Trigeminal Neuralgia- Monday Zebra

Condition- Trigeminal Neuralgia

Pronunciation- Try-gem-in-el  New-ral-gee-ah

Rarity- rare

Difficulty in Diagnosis- There is no clear way to diagnose either with a physical exam or laboratory testing often making it a diagnosis of exclusion.

     Trigeminal Neuralgia, also known as prosopalgia, Fothergill's Disease or the Suicide Disease is a neuropathic disorder characterized by episodes of intense pain stemming from the trigeminal nerve in the face and is estimated to affect between 15,000 to 20,000 people, though that number may be low due to misdiagnosis of sufferers.

     While often symptoms do not start appearing until a person is in their 50's there have been reports of patients as young as 3 years old being diagnosed.

     Most attacks are unilateral (meaning they only affect one side of the face) but about 10-12% are bi-lateral or affect both sides of the face at the same time.

     Referred to by some as "the most painful condition in the world", attacks can be triggered by touching the affected area, talking, eating, shaving and brushing teeth. Wind, high pitched sounds, loud noises such as concerts or crowds and chewing can aggravate the condition in many patients meaning that this condition can be very limiting and affect the quality of life in many ways, especially since symptoms can occur spontaneously with no outward stimuli.

     An average attack can last from a few seconds to a few minutes and has been described as stabbing electric shocks, burning, pressing, crushing, exploding or shooting pain that becomes intractable and can occur hundreds of times in a single day.

     While attacks normally affect the left side of the face, it can effect both sides of the face and has even been reported to affect the middle finger!

     It may slowly spread to involve more extensive portions of the trigeminal nerve. The spread may even affect all divisions of the nerve, sometimes simultaneously. Systemic development is suggested with: rapid spreading, bilateral involvement, or simultaneous participation with other major nerve trunks. Examples of systemic involvement include multiple sclerosis or expanding cranial tumor. 

     There is also a variant of Trigeminal Neuralgia called atypical trigeminal neuralgia (also referred to as "trigeminal neuralgia, type 2"), based on a recent classification of facial pain. In some cases of atypical trigeminal neuralgia the sufferer experiences a severe, relentless underlying pain similar to a migraine in addition to the stabbing shock-like pains. In other cases, the pain is stabbing and intense but may feel like burning or prickling, rather than a shock. Sometimes the pain is a combination of shock-like sensations, migraine-like pain, and burning or prickling pain or can also manifest as an unrelenting, tunneling, piercing pain.

     The trigeminal nerve is a mixed cranial nerve responsible for sensory data such as pressure, temperature, and pain originating from the face above the jawline-- it is also responsible for the motor function of the muscles involved in chewing but not facial expressions (such as smiling and frowning).

     The current theory is that it is caused by an enlarged blood vessel (possibly the superior cerebellar artery) compressing or throbbing against the microvasculature of the trigeminal nerve near its connection with the pons. Such a compression can injure the nerve's protective myelin sheath and cause erratic and hyperactive functioning of the nerve. This can lead to pain attacks at the slightest stimulation of any area served by the nerve as well as hinder the nerve's ability to shut off the pain signals after the stimulation ends. This type of injury may rarely be caused by an aneurysm (an outpouching of a blood vessel); by a tumor; by an arachnoid cyst in the cerebellopontine angle; or by a traumatic event such as a car accident, though the cause is not often able to be found and it is then classified as "Idiopathic".

     While there are ways to manage the pain, they are not often successful and include-

• Medications- carbamazepine is the first line treatment; second line medications include baclofen, lamotrigine, oxcarbazepine, phenytoin, gabapentin, and sodium valproate. 
• Surgery- (often only used as a last resort when all medications fail in offering relief since evidence shows that while there can be relief from pain there will also be loss of all sensation) The focus with surgery is to relieve pressure on the nerves by decompression (either removing a tumor or otherwise taking pressure off the nerve) but the effectiveness might diminish over time.
• Glycerol injections involve injecting an alcohol-like substance into the cavern that bathes the nerve near its junction. This liquid is corrosive to the nerve fibers and can mildly injure the nerve enough to hinder the errant pain signals. In a radiofrequency rhizotomy, the surgeon uses an electrode to heat the selected division or divisions of the nerve. Done well, this procedure can target the exact regions of the errant pain triggers and disable them with minimal numbness.

