Author Archives: tom

Manny Ramirez: How I'll Spend My Summer Vacation

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As many of you know, I am part of a mixed marriage: I root for the San Diego Padres while my wife Nancy is a lifelong fanatic for the Los Angeles Dodgers. The news this week for the Dodgers has not been good: their star player Manny Ramirez has been suspended for 50 games for using a banned substance. Manny released this announcement when the results were known:

Recently I saw a physician for a personal health issue. He gave me a medication, not a steroid, which he thought was OK to give me. Unfortunately, the medication was banned under our drug policy. Under the policy that mistake is now my responsibility. I have been advised not to say anything more for now. I do want to say one other thing; I’ve taken and passed about 15 drug tests over the past five seasons. I want to apologize to Mr. McCourt, Mrs. McCourt, Mr. Torre, my teammates, the Dodger organization, and to the Dodger fans. LA is a special place to me and I know everybody is disappointed. So am I. I’m sorry about this whole situation.

OK, now for some facts.

First, I’m not impressed with the fact that he passed about 15 drug tests; we expect the players to pass all their drug tests, not 15 out of 16. Many people in this country who don’t play baseball (myself included) work for companies that do drug testing and none of us could imagine defending ourselves by claiming that we’re usually clean.

Second, he tries to distance himself from this by claiming that he went to a physician for a “personal health issue.” I’m not sure what this issue is, but the team physicians on all teams tell players not to take anything they haven’t approved. They are the MD’s who know what is allowed and not allowed and even if Manny felt the need to seek medical treatment outside the team, he could at least have shown the medication to the team MD and asked if it was allowed.

Finally, this medication is not something you’d expect a healthy 36 year old man to take. It’s called human chorionic gonadotropin, or hCG. This is normally taken by women who are trying to conceive and it’s also used as an early pregnancy test. Manny is probably not trying to get pregnant but it’s also used to mask the use of artificial testosterone which was also found. You can read an excellent article on ESPN; it states that a test during spring training showed an elevated level of testosterone. Further tests showed the testosterone came from an artificial source, and there was other evidence of hCG use. This gave MLB the justification for the suspension.

The worst of this is that the Dodgers were doing so well. They are currently 21-9 and until just recently were undefeated at home. They are still a good team and I expect they will win the NL West this year but there’s no way around the fact that Manny has let down his teammates, his team, and the fans in Los Angeles. His bat will be silent for the next 50 games and this was because he made a poor choice.

I hope he spends the next 50 games looking for ways to pay back the fans of Los Angeles.

Baltimore: It's No Hawaii

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It’s the beginning of May and that means it’s time for Nancy’s annual PAS meeting. Last year was in Hawaii and we knew it would be hard to beat. While Nancy goes to meetings, I get to explore the city and do some genealogy research. Or at least I could if it weren’t raining the whole time. We’re planning to leave today and it’s been raining nonstop since we arrived.

Baltimore may appear to be a strange place to do family tree research, but there is a connection. Some of my ancestors were Acadians who inhabited present day Nova Scotia (I was called “Acadia” then). In 1763 the British deported them. My ancestors went to New Brunswick, many went to New Orleans (where they became Cajuns) and a few went to Baltimore. One of these was my 2nd cousin, 6 times removed, Daniel LeBlanc (1729-1810) who died in Baltimore. The chance of finding his tombstone is essentially nil (the original cemetery was abandoned and the bodies moved with the stone. Stones at that point were marble and would not have survived 200 years and a move) but perhaps there were some descendants I could trace. Alas, the idea of taking a bus halfway across town and tramping around a cemetery in the pouring rain didn’t sound very appealing and I’ll have to wait until my next trip to Baltimore for this.

The good news department is that we leave today for Virginia. My nephew Nathan is graduating from Old Dominion University on May 9th and I’ll be able to be there for that. I just hope the weather breaks.

Want to Join Me in Starting the "Galileo Award?"

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For a long time I’ve toyed with the idea of starting a web page that annually awards the dumbest teaching or ruling from the Catholic Church that year. The obvious reason for the name is the way the 17th Century Catholic Church treated Galileo Galilei (1564-1642).

