Afterbirth

The National Institute of Mental Health defines postpartum depression as "a mood disorder that can affect women (and men) after childbirth. Parents with postpartum depression experience feelings of extreme sadness, anxiety, and exhaustion that may make it difficult for them to complete daily care activities for themselves or for others."

After the publication of Volume 2 of my book in April, my wife said I was suffering from postpartum depression. Neither of us were making light of this catastrophic condition. I was not sleeping at night, but spending all day under the covers with the drapes closed and the lights off. I was not eating, and only taking my meds when my family forced me to. I went weeks without booting up my laptop. I swore I would never write another word as long as I lived, as if anyone would notice or care. I felt old, useless, washed up. A has-been that never was. I felt bad for my grandchildren having to grow up in today's world, but my fight was over. I'd given it all I had.

Postpartum depression can be successfully treated with therapy and medications, but left untreated can last for months or years, and can, in rare cases, lead to tragedy.

For more on postpartum depression, visit the NIMH website at:

https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/postpartum-depression-facts/index.shtml

Neither I nor my wife were relating my condition, which was actually a bipolar episode, to the feeling of devastation that accompanies postpartum, but I can attest to the depths of that bottomless well of despair, fear, and loss of oneself.

The light that brought me out of myself was the image on my TV screen of a car ramming into a crowd of pedestrians, leaving a young woman dead. Not in Europe. Not in the Middle East. In a college town in Virginia.

The car was driven not by a Muslim terrorist or a Mexican gangbanger, but a twenty-year-old, white male from Ohio.

The president of the United States stood before the world and said that Klansmen, neo-nazis, and white supremacists were the victims, and people standing up to the hate were criminals.

I have never been so angry in my fifty-nine years of life as I am over what happened in Charlottesville and its aftermath. Yes, I hated Nixon, Reagan, and Bushes 1 and 2, but I never seriously considered laying down my life in protest. That has now changed. Although the physical fight must be left to others because my wheelchair would be more of a hindrance than a help,* I now publicly vow that I am dedicating the rest of my time on earth to fighting the current administration and everything it stands for. *(My friend Bob did volunteer to push me and ram into people's Achilles Heels.)

I know I'm way out of my league here, but this is what the History Channel has to say about slavery:

A system of restrictive codes governed life among slaves. They were prohibited from learning to read and write, and their behavior and movement was restricted. Many masters took sexual liberties with slave women, and rewarded obedient slave behavior with favors, while rebellious slaves were brutally punished.

Of course, this says nothing about the raids on African villages, the iron collars, the chains, the festering holds of slave ships, the backbreaking labor, the whips, the hobblings, the brandings. But as I say, I'm way out of my league here.

A little closer to home, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum states:

The Holocaust was the systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators.

Again, this does little to conjure up pictures of the concentration camps, the gas chambers, and the "Final Solution" which included tossing children alive into brick ovens.

The site's Home Page also points out that although Jews (whom the Nazis deemed a priority danger to Germany) were the primary victims of Nazi racism, others perceived as "racially inferior," included Gypsies; mentally or physically disabled patients; Slavic peoples (mainly Poles and Russians); Jehovah's Witnesses; and homosexuals.

Ah, speaking of homosexuals, Wikipedia explains:

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people face violence motivated by hateful attitudes towards their sexuality or gender identity. Violence may be executed by the state, as in laws prescribing corporal punishment for homosexual acts, or by individuals engaging in intimidation, mobbing, assault, or lynching. Violence targeted at people because of their perceived sexuality can be psychological or physical and can extend to murder. These actions may be motivated by homophobia... and may be influenced by cultural, religious, or political mores and biases.

Or maybe just good, old, American bigotry, racism, intolerance, and hatred.

Most people say the president is divisive, but I disagree. I think he did us a favor. After his speech yesterday in Arizona, he singlehandedly did away with civil rights, black rights, women's rights, gay rights, et al., and united them into one massive movement for HUMAN rights.

I cannot look at Trump's ignorant, smug, lying, ugly face and not feel revulsion, shame, and disbelief that someone so inherently and gloatingly evil is the president of our country. (My therapist says I should stop holding back.)