     (This condition was requested for a "Monday Zebra" by a reader... if you know of a condition that is rare/incurable and has low awareness let us know and we will add it to the list of conditions to get a spotlight in our blog)

     

Why Trickle Down Economics Fails

     The "Bush Era Tax Cuts" for the rich are set to expire and it is about time!

     "Trickle Down Economics" was the brain child of Ronald Reagan, the theory being that the rich were the 'job creators' and if they were able to keep more of their money they would spend more and the money would fall like fiscal manna to the masses below.  Sounds good in theory and it seemed to work... for a while.

     There is only one problem... eventually the rich will run out of things to spend that money on and instead start socking it away in banks, both foreign and domestic, and will start closing their companies at 'home' and opening them in foreign countries where labor is dirt cheap without having to worry about pesky child labor laws, workplace safety laws or having to pay a 'living wage'.  (Thanks to NAFTA, they would be able to do this without having to pay import taxes since they are an American owned company)

     Things stopped trickling down and the bottom rung of society grew as factories closed, meaning more people had less money to spend on consumer products so the small Mom and Pop stores suffered as "big box" stores flourished and grew because they could buy in bulk and sell at a lower cost (often from those same companies that once manufactured their products in the USA but now do so overseas).

     People had to start buying everything on credit... and the nation as a whole started the slippery slide into debt.  

     The Government tried to counter this by lowering interest rates and people jumped on the chance to buy a new house or refinance their old one and large banks set up loans that far exceeded the ability to repay them... balloon payments that were decades away in the 1980's were suddenly due.  People were selling their homes at higher and higher prices as more people were qualified for house loans that they never thought possible and buying the "American Dream" with little thought of the crisis looming.  House prices skyrocketed... personal property taxes on those same homes kept pace as the cities and townships dipped their hands into the pot for their own share... it could not continue for long...

     People were adding rooms, pools and more... then... **POP**

     The housing bubble burst... it started with the retirees that did not refinance because their homes had been paid off for decades that were suddenly losing their homes as the property taxes doubled, tripled and more and they could no longer afford to keep the home they had owned free and clear longer than their new neighbors had been alive.

     People suddenly had homes with half a million dollar mortgages that were suddenly worth a hundred thousand dollars... people stopped buying pools... stopped putting on new rooms... fell behind on payments and where "for sale" signs once dotted neighborhoods now "Foreclosed" notices appeared on doors and homes were standing empty on once bustling streets.

     Gas prices rose... it cost more to ship the flour to grind for flour and that was added to the price of flour... it cost more to ship flour for bread and that was added to the cost of bread... it cost more to ship the bread and that cost the stores more... so they charged more for the bread and people could buy less.  Companies had to cut back on hours... slow pay increases... raises stopped... people were laid off.

     Unemployment reached an all time high... people had less money to spend on anything and without the majority of the people being able to spend money companies did even worse... more layoffs... more closures... more companies shutting doors and moving out of the country... more people out of work and now unable to spend...

     This is what "trickle down" has managed to do... and remember... IT IS STILL IN PLACE!!!

     This is what the tax cuts for the rich has given our country... a fast and furious boon followed by a crash that we all are suffering for.

     The GOP and Fox News will try to tell you that the Healthcare Reform is the cause of what is going on right now... but I ask you, how can something be the cause of actions that were happening before it even came into reality and in fact how can companies say they are laying people off NOW when the policies they say are ruining their business will not even take effect until 2014?????

     That is like telling your child that you will not get them braces now because in two years they might break their leg and you will need the money to pay for a cast!

     Just ask yourself... how has the "trickle down" been doing for you?

Tis the Season to be Snarky

     This time of year brings out the best and the worst in people, often at the same time!

     Everyone is frantically scrambling to get people "the perfect gift", often adding to the balance on their credit cards that will linger well into the coming year.  (Talk about a gift that keeps on giving)

     Every year a few more "must have" items will hit the market and desperation hits as people battle like Gladiators in the stores to get their hands on one... forgetting about "Peace of Earth" as they shove, kick and trample to make sure they get one.

     Those that do not manage to find one in stores will then go online and try to buy one... often paying more than double what they would have paid in stores at online auction sites to people who decided after punching out an old lady for the item that greed outweighs gifting.

