Lazy Sunday: Part 27

We bought some old seats for the living room yesterday. They were theater seats from the 1950s. Very comfortable.

Ill.

As of late, my postings have been on the low side of up. Despite a majority in the Congress, I have written about the pathos of the new minority party. My lametations of the White House and Iraq confict have been the stuff of disgust and defeatism. Now I find myself with a sinus infection and time on my hands. It is time to write about positive topics.

State of Disunion.

This statement alone is more than just a Texan's drawl or Blue Collar play on words. The President's State of the Union Address last evening continues to show that no matter whom advises him, how closely he listens, or how often his aides and cabinet members are caught in sound bites lying or obfuscating the situation or strategy on the Iraq invasion, The president’s course of action amounts to placing more men and women of the U.S. Military into harm's way.

Try a quote today by Vice President, Dick Cheney, quoted on CNN yesterday, discussing the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s approval of a resolution opposing President Bush’s plan to send more troops to Iraq.

"It won’t stop us." - Vice President, Dick Cheney

No movement. No sympathy. No gravity given for ideas or arguments save those few who would offer none in opposition.

Why be so stubborn in the face of such opposition? And the argument for this is that "failure would be catastrophic." Is it just me or does this not sound exactly like the uncompromising tirades made by those leading the insurgency forces and death squads in Iraq?

My only question, the only one I have is this: What specifically is victory for everyone, Mr. President? Is it a tangible object? Is it an ideal that cannot be measured except by those who know it for the first time? Is victory the creation of a way of life for a group people that have never known it and will find adaptation to be as trying as anything imagined?

I support my country and countrymen here and abroad. My education and national thinking forbids me to simply accept matters as they are and continue without thinking for myself. My faith and nature demand I consider more than myself in most all matters of life and liberty.

We are keenly aware of what you and your administration considers winning. What is victory for all people, Mr. President? The terrorists win when those who follow one person's path convince everyone else that there is no other path to take.

Core Energy.

Overlooked for centuries as a viable source of natural energy, a recent MIT study offers the potential of geothermal energy to be, "a key energy provider in the United States". Geothermal energy involves the trapping of heat and steam released by fissures in the plant's crust to drive turbines and create energy. The study agrees that although there are great benefits to the use of geothermal energy (including minute atmospheric and environmental impact) there are also seismic and geophysical risks that have not been fullly assessed.

Many groups, such as The Geothermal Resources Council, have touted the wide-spread use of geothermal energy in the past but to little fortune. Perhaps this MIT study will get the direct attention of those groups looking for ways to stem the growing problem of greenhouse gas and carbon emissions. Thanks, Earth.

On This Day...: 22 January

Every once in a while I get curious as to what a "normal" day like today held as important in the past. I belive that I'll start a new category today that will run once a month for those days that are particularly interesting.

For this day three particularly interesting events happened in the year 1973:

- The Supreme Court handed down its Roe vs. Wade decision, which legalized abortion. The decision overrulled state laws that prohibited or restricted a woman's right to obtain an abortion during her first three months of pregnancy. The vote was 7 to 2.

- The 36th President, Lyndon Baines Johnson (LBJ), died at age 64 of a heart attack (his third) at home on his ranch in Texas. His health was ruined by years of heavy smoking and stress, and the former President had severe heart disease. He was found in his bed, reaching for his phone.

- "Big George" Foreman faced world Heavyweight champion Joe Frazier in Kingston, Jamaica, knocking him down no less than six times in two rounds and knocking him out in the second round in one of boxing history's biggest upsets to become the Heavyweight World Champion. In what was HBO Boxing's first transmission ever, the call made by Howard Cosell, the broadcaster that night ("Down goes Frazier!, Down goes Frazier!, Down goes Frazier!") became one of the most memorable sports calls of all time.

Lazy Sunday: Part 26

I found another horse on the sidewalk of Portland's Clinton Area yesterday morning.
Want the story?

730 Remain.

This is the number of days our current President will remain in office. In exactly two years from today's date, President George W. Bush, Jr. will exit the White House and a new President will be sworn in. Who will it be?

This week, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois announced the opening of his exploratory committee. Today, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York did the same. At this time the focus begins fully on who's to stand before the American people on 20 January 2009, right hand raised and left upon the Bible. The swearing in ceremony as U.S. President seems so solemn a moment that we should all be thankful for its lulling effect after the months of mudslinging, name-calling, media-overexposure, strength posturing, attack ads and muckraking that the voting public have come to expect of multi-million dollar political campaigns.

