Arkansas Blog

"Ahmadinejad seemed so familiar. His grasp of history seems so tentative. He gets booed
at an Ivy League school. He smirks a lot. He wants to visit Ground Zero, perhaps to get his
hands on some of that 9/11 political equity. He ties up traffic in New York. He is blind to the
whole gay thing. I know this guy. Where do I know this guy from?"

-- Alec Baldwin, trying to find a difference between Ahmadinejad and Bush

DBI, I hope I'm not stepping out of bounds by being too personal, but how's Ma? And how's she adjusting to life in a very different environment? Hopefully, the positives are outweighing whatever negatives there may be.

Never wake a sleeping baby as long as they are sleeping at night! Jennifer, time for a nap or perhaps a good night's sleep. As a "retard" person, please pardon the Arkansas dialect, I now nap when the 14 year old Pom naps. So glad I was a Mom........ learned how to take a nice nap when time permitted, and get up in the middle of the night when necessary ;) Sleep well and hubby also.

there is one thing about ahmadinejad that you won't see bush do is he took questions from a non screened ivy league audence of students. could you imagine the questions bush would get? he probably would have too look up words in the questions then try to figure the answers.

Was glad to see the LRSD Board agreeing most of the time. Wonder who got to Fox, Kurrus, and Berkley. The so called "Gang of Four" put aside differences and were willing to compromise. Kurrus was right - sorta. The loss of students will hurt financially. However, to alarm parents, teachers, and administrators at this point was unnecessary. $5 million is mere a drop in the bucket in the entire budget (available at lrsd.org). Why not cut out the "extra benefits" for working downtown? While $50 or $60 catered dinners for the Board, goodies at the Super's Roundtable won't make up the difference, but might go a ways to prevent closure of small neighborhood schools. It is time to see some cuts in the Admin rather than target schools. Will the cost of more busing justify the closure of smaller schools? I wonder.

The University of Arkansas Student Paper, The Traveller, today called for the firing of Coach Nutt.

here is some of it:
"In his nine seasons at the helm of the Razorbacks,
Nutt's teams have posted a winning record in
Southeastern Conference play only three times. He
currently has a 38-36 record in SEC games.

Nutt has led the Razorbacks to only two bowl wins in
those nine seasons. That should not be what Razorback
nation hopes to accomplish. That, ladies and
gentlemen, is mediocrity at its finest.

Think about this. After the 1983 season, Arkansas
fired Lou Holtz after the Razorbacks posted a 6-5
record. This was despite the fact that Holtz posted a
60-21-1 record in his seven seasons as head coach and
led the Razorbacks to bowl games in the previous six
years.

If Holtz was fired after going 6-5, why was Nutt not
dismissed after going 6-6 in 2000? Or after going 5-6
in 2004? Or after going 4-7 in 2005?"

More at:
http://media.www.thetraveleronline.com/media/storage/paper688/news/2007/09/28/Sports/Enough.Is.Enough.Its.Time.For.A.Change-2998210.shtml

I've been working on that series I wrote on my trip up to DC for the ANSWER coalition and Iraq Vets For Peace Stop the War march back on 9/15...feel free to check out the progress so far. Click my name...plenty of pics and commentary for you to enjoy and find out more about the condition of democracy in this country. It's not dead, but it's gasping. That's my prognosis.

durangokid, thanks for asking. Ma in the rest home is a rocky thing. If only her mind would go the route of her body, it might be a good thing. She is not happy, not terribly unhappy, but about as happy as a clear minded person would be in any rest home. Surrounded by people who holler and mumble and grown, many who don't know if they are a bird or a piece of oak firewood.

Her roommate is a pleasant younger woman who eats 3 man-sized helpings at every meal, snacks constantly between meals, has non-stop diarrhea and never gains an ounce. Something about that and the morphine shots she gets spells goner to me. The old lady next door screams PLEASE HELP ME as long as she's awake.

The food isn't bad, but some of it is totally unidentifiable. Ma's main complaint is that pushing the call button is like whistling at Helen Keller. No one comes from an hour. The people that work there are very sweet, but prone to saying I'll be right back and never being seen again. They work hard and take power smoke breaks outside apparently every 20 minutes.