     Where Santa once stood with bell in hand next to a red bucket there is now a person who looks as thrilled to be there as a patient awaiting a root canal, mumbling something that might be "thank you" as coins slowly drop into the bucket and you wonder if it is a real charity you are giving to or someone who will be heading straight to the liquor store at the end of their shift to turn those coins into "X-mas Spirits".

     People battle over what to call the Holiday Season with Christians indignant that "Merry Christmas" is not said and posted everywhere in deference to the more encompassing "Happy Holidays" (I could get into the whole "Christ was not born in December and though it is celebrated at that time so are other religions Holidays" debacle, but honestly, we have all heard it before and it has not made a dent in the bitter battle).

     No matter what religion you follow or do not follow the fact of the matter is that sensitivity and respect has flown right out the window to be replaced by greed, commercialism, avarice and strife as battle-lines are drawn in the snow.

     I used to decorate the outside of my home every year... adding new things so that my home was awash in twinkling lights and figurines.  It made me happy to make the season "bright"... but it did not make everyone happy.

     One night, a few years ago, I had just finished decorating and decided to head to the store real fast to get one last string of lights to top off my decorations.  In the 30 minutes I was gone someone destroyed every decoration I had... inflatables slashed (even one I had on top of my van parked in the driveway), lights cut, figurines stomped and tossed in the street, a wishing well that I had wrapped completely with lights thrown against the house.

     Not only was it destruction of hundreds of dollars of decorations, but it was the murder of my holiday spirit... I was crushed... we called the police, filed a report, the officer disgusted as he looked over the destruction... cleaned everything up and went inside.

     I have never decorated again.

     Neighbors asked what happened and I told them, they said how they missed the display we used to do and asked if we would do it again... but no, we do not have money to throw away.

     Eventually we found out who did it... the teen-aged boys of a Jehovah's Witness family around the corner who did not approve of our decorations and decided that it was their right to destroy it so they did not have to look at it.

     That was the beginning of the end of my Holiday Spirits and the birth of my Scrougette days and the day my eyes opened to see just what has become of a season that used to be about coming together, sharing love and laughter and bringing some light to the long cold winter.

     I might decorate again some day... but not until people stop being so greedy... not until people stop thinking that only their views matter and are willing to battle and degrade others and try to destroy everything and instead see the beauty in diversity.

     With this in mind, I doubt I will ever decorate again, because greed, hate and secularity  looks like it is here to stay.

    So... Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Festive Ramadan,  Bountiful Kwanza, Merry Yule, Splendid Solstice, Cool Tuesday... Merry Snarkmas to all and to all a Snarky Night!

Gastroparesis- Monday Zebra

Condition- Gastroparesis

Pronunciation- Gas-trow-pah-re-sus

Rarity- not rare

Difficulty in Diagnosis- mixed, while there is a test to diagnose this condition, finding a doctor that will know to test for it can be difficult.

     Gastropasresis, also known as delayed gastric emptying, is a medical condition where the stomach does not contract normally, resulting in food remaining in the stomach for a longer period of time than normal. Normally, the stomach contracts to move food down into the small intestine for digestion within a short time of eating The vagus nerve controls the contractions in the stomach and gastroparesis may occur when the vagus nerve is damaged and the muscles of the stomach and intestines do not work normally. This results in food moving slowly through the digestive tract, causing a myriad of problems.

     The term "Gastroparesis" when broken is - 'gastro'-stomach and 'paresis'-paralyzed... so the name actually means "paralyzed stomach".

     Gastroparesis is often associated with Diabetes (since neuropathies can be common in diabetes) but it can also be caused by smooth muscle disorders (such as Lupus and Scleroderma), other neuropathies (such as MS and ALS) Myopathies (such as Shy Dagger Syndrome) or may be caused by a viral infection.  In many cases the cause of the Gastroparesis is never found and the condition is called Idiopathic Gastroparesis.  Other things that can cause Gastroparesis are chemotherapy, radiation therapy and opiate based pain killers such as morphine and codeine.

      Some of the more common symptoms are:

• Early satiety (feeling full early in a meal or after just a few bites)
• Heartburn
• Weight loss (unintentional)
• Weight gain (unintentional)
• Abdominal bloating
• Abdominal pain
• Diarrhea
• Constipation
• Erratic blood glucose levels (mainly in Diabetes)
• Lack of appetite
• Gastroesophageal reflux
• Spasms of the stomach wall
• Chronic nausea
• Vomiting (especially of undigested food)
• Inability to tolerate dietary fats

     If Gastroparesis is suspected your Doctor will order a "stomach emptying scan" to check to see how long it takes for your stomach to empty.

