Thursday April 22nd 2010

Today i will begin my post with some updates on family news and personal issues and then move on to commentary on news events.The days since my last post have been difficult due to my medical issues,but on Tuesday of last week i had a pain clinic visit.This was a normal scheduled visit to access my current situation and i am happy to report that i was able to get the medicine adjustment i needed without any of the usual problems i normally encounter.The resident i saw as usual was new to me and my file,but helped me more than any of the visits in the prior four months.It is a very difficult thing to try to explain,but the chronic pain is so debilitating and it literally controls every aspect of my life.My children are on vacation this week and we had planned to take them somewhere fun,but my medical issues have put that on hold as well.They were so lookin forward to it and i am very unhappy to have to disappoint them.It becomes more and more difficult to endure my issues as i see how it negatively affects my family.The surgery planned to give me relief is such a long and complicated one that i am very reluctant to participate.It is an elective surgery that takes 10 or 12 hrs and can go wrong in many different ways.I am very sad that this is my only alternative at this point in my life.I am 43 years old and hopefully have a long life ahead of me and the thought of being worse off after the surgery is a real hard thing for me to think about.As i continue to contemplate my options it becomes very difficult for me to get my arms around it.Anyways i will continue to update as this developes and will happily accept any advice readers may have.
Things with the kids school are no closer to resolution as yet,but i am continuing my advocacy for them with the district and hopefully after this vacation week i can get the situation with Jeromy resolved.With my younger son who is in the autism spectrum,Matthew,the situation is much more complicated.The school district plans to "declassify"him and mainstream him into regular classes with no support or therapies,and my plan is to fight them with every available resource i have.He has an autism diagnosis and they cannot,in my opinion,over rule his specialist and remove his services.I plan on using whatever means i have at my disposal to ensure both my children have the best education the "system"can provide.As i learn more about what will happen as we move forward i will post more.
Today i am going to write a bit about the national news,including some personal opinions that some readers may disagree with.Please feel free to comment on what i say if you feel so inclined,as i need input to understand your point of view.The first thing i am concerned with is the financial market regulation legislation currently being debated in Washington.The committee in charge of authoring this new and unwelcomed (by Wall Street)legislation is the financial services committee on the house side Chaired by rep.Barney Frank(d.mass.).Personally the problem i have with the way this works in Washington is this:after being involved in in drafting the legislation on regulating the over the counter dirivatives market,which were a major role in the market collapse of '08,a senior aide named Peter S. Robertson,was hired by dirivatives clearinghouse to lobby against the exact legislation he helped to craft.The company who hired Robertson,IntercontinentalExchange,the worlds leading clearinghouse for dirivatives,put him in charge of opening their Washington offices.Because the House has already approved the legislation authored by Frank,he won't need to worry about breaking house rules against former staff members becoming lobbyists.He can lobby anyone in the Senate,as well as other committee's considering the derivatives part of the legislation he helped to draft.So this proves that rules in place to deter former staff or elected officials from becoming lobbyists are inadequet at best,and purposely weak at worst.The list of people who are former senior staff or actually former elected officials who are now lobbyists is staggering.I am going to point out just a few as examples of how this blatently corrupt system allows this unfair and unjust job switching to take place.The migration from Congress to these finacial services firms seems like it should be illegal for many reasons,but it's not only legal,it is fairly common practice and happens all the time.One of the authors of the Sabanes-Oxley Act of 2002,former Rep.Michael G Oxley,is now a senior advisor to the Nasdaq stock market.New York Times reporter Eric Lichtblau wrote a great column sunday the 18th about this and i gleaned much information from his reporting.Another few names of note now lobbying congress on behalf of the Financial Industy are Trent Lott and Bob Dole and Richard A.Gephardt and Dick Armey.Former Congressman Richard H.Baker,a republican from Louisiana who left Congress in '08,is now President and a registered lobbyist for Managed Funds Association.This association represents the largest trading firms in the Hedge Fund industry,and it reported spending 3.5 million last year alone to lobby federal officials on regulations for hedge funds.This current legislation being debated and touted as a solution to avert another crisis has minimal regulation of Hedge Funds and no real solutions to the risks involved in the buying and selling of securities like morgage backed securities or collaterized debt obligations.Needless to say if the former staffer of rep.Frank has at minimum advised the exchange at a very least how the legislation was worded,it will be riddled with loopholes they will exploit to avoid being affected by the new law.The way these corporations abuse the lobbying ability is really sickening.They use money to change the way they are affected by new laws by finding and paying the folks who actually are supposed to be working for the public good.They will leave their government jobs and make millions lobbying former congressional co-workers who are just as guilty as they are of putting personal private gain above the interests of our nation.I can go on and on writing names and former job titles of these folks but i don't really think it will make any difference.Until we as a nation can stand together against the corporations who are raping our nation of its natural resources and financial oportunities,we will be doomed to suffer the consequences of the actions of these faceless corporations.Since the Supreme Court is so rampantly partisan and corrupt we have no redress but to stand together against these Goliaths.As i continue to research this i will post more.
