The Land of Ozz

My son Caden is a heart surgery survivor. He is nine months old and received open-heart surgery at 6-days of age. He will likely need at least one more open-heart surgery in the future. Read more about him on Caden’s Page.

I have organized a team to raise money for the 2005 Lowcountry Heart Walk. Please join me in contributing to this event. Team Caden Osborne is part of the MUSC (Medical University of South Carolina) Children’s Hospital Little Heart company team. MUSC has goal of $500K. Team Caden Osborne has a goal of $2K. Your support would be greatly appreciated. You can donate or join Caden’s team and raise money to become eligible for rewards for your efforts. You are also invited to join us for the actual 2005 Lowcountry Heart Walk event on September 24, 2005 at 9am at Liberty Square in downtown Charleston next to the SC Aquarium. You can obtain details on the event and how to donate by clicking the link below. Last year’s top two MUSC Little Heart walkers raised more than $15,000 between the two of them.

Donate to the 2005 Lowcountry Heart Walk in support of Caden Osborne.

Note: Pay close attention to the matching funds option. Many companies match funds for employees who contribute to the American Heart Association through the Heart Walk.

Update: You can donate less than $25 if you want and still show up on Team Caden Osborne’s page. Just send us a check or donate using the PayPal link on the right side of the main page of The Land of Ozz. I will send you a receipt for your donations made through Paypal.

The Casey Bartholomew Show featured on WSCC-FM in Charleston, SC is at it again. It is more often than not that Casey Bartholomew turns my stomach with his rants and name calling. I am becoming less of a fan of his by the day. It was not enough to make fun of folks who live in mobile homes a couple of months ago. Now Casey is after the homeless. I sent an email to Casey ands asked for a transcript or audio copy of the show that included his rants on people living in mobile homes, but my email went unanswered. So, I will have to go with what I remember which should at least give you a good feel for my impression of Casey Bartholomew’s opinions as I heard it.

A couple of months ago Casey had a segment of his afternoon talk show dedicated to mobile home residents. Casey went off on people who live in mobile homes. If I remember correctly Casey believes that if you live in a mobile home you are basically stupid, ignorant, and the scum of society. I take offense to that attitude towards folks living in mobile homes. I have lived over 25% of my 38 years in mobile homes and have a number of friends and family members who still live in mobile homes. I now live in a neighborhood much like the one Casey Bartholomew lives in, but I have not forgot where I came from. I have lived in a single wide trailer on private land as well as in trailer parks. I am here to tell you that the physical structure of your home does not have anything to do with your intelligence, character, or criminal status. If anything, a trailer park may have more of a sense of community than most neighborhoods like the one in Summerville, SC where Casey Bartholomew lives today.

My wife taught 3rd grade in a public school in the same town where Casey Bartholomew lives. The best student to ever step foot into her classroom lived in a mobile home in a trailer park. This little girl and her family would fit into Casey’s trailer trash scum category. This beautiful and intelligent little girl was reading at least two grade levels ahead of the next best student in any class my wife ever taught. So, how will Casey’s young daughter feel when she sits down next to one of these trailer trash child geniuses? How will his daughter feel when the little trailer trash girl asks his daughter, “why does your daddy go on the radio and call my family scum, ignorant, and stupid?” I would not want to put my child in that situation, but it appears that Casey Bartholomew has no problem with it.

Casey now is exploiting the misfortune of the homeless to increase his pathetic ratings which I will get to in a minute. He claims that he is doing this to help the homeless the way Ben Rogovy from Seattle is doing. Casey’s help amounts to giving a homeless person a T-shirt for carrying a sign advertising for his show. He then goes on the air and tells his listeners how worthless and stupid he thinks homeless people are for living life the way they do . He believes it is their choice to live that way. I have never official been homeless so I can not argue that point, but I have come pretty close a few times and it was not by choice. Casey even posts a picture on the station web site titled “Bum-Vertising”. How can this possibly be a good advertising strategy? It is by far a bad deal for the homeless people that Casey uses. Casey makes a deal with someone to advertise for him and then takes a picture of them to be used to exploit their situation on the radio show’s web site. Here is what the WSCC-FM web site has to say about the Bum-Vertising project idea that Casey admittedly stole from Ben Rogovy:

