Huffington Post :: Can A Haircut Change Your Life..?

Tried to leave this over at HuffPo, but it was umpteen words too long.. Imagine THAT, if you will.. :giggle:

That's cool, though.. This way I can dusty it up with a couple of related websites..

Yeah, in response to Liz Jones' Can A Haircut Change Your Life? (June 24, 2008 10:22 AM), these Fingertips (apparently overly) meandered.......

Glad I came in to visit out of curiosity.. Have contemplated Locks Of Love often, maybe even as to having my hair donated after my Time has come.. Unfortunately, this kid's most definitely a (bleach) bottle baby..

Used to be one of those that washed obsessively every day.. All I can say is :: DON'T TO DO THAT..!

My own has grown by leaps and bounds since the worst of my depression hit where the energy to wash it every day left.. Am lucky if it's washed once a week these days (whether it needs it or not).. In return, though, my hair now graciously tickles places it never dreamed of reaching in the past.. And that length comes in spite of the very best efforts of a determined one gallon Shop Vac one day last year..

Don't ask, I'd have to relive the experience that came this close to being one of the weirdest guffaw-inducing 9-1-1 calls on the Pickens County Sheriff's Department's daily blotter.. You know you've got a certain type of reputation when walking around the front yard looking for handtools with a Shop Vac attached to your head does not alert anyone that maybe, just maybe, something is slightly askew in your Life..

Life's Lesson Learned: Yes, Virginia, you can fully dismantle a vacuum cleaner attached to your head with one hand and in one afternoon if absolutely necessary.....

But I digress..

With respect to my hair's health, after years of running the gamut of expensive over-the-counter shampoos, conditioners, and treatments within that cycle of obsessiveness, today's staid, highly stress reducing regimen consists of:

• Lander's 32 oz. Lavender 3-in-1 combo (shampoo, conditioner, body wash-aren't they all..?) :: ~$2.50
• Suave conditioner 22 oz. :: ~$1.49
• Family Dollar Store's Hair Detangler 10 oz. spritzer :: $1.00

Adore my hair stylist, Cindy over House Of Style in Ball Ground.. Just can't afford to see her as often as one would like..

Cindy does exactly as I ask, exactly, regardless of how she knows it will not be perfect to the professional standards she knows when I walk out her business' front door.. Instead, she's one of the few hairdressers I've known in this Life who RESPECTS that hair can be a person's Achilles' Heel..

Would LOVE to hear personally, firsthand, of more hair stylist-related non-profits.. Yup, non-profits that do nothing but serve by lopping off people's hair.. Professional attention to one's hair leads to a chain reaction of a better perceived personal image, more confidence, more likely to reach outside one's current state of affairs..

Here in Georgia, Hosea's Feed The Hungry and Homeless gets that part of the overall picture.. They offer haircuts as part of their service weekends to their local community..

Things are getting tougher and tougher, near literally by the hour.. Each day that passes, for some untold number of us out here in the real World, personal image becomes one of the very, very few things left to us by our Life's circumstances.. It does not make a bad place to start when actively offering others a hand up in our local communities..

Cyber hugs from Talking Rock..

M.S. Bellows :: Late Term Abortions OK For When "Mentally Ill People Have Sex"..?

Dear M.S. Bellows..

So sorry to do this from here, but I've tried multiple times to respond directly to you over there at your post on Huffington Post.. Even though I'm logged in, the webpage is flipping out.. Guessing it's some temporary technical glitch as the design continues to visually change before our very eyes these days..

An-EE-way.. So, ok, here my Mind is, quickly smoking through the comments section of that article when it comes across what, in your eyes, are some great talking points for making late term abortions acceptable.. Two of the three you highlighted as admissible were:

• people get raped
• postpubescent children get molested

So, where those are effective is that they successfully distract from the topic at hand because they are acts of violence towards vulnerable people.. Good call..

Still trying to mentally work through the third one.. Condoms.. Late term abortions for when condoms break..

Seriously..?

How about.....

Buy more expensive condoms..?

But then, oy, goodness, you just plum broke my Heart with your fourth item, broke it in a way almost not totally unlike the way it felt when I encountered that piece on Tom Cruise telling Jack Kevorkian how much he admires the doctor's assisted suicide and right to die work..