We are pretty easy to please, so I haven't attacked anyone with a mop, but there are days I swear I hear God telling me to smother Ma with a pillow and end the madness. The total bill each month is $3,500.00 of which Ma's SS check kicks in a thousand, the State the rest. Your Mom can live like this too if 3 years before she falls or strokes out, you have her sign over her house and car and get rid of any stocks, bonds, savings or anything else of value. In our case, Ma was a hippie and collected no moss rolling down the hill, or to put that in English, Ma had nothing so we didn't have to play Hide The Assets when she got sick.

But for those of you out there with elderly parents, your choices of what to do when they get sick, never to get well again, is for them to be filthy rich and able to afford $3,500.00 per month out of their pocket for as long as they live, you write the check out of your funds for as long as they live, take them to live in your house with you, play Hide the Assets 3 years before the need for a rest home bed, or watch them sign everything over to the government at which time your parent will receive 40 bucks a month to buy cigarettes, Playboys and tooth paste. In other words, wind up in the same shape as a wino who never had a job.

This is the poor mans Death Tax and not only does it effect scads more people, but rather than the government taking half your assets after you die, they take ALL your assets while you're alive. It's fairly depressing, but I don't have any ideas how to make it better. Wouldst that we all enjoy a great life and then fall over dead at 85....during sex.

Rest home living.....is way not good. But almost 3 years of round the clock care of a sick old person on a slow continuous slide down hill has nearly killed me. Mom is in the rest home to stay, so when she says something about coming back home I quickly change the subject to the ducks in the lake behind the building, or I pretend to have a coughing fit or suddenly need something out of the car. And I have it lucky...Ma isn't a whiner or a cryer or a begger or prays that Jesus should take her.......god....I'd just die if she was like that. But several of the inmates do all of the above...and I have to pretend I need something out of my car when they start that up.

At times taking care of a sick old person is like Jennifer Barnett Reed taking care of her 9 week old. But the difference....the big big big difference is that the baby rewards you nearly every day with a look, a smile and as the months pass they roll over and sit up, start to crawl and talk.......this doesn't happen with sick old people, their type of reward is a firm, but not too firm bowel movement, hopefully one they sense ahead of time, before it's too late to get to the stool.

Lordy! Could I be more depressing? But....take heed...we all at least started out with parents and until it happened to me, I never dreamed the end of my mother's life would be so 24 hours a day tragic, upsetting and filled with endless hard work and worry. Outside of successfully playing Hide The Assets, there is nothing one can do to prepare in case of an elderly parent health care disaster. It's like Russian Roulette, who'll get the click and who'll get the BANG?

So run....live......rejoice in this beautiful fall weather and worry on another day! And I hope Jennifer Barnett Reed beautifies this blog with a picture of the little one in the near future.

Well put DBI, and it is just as you say it is. My ma didn't play hide the stuff, real and liquid, so the gubbermint got a big chunk at $5000 per month for a semiprivate. But they did have live entertainment two days a week, mostly church groups.

Hope many of you watched the Bill Moyers special tonite (PBS) on nursing-rest homes. Seems big player investors have set their sights on them. Come in reduce staff, jack up rates, get them very profitable then turn them for nice, fat profits without a care for the thousands of ma's in there. In some cases the nursing staffs were reduced by 50%. That could be happening at your ma's home and that could be why the "be right back" never happens.

Once upon a time people like David Pryor did investigations into nursing homes resulting in public scrutiny of their practices and setting some standards. Time for such a thing all over again.

It's really disgraceful for this nation to tax a person for 45 years or longer then make them carrion
for vulture investors. But just so long as we take care of zygotes which haven't developed.

I saw the numbers yesterday for the projected shortage of nursing homes in the next 20 years. It's staggering. Any candidates talking about it? Nope they talk about how many more years we will spend $12 Billion a month in Iraq, not on nursing programs or loans to build nursing homes.
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FortSmith Observer.....the student paper has his SEC record wrong. I think as of today he is 38-38.

Thanks, DBI. I realize that things could be worse, but still I wish the load could be a bit lighter for you guys. You're right, though; there simply comes a time when an elderly parent's needs become too intense for the family to meet without help. Never doubt that you've done the best thing by placing Ma in the home.

