Explaining My Absence

I expect a few of you more inquisitive readers have noticed my absence from this blog for the last few days, and would like an explanation. I am happy to oblige.

First, let me apologize. I wish I had time to tell you before hand, but this happened fairly rapidly.

I started having abdominal pains last Thursday. They did not improve, and on Saturday night I let my daughter take me to Urgent Care.

Urgent Care couldn't figure out what was wrong, but considered it serious. They sent me to the Hospital Emergency Room. The Emergency Room doctor thought I had an infection -- maybe in my gallbladder. He admitted me to the hospital late Saturday night.

On Sunday, the hospital's attending physician verified that I had a gallbladder problem, and scheduled me for surgery at 11:00am on Monday. The surgery went well.

I was released from the hospital on Tuesday evening. I'm still weak, but seem to be healing nicely.

I going to take a couple more days to feel stronger. Then I will rejoin the fight against Trumpism, Republicanism, and other forms of evil.

Some Things Are More Important Than Blogging

I did not do any blogging for today. That is because I traveled to Northwest Texas to visit a friend who is dying, and has only days left.

I hope to return to regular blogging tomorrow.

Posting May Be Light For A Couple Of Days, And Here's Why

Posting may (or may not) be rather light for a couple of days. It all depends on the healing powers of my rather aged body.

Back in September of 2005, I was shot in the abdomen by a carjacker. Doctors repaired my innards through an 11 inch incision.

Now, 11 years later, that incision is starting to pull apart in at least one area -- creating a hernia. Today (April 19th), I will be undergoing laparoscopic surgery to get it repaired. I'm not too worried about the surgery, but I've been told it will take a few days to recover and could be painful.

The blogging will depend on how I feel in the next few days. I plan to continue blogging, but my body may not agree. At any rate, I will be healed and blogging fully in a few days.

I'm Back

Well, I'm back from my trip and finally back on-line. I wasn't able to get anything posted for yesterday because I spent nearly all of Tuesday (from 9:00am until 11:30pm) either on a train, on an airplane, or waiting around an airport (with a broken computer). But I got some rest last night, and today I finally got my computer hooked up to an old monitor I had laying around. It's not an ideal situation, but it works (and Apple tells me it would cost $700 to actually repair my computer -- which American Airlines won't pay for even though they are the ones who broke it).

I had a great time in New York. It's a great city and a beautiful state. I'd love to go back some time when I can stay longer.

I need to thank a few people. Jerry -- I enjoyed meeting you and really appreciate you coming to my rescue at the hotel and making sure things went smoothly. Rutherford -- it was great getting to meet you in person. The long conversation we had was scintillating and very enjoyable. Maybe next time we'll have enough time to solve all of the world's problems.

And a very special thank you goes out to Josh and Lynn. You both went out of your way to give this old country boy a really great time in New York (and that's exactly what I had). Although I suspect that being able to spend time with the two of you anywhere would be a special and memorable experience. Ya'll couldn't have been any nicer or more fun. Mucho Gracias!

And thank you to my readers for your patience. Blogging will now resume on a regular schedule (assuming the jerry-rigged computer holds up).

Blogger Anonymity

Pittgirl was the pseudonym of a very popular Pittsburgh blogger. People enjoyed her comedic efforts and her verbal jabs at city government. But there are always those (probably jealous) individuals who want to hurt or bring down anyone doing well. Pittgirl knew her identity had been compromised, so she revealed it on her blog.

It turns out she was Virginia Montanez, a 35 year-old married mother of two. After she revealed her identity, her employer fired her. She had worked for a nonprofit called the Negro Educational Emergency Drive in Pittsburgh. Her former-employer won't say why they fired her.

Recently in Alaska, 43 year-old political blogger Jeanne Devon was outed by an Alaskan legislator (who should be ashamed of his cowardly actions). Her blog was called The Mudflats and she exposed right wing skullduggery in the northernmost state. Another Alaskan blogger, who writes The Immoral Minority, had anonymous right-wingers calling the school where the blogger worked. Regardless of political affiliation, these kinds of threatening actions should not be tolerated by anyone.

I started out blogging with a pseudonym myself, because I wasn't sure how my employer would react to my blog. But I finally decided that as a political blogger, I might have more credibility if I used my real name. But that was my own personal choice, and I fully understand why a blogger might want to keep his/her real name a secret (especially a woman-- it's shocking the kinds of abuse and threats aimed at females). The use of a pseudonym should be a personal choice of a blogger (who knows his/her own situation) and not a target of inferior intellects.

Take for instance, what happened to Montanez. All you have to write is one thing that your boss doesn't like and suddenly you're jobless. There are also nuts out there who will harrass and even threaten or hurt a blogger, just because they disagree with them and don't have the intelligence, wit or education to spar with them in a comment section of the blog.

Personally, I think anyone who resorts to name-calling, threats, outing a blogger or trying to get a blogger fired from their job is a SCUMBAG and a COWARD (and if you'll notice, they usually do it anonymously). Frankly, if you can't handle someone else's opinion and don't have the tools to present your own side, maybe you should just keep your mouth shut and stop reading the blogs. Name-calling, threats and outing someone just shows your lack of an argument.

I have a right-winger who comments on my blog often using a pseudonym. We've had some fun arguments. But I would never consider outing his real identity (even though I know it). I simply do not have the right to try and harm him or get him fired by releasing his real name. That would make me a snitch and a coward, and I was raised to not respect either.

That's what I think. My name is Ted McLaughlin and I live in Amarillo (and that's my picture above). I say what I want on this blog, and if you don't like that it's your problem. I've lived too long and experienced too much to care.

P.S. -- By the way, if your comment is nothing more than name-calling or threatening or has racist content, don't expect to see it -- it won't be approved. And I don't care what you think about that either!