Yup, can still feel the pang.. You done broke my Heart when, intermingled among the two terrible occurrences of extreme violence mentioned above, one can find where you chose to also express that late term abortions are unobjectionable in instances where:

• mentally ill people have sex

Number One: What an incredibly, absolutely flamingly, blatantly discriminatory statement.. Regardless of whatever your personal bias may be, persons with mental illness actually do have your basic civil rights under our Nation's laws.. The stereotype of yore towards PWMIs was once again perpetuated straight ahead seemingly forever forward through your very own Fingertips.. :pouted lip:

Number Two: The longer I think on it, by including when mentally ill people have sex in with the acts of violence mentioned as you have, you consciously wrote to feed on how some countable part of Society feels towards persons with mental illness.. Shame, shame, SHAME ON YOU.. :vigorously shaking naughty-naught finger:

Number Three: Maybe I've just missed this side of your usual commentary, but it feels so completely out of character for you.. Feels like I've just been stabbed in the back by a trusted confidante..

Number Four, Five, Six, ad infinitum: Coming soon.. Will have to find a way to drop a quick bug in my friends' ears so they can fill them in..

And thensome..

Sighing heavily in disappointment from Talking Rock..

---

Reference:

• M.S. Bellows, Jr., McCain's Odd Townhall: Woos Clintonistas By Defending Rights Of The Unborn; The Huffington Post; Posted June 14, 2008 (06:26 PM EST)

Xinhuanet.com :: Tom Cruise Admires Jack Kevorkian's Work..?

You know, you know, you know.. Back when Tom Cruise's couch jumping ordeal on Oprah's occurred, not to mention the Scientology angle, I didn't have much Internet online access, let alone a functional 'puter so I pretty much just had to leave it go..

The whole thing was frightening to ever so silently bear witness to, though, in that one imagines loyal fans following however he may lead just because of the magnetic draw he has on people.. Human Nature will be what it will be, and the desire of so many to be around celebrities regardless will, too..

But.. this..... shtuff that crossed these Fingertips today.. Oy, freaking vey..

To set it up, part of what comes into my inbox is regular searches on that dreadful phrase, "assisted suicide" along with "right to die".. Today's I happened to open in a timely manner.. Whoohoo.. This is what I found:

[Celebrity photog] diplomatically saved the day by explaining that Cruise really meant the doctor's campaign for the right to die and assisted suicide.

The very first thing that came to Mind as I read that teaser..? Oh, please, say this is not going to show Tom Cruise, with his record on mental health and Scientology already, somehow being referenced as interacting with or about Dr. Jack Kevorkian..?! Leaky pipes, be dogged.. This lead I had to follow..

• Celebrity photog: Be nice, don't push, say 'please'
  www.chinaview.cn; 2008-06-13 10:08:09

The rest of the blurb went something like.......

[Veteran celebrity photographer Patrick McMullan] tells the story of introducing assisted suicide advocate Jack "Doctor Death" Kervorkian to Tom Cruise at a party. According to McMullan, Cruise had no idea who the euthanasia advocate was, but didn't hold back with the enthusiasm.

I really love your work, he quotes Cruise as saying. And Dr Kervorkian looks at me like 'what'?

The photographer diplomatically saved the day by explaining that Cruise really meant the doctor's campaign for the right to die and assisted suicide.

Just break my Heart, why don't you.....

For so, so many years, Tom Cruise, because of the Old Time Rock And Roll scene in Risky Business, held a fond, fond memory spot in my Heart.. Not because of the adorableness of the scene and, well, YOU know, but because multiple times a day for years, I'd hear that song playing at the Whale Bowl as Tokitae and Makani "duked" it out as to who was the audience favorite..

As a (still) treasured Mockingbird once told me as we gazed out over the Flipper Lagoon, it was such a very magical place and time, those days out there.. Old Time Rock And Roll, by default, brought Tom right along with..

But now.......

Sheesh, golly, gee, Tommy.. Break my poor little Heart.....

Cyber hugs from Talking Rock..

The Hill Blog :: Sen. Mike Enzi: Those With Disabilities Need Better Jobs..

