For those on a reader not subscribed to comments or who don’t pay attention to the recent comments section in the sidebar, I was chosen by the writer of www.traumasurvivor.org as the worst rant of the week. Yea!

Apparently, the logic I used to say that without a victim there can be no crime was just too scary and…logical. Of course, by saying DUI law is an excuse for the trampling of freedom at the hands of police and courts, a.k.a. the State, I am condoning – even encouraging – drunk driving and any resultant injury or death therefrom.

http://www.traumasurvivor.org/weeks-worst-a-cocktail-of-thoughts-on-dui-law-with-a-splash-of-philosophy

Clearly this person is otherwise a very smart person, and puts forth what would actually be a persuasive argument if only the end result of that argument would cause the blood to flow far deeper on our highways.

His theory seems to hing on the fact that people on our highways shoud die for his right to drink and drive. He says “I agree that preventing harm is important” and yet thinks that if trauma injury or death in 50% of drunk drivers, he thinks thats ok.

I think it is clear that I had not said or even implied any such thing. It is also obvious that some of the statements pointed out as hyperbole in the original post (Cocktail of Thoughts of DUI Law…) were meant to be obvious hyperbole. At any rate,  the post was a thought exercise. Perhaps our presenter of awards would benefit from a jog of the ol’ gray matter. In this exercise, I cannot say whether B__ was playing Devil’s Advocate or not (it should be on his resume as job experience he does it so much).

Let’s delve into the Wilk’s comments and see if there are any arguments to rebut. Read the rest of this entry »

It was Friday night after a long couple of weeks; busy with overtime at work, family visits, and house work piling up.  A__ and I had ventured to Lanigan’s in New Castle for the music of Corned Beef & Curry and some adult beverages. The Guinness was cold and refreshing, smoothing the edges roughed up by the preceding events. The music overtook and drowned out the cacophony of other things ringing in my head. I relaxed and slipped into a carefree joy.

Also at the bar that night was a benefit for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, who were promoting a 5K run/walk in October also to benefit the MS Society. I forget how it came up, but I ended up committing to A__ to register and run in that race. I had not run consistently (more than, like, three times over a two week period) for 15 years (and 70 pounds ago). What have I gotten myself into?

I have about 53 days until the race. What I need is a montage, so I can train like Rocky Balboa, arrive at the race, get my butt kicked, and somehow come away with a victory – or at least some sort of noble victory. If I can complete the race that would be victory enough. If I can raise some cash from sponsors for the MS Society, that would be all that much better.

I made a Facebook page to follow my progress in training and fund raising. I haven’t actually registered yet or looked into the fund raising aspects, but that will be something to post on the Facebook page when the time comes. So follow along, donate (check back for details), or come run with me (there is a big party afterwards!).
Fat Man Running

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After a long day in my cubicle staring at a computer screen, I came home and had the last three servings of my Christmas whiskey.  The Redbreast irish whiskey (pure pot still) that A__ gave to me was most fine. I won’t pretend to be able to artfully or intelligently give a review of the whiskey beyond the fact that I really, really liked it. It was smooth and rich and downright delicious. I could have shed a tear when the last drop came from the bottle, but instead I penned (or keyboarded) a poem, “Whiskey Chaser”.

So long my flavorful Redbreast, may we meet again someday.

I have been meaning to write up some stuff regarding our recent vacation to Assateague Island National Seashore in Maryland, but alas the days are busy when vacation ends.  Finally, I can sit and try and reflect upon the trip.  Actually, I’m going to take my word for it and just plagiarize my little Moleskin notebook where some of my thoughts found expression while chilling right on the beach; there is still sand in the pages.  I never started writing until I finished The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which I never read before, on or around the end of the third day.  The following is from the notebook (Thanks, Lisa!).

∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

Read the rest of this entry »

The key to healing as many people as possible is to ensure that as many people as possible are broken.  Similar to the dictum that to ensure that as many people as possible fall under your authority in a “law and order” society you expand the law to cover everything under the sun.  We are all guilty of something broken in some manner; this is essentially the healthcare version of the broken window fallacy.

I have had the pleasure of having a rock thrown through my metaphorical window and wound up as shards in the dust pan of a doctor.  Apparently, I am going to drop dead of a heart attack any minute now (or 20 years from now or 50 years from now)(assuming I’m not killed in a gulag first).  I’ve been given this death sentence because there is some sort of metric devised that states what a healthy amount of lipids to have in one’s bloodstream is.  This metric, I’m certain, was devised about the average person across a certain population of a certain location or region by people being paid to drum up a market for drugs and/or treatment.  There is no mention of outliers.  Most statistical analyzes – which these studies are – have outliers that can statistically be ignored to get a reasonable probability of a certain outcome.  Statistics is also not a good way to separate cause and correlation.  Based on a metric devised in this manner, I am statistically safer taking some medication twice a day, everyday, for the rest of my life (sorry, liver, it is for our own good).

I’m not a person obsessed with organic or all natural products, but I do try to choose the more natural, less processed items the majority of the time.  Based on this habit, ingesting man-made chemicals (that aren’t nurishing and don’t even taste good) twice everyday seems kind of counter-intuitive.  I have no idea what long-term effects of these drugs are; they could be slowly exhausting my liver, interfering with other functions, and any number of little accumulating things.  All of this based on some statistics produced by the “science” of advocacy.