The time is running short for some, and shorter for most others.

In Laws.

Lisa's father and sister arrived in town this Monday. Their intention was to head down to Ashland so Wren could check out Southern Oregon University. It would be a wonderful opprotunity to have her closer to her sister and bother in Port Orford. Here's to a good trip!

Keep Your Enemies Closer.

Today I'm working on a part of my surgical diary. Here is an excerpt for your reading enjoyment:

The idea that you can trust your closest advisors is both an old and new idea. Trust is formed over time and patiently molded after events specify the comings and goings of certain individuals. Such is the manner of thinking in many professional arenas. In politics, social circles or clubs, and our places of employment, there are those who care more deeply for making the moves and telling the tales they think best to move into positions of authority. The consequences for engaging in such activity may be easy to understand, but to gain the understanding as to why this is viewed as important may not be so clear. Such is true in the surgical environment.

Obviously there are many more people involved than just the surgeons, nurses and scrubs. However, by starting to look at the motivations of these three professionals in general can provide a base for how convoluted a procedure can become when egos flare.

Surgeons have families to support, clinic patients to see for pre-operative screenings, consultations from other physicians to complete, insurance forms to fill out for payment needs, employees (like secretaries, nurses and physician assistants) to consider and pay. Typically a surgeon will schedule two to three days a week where they will spend the entire day in the operating room after a brief run through the clinic to give instructions to a colleague who will spend their day seeing the patients that arrive there during the day. The operating surgeon is as good as out of touch, yet we have telephones, cell phones, pagers and other modern communication devices now don't we? So the surgeon is never truly out of touch when trouble or questions arise. During a procedure the surgeon can be interrupted on a regular basis by the beep of a pager or the ringing of a LAN or cell phone.

Distractions during a case are one of the fastest ways to send the surgeon's attention away from the patient's needs and place that focus onto less vital thoughts. Given the importance of the activities in the operating room and the lack of time, surgeons will find ways to get past the distraction in as efficient a way as possible. Unfortunately, one of the fastest ways known to get past a difficult situation has been known by psychologists for decades, and is utilized by many in business, political and medical fields with unfortunate results: Blame someone in the room for causing the distraction.

This isn't a fair act, and there's no logical meaning behind it. What's most important about the surgeon's blame-game is that the response to the assigning of blame is directly related and the outcome, which is typically the same every time. Those that take the blame personally become afraid to work with that surgeon and cause further trouble in future cases. Their concern for avoiding the surgeon's wrath becomes the overriding concern, instead of getting the patient's procedure completed. The O.R. personnel that take the berating at face-value, and concentrate on the reasons for the flare up, they will become motivated to correct the cause and prevent a repetition of such distractions. The Japanese have a saying that fits this idea perfectly: “Fix the problem, not the blame”.

After all, time spent in the operating room means a lot more than just spending it all on getting the procedure performed correctly so the patient is safe and healthy. Managing the time in an O.R. is the organization of a living patient’s safety, the lives of that one person and all those in the room, the next patient’s need after this procedure is completed, preparation for all the cases in the day, trauma cases that can arise at anytime and for any reason, while considering the personal and familial needs of the workers and patients alike. Surgery is an arena of consequence will of players with egos so large, you could detect them on radar.

Five Minutes.

At times, scheduled surgical cases can be placed on hold due to weather, staffing issues or a wide array of concerns including patient difficulties. While taking an extended break today, patiently awaiting a patient to arrive for their procedure, I read up on the recent developments in the news. A news story today by the 62-year-old atomic bomb watchdog organization Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists pushed their Doomsday Clock (a representive clock that strikes midnight at the time of nuclear proliferation and war) two minutes closer to the witching hour. The organization stated that there are five minutes left until midnight due to the standoff and tensions rising with weapon seeking nations Iran and North Korea as well as the effects that human beings are having on the globe through carbon emissions and climate change. Renouned astrophysist, mathematician and author Professor Steven Hawking, a member of the bulletin's board of sponsors, released a statement of his views on why the clock's move was considered so grave.

"As scientists, we understand the dangers of nuclear weapons and their devastating effects, and we are learning how human activities and technologies are affecting climate systems in ways that may forever change life on earth."

A timeline of the clock's movement forward and backward from midnight can be found here.

OH-Bama!

