October 31, 2008
Joining The Club
For Halloween, I dressed up as a lawyer--complete in suit and tie--and sponsored my sister's admission to the Minnesota bar. Over 600 hundred attorneys were sworn in at today's ceremony. Having four law schools in the Twin Cities ensures that the supply of freshly minted lawyers always exceeds demand. I had friends who were still waiting tables after they passed the bar, and this was in the halcyon days of the late nineties. The job market confronting most of today's new attorneys is much grimmer.
But I have more immediate concerns, like wondering whether the dry cleaners can get the sacrificial goat's blood out of my tie. Those arterial sprays are messy.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 07:21 PM | Comments (0)
October 30, 2008
Quit Being Such A Girl
Senator McCain's proposed health care "reform" centers around a proposal to give everyone a $5,000 tax credit that they can use to purchase insurance on the private market. But that five grand isn't going to stretch as far if you're a woman. As the chart below illustrates, women already pay significantly more than men for individual health care coverage: 
Insurers justify this sex-based discrimination by arguing that women are more likely to receive check-ups and take prescription medications. In other words, ladies, it's your own fault. If you could just learn to buck up and stoically ignore your medical issues like us manly dudes, you wouldn't be facing this problem.
The private insurance market is one of the few sectors in the American economy that is allowed to employ naked bias as a tool for profit. Let's hope that changes soon.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 09:12 PM | Comments (1)
October 29, 2008
It Took Them Long Enough
The suits at MTV finally realized it might be worthwhile to stick all of those old music videos on the web. Titled simply MTV Music, the site contains almost 20,000 videos and more are being added each day. Sure, many of these can be found on YouTube, but the quality of the MTV-hosted videos seems uniformly good. Here's Bjork's "All Is Full of Love", for no other reason than I think it's a cool video:
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 09:12 PM | Comments (1)
October 28, 2008
Numbers Game
The UK newspaper The Observer recently published the results of its Sex Poll, which included this question: Have you ever had sex with someone with a physical disability?
The results were as follows:
- 70% said No, and I don't think I would.
- 26% said No, but I would not rule it out.
- 4% said Yes
Those numbers don't surprise me and I suppose I could use them as a justification for throwing my hands in the air (er, figuratively) and settling in for a life of celibate bachelorhood. But I'm not really interested in trying to earn the affection of that 70%. Those are probably the same 70% that refuse to try sushi or watch a movie with subtitles; the boring and the conformist. I'm more interested in seeking out members of the other 30%. Those are the interesting people. They're not easy to spot and it takes more than a little time and luck to find them, but they're out there.
These statistics simply reaffirm that disability, in the abstract, is not attractive to most people. But individually, we gimps are not abstractions.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 09:56 PM | Comments (3)
October 27, 2008
Believe What You're Seeing
Thanks to a meeting I had in downtown Minneapolis this morning, I was able to make a quick stop at the Government Center to vote early. So, for me, this election is now over.
I've been talking to friends with similar political views and many of them are still nervous about the outcome on November 4th. After getting burned in both 2000 and 2004, they can't quite bring themselves to believe that the Democrats are on offense now. We certainly can't afford to be cocky or complacent in this final week, but I don't think I'm casting a jinx when I say that an Obama defeat is extremely unlikely. A friend of mine recently observed that the candidate who runs the better campaign usually wins. McCain's first mistake was to abandon his carefully constructed image as a moderate to solidify his support among a shrill and forlorn base; a base already feeling neglected and betrayed by the current president. That fatal decision led to tactics that might have had currency in 1984, but don't resonate in 2008.
McCain wanted so much for the social conservatives to love him, but he knew that he really wasn't one of them. Which led him to Palin. Palin was supposed energize the evangelicals who were wary of McCain, but instead she only fanned the flames of discontent and fear. Sure, she attracted crowds. But under her spell, those crowds became mobs.
