US military vets, here is another fight you are qualified for

Operation Free is a group formed of military veterans dedicated reducing security and economic risks to the nation, to our soldiers and sailors, and slowing global warming by getting involved in the nations energy policy.

If your a vet tired of our soldiers and sailors being used to protect oil corporations operations and freight, this is a vet group you should check out.   http://www.operationfree.net

Susan Rice conflicts of interest, I'm done with her.

According to OnEarth and Treehugger,  Susan Rice has $1.25 million worth of stocks invested in fossil fuel companies, pipeline operators and Canadian energy companies.  Between $300k and $600k of stock is in TransCanada the company developing the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline which is awaiting approval now from the State Department.  How is that not conflict of interest?  She also owns stock in Enbridge, their pipe spilled over a million gallons of crude in the Kalamazoo.
I'm done with her confirmation fuss, no calls or emails for her.  The chips fall as they will.  All pipes leak, it doesn't improve with age.  This won't be an issue though for the GOP, most of them are one the payroll of oil already.

Bitter John McCain shot down again Wednesday

John McCain along with Oklahoma's oil industry shill - if it snows somewhere then there ain't no global warm'n - Inhoff, lost a fight against the Navy and AirForce.  Wednesday by 62-37 the Senate passed an amendment to delete a line in the defense bill prohibiting testing and buying alternative fuels and energy products.  The Pentagon has been clamoring for this, and through some Obama directives they have been doing it already to some extent.
Amazingly the two Kansas Republicans and Iowa voted with the Dems.  The Koch's are probably looking for someone to run against them already.  It's not known why they broke their greasy shackles, maybe to do the right thing, that would be unusual.
McCain and Inhoff grumbled the military should not be messing around with new fangeled hifaluten contraptions anyhow dagnabbit when we got all that there oil.

World War II vets death rate around 700 a day

One Angry Zebra lost his 88 year old father a few days ago.  He was in the big one, and Korea.  I lost my father in law about 6 years ago, right at the top of the bell curve, I read for a few weeks they fell at near 10,000 a day.  A higher mortality rate than they faced in battle.  Only a year ago the rate was 1,130 a day, it will dip below 500 in the next year and to a handful a decade out.  Currently the youngest vets are 86, well a few lied about their age going in and may be as young as 83.  Most are in their early 90's, a lucky few are over 100.    700 funerals a day, amazing.

R them Republicans learn'n?

They can't help it, they're all legitimate rape guys, self deportation guys, stand your ground guys, voter suppression guys,  and work for the 1%ers.  Oh, Rachel left out the speaker and the whip, add in 2 more old white guys.

Changing minds, sewing distrust of Fox. See this movie.

Google "Chasing Ice Trailer".  

Autism .... It's the pollution dammit.

Specifically motor vehicle pollution is now linked to autism.  I am sure it is not the only cause, but it is the first absolute link identified, certainly it is an accelerant to its onset.  So far no others have been proven.

The risk of autism goes up the more car and truck exhaust one is exposed to.  It can increase to 3 times more likely in pregnant women or  infant up to 2 years of age are exposed often at high levels.

My neighbor has an autistic boy, he has never looked at us, never spoken to us in 15 years living here.

One more reason to stay away from traffic jams and busy roads if possible, drive less, pollute less.  We need to get off fossil fuels.

Meat Mythcrushers

Why might you ask use so many drugs on factory farm animals.  Jammed in stinking barns or feedlots knee deep in piss soaked shit is one reason.  Also, animals gain weight eating drugs, you'll never look at your fat aunt eating her meds the same again will you?  In the case of cattle, it's corn and soybeans.  Cattle evolved to eat grass, not grain. Grain gives them stomach problems, fertilizer residue adds to the gut bugs (and even germs in the meat).  To keep them healthy long enough to kill, they pour meds into them.

Weaponize the Obama supporters

There is a machine setting in America on idle.  It registered hundreds of thousands, it got out the vote, it beat the GOP at Prez level, the Senate level, and it got a few more dems in the house, but more importantly it got around 300,000 votes more for dems running for congress than the repubs.  States are still counting absentee and provisionals, the trend in these is strong dem., the final vote will be 1,000,000 more votes for dem congress than repubs.  This fact needs to be known, this number is scary shit for repubs, that with a large majority of reps elected they lost the popular vote in congress by a million. This is nail biter stuff for them, this is some lop sided scary shit for them.  And Obama, and we, need to get some things done the next 2 years to take advantage of it.