    

     This is a pretty straight forward test-

     You are asked to fast for 12 to 18 hours before the test then will be taken to the testing room and given a small meal (often scrambled eggs, oatmeal or a sandwich) that has had a small amount of a radioactive tracer dye added to it.  This dye is not harmful and will pass through your body within 24 hours in most cases.

     You will then either be asked to lay on a table for 90 minutes as a 'camera' is placed over your abdomen which takes a reading every 10 seconds to see how long it takes the tracer to leave your stomach or will have a reading done over a period of 2 to 4 hours where you are allowed to leave the room between image captures.  Unfortunately, there is no one standardized test for the Gastric Emptying Scan (often called the GES) and it seem that every testing facility does it differently, but the results are all read in the same way.  They are testing to see how long it takes for the tracer in the food to leave your stomach since in a healthy individual normal ranges for gastric emptying in healthy subjects at 1 hour, 2 hours and 4 hours is 90, 60 and 10 percent meaning that in one hour 10% of the food should have left the stomach, in 2 hours 40%, and so on.

     There is no cure for Gastroparesis... only treatments meant to relieve symptoms and help the stomach empty faster.

     Treatments include-

• Dietary changes- avoiding fat, fiber (since it is hard to digest), raw fruits and vegetables and most meats.  It is also recommended to eat smaller meals through the day instead of three larger meals, though many sufferers have trouble eating even one small meal a day.
• Medications- Reglan (generic name- metoclopramide, this helps increase gastric emptying, but is also known to cause another condition called 'Tardive Dyskinesia'); Erythromycin (an antibiotic that is shown to improve gastric emptying in some patients); Domperidone (a medication that cannot be gotten in the US due to issues with heart conditions and off label use by nursing women who wanted to increase lactation but is probably one of the best medications to help with symptom control and for this reason many patients get this medication from pharmacies outside of the US, such as Canada.  The FDA is cracking down on this, much to the detriment of patients who desperately need the medication); Zofran (a medication used for nausea that has a high incidence of migraine headaches as a side effect); Phenergan (an antihistamine that helps control nausea); Botox (when Gastroparesis is caused by nerve damage of the pyloric muscle at the base of the stomach it can cause it to spasm closed, causing delayed emptying and injecting botox into this muscle can give relief for a period of time to some sufferers)
• Medical Intervention- Nasogastric Tube (often referred to as an NG tube, this is a long flexible tube that is inserted through the nose and down the throat to the stomach or more often to the first section of the small intestine so that medication and nutrients can be fed directly into the small intestine, bypassing the stomach completely.  Like all forms of 'tube feeding', this tube is then attached to a pump that continuously trickles a nutrient formula into the digestive tract ); G and J Tubes (inserted through the abdominal wall directly into the small intestine); IV Nutrition (carries the constant risk of sepsis and organ damage as nutrients are given via IV to the bloodstream); Gastric Stimulator (much like a pacemaker for the heart, the Gastric Stimulator uses electric pulses from a small battery back to cause the stomach to contract and empty and is useful for some patients in easing symptoms)

     There are many good websites to go to where you can find more information about Gastroparesis and other Digestive Tract Paralysis Conditions as well as places you can go to find other sufferers and support, both for yourself and family members.

• G-PACT - Gastroparesis Patient Association for Cures and Treatment- a legal non-profit in the United States of America who is striving to raise awareness of Gastroparesis and other Digestive Tract Paralysis Conditions.  They also have support groups set up in many social online sites (like FaceBook) where hundreds interact daily to share support, tips and frustrations in a safe and understanding environment.
• Gastroparesis- Current Concepts and Considerations - an online article from the Medscape online Journal of Medicine in 2008 giving facts and figures about the number of people affected, costs of the condition and more.
• Gastroparesis- A Common Gastric Disorder - a PDF of the minutes from a meeting at the National Institute of Health in Bethesda, Maryland on April 2, 2004 discussing Gastroparesis.
• Gastroparesis Awareness - a small free website with some helpful information and facts about Gastroparesis including a page for friends and family and helpful kitchen tools.

     While Gastroparesis is not a rare condition, it is incurable and people do die as a result of either the condition itself (from malnutrition leading to heart attacks and organ failure) or the available treatments (sepsis, organ failure, etc) and the lack of awareness is a huge problem for those who suffer from it.

