Sunday, June 14, 2009

Protests Flare in Tehran as Opposition Disputes Vote

That's the headline on the lead story in The Times today. Oddly,it seems to me this is how a free people react to a stolen election. Will they settle down and "get over it"? Probably they'll be forced to by the authorities, but at least they'll remember that their votes were taken from them. In the past, we've felt superior to voting riots in places like Iran. Anymore,not so much. Americans simply laid down and let the vote stealers have the White House. And look what happened. Really I'm not sure which way is better, as long as the Army follows the powers that be and not the people. And I'm not sure an Army that thinks for itself is the best solution. Especially with all the arms our population has.

Sunday, June 7, 2009

How can this be?

I see that Obama has appointed some woman to HHS' Office of Faith-based Initiatives who is not only anti-choice but anti-birth control. I'm at a loss to even respond to this, which supposedly is to help us all achieve some absurd notion of Common Ground. As far as I'm concerned, the choice position is common ground. Women get to CHOOSE what they want to do with their bodies--they want a child, fine; they want an abortion, fine. Who else's business is it? I never feel this is put clearly enough: Pregnancy is a unique condition calling for unique response. A living thing grows inside another living thing; it can't live w/o that container but that container is just as alive and much more independent than the foetus, so obviously the "mother" has first priority. I know these anti-choice people do understand the point; they just prefer to ignore it so they can have control over women. I would expect all of us to lose our marbles one of these days over these outrageous anti-choice people and just fall to the ground kicking and screaming, frothing at the mouth and screaming What the F do they want? But Obama, appointing such a woman... I'm speechless and frothing at the mouth simultaneously.

The Health Industry

Why in god's name we the people of the United States should be forced to continue supporting the health insurance companies and their stockholders, I do not understand. How can they expect that? Capitalism, fine (I guess), but this monumental greed is not supportable. Life and death issues should not be subject to the profit motive. But another story in the Times inspires me to wonder, why can't people just kill themselves when they get very old and sick? Their aging children absolutely ruin their own lives taking care of their parents, whose lives are not exactly fun either. Maybe there should be some public option for people like this but I'm betting a lot of them wouldn't go to a nursing home of any kind anyway. I do understand this death option would have to be a bit sub rosa, but couldn't it be made a little bit easier? I know no one wants to talk about it publicly, but we all talk about it privately all the time, it seems to me, after we reach un certain age, no?