The first real sign of the upcoming move for the Democratic party, Illinois Senator and political it-boy Barack Obama announced the opening of his exploratory committee. Showing his interest in seeking the Democratic nomination for U.S. President

In a released statement on his website, Senator Obama writes:

"I'll be filing papers today to create a presidential exploratory committee. For the next several weeks, I am going to talk with people from around the country, listening and learning more about the challenges we face as a nation, the opportunities that lie before us, and the role that a presidential campaign might play in bringing our country together. And on February 10th, at the end of these decisions and in my home state of Illinois, I'll share my plans with my friends, neighbors and fellow Americans."

Some will hearld this as the greatest or weakest move a two-term Senator could make. The cat-calling of newbie, spoiler and inexperienced will be played out for the next twenty months.

Having read about the Senator since first hearing of his work in early 2003 while working the early with the ODP on Kerry's 2004 Presidential Campaign, I've been eager for this announcement. He's got my vote, friends. He's the real deal.

His Voice, Clear.

Today is Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday. Now most everyone will be more content enjoying a day off from work or from school, for this is a part of the very thing I believe Dr. King would have had wanted the people of this nation to remember him for: to have a day for reflection and contemplation of our way of life. The other part is to consider how we are living with one another in this nation, and this is what I believe Dr. King would not approve were he able to see us on this day.

Most all of us find ourselves trapped both by routine and ingratiation. More content with Starbucks than stargazing, internets than interconnections and giving up than giving out. Our modernity has afforded even the poorest of people great manners of living that include luxuries once only possessed by the affluent. This inheritance has come to be slowly distributed over a short time. Connected to it, to those keen on not simply accepting endowments without questioning their origin or purpose, is a social ideal crafted from generations of philosophic debate. This principle is now widely accepted and easily overlooked by the majority of today’s generation: the practice desegregation.

This ideal has been worked for by generations of tolerant and optimistic folk and it is one that remains a common ground for rigorous debate between those in the lesser claiming its lunacy and those in the greater proclaiming its wisdom. I consider myself to be one whom agrees with Dr. King’s vision and “see not the color of a man’s skin but the color of his character”. This is not a new revolution but one I wish to proclaim more openly today given the gravity of day and those to come. As our nation props its collective feet upon the footstool of this holiday, consider the shoes worn by so many before us. Their street marches, protestations, stampings for justice and equality were carried upon those common shoes. They provided the footholds for today’s relaxation and comforts. Today remember the words of this man who did not look for notoriety for the sake of notoriety but for the sake of noteworthy beliefs that all whom are, have been and will be equal by the one commonality that matters: alive.

Lazy Sunday: Part 25

Most everyone will be talking on the importance of remembering the life and work of Dr. King tomorrow. I cannot think of a reason not to think of such work every day, but will offer these next two entries dedicated exclusively to the late Civil Rights leader who would have turned 78 years old tomorrow.

"All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence."

The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968.
© Bob Adelman / Magnum Photos

Omega Woman.

While my wife attended a mandatory education day at the hospital (something that medical professionals loathe as obligatory), I took the time to watch a matinee. Not having known more than the premise of Children of Men, where, in the near future, humanity has been paralyzed with global infertility and by this has degenerated to cataclysmic strife, I decided to go in quasi-blind. Now I've considered myself a fan of dystopian philosophy for many years, having read my fair share of Aldous Huxley, George Orwell and Alan Moore to name a few. Because of this I initially found the film’s setting of London was a fine choice.

This location removed questions as to how the authoritarian government came to be in charge by ordering the ruthless deportation of all non-British persons and wasn’t seeking democratic voices from the people, nor tolerating lengthy debates as to a course of action. This was a Thatcher-based, “down-with-terrorism” dictatorship. People are publicly caged en masse awaiting transportation to concentration-style camps for shipping to points-of-origin. All are separated from the general public by lines of SWAT police with automatic rifles, guard dogs and a foreboding sense of veracity. Then there is the general public who simply “don’t care.”

Scenes in which the hero, a Government drone named Theo seamlessly played by Clive Owen, reflects this despair, the same all Britons carry. Even after surviving the bombing of a café from which he’d only just bought a cup of coffee, his indifference toward the decay of society shows in his unshaven face, rumpled shirt and the resignation stamped upon his face.

This has never been a thought I’d considered. Taking for granted the ability of humanity to procreate. After working on Labor & Delivery for the past four years, I’ve come to regard birth as the most stable job in the medical profession. Then specific scenes in the film hit me with the gravity of what I’ve overlooked. The image of an elementary school, dilapidated and strewn with graffiti, made me shutter to think of all the teachers no longer instilling new ideas to the next generation because there was no generation to follow. The tale related by a midwife character’s as she realizes the coming crisis after several of her and her colleagues’ expectant mothers miscarry more often and at earlier stages of their pregnancies. This made me pause, reconsidering the one job in medicine that seemed most stable as suddenly pointless. Then the one aspect of the film that made me cringe: there were no sounds of children playing or babies crying. Even the imagery lacked a child’s imagination and was replaced with drab and perfunctory style as only adults can muster.

