My Ass is on Fire!

On my favorite blog, Shithouse Rat, Elvira recently ranted about some serious ass burning issues. Among other things, Elvira is pissed about the treatment and portrayal of people with mental illness in our society. Shortly thereafter, I followed up with my own brand of rant about the disparagement of the mentally ill, even by the "scientific" community.

The source for my addition to the Binder of Bizarre has done it again! Is every other week at Parade Magazine bash the loonies week?

Read this:


Here's an email I sent to Walter Scott, the columnist responsible for that week's CRAP:

From: Henry
Subject: Images of Einstein and son(?s)
Date: July 16, 2005 2:20:33 PM PDT
To: personality@parade.com

Dear Mr. Scott,

I read the Personality Parade column almost every week. I have a question about an item that appeared in the July 10, 2005 column.

In the piece on Albert Einstein's children:

http://archive.parade.com/2005/0710/0710_personality.html

you explained that Hans, the older son, did have a successful career as an engineer and professor at Berkeley. This was accompanied by nice pictures of Hans and his pops, Albert. You also covered the story of Eduard, the younger son.

I was quite dismayed at the implication that Eduard was a failure in life due to his mental illness. You did not even have the decency to indicate whether he was still alive or not. The really insulting part was that there was no picture of Eduard included in the short piece.

Here's my question:

Was the exclusion of a picture of Eduard due to lack of there being any, or because you don't want to put a picture of a "psycho" in your column?

Henry Babcock

I am still waiting for a response.

Hey, did anybody just see that flying pig?

Maybe everyone should write Walter Scott an email and let him know how you feel.

Allow me to close with some facts:

There are more than 2 million people over the age of 18 in the U.S. who suffer from BP.

There are less than 1.2 million people of all ages living with HIV/AIDS.

Where's our quilt?

PS: My advisors have recommended a softening of the blog; one said something about the pendulum swinging the other way.... I tend to agree. In the near future, I will be balancing out some of the yang of late with a little bit of yin. Stay tuned...

UPDATED INFORMATION:

Hail fellow cybernauts!

I definitely got a nice helping of aloe vera to soothe my blistering butt burns. This came to me in the form of the BEST radio station I have ever listened to. Allow me to present a responsible media agency that is the bipolar opposite of the above mentioned wretched trash rag:



I was turned on to the JACK by a good friend, Mama Mia. I had 93.1 FM preset on my car for the occasional trip to Hell-A, but that was back in the days of The Arrow. It’s been a while since I drove down that way, so I was unaware of the phenomenal music I was missing until Mama Mia saved me.

Anyway, I was heading for a visit with Dr. Bill, L.Ac. (it’s his last name) for some of his artistic needle wizardry. On my way, I’m relaxing with a little JACK in the car. While listening, I hear one of those goofy Station ID blurbs they have, except this one was not so funny:

You don’t have to be schizo to like JACK FM, but it helps.
I thought I was going to crash the car! I recovered and made it to Dr. Bill’s office safely. I had a nice trip to the place with no name, so I was able to get home and give a little call down to JACK HQ. I spoke with Carlos in the Promotions Department; he listened patiently to my concerns and directed me to email the wise and wonderful Mr. Ebbot. Here is what I wrote:

From: Henry
Subject: One of Your Station ID Blubs
Date: July 26, 2005 3:09:40 PM PDT
To: Chris Ebbot

Dear Mr. Ebbot,

Your email address was given to me by Carlos in the Promotions department. I just got off the phone with him, and I am hoping he talks to you about the phone call we had and the subject of this email.

I want to start by saying that I love Jack FM. I used to listen to Arrow once in a while, but mainly I listened to the Octopus 95.9 FM out of Ventura for the classic rock format. A friend told me a few months ago about Jack. It's what I listen to now almost all the time. I love the new format!

I was driving around earlier today (11:25 AM to be precise) listening to Jack. A station ID blurb was broadcast right around then. It said:

"You don't have to be schizo to like Jack FM, but it helps."

