"the hardest thing in this world is to live in it"
F.B.I. Raid Divides G.O.P. Lawmakers and White House – New York Times
I picked this up from Patrick over at Making Light, and find it sort of funny in the same watching rats jump a ship way he apparently did.
U.S. Plan to Lure Nurses May Hurt Poor Nations – New York Times
There are two really interesting things in this article: that this is a separate provision than the current immigration bill, that is being conveniently overlooked by those arguing against immigrations of all kind (“ignore the brown people – unless they’ll be my nurse!”), and this quote:
“The Filipino people will suffer because the U.S. will get all our trained nurses,” said George Cordero, president of the Philippine Nurse Association. “But what can we do?”
It’s an interesting debate, because it’s not like there’s really much the Phillipine’s can do – they can’t suddenly find the money to pay their nurses much, much more than anyone else’s salaries, just to remain competitive.
And something that most people who’re anti-immigration of all stripes don’t realize is that the reason immigrants here in the United States (legal and otherwise) live in conditions we would consider stacked upon humans is that 1) it’s not unusual compared to where they grew up and 2) they’re sending an awful lot of their money home. Many immigrants have a much stronger tie to their families and communities, and not a strong desire for a lot of the material things that we Americans seem to think is our birthright.
I stop in Ross every few weeks to look for things missing from my wardrobe, and I almost always see the same group of three Ethiopean women there, buying a hundred or more dollars of clothing each trip. One of the women – I’m guessing the only one who spoke enough English to chitchat, since she seems to always do all their talking in English – started talking to me (about something I was wearing), and I asked what I had been wondering: why are they always buying so much clothing. Turns out they’re sending most of it home to their family still in Africa; it’s one of the hottest commodities they can send.
Anyhow. Just musings.
Dr. D.A. Henderson, who helped wipe out smallpox around the world, has a little piece of advice for governments fighting bird flu — don’t use the military or police to enforce public health.
Henderson, who likes to describe how he was vaccinated thousands of times against smallpox to demonstrate the immunization’s safety to wary villagers, says it is much easier to halt epidemics by winning the trust of community leaders and making use of gossipy schoolchildren.
He is critical of parts of the U.S. national pandemic plan that call for the use of quarantine and other imposed types of enforcement should influenza or any other infectious disease bring on a pandemic.
“Never use the police or the military,” Henderson told a meeting organized by the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s Center for Biosecurity, where he works.
“Once we brought military or police in, we found many citizens retired to the woods,” Henderson told the meeting on Tuesday.
There are very few people in this world that I love, or trust, well enough that when they say “jump”, I ask without hesitating, “how high”.
DA falls into the unlimited trust category of that personal rule.
Duvet Restaurant and Lounge – Glamorous, Upscale Dining in Bed
How can you not want to eat at a restaurant where you get to eat in bed? How, I ask you, how?
It’s not nearly as expensive as I would have expected, either.
She was going to tatoo “really, must you bang on my chest?” or “Warning, I sue paramedics!” but there were too many letters. Now if only we can persuade the demographic who really need living wills to do something like this. Instead of that little bullseye that has become so popular in the small of the back, how about a little circular advance directive? Guys, instead of that barbed wire around your arms, how about a few words concerning feeding tubes. In fact just weave a little tube around that arm. That’s the ticket.