A compilation of songs about coping with loss.

A short compilation of songs on the theme of coping with loss - mainly from this list.
My hope is that this might, in some slight way, salve the pain of those who grieve.

Jeff Buckley - Hallelujah (Original Studio Version)


Wanting Memories by Sweet Honey in the Rock


Elvis Costello & The Fairfield Four - That Day Is Done


Shosha & Maura Capps - Family Reserve - Lyle Lovett cover


Lyle Lovett - Baltimore


"Goin' Up Yonder" Walter Hawkins & The Love Center Choir


Vinx "A Little Bit More"


Don McLean - Waters of Babylon


Lou Reed / Dreamin'


Joy Will Find a Way - Bruce Cockburn


Saint Behind The Glass - Los Lobos


The Isley Brothers - Fire And Rain


Fire And Rain - James Taylor with lyrics


We'll meet again - Johnny Cash

Achilles Tendinosis

This entry really isn't in keeping with the use of this blog purely as a simple scratchpad. But I couldn't find another active appropriate site to post this, and I wanted to put it out on the internet in case it might help anyone else with achilles problems.

I had tendinosis, partial achilles tear, ended up with a severe Haglund's deformity (all in my right achilles). Used eccentric exercises, which helped a bit, but eventually the situation required surgical repair. Open surgery with debridement and achilles reattachment.

Though the surgery was necessary, and despite consistent physical therapy, over a year and a half later I was still in a lot of pain and the situation was headed in the wrong direction (i.e. gradually worsening pain and stiffness). I was increasingly accepting that this would be a lifelong infirmity.

I read the medical literature. Various studies had shown that eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), a dietary supplement from fish oil, could stimulate production of collagen and fibronectin, including in ligaments (e.g. Omega-3 fatty acids enhance ligament fibroblast collagen formation in association with changes in interleukin-6 production Proc Soc Exp Biol Med. 2000 Jan;223(1):88-95). EPA is also an anti-inflammatory. I began taking 2 grams of EPA a day (specifically, I took four capsules a day of a product containing 530 mg of EPA and 238 mg of other omega-3s per capsule). Within a month the pain and stiffness was reduced by 80% and by two months it was entirely gone (and during that time, I was doing nothing else differently). It's now a year and a half later, and I'm still entirely free of pain and stiffness. I don't know if this would work for anyone else (everyone is different, and in an individual case like mine, one can't definitively rule out coincidence as opposed to causality on the part of the supplement), but I thought I'd pass along my experience. Perhaps this might be a useful adjunct in cases other than my own.

Also, EPA slows clotting, so probably shouldn't be used just in advance of surgery.

Addendum:
Another relevant (and tendon-specific) study - The effect of essential fatty acids and antioxidants combined with physiotherapy treatment in recreational athletes with chronic tendon disorders: A randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled study (Physical Therapy in Sport 2004 Nov;5(4):194–199). In the active treatment (non-placebo) arm of the study, participants with chronic tendon disorders recieved daily EPA (apparently 3 grams per day), plus DHA and GLA, and an antioxidant complex tablet. Both study arms recieved physiotherapy. After 32 days, pain levels dropped to essentially zero in the active treatment arm, but only decreased 31% in the placebo arm.

Some Commentaries of Note

Here are a few commentaries that I came across that seemed worth noting:

Colorado shooting suspect appears in court dazed, silent
Many mass murderers are driven by anger over a rejection, bullying or perceived mistreatment, said Harry Croft, a San Antonio psychiatrist who specializes in post-traumatic stress disorder. Hatching and executing a plan may give them a sense of power and control. "When all is said and done, and he sits in jail and looks at the rest of his life being over, the power is gone," Croft said.

James Holmes Not Faking Emotions In Court Say Top Experts
“James looked as if he was trying to wake up from a nightmare,” Dr. Carole Lieberman tells us. “But every time he opened his eyes, he realized the nightmare was real. This confusion is typical of people who have immersed themselves in fantasy media violence and are having trouble getting back in touch with reality.”....We also spoke with Dr. Gardere who says that although James seems to be exaggerating, it’s because he is “emotionally exhausted.”

What does the James Holmes video tell us?
It would be very helpful to see the full video (and I would hope ABC would release more than just this tiny clip). Based on what we have here, though, Holmes “research” involving “illusions that allow you to change the past” and his interest in differentiating internal versus external experience suggests he’s (already?) entertaining the process of retreating into the mind in a fantastical way for the purpose of revising what has come before. From just what we know already (including Holmes’ state of mind as reported by the gun club owner in Colorado in this NYT article), we’re in symptomatic territory already.

