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But when it does, there's oxycodone.

The doc was here just now. He said it went well. They're going to give my kidney to a pathologist to determine whether I'm likely to need chemo

I was dreading the pain in the recovery room but it's not so bad.

When they woke me up I didn't believe I had really had surgery. It was just like waking up in bed

Doc says I can eat real food now. I'm happy about that as I've been fasting since last night.

Things are really coming to a head here. We have a bunch of alt-right jerkoffs hysterically jumping up and down shouting "butbutbutbut MUH FREEZE PEACH!!!111one" over Gab getting its blood supply cut off like the cancer it is.

Listen, you Constitutionally-ignorant know nothings, you fucking fourth-grade civics class failures, you frothing wild-eyed lunatics: the First Amendment merely says the government may not restrict your speech in and of itself (and there are still exception clauses for public safety).

It does not mean you have a right to be heard.

It does *not* mean you have a right to a platform.

It does NOT mean you have a right to incite violence.

And MOST OF ALL, it does NOT mean you have a right to escape the consequences of your speech.

Now, I personally am all for shitholes like gab.io, and would even support funding them. Why? Because they keep you stupid motherfuckers all in one place, contained, exposed, letting you mingle and hybridize and ooze and fester, like the old Chinese sorcery "gu." Some interestingly poisonous shit must come out of that. Free association and all that, right? And poison goes where poison's wanted.

The most hilarious part of this, though? It's when all the gibbertarian shitheads start demanding that Thuh Eebil Gubbamint stop *private corporations* from doing what the fuck they want with their resources! News flash, assholes: corporations have discovered that hosting actual, literal, Heil-Hitlering, 1488'ing Nazis is a Bad Business Decision (TM). That burning pain you feel is the Invisible Hand of the Free Market smacking you across your inbred faces so hard it raises welts. And raising a gigantic middle finger at you. You made your bed, now lie in it.

So keep screaming and howling at the corporations and the government both to do your bidding. Keep marching. Keep concentrating yourselves into ever smaller and more feverish and more frenzied little circlejerks deep in the festering asshole of the internet. Keep displaying your ignorance and stupidity and hatred and utter, utter impotent rage.

We won't necessarily punch a Nazi, but we're sure as shit gonna mock a Nazi till y'all drop dead of apoplexy. And something tells me what you really can't stand is mockery; violence you will merely take as incentive to continue on. But being laughed at? No. Never. What you fear most isn't death; it's having to live on, knowing your entire political philosophy is a laughingstock, a byword for ineffectual, self-destructive evil, your entire lives wasted on this destructive, fruitless comedy of errors.

It's coming. You've already lost. You lost the moment you started this.

These are two stories that I may or may not submit based on upcoming electoral events:

Congressman John Culberson is a driving force behind the Europa Clipper mission, and an SLS proponent. He may lose his re-election bid this November. This could have a significant impact on the mission. Or not, who knows?

Could November elections scramble a controversial U.S. mission to a frozen moon?

Here is an in-depth story about Culberson's Europa obsession: Inside NASA’s daring $8 billion plan to finally find extraterrestrial life

And a follow-up: The billion-dollar question: How does the Clipper mission get to Europa?

FiveThirtyEight currently forecasts a slight chance of Culberson losing, but it's essentially a coin toss.

This is a Denver local ballot initiative to decriminalize psilocybin mushrooms. It won't be on the ballot in November. They are collecting signatures so that it can be on the ballot in May 2019. 4,726 signatures must be collected by January 7th:

Denver, Colorado, Psilocybin Mushroom Initiative (November 2018)
After the success of cannabis legalization in Denver, could mushrooms be next?
No Magic Mushrooms On The Denver Ballot This Year. Supporters Are Looking To 2019
Denver’s Psilocybin Initiative Moves Forward to Signature Gathering Phase

If you live in Denver, go and sign the petition.

