on embryos that result in their death. Quantitatively, there are major differences, of course.

The question is: when do you believe human life starts. It's not necessary to demonize Dobson or to resort to immature name-calling. He believes life starts at conception, and so therefore this bundle of cells is a human being. You appear to believe something different.

Both of you are acting morally within the scope of your belief systems. The question is: is there a morality or belief system which surmounts all individual apprehensions of morality?

I'd argue yes.

But regardless of our differences, is is really necessary to resort to juvenile and offensive comments? Dobson is not a "horrible, horrible excuse for a human being."

He's a very dedicated and pious person - who you happen to disagree with.
# posted by John Koetsier

I want to address a couple of issues right away:

I did not say that Dobson was a "horrible, horrible excuse for a human being." Soprano said that in her comment. I said that he was a "pious asshole."
I never "resort to immature name-calling." I only engage in rational, carefully considered, mature name-calling.

Seriously, if this were the only thing Mullah Dobson had ever said to which I might take umbrage, it would be just a very unfortunate choice of metaphor. Rather, I have blogged several instances of his un-American beliefs (although I've only covered a few examples of many possible).

First, Dobson disparages our Constitution again and again. As I have said before, I am a liberal, evangelical Christian. (We do exist!) I work closely with several Christian ministries. I also understand that the United States is a secular democracy, and it is that secular nature that allows me the free exercise of my religion. As I said in one of my earlier posts:

The only guarantee of [religious] freedom will be when anyone can engage in any governmental function, at any level, and have not a single religious reference. What these radical clerics don't see is that freedom of religion exists if and only if there is an equal freedom from religion. Anything less threatens my free exercise as much as it does that of an adherent of any other religion or an atheist.

As you can see, Dobson's efforts to abrogate the Constitution threaten my closely held, intense religious beliefs. Furthermore, the image he projects to the public of Christians as narrow-minded, intolerant, would-be theocrats complicates the efforts of all the ministries I support. That is why I oppose him with religious fervor.

Secondly, he would deny medical research that might aid millions because of his own religious convictions. In Christian terms, I would call that placing the Law before Grace. Jesus is on record as being strongly against that.

I understand Dobson's convictions regarding the beginning of human life, but personal religious convictions are not a basis for public policy. John states that Dobson "believes life begins at conception." I do, too--that's obvious. The question is whether it is yet imbued with the qualities that make a creature human. While I admit that I can't say for certain when that actually happens, I have no hesitation in stating my belief that a ball of 64-128 undifferentiated cells does not yet have those qualities. How is a blastocyst different from an ovary? Both comprise cells that represent potential human lives, but do not yet satisfy the requirements for a human being. Removing a diseased ovary eradicates potential life, but no one sane would call it murder.

No, I did not come to the conclusion that James Dobson is a pharisaical demagogue based on a single incident. It comes from listening to him over a span of years, then doing just what Jesus commanded.

UPDATE (8/16/05): Mr. Koetsier has a post addressing this post at his blog. More later.

Another major milestone

2005-08-14T22:06:00.000-04:00

Last night, Eleanor slept in a "big girl bed" for the first time. She was so excited. When I set up the frame, but hadn't yet put in the slats, she climbed over the side rails, put a pillow on the floor in the appropriate place, and lay down. At bedtime, she sat on the edge of the bed with me for her story, crawled up to her pillow, said "night-night," and fell asleep forthwith. We had friends for dinner tonight, and she took them all back to show them her "beg-gull bed." This was followed later by a repeat of the previous night's routine. Success!

One quick question: is it common for mothers to cry or come close to crying at this event? Mrs. Otter was obviously all verklempt.

Before

After

Friday Baby Blogging

2005-08-12T19:55:00.000-04:00

More vacation photos:

Eleanor was really taken by the Rodin sculpture garden at Stanford University. Here she is touching the base of Adam with The Gates of Hell just behind her.

She also really enjoyed the Birch Aquarium at the Scripps Institute.

Freedom Walk this 9/11

2005-08-12T13:09:00.000-04:00

To celebrate the fourth anniversary of the worst mass murder on American soil, the Department of Defense is sponsoring a march from the Pentagon followed by a free country music concert. From their web site:

The America Supports You Freedom Walk begins near the Pentagon crash site, crossing Arlington National Cemetery, passing several National memorials, and concluding adjacent to the National Mall and Reflecting Pool with an America Supports You concert by country superstar singer and songwriter Clint Black.

I encourage everyone to show their support for our troops by participating. Here's what you should do:

Go to the Freedom Walk registration page and sign up. Sign the kids up, too!
Go to Patriotboy's CafePress store and buy a T-shirt to wear during the march.

Imagine the hearts of America swelling with pride as they see us encouraging young Republicans everywhere to sign up.

And don't forget, the first 1000 walkers to check in get a free official America Supports You lapel pin!

Harris to face Nelson in Florida race.

2005-08-09T14:06:00.000-04:00

Republican US Representative Katherine Harris has announced that she will run for US Senate against incumbent democratic Senator Bill Nelson. Ms. Harris recently complained that media outlets "colorized" photos to make her look comical. Media spokesmen deny the allegation.

Rep. Harris (on right) with an unnamed supporter
at her senate candidacy announcement.

We need a Shadow Government

2005-08-09T09:51:00.000-04:00

In my opinion, one reason republicans have an edge on democrats is their excellent message discipline. With few exceptions, republicans sing from the same hymnal. Democrats, on the other hand, stumble over each other to disagree with each other. There is some validity that it is hard to support the Democratic Party when their message is articulated so incoherently. For example, Howard Dean spoke out forcefully about republican greed, and Vichy democrats couldn't distance themselves from his remarks quickly enough.