Somewhat like eLwood's mom, my mother was in a private pay, private room facility for five years and was monitored closely by staff. But still those days were far from easy, so I can relate very much to everything you are experiencing.

I hope others who have yet to travel this road have listened closely and made careful note of what you've shared here. It's never too early to begin preparing for "the day."

The Stupidity of "Abstinence-Only"

Recently a major car company has appropriated the term "Duh" in an attempt to sell cars. They call it the "Big Duh" sale - meaning their cars are supposedly so good that to buy one is a "no-brainer."

Well, a better use of the term has come up.

A recent University of Oxford study of thirteen trials involving sixteen thousand American teenagers shows that, when it comes to preventing HIV infection, "abstinence-only" programs are as effective as . no program at all.

Duh.

On the other hand, the same Oxford geniuses found that comprehensive sex education programs which encourage condom use are highly effective at reducing HIV transmission.

Big Duh.

Of course, I don't expect the proponents of "abstinence-only" to suddenly change gears. But there are already signs that ordinary folks will be making a change. Earlier, an Ohio school board decided to incorporate condom use in its sex-ed programs, in response to alarming teen pregnancy rates.

And in recent surveys, asking detailed questions about what parents want their kids to learn, the results favor a comprehensive approach over a doctrinaire one filled with frightening myths and false hopes.

Of course, we can't expect this to happen easily or quickly. So many of the abstinence advocates will keep pushing, in spite of the evidence. They are, after all, true believers. The message we have to give is one which John Adams said over two hundred years ago: "Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence."

And the facts are plain. Parents ultimately prefer their sons and daughters to be smart and happy rather than mindlessly obedient, healthy rather than sick, and alive rather than dead. And America's teens, when given the right information, are more likely to keep out of harm's way.

Duh. Big Duh.

Didja see where 21.7 million pounds of ground beef is being recalled?

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/09/29/beef.recall.list/index.html

Notice on the list of recalled product that none of the companies have unionized local butchers. They're all those sweatshop Walmart clones.

And no, I'm neither union nor a butcher. But, when we followed Raygun's lead and declared jihad on unions we began slowly cutting our own throat, in ways that we couldn't even begin to foresee 2+ decades ago.

Raygun's legacy will be the death of the American way of life.

DBI's wish is my command. If he were a French bulldog puppy I'd post his picture on the front page, but since he is a mere human child, you'll have to click on my name.

Well I'm union and you're right 70%er, Raygun pretty much busted the unions (along with public complacency)...which were the backbone of most middle-class families. Both sides of our families were able to work themselves out of 'poor, but those days are gone. When I was growing up it was the union that made sure my welder father had insurance and protection from predatory employers (the kind that want no agencies like OSHA looking over their shoulders). Eye/dental care were the rule not the exception; and he wasn't given a token title and forced to work 60 hours for a 40-hour paycheck. He worked just as hard as those who're working today without the barest of benefits, or guarantee of a fair-day's work for a fair-day's pay. When my father-in-law retired from AP&L with an earned retirement/benefits, he was also the last of a dying bread.

DBI...My in-laws are fast approaching all those inevitable quality of living questions. These two people are the hardest working, most frugal people I know. They can live on $30,000 a year and save half of it...and they're able to do that because they do without most of the things I think are necessary. But because of the extreme poverty of their youth (Concord Arkansas was a very poor place in the 30s/40s) they've worked hard to leave a little to each of their three boys (who have no interest in taking anything from their parents). They even have every funeral item picked out/paid for (has to be a Southern tradition to take a Sunday drive to show your children your plots). But because their honest, devote Christians the odds are everything they have will go to the government...and that's not necessarily a bad thing; if they received the quality of care commensurate with what they've given to this country (he's also a WWII vet with battle-ship stories that are hilarious...poor boys who'd never left Concord have a unique view of their life on ship).

Yes Lwood, I wish we had a several David Pryor's. We certainly don't need anymore like that offspring of his. I became a devote fan when he took on the IRS gestapo. He's pretty much responsible for most of the taxpayer protections that exist today. (At one time the IRS could do what Homeland Security/monkeyboy do today...toss out habeas corpus and lock up whomever they want...and wait for you to prove your innocence).

Z, sadly junior Pryor fell too far from the tree or had a bicycle accident which cost him dearly.