The pics are of a great score,a toy Jerry still in the box!It will have a special spot in my toy collection.until next time,thank you for reading.
spacewalker

Friday April 9th 2010

Today began as the last several days have,getting the kids ready for school and trying my best to push through some early morning problems i am used to.With my pain issues the morning is tough because of the current dosage of my medicine is still on a 12 hour dosage schedule that just does not work.I addressed this with my pain clinic doctors and they made a mistake on the change that forced the pharmacist to revert to the prior dosage after an unsuccessful attemp to explain to the pain clinic doctors the problem with the new presciption.What they had done was wrote the script for an unavailable dosage,and for some reason were unable to come up with a solution with current available dosages,so they reverted it to the prior months dosage to simplify it for themselves.The problem i have is the reason they had changed it to a different dosage in the first place was the 12 hour dosage does not work,it wears off after around 8 or 9 hours and the last 3 hours or so are so difficult to endure it is hard to explain.twice a day the medicine wears off to the point where i am actually crying out in pain and sobbing.I try my best to control it with heat and rest,but it is becoming very hard to put up with.The nice N.P.at the pain clinic actually said to the doctor right in front of me that she has never known the 12 hour dosage to work for anyone.So i am very frustrated that they just continue to leave it the same 12 hour dosage for another two months until i have another office visit to again explain,probably to another new resident doctor who has never seen my file,that i need the dosage changed to an 8 hour interval to maintain pain control to a level that i can at least function at some level.These pain control meds are strictly controlled substances and the pain clinic is under tremendous pressure due to risks of abuse involved with the large amounts their office prescibes to their clients.We as patients are closely monitored and screened to weed out people who have track records of diversion of meds for criminal intent and still they are subject to high malpractice insurance coverage and intense scrutiny by Federal DEA officials.The problem with this is patients with real issues like mine sometimes get sidelined temporarily to ensure all other avenues have been persued prior to any increase in dosage.I am confident the problem will eventually be addressed and solved,but in the months it takes to get there i am allowed to,in my humble opinion,"swing in the breeze "so to speak.Anyways,i will move on to other subjects as i am sure readers are bored of me speaking about personal medical issues.
In other family news i had a parent teacher conferance yesterday with Jeromy's 6th grade team of teachers,and i must say it went much better than the last meeting which i spoke of in a prior post.There was alot to address due to the fact they are trying to get a proccess going to test Jeromy for learning delays that may be caused by some kind of a undiagnosed learning disability or impairment he may have.The process has steps in place they are required to follow which include an 8 week period in which they employ different interventions to try to address the issues they see as his major impairments.His reading and writing skills are way behind grade level,and his comprehension of science,social studies and math are also behind.The team brought some great ideas on how to move forward,but the one thing i was sad to hear is that retention may be unavoidable at this point.He is failing four subjects and two or more means automatic retention.Our only option to at this point to avoid this is to get him labeled learning disabled by the end of the year and get services started.This would allow him to move ahead with his class and recieved support services at the same time.This is my hope as the best option for Jeromy,as i believe social interaction with his peers is important and he would be embarassed if retained.I will support him and advocate for him with the district to ensure he recieves all available recources to be a successful student.We arte very lucky to live in one of the first cities with the "say yes to education" program which allows students who maintain an 82 average to go to college for four years at any institution they enroll in and are accepted.This includes all students in the district regardless of income,and is privately funded.
