Take Care, TiTi. We'll miss you.

It's a sad, sad day in the Chaz household. My favorite player on my favorite team has left. Thierry Henry has left Arsenal for Barcelona, and I'm pretty upset about. It's like my best friend decided to start dating my ex-girlfriend. Anyway, I was an Arsenal supporter long before Henry came to the club, and they're still my favorites. But it's gonna take awhile to get over.

Here's the man in action:



But fear not, Gunner fans, for we do have Robin Van Persie!

Great News

V's been released from the hospital. No more voices! Once I get the details, I'll fill you in.

Hmm

While signing his veto of the stem-cell research bill, President Bush said

"Destroying human life in the hopes of saving human life is not ethical".

Isn't that his reason for the war in Iraq? Kill them over there before they kill us over here? Just sayin'.

Why we can't win in Iraq

I'm reading a fascinating book, "Caesar - Life of A Colossus", by Adrian Goldsworthy, and in his chapters dealing with Caesar's Gallic Wars, I've discovered the reason we won't be able to win the war in Iraq. Caesar was bogged down in a similar situation in Gaul - he had invaded a territory he thought he knew, but came to find out that the inhabitants didn't necessarily want to be ruled by an imperial power. After initial successes, the legions came under more and more attacks from the Gauls, leading to an entire legion being destroyed. The Gauls weren't a unified nation with an army willing and/or able to meet the Romans in a head to head fight, so they resorted to guerrilla tactics.

Caesar "wanted to regain the initiative, which inevitably at the beginning of a revolt lay with the rebels. The Roman army would attack and would show that Rome was still strong in spite of defeat, and that the consequences of opposing it were appalling. The tribes had no single leader, no capital and looked unlikely even to mass into a single field army. Nor would the defeat of one necessarily cause others to capitulate, and each had to be defeated in turn. Lacking these clear targets, Caesar would instead attack the homes and farms of the warriors. Houses would be burned, crops and herds consumed or destroyed, and people killed or enslaved. The Romans had a word for this activity, vastatio, which is the root of the word devastation, and even a verb vastare for the process. It was brutal in the extreme, but could be effective, terrifying the enemy into admitting defeat and coming to terms. Throughout history occupying forces have often turned to similar methods, but few have surpassed Caesar's legions in their ruthlessly efficient application."

The only way we could do this would be to totally abandon who and what we are as a nation. We don't do terror, it's just not are way. It's the opposite of what we say our objective is, winning the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people (which isn't working by the way). And because we aren't as ruthless, as cruel as those we are fighting, we won't win this fight.

South Beach

And these are from our trip to South Beach back in January.



South Beach 07

Ireland

Just found a bunch of pix on my hard drive and thought I'd share them. I'll start with our trip to Ireland a few years ago.



Ireland

Obama on Iraq

Today.

Good News

V should be discharged from the hospital Thursday or Friday.

Oh my God, Obama's a racist! (er, no he's not)

So the leftie blogs (of which I consider myself one) are all in a tither about a memo the Obama camp has been circulating attacking Hillary Clinton for accepting donations from Indian-American companies that outsource jobs to India. According the them, he must be a racist, he called her HILLARY CLINTON (D-PUNJAB). The problem is, she said this about herself last year.

So, apart from the D-Punjab part (which Hillary herself said last year), what about the memo was bad? Are American jobs being sent to India or not? Is Hillary actively courting Indian donors or not? The fact that people are attacking the Obama campaign kind of proves the point - don't say anything about jobs going to India or you must be a racist.

More on V

Dr. Sheerer met with V yesterday and tells us that he believes she's suffering from a psychotic episode and that she should recover fully. He doubts that any medication caused her break, but that the stress she's been under may have had a big part to do with it. She's just not capable of dealing with stress the way that you or I would be able to.

She'll be in the hospital for at least another week. She's still hearing the voices, but she's getting better. Fingers crossed.

Passing the buck

1st, the good news. V's doing better - still hearing voices, but now that she's in the hospital and knows that she's safe, she's improved a lot. So much so, that when Amber was visiting last night, V told her "okay, you can go home now"! Vintage V, she'll let you know exactly how she's feeling and when she's had enough of you.

