Suffering

Howard County Executive Ken Ulman had successful surgery early Friday to cauterize what was termed "an arterial bleed in his septum," according to a statement from his spokesman, Kevin Enright. Dr. Domenick Coletti performed the surgery, and Enright said Ulman was "alert and talking." The executive was expected to be released Saturday from Howard County General Hospital. "The Ulmans truly appreciate the numerous calls, e-mails and well-wishes that have come their way during this time," Enright said.

It has been a rough week or so for the Obama administration. From Benghazi to the tapping of reporters' phones to the IRS admitting that it targeted conservative groups for extra scrutiny, the press is in a frenzy, and many are questioning President Barack Obama's future. If the president does not soon regain control of the narrative, he is likely to suffer the same fate as his predecessor - a collapse in public confidence and a vastly diminished second term. To understand President Obama's situation, we need to explore a little presidential theory and some recent presidential history.

WASHINGTON -- Balkan savagery is forcing Americans to think through a moral dilemma that brings to mind one of the great comic figures of English fiction -- Mrs. Jellyby in Charles Dickens' ''Bleak House.''She makes a brief but telling appearance in a brilliant essay soon to be published in The National Interest quarterly.The essay is ''Compassion and the Globalization of the Spectacle of Suffering,'' by Clifford Orwin of the University of Toronto.Mrs. Jellyby was the ditzy do-gooder who practiced ''telescopic philanthropy.

The one thing Navy could always count on from its women's lacrosse team was a high-powered offense. On Sunday, that offense seemed to run out of gas. The Midshipmen saw their season end with a thud in the NCAA tournament's second round with a resounding 10-5 loss to Duke at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. After taking a 4-2 lead, the Mids (19-2) gave up seven unanswered goals. The story, however, was the Duke defense. The Blue Devils (14-5) constantly harassed Navy's offensive quartet of Jasmine DePompeo, Aimee Gennaro, Kathy Young and Jill Coughlin, and the frustration became evident.

While chatting with a young audience on MTV, President Clinton was asked about the deep sense of "emptiness" that so many youths feel in their lives.The president responded with an upbeat pep talk, urging young people to shun cynicism and look to a brighter future.It will take more than pep talks and inspirational slogans to cure the widespread emotional blahs that allegedly afflict millions of young Americans.Because of the seriousness of this problem, I recently discussed with Dr. I.M. Kookie, the world-renowned expert on lots of stuff.

FEW CAUSES or crusades have such universal support as medicine's war against suffering. None of us wants to be sick or to be in pain. Most people do not want to die. Yet we rarely ask when enough is enough in waging that war.At the extreme, almost everyone deplores the end-of-life killings allegedly confessed to, though later denied, by a respiratory therapist at Glendale Adventist Medical Center in Glendale, Calif.Let us assume, kindly, that such killings occur when the killer cannot bear watching people die miserably.

BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA- This Christmas, Argentine newspapers carried melancholy letters from children asking why their parents told them not to write a wish list. "Somebody stole my Christmas and somebody robbed me of my illusions of an extra dose of happiness," 14-year-old Ariel Minglanesio wrote to the newspaper La Prensa. "I want to know why my mother decided not to put up a Christmas tree this year. Tell me the names of those responsible so someone can punish them." In this moody city where the sounds of tango float into the street from waterfront bars, many Buenos Aires residents believe the thieves who stole Christmas were politicians in elegant Italian suits.

MARATHON, Fla. -- Loggerhead sea turtles in the Florida Keys are suffering -- and in some cases dying -- from a mysterious illness that has marine experts and scientists searching for answers before record numbers of the endangered animal are lost. In the past six weeks, 11 adult loggerhead turtles have been rescued after being found floating near death in waters off the Keys. Four loggerheads were recently found with similar symptoms along Florida's east and west coasts, and dozens of floating turtles have been spotted by local boaters but have gone unsaved.

A once-exiled South African political activist said she will use her own experiences with suffering to understand better the suffering of others, such as AIDS victims and substance abusers.Mankekolo Mahlangu-Ngcobo spoke Friday on what she called a "happy day" as she was ordained a deacon in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Ms. Mahlangu-Ngcobo fled South Africa in 1980 after she was exiled for taking part in political uprisings. She returned to South Africa for a visit last year.She is now assistant pastor at Bethel A.M.E.

POOLESVILLE - Nam Gyal has work to do under the gaze of more than 1,000 Buddhas. The tall man in maroon robes takes his time in the still of night emptying 204 identical brass water bowls, one by one, into a plastic bucket - all the while praying, praying, praying. It is nearing 2 a.m., the beginning of a new day in an unbroken string of days: more than 19 years of nonstop prayer, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, conducted by members of Kunzang Palyul Choling, a Tibetan Buddhist temple in western Montgomery County.

