I sure hope the Pack don’t let this game slip away, because that Favre interception (and the subsequent Bears touchdown) could come back to haunt this team. I’d also like to note the playcalling for the Packers in the second half has been absolutely atrocious; it’s almost as if the Packers are playing not to lose, as opposed to playing to win.

As I type this, the Packers have picked up yet another stupid penalty. You aren’t going to win many ballgames with 12 penalties for over 100 yards.

Oh, and have I mentioned I’m pretty sick of John Madden comparing Brett Favre to Tony Romo? After all, unless I’m mistaken, Favre’s been doing the whole quarterback thing since Romo was in middle school, so if anything Madden should be comparing Romo to Favre.

Nick broke both the bones in his left forearm this morning, producing much angst and stress on the part of everyone here, but especially me. Dealing with your own catastrophic (or at least really gross) injuries is one thing, but seeing them on your child is another matter entirely. What’s most disconcerting to me about Nick’s situation is the fact that when the ER doctor came in with Nick’s x-rays, he asked if Nick had a previous fracture or break in the arm, and when we answered, “not that we know of,” the doctor showed us x-rays that very clearly showed a previous break in Nick’s arm.

Just take a moment to imagine how that felt to find out our son had broken his arm but couldn’t tell us…I can tell you how it felt to me…it felt remarkably similar to a punch in the gut. It’s a scary thing to realize your child can’t tell you when they’ve hurt themselves or are sick, and I can only hope we’ll reach a point where Nick will be able to tell us when he’s having a problem.

For now Nick’s got a temporary splint and a sling, and hopefully we’ll have him in to see a Pediatric Orthopedist on Tuesday or Wednesday so his arm can be fully set and cast.

That’s the day Nick’s new therapist will come to visit him here at home for the first time. We met with the folks from the Autism Behavioral Network this week, and I have to admit I was tremendously impressed with their approach to therapy. Nick’s a lucky little guy, and I’m glad he’s about to start getting the help we’ve always wanted for him. There’s no doubt things will be difficult as Nick adjusts to his new routine, but I know the tough times will all be for the best in the end.

“It’s like a whole buncha stuff in my mouth!”

So said my stepdaughter as she bit into her All-American Thanksgiving Burger, a burger she helped create. Last week my wife took Alexis to Red Robin to eat after school shopping, and while they were at the restaurant, they picked up an application for Red Robin’s Burger Contest for kids. After they got home, we all started brainstorming on unique and interesting burger ideas to come up with something that’d knock the socks off the judges. As we were mulling over different ideas, we came up with the idea for the Thanksgiving turkey burger.

Now I can’t reveal all the ingredients here, as I don’t want to give away any secrets, but I will say the burger combines all the best parts of Thanksgiving into a burger. We made the burgers tonight, and they were a resounding success, hence Alexis’ quote, and now that we know the burgers are delicious, we’re going to help Alexis submit the recipe for judging.

Yesterday the wife got a call from the folks from the County.

Nick’s funding has arrived, so they’re going to call our preferred therapy provider to get the ball rolling. We also received a letter from Nick’s new Early Childhood teacher at his school, so it’s kinda funny how things are all coming together at the same time.

Can I just say how much of a relief it is to know that things are finally falling into place?

thias over at Pundit Nation wrote a great article on the Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce
(WMC) trade association’s opposition to Wisconsin Senate Bill 178, which would mandate that insurance companies in Wisconsin provide coverage for treatment and therapy for children with autism. I know that as the parent of an autistic child I’m incredibly biased in my support of SB178, but I simply cannot understand how anyone with any sense of compassion, empathy, or decency could be opposed to providing increased coverage for children affected by autism and other related disorders.

Depending on the severity of their case, children affected by autism and related spectrum disorders can have varying levels of ability to function, and likewise their potential for improvement is equally varied. For children like my son Nick - who’s fortunate to have a very mild case of autism - the potential for significant and lasting improvement is tremendous, so long as intervention is done as early as possible. My wife, Nick, and I have waited just over twelve months for the therapy Nick needs, and that’s even given the fact that I’m a state employee, and therefore have pretty darn good health insurance. We’ve had to jump through innumerable hoops when it comes to applying for Medicaid, and then came the waiting.

I’ve written more than once about my frustrations when it came to our wait for Nick’s therapy, and I can only hope lawmakers in Madison -regardless of political affiliation - will come together and do the right thing in passing SB178 into law. Providing more resources for diagnosis, intervention, research and therapy for children affected by autism and related spectrum disorders is the right thing to do, not just from a moral standpoint, but from a dollars and cents standpoint. I know the WMC is arguing it would be too expensive for insurance companies in Wisconsin to have to provide coverage for autism and related spectrum disorders - and the therapy is expensive, running into the tens of thousands of dollars per year - but when I hear that argument I’m reminded of the old saying, “An ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure.” Any money spent now on autism intervention and therapy is going to prevent even more money being spent in the future to help take care of individuals who may not be able to function in society because they didn’t have the opportunity for a timely intervention and therapy.