In parliamentary governments, where governments can turn over rather quickly, it is common to have a Shadow Government within the opposition. Each minister has a shadow counterpart, ready to step into his shoes at short notice. Rather than preparing for a turnover, we need one to allow democrats to promulgate a coherent opposition message.

Anytime the Bush maladministration released a policy statement or implementation, the Shadow Administration would announce their agreement or disagreement, and immediately propose an alternative or improved version. Other democrats (especially Joe Lieberman) would be strongly warned (using campaign funds as leverage) to either politely defer to the appropriate Shadow Cabinet Member or make it abundantly clear that he is speaking only for himself. The Shadow Administration could be set up as a non-profit "think-tank," and when needed, members could be paid officers of the organization.

Off the top of my head, my partial list of members:

Shadow Executive: Al Gore and John Kerry tag team
Shadow Secretary of State: Wesley Clark
Shadow Secretary of Defense: Paul Hackett
Shadow Secretary of HHS: Howard Dean
Shadow Attorney General: Elliot Spitzer

Any additions or improvements? The floor is open for nominations.

UPDATE: When comments are all in, I'll post the final slate of nominees. (I've already gotten one too good to be true--Molly Ivins for Shadow Press Secretary.)

Posting will be slow this week

2005-08-08T15:10:00.000-04:00

The eldest d'otter is visiting before returning to college. Posting will be slow until she leaves on Friday.

Friday Baby Blogging, cousin version.

2005-08-05T19:09:00.000-04:00

Eleanor and Brigid have a new cousin, Nicholas.

He threatened to come at only about 23 weeks, but his mother was confined to bed for 7 weeks, so he was born at a healthy 3 pounds 13 ounces. His older brother and sister are really happy to have her home. Nicholas will probably get to go home by mid-month.

US radio stations broadcast tape from radical cleric

2005-08-04T15:03:00.000-04:00

On yesterday's radio broadcast of Focus on the Family, radical cleric James Dobson compared stem cell research to Nazi medical experiments. (Transcript from Media Matters for America, emphasis in original):

You know, the thing that means so much to me here on this this issue [embryonic stem cell research] is that people talk about the potential for good that can come from destroying these little embryos and how we might be able to solve the problem of juvenile diabetes. There's no indication yet that they're gonna do that, but people say that, or spinal cord injuries or such things. But I have to ask this question: In World War II, the Nazis experimented on human beings in horrible ways in the concentration camps, and I imagine, if you wanted to take the time to read about it, there would have been some discoveries there that benefited mankind. You know, if you take a utilitarian approach, that if something results in good, then it is good. But that's obviously not true. We condemn what the Nazis did because there are some things that we always could do but we haven't done, because science always has to be guided by ethics and by morality. And you remove ethics and morality, and you get what happened in Nazi Germany. That's why to Senator [Senate Majority Leader Bill] Frist [R-TN] and the others who are saying, "Look what may be accomplished." Yeah, but there's another issue, there's a higher order of ethics here.

Oh, really? The embryos of which Dobson speaks are not miniature, cute babies. They are not capable of pain or even avoidance of noxious stimuli. They are balls of 64 to 128 cells. There is no specialization into nerves, vessels, brain, etc.. It hasn't even developed a central cavity yet. These clumps of cells are simply dissociated into individual stem cells that can then be used for experimentation, and eventually, therapy.

The victims of Nazi medical experiments were obviously people that could hurt, grieve, suffer, and die. Just what cruel treatment is Dobson so casually comparing to teasing cells apart in a petri dish [emphasis mine]?

The freezing / hypothermia experiments were conducted for the Nazi high command. The experiments were conducted on men to simulate the conditions the armies suffered on the Eastern Front....

The two main methods used to freeze the victim were to put the person in a icy vat of water or to put the victim outside naked in sub-zero temperatures.The icy vat method proved to be the fastest way to drop the body temperature. The selections were made of young healthly Jews or Russians. They were usually stripped naked and prepared for the experiment. A insulated probe which measured the drop in the body temperature was inserted into the rectum. The probe was held in place by a expandable metal ring which was adjusted to open inside the rectum to hold the probe firmly in place. The victim was then placed in the vat of cold water and started to freeze. It was learned that most victims lost consciousness and died when the body temperature dropped to 25 C....
The second way to freeze a victim was to strap them to a stretcher and place them outside naked. The extreme winters of Auschwitz made a natural place for this experiment.

The resuscitation or warming experiments were just as cruel and painful as the freezing experiments.
Sun Lamp
The victims were placed under sun lamps which were so hot they would burn the skin. One young homosexual victim was repeatedly cooled to unconsciousness then revived with lamps until he was pouring sweat. He died one evening after several test sessions.

Internal Irrigation

The frozen victim would have water heated to a near blistering temperature forcefully irrigated into the stomach, bladder, and intestines. All victims appeared to have died from the treatment.

Hot Bath

The victim was placed in warm water and the temperature was slowly increased. This method proved to be the best. Many victims died do to shock if they were warmed up too quickly.

Warming by Body Heat

Heinrich Himmler sugested to Dr. Rascher that he try to use women to warm the frozen men. He suggested that the victim and a women copulate. This perverted experiment occured with some success. However it was not as successful as the Warm Bath.

Experiments on Twins

Prisoner doctors tell of the fate of two Hungarian twins who arrived at Auschwitz late in 1943. Dr. Mengele was at the camp selection. The train arrived in the very early morning. Three sets of twins were found. They were taken to the experimental block. Dr. Mengele ordered the two Hungarian twins be placed in the examination room. The two Hungarian twins young men age 18 were described as "extremely athletic and handsome."...The next part of the examination consisted of tubes being forced through their noses and into their lungs. They were then ventilated with a gas which caused them to cough so severely they had to be restrained. The sputum from the lungs was collected for examination....

