Family Portrait

One of our annual family traditions is the Christmas Portrait Sitting. We all really love it…well, ok, so my dad, my brother, my husband, my brother-in-law and the children don’t love it. After we do the typical poses – whole family, each kid’s family, the grands with the grandkids – the kids, our spouses and the grandkids do The Crazy Picture, for which we gather all the studio’s props and act like fools.

Without further ado, I give you…The 2007 Morrison Family Crazy Picture.

Friday Random Ten

This one comes to you live from Murfreesboro, Tennessee…now with more national chain stores than you can shake a stick at.

1. Do I Disappont You – Rufus Wainwright
2. You Can’t Hurt The Girl – Difford and Tilbrook
3. Vertige – Camille
4. Love Will Keep Us Together – Captain and Tennille
5. We’re All Alone – Boz Scaggs
6. Thirteen – Ben Kweller
7. Love Machine – Smokey Robinson and The Miracles
8. We Are Family – Sister Sledge
9. My Eyes Adored You – Frankie Valli
10. Detroit City – Tom Jones

Southern Comfort

I grew up in Georgia and Tennessee, and both my parents are from Alabama. So I am rather fond of Southern cooking. Soul food. Whatever you want to call it. Turnip greens and fried okra. Cornbread (made with buttermilk and no sugar), eaten warm with butter or crumbled into a bowl and mixed with buttermilk, diced raw onion and pepper. Grits – I like mine with cheese, really crisp bacon crumbled in, lots of pepper and some butter. Legumes of many varieties…black eyed peas, white beans, limas…preferably cooked with some kind of pork product. Fried catfish. Fried chicken. Fried anything. Yum.

Today, as has become typical when we visit my parents, we ate lunch at City Cafe in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Some of their menu items are just average but some are so, so good. Their cornbread sticks are just about the best cornbread I’ve ever eaten, and I have eaten alot of it. I consider myself something of a cornbread snob, actually. You can really taste the buttermilk in their recipe and the texture is exactly right – a bit crisp on the outside and not too dry or crumbly. Their other heavenly item is the rolls. Those rolls are so deliciously addictive that I ate myself sick on them during our trip here for Christmas 2003 and vowed, right there in the restaurant, that I wasn’t going to eat anything with wheat in it for the whole of 2004 (and I didn’t). They also have fantastic white beans.

On our last visit we branched out and tried Jeff’s Family Restaurant. I really liked the hot water corbread and their fried catfish was terrific. The only thing I didn’t like was the smell of the chitlins (not my thing). I am also looking forward to sampling Kleer-Vu Lunchroom on a future trip.

In Austin, the couple of Southern cooking places we’ve tried have been yummy. My mother-in-law really likes Hoover’s so we take her there occasionally. I love their fried catfish and can eat myself silly with those little sweet potato rolls. But I prefer Tony’s Southern Comfort Restaurant. The waffles are amazing. The fried potato slices on the appetizer menu come with a yummy dipping sauce (sort of chipotle mayo) that is also heaven on the chicken fried chicken. And I really liked their greens.

Anyone know of other really good soul food places in Austin? Leave recommendations in the comments. After the first of the year I, like all good Americans, will begin wrestling with the holiday weight gain, but it never hurts to have a list when I am ready for a finger-lickin’ fall from grace.

Christmas Morning: Before and After

Merry Christmas

In honor of the day, here’s one of my favorite sacred harp songs. This recording (click the song title below to hear it) is from a sing near Lockhart I went to a couple of years ago.

Sherburne
While shepherds watched their flocks by night,
All seated on the ground,
The angel of the Lord came down,
And glory shone around.
All glory be to God on high
And to the earth be peace,
Goodwill henceforth from heaven to men
Begin and never cease.

Silver Linings

Have you ever thrown yourself into something and worked really hard but failed to achieve your goal? Even if you are pretty good at handling a loss, it is The Big Suck to throw all your effort and energy into something that doesn’t pan out.

Well, I just got my hat handed to me after spending the better part of a year working my heinie off. Of course, I am bummed. On top of that, I am not satisfied that the matter in question was as thoroughly evaluated as it deserved to be. So I am REALLY bummed. But after a couple of mourning margaritas last night in honor of this turn of events, I have, at least for awhile, stopped focusing on the matter itself and started focusing instead on the positives that came out of this past year of effort.

