1. Economic participation and opportunity (salaries, participation levels and access to high-skilled employment)
2. Educational attainment (access to basic and higher level education)
3. Political empowerment (representation in decision-making structures)
4. Health and survival (life expectancy and sex ratio)

Interestingly, the collaborators behind the report note “strong correlation” between a country’s gender gap scores and its economic performance and competitiveness, suggesting “countries that do not fully capitalize effectively on one-half of their human resources run the risk of undermining their competitive potential.”

The 2008 WEF Global Gender Gap report was released on November 12, 1008. Not surprisingly, the top five countries who’ve been “closing” the gap and are drawing close to gender equality are predominantly Nordic:

• Norway
• Finland
• Sweden
• Iceland
• N. Zealand

/sarcasm Darn those evil socialists!

The United States improved its score slightly from last year, but it still isn’t in the top 10. Or even the top 25. At 27 on the list of 130, the United States ranks lower than South Africa, Cuba, and Barbados.

A brief overview of significant regional changes in rankings, plus links to detailed profiles for each country, can be found at The Global Gender Gap Report 2008: Country Highlights and Profiles.

Well. That might be me doing the thwarting.

When I’m not pointing my cell phone camera at the trees, I’m jumping in the leaf piles.

A few quotes from the Sacramento Bee, from people responding to ongoing protests against Proposition 8:

“Protesting is a time-honored American tradition, but it’s unfortunate when it steps over into religious bigotry or harassment.” - Ned Dolejsi, executive director of the California Catholic Conference.

“If this had gone the other way, I can’t imagine the backlash if people protested and called the other side names.” -  Scott Purves, of Purves & Associates, an insurance company.

“We had hoped there would be more tolerance for different viewpoints.” - Lisa West, a spokeswoman for the Mormon church in the Sacramento area.

So, it seems that:

• Proposition 8 was NOT about religious bigotry, despite the whole My God Says Marriage is Religious Contract Between a Man and a Woman and How Dare a Judge Disagree with My Bible thing.
• The Good Christians demonstrating on street corners in support of Proposition 8 were NOT harassing people who didn’t agree with them, despite running into the street during rush hour traffic, blocking cars, and hollering until nearly midnight.
• The God Fearing supporters of the Biblical definition of marriage were NOT calling “the other side” names or starting fights. News reports to the contrary are obviously liberal propaganda. California residents who personally witnessed any screamed insults or fisticuffs are obviously delusional.
• The supporters of Proposition 8 are, in fact, COMPLETELY TOLERANT of different points of view.

I now realize that most exuberant supporters of Proposition 8 not only while away the hours worrying about the state of everyone’s souls but their own, but they must be spending an awful lot of time thinking about gay sex, too.

The hypocrisy is unbelievable.

I suppose I should point out that Proposition 8 doesn’t affect me one way or the other; I’m not gay and I’m already married.  However, in a country that mandates separate of church and state, I do not believe a State Constitution should be amended to support religious beliefs, particularly when that amendment will affect people outside of the two religions financing the amendment.  The choice of who should be allowed to marry whom must be left to those individuals actually entering into the contract!

I respect your right to disagree - and hope that you are capable of tolerating different viewpoints.

It’s almost to the point where she completely ignores my IMs now.

Lil: WHY DO YOU SEND ME THIS FUCKED UP SHIT
Lil: I mean, wtf
Me: Bitch at LSama, not me.
Lil: I GOT THE IM FROM YOU

Two minutes later, Lil sent me the following:

LSama:  BUT I SENT THE GHEY TO HER!
Lil: NO
Lil: SHE SENT IT TO ME
LSama: YES.
Lil: I AM FOREVAR VIOLATED
LSama: IT IS MY DUTY TO TRAUMATIZE HER AT ALL COSTS.
LSama: I GUESS SHE JUST WANTS TO SHARE THE LOVE.
Lil: …..
LSama: …So, yea. I guess you can blame her. =/

And yes, LSama is one of the two or three people I converse with in all caps and LOLspeak.

He was very grouchy and kind of wretched on Saturday, due in part to an obnoxious, obstreperous neighbor with a very noisy family visiting. Apparently the nurses are getting tired of this guy’s querulous, insistent demands. Dad ended up yelling at the guy, “HEY, SHUT THE F___ UP.” (at least he felt good enough to snark?)

