short notes:<br> will brady's ruminations: 2005/06/12

short notes:
will brady's ruminations

2005-06-15

ERECTILE DYSFUNCTION | ADVERSE SIDE EFFECTS
A couple of weeks ago I ventured a guess that a page in the New Yorker would become a much read article [I thought it would become a "runaway hit"] | Chinese Arithmetic, outlining as it does, the life-long

embarassing problems faced by a man who suffered throughout life as an incurable horn dog | I laughed out loud while reading the piece, but as I reflected upon the article's content, the more troubled I became about what I'd read |
Clearly the article had been cribbed from someone's confidential medical case files | I began to be troubled that the article's "author" [quite evidently a faked name, given that he's stealing from a patient's medical record] sought to make fun of someone with a serious medical condition | The whole episode rankled my patient advocate professional core | I had to speak out! So I wrote to the New Yorker in anger and disgust | Thus far, that magazine, which I once respected, has not admitted to its wrongs and I have not seen my courageous letter published, which takes that tome to task | Thank God for the Internet! I can expose this disturbing wrong | You might want to read the offensive article Chinese Arithmetic first, so as to better understand my perturbation with the New Yorker | That said, I share with you, dear reader, my letter which the New Yorker has been too arrogant to print |

Re: Chinese Arithmetic [published on 30 May 2005
     It is with disappointment and dismay that I read excerpts from a confidential clinical case record [were they purloined?] of a defenseless patient with an embarrassing and disabling chronic condition as published in Shouts and Murmurs the week of 30 May 2005.
     Publishing confidential medical information violates a patient's basic rights to privacy as protected by US federal HIPAA regulations(1). The document provided millions of readers with clearly identifiable information about the patient.
     Making matters worse, the use of vernacular speech, coined phrases, and gutter talk mixed with proper clinical terminology violates the standards and protocols of the Joint Commission for the Accreditation of Health Care Organization [JCAHO](2). To cite but one egregious example "...then they started wearing those thong dealies..."
     This magazine has thus recklessly exploited yet another helpless victim of this hugely tragic, embarrassing condition. Consider, you can't walk upright! Oddly, the clinician's documentation from the patient's chart failed to provide the proper nomenclature for the patient's condition. A Priapic episode is both a painful and embarassing condition, made all the worse by current social stigmas against its sufferers. While similar to the lesser known condition of Semen Toxicity Syndrome [STS], the actual impact on the sufferer is much more severe since those with STS have found ways personally of lessening their aggravation, so to speak.
     Even worse, I'm certain the clinician who wrote it has faked his name. Never, have I seen "Ian Fraizer" cited in the important [and upstanding] professional journals that report on this malady.
     The liberal media must cease their ruthless exploitation of yet another disenfranchised population. All for a cheap joke, "Chinese Arithmetic" continues to harden Society's attitudes toward its sufferers and stiffen their resolve to discriminate against us.
Will "Woody" Brady

CITATIONS: citations: 1- US Department of Health & Human Services, Office for Civil Rights - HIPAA Medical Privacy Act: National Standards to Protect the Privacy of Personal Health Information; 2- Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations [JCAHO] Standards of Accreditation/Certification |

