NewscomaGot A Two-Pack Habit And A Motel Tan

Okay, guys, I wanted to explain Stink Eye to you, as I have received a couple of e-mails wondering when I was getting a white cane. It’s not that bad, just aggravating.

I’m one of those people that is far-sighted in one eye and near-sighted in the other. Back about fifteen years ago, my optometrist told me I had the beginnings of an eye-disease called lattice degeneration. This is not a terrible condition, and is more aggravating than anything else. I’ve had it for years so I’m pretty much used to it. On top of this, I have a wicked astigmatism.

Well, recently I have been having trouble seeing. It had been a couple of years since I had an eye examination and I honestly can not see the television across the room and when I would be reading, it would be a huge strain, and so I made the appointment.

So, when I’m sitting in the doctor’s chair yesterday, he made a bunch of noises like “Ahh” and “Ummm” and “Oh dear.” Then he went and called for my former records to do a comparison of my last appointment and this one. Then he left for awhile while I read all the degrees on this office wall (or what I could see of them) and he came back in with an odd smile on his face (you know the one, where they are going to give you some less than pleasant news.)

The degeneration in the right eye has progressively gotten worse in the last few years. Best case scenario is nothing will happen. Worst case scenario is that my retina will detach unexpectedly. But let’s remember, it’s an iffy thing and most likely nothing will come of it other than very, very very expensive lenses for the rest of my life. Homer had terrible eyes growing up. so I’ve been extremely lucky in comparison to her. She spent much of her elementary school years in Stephen King coke-bottle glasses until she found the wonderful world of contacts. Of course, she’s back in glasses because contacts sort of bother her now but with prism cut lenses, she and I or at least we can be styling as much as two four-eyed sisters can be.

So, I have stink eye. Not devastating, but I’m to be in lenses that will darken under fluorescent lights as well as the sun (some sort of fancy transitionals, as they are a bit different. He wanted me in tinted glasses all the time but I wasn’t sure about that), lenses that are prism cuts that have three different gradual strengths in them, and I must have the lovely stink eye looked at every six months to see if there is any tearing. If there is any sort of tear, then we move to step two.

Need to find out what that exactly means, I guess.

Not a big deal, but irritating. I just hope the glasses come in soon so I can learn them as the optometrist is going to give me lessons on how to use them.

It could be worse. And I’m blessed, really. I get to say stink eye, which gives me some weird sort of amusement.

I’m odd.

Photo from here. 

When I saw that unabashed liberal Ted Rall sent a letter to Media Matters and the Human Rights Campaign defending Ann Coulter, I took a moment and thought, okay, what the hell. He is not kind about her in the least (who on the left is. I can’t stand her) but he did make some thought-provoking points about her right to say what she wants to say. He says many things, but he also adds this and I had to think about it.

Right-wing extremist groups used similar sleazy tactics against me between 2001 and 2005, asking conservatives to impersonate angry subscribers to my client publications. While most editors saw through the deception, some didn’t. In the ideologically charged atmosphere of the time, even papers with sterling, left-of-center reputations were cowed into submission. During the Clinton years, I was one of The New York Times’ most frequently reprinted editorial cartoonists, and a contributor to the Op-Ed Page. Under Bush my work appeared a few times before disappearing.

Now that the political winds have changed in our favor, progressives whose views were marginalized, insulted as acts of treason and subsequently vindicated by events are understandably tempted to get even with caustic personalities like Coulter for their vitriol and intolerance. More than ever, however, we must resist the urge to lower ourselves to their level. How can we complain about right-wing hatred if we match it with our own? How can we bemoan right-wing censorship campaigns if we do the same thing?

Now let me say this. I don’t like Coulter. AT ALL. But Rall, who has been the victim of her vile “joking” attacks, is saying some interesting things about freedom of speech.

Read the whole thing over at Editor and Publisher. It’s food for thought. I just wish no one had picked up her crappy column in the first place, put her on a pedestal and then acted shocked when she consistently showed her true colors time and time again in the first place.

Damn you, Rall, for making me think about this.

It was gone in a blink of an eye.

Top House Democrats retreated Monday from an attempt to limit President Bush’s authority for taking military action against Iran. The Democrats have abandoned the war authority provision. Apparently Nancy Pelosi stripped it from a military spending plan,

The overall bill — which requires that the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraq by Sept. 1, 2008, if not earlier — remained on schedule for an initial test vote Thursday in the House Appropriations Committee.

The measure provides nearly $100 billion to pay for two wars and includes more money than Bush had requested for operations in Afganistan and what Democrats called training and equipment shortages. Still, House Republicans said they wouldn’t support it and the White House threatened a veto.

What’s wrong about this picture? I guess I’m just waiting for someone to stop talking about the war and start doing something about moving us out of there. With non-binding resolutions and now this, what are the Democrats doing. It has become tedious at this point, and with many of the people I know who have already gone to Iraq once and looking at going back, I can’t help but be impatient. I can’t imagine what their families are going through.

I am a true believer that things are going on underneath the soil, if you will. If you have ever seen the movie Blue Velvet, there is the scene at the opening of the movie where everything is beautiful on the surface, but underneath the blanket of grass you see you much and the insects lying underneath the surface in the dirt and the muck.

That’s what I believe is happening in Washington right now. Mainstream media is covering lottery winners, Anna Nicole and the presidential race among candidates who will not take office for nearly another two years, and yet the grinding machine of Washington keeps putting off any real action regarding a subject that most Americans want some resolution on. It’s a mess, there will be no easy fix. I’m not naive, I know that, but something is better than nothing, but Bush keeps sending troops in.

Of course, the Democrats say they will focus on the Iraq Withdrawal portion of their agenda. But I’m ready to see this soon.

I guess I’m just aggravated. Very, very aggravated.

Has anything really changed? I sure hope so, but I’m ready to see it all happen. Something is afoot. Halliburton is moving to Dubai, there seems to be a shift going on, but I guess I would like to know what’s really happening.

Because I’m not too sure anyone really knows.