After the photographs were finished they were awoken very early in the morning. They were taken into a room with tables and a hot water vat. The water in the vat was very hot. They were made to sit in the water until they were ready to pass out from the heat. They were then strapped to a table where their hair was plucked out trying to save the hair root. They were put back into the hot vat several times. After enough hair was collected, they were totally shaven of every hair on their body. The twins were then again extensively photographed without hair.

The twins then received several two liter enemas which caused them much pain and discomfort. The boys on different days were strapped over a bench table and their rectums were hyperdistended after which they received an extensive lower gastric intestinal examination. This extensive procedure was performed without any anesthesia. The young men were crying so loud that Doctor Mengele ordered they be gagged. The next day they received a painful and humiliating urological examination. In this examination tissue samples were taken from the kidneys, prostate, and testicles. Several semen samples were forcefully taken over two days.

After this three weeks of tortuous medical examinations they were taken two the dissection laboratory. Using two doctors, each twin was simultaneously given an injection in the heart, taking their lives. They were dissected and their organs were sent to the Institute of Biological Racial and Evolutionary Research Berlin.

Nothing, absolutely nothing in medical care remotely approaches a thousandth of a percent of the cruelty of these acts, but Dobson feels free to equate them. In one fell blow, he both demonizes today's medical researchers and trivializes the suffering of the victims of the Holocaust.

Let's recap:

Frozen embryo:

Simulated effects of diabetic retinopathy

Foot ulceration and toe loss in diabetes

Effects of Parkinson's Disease

Child victims of Nazi medical experimentation

Pious asshole

Any questions?

Bush Remarks Roil Debate on Teaching of Medicine

2005-08-03T13:29:00.000-04:00

WASHINGTON, Aug. 2 (R'otters) - A sharp debate between medical school deans and Greek classicists escalated Tuesday over comments by President Bush that the Humoral Model of Medicine should be taught with modern scientific medical theory in the nation's medical schools.

In an interview at the White House on Monday with a group of Texas newspaper reporters, Mr. Bush appeared to endorse the push by many of his conservative supporters to give the Humoral Model equal treatment with theories of medicine based on scientific principles.

Recalling his days as Texas governor, Mr. Bush said in the interview, according to a transcript, "I felt like both sides ought to be properly taught." Asked again by a reporter whether he believed that both sides in the debate between Hippocratian and modern medicine should be taught in the schools, Mr. Bush replied that he did, "so people can understand what the debate is about."

Mr. Bush was pressed as to whether he accepted the view that the Humoral Model was an alternative to modern pathophysiology, but he did not directly answer. "I think that part of education is to expose people to different schools of thought," he said, adding that "you're asking me whether or not people ought to be exposed to different ideas, and the answer is yes."

On Tuesday, the president's conservative supporters and the leading institute advancing the Humoral Model embraced Mr. Bush's comments while scientists and advocates of scientific, evidence-based medicine disparaged them. At the White House, wherethe Humoral Model has been discussed in a weekly Greek classics study group, Mr. Bush's science adviser, John H. Marburger 3rd, sought to play down the president's remarks as common sense and old news.

Mr. Marburger said in a telephone interview that "pathophysiology is the cornerstone of modern medicine" and "the Humoral Model is not a scientific concept." Mr. Marburger also said that Mr. Bush's remarks should be interpreted to mean that the president believes that the Humoral Model should be discussed as part of the "social context" in medicine classes.

The Humoral Model, advanced by a group of academics and intellectuals and some followers of Asclepius, disputes the idea that pathophysiology and pharmacology fully explains the complexity of life. Instead, Humoral Model proponents say that life is so intricate that only a mixture of four bodily fluids, or "humors," can explain it.

Mr. Marburger said it would be "over-interpreting" Mr. Bush's remarks to say that the president believed that the Humoral Model and modern medical research should be given equal treatment in schools.

But Mr. Bush's conservative supporters said the president had indicated exactly that in his remarks.

"It's what I've been pushing, it's what a lot of us have been pushing," said Nikos Spironikotopolous, the president of the medical philosophy commission of the American Classics Institute. Dr. Spironikotopolous, who has close ties to the White House, said that modern physiology "is too often taught as fact," and that "if you're going to teach the germ theory of medicine, teach it as theory. And then teach another theory that has the most support among classicists."

But critics saw Mr. Bush's comment that "both sides" should be taught as the most troubling aspect of his remarks.

"It sounds like you're being fair, but the Humoral Model is a Greek pantheonic religious viewpoint," said Sara Pathe, a spokeswoman for the National Center for Science Education, a group that defends the teaching of pathophysiology in medical schools. "It's not fair to privilege one religious viewpoint by calling it the other side of medicine."

Ms. Pathe added that the Humoral Model was viewed as more respectable and sophisticated than sacrificing goats to Asclepius, but "if you look at their theological and scientific writings, you see that the movement is fundamentally anti-pathophysiology."

Dr. FitzHugh Thompson, the executive director of Americans United for Evidence-Based Medicine, called the president's comments irresponsible, and said that "when it comes to medicine, there is only one school of scientific thought, and that is that organ systems are governed by physiologic principles and not an excess of phlegm." Dr. Thompson added that "when it comes to matters of blood and bile, they can be discussed objectively in public schools, but not in physiology class."

The Galen Institute in Seattle, a leading proponent of the Humoral Model, applauded the president's words on Tuesday as a defense of scientists who have been ostracized for advancing the theory.

