spring is here darth pic.twitter.com/kntZoxQbtg
— Lindsey Adler (@lindseyadler) March 15, 2019
Teresa Vargas, in the Washington Post:
… When I wrote about Alice’s Kids earlier this month, I did so with the hope of showing what child poverty in this nation looks like on a day-to-day level.
Many of the requests for short-term financial help that come into the Virginia nonprofit are for seemingly small items that make significant differences for children whose families can’t afford them. Among the things asked for are shoes that fit, instruments that soothe and new glasses for children who have relied on broken ones.
The organization has paid for band trips that wouldn’t have been attended otherwise, birthday parties that wouldn’t have been held and, in one case this month, funeral clothes for a teenager who unexpectedly lost her mother.
Most of that financial help, I noted in that column, benefited children in the D.C. region and some as far as California and Texas. But now, because of you, even more children, in states that previously had no connection to the organization, will find help.
After the column was published, so many of you contacted Alice’s Kids, offering donations, and in some cases your time, that the small nonprofit run out of an Alexandria home office is expanding its reach to other cities across the country and anticipates helping more children this year than it has ever had the capacity to do in its eight-year history…
Fitzsimmons and his sister, Laura Fitzsimmons Peters, came up with the idea for the organization based on their own childhood. Their mother was forced to go on welfare after their father left the family, and they remembered “humiliating” moments of wearing donated clothes and shoes with holes. They also remembered how their mother, Alice, at times would clean houses for extra money and, on those occasions, treat them to something new.The way the organization works is that requests are made by teachers, counselors and social workers, people who know best which school-age children are most in need. Once that request is approved, Alice’s Kids then sends an electronic gift certificate for the needed item that can be printed and handed to a parent or other adult to take that child shopping. That way the children never know they received help from strangers…
Because that work doesn’t require much more than a computer, Fitzsimmons runs the organization from his home office.
His desk overlooks his backyard, and on a windowsill, directly in front of his laptop, sits a well-worn stuffed dog, with the name “Scrappy” sewn onto its side.
“It’s my reminder,” Fitzsimmons said when I asked him about it. His mother made it for him when he was 5 years old, and he once had to rescue it when all of the family’s belongings were tossed outside their home during an eviction. He lost a box of baseball cards that day because it started to rain, he recalled. “Scrappy keeps me grounded,” he said…
In a better world, such tiny bits of decency wouldn’t require handouts from strangers. But in this one, there are so many kids (and adults) who need help right now…
OzarkHillbilly
Thanx Anne, now I feel bad for wanting to bitch about the day I had yesterday. Blech.
ola azul
Prolly won’t be around much longer, but if Aleta shows this morn, wanted to pass on that fella named Joe got back re: kayak repair; he left a text message, so din’t talk to him as did John at Kittery Trading Post. Not sure if Joe’s from Portland Paddle or just affiliated with them, but said he repairs kayaks — his number if helpful: (207) 317-6192.
OzarkHillbilly
This’ll piss you off:
White economic anxiety evaporated after the 2016 election. Now black economic anxiety is on the rise.
I got nothing.
ola azul
@OzarkHillbilly:
The unjust justice of Just Us justice.
plato
So much winning that you’ll get sick of winning.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@plato: So much for that Nobel Peace Prize that Trump had in the bag for peace in Korea, guess they’ll have to rely on Jared’s Mideast peace deal for it now.
OzarkHillbilly
@plato: It’s because Democrats don’t believe in rainbow farting unicorns. I feel just terrible about my insistent fealty to reality.
WereBear
I totally understand the pull of a dream world. But I don’t understand why they make theirs so crappy.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
Uh-oh
It’s hard to run a big campaign without money. Compounding matters, the corporate media will use the lack of funds to trash him, which in turn will make it even harder to raise money.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@OzarkHillbilly: The person who wrote that piece is a moron.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: It seems that everyone, possibly including his heart, is telling Joe not to run; who’s telling him it’d be a good idea?