Meanwhile, Obama has run a campaign that is groundbreaking ($150 million in one month!) while being remarkably conservative in tone. Against all expectations, he maneuvered himself to be viewed as the safe, sensible choice. To put in pop culture terms, Obama is Atticus Finch to a lot of voters. Reassuring, calm, deliberate.
What I'm trying to say is this: Obama will probably win because the narrative of this race works strongly in his favor. And while I wouldn't recommend swagger at this point, a little strut is certainly permissible.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 08:47 PM | Comments (4)
October 26, 2008
Instant Gratification
The New York Times reports on computer manufacturers that are trying to decrease bootup times--the time it takes your computer to power on, load the operating system, and generally make itself ready for use. I just rebooted my computer and it took about 35 seconds, but I hardly ever power it down. My work computer probably takes a little longer to boot, but again, it stays powered on most of the week. And in both cases, I usually don't mind waiting. Maybe that's because I'm now old enough to remember when computers took a loooong time to boot, long enough to get up, go check the mail, come back, and wait some more. The current state of affairs seems more than tolerable.
But I'm probably part of a dying breed. I'm comfortable with having a few empty moments when I'm not doing something.
And ten years from now, when boot times are a thing of the past, I'll wonder how I once put up with wait times of 35 seconds.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 06:53 PM | Comments (1)
October 25, 2008
Worthy Of Your Attention
A few odds and ends that I've been meaning to post:
- I blogged a few years ago about Nick Dupree, a disability activist living in Alabama who battled the state to keep his nursing coverage after he turned 21. Nick recently moved to a rehabilitation hospital in New York and he's blogging about his experiences in his newly adopted city here.
- Matt Eddy is on a trek across the country in his vent-equipped wheelchair to raise money to build accessible housing for people with severe physical disabilities. Matt is blogging about his ambitious road trip and, in his most recent entry, he was approaching the California coast.
- Mark Udall, the Democratic Senate candidate in New Mexico, is running this ad featuring an Iraq War veteran who is quadriplegic as a result of a combat injury:
- Matt Eddy is on a journey across the countrymin
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 04:19 PM | Comments (0)
October 24, 2008
Friendly Competition
A few of my friends with SMA have had some health problems lately. Today, in an effort to appear sensitive, I suggested to one of them that we should start a pool to place bets on which one of us will meet our demise first. She thought it was a great idea. I advised her to put her money on me, but she would have none of it. "You're going to be puffing on your vent long after the rest of us are gone," she said.
I'm not so sure about that. When the coming economic collapse forces all of us into the countryside to scavenge for food, I'm going to have a hell of a time finding a working electrical outlet to keep said vent puffing away.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 09:15 PM | Comments (3)
October 23, 2008
No On 8
A California ballot initiative--Proposition 8--seeks to ban same-sex marriages through an amendment to the state constitution. If this initiative passes, it would effectively dissolve thousands of couples' marriages. A few weeks ago, polls showed Prop 8 heading for an easy defeat, but then conservative groups cranked up the fear-based rhetoric and the polls have tightened.
Prop 8 is nothing more than a shameless effort to codify discrimination. The intent is spelled out right in the title: "Eliminates Right of Same-Sex Couples to Marry". It deserves defeat, but it's going to take money to make that happen. You can contribute here to show your support for the countless couples, present and future, who seek nothing more than equal status under the law.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 08:22 PM | Comments (1)
October 22, 2008
Accessorizing
In an average week, at least a couple strangers will make comments about my ventilator. The comments are usually variations on "That's some contraption" or "That's some set-up you've got there." It usually happens in elevators when I'm facing away from the doors, giving fellow passengers a good view of the back of my chair. And to the untrained eye, my equipment probably does look exotic. My vent of choice is a boxy thing that hasn't shrunk in size since I started using it in 1987. There's also the attached humidifier, the external battery, my portable suction machine, and my supply bag. Taken all together, these items probably weigh almost as much as I do.
