25 questions
When I started reading this list of questions, some of them initially struck me as naive. I don't know why I had that initial reaction, because thought about them some more and most of them strike me as damned good questions.
Not the end of Iraq combat operations
As spelled out by Antiwar.com, the Obama Administration is spinning furiously to convince us that the U.S. military is no longer conducting "combat operations" in Iraq, and the corporate media is eating it up. Since there is no more "combat" in Iraq, let's have a parade in downtown Baghdad!
Alzheimer’s Fears
Today would be the anniversary of my mother's birthday, but she's been dead for some time now. Alzheimer's killed her. She lost the ability to swallow, so she couldn't eat or drink. Since she had left an advance health care directive that no feeding tubes would be used, essentially she starved to death. She was only 66. Mom was diagnosed with the disease when she was 52. She'd been having troubles for a good while before that, so hers was a very early onset. You lose people twice when they have Alzheimer's: once when their mind goes and they are no longer themselves, and then when the body finally dies. Early onset Alzheimer's may be genetic, and even dominant, according to a number of studies, such as this one. There are lots more studies, but many are very technical and not worthwhile to link here. Essentially, some forms of early Alzheimer's are inherited about 25% of the time. So my siblings and I have a big shadow lurking: which one of the four of us will be the one that develops the disease?
Rapture Leaves Pets Behind
Why didn't I think of this? Someone has gone into the business of insuring that your pets will be cared for when the Rapture comes and your loving pets are left behind? One such company is here. For the small price of $110, a group of "dedicated animal lovers and atheists" will agree to care for your pet if you are taken to the heavens sometime within the next ten years. I assume you could renew the contract upon payment of more money if your pet is still alive and you have not been taken by Jesus. If you simply DIE, the contract does not apply. Apparently these animal lovers will only go so far. If you die, and your dog is left homeless, the dog is on its own.
Arianna Huffington pushes Hope 2.0
Arianna Huffington had people in me in mind when she wrote this post acknowledging that many progressives are sorely disappointed with Barack Obama. She suggests that the problem stems from his pragmatist temperament:
I get that the progressives, and the activists, and the young people who voted for the first time, and the disillusioned voters who returned to the polls in '08, feel slighted by the president. You thought you had a special connection with him, but it turns out he'd rather hang out with Larry Summers, flirt with Olympia Snowe, or play war games late into the night with David Petraeus. Face it: he just isn't that into you. But, in the end, it doesn't matter where the president's heart is -- it matters what he does. LBJ wasn't that into the National Voting Rights Act until Martin Luther King and the Selma march pushed him into it. If Obama is going to do the right thing for America's middle class by sticking to his promise to start winding down (for real) the war in Afghanistan in July 2011, and by prioritizing jobs over the long-term deficit, the passion is going to have to come from outside the White House.