This movie bombarded me with themes lambasting the acceptance of routines, hopelessness, narcissism and apathy. The film's director, Alfonso Cuarón who directed the sinister-styled Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, seemed to be enjoying the chaos of the genre and in the setting he created on screen. Amongst the droves of terrorists, police and vigilantes with guns and bombs, Owens' hero escapes blind madness without carrying a weapon aside from his newfound hope in seeing the expectant mother of Earth's first child in eighteen years to safety outside of the UK. Cuarón's directing allows him to take subtle, enjoyable liberties with inserts of other dystopian themes (train monitors & billboards with 1984-like authoritarian messages to the masses, an inflated pig-balloon over the Battersea Power Station on the River Themes via Pink Floyd's: The Wall and another Orwellian theme from Animal Farm). With the battering of so many messages, the culmination of these comes during the birth scene. Like the rest of the film, this is Christ story of the Old Testament told in the antithesis that the rest of the film carries. By lantern, the whiskey-soaked and tremulous hands of Owen's character coaches the scared-shitless mother through her contractions on a stained mattress in a dilapidated hotel among the UK zone of refugees bound for deportation. The entire scene is fitting to both the beginning and end of humanity.

Even when the realization that a newborn has come, the miraculous moment of peace that crops up amongst two militaristic fronts is ruined with explosive consequence and the realization that even when hope arrives someone will fight to claim it as their property. There is little hope for mankind as this film ends. Despite the proof that procreation is still possible, I was left to believe that where biology can succeed, society will continue to overlook the obvious causes of misunderstanding.

Welcome Back, Carter?

A few days ago, fourteen employees of former U.S. President Jimmy Carter's 25 year-old foundation, The Carter Center, resigned in protestation of his book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid as being unfavorable toward Israeli plights. This action was detailed in an Atlanta Journal-Constitution article yesterday.

Is this mass-resignation a wake-up call for all of those having trouble with the former President's written stance to recognize the West Bank or Gaza Strip as a Palestinian State? Or is this act chutzpah specifically toward one man and anyone else who may come to think that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is an argument fraught with too many idiosyncrasies to trust the current administration to undertake? One thing’s for certain, Carter’s book and personal appearances mark the push for newfound popularity and revulsion by those most mindful of the unrest in the Middle Eastern region. Timing is crucial in negotiations and Jimmy’s hit the punchclock right on the nose.

Commiseration.

Small talk between doctors, nurses and other staff is a common occurrence in surgery to keep the gravity of what transpires during procedures from overwhelming them. Patients are usually under anesthetic agents during these colloquial moments which rarely involve the patient at all. Today one of the surgeons came up with a pithy idea. He mentioned the idea that it's easy to take the wind out of a critic's sails by declaring a preemptive self-derogatory remark. His thinking is that when anyone is looking to negatively criticize your actions or thinking put yourself down first and lessen the blow. After all, if you announce your awareness that improvements can be made, most any further comments would come across as redundant.

As President Bush unveiled his renewed strategy as to the conflict in Iraq (a long awaited response after the release of the Hamilton-Baker lead Iraq Study Group report) I was reminded of the surgeon’s comments. The main word or “preemptive” was lacking in the blame President Bush assigned to himself in tonight’s address:

"The situation in Iraq is unacceptable to the American people -- and it is unacceptable to me. Our troops in Iraq have fought bravely. They have done everything we have asked them to do. Where mistakes have been made, the responsibility rests with me"
-President G. W. Bush.

Despite admitting that a build-up of troops over a year ago would have been a better strategy, it is clear that tonight’s admission is too late for any kind of redemption. His speech was not full of surprises, thanks to the vastly integrated media and internet pundits given ample time to chew over the Report and speak to White House insiders.

In short, tonight the President made no converts and that increasing the U.S. troop deployment by 21,500 will do little to solve anything that is, has been or ever will be going wrong since the March 2003 invasion. What’s missing from the concept of self-degradation is the idea that timing is the crucial component in receiving the sympathetic ear while preventing stares of disappointment.

In the Year 2029...

