Scott Chisholm Lamont, RN.

The purpose of this blog is to post interesting, day to day tidbits that touch upon at least one of the eclectic topics of my pages, ranging from nursing to politics. I will try to avoid those traps of the blogosphere, where this becomes either part of an echo chamber or the posts are so self-involved that they aren't worth your time to read. Mainly, I am hoping to get people to think a little, maybe challenge some assumptions. I will also try to watch my spelling while I'm at it.

Comments? Thoughts? Rants about my rants? You can use the convenient comment tabs found at the top of each item, and I promise to read them and to leave them up for others to read (within reason, of course - plain old flames are boring, and I'm not going to waste server space on them). If you just want to say something to me, you can e-mail me.

Beltaine followed by meningitis. I wonder if the latter was to balance out the fun of the former.

Posted Thursday, May 29, 2005 @ 2212 PDT
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Leaving the Left - with tongue firmly in cheek.

Why I'm joining the GOP: Leaving the left for fun and profit, by Jeff Gillenkirk.

After reading this, I may have to defect too - my bank account could use some shoring up. Maybe I can sell my soul and claim a capital gains exemption.

Category: politics, USA, humour

Not going to be able to blog as much for a while.

Given the pressures of work and school, trying my hand at podcasting, and trying to get some content up on my other pages, I'm just not going to be able to blog as much as I did previously. Will try to keep up with current events, and post something at least once a week. Maybe I can get back to a more frequent schedule in the fall.

Category: personal

Sick as hell.

There is a good reason that I haven't posted in a few days. I started feeling crappy and achy Wednesday last week, developed fevers that just wouldn't go away, then a headache that even three 222's wouldn't quell. Finally, when by Saturday night I couldn't sit, stand, or lay down because every position hurt too much, my roommate Dennis gave me a lift to the ER. They plumped me up with a litre of saline (I was getting dizzy and tachycardic when I stood up) and ran a battery of tests, then came back and told me I was sicker than I looked (I'm still not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing - maybe it means I have an amazing constitution). I had viral meningitis, with some complicating neuralgia (nerve pain down my back and legs) and bacteremia (my blood cultures were positive, perhaps coincidentally). So after 17 hours in the ER I was admitted, and thus wound up on the other side of the bed from my usual spot for several days. A bit of an eye opening experience, I must say. The nursing staff were really great, and put up with my crankiness really well (not to mention my later unauthorized forays off the floor). The physicians I dealt with were really pretty nice and down to earth, although I didn't see much of them (of course). I even went to class with my IV locked - a distinct advantage of going to school where you are admitted. Shara flew out from NM to take care of me and Kwai drove up from Santa Cruz and brought me food so I wouldn't starve - I really was trying not to cause a fuss, but there you go. I was glad Shara was there when they discharged me, I still felt crappy and probably wouldn't have taken very good care of myself. Needless to say, I've had little energy for school or to get my podcast set up (recording done, but mixing and setting up the server is not). So I will try to get caught up on both fronts, but be patient with me.

BTW - my advice from all this? First, don't get meningitis. Second, if you can avoid it at all, don't be "an interesting case"!

Category: personal

Why are we having this discussion?

From the Washington Post, this headline:

In Kansas, A Sharp Debate on Evolution: Educators Consider Intelligent Design

TOPEKA, Kan., May 5 -- Debating a question that the scientific establishment considers settled, Kansas education authorities put evolutionary theory on trial Thursday in a hearing marked by sharp exchanges over Earth's origins and what students should be taught in science class.