Comments like this used to surprise me. It's not that I forgot about all the gadgetry on the back of my chair; it's that I didn't consider it that interesting. To me, this stuff is boring and utilitarian, like my keys or my wallet. But what I consider commonplace, most other people find incredibly foreign.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 09:15 PM | Comments (3)
October 21, 2008
Slow Zone
My local cable company just boosted its broadband speeds for most customers in the Twin Cities, while holding the line on price. Those of us who had been on the 6Mbps tier have been bumped up to 12Mbps. Normally, this news would have me smiling; anything that will give me faster access to videos of chimps riding Segways has to be a good thing. Unfortunately, my own Internet connection seems to have caught a cold in the last few days. I'm averaging about 800Kbps, not much better than dial-up. A lengthy call to tech support didn't solve the problem, so I'll be roughing it until the tech pays a visit on Friday. Keep me in your thoughts during this time of hardship.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 08:09 PM | Comments (1)
October 20, 2008
Balance Of Power
Some political observers, mostly conservatives, are beginning to fret about the possibility of a Democratic president and a Democratic Congress joining forces in January and forcing every American to listen to NPR and buy organic. I can sympathize with that concern, at least to an extent. The Republican hegemony of 2005-2007 was a disaster and I'm old enough to remember the backlash against Clinton and the Democrats in 1993-94. It's entirely possible that an Obama administration, with the assist of a friendly Congress, could become giddy with power and implement some truly ill-conceived policies.
But I'm willing to accept that risk. The next administration will need to take swift action on a variety of fronts, but particularly in regards to the economy and health care. Republicans show little interest in providing serious cooperation on either of these issues. The ship of state turns slowly enough as it is and I don't feel particularly accommodating towards the other side at the moment. But assuming Obama is elected, we Democrats shouldn't hesitate to give his administration a reality check when appropriate. If Republicans had done more of that, they might have avoided implosion.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 10:01 PM | Comments (1)
October 19, 2008
Legacy Code
Richard Garriott, a video game designer, hitched a ride to the International Space Station with the Russians earlier this week. He brought with him a hard drive containing the digitized DNA sequences of both celebrities (including Stephen Colbert and a Playboy model) and ordinary schmucks. The idea is that, in the event of some planetary calamity that wipes out the human race, a "backup copy" of human genetic information will be kept safe in orbit.
Of course, nobody asked me for any of my DNA. Which is too bad, because I'm having a lot of fun imagining aliens trying to recreate me from scratch:
NARG: Hey, Zerl, c'mere and look at this.
ZERL: What is it?
NARG: Come here and look at the specimen in Vat 42. Does that look right to you?
ZERL: Hmm, it is scrawnier than the others. Are you sure you didn't get the sequence wrong?
NARG: No, I checked that. It's the exact same sequence that we found in that primitive archive.
ZERL: Strange. Well, let it mature and then stick it in the cage with that oddly proportioned female. It might cheer her up.
NARG: Can't we just eat its brains? I mean, look at that ginormous head.
ZERL: A tempting thought. Perhaps later, after the female grows tired of it.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 07:04 PM | Comments (0)
October 18, 2008
News To Make My Geeky Heart Go Pitter-Patter
Director Ridley Scott has plans to turn the classic science fiction novel The Forever War into a film. I first encountered this book during a college course on literature inspired by the Vietnam War and it blew me away. It tells the story of William Mandella, a soldier swept up in a long and brutal war between humans and a race of hostile aliens. Mandella is part of an elite combat unit that is dispatched to battles in faraway corners of the galaxy and, because of the time-dilating effects of space travel, he returns home each time to a human civilization that seems increasingly alien to him. The only familiar fixtures in his life are his combat unit and the war itself.