Here is the big list of 2018 ballot measures, amendments, etc.. And here's a few that may be of interest:

California Proposition 12, Farm Animal Confinement Initiative (2018)
Colorado Amendment 74, Compensation to Owners for Decreased Property Value Due to State Regulation Initiative (2018)
Florida Amendment 3, Voter Approval of Casino Gambling Initiative (2018)
Florida Amendment 4, Voting Rights Restoration for Felons Initiative (2018)
Massachusetts Question 3, Gender Identity Anti-Discrimination Veto Referendum (2018)
Michigan Proposal 1, Marijuana Legalization Initiative (2018)

Missouri has two amendments and one proposition regarding medical cannabis that are in conflict:

If two conflicting constitutional amendments, such as Amendment 2 and Amendment 3, are approved, the one receiving the most affirmative votes prevails. State law does provide a protocol for when voters approve statutes, such as Proposition C, and amendments, such as Amendment 2 and Amendment 3, that are in conflict. Speaking to a similar issue regarding tobacco tax initiatives in 2016, the attorney general's office said the issue would need to be decided in court.

Missouri Amendment 2, Medical Marijuana and Veteran Healthcare Services Initiative (2018)
Missouri Amendment 3, Medical Marijuana and Biomedical Research and Drug Development Institute Initiative (2018)
Missouri Proposition C, Medical Marijuana and Veterans Healthcare Services, Education, Drug Treatment, and Public Safety Initiative (2018)

Amendment 2 taxes cannabis at 4%, Amendment 3 taxes it at 15%, Proposition C taxes it at 2%.

North Dakota Measure 3, Marijuana Legalization and Automatic Expungement Initiative (2018)
Ohio Issue 1, Drug and Criminal Justice Policies Initiative (2018)
Oregon Measure 106, Ban Public Funds for Abortions Initiative (2018)
Utah Proposition 2, Medical Marijuana Initiative (2018)
Washington Initiative 940, Police Training and Criminal Liability in Cases of Deadly Force Measure (2018)

Legislative and automatic referrals

Alabama Amendment 1, Ten Commandments Amendment (2018)
California Proposition 2, Use Millionaire's Tax Revenue for Homelessness Prevention Housing Bonds Measure (2018)
California Proposition 7, Permanent Daylight Saving Time Measure (2018)

Hey look, it's Kanye's issue: Colorado Amendment A, Removal of Exception to Slavery Prohibition for Criminals Amendment (2018)

Colorado Amendment X, Definition of Industrial Hemp Amendment (2018)

I think one of our ACs complained about this mess: Florida Amendment 11, Repeal Prohibition on Aliens’ Property Ownership, Delete Obsolete Provision on High-Speed Rail, and Repeal of Criminal Statutes' Effect on Prosecution Amendment (2018)

Hawaii Constitutional Convention Question (2018)
Louisiana Amendment 1, Felons Disqualified to Run for Office for Five Years Amendment (2018)
Nevada Question 2, Sales Tax Exemption for Feminine Hygiene Products Measure (2018)
New Hampshire Question 2, Right to Live Free from Governmental Intrusion in Private and Personal Information Amendment (2018)
South Dakota Constitutional Amendment X, Constitutional Amendments Require a 55 Percent Supermajority (2018)
South Dakota Constitutional Amendment Z, Single-Subject Rule for Constitutional Amendments (2018)
West Virginia Amendment 1, No Right to Abortion in Constitution Measure (2018)

I plan to submit a story focusing only on ballot initiatives, measures, propositions, amendments, etc. Last time around, I submitted a story before the election. This time, I think I will do it after the results are in so we can see what succeeded and what failed.

If there's a specific ballot measure you want to see mentioned, please let me know below in the comments.

