Hecatomb In The Hospital

Well, I decided to start a new post since the previous one got so long. I just got an email from a friend with an update on her poor mother's condition. The first email update I got about 2 weeks ago describing the surgery she was about to undergo was enough to give anyone nightmares. It described how she was going to have her esophagus removed and her stomach re-attached ''in her throat". I've since erased that email, but the current update report goes something like this: The surgery went well, and took 6 hours. The Dr.s are pleased. They had to cut out a bunch of scar tissue that was growing on her lungs and aorta from all the chemo and radiation treatments. Oh, and there is a clump of ''Yuk" stuck in her throat/windpipe and lungs that they are trying to get out, and THIS is making her mother quite nervous......and she adds that her mother has become a "little depressed".....
I'll stop now, but are we talking about a "health care" proceedure here, performed by men and women who claim to be experts on the human body, or a Carnage101 class for the new butchers at the local slaughterhouse? Don't misunderstand me, I feel sorry for Paula and her mother and my heart goes out to her family, but it is really astonishing that people are so BRAINWASHED that they agree to allow themselves to be butchered by these people just because they claim to be an expert on the human body. Well, I'd think any expert should know that the stomach won't function properly if it is relocated to the neck. Even I know that, and I didn't go to college.
Jordan once said one of the people she most admires is Hitler. Not for all the horrors he was responsible for, but that he was able to gain complete control over SO many people. It is fascinating to her that one man could accomplish this on such a huge scale. And it is, from a psychological point of view. Now days, medical Dr.s have done just that. First, people were convinced that going to school/college makes you intelligent, and the longer you go the smarter you are. There they are taught that in order to learn anything you have to be taught by someone else who is an EXPERT or a TEACHER, and to wait for one of them to tell you what to do and when, and then they will tell you whether it is acceptable or not.
This idea was elaborated on in the book I read several years ago called "Punished By Rewards", by Alfie Kohn. It gave examples of studies that were done where average citizens were invited to participate in experiments at a place that appeared to be a medical office or educational facility. One of the experiments had the volunteer sit at an official looking control panel with dials and guages and buttons. They were told that the device was hooked up to a person in another room, whom they could see through a glass window. They were told that the machine would emit electrical volts and currents to the individual on the other end. They were then told that no matter what the connected person said or how loud they screamed that the currents weren't hurting them and to continue to raise the level at certain intervals when instructed to. The researchers found that many of the volunteers were willing to keep raising the volts, even when the recipient screamed and yelled and begged them to stop (they were also volunteers, just acting the part). The voltage administers were even more willing to turn up the power if the instructor was wearing a 'white coat' and appeared to be a DR, or was called DR. so and so.
Common sense seems to go out the window when a Dr. is present.
This brings me to the next topic about the studies of the Right Brain/Left Brain theories, which I will put in a new post!

Back to the Diploma issue. Recently, in light of the discussion between Jordan and I about getting her into Cosmetology with a Homeschool Diploma, we have been more aware of everyday people who probably have a High School Diploma and how dumb they are. One is the person we both know who recently started Cosmetology. She has a Diploma... And then she happened to tell us about another student from the previous semester, who either has a Diploma, or was a vocational student attending High School. Apparently after the lesson on Hair Extensions this student went home to practice, but instead of using the hot glue intended for Hair Extensions she just heated Super Glue in the microwave and applied them with that. Needless to say this resulted in a large bald spot after removing the extensions, because Super Glue won't come out. I think even a small child who has experienced gluing their fingers together with Super Glue would be smart enough to know not to put it in their hair. How do these people even make it to High School? Well, I do know how they make it, actually. The same way all the other masses did.
I came across an updated list of famous/successful Homeschooled persons, so I thought I would list them now. The point behind the fact that they were 'homeschooled', is that they were allowed to learn what they wanted or needed to learn instead of being forced into the dumbed-down mould of an institutionalized setting. Society now recognizes them as notable for their accomplishments, intelligence or genius.
Famous People Who Homeschooled

Educators
Frank Vandiver (President - Texas A&M)
Fred Terman (President - Stanford)
William Samuel Johnson (President Columbia)
John Witherspoon (President of Princeton)