Are you familiar with this station ID blurb?

I want you, and the Station Manager, Mr. Federman, to know that I am mentally ill. I have been diagnosed with Bipolar 2 Disorder (BP2).

Here are some more facts:

There are over 2 million people in the US over the age of 18 who have the same condition I have:

NIMH Stats

In ALL age groups, there are 1.2 million people who have been diagnosed with HIV/AIDS:

CDC Stats

Since BP is a genetic life long illness, I can safely say that there are more than twice as many people who have BP than have HIV/AIDS.

When we start adding in people with Depression and Schizophrenics, the numbers sky rocket.

The mentally ill in this country, and the whole world, do not have parades in our honor; we do not have a quilt that travels the country in our honor; we do not have movies stars speaking out in support of our illnesses. In fact, we have movie stars like Tom Cruise bashing mentally ill people like Brooke Shields, the doctors which help us, and the medications which sometimes help us. He gets boat loads of media attention, and no one will dare stand up to him and tell him he is wrong, and he needs to SHUT THE HELL UP!!!

We do not need to have your radio station contributing to the misinformation about us, or the attitude that we are a joke to be laughed at.

I am asking you to never play that station ID blurb ever again.

Sincerely,

Henry Babcock
(Address Deleted)
Ventura, CA
805-80X-XXX7

PS: Do I sound mentally ill to you?

I thought, "Yeah, like they’re really gonna care what I have to say… bunch of insensitive louts!"

OK, here’s the good part:

I swear, in less than 20 minutes my phone rang, and Mr. Ebbot was on the line. He was very apologetic; they pulled the blurb immediately. Whoa!

I try to be as quick to praise, as I am to punish. Here is the email that followed our phone conversation (please note the time on both emails):

From: Henry
Subject: Thank you
Date: 4:01:54 PM PDT
To: Chris Ebbot

Dear Mr. Ebbott,

I want to thank you very, very much for your immediate response to my concerns.

I am actually still in shock a bit from the speed with which you responded.

I LOVE JACK FM!!

I will be singing your praises all about town.

You know who to contact if this is an issue your station might like to take a lead on.

Here is my blog address:

www.henrypbabcock.com

If you like, or don't like, what you see, I invite you to comment. Anonymous, pseudonym, or real name, it does not matter. I am just interested in the community dialog. If you want, take a look at the "Netiquette" post and sign up for Blog Alerts:

Netiquette

Please be aware that the pendulum is swinging the other way, and I will be softening up the blog; I will be balancing out some of the yang with a little yin soon. Look for posts on music, movies, art, gardening, pets, and even a few crazy science "experiments". Most of this will have a community service flair, so I think people will enjoy it. Also, I would like to point you to some of the links to other blogs I enjoy. Shithouse Rat is my particular favorite.

Thank you again, and I'll keep listening!

Sincerely,

Henry Babcock

PS: Did you see my letter in the paper last week:

Letter to Editor

There's a whole lot more, if you are interested.

There you have it folks! In less than 1 hour, these guys had realized their mistake, admitted it, and took action to correct it. Simply awesome!

I feel kind of bad that I made them pull one of their Station ID blurbs, so I am offering a solution to help fill that deep, empty void they must all be feeling down there at JACK HQ. How about using the following blurb:

You don’t have to be a chameleon to like JACK FM, but it helps.
(I know it’s kind of lame, but ID blurbs are really not my forté.)

I’d also be willing to do a PSA for the station concerning BP and/or MI in general; this could even include an on air endorsement from me, and I could tell the story of how JACK FM is sensitive to their listeners needs and concerns (even though they don’t take requests... LOL).


If you live in the psychedelic zone shown above, set your #1 preset to 93.1 FM, and break all the others. You won’t need to listen to anything else!

Thanks to all the crew at JACK HQ.

©2005 hpb©reations, except the 93.1 JACK FM crap!