Very sad. He was so young. My best wishes to his loved ones.
He also apparently went to my high school, which I hadn't realized until his illness when it was mentioned in a thread, but I'm not sure what year.
What a rotten lousy thing to happen.
41? Damn. Condolences to his family and friends.
I often found him intemperate, but the fact is that his intemperate, unapologetic liberalism was desperately needed just when he was offering it. So a belated thanks for the good he was doing in the world.
Worth repeating: he'll be missed.
And LB, that's one of those ironies that are clearly God's way of making it sting just a little worse...
Shit. From what I understand, he was a hell of a guy.
one of the good ones who got us through the darkest times. we aren't entirely out yet, but things are not as bleak as they were in Dec. '04.
The fighters--like Josh Marshall, hilzoy, Billmon, and Steve--helped me keep from utter despair.
Somehow seeing the picture makes it much sadder, he does not look like he had time to grow old.
So sad. He had such passion, and an uncompromising, shoot-from-the-hip style. That photo is great -- I always wondered what he looked like.
God, I am so sad to hear that. I really hoped and thought he would pull through. His writing combined informed and trenchant content with an indelicate, blue-collar kind of voice, and that was exactly what we needed then and need more of now. It seems somehow important that it was rough-hewn, no-bullshit guys like him and Billmon who gave the early liberal online community a lot of its character. It didn't occur to me that I'd ever meet him, but I kind of liked knowing that we lived in the same city. I'm really sorry that he didn't make it.
In a country full of insincere people incapable of valid public emotions, Gilliard's "intemperate" style (no criticism implied, only admiration) was a welcome relief from all the folks who fashion themselves stoic Vulcan logic masters.
sorry to see you go Steve. Your suffering is finallly over.
It's an awful and tasteless thing to say -- but this is unfogged -- but the thing that struck me, when I saw his photograph, was that I have two good friends who are almost as fat as he was and about the age he was when he died. I wonder how long they will last.
Unfortunately, Gilliard was a diabetic on dialysis, so when he got that infection a few months back in his heart valve, it was a really bad scene. I'm guessing your friends don't already have those kinds of pre existing conditions.
But doesn't being that fat make it far more likely that you will become a diabetic?
Yeah, very much an increased risk for type II, as well as other things.
Enter BphD's "fat but fit" routine in 3...2...1...
I could go into the diabetic/dialysis at great length;I spent five years a a primary caregiver. It included, among a lot else 6 hours (including travel time etc) three days a week at dialysis centers and vicious nasty screaming matches over diet and the two fucking liters a day of liquids. A single orange is half a day's liquids. Something like that. But I kept her four years past prediction.
I saw many more slim to normal sitting in the chairs than fat; watched a chair become empty every week. Watched a 25-yr-old woman with two kids die across from me.
Gilliard's story really fucked me over.
And, at least AFAIK, the "fat but fit" stuff is at leastly partly true.
They like to take off four liters a liter per hour a session but it is a strain on the heart; healthy active exercisers can take off more. I have seen guys get off their bikes and take off 8 in two hours.
I am 30-50 lbs over what the books say; I am also 120/80 with an under 100 blood sugar at pushing 60. I have a sister with a cabinet full of drugs.
My stats are close to Bob's, possibly with somewhat higher blood pressure.
Diabetes is an underrated disease. It's really horrible.
Y'all want me to go on? Calcium-potassium-sodium balances? Try to keep up muscle mass without sodium and low potassium which is in most meats.
Had the toenails cut by a podiatrist because a single nick of flesh can lose a foot. Saw a lot of people without feet.
Y'all think you know me. I don't know if the fucking torture regime is worth it but I had to make her feel it was. All day, every day.
A friend of my father's died from diabetes in his mid forties -- just didn't have the detail-oriented, never fuck up personality you need to keep on top of it.
17: Yeah, the "risk factors" studies show that, regardless of all the anecdotes to the contrary. Those only show one should pick a good set of parents, grandparents, etc.
24:Well, my anecdote might support it, in that the obese ones might not make it to the chairs.
But I would want obesity correlated to asult-onset in under 50s or charts by age before I take this seriously.
I don't know if anyone has already said this, but I was always struck by how good his judgment of military matters was. I don't believe he'd ever served, he was just a reader—and gamer—but he was shrewd and self-confident about strategy and tactics, and usually read the situation well. Considering how timid most people were three, four years ago that really made him stand out.