The common motive of a mass shooting attacker: immortality
Dr. Michael Welner, a forensic psychiatrist who is chairman of The Forensic Panel, a practice in New York City, has worked on mass-shooting cases for many years and shared some general thoughts about these kinds of incidents:

“Mass shooting cases have the common motive of an attacker seeking immortality. Each of the attackers have different degrees of paranoia and resentment of the broader community. Some are so paranoid that they’re psychotic. Others are paranoid in a generally resentful way but have no significant psychiatric illness. But you have to hate everyone in order to kill anyone. The threshold that the mass shooter crosses is one in which he decides that his righteous indignation and entitlement to destroy is more important than the life of any random person that he might kill.”

“This is why mass shooting are invariably, invariably carried out by people who have had high self esteem. They are people who had high expectations of themselves. It’s not at all surprising to hear about these crimes in people who either valued their own intelligence or their own career prospects at one time.”

“They’re people who are unfailingly unable to form satisfying sexual attachments and their masculinity essentially gets replaced with their fascination for destruction.”

“The overwhelming majority of folks who do this are male because of how, in our culture, masculine identity is so closely tied to the capacity to destroy.”

Making Sense of the Senseless
Professor Jack Levin at Northeastern University, studied numerous cases of mayhem that had occurred over a thirty-year period. He noticed common characteristics and motivational themes in all of them: 1. They all had experienced ongoing disappointment in life; 2. They all isolated themselves from the comforting support system of family and friends; 3. They all perceived themselves as victims of unfairness and undeserved mistreatment; 4. They justified the murder of those people “responsible” for their lot in life. To them, payback is everything – even that directed at society, in general. 5. Those that did not kill themselves or set themselves up for “death by cop,” willingly surrendered themselves because they had accomplished their mission of punishing society and exercising the power to inflict misery on others.

Recognition Through Violence

Opinion: Don’t Jump to Conclusions About the Killer
Audiences are never surprised by the journal of Mr. Harris. It’s hate-hate-hate all the way through. He was a coldblooded psychopath, in the clinical use of that term. He had no empathy, no regard for human suffering or even human life.

Mr. Klebold’s journal is the revelation. Ten pages are consumed with drawings of giant fluffy hearts. Some fill entire pages, others dance about in happy clusters, with “I LOVE YOU” stenciled across. He was ferociously angry. He had one primary target for his anger. Not jocks, but himself. What a loathsome creature he found himself. No friends, no love, not a soul who cared about him or what became of his miserable life. None of that is objectively true. But that’s what he saw.

It’s a common high school malady, taken to extremes. Psychologists have a simple term for this state: depression. That surprises a lot of people. Depressives look sad, but that is the view from the outside. Of course they’re sad; they’ve probably gone their entire day getting berated relentlessly, by the single person in the world whose opinion they hold most dear — themselves.

Psychologists describe depression as anger turned inward. When that anger is somehow turned around, and projected outward, watch out.

Dylan Klebold was an extreme and rare case. A vast majority of depressives are a danger only to themselves. But it is equally true that of the tiny fraction of people who commit mass murder, most are not psychopaths like Eric Harris or deeply mentally ill like Seung-Hui Cho at Virginia Tech. Far more often, they are suicidal and deeply depressed.

http://forensicpsychologist.blogspot.com Aurora massacre: To speak or not to speak?

psychology/motives

1. For understanding Holmes’ actions/psychology, I think this dissertation on Columbine is useful.
e.g. an excerpt:
”Ultimately Eric and Dylan create and share a mutually destructive worldview, a malignant psychic process that leaves them outside of consensus reality, but desperate to connect to someone somehow. By connecting with each other, the shooters feed each others delusions, creating an ideal supportive environment for the development of the idea that these two are chosen, divine, and predestined to wreak havoc on those around them.….
In reality, mass murder is a road that usually ends in isolation, incarceration and eventually execution. However in Eric and Dylan’s fantasy, mass murder leads to true love, happiness, and international fame.”

2. A random bit: Earlier, Holmes had been “heavily involved in his local Presbyterian church” and he might have visited a local church weeks before his shooting spree.

