Happy New Year!

I, for one, can't wait for this decade to be over. It wasn't a great one, both personally and for all of us.

We survived George W. Bush but were left with the festering sore of right-wing extremism. With Obama's election, many of us hoped he would breathe fresh life into Washington and our political lives but instead we've ended up with even greater partisanship and a Senate Health Care bill that, if left unchanged, could bankrupt the country. We're still engaged in a two front war on terrorism that the hawks would love to see expanded to three. (Do they even know where Yemen is?) Hurricanes, heat waves, tsunamis and earthquakes killed almost 900,000 people in the last decade. Yet millions still deny the reality of climate change.

Personally, this decade pretty much sucked. 2001, in particular was truly awful. Hubby was laid off at December of 2000, Youngest was diagnosed with Lymphedema the day our insurance coverage ran out from that job, and my Dad and eldest sister died. We spent the next 5 years living hand-to-mouth while Hubby went back to college to get his degree. We're only now starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel after incurring a mountain of debt. Still living on that mountain but it no longer feels like it's going to fall down on top of us.

Still, the decade wasn't an entire loss. Progress has been made in marriage equality, Hate Crimes legislation has passed on the federal level and, it can't be said enough, George W Bush is no longer President.

Newsweek has a good review of the decade in the following video:



I will tempt fate and say that the next decade can't get any worse. I do believe that as far as equal rights is concerned, the arc of history is moving towards equal rights for homosexuals. It may the end of the next decade before we see marriage equality on a federal level, a repeal of DOMA, DADT and all the legal inequalities current in our system.

Here's hoping that the next decade is a good one.

Mental Disorder v. Medical Condition

Pam's House Blend has noted a report by an HIV/AIDS group that called for Gender Identity Disorder to be reclassified as a medical condition and removed from the DSM as a mental disorder.  Doing so would remove the current stigma that Transgendered individuals must face when seeking treatment. Many insurance carriers, at least those few that cover SRS, require a diagnosis of GID before they cover treatment. This essentially means that a trans person must be declared mentally disturbed before they can receive treatment.  Reclassifying GID as a medical condition would allow it to be treated, and hopefully covered, by the medical community in a straightforward manner.

Until 1990, homosexuality was still listed in the DSM as a mental disorder. Removing that classification was a huge step forward in the recognition and understanding of homosexuals as normal people and NOT disturbed or deviant. We still have a long way to, of course, to convey this enlightened understanding throughout the populace but it was an important step. In the same way, recognizing that trans people are NOT mentally disturbed would be an equally important step in the understanding and accepatance of transgendered individuals.

RTT - Playing Catch Up

It's Tuesday! Time again for Random Tuesday Thoughts courtesy of Keely at the Unmom. Drop and by and grab the button and join the fray.

Missed a lot while we were stuck in the snow, apparently. Iran is on fire again, some nimwit tried to blow up a plane on Christmas Day, Brittany Murphy and Pope tipping.

As always, Andrew Sullivan is doing a great job covering the current unrest in Iran. Also as usual, the MSM is not.  It's possible that current rioting and unrest may mean the end is coming for the current regime. At the very least, things are going to get worse before they get better.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab tries to blow himself and a plane load of people up outside of Detroit. Security doesn't catch him when he boards his plane or transfers but gets taken down by passengers. The security lapses are reminiscent of 9/11 and show just how difficult it is to prevent a determined person from doing something horrible.  And to top it off, it looks like Yemen is next on deck for the ongoing war on terror even though it may be more likely that Abdulnutallab was radicalized in Britain. But since Great Britain is out ally and Yemen is a backward African nation guess who's the more likely target?

Brittany Murphy died of a heart attack last week. Drugs, anorexia or an underlying heart condition are all suspects.  An autopsy should tell us which one or ones is the cause. It's always said when someone young (Murphy was 32) dies. Now we'll get to see lots of speculation about her and her lifestyle until we get an answer from the test results. 

And last we have a nut who managed to jump a barricade and push down the Pope. One point for the crazy people. Zero points for the Vatican guards. Aren't they supposed to be all professional and Secret Service-like? Seems like they dropped the ball here. Doesn't look like she's going to be turned over to the Italians for criminal charges since she's crazy and all. 

On the local scene, no matter how well behaved the dogs were this trip, Aibhne is back to her old tricks. We left the dogs to run errands today and she managed to pull down a bag of goodies. She opened and ate the Oreos and Nutter Butter cups that were stocking stuffers. She also pulled down the half a loaf of bread and ate that. And the last of my Moose Munch from my Secret Santa.  She no doubt had help. 

Home again, home again

We made it back to Texas in one piece.  We saw snow all the way to Denton, though by that far south it was just patchy.  I haven't seen snow like this since we used to go to Colorado to ski in the 70s. Lord, I feel old.

The dogs are glad to be back home and so am I.   And guess what? We may have 'snow' tomorrow.  Typical Central Texas snow, that is. Sleet and general nastiness that may or may not stick and if it does it will be in the guaranteed worst way possible.

RAH.

On the Road Again

Well, we're headed south. So far the roads are okay. We've seen  quite a few cars that slid off the road at some point. Including a few upside down and one little yellow sportcar on it's side in the ditch. I-29 has some snow in the right lane in places but is otherwise clear. Hope evryone in those stranded vehicles got out okay.

We'll probably stop in St Joesph, MO for a late lunch and to visit Youngest's friend. The one she was Maid of Honor for this summer.

While the snow has been kind of fun, I'm ready to see the end of it.