We here at The Casey Bartholomew Show believe that any good idea is worth stealing. Following in the footsteps of budding Seattle entrepreneur Ben Rogovy, we have done some of our own Bum-vertising. We agree with Ben that the homeless and panhandlers are an untapped labor force. So, we enlisted the aid of Leroy to help advertise the show by walking around down town Charleston with his sign. Don’t worry; we gave him a t-shirt for payment.

It would not be so bad if Casey just made a deal and moved on, but he had to take it a step farther and start making fun of the people. At least Ben Rogovy let them keep their panhandler sign to continue to gather extra cash while advertising. There are details on the www.bumvertising.com web site and pictures of some of Ben Rogovy’s “bum-vertisers”. You can read more about Ben Rogovy’s original idea on bum-vertising from ABC-NEWS and learn that the original idea includes a little more than a T-shirt in return for advertisement. I don’t think it is a total bad idea since they homeless are doing something in return for the money being given to them. At least Ben Rogovy is not going on a talk show ranting about how stupid these homeless people are. Casey Bartholomew needs to choke up some food, water, and cash if he really wants to copy Ben Rogovy. He might also consider piping down on his name calling when referring to his little pet project on the air if he really wants to compare himself to Ben Rogovy. Not everyone agrees with this idea of bum-vertising. Read more comments from the Mises Economics Blog, Catallarchy, and MIT. MIT also reports that this type of idea has also been used by nuns in Holland.

It does not stop there. Casey Bartholomew believes that the listeners of his show are responsible for the resignation of the Charleston, SC police chief. Has he not looked at the poll on WSCC-FM web site? A majority of the people who took the poll believe that Greenberg was effective and it is a shame to see him go . Casey cheered on the air as he played the announcement of Greenberg’s retirement. He then goes on to apologize for doing what needed to be done to get Greenberg out of the police chief position. Casey Bartholomew actually believes he is some kind of hero in this deal. He even referred to himself as the great one yesterday on the air during his boasting over the outing of Chief Greenberg. Also during the segment on Chief Greenberg, Casey took a phone call where he yelled at the caller for disagreeing with him. I gathered that this was another critic of Casey’s from what I could tell, but I did not get his full name. I beleive it was Sam. The caller accused Casey of being power hungry with his microphone. Casey a;; but agreed with that point. I think Casey does often go overboard and become offensive with his comments.

One other show recently talked about parents who gave their high school graduating seniors breast implants for a graduation present. I agree that this was not an appropriate present for a teenage girl, but Casey Bartholomew took it a step farther. He called the young girls sluts and whores. The name calling is one thing, but what really disturbed me most about this rant by Casey was that the commercial break during this segment featured a Promise Keepers commercial. I wonder if the folks from Promise Keepers knew that their advertisement for the Christian Men’s conference was running within minutes of Casey Bartholomew ranting about these teenage girls as being sluts and whores simply because their parents made a dumb decision.

Now lets talk about ratings for the Casey Bartholomew Show and WSCC-FM. Casey has been bragging about the recent ratings that have his show on top as the number one afternoon talk radio show in Charleston, SC. Well, it’s not hard to be number one out of a total of one FM talk radio stations in Charleston, SC. The only other real contender is an AM talk radio station WTAM-AM which actually comes in ahead of WSCC-FM in the most recent Radio Online ratings. I would argue that The Casey Bartholomew Show probably comes in behind Rush Limbaugh on a show by show comparison, but that is just my guess since I could not find specific ratings for the Casey Bartholomew Show.

