Going to the Vet
Our pets are generally very healthy. Recently however, the Siberian has been scratching at his left ear. Then he scratches and cries. On Saturday I went over to try and look in his ear and found that it felt like there was an egg yolk in his outer ear. It seemed that it was almost as big as an egg yolk too.
I looked some stuff up on the internet and found pet forums. There is a lot of information there. You can ask questions and get answers. They have pages for all kinds of animals, large and small. Of course, always check with the vet!
He didn’t seem to be too bothered by that, but his inner ear was still bothering him.
Yesterday we took him to the vet. They had an “all-day” appointment. With this type of appointment, the dog is brought in in the morning and then they take a look at him when they have a few minutes throughout the day.
He had a hematoma in his left ear. They said this could be from shaking his head or from scratching at it. He also has an ear infection. That’s what was causing the discomfort in his ear that he was trying to alleviate by scratching.
So, they drained his hematoma and used a little steroid to help keep it from refilling. They told us there’s a 60% chance it won’t come back and 40% chance it might. Another treatment option is to just let it be and it should resolve itself in a month or two.
So, for now the poor baby has wear what the vet calls an Elizabethan Collar, but what we (and the writers of UP!) call THE CONE OF SHAME.
You can see his poor ear in the photo. The doctor said that “crinkle” may be permanent. We think it gives him “character”.
Veterans’ Day
Armistice Day, Veterans’ Day, Remembrance Day
The 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month…
In Flanders Fields
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe;
To you, from failing hands, we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
Written by Lt-Colonel John McRae (1915)
Early Voting
Over at Althouse there’s a conversation about how many groups moved to the GOP this election cycle. People were talking about turnout, which seemed lower in most cases than the last election. It certainly was so in my precinct. It seemed good at the time I voted, but it was down considerably from 2008.
I commented there:
I think we ought to get rid of early voting altogether.
Early voting may have suppressed turnout on both sides. The media kept showing long lines at early voting locations and the media kept trying to guess who was “winning” the early vote.
This may have kept many people home on election day. They didn’t want to deal with long lines (and how many of them would actually be there? The media only reported on the long lines – they didn’t report on the many (I’m sure) locations without long lines. Just as we hear about plane crashes but not the successful landings that most make.
With the guesses as to who was “winning” the early vote, some people may have decided it was over already and didn’t go vote.
Steve Hayward has some thoughts at A Disquieting Thought on Powerline.
Althouse Asks:
Can we get a GOP with sound economics and a commitment to individual liberty?
I hope so. We need fiscal responsibility along with liberty. We need to drop “special” rights for anyone. We need to do away with affirmative action. We need to do away with legislating “health” such as Bloomberg is trying in NYC.
We need freedom to choose in everything – schools, health, everything.
Stop telling insurance companies what they must cover and allow people to buy insurance that covers what the person wants covered. My mother has no need to cover maternity or prostrate issues. Why should she be paying for coverage for those things?
Allow people in New Jersey to buy insurance from a company in North Dakota if they wish.
Divorce health insurance from employment. Allow us to purchase it like we do our auto, home, and life insurance. Let us bundle it with auto, home, and life if we wish.
Make health insurance actual insurance again, not the pre-paid health it is now. When I was a kid, we paid the doctor when we went (or had a payment plan). One had insurance for catastrophic and hospitalization. You know you’ll get sick – that’s something you plan for. The hospitalization is what you’re insuring against.
I should also be able to choose the level of deductible that I want. Government shouldn’t set deductible levels. If I would choose a $5,000 deductible for lower premium payments I shouldn’t be limited to a $2,500 deductible with a higher premium because the government doesn’t think I should (could) pay that much out of pocket.
Health Savings Accounts (and health reimbursement accounts) should be available to everyone without a use-it-or-lose-it aspect. If I don’t use all my health care savings in one year, I should be able to carry it over to the next. Maybe next year I’ll have more illnesses than I did this year.
Being able to save this way can allow one to have the money in the health account when it’s needed as one gets older.
All pensions need to be defined contribution rather than defined benefit. One has control over how much to contribute to retirement, one can’t know that there will be a certain amount available in 20 years…
Election Day!
I voted here in Lake County, Illinois around 10 am. I didn’t have to wait in line, but I had good timing. There was no one in my letter line, then no one at the precinct line, and an open booth just as I needed one. The machine that eats the ballots was open just as I got there too. I had one lady ask to see if there were initials on my ballot. There were three machines to eat ballots, two precincts to each machine, so the guy at the machine made sure my number matched the machine.
I’ve never seen that kind of crowd at 10 am. The pollworkers told me that it’s been steady all morning and there was a line at 6 am when they opened.
I’m in the new 10th CD (it was 8th before). There’s actually a chance that the 10th could make the difference for Illinois in this election. It’s a long, long shot, but there is hope for change.
Four years ago our precinct had 86% turnout. I’ll be very interested in seeing what it has this year. Four years ago our precinct had 666 registered voters. I don’t know what the count is this year. I’ll find out later how many registered voters we have and what the turnout is.
Spock 2012
Local bumper sticker:
Spock ’12
The Logical Choice
I’ll Be Glad When This Political Silly Season is Over
Less than four weeks until election day. I’ve been seeing some commercials that essentially say:
[insert Republican candidate name] has voted for things Republicans like. [insert Republican candidate name] votes for conservative things. Don’t vote for [insert Republican candidate name]! [insert Republican candidate name] will vote for things Republicans and conservatives care about!
