Cataract surgery went well. Stayed awake during it—had thought would be put to sleep, but no.
Three eye stents added for pre-glaucoma, and may not need to continue taking eye drops if pressure drops. Smallest stents to go into human body.
Not sure why a driver is needed for to and from, and then wait during the process. IMHO, having eyes dilated during a checkup is more difficult to drive than this was. Guess some major suits for driving after cataract surgery started it, but seems dilated would require driver and wait…?! Fuking rules… 😉
Got a pair of real Terminator sunglasses! A patch to wear all day today, and then just for sleeping after that.
Like the color in Left eye more than the now bright color in right eye (blurry right now after surgery). Left eye has a slight haze dark color like, but TV colors were like those former TVs – started with a p, if I recall correctly (?). Of course, cataract would’ve kept getting darker until real dark. Night driving is supposed to improve. Day sky is incredibly blue ‘n bright.
Karmi:
Great! Mind the drops.
Congrats on good results, Karmi. Do the drops exactly as ordered.
It seems as if, wherever it looks, the folks at DOGE are finding massive expenditures of taxpayer’s money which are waste, fraud, and abuse.
It is starting to look as if, hidden below the shiny surface, a lot of our government has become just a collection of various scams, and ways to funnel enormous amounts of money to favored Leftist groups and causes, to enrich various people and institutions, and to aid in the Left’s “fundamental transformation” of our country, and other countries around the world.
As well, I’m wondering, for instance, what the percentage might be of various government payments being paid out to people who are actually faking eligibility for those benefits, being paid to someone who has succeeded in hijacking those benefits for themselves, or to the relatives of recipients who have died long ago, but who have kept up the pretense that that recipient, who was eligible for those payments, still lives.
I’ve been binge-watching “The Dog Whisperer”:
That’s interesting! I’ve been doing some binge watching as well. A friend got me started on the series Supernatural. 15 seasons! I remarked that the show reminded me of The X-Files a little bit. Then I noticed that Kim Manners is a producer/director of both of those shows. Ah ha!
There is also a new season of Reacher on Amazon Prime.
______
Cesar Milan the Dog Whisperer. The following is an old story that is about Cesar’s advice and one of his fans.
My late wife & I had a German shepherd that was a very muscular 83 lb. dog. He was generally well behaved, but during walks if something caught his interest, he might lunge towards it. Those lunges were brief and very manageable while on a leash because: 1) you could see it coming, and 2) the yank to your arm was mostly straight forward.
We left our shepherd with a pet sitting friend for about 9 days once. When we came back, we learned that the sitter/dog walker friend had been studying Cesar Milan and had partially retrained our dog. (My wife had spent a lot of time training him when he was young.) First of all, who does that? Did we ask you to retrain our dog?? No!
So subsequently, the dog would walk behind us, instead of in front of us, while on leash. No big deal, pehaps? Except now, when this muscular dog lunges you can’t see it coming, AND your arm is getting jerked backwards instead of forward. Think orthopedic surgery! What a disaster.
I don’t know Milan’s teachings well, nor do I care at this point. But I was not happy with my friend’s interpretation of his teachings. Which may or may not a good reflection of his work.
Now for real cultural enrichment purposes you could watch ” Swamp People”, where they follow alligator hunters around in the swamp and use sub titles for the Cajuns accented words. Lol
Cesar is an asshole
From NY Times media reporter Ben Mullin, “Jeff Bezos emails staff about a change to Post Opinions: “We are going to be writing every day in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets.”
Naturally, this still leaves a lot of leeway, but it’s a move in the right direction.
The problem I have with reality TV is that when it’s something I know about, like real estate, it’s essentially a fake storyline with manufactured drama; the couple seeing their dream house “for the first time” was already contracted to buy it before the filming. Or the cooking shows where a famous chef makes something obviously inedible and gross and raves about it.
I don’t know about dog training but I don’t have Gell-Mann amnesia.
But honestly I think what’s worse is the exotic pets–beavers and cougars and otters and sugar gliders and whatnot–on YouTube. You’re seeing someone who, if they’re actually showing a fair representation of what owning that pet is like, has basically won the lottery in terms of how well that pet is working out. Sure it’s cute to see the beaver making a dam in the hallway out of towels or whatever, but it’s less cute that the beaver chews through your cabinetry.