I have learned a ton. And not just about the various issue areas that were involved. I got some fantastic experience in community organizing, starting and managing an organization, leading a team, public relations, fundraising. I learned a lot about my own management and leadership style…well, I mostly learned about the weaknesses of my style, but since I am focusing on the positive I will instead rephrase it as ‘I discovered areas for improvement in my approach to managing and leading’. I learned that I can, in fact, Do It All (although only for short periods of time and not without consequences to myself and my family).

If I have to choose the most important personal lesson from this experience, it would be that it is imperative for me to learn how to say no and place strict limits on how much I commit to beyond family and work obligations. A close second is the necessity for me to be more balanced and realistic about how much I try to accomplish overall. I have mastered The Art of Half-Assing, now I think the key to happiness is lowering my expectations.

I’ve met lots of interesting, passionate people who work hard in various ways to make the world a better place. I’ve met lots of neighbors I didn’t know before. Many, many people were extraordinarily supportive and helpful as I muddled through an unfamiliar situation. People believed in me and trusted in my abilities and leadership. I am even grateful for the people who threw stones – there’s alot to be said for trying to understand why people don’t agree with you. Not only do you stand a good chance of learning something, but we can all use regular practice exercising patience and restraint and deliberately reminding ourselves that ours isn’t the only legitimate perspective out there.

So, yeah – it sucks to take a hit. But I wouldn’t trade what I went through to get to this point. I don’t plan to do it quite the same way again, but I have a lot of really positive personal take-away.

Gingerbread Casa 2007

Holiday Yumminess

If I don’t gain twenty pounds between now and New Year’s, it won’t be for lack of trying. There will be so much holiday yumminess in my house that I should go for a run just thinking about it.

My kids’ French teacher is Moroccan and offered to make Moroccan food for a party we are having on Sunday. She’s doing a beef and chickpea dish, an eggplant dish and a beet salad. This will, of course, be on top of a variety of appetizers and desserts. I plan to make brownies, pumpkin pie and cherry tartlets. And Sock It To Me cake.

If there were any residual doubts that I have become my mother, I laid them to rest today when I baked a Sock It To Me cake. My mom used to make this all the time when I was a kid. I’ve never made one before, but I found a recipe online and went to it. From scratch, even. Its basically a regular butter cake with sour cream, and a layer of chopped pecans, cinnamon and brown sugar that bakes in the middle. Nothing earth-shaking, just solid, satisfying yumminess. And it turned out pretty well.

On Christmas Eve we’re having tamales and to go with them, I’m crockpotting beans. Plus, we have taken to baking chocolate chip cookies every Christmas Eve (for Santa, doncha know). Carb loading in anticipation of Christmas morning, right?

The meal I’m most looking forward to is Christmas dinner. My husband decided to reach into his German/Russian Mennonite background and give us all the gift of artherosclerotic deliciousness. He’s going to make “vernanika” (which is how his family butchers the word vareniki). His grandmother traditionally served it with what they call “schmantfant” — I can’t find anything exactly like it online but it is basically a heavy cream sauce made with bacon, bacon grease and ham. I like it except for the bacon, which is cooked just long enough not to oink and floats flaccidly in the sauce. We’ll also saute onion in butter and that will be the schmantfant alternative sauce. I bought some farmer’s cheese from Sasha’s Russian Market for the vernanika filling as well as some Polish sour cream (25% fat, y’all – mmmmmm!) that we’ll use in addition to the sauce. Yes, that’s right – cream or butter sauce AND ALSO high fat sour cream.  To round out the meal (as if we won’t be clogging our arteries enough already), I ordered cabbage rolls from Sasha’s. We had them once and they are really tasty.

And of course, Mike will be also be making the ever-popular “toybak” (AKA zwieback).

Friday Random Ten

Wonder how many of these I will be able to find on YouTube…

1. Treat Me Right – Pat Benatar
2. I Live – Jason Falkner
3. Feel Good Inc. – Gorillaz
4. Jukebox Hero – Foreigner
5. Habibi Ya Albi – Ihab Tawfik
6. The Fine Art of Poisoning – Jill Tracy
7. Prenzlauerberg – Beirut
8. I Heard A Rumor – Bananarama
9. Madman – The Jayhawks
10. Leve-Toi Et Rap – MC Solaar

Six out of ten – pretty good.

Covering The Uninsured in Indiana

Indiana is the first state to get federal approval to enroll low-income adults in a high-deductible health plan. The Healthy Indiana Plan is essentially a health savings account subsidized by the state, with insurance kicking in after the enrollee has reached a certain deductible. Enrollees receive up to $500 worth of preventive services that aren’t charged against their health savings account.

