http://members.shaw.ca/webwhore/Doctors.do...

So, there it is, my story from start to finish, as much as I remember, as it stands. If you feel like reading seven pages of complete and total incompetence, click on that link! If you want to learn about the sort of doctors who should be thrown off of bridges, click that link!

Seriously, I'm keeping a record because this is so out of control. and I'm about a day away from totally snapping and losing my fucking mind, literally, I have no idea how I've gone this god damn long without completely flipping my lid. Sure, I've broken down and become hysterical,but I haven't yet REALLY gone TOTALLY over the edge. And I will. I just wish that fucking asshole doctor could be around for it. PEOPLE CANNOT GO THIS LONG WITHOUT SLEEP IN THIS MUCH FUCKING PAIN. THEY CAN NOT.

I am SO FURIOUS and ANGRY and MAD and HURT and UPSET and DESPERATE and A MILLION OTHER THINGS.

And.
I.
HATE.
My.
Life.

And I'm really fucking scared.

This has taken me a long time to write, this post. I can't sit down here you see. So, I may or may not reply to you, and who knows when it will be. Please don't take it personally. My life is a fucking nightmare right now.

I just don't want there to be any concern, I don't know how long I will be in, and I will be incommunicado.

I've spent the last day and a half in bed. I cannot sleep, I cannot feed myself, bathe myself, or even really walk. I can't sit. I am no longer able to cope, so this is the only option left to me. Hopefully, with round the clock care, they will be able to find out what is wrong, as no one has yet been able to do.

I won't be checking back on this for who knows how long. Could be a day, or a week. I just thought some of you should know so that you wouldn't worry when I didn't respond or wasn't around in my various forms.

Thanks.

If Clinton is demanding the VP slot and will not support him without it, it is she who is dividing the party. Obama has the right, and the OBLIGATION TO HIS VOTERS, to choose a VP that he is comfortable with and that he believes will do the best possible job with him. Period. If he is coerced in to a choice, he is breaking faith. If he chooses her of his own volition, fine. But if she refuses to fully back him and encourage support, that is HER fault.

I have no dog in this race, but it's just silly to blame someone for being divisive and not uniting the party because he doesn't cave to blackmail, if that should be the case.


Unless what you're suggesting is that people who support Hillary will not support the Democratic Candidate, the one she backs and supports. In which case, it seems lose-lose.

And, lesson in math for you: There is no such thing as a bigger half.

http://funhouse.bubble.ro/1647/Best_Dance_... /

Seriously. I think those shows are mostly dumb, but that was amazing. If you find the first part boring, wait till about 0:40

I just wish they showed more dance and less screeching teenagers.

This thread will be of little interest to most of you. I don't say that to guilt or shame people in to responding, I don't expect or want that. I just honestly know it won't be. Very few people here are close enough to me that this will have any meaning. And that's ok. I just felt compelled to write this out, and doing it publicly will allow those who do care to read it without my constant repetition.

I feel like a completely different person, which probably goes to show I'm very much the same. My leg/knee is still a constant source of agony to me, and I have no answers. For the last four months, I have been childish. I kept refusing to accept my physical limitations, and somehow I also excused my laziness and defeat because of those limitations. I've never felt so depressed or alone in my life. I lashed out at people. I didn't trust myself, my feelings, my reactions. I didn't believe I could do anything.

That is not to say I can heal myself. The constant pain won't go away because of any choice I make. But, my self pity and defeat can. I've spent a lot of time reading, and sleeping, and being alone. Something in me broke, finally. I've tried to step outside of myself, and go on with my life as the person I am now, and the things I can do now. It sounds really stupid when I read over it. But, I was destroying myself over something that wasn't worthy of it. Not through any intentional act or choice, but my lack of action. My lack of choices.

So, I'm trying to move on. And I needed to be very much alone. I've missed my friends, but if they had been in contact with me at certain times, they wouldn't have missed me. I regret my selfishness and my lost time. But, better regret than continuing blindly.

I still hope to figure out what is wrong with me. To go back to my life without cane or crutches, without being heavily medicated. But I don't want pity, I'm tired of talking about how I am doing, as if all that affects my life is this part of my health. I'm tired of being asked, and constantly explaining. So I wont. I'll go on with life as I am able. I'll stop making myself miserable by comparisons to those who're better off, and stop making myself ashamed by comparisons to those with worse troubles.

It feels good to return to the land of the living.

Love ya, jerkface.

We've had em before, but now I actually have some. So let's do it again.








& more here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=4323...