For example, one account of what pet raccoons are actually like:
Birth to 3 months, you will be head over heels in love with your kit. They are so much like a human baby in habits, and like fluffy cuddly bear cubs in play. They will adore you and pet you and love you like there is nobody else in the world. You will feed a purring soft body a baby bottle, burp them over your shoulder and cuddle all through the night. You will take your infant around town with you everywhere and make big plans about the raccoon jungle gym you will build in the middle of your living room. You will take a roll of film a day and will put your baby in your will. Nothing foreseen will ever interfere with your immense dedication.
4 to 5 months, your scratches are beginning to heal as you have finally weaned the walking weed-eater. The laceration inside your lip however is infected. Must get that checked. The mattress on your bed has begun to smell funny and you haven’t seen your computer mouse in weeks. The jungle gym forgotten, your head begins to plan a really big cage. You want to go purchase the materials for it, but you shelled out you entire paycheck to replace the contents of your mother’s purse, which disappeared during her last visit. You think you saw a twenty in the garbage disposal this morning and her lipstick was in your shoe..OPENED. Yet another hole in the carpet. Time to rearrange the furniture, but where were those other two holes at? Oh well. Hit the garage sales and find another chair.
6 to 7 months, you have booted the rotten little beast outside and to get back at you, your raccoon has somehow broken into your car and shredded the seat cushion. To make matters worse, he left you a nice present of something smelly under the seat…somewhere…You try to get to the carwash, but you turn the key to absolutely nothing. Upon inspection under the hood, you search for broken wires…unplugged wires…ANY WIRES…there are no more wires. They are all gone.
At 8 months old your kit hates your living guts unless you have a marshmallow in your hand. You carry them in your pocket so you can get into your house. He waits blatantly on the step for you EVERY DAY and if you forgot your marshmallow, you prepare a tactical plan of entering through the chimney, otherwise, you have the pleasure of sharing your house with a 30 lb nightmare who will torment your every breath.
This is the point when I usually get a phone call from someone who called me months ago to find out what to feed the “precious new baby”, and hung up on me when I wouldn’t give care instructions and demanded they bring it to me now since we do not accept imprints. They always voice their regret for not listening to begin with so PLEASE, leave the raccoons to the experts and get a cat. You will thank me later.
The economic model that Democrats hope to impose on America is one where regulations inspired by leftist values—generally falling within two broad categories, “equity” and “green”—lead” to a government that can micromanage every aspect of economic life. The weight of these regulations and the taxes required to enforce them drive households and businesses into dependency on government aid and subsidies, driving small businesses into bankruptcy and enabling big businesses to consolidate their control of products and markets…
…This is not a battle against socialism because corporations are driving the Democratic Party. Calling it “corporatism” is too fancy and hard to understand, and calling it “fascism” evokes extraneous connotations that don’t add clarity. But it’s something of all those.
Calling today’s Left “Marxists” is about as relevant as calling them Whigs or Guelphs. They are not looking for the workers or the state to own the means of production. What they are working for is an administrative, micromanaging state that works through big organizations of all kinds: government, NGOs, large corporations. Everybody working for someone else within the bounds established by Top Men in government, tied by subsidized carrots and regulatory sticks.
(You can’t tie people with sticks and carrots, sorry that is an awful use of language.)
What the American Greatness article is trying to summarize is the managerial state.
What Kate said: Congrats on good results, Karmi. Do the drops exactly as ordered.
I also did not have any problems with my two cataract surgeries, but I had done some foot surgeries the week before, so I would only be “laid up” once, and AesopSpouse made a very nice nurse. 🙂
I haven’t done a report on the seemingly normal democrats that I know who have turned into complete looney tunes (apologies to Bugs).
1) Guy posted that everyone one needs to support Gov. Mills of Maine in her “heroic efforts”. As a father of 2 girls, now women athletes since age 4, I had to respond. I was greeted by a woman who said I must be transphobic (funny, I have absolutely no fear of transgenders) if I don’t want such playing against my daughters. Irony: my daughters now play in co-ed adult rec soccer leagues in which there is a very strict rule that no male player can challenge a female.
2) This one is really out there: just posted today, the reason park rangers are being fired is so that Trump can shut down all the national parks and open them up for oil drilling. sigh….
The french would call them difigistes one might call them rent seaker
Leninists were about creating a new feudalism maybe marx really thought the state would wither of course robert michels and the self dealing social democrats were more correct
The American Greatness article is very good, and IMO spot on.
One of the commenters linked to a post by Jeffrey Tucker that is an important commentary on the way DOGE is operating, and why President Trump is letting Elon run his chainsaw at full speed.
Along with other evidences that our Intelligence Community is a club that we’re not in, it also shows at least one group of employees that are also devoid of intelligence; they couldn’t see the writing on the wall and take the buyout.