Even though the required enrollee contributions look low, there are concerns that many in the target population still won’t be able to afford it. In addition, the program isn’t an entitlement and thus will have a cap on enrollment. The state estimates there are 562,000 eligibles but the program is only funded to cover 130,000 of them per year. There is a buy-in option but at those income levels (22-200% federal poverty level) I wouldn’t expect the take-up rate for buy-in to be substantial. So while Indiana and CMS are touting this as a national model, I will withhold judgment until we see enrollment numbers. A program, no matter how well-constructed, isn’t successful if participation rates are too low to make a real impact on the problem you are trying to address.

On my old blog, I wrote a bit about why health savings accounts in the commercial market may be good for some individuals but are bad overall. I won’t rehash that here (since I am technically challenged and can’t open those files and at the moment don’t feel like rewriting it). What concerns me the most about using health savings accounts in Medicaid is that it is a piecemeal approach that won’t fill the entire gap (or even most of it) but because it is “doing something” it is likely to delay or supplant more effective, more comprehensive approaches.

Rethinking Africa

Our friend Chris, until recently the Associated Press’ Bureau Chief in Nairobi, has written a four-part series called “Rethinking Africa”. The first three parts (1, 2, 3) have already been released, with the fourth expected out soon.

Chris is on his way to New York to tape a segment discussing the series with (he thinks) Christiane Amanpour. Its supposed to air sometime Sunday on CNN.

Blasts From My Past

A few days ago, I heard Eddie Vedder covering the song Hard Sun and it reminded me how much I used to like the original by Indio. That, plus the fact that I’ve been copying lots of old CDs to my computer, has me thinking about songs that I used to listen to alot but have long since dropped out of heavy rotation in my house.

Oblivious (Aztec Camera). This is one of the best pop songs ever.

Don’t Stop The Dance (Bryan Ferry). I remember seeing this video as a freshman in college, at a club in Memphis on their “Modern Music Monday.”

Lorelei (Cocteau Twins). I must have played The Pink Opaque a zillion times and I still have no idea what any of the lyrics are.

The Pan Within (The Waterboys). This song is totally hot.

Moving (Kate Bush). Kate has done lots of songs I love. The Kick Inside is another of those albums that I listened to over and over while I was in college.

The Paris Match (Style Council). Je t’adore, Paul Weller. *Bisou* Je serais l’allumette qui parte ta flamme.

Pump It Up (Elvis Costello). I always liked the remix version better than the original.

Litany (Life Goes On) (Guadalcanal Diary). One of several Georgia-based bands introduced to me while I was in college in Athens.

Scarred But Smarter (Drivin’ n’ Cryin’). And another.

Holding On To The Earth (Sam Phillips). An incredible songwriter with a really interesting voice.

FDA Needs More Money and Staff

Recently I mentioned an FDA advisory board report that inspires little confidence in the agency’s regulation of drug safety (food safety too, but I was just looking at drug safety). One of the members of that board has written a report of his own, and the looks of things go from bad to worse. I highlighted the take-home in this excerpt from the introduction:

Science at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today is in a precarious position. In terms of both personnel and the money to support them, the agency is barely hanging on by its fingertips. The accumulating unfunded statutory responsibilities imposed on FDA, the extraordinary advance of scientific discoveries, the complexity of the new products and claims submitted to FDA for pre-market review and approval, the emergence of challenging safety problems, and the globalization of the industries that FDA regulates — coupled with chronic underfunding by Congress — have conspired to place demands upon the scientific base of the agency that far exceed its capacity to respond. FDA has become a paradigmatic example of the “hollow government” syndrome — an agency with expanded responsibilities, stagnant resources, and the consequent inability to implement or enforce its statutory mandates. For the reasons set forth in this report, Congress must commit to a two-year appropriations program to increase the FDA employees by 50 percent and to double the FDA funding, and then at least to maintain a fully burdened yearly cost-of-living increase of 5.8 percent across all segments of the agency. Without these resources the agency is powerless to improve its performance, will fall only further behind, and will be unable to meet either the mandates of Congress or the expectations of the American public.

He notes that unfunded mandates were a problem under Clinton as much as they are under Bush.

Regulation of food and drug safety is one of those boring things, like infrastructure maintenance, that the public rarely thinks about or demands more resources for until a crisis occurs.