     Just to give an example of the rarity in comparison to the awareness-

• 1 in every 550 Americans have Crohns Disease
• 1 in every 500 Americans have Cerebral Palsy
• 1 in every 185 Americans have Lupus
• 1 in every 150 Americans have Autism
• 1 in every 25 people have some severity (from mild to severe) of Gastroparesis

     People have heard of the other conditions listed, thanks to the awareness of those conditions in the general public and the Medical field.

      Many of those estimated to be affected by Gastroparesis are un-diagnosed because their Doctors do not understand that Gastroparesis is not a rare condition or do not know enough about Gastroparesis to diagnose it or even recognize it... many Doctors thinking that it can only be caused by Diabetes.

To Hunt or not To Hunt...

    I have heard both sides of the debate on this one and I have to say that when all the facts are presented there really is no alternative to hunting to protect the deer population.

     "Wait a minute!!! How can shooting poor little defenseless deer protect deer??? That makes no sense!" is the response I have gotten more than once when I have said that hunting protects the deer population.

     "Deer hunting is evil... those poor little deer have done nothing to nobody and just want to prance around in the woods and eat.  People just like to go kill things and I think it should be outlawed."

     I remember one meal I was having at my In-Laws where my Mother-In-Laws best friend (someone who is about as negative and close minded as they come and will openly insult and deride anything she does not personally like and refuses to hear or listen to the 'other side' of any issue because she refuses to ever admit she could be wrong) was making gagging noises and saying loudly how a holiday meal I grew up with and love is disgusting and sounds like vomit on a plate.  

     It was New Year's Day and we were sitting down to eat 'Ham and Black Eyed Peas', something that I did not grow up with as a Northerner and have never really personally liked but was eating a small portion to be polite and mentioned that where I am from the lucky New Year's meal was 'Pork and Sauerkraut' and barely got the words out of my mouth before she started in.  "What a stupid and disgusting thing to eat...."

     To change the subject I turned to my Mother-In-Law and mentioned that I would be bringing over a venison roast from the deer my Father shot soon for a nice roast dinner and the friend felt the need to jump in with her opinion again "OMG! Your Dad shot a deer? How evil... I would never eat a deer and think hunting is evil and against the Bible!"

     I turned to her and tried calmly and politely to explain to her why hunting is a necessary evil, but she wanted to hear none of it and talked louder and louder over me, almost chanting "I do not care what you say... hunting is evil and should be against the law and hunters should be shot and I would never eat a poor little deer!"

      She continued to tell the table about "Bambi" and how evil hunting is... and how evil guns are... and how it is all against the Bible... and how as a conservative she believes in the sanctity of all life and hunters need to be shot to see how it feels...

     Why is hunting a necessary evil?

     Before man started killing off the large predators to protect livestock on farms the deer population was kept in check by wolves, bears, lions, bobcats and coyote.  The weak and injured were picked off reducing the chances of them getting sick and passing the illness to the herd and with herd numbers lower the available browse (food) through the winter fed a smaller population meaning healthier fawns in the spring.

     With the natural predators gone the deer population grew, spreading into more urban settings and farms to find food meaning crop destruction and more and more incidents of deer being hit by cars.  Their health declined as the population outgrew the available food sources... spreading disease through the herds and to domestic livestock and to people.

     Wild deer suffer through the winter to find browse and will resort to stripping the bark off of trees to survive or nibbling the ends off branches when they cannot find other food sources, damaging young trees and killing many as well as doing untold damage to orchards every winter and early spring.

     I will explain it this way... if there is enough browse to support 100 deer through the winter and there are 150 deer in the area then none of the deer will get enough to eat and many of the deer will die of starvation and exposure.  Without enough food they will not be able to store insulating fat or grow a thick coat to keep warm and will freeze to death.  The pregnant does (deer mate in the late fall/early winter and carry their young to the spring when they give birth) will not have the nutrition they need to have healthy fawns and will only give birth to single fawns instead of twins... the fawns will be underweight at birth and there will be more stillbirths.  From that original 150 deer at the beginning of winter only 75 will survive to spring and those will be in poor condition and give birth to fewer young of poor condition.  Now... if those 50 extra deer were culled before winter hits the remaining 100 deer would have enough to eat through the winter and would have less of an impact on the surrounding farms and orchards and in the spring more fawns of a healthy weight would be born... and the deer in the spring would be in over-all better condition meaning a healthier immune system.