I find myself only listening to The Casey Bartholomew Show to give me something to write about lately. It appears that I am not the only one with less than stellar reviews of The Casey Bartholomew Show. I was leaving a parking garage in downtown Charleston, SC yesterday, when an attendant overheard Casey Bartholomew on my car radio. The attendant wanted to know how I could listen to that jerk as he referred to Casey Bartholomew. My response was to the attendant was that I do find some of Casey’s stuff to be interesting. I more often than not get turned off by his ranting and name calling. Casey considers all of his rants to be entertainment. Radio is an odd medium and a person can come in an just pick up some pieces out of context that can really be offensive. I am sure that this is the case for me at times. I recommend that the Casey Bartholomew Show start making show material available on MP3 for download. Heck, I will even help them get it done. I think it would be a great way for people like me to go back and get the whole story instead of just relying on a few pieces that may not represent the true views of the station or The Casey Bartholomew Show.

I will let Casey have the last word in this posting with a response to an email exchange between Casey and me over my Maximum Age Drivers post recently. Casey wrote to me, “I hope I didn’t offend you, too much. The show is all about entertainment, sharing ideas, and starting a dialogue. Just the fact that it got you to write something, even if you don’t agree with me, makes me happy.”

Update: Found an local news papaer article from back when Casey Bartholomew come on the scene in Charleston.

I was so glad to find a story comparing the Treo to the Blackberry. I have no first hand experience with blackberry, but I know some other guys from work are using them. I needed a new phone and a new PDA. I went with the Treo 650 and have been totally impressed with it. Check out mobilePassion for a great comparison of the Treo and Blackberry.

Think tanks blast S.C. Medicaid plan was the headline of the front page of The State on Wednesday of this week.

I have had my share of battles with the Medicaid system in the state of SC and I can say from first hand experience that it needs something. I even contacted the Governor Sanford’s office a few months ago to get a little help lighting a fire to the red tape I encountered when trying to get specific coverage approved for my son Caden.

Watch this Medicaid process closely. It could help set the standards for other states who are looking at major Medicaid changes.

The space tourism experts at Space Adventures who gave Dennis Tito his dream ride into space have announced DSE-Alpha (Deep Space Expeditions). According to gizmag this program promises a trip around the moon as early as 2008 if you can part with $100 million. The DSE-Alpha program offers two packages. One package called the ISS-Staged includes a 14-day stay on the International Space Station in addition to a five-and-one-half-day lunar flight. The gizmag story quotes Eric Anderson, president and CEO of Space Adventures as saying, “DSE-Alpha’s follow-on missions will lead to an eventual moon landing.”

I received my Treo 650 just over a week ago. It is everything I expected and more. I am a longtime Handspring Visor Deluxe user and the transition to the Treo was seamless. My new version of the Palm Desktop software picked up on my older version of the software that was used to sync the Visor. The new version of Palm Desktop installation automatically detected which of my legacy Visor applications should not be installed on the Treo’s Palm OS and archived them automatically.

I am using the Internet browsing and email features extensively. I check my Gmail and work email in addition to managing over 500 contacts in 9 categories and over 350 memos in 15 categories. The built in web browser is surprisingly able to display most http and https pages right in the palm of my hand.

I was a little concerned about going to a phone that did not have an analog mode, but the Treo 650 has been very good at acquiring and maintaining a signal in some of the most unlikely areas.

So far, I give this device a five star rating. I am not sure the transition to this device would be as easy for someone who did not already have experience with the Palm OS.

Is there really a controversy over breast feeding in public or is the controversy actually over the lack of discretion by some breast feeding mothers? I have no problem with breast feeding in public, as long as it is done with some level of discretion. I am not in favor of a two year old child being able to walk up to their mother in public, lifting the mother’s shirt, and proceed to nurse like a calf on a cow. Two recent articles in my local news paper prompted me to comment on this subject.