Calling today’s Left “Marxists” is about as relevant as calling them Whigs or Guelphs.
–Niketas Choniates
That’s long been a pet peeve of mine. I recall arguing this years ago with FredHJr. I have a conservative friend who still claims that the real problem with Republicans is that they won’t call out Democrats as Marxists or commies.
To me that’s like calling out Muslims as Jews. Yes, there is an historical relationship and yes, there are structural similarities. No, Muslims are not Jews.
Democrats are not reading Marx and Engels’ “The Communist Manifesto” or carrying around Mao’s “Little Red Book.”
Worse, calling out Democrats as Marxists or commies makes conservatives sound foolish, like they are fighting not the last war but one from the 1950s.
I do see Democrats more as authoritarian grifters.
What is the root of the philosophy when you get down to it (marxism) note i dont say leninjsm they may be following the fiscal crisis as recommended by o neil and cloward and piven
1 down – two to go …
Cataract surgery went well. Stayed awake during it—had thought would be put to sleep, but no.
Three eye stents added for pre-glaucoma, and may not need to continue taking eye drops if pressure drops. Smallest stents to go into human body.
Not sure why a driver is needed for to and from, and then wait during the process. IMHO, having eyes dilated during a checkup is more difficult to drive than this was. Guess some major suits for driving after cataract surgery started it, but seems dilated would require driver and wait…?! Fuking rules… 😉
Got a pair of real Terminator sunglasses! A patch to wear all day today, and then just for sleeping after that.
Like the color in Left eye more than the now bright color in right eye (blurry right now after surgery). Left eye has a slight haze dark color like, but TV colors were like those former TVs – started with a p, if I recall correctly (?). Of course, cataract would’ve kept getting darker until real dark. Night driving is supposed to improve. Day sky is incredibly blue ‘n bright.
Karmi:
Great! Mind the drops.
Congrats on good results, Karmi. Do the drops exactly as ordered.
It seems as if, wherever it looks, the folks at DOGE are finding massive expenditures of taxpayer’s money which are waste, fraud, and abuse.
It is starting to look as if, hidden below the shiny surface, a lot of our government has become just a collection of various scams, and ways to funnel enormous amounts of money to favored Leftist groups and causes, to enrich various people and institutions, and to aid in the Left’s “fundamental transformation” of our country, and other countries around the world.
As well, I’m wondering, for instance, what the percentage might be of various government payments being paid out to people who are actually faking eligibility for those benefits, being paid to someone who has succeeded in hijacking those benefits for themselves, or to the relatives of recipients who have died long ago, but who have kept up the pretense that that recipient, who was eligible for those payments, still lives.
I’ve been binge-watching “The Dog Whisperer”:
That’s interesting! I’ve been doing some binge watching as well. A friend got me started on the series Supernatural. 15 seasons! I remarked that the show reminded me of The X-Files a little bit. Then I noticed that Kim Manners is a producer/director of both of those shows. Ah ha!
There is also a new season of Reacher on Amazon Prime.
______
Cesar Milan the Dog Whisperer. The following is an old story that is about Cesar’s advice and one of his fans.
My late wife & I had a German shepherd that was a very muscular 83 lb. dog. He was generally well behaved, but during walks if something caught his interest, he might lunge towards it. Those lunges were brief and very manageable while on a leash because: 1) you could see it coming, and 2) the yank to your arm was mostly straight forward.
We left our shepherd with a pet sitting friend for about 9 days once. When we came back, we learned that the sitter/dog walker friend had been studying Cesar Milan and had partially retrained our dog. (My wife had spent a lot of time training him when he was young.) First of all, who does that? Did we ask you to retrain our dog?? No!
So subsequently, the dog would walk behind us, instead of in front of us, while on leash. No big deal, pehaps? Except now, when this muscular dog lunges you can’t see it coming, AND your arm is getting jerked backwards instead of forward. Think orthopedic surgery! What a disaster.
I don’t know Milan’s teachings well, nor do I care at this point. But I was not happy with my friend’s interpretation of his teachings. Which may or may not a good reflection of his work.
Now for real cultural enrichment purposes you could watch ” Swamp People”, where they follow alligator hunters around in the swamp and use sub titles for the Cajuns accented words. Lol
Cesar is an asshole
From NY Times media reporter Ben Mullin, “Jeff Bezos emails staff about a change to Post Opinions: “We are going to be writing every day in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets.”
https://x.com/BenMullin/status/1894758476955435327
Naturally, this still leaves a lot of leeway, but it’s a move in the right direction.
