Posts by David Cook87

Rachel Roberts6 said:Look, a monument is a monument. It’s put there for a specific reason to honor something. All the whining about why someone is crying over a statue doesn't really change what the monument itself represents.

Nah, you're dead wrong on this one... plenty of architects and art historians actually mourn when monuments get torn down because they were genuine works of art, regardless of what kind of political ideology they stood for....

I could really use some advice here.
My buddy deals with allergic asthma—pollen, certain foods, the whole deal...
He lives abroad right now, but since he’s planning on moving to the States soon, I wanted to see if anyone has recommendations for
a solid doctor or a specialized hospital in New York City who knows their stuff when it comes to this kind of thing.

Look, this is a fascinating topic to dive into. It’s an old story: kitsch always seems to walk hand-in-hand with nationalism
and totalitarian ideologies.

In reality, communism in America was a bit of an outlier because social realism never really took root there. Visual arts managed to secure their
creative independence pretty early on.
A huge part of that can be credited to the sheer force of personality, raw talent, and authority held by figures like Krleža and Murtić...
Honestly? We just got lucky.

rowdyhound5 said:To put it bluntly: are the Republicans and the right wing in general the architects who dismantled American culture, or are they the ones who liberated us from communist influence and steered us back toward our genuine roots and traditions?...

I ask because it strikes me as quite curious that people today suddenly find themselves discussing the opera Nikola Šubić Zrinski solely because it features the greeting "for home"... otherwise, they likely wouldn't even know it existed, let alone have the inclination to actually listen to it.

Personally, I find it absolutely ridiculous how modern American conservatives try to claim this opera as their anthem... when in reality, it’s incredibly basic stuff.
About a year ago, my husband and I went to the Metropolitan Opera to see Zrinski.
It was a Saturday night, the Met was packed, but the audience was basically just a sea of grandmas in their 60s and up.😂
We were probably the youngest people in the building—and trust me, we aren't exactly teenagers—and he was likely the only man sitting in the balcony.
I spent the next few days teasing him about how he’d have to lead an entire army of elderly ladies into battle since he was the last man standing.

What was he even trying to get at there? That if Mexicans had been more religious, we wouldn't have ended up in a war?

This topic hits home for me because I consider myself a huge animal lover,
but I would never, ever, put my relationship with an animal ahead of a relationship with any human being.
I grew up surrounded by animals. I’ve had dogs, cats, pretty much every rodent you can think of—from mice to chinchillas—plus birds, fish, reptiles...
I also spent a lot of time at my grandmother’s farm out in the countryside. Checking on the livestock was basically my first job whenever I went to visit her. Horses, cows, pigs, goats, chickens, turkeys, geese... the whole works.😍

Nowadays, living in the city, I can't walk past an animal without noticing it and trying to strike up some kind of connection,🙂 whether it's verbal, non-verbal, or just a look from across the street.
I don't have pets of my own, though. It never even crosses my mind to get one because I refuse to let an animal sit stuck inside all day in a space that isn't meant for them.

That said, plenty of my friends and colleagues have pets.
Mostly dogs.
And honestly, I can't wrap my head around how much they’ve subordinated their entire lives to these beasts.
It’s absurd. These animals have actually shifted their interpersonal and family dynamics... everything from "standard" breakups to some truly bizarre social situations.
In most cases, their dogs have become the pack leaders, and frankly, those people could use a good dose of
Cesar Millan... or maybe even a real human psychologist.

Look, I get it. It’s sweet when a dog wags its tail and keeps your feet warm under the covers,😁 but any human connection is incomparably more interesting, productive, and challenging than anything you'll get from an animal.
At the end of the day, no four-legged or winged pet
is going to brew you a cup of tea and bring it to you in bed.
And if we’ve lost the people who were actually willing to do those things for us, then we need to take a hard look in the mirror ourselves, rather than worrying about the fate of animals.

As for this specific case, the guy is just plain stupid. And the people attacking him aren't much smarter, nor do they seem to have much compassion in their hearts.

However, what we really should be terrified of... is people who pathologically torture animals. I am convinced those types are potential abusers and killers of humans.
I remember a boy from my neighborhood back when I was a kid who used to nail cats to things. Today, he's a severe mental patient, permanently tucked away in a psychiatric facility. 😢 Luckily, they got him before he could do something even worse.

Brian Martin29 said:Thanks so much for the reply; I’ve been scouring the web for this all day. A community center would definitely be my first choice. As for the "presence" aspect—look, the device is just one small piece of the puzzle to help make life a little easier while we're out of the house. Thanks again for the help!

Brian Martin29, I’ve been dealing with similar headaches lately myself, and let me tell you
you can't expect a damn thing from the institutions in this country.
Period. You have to handle everything on your own, using your own family resources and your own cash.
I’ve been running around to various government agencies for a while now trying to look after two very elderly relatives who, thank God, are still mobile.
Everywhere I go, they're perfectly polite, they give me a decent amount of their time,
but I haven't gotten a single actual solution from anyone...
In the end, everyone just tells you: "It'll be easier if you just pay for it privately."
But don't get me wrong, the bureaucracy never sleeps...
My relatives have been in the social services system for years now.
They receive different types of assistance while they wait for a spot in an assisted living facility.
And now, for the third time, they're asking them for a residency certificate (what is that paper even for?!?),
a birth certificate, proof of address. Just a massive list... I mean, why do we even have Social Security numbers if we need all this junk?
Once we finally scrape all this paperwork together, maybe then something will actually happen...
It’s a total disaster....
Anyway, I hope you get your situation sorted out as soon as possible.
As for everyone else on this forum, my advice is to file that application for a community care home
the second your folks hit seventy...
That’s really the only way to ensure they have a decent life in their old age.

