Back in 1979, Jimmy Carter did the proper, humane thing and

let our old friend the ousted Shah of Iran into the US for cancer treatment. This led to the Iran Hostage Crisis and eventually to the election of Ronald Reagan.


It may seem that getting involved in Syria is the only honorable and humane thing to do, but these things rarely turn out to our benefit!

The best path forward on Syria - Obama steps up and says the situation has changed since his

"red line" statement. Since the will of the Syrian people is unclear, the US will stay out of it.

Edit: this is my proposal, not a report on an actual statement. I think that Obama would take some heat, but better that than a war!

Even better : Obama steps up and says the situation has changed, that will of the Syrian people is unclear, as is the will of the American people!

None of my children had measles, mumps or rubella -

I have six kids, ages 22 to 33. I was reading about vaccinations, and tried to recall when my kids had had the mumps - only to realize that they never did! I had all three and recall how sick I was with mumps and measles. In one generation, a childhood rite of passage is gone and forgotten!

Good! Thank you Mr. Hilleman !

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Hilleman

I just wish the chicken pox vaccine had come along soon enough for them.


I'm expecting my first grandchild soon. My daughter has informed everyone that no one gets near the baby without a Tdap booster. My daughter is pretty smart!

Between the ongoing ( and apparently forgotten) sequester and the probable upcoming

refusal to raise the debt limit, how close are we to seeing the republican ideal of no government? If the press is paying any attention to either issue these days, I haven't seen it.

I am a died-in-the-wool old fuddy-duddy, and i don't get all the fuss over Miley Cyrus.

Did she make any movements that haven't been seen a dozen times before from other stars? The bikini she wore was considerably more modest than some I've seen.

Her hair style was unflattering, and the teddy bear motif a bit creepy, but all in all, what I've seen has been the norm for the music industry for years and years.

Questions about the Health care exchanges :

Is there a difference between company "A"s Gold plan and company "B"s Gold plan?

Do all the doctors, hospitals, etc who accept company A also accept company B?

Why would someone pay more for company A over company B?

An excellent article in the AUG 26 issue of the New Yorker:

What's Wrong with Me? - Meghan O'Rourke

Quite seriously, assuming she meets the standard criteria,

wouldn't the Army's failure to provide hormones and surgeries to Manning be a failure to provide normal and routine medical care? Her needs are somewhere between risk of immanent death and cosmetic, but I think they are more toward the serious end of that spectrum. For example, if a prisoner is morbidly obese, would the Army deny that person bariatric surgery?

For another comparison, prison systems seem to be more than willing to sterilize prisoners with or without consent!

Suppose the US has decided to intervene in Syria

For comparison: "Ultimately, Calley served only three and a half years of house arrest in his

quarters at Fort Benning"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Calley

Calley was in fact a convicted was criminal.