Wednesday Reads
Posted: April 4, 2012 Filed under: just because 34 Comments
Good morning, news junkies! I’m filling in for Minkoff Minx this morning since she’s going in for the big surgery today (and sending her big big hugs!)
Perusing memeorandum just now, I found headlines like, “Fox’s Heather Childers Tweets: Did Obama Campaign Threaten To Kill Chelsea Clinton?” Let’s just say that I am particularly unimpressed with the latest “buzz.” So, I’m going to highlight a few stories that have garnered less attention but definitely caught mine over the past few days:
So what exactly are we supposed to do about this? Well, mainly just be informed, which is medicalese for “be freaked out with no way to help yourself.” It’s clearly a problem, but there is no clear solution. If you take a more macro view, theoretically we ought to stop screening women so early (unless they have a family history of breast cancer), and we ought to be less aggressive in treating certain breast cancers. But that idea obviously becomes problematic when you try to practice caution on any given individual.
- This next one is a story here in Houston that started out ‘maddening’ and has taken a turn for ‘inspiring’ in a power-to-the-people sort of way… From my local ABC affiliate… Homeless feeding ordinance protestors stage ‘feed-in’ in front of Houston City Hall [abc13.com]:
HOUSTON (KTRK) — A proposal to regulate the way Houstonians feed the homeless has sparked a backlash among homeless advocates.
The city of Houston is scheduled to vote on the ordnance on Wednesday. It’s already been watered down since it was first introduced but some people are still unhappy and that’s why they protested on Tuesday.
In front of City Hall Tuesday, the homeless lined up for lunch. Sponsors called it a “feed-in” to protest a proposed ordinance that would regulate homeless feedings.
- I love this magazine (and I know Dr. Dakinikat does too!), so this last one warmed my heart… Anthropologists love Scientific American [SciAm]:
Claude Lévi-Strauss, one of the founders of Anthropology, said, among else, this in his 1977 Massey Lecture:
Let me start with a personal confession. There is a magazine which I read faithfully each month from the first line to the last, even though I don’t understand all of it; it is the Scientific American. I am extremely eager to be as informed as possible of everything that takes place in modern science and its new developments.
Alright, I’m keeping it super short today because the kitties will NOT let me type. They want their cuddles and their breakfast (wet food for all the wet-food-for-cat enthusiasts out there!) So please help a Wonk out and share your reads+rants in the comments, y’all. And, have a terrific Wednesday!
peej
Carissa
bostonboomer
ecocatwoman
mablue2
Mama Lopez
peggysue22
quixote
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
Martin Sheen for Obama and Medicare…
Oh and an update on Lily-kitty: I got her to eat her dental treats yesterday! My week = made 😉
Yay 🙂
good. 🙂
{applause}
Healing thoughts going out to Mink!
The GOP to the American People: “You’re on your own”.
The DNC needs to promote that statement into every discussion between now and November because this is the truth of what they stand for.
Those GOP debates that showed an audience applauding the death penalty, their approval of withholding medical treatment, and the booing of a gay soldier serving his country, is what they are actually all about.
GOP debates? I thought those were political vaudeville acts… 😉
vaudeville was supposed to be funny. those things, whatever, were not funny.
I laughed a lot… but then I guess the stuff I was laughing at was unintentional comedy…
Al Madrigal’s segment on The Daily Show with the Tucson school board member shocked me. I had no idea just how big the issue was nor had I heard anything about the incidents that had preceded it. In case anyone else was ax clueless as I was, Alternet has this piece: http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2012/04/03/after-daily-show-embarrassment-will-disgraced-tucson-school-board-member-finally-resign-tonight-video/
And the tragedy & cruelty of horse racing caught my attention with this story on Here & Now yesterday: http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2012/04/03/horse-racing-death I’m glad attention is finally being paid to horse racing because it’s gotten a pass for so many years.
It also disgusts me the way some animal breeders exploit animals. Breeding in unhealthy traits deliberately is abuse IMO. Breeders of all stripes should be carefully regulated.
I feed my kitteh herd every morning and evening with a tablespoon or two of wet food. They get kibble all the time. I have so many fur babies I buy it by the case and in 17lb. bags…
Sending positive thoughts and wishes out to Minx today!
I have a herd of my own. Mine were all rescued off the streets & are spayed/neutered. They make life worthwhile.
🙂
Thanks for the links, Connie! Going to check them out.
Best of luck, Mink!
You really are a Sweet Sue 🙂
Romney surrogate says women will learn about Romney’s “real views” during the general election campaign.
http://thinkprogress.org/special/2012/04/03/457756/romney-general-election-womenreal-views/?mobile=nc
“etch-a-sketch” again. How pathetic.
O RLY? I bet his real views are to tie them to the roof of the car and continue on roadtrip…
And firing people is fun and corporations are people too.
Colbert apologizes to bovine transgender community for pink slime line
🙂
ROFL… “Colbology… we’re still working on the name… I’ve never made a mistake before.” This is exactly why Stephen Colbert is my TV boyfriend. 😉
I have often thought breast cancer was over diagnosed especially when they are dealing with cells not a lump. But then I think doctors are often wrong, you should hear the stories I could tell you about doctors and my daughter. Many years ago she was born with birth defects and their default position about that is telling the parents that the child will not live long. They do this to cover their rear ends in case the child does die. But she actually had very few health problems and is as healthy as a horse, and has a long life ahead of her. But I could tell a ton of stories about their idiocy.
I’m sorry about your experience with the medical community/health-insurance-industrial-complex — but I’m glad your daughter is doing well!
Janey, sorry to hear what you went through back then after the birth of your daughter. No one in medicine should prognosticate about life expectancy in exact terms. There are too many unknowns.
From what I hear from friends in NICUs, the situation has reversed itself over the last couple of decades, with overly rosy optimism and aggressive interventions. That’s not always good either.
Wow, we’re going all the way back to the Scopes Monkey trial days…
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/04/04/457312/anti-evolution-monkey-bill-poised-to-become-law-in-tennessee/
That is sad.
That reminds me how far we’ve fallen from the time Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan argued the Scopes case to now, where fat ass Nino spouts tea party slogans from the bench of the Supreme Court. That’s damn depressing.
Actually, the law and whatever mental midgets passed it are even more depressing.
Best wishes to Minx for an uneventful surgery and a fast recovery. And plenty of time for a leisurely, comfortable return to everyday life (and blogging).
Raise your hand if you think Ann Romney understands the concerns of most women.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/burns-haberman/2012/04/romney-says-his-wife-reports-to-me-regularly-on-concerns-119619.html
Beuller? Anyone?
thinking and sending good thoughts. Best of luck, Minx! 🙂
Trump not to be bested by James Cameron’s dive into the Marianna Trench. He plumbs the depths in the press: http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2012/04/04/457989/top-romney-surrogate-donald-trump-offers-to-expose-his-very-very-impressive-genitals/ Donald, oh Donald – no one is interested in you or your junk.
“Impressive” to whom? Himself, maybe. What a snool he is. Everyone else has far more important things to worry about.