Yes, Kansas - again. I would laugh if it were funny. There appears to be such an astounding level of scientific illiteracy at work here that there is little hope for the next generation (or two) doomed to attend school in that benighted state, regardless of the outcome. It is one thing to discuss the spiritual meaning of what we can discern with the tools at our disposal (like science), even to create venues for such discussion. It is quite another to place that discussion in science classes where you are trying to teach young people science - that is to say teach them the fundamentals of how the tool works and what we have discerned with it. Even the complete lack of understanding about what theory is in science is depressing. As someone studying the scientific method, research (both quantitative and qualitative), and theory construction and critique, I would say that the biggest error that consistently appears in this discussion is that a theory is "just an idea". Ideas, grounded in observed phenomena, are the beginning, and only the beginning, of the climb towards scientific theory. Even speculative theory rests upon demonstrable facts, even laws. Germ Theory is a powerful explanation for certain illnesses, and rests upon a great deal of demonstrable fact, experimental data, and even biological laws, yet it cannot be PROVEN as correct or "true". Science doesn't prove things, it disproves them. If something cannot be disproven, and is a reasonable explanation of what can be seen to occur, then it becomes accepted as "true" to the best of our knowledge, and remains such until either a refinement or new theory can be demonstrated to be a better explanation. Science does not, and should not be expected to offer meaning in the spiritual sense (ie: why are we here? why did it turn out this way?). Conversely, spiritual or religious convictions should not limit what explanations science can offer. If that were allowed, we would still believe the sun revolved around the Earth, regardless of evidence to the contrary - the exact opposite of science.

BTW - an interesting factoid: Florence Nightingale did not believe in Germ Theory, even though she was an able scientist. There are still plenty of people in this day and age who do not believe in the Germ Theory explanation for AIDS.

Category: politics, USA, science, spirituality

Another step closer to same-sex marriage in Canada.

If the Liberal government doesn't screw everything up and collapse (they are a minority government at the moment), gay marriage will become law soon. From the Globe and Mail:

Ottawa — Legislation legalizing same-sex marriage came a step closer to reality Wednesday as the House of Commons approved the bill on second reading.

Bill C-38, titled Law on Civil Marriage, was passed by a vote of 164 in favour and 137 against. Of those, 35 Liberals were opposed to the bill and four Conservatives voted in favour.

Of course, they have to survive until the bill gets third reading - which likely won't be until the summer.

And while we are on the gay Canadian theme - Degrassi is back! With a gay teen character. Who knew?

Category: GLBTIQ/queer, politics, Canada

A small collection of headlines.

In the "oh, shit" category:

Ocean tells the story: Earth is heating up
Human activity, not variables in nature, cited as culprit

New temperature readings from the deep ocean trace a clear warming trend that seems impossible to turn around any time soon, scientists reported Thursday, promising a steadily warming world and raising the odds of a catastrophic sudden change marked by rising seas and melting icecaps.

Researchers led by James Hansen, one of NASA's top climatologists, looked at the planet's "energy imbalance" -- the difference between the amount of heat absorbed by Earth and the amount radiated out into space -- and compared those results with predictions of leading climate models.

They concluded that the unusual magnitude of the warming trend could not be explained by natural variability, but instead fit precisely in line with theories suggesting that human activity -- the dominant "forcing agent" driving the computerized climate models -- is responsible.

Under the "yeah, probably true" category:

The Greediest Generation
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

We boomers are also preying on children in a more insidious way: We're running up their debts, both by creating new entitlement programs and by running budget deficits today. Laurence Kotlikoff, an economist and fiscal expert who with Scott Burns wrote the excellent and scary book "The Coming Generational Storm," calls this "fiscal child abuse."

BTW - another debt the Boomers have run up (and many national gov'ts keep running up, the US not the least) is the environmental debt. The older generation had better hope the milk of human kindness flows pretty freely amongst the younger generations if 20 to 30 years from now the oceans have risen and flooded the major coastal cities, most key species have died off, the oil has run out, and all the various government programs have disappeared due to economic implosion.

Under the "is that a good idea or not?" category:

On Bloggers and Money
Some Seek Disclosure Rules for Web Sites Paid by Candidates

The Federal Election Commission, which has been considering issuing new regulations on a range of political activities on the Internet -- and was said by some to be contemplating taking a tough stance on the online commentators -- revealed in late March that it intends to be much less aggressive than many had feared. But now some observers are wondering whether the FEC is not being aggressive enough when it comes to one category of bloggers: those who take money from political campaigns.