Obama appears to be ready to use this machine to pressure congress on the budget and other issues.  Plus the machine needs to continue to run all the way to mid terms, which traditionally are repub gains. If you haven't called your rep or senator lately, your a failure.  It's time to weaponize.  Fuck'm.

Imagine if you can

How much energy does it take to run a 100 watt incandescent for one year?

714 pounds of coal

143 pounds of natural gas

2 hours, 20 min  of wind turbine *

8 days, 18 hours of solar panel **

Using a CF (curly bulb) or a LED would take only 1/4 as much.

* 1.5 MW turbine, a big one, most big ones under 3 years old are now 2 or 2.2 MW.

** 1 square meter PV panel.

Without you, Obama, and you too, will lose ground in the second term

Go to http://dccc.org/pages/free-sticker?source=2012.11.24_dems to get this free bumper sticker.  Why?  This program is already helping babies, closing the seniors donut hole a little each year, keeping kids insured till 26, and in the next 2 years it will help more, lots more of us.  But the GOP and Fox and Rush have been able to poison the air with misinformation and scary labels.  Obamacare needs some good PR.  Even if you don't want this sticker on your car, get it, put it on a telephone pole, the curb, a Wallmart truck.

Obama is not walking away from the millions of small donors and activists that put him in the WhiteHouse, twice.  I got some emails a couple days ago asking if I will start working again for him.  The only way the things we voted for will get implemented is if this same network hammers the congress and senate and media on the important issues.
The GOP still claims they will try to kill Obamacare, they can't, but they can block, delay, strip out funds, and kill pieces of it.  The GOP will also try to keep the richest from paying their fair share, and putting it on you and me, if not as a tax, then by closing services, parks, education and deductions for the low and middle brackets.
Get involved or history may well show the GOP's plutocrats prevailed even though they lost the second election.
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I also got an email from the republicans.  They are raising money to win Senate in 2014.  20 Dems on the line then.  At first the funds will go to set up 20 teams to follow, hound, & record these Senators full time.  Send a group to every event to hoot, fuss, accuse and question.  The goal, keep them off balance, force them into fewer appearances and create the illusion of large scale dissatisfaction from the public.
If you have a dem Senator appearing near you, attend, show some support now, dilute the bullies.

Make a holiday loan, it'll make ya feel good.

For the last few years I have loaned money to people for art supplies in Mexico, to buy carpenters tools, coffee trees in Guatemala, a machine to balance tires and fix flats in New Orleans, to raise flowers in Mexico, rakes shovels and seed in Peru.  Kiva is my tool.  Kiva is a micro loan organization, they screen, and train people to succeed with a modest business plan, and they hand them money.  These people don't normally have collateral, many don't even have a good education.  Banks won't talk to them.  It's either borrow from loan sharks, criminals, or stay dirt poor.  The failure rate of Kiva loans, is less than 2%.  I think I have made at least 10 loans, and all paid back in full.  
It works like this.  Go to Kiva, read about people looking for loans, choose one and decide how much to risk.  Your money is pooled with others until they have enough to launch the loan.  I started with $25, and have added 3 or 4 times.  (You get no interest, you can ask for the money back when it's been paid, but almost no one does, what fun would that be, I just loan it agian)
I look for people in Central and South America involved in arts, crafts, food production, manufacturing.  You can search by various subjects.  You can also buy a gift card/account, I did this for some college students in the family to get them involved, they continue to reinvest it.
A few days ago I put $25 in to help raise 1,250 for a young man in San Miguel Xoxtia, Mexico.  He has a few hogs and will buy a digester to ferment pig poo into gas to power some lights and equipment  stop methane escaping into the atmosphere, plus, he ends up with a not so smelly manure to sell as fertilizer to local gardeners, he figures it will pay for it's self rather quickly.
I like this better than kickstarter, you get feedback, these people are screened then coached and encouraged, they pay it back, it's a full circle, it's how things should work.
 www.kiva.org.

Latest converts to global warming

Today, Shell Oil called on nations everywhere to establish a carbon tax "to combat global warming".  Shell was joined by Unilever (drugs and consumer products) Alstrom (a manufacturer) and 97 other large multinationals.

