A New Device

My Father said his first clearly audible words in over three weeks after his trache was lessened from 8mm to 6 and a new device inserted. On the down side, Dad was administered narcotics again which we had been told he would not be, making him groggy and less responsive.

Progress Being Made

My Father is off the ventilator entirely (thank God) and on a trache collar. He and we continue to need and appreciate your prayers.

Acute Care Awaits

For good or for ill, my Father will likely leave the hospital soon for rehabilitation. He will evidently be sent by the middle of next week, if not earlier.

Keep Counting Blessings

My Dad was off the ventilator only being supported with oxygen for three hours (or so) today. He does not yet meet the numerical parameters for weaning but is being eased off the breathing machine just the same.

Miracle or Misery

We heard again today of my Father's dire prognosis. Dad also sat with his legs over the edge of the bed for the first time in three weeks with the assistance of two physical therapists.

Justify Your Existence

Disturbingly, health care already seems to be rationed. Other patients and their families seem to be battling for treatment just as we have.

Without a Voice

My Father has not spoken since moments after he entered the emergency room where he had to be placed on a ventilator, but one of the most painful things for the family is watching the tears from this tough and stoic man's eyes.

Hope Over Experience

My Father may be transferred from his hospital to a so-called "acute care facility". We are filled with trepidation but are left to pray for the best.

Seymour Struggles On

My Father sat up today for just the second time since he was placed on a ventilator. My Mom described it best. She said,"He is fighting like a champ".

The Problem's Nature

My father smoked for forty years but quit forty years ago. Among the challenges confronting him, his anxiety causing him to breathe too rapidly seems to be the most perplexing. He can not be weaned off the ventilator because he panics and hyperventilates. He is then sedated which makes it that much harder to breathe on his own. He is obviously still quite critically ill and he and we need and thank you for your continuing prayers.

Really Suffering Now

My Dad is in quite a bit of pain when he is conscious. He is breathing on his own somewhat when he is not so doped up. Thank you for your continuing support.

Surgery Went Well

Thank the Lord, my Dad's procedures appear to have gone flawlessly. Thank you readers for your warm wishes and prayers. A long road remains ahead for him and us and your continuing support is deeply appreciated.

Out It Comes

Today, my father's ventilator will be removed from his mouth and a tracheotomy will replace it. His feeding tube will exit his nose and be inserted into his belly. Please continue to pray for him (Seymour Goodman).

Fight Goes On

My Dad sustained a setback as he was too weak to be weaned from his ventilator and instead will be given a tracheotomy in an attempt to expedite the weaning. Please keep him (us) in your prayers.

Touch and Go

Medical staff will extubate tomorrow. We are informed the prospects of my father breathing on his own are fifty-fifty. Now more than ever, your prayers are needed and appreciated.

Days of Decision

The care team will attempt to wean my father off his ventilator today, Sunday, and/or Monday. We are so grateful for your continuing support.

Prayer Chain Expands

Though my father never visited Wyoming or Idaho, I am informed his prayer chain has now entered those great Western states. Thank you so much.

Keep on Praying

An expression of the seventies that has become quaint is "keep on trucking". I implore those who care to send up a prayer for my critically-ill father Seymour Goodman.

Holding His Own

We accept as a blessing that my father's condition did not deteriorate during the night. The prayer chain now reaches Baltimore.

Power of Prayer

Faith is a powerful ally in the fight for life. The ultimate gift is a thing that can never be taken for granted or squandered.

Struggle Goes Forward

The administration of steroids has started tonight in an attempt to boost my father's lung function. Once again, prayers for Seymour Goodman are and will be greatly appreciated.

A Status Update

My father's fight continues as he remains on a ventilator and feeding tube. For the kind notes and prayers, thank you so much.

Praying for Improvement

The hospital staff are attempting to ween my father off the ventilator today. Please keep him in your prayers.

The Right Thing?

Of course, we will always err on the side of preserving life but are left to wonder at times if we are only prolonging death as my father's already grave condition seems to cascade downward- ever downward. Thanks to all for the warm wishes and prayers.

Battle Goes On

Thank you for your prayers and support as my father continues his struggle. Though politics and strategic affairs march on relentlessly, my attention by sad necessity is elsewhere.

