You're A Twit.

I am starting a new network, in response to myspace, face book and twitter. As above, it will be called you're a twit, and it will be the first Anti-social Network. In YAT we will not poke, tweet or tag. We will not not bother each other at all. If we need to get a message to another YAT member we could maybe write a letter. Mostly we will just wait until we run into each other at the liquor store. We won't post videos on you tube or text pictures to our cell phones. If you want to know what I looked like in high school, come over to the house and we can look at my yearbook and drink a beer. If you like, we can skip the yearbook. Now that I think about it, don't come over at all.
I have resisted a life long impulse to make of solitude a religion. But I can make of it a club.

WORLD ELDER ABUSE AWARENESS DAY

June 15th 2009

Well, I’ve written a few pieces here on older adults and sexual behavior in the past, but this time will be a first. I was asked to review a product web site for a device to improve the male sex organs. Now first you might ask, “Can the male sex organs even be improved? Can you build upon perfection? I can only answer in the words of one of my best friends, a card carrying lesbian- (she showed me the card once) “Ewww!”
The site is found by looking for penis enlargement - URL http://www.peloop.com/.
And there you will find the most curious add I’m ever likely to send you to. It’s a very scientific description of the device a man wraps around his business and it has magnets and some other stuff in it that emits growth rays and air vitamins to not only stop the inevitable shrinkage that age visits upon our junk, but also this nearly magical device can make the whole thing work better too! Penis enlargement - URL http://www.peloop.com/ is one of those best sellers on the internet, you can sell just about anything that suggests it can make a penis bigger, or look bigger, or work better, will sell. Some people are a little shy on the computer so they might do a search for male enhancement instead of GIANT FUNCTIONING PENIS but would still find their way to the same Male enhancemment - URL: http://www.peloop.com/.
So what about the product itself? Well if they send me a free one I will give it a try and report back to you faithful reader. In the meantime I can only tell you this: The only scientific proof I know of for a device that makes your penis bigger is a vacuum pump. They sell in the backs of diabetic magazines and if you use one to draw a lot of blood into the corpus cavernosa and then restrict it from leaving with a cock ring, you’ll have a big , usable , possibly painful boner. If you have tried the peloop let me know how it worked!

A senior doctor at University of Edinburgh had an article published yesterday that warns about the menace of medicine to today's elders. The push, somewhat driven by pharmaceutical companies to prescribe preventative treatment may make the majority of healthy older adults into patients, taking drugs and suffering side effects and the risks of monitoring- blood tests, etc.
The dilemma we have to work with is how to apply the technical knowledge we have developed with values of self determination and freedom. It takes a court decision to ensure people with strong, but non-standard religious beliefs can follow them. Christian Science Practice and blood transfusions for Jehovah's Witnesses for example. What about a person who doesn't like the sexual side effects of her anti-depressants? What if she can't communicate her wishes to her caregivers? Ethics is by far the hardest part of medicine. It used to be about who gets the very limited resources of care. Now it's just as often about who gets to say "No."

I'm not sure exactly what the topic is here today. The things swimming in my head are the story of the 83 year old female burglar arrested in Hungary this week. She was charged with burglary since she had a long history of the crime, enough to be known as "the flying thief." She was called that because of her usual escape method using an airline flight. She rides the rails now to travel because it's free for pensioners in Hungary.
The other story on my mind is unpublished. A woman rang my doorbell this week and asked if we had a blanket we could give her. She was not aged but did have grey hair, maybe sixty or so.
She said she was being allowed to sleep in a church, and had a mattress but it was cold. I gave her a blanket but that's not all that went with her. Thoughts about the great depression, the attempts that my department and many others have made to reach out to the homeless in Los Angeles, all followed her back to her shelter.
Jails in LA are no place to take shelter. They are rough and crowded. But then so are the homeless shelters. Older adults tend to avoid the shelters because it's hard to defend yourself there. The older homeless tend to be more isolated because it's safer. they may be more entrenched in the lifestyle and have a harder time adjusting to living indoors. I have a note hanging in my office from an 80 something year old man thanking me because he had a room and a bed and he felt like I had a hand in getting him those things. I have kept the card long after the man lost his placement because the culture of violent crime he lived in took him back.
The word Hobo is having a resurgence. I hear my daughters and their friends use it. I wonder if we are having a return to the behaviors that went with the word- giving a sandwich to a man at the door, just because he asked, and I have.
I hope that the values of kindness, of paying forward, of helping first and asking questions later are not lost in the new age of need.

I spoke this morning to a group called the Pasadena Fiduciary Round Table at the University Club next to Fuller Seminary. I let the group of over 100 professionals know from the start that in Psychology we have found that peoples' number one fear is public speaking. The second most reported fear is death. Therefore most people would prefer death to what I was about to do. I then led them on something of a journey through the world of comparative neuro anatomy and behavioral consquences. One important point was that all behavior has a purpose, and in the right circumstances, it has survival value. If it wouldn't improve the species, we wouldn't do it. As I drove away from the venue, I heard a newspiece on the radio about how many people are donating money and goods for the eight babies recently born to a unmarried mother of six. I haven't heard of one person that approves of the behavior of having fourteen kids and no means of support. I am glad to know that at least some folks don't take out the sins of the parent on the children. It improves the species to take care of those who can't care of themselves. And it improves the culture to regulate behavior like having that many invitro implants. There definitely oughta be a law.

I have done presentations on the issue of grandparents raising grandchildren in the past, to groups like the LA City Attorneys Elder Abuse Task Force. I work with the authors of Bet Tzedeks Kinship Care guide. It's an issue that I've had a long involvement with as an advocate of older adults. My stance has always been that it is good for the older adult to provide care, even as the sole caregiver for kids. It may be expensive, and painful, and thankless at times, but they live longer, report better health and are involved in activities known to preserve cognitive skills. It is good for the grandparent.
Now there is a study out of Johns Hopkins school of public health that gives it a whole new flavor. Grandparents who provide care have a better safety record than any other group. Any group. There are half as many injuries to kids with grandparents looking after tham than with day care, preschool, stay at home moms, anyone. Grandparents rule. If injuries seems like a small measure to base it on, you should know that injuries are the leading cause of death for toddlers. With immunizations (don't get me started on that!), kids die less often from infectious disease and they don't have heart disease and such in large numbers. Letting your kids grandparents take care of them may just save two lives. ( For some Moms it may save three!)