"We interpret this as the president using his bully pulpit to support freedom of inquiry and free speech about the issue of biological systems," said R. Snede Hearn, the director of the institute's Center for Science and Culture. "It's extremely timely and welcome because so many scientists are experiencing recriminations for breaking with medical orthodoxy."

Link.

UPDATE: (8/14/05): Rev. Bob has a post on this topic that includes a great Tony Auth cartoon.

Major Paul Hackett USMC-R

2005-08-03T12:23:00.000-04:00

Hackett lost by 3.2% in a district where George Bush beat John Kerry by 2-1. He struck a deep wound in the GOP and in Bush's credibility in particular. He is in a great position to go for state office or even a rematch with Schmidt in '06.

In the meantime, Hackett is resuming drilling with his Marine Reserve unit, subject to the orders of the Commander-in-Chief. All I can say is, remember the story of Uriah the Hittite and watch your back.

1806

2005-08-02T14:20:00.000-04:00

As of today, 1806 American Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, and Airmen have died in Iraq, 24 of those in the past 10 days.

Damn you, George Bush! Damn you to Hell!

UPDATE (8/3/05, 0915):

Another 14 marines were killed in a single IED explosion last night. That's 21 dead in the past 3 days. Meanwhile, Bush went to Crawford yesterday for a month's vacation.

Res ipsa loquitur.

Amendment XXVIII

2005-08-01T11:20:00.000-04:00

1. The right to privacy of citizens of the United States shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State.
2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

When the other Dr. Otter asks her American Government 101 classes, "Is there a constitutional right to privacy," almost without exception, the students answer "yes." What percent of the uninformed (i.e., republican) electorate believes that "a (white) man's home is his castle"? I would love to hear conservatives try to justify opposition to the right to privacy, a right their base thinks they already enjoy and that 70% of Americans support.

Like it? The time has come for Democratic members of congress to introduce this as a proposal. Contact your representative and senators and write your local paper.

P.S., Somehow I accidentally posted a partial draft of this post over the weekend. Sorry for the confusion.

UPDATE: A commenter asks reasonably, "...it's sort of vague, isn't it? What exactly does "privacy" mean?"

I tried to write this using the same principle as the writers of the Bill of Rights: broad language that establishes a principle, but allows room for judicial interpretation.

For example, the first amendment simply provides for "freedom of speech." The courts have interpreted this to provide extraordinarily broad protection, but have nevertheless allowed for some restrictions, such as speech that incites "imminent lawless action," or the classic example of yelling "Fire!" in a crowded theater. If you define "privacy" further to try to make it more specific, you may create a morass of unintended consequences (e.g., court-ordered wiretaps or even search warrants might accidentally be prohibited) and loopholes.

More discussion in the Comments.

Birthday Baby Blogging!

2005-07-30T20:12:00.000-04:00

I wasn't able to baby-blog yesterday because I was abed with a killer cold. Thank heavens my aches and pains resolved by this afternoon in time for Eleanor's second birthday party.

Lately, Eleanor has been facinated by trains. (Later I will post pictures of her with the steam engine we took through the redwoods of Northern California last week.) Mrs. O, Mrs. O's sister, and I collaborated for this "Choo-Choo Cake."

The funny thing is that Eleanor was not so much interested in eating cake. She wanted the Oreo wheels! The slightly dull eyes are brought to you courtesy of missing a nap because of the party.

Her birthday is partially put on continuance because our present for her (a Brio train set) didn't arrive in time for today's party, but her cousins made sure she had something to really enjoy. Here she is trying to share her Oreos with her new friends.

Are you more secure than you were 5 years ago?

2005-07-27T12:32:00.000-04:00

In today's Army Times [emphasis mine]:

The Army, which expects to miss its 2005 recruiting goal by about 12,000, already is falling behind for next year. The pool of recruits who sign up as much as a year before they report for training is dwindling. So far, 3,100 have signed up for 2006, according to Army Recruiting Command at Fort Knox, Ky. The Army says it hopes to have 7,200 recruits in the pool by Oct. 1, when the 2006 recruiting year begins. By comparison:

The Army started the 2005 recruiting year with about 14,700 recruits in the delayed entry pool. It is making up some of the shortfall in recruiting by re-enlisting soldiers at a higher-than-expected rate. But the Army also has tried to trim this year’s shortfall by rushing many delayed entry enlistees into basic training.

In 2004, the Army had more than 33,000 enlistees signed up ahead of time. It met its recruiting goals....

[The head of the Army Recruiting Command, Major General Michael Rochelle,] said parents are still reluctant to encourage their children to enlist....Rochelle acknowledged it can expect another struggle next year.
...
The Army is offering unprecedented enticements—including enlistment bonuses as high as $20,000 and service stints as short as 15 months—but so far has been unable to persuade enough young men and women to join.
...
None of the recruiting trends bode well for the Army, said Loren Thompson, an analyst at the Lexington Institute in Arlington, Va. "If you think of the Army as a watershed, their reservoir is about to run dry," Thompson said. "They have nothing left in reserve."

That last quote is extremely scary. If someone reckless (e.g., North Korea) were to attack us or our treaty-bound allies, unable to muster conventional forces, we will have only one option left.

This is the greater danger of Bush's vanity war, not the increased risk of terror attacks. The death toll of 9/11, London, and Madrid combined pales before that of a confrontation escalated to a nuclear conflict because our conventional forces have been bled dry in an illegal war of choice.

Songs

2005-07-27T09:57:00.000-04:00

Thersites at Metacomments tagged me with the following assignment:

"List ten songs that you are currently digging...it doesn't matter what genre they are from, whether they have words, or even if they're no good, but they must be songs you're really enjoying right now. Post these instructions, the artists, and the ten songs in your blog. Then tag five other people to see what they're listening to."

