Thank you, Eric Cantor

Daniel, our ever political homeschooler



Congressman Eric Cantor


Eric and his wife Diana at his birthday celebration.



In a prior post here, I spoke of how Daniel, during a Republican fundraiser, at Orapax Plantation here in Virginia, tried to convince Congressman Eric Cantor, to no avail, that the big bank bailout of 2008 would be a mistake. However, this week Eric certainly redeemed himself as outlined in the article below. Daniel would be pleased. Daniel believed that excessive spending and excessive US debt would not only be bad for his generation economically and educationally, but bad for the rest of the world as well. I plan to call Eric and thank him for his courage and leadership today.

***Our original post which discusses the day at Orapax Plantation can be found at:

http://learnedfromdaniel.blogspot.com/2011/04/in-land-of-jefferson-madison-and-monroe.html

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UPDATE: If I did not make it clear enough during my call to your DC office today, Thank you Congressman Cantor for showing the courage in leadership that you have this week. There will be no default should the debt ceiling not be raised. The Obama Regime must not continue to write blank checks on only partially considered Bills.

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The GOP's hardliner: How Eric Cantor thwarted the Obama-Boehner debt deal
Time.comTime.com –

At his press conference on Monday, President Obama made clear that his frustration with House Republicans' intransigence in negotiations to raise the federal borrowing limit did not extend to their leader. "I think Speaker Boehner has been very sincere about trying to do something big," Obama said, one of several compliments in an extended embrace of his negotiating partner. "The politics that swept him into the speakership were good for a midterm election; they're tough for governing."

Tough indeed. And a death hug from a polarizing Democratic President doesn't make the task easier for Boehner. From the start of his speakership, Boehner has been forced to contend not just with a fractious band of freshmen who would rather risk economic catastrophe than give ideological ground, but also with a top lieutenant positioning himself as Boehner's purist foil. While Obama may respect Boehner's forthrightness, recent twists in the plot of debt ceiling negotiations suggest that if he wants to convince hard-line House conservatives not to jeopardize the nation's economy, he may have been negotiating with the wrong Republican. (See "Inside Thursday's White House Debt Ceiling Meeting: A Consensus to Go Big.")

During the high-stakes summit at the White House on Sunday evening, Eric Cantor was the primary voice speaking on behalf of Republicans interests, according to several accounts of the meeting. A senior Democratic aide briefed on Monday's talks told TIME that Cantor again "dominated" much of the negotiations on the Republican side, while Boehner "hardly spoke."

Cantor's stated resistance to a grand bargain freighted with revenue increases - and the perception that his position reflected the pulse of the GOP conference - likely influenced Boehner's decision to scuttle his pursuit of a "big deal" with Obama. Weeks earlier, Cantor's abandonment of the Biden-led negotiations were the death knell for those talks. Speculation about palace intrigue is a Washington tradition, but the rumored frost between the top two Republicans in the House could have significant impact on whether the two parties can craft an agreement to raise the debt-limit by August 2. That's particularly true if personal ambition leads either lawmaker to elevate political calculations over policy imperatives.

During a meeting with reporters on Monday afternoon, Cantor dismissed the characterization that a rift has opened between Boehner and his No. 2. "I know you all love to write the soap opera here," Cantor told a standing-room only crowd in the Capitol, but "the Speaker and I are on the same page." It was the first question he was asked, and he later repeated his denial. Less than an hour later, before the two leaders trekked to the White House for another round of negotiations, Boehner held his own separate briefing with the press, where he paid tribute to hard-line Republican demands - a balanced-budget amendment, binding spending caps to stem a slide back to profligacy - and wagged his finger at a reporter who asked about his apparent retreat to the safety of the pack. "There were no tax increases ever on the table," Boehner insisted. (See "There's Big Talk in Washington of a Deficit Deal. Can the Center Hold?")

But while Boehner said on Monday that a bill that raises taxes cannot pass the House, it was Cantor who made every effort in recent days to stake out the anti-tax ground. Helping to thwart Boehner's push for a "big deal" was only the latest jockeying between the supple, deal-making Speaker and his pugnacious top lieutenant. By tapping Cantor as an emissary to the Biden negotiations, Boehner tried to gain Cantor's imprimatur for any deal it yielded; by stalking out over tax increases, Cantor cleaved separation, as he did again by pushing for a smaller deal at a Thursday meeting at the White House. The House Majority Leader, who didn't support Boehner's bid for that job in 2006, could be poised to capitalize should an intraparty feud over the debt-limit fight spark an insurrection. "I think what we learned over this past weekend is that John Boehner…is not really speaker of the House," New York magazine political columnist John Heilemann argues. "Eric Cantor is the speaker of the House." Pointing to the potency of Cantor's anti-tax vehemence, Darrell West of the Brookings Institution said Monday that "Eric Cantor is the real power in the House of Representatives."