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
Meanwhile, heavy hitters have caught Beto Mania
I read three other articles with like this.
I imagine the next moves would be enlisting the deep pockets of liberal Hollywood and techies.
plato
@OzarkHillbilly: guardian crap should come with a public warning.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
Ain’t gonna happen, who’s the junior Senator from California?
rikyrah
Good Morning,Everyone ???
plato
Bribes, corruption and buying your own oversight & regulation can take you only thus far.
OzarkHillbilly
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I never read it. A headline blaming people who had absolutely nothing to do with it was more than enuf to tell me it was little more than an exercise in moronitude.
NotMax
Mentioned neither as an alert or recommendation, only because whenever the title comes up in TCM’s listings it gives one pause, this weekend includes their presenting for all to see Famous Boners. Icing on the inner seventh grader’s cake – it’s a short.
Anyhoo, with that out of the system, a few ‘cherce’ discoveries on Amazon Prime.
1) Fascinating history documentary, Television Under the Swastika. That the film footage shown survived, much less in usable state, is amazing. Only downside is that additional money wasn’t laid out to provide more English subtitles.
2) Clever concept taken to fruition watched the other night is The History of Time Travel. Call it real fake news, done right. Have to commend everyone involved for, on a shoestring budget, producing a finished product akin to what Kens Burns would if he were making a documentary about time travel. There are certainly worse ways to spend an hour and change
3) Car 54 Where Are You?. Strictly for laffs, and those aplenty. (Only season 2 is available for free, the slightly lesser of its two seasons. If you’ve never seen it before, start with season 2’s episode 22 first to get a taste of the surreality and comedy of errors flavor in full swing.) BTW, a couple of things to notice as this originally aired in the very early 1960s – there are African-American policemen in the precinct (and not just as mute set dressing) and also a sign on the wall by the front door reading Se Habla Español.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@?BillinGlendaleCA: that’s a good point.
WereBear
@NotMax: Thanks, looks intriguing, and I long adored Car 54 Where Are You?, which I got to see when one of the NYC UHF channels ran it for a while. The team of Fred Gwynne and Joe E. Ross were hilarious, and they also painted an wonderful picture of life in the neighborhoods.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@OzarkHillbilly: According to the piece, the Speaker was a fault because she cast shade on the talks by being negative towards a delegation from ROK and remarks after the summit ended early. It had nothing to do with Trump and Kim not speaking the same language(terms like de-nuclearization meaning different things), Bolton wanting to bomb DPRK yesterday, and Trump being a bad negotiator.
Elizabelle
Happy Friday, jackals.
OzarkHillbilly
Some good news from the state of Misery:
Now, I don’t expect the state senate will go along with getting rid of jail board bills all together, but I applaud Sen. DeGroot’s efforts. If he wasn’t a Republican, I’d consider sending him some money. I think I’ll just send him a nice email instead..
mrmoshpotato
@NotMax: Oh TCM. You magnificent bastards.
gene108
@Elizabelle:
Gah…as I was going to bed, I thought last night was Friday…
But I still have to go to work today…not what I was expecting waking up to
Elizabelle
@gene108: My condolences! Maybe the day will pleasantly surprise you.
OzarkHillbilly
‘Unprecedented’ US flood season will imperil 200m people, experts warn
The headline is a bit hyperbolic but it does sound like an above average flood season.
Betty Cracker
@gene108: I hate it when that happens! I had the opposite time confusion last weekend — thought Saturday night was Sunday, and when I realized my mistake, it felt like an unexpected three-day weekend!
I’ll be working harder this weekend than I have this week. Got some kiddos coming up to help me tile the kitchen. The previous occupants of the swamp shack installed the most hideous dark, fake-metal panels. Can’t wait to shit-can that ugliness and put up some colorful tile.
Uncle Cosmo
@?BillinGlendaleCA: As far as US politics is concerned, the Guardian is the Berniebro Paper of Record. Fkm!