Generals
Stonewall Jackson
Robert E. Lee
Douglas MacArthur
George Patton

Inventors
Alexander Graham Bell
Thomas Edison
Cyrus McCormick
Orville Wright & Wilbur Wright

Artists
Claude Monet
Leonardo da Vinci
Jamie Wyeth
Andrew Wyeth
John Singleton Copley

Presidents
George Washington
Thomas Jefferson
John Quincy Adams
James Madison
William Henry Harrison
John Tyler
Abraham Lincoln
Theordore Roosevelt
Woodrow Wilson
Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Scientists
George Washington Carver
Pierre Curie
Albert Einstein
Booker T. Washington
Blaise Pascal

Statesmen
Konrad Adenauer
Winston Churchill
Benjamin Franklin
Patrick Henry
William Penn
Henry Clay

United States Supreme Court Judges
John Jay
John Marshall
John Rutledge

Composers
Irving Berlin
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Anton Bruckner
Felix Mendelssohn
Francis Poulenc

Writers
Hans Christian Anderson
Charles Dickens
Brett Harte
Mark Twain
Sean O'Casey
Phillis Wheatley
Mercy Warren
Pearl S. Buck
Agatha Christie
C.S. Lewis
George Bernard Shaw

Religious leaders
Joan of Arc
Brigham Young
John & Charles Wesley
Jonathan Edwards
John Owen
William Cary
Dwight L. Moody
John Newton

Others
Charles Chaplin - Actor
George Rogers Clark - Explorer
Andrew Carnegie - Industrialist
Noel Coward - Playwright
John Burroughs - Naturalist
Bill Ridell - Newspaperman
Will Rogers - Humorist
Albert Schweitzer - Physician
Tamara McKinney - World Cup Skier
Jim Ryan - World Runner
Ansel Adams - Photographer
Charles Louis Montesquieu - philosopher
John Stuart Mill - Economist
John Paul Jones - father of the American Navy
Florence Nightingale - nurse
Clara Barton - started the Red Cross
Abigail Adams - wife of John Adams
Martha Washington - wife of George W.

Constitutional Convention Delegates
George Washington - 1st President of the U.S.
Madison - 4th President of the U.S.
John Witherspoon - President of Princeton U.
Benjamin Franklin - inventor and statesman
William S. Johnson - President of Columbia
C. George Clymer - U.S. Representative
Charles Pickney III - Governor of S. Carolina
John Francis Mercer - U.S. Representative
George Wythe - Justice of Virginia High Court
William Blount - U.S. Senator
Richard D. Spaight - Governor of N. Carolina
John Rutledge - Chief Justice U.S. Supr Court
William Livingston - Governor of New Jersey
Richard Basset - Governor of Delaware
William Houston - lawyer
William Few - U.S. Senator
George Mason

Well, I guess it is just writing in general that makes other people uncomfortable. Whether it be on a Laptop, or in a Little Book, it just makes people nervous. Just like Diana Gabaldon said, whenever you try to go write, everyone tries to think up ways to stop you or interrupt you. While I was trying to get a feel for this blog yesterday, and started writing the beginning posts, Jordan and Preston both interfered! He kept sitting down pretending not to look at what I was writing, then asked questions about things he happened to see, like why did I have a word hyper-linked for example. When I told him, he didn't understand why that either. HaHa! Jordan wanted to use the computer so she kept complaining about why I had to write something that probably nobody else would ever read. Why did I need a blog in the first place, why write something nobody else would be interested in? Non-writers don't understand the self fulfillment of just writing. It is for yourself, and if someone else happens to read it and is entertained by it, that is added gratification. Writers like to re-read what they have written, gain extra enjoyment from editing and making it sound even better, changing a word here or there to even more articulate the exact meaning of the point they are trying to make. Finding the perfect word is very fulfulling! Writing also gives you the opportunity to explore new words and add to your vocabulary. I have a second window opened to Dictionary.com/Thesaurus.com when I write anything on the computer, and use them both as I write to find just the right words. If I'm writing in my Little Book, I'll jot down words to look up when I get home.