The problem I have with reality TV is that when it’s something I know about, like real estate, it’s essentially a fake storyline with manufactured drama; the couple seeing their dream house “for the first time” was already contracted to buy it before the filming. Or the cooking shows where a famous chef makes something obviously inedible and gross and raves about it.
I don’t know about dog training but I don’t have Gell-Mann amnesia.
But honestly I think what’s worse is the exotic pets–beavers and cougars and otters and sugar gliders and whatnot–on YouTube. You’re seeing someone who, if they’re actually showing a fair representation of what owning that pet is like, has basically won the lottery in terms of how well that pet is working out. Sure it’s cute to see the beaver making a dam in the hallway out of towels or whatever, but it’s less cute that the beaver chews through your cabinetry.
For example, one account of what pet raccoons are actually like:
Good article at AG about what the Left today is really about:
Calling today’s Left “Marxists” is about as relevant as calling them Whigs or Guelphs. They are not looking for the workers or the state to own the means of production. What they are working for is an administrative, micromanaging state that works through big organizations of all kinds: government, NGOs, large corporations. Everybody working for someone else within the bounds established by Top Men in government, tied by subsidized carrots and regulatory sticks.
(You can’t tie people with sticks and carrots, sorry that is an awful use of language.)
What the American Greatness article is trying to summarize is the managerial state.
What Kate said: Congrats on good results, Karmi. Do the drops exactly as ordered.
I also did not have any problems with my two cataract surgeries, but I had done some foot surgeries the week before, so I would only be “laid up” once, and AesopSpouse made a very nice nurse. 🙂
I haven’t done a report on the seemingly normal democrats that I know who have turned into complete looney tunes (apologies to Bugs).
1) Guy posted that everyone one needs to support Gov. Mills of Maine in her “heroic efforts”. As a father of 2 girls, now women athletes since age 4, I had to respond. I was greeted by a woman who said I must be transphobic (funny, I have absolutely no fear of transgenders) if I don’t want such playing against my daughters. Irony: my daughters now play in co-ed adult rec soccer leagues in which there is a very strict rule that no male player can challenge a female.
2) This one is really out there: just posted today, the reason park rangers are being fired is so that Trump can shut down all the national parks and open them up for oil drilling. sigh….
Deeds rewarded
https://x.com/seanmdav/status/1894807174955901050
The french would call them difigistes one might call them rent seaker
Leninists were about creating a new feudalism maybe marx really thought the state would wither of course robert michels and the self dealing social democrats were more correct
The American Greatness article is very good, and IMO spot on.
One of the commenters linked to a post by Jeffrey Tucker that is an important commentary on the way DOGE is operating, and why President Trump is letting Elon run his chainsaw at full speed.
https://x.com/jeffreyatucker/status/1893787435659674034
Miguel’s link to Sean Davis leads to a Federalist post that is another win for MAGA.
https://thefederalist.com/2025/02/26/scoop-trump-to-tap-democrat-lawfare-target-jeff-clark-as-white-house-regulation-czar/
I wouldn’t be surprised if Clark had a hand in crafting some of the DOGE targeting.
The sidebar at The Federalist covers a lot of the stories that popped up this week, porn chat rooms, for instance.
https://thefederalist.com/2025/02/25/chat-logs-show-queer-nsa-employees-discussing-perverted-acts-at-work/
Along with other evidences that our Intelligence Community is a club that we’re not in, it also shows at least one group of employees that are also devoid of intelligence; they couldn’t see the writing on the wall and take the buyout.
Calling today’s Left “Marxists” is about as relevant as calling them Whigs or Guelphs.
–Niketas Choniates
That’s long been a pet peeve of mine. I recall arguing this years ago with FredHJr. I have a conservative friend who still claims that the real problem with Republicans is that they won’t call out Democrats as Marxists or commies.
To me that’s like calling out Muslims as Jews. Yes, there is an historical relationship and yes, there are structural similarities. No, Muslims are not Jews.
Democrats are not reading Marx and Engels’ “The Communist Manifesto” or carrying around Mao’s “Little Red Book.”
Worse, calling out Democrats as Marxists or commies makes conservatives sound foolish, like they are fighting not the last war but one from the 1950s.
I do see Democrats more as authoritarian grifters.
What is the root of the philosophy when you get down to it (marxism) note i dont say leninjsm they may be following the fiscal crisis as recommended by o neil and cloward and piven
Some sharper reasoning
https://x.com/ProfMJCleveland/status/1894809832936612026