Hollywood has a depressing track record of stripping great genre books of all their nuance and complexity, which results in bloodless film adaptations that leave only the haziest impression on audiences. To prove my point, how many of you can remember even a fragment of a scene from I, Robot? Neither can I. But Scott is a good choice for this project, assuming he can persuade the studio to keep the suits at bay.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 03:51 PM | Comments (1)
October 17, 2008
Bodies In Motion
Below is a clip from a ballet performance entitled Hand in Hand, in which both of the dancers are amputees. It's a lovely bit of culture with which to kick off the weekend:
Much of my weekend will be spent reading through a thick stack of proposals. There are almost forty of them, so I can't give in to my usual procrastinating impulses and put it off until Sunday evening.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 09:21 PM | Comments (2)
October 16, 2008
Cult Following
Oh, this is getting to be too much. Some misguided slacker had Stephen Hawking's portrait tatooed on his right leg. Underneath the portrait is a quote from a Monty Python movie: "He's not the messiah, he's a very naughty boy."
I'm willing to wager that my own naughtiness far exceeds Hawking's, but that's beside the point. Clearly, the only way I can counter the Hawking media juggernaut is to do something noteworthy enough to steal his spotlight, like write a bestselling novel or take over a small Latin American country. And given the glacial pace of my writing, the second option is more likely.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 07:10 PM | Comments (2)
October 15, 2008
It Doesn't Have To Be This Way
In honor of Blog Action Day, I thought I'd do a short post on poverty and disability from a global perspective. The World Bank cites the following statistics on the subject:
- In Uganda, households headed by a person with a disability are 38 percent more likely to be poor.
- In Serbia, the poverty rate of disabled people is 70 percent.
- In Honduras, people with disabilities have an illiteracy rate of 51 percent compared to 19 percent for the general population.
- In the United States, there is almost a 70 percent rate of unemployment among disabled people.
- And in some parts of the world, as many as 80 percent of disabled children die before the age of 5, even in areas where the overall child mortality rate has been brought down to under 20 percent.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 07:51 PM | Comments (0)
October 14, 2008
The Future Will Be A Dangerous Place
The military is working on "synthetic telepathy", a means of composing, sending, and receiving text and voice messages using thought alone. Now, I'm all for progress, but I have moments when I think this method of communication might not be the best solution for me. There's a lot going on inside this head of mine and a stray private thought could make its way into an otherwise innocuous message, leading to all sorts of embarrassment. One positive aspect of being a really slow typist is that it allows me to filter out all the things I want to say, but probably shouldn't. Thought-powered communication would remove that filter.
I just hope they never figure out a way to add images to those messages.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 07:47 PM | Comments (1)
October 13, 2008
Download These
There's some good music to be found on the intertubes lately. For example:
"Paper Planes" by I'm from Barcelona--IfB is a Swedish musical collective with a big, sweeping sound. Think Polyphonic Spree, only not as saccharine. This is probably one of those songs that you either adore or detest. But it makes me smile every time I hear it.
"Acid Tongue" by Jenny Lewis--The lead singer of Rilo Kiley has always had some country in her. But there isn't a hint of twang to be found in this spare, aching arrangement. I'm thinking that Jenny Lewis and Neko Case should start touring together.
"Paris" by Friendly Fires--Nobody will remember this song in five years, but it's a fun mix of rock and electronica with a soaring, shiny chorus. It opens with the line "One day we're gonna live in Paris, I promise" and it doesn't get any less earnest from there, but somehow it works.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 08:53 PM | Comments (1)
October 12, 2008
Extreme Makeover
I came across my high school senior picture today. My nurse looked at it and, not knowing when the picture was taken, said something like, "Is this you in the eighth grade? You looked good back then."
Needless to say, I've spent the rest of the day sitting in front of my computer, privately moping. But I am going to hunt around on eBay for circa-1990 eyeglass frames that cover half my face. Maybe that's the accessory that will get girls to like me; the missing element that will transform me from borderline "meh" to slightly-less-borderline "meh". I can't say that the big glasses did anything for me back in high school, but now the whole retro look is back in fashion. I might even still have that denim shirt in the back of my closet.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 05:21 PM | Comments (1)
October 11, 2008
Toning It Down
A little bit of Minnesota Nice rubbed off on John McCain yesterday. The video below is from a McCain rally in Lakeville where the Arizona senator admonished a supporter who described Obama as an "Arab".