For their part, some Republicans argue that Obama's praise for Boehner - and the accounts of unnamed Democratic officials who outlined Cantor's swelling role in the debt-limit negotiations - is a gambit designed to accentuate a rift that isn't there. "I think the White House is trying to drive a wedge between the two. That's why Obama gave Boehner a big bear hug," says an aide to a conservative House Republican freshman. "Both Boehner and Cantor realize a tax hike is not going to fly with the House GOP. And neither one believes that taxes are the solution." Adds the aide: "I don't know if just spending cuts will seal the deal."

Monday's negotiating session, at which the negotiators sought to identify common ground, provided a snapshot of Cantor's determination not to compromise Republican principles. After Obama implored Republicans to bring ideas to the table, "Cantor came in with a specific proposal that included cuts to Medicare without providing a dime in savings through closing special-interest giveaways," says the senior Democratic aide, who says that Obama responded by insisting on "shared sacrifice." Earlier in the day, Cantor told reporters that he considered "shared sacrifice" a euphemism for tax hikes. "Republicans can't add stuff that only they want to do. That won't pass the House or Senate," says another senior Democratic aide briefed on the talks. "So Republicans have to start thinking about things they don't want to do, in addition to the things Democrats don't want to do - which means they need to start talking about revenues." (See five destructive myths about the economic recovery.)

It's not hard to see why the rank-and-file in a restive Republican conference are drawn to Cantor's hard-line haggling. During his off-camera briefing with reporters, Cantor stressed his aversion to a tax hike at every turn, insisting that any deal has "got to be net revenue neutral." He suggested, improbably, that the most fruitful path to a deal was the framework crafted by the Biden-led group that he walked away from just weeks ago, citing irreconcilable differences over taxes. Asked how Republicans were prepared to compromise in pursuit of a deal, Cantor said the GOP was swallowing as much as it could handle by voting to raise the debt limit, an "existential question" that deeply troubles fiscal conservatives. "I don't think the White House understands how difficult it is for fiscal conservatives to vote for a debt-ceiling increase," he said.

It hasn't always been so difficult. Cantor did so on multiple occasions during the George W. Bush presidency, raising the debt limit by trillions of dollars without enacting spending cuts in the process. Now Cantor claims a vote to forestall fiscal calamity amounts to a major concession. This kind of outlook is one reason Obama remains eager to deal with Boehner, even if the GOP's power center may be shifting.

With reporting by Jay Newton-Small

(Time article end)

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Mercy Me "I Can Only Imagine"




Michelle Tumes "Missing You"

Morning Visit

This morning I got up around five am, checked e-mail, spoke to my husband, and around six, I apparently fell back to sleep. As I slept I had the following dream. Stephanie and Adam were away, but Daniel was next to me sitting in a wheelchair talking normally. We were both watching Matthew do some type of sport. We were following Matthew and watching him over lots of green grassed hilly fields. Daniel conveyed several points in the dream. One was that the way things are, his being away from us in flesh, had to be. Another was that he will always be with us while we finish our journey here. Another was that he will always find a way to let us know that he is. Then, he told me that if he had been resuscitated that day, then he would have been in a wheelchair, and he said he would not have liked to have had to have me push him around all the time throughout life. I said I would have taken him here any way I could have gotten him. We laughed and I kissed him on the cheek,and then the dream was over. I woke up groggy, but feeling as if Daniel did come to our home on Earth to touch base with me.
This morning when I checked the statistics and keywords used on internet searches in the past 24 hours which arrived at this blog, someone has run a nickname I had for Daniel, which no one but the family knows and is not on this blog. The kids all say they did not search this name. I wonder ?
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This is an eight year old gospel singer, Rhema Marvanne, whose mother resides in Heaven.

Easter in 2011

This was one cold Easter egg hunt when Daniel was five.