On Christmas Eve in 2004, astronomers came to the realization that a near-Earth Asteroid named 99942 or Apophis (after the Egyptian God of darkness and chaos) will pass by the planet within just under 20,000 miles (give or take 2,000). Recommended reading of the odds on chances of Apophis' impact with the Earth would include a listing of the history of estimates compiled on wikipedia. It's a short distance to be sure, especially in the scope of Earth-bound travel. Universally speaking: a brush-by.

Why do I bring this up today? It's all because of this: An MSNBC article in the Men's Lifestyle section two years after the fact blowing the idea that impact is possible into "unlucky" by twisting the facts. Because this article was placed on the front of MSNBC before checking my email, it received immediate notice by myself and, presumably, a vast number of other readers or hotmail/MSN email account holders.

On the eve of President Bush's address concerning the suspected increase in troops to Iraq, the growing concern over imbalance in the Middle East and North Korea, and the troubles in the homeland I am left to wonder if MSNBC is trying to put things into perspective that it'll all be folly when 99942 wipes out 75% of life on the planet come one Friday the 13th over 22 years from now. A bleak look at the goings-on, hotmail; and I thought I was looking on the dark humor of daily American life.

Clango's Spotlight.

Today is the official starting run for Diesel Sweeties in newspapers across the Nation. After drawing the comic for over six years, Richard Stevens gets his break in the funny-papers.

Good luck, my friend!

Lazy Sunday: Part 24

Here's how I started my day.


The New Yorker, Stumptown Coffee, and a rainy Belmont Street.

NANI??!?!?

While Lisa slept today I enjoyed a day to myself with breakfast at Henry’s Cafe on Clinton Street. My thoughts turned slightly political while sitting there, sipping coffee, eating a salmon omelet and reading The New Yorker. How funny and deliciously poignant to open a "Senator Barack Obama for President HQ" on 26th and Clinton Street? If he runs, I think it's a smart move. Imagine the Portland stickers that could be made: Live on Clinton/Vote for Obama (15/14) Slightly larger print for Obama's and split the color scheme: a light-blue top with Clinton, a darker-blue bottom with Obama, and both with white lettering.
Like this:After thinking this through a bit, I looked up to see what was playing at the Clinton Street Theater. Low an behold, one of my favorites, SANJIRO, was to be shown that evening at 1900 and 2100 hours. Toshiro Mifune as "The Samurai with No Name" reprised from the movie Yojimbo in a small theatre attached to a brewpub. The evening was not just set, it was solid!

Return to Surgery.

After an unprecedented four days off from work in the operating room, I returned today to a short list of scheduled cases and a lot of happy-to-be-back coworkers. I suspected that the sour looks many of them had stapled upon their faces hid some kind of appreciation for the job they actually did. After all, it's not just anyone that gets to go in and perform surgery. Even the most disgruntled worker has some iota of respect for that.

It's an all new world in there. The real struggles though have little to do with life and death. They are battles with yourself and how others interact with you. Cliques and pairings are only some of the similarities between the O.R. workplace and any other institution, but the egotism and placating that can be found in surgery makes Grey's Anatomy look like Sunday School.

So what approach would I suggest? Only this: nosce te ipsum. "Know thyself", and be true.

It's the precursor to a long life in surgery work. Once you fall into a crowd you could find yourself marked as one type or another, intentionally or not.

In surgery being yourself is always the best option since the people you will work with are so detail oriented, so astute, that they will ascertain the truth about you without your being aware of ever suggesting it. No lies, no sales pitches, no games. Nosce te ipsum.

3,000.

According to the Department of Defense, Spc. Dustin R. Donica, 22, of Spring, Texas, was killed Thursday by small arms fire in Baghdad. So, as the year 2006 came to a close the U.S. Military this latest loss for U.S. forces brings the total count of soldier deaths in Iraq to 3,000.

The American death toll since the start of the Iraqi invasion in March of 2003 was at 1,000 in September of 2004 and 2,000 by October 2005 according to a recent MSNBC article.

Meanwhile, President Bush continues to weigh his options toward a renewed or sustained campaign in the war torn region. Please!

There's been more weighing than in an entire season of The Biggest Loser (ironic title intended). If the President doesn't come to realize that with the change in congressional leadership because of the November elections, his dismal approval ratings (around 37%±2)and the increased pressure to change his stance from pundits, former Presidents and the U.S. people combined, he's looking at the worst, lame-duck Presidency of all time.

How will we remember W.? What will his legacy entail? First, let's see what can be done to prevent 4,000.

The New York Times has a fitting, and helpful database for those wishing to know more about each of the 3,000 soldiers killed in the line of duty.