Matthews current situation is unchanged at this point,i am awaiting the letter from the district for his next hearing in front of the district panel in charge of IEPs.An IEP (individual education plan)is for learning disabled children like Matthew who have diagnosed medical disabilities that affect their learning,in Matthews case a diagnosis in the autism spectrum,specifically PDD-NOS.This means pervasive developmental disorder-not otherwise specified,and is one of the higher functioning autism diagnosis from what i in my limited capacity as a parent and not a professional, understand it to be.I get my information through experiences as a parent with a child with this diagnosis,not through educational degree and job choice,which can be restrictive in scope as i am only focused on my child,while someone with a degree and a wider group of people and experiences to gather their information from may not agree with my opinion.They intend at this next meeting to declassify Matthew and mainstream him into regular student status with no support services at all.I am not in agreement with this,as i believe his current success is related directly with the services he recieves. If those services are removed his academic and social abilities will suffer and he may really be subject to poor progress if not maybe even regression of his acedemic and social abilities.I will provide all the tools for his success that he needs,and will bring all information and recources at my disposal to this meeting to show not only is it neccesary to continue support services for him,but it is absolutely essential to his success as a student.
The pictures i am posting today are of me in my trout fishing gear,before i went out for a few hours to stream fish on a friends 14 private acres on one of the best trout streams in the state.The trip ended up being much shorter unfortunately,as my back issues forced me to cancel and return home before i even wet a line.I will post pics of my catch when i do get to fish,which i hope will be very soon.The other picture is a necklace that a friend of mine from the deadnet chatroom that she made using my favorite stone,a bloodstone.Her excellent work is a privlige to wear and i appreciate it very much.Let me say a public thank you to my friend and fellow deadhead "Geeky Mcsquare"a very kind and talented sister who generously made this for me after hearing me casually mention it was my favorite in a routine conversation.I thought this was very kind and i am grateful for the very cool gift,and will wear it with pride.Thank you again for this handcrafted piece of quality work geeky!
The national spotlight politically today is the historic treaty signed yesterday by Russia and the United Stated reducing the collective nuclear stockpiles by one third.Many conservatives are decrying this as a dangerous and foolish move on the part of President Obama,and are using it as yet another thing to portray him as week on national defense.Even though he has the full support of the Secretary of Defense and the Joint Chiefs the conservatives are saying this will endanger the nation.As the next election draws nearer by the day,the atmosphere in Washington remains sour and no cooperation on any legislation is possible in the near term.After the healthcare debate sucked the oxygen out of the room it is very unlikely anything will get acomplished before the elections in November.Another Supreme Court Justice anounced his pending retirement,Justice John Paul Stevens,the leader of the Liberal wing of the court.This will probably have no affect on the outcomes of cases as the sharply divided court will still remain slanted to the conservative side for the forseeable future.There is,coming up very soon,a decision coming related to incorporation of the second amendment under the fourteenth amendment,applying it to the states.It is widely expected to come down in favor of incorporation due to the conservative dominance of the court.This is not the outcome that progressives or liberals want,and i imagine they will decry it as bad juriceprudence as they did with the last decision related to the second amendment,the Heller decision.This decision established an individual right to bear arms,a horrible developement in the eyes of progressive liberals.When the decision related to the incorporation argument is cemented by the court,frivilous infringments on possesion of personal firearms for individual defense by State and Local Governments will be unconstitutional and therefore illegal under the law.The Supreme Court has for decades practiced what is called "selective incorporation"of the bill of rights to control its effects on,in my humble opinion,the power of the Federal Government.This coming decision,if it falls in favor of incorporation,will be a huge victory to individual liberty in an era of huge growth of the size of government,and also very sweeping changes in our governments power over individual citizens rights to privacy and a free press.I will end here for now,until next time thank you for reading. spacewalker

Monday April 6th 2010

