As with most Sundays, I spent much of today catching up on reading material that has accumulated over the week. The New York Times Magazine has a well-written article entitled The Disability Gulag(free reg. req’d.), focusing on the institutionalization, both past and present, of people with severe disabilities. The author, Harriet McBryde Johnson (who has a disability similar to mine), discusses her own fears of entering the gulag in the future. This has also been one of my own private fears. I didn’t realize it at the time, but when I was put on the ventilator my parents were presented with the option of placing me in a facility. They refused (fortunately for me), but there are times when I thought my independence was hanging from a fragile thread that could be severed without warning. Minnesota is one of a handful of states that has a real commitment to keeping people with disabilities in community settings and that has clearly benefitted me. But old fears linger and I sometimes imagine scenarios that could land me in a facility permanently. I like to think that if something like that were ever to come to pass, people would step up to bat to get me out of there as soon as possible. Anyway, whenever I do switch jobs, I think I’d like to play a role in liberating people with disabilities from institutions. Maybe I should even consider a run for some kind of local office in 2004. One thing that disability community needs is a louder political voice. What do you think? School Board? Park Board?
On a lighter note, Time had an article about one of my favorite Sunday night rituals, Adult Swim on Cartoon Network. Most television comedies are unbelievably lame, but Sealab 2021 and Home Movies can make me laugh out loud.

The Twin Cities are supposed to get slammed with a major snowstorm this weekend. Great. Should make my Monday commute interesting. But having lived in the Midwest almost my entire life, the novelty of huge drifts of snow has long since worn off. It’s pretty for maybe a week before I simply get tired of it. If we do get hit, I’ll try to post some pictures so you all can see what you’re missing.
I had to buy a new dishwasher today. Ah, the joys of owning a home. It figures that all of the appliances start to fail after I move in. Last year, it was the refrigerator. Next year, I’m betting on the oven.

Run, Jacko, run. I mean, really. Does this development surprise even the most ardent Michael Jackson fan? Does he even have fans anymore? And those screaming banshees in Germany and Japan who gather outside his hotel waiting for a glimpse of the Gloved One are not fans. They are crazed zealots.
I’m curious to hear opinions from my UK readers about Bush’s visit to London. After reading about some of the paranoid, ridiculous security demands his administration made, I half-expected the entire city of London to be evacuated just to be sure that no agitators came within screaming distance of the president. And boy, is Harold Pinter pissed.
Lately, I’ve trying to figure out how blogs influence our so-called real lives. Via this blog, I got back in touch with an acquaintance from college and we’ve been exchanging the occasional e-mail. And I’m reading her wonderfully funny and sparkling prose and I can’t help but shake my head and wonder why we didn’t become better friends eight or nine years ago. And if she hadn’t stumbled on this blog, we probably never would have connected and I would missed the opportunity for a new friendship. I continue to be amazed at how this blog, this whisper amongst so much shouting, continues to shape my life.

“United States of Whatever” is hereby the national anthem of The 19th Floor.

Back when I was a kid, I was in and out of the hospital quite a bit, usually for pneumonia. And it was during those stays that I discovered comics. They were a good distraction from the constant noise, commotion, and discomfort that usually accompanied those visits. But after a couple years, I quit reading them because I felt compelled to read more “mature” material. A few years ago, my interest in comics was rekindled when I shared an office with a fellow law clerk who was an avid comics reader. Now I have a modest collection and I proudly stand before the world as an unabashed comics fan. but I still get the occasional “what the hell are you reading?” from friends and family who still cling to the misconception that comics are a juvenile medium. They should all read this article in the Telegraph, which does a nice job of summarizing some of the books and writers that represent some of the more sophisticated fare the genre has to offer.