Friday Random Ten

I have slowly but surely been copying all my CDs to my computer. I keep finding things I haven’t listened to since iTunes became my default way of listening to my own music, so I am excited to see what new (old) songs might pop up today…

1. Here And Now – Del Amitri
2. Can I Get Get Get – Junior Senior
3. Sunrise – Simply Red (I like the song, but this has got to be one of the worst videos ever)
4. Will I Be Married – The Jayhawks
5. Hasta La Vista Mi Amor – MC Solaar
6. Peacock Suit – Paul Weller
7. En Retard – Rachid Taha
8. Evil Woman – ELO
9. Sweet Life – Paul Davis (I don’t get people who post this kind of montage to YouTube)
10. Do Me – Bell Biv Devoe (this is a remix version, but you still get the same cheesy 80s goodness and the most hilarious line in all of music history: oooh that bootie – smack it up, flip it, rub it down, oh noooo!)

Oh, The Weather Outside Is Frightful

A gentle rain on a chilly day is nice if I can lounge around the house in something cozy and take naps and drink hot tea. Otherwise (which is to say, usually), this kind of weather is a real drag. Here’s some comfort music.

A Home – The Dixie Chicks

Above The Clouds – Paul Weller

Folk Song – The Sundays

Ghost In This House – Alison Krauss

Make It Always Be Too Late – Del Amitri

Save Me – k.d. lang

When Will I Ever Learn – Lewis Taylor

Homo Superior

I saw the news about humans evolving faster than scientists previously thought, but didn’t think much about it until I read this quote:

Study co-author Gregory M. Cochran says: “History looks more and more like a science fiction novel in which mutants repeatedly arose and displaced normal humans — sometimes quietly, by surviving starvation and disease better, sometimes as a conquering horde. And we are those mutants.”

We’re all X-Men now.

The Flynn Effect

James Flynn looked at how IQ scores from people all over the world have changed over time and found that we have gained about three points every decade – you might say people have gotten more intelligent over time.  This article mentions the Flynn effect, which I had heard of and was perplexed by until I read this.

The best way to understand why I.Q.s rise, Flynn argues, is to look at one of the most widely used I.Q. tests, the so-called WISC (for Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children). The WISC is composed of ten subtests, each of which measures a different aspect of I.Q. Flynn points out that scores in some of the categories—those measuring general knowledge, say, or vocabulary or the ability to do basic arithmetic—have risen only modestly over time. The big gains on the WISC are largely in the category known as “similarities,” where you get questions such as “In what way are ‘dogs’ and ‘rabbits’ alike?” Today, we tend to give what, for the purposes of I.Q. tests, is the right answer: dogs and rabbits are both mammals. A nineteenth-century American would have said that “you use dogs to hunt rabbits.”

 

“If the everyday world is your cognitive home, it is not natural to detach abstractions and logic and the hypothetical from their concrete referents,” Flynn writes. Our great-grandparents may have been perfectly intelligent. But they would have done poorly on I.Q. tests because they did not participate in the twentieth century’s great cognitive revolution, in which we learned to sort experience according to a new set of abstract categories. In Flynn’s phrase, we have now had to put on “scientific spectacles,” which enable us to make sense of the WISC questions about similarities. To say that Dutch I.Q. scores rose substantially between 1952 and 1982 was another way of saying that the Netherlands in 1982 was, in at least certain respects, much more cognitively demanding than the Netherlands in 1952. An I.Q., in other words, measures not so much how smart we are as how modern we are.

Now that someone has pointed it out to me, it seems so obvious. I thought this was a great example of why you have to be careful about the conclusions you draw from an IQ test:

The psychologist Michael Cole and some colleagues once gave members of the Kpelle tribe, in Liberia, a version of the WISC similarities test: they took a basket of food, tools, containers, and clothing and asked the tribesmen to sort them into appropriate categories. To the frustration of the researchers, the Kpelle chose functional pairings. They put a potato and a knife together because a knife is used to cut a potato. “A wise man could only do such-and-such,” they explained. Finally, the researchers asked, “How would a fool do it?” The tribesmen immediately re-sorted the items into the “right” categories. It can be argued that taxonomical categories are a developmental improvement—that is, that the Kpelle would be more likely to advance, technologically and scientifically, if they started to see the world that way. But to label them less intelligent than Westerners, on the basis of their performance on that test, is merely to state that they have different cognitive preferences and habits.

Creature Discomforts

The company that brought you Wallace and Gromit wants to challenge UK attitudes about disability. From the Texas ADA Coordinators’ listserv:

Leonard Cheshire is launching an advertising campaign developed by Aardman Animations, aimed at highlighting the disadvantages and discrimination experienced by people with disabilities and promoting a new way of thinking about disability. The campaign, entitled “Creature Discomforts” and modeled after Aardman Animation’s Creature Comforts series, features six animated characters, each of whom has a disability and uses a wheelchair, crutches, or a walking stick. All six of the characters are voiced by a person with a disability.