My inbox has absolutely just been rocking the last few days.. Trying to call it quits for a bit then came this one about a bill introduced in Congress today, whoops, yesterday:

• Those With Disabilities Need Better Jobs
  Senator Mike Enzi (Wyoming), The Hill Blog, 2008-06-11

These programs [under the Randolph-Sheppard Act and the Javits-Wagner-O’Day Act (JWOD)] are performing dismally and we must improve them. My main goal is to create more and better jobs for individuals with disabilities. This bill will allow greater flexibility and provide real job training so Americans with disabilities can develop marketable skills and knowledge to make meaningful career choices. It also restores accountability to these programs to make sure workers are no longer exploited. The bill specifically empowers a strong regulator to police both programs and protect workers.

Nice to know that, should one ever come across a program of this nature that is not doing right by its employees, there is a United States Senator out there precisely, actively interested in seeking accountability from the same..

Cyber hugs from Talking Rock..

AJC :: Georgia Governor's mental health commission copied other state's materials..

Alan Judd and Andy Miller's recanting of Georgia's ever evolving mental health care system story through their A Hidden Shame series just keeps getting better and better.......

Not.

Thanks to the editors who (once again) saw the Value to including the following in the weekday AJC emailing, the latest I've seen is today's entry about how the Georgia Governor's commission has now no less than plagiarized a few years old likeminded report from Michigan rather than dedicate more towards creating our own:

• (Georgia) State's mental health report was mostly plagiarized: Gov.'s commission copied others' material
  
  Alan Judd, Andy Miller; The Atlanta Journal-Constitution; Published on: 06/11/08

A new vision outlined for mental health care in Georgia last week isn't so new after all.

Large sections of a report by Gov. Sonny Perdue's mental health commission were lifted, often verbatim, from a Michigan study published in 2004 and from two other sources, a review by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution found. The commission's report, released last week by the governor's office, credits none of the cloned material.

The report presents as its own work entire sentences, paragraphs and longer passages from other sources, with no more than superficial editing. It duplicates, with only two minor changes in wording, the values listed in the Michigan study. Seven of Georgia's eight key findings mirror Michigan's. Even Georgia's vision statement is appropriated from the Michigan report.

Sigh.......

Because of how ceaselessly exhausted I remain and how hard I know it is to keep going most days, a part of me is empathetic to what occurs in situations like this.. What I'm meaning is empathetic towards that days are only 24-hours long and Lives are crammed full to the hilt already trying just to possibly stay somewhere above the water line in this, our one and only shot at that thing called Life..

And like that which goes back to 2002 when the in-my-physical-presence handpicked advocate chosen for me by heads of the Highland River's Community Service Board THEMSELVES the day they publicly announced their slate was clean dropped off the face of the Earth on me regularly in an extremely desperate, by a spider's silk threadbare time of need for any kind of external advocacy assistance.. Every day that blip in time comes to Mind, I try to forgive by picturing she may walk in Shoes not so unlike my own..

Yup.. Some large part of me does "get" it in some part, much as it can be and remains Life-endangering to those who faithfully do as Society expects, too often dictates, and trustingly walk in those same very doors..

What me doesn't get is that those who could become even more empowered by involvement on any level sit day after day after day waiting to hear what tidbits they can from sources such as Alan and Andy.. Most aren't at that point where these fingertips are.. Those in particular could use the self-determination guaranteed by a phone call inviting their opinion on what occurred in each, their own separate case of mismanaged mental health care across the great state of Georgia..

Ego comes to Mind.. When Lives are endangered, there is no place on this Planet for Ego..

There's a reason I openly worship my relationship with the advocates and self-advocates that revolve around the awe-inspiring energies generating from disABILITY LINK, the center for independent living (CIL) down there on Commerce Drive in Decatur.. If they've got Ego, by gosh and golly, they've harnessed it to the hilt to drive positive actions of support and empowerment in all directions towards others, positive forward moving actions of advocacy that are literally saving Lives..

They nearly alone and without twice of thought saved mine..

My Heroes.

Cyber hugs from Talking Rock..

S'me Again, Vern :: Still Waiting For Non-Disciminatory Inclusion In VFC..

