Since the 7th century BCE, the Greek isle of Lesbos has been famed as the birthplace of Sappho, perhaps the greatest poet of antiquity, who is noted for her poetry celebrating love between women. In her honor, gay women adopted the label lesbians for their self-identification. I think most of us know that definition of the word.

That annoys the current day residents of Lesbos, who also call themselves lesbians. They are suing the Homosexual and Lesbian Community of Greece, claiming their use of the word “insults the identity” of island residents. They wish the group to be barred from using Lesbian as part of their name.

“My sister can’t say she is a Lesbian,” said Dimitris Lambrou. “Our geographical designation has been usurped by certain ladies who have no connection whatsoever with Lesbos,” he said. “This is not an aggressive act against gay women. Let them visit Lesbos and get married and whatever they like. We just want (the group) to remove the word lesbian from their title.”

According to The Mercury, Voice of Tasmania, via Devious Diva, Lambrou goes further than that.

Lesbos residents now suffer “psychological and moral rape” from the “seizure” of their island’s name by gays, said the activist, in a text titled The Misfortune of Being Lesbian, published on his website.

Because everyone knows that being associated with a gay woman is the worst thing that could happen to a man.

The suit goes to court in Athens on June 10.

Via the Associated Press

Helen Thomas is one of my heroes. She’s tough and straight up and takes trash from no one. Even when the one talking it is the President of the United States. She’s so strong that Bush disses her and will no longer take her questions at press conferences.

Now, because she’s the only reporter with the guts to hold Perino’s feet to the fire on torture, the readers of Reddit are showing their appreciation by sending her flowers. Lots and lots of flowers.

All signed:

Love, The Internet

Zip on over to Parts-n-Pieces and wish Billie a happy birthday! Teacher, mother, PhD candidate, photographer, blogger, friend — she’s all those things. Billie, hope you have a great one!

Is this 1958 Mississippi?

Austin police said Thursday that they are leaning toward a ruling of suicide in the death of a middle school teacher and activist whose body was found Wednesday in Lady Bird Lake with his hands and legs bound and tape over his eyes.

Police identified Riad Hamad, 55, at a news conference Thursday and said the binding of his limbs and the placement of the tape was consistent with Hamad having done it himself.

He’s Middle-Eastern. Coincidence?

I’d like to believe they’ve got a water-tight reason for calling this suicide. I’d really like to believe that ….

From The Austin American-Statesman

A couple of days ago while waiting for Tony I listened to an interview with Charles Barber on NPR. He was promoting his new book, Comfortably Numb; How Psychiatry is Medicating A Nation and making the case that antidepressants and other psych drugs are over-prescribed when therapy is more effective and shorter term. While it’s not been my experience that anyone not needing the meds is taking them (who would put up with the physical and sexual side effects if she didn’t have to?), I agreed with his point about direct to consumer advertising being detrimental, not, in my opinion, putting people on drugs they don’t need but in directing people to specific brands that may not be right for them.

As I said, I didn’t agree with him, but respected his position and his apparently honest intention to see people get emotionally healthy. But then talk drifted to his earlier book, Songs from the Black Chair: A Memoir of Mental Interiors. In it he detailed his personal struggle with mental health, primarily OCD, and how medication led him out of the dark place into the light. It’s a courageous topic to tackle, and I applaud anyone who tries it.

But the cosmic dissonance between the two books rang all my bells.

Having recovered, or at least achieved stability, through drugs himself, he’s now on a crusade to stamp out “frivolous” med use by others. Talk therapy is good enough for others who are suffering, but not for him. He needs his drugs. He’s different from the average psycho on the street getting happy on Prozac and Effexor. His illness is serious.

I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt and hypothesize that he’s never experienced depression and sees it as less of an illness than his OCD. Even though he’s a psychiatrist himself, perhaps he cannot empathize with the pain of the black well and sees the need for relief as less immediate. If so, I’m thankful he’s not my doctor.

But it is his ability to count himself as an exception to the rules he defines that angers me. What’s good enough for others isn’t good enough for him. He’s a fricking exception, just like every other sanctimonious jerk I’ve run across in my life who tells me that if I only “got religion” I’d be cured of my BPD, or if I’d just “think positive thoughts” and not wallow in my problems everything would be just peachy. As a doctor he ought to know that antidepressants are not some damn “happy pill” that plops the user down on some cheery little cloud above the fray. Instead, he gets paid to pen a book that tells the rest of us how weak we are.

Am I angry? You betcha. Am I taking it personally? Of course I am. From what I can tell the man doesn’t have a thought I haven’t heard before. People like him kept me from getting help for 30 years. I’m not likely to forget that.

So ignore this guy. If you hurt, see a professional. If she gives you meds, take them. If the first drug doesn’t work, keep trying. If you want to talk to a therapist about your condition, great. But do it because it eases your pain, not because books like this guilt you into passing up meds that can give you relief.

Escaping the well is what matters, not how you get to the surface. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

The circle of life doesn’t make exceptions for endangered species status. Particularly when that species is exceptionally tasty.

30 California sea lions, listed as endangered in 1972, escaped the firing squad this week thanks to the Humane Society, who arranged for their evacuation to the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium in Tacoma, WA. The comical critters were camped out at the Bonneville Dam near the mouth of the Columbia River in Oregon, feasting on equally endangered chinook salmon as they made their way up the fish ladder on their pilgrimage upriver to spawn.