Galileo (and Nicolas Copernicus before him) challenged the theory that the sun revolved around the earth. As a reward for his scientific work the Church denounced him, ordered him to recant, and held him under house arrest. The Church argued that he must be wrong because Psalm 93:1 states: “Yea, the world is established; it shall never be moved.” Also, Psalm 104:5 says: “[God] didst set the earth on its foundations, so that it shall never be shaken.” Finally, Ecclesiastes 1:5 states: “The sun rises and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it rises.” [Quotations are from the Revised Standard Version Bible]

Now, in fairness, there has been some progress since 1633. In 1943 Pope Pius XII wrote the encyclical Divino Afflante Spiritu which essentially stated that the Catholic Church is not fundamentalist in reading Scripture. And in 1992 Pope John Paul II announced that Galileo was correct; this is particularly inspiring as it came only 23 years after the moon landing.

And while the Church now acknowledges Galileo was right, and while I still find great joy and love in being Catholic, she continues to make occasional stupid and senseless rulings. Catholics of my generation remember well the 1968 encyclical On Human Life, better known as Humanae Vitae that created great pain for young married couples. Other notables are the 1992 document from the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith (aka the Office of the Inquisition) that allows for discrimination against our gay brothers and sisters and Vatican’s support of those who demanded that Terry Shiavo be kept alive long after it was clear that it was time to say goodbye to her.

The event that finally moved to me throw this suggestion to the cyberworld is the latest publication from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops on Reiki. For the unaware, Reiki is a spiritual practice that has been adopted for healing. Reiki practitioners use energy practices on people who are experiencing illness or pain, and we use this at San Diego Hospice where I work. I have to confess that I don’t fully understand how it works, but I also don’t understand acupuncture, aroma therapy, or a host of other alternative therapies. In any case, our bishops have decided that reiki is really about attacking faith and they have condemned it as being unscientific. Hard to imagine what Galileo is thinking about that. You can download the PDF on their ruling here.

In any case, this is my first nominee for 2009. I suggest the award be given on January 8th, the anniversary of Galileo’s death. This conforms to Catholic tradition where a saint’s day is determined by the date of his death, or in other words, his birth into Heaven.

Let me know what you think.

Goodbye Kirby

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Last month we bade a sad goodbye to our cat, Kirby. Longtime readers of this blog remember that our other cat, Hoover, died peacefully four years ago on May 2, 2005. He was 15 at the time. For the past few years Kirby has enjoyed being the only cat in the house and his health has been in good health for most of it.

We noticed a few months ago that he was doing what we called a “silent meow;” that is, he would look like he was meowing but no sound came out. That didn’t concern us, but in February his purr changed pitch and over the next few weeks we noticed he wasn’t drinking very much. We brought him to his veterinarian Dr. John Hetzler, DVM who told us that Kirby was indeed having trouble with his swallow reflex. He did a quick X ray that showed that there was no massive tumor (which was our biggest fear) but that he had swallowed a huge amount of gas and suggested, no kidding, Maalox. Unfortunately that didn’t do any good and we needed to have Kirby re-hydrated.

Dr. Hetzler was very good with us and explained that Kirby is probably suffering from some kind of neuropathic condition that was making it hard for him to swallow, especially liquids. We could have done any number of tests, but the results would almost certainly have told us that either there was nothing to be done, or that it would have been much too expensive. Frankly, Kirby was nearly 19 years old, he had a wonderful life, and it was time to let him go. On March 18th we brought him in and he was euthanized. As with Hoover, it was a painful decision, but it was our last chance to care for him. We’re comforted by the fact that in his 19 years he was well cared for. He was never cold, hungry, or in danger.

Our next step? Well, for the first time in we have no pets in our home. We have some fixing up to do around the house and this provides us with the perfect opportunity. We have some projects to do in the next few months and we expect to repopulate the house sometime this summer. Stay tuned.

Happy Belated Birthday to my Prius

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Three years ago on March 17th I bought my Prius (OK, before you start thinking I’m some kind of savant who can multiply huge numbers in my head or know what day of the week Jesus was born, I remember this date only because it’s also my sister’s birthday). As of the 17th I had 78,636 miles. That comes out to 26,223 miles per year, down from 26,950 per year last year. I expect my mileage to go down dramatically next year. I’ve changed territories at work and drive much fewer miles: I now see patients in La Jolla, University City, and Point Loma.
In any case, I still enjoy the car, still enjoy the karma, and still enjoy the sticker that allows me to use the carpool lanes even if I’m alone.