Time of Crisis

Whether or not my father emerges from his current medical distress, I am heartened by some of his recent words to me: "Fear not boy, the Republic shall survive". May his words prove prophetic.

Lamentation for Father

Gentle readers, my ninety year old father is critically ill. His name is Seymour Goodman and I and my family greatly appreciate your prayers. I hope you can forgive my seeming brevity and lack of attention in allowing this commentary to lapse but family naturally comes first. God bless you all.

Pondering Nashville's "Homeless"

I have nothing but empathy for those with some real physical or mental disability that actually precludes work and for those who have made every effort to find a job but in the Obama economy could not and nothing but contempt for those who could find gainful employment but opt to become parasites on society. In my life I have had various and sundry interaction with the supposedly dispossessed in my hometown. I recently saw an older black man sitting at a gas station in an old "airborne" uniform with an old GI duffel bag and a piece of cardboard on which "Atlanta" was written in red ink. He did not engage me and asked me for nothing. Of my own volition, I handed him a five dollar bill. On an occasion many years ago, I left a downtown restaurant to find myself surrounded by several young black men who prevented me from entering my car. They asked for money and feeling "compelled", I gave them some. These youth claimed to have been staying at the "Mission", so I had to conclude they were homeless. Also, years ago I was mugged when I was still young by a thirty-five (or so) year old white man who threatened me with what he claimed was an "AIDS" needle. I was more recently dining downtown where hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent over the years on so-called urban renewal and three million dollars had been spent refurbishing an old performance venue into a shining new eatery. A vagrant attempted to impose a dining tax because I had the temerity to leave the confines of my own house. A nasty confrontation ensued. I have come to find out that the "homeless" are now a protected class. No society can long endure in a situation where the dole dweller has more rights than the earner and the parasite is legally-protected in imposing his will on the host.

Who Benefits Now?

With Herman Cain gone, where will his former supporters throw their support? The conventional wisdom says to Newt Gingrich, but others think Michele Bachmann or Rick Santorum may draw off some of Cain's followers. On this occasion, I have to say only time will tell.

Pain From Cain

Can you imagine the over-inflated ego, conceive of such blatant hubris as Herman Cain evidently possesses as to engage in a long-term sexual liaison breaking his marriage vows and be so self-deluded as to think that under the microscopic scrutiny of a Presidential campaign that the affair would not come out? What could possibly possess him to think that he could get away with it? In any event, Cain was found out and could not possibly remain in the race. Today, he fell on his proverbial sword and quit his pursuit of the nation's highest office. His buoyant personality may be missed but his scandalous conduct put paid to his run.

America, the Vanquished

From the era of Teddy Roosevelt, through the First and Second World Wars, until the Presidency of the present day, America was the broad-shouldered leader of the so-called "free world". Our current President Barack Hussein Obama has deliberately relinquished that, abandoning the mantle of leadership for his preferred course of "leading from behind". Obama has spoiled the ethos that shaped the greatest republic there has ever been with this active oxymoron, and instead of fostering liberty, Obama has presided over rapid Islamization from Morocco to Egypt, in much the same bumbling way in which Jimmy Carter lost Iran. This development will prove over time to have been catastrophic with groups rising to power with Obama's blessing who will work against the interests of the United States and the West. Sadly, in less than one term of the Obama Presidency, we have been transformed from the greatest source of liberation the world has ever known into a follower and the great enabler of expansionist Islam.

Watching America Surrender

Joe Biden, second fiddle to the American Nero, delivered the good news to Shia Islamists in person today in Baghdad. Biden declared to Iraq that our troop presence there is over, our sacrifice there futile, the white flag delivered to Iran's proxies, the Mahdi Army and Hezbollah in Iraq. Biden talked about the stable democracy that we are leaving for Iraqis as a bomb killed more than a dozen there. The United States has lost thousands of service personnel killed in Iraq and also, though almost never mentioned, thousands more US contractors. Here though, America finds herself snatching defeat from the jaws of victory with the cold breath of Iranian influence blowing out real hopes for a democracy in Iraq friendly to America's interests. Those who seek chaos in the region will be heartened by our ill-timed departure after so much blood and treasure had been expended to do real good.