Nah, 17 is more wrong than right, and I think the "fat but fit" more accurate, if Wiki ca be trusted
"Genetic factors, usually polygenic, are present in most patients. However, environmental factors such as obesity, lack of exercise and a sedentary lifestyle are thought by most observers to lead to insulin resistance. Certainly not all type 2 diabetics have a family history of the condition."
"About 90-95% of all North American cases of diabetes are type 2, and about 20% of the population over the age of 65 has diabetes mellitus type 2."
To be fair:"About 55 percent of type 2 are obese[2] --chronic obesity leads to increased insulin resistance that can develop into diabetes, most likely because adipose tissue is a (recently identified) source of chemical signals (hormones and cytokines). Other research shows that type 2 diabetes causes obesity.[3]"
Now saying that half of 65-yr-old diabetics are obese is not saying the same thing as that a 40-yr-old obese diabetic is diabetic because he is obese.
Considering the amount of obesity in America, the 20% level seems pretty low.
They say "Type One" ("juvenile-onset") and "Type Two" ("adult onset") now. My brother got adult-onset at age 30, and this is quite common.
According to Wiki Type Two is obesity related; obesity is not mentioned WRT Type One.
"About 90-95% of all North American cases of diabetes are type 2, and about 20% of the population over the age of 65 has diabetes mellitus type 2."
Fuck.
Should be "My brother got "juvenile-onset" Type One at age 30, and this is quite common."
Here is some info for the Black population.
Certainly, current definitions of obesity don't correlate all that perfectly with health problems and they're changing the definitions all the time anyway. I need a bathroom scale that measures "internal obesity" now, right?
However, as long as we're using anecdotal evidence, the good old Southern boy (black or white) with the big belly and heart attack/stroke in his late forties is quite common IMX.
"I need a bathroom scale that measures "internal obesity" now, right?"
I got a BMI scale around here somewhere, or at least I bought one. Can't find it. Seemed slightly useful.
I go on Atkins periodically. A hard Atkins, with tons of protein and much much more exercise than the usual dieter, so I convert fat to muscle.
i've always respected you, bob. but primary care-giver to a dialysis patient for six years, earns more respect still.
the direct care of another human's bodily functions is difficult work. i know it only from my own babies, where it is hard, but the narrative arc is on the up-swing; they are moving towards the free, joyous, independent self-butt-wipers that they are now.
the care of the dying has none of that consolation.
learning about those years of your life helps me understand why you write as you do. thanks.
But I would want obesity correlated to asult-onset in under 50s or charts by age before I take this seriously.
There's a reason the common names for Type I and Type II were "juvenile" and "adult". Type II in juveniles was very rare. Not anymore. I'm feeling too lazy this morning to pull CDC stats, but this article has some numbers.
18: No, being heavy is a risk for diabetes and other things. But skinny folks can be diabetic too.
In any case, one of the reasons I'm so adamant about not hating on fat people is that, I mean, the guy just died, young, of diabetes. As 15 says, it *is* awful and tasteless to start second-guessing his cause of death--at least, inasmuch as doing so, when people are heavy, kinda inevitably sounds like blaming the victim. Presumably it wouldn't be awful and tasteless to say about someone who died that young of leukemia that one had two friends with it and was really worried about how long they'd live, specifically b/c we don't generally hold people responsible for having leukemia.
kinda inevitably sounds like blaming the victim.
I can see how it would come across that way. But it's hard when someone dies to not worry about other people close to you that remind you of that person.
Of course. But I don't see why the worry in and of itself would feel awful and tasteless.
Anyway, I don't wanna scold b/c that's tasteless and obnoxious too. It's sad that Steve's dead, he sounds from all accounts like a nice person, diabetes fucking sucks.
Sara at Orcinus who also was a regular at TNB had a correction that said Steve G was not diabetic.
Repeat, not a diabetic.
The fighters--like Josh Marshall, hilzoy, Billmon, and Steve--helped me keep from utter despair.
That gets it exactly right. Gilliard fought the good fight. I'm a little amazed at how much I owe to ordinary people I've never met.
Believe it or not, I hadn't seen SP's in the other thread.
40--
yeah, you know who i forgot in that list, is digby.
whether any of those people count as "ordinary people" is more than i'd care to say. but yeah, i owe them a lot.