Today, the World Bank ask the nations of the world to take immediate actions to stop global warming as it will fall heaviest on the poor nations but impact us all.

A few days ago, Price Waterhouse, the accounting firm to billionaires and corporations sent notice their customers global warming is real and will do great harm to their investments, starting now.

A few weeks ago, Germany's insurance companies sent their largest clients the same notice Price Waterhouse has.

A few years ago, the German Army, and (in the closing days of Bush 43) the Pentagon published their findings that global warming was real and would set in motion mass migrations, wars over water and farmable land, make some regions unproductive and lawless.

wind The Next Big Step, it was always there

A few miles from my home, a Siemens factory builds the nacelle, the box at the towers top.  Koch Industries is also a few miles off, they along with coal and oil industry in Kansas work non stop with law makers to cripple and close this plant.  This industry is a threat to fossil fuel.  Support the wind energy credit before Congress.  Big oil wants to kill wind power pretending it's for our benefit  to level the field on subsidies, while in fact fossil fuel gets billions, wind and solar get millions.  Let your congressman know you want them to support wind and solar credits, thousands of jobs depend on it, clean air and a cooler future need it.

Businesses that will never have a dollar of mine

Hobby Lobby - religious zealots and right wing support
Chick Fil-A - anti gay and anti women rhetoric and support
Menards - mandatory/not mandatory??? civics classes deriding Obama and democrats
Dennys - adding surcharge for Obama care, CEO says don't tip the waitress if the price is to high now.
PapaJohns Pizza - cut workers hours so they don't have to offer health benefits
Cracker Barrel - religious zealots and right wing support

I have never had a Papa Johns pizza or a Chick Fil-a, and never will, haven't had a Dennys in a couple thousand cockroach generations, never will again.
The only thing Cracker Barrel has going for it, a few stores have electric car charging equipment, but still, I'm done with them.
I see in a couple of cities local owned pizza stores are counting on a silver lining of a boycott of papajohns.

False equivalency. 24 out of 13,974, did the media fail 4th grade math?

World temps for 2012 are almost 2°F above historical norms.  Another year that will be ranked as one of the top 10 hottest, of which 7 or 8 are within only the last 10 years.
-----------------------
The Army is going to congress today to complain about their hectoring  them on sustainable energy projects and biodiesel.  Logic says reduce  vulnerable supply lines by taking energy efficient equipment, portable solar and wind units to outposts and deployments.  If they can stop moving caravans of fuel into hostile situations they can save millions of $ and hundreds of lives.  Of course, Congress works for oil, these things are poison to their owners.

Congress has tried to block them from testing new engines and fuels in tanks and trucks, they have made it harder to add solar, wind, new lighting and insulation to existing bases in the US, in short "oil" needs the Pentagon to stay hooked.
-----------------------
Just in case you don't know what peer-reviewed articles are, these are papers submitted to publishers.  None of the publishers pay for these articles.  There is no $ gain from being published, but it helps the field and is a feather in the cap of the writer.  In this case the publishers focus on science, often on single fields, for example geology has it's own set of publications, aerodynamics theirs and so on.  People with great interest and knowledge, and who are educated in these fields research something, gather data, make experiments and so on and share their ideas and findings with others in their field.  The whole field benefits.  The submitted article is reviewed by at least 3 people who have significant knowledge related to the subject.  They pick the thing apart looking for flaws, they do the math or make the formula (if any was used in the conclusions) evaluate the strength of the data, hunt for mistakes, plagiarism, grammar and writing skills, and it's overall importance.  This process takes weeks to a year, often they ask for a revision then the whole thing starts anew.  For every one that is accepted, many have fallen short.  This is peer-review, and it is how science progresses, if you found a planet the others have to be able to see it following your instructions. These are not normally written for the public, for most of us they are dull reading with charts and calculations and terminology specific to the subject.

Only 24 papers have ever been published that would suggest some aspect of global warming is not occurring.  Most likely they focus on some aspect or data set, and it was found to be valid, but please know that none prove once and for all the thing is a hoax, for if one did the GOP, Massey, BP, or Kochs would have had it printed and mailed to every house in the nation.  The septic sceptics claim thousands of papers published, what they do is write articles for small town papers, for "for profit" magazines sometimes for a fee, on blogs, for right wing media, and more and more for the mainstream media who have no one and no interest in vetting these pieces as they lay off and dumb down reporting staff.  These articles don't stand up, are often written by people uneducated in the field, reuse false info off the internet.  No review is needed, no facts, just get us something for December.