Let's see yours!

and Batista himself, befriended the Mafia and corporations. This wealth flowed in to their pockets. His opponents, people who organized, were gunned down in the streets (see Antonio Guiteras). This is not a situation for Unions. He suspended the Constitution, and rights to strike. He completely reorganized the government to ensure that he and his cronies received the wealth flowing in from gangsters and the US. When rebellions happened, he ordered his soldiers to kill ten rebels for every lost solider. He sold contracts to the highest bidder with no regard to fairness, he pocketed 30% of profits, above and beyond what he siphoned off through the
government that should have been going to things like health and education for his people. His police force and military beat down students and shut down universities when they protested. The military police would patrol the streets at night and pick up people that could possibly be organizing anything that the government didn't like. They were arrested and tortured. José A. Echeverría was killed for making a radio broadcast. Frank País was killed for organizing for change.

This is not a situation for unions. You can not just introduce the idea of unions in that kind of political system. It doesn't work. You'd get shot, or disappeared.

Now, lets look at unions in other Latin American countries:

The AFL-CIO and AIFLD work actively to take the teeth out of South American unions. George Meany, President of the AFL-CIO and also of AIFLD, boasted support from the "largest corporations in the United States . . . Rockefeller, ITT, Kennecott, Standard Oil, Shell Petroleum . . . Anaconda, even Readers Digest. . . and although some of these companies have no connection whatsoever to US trade unions, they are all agreed that it was really in the US interest to help develop free trade unions in Latin America, and that's why they contributed so much money".

J. Peter Grace, Chairman of the Board of AIFLD and also Chairman of the Board of the W.R. Grace Corporation, one of the ninety five transnational companies that back the Institute, applies the doctrine in tactical terms. Grace says AIFLD urges "cooperation between labour and management and an end to class struggle" and "teaches workers to increase their company's business". He says the goal of AIFLD is to "prevent communist infiltration, and where it exists . . . get rid of it".

And thus to an outline of their practise: AIFLD played an important role in the destruction of the Cheddi Jagan government in Guyana. They worked with massive funds, up to $800,000 in a country with less than a million people, funnelled through the Public Service International and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. At least eleven graduates of AIFLD's Front Royal, Virginia Centre were maintained on a payroll to organise the riots and company union opposition to the leftist head of government.

In the Dominican Republic, where AIFLD worked to unseat the government of Juan Bosch and tried to organise labour support backing the 1965 US invasion, they have continued to play a role towards stabilising the repressive status quo. One AIFLD plan in the Dominican Republic gives some insight into AIFLD "training". It called for "a stepped up propaganda and education campaign in addition to motorised brigades (vigilantes) . . . a specially trained mobile group of 'educator organisers' . . . used to confront and battle . . . the extreme left." In a specific reply to this charge, Director Doherty's Washington office says "AIFLD is glad to take credit for giving fraternal and material support".

http://www.counterpunch.org/scipes03292004...
Massive mobilizations, strikes, street conflict, hysterical mass media, social and economic disruption: Chile in 1972-73 Venezuela in 2002-04.

The AFL-CIO is once again on the scene, this time in Venezuela, just as it was in Chile in 1973. Once again, its operations in that country are being funded by the U.S. government. This time, the money is being laundered through the quasi-governmental National Endowment for Democracy, hidden from AFL-CIO members and the American public.

Once again, it is being used to support the efforts of reactionary labor and business leaders, helping to destabilize a democratically-elected government that has made major efforts to alleviate poverty, carried out significant land reform in both urban and rural areas, and striven to change political institutions that have long worked to marginalize those at the lowest rungs in society. And also like Allende's Chile, Venezuela's government under president Hugo Chavez has opposed a number of actions by the U.S. Government, this time by the Bush Administration.

ACILS-also known as the Solidarity Center-has overseen all of the AFL-CIO's foreign labor operations since 1997, centralizing a previously decentralized set of regional bodies that had long worked in Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America. These organizations, which played a key role in the Cold War, had a terrible affect in the developing regions of the world.

There is a consensus that ACILS' work under President John Sweeney has been considerably better than foreign operations carried out under previous AFL-CIO presidents George Meany and Lane Kirkland. But the continuing lack of transparency, accountability and even simple reporting to AFL-CIO members about ACILS has generated concerns among activists about what the organization actually does in the many countries in which it operates. Solidarity Center Director Harry Kamberis' background is not a typical labor background and looks suspiciously like CIA, which also adds to activists' unease. (See my report in Labor Notes, February 2004.).

