Baseball Blogs: Bleed Cubbie Blue

REVIEWED BY: Ms. Cairo

MY RECOMMENDATION: Yes, wth reservations

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: Bleed Cubbie Blue

WEB ADDRESS: http://www.bleedcubbieblue.com/

BLOG DESCRIPTION: This blog is dedicated to the Chicago Cubs fan community and features game recaps, bleacher reconstruction news, and book reviews. All sides of being a Cubs fan are covered in this informative site.

MY REVIEW: There is such a wealth of information fed by this blog to your Kindle, that at a cost of 99 cents a month to have it delivered, it's not a bad deal, especially if you're a diehard Chicago Cubs fan.

Unfortunately, like most of the SportsBlog Nation blogs, many of the features available on the website aren't available on the Kindle. There's videos, audio, and probably even game threads that you won't see unless you actually visit this blog web's page.

However, I frankly anticipate that once the season actually begins and the posts really start coming, they'll mostly be text-based, and Kindle users will be able to enjoy having the articles delivered directly to their Kindle.

RECENT ARTICLES:
-Kung Fu Panda Slams Z: Giants Beat Cubs 5-1
-First Pitch Thread: Cubs vs Giants, Wednesday 3/10 (gamethread, unreadable on Kindle)
-What Will We See on Opening DAy? Cubs vs Giants at Mesa Preview, Wednesday 3/10
-2010 BCB Community Projections: Starting Position Players (Corrected)
Parker Lets Inglett Park One: 9th inning HR leads Brewers over Cubs, 5-3

Take your blood pressure medication!

Spent most of yesterday in the hospital, where my mother was admitted. Her doctor had changed her blood pressure medication a couple of weeks ago, it wasn't doing the job. Unfortunately her doctor was out of town and a home therapist said we should take her to the Emergency Room.

Bad idea, as far as I'm concerned. Put her back on her old medication which was working, just causing her to cough.

Instead we brought her to the emergency room, and since she's old and deaf, this got her more stressed out and scared than ever, because they were all gathered around her shouting questions and wanting to run tests and I'm sure she thought she was dying or something, which sent her blood pressure even higher.

She spent the night there, and is still in today for more tests, which I don't think she needs but I guess since they've got her in there they want to get their money's worth out of our insurance...  she's in a private room which must be costing a fortune....

The reason for my headline... she was about 40 when she was first diagnosed with high blood pressure...took pills for a couple of days but didn't like how they made her feel....so she stopped taking them and tried to do the "natural remedy" thing.

Result, 20 years later she had congestive heart failure, and now instead of taking 1 pill a day she has to take 4. And has to go into the hospital periodically on occasions like these.

Moral of the story - go get your blood pressure checked, and if you have high blood pressure make sure you take your meds, otherwise believe me you'll wish you had, when it is too late...

Ground Report - International Politics

REVIEWED BY: Ms. Cairo

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: Ground Report

WEB ADDRESS: http://www.groundreport.com/

BLOG DESCRIPTION: Global news reporting and opinion from eyewitnesses.

MY REVIEW: I'm not quite sure about this blog. Let's just say it has political views I disagree with. (I'm all for the ban on burkas, and I wish a ban on the Muslim religion was not far behind. And I seriously doubt if Pat Tillman was murdered because he was about to become an anti-war icon!)

So...check it out for yourself. Several writers contribute to the blog, from around the world, from their own viewpoint.

Sample post:

Is Europe reverting to Religious Witch Hunting?
by SamRatan1 May 23, 2010

Hardly a day goes by without news about the restrictions that European countries have been introducing on Muslim proponents, much of which appears to touch upon a sign of visible expression of faith as is the case with the Burqa, a female full body veil that can make a woman literally invisible. The Belgian government has now made it unlawful for women to be veiled in public places. France, a leading light in the secular democratic world, has prohibited the use of veils in public places. The Swiss population in a majority vote has banned minarets; A mosque yes, but no minarets may be built in Switzerland. And some politicians want to introduce a general Burqa ban, though Swiss hotels, banks and other businesses that profit from these customers prefer not to proscribe such dresses; Understandably, considering their dependence on such customers.

Looking at the practical aspects of being confronted with someone who is masked makes it impossible to identify the person in question. Recently, a local flight in India made a priority landing because a fully veiled passenger, who could not be identified, refused to lift her veil for identification. Some countries have implemented legislation prohibiting the use of masks in public places, this as a form of protection, when identifying people by law enforcement agencies. Some put up the argument that the woman has the right to decide whether she wants to be veiled, others say that the veil is not a religious requirement and is the right of the woman in deciding to wear one or not.

Today this appears to have seriously cut into the freedom of religion enshrined in democratic governments. We need to recall that women have been veiled for ages both for religious and other secular reasons such as fashion or plain protection from the elements.

We seem to be attempting to tackle a problem in dealing with symptoms that have far reaching implications in a secular world. In looking for a panacea for many of our questions, we seek answers in the metaphysics of religious justification for the present and future expectations. Our yearning for paradise has not diminished and religion has been able to offer answers that science has yet been unable to do, albeit answers that merely promise rewards with no proof.

Oil and water do not mix and attempts to find commonality between common concepts of universal law and religious tenets of right and wrong have been not successful. Every attempt at a common civil code that is universal and acceptable has not been successful, where religion is relegated to the private arena of one’s beliefs. This is like asking someone to be a KKK member in private (if that is the person’s choice) but at the same time swear allegiance to the US Constitution in public. Politics cannot be yet bereft from religious faith and here lies the conundrum.