You can see the ads here.

I thought the ads were cute and easy to understand but I do have one complaint. The ads only highlighted mobility-related disabilities. It would have been nice to see a broader range of disabilities presented, such as a character who has difficulty communicating or one with a cognitive disability.

What Voters Want

We just can’t figure out what voters want when it comes to health care…blahblahblah. Come on. Its right there for you to see. As they say, if it’d been a snake it woulda already bit ya. Maggie Mahar provides the long version, but here’s the nutshell: People want to have their cake and eat it too.

Not only do most Americans want to keep what they have—they believe that, under reform, what they have should cost them less, even though they also believe that “the government” should spend more on health care.

OK, OK… some people are also worried about overall national health expenditures and the well-being of the uninsured. But there’s a lot of self-interest reflected in the polls about health care. That’s why politicians assure voters that their plan will maintain choice. Its code for ‘you will be held harmless when things change.’

We fall below the income thresholds at which Democratic presidential candidates start looking for funding for their health care plans. But I would be willing to pay more – and even forfeit some of my own health care ‘choice’ – if thats what it takes to get everyone health care. Some people can’t afford it, I know. But lots of us can.

People need to stop getting all cranky about sharing.

Docs Dissing Medicare Advantage

Some physicians have decided not to accept any patients participating in Medicare Advantage. Not because they necessarily get paid less by the Medicare Advantage plan than they would by traditional Medicare — they don’t like it that the government pays the MA plan more for that patient than it would cost to serve a patient, on average, in the traditional program.

Medicare Advantage is the managed care version of Medicare. Participants receive their Medicare benefits through a private company (an HMO, PPO or private fee-for-service plan) which typically offers a few benefits that are not part of the traditional Medicare program. The federal government spends about 11 percent more for a Medicare beneficiary to participate in Medicare Advantage. The reason for the cost difference? To encourage private plans to participate. An older version of Medicare managed care called Medicare+Choice tanked around 2002 – most of the plans pulled out because they weren’t making money. But by then we had an administration keen on privatizing government functions, so increasing payments to plans in order to get them back into the program was an idea whose time had apparently come. Et voila! The extra money going to private companies that is making those doctors mad.

Monday Music

Today I thought I would share some songs I find highly bellydanceable. I am not that into the traditional Egyptian orchestral stuff that most cabaret-style dancers use. Not that it isn’t good, just not my preference. And a drum piece is fine for dancing but I like music with my beat most of the time.

Here are three by Bellyhouse: Ghaltan, Wienak (Bellyhouse Remix), Cielo

My favorite Balkan Beat Box song is Habibi Min Zaman (track 3, if you have Rhapsody) but I also like Sunday Arak alot. I see a choreography with two dancers, drunk and trying to one-up each other.

Djinn (from Brooklyn, they bill themselves as “East Coast Tribal”) – Brooklyn Baladi

Nickodemus (also from Brooklyn)- Cleopatra in New York (Zim Zam Mix)

43 Skidoo – Ismail Oro

Natacha Atlas (former singer for Transglobal Underground) – Kidda. Also check out her cover of I Put A Spell On You.

Covering the Uninsured in Texas

Texas is pitching a plan to provide health insurance to some of the state’s uninsured through a Health Opportunity Pool (HOP). Yesterday, the Legislature’s joint Medicaid Reform Legislative Oversight Committee walked through a concept paper that provides a high-level summary of the program. If you’ve got two and a half hours to spare, you can watch a recording of the proceedings here (click on the December 6 item)

The upshot is the state would take money that currently goes to hospitals for providing uncompensated care and redirect it to private insurance premium payments for people up to 200% of the federal poverty level (FPL) who are not already covered by Medicaid, CHIP or Medicare. This would represent approximately 60 percent (2.1 million) of the state’s uninsured. The goal is to more rationally and efficiently spend the health care dollars that are already being spent on this population. Instead of paying for hospital and emergency room care, the state will ensure these folks have access to preventive and primary care.

The program is still in the conceptual stage. The state will be negotiating details with stakeholders and the federal government for awhile, although the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) indicates in the concept paper that it aims to implement the program beginning in 2009. Oh, hey, guess what else happens in 2009? That’s right – the Legislature goes back into session. And depending on how the details shake out, we may very well see more legislation about this program next session.