3. A few relevant bits about the general characteristics/motives of mass murderers. They’re often acting out of resentment. Some comments by Jack Levin, a criminologist with expertise in mass murderers, might fit in this case: “In almost every case the motive is revenge….Usually the killer has suffered from some catastrophic loss; it could be a girlfriend, a loss of a place in the university—assuming he’s a student or faculty. Either way, in his eyes, it’s catastrophic. It’s the trigger, the catalyst, what pushes him over the edge....Usually the final straw sets in motion the planning stages. Sometimes the catastrophic losses occur months before the shooting. It’s a precipitant that triggers the planning stage.” (But I’ll note that some of Levin’s other generalizations don’t seem to fit here). I’ll also note that the list of “Characteristics of Mass Murderers” on this slide (of this presentation) seems to fit Holmes extremely well. Another critical feature is that mass murder killings frequently/typically have a copycat element; mass murderers are frequently obsessed with (one or more) prior mass murder cases.

4. This video on key characteristics of mass murderers is worth watching. The San Diego psychiatrist being interviewed points out that Holmes, who grew up in San Diego, would likely have been affected by the 2001 Granite Hill and Santana High School mass shootings (Holmes would have been 13 at the time) – i.e. that those San Diego mass shootings would have left an impression.
Moreover, Columbine High School is only about 12 miles from where Holmes was living in Aurora. Moreover, the Columbine shooting, which occurred on April 20, 1999, was heavily in the news this year around the anniversary of the event. There were stories that a miniseries was being made about the Columbine shootings - articles such as “The Columbine Effect: Why Hollywood Is Keeping The Story Alive”. Columbine High School was put on lockout due to a bomb threat four days before the shooting anniversary. Etc. I doubt that the stories about the Columbine anniversary escaped Holmes’ attention, and this was occurring coincident with his academic meltdown and only weeks before he began purchasing guns and ammo. And, like Klebold and Harris, Holmes attempted to use explosives in addition to guns (rigging his apartment).

5. So I’m pretty convinced that Columbine and the San Diego shootings were influences. A few additional thoughts – but they’re much more speculative. I came across this posting by “Jimbo” from Colorado at a “High School Memes”“Make Your Own Meme” site for Columbine High School – a South Park-based graphic stating “If you didn’t want to get shot in the face you shouldn’t have bullied a psychopath”. However, “Jimbo” is a common moniker and it could even be an allusion to the South Park character Jimbo Kern – so my instinct is that it’s probably NOT by a post by James Holmes.
However – somewhat more interesting. There’s a strong association between the Joker and “Columbine”. Supposedly, Paul Dini was originally going to call Harley (the Joker’s girlfriend) “Columbine”. And there’s a great deal of Batman fan fiction in which Columbine is the Joker’s paramour (e.g. here). There’s even a MySpace page for “Miss Columbine” (excerpt: ”Columbine Jones is Harley Quinn's split personality but when Joker pushed her off of a 6 story high building something in Harley snapped. When she woke up in the hospital (not Akham for once.) she knew something had changed because in the room Harley didn't wake up. Columbine did….”). All of this apparently originates from reference to Italian comic theater – Harley Quinn is a play on Harlequin,whose lover is Columbine.

Newspapers - 1985 Madison WI Capitol occupation - anti-apartheid divestment campaign

Two week occupation of the WI Capitol building, seeking state divestment from South African related stocks and bonds. A few newspaper articles are shown here.
164271739
164272079
161289192
May 9, 1985 - occupation ends - Milwaukee Journal article here.

Copies of comments from Corrente

Corrente has been down for a week and I wanted to link these three Corrente comments, so I'm reposting copies here.
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Corrente comment #1 posted by bungalowkitchens. Retrieved from Google cache.

I am in Oakland

By bungalowkitchens on Sat, 11/05/2011 - 12:49am

although I was not there in person (too many RL demands- and that's making me cranky because I would really like to be down there). I'm getting drowned in emails from the neighborhood listserv (I live a couple miles east of downtown), which could pretty much be summed up in this sentiment from one of them: "Anarchists can go to hell!" So at least among people in my neighborhood, the take is that these people are hurting the cause. I suspect the people vandalizing stuff are the same people who turned the Oscar Grant demonstrations into riots, and regardless of whether they are young testosterone-addled idiots, agent provocateurs, or cops in disguise- or all of the above (since it's not hard to get a testosterone-addled idiot to trash something, and the police save money on undercover cops that way. And yes, I watched the video, and a few of them were women. Women can be idiots too.)-they are definitely a fringe element and I think most people are disgusted with their tactics. I was pleased to see a couple of them being wrestled to the ground by other protestors, and protesters trying to keep them away from the buildings, and yelling things like "You're better than this!". But this sort of thing is going to be an ongoing problem for all of the Occupations.