Counterprotesters hurled into the air after they were struck by car

Photo by Ryan Kelly, Charlottesville Daily Progress

This Is the Man You Warned Your Children About

Does anyone else but me see the conspiracy here? An alt-right rally is met by alt-left protesters. Alt-right rally is effectively shut down by alt-left demonstrators. A vehicle, driven by alt-right sympathizer, plows into group of alt-left pedestrians at 80 plus miles per hour. A young woman is killed.

Unfathomably (to the president), vast majority of American people do not side with president's support of alt-right. Alt-left and fake news demand sacrifice. Racist mouthpiece Stephen K. Bannon asked to resign from White House. Bannon resumes helm of alt-right print and radio news outlet, Breitbart, just in time to influence mid-term elections next year. CNBC columnist remarks, "[this] might indeed make him more powerful outside of the administration than he ever was in it."

The face that launched a thousand thugs

Totality

Something that happened at Charlottesville confused me. The alt-right spokesmen kept referring to the counter-protesters as "commies." I didn't know that was even a thing anymore. Even the Russians are not commies. Yes, it is true I have a poster of Kim Jong-un up in my room, but I swear when I ordered it, I thought Kim was a South Korean fashion model.

Be that as it may, thanks to President Trump, I now know to whom the white supremacists were referring. Antifa, (the Antifaschistische Aktion) was a resistance group formed in 1930s Germany to combat the rise of Nazi fascism. This organization directly fought against Benito Mussolini’s Blackshirts, Adolf Hitler’s Brownshirts, and Francisco Franco's nationalist army. Antifaschistische Aktion tactics were used as a model for anti-Japanese resistance in occupied-China during World War II. The group never had any link to Stalinist Russia.

In 1987, a group calling themselves "Baldies" joined together in Minneapolis, Minnesota to fight neo-Nazism spreading in their city. The Anti-Racist Action movement grew in the U.S. among left-leaning punk rockers. Antifa could be described as a "unite the left" movement, composed of anti-racist, anti-sexist, and anti-homophobia groups, pitted against the neo-Nazis, KKK, and white supremacists.

Antifa members also represent anti-government and anti-capitalist groups because they believe these institutions perpetuate and are in-league with the white nationalist movement. 

As we saw in Charlottesville, the hatred displayed "on many sides" was ugly. At past incidents, Antifa fighters have smashed windows, burned cars, maced and physically attacked opponents, and hurled urine, rocks, and Molotov cocktails at police.

Antifa activists publicly identify white supremacists in an attempt to get them fired from their jobs and evicted from their apartments, in addition to disrupting white-supremacist rallies by force.

As Scott Crow, a longtime Antifa organizer, said, "The idea in Antifa is that we go where they go. That hate speech is not free speech. That if you are endangering people with what you say and the actions that are behind them, then you do not have the right to do that. And so we go to cause conflict, to shut them down where they are, because we don't believe that Nazis or fascists of any stripe should have a mouthpiece."

I am undecided. In my youth, I would have been on the front lines punching those Nazi fuckers in the mouth. Now, I don't understand why the counter-protesters didn't just set up a stage in a park across town, trot out some folk singers, maybe Gloria Steinem to give a speech, and pass around some doobs. Have the media completely ignore the Nazi rally, and let the police deal with them.

People would see the absurdity of these sheet-wearing grand poobahs, and jack-stepping jerks for the pitiful losers they are.

For an in-depth look at Antifa, read the Mother Jones article at:

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/04/anti-racist-antifa-tinley-park-five/

Test of Faith

With all the tensions here at home, it's easy to forget there's a world out there. One of the most faithful followers of my blog is a person from Portugal. I have no idea who it is, but every time I post a new blog, there is a pageview from Portugal.

I mention all this because yesterday, 13 people were killed and 50 injured when a giant tree fell into a crowd of worshipers gathered to celebrate the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is one of the six Catholic holy days of obligation.

The tragedy occurred in Madeira, Portugal, a popular tourist destination dubbed the "pearl of the Atlantic." Madeira is an island in the North Atlantic, actually situated closer to Morocco than the Iberian Peninsula.