OzarkHillbilly
‘Maybe it’s a sign from God.’ Midwest floods devastate Nebraska farmers.
……………………….
Well, at least he hasn’t lost his sense of humor.
Yet.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@OzarkHillbilly:
Have they tried raking?
NotMax
Code fail. Fix. (Feel free to delete the faulty version, BC.)
@Betty Cracker
Oddly enough, a side road on the internet just the other day led me to look at some marvelous tiles from Italy, which no doubt cost an arm, a leg and the first born for several generations. But pretty to look at and imagine….
OzarkHillbilly
Can you say “regulatory capture”?
OzarkHillbilly
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Heh.
Chyron HR
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Forget it, Bill. It’s BetoBroTown.
debbie
I spent more time than I should have last night playing around with the Bach Google Doodle. I am no musician, for sure. The Doodle is still there this morning. Good riddance, weekend errands!
Betty Cracker
@NotMax: Very nice, but yeah, well beyond my budget. I’ll be shopping the East Buttcrack Lowe’s collection. ;-)
@OzarkHillbilly: Perhaps the Sackler family fortune could be confiscated and applied to opioid research and treatment…
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Betty Cracker:
I hear the Lowe’s in West Buttcrack has a nicer collection.
NotMax
@Betty Cracker
Always a gamble on any given day but you never know what may be lurking at the Habitat ReStore, if there’s one anywhere at all near the swamp.
OzarkHillbilly
@Betty Cracker: Possibly, but I suspect the best we can hope for is shunning: Tate art galleries will no longer accept donations from the Sackler family
It’s a start.
WereBear
@OzarkHillbilly: Shunning is incredibly effective, but I suspect we don’t have sufficient control over all the spaces to make it work as it once did.
SFAW
@OzarkHillbilly:
Thank FSM that that moron has reminded me/us that only Demon-rats have agency for anything/everything, as necessary.
Will no one rid us of these meddlesome morons? Where’s Villago when you need him? (Yeah, I know you’re there.)
Plato
BBC brexit blog comment.
SFAW
@OzarkHillbilly:
200 Million? Do tell.
Does Murdoch own the Guardian? Except for their BernieBro leanings, it sounds like a “worthy” sibling to Faux News and the NY Daily Post.
In other “news”: I find it weird that our own latter-day Damon Runyon lives in or near Vacationland.
SiubhanDuinne
@debbie:
Anne Midgette, the WaPo’s classical music reviewer, wrote a column yesterday on the Bach Google Doodle which included this:
Would this be BJ’s own commenter? How very cool to be quoted in such a context!
Congratulations, 9️⃣??!
Uncle Cosmo
@plato: It might be more accurate that the Indonesian public has “lost faith” not just in the airplane but in the airplane manufacturer. Who in the world (literally) would trust a corp that had five months to address the problems surfaced in the Lion Air crash, and failed disastrously? Who in the world would trust that same corp ever to get it right again? And it only has to get it wrong once to kill a lot of people…
OzarkHillbilly
Baseball news: Jackpot: Cardinals, Goldschmidt finalizing club record extension for new franchise fixture
……………………………………….
Joe madden is not a happy man this morning.
SFAW
@Uncle Cosmo:
You are SUCH a Debbie Downer.
Plus, I’m sure Boeing will find some junior engineer on which to blame things.
SFAW
@OzarkHillbilly:
Maybe, but can he double as a blocking back, like Pete Alonso?
Betty Cracker
@SiubhanDuinne: I believe that same commenter mentioned playing Rachmaninoff the other day, so it must be the same person. How cool is that? :)
@OzarkHillbilly: Poor Joe.
OzarkHillbilly
@SFAW: If you read the article they are speaking of coastal flooding too:
When they say “200 million imperiled” what they really mean is “200 million affected”. The flooding on the Missouri will affect me if I have to go to Dutzow for tractor parts, it might even “imperil” me if I’m stupid enough to drive around the barricades to cross the underwater flood plain. Like I said, hyperbolic.
