And he took it upon himself to tell someone he knew who knows the head of the math department.

I guess that's what your department head meant by channels in small towns.

I haven't posted a Max update in quite a while. I'll remedy that now.

He's been through radiation, and he saw the specialist yesterday to see if he can come off some of the meds he was on to fight the lung infection.

Short answer: She was pleased. And she isn't a vet who's default state is "displeased." She cut the antibiotic out completely and started weaning him off the steroid. I think she'd have cut down further, but she said she tries to keep it down to two major changes per visit.

He's still too thin, but at least he's gaining weight (up three ounces since his last visit to the oncologist last Friday!). The big issue is that his liver enzymes have gone through the roof. But the antibiotic, and to a lesser extent the steroid, can cause liver enzyme problems. So he gets blood work in two weeks to see if taking him off those meds help.

But he's down to one capsule in the morning and one capsule in the evening. Plus the sub-Q injection twice a week, but that doesn't seem to bother him much.

Yay, Max! Keep fighting, little dude!

This is what makes me *boggle* about the right in the US at the moment, too.

Fox news and talk radio have created an alternate reality for the right. Suddenly, letting the tax rates for the top brackets revert to 3% higher is a Fascist-Communist (not an oxymoron in the right-wing media) plot to nationalize the private sector.

Fox news and talk radio have created an alternate reality for the right.

Yep. I just happened to be reading this post on Sullivan's blog of a reader's email:

In Defense of Talk Radio Listeners, Ctd

I share Conor's belief that by having civil, reasonable dialogs, we can try to resolve or at least clarify our disagreements. My main beef with Talk Radio is that its stars pointedly do not share this belief. They thrive on endless conflict and illusions of persecution. It is more entertaining for them to pretend that the Left is not motivated by a desire to make the country better, but a desire to destroy it and enslave much of the population, so that's what they say. I listen to Limbaugh, Hannity, and Levin regularly, and all three promote some version of this canard, Levin being by far the worst offender.

Beyond refusing to seriously consider the other side's concerns and proposals, these stars also never have guests who disagree with them or challenge their assertions. They almost never have guests who are not reliable, mainstream conservatives. All that we get are occasional liberal callers. For whatever reason, these people tend to be more stupid and ill-informed than most liberals I know, so the stars usually trounce them in debate. Limbaugh can be persuasive when engaging in this ritual, but Hannity simply cuts people off if they turn out to be smart and have some point he cannot counter, and Levin dispatches liberal callers with a storm of invective.

The upshot is that their listeners don't have an accurate picture of their opponents, and don't know what the Left actually thinks and stands for. It's in this atmosphere that we get a bunch of talk about "socialism" and "government takeover," and demands to cut taxes without specifics on what spending to cut.

cut taxes without specifics on what spending to cut.

This aggravates more than just about anything. On the one hand talking about cutting the deficit and on the the other talking about cutting taxes with no serious talk about cutting spending.

Man, it's good politics though, there's really nothing the Dems can do about the deficit. Economic recovery is the only thing that will make a big difference unless we just stop medicare, medicaid, or social security tomorrow.

Economic recovery is the only thing that will make a big difference unless we just stop medicare, medicaid, or social security tomorrow.

Or cut the military budget significantly. Which I'm not saying is the best route to solvency, but at 21% of the budget it's a pretty hefty chunk of change.

I just went to a teaching meeting, and another instructor wanted to trade his 2:30 class for just about anything else, because there was a seminar he wanted to go to that's held at 2:30. I asked if he'd take my 8 AM in exchange for his 2:30, and he said yes. Then we had to involve one more person in the trade, so that I would have all my in-a-row classes in the same building, but we got it worked out so that he's got that 2:30 slot free, I teach one course at 11, then have a break for lunch, then teach three courses in a row, and the other guy has the same time schedule he had before, just different rooms, which is fine with him.

Great, Hil!

Seska, I wish you much closing-ma on the house.

Or cut the military budget significantly

If we're leaving Iraq, there's likely room to at least trim the military budget somewhat. (I'm no expert on military budgeting, so I'll let others argue over exactly how much room there is.)