Kidney Stones - all they are cracked up to be

"You know, PhyrePhox," Judge Fang said, "I really appreciate the moments of levity and even childlike wonder that you are injecting into this process.  So often when we strap people to the torture rack, they are unpleasantly tense and hardly any fun at all to be around."
 
 "Hey, man, I'm into new experiences.  I get lots of experience points for this, huh?"

'The Diamond Age', Neal Stephenson


Well boy howdy did I get a truck-load of experience points today.  Like .. my first ambulance ride.  And my first CT scan.[1]

I've always heard that kidney stones hurt.  This is how much they hurt;

The way it feels when you take a hard blow to the crotch, how it's pain but beyond pain and all you want to do is curl up in a little ball and whimper and it takes forever to go away but it's really over in a minute and in five you're right as rain?

I had the feeling for three hours today. 

But there is more!  Every so often I had these really actually incredible spikes of pain where it felt like one of my testicles was being crushed by a vise.  Actual pain to go along with the 'kicked in the crotch by a horse' feeling.

In the end the gals in the ER had enough of my crying and whimpering and begging for a bullet and they gave me Diploids or Diplodocus or some really cool drug that started with a 'd' and that settled me right the heck down.

"On a scale of 1 to 10 your pain is  .."

"Zero. Gimme some more of that Diocletian stuff, maaaaan."

[1] Don't let me hear you say the 21st century sucks.  CT scans are fucking awesome.  I, myself, can't wait for Obama Care to ration those fuckers like I hear they are in England.

Tab Clearing

'Chess Game' by Kristopher Battles.


Jerry Pournelle: Adam Smith told us that whenever two capitalists get together, their conversation turns to scheming on how they can get the government to restrict entry into their business, and thus reduce competition. The usual method is to introduce regulations that make it impossible to start a competitive business on a shoe string. Over time those schemes create a Nomenklatura that governs all, and makes lobbying more important than productivity or ingenuity.


Attack Cartoons: You're all familiar with the broken clock that is right twice a day. ron paul is like a strange broken clock that is right 23 hours a day. then you get to some foreign policy midnight, and in stead of chiming, it barks and smears itself with poo.


Freedom Twenty-Five: What is the ultimate meaning of Dr. Paul, quite possibly the one decent man left in American politics?

It is this: Future historians will have to conclude that even now, with the United States approaching her nadir, the American people had a choice. The western world’s decision to commit suicide is one that must be continually renewed.

Representative Jesse Jackson (D): "We’ve got to go further. I support what [Obama] does. Clearly, Republicans are not going to be for it but if the administration can handle administratively what can be done, we should pursue it. And if there are extra-constitutional opportunities that allow the president administratively to put the people to work, he should pursue every single one of them."

Craig Ferguson: I don’t think that cynicism is a lack of belief in America. That cynicism is despair at the complications of process and government. It doesn’t have anything to do with the belief in what this post-Enlightenment country is and can be. This is a great idea, and if you mishandle a great idea, you could end up in a lot of trouble. But it doesn’t mean it’s not a great idea. It’s still a great idea. We may disagree on how to handle that idea, and that’s unfortunately part of the great idea.

The Czar: One interesting aspect that many of our readers may not realize is that, technically speaking, Keynesian theory has not been proven a failure by recent events—because under strict rules, it has not even been tried. That is the dirty little secret on both the Right and the Left: Keynes never argued for massive government spending—Keynes merely argued that government spending was an important multiplier for lowering wages and prices. Our Federal government simply assumed that meant an increase in overall government spending...because that is what they wanted to do anyway and made up this justification for it.

Sandra and Woo: These are management consultants, Richard. From IBM Oracle. They don't understand your techno-babble.

Barack Obama: But we've been a little bit lazy, I think, over the last couple of decades. We've kind of taken for granted -- well, people will want to come here and we aren't out there hungry, selling America and trying to attract new business into America."

China's Black Market City: Chen Mingyuan has lived here all his life, but he still gets lost every time he drives into Wenzhou. “All the roads in this town were built by businessmen, so none of
them make any sense.”

Living in small town means

Knowing the people moving into the house down the road and the people moving out of the house down the road.

And signing up to help them both.

Dog: Good News and Bad News

Bad News: The small fluffy dog got out while we were gone.

Good News: She was waiting for us at the bottom of the driveway, under the mailbox.  In the rain.

A small, sad, soggy, mass of wet fur waiting for her Mom.  In that canine 'I'll wait here for years if need be' way.

Aw.

A sheep bleg

Saw a video yesterday.  One of the people I follow on Facebook, or GPlus or Twitter shared it.  I thought it was at JWZ but no.

It was:

Five or six girls, wearing sheep hoodies, pink bikini bottoms. Wee little bells around their necks.  A delusional passer-by.  The girl at the end is a real dog.

And now I can't find it. Not in my browser history.  And it was funny: I can't delusion stuff that nifty.

Thanksgiving

I have a lot to be thankful for.  The Philmont Grace sums it up real nice.

For food, for raiment,
For life, for opportunities,
For friendship and fellowship,
We thank Thee, O Lord. Amen.

The time to stop talking was five minutes before you opened your pie-hole

Post deleted on advice from counsel.

Which is your loss, Dear Reader.

Because it was funny as hell.

We would also like a cookie

We demand a vapid, condescending, meaningless, politically safe response to this petition.

It's not The Onion.  It's at whitehouse.gov.

You should sign this. 

NO FIREARMS OR WEAPONS OR SANITY PERMITTED

A sign telling all Bad People where victims may be found, helpfully provided by the City of Madison [1]

http://www.cityofmadison.com/police/documents/NoFirearmsPrint.pdf

I have no problem if you want to hang this up. Your property, your business. You gotta do what you gotta do. Live and let live, maaaan.

If I had a shop in Madison I would put one up [2]: it's expected. Not having one would be like slapping up a 'I love Ronald Reagan' sign on your window. You'd be a fool to do that and expect people to patronize you in that town.

But the expectation of some on the left is that everyone who hates-hates-hates concealed carry should put these up at their house. No, really, I seen it with my own eyes.

Why would one go out of their way to advertise one's helplessness? If someone gets killed with that sign on their door, can we call it suicide?

[1] Insert the obvious 'X square miles of crazy surrounded by Y' joke, here.
[2] Not that I'd heed my own sign. When in Rome do as the Romans do but keep your sidearm handy.