My personal statistics, based on observations of myself and my family, say that my body is meant to have such metrics concerning my lipids and such – or at least can handle it.  A similar condition runs pretty uniformly through my immediate family, regardless of variables such as activity, diet, age, and other ailments.  In counting these statistics, there has been one (non-fatal) incident with regards to these numbers before the age of 70.  The rest of the statistics say I will live to a ripe old age (excluding demise by gulag) in spite of the emminent danger posed by some numbers.

It is an uphill battle explaining myself to my family, my doctor, etc when the science (a.k.a. what the media reports on every other month about what is currently bad for our health before reversing themselves a few months later ad infinitum) that finds new reasons for taking pills everyday tells me I need pills.  The state of science, or as I called it earlier, the science of advocacy, leaves plenty of room for scepticism.  But skepticism is better served as the catalyst for science rather than the result of it.  I guess I’m taking my chances, but aren’t we all going to lose eventually?

After the last entry, I was preparing to embark on an extended weekend of festivities surrounding St. Patrick’s Day.  A___ and I allow ourselves to let loose a bit and enjoy this particular holiday because we have a little heritage by chance and more interest by choice.  We don’t spend the holiday trying to become as drunk as possible and we don’t attempt to dress as ridiculous as possible in as much green as possible.  We typically imbibe, though likely less than usual in my case anyway, and hop from venue to venue attempting to catch as many of our favorite Irish bands as possible, especially those we don’t have opportunity to see often outside of this holiday.  St. Patrick’s Day is simply a super concentrated version what we do all year, jamming into one or two days what would take us months otherwise.  This year, like most years, started with a parade the weekend before.

Read the rest of this entry »

As the holiday season prepares to go out with a bang this evening, I’d like to reflect on thoughts I’ve had while catching up with old friends and acquaintances.  This year has found me with a full social schedule over the past two weeks meeting with prodigal friends returning home temporarily or carving out some time to catch up.  At one time, all of the people I visited with shared some aspect of their lives with me before separating to pursue individual purposes.  I’ve thought much about the divergence in our lives and geography and how much one has had an effect on the other.  Read the rest of this entry »

The weather in these parts has reminded me of Ireland lately: the chill nights and the slighly warmer days with the occasional rain or fog.  Beyond just the obvious weather, the light has reminded me of our January trip.  The blue-gray skies and occasional sunshine that give a nice vibrancy to the green, green lawns and fields cinch the feeling in my gut.  So with my newly built computer I set about to recoding the DVD of the hour-long video into segments small enough and timely enough that YouTube would take them.

The video entitled Guaranteed Cozy is now broken into seven parts corresponding mostly to the days of the visit.  I tried and tried to upload the very beginning with an introduction advancing through space, but for some reason YouTube didn’t like the Star Wars-esque title and never completed processing it.

My camera handling skills could have been better, but the landscape speaks for itself regardless of how I’m shaking the view around.  Grab a Guinness and a toasty and settle in for the videos!

P.S. The link under Guaranteed Cozy takes the clicker to a playlist which can play the videos successively in the proper order.  Enjoy!

A poem in two days about my weekend. Other poetry can be found off-site at Anonymous Trout’s Fish Wrap.

Distance: Part I

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I found myself far from my everyday, looking past the dark silhouettes of trees

To the darker expanse of the heavens brought to light by the penetrating

and enlightening darkness.

.

This is how night was meant to be

The night that brought us our folklore. Our gods.

And Keplar.

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The depth of the darkness transfixed me

Until I stared at the heavens through the gap and tried to feel

My planet move.

.

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Alas, the magnificently modest fire extinguished

all but the brightest stars and shrunk my Universe

to human scale.

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I cracked open another cold one and huddled deeper into my hoodie

To contemplate the chemistry of combustion. Brewing.

Everything.

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The fire breathed and pulsed very relaxed. Unhurried.

I stared deeper and deeper into the glowing coals

And ever deeper into myself.

.

.

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Distance: Part II

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The tiny dirt path wound over the invisible contours

Like a hologram that is only seen plainly from

Certain perspectives.

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The green and golden ferns tenderly covered the hills like moss

Giving shelter to chipmunks small, and for the trees so tall

Holding ground.

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Through this shady cathedral we cruised with fleet feet

Stride after easy stride toward no particular end but where

We began.

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Distance behind us grew greater as distance afore us diminished

And the physical beauty gave way to body aches and thoughts that turned

Inward.

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Now the distance has vanished like a flash of a falling meteor

My everyday has returned and left only aches to mark the distance

to me.

I’m sure regular readers have noticed the absence of any new substance here at the Bye-Laws in recent weeks – or maybe not, since it isn’t all that unusual. This particular absence stemmed from two things: I was busier than a one-armed paper hanger with work and school and then I was decompressing from such busyness by taking a week to do much work around the house. It hardly seems like decompression to go from sitting at a desk (and in my car) for 10-15 hours a day to the back-breaking labor of removing landscaping, but it was surprisingly refreshing. Read the rest of this entry »