Ahhhh Choo!

For those of you who don't live in Cottonwood country, this is what aggravates our allergies. This was taken a couple of days ago. Today we couldn't even see the grass. It looks just like someone trashed the yard with cotton balls.

Fortunately I'm not bothered by it. It's not like I don't have enough to contend with considering my back side and all! For those of us not bothered it's fun, but for those who are it's miserable. So here's to winds in the willows and everywhere else to blow it away!

What Do We Have To Do?

The public is furious about health care. Even more so when they saw the size of the bill and found many in Congress admitted they hadn't read it. Remember Nancy Pelosi telling us as soon as it was passed we'd find out what was in it?

How many months have passed? The public still doesn't like it even as the President is assuming the power to change things.

So now it's financial reform. Another two thousand page monstrosity. What's in this one? You guessed it. No one knows. They really don't get it. Yet Christopher Dodd who headed the effort had this to say according to the Washington Post.

"It's a great moment. I'm proud to have been here," said a teary-eyed Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.), who as chairman of the Senate Banking Committee led the effort in the Senate. "No one will know until this is actually in place how it works. But we believe we've done something that has been needed for a long time. It took a crisis to bring us to the point where we could actually get this job done."

I'm getting tired of the way these yahoos conduct business. How much pork are we going to find in this bill? How many 'Louisiana Purchases' or bribes like Ben Nelson from Nebraska negotiated? Be sure they're in there.

You know what we get with sloppy legislation? We get six year old girls on the no fly list and can't find out why or how to get off. We get police tasering an 86 year old bed ridden woman.

What's to be done when we're told it's the way Congress works. Period. Live with it. I guess I will but it would be nice to know what it is before rather than after the fact!

When Sciatica Isn't Sciatica

For five years and counting I've been going to doctors trying to find out what has been causing nearly debilitating pain through my buttocks and down my leg. As years passed the pain increased and crept steadily down my leg to the point where my knee doesn't work without a wince of pain and pause to let it pass.

Five years. I think I've taken every muscle relaxant, anti-inflammatory and pain killer known to man. All to no avail. Everyone was convinced it was a back problem and I was convinced it wasn't since the pain emanated from my hip. Finally, my pain doctor, who is an anesthesiologist by training, and my acupuncturist told me it was indeed not a back problem. It was a muscle and nerve problem. Something called Piriformis Syndrome. A malady where the piriformis muscle is pinching the sciatic nerve. I apparently am a text book case.

Five years. My family practitioner at the outset told me nothing showed on the x-ray so there was really nothing to treat. A specialist had looked at an MRI and found some torn muscles in the region but nothing on which to perform to do surgery so take a pill and call in a month. Chiropractors, massage therapists. physical therapy - no one focused on the area I insisted was where the pain began.

Five years. An anesthesiologist and an acupuncturist. Even with the pain specialist I've gone through a pot full of pills and shots to no avail. It took awhile to pin point the problem though I think I explained it as well as the journal he showed me. One more shot is on tap. Botox. Hub is having a fine time with that one. Botox in my butt! It is funny. The pain isn't. The theory is that Botox will relax the muscle big time and release the pinch in the nerve. One hopes! Meantime physical therapy, especially stretches of that muscle, continues on and on and on.

Five years of having my life like nickel and dimed away by a lack of diagnosis and ineffective treatment. Funny, there is so much about the ailment on the Internet you'd think the doctors would have thought of it! Talk about having to be master of yourself and tenacious! If you don't want to settle for "there's nothing there" you've got to push and push and push.

One more shot. I hope it's not in the dark.

Not So McChrystal Clear

Subordination, it was said. Not as much as sheer stupidity. Having read the Rolling Stone article, I found the offensive comments to be no more than what most of the military who are frustrated with these unending conflicts might say to one another in their bull sessions. To relay it to a reporter is sheer stupidity. Or is it?

McChrystal surely marches to his own drummer just as does our President. As a military man, however, the President is his Commander-In-Chief. He is to serve. Not critique unless asked to do so. Which I'm certain he was on many occasions. Coming up on the short end of his requests, I wonder if this whole episode was designed to make public just what the upper echelons of the military think of the ambassadors, the Vice President and even the President. The whole mess. Even at the cost of a career. Never mind that he'll make millions on the lecture circuit.

McChrystal wasn't my favorite General. He was the one who decided to do away with the base fast food outlets that were such a reminder of home for the troops. It was under his command that the troops were to be awarded medals for restraint. Don't shoot unless you're sure a body is really a combatant. Come on! That's no way to fight a war. WAR!

Regardless of my opinion, McChrystal is a General of some note. The President can ill afford to be shown as weak or wrong, especially with his ratings as low as they are. He can accomplish that all by himself. It is not the General's place to do so. Discipline is essential. Chain of command is essential.

The days of Patton and Montgomery as showboating military leaders are long gone. War has been politicized to the extent, just like Obama's commission on the oil spill, that there are too many fingers with no appropriate expertise in the pie. Obama promised to listen to his generals. He may have listened but he didn't hear. The McChrystal incident shows the outcome of the thinking because of it.

For better or worse, the war is now truly Obama's. He can no longer blame any of it on Bush. The generals are his, the ambassadors are his and the strategy is his. What he now needs to do is get them on the same playing field and quit letting Karzai captain the team.

Who's Lying?

You cannot prove a negative. Senator John Kyl, R-AZ, said at a recent town hall meeting that he had a meeting with the President in the Oval Office where no one else was present.

The topic was border security. Supposedly the President told him that if the border was secured he'd have no leverage with Republicans for comprehensive immigration reform. The White House has said the President said no such thing. One of them is lying. It has come to this. What a disgustingly sad state of affairs.

But let's look at it. We know the Republicans and the administration are on different planets on this. The Republicans want to do it piece meal. Secure the borders then tackle what to do with the illegals already in the country. The Democrats want to do it in one fell swoop.

First of all, we have no idea if the President was really this candid or not if no one else was present. Therefore the White House denial holds no weight. On the other hand I can't imagine the President being quite so up front with a member of the opposition, even in private. Kyl, on the other hand can't prove the President actually said what he is attributing to him. In my opinion that makes it a wash.

We know from experience the President is not the "decider" Bush was. Right or wrong. Telling Larry King, of all people, We've already put more resources into border security than we ever have." doesn't mean squat when the illegals are still streaming across the border. More does not equate with doing what the law requires. Suing the state for trying to pick up the slack doesn't either.

Knowing the administration is for comprehensive reform or nothing it would seem Kyl's recollection of the conversation bears consideration. That the President would tip his hand that he plans to use border security as a bribe for votes seems unlikely though I have no doubt that is the game plan.

That either should lie about it or deny the substance of it is of value only if the administration thinks it can bully comprehensive reform through just as they did health care. Looking at how many Democrats are defecting on lesser issues and you'll see the flaw in that thinking.

I have little respect left for either side on a host of issues at this point. Incidences like this don't help. It just sticks in my craw that we have to play the "did too", "did not" game on such important issues.

When the President indicated that if the CEO of BP worked for him he'd be fired because of his handling of the oil spill, I might remind him that he works for me. Enough said.