Shock and Outrage Reaches a New High

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This is a story I read in my local paper, the San Diego Union Tribune, and still can’t believe it’s true. In Luzerne County, Pennsylvania two federal judges, Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. and Michael T. Conahan, have plead guilty to accepting money to send juveniles to a privately owned (for profit) juvenile detention center.

You can read the timeline here and you should. Basically they were paid by the operators of the facility to sentence juvenile offenders to long sentences, disproportionate to their offenses.

Perhaps the best synopsis is an editorial from the local newspaper, the Citizen’s Voice:

Luzerne County’s top judges have hurt, betrayed and shamed all of Luzerne County.
For the last six years, Michael T. Conahan and then Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. served as president judges, at the very top of the Luzerne County judiciary.
Instead of assuring the justice we expect when we appear in county court, the two men, through a variety of complex schemes, severely violated the public trust as they secretly raked in $2.6 million for themselves, according to federal prosecutors.
Federal officials say the two defrauded taxpayers, in part by arranging for county money to build a juvenile center from which they would secretly profit. They assured the center would have plenty of paying customers by tearing juveniles from their families and sending them to the facility, at times against the advice of probation officers.
The judges covered up their schemes, filing false documents and lying about their income to the state and to the Internal Revenue Service, federal officials say.
Conahan and Ciavarella entered a plea agreement Friday to two counts each of fraud and agreed to 87-month federal prison terms, disbarment and restitution.
County residents, although angered and disgusted with the news, were not all that surprised. The indictments Monday confirmed the very worst of their fears.
Rumors and speculation about corruption within the county courthouse have been circulating for more than a year, and many area residents say these charges of fraud, even against judges, are not so surprising for Luzerne County.
Still, Judge Chester Muroski, in comments Monday morning, offered hope for an immediate new beginning to the county’s judicial system.
The remaining county judges will “do everything we need to restore pubic confidence in the court,” said Muroski. Fairness and justice without outside influences would be top priorities, he promised.
The courthouse probe will continue and federal officials ask the public for help with information that may aid their investigation.
We urge the remaining county judges and all who will take the bench in the future to remember Conahan’s and Ciavarella’s shameful examples.
Remember, too, they must earn the trust we so badly need from our judges.

The next question, of course, is how we do restitution to those children who were improperly incarcerated. I pray for their healing.

Happy Birthday President Lincoln

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I pray no American isn’t aware of this, but 200 years ago today Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) was born in Hardin County, Kentucky. He was a great man at a time when our nation needed a great man and it’s hard to imagine what our nation would look like if he hadn’t been there.

He is also a man of great paradoxes. If you haven’t read Team of Rivals I suggest that you do. Doris Kearns Goodwin is an superb writer and she gives an excellent portrait of Lincoln. The point of her book is that when newly elected President Lincoln was choosing his cabinet he chose the men who ran against him for the Republican nomination. They were more than simple rivals: they disliked him and never took him seriously as an opponent. The fact that Lincoln selected them and eventually won them over shows how secure a man he was.

On the other hand, he had deep periods of depression earlier in life. The love of his life, Ann Rutledge died at 22. Lincoln was sent into a depression so deep that his friends put him on what we would call a suicide watch. In 1841 he wrote this to his first law partner John Stuart: “I am now the most miserable man living. If what I feel were equally distributed to the whole human family, there would not be one cheerful face on the earth. Whether I shall ever be better I can not tell; I awfully forebode I shall not. To remain as I am is impossible; I must die or be better, it appears to me.”

After Ann’s death he married Mary Todd Lincoln and they had four sons; only one survived into adulthood and there are no living descendants of Lincoln. More is the pity as this was a gene pool that would have benefitted the world.

Take some time to read his Second Inaugural Address and The Gettysburg Address.

Happy Birthday Eve, Mr. Darwin

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Tomorrow is the 200th birthdays of Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) and Charles Darwin (1809-1882). Tomorrow I’ll be writing about President Lincoln but today I want to remember Charles Darwin.