Easter was one of Daniel's favorite holidays. Living out in the proverbial sticks, I have not been a big proponent of dressing them up on Easter Sunday and parading them to church. I have thought that it was more important that they knew God the entire year, and that they were mindful of who Jesus Christ is, and why we believe in Him. I am not one for window dressing. Losing someone we love changes the way we do everything, including the way we celebrate and redefine the holidays for ourselves. This year, we bought treats and supplies and took them to a friend in a nursing home. When Daniel was here, we might have been too busy to do such a thing, on the actual holiday.
Daniel's favorite part of Easter was our Easter Egg Hunt, that we would have on our front yard,usually the Saturday before Easter Sunday. I would locate my collection of plastic eggs, fill them with wrapped candy, get my baskets down from the attic, and place the eggs far and wide, and then all the kids would gather them. In later years, as some of the kids were in college, and always needed money, we put quarters in the eggs and they were grateful for the cash. This allowed us to continue the tradition for Daniel who loved the hunt, I think, more than anything else.
This year,although the lawn in neatly trimmed and the weather today is nice enough for the traditional hunt, James does not wish to do this. At 15, he feels too old for the hunt. Instead, we did another tradition I think Daniel would like. Daniel loved an omelet breakfast. Sometimes, we would have an omelet morning, if we were all going to be here. We would chop green peppers, onion, chopped tomatoes, cheese, bacon, in small quantities, and make small omelets, personalized for each person with toast. Daniel was a good cook and would custom make the omelets. His favorite was a plain cheese without onion. He would joke as he cooked. I would say, "What kind of omelet is that" and he would say, it's an "om-e-let you live" omelet ! Afterward, I gave each person a small bag of chocolate treasures, except our daughter who got a special bag with salad fixings and more appropriate sweets (as she's a Type I diabetic)
So, we let go of one Daniel tradition this year and embraced another. I hope you and your family find a way to find meaning in this Easter. Our loved ones might be gone from this plane, but we are still here.







This is Nichole Nordeman performing "Crimson" which is based on Chopin's Prelude in E Minor, Opus 28

Strange Dreams

Part of the farm


the cabin in the dream was similar siding and roof but with large front windows

Today was a busy day. Tosh, Daniel's cat needed to go to be neutered today. We put away his food at 10 last night as we were told, and the cat was up from about 3 am on, meowing. My husband and I finally got up at 6 am, and took Tosh to the vet. This morning I ran some errands before coming home in the early afternoon. Since I had been up with the cat since three in the morning, by four in the afternoon, I was really tired. I decided to lie down for just a minute on our bed, and I fell into a really deep sleep. I had a strange but very clear and detailed dream. For some reason, we had built another house on the farm in addition to the one we have. It was deep within the farm and was brown cedar with large front windows and I was inside cleaning. Outside, a lady from the postal service, with white hair, very fit, about 60, was looking in the windows from the front porch. I have never seen her before, and she does not work for our local post office, which incidentally does not deliver mail here anyway. We must go to pick it up. I went outside, and she exclaimed that she could see Daniel inside the house when she was looking for us to deliver our mail. In the dream, I knew Daniel was there, but I could not disclose this to her, and so I told her that she had seen James instead. (Even though they do not look alike) I remember thinking I needed a stronger gate and curtains in the front windows of the cedar house deep on the property. She delivered some certified mail, that hadn't needed to be certified. Then outside became very blustery and we had all the windows open. The high warm swirling winds from outside blew things over and put dust everywhere inside. I was running around to secure lamps and close windows. The winds were so strong that I could not close some of the windows.
At that moment, I awoke to realize I had fallen into a deep sleep, and that it was now nearing dinner time, and I was late in putting it all together. I was still half asleep as I made dinner.
I have no idea what the dream was saying to me, other than my acknowledging that Daniel is with us, just not in an official sense where you could take him as a tax deduction or inform the post office, yet dwelling here at times, at least figuratively, nonetheless.


Nichole grew up in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Now a wife and mother of two, she lives in Texas, and her singer songwriting has garnered her multiple Dove Awards.