SFAW
@OzarkHillbilly:
Wouldn’t it be better if you just nosed up to the barricades, stood on the roof of your car/truck, surveyed the area, and said “Blech”? And then go back, of course.
PS/ETA: And I’m too
lazyilliterit to rede the hole article.OzarkHillbilly
@SFAW: Goldschmidt- 6-3, 225. I would be willing to bet he could do a fair job of it.
OzarkHillbilly
@SFAW:
Gawd dammed rednicks cin’t spall fer shet.
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: oh boy.
Baud
I’m going to be away for a little while. I don’t want all you moms to worry about my absence.
Elizabelle
@Baud: Come to Germany. It’s Springtime for … Germany.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: You needn’t worry, they will revel in it.
germy
MattF
Welp, I’m doing a first pass on my taxes, and it’s bad news. Combine inadequate withholding– taxes changed last year, but withholding rules didn’t– with a high tax state like MD and you end up owing significant bucks.
The basic problsm is that itemized deductions scale with income, but the fixed standard deduction does not. The new regime is that, despite my high real estate taxes, high state income tax, and mortgage interest, I have to take the standard deduction– and it’s just not enough to get back to the 2017 level.
So, taxpayers beware. I’ll note here that the silly Politico article that predicts a Trump landslide (no link) because of the economy says nothing about the increased taxes for us biue-staters.
germy
Lapassionara
@Baud: Hope you are going some place nice, where Trump doesn’t harsh your mellow.
raven
@MattF: We got more back than were did last year.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@MattF: We owe big time. Partly we’re still adjusting to sources of income other than a paycheck.
The only time I really flinched over taxes was back when I was a student working minimum wage jobs and needed every dollar.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: I was already worried, and I’m not a mom.
NotMax
@Baud
Quick sojourn to Moscow and back?
“Just say nyet.”
:)
germy
And this time of year, when I’m expecting important tax statements in the mail, is when the substitute letter carriers go on duty. Every day a different postal employee. Three days with no mail, followed by two days with my neighbors’ mail.
Our regular carrier does a great job, but for some reason disappears in March.
ruemara
@OzarkHillbilly: God’s message was stop fucking voting for conservatives. But that came in 2016. This is just follow up reading of what hath been sown.
satby
@Baud: we worry even when you’re here, but I hope it’s a trip for enjoyment. Safe travels Baud.
Immanentize
@Betty Cracker: It’s a shame, I have some very nice blue, black and white tile left over from a previous job. Very nice stuff (American Tile) but you are out of my delivery zone. Even though I went with white subway tiles on my current kitchen, I do like colored glasses tiles….
Is it just backsplash, under cabinet? Or more? In any case, enjoy the project.
MattF
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Me too. I retired at the start of April 2018, so I’m getting income from new sources. The distributions from retirement accounts include automatic withholding, but it’s evidently not enough.
MomSense
@Baud:
Iowa or perhaps New Hampshire?
mrmoshpotato
@Baud: Campaign matters call. We understand. Enjoy the 2020 Goat Rodeo.
raven
@MattF: I’m retiring Sept 1 and I’m dumping almost all of my paycheck into a 403b till then.
Immanentize
@Baud:
I hope you are travelling and that it is not just to visit family. That kind of a trip is never vacation….
Then again, maybe you are finally heading to New Hampshire and Iowa?
ETA MomSense is a Mom and got to the primary states first….
rikyrah
skeptical brotha ? (@skepticalbrotha) Tweeted:
the Governor of Kentucky is a lunatic for deliberately infecting his children with chicken pox. MSNBC is galactically irresponsible for their “both sides” bullshit covering this story. #MattBevin https://twitter.com/skepticalbrotha/status/1109078602468024320?s=17
MattF
@raven: Probably the right thing to do, considering the microscopic interest rates you get from banks.