Charles Darwin is best known for his book, The Origin of Species. He has become the flashpoint in a debate between evolution and creationism. Before the 19th century most people believed that the creation of the world happened as it was described in the Bible. Charles Darwin and others began to observe through scientific experimentation that there was another story.

Therein lies the rub. People who use the Bible as the only source for the world’s creation trace our orign to October 23, 4004 BC. You can read more about it here. Darwin and others began to posit the theory that the world is much older and that species evolved. In other words, the first people were not Adam and Eve. We, instead, evolved from other creatures and other primates are (in a sense) our distant cousins.

Almost immediately after the publication of his book there were those who believed that Darwin wrote his book only to destroy Christianity. They felt that anything that talked about evolution would cause well meaning believers to renounce belief in God and that the world would become atheists (and would therefore be condemned to hell.)

On the other hand, many of us believed that there is not problem in believing in both evolution and God. We were heartened by Pope John Paul II who claimed that Genesis answers the “why” of creation and not the “how.” As a lifelong Catholic it never occurred to me as a child that evolution was wrong. I never saw the connection between science class and church. I always believed in both evolution and God.

It wasn’t until I became an adult that I discovered that there were people who though the world was only 6000 years old. When I first learned about creationism (or its first cousin “intelligent design”) I couldn’t believe intelligent people could believe in such a thing. I quickly recognized that, despite their claims, this wasn’t science.

The scientific method, developed in the 1700s, follows a strict course: you begin with observation, which leads to a hypothesis, followed by experimentation. If the experimentation confirms the hypothesis, it becomes (over a series of experiments) a theory. If it doesn’t, the hypothesis is discarded in favor of another hypothesis. Over time the theory becomes more and more significant and more and more accepted (like gravity).

Creationism isn’t science because it doesn’t follow this course. It begins with the conclusion that must be found. It then develops a hypothesis that picks and chooses observations that lead to the conclusion that must be found. Any experimentation that leads in another direction is discarded, and any experimentation (no matter how suspect) that leads in the right direction must be true.

In the final word, I think the Christian Churches picked a fight with Darwin that didn’t need to be fought. Faith doesn’t mean you have to disbelieve what science finds to be true and it doesn’t mean you have to stop using your brain. My belief in God includes the possibility that God created the world and watches over its evolution. I pray for the day when all Christians believe this.

Rest in Peace Aunt Freda

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When Nancy and I were on our way home from Yosemite we got a call from my father that his older sister Alfreda Theresa Allain Ladroga died. I had to ask him if I had heard it right because she was not the person I expected to be the one to die. My father is the youngest of seven children: Jeanne, Ed, Joe, Freda, Norman, Andre, and Donald (my father). Andre was always known as “Tonto” and I always heard him referred to as “Uncle Tonto.” He died in a drowning accident in 1964 and I’m too young to remember him. My father is 77 and his siblings are all in their 80s. I’ve known for a while that in the next few years I’ll be getting some calls with this news, but this call was a surprise. At 83 she was one of the younger ones and appeared to be in good health. On the other hand I found that the last time she had seen a doctor was when my cousin Rick was born in 1960.

As I understand it she was talking about abdominal pain and my cousin John noticed that she appeared weak. Last week he finally convinced her to go to the hospital. When she got there they noticed her liver enzymes were off and further tests showed she had advanced colon cancer that had spread to her kidneys and liver. In a few days she was gone. My theory is that she had known for a while she was sick and chose not to have it treated. I respect that as she was in her 80s and probably didn’t look forward to facing chemotherapy and/or radiation for the rest of her life.

In any case I will miss her. Earlier in my life Gardner, Massachusetts was an important part of my life as were my father’s siblings. A few times I visited Gardner in college I stayed with her since she had the room and she was very kind to me. She had also been important to my father as she could give him information on what was going on with his siblings (this may not make much sense unless you’re French and understand that communication is not our strong suit).

Here is her obit in the Gardner News:

GARDNER — Alfreda Therese “Freda” (Allain) Ladroga, 83, of 61 Lake Street, Gardner, died Friday, January 23rd in UMASS-Memorial Medical Center, 55 Lake Ave N., Worcester, surrounded by her family, following a brief illness.