Lasagna

I have been thinking a lot lately about you Daniel in terms of your food likes and dislikes. Still, in stocking for the holidays in my regular moments, I still reach to grasp the one liter bottle of soda you would have preferred for the holiday.I still think about making the foods you would have liked best. I know that's silly, but a mother's programming and many of the changes she makes in bringing a child home, and then growing along side him, do not change.I am afraid my Daniel mode is forever. I will tell you one thing Daniel. Before you left, and when some food or drink was finished, the older children tended to try to blame you. "Daniel must have finished it", was their reply. Maybe blaming the youngest brother is a strategy in other families, especially teens, as well.Strangely, after your departure, the same amounts of food and drink were consumed, and on occasion, disappeared. When James joined us, the food consumption increased some more. You are therefore vindicated ! We know you weren't the person eating extra !
I remember that one of your favorite foods was lasagna of many types. You liked my lasagna in all of its different incarnations, and you liked the classic Stouffers as well. You liked my spinach lasagna, my vegetarian lasagna, my sausage lasagna, ground beef lasagna, experimental chicken lasagna, cheeseburger lasagna, and garden-vegetables-we-grew varieties as well. For someone who had completely clean coronary arteries in the country where half of twelve year olds have the beginnings of coronary artery disease, I realize now I could have fed you more of what you wanted. I miss your being happy about whatever I am serving, rather than, "Not that again" that I tend to hear now.

Central Heterochromia

central heterochromia, green with brown


heterochromia
from outer edge inward, blue, green, and brown



This is likely the picture of our Daniel which best shows his heterochromia. A larger version of this picture appears at the end of our blog pages on the right.


Our son Matthew,a college student, six years Daniel's senior, came to me to mention something this week after our time at the hospital. He told me that he had noticed from pictures that Daniel had central heterochromia and he wondered if this unusual fact was associated with any disorders which could have produced sudden death. This was amazing to me because although I had heard of central heterochromia, and I recognized that Daniel had absolutely beautiful eyes, I personally did not put the two together.
There are a few different types of heterochromia. Central heterochromia iridis refers to the iris of the eye,which is normally one color, being more than one color. Characteristically in central heterochromia, the outer iris is one color, and the inner iris is another, giving the person interesting and unusual eyes. Daniel had eyes which we described as hazel, but were hypnotic by virtue of their green with multi-colored highlighting and speckles. I have not been successful in associating this with any sudden death syndromes although very occasionally, it can be associated with some disorders which Daniel clearly did not have. On a side note, a number of celebrities are said to have this also. Tom Cruise, Mila Kunis, Hugh Jackman, Angelina Jolie, Robert Downey Jr., Emma Roberts, Kristin Kreuk, Kristin Scott Thomas, Rowan Atkinson, Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro,Amy Winehouse, Lady Gaga, AKA Stephani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, Ivanka Trump and many others are all said to have the hazel version of central heterochromia,like Daniel. Keifer Sutherland, Michael Flatley, Christopher Walken have a different version of central heterochromia which is said to incorporate blues rather than greens. Still other varieties may be sectoral versions of heterochromia or a different color eye on each side in some also. Jane Seymour has one blue eye and one brown. Heterochromia is thought to afflict one in ten thousand human beings. This is a fascinating website with pictures on the subject:

http://lex09.altervista.org/


Interestingly, many of those mentioned have eyes similar to Daniel's.

Although some people with heterochromia do test perfectly normally, it is considered an affliction by virtue of the fact that it is associated with a number of disorders. Hirschsprung's Disease and Waardenburg Syndrome and others are associated with it. The associated disorders were ruled out in Daniel, on autopsy.


There are some additional rare disorders that may be associated with heterochromia. For those with pressing questions and concerns, below is a genetics laboratory, which discusses testing:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/GeneTests/?db=GeneTests

Happy Birthday Daniel

Before Daniel's funeral, one and a half years ago, I went into the funeral home early, and sang this song, before the funeral. I think this rendition, sans my tears is much better.

This is Josh Groban singing "To Where You Are"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uIQp9Dqcrw



I love you Daniel

Happy Birthday Daniel

Had you remained on Earth, tomorrow would be your fourteenth birthday. I know that where you are now, that you are ageless and that you selected a form which is in your twenties or thereabouts. Still, I live with the memory of my beautiful son who would be fourteen tomorrow and this visceral memory of mine, is quite strong. I love you very much, we all do. Imagine my giving you a long tight birthday hug, you fine man ! We will be buying a cake and we will do some other things which recall your memory, which I will talk about here after the weekend, but I wanted you to know, that we have a little bit of a quandary. Which one of these cakes should we pick for you ? Should we commemorate your playful inner child, or your obvious intelligence and maturity ? Happy Birthday. I know you are a creature of light now, and darling, even on Earth you always were.

What Really Happened to Daniel ?