Do the math.  Or as Clinton says, the arithmetic.  Also........watch the PBS series on the Dust Bowl starting Sunday night, the dust bowl was the first large scale man made ecological disaster in America.

Reform the fillibuster

Sign the petition at: http://www.reformthefilibuster.com/udall/

The Senate GOP used this tool to stop anything and everything.  Reform suggested would return it to it's old rules, to fillibuster you must stand and speak, otherwise business may continue.  Also they would restrict it from use on procedural votes, currently the GOP blocks motions out of the gate, prohibiting debate.  Sign this, and call your senators no matter which party they are.

Beethoven Symphony 5, Peter Schickele

Beethoven as a sporting event.  Heard this this morning on my public radio station.

the best article yet about Romney's shitty campaign

<iframe src="http://www.businessinsider.com/embed?id=50a12a1beab8eaa218000005&amp;width=600&amp;height=430" width="600" height="430" border="0" frameborder="0"></iframe>

The Greatest Speech Ever Made

Maybe the greatest, maybe not, but worth a listen, well worth a thought.

We're going to have to keep winning to win anything

Don't let down your guard, keep writing letters and calling those politicians and signing petitions.

*Ohio voted in committee to cut off planned parenthood, it goes to the house now.
*Wisconsin decided they are going to arrest federal employees who are implementing Obama care.
*Kansas believes it has found a new kind of voter fraud, taking a picture of your ballot so you can show how you voted and get paid, they have never had a case of this, but we are about to write a law making it illegal to have a picture of your own ballot, cause they think minorities are going to start doing this in the next election.
*Arizona will throw out around 400,000 votes at midnight, their law says they have to have them counted by then, and they are counting absentee and provisionals at only 18,000 a day.  Most of these are in democrat counties.
*The Senate's racist are going to fight the black women who Obama will nominate to take Hillary's job, on the grounds she misled them.  The FBI gave her, and the White House, Congress and the Senate the very same brief on the same day, yet she is to blame, and why not, look at what color she is, and she has a vagina.

Keep calling those white guys, I will call my congressional dork today on an issue, since I am not Koch I have to talk to the kid on the phone, but I will call and rant.

The climate explained clearly in 4.5 minutes

I recommend you visit Grung-e-Gene

http://disaffectedanditfeelssogood.blogspot.com/2012/11/no-austerity-no-compromise-with.html#links

Paste that address in your go-to window and go, an excellent investment of a few minutes of your time from one of the best writers I visit on Blogger.

Adultery in the military

This current kerfluffup over sex in the top ranks of the military is disturbing, it could have set up top people for blackmail.  So, it is serious for sure.  But, I was in the Air Force, went to an uncountable number of parties in the married enlisted and officers housing units. Some were doozies too.   Enough to tell you with confidence, this kind of investigation could snowball, it could clean out the ranks.  If we start going through the emails and phone calls of everyone, a year from now Fiji will have a bigger military.

I might even owe an F4 pilot an apology, though maybe not, it was a surprise to me and I was at the wrong place at the right time, about 10 years her younger, I was pulled into a room by the pilots cigarette and bourbon breath wife, did what was suggested, was put back in the hall in 10 minutes with stern instructions to never so much as smile or say hi to her if I saw her again.  Roger, Wilco, Out.

Best damn conservative tweet of election night

Horrible possibility: if the geeks are right about Ohio, might they also be right about climate?
David Frum, former George W. Bush speechwriter and card carrying right wing analysis and adviser.

best 16 minutes of TV this year

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#49736294

Best damn music pair today breaks up today

click the little full screen box and watch this, voices like instruments, sensual, what a loss, broke up.

And the Oscar for stupidity goes to.....the human race

Price Waterhouse Cooper, high end accounting and business advising corp. just finished crunching the numbers, and is informing their customers to expect global warming to kick their asses, chaos is on the way.  6°F temperature rise by 2050, 11°f by 2100.

Price Waterhouse Cooper is not a collection of hippies, and they don't work for the left, but for industry and insurance, banks and billionaires.