A Baltimore City police officer was taken to a local hospital for smoke inhalation after he attempted to alert residents about a two-alarm fire in the Bolton Hill neighborhood Saturday afternoon. Fire department spokesman Capt. Roman Clark said the officer suffered minor injuries. He was treated at the scene and transported to the hospital as a precautionary measure. The blaze in the 1800 block of Eutaw Place began around 2:30 p.m. and was placed under control about two hours later, he said.

A two-alarm fire in Remington Wednesday night did not damage any of the artwork in the Open Space gallery, tenant Max Guy said on Thursday afternoon. Organizers, with community help, were moving the artwork into storage Thursday. Guy is the curator of "Solitary Stones on a Rocky Shore," which was scheduled to debut at Open Space on Friday. The Open Space website describes "Solitary Stones" as "large-scale graphite drawings and monumental concrete sculpture by Miranda Pfeiffer and Ledelle Moe. " Guy says the exhibition has been postponed until further notice.

Former Baltimorean Katherine Bouton abruptly lost the hearing in her left ear at age 30. One minute she could hear, and the next, she could not. Over the decades, her impairment worsened. By the time she was 60, she was functionally deaf. But her reluctance to disclose her ailment only increased. And who can blame her? She worked in a highly competitive environment, as a senior editor at The New York Times. In retrospect, Bouton says, remaining silent was a mistake; her hearing impairment contributed to her abrupt departure after 22 years at the newspaper.

Washington College got an emotional lift from last Wednesday's 7-6 decision over then-No. 5 and reigning national champion Salisbury. Now coach Jeff Shirk acknowledged that the team may have been too high. The Shoremen stumbled their way to an 8-1 deficit in the first half of an eventual 14-6 loss to then-unranked and Centennial Conference foe Gettysburg last Saturday - an outcome that dropped the team to fourth place in the league and put it at risk of missing the conference tournament.

Constipation hits everybody at some point. The uncomfortable condition can be caused by many things, including a bad diet and dehydration. Dr. Vaibhav A. Parekh, director of Medstar Harbor Primary Care, talks about how to prevent and treat constipation, and how to tell if it's a sign of more serious health problems. What are signs that you are constipated? What is a normal number of bowel movements? Common signs of constipation include straining during a bowel movement, hard bowel movement and a sensation of incomplete emptying after a bowel movement.

Eight people were shot in six incidents in Baltimore on Wednesday night and early Thursday morning and all were expected to survive. The shootings all occurred within an almost eight hour period that stretched from dinnertime Wednesday until just after 2 a.m. The first reported shooting occurred about 6:30 p.m. in the 800 block of Arnold Court, close to the Kennedy Krieger Institute in East Baltimore. In that case, the man was shot multiple times. The second incident was in the 2500 block of Loyola Northway in the Greenspring neighborhood at 8:51 p.m., where police said two people were shot: A 20-year-old man in the left foot and a 19-year-old in the chest.

The public nature of Pope John Paul II's suffering - from the trembling of his hands brought on by Parkinson's disease to his final appearance at St. Peter's Square last week, when he tried tobut could not speak - was an extended lesson in the dignity and value of the lives of the most frail among us, theologians say. The pontiff did not hide his many ailments as he grew more infirm. Though his speech was slurred and his head often slumped to his chest because of the Parkinson's, he appeared in public frequently and rejected seclusion.

It all started when Veronica Matricardi spun in her wheelchair in the middle of the stage and yelled, "I'm back, I'm back!" It was June and she had just seen a show at the Colonial Players theater house in Annapolis. Other audience members were filing out, but not Matricardi. She longed to experience the joy of being onstage again. She didn't have to wait long. Joe Thompson, director of Colonial Players' Cabaret for Kids, was there and invited Matricardi to join the cast. "My dream has been to become an actor again," said Matricardi, who in 1979 as a teen-ager performed in a Colonial Players production of Rumpelstiltskin before suffering a stroke the next year.

Stevenson is dealing with two losses: Tuesday night's 14-13 overtime setback to Roanoke and a shoulder injury to starting goalkeeper Dimitri Pecunes. Coach Paul Cantabene said Wednesday morning that the freshman suffered a sprained AC joint when he was tackled from behind on a clear attempt in the first quarter and fell on his shoulder. Cantabene said Pecunes is expected to be sidelined for at least one week and possibly as many as three. “So we don't know when we're going to get him back,” Cantabene said.

A motorcycle driver was killed and a passenger suffered life-threatening injuries on Sunday evening in a crash on Veterans Highway at Benfield Boulevard in Millersville, Anne Arundel County Police said on Monday. In a statement, police said that at approximately 9:09 p.m., on Sunday, officers from the Eastern District responded to a serious motorcycle crash. Police said that its preliminary investigation revealed that a 2008 Harley-Davidson motorcycle with two riders crashed after striking a cement median on southbound Veterans Highway.