I will begin my post today with the usual commentary on news and events of interest to me and then a few comments on the family.Yesterday was Easter so to those of you who celebrate this holiday i wish you a happy easter.It is a very important holiday to the christian world,and growing up in a household with a greek orthodox father(not practicing)and a irish catholic mother i did celebrate this holiday as a child.It is difficult to discuss religon and politics without offending folks on one side or the other,but i hope i can keep the discussion civil.I have been watching the developments in Washington with a keen eye towards my states representatives in the house and senate.As the debate over health care reform heats up,the rhetroric on both sides has really gotten rediculous.As the far right of the republican party drags on the rest of the members,bringing them down to a slow crawl in their march toward winning back seats,the other side is not doing that well with their members either. As the media at large mostly focuses on the stuff that sells papers or brings in revenue,the truth sits in the dark recesses of the halls of power.Our system,which is the shining example admired and looked up to by many around the world,is rampantly corrupt by lobbying money that is unchecked now due to the recent Supreme Court decision giving corporations the same rights as citizens.No powerful Senators or Congressmen will propose a law that will negativly affect the very companies that are financing their campains.They like to say there is no "quid pro quo"here,that no one gets favors for contributing money to their campaigns ,but we all know that is a lie.Just look at two very powerful men in charge of committees that oversee the banking and financial markets, Barney Frank and Chris Dodd.These men are responsable for making changes to ensure nothing again ever happens that can bring the world to the brink of financial collapse,and what have they done?NOTHING!They make excuses and continue to accept millions in donations to their campaigns from the companies they are supposed to reign in.How do we the people believe in a government that is so openly and blatently accepting what can really be considered cash bribes from giant corporations with one motivation,keeping profits high and operating costs low.When you look at the donations to campaigns of people like Mr.Dodd and Mr.Frank,you see names like Bank of America and other financial giants at the top of the list.Insurance companies and Banking giants are very wealthy and can spread their money around where ever it will help benefit their bottom line.The money spent on to lobby on behalf of faceless corporations is staggering,and to pretend that it is just "free speech"protected by our founding documents is just offensive.I have blogged alot about the financial crisis and the fallout of it,and i truley believe the people in charge of the committees responsable to ensure future stability and transparancy in the banking system are unreliable untrustworthy and too connected to the system they oversee to change anything.Government officials who accept millions of dollars from these corporations should be ashamed of themselves.All the anger in our country manifesting itself in unruley and sometimes violent outbursts must be redirected to non-violent politically aimed actions to change the way our two party system has failed us.For too long has these two political parties excluded too many independant free thinking citizens to the detrement of our democracy.As a nation i believe it is time for us to come together and correct what is wrong with the way our democracy conducts its business.Constant partisan rancor must give way to civil discussion and real results oriented lawmaking on behalf of the people of this nation.We can no longer sit back and ignore the way Washington in broken unless we want to be known as the generation that oversaw the destruction of the first free and democratic nation on earth.Another financial collapse can only be averted if we collectively reject all incumbant politicians and replace them with new people that are willing to do the peoples business in a fair open and free manner.We must institute an across the board public financing of all national,state and local level political elections to remove the corrupting free flow of corporate financing of elections.There are so many different ways for the market to crash again it would take me hours to attempt to describe them all.The major things that are unsettling about the fact that no real changes have been made to correct the problems that caused our last bubble to burst is that nobody has been held accountable for the collapse.As the situation continues to fall farther and farther into the past,less focus on the causes will develop into another catastrophe in the markets.Anyone who has watched and listened to the experts since the markets collapsed in September of last year knows doing nothing will result in another bubble bursting somewhere in the markets.It doesn't matter if its commercial real estate or morgage backed securities,or unregulated things like credit default swaps and hedge funds,something will cause what they call a "correction"to occur and financial devastation will of course follow closely behind.The folks to bear the brunt of market losses will again be the taxpayers,while when the markets are stable and profits are gained,only the shareholders and employees of the corporations will benefit.I hope this next election will begin a change that will continue to sweep our nation,removing incumbants being the main goal.This is just wishful thinking on my part i know,but it doesn't hurt to wish for a better future for my children.
