unicorn hat: February 2007

Search Engine Fun (Part III)

Maybe this is only amusing to me, but it really trips me out how people find my blog through search engines. Here are the highlights for this week:

if struck by lightening what damage can it do to hear and air unit?
'orthotic device for goats'
flatbush diabetes kool aid
killing the unicorn is wrong
take care of your unicorn

These last two make me wonder if people still believe in unicorns? As for the others (who will probably never come back here), I do apologize that I don't know about damage by lightening, or even that goats needed orthotic devices. Hope you found what you were looking for.

Standing up For Rights, and Its Consequences

From the Columbus Dispatch:

Priest who lobbied Ohio lawmakers on abuse says he was forced to retire

By Laurie Goodstein

The New York Times

Friday, January 26, 2007

DETROIT -- In his last Mass as pastor at the inner-city parish in Detroit where he had served for 23 years, Auxiliary Bishop Thomas J. Gumbleton told parishioners that he was forced to step down as pastor because of his lobbying on behalf of the victims of sexual abuse by members of the clergy, a stance that put him in opposition to his fellow bishops.

Photo by Adam Cairns | the Dispatch

The news of this story came through a friend of Marla, who spoke to Bishop Gumbleton who in turn spoke to him about Marla, which is how I was connected with this. In other words, #1 those who speak out for justice are still being persecuted, and not just in other countries, but here as well, and #2 Marla still has that amazing knack of bringing people together. This is what the new friend had to say:

Here is Detroit, peace activists are organizing. My guess is that most of the nation's peace activists know him, but may not know of what the church is trying to do to him right now and the local organizing efforts. Bishop Gumbleton was not allowed to speak recently in Arizona because the local archdiocese would not approve.

And some background on Bishop Gumbleton from Wikipedia:

"In the past the bishop has caught attention due to his public protesting towards violent actions. In 1999 he was arrested outside The White House along with eleven other anti war protesters for disturbing the peace [4] Bishop Gumbleton has more recently been a very vocal opponent of the war in Iraq , being arrested once again outside The White House for engaging in civil disobedience, he was arrested along with United Methodist Bishop C. Joseph Sprague, Rabbi Arthur Waskow, Nobel Peace Prize laureates Mairead Corrigan Maguire and Jody Williams and members of pacifist organisations. [5] Gumbleton has distinguished himself as being the only Roman Catholic bishop in America to have taken such action in protest of the war."

You all know how we do here at unicornhat. We let those doing the wrong know that we are watching them do the wrong, and won't get away with it. Below is a list of folks who might need to hear from you.

His Eminence, Adam Cardinal Maida

1234 Washington Blvd.

CH -7^th Floor

Detroit, MI 48226

Phone: 313-237-5816

Fax: 313-237-4642

infodesk@aod.org

His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI

Apostolic Palace

Vatican City State, 00120

Italy

(Postage required - $0.84 = 84 cents)

benedictxvi@vatican.va

And some more news stories for background:

http://www.cta-usa.org/justchurch/detroit/index.html

http://ncrcafe.org/blog/34

http://ncrcafe.org/node/880

http://ncrcafe.org/node/898

From A Girl Who Wants it ALL

Since I've been kicking around this planet, there has always been the healthy discussion in society about women's roles in it, and how they have changed and can and should (or shouldn't) change. The question for today's modern woman (yes I know I called myself a girl in the title of this post, shame on me) has always been: Can We Have it All? Can we be effective wives and mothers, as well as succeed to our utmost at our career. Does one have to suffer because of the other? Do we consciously make these choices, or were we brought up to believe that we can have it all, its just a matter of social policy, and therefore we just keep pushing?

I was thinking about these issues last night as I was drifting off to sleep. This was around 7:30 PM mind you. I had seen my love for about 20 minutes total between when he got home from a 12 hour, physically demanding day, and before I snuck into bed as he went out to get food for us. I was very upset, thinking: DAMN! I have NOTHING to give to my family. Nothing. They have to do it all for ME. And its not like their days are easy. Then I thought back over my day. I gave a lot yesterday. Quite a lot. I didn't spend the day in bed, staring at a wall, giving nothing to anyone. I gimped myself to meeting after meeting, did research, tried to think big thoughts, did what others asked of me. I realized that consciously or not, I had made that choice of, if one or the other has to suffer (family or career), I had clearly made my choice, just subconsciously. I will work until I drop, and beyond. Then I will go to bed at 7:30. Damn. I had never framed it in this light: that I had made a choice to put my career first. Is that what I wanted to do?