     Before hunting season the regional and local Game Commissions do studies on the deer population taking into consideration the available browse for the coming winter and the winter weather outlook and set the number of deer to be culled that year from the population to best maintain a healthy herd size.  They decide how many doe and buck tags to sell to hunters (each tag allows a hunter to shoot one deer, if it is a doe tag they may shoot one doe, if it is a buck tag they may shoot one buck) and as deer are shot the hunters attach the tag to the animal and send in the form telling the Commission the day they shot it, where they shot it, etc... so that the Commission can keep track of the population.

     Not every hunter manages to shoot a deer every year and many tags are un-used for this reason... but the Game Commissions know this and take into consideration the number of deer that are hit on the roads by cars and die of natural accidents in their figures... and unfortunately they also figure in illegal poaching.  (Quick fact- poachers who are caught with deer face fines and jail time, their guns are confiscated and the deer are processed and the meat sent to food banks, soup kitchens and shelters to feed the homeless and poor.)

     If the natural predators were still in the areas that deer populate then maybe hunting would not be a necessary evil... but the same people that do not want hunting to happen do not want wolves, bobcats, lions and coyotes in their area because they want their pets and children to be 'safe'.

     Guess what... you have to have one or the other... either you live with the large predators or you accept hunting because those are the only ways to keep a healthy deer population.

     Want to kill off all deer in a slow torturous method that will not only see them suffering but risk the lives of domestic livestock and our own foods (livestock and grown crops) then just outlaw hunting and let them slowly starve and die in waves of disease as thier health declines.

Bloat Thursday and Black Friday... what Holidays have become...

     Can you remember the days when Thanksgiving meant waking to a small breakfast then smelling delicious food cooking all day as Mom did a dizzying dance in the kitchen, putting on this pot and adding that pan to the oven in a carefully orchestrated ballet of perfect timing?

     Friends and family would start to arrive just as the parades were getting close to the end and Santa was about to be announced... calls ringing through the house in quick bursts of cold air from the opening door.  Coats coming off and either slipping into closets or piling up on a bed as voices rise with excitement... adults trying to hug and not trip over the excited children as they dashed about.

     The big moment would start to get near... the tinkling of ice cubes in glasses as water was readied, a train of eager helpers who were mostly getting in the way of each other as platters and bowls of steaming delights were carried to the table and arranged strategically so that everyone's favorite dish would be close at hand.

     Then you would sit and the turkey would be carved, bowls passed hand to hand as plates would swiftly fill then the moment when thanks were given and silence as the first bites were savored.  

     Talk would slowly start to fill the room again as a second helping of this was put on the plate... maybe just a bit more of that... diets on hiatus for "the holiday" because meals like this come only once a year.

     After dinner it would be a slow shuffle to a comfortable chair... stomachs full to aching, belts loosened (though the smart wore something with elastic to expand with comfort) and a few half-hearted mentions of maybe taking a stroll to "walk off that meal" knowing full well that the only walking to be done would be for coffee and pie then home to bed.

     It was a day to show thanks for the bounty of life with a grand display of gluttony followed by days of left-overs as dishes were reborn to new delights of soups and casseroles or seasonal sandwiches.

     Something changed, though...

     Meals were rushed... 

    Why?

     Because this year the "Black Friday" sales... that day of greed and spendthrift spending frenzy... started the night of the day we are supposed to be giving thanks for the things we have.

     "Black Friday" has morphed from a simple day of sales to 'officially start the Christmas Season' to a spending feeding frenzy with all the grace of sharks picking off anything in sight without caring about what is being bitten.  In a feeding frenzy a shark will bite anything and everything... and in the Black Friday frenzy people will drop all semblance of civility and humanity to purchase things that they seem to value more than human life or dignity.

     What started as a single day of blood-lust spending has grown... now Thanksgiving night is no longer for that bite of pie and turkey induced stupor.  No... it is for rushing to a store and shoving people, punching them and trampling them to get the item that *everyone* must have.

     The poor workers are often victims of the inhumanity  and not only are forced away from their own families and homes by corporate greed and the greed of consumers and customers who cannot wait a single night but are verbally and physically attacked in thanks for it.  

     Now add "Small Business Saturday" and "Cyber Monday" to the mix...