Speaking of the children,both boys are doing alright,working hard at their studies and helping me around the house.The spring vacation is coming up and i know the kids are expecting to go somewhere fun,but i am not sure if my back can handle anything more than a short car ride.This would limit our choices,but i am doing my best to find a safe fun and affordable place to go.I prefer Florida attractions like disney theme parks,and i know the kids would enjoy them as well.I also look forward to going upn to our summer home on lake ontario,which i posted a picture of,along with a picture of Jeromy fishing on our family fishing boat on sandy pond,where the camp is located.Until next time,thank you for reading. spacewalker

Tuesday March 30th 2010

Today i am going to begin my post talking about the national and local news events and such,then i will mention other relevant things i feel necessary.The first and foremost thing on the national news front is the passage of the new health care reform law changing one sixth of our economy in one fair swoop.But the sky did not fall in,as the President said,and we continue to wait and watch as the new law gets implemented around the nation.The republicans are using the slogan"repeal and re-do"regarding this new law,but that would take the presidents signature or two thirds of the senate to override a veto to happen,neither of which is possible.Continuing to play to the "Tea Party"activists and the fringes of the far right like Dick Army will not benefit them in the next election any more than this victory will help the democrats.Our nation is focused like a laser on a faltering economy and massive job losses.Without a middle class this nation will collapse under the weight of its debt alone.How we change to a green economy is still a question as the rest of the world catapults ahead without us.To change the old factories and empty industrial sights to produce "green"products while keeping a small carbon footprint will take a decade or more.Retro fitting facilities will take large investments that are not guaranteed to happen here.Corporations can do it much cheaper with much few environmental regulations over seas.And as far as utilities and taxes are concerned as well,all these things and more point toward the continuing shrinking and withering of the hard working people who were the worlds greatest manufacturing force on the planet.Middle class folks are becoming poor folks ,and the chronic poverty of the inner cities is spreading out to the suburbs at a rapid pace.The uneasy feeling about the nature of the economy and of the financial markets continues because absolutely nothing has been done to address the problems in the system that brought us to the brink of another great depression.Banking industry giants as still to complex and intertwined to be allowed to collapse.This "too big to fail" concept was brought back out at the beginning of this economic train wreck in order to explain the complexities of these immensely intertwined giants and the risk if one failed it could collapse the entire system.At this point after all this time to examine what happened and why,the people at the top levels of our government on the committees that oversee banking have done almost nothing to address the shady trades called "credit default swaps"and other things done outside the view of the markets.An exchange created to put these in the light of day has been rejected and put down.Sen.Dodd (D.)of Conn.has flatly stated that nothing will stop another similar crisis from occurring again.Millions of lobbing dollars have been spent to make certain the same practices that brought us to the brink of another depression should continue.Complex derivatives such as groups of mortgage backed securities and other investments pooled together and then insured and sold again,and loose capital requirements for financial giants to back their investment portfolios all still remain in place.Even the companies who received billions in taxpayer money to rescue them from disaster are engaging in the exact same risky behavior.It seems as though nobody in Washington wants to address anything other than their campaign coffers and re-election chances by collecting as much money as possible from any and all sources.This money fundamentally corrupts the system and allows Politicians the ability to ignore all but the groups responsible to getting them reelected and the groups that can effect the outcome of their election.These groups are usually at the far side of each party,no matter democrat or republican the concept of by the people for the people is now by the people with money for the people with money.As this next election slowly approaches we will continue to see zero progress on any financial regulatory reforms of the way the system operates.Hedge Funds and others will continue to place huge bets for short term profits,as will other financial institutions and corporations,putting all of our futures on the line with each and every day that goes by.We the people sat back and watched as insiders now in charge of the very government agencies that oversee their former employers,men like Tim Gietner and Larry Summers,and Henry Paulson and Ben Bernanke,removed any question of "moral hazard"and kept these practices alive by using their positions to backstop massive losses with the taxpayers money.Now as these practices continue they hem and haw about making the sweeping changes necessary to ensure this idea of "too big to fail" is eliminated and create some way to oversee transactions that are still conducted completely in secret even though the outcomes of these transactions have global implications if they can bring about the implosion of a giant like for example Merrill Lynch.The majority of regular citizens are completely unaware of the risks involved in continuing to ignore the massive problems in the financial system that brought about last Septembers crash.I hope we can continue to thrive and grow as a nation,but with the way we continually ignore lessons taught by our mistakes i think we may hand our children a very different nation than our parents gave us.