The Festival of Our Lady of the Mountain is held in a village in the hills overlooking the town of Funchal. The square, called Fountain Square, sits outside the church, and is decorated in bright flowers and shaded by plane trees. A cable car links the town with the village. This year's celebration was to be especially joyous because the festival had to be cancelled last year after wild fires destroyed the surrounding countryside. 

A massive, two-hundred-year-old, oak tree came crashing down just after midday as a panicked crowd screamed and fled. One little girl was killed, and numerous children numbered among the injured.

  

An eyewitness reported, "I heard a great noise and when I looked at the tree it was already falling but was too fast and people started to run and those who couldn't run stayed under the tree."

Sources stated that the tree had been shored up for at least two years because the trunk was hollow.

My best wishes go out to the people of Portugal, of whom I think often, thanks to one kindred spirit and the wonder of technology.

Any deeper questions as to the nature of God, I leave to the individual reader.

People lighting candles after the disaster

Terrorism Comes Home (Grown)

I've been silent pretty much since Trump was sworn in (and believe me, I did a lot of swearing), but I've wanted to say something for a long time, and now seems appropriate. The events in Charlottesville have torn it. Mark my words, the next clash will involve guns.

After the election, I posted an invitation on my Facebook page for people who voted for Trump to Unfriend me - no questions asked. No one took me up on the offer. This says much about the integrity of my friends - on both sides of the political aisle. Yesterday, I posted some quotes that did not look kindly on Republicans, and lo and behold, someone Unfriended me. I have no idea who. (Although I know who didn't.)

I now renew my offer. And just to be clear, I am no longer even talking about people who VOTED for Trump. That's water under the bridge. I am now talking about people who still SUPPORT Trump. That is intolerable to me (and no, I have no intention of debating the irony). He is NOT my president. And this IS my country.

I have far more invested in this society than these bozos who run around shouting Sieg Heil. Except these guys aren't clowns. They are TERRORISTS being used as a political base for the current presidential regime and the cynical money players behind it.

As Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe said, referring to the  white supremacists, "Let's be honest, they need to leave America, because they are not Americans."

Smile, You're On Candid Toothbrush

My dentist is really something. I went in for my 1 week follow up to getting my new partials, and he asked me if I had an electric toothbrush. I told him no, and he told the nurse to get me a sample box. It turned out to be a top of the line Philips Sonicare that retails for $219!

It's so high tech it connects to the IoT (Internet of Things). I can program it to start the coffee machine when it detects making contact with my first tooth. With its Bluetooth app I can brush and make phone calls at the same time.

You've heard of a pedometer that records footsteps? Well, this toothbrush records brushstrokes, applied pressure, and elapsed time, and of course, handily sends all this information back to the dentist's laptop.

BTW, have your mouth contact my mouth, and we'll do lunch.

They Don't Write 'Em Like That Anymore

I was watching my westerns on TV early this morning, and I witnessed a great bit of unintentional humor.

The story opens with a patent medicine man traveling in his painted wagon. Two interchangeable western toughs stop him outside of town, and warn him off at gunpoint.

The salesman decides to go into town anyway, and sets up shop in his wagon peddling his magic elixir (that cures everything from "the women's complaints" to baldness).

The two toughs (who work for the crooked boss of the town) happen upon the hawker. They pull him down, and after the usual, "We told you to stay out of town," routine, they rough him up, and one of the bad guys says, "We're gonna take this wagon apart!" The bad guy parts the peddler's hair with a forty-five and lays him out cold. The show goes to commercial.

During the entire break I'm picturing these two guys turning the wagon into kindling with axes and sledge hammers.

When the show comes back on, the wagon wheels are stacked upright against a wall, the tongue is laid squarely in front of the wheels, and the harnessing is placed in a neat pile. The intact wagon rests safely on the ground.

I sat up and exclaimed, "Oh my God, they took the wagon apart!"

I'm thinking that must have taken hours of backbreaking work, but the gunhands show no signs of physical exertion or elapsed time. They go into the boss' office and the short one says, "We took the wagon apart."

Without missing a beat, the boss says, "You dopes. Now how are we going to run him out of town!?"

The short guy points at his compatriot and says, "It was his idea!"

The boss retorts like every good mother the world over, "Ya, and you went along with it."

Television writing at its finest.