Some “obsolete” tech that is no longer used perhaps should be (I’ve written about it) because they were better in some respects than newer replacements, but there are some other obsolete technologies that no longer serve a useful purpose, some remaining among the near dead, some almost comatose and some screaming in fear.
        The steering wheel, brake pedal, and throttle control are screaming in fear. They only have twenty or thirty years left. When they’re gone, good riddance! But the tech isn’t quite there yet, although the clutch has died a quiet death.
        The near dead is the home phone. I haven’t had one in over fifteen years, but my ninety year old mom who uses her cell phone like we used to use pay phones when they still existed (and had a reason to exist) still has one. Call her cell and you get no answer. I knew a few other, but very few, all wedded to the past. I had a grandpa who refused to use the toilet my uncle installed in the bathroom he built, always using the outhouse.
        The home phone is dead. But it still writhes.
        Then we have cable and satellite TV. They became endangered when TV became digital.
        When they were young (to me, meaning when I first met them) they were great. No snow, no ghosts, no static in the sound. Plus, you got half a dozen more channels, including HBO, for ten bucks. The cable channels either didn’t have commercials, or only had them between shows. Most cable channels didn’t censor out vulgarity.
        There were educational channels, like Discovery and The History Channel. There was the rock channel, MTV, that played music videos.
        It gradually changed. Commercials started appearing, and now they show commercials at the bottom of the screen while the actual content is running. MTV stopped playing music videos and started showing stupid reality shows. Discovery stopped showing science and technology and started showing stupid reality shows. The History Channel stopped showing history and started showing stupid reality shows.
        More channels were added, none anyone in their right mind would watch, like the four or five shopping channels. So many sports channels were added that the “sports” channels started showing pool, poker, and even chess, despite the fact that those games aren’t sports. And the price kept rising to the point that the cable bill cost more than the phone bill or the trash bill.
        Then television went digital. The number of over the air channels tripled or quadrupled. Ghosts, snow, and audio static were banished. Now, instead of cable giving a better picture than over the air, it’s reversed. Almost all cable channels are standard definition with none offering better than 720, while the same channels over the air are in 1080.
        There was no longer any reason to have cable, unless you were a Nascar fan, but now even Nascar fans can watch the races with Nascar’s TV app. And it got worse for cable. Netflix started streaming for about ten bucks a month with a plethora of excellent shows and movies, without commercials, and uncut, for about ten bucks a month, a little over a tenth of the cost of cable. Their highest pricing tier offers 4K content.
        But a lot of people (I’m guessing Nascar fans that haven’t heard of streaming boxes) still have cable. When will this zombie die?

11 Dead, Several Others Shot At Pittsburgh Synagogue

Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooting: At Least 11 Dead and Gunman Identified

Guns beat bombs.

Happens all the time. However I am confident that my surgeon Dr. Milam, whoever I get for an anesthesiologist and the hospital's surgical nurses are good at their work and so very likely would be able to handle any complications. Even so, they are mere mortals.

If I die, I want my writing to stay online _forever_. The single most important task required to enable that is to pay my domain name registration. Presently that's just $10.99 per year per domain at http://www.name.com/ but if it's not paid then a cybersquatter will snap up my domains and hold them for ransom.

My brother in law Stanley Evans said he'd take care of that. I'll send Stan a separate mail with my login credentials.

I will find someone to leave the Soggy Jobs domain names to. But whoever that is, I want the site to continue operations, to continue accepting submissions for new listings, and for those new listings to by posted free of charge at http://soggy.jobs - forever.

Aside from that, I want my father's ceremonial sword and triangularly folded flag to go to my older brother Charles Albert Crawford.

If you can do that for me, then I will die with no regrets.

First thing after I recover from my surgery I'll get my will written up. ;-D

If I die, give me an Irish wake. Sing for me, don't cry for me.

Michael David Crawford

I'm not sure. I'm heading to my doc's office right now, but on the bus so it will be a while before I can ask.

For an hour now I've had a sore throat, just a few minutes ago started sneezing. That might be a problem for my anesthesiologist.

Sometimes I get sore throats that go away, but in March 2015 I got bronchitis that lasted for six weeks.

I've always been susceptible to respiratory infections. Perhaps it's because my body temperature is one degree too low, as was my fathers. I was a very sickly child - I was bedridden for Christmas Day when I was 17, and when I was 2 I nearly died from pneumonia.

I can remember all the way back to just one year old but I don't remember that pneumonia. That had to have been rough for my parents.

It's only 5:48 PM yet I feel no urge at all to go back to sleep.

Perhaps an advanced alien race replaced my brain as I slept.

While quite striking, I am as yet unclear as to whether my new discovery has any actual value to society.

You see, so far the only thing I've come up with as to how to benefit from being so refreshed would be to get off my fat, lazy, hairy ass and go to work.

But were I to do so, it would cause The End Of Time.