Things on the home front remain about the same,i am fighting my battle with chronic pain every day,and advocating for my children to the best of my ability.My wife continues to work very hard to support us and is my partner in this current struggle with my health issues and kids school programs.One thing i will mention is that our female dog,sugaree,is 14 years old and seems to be struggling more and more as the days go by.I hope it is just a passing thing but am very sad at the thought of her being gone.I will continue to add more as the situation develops.Until next time,thank you for reading. spacewalker

Friday March 26th 2010

Well it has been a while since my last post due to being unable to stay up on my feet for any length of time.My issues related to my back injury have taken over my entire life.The pain clinic docs decided to put my pain medicine back to almost the same level it was,minus about 15mgs a week.This is a minor reduction compared to the 225mg a week reduction i mentioned in my last post.The reduction is in the immediate release medicine,as opposed to the slow release or extended release medicine that was increased from every twelve hours to every eight.This is a tremendous relief as the 12 hr dosage did not last as it was supposed to.The last three hours or so was brutal,and with the reduction in immediate release i had no extra dose for the middle of the night.I wish there was a magic pill to help,but alass this is not the case and i must continue with the regime dictated by the pain clinic.My family will continue to suffer from the effects of having me in constant chronic pain.The medicines help,but they only diminish the level of pain.I find it very hard to endure at night especially,and lack of sleep is taking a toll on me as well.My mood needless to say,is miserable.When i pick up my new prescription today i hope that it will help to alleviate some of this,but until i allow either surgical or larger prescription solutions i most likely will continue to be miserable.
On the family front i got news i was very unhappy with yesterday regarding the childrens educational plans outlined by the school district.First i will begin with my older son,Jeromy.He is,as i noted in my last post,having major problems with school.The school is new to him and it has much higher standards than the school he was in for the 6 years prior to this one.That was one of the reasons we put him here,with thew main reason being we wanted both of our children in the same school.He is now being tested for learning disabilities to discover how bad the situation is.As i eluded to in my last post i am very disappionted in the school he was in prior,as they never made any problems with his ability to learn an issue.His grades were average,but i was never made aware that he had any problems that would require extra attention.The level of his abilities are much farther below his grade level and may require him to repeat this grade.I will co-operate and help his teachers in any way i can and i hope we can address these problems without him being held back,as i believe that would be very bad for his self esteem.The next few school years are critical in his developement as a person in my opinion,and it would be wrong to hold him back.The process of pinpionting his deficiencies will take some time,and in the meantime there is no way of helping him catch up to his classmates.I can do everything within my power but without the school componant being in place it will be very difficult.I am not a profesional educator,i am just a dad with no way to formulate a proper gameplan for his specific needs.The first meeting i had with the 6th grade team of teachers they made me aware he had some abilities behind his grade level.The problem was that all of the avenues for addressing the problems,such as extra help,after school classes,ect..had been filled up already.So unless we could afford a private tutor or private institution there was no way to offer him the help he needed.So the farther into the school year we got the farther behind he was.Now we are at a point where it seems impossible to have him caught up in time to move ahead with his class at the end of the year.
When i was on the phone with the school psychologist having this conversation about Jeromy being tested for learning delays and deficiencies,he casually mentioned that my younger son matthew,who has been diagnosed pdd-nos(pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified)which is in the autism spectrum,is about to be declassified learning disabled and put into regular student status.This was quite a blow that i was completely unprepared for,and i had a hard time with the rest of the conversation after that.Matthew is a wonderful kid and he is doing very well with all the therapies they have been providing,such as speech,occupational,and physical,and i believe without these he will slide backwards fast.It is the first year he has been without a 1 on 1,and my opinion is he needs to continue with an iep and until his specialist says different,should remain classified as learning disabled.I will fight the district on this decision and use all the resources available to me to advocate for both of my children to recieve all the help they can get to become successful,productive,honorable citizens.There is no one else who will advocate for my children with more motivation than me.Professionals in the field who are child advocates,especially for kids with diabilities,are limited by work related codes of conduct,large caseloads,and can only do what is within their limited scope of duties as dictated by upper management and State education law.I will continue to post updates on this as they develope.