He's idiomatic of what's happened. No balls, go along to get along. Let the Rovians and Rayguns' henchmen set the agenda.

My parents were much like yours- frugal beyond our imagination and it was the depression that did it to most of them.

The U.S. Dollar hit its lowest peak ever yesterday. That should tell people where we are headed. Better start flattening out those tin cans (plastic bottles ?) to repair the roof.
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Meant to ask if Pippen was still bouncing off walls, Lwood? Turns out our free stray has an allergy to chicken (found after two doctor visits and much house cleaning) and is now doing great on prescription venison. I didn't know they made venison dog food; and certainly never had a dog that required prescription food. (My former mutts ate whatever came their way and never missed a beat.) It also turns out that one form of chicken or another is in just about every commercial dog treat. He's not my Lucky; but he's not s'pose to be!

Pippin does thank you for inquiring. She's turned into a lovin spoonful. She spends as much time curled under my desk as I do on top of it. Right now she's whining, about to snap at me cause the squirrels out side the window are making her crazy. So for now it's gonna be her 3rd walk for the day.
She's a Parsons Russel Terrier and I could not recommend one too much. Always playful with children and she loves cats, about two of them per day. Keeps food costs real low.
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AWWWWWWWWWW WHAT A BEAUTIFUL BABY BOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

DAD AIN'T BAD EITHER.....

Welcome to the world Jack! And with such fine looking parents and relatives, little Jack's going to be a fine looking guy, is already....too bad my girls are too old for him. He's gonna need a sister in a few years, so pencil that in. Thanks for pushing him out for the world to see! Who knows...he might grow up to be the savior of Arkansas some day. Come on Jack......get us out of 49th!

Well, hey that 66-7 Razorback win tonight should put an end to the coaching controversy once and for all. But fear not for lack of excitement, since there are lots of unhappy football fans elsewhere. Team performance ain't what the armchair coaches think it oughta be, ya know, and there's also been questionable behavior by coaches that have caused a big stir. Imagine that.

A few nearby examples for the uninformed: Coach Franchione is under fire at Texas A&M after discovery of his secret emails selling insider information to a small and select group of supporters in exchange for $1,200 checks that went to underwrite Franchione's Web site.

Over at Stillwater, Mike Gundy, coach of the Oklahoma State Cowboys really lost it at Monday's press conference, going into a tirade and blasting a female reporter who wrote a story saying the OSU quarterback lost his starting spot because he wasn't tough enough and that he might transfer.

Down at Austin today, the fans were booing the Longhorns and Coach Mack Brown during the 41-21 loss to Kansas State. And there was lots of booing in Lincoln last week after the Cornhuskers squeaked by lowly Ball State 41-40.

And, hey, the $4 million man at Tuscaloosa lost another one tonight, the second loss in a row for St. Nick. The message boards down there are already lighting up, making one wonder how long the Saban honeymoon will last.

Who in his or her right mind would want to be a friggin' coach? Even Bobby Stoops may be wondering after his #4 Sooners lost to unranked Colorado today. And poor Charlie Weis is still winless at Norte Dame.

If you want to see the Gundy outburst at Stillwater, click my name. It's a helluva show!

66-7 isn't a win. It was a gimme from the git-go. HDN better be picking his perks for his next job.

I am convinced that the time of Houston's departure is near, no matter what his teams do. The way of the world, I guess.

I think, however, the kiddies at the UA student newspaper may eventually find that the SEC of today is not the SWC of yesterday. It is true that Texas, A&M, Houston and SMU all had good runs at one time or another, but (in my opinion) the Hogs never played season-in-and-season-out against the likes of todays LSUs, Floridas, Auburns and Tennessees (title winners in Nutt's tenure, except for the Plainsmen, who believe they wuz robbed). It's a matter of dispute, but I don't think Georgia or South Carolina are exactly Rice, Baylor, TCU or Tech, either.

Does that mean the UA should accept and expect mediocrity? Of course not. Does it mean that comparing 21st Century SEC Coach's record at Arkansas to that of a coach a couple of decades ago probably is no more instructive than harkening back to the glory years when the UA/UT dominated a segregated SWC while the NFL was chock full of black players? I think so.

The call for change may be valid. I don't think the comparison is.