Sunday, he had a setback. He still has atrial fibrillation, so he was put under and zapped to try to fix it. (He joked that the electric cardioversion was electroshock therapy.) It didn’t work, and one of the meds they subsequently administered dropped his blood pressure down to 60/40. That’s much too low.

Anyway, he sounded and looked stronger today. One week after surgery, his incisions seem to be healing nicely and he says he has no sternal pain at all. His color was great. He’s in a different room now. He doesn’t feel like killing anyone today, although he’s contemplating mischief (involving the contents of a bedpan) against the obstreperous guy down the hall with the loud family.

He still has IVs (Heparin and Flexbumin, while we were there), and he’s going to be put on Coumadin to mitigate the risks of the atrial fibrillation. He was musing that perhaps he’s had asymptomatic atrial fibrillation for quite some time. When he’s discharged, he’s going to be on a handful of pills.

Dad said we don’t need to call before stopping by, that we should just stop by whenever we want.
My brothers R. & S. visited him yesterday, and his wife stayed until late, for which I am very grateful. Overall, his mood seemed better – more hopeful? He had a sense of humor and seemed positive.

If Aya wasn’t working through the tail end of an upper respiratory infection, I’d take her to see him.

There is a possibility he could be discharged tomorrow, but I think it’s pretty scant. At this time of the year, I am not getting my hopes up. Life doesn’t work that way.

I hate the way hospitals smell.

TY to Missy for making me laff, because yes, I did need it.

Halloween 2008.  Hogwarts robe and Hermione’s wand from Amazon.com.  Scarf from Mom. Two great big orange buckets of candy from various neighbors. Good grief!  The black and white thing suspended over the DVDs in the right half of the photo is a giant plush spider.

Anyway, all of his IVs are gone and the temporary pacemaker wires were removed. He said he was “feeling very good this morning.” He was able to walk the length of his room a few times – but he was exhausted after that.* I guess his red blood cell count is still low, as his cardiologist wants him to get another unit of blood; this should improve his energy level.

Yesterday, everything tasted incredibly spicy / salty to him. His sense of taste seems to be approaching normal again though.

Aya has a mild cold (no fever, just sniffle/sneeze/cough), so I am hesitant to visit Dad today lest I inadvertently expose him to some pathogen. I’m going to visit anyway and keep my distance.

He may be released after this weekend.

*I have difficulty reconciling this image with the image of the man who, 10 years ago, used to wield scythe for hours against the hay in the pasture.

—-

edited to add: We saw Dad today around lunch.  His color was better, but he’s still very weak.  He was able to walk the ward a few times, but it exhausted him.   He’d been given a diuretic, and hadn’t had any Percocet until 6 am.    His wife was there until late last night, and Uncle J. visited again. He left a copy of Car & Driver for Dad to read.  We brought a couple of books from work.  While we were there, the nurse came in and said he’d developed an atrial flutter again, so they were going to hook up an IV again and restart the Amiodarone.  They were also going to transfuse another unit of blood.

His chest and forearm scars are impressive.

His color was not so good today, and he looked very tired, a little distant. He said apparently he’s not manufacturing red blood cells, but his doctor would prefer to not do a transfusion if he doesn’t have to. He’s anemic right now. Gums are very pale. His voice sounded tired, almost weak - which was disturbing. He’s always had a very robust voice.

He’s been having some sort of … hallucinations? dreams? He closes his eyes and sees “strange people” leering at him. He couldn’t really say why they were strange. That was also disturbing, but not entirely unexpected. He said he’s been sleeping a lot.

He had a couple new IV bags: Sodium Chloride, Potassium Chloride, Dopamine, Insulin, Flexbumin, and Amiodarone/Dextrose. (Yeah, I wrote them down today… to what end, I have no idea.) He’s apparently on oral medications too, but I have no idea what those are.

The grafts were harvested from an artery in his left arm. He explained that arteries are superior to veins for this purpose. And he said he has very minimal pain. Mostly it’s coughing that hurts.

Dad said they took out a few other tubes, and he is progressing, if slowly. The blurry vision is improving. He’s getting frustrated with his inability to do anything.

He said they might move him out of the CVICU tonight.

I want to hope, but I’m not fooling myself. I’m trying to resign myself to the inevitable – and if it is staved off a little longer, I shall rejoice.