The Most Pain

They say it's the worst pain you can experience unless you're a woman going through childbirth.  I'll take their word for it about giving birth, but I can personally vouch for the extreme pain experienced with kidney stones.   When the pain suddenly hit me after 8:00 Sunday night and I drove to the Marlborough Clinic through driving rain, I figured it out.   That was due to the fact that I had an earlier episode of kidney stones in 1998 when I was finishing up at work.  That time, I thought it was appendicitis and barely managed to drive myself through rush hour traffic to Hartford Hospital.   I could barely stay conscious, doubled over in agony when I got there.  They diagnosed the stones, heavily medicated me and eventually sent me out into the late night only to have to call 9-1-1 from where I'd been housesitting.   Hours and much morphine later from Bay State Medical in Springfield, I got a cab back to the house along with a pain prescription.   While the worst pain was behind me, the discomfort lasted days until I passed the stone.   That part was easy.   A kidney stone is most excruciating when it is stuck in the ureter tude between the kidney and bladder.   I can say this week's episode was somewhat less intense than 14 years ago, but on a pain scale of one to ten it's easily an eight.   The new stone has already moved south, so that in itself is a welcome relief!  

How Petty

Axl Rose

We're talking about one of rock's greatest singers, Axl Rose.   He and his onetime band mates in Guns n' Roses were inducted into the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame over the weekend.   Rose was conspicuously if not surprisingly absent from the ceremony.   He had written a lengthy and rambling letter to the Rock Hall saying he'd be passing up the induction event.   He took it a step further by requesting they withdraw his nomination.   Other band members did attend, accept and perform.   It is clear that Axl Rose had a major falling out with the band.   We get that.  That doesn't make him unique in the drama that has plagued countless rock bands over the years.   His attitude toward this well-deserved high honor is a slap not only at his band, his music contemporaries and the Rock Hall.   It is above all a snub to his fans.   When I think of how long musicians like Donovan have waited for this overdue recognition and performers such as Chubby Checker continue to be shunned, my advice to Axl Rose is simple: GET OVER IT!

Voter Fraud?

From Oped.com

Mitch McConnell, the U.S. Senate GOP leader, called liberal and Democratic charges of a "War On Women" a "manufactured issue".   He and his party are engaging in wishful thinking, as evidenced by the widening lead of President Obama over GOP challengers among many female voters.   While McConnell can deny these concerns, right wing politicians worried about a replay of 2008 are manufacturing a remedy of their own to something that has not been a problem: voter fraud. Violations have been practically nonexistent by any standard.   The urgency of the move in state legislatures to mandate voter ID cards serves one purpose, and that is to hold down turnout of likely Democratic voters.   Studies show that approximately 11 percent of Americans -- about 21 million people -- lack a current government photo ID, disproportionately racial minorities, senior citizens, young voters, the working poor and people with disabilities.   Oddly enough, some laws would permit National Rifle Association membership cards as valid ID while not accepting student ID cards.   I have nothing against protecting the will of the people against fraud, but the real motivation for the new voter ID laws is as obvious as that of the old poll tax.   The net effect is the disenfranchising of what is still a sizable portion of our population.   Fraud should be punished, but 11 percent of us should not be held hostage based on a largely unfounded fear of what could go wrong.   Voting is a U.S. citizen's right.

Connecticut Justice

Connecticut State Senate Debates Death Penalty

Connecticut now joins much of the world in getting rid of the death penalty.   Capital punishment has never been shown to be a deterrent to crime.   A life sentence without parole may give years for someone to deal with what they've done.   In the Michael Ross case, the actual death sentence may take decades to be carried out even when a convicted murderer wants to die.   When there is a wrongful conviction, the ultimate penalty cannot be undone once it's carried out.   Of course, whatever the justice system does will not bring a murder victim back.   Unlike Texas, Connecticut's history of carrying out death sentences has been very infrequent over the past fifty years.    While I support the State Senate's move, there's one case where most of us would like to see an exception.   The especially heinous Cheshire home invasion murders lead me to believe the world would be better off without these two monsters around, and the one survivor of that horrible crime agrees.    

When we think of justice, we usually think of the victims and their families, but what about the neighborhood?    Montville already greets passersby on I-395 with a warning not to stop in the area of a maximum security prison.    Hasn't this town already shouldered enough of the burden of hosting violent criminals without having to be home to a treatment center for sex offenders?   According to NBC Connecticut, opponents of the facility such as Councilor Dana McFee feel they were lied to by the commissioner for the state Department of Correction when they were promised that the “worst of the worst” wouldn’t live here.   The record of successful treatment for sexual offenders is very low.    I know these offenders have to go somewhere, but Montville has shouldered enough of the burden.