You are currently browsing the monthly archive for July 2014.
The other night I was watching Deadliest Catch. In one scene, the captain’s girlfriend was cooking dinner for the crew. One of the crewmen said he was allergic to milk. Hearing this, the cook laughed and added milk to the meal she was preparing. The crew member became sick and when the cook found out, she laughed.
I was so angry when I saw that. I have food allergies and to see someone show such blatant disregard for another person’s health and deliberately feed a person food that would make that person sick was pathetic.
For most of my childhood, I complained of stomachaches and not feeling well. I was never taken seriously, usually being laughed at and dismissed as “the family’s little hypochondriac”. By the time I reached adulthood, I did not know what it was like not to have a chronic stomachache, ulcers and discomfort. When I would complain to my doctors they dismissed the problem or advised me to take anti-anxiety or anti-depressants. None believed my complaints were anything but psychological.
Only once did a doctor offer a different approach. She tested me for h-pylori, believing that to be the cause of my chronic ulcers. It wasn’t, but it was nice to have someone finally believe there was something wrong.
Several years ago another doctor did listen to me, right down to every meal I was eating during the day. He knew the problem, celiac disease, more commonly known as wheat gluten allergy. Since eliminating wheat from my diet, I no longer have a chronic stomachache. I don’t have acid burning my stomach and throat. It is a welcome relief, but I do miss so much of what I used to be able to eat, pasta and pastry most.
My family and friends all know of my allergy and still insist I eat foods I’m allergic to. Their usual comments are “Just take a taste.” What will one bite hurt?” “Oh, you won’t get that sick.” “It’ll be worth it.” These comments are stupid and upsetting. It is precisely these comments and attitudes that have kept me from attending any family holiday since my diagnosis. The sad truth of the matter is I do not trust anyone to not have gluten in what they are serving.
You cannot tell a person has food allergies by looking at them. It is not something they can ignore for one meal. It is never okay to “Just eat this one thing”. In many cases the allergic reaction is becoming sick, but it others, the allergy is so severe anaphylactic shock and death can result. As I watched that scene in Deadliest Catch I couldn’t help but wonder if that dingbat would have been laughing and giggling about feeding the crewmen milk if his allergic reaction had been anaphylaxis. Would she have giggled if her willful ignorance had cost that man his life?
Despite my constantly telling my family and friends all the things I can’t eat, they still try and entice me to eat what will make me sick. Food allergies are very real and serious. Those who do not have them need to understand this. For those who don’t have food allergies, before you feed a person with allergies what they are allergic to, or tell them “it will be okay, just this once”, ask yourself this, do you really want to feed a person a toxin that will not only sicken that person, but could cost them their life?
A month or so ago I got my Masterpiece Sideswipe and Sunstreaker. I break the cardinal rule of collecting Mint in Box, Transformers. I take them out of the box and play with them. I make comics with them and post the comics on my DeviantArt page.
I’ll devote another blog post to how my spoiled robots actually live. But this blog entry is about my Masterpiece Sunstreaker. I am a huge fan of the Lambo Twins, but there was something about my Sunstreaker that wasn’t sitting right with me. Sure, he’s missing the Autobot logo on his chestplates. No harm there, a small oversight. No, there was something else nagging me that was off about the frontline melee warrior. The proverbial itch that one cannot scratch. And I’m ashamed to admit it took me until this morning to have my “Eureka” moment.
Sunstreaker is missing his helm fins. Instead of his trademark fins, he is sporting the same audial horns as his twin, Sideswipe. How could the manufacturer get it so wrong? Yes, I know they just changed the paint scheme on the previously released Sideswipe, but really? Sunstreaker is known for his exotic helm fins. They are as much a part of him as his golden paint and narcissistic personality. It seems wrong to look at him and see audial horns. The Transformer Universe Sunstreaker has the helm fins, so they can be done and look pretty good I might add. It’s just Sunstreaker without his helm fins is like Prowl without his chevron or doorwings. It’s just wrong on every level. So very very wrong.
Masterpiece Sunstreaker and Sideswipe
Transformer Universe Sunstreaker
On June 30, 2014 the Supreme Court issued a ruling making the corporation Hobby Lobby a person with more rights than a woman. The 5 male justices all decided that an inanimate object, a piece of paper, which in essence is what a corporation is, has rights that women do not have. That inanimate object can arbitrarily decide which medications its health insurance will have to pay for based solely on religious grounds. Apparently those 5 men have forgotten this country was founded on the idea of a separation of church and state.
Oh, wait the corporation isn’t making those decisions. It is the owners of Hobby Lobby making those decisions. Odd thing about individuals and corporations, they are not the same entity. A corporation is set up to separate a person, from their business. The owners are arbitrarily making the decision to deny certain forms of birth control because they have had no issue with before, which brings up a bigger issue. Was this ever a religious rights issue? Why is Hobby Lobby so concerned about covering some forms of birth control when they themselves are helping to fund millions of abortions? Why do they have no religious issues when said forms of soon to be denied birth control make them a dividend profit?
Hobby Lobby invests in pharmaceutical companies that make birth control. So HL’s religious beliefs are not being affronted while money is put in their pockets. A large percentage of HL’s stock is from a China. A country which has over 14 million state funded abortions per year.
Hobby Lobby’s religious beliefs are nonissues while the company is able to buy mass merchandise at cheap prices to sell at a good mark up. The fact that money China receives from Hobby Lobby helps pay for abortions in that country doesn’t even cause a religious twinge in the righteous ones.
The health plan Hobby Lobby had before Obamacare with its Affordable Care Act did in fact pay for the very same medications it claimed it is religious opposed to. Odd that their religious conundrum began after the ACA came to fruition. So was the whole lawsuit nothing more than a swipe at Obama with religion being a convenient excuse.
Another puzzle to their religious righteousness is their health insurance covers male impotency medication. One can assume that not all male employees of Hobby Lobby are married. Why is it, Hobby Lobby’s owners have no religious objection to unmarried men having sex? Surely their Christian faith, which was strong enough for them to be so outraged at the idea of paying for different form of birth control, must be just as bothered by men engaging in non-marital sex, a no-no in the Christian faith.
On June 30, 2014 the 5 male justices of the Supreme Court made a piece of paper a person with more rights than women. Assholes.
allthethingsaroundme 