The two stories that I am referring to in this posting ran in the July 13 and the July 20, 2005 editions of the Goose Creek Gazette. The newspaper has a web site, but they do not make archive articles available on the web site so I have scanned a copy and provided it below. You can contact the newspaper via their web site at www.goosecreekgazette.com if you would like to obtain an original copy of these stories.

The first story titled Creek Streets by Tabatha Blevins ran as responses from citizens on the streets of Goose Creek, SC when asked “How do you feel about women breast feeding in public?” None of the respondents were opposed to breast feeding in general, but three of the four mentioned a need for some form of discretion when breast feeding is done in public. Please refer to the picture below for the responses.

The second story ran as a Letter to the Editor. This letter shown below was printed in the July 20 edition of the Gazette as a response to the Creek Streets article from the previous week.

The argument in the letter to the editor contains a flaw. The writer of this letter tries to blame the changes in society over recent decades promoting artificial feeding methods. While, she did not provide statistics to support her argument on how alternative (bottle formula) promotions have dampened the support of breast feeding, I tend to agree with her on that point. My problem is with her argument on why a breast fed child should be able to eat whenever and where ever they need. She cries foul on older children and adults eating in public without any problems and that justifies a breast fed child being able to eat in public. The problem is that a woman does not have to expose a breast in public for adults and older children to eat when and where they want. This eating in public thing is another function of the change in our society over the recent decades. A few decades ago, we were not as mobile and fast paced as we are today. The need for breast feeding in public a few decades ago was not as great as it is today. What it boils down to is that the lady is trying to use the same changing society argument to support her wanting to breast feed in public while in the previous breath blaming her problems with breast feeding in public on the very same changes in society. It is a simple case of wanting to have her cake and eat it too. She needs to either blame society’s changes or embrace the changes.

The letter to the editor also refers to the natural process of mothers making milk and how humans are mammals. Well, yes that is true, but there are still laws that apply to the exposure of the entire human mammal breast in public. I looked and could not find any provisions in the South Carolina law for exposure of the breast even in the good name of breast feeding. It is simply illegal to expose the entire breast in public. There has to be some level of discretion. The author would also have you believe that there is some great controversy over breast feeding in public. I argue that there is not as big of a controversy over breast feeding as there is over the lack of discretion in breast feeding in public. Many people including the people quoted in the article above are concerned with the level of discretion and not the natural process of breast feeding. Each of the three who spoke out at all against breast feeding in public qualified their statements with words like private, discretion, and not be exposed. They just don’t want to be forced to look at another person’s exposed breast.

The author asks “How do you feel about people breathing in public?” I have an even better question. Let’s stick with the natural digestive track and ask, “How do you feel about people exposing themselves just enough to urinate or defecate in public?” These are perfectly normal biological processes for all mammals. These perfectly natural body functions also require exposing parts of the body that are prohibited by law. So where will it stop if we allow for the exposure of the entire breast in the name of breast feeding. Will we then have to allow for people to relieve themselves in public as long as they catch their waste and clean up their messes?

The bottom line is this. We are unique mammals that require a higher level of consideration for the other unique mammals around us. Women who breast feed their children in public should do so with as much consideration for others as humanly possible. Exposure of the breast even in the name of breast feeding should be minimized to protect the innocence of other children who have no need to see any other breast than the breast of their own mother.

Praise God! The day has come. Our father in heaven has once again showered us with his blessings. I told you that the subject line would read “I Told You So” and it does as I wrote about in my July 7th posting titled “God is Great”. The healing has been delivered. Caden has passed a MBS (modified barium swallow) study for the first time and he has been cleared by the doctors and therapists to begin taking food by mouth immediately. Aunt Addie reminded me recently that she was waiting on this subject line. I had almost forgot about it, but praise God the day has come to use those words. I told you that God would provide and he has once again held to his promises. May we all rejoice and give God the glory for this answer to so many prayers. For it is written:

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” Matthew 7:7 (NIV)

We had almost lost hope this week. Sherry and I truly though that this past weekend would have been when we turned off the suction machine for the last time. We began to become very discouraged when it did not happen that way. We talked openly about our frustration as late as Tuesday evening. Caden had shown improvement over the weekend, but not enough in our opinion to get excited about.