The bad news - in the time-honored tradition of bureaucrats everywhere, the people who run Victoria's residence are planning on filing a complaint against Amber and/or V's doctor - blaming them for V's breakdown. Incredible! I don't know what to say. Amber does EVERYTHING for her sister, including everything her counselors are supposed to do, and they're now blaming her? They're saying the combination of meds V's on is the cause of the breakdown, never mind the fact that the hospital hasn't said that's the case. V's been on medication to control her weight. The part of your brain that tells you that you're full isn't working on V and she'll just eat and eat and eat - Amber took her to a doctor a few months ago and was able to get her a prescription for Meridia. Now, one of the side effects is mood changes - but this was not a mood change, it was psychosis. Assholes.

We've been blessed to have wonderful family and friends who've been supporting us through all of this, from as far away as San Diego and Sri Lanka! I especially want to thank my little brother's father-in-law Clark (a psychiatrist), who called the other night and helped us a ton.

Good News

V is resting now at the Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington. Amber went to visit her earlier today, but she was sound asleep - her first real sleep in over a week. We're headed back this evening.

The Northern Virginia Training Center, one of five regional residential training centers for individuals with intellectual disabilities operated by the Commonwealth of Virginia, is sending someone to the hospital tomorrow morning to meet with V. The doctor they're sending is one of the few in the country who specializes in patients with MR (mental retardation) and mental illness. Fingers crossed.

Finally

V is being admitted for at least the night. Amber will be home in about an hour - she's completely and utterly exhausted.

latest

Still waiting to be seen. V is now constantly arguing with the voices in her head - Amber's unable to make her stop. The voices are mad at V for going to see the doctor earlier today. This is so, so sad. Amber is a complete wreck now.

Update

Still trying to find a doctor who will see V. So far, none know how to deal with people with mental disabilities. Are going to try Arlington Hospital Center. The voices are getting worse and she's now actively arguing with them. The medication is not working.

Our weekend

We had quite a rough weekend. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned here before, but my wife’s little sister V suffers from mental retardation and cerebral palsy. My wife is pretty much her main support mechanism – she helps her with her bills, takes her grocery shopping, etc. Despite that, she is a very independent young lady. She has her own apartment, goes to work everyday and is just about the sweetest person you’ll ever meet. One of her many quirks is that she talks to herself – she’s actually just thinking out loud, with often comic results. This past week, however, her talking to herself became something else entirely.

For the past week, we’ve noticed that V has been very, very depressed. She used to love going to work, but last week she called us every morning to say that she didn’t want to go to work. Her job coach, hmm, how do I put it…? Her job coach is a fucking bitch. She yells at V when she talks to herself, snaps at her when she gets up to go to the bathroom, basically makes her workday a living hell. Now, most of us have had to deal with horrible bosses, but we’re intellectually capable of handling. V, however, assumes that she’s done something wrong and can’t understand why her job coach is so mean to her. The stress from all of this caused V to have a psychotic break on Friday. She’s begun to hear voices in her head, and it’s freaking her out. Of course, because she talks to herself, we didn’t know what was happening at first. My wife took V to the doctor Saturday morning to get help for her deep depression and that’s when we found out about the psychosis. They gave her some medication and that was it, until Saturday afternoon. The voices in V's head got really, really bad. She thought that her old roommate was with her and that they were both being hurt by another resident (this actually happened a few years ago). She didn’t know where she was or who we were and started screaming and crying. I can’t explain how scary and disturbing it was. My wife took her to the emergency room, where, after waiting for hours for someone to help, was eventually told that no one could help them, because V's mentally retarded and they had no psychiatrists trained to work with her. And with that, they washed their hands of the problem. No suggestions on what to do, they wouldn’t admit her to the psych ward, just a “sorry, can’t help you”. That’s the state of care the mentally retarded routinely get, and it’s horrible. We’re looking into our options today – possibly bringing V into the city to either GW Hospital or Georgetown. We’ve had to stay up with her all night, because the voices won’t leave her alone and she’s scared to death. So far, the voices have only been threatening her, not telling her to harm herself or others. The medication has made the voices whisper instead of yelling, but it’s rough. I’ll keep you posted on how we’re doing.

Wer wußte, daß Deutscher gutes dieses klingen könnte?

I first heard Joy Denalane about 5 years ago - I think it was when we were in Ireland and I was watching some music video channel. The woman is beautiful and what a voice! Goes to prove that even German can sound good! Anyway, Joy is Afro-German (her dad is from South Africa and her mom is German). Check her out:

Friday Night

This Friday night is my gal Sarah D's 30th birthday party. And we're going to kick it like it's 1991!