Most of ACILS' funding comes from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), not the AFL-CIO. The NED was created by the Reagan Administration in 1983. One of the authors of the enabling legislation has said that NED was to do at least some of the work previously done by the CIA, albeit publicly: its talk appears progressive, but its actions are reactionary. One of the NED's initial directors was that well-known democrat, Henry Kissinger, Richard Nixon's point man in the campaign against Chile's elected president, Salvador Allende.

http://www.selvesandothers.org/article1040...
he UNT seeks to displace the Confederation of Venezuelan Labor (CTV), historically the dominant union body in the country. It aims to undo decades of decline by organized labor: Gil estimated that real wages in his plant haven’t risen in 18 years.
There is a history of union corruption in Venezuela-overwhelmingly within the CTV. In her book The Failure of Political Reform in Venezuela, the British academic Julia Buxton describes it as one of the “richest and most powerful union confederations in the world” in its heyday. <9> The CTV’s intimate ties with the political establishment allowed “for the illicit enrichment of union leaders, who acquired a personal interest for maintaining the model of party control,” she wrote. In fact, the Venezuelan state provided 90 percent of the funding for the CTV in the 1960s and 1970s. <10> The AFL-CIO’s ties to the CTV, moreover, have been among its closest with any foreign labor federation. This relationship has continued despite the CTV’s alliance with the forces that mounted the April 2002 coup-of which the CIA had foreknowledge-that was embraced by the Bush administration. <11> The AFL-CIO’s support for the CTV continued through the devastating oil industry lockout, and the strike that followed.

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Labor/AF...

http://www.workertoworker.net/afl_cio_fore...
Although not generally known by union members as it has been consciously hidden by its leaders, the AFL-CIO actually has a long-time foreign policy program that goes back to the days of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) during the 19-teens under then-president, Samuel Gompers. And, in fact, much of this foreign policy program--during Gompers' time but also since 1962--has been carried out in Latin America
This foreign policy program has been initiated and carried out behind the backs of American workers, although "in our name." The AFL-CIO has long been known to carry out a reactionary labor program around the world. It has been unequivocally established that they have worked to overthrow democratically-elected governments, have collaborated with dictators against progressive labor movements, and have supported reactionary labor movements against progressive governments (Scipes, 2000: 12; Shorrock, 2002, 2003; see, among others, Snow, 1964; Morris, 1967; Radosh, 1969; Scott, 1978; Spaulding, 1984; Barry and Preusch, 1986; Cantor and Schor, 1987; Weinrub and Bollinger, 1987; Armstrong, et. al., 1988; Sims, 1992; Scipes, 1996; Carew, 1998; Nack, 1998; and Buhle, 1999).

And while the AFL-CIO's regional organization, AIFLD (American Institute for Free Labor Development), was especially known for its involvement in events leading to the 1973 coup in Chile (Hirsch, 1974, n.d.; Scipes, 2000; Shorrock, 2003), what is less well known is it's long-standing ties with the Venezuelan CTV. In fact, according to labor journalist Lee Sustar,

Venezuela--a key focus of U.S. foreign policy since the oil boom of the 1920s--became Washington's counterweight to the Cuban Revolution of 1959. The headquarters of the AFL-CIO-initiated Inter-American Regional Organization of Workers (ORIT) was moved to Caracas. In 1962, Venezuela was the linchpin of the AFL-CIO's newly launched American Institute for Free Labor Development (AIFLD); the AIFLD board included both the AD leader Betancourt and his COPEI counterpart, Rafael Caldera. Next, in the mid-1960s, the AFL-CIO even provided funding for a CTV-owned bank. AIFLD chief Serafino Romualdi, later alleged to have been a CIA agent, called his relationship with Betancourt "the most fruitful political collaboration of my life." Romualdi helped engineer the expulsion of the Communist Party and other leftists from the CTV; elsewhere, AIFLD collaborated with the CIA and the State Department to undermine or overthrow Latin American governments opposed to the U.S. (Sustar, 2005; 3 see also Hirsch, 2005).

In other words, not only has the AFL-CIO had a long-standing foreign policy program, it long has been active in Latin America, and especially in Venezuela.

http://labornotes.org/node/230

http://labornotes.org/node/1307

In mid-March, Valmore Locarno Rodriguez and Victor Hugo Orcasita were riding the company bus from their jobs at the Loma coal mine in northern Colombia. Locarno and Orcasita were chairman and vice-chairman of the union at the mine.

The bus was stopped by 15 gunmen, some in military uniforms. They began checking the workers' identification, and when they found the two union leaders, pulled them off the bus.

One of the gunmen shot Locarno in the face, as his fellow workers watched in horror. Orcasita was taken off into the woods at the side of the road. There he was tortured. When his body was later found, his fingernails had been torn off.