The information tells businesses that no time is left to stop cutting forests and polluting, if we don't reduce our fossil fuel use by significant amounts every year, starting today, agriculture and business will become nearly impossible.  Populations will have to fall.  West of the Mississippi will be a permanent dust storm.  Businesses and nations will fail.

The 6 or 11 degree rise is world average, not uniform, so some places may see 20 or 30 degree rise, Saudi Arabia 145°, American southwest 140°.  At those temps work or sports outside will kill us, our pets, cattle, blue birds, deer, even snakes.

So, deniers must love it, this is easy to attack, an accounting firm using higher numbers than science does.  Why?

Science, math and hard work win over gut feeling

My son is working on PhD political science.  Told me months ago Obama would win, and win big.  They were using new methods and models for targeting voters who could be won if you got them the right facts.  Not bullshit, not promises, lots of personal contact and  facts on issues and events.  The repubs knew this, and could have copied it to some extent, but they thought it was a bunch of smarty-pants math and science, but politics is gut feelings and hunches and old contacts.  This opinion fits perfectly with their overall hatred of math and science.  These are the guys that don't believe in global warming, evolution, stem cell research, and they didn't believe the polls that showed them losing.  The boy says this election will revolutionize the way future races will be run, maybe though, just maybe, the GOP will ignore it a few more years.  Hang in there Rove, maybe you can help Jeb

Red state scramble, or, let the feds in?

10 days. The states have just 10 days left to report to the US how they will set up and operate the insurance program for Obama care. If they don't, the Federal's will move in and set one up and the state will have no say. Many of the red states with repub govs were sure Ryan and his rich friend would be elected and this whole thing could be ignored. Now the scramble. Do you want to run the program, try to control it, keep the hated feds out, or do you let them run it, doing what ever they want? What a sticky choice for the red states, poor planning, wishful thinking.

one world, one atmosphere, one life

How many jobs does $1M invested return in USA?

The Obama 3 years and 9 months in office has seen the US install significant solar and wind power, doubling the wind to 51 gigawatts or 50 nuclear reactors worth, solar is 4 times greater now about 6 GW.  Current projects on order will drive us to 10 and 60, 70 GW total, most of this will be complete within the next 12 months.
Thats 60 or 70 reactors not needed, 70+ gas or coal plants not needed.  The amount of water saved every day from reactors and fossil burners are rivers and lakes of water, freeing it up for agriculture and cities.  The time to build these is amazing.  From a few months to a year for most solar and wind projects.  Compare that; coal 5 years +, 12 + for nukes, to say nothing of the tons of hot for ever and ever nuke waste, and the pollution from carbon based fuels.

Support the alternative energy credits.  It's a bargain comparing the benefits to cost in your tax dollars given to oil and coal now.

Just another Bankruptcy for Romney

Hey GOP, this is your right turn.

The GOP shlog through the dream of government by and for the rich is almost over, the Romney Ryan campaign is bankrupt of ideas, and sufficient support.  But what about all that money they gathered.  It's lost on stupid ideas, lost on lies, lost on racism, lost on class warfare, lost fighting womens health issues, lost on flubs and fuckups to many to count.
Just like Romney's businesses, his best asset is knowing how to pull this off, it was other peoples money.  All those thousands of people who called in and wrote checks for 10 bucks, even 10,000, its lost.  Romeny in his failed 08 bid spent a few millions of his own, not this time, this time he only put up $200k, as a loan to his own campaign, they have so much money this will be one of the bills paid in the next few days is that loan.  Romney risk nothing, didn't have enough confidence to put his own balls on the race.  Some even lost millions, well thats OK they can afford it, and for those who gave small and shouldn't have, I hope they learn that CEO's don't give a damn for your money, wages, investments, dreams, they are just an asset to be managed and some of it scraped off.   Romney's been to this rodeo before, the money on the line came from people outside the family, outside the partners, no big deal, take some profit and move on.
Well done Romney, well done mr CEO, risk other peoples money, thanks to the gods, thanks to Thor, you won't make it to the white house, where you would have bet the whole nation on one of your schemes.