Since Daniel passed, the doctors have been telling us that likely, he had an unexpected disturbance in heart rhythm and that this rhythm was incompatible with life. We are being told that there was nothing we could do to anticipate this, and that this "happens sometimes". We have not really bought this. The doctors have been focused on cardiac testing of our other children in order to prevent another such occurance, and this indeed is what has been taking our time.
When Daniel went into the bathroom, one second he was talking to us and the next, there was a gurgling sound. It was incredibly rapid, almost as you would turn a switch. When his father and I entered the bathroom, we found him on the floor, but his skin was warm and pink, not at all the way I am accustomed, as a former critical care nurse, so seeing someone in full arrest. In addition, as we turned him over (he was on his abdomen initially) his eyes were half open with one facing outward left and the other outward right. When I tried to position him for mouth to mouth and ultimately CPR, his neck was taut. Normally, a person in arrest can have their head tilted back with one hand. It was effortful for me to position him for CPR. Both his father and I believed that some type of seizure occured. The doctors were undaunted, stating that once the heart stops the brain indeed responds with seizure-like activity. Still, we wait for autopsy results while processing this terrible loss.
After Daniel died, for several days and especially during the funeral, we felt his presence. I can't be more descriptive than this, it was simply a feeling that he was with us and knew what we were doing, and wanted to be near us to comfort us. I have had some dreams where Daniel has spoken to me since, but they have been largely symbolic and brief.
On Sunday morning, the 18th, our son Matthew told us he'd had a dream. (It would actually have been on Saturday the 17th) He said that Daniel had come to him in a dream. Daniel told Matthew that he had entered the bathroom, sat on the toilet, felt nauseated, and stood and vomited in the sink. Then his vision went blurry and he passed out on the floor in front of the sink cabinet. Daniel did not think it was his heart. He told Matthew that he thought it was something in his brain. In the dream, Daniel proceeded to tell Matthew that his brain had been a great focus of the most recent part of the autopsy. He described how his brain was "cut in half" and that there had been great discussion about something that had been found in the middle of it. Daniel seemed fine and was relating this, just as he would have related an episode of Stargate. He wanted us to have this information so that we would not be quite so cardiac obsessed.
On Tuesday the 19th, we spoke on the phone to one of the pathologists who has been the liaison with us. (Normally, there is not communication with them. A report is issued to your doctor and he explains it to you.) I asked if she'd found something, and she said yes. I said, "It's neuro, isn't it ?" and she reponded, "Yes". She told us that a large pineal cyst had been found (which is located in the back center of the brain) She indicated that a pineal cyst which impedes the flow of cerebrospinal fluid and causes seizure and death is exceedingly rare, but that this is a significant abnormal finding. I told her what Daniel had Matthew on Saturday. With all the mettle a female pathologist must have, she seemed unsurprized.
With this, I began as much research on pineal cysts as possible. Small pineal cysts are a common finding on many autopsies, in fact as many as 41 %. For many people, they are completely asymptomatic, but for others, there may be intermittent headaches. Rarely, a cyst can become large enough to necessitate draining, especially if it begins to cause nausea or visual disturbances as it begins to impede cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) circulation through the ventricles of the brain. Only two other people have ever been documented to have died from a pineal cyst. When a cyst creates these cataclysmic difficulties, it is referred to as pineal apoplexy.
We are sad. We remember only twice in three months Daniel complaining of a headache. Both were when he got up in the morning. I attributed both to his allergies and gave him Claritin, but told him to let me know if the Claritin did not work. In both cases he was better in a half an hour. I now realize that these headaches may have been due to increasing intercranial pressure and that they improved only because he was up and around and had better drainage but not due to Claritin. I also now remember that he did once complain about his eyes being tired and a little blurry, but he would spend considerable amounts of time on his laptop computer, not only doing schoolwork, but creating animations, in which he was extremely gifted. I resolved to take him for an eye exam after Thanksgiving because he might need glasses, although I fully expected his eye irritation to be of allergic origin, as it is with the rest of us. I can only remember his mentioning nausea one or two times in about three months, generally when we drove in the car. He has been prone to feeling carsick all of his life. So we now begin the process of being grateful to God that Daniel does not seem to have suffered in association with his passing, and that somehow, he didn't really experience symptoms sufficient for him to alter his life, complain or worry. We never saw anything that indicated to us that anything was wrong. He was active, happy, and for two weeks I had off immediately before he died, we spent a great deal of it together. I am grateful for the time we had together but, in all, we remain heartbroken.

Note written one year later: Subsequent pathologists, on studying the autopsy data, albeit world experts on neuropathology believe that Daniel's pineal cyst, which was unruptured, was too small to have caused his death. They are still unclear on a cause of death.