Thersites probably couldn't have picked a worse person. I mostly listen to Sirius Classic Vinyl or Totally 70's. At home, it's too noisy to add music to the mix, and when we do, it's usually bedtime, so we play pieces from classical collections for children.

Even though I can't cite individual songs that I am grooving to lately, there are a few CD's that I find really enjoying when I am in the car for an extended time by myself.

Nanci Griffith, Other Voices, Other Rooms: This is the most evenly excellent CD I know. Every song is absolutely fantastic. (Okay, that may be a bit strong for the last track, Wimoweh, but even it isn't bad.)

Juan Luis Guerra and 440, Bachata Rosa: My favorite Latin album. Guerra, a Dominicano, modernizes the bachata, the Dominican love ballad. He blends jazz and African flavors in as well. The result is wonderfully moving. My favorite song is Burbujos de Amor, partly because the lyrics sound so right in Spanish and so utterly corny when translated into English.

Miles Davis, In a Silent Way and Kind of Blue: No comment needed. It's Miles.

I am tagging sallyh, jeffraham prestonian, aTypical Joe, Echidne of the Snakes, and RMJ.

Post-vacation baby blogging!

2005-07-22T17:32:00.000-04:00

Click for full-size image

We're back! Here I am with the D'otters in the Muir Woods. We had been there a while trying to get Eleanor to look all the way up the trees when Mrs Otter finally laid her back over her knees. Eleanor's eyes got big as she looked up for a while. She then got excited and started jumping up and down while pointing up and saying, "Up high! Up high!"

We have a party to look forward to this weekend. Eleanor's second birthday was yesterday. Since we spent the whole day flying from San Diego to Atlanta, the official observance is Sunday. There will be pictures, of course.

Friday Baby Blogging and Vacation!

2005-07-08T13:51:00.001-04:00

Twice Eleanor was out of sight for just a moment, and twice she found an open container of something to play with:

Cocoa

and

Baby Powder

Brigid on the other hand, just likes to sleep with her flower.

I am leaving today for 4 days with the eldest d'otter, returning only to leave again 18 hours later for vacation with Mrs. O and the two otter pups. We are flying to San Francisco, touring around Napa and Sonoma counties, then driving to San Diego to see friends. We fly back from there on July 21. This will be my last post until our return, although I will have the opportunity to review comments and e-mail occasionally.

See you then!

Memento mori

2005-07-07T12:13:00.000-04:00

God save our gracious Queen
Long live our noble Queen,
God save the Queen:
Send her victorious,
Happy and glorious,
Long to reign over us:
God save the Queen.

O Lord, our God, arise,
Scatter thine enemies,
And make them fall:
Confound their politics,
Frustrate their knavish tricks,
On thee our hopes we fix:
God save us all.

Thy choicest gifts in store,
On her be pleased to pour;
Long may she reign:
May she defend our laws,
And ever give us cause
To sing with heart and voice
God save the Queen.

Happy 59th Birthday, President Bush!

2005-07-06T10:46:00.000-04:00

Okay, let's all put on our birthday hats

and wish our President a big Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday to you!

Happy birthday, Mr. President!

Happy birthday to you!

Random thoughts on Independence Day

2005-07-04T00:49:00.000-04:00

This is from an earlier post of mine, but I think these words need to be read once more. In March, we had a memorial service in our small town marking the second anniverary of the Bush's Illegal War on Iraq. These are the words of the Rev. Bill Morgan preceding his reading the names of all Georgians killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

As we hear these names, remind those of us whose patriotism involves only the cost of bumper stickers and flags,
whose patriotism does not offer up OUR OWN sons and daughters,
but proudly offers the sons and daughters of others;
whose patriotism demands nothing from our wallets
nor limits our lifestyles in any way…
Who, in a two-tiered nation, live easily with war--
war that draws from us talk but not tears,
war that causes us no fears
nor any sleepless nights—

Remind us of mothers whose sleep is nightly troubled,
fathers whose thoughts are never restful,
who fear the doorbell’s ring,
the stranger’s voice on the telephone.

Remind us whose talk of war is easy
of those whose lives now encompass an abyss
that never will be filled—
a dark abyss that swallowed childhood dreams,
and parent’s hopes,
and lover’s plans,
and leaves a child yearning for a father’s touch,
a mother’s soothing voice.

Remind us that it is not only “ours” for whom we care—
that mothers and fathers in a that land to which we
send our sons and daughters also cry for their
dead children, sift through the rubble of the
homes they built with love,
weep at the funerals of their old men and
women, and know the truth of war as we
cannot.

Help us to understand that war is not a movie or a game,
that for those who do not die there are often pieces of
their lives left behind—
and thoughts and scenes that will not die,
that plague their days and haunt their nights,
and about which they cannot speak
because we who only talk of war
could never understand.

As we hear these names, and think of those who yet serve,
let us take to heart the words of General Hal Moore, commander
of troops in Vietnam, and whose story is told in “We Were Soldiers Once and Young,”
and who, as Grand Marshall of the Veteran’s Day parade in
Atlanta spoke words only a truly thoughtful soldier can speak
with power:
“We must, as a society, find ways to settle our differences
that don’t involve sending our young people to kill and die.”

As we listen to the names, let us light our candles in honor
and memory, beginning with a candle that draws our
thoughts to those who are now serving as the first candle
is lighted by C___ F___, mother of G___ F___,
a candle representing those now serving.
----
No greater honor can we give to those who die than to
remember their names. Greater than any monument
in any park, is the speaking of a name – a name not
lost but living still, each time it’s spoken. Let us hear the
names.
© 2005 William Morgan

Here are some lesser-known words from FDR's famous "Four Freedoms" speech, words that the current mal-Administration seems to have never heard:

"The basic things expected by our people of their political and economic systems are simple. They are:

Equality of opportunity for youth and for others.