This message brought to you by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
Well duh. Do they think they’ll sway any voters? Some people might think that the a Republican candidate voting in that manner is a feature, not a bug. If the candidate has been voting for big government this might be a bug, but otherwise…
It Be Talk Like A Pirate Day!
Arrgh! It be Talk Like a Pirate Day!
Seen on a Truck Today
I had been to a Citizenship Ceremony earlier, where 100 new citizens from 35 countries took their oaths. After that I went to get an oil change and have my truck’s emissions test and on the way home I saw this truck. I was at a stoplight and I had my good camera on the passenger seat.
click to embiggen
It says:
Gas was $1.81 when President Obama took office – Now it is $4.15
Groceries & Utility bill have gone up 20-25%
The Average Families income went DOWN $4000 per year
The Average Families wealth (savings & property value) went DOWN 40%
24 Million neighbors, family & friends are out of work or under employedNavy Seals and Airman got Osama Bin Ladin – President Obama watched on TV
WHO ARE YOU VOTING FOR IN NOVEMBER?
On Large Soda-Pops and Laundry Detergent Pods
So, Mayor Bloomberg got his wish and the New York City Board of Health voted to ban “sugary” drinks over 16 ounces everywhere except grocery and convenience stores. Because they’re trying to fight obesity. The ban only applies to “sugary” drinks, not diet drinks. Restaurants with self-serve fountains are limited to the 16 ounce size, but patrons can get their free refills. Now since this applies only to “sugary” drinks (I assume that’s drinks with High Fructose Corn Syrup and drinks with sugar) and not to diet drinks how can they enforce it ($200 fine) in a restaurant with a self-serve fountain? One would think a customer could order a 24 ounce “diet” and then go fill it up with a non-diet beverage. Or restaurants will have to drop all cup sizes over 16 ounces regardless of whether the customer wants diet or non-diet, effectively banning any soda over 16 ounces.
But, as the ban does not include grocery and convenience stores, you can still go get your Big-Gulp at Seven Eleven. And your huge Slurpees too.
Sugar contains 15 calories per 4 gram serving (1 teaspoon). I can make a 16 ounce cup of iced tea and use 2 teaspoons of sugar to sweeten it. That’s 8 grams of sugar, 30 calories. I could have that same tea at 20 ounces and still only use the 2 teaspoons of sugar. I can’t buy a sweetened tea with that low a calorie count. High Fructose Corn Syrup, in most of our sweetened “sugary” drinks has 53 calories for a 19 gram serving (1 tablespoon [equal to 3 teaspoons]). Why can’t beverage companies make a lower calorie, yet non-artificially sweetened beverage? Pepsi came out with Pepsi Next a lower sugar beverage. I was excited. I thought perhaps they’d just lowered the sugar/HFCS content. But no. They lowered the sugar/HFCS, but added in artificial sweeteners. So it became a kind of “half-diet” drink.
Restricting the size of a “sugary” beverage isn’t going to change people’s behaviors. It isn’t going to stop obesity. It isn’t going to start a “national dialog”. And it’s not really for people’s health. It’s for power. We can do this so we will. Mayor Bloomberg would force chefs to not use salt in cooking. He’s banned trans-fats, but it was the government that insisted on using trans-fats in the first place. Supposedly they were “better” for us. The prevalent use of HFCS is a result of government policies as well, farm subsidies and sugar tariffs.
Maybe soft drink manufacturers should add fiber to all their drinks. That might alleviate the problem listed in the article:
While plenty of foods contribute to the problem, some experts believe soft drinks deserve a greater share of the blame, in part because the body doesn’t scream, “I’m full!” when someone downs a 32-ounce soda, even though it has more calories than a typical fast-food cheeseburger.
There are tasteless, colorless, non-thickening fiber powders that can be added to beverages that should not affect the taste or mouth-feel of any soda pop.
Senator Schumer was also in the news this week regarding laundry detergent pods (via Overlawyered). Apparently the brightly colored detergent pods look too much like candy and children are eating them. The New York Daily News tells us that 40 children in the city eaten them since April. Some had to be hospitalized. Sen. Schumer tells us that “200 cases had been reported to poison control centers nationwide as of May, but that figure jumped to 1,210 by the end of June.”
If there were only 200 cases “as of May” and 1,210 by the end of June, we’re looking at an increase of 1,010 in two months (assuming that “as of May” is the beginning of May). That’s a 505% increase in a very short period of time.
S0me of the stories mention 15-17 month old children eating these pods. They also mention kids swallowing the pods. They’re small, but not small enough to swallow. They smell like perfume, not candy. I haven’t tasted one, but I’d assume that one taste would put me off taking any more in.
And where are these parents? Why aren’t the pods kept out of the reach of the children (especially toddlers)?
As I commented over at Overlawyered:
I’m sorry Mr. Schumer, but I really don’t need the government to be a parent. If I were single I wouldn’t need the government to be a husband. I, and most of the people I know, are perfectly capable of taking care of ourselves and keeping ourselves and our children reasonably safe. Nothing is 100%, nor can anything ever be so. Stop trying to make it so.
But it’s not really about health or safety, it’s about power. “They” know what’s best for us and we’d better just roll over and do as we’re told.