Greek Organizations Fight Rising Taxes

What is the public purpose being served?

Nearby neighborhood groups and the city have agreed to allow nine fraternities and sororities to disqualify their properties from development rules allowing greater heights and densities in the West Campus neighborhood in hopes that doing so will lower the nonprofits’ tax bills.

The University Neighborhood Overlay rules were approved in 2004 and intended to increase student housing by allowing developers to build more units on properties near the University of Texas campus.

A building boom ensued, and property values and property taxes in the area quickly skyrocketed.

Although the set of rules is officially an opt-in plan and the fraternities and sororities have no plans to join, the organizations think the new rules are directly responsible for their rising property taxes, because the Travis Central Appraisal District is comparing their houses to other properties that have been or might be redeveloped with greater densities.

The groups say rising taxes could force them to leave the area.

Under the agreement given initial approval by the City Council on Thursday night, a new subdistrict for group residential property owners will be created in the rules that would remove the option of developing the properties with the greater heights and densities.

The changes to the overlay rules will be made in the spring, and other group student housing organizations will be allowed to opt in.

“We don’t have any assurances that this will help, but it can’t hurt,” said Tim Aynesworth, the architect and Sigma Chi board member who has led the charge to remove the properties from the overlay rules.

The appraisal district’s Chief Appraiser Art Cory has said the district would be required to take such development restrictions into consideration during the appeals process, but there is no guarantee that opting out will lower the property values.

Any potential benefit of the change accrues to private organizations at the expense of the tax base, there is no public good being furthered that I can tell, and to top it off, there’s no guarantee that this action will achieve their goal. But the City Council OK’d it anyway?? What an incredibly bad approach to public policy.

Friday Random Ten

Today’s serendipitious selections, courtesy of the iPod gods:

1. Melt The Guns – XTC
2. Ain’t That A Kick In The Head – Dean Martin
3. Golzar – Niyaz
4. The Car Song – The Cat Empire
5. I Go Astray – Jason Falkner
6. Say I – Christina Milian
7. I’m Alive – ELO
8. Justified and Ancient – The KLF
9. Give It To Me Baby – Rick James
10. What I Say and What I Mean – The Like

Free Rice

You can help feed the world’s hungry and your inner word nerd all at the same time.

It began as a way for John Breen to help his son prepare for the SAT. Today, some 500,000 people daily visit the vocabulary-quiz website the Indiana-based computer programmer set up. And while word-game fun is part of the draw, players get an extra jolt of “feel good” joy: Every time they get an answer right, they help combat world hunger.

 

Freerice.com, which debuted in Oct­o­ber, donates 20 grains of rice to the UN World Food Program (WFP) every time a player selects the correct definition for a particular word. Paid for with advertising income, 4 billion grains have been won for the WFP so far. That’s 160 metric tons, or enough to feed 200,000 people for one day.

My stepdaughter showed me this site a few weeks ago. Each correct answer guides the program to select a word more likely to challenge you. The highest level is 50, and according to the FAQ few people score higher than 48. I noticed that once you get above about 40, it takes a few correct answers to bump up your score much but a single wrong answer drops you one or more points. I think the highest I got was 47 and then could never break it because I would miss one and all of a sudden be back at 42 or 43. Do that enough times and you start seeing the same words pop up. So I guess the trick is just to keep going since you miss but learn new words that you then see again. It would be interesting if they kept stats on both high scores and time it took to attain them.

UPDATE: Dang. I got up to 49 then missed and can’t get back over 47.

So Much For Compassion

A recent poll reflects quite poorly on American compassion:

About 46% of respondents said that immigrants should be able to get emergency medical treatment…

So it would follow that 54% think immigrants should not be able to get emergency treatment. More than half would rather let immigrants die than acknowledge their humanity by allowing public funds to be spent if needed to save their lives. And the question included both documented and undocumented immigrants.

There’s a ‘hate the sin, love the sinner’ sermon in there somewhere.

What Do You Want?

Alas, “premature and avoidable physical deterioration” strikes, throwing an otherwise wonderful relationship into a death spin. The ever-gentle Dan Savage:

[...] I answered a letter from a gay guy with a fat boyfriend. Seeking A Solution, who described himself as outgoing and athletic, wasn’t attracted to his boyfriend of three years. After describing himself as “stuck,” “struggling,” and on medication for anxiety, SAS told me I wasn’t allowed to tell him to break up with or cheat on his fat boyfriend. So I advised SAS to drink heavily and warned him that sooner or later he would sabotage this relationship in order to be with someone he was actually attracted to. Readers—mostly female readers—were outraged: Before breaking up, before cheating, before drinking heavily, couldn’t SAS try being honest? Why didn’t I tell SAS to tell his boyfriend that the weight was a turnoff and that SAS was seriously thinking about ending the relationship if the boyfriend didn’t lose those extra pounds?