Jobs for those who can work.

Security for those who need it.

The ending of special privilege for the few.

The preservation of civil liberties for all.

The enjoyment of the fruits of scientific progress in a wider and constantly rising standard of living.

"These are the simple, the basic things that must never be lost sight of in the turmoil and unbelievable complexity of our modern world. The inner and abiding straight of our economic and political systems is dependent upon the degree to which they fulfill these expectations.

"Many subjects connected with our social economy call for immediate improvement. As examples :

We should bring more citizens under the coverage of old-age pensions and unemployment insurance.

We should widen the opportunities for adequate medical care.

We should plan a better system by which persons deserving or needing gainful employment may obtain it.

"I have called for personal sacrifice, and I am assured of the willingness of almost all Americans to respond to that call. A part of the sacrifice means the payment of more money in taxes. In my budget message I will recommend that a greater portion of this great defense program be paid for from taxation than we are paying for today. No person should try, or be allowed to get rich out of the program, and the principle of tax payments in accordance with ability to pay should be constantly before our eyes to guide our legislation."

I am a devout Christian and value my religious freedom. The only guarantee of that freedom will be when anyone can engage in any governmental function, at any level, and have not a single religious reference. What these radical clerics don't see is that freedom of religion exists if and only if there is an equal freedom from religion. Anything less threatens my free exercise as much as it does that of an adherent of any other religion or an atheist. (Believe me, the radical clerics ordering the Bush administration around aren't any happier with my Episcopal denomination than they are with Islam.)

Federalist Paper #10 deals with the protection provided by a strong Constitutional republic from the influence of factions. In light of the efforts of Dobson, Robertson, Falwell, et al., the Constitution must be preserved to protect us from their radical agenda. According to Madison, the writer of Federalist #10, the framers' intent was that it should:

A religious sect may degenerate into a political faction in a part of the [republic]; but the variety of sects dispersed over the entire face of it must secure the national councils against any danger from that source.

I hope all of you have a wonderful Fourth. I intend to:

Honor the enlightenment of the Founders.
Remember that we, not the Right-wing, are their philosophical heirs.
Enjoy the freedoms they created.
Resolve to fight (God willing, only figuratively) to defend them from the Neocon regime.

Friday Baby Blogging!

2005-07-01T13:01:00.000-04:00

Watching Brigid grow is making me nostalgic for when Eleanor was an infant. Here she is at 6 months demonstrating her love of carrots by doing her "baby bird" imitation.

Oh, Damn!

2005-07-01T11:25:00.000-04:00

Sandra Day O'Connor resigns. At least a Rehnquist resignation would have just replaced one radical right ideologue with another.

Justice Roy Moore, here we come!

We get mail, and we reply.

2005-06-30T15:07:00.000-04:00

At the urging of Athenae at First Draft, I wrote an e-mail to my two republican senators asking them if Karl Rove "spoke for them" in his comments before the NY Conservative Party. I finally got a reply from Saxby Chambliss:

Dear Dr. Otter:

Thank you for contacting me regarding the United States involvement in Iraq. It is good to hear from you.

In the President's budget proposal for fiscal year 2006, the Administration requested an increase of about 5 percent in defense spending. The situation in Iraq is still a very difficult and complex situation. We are in the midst of a war, and it is imperative that we continue to spend the money necessary to make sure America's
military forces are the best trained and equipped fighting force in the world. We must make sure that our service men and women have the latest, most technologically advanced weapon systems available, not only to complete their mission, but to return home safely to their loved ones.

On January 30, 2005, Iraq held its first election. This marked an important step on the road to a secure, prosperous, and democratic Iraq. The outcome of these elections advance the development of a constitution that embraces the freedoms and principles of a democratic system of government.

The successful elections in Iraq are a blow to the forces of terror. I am confident the defeat of terror in Iraq will set that nation on a course to lasting freedom, and will continue to give hope to millions around the world who live under oppressive regimes and harsh dictatorships. Ultimately, a free, democratic Iraq will inspire reformers throughout the Middle East and make America more secure.

The United States military is giving hope and opportunity to the people of Iraq by providing a means by which they can determine their own future for themselves and their children. This would be a drastic change from the circumstances they have lived in for the past 30 years under the tyranny of Saddam Hussein.

As a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, I can assure you that our troops will be removed from Iraq when their mission is complete, and when the Iraqi people are able to protect themselves and allow a democratic government to flourish. I am committed to keeping our troops in Iraq as long as required, but not a day longer.

Again, thank you for contacting me regarding this important issue. If I can be of assistance to you in the future, please do not hesitate to let me know. In the meantime, if you would like to receive timely email alerts regarding the latest congressional actions and my weekly e-newsletter, please sign up via my web site at: www.chambliss.senate.gov.

Sincerely,
Saxby Chambliss
United States Senate

Here is my reply:

Dear Senator Chambliss,

Thank you very much for your e-mail, but it did not in any way address the question I posed:

Do you agree or disagree with Karl Rove's comments regarding liberals' response to 9/11? Does he "speak for you"?

For your easy reference, here is the salient portion of the quote:

"But perhaps the most important difference between conservatives and liberals can be found in the area of national security. Conservatives saw the savagery of 9/11 and the attacks and prepared for war; liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers. In the wake of 9/11, conservatives believed it was time to unleash the might and power of the United States military against the Taliban; in the wake of 9/11, liberals believed it was time to… submit a petition."