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YOU'VE GOT MAIL : SPAM
Too little corespondence |      What do Krista Hunter , Elvia Goode , Garry Isaac , Calvin Wynn and Carolyn Snider all have in common? In the past 48 hours they have all personally to assist me in obtaining a mortgage even if I have "Ba(d credit, Bank*ruptcy? Doesn't matter, low rates are fixed no matter what!" and they all apparently don't know that each are contacting me even though they al seem to work for http://www.sllly.com/ | Gosh! Silly. Now that's a name that makes me feel secure about borrowing |
     Eunice Frye only offered to help me refinance |
     I fear I'm being slighted by the Nigerian bank transfer scammers | mr. Charles Brown. 24 river lane government reserved area, Abuja. [Private Telephone + 234 803 881 4129] was the only one recently to ask me for assistance in transferring millions of dollars via wire transfer for $12,000,000 [USD] after his client "...and his wife with their three children were involved in an auto clash, all occupants of the vehicle unfortunately
lost their lives..." on 6 june 2000 | Mr. Brown said "...i guess my letter will not embarrass you, since i have no previous correspondence with you. i strongly believed, i would not regret approaching you in this matter. " | No regrets at all, and why should I be embarassed? | I'll take the money now |
     But the phone number you provided doesn't work so in an effort to contact Mr. Brown more quickly [perhaps you are reading my page | Don't worry, hardly anyone else does, this isn't KOS or Wonkette for gosh sakes! | I have so much faith that nobody reads this site that ~ in order to get the process started and get my 40% [approx $5,000,000] quicker, I'm putting my bank routing number here [00771238 56433 28604] because I really, really REALLY need the money badly | Thank you in advance Mr. Brown |
     I so love taking part in consumer surveys and was very disappointed to be excluded from one pitched only to women interested in "...topics such as home electronis, healthcare, styling and holidays... | I remain disappointed that I did not get any offers to increase the I.Q. potential of my penis, or the size of my shoes |
     Overall, I've gotten less than 64 spam mails in the past couple days | What's wrong with you? Has my "do not call list" application actually worked? |

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NEW PLACES TO VISIT
Well, new to me at least |
Nightmare Hall | A daily blog [pretty much] written by an anonymous man known only as "The Dreamer" | He's known he's been HIV+ since 1985, served in the Navy during the Vietnam Era, is a thoughtful soul who has to good sense not to rely upon Faux News and Bushco Media for his information bytes | It'll keep you informed about current myths and insights into a life lived Blue-State style |
Blog Critics | An irreverent site that "...covers music, books, film, TV, video, politics, technology, the Internet, just about everything. We can always use reviews, news and commentary on any of these subjects, or pretty much anything that is interesting and well-written..." and self describes itself as "a sinister cabal of superior bloggers on music, books, film, popular culture, politics and technology." | Works for me |

Finally, Connie sends me this: Inspirational Flash Movies | Ever wonder where that powerpoint or Flash Videos come from that one of your cubicle co-workers e-mailed you with hazy woodland scenes and marquee style renderings of Rod McEwen type poetry came from? | This could very likely be the place | Produced by a Singaporan man who worked IT and financial services with Morgan Stanley, writes about Globalization and Terrorism from a perspective I'd never have thought about, and says this site is " the values, emotional and service side of my work" |

¶ 22:19 0 comments

GITMO
To be given the Git Go? | Two different bloggers, with two diffeent perspectives, announce the announcement shutting down of Guantanamo International Prison |
First, Michael Berube has discovered that Dubya plans on "Disassembling" Gitmo by the end of the month of June | Said the President, “To disassemble—that means to take apart” | The reasons for this sudden turn-around are both incredible and reveal some astounding ~ albethey, refreshing changes ~ that we might expect from Dubya's White House in the coming months |
According to Berube's sources

...White House press secretary Scott McLellan suggested in a briefing that the Bush administration had recently obtained “credible” evidence that “rogue scientists” were surreptitiously conducting stem-cell research at the Guantánamo facility.
“Apparently a group of independent contractors got the idea that they could exploit and destroy human embryos in an offshore location,” McLellan told the press. “The President opposes such research, as I’m sure you well know, because he feels that it is destructive of the culture of life he has tried to foster in his term of office.”
An administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, indicated that the so-called “rogue scientists” had descended on Guantánamo in stages over the past two years, and had conducted a series of controversial experiments involving the remediation of spinal cord injuries among the camp’s inmates.

     Read the rest for the details about the newly exposed stem cell reseach scandal at Gitmo |
     Then, American Digest reports that GW Bush has made a pact with the newly innocent Michael Jackson to convert Neverland into an interment camp for young Arab detainees, thereby providing a clear plan for the disassembling of Gitmo |
     President Bush, in a hastily called news conference said: "Upon being found not-guilty of playing too rough with his boy-toys, Mr. Jackson telephoned me from his Suburban and offered to take some of my younger Arab prisoners off my hands."
     "Using the congressional negotiating skills which my administration has become known for, I immediately caved in to his request and offered up every single one of my 520 fat and happy Arab boys to his tender mercies. To me this is the very best example of the private sector stepping in to do the job that big government cannot do for itself."
     Read the rest about this astounding victory for justice |

     Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia made a separate announcement, indicating that these major information coups coming from both lefty and "right thinking" bloggers, offer "...clear evidence supporting that bloggers should be recognized as journalists and highlight the critical importance of journalists' need to shelter their anonymous sources..." |

¶ 08:18 0 comments

PART OF THE BUZZ

Things I find while rummaging about online |
     ATypical Joe gives an update on Lynch Mobs and the century and a half late apology from Congress | Steve Gillard's News Blog weighs in on lynching also |
     The American Library Association warns about expansion of the so-called Patriot Act |
     David Gwynne, after years of threatening to, finally moves out of San Francisco |
     Historic importance takes on new relevance at The Recent Past Preservation Network |
     The Pasadena, CA urban homestead project that is the Path To Freedom Journal proudly shows of fresh tomatoes and brags about making pesto this early in the season [well, early, certainly, for New England]
     A group of researchers from Rutgers and LaSalle Universities publish a report asserting there's a positive emotional reward to growing flowers |
     Outside Magazine exposes the 20 dirtiest anti-environment loudmouths whose names and modus operendi you really need to know about |
     Wetass Chronicles brings to light a group of low-risk surfers for the only semi-adventuresome |
     Folks over at the Greasy Skillet discover the joys of black + white photography and report as much ak DCE's flickr site
     ...and that colored fella renders some serious thoughts about the Impeachment Option

¶ 00:30 0 comments

2005-06-14

BIKE TRIP | CANCER AWARENESS

Two young adventurers have begun a cross-country bicycle trip in honor of one their father's passing from cancer | Their efforts ~ and the reason for the trek, are highlighted as such:

     In memory of my father, James P. D’Alessio, who passed away on Easter of 2005, I, Matt D’Alessio of Manchester, NH and my close friend Dave Adams of Hamden, CT, plan to ride our bicycles from Yorktown, VA to Florence, OR this summer. This journey was a dream of my father’s and it was his own planning that inspired Dave and I to continue organizing the trip.
     My father died of esophageal cancer which he fought for two and a half years. He was able to maintain a stable lifestyle through most of his battle but in his last month at age 52 the disease became insurmountable.
     As part of my father’s wishes, a fund has been set up in his own name at Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston Massachusetts, where he received most of his care.
     This fund will collect donations, including my father’s own money, specifically for research of esophageal cancer, a disease relatively un-researched compared to other cancers.
     The purpose of our bike trip, above fulfilling my father’s dream to ride cross-country, is to draw attention to the James P. D’Alessio Esophageal Cancer Fund at Dana Farber Cancer Institute. |

Already the duo have been called "morons" by one of the moronic locals in eastern Virginia | I hope they get better encouragements as the journey progresses | We'll be keeping track |

¶ 01:00 0 comments

CELL PHONE ART
A domestic scene |

Taken this evening in the library; so named because of the built in bookshelves |

¶ 00:49 0 comments

2005-06-13

NEWSPAPER DELIVERY
Hey Mr + Mrs Suburbia!! | Do you know your paperboy these days? | Do you even think about who delivers the daily local rag? | Most people probably don't | Maybe you ought to | If you did, you'd have a better sense of how Big Media profits off the backs of exploited workers |
Take the

Chicago Tribune Corporation, for example | The Trib and its family of newspapers rely upon a network of "independent motor route carriers" to deliver the dailies they print | In Connecticut, that local daily paper is the Hartford Courant | The Courant makes liberal use of the "independent contractor" method of employment |
These "contractors" get paid by the number of papers they deliver | In addition, they may get some stipend for mileage on their own