Fishermen and Indian tribes say the animals eat up to 4.2 percent of the spring chinook run, putting pressure on salmon runs the federal government tries to preserve at great expense. So the sea lions had to go.

That’s the end of the “all you can eat” buffet, guys.

Via KOMO-TV

Cute Kittens Bop Their Head - Watch more free videos

I do the same thing with Rogue with a spoonful of yogurt.

I’ll post answers on Saturday. Meanwhile, there’s still a couple of easy ones in there.

I’m in the “between drugs wasteland,” so here’s a fun little thing I lifted from Billie. Some of these are really easy and others pretty obscure. I’m not sure how many I’d get if I were taking the test.
The rules:

Step 1: Put your MP3 player or whatever on random.
Step 2: Post the first line from the first 25 songs that play, no matter how embarrassing the song.
Step 3: Post and let everyone you know guess what song and artist the lines come from.
Step 4: Strike through when someone gets them right
Step 5: Looking them up on Google or any other search engine is CHEATING.

1) Mary Anne and Wanda were the best of friends Good-bye Earl, the Dixie Chicks

2) Maybe I’m right and maybe I’m wrong Nevertheless, Rod Stewart and Dave Koz (originally Hank Snow)

3) You say you’re leaving on a 7:30 train and you’re heading out to Hollywood Crazy, Aerosmith

4) What we’ve just seen’s a pathetic display from a man who’s beginning to crack Where I Want To Be, Chess Soundtrack

5) Tin Soldiers and Nixon coming, we’re finally on our own Ohio, Crosby Stills Nash & Young

5) On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair Hotel California, Eagles

6) The moon upon the ocean Is swept around in motion Anywhere Is, Enya

7) The lights are on, but you’re not home Addicted To Love, Robert Palmer

8 ) Far, We’ve been traveling far Coming To America, Neil Diamond

9) End of October, the sleepy brown woods seem to bow down their heads to the winter Old Tennessee, Dan Fogelberg

10) I ain’t got a fever got a permanent disease Bad Medicine, Bon Jovi

11) Sometimes I wake with a weary head and I wonder how I’ll ever get through Strange Cup of Tea, Sister Hazel

12) Gotta take a little time, A little time to think things over I Want To Know What Love Is, Foreigner

13) The kiddie ride just keeps turning round and round You Can’t Stop Thinking About Me, Blues Traveler

14) Two hearts Throwing off sparks Sweet Magnolia, Dan Fogelberg

15) Half a mile from the county fair, the rain kept pouring down And It Stoned Me, Van Morrison

16) Grew up in a small town And when the rain would fall down I’d just stare out my window Breakaway, Kelly Clarkson

17) I’ve been working so hard I’m punching my card Footloose, Kenny Loggins

18) Its hard for me to say the things I want to say sometimes Thank You For Loving Me, Bon Jovi

19) Take me to the room where the red’s all red Dragon Attack, Queen

20) Aint no need to worry Aint no use to cry cause Ill be comin home soon I Need You, Lynyrd Skynyrd

21) I could stay awake just to hear you breathing Don’t Wanna Miss A Thing, Aerosmith

22) Now here you go again You say you want your freedom Dreams, Fleetwood Mac

23) I’m a travelin’ man, made a lot of stops all over the world Travelin’ Man, Ricky Nelson

24) Almost heaven, West Virginia Country Roads, John Denver

25) The problem is all inside your head, she said to me 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover, Paul Simon

Since I wasn’t doing great (taking myself off my drugs wasn’t the best idea I’ve ever had), I called my doctor yesterday. “Not doing great” is a bit of an understatement - by the time she called me back at 7 pm I was in a full-blown anxiety attack. I guess it’s good that she talked to me at my worst because she leaped into action quickly, telling me to take a double dose of Ativan. I told her about the horrible weight gain on Zoloft, even though it worked better than anything I’ve ever taken, and to my relief she didn’t insist I go back on it. Instead, we went over the short list of the things I haven’t tried.

Believe it or not, I’ve never taken the stereotypical anti-anxiety/antidepressant drug that brought meds into the mainstream. Prozac. That’s because with BPD it either works like a dream or else it makes you manic and suicidal. But the upside is that it doesn’t cause weight gain, so I’m willing to try it.

If I stop sleeping I’m to call immediately, after just 2 nights. If the panic attacks get worse, call right away. If I get flashes of suicidal ideation, again, drop what I’m doing and call immediately. Even if it’s the middle of the night.

I probably should stop here and explain. Suicidal ideation is kind of a “what if” thought. What if I smashed the car into that tree? What if I swallowed this whole bottle of pills? What if I just disappeared? It’s different from a suicidal impulse, because there’s little or no urge to act on it. It’s just a thought out of nowhere, popping into your head. If it becomes noticeable on Prozac, it’s a big red flag and must be taken seriously.

So I started on a step-up dose of Prozac today, and I go in to see her next Monday. Fingers crossed that this goes well. I really want to be in top shape for school starting in 2 weeks.

A joyful holiday to all my friends celebrating the first night of Passover. May your seder be meaningful and your family gathered to you in love. Shalom.