A simple "yes" or "no" will suffice. A form letter is very unlikely to.

Very respectfully,
Otter

I am not holding my breath.

Sociopaths on Parade

2005-06-29T14:57:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, I heard two sociopaths on television news dispassionately talking about unimaginable acts of cruelty:

"I called them projects. If you've read much about serial killers, you know they go through phases. Trolling is one of the phases they go through, looking for victims."

--Dennis Rader, the "Bind, Torture, Kill" murderer

"Amid all this violence, I know Americans ask the question: Is the sacrifice worth it? It is worth it, . . .

"I thank those of you who have re-enlisted in an hour when your country needs you. And to those watching tonight who are considering a military career, there is no higher calling than service in our Armed Forces."

--George W. Bush, the "Lie, Torture, Kill" president.

Awwwwwwww!

2005-06-27T21:23:00.000-04:00

I spent Sunday moving all of the furniture out of Eleanor's room then shampooing the carpet. Since it was still wet that night, we set up a porta-crib in our bedroom. This was the first time Eleanor had slept in our room since she was 6 months old. Around 5 am, she woke up crying, so I brought her to our bed (also for the first time in 18 months) and put her between Mrs. Otter and me. She quit crying, snuggled in, and said one word before going fast asleep:

"Home."

Eleanor, age 6 months.

We need a real cable news network

2005-06-27T15:26:00.000-04:00

CNN, Fox, and MS/NBC are all falling all over themselves to cover the second shark attack in Florida in the past three days. I can confirm that CNN and Fox both provided lengthy live coverage of today's press conference for the second attack. Now we can expect all kinds of follow-up "continuous coverage" designed to whip the populace into a froth over this huge upswing in shark attacks. Here are the facts (thanks to Adonais on an Eschaton comment thread):

Number of unprovoked shark attacks worldwide over the last century (as of 2/25/2005): 1541
Number of American troops killed in Iraq from 3/20/2003 through 6/27/2005 : 1742.

Again, I am not minimizing the personal tragedy of the shark attacks this weekend. My heart goes out to the victims and their families. I am objecting to their exploitation by the media to distract from the national tragedy going on in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo. If you have ever done magic tricks or cheated at cards, you see this for what it is—classic misdirection. Unfortunately, the mainstream media are complicit in the cover-up.

P.S., The post at Eschaton that spawned the thread is well worth reading for a recent historical perspective.

Friday Baby Blogging!

2005-06-24T20:14:00.000-04:00

Click for full size image.

Brigid goes for a walk in the woods with her godfather.

Friday Fish Blogging!

2005-06-24T19:59:00.000-04:00

Click for full size image.

The blog header promises "fly fishing stories," yet I haven't really gotten around to telling any yet. Well, this picture should be worth a thousand words. This was taken on Alaska's Alagnak River, July 4, 2002. This is the largest King Salmon I caught that week, a 28 pounder.

P.S., This was also when I was at my highest weight ever. I've lost 45 pounds since then, and my face isn't nearly that round now.

Jim Marshall, DINO?

2005-06-24T13:19:00.000-04:00

My own congressman, Jim Marshall, is a co-sponsor of the proposed Flag Burning Amendment that just passed in the house. Good! It's time that we joined the list of nations with similar bans on free speech involving flag desecration.

China
North Korea
Iraq
Iran
Cuba

Ahhh. America the Free.

I have been extremely disappointed with several of the stances Marshall has taken. In the post-Nunn era, something seems to happen to white Georgia democrats when they go to Washington. I hope he doesn't wind up like...this!

I get mail

2005-06-23T09:16:00.000-04:00

I got this e-mail this morning from a reader [emphasis and link added]:

Dear Dr. Otter,

I contacted the Tennessee State Board of Medical Examiners to inquire about how I should file a complaint against a Tennessee physician. Specifically, I was going to file a complaint about Dr. Frist as you had promoted in your blog; however, I did not mention any doctor's name in the email I sent to the Board:
------------------------------------
Dear Sirs,
What procedure must I follow to report a doctor to the Tennessee State Board of Medical Examiners? I have concerns about a physician currently licensed to practice in Tennessee.
------------------------------------
Today, I received this email from the Medical Board:
------------------------------------
Please respond to this email with your name and complete address so that your complaint against Dr. Bill Frist may be processed.

Sandra S. Atchley

Tennessee Department of Health

Office of Investigations

425 Fifth Avenue North, 3rd Floor

Nashville, TN 37247

(615) 253-1715

(615) 532-2499 fax
-----------------------------------------
I can only surmise that mine isn't the first complaint to them and they assumed I was making a complaint about Dr. Frist.

And note that I didn't state in my original (and only) email the reason I was making a complaint against Dr. Frist. Nor for that matter, are they asking for what reason I am pursuing a complaint against him. Doesn't a medical board usually ask for a detailed narrative?

Their reply strikes me as odd. I wonder if they're collecting my name and address so they can send me a letter in a few months telling me that Dr. Frist has been investigated and my complaint has been found to be without merit.

I haven't replied to this email yet. I'd be interested in any advice you have to offer. Should I reply to them with the reason for my complaint? Should I be coy and ask them why they are assuming my complaint is about Dr. Frist?

Regards,

R**** M***** (a fan)
Annapolis, Maryland

It hasn't been a good week for Bill. Let's inundate poor Ms. Atchley with complaints. Apparently we aren't the only ones making a fuss.

More on missing kids and the news

2005-06-22T21:59:00.000-04:00

Arriana Huffington's latest column, Just Say Noruba, addresses the way the cable news seems obscessed with fluff and missing pretty white girls. Her column doesn't address the racist aspect, but I found one table very enlightening and confirmatory of an even earlier post of mine:

Here are the number of news segments that mention these stories: (from a search of the main news networks' transcripts from May 1-June 20).