Just 'cause a fella ain't heard from these Fingertips don't mean a particular bumblebee in my bonnet ain't being constructively followed through to an enlightened end that involves the 100% proactive INCLUSION of all my extended family members jailed away behind bars societally dubbed long term care..

Know what I mean, Jelly Bean..?

Cyber hugs from Talking Rock.. :ga-WINK:

Feds Say Georgia State Mental Hospital's Problems Caused Preventable Deaths

Had been up since about 3:30am this morning just smoking along checking out the latest leads coming into my inbox along with siphoning out pertinent advocacy/self-advocacy related posts when I slammed wide open into the eternal brick wall that is Georgia's intolerable mental health care crisis:

• State mental hospital's problems caused preventable deaths, feds say: Justice Department says conditions at Atlanta facility violate patients' constitutional rights
  Alan Judd, Andy Miller; The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
  Published on: 2008-06-04

It's already over at Digg.com if you're interested in helping bump it.. Because of the article's nature, it isn't the kind of story people might otherwise promote on average:

• Digg.com: Feds: GA State mental hospital caused preventable deaths..

Because I'm going to post an open letter in a few seconds, the following are just a sampling of what was reported.......

In a blistering 65-page letter to Gov. Sonny Perdue, the U.S. Justice Department detailed "critically deficient" conditions at Georgia Regional Hospital/Atlanta. Investigators have inspected two other state hospitals, finding comparable problems, and plan to visit another next week.

Continually failing to address hospital fatalities and violence, the letter said, caused similar deaths to multiply and left patients vulnerable to sexual assaults and other attacks.

Citation #2.....

Federal investigators, the letter said, found that medical and nursing care substantially depart from generally accepted professional standards. They also determined that the hospital provides inadequate psychiatric treatment; uses seclusion and restraint, including sedatives, inappropriately; and fails to adequately protect its patients from harm.

Citation #3.....

We were already working on many of these [problems], Gwen Skinner, head of the state's mental health division, said Wednesday. Georgia Regional has increased its nursing staff, as well as the number of hours of patient treatment, she said. A commission appointed by Perdue to study the state's mental health system issued a report Wednesday documenting problems in hospital care, community psychiatric services and state funding.

And lastly.....

By tolerating a chronic shortage of nurses, the letter said, Georgia Regional routinely compromises patient care. The adolescent unit is highly dangerous, the letter said, quoting one staff member as saying patients would be safer outside the hospital and another who described continuing clinical chaos.

Like I said, just a couple of snippets, but they are snapshots of what has been repeated in some likeness and kind that as yet go unheeded over the last few years..

Having done as much of their own part as humanly possible over the last few years, these Fingertips simply do not understand what else, how many more destroyed Lives it's going to take before Change breaks upon the Horizon.......

United In Advocacy..

WSJ :: Parity For Mental Health Insurance..

Noting another positive sign of the times at first guess, Wall Street Journal (WSJ) gives their take on Congress' progress towards passing improved employer-provided mental-health coverage (S. 558, H.R. 1424):

• HEALTH COSTS: Parity for Mental Health
  Jilian Mincer, Wall Street Journal, June 1, 2008

At first glance, I thought, "Oh, how, cool, mental health parity is getting some good play over at WSJ, just as they did for accessible home design so very recently.."

Then I read the article.. Sigh.......

Persons with mental illness (PWMIs) just can't seem to catch a societal break.. If what WSJ is reporting is true, yes, there will likely be mental health parity in health insurance provisions, BUT..

• Premiums for everyone will rise..
• Stigma levels against PWMIs theoretically could also rise in tandem instead of fall as they take the blame for the fallout from increased insurance deductions in worker paychecks..

Was this part that unfortunately made complete sense:

Congress also must decide how to fund the bill's cost. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the House bill would reduce federal tax revenues by $3.1 billion from 2008 through 2017 because the bill would result in higher premiums and, as a result, lower taxable wages.

Yeah, can't help but feel another eminent rise in the stigma against PWMIs as they will surely take the hit for something that just should have been modus operandi in the first place in a Land that professes Equality for All..

Cyber hugs from Talking Rock..