Then it really hit me. There is a third party in all of this. It's not just about making the choice between work and family, and coming up short somewhere. There is the whole chronic health issue. So the question stopped being: Can we women have it all? but rather, can we ChronicBabes, have it all? We are needed at work, we are needed at home, and by golly our bodies need us to STOP every once in a while.

There has got to be a way, I obviously haven't found it since this just dawned on me. And it doesn't help to have a workaholic personality that will take nothing less than perfection for myself (gawd, how self centered is that?) But an article in today's TomPaine.com entitled Back On the Chain Gang helped shed some light on the subject of working my ass off. It's not just me, it's us. One of the lines in the article states:

It's hard to believe, but at one time people gave their lives for the eight-hour day.

8 hour day, HA! Even 9 hours makes me feel like I'm cheating my employer. So I guess this issue encompasses women, people with disabilities, labor, and politics in this country. Like I said, I sure don't have the answers but would love to hear what others think.

Escalation

A 1968 short film by Ward Kimball. Just visualize LBJ as W.

Even Dramatized Torture is Bad for Morale, Image

From the Independent Online, about the TV show "24" and its regular use of torture as "the patriotic thing to do."

US military tells Jack Bauer: Cut out the torture scenes ... or else! By Andrew Buncombe in Washington
Published: 13 February 2007

In the hugely popular television series 24, federal agent Jack Bauer always gets his man, even if he has to play a little rough. Suffocating, electrocuting or drugging a suspect are all in a day's work. As Bauer - played by the Emmy Award winner Kiefer Sutherland - tells one baddie: "You are going to tell me what I want to know - it's just a matter of how much you want it to hurt."

But while 24 draws millions of viewers, it appears some people are becoming a little squeamish. The US military has appealed to the producers of 24 to tone down the torture scenes because of the impact they are having both on troops in the field and America's reputation abroad. Forget about Abu Ghraib, forget about Guantanamo Bay, forget even that the White House has authorised
interrogation techniques that some classify as torture, that damned Jack Bauer is giving us a bad name.

The United States Military Academy at West Point yesterday confirmed that Brigadier General Patrick Finnegan recently travelled to California to meet producers of the show, broadcast on the Fox channel. He told them that promoting illegal behaviour in the series - apparently hugely popular among the US military - was having a damaging effect on young troops.

According to the New Yorker magazine, Gen Finnegan, who teaches a course on the laws of war, said of the producers: "I'd like them to stop. They should do a show where torture backfires... The kids see it and say, 'If torture is wrong, what about 24'?

"The disturbing thing is that although torture may cause Jack Bauer some angst, it is always the patriotic thing to do."

According to Human Rights First

The group's David Danzig said: "I think there is no question [it is having an effect]. We have spoken to soldiers with experience in Iraq who say, for young soldiers, there is a direct relationship between what they are doing in their jobs and what they see on TV... It's the same abroad. "The image of the US and its military [being involved in torture] is being affirmed."

Wayne Smith, of the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC), an international human rights group, said: "Even the FBI has confirmed executive orders authorising the use of hoods and dogs and stress positions. "If [these things] were being done to US troops we would call it
torture."

* Emphases added

Medicaid Rolls Down 22,000 in Ohio

Medicaid applicants struggle with new ID, citizenship rules
By MATT LEINGANG, Associated Press Writer

COLUMBUS – With money tight, Melinda Shea and her family turned to a government program to pay their medical bills.

But she is one of thousands of Ohioans whose Medicaid applications have been denied or delayed because they are having trouble getting birth certificates or other documents proving U.S. citizenship. Advocates for the poor say it is an unintended consequence of a federal mandate to deny the coverage for illegal immigrants.

“It’s extremely frustrating,” said Shea, 27, of Cincinnati.

Shea and her 2-year-old son could not get Medicaid benefits for a month while they waited until January for a local health department to provide certified copies of their birth certificates. Their Medicaid eligibility cards finally arrived last week.

Shea’s husband, however, remains without coverage because he hasn’t received his birth certificate from state health officials in Kentucky, where he was born.

“He’s uninsured, and all we can do is hope he doesn’t get sick,” said Shea, who works part-time at a day care center. The couple make about $1,600 a month.

Ohio began enforcing the citizenship verification requirement in late September. Medicaid enrollment fell by 22,000 over the next three months, according to the latest state data.

Documentation problems also have caused Medicaid enrollment to decline in Wisconsin, Virginia, Kansas, Iowa, Louisiana and New Hampshire, according to a study of data from those states released last week by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a nonpartisan research group in Washington. Again, the burden is falling mostly on U.S. citizens in those states, the group said.

The federal mandate requires all people applying for Medicaid or renewing their coverage to show a passport, birth certificate or other documentation. A driver’s license alone doesn’t suffice because it doesn’t prove citizenship.