Immanentize
@raven:
Sadly, I won’t be able to use a 403b because I work at a private University, not a public one. That’s a good retirement tool. I guess I could become a minister over the next decade….
zhena gogolia
@germy:
That thread is hilarious! I had no idea there were so many funny golf gifs.
rikyrah
Tynisa the Wakandan Shaman Walker (@Kalarigamerchic) Tweeted:
Folks just aren’t getting it. You telling me that a woman like Stacey Abrams “wont” be elected without Biden says more about your internal misogyny and bigotry.
Do better, Vote better. And stay the fuck out my mentions. https://twitter.com/Kalarigamerchic/status/1109080937856409601?s=17
plato
WaterGirl
@Baud: Thanks for letting us know. Now we’ll miss you, but at least we won’t worry so much.
Hope you are not hitting up the big donors; you know we’ve got you with millions of small donations.
SFAW
@Lapassionara:
For that to happen, Baud would have to visit another planet
NotMax
@WaterGirl
Any news yet on hiring site magicians?
germy
artem1s
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
Man, I have a bad feeling about this. They are trying to sell him like he’s the second coming of Obama but it’s reminding me way too much of John Edwards arc.
germy
@rikyrah:
JPL
@Baud: But the Mueller report might be released in your absence. How will we manage without you….
ah never mind. I hope you enjoy your time away.
J R in WV
@OzarkHillbilly:
I have to say I’m a little disappointed by the exclusive focus on the tiny minority of people who have problems with addictive substances, to the total exclusion of folks with long-term chronic illnesses that cause them to live in agony in the absence of strong pain-relief from medication.
Last data I recall seeing indicated that only around 5% of people wind up in trouble with opioids. Yet this small minority of people is driving the entire discussion, and others with horrible and incurable health problems that can only be helped with the strongest pain killers are never mentioned in the discussion of opioid drugs.
What about people with cancer, degenerative joint diseases, or nervous system diseases, who suffer horribly to the point where they commit suicide rather than continue to live with constant pain? Do those people not count for anything! Not to someone appalled at addiction problems. This is just wrong!
WaterGirl
@NotMax: The developer has been chosen and Cole has a contract in hand, though not yet signed. We’re almost there.
I’m sure John will make some sort of official announcement on BJ when he’s ready, but I don’t think he would mind my answering your question. I hope not, anyway!
Aleta
@ola azul: Thanks for this! Very kind of you.
tobie
@Elizabelle: You know what pisses me off…the cherry trees are evidently in full bloom in the Rhine Valley and they’ve yet to open on the Mall in DC. Damn…I want our spring blossoms to come first.
Hope you’re having a swell time in all your travels!!! {hugs}
germy
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-john-mccain-bob-kerrey-vietnam-x-ray-bone-spurs_n_5c933db2e4b0d952b223753a
Fair Economist
@debbie:
That thing is amazing. And frightening.
Fair Economist
@J R in WV:
It depends on what you mean by “trouble”. That 5% is about the percentage that *die* eventually. There appears to be a lot more going on. Wider opiate use results in substantial drops in labor market participation, and may account for most of the unexplained drop in labor market participation over the past 20 years.
The problem for opiates for long term pain is that the randomized trials are showing it doesn’t work past a couple of months. Taking opiates long-term increases pain by disturbing the body’s natural ability to handle it and after a few months it looks like the increased pain from damage to those systems equals the temporary relief from the dose, so the patients are taking opiates just to be where they would be if they’d never taken anything.
Endorphins are also critical to motivation, comfort, and dealing with stress. There are strong epidemiological associations between opiate use rates and suicide, motivational issues, and general misery. The general explanation is that the opiates are being used to self-treat the “disease of misery” but based on the long-term pain studies and the labor force studies I think the causality runs in the other direction – it’s the marked increase in opiates that’s damaging people’s ability to choose, to enjoy, and to withstand, just as they damage the ability to ignore/suppress pain.
