quote: Johnathon, as you age, you might find more wisdom and intelligence in some you'd call rednecks than your Princeton and Yale grads.
I never said the rednecks are/n't wise, I just said they are classicly the opposite of the Princton grads. That never reflected wisdom; and today it's different, anyway.
posted
I don't see how you can call the war of 1812 a draw. The war started over the Brit's blockade of trade (France had recently recinded a similar policy) as well as the Brit's practice of impressment. Once peaceful means failed (an unsuccessful American trade embargo) war broke out.
The Americans planned on conquering Canada but failed utterly (well, they torched York, but didn't succeed in holding any territory). The Brits planned on gaining large American territory in a peace treaty but were successfully beaten back.
In the end, many died and a treaty was signed that changed none of the reasons for starting the war. The blockade was still in effect and impressment wasn't stopped. [Edit: nor did the British withdraw from the great lakes region, a tertiary reason for the war.] Considering these were the reasons the US declared war against the British I'd say the war was a failure. Not to discount the impressive victories on the part of the US, but just because you didn't lose the land you started with doesn't mean you won the war. Nor even "tied", the British got to keep everything America wanted to see changed.
[ October 26, 2004, 12:44 AM: Message edited by: Bob the Lawyer ]
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posted
I'm quite taken by the equation of "offering their opinions of the situation" with "telling me what to do."
For one to necessarily be interpreted as the other is an interesting perspective.
[Sopwith: . I ducked the pig valve (I have a cadaver valve and a metal/plastic conduit), so Tom's pulled pork causes no secretion of my bodily fluids other than drool.]
[ October 26, 2004, 10:23 AM: Message edited by: Sara Sasse ]
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posted
As an adolescent (far too primitive), I have NO IDEA what you just said:
quote: Sopwith: [Wink] . I ducked the pig valve (I have a cadaver valve and a metal/plastic conduit), so Tom's pulled pork causes no secretion of my bodily fluids other than drool.]
But, it is my precise style of punctuation inside brackets! (That is, when I remember what's my official style, since it's a trifle over-versatile.)
If this remark is weird, remember I'm the son of an English teacher; please have empathy.
Jonny
P.S. What're the current affairs in the US following the debates? Any other major stuff?
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quote:I'm quite taken by the equation of "offering their opinions of the situation" with "telling me what to do."
For one to necessarily be interpreted as the other is an interesting perspective.
Funny, unsolicited advice about which religion is valid or whether unmarried people should have sex is often equated with "telling me what to do" by the listener.
I'm more likely to give weight to the "opinion equates with 'telling me what to do'" theory when it is in the context of legislative history, though. When the people giving you their opinion are actively influencing your life through legislation, it has a different context.
I do see what you mean, however.
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It used to be that most replacement heart valves were either transplanted from pigs or were created artificially. Pig valves need to be replaced every 5-7 years and artificial valves -- although they last practically for the rest of one's life -- require one to be on blood thinners.
I have, instead, a heart valve donated by the family of a young man who died in a car accident. This is accompanied by some metalware and other parts, but I don't have to be on blood thinners.
So, unlike Lewis Grizzard, I haven't any pig parts in me, and thus I can eat barbeque with impunity, aside from the same moral issues that might arise for anyone. Tom and Christy make a delicious shredded pork dish (although yes, there is another connotation to "pulled pork," as I now recognize to my great chagrin ), so I can enjoy drooling over that without shedding any tears for my compatriot pig race.
[ October 26, 2004, 12:07 PM: Message edited by: Sara Sasse ]
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I'll re-ask the question I asked there. I have a friend running for Congress in New York. I can't vote for her, but I think that she'd do a very good job in Congress. So, I emailed the people that I know who could vote for her with why I think she'd do a good job and a link to her campaign website. I also asked them, if they liked my email, to send it to other people in that congressional district.
Are my actions offensive? If not, how are they different from what the Brits are doing?
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posted
Hey, I'm in PA. I've gotten a metic ton of unsolicted political material in the past week alone and have stopped answering the phone altogether, and none of the stuff I've been exposed to respects my intelligence or has any discernable quality (apparently voting for John Kerry will make my breasts at least two cup sizes bigger) at all. I sent an easily discarded sequence of bits that, I think, makes a clear, rational case for someone that I also think people could really get behind. If I deserve to die, the RNC and DNC deserve to be eaten to death by fire ants.
And that's kind of irrelevant to my point, which is that people don't have the outrage response to what I did nor thought that I was being incredibly condescending.
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posted
Sorry, I meant difference with respect to the outrage. I'm also somewhat amused by them assuming that there would be a positive result of this, although it also makes me more than a little sad.
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Surgery to replace the leaking valve, and sometimes to repair the aorta, can lead to longer life with fewer symptoms for some people with aortic regurgitation. The risk of death from the surgery is 2% to 8%.
Two types of artificial heart valves are available: mechanical and bioprosthetic.
Mechanical valve replacements work well, but require lifelong blood-thinner medicine to keep blood clots from forming in the bloodstream. These drugs cause a small increase in the risk of bleeding. This is most serious when it causes bleeding in the brain. Follow-up care requires frequent visits to a doctor.
Bioprosthetic valves are either specially treated pig valves or valves made from other body tissue. They do not require long-term blood thinners but breakdown more often.
Surgery to replace the aortic valve at the proper time can improve both the quality and the length of life.
[italicization added by me]
Pig valves are cheap and readily available. Human cadaver valves are more limited in number but are becoming the treatment of choice where available. Mechanical valves are still an excellent alternative in the right circumstances, especially for young males (long life expectancy without any issues of maintaining a pregnancy while on blood thinners).
I have a valve transplant, not a whole heart transplant. Transplanted hearts are from fresh human cadaver donors. Full organ xenotransplants (from other animals to humans) have not been successful, although pig full heart transplants have been attempted in the past (from chimp Bino to human Boyd Rush in 1964, but the heart only pumped for minutes to hours, which has been the consistent response) and are still under research. There was also the famous case of a baboon heart transplant into "Baby Fae" in 1984, but she only lived for 3 weeks.
Needless to say, there are many ethical issues involving xenografts.
posted
"Anything happy in life is either illegal, immoral or fattening." - Murphy
Does that count?
I do, however, maintain average shape. Neither scrawny nor obese.
I wish you a healthy heart and life, as for the rest of Earth's population of various animals. (Aside from those annoying Middle-Eastern insects, I hope they stay away from me!)
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![[Wink]](wink.gif)
. I ducked the pig valve (I have a cadaver valve and a metal/plastic conduit), so Tom's pulled pork causes no secretion of my bodily fluids other than drool.]![[Smile]](smile.gif)
)![[Embarrassed]](redface.gif)
), so I can enjoy drooling over that without shedding any tears for my compatriot pig race.![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
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