If there’s one thing I hate above all else about living in an apartment, it’s my noisy neighbors. The upstairs neighbors are great people, but they sound like a herd of elephants doing professional wrestling on our ceiling. As if that’s not bad enough, one of the neighbors with whom we share a bedroom wall snores so loud he sounds like a bobcat trapped in a burlap sack. I’m a pretty sound sleeper, but one night last week he was snoring loud enough to wake me up out of a dead sleep.

Like I mentioned, I like my neighbors, but I can’t wait until we can buy a house so that we don’t have to worry about noisy neighbors snoring too loud or doing professional wrestling on our ceiling.

A couple of weeks ago I came across an article on Time.com that asked the question, “Is Fred Thompson the G.O.P.’s Savior?” Now I know certain segments of the media have been falling all over themselves in an attempt to anoint Fred Thompson as the second coming of Ronald Reagan because of how dismally uninspiring the Republican Party’s presidential candidates are, but I’ve seen or heard nothing from Fred Thompson that would lead me to believe he can solve all that ails the Republican Party in the lead-up to the 2008 election.

Sure, he’s got solid conservative credentials - notwithstanding his work on behalf of an abortion rights group - and he does have a certain charisma, folksiness, and sense of humor when he speaks, but I don’t believe that puts him ahead of any other Republican in the race. Thompson’s “virtual” campaign has already hit some bumps, from the small hit he took for his aforementioned lobbying on behalf of an abortion rights group to disappointing fund raising numbers and staff defections. Thompson’s campaign is reported to have raised a little over $3 million in June, a figure that certainly doesn’t seem in line with that you’d expect to see from the GOP’s “savior.”

The problem with many of the the Republicans vying for the White House aren’t the skeletons in their closets or their shortcomings as candidates - their problems can be traced directly to the fact that they’re Republicans. The political climate here in America being what it is, I don’t think any one Republican candidate can cure all that ails the GOP, and 2008 promises to be another bad year for Republican candidates all across America, from the presidential field on down. Republicans will have a hard time winning much of anything in 2008, Fred Thompson or not.

From time to time, I’ve been known to lurk around on the more conservative blogs out there in the Cheddarsphere, and while I find those folks to be generally decent (albeit misguided) folks, there are some folks who just can’t seem to pass up the opportunity to make broad, sweeping (and often negative) generalizations when it comes to liberals. Take mickey over at Badger Blogger. In an thread discussing the eight finalists for the Milwaukee Police Chief position, mickey decided to drop this bomb: “The LEFT of which Tommy the Tank Engine is a sworn member, has no interest in stopping crime.” Now putting aside mickey’s need to resort to name calling - which seems to be a common thing among some conservatives - it seems more than a little dubious to say that the left has no interest in stopping crime.

I’m proud of the fact that I’m a liberal, and while I may disagree with conservative folks on a lot of issues, I’d like to think there are some issues - both locally and nationally - that folks of all political affiliations can get behind, and stopping crime is one of those issues. Without getting into too many specifics, I’m a member of the law enforcement/criminal justice community, and as such I take my job seriously. Protecting the community is the number one priority of my job, and I don’t ever let my political beliefs get in the way of doing my job. Each and every member of our community - and our larger society - have a vested interest in stopping crime, because putting an end to criminal behavior benefits everyone, regardless of political affiliation. I take pride in doing my job - and doing it well, and I know plenty of “sworn members” of the left who take pride in the work they do to protect the community and fight crime as members of the law enforcement and criminal justice communities.

Earlier tonight, Greg Borowski over at All Politics Watch posted an interesting entry about polls showing Tommy Thompson continuing to trail his opponents in the race for the Republican presidential nomination. Saturday’s Iowa Republican Party straw poll looms over Thompson’s campaign like a black cloud, because Governor Thompson has made it abundantly clear the straw poll is a “make or break” event for his campaign. Thompson has said he needs to finish first or second in order to be able to continue his campaign, and the polling I’ve seen shows Thompson finishing well out of the top three.

Tommy Thompson’s based his whole campaign around Iowa, and while he’s got a low-key, down to earth speaking style that could really resonate with Iowans, he suffers from being the less charismatic than Mike Huckabee, who has a really similar style of speaking. Those the same conservatives who would probably support Thompson for his down to earth speaking style and personality are instead flocking to Mike Huckabee, who has that “aw shucks” thing down pat, with the main difference between him and Tommy Thompson being that Huckabee doesn’t seem like as much of a boob as Tommy Thompson. I think it’s safe to say Tommy Thompson won’t finish in the top four in the Iowa straw poll, and I expect to see him drop from the race shortly after the results are announced.