another weblog

Check out the ad that showed up in this texts from last night post on google reader.

Strange: Lately I’ve been getting a lot of spam from online pharmacies.

Stranger: It’s making me self-conscious, like “hey, you’re getting older… have some prescriptions!”

The subjects of every state ought to contribute towards the support of the government, as nearly as possible, in proportion to their respective abilities; that is, in proportion to the revenue which they respectively enjoy under the protection of the state…. The necessaries of life occasion the great expence of the poor. They find it difficult to get food, and the greater part of their little revenue is spent in getting it. The luxuries and vanities of life occasion the principal expence of the rich, and a magnificent house embellishes and sets off to the best advantage all the other luxuries and vanities which they possess. A tax upon house-rents, therefore, would in general fall heaviest upon the rich; and in this sort of inequality there would not, perhaps, be any thing very unreasonable. It is not very unreasonable that the rich should contribute to the public expence, not only in proportion to their revenue, but something more than in that proportion.

Thanks, Ziggy for pointing me to the original post in The Edge of the American West.

A new podcast that I am on. Only recommended if you’re really bored, or in the field of EMS.

Today for a workout, I ran for an hour and a half through the woods and at every tree I could grab overhanging the trail I did 10 pull-ups.

I love where I live.

…but it turns out my colossal failure to click one little checkbox resulted in everyone’s comments awaiting my approval before being posted.

It’s fixed now, so comment to your hearts content.

That is to say, this page is cluttered. Expect it to look different very soon.

Last night a guy I used to work with went home, put a gun in his mouth, and ended his life.

I can’t say I ever really knew him. We weren’t friends. I’ve seen him 2-3 times, and then only in passing since I left that workplace, but I am shocked and grief-stricken nonetheless.

This is the closest I’ve ever been to suicide. I’ve known people who have been touched by this specter but I have never felt it myself. It is a strange kind of loss. Senseless and maddening and leaving me wondering what even I, I who am so far removed from him, might have done to prevent it.

I can’t help grieving also for my former co-workers, his family, everyone who was close to him. Their grief must be a thousand fold greater than mine and I weep for them as well as for him.

Health care workers are strange in their ability to see so much loss and death and let it roll away quickly because we are not connected to the person. But when we face the loss of someone close it all comes flooding back, focusing the rage and the sadness of a hundred losses into one.

I hope for everyone involved that they may come to terms with this loss and not be haunted by it.

It was never going to happen.