Ryan scares hell out of Romney campaign, Palin style

The AP reports that just as Palin did before election day, so too has Paul Ryan.  Started making plans to rehabilitate their reputation after the loss.  Yes, as Palin, Ryan too is caught talking to planners and money bundlers who can't keep their mouth shut.  This is as bad as it can get, when the VP causes a leak that inside the campaign it's understood the patient is now a cadaver.  The rats are looking for a way off this festering sinking tub.  Not even Fox can save them now, nor the millions, other than massive voter suppression and tampering with numbers, they got nothing.  And the word is out.

The AP says these Ryan promoters are telling him to leave the Congress, take a job teaching for a year, write a book and then start the 2016 run.  Thing is, no wannabe VP off a losing ticket ever got to first base in later White House races, it's the kiss of death for that dream.

I washing my brandy tumbler and setting it out for a drink Tuesday night.

Colin Powell - Obama for America TV Ad

Bush tells the rich how to move money to Cayman Islands

Attention voters:  Prez 43 Bush of "Mine Chimpf" fame, spent yesterday not worrying about another hurricane that opened up a major city for new development, but worrying about saving jobs creators the terrifying possibility of paying taxes in the USA.  While every living ex president has a cause and works to do some public good, even his daddy Bush 41, Bushie 43 gave a few news organizations not owned by the ubermench a laugh with his post prez work which is painting dog pics and speeching for money.  He spent the day in the Caymans promoting the Romney family habit of hiding money, avoiding taxes, and moving cash out of the USA while still asking the USA military the middle class taxes support to go everywhere brown black and yellow poor people ought to be shot for oil.

Insurance companies know it's true, pentagon too.

Bloomberg editor tweeted, this issue might upset some people, the stupid ones.     Bam!

Now Michael Bloomberg endorses Obama, says he has been excellent on the hurricane relief work, and will work on global warming which is much of the cause of it, Rmoney will not, plus Rmoney has abandoned every thing Bloomberg ever admired about him.

Gov. of NY says, we get the storm of the century every 2 years.  It's stupid not to heed the science and take action to protect our cities, infrastructure and farms.

2012 Tesla Model S - Jay Leno's Garage

One of the most informative 12 minute utubes your ever going to see.

First Lady, looking good.

I'm no expert on fashion, but I must say Michelle Obama is wearing a really nice dress and she is very attractive in this photo.   I keep thinking back to the interview a few weeks ago when a GOP female type said Obama should be defeated because she wanted a first lady that really looked like a "first lady".  She meant black people shouldn't be in the White House except to serve lunch.  

stupidity, or insanity in the family, very disturbing

1) My friend I wrote about who's 85 yr old mother lives in front of Fox news, who is upset almost every day that Obama is trying to destroy America, when the daughter told mom it's just not true she wouldn't talk to her for 2 weeks..... now comes the rest of the story.  She found her mother with a picture of Obama on cardboard with pins in it, asking what is it devout catholic mother told her it was voodoo, she and some other old ladies got these pictures and they get together or on the phone every few days and stick another pin in.  Well, the friend about flipped, she's wondering if mom is ready for sedation or the funny farm.  It is really bothering her, she says they are considering damaging moms TV somehow.  She said she expects mom to have a high blood pressure event on Nov 6 and 7.  She also thinks this is moms last election due to health issues, fox might kill her with the upcoming coverage of Obama stealing the election.
2) My sister (much older than me) usually avoids talking politics with me since she and all her kids are strong republicans, and hate the government, and all live off it, she and her husband worked in military programs and retired on SS, one kid is a teacher, one a prison guard, one in military, grandkid discharged from military during training from injury with permanent disability payment, another on SS disability, another working for defense contractor.  100% of the family is living off the government, and they hate the government, Obama, tax, and the people getting free rides.  What the fuck is wrong with this picture.  A couple years ago I pointed this out and a room full of em looked at one another and one said "Oh yea", but the rest were silent, and still they hate that imagined lazy government worker or the guy getting money setting home, (which is some of them).  OK, I digress, what pissed me off is a forwarded email yesterday about Obama the traitor, the claim is the marines were down the street from the consulate in Libya, with fighters overhead, lasers pointed at the attackers, and Obama said no, don't save them, leave.  And,,,,,,fucking and, Obama supplied the bad guys their weapons, and fired the General who got the rescue guys within a stones throw of the place.
Irrational thought is a terrible thing, seeing it in a family member is crushing.