SFAW
@germy:
Hot damn.
Incoming rage tweet in 3 … 2 … .
Barbara
@J R in WV: @Fair Economist: Every study that has ever been done shows that the use of opiates to treat chronic pain is ineffective or much less effective than alternatives. But long term exposure to opiates can lower pain sensitivity thresholds, so discontinuing opioids results in greater pain. People who use opiates for long term pain, even if they are not participating in the unregulated market for such drugs or their alternatives, are driving, operating heavy machinery, and engaging in other activities in a way that might be detrimental to them and those around them, like babysitting or parenting. It’s a hard problem, but minimizing the extent of the impact of opioid addiction on communities, families and ultimately all of us by calling it the problem of a tiny minority doesn’t seem useful to me. There are whole counties that literally can’t place children in foster care because so many parents of young children have been rendered unfit. Even if I don’t care about the parents because they made stupid choices, surely the kids deserve some amount of compassion.
ETA: Not only might it account for reduced labor participation, it is almost certainly a material contributing factor in recent declines in longevity for U.S. men in particular.
Miss Bianca
@NotMax: @Betty Cracker: Check out my friend Nawal Motawi’s tile at Motawi Tileworks! She set out to recreate an old Detroit firm’s signature tiles – Pewabic Pottery – and has since branched out.
Uncle Cosmo
@artem1s: Broken record here, but –
I’m still trying to figure out why I should support Beto when, as the Democratic candidate for US Senate last fall, he couldn’t be arsed to endorse Gina Ortiz Jones, the Democratic candidate for the House of Representatives in TX-23 – because the incumbent Thuglican (Will Hurd) is a buddy of his.
When questioned about this he said “Country before party.” Really? How so? The GOP is doing its level best to destroy this country. Will Hurd votes with his party more often than not – certainly more often than a good Democrat would in his seat. How is keeping Hurd there supporting your “country?”
If Beto really prefers a Republican to a Democrat in a Congressional race (by declining to endorse Hurd’s Democratic opponent) he ought to do the ethical thing (as should Wilmer): Withdraw from the Democratic primaries & run as an independent.
Barbara
@Uncle Cosmo: I felt the same way about Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who basically refused by omission to support any Democrat in Florida running against her good friend Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. Yeah, sure, I understand that for a Republican she was pretty moderate, but still, Wasserman Schultz was the head of the DNC. And good old Joe Biden somehow found it within himself to give a speech in support of Fred Upton that was at a non-campaign event, but was used shamelessly by Upton’s campaign. Upton voted to repeal the ACA. Joe’s pining for yesteryear is so strong that he seems to think he can create it just by wishing hard enough, that seems clear enough, I don’t know what Beto’s problem is. But agreed: it’s a strike against him.
tobie
@Uncle Cosmo: I am loathe to disagree with you because you are most often right in what you say, and you are a fellow Marylander to boot, but I think the outrage over this one episode is misplaced. It is disappointing? Yes indeed. Is it disqualifying? No. A few days ago I posted the figures on increases in Dem representation in the Texas state legislature and the Texas caucus in the House after the 2018 midterms. The increases in the TX state house were substantial and I think one of the reasons for it was that Beto’s campaign and his multiple stops in every Texas county had long coattails. Like David Merry Christmas Koch, I’m leaning Beto at the moment, though it’s early and I could still change my mind. He’s thoughtful, and I appreciate candid and self-aware responses like this today in South Carolina:
On another note, I’m sorry to see Baltimore is once again in the national news and not in a good light.
Barbara
@Miss Bianca: I think I might own some of these — but anyway, thanks for the link. It is my fantasy to do a fireplace surround in art tile, and my house is the right era.
Ruckus
@WereBear:
Dreams – nightmares, some days who can tell the difference?