Protesting the deaths, 1,200 miners at Loma stopped work. In Colombia, labor activism is often punished with death. By mid-May, 44 union leaders had been violently murdered this year alone. Last year assassinations cost the lives of 129 others. The National Labor School reports that 1,500 have been killed in the past decade. Out of every five unionists killed in the world, three are Colombian, according to a recent U.S. union report.

Last year the AFL-CIO called for ending military assistance to Colombia. Labor's strong reaction to the Colombian murders stands in contrast to its relative silence during the Reagan administration-sponsored wars in Central America in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

During that era, AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland tried to suppress criticism of U.S. foreign policy in union ranks and to stop local efforts to organize support for Salvadoran unionists.

During the cold war, Kirkland and other labor conservatives accused most Colombian unions of being too left-wing. In turn the Colombians, like many third world labor federations, accused the AFL-CIO of supporting only anti-communist unions which defended U.S. foreign policy.

http://www.venezuelafoia.info/ned-english....

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cf...

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cf...
For some time, there has been a lot of confusion outside Venezuela about what exactly has been happening there. How could progressives and trade unionists support the Venezuelan government despite its support of the poor through land reform and income redistribution and its attack on neo-liberalism and the FTAA---- given the dedicated opposition of the Confederation of Venezuelan Workers (CTV)? How, when there was a general strike, could we side with the government rather than workers? For trade union organisations, the problem has been even more difficult--- given the support for the CTV by international labour organisations (including the ILO). Nevertheless, as the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) noted in the statement issued by Ken Georgetti on 18 April last year after the defeated coup, the role of the CTV in that coup against the democratically elected government of Hugo Chavez raised serious questions about the character of the CTV and its place in the crony capitalism and sham democracy that had left 80 % of the population in poverty in an oil-rich nation.

Today, though, there should be no confusion. Because the CTV has been exposed as just an arm of the Fedecamaras, the Employers Association with which it has been allied-- in the coup and in the so-called general strike. A strange general strike, indeed. One in which workers in the oil industry (blue collar), electricity, transport, public sector, basic industries and the subway, among others, kept working. One in which workers were laid off by the conglomerates (the monopolies) and transnationals and told that they would get full pay for the period of the lock-outs--- only now to discover that this promissory note was dependent on the c! ompanies defeating the Chavez government. (They are being offered half-pay, loss of vacations, etc... and those that protest? They're in the queues at the Ministry of Labour filing complaints over their dismissals.)


How's that for a start? You could always learn about it for yourself. Do a little research. I find it tiresome to have to educate people who're too lazy to learn about a thing for themselves. Maybe you should bother to learn about this stuff before you decide what the solution is. I know this makes me an arrogant bitch, but it would be just as fair to call you an arrogant asshole for expecting people to educate you about your own opinions, and believing that the American solution is the worlds solution. So I guess we're even.

I know I shared a few pictures before, but I just got the CD from the photographers. If you're interested, I'd love to share it with you.
http://s259.photobucket.com/albums/hh290/g... /
There were around a thousand pictures. This is around 50.

Looking at these brought tears to my eyes. The way my sister and her husband looked at eachother, the joy on their faces, it's incredible. Nothing could have kept those two apart. Not cultural differences, family problems, religion issues, age difference, money, anything. They are so in love. It's amazing to see.

But, this means little to you as you don't know these people. However, the wedding was gorgeous. So much colour. The dance floor was PACKED the whole night. There were traditional dances, and then just partying. The ceremony was breathtaking. If nothing else, it's interesting for that.

Maybe it's just cause I'm a white girl and it's so new. But it was amazing, and I'm glad to share it, because it was the best wedding I've ever been to, the most beautiful, and the most... true?


And, here is a crappy picture of me in a sari looking like a whale in that giant thing, as requested:


Oh, just in case i run out of bandwidth on photobucket, the same pictures are on flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/23928619@N03/...

I think of my parents, and your story is similar!

My father was married, had separated repeatedly and tried to divorce, but his ex wife was threatening him with not letting him see his children and trying to have him labelled insane or something. So, he kept going back. He didn't love her, and he didn't want to be with her, and he'd tried to get away, but he was scared to lose his kids. He loved them like mad.

At a staff Christmas party, he met my mother, who came as the date of another employee. My dad fell head over heels in love with her, chased her (she said no for the LONGEST time because he was married), finally had their first date on Valentines Day. The rest is history. Yes, he cheated on his wife. Yes, that's not a good thing. But, my parents have been married for 25 years and together for over 28 or 29, they love each other. My father has never strayed. He isn't the type to do so. Even my grandmother condoned his 'cheating' at the time, and that is something!

However, in general, cheating, no thanks. Never done it, don't think I ever will, think it's bad. Yeah.