vehicles [not company trucks] They might be offered extra hours per day to audit paper routes and check on delivery tubes ...since they can't put papers in mail boxes |
     "Contractors" are expected to be up by 0300 hours to deliver anywhere from 200 to 400 [average] papers often in a disbursed area | If they miss delivering one paper, or are late in completing the deliveries, the contractor is penalized for finishing late | Most have to have thier delivery routes completed no later than 0700 hours, so commuting middle management types can grab the paper before leaving for the office |
     On some occasions, an "independent carrier" will be offered the opportunity to deliver maybe a thousand [or more] free Sunday papers to target market areas | The contractor paid at so much per paper delivered, plus an additional 5 cents per paper if they put them together themselves | If lucky, the "contractor" might collect $14 an hour, before deducting gas and mileage and if they don't take any time off to eat that day | Realistically speaking, the take home pay for one of these "contractors" will come to ~ maybe ~ eight dollars an hour |
     Some of the "independent carriers" who take up this extra money offer are single mothers | They bring along their children [who aren't paid] to put together the papers at a Tribune/Courant owned distribution site before taking off to deliver the papers |
     They receive no health insurance or pension benefits | Social Security isn't even a component of the "deal" they sign up for | There's no vacation time | They are expected to work 7 days a week, 365 days a year | If the deliverer's car breaks down, and someone else gets called in to pick up the route until repaired, they lose any pay they hoped to make that week |
     Further distancing the delivery crews from human interaction, the Trib papers conveniently bill you by mail [or e-commerce, these days] so you don't have to wait around to give the paperboy the 5 or 7 dollars a week delivery fees | All the easier to neglect tipping the "contractor" since, sometimes, your paper gets here late |
     Let's be real folks, when you are spending all your working hours doing labor for a single client, when you are not making enough to even be above the poverty level [much less feel your family or pay medical expenses] you are NOT independent | Say what you will about WalMart's exploitive wage slavery tactics | America's News Media giants are in the same business when it comes to "employing" wages slaves |
     The corporate execs ought to be ashamed, but I suspect they don't even care |

PICTURE CREDITS: Chicago Tribune Tower by Michael Chiang and found at Treefrog Web |

¶ 23:22 0 comments

CELEBRITY

Jacko Innocent? | Who knows what to think? | The Face speaks volumes about what steps to self-abuse one is willing to take to live out one's fantasy life | And yet... we don't know whether or not he gets to do so | Whatever path the metaphorically peripatetic Mr. Jackson chooses to travel, to me he'll just be like another Howard Hughes; odd, and out of touch with all realities but his own, and we can't even be certain about that |
     But... innocent? | Well, perhaps, no one underaged has even touched his pee pee, but isn't that really beside the point? | The point being, that Mikey is just one totally weird sonofagun, and nothing will disspell that fact from me | He ought to just be thankful that he didn't go the route of Fatty Arbuckle |
     Finally, there is one facet to consider in this case ....perhaps the jurors thought he was just too bizarre to have the worst of the worst inmates in California subjected to his presence | Talk about cruel and unusual punishment | Indeed! | Or is it just one more case of getting the best jury that money can buy? |
     Your guess.

¶ 01:20 0 comments

2005-06-12

OTHER ARTISTS

Elizabeth Rosen has her work on exhibit at East Haddam's Village Gallery run by Hans Lohse and Chris DiErrico | The work is rich and vibrant with color | I got to chat with her, briefly, and compare notes on formal vs informal training | After I made a comment about some of her work [plays on 20th century artists, the vibrant colors, Caribbean "flavor" of some work] she commented that some have been surprised, upon meeting her, that she wasn't African American | Stereotyping creativity I suppose | I was particularly intrigued by some of her recent work, such as the one on the side of this column | She's been going to tag sales, buying quirky curios, talking with the folks selling the stuff, then making a "portrait" of the folks from the items she purchased at the sale |

The opening was at the Village Gallery, as noted | I'd had a long day, got home late missing Bruce and his mom's leave to the event | Stopped at home long enough to freshen up and change clothes | Then off to dinner at La Vita Gustosa with Bruce and Lynn afterwards going to the opening so I could people watch |
The setting was pleasant, at once cozy and sophisticated | Sitting on the side of the yard, the place looked every bit as cosmopolitan as P'Town or Rehobeth Beach | The second photo is the bar setup at the opening | Good times had by all |

SEE A CATALOG of the Elizabeth Rosen East Haddam Show | The exhibit will be on display until 22 july 2005 | Call 860-873-1792 for times and directions |

¶ 23:36 0 comments