As if there are two choices – end the relationship or threaten to do so in order to force the other partner to change. Making that second choice is a pretty good indicator the relationship is in trouble anyway, given that manipulation tends to alienate. There is actually a third choice that would do way more for their sex life than the partner dropping a few pounds. SAS could stop limiting the way he views desire.

There’s nothing wrong with appreciating how your partner looks or being attracted to people because of their appearance or even hooking up with a hottie. But if your relationship and your partner are important to you, there is something about them and about yourself in relationship with them and about what the two of you are together that is meaningful to you. And that stuff is what will keep you together and keep you wanting to boink each other senseless over time.

If wanting is contingent only or mostly on how your partner looks, you’ve not only given away control of your own sex drive but you’ve also locked yourself into a view of your own sexuality that is highly unlikely to satisfy you for many years.

Assuming SAS is really interested in the relationship, he first needs to confront his own limited view of desire. If he is honest with himself and really puts in the effort to work on his limitation, their sex life is likely to improve whether the scale has budged or not. Only after working on himself should he raise the weight issue with his partner – not as something that threatens the relationship but rather as an opportunity to enhance it. But if he is successful in expanding how he looks at desire, he is likely to find that the weight is no longer an issue.

UPDATE: Forgot to note where the link came from.

Don’t Start Too Early or Wait Too Long

I can’t wait to see what the fundies will say about this:

People who start having sexual intercourse when they are younger or older than the average age might be at a higher risk of developing sexual health problems later in life, according to a study published in the American Journal of Public Health, Reuters Health reports. Theo Sandfort of Columbia University and colleagues examined data from a 1996 cross-sectional survey of more than 8,000 U.S. adults. Respondents on average said they had sex for the first time at about age 17 or 18. Those who had their first sexual encounter at the average age of 14 were considered “early starters,” and those who started at age 22 or older were considered “later starters.”

 

The study found that the people who engaged in sex at a relatively young age were more likely to have some risk factors for sexually transmitted infections, including a high number of sexual partners and a history of having sex under the influence of alcohol. It also found that both early and late starters were at increased risk of complications in sexual function.

 

It is not clear from the survey why both early and late starters tend to have more sexual dysfunction, the researchers wrote. “Although our findings support an association between early initiation and long-term [STI] risk, they also suggest a more complicated picture of sexual functioning,” Sandfort and his colleagues wrote. Postponing sexual activity might “create health risks by impeding development of the emotional, cognitive and interpersonal skills that are crucial to satisfactory sexual functioning and general well-being” they added.

 

The researchers said that the findings cast some doubts on the benefits of abstinence-only sexual education that has been introduced in U.S. public schools, suggesting it might increase the risk of certain health problems. “Sexual education that is more supportive and acknowledges the diverse needs of young people might prevent the negative outcomes observed here,” they wrote (Reuters Health, 12/4).

Obviously it would be too much to hope that they might re-think the whole abstinence-til-marriage thing given their insistence upon subordinating science and evidence to religious dogma. But perhaps they will twist it around and use it to encourage kids to get married young. Most likely, they’ll ignore, downplay or attack it.

Motivational Music

Yesterday’s Statesman featured the favorite workout tunes of some local athletes. Here are some songs on my current workout playlist.

1. Favourite Shirts (Boy Meets Girl) – Haircut 100 (I like jumping rope to this one)
2. The Power – Snap!
3. Can’t Believe A Single Word – VHS or Beta
4. Miracle Medicine – Jason Falkner
5. Momma Said Knock You Out – LL Cool J
6. Cold Hard Bitch – Jet
7. Dirrty – Christina Aguilera
8. Fergalicious – Fergie
9. Tambourine – Eve
10. Hate To Say I Told You So – The Hives
11. Midnight Rendezvous – The Babys

Institutionalized

No, not the song. A couple of UT students have made a film about the politics of one type of state-sponsored institution in Texas – our state schools:

Together, the University of Texas undergraduate film students created “Forgotten Lives,” a 45-minute documentary they’re showing at college campuses around the state (there’s also a 20-minute version). Tate visited state schools in San Antonio, Austin, Denton and Abilene to tell stories such as that of Haseeb Chishty, a resident of Denton State School who was paralyzed after being beaten by one of his caretakers in 2002 (the caretaker, who pleaded guilty to injury to a disabled individual, is now in prison).