We think they are angry all the time, they are, what they want is not to make their world better, they don’t know how to do that, so what they want is to make everyone else’s world worse than theirs. They are mad that the world hasn’t given them their unicorns and they think that everyone else is getting theirs. It isn’t that they are horrible people it’s that their vision of the world is and they have no idea how to change that.
Ruckus
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Someone who does not see the democratic side of the aisle in a positive manner?
Joe has friends from decades of making friends to get things he wants done. Those friends are not necessarily looking our for democratic success. And yet, telling Joe what he thinks he wants to hear is friend’s advice. Not good advice for sure but most of us like hearing what we think we want to hear, rather than the truth.
Miss Bianca
@OzarkHillbilly: oh, ffs. I used to love reading the Guardian, but I realize that part of it is nostalgia – back in the 80s, when I used to index it for a living, it really did open my eyes to a lot of world news and reporting that I didn’t see in any US media, even progressive media like Mother Jones or The Nation. But now I find their coverage of the US is really terribly anti-Democratic. The BBC has also gone downhill. WTF? Has Murdochization just taken over every decent news outlet? “Nature and Nurture both agree – it’s all the Democrats’ fault!” Fuck that shit.
Fair Economist
@Barbara:
Yes, how to deal with the currently addicted is a monstrous problem. Long-term much stricter opiate prescribing guidelines will be a huge boon, but it doesn’t de-addict current users, and they will turn to even more unsafe illegal alternatives. I saw one paper estimating that major restrictions on opiate prescriptions would result in increases in death rates from the already horrific levels for over a decade. My personal idea is to have opiate addiction treated as a medical disease, and allow fairly generous prescribing of less euphoric opiates like buprenorphine and methadone for that diagnosis only. Buprenorphine would be particularly good as it has a substantially lower mortality rate from overdose.
Ruckus
@Barbara:
To me it’s the ineffectiveness of opiates for long term pain management that is a major issue. I’ve been put on opiates for consistent pain and while at first it lessens the effects, it does nothing for actual pain relief. The pain finds a way around the opiate blocking and not only are you right back where you started, your world is just a gray soup. Might be great for temporary pain, say from an operation like open heart surgery but long term, consistent/constant pains it is far worse than useless.
Now if you want your world to turn gray and silent and you don’t mind you being dangerous to you and the world around you…….
Barbara
@Ruckus: All of these drugs were originally intended to address acute pain such as post-operative pain, or the escalating pain of terminal cancer, where increasing the dose does not have long term effects. It’s outrageous that they ever morphed into a all purpose treatment for pain associated with chronic conditions.
It’s also the case that people’s brains seem to respond very differently. I’m with you, the few times I have taken these drugs (post dental or cesarean surgery) I felt slow and stupid and pushed myself to stop and turn to Ibuprofen. But very clearly, other people’s brains react differently and keep craving what must be a sort of euphoria or feeling that nothing around you matters, which could be a good feeling if your life is going to pieces.
Brachiator
@Ruckus:
Something Barbara noted is very intriguing:
This suggests that there are good medications for chronic pain. I don’t understand why these are not offered or considered. From comments like this and some stuff I’ve read before, some doctors don’t understand pain management issues very well. Some years ago, I remember reading some survey of doctors where some even felt that suffering pain was a good thing, for some dumb ass reason.
Barbara
@Brachiator: This is the problem. Basically, studies show that non-opioids are as good as opioids in a lot of cases, but alternatives can also include things like physical therapy that are not meaningfully available to many people, or alternatives such as losing weight or surgery which can be viewed as inferior to opiates on an individual basis. The research that has been done on medical marijuana did not yield particularly promising results, but I am sure more will be forthcoming.
StringOnAStick
@J R in WV: I agree, and that Gillibrand partnered with my states odious Senator Gardner to force all opioid prescription s to be for 7 days only permanently put her at the same desirability level as Tulsi. We watched my BIL die in hideous pain because his oncologist refused to prescribe anything stronger than v1codin to a terminal cancer patient, I suppose because their area had a lot of addiction to prescription pain drugs.