Epileptic Ramblings

Though his doctor says he’s “still very sick right now,” Bret Michaels is out of the hospital, in stable condition and on the road to a full recovery. “Mr. Michaels was indeed a lucky person, a very lucky person,” Dr. Joseph Zabramski said at a press conference Tuesday at the Barrow Neurological Institute at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Phoenix, where the rocker had been receiving treatment. Michaels, 47, was discharged recently, less than two weeks after suffering a brain hemorrhage April 21. Zabramski could not release details of when he left the hospital or where he’s receiving additional treatment because of federal privacy laws. “He’s improving,” says Zabramski. “I really expect that he will fortunately make a 100 percent recovery. He’s just one of those lucky people – 10 to 20 percent who make a complete recovery and can resume all of their normal activities.” RELATED: Doctor: Bret Michaels ‘Has An Unbelievable Fight in Him’ Zabramski, a neurosurgeon at Barrow, one of the country’s top brain surgery facilities, said Michaels’s medical team will continue to monitor his vital signs and neurological status “very closely” for the next few weeks while he also receives physical therapy. Shows Determination “He’s still very sick right now [but] he’s a very determined person,” Zabramski, who previously praised Michaels’s “sheer will to live”, told reporters, adding that he is walking on his own and “his level of consciousness [has] returned to what we call normal.” When Michaels was rushed to the intensive care unit April 22, Zabramski said the singer, whom he described as lethargic and having slurred speech, underwent a CAT scan and two angiograms to check for the source of bleeding, though he did not need to have an operation. Based on the tests, “We’re pretty confident he does not have an aneurysm or other problems with his blood vessels that could result in a recurrent hemorrhage,” said Zabramski. In addition to the side-effect hyponatremia, which can lead to seizures (Michaels’s doctor said he has not had any), the rocker has been suffering from back pain and increased spasms – because as a diabetic, he has not been able to take certain medications. Zabramski said doctors will usually give patients steroids to lessen the pain but they can also “make glucose levels go out of control so unfortunately [Bret has] had to suffer.” Before leaving the hospital, the Poison frontman – whose signature style includes bandanas – received another head piece to add to his collection. His medical team gave him a signed dark blue head scarf with the Barrow logo, a hospital spokesperson tells PEOPLE. And while Michaels competed on Celebrity Apprentice to raise money for the American Diabetes Association, the lifelong Type 1 diabetic now has another cause: Serving on the Barrow Brain Tumor Research Center’s advisory board. The singer told the foundation he has had passion for brain research after a relative suffered from a fatal brain tumor.

Since I am a Brain patient my guess is he might have some serious side effects.  I am curious what his recovery will be like but I am glad to see him doing well.  I had two radiosurgeries just to prevent what happened to him.

Sandra Bullock said her son’s bris was the best moment of her life. Sandra Bullock, who just revealed she adopted a baby in January, tells all about her son Louis’ early weeks in the new issue of People. Sandra claims she knew nothing at all Jesse James’ Nazi obsession. The photo of her husband doing “sieg heil” while wearing an SS officer’s hat “shocked me and made me sad,” she told People. She said that Louis even had a bris, presumably soon after they brought him home as a newborn in January. This was long before Jesse’s mistresses surfaced so he would have been there for the Jewish ceremony. A friend of ours helped arrange for a bris at the house, because we couldn’t go [to a hospital for the procedure]. The mohel [a person trained in the practice] came to us. You have never seen adults more panicked about what was about to happen to their son, but the celebration and the amount of love we felt and the pride in the little man whom we love so, so much became the greatest moment I have ever had in my life.

Via Curbed LA, architectural buff Diane Keaton is selling her 1950′s Lloyd Wright designed “Alfred Newman Estate” that she purchased in 2007 for $8.5M. The Sunset Boulevard Pacific Palisades home features 5-bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms, 2,000 sq. feet of living space, a main residence as well as two detached master suites, glass walls, and beautiful surrounding sycamores and oak trees.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/26/diane-keaton-puts-lloyd-w_n_551971.html#slide_image

I would love to hear my cousin Arielle Paige cover this song:

Monday April 26, 2010 06:05 AM EDT

Bret Michaels

George Napolitano/FilmMagic

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As Bret Michaels continues to be watched closely by his doctors, a source reveals the rocker’s excruciating moments before he was taken to the emergency room.

According to the source, Michaels, 47, said the headache that prompted him to call for an ambulance felt “like [getting] hit in the head with a baseball bat over and over again.”

Often referred to by doctors as a “thunderclap headache” because of the intensity and suddenness of the pain, such headaches are a tell-tale symptom of the kind of brain hemorrhage that Michaels suffered.

The source close to the situation adds, “Bret is still in ICU. He still has the headache and is heavily sedated.”

RELATED: Bret Michaels’s Team Thanks Fans for Support

A statement on his fan site noted that doctors are still searching for the source of the bleeding.