While I say there was not enough to get excited about, we did transition Caden to sleeping in his own room alone this past weekend for the first time in over six months. Sherry and I started sleeping in the same bed at the same time for the first time in almost a year. We did this \due to the improvements we have seen since the botox treatments. Caden still gets “junky” enough to require suctioning, but he has gone as long as five hours without needing to be suctioned. We are now just taking turns with the baby monitor on either side of the bed so that we can be awakened by Caden stirring when he needs to be suctioned.

Caden swallowed both thin liquids and some apple sauce mixed with barium on Wednesday morning. The amounts that he swallowed on each attempt was small, but by far enough for the doctors and therapists to be ecstatic about the results. Sherry even took Caden’s in-home speech therapist with her to the appointment at MUSC on Wednesday so that everyone could be on the same sheet of music with the next steps in Caden’s move to oral feedings.

What does this mean to us exactly? Well, the amount that Caden is able to take by mouth right now is very small and very difficult for him to handle physiologically. Remember that what this little boy is doing for the first time at nine months of age is what most kids figure out within the first hour after birth. From Sherry’s description of today’s MBS, it sounds like Caden took no more than a few milliliters of food or liquid on the swallowing attempts today and the process was a lot of work for him.

Our short term goal is to get Caden’s swallowing functionality up to a point where he needs no more suctioning at all. This will be a great quality of life improvement for him as well as the rest of our family. Caden will remain on g-tube feedings until he is able to sustain his own weight and growth. Even then, he is expected to maintain a g-tube for relieving any upset stomach issues since his Nissen procedure prevents him from burping or vomiting.

Please stop and say a prayer of thanks to God for his promises delivered. God ahs come through for us this week. He has also looked over the Drake family in the past week as Amy gave birth to her little ones on Friday evening. Both children are still in the hospital, but requiring less special medical care by the day. Praise God that both children are breathing without any help and begining to eat a normal diet. Amy was discharged several days ago and is reported as doing good as well.

Please continue to pray for our family. There are needs that are not directly related to Caden’s health that we need prayer for today. I won’t go into it now, but I just ask for you to pray for God’s will to be made clear to Sherry and me in the coming weeks. I know God has a perfect plan for our situation and I know that God will provide the perfect solution for him.

God is Great! I told you so.

I was out for a few days taking care of things, including myself. The week has been busy to say the least. My son Caden had a brief stay in the hospital and I got a little under the weather myself.

I have to say the highlight of my week was Friday night. I spent the evening with no less than 7,000 other Christian men at the North Charleston Coliseum for the Promise Keepers event. It was my first Promise Keepers, and it was good even though I only got to be there for Friday night. I got so sick later that night that I stayed home in bed and sipped soup and clear liquids all day Saturday. Let me get back to the highlight. Friday night was full of awesome entertainment and speakers. The best presentation all night by far was Dave Roever. This guy is a class act. He got up there and did a tribute to Vietnam Vets like none I have ever seen. You will understand why he might do such a thing by reading a brief spill about him. You can do that on his web site at http://www.daveroever.com.

Dave Roever is a true patriot and I wish more Americans could see and hear what I heard the way I heard it this past Friday night. There would be a lot less grumbling and complaining about military action in Iraq and a whole lot more tributes to those who are serving our country over there and here at home. God has Blessed America with some great men and women who proudly wear a uniform and serve us well.

I learned a bunch in the few hours I spent there Friday night. Now I just need to get my head screwed back on straight and figure out how to put some of this good stuff to use in my own life.

Thanks to all who have asked about me over the past few days. I did post a few times on Caden’s Page, but I even fell down on the job there too. Catch you again soon.

Good stuff coming up: Trailer Trash and Breast Feeding. Two separate stories that are sure to stir the pot a little.