I was so thrilled to see so many people marching peacefully and shutting down the port (see my earlier comment about ants). Oakland so rarely gets any positive press, and even though we have a lot of bravado about it, being dissed all the time gets old. Not to mention we know how much money it's costing us every time there's another "police riot" or whatever you want to call it. One of the downtown businesses damaged by the idiots was Oaklandish- a gallery that sells Oakland-centric merchandise. I believe they are a collective. After the general strike on Wednesday, many Oaklanders are making a very specific effort to patronize the local downtown businesses that have been impacted by the occupation. It's the least we can do.

Unfortunately, I see the tone of both the local and national media starting to turn against us, and all because of the violent actions of some.

Conformists die, but heretics live on forever.
Elbert Hubbard
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Corrente comment #2, posted by myself on 11/07/2011, retrieved from Google cache.

Violent flanks reduce participation/support

The term "radical" in the graph above actually means "violent", as in using violent tactics (i.e. the term should not be misinterpreted as meaning politically radical).

This is a graph from an analysis looking at participation in popular movements where only nonviolent tactics were used versus predominantly nonviolent campaigns that contained a flank using violence. The number of people that ended up participating in purely nonviolent campaigns is far higher. Analyses also suggest that there's a trend toward reduced success in campaigns that develop a violent flank (though the difference is not statistically significant, probably because the relatively low number of campaigns included in the analysis provided insufficient statistical power). Campaigns that remain entirely nonviolent in the face of violence from authorites (as opposed to those that develop a violent flank in response to violence from authorities) also appear to generate more democratic outcomes.

My primary point here is that empirically, deployment of black bloc tactics will reduce mass participation in and support for Occupy. And that's essentially consistent with a comment here at Corrente from Oaklander bungalowkitchens on Saturday [see above]: "I'm getting drowned in emails from the neighborhood listserv (I live a couple miles east of downtown), which could pretty much be summed up in this sentiment from one of them: 'Anarchists can go to hell!' So at least among people in my neighborhood, the take is that these people are hurting the cause....they are definitely a fringe element and I think most people are disgusted with their tactics."

[I'd prefer not to get mired here in tired semantic debates about the correct meaning of the term "violence". My point is merely that perception of certain BB tactics as violent (in contrast to nonviolent tactics or even Tute Blanche type tactics) would reduce public participation - and high levels of participation are essential for success of tactics such as port closures and strikes.]
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Corrente comment #3, posted by myself on11/14/11. Couldn't find a cached copy, so comment has been reconstructed here:


Since Nov 3, I'd seen various OO folks arguing that Black Bloc tactics had not cost OO support. That they were strong, and still had the full backing of the community.

E.g.
GonzOakland tweet from a few days ago:
#occupyoakland GA Speaker: "We are really strong, we can do whatever we want." ... Wrong.

From DailyKos comments

Mindtrain:
And I would add further, union support for OO Has been endangered by how the black bloc issue has been dealt with. I really don't think you are in reality about how much popular support OO has lost over the past few days alone.

mic check oakland:
What do you base your assertion on?

Mindtrain:
It's not a fringe issue if we're losing support
And we are. It is also not just in my mind nor those at the camp who are concered or were concerned nor any number of people within the occupation. This is not a MSM concoction. This is something from within the Occupation itself. To paint it as other is wishful thinking, dishonesty, or deliberate deception.

As for "my criteria," I wasn't aware that I had any such thing, other than actually dealing with the issue (which OO has not done).

It's fine if you want to be in denial about the problem, but don't blame me when you ask if there is support for a large scale coordinated action spearheaded by OO (in part) and I gave you an honest answer.m

mic check oakland:
I guess the feeling around the camp was that black bloc was an issue, but not as much of an issue as police violently beating members of Occupy. Also, I haven't got any sense that we were hemorrhaging support since the people of Oakland appear to support our perspective and we continue to have the most diverse group in the nation. OO doesn't have professional spokepeople so if you are getting your information from cable/national news, chances are that you're just hearing the point of view of the city government and local chamber of congress. I believe that part of what catilinus was referring to.

Factually, it's hard to know what our actual support is from residents of Oakland without polling data. And without that we're all just left to speculate until the camp is removed again by the police. If it is and we draw popular support, we will persist in retaking the camp. If nobody shows up and the camp is crushed than we probably won't have the numbers for another port strike.

I suppose we'll all have to wait and see. Thanks for your input.