On to commentary on national news and related topics.As i am sure everyone by now is aware,the landmark reform to the Health care system is now law.My opinion has been discussed in past posts,and i continue to feel the same way.My family is insured through my wifes job,and i am curious to see if there will be any changes in that policy.I also am covered under workers compensation for my back injury,and i am very curious if there has been any changes to work related injuries and how they are handled and paid for.The scale of this new law is such that i think it will take quite a while before we will see any lasting positive effects on such a large industry.The fact that alot of the projected savings are coming from cutting waste fraud and abuse form medicare,while at the same time promising no reductions in benefits i have trouble believing in savings that are based on certain things happening.This and other projected savings to fund this giant new government program are just that,projections.The reality is,from past experience,that giant new entitlement programs cost alot of money to enact and continue,so we as a nation will watch and see if this is just another in a series of attempts to use government power to control what are supposed to be privately owned and controlled areas of our economy.The massive bailout of the financial industry that was dubbed TARP for troubled asset relocation program is another example.This was supposed to give the government the ability to purchase,hold,then re-sell the assets responsable for all the turmoil in the finacial markets.It was an unprecidented move to backstop the hemmoraging of cash by most of the major players in the whole of the financial world.These companies were gigantic complex entities that the people incharge of setting financial policy for the United States deemed them "too big to fail" and
convinced Congress to allow this massive rescue package from The Federal Reserve.One of the reasons was it was an emergency situation that could have ruined the entire economy.They projected a depression style collapse of the stock market followed by an implosion of the banking industry that would have global implications.The way the financial giants were operating involved short sighted profit grabbing without long term vision of results of new very complex financial tools like derivatives and credit default swaps on the very markets used to buy and sell them.The size and scope of alot of these companies were so massive and so intertwined that the collapse of one meant the collapse of the whole group,or "the house of cards" senario were it would mean catastrophy for the whole world.When financial powerhouses are allowed to operate under one view of capitalism ,is that "moral hazard" or the fear of risky unscroupulous behavior being discovered and having negative finacial consequences for the offending corporation will keep the market honest.But under that view,these corporations should have suffered the consequences of their risky behavior and should have been broken apart and sold just like any other corporation in any other industry would have been.Instead,the government intervened,backstopped the losses with the power of the Federal Reserve issuing billions in cash reserves to these collapsing corporations.This money was lent at 0% interest rate and was not tied to any timeline for repayment,as opposed to a loan to an ordinary citizen by a local institution such as a bank or credit union which would be subject to an interest rate and a timeline for repayment.Regular folks don't have access to the discount window at the federal Reserve to borrow to help pay bills,i don't understand why these companies and corporations after being deemed to have the same rights under the constitution as individual citizens,are treated as special by our Governments Financial entity.The reasons for this TARP program being created is not exactly what it ended up doing in the marketplace.It did not purchase these troubled assets,instead it purchased shares of stock in these companies allowing them to pay off short term debts and in effect started the whole house of cards scenario again.There has been no change in the practices such as credit default swaps or trading in morgage backed securities.These and other risky behaviors used as common business practice by these financial intitutions must be regulated and put under some sort of watchdog government agency.Anyways,we shall see if anything else can get done with this partisan environment.The picture i am posting today is of matthews first bikeride of spring.Until next time,thank you for reading. spacewalker

Thursday March 18th 2010

Today i will begin my post by talking a little more about recent trouble related to my chronic pain issues.I had a visit at my pain clinic today and was reduced by another 225mgs a week on my pain medicine.This is A SIGNIFICANT reduction and i am displeased to say the least.The Physicians at the pain clinic are very knowlgable and i trust their judgement,but after two years at the same dose i am at a loss how a 225mg a week reduction is going to help me manage the current difficulties.These have been discussed in prior posts and include inability to sleep,no real endurance to be able to maintain a normal schedule,and a complete lack of libido.Chronic pain is a horrible curse and i cannot live any semblace of a normal life while my pain level is so high.My family suffers because i am difficult to be around and i am not very good company.It makes me very short tempered and i have no ability to be patient with the kids.As long as i continue to have such a high level of pain and it is not well managed this most likely will continue.The common belief surrounding the medicines used for chronic pain is that they are no good and cause more harm than benefit to the patient.This is not the case in my opinion,but even being closely monitored by a pain clinic the average person still is taken back learning about medicines used.Mentioning specific meds i will refrain from,but they are very strong to say the least.They do have a propensity to be abused by a certain percentage of people who are predisposed to addiction,but most folks can use them without that being an issue.I believe the problem is the blurred lines between some one who is addicted to a substance,and someone who is dependant on a substance.If it were a drug for epilepsy or maybe depression,people assume dependance.With most pain meds the assumption becomes that person is that person either is or will become addicted.This is very frustrating and can become an obstacle to a pain patient's social abilities.This is very true in my case,and not only do i avoid going places in person,i find myself avoiding phone contact as well so i don't have to answer any questions about how i am feeling and what new changes to pharmacutical regime?Its not that i question folks genuine concern,its just i don't wanna unload my burden for anyone else to have to feel concern or worry.As it is i find it very difficult discussing my issues with everyone when we are in the middle of two wars with families makin more sacrifices than i ever could imagine.The heroes over in the "big sand box"deserve our support and prayers,and their families as well.These men and women are the reason i am free to write what i want,and i admire and respect them with all i have.
