Wow. It has been some time since that last post. Lots of things have taken place.
Tweeting on Twitter has definitely been a past time. It's not that I haven't enjoyed blogging. Twitter is a little more immediate for me since I can actually have conversations rather than wait for someone to maybe read the post and maybe comment. I also don't get spam comments that I have to clear out.
What blogging does allow me to do is to explore an idea more fully than I can in 140 characters.
Social media is a curious animal. There are many who see people using it for anything other than business or making money as not worthy of notice or as flotsam. Especially if they are women and they are not in the coveted mommy blogger cabal. I am not a mommy-at least not yet. I don't know that I would blog about my child(ren) or engage in the communal sharing that I see happening in the blogosphere around that. It's not terrible, but much like as in real life, some women (and some men) think there;s something wrong with you if you don't share yourself or care about certain things.
Well, that's my feeling about that. Still looking for the blogger conference or unconference where people who aren't parent bloggers, overly in love with the code of the platforms and tools, are of a certain ethnicity, but that's not all they blog about and are not obsessed by all things vampire can attend and not feel as if they're the kids that were outside the clique in high school.
Do I have an opinion on Shirley Sherrod, the BP Oil catastrophe, education, Harry Potter, Apple's iphone flip off, the Celtics loss to the Lakers, Lindsay Lohan, Precious, the Twilight saga, The View or the upcoming end of As The World Turns?
Probably. And I'll get to those.
Right now, I'm watching the Pretenders in concert on my local PBS. Unfortunately it's tis the month o beggin' so what is usually a shorter show will be dragged out. Maybe I can blog during these breaks.
By the way, I'm not taking part in it, but there is a blogathon to support various charities. Please visit blogathon.org for more details.
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Monday, November 23, 2009
My Thanksgiving Blessings 2009
Another Thanksgiving is here and gone. Another time to be grateful for the privilege of eating a lot of food, of watching television, yelling at people who are paid more than a regular person should and dishing out meals to the "unfortunate" and reveling in the feeling that were it not for we, who are not them, then they would suffer.
I am blessed that I recognize the hypocrisies that exist in a number of the legal holidays we have and will of course be grateful for what I have.
I am blessed that I recognize the hypocrisies that exist in a number of the legal holidays we have and will of course be grateful for what I have.
Monday, November 16, 2009
Mammogram-Self Exam Gate
A new finding regarding mammograms and self exams in the battle against breat cancer has come out and many women are not happy about it.
My biggest disagreement I have with the findings is the recommendation that the self exams are useless, even if I grant that mammograms are not safe due to radiation and are expensive (though I think that Viagra sales out distance this). I echo the cry of those who offer proof of the effectiveness of self exams those who are currently alive because they caught breast cancer early because they did a self exam. This list includes the famous: Peggy Fleming, Shirley Temple, etc.
I am also annoyed at the fact that women's health care is usually reduced to birth control (it's only been recently that insurance will cover it), plastic surgery (hard to prove 'medically necessary' vs. 'cosmetic' especially when it comes to breast reduction) and maternity (drop and street them) - not that those aren't important as well. We are still a society that believes that women's health issues are usually "all in their head" and then wonder why they are reluctant to seek help. Never mind the fact that the above mentioned areas of women's health are usually subject to more inapproriate moral judgment than anything that men would suffer from, save HIV/AIDS.
I am increasingly annoyed at this idea that people who show up at the ER are a drain on our system, but on the other hand, they are discouraged from doing anything that is preventative or seeking preventative care because of financial cost and again if they are women, 'it's all in their head."
Here is the article.
Breast Cancer Screening Should Begin at Age 50, Panel Finds:
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/health/july-dec09/breastcancer_11-16.html?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=fanpage&utm_campaign=pbs
Excerpt:
"A government medical task force recommended major changes in breast cancer screening guidelines Monday, suggesting that most women should not begin getting routine mammograms until age 50, and then only once every two years.
In 2002, the same panel -- the United States Preventive Services Task Force -- had, with different members, recommended that women receive mammograms every one to two years beginning at age 40.
The panel on Monday also recommended that most women stop getting regular mammograms after age 74, and that doctors should no longer teach women to do breast self-examinations.
Members of the panel, which is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said that screening for breast cancer too early and too often can lead to false alarms, unnecessary biopsies and unnecessary anxiety for women.
The study is the latest chapter in an ongoing controversy over early screening for breast cancer and other cancers, such as prostate cancer. Such screening saves lives, but in addition to sometimes showing false positives, can also reveal cancers that would have grown so slowly they might not ever need to have been treated. "
My biggest disagreement I have with the findings is the recommendation that the self exams are useless, even if I grant that mammograms are not safe due to radiation and are expensive (though I think that Viagra sales out distance this). I echo the cry of those who offer proof of the effectiveness of self exams those who are currently alive because they caught breast cancer early because they did a self exam. This list includes the famous: Peggy Fleming, Shirley Temple, etc.
I am also annoyed at the fact that women's health care is usually reduced to birth control (it's only been recently that insurance will cover it), plastic surgery (hard to prove 'medically necessary' vs. 'cosmetic' especially when it comes to breast reduction) and maternity (drop and street them) - not that those aren't important as well. We are still a society that believes that women's health issues are usually "all in their head" and then wonder why they are reluctant to seek help. Never mind the fact that the above mentioned areas of women's health are usually subject to more inapproriate moral judgment than anything that men would suffer from, save HIV/AIDS.
I am increasingly annoyed at this idea that people who show up at the ER are a drain on our system, but on the other hand, they are discouraged from doing anything that is preventative or seeking preventative care because of financial cost and again if they are women, 'it's all in their head."
Here is the article.
Breast Cancer Screening Should Begin at Age 50, Panel Finds:
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/health/july-dec09/breastcancer_11-16.html?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=fanpage&utm_campaign=pbs
Excerpt:
"A government medical task force recommended major changes in breast cancer screening guidelines Monday, suggesting that most women should not begin getting routine mammograms until age 50, and then only once every two years.
In 2002, the same panel -- the United States Preventive Services Task Force -- had, with different members, recommended that women receive mammograms every one to two years beginning at age 40.
The panel on Monday also recommended that most women stop getting regular mammograms after age 74, and that doctors should no longer teach women to do breast self-examinations.
Members of the panel, which is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said that screening for breast cancer too early and too often can lead to false alarms, unnecessary biopsies and unnecessary anxiety for women.
The study is the latest chapter in an ongoing controversy over early screening for breast cancer and other cancers, such as prostate cancer. Such screening saves lives, but in addition to sometimes showing false positives, can also reveal cancers that would have grown so slowly they might not ever need to have been treated. "
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