Rant On A Brainwashed Society or Education, Diplomas and Dummies

Recently at work it was really slow and I took the opportunity to jot down some thoughts in my Little Book between customers. I don't know why someone writing in a Little Book seems to un-nerve others. Maybe it is because they assume you normally have nothing going on in your mind when you are just doing your job or having conversations with people. If you are writing, however, it means you have some thoughts going on that are so important you have to write them down, and is proof that you are thinking about things that nobody else knows. They fear it is about them since they happen to be standing in front of you, or they are discomfited because they can't imagine what you could possibly be writing about, because they could never think of anything to write about themselves.
Anyway, I was writing out some of my analyses between Traditional Medicine and Chinese Medicine/Naturopathy/Bio-Feedback treatments. More on that later. While I was writing, a co-worker, whom I'll just describe as a typical redneck, was waiting for management approval to leave in a delivery truck. He noticed me writing and asked me what I was writing. I said I was just writing some thoughts about Traditional Medicine vs. Naturopathy. He didn't know what Naturopathy even was, so I told him and he said "Oh, well that's way beyond anything I'd know about! Are you a college graduate?" It doesn't seem to take much to make someone wonder if you have been to college, which is the whole point of this dissertation.
If you say one thing about something that they have never heard of or thought much about, they think you have had a much higher education that the average person. What's worse, is people just assume that anyone who has 'been to college' is unquestionably highly educated, and smarter than everyone else.
Forget college, and just take the average High School student, or graduate. Jordan recently said that so many people who are considered well educated, or are famous and actually worshiped in the Media such as Donald Trump, Simon Cowel or Tom Cruise, never graduated from High School. They dropped out in order to get on with their own interests and lives. She also pointed out the many more examples of those who do have a High School Diploma and are over the top stupid. Like the High School students featured on the reality show Laguna Beach. She said those are some of the dumbest girls she's ever seen. And they are the rich brats who's parents are supposedly intelligent enough to have gotten rich somehow.
Ok, back to college. Preston and I were both really fascinated with the story of Herb Baumeister, the SavALot thrift store owner in the Noblesville area back in the 90's. He and his wife, Julie, and their 3 kids lived in a million dollar home near Westfield. The bones of at least 11 men were eventually discovered scattered around out in the woods behind their home. He was a closet homosexual who murdered some men he had picked up at a gay bar in downtown Indy. It is also believed that he had been the murderer of several other gay men who's bodies were found along I70 between Indianapolis and Ohio over the years. He ended up committing suicide when he was found out, and never admitted to any of the murders. Well, he and Julie met while in COLLEGE together. On the A&E documentary about the whole story, (which Preston has watched at least twice...) Julie was interviewed throughout the whole episode. She said she had no idea he was gay, nor had there been any weird signs that may have suggested he had some bizarre quirks about him. But in one interview, she admitted that they had only had sex 6 times in the whole 25 years they were married. Maybe it's just me, but I think I would have been at least a little mystified, if not bewildered, about this in itself. Another completely ordinary event was the discovery by one of the young sons of a whole human skeleton, tossed in the woods behind the home. Julie claimed to have anxiously awaited Herb's arrival home to question him about it. When he arrived, he told her it was just an old fake skeleton that had been in one of his father's medical offices, and he just stuck it out there to get rid of it after he cleaned the garage. She heaved a sigh of relief over this explanation and promptly forgot about it. College people just don't think on the same level as us normal folk, ya know? Me, in my un-colleged ignorance, would have probably panicked and suspected him of being a gay murderer or something.
This topic came up because Preston and I went to Riley Children's Hospital on Friday night to take phone calls for donations during the annual WFMS Radiothon. Preston, unbeknownst to me, thought he recognized one of the other volunteers. So he kept staring at her all night, trying to place her. She noticed him staring and kept looking at him all night to see if he was still staring at her. So this made him think she knew him too, and he was waiting for her to approach him and tell him who she was. At one point, he almost went over to her and said "HI", thinking she would remind him where he knew her from. I'm glad he didn't, because at the end of the night when we were putting on our coats, it hit him all of a sudden who it was: Julie Baumeister!
((The co-worker mentioned at the beginning ended up getting fired for losing his temper and trying to strangle a fellow delivery driver, right under the surveillance camera))