I went to a great group on Monday at the social skills group my youngest attends.The parental portion had a speaker who specialised in anxiety.He described it in such simple terms i was amazed.He used a visual that is common in describing it,called the "worry hill",where you get to the top as anxiety peaks,and if you can get over the hump it's never as bad as it seemed to be.Another common description involves the "what if?"question that seems behind so many of these worries.For example"why should i get on this elevator when it could get stuck?"Well,anything "could" happen,but that is an unrealistic assumption,as are most that bring about anxiety.It can be crippling and debilitating and can take over your life if you allow it to.I am not one of those folks luckily.I have small bouts of anxiety,nothing major though.These ideas and some of his other suggestions were very helpful,and i can use them to help with the childrens anxiety as well.
News on the national front seems to be that the action in the house on the current health care reform bill will happen this Sunday.The procedural manuvers used to pass this massive new economic burden are going to be shifty at best,but for the republicans to balk at the use of these tools seems silly as they have used them to advance their agenda many times in the past.I will continue to monitor and comment on the situation as it developes.I am going to go to the park with my young son to let him swing on the swingset.The pic i posted today is me at the Casino in Atlantic City i mentioned in prior posts.Until next time,thank you for reading.
spacewalker

Monday March 15th 2010

Today began a usual Monday with the kids,and again as usual i was on about four hours sleep.It is difficult but not impossible to greet the day with a smile,i just need to count my blessings and pray for strength.I have alot to do tomorrow as its my Darling wife's birthday.So HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my wife,i love you with all i got and hope you get to celebrate many many more birthdays with me.We will celebrate with the usual pleasantries,a small cake and giving of gifts,which makes the kids very happy.
Tomorrow is also the too week mark and i haven't heard back from the school about Jeromy's current problems.The sixth grade team and the school psychologist asked me to give them two weeks to ready a plan,but they did not get back to me so i am going to call the school principal tomorrow.I must act in the best interests of my son and i believe he needs something done immediately to prevent an educational crisis from becoming something much worse.This is a critical few years in his adolescent development and social interaction with his peers is vitally important to his chances to succeed in this difficult situation.To hold him back at this point would be ruinous to his self esteem and his confidence.He has thus far been a good student,but apparently passed along without the necessary skills to achieve the results expected in a school with higher academic standards.I will add more tomorrow and as things develop.
I really don't know how or where to begin on national political news as nothing has been brought to a vote yet.The last ditch efforts being made by senior party officials trying to round up the votes necessary to move heath care reform forward are falling on mostly deaf ears.Peoples positions have hardened and the republican position is and will continue to be obstructionist.As the final moments quickly approach it looks possible that it will squeak by with the thinnest of margins in the house and go on to a tougher senate vote on the changes.If this results in some health reform i really am curious what the final product will actually be.With all the compromises the parties involved agreed to it may be more harmful to regular folks like me in the end.My families health issues range widely but needless to say we spend a good amount on health and medical.Every year the cost rise and rise and they cover less and less.The send giant books with amendments and addendum's that would confuse all but the most savvy average citizen.I will comment as the story develops.until next time,thank you for reading. spacewalker