Moderation in All Things
New England
Joined March 2020
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Deb retweeted
you cannot read dostoevsky, nietzsche, kafka, virginia woolf, and every other book that makes you question your entire existence, and then expect to come out of it as the exact same person who opened the first page.
Deb retweeted
It’s important to ask yourself, “How did we end up in a world where the act of reading is more embarrassing than not reading?” There’s a reason the children of CEOs attend schools where screens are forbidden while public school kids are increasingly unable to read. We’ve been fed relentless propaganda about how books are for losers because a literate population threatens the unchecked power of the super-wealthy.
Deb retweeted
I was walking to the building where I work in Oxford when I passed three young girls speaking Farsi and I couldn’t help but run back and ask if they were from Afghanistan.
They said yes. It had been a few months since their arrival as refugees waiting in Pakistan, now studying at a local school in Oxford.
I was swelling with emotion. These girls just escaped 5 years of gender persecution under the Taliban. Erasure of their schools. And are now in Oxford, studying freely.
Thank you to the U.K government for giving them a second chance.
As a former refugee myself, we all just need one chance, as Canada gave to my mother and I.
Two sets of Afghan women, escaping two Taliban regimes, meeting in Oxford. All in the hopes of finding freedom through education.
Deb retweeted
Telling an eighty-year-old woman to "check the portal" for serious biopsy results is cruelty disguised as digital efficiency.
My 82-year-old aunt had a lung biopsy done two weeks ago.
The doctor told her they’d have the pathology report ready within five business days.
Friday afternoon rolled around. No call.
She dialed the clinic’s main desk, her voice shaking with anxiety.
The receptionist cut her off before she could finish explaining:
“Doctor doesn’t give results over the phone anymore. All lab findings are automatically released to your MyChart patient portal.”
My aunt said, “Sweetheart, I don’t have a computer. I have a landline on my kitchen wall. Can the doctor just tell me if I have cancer?”
The receptionist sighed into the receiver:
“It’s hospital network policy. We can’t bypass the portal. You’ll have to have a family member create an account and view the file.”
My aunt spent an entire seventy-two-hour weekend sitting in her recliner, gripping her reading glasses, convinced she was dying.
I drove out to her house on Monday morning, set up a profile on my laptop, and pulled up the records.
The result was benign.
The pathology report had been uploaded four days earlier.
A doctor spent three minutes clicking an upload button, and an elderly woman endured four days of sheer psychological terror because the hospital decided a phone call was too expensive.
Since when did delivering medical news become a self-service task?
Deb retweeted
I'm not very good at asking for help. But I think I'm going to have to get better at it. Since I shared the news about my cancer, something pretty incredible has happened.
Without me really coming out and directly asking, friends, fans, fellow artists and complete strangers have already donated more than $10,000 to help me fight this thing.
I don't know how to adequately say thank you for that.
But today, I do need to actually ask.
I need your help.
Even with health insurance and financial assistance, the cost of fighting this rare cancer is staggering.
Just ONE of the medications I now have to take costs approximately $300 per pill.
One pill. Every day. For at least two years.
That's roughly $219,000 for one medication.
I'm currently taking eight different prescriptions.
Then there are treatments, oncology appointments, testing, scans, hospital bills and everything else that comes along with trying to stay alive.
So... yeah.
This is the uncomfortable part where I swallow my pride and ask my weird, wonderful little corner of the world to rally around me.
If you're able to donate, even a little, I would be incredibly grateful.
And if donating isn't possible, sharing this helps more than you might realize.
We've already made it more than 20% of the way there.
Maybe, together, we can get the rest of the way.
I'm home. I'm getting stronger.
And I am going to fight like hell.
Thank you for helping me afford the fight. ❤️
GoFundMe: gofund.me/901359e09
#cancerjourney
Deb retweeted
electric toothbrushes were originally made for people with disabilities but now everyone uses them. the same with velcro, & even curb cuts, which were designed for wheelchair users, but now useful to cyclists & pram-pushing mothers. rights for a subgroup can end up benefiting all
Deb retweeted
Maybe the next generation is going to be ok…
I‘m at a wedding and there’s a drop-dead gorgeous 20 year-old at my table. She‘s sweet and obviously doesn’t realize yet what a siren she is.
So, this Old Guy in his 50s (and trying hard to look 25 - think: extra slim fit and a perm) pulls her onto the dance floor. She’s clearly weirded out by him dancing up on her. What’s her solution???.....
Deb retweeted
They’re being very frank about the fact that they want to abolish human art & creativity entirely. They envision a future where we live a joyless existence as serfs while machines write all the songs and novels. It’s hard to imagine a darker dystopia, but they are eager to build it.
ALT screenshot of a tweet in which Rob Parker celebrates the possibility of human music being over, saying, "Future human output will be appealing to art collectors."
Deb retweeted
God, they always go for the arts and humanities and I’m so fucking tired. All you guys see is money, all you care about is profit and gain and power. We need more artists, musicians, writers, dancers. We need more educators, therapists, philosophers-people who UNDERSTAND people.
Deb retweeted
mRNA COVID vaccine linked to lower risk of myocarditis in teens, young adults
Being unvaccinated and getting COVID-19 were associated with a higher risk of heart disease and death than receiving a vaccine.
Read more: bit.ly/3UhXOJ8
ALT Teen boy on heart monitors in hospital
Deb retweeted
For the rapist defenders:
Ketamine is not a party drug in that it gets you just high. It causes the user to lose ability to control their bodies at high doses and leaves the person conscious but unable to move, speech or consent.
The amount of ketamine given to the Cornell gang rape victim is enough to leave her defenseless for the 7 hours she was raped. They kept giving her more and more on their dicks as they raped her.
If you are using the defense that she took it willingly, you are total scum and you are telling the world you would rape a paralyzed person for 7 hours and think it is okay.
Accepting drugs is not consent to sex.
Getting drunk is not consent to sex.
Consent to sex with one person isn't consent to sex with 6 others.
See the pattern.
You must get consent to everything.
These men invited others when she couldn't move, couldn't consent and let them rape her.
The world failed this poor woman.
Deb retweeted
This is about discouraging women from going to college
Trump is banning students majoring in degrees that don’t make enough money from taking out college loans. Degrees for social work, art, religious studies, teaching aides, and music will be hit the hardest. trib.al/NmmAzhf