“In some patients, doctors never find the source,” says Dr. Keith Siller of New York University’s Comprehensive Stroke Care Center. The bleeding could be very small, or the rupture itself can “cure” the source of the problem, says Dr. Siller.

If no source of an aneurysm or an abnormal vein-artery connection known as an AVM is found, “you basically just wait for the symptoms to go away,” says Dr. Siller. The patient typically remains under close observation, as Michaels is, so doctors can monitor for possible complications.

But if the patient is able to speak, “they’re on the better end of things,” says Dr. Siller, noting that physical therapy and speech therapy are often required to make a full recovery.

On TV’s Celebrity Apprentice, on which Michaels is a participant, Sunday night’s episode carried a post-script. Accompanying slow-motion footage of Bret carrying luggage across a tarmac, a voiceover said, “Everyone here at NBC wishes Bret Michaels a speedy recovery.”

The following letter was printed in the Wall Street Journal this morning

For six months I have been warning about the danger to America’s economy and national security presented by the Chinese utilizing state-owned banks to provide funding for state-owned oil companies to buy or control oil supplies (”China’s $20 Billion Bolsters Chávez,” page one, April 19). Since Dec. 1, 2007, China has spent approximately $175 billion on oil purchases and “loans for energy” deals to secure future oil production.

China’s oil imports jumped 33% in January, according to China Daily, and “64.5% of China’s oil consumption is likely to be met by imports in 2020.” The world is coming out of recession, and the demand for oil in every industrialized country is going to grow. What’s the shorthand for this? China has a plan. We have no plan.

We cannot, should not and need not compete with China for oil. About two-thirds of the oil we import is used as gasoline for our 250 million cars, light trucks and sport-utility vehicles, and as diesel for our eight million heavy-duty trucks, which use about a third of that transportation fuel. If we can move that fleet from diesel to domestic natural gas over seven years we would reduce our dependence on foreign oil and would no longer need a drop of oil from the nations of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

There is legislation now making its way through Congress that would do just that: The NAT GAS Act (H.R. 1835 and S. 1408). We have natural gas reserves in excess of 200 years due to modern recovery techniques. We can create jobs, clean up our environment, enhance our economy and protect our national security by using clean, domestic natural gas instead of dirty, imported diesel.

Any energy bill that doesn’t include using domestic natural gas for heavy trucks isn’t a plan for America; it’s a plan for China.

T. Boone Pickens

Dallas

Read more about China’s plan HERE.

Read the China page, it is a great teller of truths.  Also buy CLNE, I did, invest in America! Energy Independence!

More trouble for Lindsay Lohan.

Two days after her dad attempted to stage an intervention, a director has confirmed he fired Lohan from what was supposed to be her next flick, The Other Side.

PHOTOS: How Lindsay’s face has changed

“Our team simply chose to move on from Lindsay and we’ll soon be announcing a replacement,” writer/director David Michaels told TMZ.com. Lohan, 23, was set to play a grad student working on a deserted island.

Sources told the site that the film’s financial backers were nervous about relying on Lohan and didn’t think she was “bankable.”

PHOTOS: Lindsay’s weight ups and downs

The movie stars Woody Harrelson, Giovanni Ribisi, Dave Matthews and Alanis Morissette. Brittany Murphy was also attached before her December death.

Lohan has not appeared on the big screen since 2007′s I Know Who Killed Me. Her next role is in thriller Machete this September.

The girl needs detox, therapy, and education and exercise and she could be back big time.  She is still beautiful and a good actress.  It would be tragic for her to self destruct.

2 time Super Bowl Champion Dwight Hicks has agreed to answer fan questions on The Fan Club blog! That is amazing! I watched him and Lott this weekend on the NFL network.  What a great player!

WASHINGTON — After a long romance with foreign rivals, America’s love affair with the automobile is returning to its roots with a revived affection for U.S.-made cars.

Slightly more Americans now say the United States makes better-quality vehicles than Asia does, with 38 percent saying U.S. cars are best and 33 percent preferring autos made by Asian companies, according to an Associated Press-GfK Poll.

The survey suggests those numbers are largely fueled by a plunge in Toyota’s reputation and an upsurge in Ford’s. The poll was conducted in March, as Toyota was being roiled by nightmarish publicity over its recall of more than 8 million vehicles around the globe and allegations that it responded sluggishly to safety concerns.

Though the U.S. advantage is modest, it marks a significant turnabout for American automakers battered by recession and relentless competition from foreign manufacturers. When the same question was asked in a December 2006 AP-AOL poll, 46 percent said Asian countries made superior cars, while just 29 percent preferred American vehicles, reflecting a perception of U.S. automotive inferiority that began taking hold about three decades ago.

“Toyota’s problems are not to be minimized here,” David Williams, dean of the business administration school at Wayne State University in Detroit, Mich., said in explaining the attitude shift.

In both AP polls, Japan – home to brands like Toyota, Honda and Nissan – was by far the dominant Asian nation volunteered as producing the best cars. European autos – which include BMW, Mercedes Benz and Volkswagen – were called top quality by 15 percent last month, about the same as the 17 percent who said so four years ago.