-- ABC News: "Downing Street Memo": 0 segments; "Natalee Holloway": 42 segments; "Michael Jackson": 121 segments.

-- CBS News: "Downing Street Memo": 0 segments; "Natalee Holloway": 70 segments; "Michael Jackson": 235 segments.

-- NBC News: "Downing Street Memo": 6 segments; "Natalee Holloway": 62 segments; "Michael Jackson": 109 segments.

-- CNN: "Downing Street Memo": 30 segments; "Natalee Holloway": 294 segments; "Michael Jackson": 633 segments.

-- Fox News: "Downing Street Memo": 10 segments; "Natalee Holloway": 148 segments; Michael Jackson": 286 segments.

-- MSNBC: "Downing Street Memo": 10 segments; "Natalee Holloway": 30 segments; "Michael Jackson": 106 segments.

Is there any doubt that individual tragedy and meaningless fluff are used as a smokescreen for the abomination that is the current administration?

Censorship, or just good housekeeping?

2005-06-21T22:23:00.000-04:00

The past few days, I have done something I had thought I wouldn't do on this blog. I have been deleting comments by a detractor. Subsequent comments in response (also deleted) said that I was a "moronic brownshirt f**k who can't face the truth."

The last five words made me reflect. Was I being thin-skinned in the face of valid criticism? I have to say "no."

The comments about my "fragging" post merely accused me of hating our military and of secretly being gleeful at any bad news out of Iraq. He didn't address the point of the post at all, viz, the deterioration of morale, good order, and discipline that leads to such incidents.
The comments about racially biased news coverage accused me of "exploiting" the missing children to make a "sick political point." Again, he completely ignored my point that missing white women and children get press; missing black women and children don't. (And since when is opposition to institutional racism "a sick political point"?)
Even my fun Fathers' Day post received some nasty comments about me and my kids.

The comments I deleted were strictly ad hominem attacks that did nothing to contribute to a discussion over my posts, i.e., the commenter was a troll. You can't claim censorship of ideas when there isn't a single idea in the passage deleted.

I welcome reasoned arguments in the comments, even if they prove my point completely wrong. Heck, I'm glad anytime I learn something new. So here is an invitation:

Come here anytime with reasoned arguments. While I have a very small readership, I don't want to be accused of running a very, very, very small "echo chamber." If you disagree, prove me wrong without profanity or personal attacks. Do it well, and I'll very likely post a retraction with enough mea culpas for anyone. Fling verbal feces around like a chimp, and your comments will be deleted with no one mourning their loss.

Missing kids

2005-06-20T11:28:00.000-04:00

Don't get me wrong; I am heartily sorry for the parents of the boy scout currently missing in the Utah wilderness. I have a 20 year-old daughter, so stories like the high school senior missing in Aruba chill me. What I don't understand is:

Why their stories are covered for 4-5 minutes of every 30 minute news cycle, but these children are missing and anonymous.
Two little girls went missing in May-June 2002, Alexis Patterson of Milwaukee and Elizabeth Smart of Salt Lake City. Which one have you heard of? (Milwaukee residents excepted) Why do you think that is? [free registration required]
Jennifer Wilbanks's bug-eyed face was everywhere during her not-so-mysterious "disappearance." Where was the coverage of Tamika Huston?

It's simple. When you need your media lackeys to distract the republican base from a failing economy, a failing Iraq policy, soaring oil prices, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, you have to use stories that will attract their attention.

TV: "A black child missing from the Florida Child Welfare System has been found dead..."
Typical republican voter: [yawning] "Honey, switch to Wheel of Fortune."

TV: "A cute white girl is missing in Aruba. "
Typical republican voter: "Oh, Honey. She looks just like Kimberlee."
TV: "Another 5 Marines were killed by insurgents in Iraq..."
Voter: "Quick—switch over to Fox. They may have an interview with her parents."

As I have said before, conservatism is racist since it seeks to maintain the power status quo, but racism need not always be active (opposing civil rights, practicing discrimination). Sometimes it is as passive as not giving a damn what happens to "them."

Happy Fathers' Day!

2005-06-19T14:35:00.000-04:00

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Happy Fathers' Day, one and all!

Friday Baby Blogging!

2005-06-17T21:13:00.000-04:00

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This past weekend, we visited my mother on her 82d birthday. Here is Eleanor demonstrating how she just dives into Grandmother's green beans. (The skinned knee is another sign it was a fun weekend.)

"I've got your back, Sir!"

2005-06-17T10:31:00.000-04:00

If the suspect is guilty, this is a sign that military morale in Iraq is at late-Vietnam levels:

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A [New York Army National Guard] staff sergeant was charged with murdering his two commanders last week at a base outside Baghdad, the military said Thursday.

It is believed to be the first case of an American soldier in Iraq accused of killing his superiors....

The ''fragging'' incident occurred near Tikrit....Fragging is a term used to refer to soldiers killing their superiors.

I predicted the fragging would start soon. You can't extend deployments again and again and redeploy troops every few months to fight a war that most know is based on the lies of a coward. For interviews, they always find some "Oo-rah!" type that repeats the Party line that "we're fighting to ~~eliminate Saddam's WMD's~~ ~~protect America from terrorism~~ free Iraqis from domination. I know officers in and back from Iraq. Morale is low and getting lower. We have forgotten yet another Vietnam lesson—it is hard to fight when officers and senior NCO's fear that the threat is from both forward and behind.

It is time for us to leave Iraq.