Monday, November 27, 2006 8:09 PM

T + 1 week

100 mg shot, to last two weeks. Day 0: slightly metallic taste for about a half hour after the shot. Day 3: body scent more acrid and intense. After a week's consideration, I seem emotionally calmer and happier since the shot. (For those who know me, you may think that emotionally calmer = comatose. But it ain't so!) I didn't think I was all that stressed out to begin with; I know they say that a lot of folks who start hormone therapy are happier because it resolves some psychological issues for them, but I didn't think that would apply to me.

No 'roid rage, though, and nothing else to speak of, except *maybe* a slightly higher energy level. I'll be more sure of that if I have more than one data point.

In the meantime, I had two medical anxiety dreams about taking T, once about my doctor calling to say T was off the market and that avenue was closed to me (but in real life, later that day she in fact called to say it was available very very cheap!), and the day of the first shot, when I dreamed that I had missed my appointment and would have to wait a long time for another one. I was in some unpleasant institution in that dream, either military or prison (I've been in both in real life and can't recall which sort of unpleasantness it was).

I *never* have medical anxiety dreams. I didn't have them when I couldn't eat for three months; I didn't have them when I had limited mobility for three years because of my foot; but I had them about (not) taking T. Funny how the subconscious can let you know what's really going on.

Then a couple days ago I went to bed ruminating about how, or rather why, some of us have so much privilege to choose to change our bodies, and about adding muscle mass and short cuts and all that sort of second-guessing stuff, and I awoke from a dream of happily doing leg lunges with dumbbells to get stronger. Once again, the subconscious telling me to quit worrying and get on with it.

Guess I will :-)

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Friday, November 17, 2006 12:34 PM

Are you sitting comfortably?

Two branches of our government have conspired to hold people for *the rest of their lives* under whatever conditions are deemed useful for interrogation, and to block the intervention of the third branch of government, just in case the courts might not have the same view of things. Here are some questions for you.

How much useful information can you get from someone after you've tortured them off and on for four years[1], anyhow?

What happens if you wait for the Democrats to act, and they don't get a bill past Bush's veto?

Why do so many folks hope that the courts will fix it (including Senator Specter!), when the courts "fixed" the internment of Japanese-Americans in WWII by... upholding it in the Korematsu decision?

While we wait for someone in power to do something, what is happening to the folks in detention now?

Here is one very small thing you can do: go read Senator Dodd's bill that undoes some of the worst parts of the MCA^H^H^HIndefinite Detention and Torture Act, call his office, call your representatives' offices, write them, and get them on board. Ask them about extraordinary rendition too. Find out what they are doing to get the bill past Bush. Odds are they'll tell you they... can't tell you. Enough of us call 'em, they gotta get the message....

[1] Average length of stay of Guantanamo detainees

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12:33 AM

thirty-three years ago

In an era of creeping fascism...

This is what democracy sounds like.

Then and now. Think about it.

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Thursday, November 16, 2006 10:53 AM

Don't fall asleep to the radio

Because while you may go to sleep listening to this (*), a reminder of dark times in our past...

...you'll wake up to the sounds of tear gas from the present. More of that story today at Athens Indymedia, and tomorrow in the papers...

(*) In case the link disappears, find the lyrics here (Η Επιστολή, στίχοι του Μάνου Ελευθερίου, μουσική του Θεοδωράκη).

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Wednesday, November 08, 2006 5:59 PM

No Fear of the Unknown

"Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns - the ones we don't know we don't know."

Bye, Bye, Rummy. Have a nice trip into the great unknown.

For the rest of us, we can contemplate Rummy's collected wisdom on a number of web sites. Here's one to get you started.

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5:44 PM

Math is Fun!

MR. ROVE: Yeah. Look, I'm looking at all these, Robert, and adding them up. And I add up to a Republican Senate and a Republican House. You may end up with a different math, but you're entitled to your math. I'm entitled to "the" math.

The folks over at NPR have got to be pretty happy right about now. They just replayed an excerpt from this interview where Rove browbeats Robert Siegel for suggesting that the Republicans might lose. Transcript available at Raw Story.

Gloat while you got 'em. :-)

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