Williams and others also cited a fresh look Americans are giving U.S. automakers, especially Ford and General Motors. Though GM and Chrysler went through bankruptcy last year and the federal government invested $80 billion to keep them afloat, GM has revamped its lineup with more fuel-efficient and crossover vehicles. Analysts say Ford revived its reputation by not accepting the taxpayer bailout and improving its vehicles’ gasoline mileage.

Highlighting the changing attitudes, 15 percent in the March poll said Toyota makes the best cars, down from 25 percent who said so in 2006. Moving in the opposite direction was Ford, cited as tops by just 9 percent in 2006 but by 18 percent last month.

Eighteen percent said GM cars were best, little changed from 2006. Chrysler – which continues to struggle – remained mired at 3 percent.

Those likeliest to say Asian-made autos are superior included men, the better educated and residents of Western states. U.S. cars were a strong preference for those age 50 and up and rural residents.

Overall, though, only 51 percent in last month’s poll expressed strong confidence that cars sold in the U.S. are safe, with owners of domestic and foreign cars giving similar responses. The 2006 survey did not ask that question.

“Toyota is leading the parade in reducing confidence in the safety of automobiles,” said Gerald C. Meyers, a former auto executive with American Motors and now a University of Michigan business professor. “I suspect that’s holding the number down a lot.”

Despite consumers’ altered views, the poll showed that allegiance remains strong to many makes. Well over nine in 10 owners of Fords, GMs, Hondas and Toyotas expressed satisfaction with their cars, with the figure slightly lower for Chryslers.

Among the brand loyalists is Vernon Harmon, 44, a police officer from Rock Hill, S.C., proud owner of a Toyota and a Mazda.

“I know people are going to say, ‘That guy, is he not watching the news?’” he said. “I know what’s going on. I still think Japan makes the best cars in the world. Period.”

With the U.S. trying to claw out of a recession, the poll showed that Americans’ taste for alternative-fuel cars is being tempered by economic realities. Such cars often cost more than similarly sized vehicles that run on gasoline.

By 61 percent to 37 percent, most said last month they would consider buying an alternative-fuel auto. That was a narrower margin than the 70 percent to 29 percent who said so in 2006.

Tellingly, people cited the environment and a desire to save money about equally last month when asked which would prevail in making their decision. Four years ago, with a strong economy, protecting the environment outweighed saving money, 47 percent to 34 percent.

“I’m concerned about the environment, but I don’t want to kill myself, I don’t want to go into bankruptcy,” said Kathryn Mershon, 47, of Henderson, Nev.

The poll also found that:

_Fifty-six percent own vehicles made by U.S. automakers, about the same as in 2006.

_Eight in 10 live in households with autos, including about two-thirds who have two or more cars.

_Six in 10 autos were bought used.

_About four in 10 say their dream car would be a foreign brand, compared with three in 10 wishing for a domestic car.

The AP-GfK Poll was conducted March 3-8 by GfK Roper Public Affairs and Media. It involved interviews with 1,002 adults conducted by landline and cellular telephones. The margin of sampling error was plus or minus 4.2 percentage points.

Wow. This whole experience with New Balance just gave me an idea to support the American Worker.  Imagine if the rest of the American companies today committed 25% of what they made to being made right here in the United States. For example, I buy from the GAP because they have a tall line.  The GAP makes all their stuff abroad and then sells it here.  Imagine if they had a USA line like New Balance does.  Of course you would have to pay more. The  shoes I bought that were made  in China cost 54.99.  The ones made in America cost 79.99.  Do you have to pay more? Yes. Is the quality better? YES!!!. It is way better.  Every time I find something American made the quality is always amazing. From guitars like Fender, Gibson, Taylor, and Martin to Furniture made in America etc.  There are so many products though that are made from China and are total shit.  That is how Wal Mart created every day low pricing by buying cheap imported crap and Americans just got used to it.  So I am starting the 25% plan and I bet it would work.  I would like all retailers that make clothing to commit to 25% of their goods being made in America.  Would they cost more? Yes.  Instead of a T-Shirt costing 15 dollars at the GAP it might cost 25.  But that T-shirt wouldn’t rip or fade after 3 washes.  Would jeans at Levi’s cost $60 instead of $40? Yes.  But I bet they would fit great, and hold up great.  I would rather wear a t shirt, jeans, and sneakers made here that cost a little more to keep jobs in this country.  

Don’t get me wrong I am not an isolationist or a protectionist.  Plus I understand that not everyone has the disposable income to spend more on an item which is why I am only saying 25%.  I am fine with globalization and if the companies want to keep making goods in other countries to make them affordable that is fine.  But I think that New Balance is doing the right thing and it is a great model to follow.  If you agree, sign your name in the comments box. Let’s see how many mark their name down.  If I can get a good number, I will send a petition to companies.