The New York Times is a whited sepulcher

Why hasn't the Times printed the cartoons about Mohammed that Charlie Hebdo's staff was killed for? The Guardian managed to do it, yesterday. Apparently the Times can editorialize on the subject and write about it, but is unable to print the cartoons. Who has been cowed into submission here? The Grey Lady, obviously. And an abject sight it is.

So absurd

Spare me, please, the columns about personal experiences of aging that begin, "I've just turned fifty." Turn at least 75, Frank Bruni, before you attempt to qualify to talk about the last part of life. (This refers to his column yesterday in The Times.)

While my son tells me that 85 is what you have to attain before you're "really old," I believe that only accounts for the extraordinary among us. I noticed old age when I reached 75 and obviously some of us, like Frank Bruni, notice it way earlier.

It's not that I can't still get around and enjoy myself, it's more like what John Cleese said on the Jon Stewart show, "I don't care anymore".

Thoughts for a Not-So-Sunshiney Morning

Remember: "Behind the carefully maintained façade of “gridlock,”  the two parties work in lockstep to implement the ruling class’s agenda of war, austerity and the gutting of democratic rights." (The quote is from the World Socialist Web Site.)

So don't worry. It's just business as usual.

McDonald's Denmark spokesperson: “We don’t want there to be a big difference between the richest and poorest, because poor people would just get really poor,” Mr. Drescher added. “We don’t want people living on the streets. If that happens, we consider that we as a society have failed.”

In Denmark, McDonald's employees earn $20 an hour; their cost of living is higher, but not by THAT much.

Somehow it has just come to my attention that Michael Brown was killed for WALKING DOWN THE MIDDLE OF THE STREET (not on the sidewalk). Is that possible? Jesus.

LETTER TO THE TIMES:
Your pages are full of Ebola coverage, but to my mind, you're not covering the real question: given our much-vaunted healthcare system, how is it possible that this hospital in Dallas sent the Ebola patient home, even after he told them he'd just come from West Africa? It boggles the mind, and also recalls Rick Perry's lapse in the presidential debates, except the hospital only had to remember ONE thing: West Africa is where there's an Ebola epidemic. Oh maybe a second thing, too: Ebola is a grave, contagious illness that can kill people, innocent people. Is this an example of how our splendid health system works?


Maybe, just maybe we need to stop spending money on war and spend it on education and other human services. If ANYONE in that hospital knew the prospective patient had just come from West Africa and didn't know that he should stay in the hospital, under quarantine, there's something very very wrong with that hospital, our system, the entire country.

Here's an extremely important comment on a touching story in the Times today about a woman trying to save her dying father (it's from MGdoc of Oklahoma City):


There's an extremely strong cognitive disconnect running through this story that the writer, Mr Andrey's daughter and most of the comments fail to realize. Mr. Andrey was ALWAYS dying. 90 year old Alzheimers patients falling from weakness and unable to care for themselves are terminally ill. No amount of physical therapy, rehab, nursing home care etc could change that. For this sort of patient, nursing homes are just warehouses holding them until they complete the dying process. While the bedsores, malnutrition etc alleged in the article are horrifying, repeatedly taking a terminally ill patient to the hospital, repeatedly treating sepsis, having emergency surgery for somebody who is about to die despite surgery is a CHOICE. Both the patient and his daughter wanted him to keep on living, but weren't willing to accept the consequences of that decision. Mr. Andrey could have gone home, and stayed home, and died at home. Instead, he kept going back to the hospital, over and over. THAT's the real tragedy here; that he was dying and a slow agonizing death was chosen instead of realizing that death was inevitable and that death at home, without medical intervention was an acceptable alternative.