McCain may finally be realizing that his campaign rallies are acquiring a distinct torches-and-pitchforks tone. Or he may just be responding to pressure from GOP party bosses who may be nervous about independent voters' reactions to TV clips of McCain supporters shouting "Kill him!" and "Terrorist!".
William F. Buckley, an unapologetic conservative elite, once said, “You know, I’ve spent my entire life time separating the Right from the kooks.” Watch the video below from another McCain rally in Ohio and ask yourself which kind of crowd McCain and Palin are attracting.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 01:58 PM | Comments (1)
October 10, 2008
Big Man On Campus
Officials at Cambridge University are commissioning a 10-foot bronze statue of Professor Stephen Hawking. Hmph. Clearly, this is some sort of intimidation tactic designed to throw me off-balance as I continue training for our forthcoming smackdown in low Earth orbit. Nice try, Dr. Hawking, but you'll have to do better than that. I'm not as easily impressed as all your Cambridge groupies. In fact, let's see how impressed they still are once they see me put you in a half-nelson and give you a vicious noogie in front of a global television audience.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 08:57 PM | Comments (0)
October 09, 2008
Downturn
As the effects of stock declines and collapsing credit markets filter down into the everyday economy, state policymakers will have to contend with grim fiscal outlooks. In tight times, more people depend on government services like food assistance, Medicaid, and subsidized housing. But as the need for services increases, a state's revenue collections are on the decline because of a shrinking tax base. Minnesota's next budget forecast is due to be released in a few weeks and it's likely to show a significant deficit of at least a couple billion dollars.
My colleagues and I are not looking forward to the upcoming legislative session, when lawmakers will be required to come up with a balanced budget for the next two years. Other states will be in similar predicaments. California just passed a budget that was over two months late and will probably need to be renegotiated to take into account a worsening economy. I don't think things will get that dire here. At least, I hope not.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 08:51 PM | Comments (1)
October 08, 2008
Thinking Out Loud
Esquire is running a great article about Erik Ramsey and his quest to speak with the assistance of a brain-computer interface. As the result of a brain-stem stroke following a car accident, Erik has locked-in syndrome and is capable of making only subtle eye movements. Researchers placed a small implant in the region of Erik's cortex responsible for controlling speech. A computer analyzes the signals picked up by the implant and translates them into sound. After much practice, Erik can now produce most vowel sounds. The researchers guess that Erik might be able to speak in short, complete sentences within five years.
The reporter makes a good observation: these newfangled implants are only the latest iteration in the millennia-long history of brain-technology interfaces. I like this quote from the article:
For as long as we've been humans, we've been intermingling our minds with technology. In fact, it's one of the most essentially human things we do. What are pen and paper if not cognitive prostheses? What was the invention of algebra if not a "mindware upgrade?" And what are books if not external repositories for the contents of our brains?
How I get these words onto the screen is not important. Whether I'm using my fingers, my head, or my neurons, those are only instruments of conveyance. The message remains the same.
Then again, imagine how long-winded these blog entries would become if I could write at the speed of thought. A stiff neck does enforce a certain sense of economy on my words, which is something we can all be grateful for.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 08:39 PM | Comments (1)
October 07, 2008
Siegel & Siegel, L.L.P.
A big congratulations to my sister, who learned today that she passed the bar. Now we can move ahead with our plans to open our own firm. She'll handle criminal, probate, and personal injury cases. Unless the client is cute, in which case I'll be providing representation.