This year, it's my parents 25th wedding anniversary (yes yes, I'm a child of sin).
I'm planning a surprise party for them. I'd like to share my plans and hear your thoughts


The invitations just arrived today, and I'm *thrilled* with them. So is my cat.

I just finished addressing them.
This is a proof before I made my changes, clearly I blotted out the street address and my cell number.


One of their favourite restaurants, Mise, does catering. The menu I've picked out is:

Cold Canapes:
Mild Yellow Curried Chicken with Cashews, Honey and Royal Gala Apples on Croustini
Venison Stuffed Pork Tenderloin with Saskatoon Butter, Sundried Blueberries and Rosemary

Hot Canapes:
Filo Pastry with Spinach, Feta and Wild Mushrooms
Chicken Satay with Spicy Peanut Sauce
Seared Beef Tenderloin with Wild Rice Latkes and Beet Horseradish Coulis
Pork Tenderloin Skewers with Pineapple Sweet Chili Glaze
Golden Goats Cheese with Golden Delicious Apples and Walnuts in Filo Pastry

Also, probably:
An assortment of dips including Hummus, Eggplant Caviar, Tarama and Tapenade served with Fresh Baguette and Pita
Regional and Imported Cheese served with Dried Fruit, Nuts and Crackers

I've got my eye on some gorgeous petits fours for dessert, they're exquisite, perfect mini layer cakes. No pictures

For drinks, I'm serving both white and red wine, an assortment of non-alcoholic drinks, and I'm thinking of doing two signature cocktails for the evening. We have a fully (and I mean FULLY) stocked bar, but I'd like something special on hand.
I thought maybe a champagne-tini (champagne, Cointreau and gin) or a Holly Berry (lemon juice, gin, fresh raspberries and raspberry juice) and something else. I'm not sure yet. still looking in to it.

I'm going to pick up 6 or 12 Birds of Paradise, and do them in tall, slender vases around the room.


We just redid the living room, the windows aren't stained and finished yet (and so, no window coverings are up yet), the coffee table hasn't arrived so we're using old tables in the interim, but for a *general* gist of the room:



this coffee table will replace the two round tables:
"Modern cocktail table features a thick “floating shelf” of unfilled travertine supported by a wenge base. From Italy."

The flash makes everything look bad. It's actually really gorgeous, and will look much better once the proper tables are in and we get an area rug Anyway, that's just a general idea. I think the birds of paradise will be really striking set around that room.

And, of course, I'm coming up with a little speech, looking for pictures to have framed and set about (not up for a schmaltzy slide show or anything, I'd like to keep the 'cocktail party' feel going)....

Thoughts? Comments? Sorry, I know this is an insanely long post.

Ignore the half gutted computer, the fact that I use my bed as an accessory stand, and Count Booger on top of the monitor plz.

I've cried after reading something on DU before. Actually literally cried.
Granted, it was aimed personally at me. But still. Words can hurt you. And discourage you.

I agree with many of the posters that this happens on both sides, etc. Few people are completely innocent.

But, I think it's fucking ridiculous to poke fun at these young people for being emotional while this whole thread is full of playground games. The whiny accusations of so-and-so started it, or they do it too! read like grade schoolers on the monkey bars.

If this thread even represented that HALF of Duers were sick and tired of this bullshit, they could stop engaging in childish rhetoric and make a change. Seriously. If half of DU just stopped engaging in this meaningless monkey poo flinging fest, stuck to the issues, were polite and treated each other like human beings, I seriously think the difference would be huge.

Sure, they'd have to put up with others being nasty and rude and not lower themselves to that level for a while. Sure, they'd have to learn to hold a civil tongue, do a little more research. But, think about it guys! You'd get to feel incredibly self-righteous, and with a REAL REASON too!

No one will listen to me. That's ok. I think, secretly, some people enjoy being nasty and engaging in flame wars over nothing and feeling victimized. But, I've always tried to post by the basic idea that I will not post to you anything I wouldn't say to your face in person. Tired and overused, I know. But, it works for me. I get in to fights, I say mean things sometimes, but I still try to engage people as I would in person.

Back to your game of tag. I'm done.

<birthday>
<cake flavour="mocha">
<icing="fudge">



</icing>
</cake>
</birthday>

I just put up some new pictures from our last Gilbert & Sullivan show, the Gondoliers. It's the second Gondoliers we've built, and despite the set I think it looks just wonderful. I'm very pleased. I'd like to share

http://harlequincostume.com/gallery.php?ca...


Pictured are Casilda and the Duke of Plazatoro, both costumes won awards at the National Costumers Association convention this year.