Last Thursday, Jinni got a bone scan.  This test is given to determine if her breast cancer has mestatisized past its initially diagnosed location which is her left breast and a lymph node in her armpit. 

The test, known as scintigraphy, involves the use of a a radioisotope which is injected into the veins.  Jinni's test came up negative, meaning the results indiicate that the cancer has not migrated into her skeleton.

Because the scintigraphy involves a radio-active material, Jinni was instructed to keep clear of infant children for a short time until the small dose of "tracking" isotopes dissapated.  The warning was simply a cursory precaution... but, of course, our 10 year old Jesse listens in on everything.

Tonight, two days after Jinni was most assuredly not 'radioactive', Jesse came into the kitchen while we were fixing dinner and asked of his Mom, "Are you safe?"  "For what?", Jinni replied.  "To kiss.", explained Jesse.  "Yeah, I think you'll be OK."

7:25:32 PM     comments to the above post so far, join in.   Trackbacks

In my recent opinion and hopes regarding ABC of Guilford County, I stated that I was not a fan of the forced lottery for High Point high schools.  My disdain for the "forced" part of the plan surprised some folks who frequent this site but I have had the same position all along.  My first post about this was back in April before the election was a glimmer in most peoples' eyes. (Link)

"My take is that the School Board should have looked at creating "magnets" of the schools that actually need "magnetizing".  Andrews and Central together have over 500 seats available and Southwest is over-crowded so building additional classrooms at S.W. would make little fiscal sense to Guilford County's taxpayers. The way to fill those seats would be to make them so desirable that even I, in Greensboro, would seriously consider some "friendly busing" of my children to High Point.  This option may have been considered and dismissed as unworkable, I don't know."  Read the whole thing.

What perplexes some people is the fact that I supported school board members in the campaign who voted for the Plan.  "Proud"s comment is typical, "...you have always emphatically declared your loyalty towards Kris Cooke. So I guess I just assumed that you agreed with her views about the High Point "Chance" plan." 

Assumptions are dangerous things.

I am not a single issue voter. I have stated many times that I consider the totality of a candidate's record before deciding for whom to vote.  Cooke and I disagreed on the "forced" part of the High Point Plan, but I have found little else to quarrel with during her tenure on the school board.  From recent comments she has made, both here and in other public forums - she may be coming around on that issue, too.

11:33:35 AM     comments to the above post so far, join in.   Trackbacks

It's just time for the Chairman of the Guilford County GOP to go away.  His ineptitude at party organization was made crystal clear when you consider how poorly the local Republican Party's influence fared in local, statewide and national contests last week.  More importantly, and undoubtedly related to local results, Chairman Marcus Kindley continues to exhibit his apparent belief that the path to victory for the local GOP should be paved with the remnants of deep-seated racism and fear mongering.  To wit:

Kindley sent out a remarkable piece of writing in a mass mailing right before the election just past.  As a member of the GOP, it never soiled my mailbox - but it did make it to the desk of the N&R's John Robinson who posted it over on his blog. 

Kindley equated the defacing and removal of candidate's signs with... well, I'll let him tell you, "...Now we have seen that they (Democrats) know no bounds... (T)his same type of Nazi tactics is what we can expect with a Kerry presidency. The left has always announced that if you agree with them it's ok, but if you disagree....... Look at what democrat nazi thugs did to this supporter of the President..."

Never mind that campaign sign shenaigans, on the part of all campaigns, have been a tradition in American politics since 17th century candidates for office figured out that the product of a printing press and a nail were pretty cool things and opponents figured out how to remove both from the tavern wall.  No... Kindley equates juvenile behavior carried out under cover of darkness to Kristallnacht and similar horrors.  That's the ticket, Marcus - scare the brown shirts off of your followers.... all 23 of them.

Then came the name calling.  GuilfordGOPNews's Gerry Goulder, in a scathing post outlining Kindley's leadership failures, reports that the GOP Chairman is now turning on at least one member of his own Executive Committee who was apparently critical of Kindley's leadership - or at least what passes for the term in Guilford County's GOP.  Sez Goulder...

"... (Kindley) further alienated some Party leaders in an email to (by referring to) a member of the Executive Committee who had been critical of his leadership during the campaign as a "spear chucker."

For those of you who are babes in the woods and have been shielded from all but the most common racial epithets, a "spear chucker" refers to the way African's used to hunt for food before our forefathers brought many of them to America.  Now, I can't imagine that an African American actually sits on the local GOP's Executive Board so I infer that Kindley's remark was aimed at some white Republican who might have publicly come out in support of (gasp) - a black candidate, or perhaps even worse in Kindley's view... a centrist Republican.

Back in 2002 when, under his leadership, the Guilford GOP's website posted a link to an anti-Islamic website, the AP picked up the scandal and the link was quickly pulled because of the firestorm that ensued.  Kindley apologized for the gaff and replaced the offending link with this statement, "We apologize for the link to this Web site and have instituted safeguards against links to such sites in the future... There is no room for hate in our society."

At the time, few people took Kindley's apology as anything more than an "I'm covering my ass" statement.  Even though "safeguards" might have been put in place back in 2002 to keep offensive speech off of the Guilford GOP website, it is obvious that no such muzzling has been placed on Kindley's other forms of communication to those who follow his brand of Republicanism.  He should apologize (again) for these latest antics, and then make additional ass-covering excuses, and then tender his resignation... post haste.

Go away, Kindley.  Your resignation might, just might, give my Party at least a fighting chance to be considered by normal people as something other than a bunch of backward, race-baiting, far-right-wing assholes.  By going away you might also give local moderate Republican candidates a shot at winning an election or two next time around.

10:20:28 AM     comments to the above post so far, join in.   Trackbacks