It's the end of democracy as we know it (and I feel fine)

From ehintz:  Remember how Bush has recently started rattling sabers at Venezuela, as if we're not involved in enough wars all over the world yet?  The reason may lie here:  Venezuela's President Chavez offered to provide cheap gasoline to poor US communities.

Gasoline is cheaper than mineral water in oil-producing Venezuela, where consumers can fill their tanks for less than $2.  Average gas prices have risen to $2.61 a gallon in the United States, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Chavez said Venezuela could supply gasoline to Americans at half the price they now pay if intermediaries who "speculated ... and exploited consumers" were cut out.

It gets even worse than that -- Chavez and Cuba's President Fidel Castro offered to give poor Americans free health care and train doctors free of charge.  We OBVIOUSLY can't allow that -- why, it would undermine everything America the Bush Administration stands for!

And on a more humorous note, from zeekar and the Onion:  Evangelical Scientists Refute Gravity With New "Intelligent Falling" Theory

Medical update, second attempt

I note as an aside that LiveJournal's poll-creation interface needs to be bludgeoned over the head with, say, a large flanged mace until it whimpers and cries for its mommy.  But that's neither here nor there.

Today's appointment with the podiatrist went more or less as expected, once we got past the 10 to 15 minutes of driving around in circles in downtown Nashua trying to figure out how to get into the building's parking lot.  (I still believe a way of doing this exists, though I didn't find it.  Fortunately, I found another parking lot I could use.)  The podiatrist, a Dr. Kaufman, looked at my foot then sent me across the waiting area to X-ray, where they shot my foot three times ... er ... well ... let me rephrase that:  They shot three views of my foot from different angles, then sent me back to Dr. Kaufman bearing X-ray films, whereupon he examined the films and my foot again.

The situation with my little toe isn't quite what I thought.  It's not the distal end of the third phalange that's trying to break out through the side of my toe, it's a large spur on the proximal end of the second phalange.  (The first and second phalanges are fused, which is not unusual in the little toe, and the second phalange is unusually large.)  While there are things that could possibly be done to try to repair the toe, due to the nature of what's going on with my foot he doesn't feel it's likely they would be successful.  As a result, he concurs with Dr. Ciccinelli in NC that at this point, the best remaining course of action is to amputate that toe just in front of the third joint, leaving the joint itself intact.  He wants me to see a vascular specialist first for a vascular study on my foot and lower leg, something I have no problem with whatsoever; both cymrullewes and I have been saying that this would be a Good Thing.

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While I'm at it, I've been thinking for a week or so of adding a new usericon to use for medical posts.  I have four candidates, which you can see below.

[Poll #558462]

I solicit your input, but make no promise to be bound by it.  I'll freely admit I'm leaning fairly strongly toward the fourth icon.  So, have at it!  Register your opinion!  Make your voice heard!  Throw rotten fruit!  (Well ... actually, how about we just skip the throwing-rotten-fruit part?)

Ever been called by a collections rep?

fabulist has.  This ... is hysterical.  I'd LOVE to have audio of it.

(via beckyzoole)