I'd better start designing our letterhead.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 06:31 PM | Comments (1)
October 06, 2008
Mystery Solved
As you can see from the comments in the post below, last night's traffic spike was triggered by the latest episode of Extreme Makeover Home Edition, which featured a family with two daughters with SMA. If you ended up at this blog via Wikipedia, welcome. See the picture of the guy with the ginormous head on the upper left corner of your screen? That's me. Feel free to peruse the five+ years' worth of archives. Amidst all the pontificating diatribes against President Bush and self-involved moanings about not being able to get a date, you're bound to find something mildly interesting.
Thanks for the free publicity, ABC. Lost is a great show, by the way. It's one of the few things that doesn't sit unwatched on my TiVo for weeks at a time.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 07:52 PM | Comments (0)
October 05, 2008
Curious And Curiouser
Traffic to the blog suddenly spiked tonight and I'm at a loss for an explanation. Most of the hits are coming from this Wikipedia article on SMA that I, uh, edited last year to include myself as a reference. It was a lame attempt at self-promotion, but it seems to be paying off now. Damned if I can figure out why, though. Maybe there was something on the Discovery Channel.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 10:22 PM | Comments (18)
Urban Lifestyle
Living downtown is making me soft. Today, a friend and I wanted to grab brunch at Hell's Kitchen, a popular spot for Sunday diners. We called ahead and discovered that the wait time for a table was an hour and a half. So my friend and I hung out at my place while my nurse took a quick walk over there, put our name down, and came back with a pager that would notify us when the table was ready. No milling around in some crowded lobby for us. About an hour later, we got paged and I was soon enjoying a rather spicy Bloody Mary.
It's like I'm living the life of some sort of Midwestern Jerry Seinfeld, complete with Junior Mints.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 06:11 PM | Comments (3)
October 04, 2008
Mind And Body
The bailout legislation enacted yesterday did include one provision that health care advocates have long waited for: the Mental Health Parity Act. This law prohibits private insurers from imposing more restrictive limits on mental health services than those for other medical services. For example, an insurer cannot require higher co-pays for mental health visits compared to other types of clinic visits. And it can't cover fewer mental health visits compared to the number of covered visits for other medical services.
The Act isn't perfect--small businesses with fifty or fewer employees are exempt and insurers aren't required to offer mental health services. But it goes a long way towards creating better and more equitable access to mental health benefits for millions of people. The late Senator Paul Wellstone and his wife Sheila were both early and vocal supporters of this legislation, so it's fitting that Minnesota Representative Jim Ramstad played an instrumental role in the law's passage.
Taken together with the recent passage of the ADA Amendments Act, this Congress has created more protections for people with disabilities than any in recent memory. Granted, the previous Congresses in this decade set the bar pretty low in that regard, but both of these laws deserve recognition as significant milestones on the road to a more just and accessible society.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 05:21 PM | Comments (1)
October 03, 2008
Gosh Darn It
OMG, Sarah Palin is adorable! If the sole qualification for Vice-President was folksy perkiness, she would be the perfect candidate. But I prefer my national leaders to have more gravitas and less phony-ness.
I watched the debate with a friend at the Riverview Theater in south Minneapolis. As you might guess, the crowd leaned heavily Democratic. Every time Biden made a witty retort, we all cheered with the kind of gusto usually reserved for professional sporting events. So not only were we completely biased, but we were also total geeks.
I'm going to have to find other ways to fill my social calendar once this election is over.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 08:54 PM | Comments (1)
October 02, 2008
Change We Can Believe In
Enough of this tiresome McCain-Obama contest. Let's give the third-party candidates some attention. For instance: 
President Shatner will put a food replicator in every kitchen and finally bring an end to the conflict with the Romulans. Plus, that Hasselhoff is a real looker.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 06:22 PM | Comments (0)
October 01, 2008
Keep Him Away From The Liquor Cabinet
I just got back from meeting a friend for beers. I should've quit after the sixth or seventh strawful. Anything more than ten strawfuls and I start making inappropriate comments to the wait staff. You can still see the red mark on my cheek left from the slap I received. Next time, I'll stick with club soda.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 09:43 PM | Comments (1)