For those who pay attention to such things

Sorry to be a bit scarce this week but I'm having another bad stomach week and today it's reached a bit of a climax. So I go to see the doctor again in about an hour. I'm kind of hoping she boots me over to a gastroenterologist because I'm really, really sick of having what I feel is an extreme amount of pain and nausea basically shrugged off as no big deal. It's effecting my life, that makes me a big deal. Not to mention the fact that it's been getting steadily worse despite the fact that I've cut out all problem foods, banished caffeine, and been an all around good little girl for the past 5 months. Ok, so I had one slip up after Xmas, but I paid for it, oh lord how I paid. But now there's just no reason for me to feel this ill, I swear I haven't done anything wrong to cause it this time.

I think the most troubling aspect is that I used to go for months without any kind of stomach problems at all, I just felt normal. Now I always have a low level of pain that escalates about every two weeks or so to borderline intolerable. I eat Rolaids like candy, and even yogurt makes my stomach burn like I just drank a shot of vodka.

I dunno', I got nothin'. So we'll see if this is another case of pat the woman on the head and assure her everything's fine, no big deal, or if something actually comes of it this time. I'm thinking I'll just call it a day after that instead of returning to work, go curl up fetal for a few hours and hope I can pull my shit together in time to make it to rehearsals tonight. We shall see.

Update: Ok so the doctor took me very seriously and immediately did two big things, first put me on a much stronger medication which seems to be working well so far, and second she's setting me up for an endoscopy to get to the bottom of this. Not too thrilled by the latter part of this and even the doctor looked at me apologetically when she mentioned it. Her comment was "It won't be pleasant and you'll be out of it for the rest of the day. Not unconscious, but definitely drugged." Fantastic...*sigh*

Anyway, at least I'm on my way to getting some serious answers and that makes me feel much better.

Oh, and on a completely unrelated note, don't forget that SciFi will be playing Dr. Who starting tonight at 9 pm!

I think I won that battle

Ok so I'm missing a rehearsal tonight but actually feeling better than I was earlier this afternoon and that's a big step in the right direction. Since I've got some extra time on my hands I thought I'd share this with you all:

A new poll of likely voters finds that President Bush and his party no longer have the advantage on issues of foreign policy and national security, which they used to dominate.

The poll, conducted for NPR by a Republican and a Democratic pollster, suggests that the ongoing instability in Iraq, the Dubai ports deal, job outsourcing and other global issues in the news lately appear to be weighing heavily on voters' minds in this midterm election year.

Republican pollster Glen Bolger says that, from his perspective, the results are a "bunch of ugly numbers."

[...]

It's not uncommon to see polls where Democrats beat Republicans on domestic issues, such as the economy and jobs, health care and Social Security. But in this poll, when asked which party they trust more on issues such as the Iraq war, foreign ownership of U.S. ports and attention to homeland security, majorities chose the Democrats. Only on the question of Iranian nuclear weapons do the president and his party come out ahead.

Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg says the numbers present Democrats with a real opportunity for electoral gains. "All of these issues are related to different kinds of foreign threats to the country," he notes. "On every single issue, voters favor the Democrats. This is a different landscape -- we were looking for 20-point advantages for Republicans on anything related to security. This ought to be the center of where you would trust the Republicans, and that's not happening here. There's clearly a new opening, new doubts about the Republicans and new openings for the Democrats."

Digby comments:

Feingold seems to feel this zeitgeist and so do some others (like the Iraq veteran band of brothers who are running as Democrats.) The rest of the caucus is lagging behind, mired in 2002 thinking.

Separating themselves from the president --- and forcing the Republicans to rally around him --- is good politics. The NSA wiretapping issue in and of itself is not going to rally the greater public to Bush. It's the optics of Democrats issuing a rebuke that counts. The base, on the other hand, is hungering for leadership on these specific issues and wants desperately to rally around the party. Yet they are treated with terrible disrespect even though the polls show that two thirds of the country are unhappy and a majority is ready to throw the bums out.

Democrats do themselves no favors by following a cautious strategy in this climate. They are driving their voters crazy and convincing everyone else that they don't have the will to win. The Republicans have a very slick machine, based in churches and fueled by talk radio, that will work overtime to get their base out. Their survival depends on it. Democrats cannot depend on low GOP turnout to get them over the line.

Which reminded me of my favorite quote from Ed Helms and his brilliant piece on Paul Hackett:

"I got mugged the other day... and this bum was beating me with a bottle. And I said, you know what? I'm going to sit back and wait for him to accidentally hit himself with the bottle. Sure enough, he did! I mean, I was unconscious, but I think I won that battle."

If I voted for the Oscars, this would be the best picture...

Aelf pointed me at this one, which looks to me like it might be the best film EVAH. By the director of the brilliant Yakuza/Zombie flick, "Versus":

Death Trance

Dude, sword fights, ninja and vampires, who could ask for anything more?