     I can understand that Small Business cannot compete with the big chain stores and their sales and a special day set aside to encourage people to visit small local business and buy from them has my moral support... but Cyber Monday???  Seriously, people...

     I am all for a good sale... heck, some people call themselves 'frugal' but I am happily cheap and do not like to ever pay full price for anything but a line has to be drawn and people have to stop buying into the idea that the Holiday Season is all about people getting the most crap to give and who can give the most expensive crap for the least amount of money.

     Think it is not 'crap'?

     Can you even remember what you got last year for Christmas and how long you actually used the items?

     There might be one or two presents you remember... and use... but you have to admit that most of what is given is fad 'crap' that is enjoyed for a few days or a few weeks then finds it's way into a closet or under a bed before getting donated, given away, re-gifted, exchanged or simply tossed out.

     Want to know why so many people are losing the "Holiday Spirit" and are often "over it" long before the holiday arrives?

     I will tell you why.... because it has somehow become about greed at the expense of everything else and people have completely lost the idea of the beauty of the season.

     We grew from children who loved to take small torn bits of tissue paper and glue and make snowmen on construction paper to decorate our rooms... rings of paper turned into chains to string in festive delight... laying on our bellies on the floor the first night the tree was lit to watch how the twinkling lights reflected off the ornaments and counting down the days then minutes to Christmas morning to adults who try to out-do last year and out decorate the neighbors.  

     We gave up tradition for the sake of 50% off a game that will be played for a week or two until the next new big game comes out and the child wants to trade in that old used game for the new one.

     When I was a child a Monopoly game was not traded in... it did not go out of style in a week or two when a new version came out.  A jump rope became a tug-o-war rope or a rope to pull a sled and was used until it frayed and broke.  A game of jacks not only helped with hand eye coordination but doubled as a way to set booby-traps for siblings and toys ran on imagination and not power cords.

     It is no wonder that so many suffer from depression this time of year... we sold our wonder and indentured the Sugar Plum Fairy for the chance to have indigestion in a store Thanksgiving night as we shove another human being to the ground and step on them so we can save a few dollars.  

     Want to get some of that old feeling back?

     Do something about it... decorate a tree outside for the birds with strings of popcorn, cheerios and pine cones smeared with peanut butter and rolled in bird seed.  Have everyone draw a name of a family member and make something home-made for them as a gift.  Drive around town and look at the decorations then have hot cocoa and cookies with the kids as you decide as a family who has the best decorations then give the winning place a gift (a plate of cookies... a candle... sing them a song).  

     

Love the "Pledge of Allegiance"? Then You are a Socialist!

     I am sure that there are people ready to burn me at the stake while holding misspelled protest signs, but if something is created by a Socialist then it is a Socialist entity, and the "Pledge of Allegiance" was created by Frances Bellamy, a Socialist Baptist minister.

     "His original Pledge read as follows: 'I pledge allegiance to my Flag and (to*) the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.' He considered placing the word, 'equality,' in his Pledge, but knew that the state superintendents of education on his committee were against equality for women and African Americans. [ * 'to' added in October, 1892. ]"

     The original Pledge was published in the September 8th issue of The Youth's Companion, the leading family magazine and the Reader's Digest of its day.

     Then in 1923 and 1924 the National Flag Conference, under the 'leadership of the American Legion and the Daughters of the American Revolution, changed the Pledge's words, 'my Flag,' to 'the Flag of the United States of America.' Bellamy disliked this change, but his protest was ignored.

     Finally, in 1954, Congress after a campaign by the Knights of Columbus, added the words, 'under God,' to the Pledge. The Pledge was now both a patriotic oath and a public prayer.

     Bellamy's granddaughter said he also would have resented this second change. He had been pressured into leaving his church in 1891 because of his socialist sermons. In his retirement in Florida, he stopped attending church because he disliked the racial bigotry he found there.

      I would suggest that those who have read my humble Snark also read this (I have quoted some information from that site) and embrace their Socialist selves.

     I wonder just how many Americans that read this in complete disgust will go off the deep end and decide that they will no longer recite the Pledge of Allegiance?

     Think that will NEVER happen because as disgusted as they will be by knowingly reciting socialist words these people are true Patriots and love their country then you need to remember that it is these self same Patriots that want to leave the nation they claim to love because of a lost election... I would put nothing by them.