Monthly Archives: February 2025

Slava Ukraini!

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I can’t stand Mike Pence or many of his positions. He is, however, a man with a spine as he demonstrated on January 6, 2021 when he refused to bow to Donald Trump’s order not to certify the election.

He posted this on the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Mike Pence standing up for Ukraine.

I bring this up because of the utter dumpster fire of a meeting that happened in the Oval Office today. Donald Trump, JD Vance, and their minions expected Volodymyr Zelenskyy to grovel and thank them for the Russia-centric peace deal Trump “negotiated”. They had a rude awakening when Zelenskyy actually advocated for his country and refused to engage in their screaming match. Both Trump and Vance looked utterly foolish and they berated him. I think the most telling thing was Vance scolding him for not saying “thank you” once during the meeting for the mediocre deal they thought he should accept.

Zelenskyy is, like Trump and Vance, not a career politician. He had an entertainment career before becoming the leader of Ukraine, much like Trump did. However, he has stepped up and put his country first consistently over the last three years. Trump has never served anyone other than himself and his own interests. Zelenskyy has more support in his country than Trump will ever hope to enjoy in this country because Zelenskyy truly puts the Ukrainian people first instead of bowing to dictators like the ones Trump counts as friends.

Let me make my position clear.

Slava Ukraini!

I Can’t Believe This Even Has to Be Explained

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KOMO News: Ohio veteran calls for change after being denied heart transplant over vaccine refusal

I’ve also been hearing about how a relative of JD Vance is being denied a heart transplant over the same issue. Thee comment section for the KOMO News piece on Facebook is full of people who are completely clueless about why the hospital can (and should) do this, so I thought I’d explain this on here in case anyone is completely ignorant about why this is is absolutely fair and has nothing to do with politics.

When you receive a transplanted organ, you are on immunosuppression medication for the rest of your life to keep your body from rejecting the organ. This means that you are at an increased risk of dying from what might seem like a minor infection. As a result, transplant centers want to make sure that those receiving the organs are aware of the need to do some basic things like VACCINATE THEMSELVES to protect themselves and the organ that, in most cases, required someone’s death in order for it to be available for transplantation. This means that you must agree to be fully vaccinated to be put on the transplant registry at your transplant center, and for pretty much every transplant center, that means receiving the COVID vaccine. (I thought it was specifically a UNOS policy, but apparently, it’s up to every transplant center.) The COVID vaccine isn’t experimental, and the only excuse for not receiving it is if it’s going to put you into anaphylaxis. (I know of exactly one case where that has happened, and it was my former work wife Kim.)

This is likened to someone having to promise to avoid alcohol to receive a liver transplant. COVID is going to kill you if you’re immunosuppressed in order to receive your donated organ, so why wouldn’t you do your due diligence and be vaccinated? This isn’t complicated. The gentleman in Ohio isn’t willing to do what is required to receive a heart transplant, so his transplant center is refusing to put him on the list.

I had someone reply to me on Facebook and ask if I would take such a hard line if it was my loved one who was involved. My answer: “100% YES.” I would absolutely call out a family member in this case because their ignorance would be preventing them from receiving life-saving surgery. Granted, I only have one family member who refuses to be vaccinated (and I haven’t seen them since before pandemic started because of this), so this is unlikely, but I would absolutely remain in the stance that it’s the hospital’s decision and they should vaccinate themselves.

On Love…

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This became kind of a tradition in 2012, and I think posting it yearly came out of a conversation with my friend Mandi. In any case, here are some words on love from 1 Corinthians 13 in the NRSV version of the Bible.

If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.