Born in Gardner on March 18, 1925, she was the daughter of the late Calixte and Emma (LeBlanc) Allain.

Alfreda graduated from Gardner High School with the Class of 1943.

She was a Personal Care Attendant, employed by Worcester State Hospital, Worcester for several years, retiring in 1985. She was previously employed by Rutland State Hospital, Rutland and Gardner State Hospital, Gardner.

Alfreda was a member of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary Church, Gardner.

She enjoyed playing scrabble, crocheting and doing crossword puzzles “in ink”. Alfreda loved to cook and was generous with her special recipes. She most enjoyed her family, friends and church.

Alfreda was predeceased by her husband of 53 years, Zigmond Ladroga, who died in 2001.

She leaves two sons, John A. Ladroga and his companion Renee Haley of Phillipston and Richard K. Ladroga and his wife Tracy of Athol; one daughter, Kathleen A. Gallant and her husband Laurie of Gardner; four brothers, Edward Allain and his wife Eva of Gardner, Norman Allain and his wife Lempi of Gardner, Joseph Allain of Gardner and Donald Allain and his wife Claire of Woodbridge, VA; one sister, Jeanne Hetnik of Otter River; ten grandchildren; six great-grandchildren; several nieces, nephews and cousins.

She was predeceased by a son, John Henry Ladroga and by one brother, Andre Allain.

Funeral services will be held Wednesday, January 28th from the Boucher Funeral Home, Inc., 110 Nichols Street, Gardner with a Mass at 10:00 a.m. in Our Lady of the Holy Rosary Church, 135 Nichols Street, Gardner. Burial will be in Notre Dame Cemetery, Gardner, at a later date.

Calling hours in the funeral home are Tuesday, January 27th from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. and Wednesday, January 28th from 8:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.

Memorial contributions may be made to Our Lady of the Holy Rosary School, 135 Nichols Street, Gardner, MA 01440.

Rest in peace, Aunt Freda. I’m sorry I’ll miss your sendoff.

The Day Has Arrived

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No doubt about it: yesterday was a historic day. I hope that years from now all of us will remember where we were when President Obama was inaugurated as our nation’s 44th President. Nancy and I, alas, couldn’t watch it as we were traveling to Yosemite National Park for our annual Chef’s Holidays trip. We were able to listen to it compliments of National Public Radio and we’re grateful for that.

Yesterday’s events held meaning for so many people on so many levels it’s hard, even a day later, to encapsulate all the emotions. As I said in a previous post, I always believed we would have a President of African descent in my lifetime and in that sense this isn’t much of a surprise. I was raised to always believe racism to be a sin and I believed that our nation wouldn’t keep excluding the gifts and talents of all our men and women of color. That said, perhaps the most moving part of yesterday was hearing from the aging generation who still vividly remembers segregation, and how grateful they are to live long enough to see this.

For me the inauguration of President Obama has less to do with race and more to do with hope. His inaugural address struck several chords with me. Here are a few excerpts:

  • On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.
  • In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of shortcuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the fainthearted — for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things — some celebrated, but more often men and women obscure in their labor — who have carried us up the long, rugged path toward prosperity and freedom. For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life.
  • The state of the economy calls for action, bold and swift, and we will act — not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth. We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together. We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology’s wonders to raise health care’s quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. And all this we will do. (emphasis mine)
  • Nor is the question before us whether the market is a force for good or ill. Its power to generate wealth and expand freedom is unmatched, but this crisis has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control — and that a nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous. The success of our economy has always depended not just on the size of our gross domestic product, but on the reach of our prosperity; on our ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart — not out of charity, but because it is the surest route to our common good.
  • As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience’s sake.

OK, maybe I should have included the whole address.

Finally, you can see some changes in this page. I did take down the countdown clock of the last President’s administration, but for the time being I’ve edited it to be the days since this inauguration. I may leave it up indefinitely or I may take it down after the first 100 days; I haven’t decided yet. I’ve also added the new White House blog under “political blogs.” I found it this morning; it seems that Macon Phillips, the Director of New Media, will be keeping a blog. I’ll be interested to read his stuff.

That’s all for now.