damrail comments

I saw, or think I saw, an agent bring up a bullet deflecting briefcase to help deflect one of the shots. Directly in the line of fire, did his job.

To think that she was in any way instrumental in electing Obama aside from Manhattan fund-raising cocktail parties is delusional. Also, "She knows sushi and teppan-yaki and other Japanese food." That is hysterical. So does any homeless person on the Castro. But you know? My three years in Japan profoundly changed my life. I hope Caroline Kennedy listens well, and observes, at least initially, rather than asserts. Ultimately, I wish her well.

So, my wife, from Nagano, just asked me, "Does she speak Japanese? Does she know anything about our culture? Does she understand the relationship between our two countries and have any vision of our future relationship?" I just laughed. I think this appointment is foolish, lazy, and is just one more example of how my gov, the US gov, has completely lost touch with anything remotely approaching a common global reality.

As a Psych RN in a busy Oregon ED, I am running into patients who have ingested either bath salts or spice with ridiculous regularity. It is no better than Meth. It's scary, and it is destroying peoples lives. It triggers a psychotic event, and these people are very, very difficult to treat. While this is fairly new, one thing is frightening, after only one experience, permanent damage seems to occur. Also, once the psychosis clears, it is very likely to re-occur, without further use, several days later. The presentation of the symptoms is almost always significant for extremely violent, even homicidal, impulses.

I think, now, that unless you have a family history or personal history, of mental illness, that mushrooms, even LSD, and marijuana, are fairly benign. But baths and spice are, very literally, rolling the dice. We need to educate, quickly, everyone, regarding the dangers of these substances. Frankly, it's the scariest thing I've seen in a long time.

I admire the dignity with which the foreign minister presented himself. Such a task was not accepted lightly, without forethought, nor the person to whom the undertaking fell.

You speak easily of burdens which you can not possibly comprehend. You lift insults like feathers.

There are those amongst us who strive, above all, to heal, with respect to those to whom we owe so much. Japanese, Anglo, it matters not, only those who after so long, and so much, recognize the sanctity of human life.