The FEC requires candidates to disclose their expenditures, including any payments to bloggers, in periodic reports to the government. Some bloggers also disclose their financial relationships with candidates, but they are not obliged to reveal those payments, and the agency recently said it is not proposing requiring them to do so.

Under the "damn right" category:

Canada can lead the way on nuclear weapons

By MICHAEL BYERS AND ROSS NEIL

Let's come out of the closet: Canada is a nuclear-weapons-free zone.

Today, the fate of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty hangs in the balance as representatives from 188 countries begin a month-long review conference in New York. Canada could make a decisive contribution to saving the NPT by officially declaring itself a nuclear-weapons-free zone.

The NPT has been remarkably successful, to the extent that none of the 183 ratifying non-nuclear weapon states has subsequently acquired nuclear weapons. The only three countries to have acquired nuclear weapons since 1970 - India, Pakistan and Israel - exercised their sovereign right to stay out of the treaty.

Instead of sitting on the fence, Canada should join the "new agenda coalition," a group that includes Brazil, Egypt, Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand, South Africa and Sweden. Together, these countries are seeking to decrease the political legitimacy of nuclear weapons and persuade the nuclear powers to move decisively towards disarmament.

Canada should also declare itself a nuclear-weapons-free zone, a possibility encouraged under Article VII of the NPT and already seized upon by many other countries. Currently, nearly half the Earth's surface and one third of its population - in Latin America, South East Asia, the South Pacific and elsewhere- fall within officially declared nuclear-weapons-free zones.

As a nuclear-weapons-free zone, Canada would be forbidden to produce, test, store, acquire or deploy nuclear weapons, or to have nuclear weapons deployed on its behalf by other countries. As it happens, Canada currently does none of these things. We are, in practical terms, already nuclear weapons free.

In its foreign policy statement, the federal government asserted that Canada should present itself as a "model country." Models don't hide their finest attributes away in a closet. Let's be frank about our nuclear-free status, and show some leadership on the world stage.

And finally, in the "uncomfortable truth" category:

From 'Gook' to 'Raghead'
By BOB HERBERT

"Haji" is the troops' term of choice for an Iraqi. It's used the way "gook" or "Charlie" was used in Vietnam.

Mr. Delgado (a soldier) said he had witnessed incidents in which an Army sergeant lashed a group of children with a steel Humvee antenna, and a Marine corporal planted a vicious kick in the chest of a kid about 6 years old. There were many occasions, he said, when soldiers or marines would yell and curse and point their guns at Iraqis who had done nothing wrong.

Posted Sunday, May 1, 2005 @ 1851 MDT
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And finally, Jon Stewart mangles CNN (again).

I am back on-line after enjoying a marvelous Beltaine celebration with my family here in New Mexico, sponsored by SWEFA. We are tired, sore, and dusty but had a great time (especially the girl, who reveled in being "outside" continuously for three days). As promised, here is the link I got from the LGBTIQQ listserv at UCSF. In this clip Jon Stewart of the Daily Show takes two CNN anchors to task for letting a guest in a debate segment make a completely unsupportable claim regarding rates of sexual abuse by gays against foster children (look for the "Microsoft gets the Daily Show Treatment" headline, choose the Win MP link, the QT link doesn't seem to work).

This is all in relation to the legislation passed by the Texas House that would bar gays or bisexuals from having foster children, which I posted about here earlier. From what I've heard since, if enacted, they would remove kids retroactively (yeah, that's good for them) and the state would be allowed to investigate applicants for undisclosed queerness (refresh my memory - wasn't it supposed to be the conservatives who kept the government out of our private lives?). Fortunately, the Numbers Guy at the Wall Street Journal has weighed in on the matter. You can also read a rebuttal of the crap spewed forth by Dr. Paul Cameron (the "researcher" who was apparently previously expelled by the American Psychological Association) by a properly accredited psychologist from UC Davis. If you are feeling like you need to don hip-waders and get right into the crap, this link leads to a re-post of the World Net Daily report on the "research" in question (and it bloody well should be questioned).

Thanks to the folks on the listserv for the additional links.