Retyef:
I can only tell you my perspective
I attended the meeting after Scott Olsen got put in hospital by the cops, where a general strike was called, and marched half way to Berkeley and back.

I went to the (much smaller) gathering that discussed the peace proposal and voted overwhelmingly against it

I don't intend to go back if my participation simply acts as cover for those who commit violence.


Well, how did this all work out for those supporting inclusion of Black Bloc tactics?

October 25 - Typical crowd estimates for protests after the first camp raid - 3000-5000 people
Full backing for OO from multiple unions
OO GA that called the general strike - 1607 votes caste
At least 1,000 protesters held a candlelight vigil for Scott Olsen at Frank Ogawa Plaza.
For the General Strike march to the port on Nov 2, there are various crowd estimates - 40,000 is a common (and reasonable) one, though potentially up to 100,000.

The eviction on the morning of October 25 was a surprise raid. The raid this morning was telegraphed far in advance. An e-mail was sent out to parents with children in a neighborhood school stating that the raid would happen Monday morning. A winter homeless shelter was opened today, a day early, to accomodate people displaced by the raid. By mid-Sunday the papers were announcing that a raid was expected Monday morning. And definitive confirmation of this (that the raid would happen about 4 AM)was provided by OPD by 10:00 PM.

OO started putting out repeated calls for reinforcements throughout the day (website, tweets, e-mail, etc.), for people to show up to resist the raid (e.g. tweet: ALL OUT TONIGHT TO DEFEND #occupyoakland. #ows #occupysf #occupycal. Raid is all but certain early hours of the AM. baycitizen.org/occupy-movemen…). Started an #iamoccupyoakland hashtag campaign to really support, etc. During the weekend there were also frantic attempts to obtain meaningful union support to prevent the raid.

insidebayarea
MT @susie_c: #occupyoakland Two ppl read long solidarity letter from Mexico. I kind of expected a bigger crowd tonight; maybe coming later

susie_c Susie Cagle
Ppl seem to have been counting on union picket line, which hasn't arrived. And still more alarmist official #OccupyOakland text msgs.

insidebayarea
RT @eloft: 4 or 5 #union members here after call out email to create picket around #oo camp in case of police raid. #ows

garonsen Gavin Aronsen
The camp's still really dead. Boots Riley is talking strategy with a small group of people on the plaza's SW side.

occupyoakland Occupy Oakland
Numbers low at occ oak and cops have just left the coloseum.

occupyoakland Occupy Oakland
Numbers low at occ oak and cops have just left the coloseum. Need support NOW.

insidebayarea
RT @EastBayExpress: ~200 people (and a big-ass drum) amassed at 14th and Broadway, waiting for the cops. "Whose streets? Our streets!" #oo
[The occupiers gathered at 14 and Broadway]

Oakland Tribune blog estimating 500 at 14th and Broadway here

susie_c Susie Cagle
#occupyoakland 150ish in the intersection at 14 and Broadway, drumming up a storm.

shoeshine Shoshana Walter
union organizers estimate about 300 ppl at 14th/bdway. #occupyoakland

insidebayarea insidebayarea
RT @ProducerBB: #occupyoakland about to go down. A lot more police than protesters this go around.

JoshuaHol Joshua Holland
Group huddled in prayer at interfaith tent. Maybe 3 dozen in intersection of bway and 14th #OO

One can also get some idea of the crowd sizes from various pics (1,2,3,4 - most of these are at 14 and Broadway, where protesters gathered; also, photo 49 in the series here is an aerial photo of 14 and Broadway). 
Also, here's video from Susie Cagle and video from OakFoSho. Since OakFoSho is walking around the area, I think it gives the best sense.

On Nov 2, success with the general strike (and port closure), and a sense that the movement was still building in Oakland (potentially even greater things to come shortly). Only 11 days later, OO evicted and able to only recruit a relatively smallish number of defenders.
From above - mic check oakland: "I suppose we'll all have to wait and see." [i.e. We'll need to wait for the next raid to determine whether support has been lost due to use of Black Bloc].
So the raid's now happened. Empirically, as an effective protest strategy, how's Black Bloc and unrestricted diversity of tactics working out?

Worth reading: "This is what the people of Oakland think of Black Block"

Poster promoting OWS

This is a poster I created to promote OWS.
I'm not an artist and design principles are not my strength - but I think it sort of works.
I've been putting it up around my hometown (Madison), and someone asked me to make it available online. So here it is.
This poster is meant to be printed on legal-size paper (I've used Kinko's for this). Download as a pdf and use all or part of it as you wish.
Fat Cats