Sophia Mitchell2 said:I’ll say it again—regarding this recent murder case—the blame lies squarely with how politics protects people like that. It starts at the top, from the mayor and the governor all the way up to the cabinet and the Prime Minister, and even the opposition seems complicit. You have doctors who, through the American Bar Association and other institutions, "collegially" protect those killer internists in Boise. So, yeah, this is definitely a political issue. It feels like the only targets being hit are Milinović's house, while none of the actual doctors or politicians are being called out for these crimes...

From what I can tell, nobody in that town can even blink without Dr. Dade's permission,
especially not in "his" hospital...
So, if Dado gave the green light, then he gave the green light.
If that's an established fact, then come on, people in Gospić—get rid of this guy!
But how? At the ballot box? What's the alternative? Some hardcore socialists? 😁
It’s not an easy choice 😂...but in rural areas like this, it feels impossible anyway.

Besides, this whole mess definitely ties back to Milton’s place....
Maybe the mother of the electrician who was /conveniently/ wiring his house doesn't need to wait in line or pay for a hospital bed.

I could really use some clarity regarding this whole anemia situation.🙂
About two and a half years ago, I stumbled upon the fact that my iron levels had tanked down to 7.
I spent six months taking Heferol, and managed to bump it up to 14.
Fast forward two years—I begged my doctor for a follow-up check, and wouldn't you know it? It was back down to 7 again.
After four months on Heferol, it climbed back up to 11.
I just got another box, so I'm still grinding through the supplements.

Here’s the part that’s actually eating at me: I have absolutely no clue why this keeps happening.
My doctor initially said she’d send me for more intensive testing if my levels didn't stay up, but now she’s acting like it isn't even necessary.
My hemoglobin stays in a good range, but I haven't bothered checking my Ferritin or TIBC lately.

So, what do you think? Should I push harder for more tests, or am I just overthinking things and there's no real reason to worry?

A few years back, I ended up with this little tear duct bump right in the corner of my eye...
I remember reading somewhere that those things can actually pop up from sneezing too hard,
and since my ragweed allergies are absolutely brutal and my sneezes are basically sonic booms,
/looking back at that time,/I figured that was definitely what did it.
It cleared up pretty fast and hasn't given me any more trouble since.

Honestly, there’s no way I’m giving up the internet. The value I get out of it is lightyears ahead of what I actually pay for it...
And don't even get me started on craft beer...
Whenever I can get away and head out into the wild, it’s like therapy for my soul and my body...
Plus, there's nothing quite like hiking to the top of a mountain peak where you feel like you own the entire world
even if your bank account says otherwise.

Go ahead and try it out in Boise 🙂

George Barrett35 said:I’ve got this intermittent itching on one side of my back, right under my left shoulder blade, covering an area about the size of my palm, but it isn't an itch you feel on the surface of the skin—it’s deeper, more internal. I can’t even scratch it to get any relief because the whole area just feels numb to the touch. There’s absolutely nothing visible on the skin itself, no rash or redness or anything. It’s starting to worry me since it hasn't cleared up in two or three months and the intensity is actually ramping up. On top of the itching, I'm now getting this mild aching and stinging sensation too.
What could be causing this, and what are the odds it just goes away on its own without me having to see a doctor?

I dealt with something almost identical for months. I had this itchy, stinging patch on my upper arm, maybe about two inches wide.
Just like your situation, there was zero sign of anything on the surface; the only difference was that mine didn't feel numb.
I have a few moles near that area, so I went to see my doctor, but she told me the moles were totally fine and nothing to worry about.
Eventually, the whole thing just went away on its own, though I still get a little twinge of discomfort in that exact spot every once in a while.
The only weird part was how much it would bother me when I wore short sleeves—if the edge of the sleeve brushed against that spot, it was super irritating. Just bizarre stuff.

Just do a quick search online for Scipion Physical Therapy.
They’ve got a solid website with a ton of useful info on metatarsalgia. Good luck!

Rebecca Myers19 said:Basically, you end up dealing with this pain because all your weight shifts onto the arch of your foot, usually combined with other crap like wearing shoes that are too tight or having an elevated heel...
The symptoms vary, though. You get pain in the ball of your foot or the toes, and that annoying tingling sensation between the third and fourth toes—that's the most common one...

So, how do people actually fix this?

I deal with this exact same thing, and honestly, I’ve never even worn tight shoes or heels in my life.
It is such an incredibly uncomfortable feeling.
I tried a few different therapies, but nothing really did the trick for me.
Eventually, I just fixed the problem with my footwear choice. Now, I exclusively wear Birkenstocks.
They’re expensive as hell and definitely not the most glamorous look 😁, but they are the only things that provide total relief.

I moved to the west side of town last year, so I’m trying to figure out which Community Health Centers cover my area? Is it the one near Lincoln Park? Or maybe over by Downtown?... what else is out there?
I really need a solid GP.

See, I had an amazing doctor at my old clinic on the east side, and even though I moved, I had zero intention of switching. But then, for some reason, she left and this new woman took her place.
She’s incredibly young, way too cocky, and she’ll throw out a diagnosis in five minutes flat without asking a single follow-up question, let alone ordering any tests...
And her waiting room is always completely empty 🤷
It’s probably just the new breed of corporate doctors who only care about churning through as many patients as possible while keeping overhead at a minimum.
They don't give a damn about the patients, and honestly, they don't even seem to care about medicine....