Without going into the discordant and disparate notes that major monotheistic religions have evoked and the continuous attempts to interpret these in varying contexts, it appears to be an impossible task to reconcile these to come to a common and universal agreement. The deliberations of many learned men and women have brought us no closer to what can be perceived as common and universal understanding of what is acceptable. Are we doomed to continue to perish at the religious battlefields that have torn man asunder, or does the answer lie in a complete disavowal of religion?

RECENT POSTS:
--"Greening" Fisheries Could Calm Troubled Waters
--Is Europe reverting to Religious Witch Hunting?
--EPA Officials Weigh Sanctions Against...
--Furnished Summer Sublet in NYC's West...
--Florida Regulators Stop Admissions to...
--NFL Star Pat Tillman, Anti-War American Hero…Was EXECUTED! 3 M-16 Shots To His Face….VIDEO
--Ecotech Institute Launches as First a...

Never get involved in a land war in Asia

and never agree to transcribe 20 hours of meetings from an Australian business meeting.

That's what I've been doing for the last 4 days...utter nightmare. Could NOT understand their accents. Making it worse were the bad audio levels and the fact that a lot of the people preesnt insisted on talking over each other from all around the room except in front of the microphone... I will never transcribe ANYTHING every again.

Anyway, so sorry to be MIA from my blogs.

Celebrity Psychings

REVIEWED BY: Ms. Cairo

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: Celebrity Psychings, by Alicia Sparks

WEB ADDRESS: http://blogs.psychcentral.com/celebrity/

BLOG DESCRIPTION: Celebrity Psychings examines the world of mental health through the eyes of celebrities. You see, celebrities are people, just like us. They have mental health issues, just like us. And they suffer the ridicule mental health stigma carries – just like us. However, unlike most of us, celebrities are better situated to really bring to light important issues. Updated regularly by Alicia Sparks.

MY REVIEW: Celebrities may have mental health issues just like us...I'd say they have more problems, because they are never-endingly in the spotlight. Female actresses develop eating disorders and obsessions with facelifts, and know that no matter what they do, someone is going to criticize them simultaneously for being too fat or too thin, too old (at 40!) and so on. I'd say male actors have it a helluva lot easier, but even they can have issues, over and above just what the ills that flesh (and mind) are heir to.

So this is a really interesting blog about psychology, and I'd think it'd be of interest to everybody. There's no salaciousness, no delight in the pain and agony of people with "too much money," just honest insight into people's problems.

Sample post

When We’d Show Mel Gibson Compassion, Not Contempt
By Alicia Sparks

After some of the more stigmatizing comments (“dangerous lunatic,” anyone?) that’ve been made regarding Mel Gibson’s recent behavior and maybe/maybe not mental illness, I thought it’d be nice to share some perspective from someone who clearly grasps the importance of sitting down and really thinking about what you’re going to say before you’re going to say it – and why you’re going to say it in the first place.

The person I’m talking about is Marie R., who is for all intents and purposes an anonymous reader and commenter who used a recent Entertainment Weekly update to share her thoughts on Mel Gibson’s behavior and our reactions:

You aren’t far off. I truly believe he has been mentally ill his entire adult life, probably had at least some treatment to control his symptoms, bipolar most likely, & some other borderline personality disorders, but that as he has gotten older, & I’ve had some personal experience with this, people begin to disintegrate, especially if their treatment isn’t consistent & medications retooled over the years as needed. He seems to be self-medicating now which can be nothing but bad. Also, if anyone here knows about what was going on with Rita Hayworth in her later years, just before they finally figured out she had Alzheimer’s, she was drinking heavily, prone to fits of rage, breaking things, etc., sounds a lot like what’s going on with Mel. I don’t know, not a shrink or a neurologist, but he surely needs one or both now, for himself & his children. They must be humiliated & scared at this point. Mel needs a PET scan, pronto. And if I’m off the mark then he needs to go to jail, but my money’s on mental illness, or something even worse that cannot be fixed. And if that’s the case, he deserves our compassion, not our contempt.

I suppose the reason I’m sharing this comment is to point to an example of calm contemplation in this whirlwind of outrage and shun. It is possible to pause for a minute and think about the situation – think about why Mel Gibson (and anyone else, for that matter) has done these things.

The verbal abuse and threats were bad, yes. The physical violence was bad, too (if there was any – there’s now speculation as to whether Gibson actually hit Oksana Grigorieva in the mouth, as she claimed, or if that all plays into the extortion theory).

But even amidst all that, it is possible to eventually set aside the inevitable shock and confusion and anger and evaluate the situation.

If indeed Mel Gibson is suffering from untreated mental illness, which would be better: Hoping he seeks (and benefits from) professional help, or writing him off as a lunatic lost cause?

If it were you, how would you hope your family and friends would react?

RECENT POSTS:
--Using Theater to Challenge Preconceptions of Mental Illness
--Finding the Value in Celebrity Psychiatrists
--When We'd Show Mel Gibson Compassion, Not Contempt
--Ryan Bingham: Sadness, Happiness, and Songwriting as Therapy
--Mel Gibson Might Have Toppled Over the Edge of Darkness
--Does Crystal Bowersox's New Smile Mean New Confidence?
--Ron Artest Thanks Psychiatrist After Lakers Take NBA Championship
--Are Psychiatrists Better Off Behind the Scenes?
--Cut Yourself Some Slack: Lessons From Jewel
--Get Reacquainted With Megan Jackson and EmsCharityKiss

_______________________
Ms. Cairo writes several blogs including:
Seaborn: Oceanography Blog
Star Trek Report: Space Sciences
Topical Murder and Dated Death