State schools provide services to people with mental retardation. ‘School’ is really a misnomer, though. These are residential institutions, more akin to nursing facilities than educational facilities. While some of the services do involve therapies and helping people learn self-care and other skills, the reason people are there is because they require custodial care (bureaucrat-speak for round-the-clock supervision and assistance with activities of daily living – ADLs).

The Amazingness of Life

Earlier this week, my 7 year old was telling me why she sometimes has trouble falling asleep at night:

“Sometimes I lay in my bed and just think about how amazing it is to be alive.”

If I Were One of Santa’s Reindeer

Well…I do enjoy getting into the holiday spirit(s).

You Are Blitzen

Always in good spirits, you’re the reindeer who loves to party down with Santa. Why You’re Naughty: You’re always blitzed on Christmas Eve, while flying! Why You’re Nice: You mix up a mean eggnog martini.

Which of Santa’s Reindeer Are You?

Thanks, Terrance.

Hatred and Hewitt’s Heinie

The more frivolous among us (cough, cough…ahem) are probably aware of the kerfuffle about the butt shot of Jennifer Love Hewitt in a bikini. But some of the comments on TMZ highlight a very serious issue. Misogyny is alive and well.

10. It looks like her butt was caught in a hail storm, or 5 pounds of chewed gum wrapped in Saran Wrap. I would still do her, don’t get me wrong. But I would humiliate her first. I would put golf balls in her ass divots. Then whack them off with a 7 iron, or maybe I’ll just whack myself off. Whichever is easier.

11. That’s good because nobody else does. Looks like she birthed 8 babies. I can’t stand her face either. She’s a fake. Guess she got old and desperate and settled for this clown. Good luck with that…NOT.

12. JLH does NOT have curves. Her A*ss is loaded with disgusting cottage cheese and lard. She needs to avoid hamburgers and shakes at McDonalds and run down the Pacific Coast Highway from top to bottom. Maybe some mountain climbing will help tone that nauseating rear end. She needs to work those glutes BIG TIME! Those pictures are GROSS. Any self-respecting female can not defend that grotesque A*ss. YUCK!

29. It’s a shame that all fat woman have to feel obligated to speak out about their body – it’s amazing how much low self esteem this curling assazoid has… that’s just to bad. Woman – get over it… from the start of time – us men like a curl with a bubble ass.. (that doesn’t mean big) look it up.. it just means with curves and that does mean.. yes, that does mean curves but with a nice and toned (but not overly toned body)…. GET OVER IT… you know what we like.. stop trying to defend your patheticism – work out, run, watch what you eat – it’s not hard.. and who likes super model bodies? I don’t get why those always refer to the waif type models… I dont’ know one man that likes those bodies either… get a clue dumb whores.. learn, live and do it. work out, eat right.. not tough.

Yeah, we dumb whores need to get a clue. We know what you like. We should know that our sole purpose in life is to be some guy’s sex toy, and if we’re not up to his standards we should just expect to be humiliated first.

What can you even say to that?? Use it as Exhibit A for those who think feminism is an unnecesary relic that belongs in the past.

Pushing Off-Label Drug Use

Before a company can bring a new drug to the market, a drug must first go through the Food and Drug Administration approval process. The pharmaceutical industry complains that the FDA process is too strict. But just last year the Institute of Medicine reported that the FDA’s drug safety monitoring was inadequate. The FDA responded by initiating some reforms earlier this year and has slowed the pace of drug approvals compared to last year. But the FDA’s own Science Board recently reported that the agency still doesn’t have the capacity needed to adequately protect the public:

A loss of scientific expertise at the Food and Drug Administration is threatening American lives, advisers to the embattled consumer protection agency conclude in a report released Friday. [...]

 

FDA Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach requested that the agency’s Science Board, his own outside advisers, probe the problems.

 

The Science Board subcommittee given the task was blunt: “In contrast to previous reviews that warned crises would arise if funding issues were not addressed, recent events and our findings indicate that some of those crises are now realities and American lives are at risk.” [...]

 

Congress has enacted 125 statutes giving the FDA new or expanded responsibilities since 1988, without enough funding to cover the extra work, the report said. The FDA has about the same number of employees today as 15 years ago, and its budget has lost the equivalent of $300 million to inflation.

 

At the same time, increasingly sophisticated scientific expertise is required to oversee increasingly complex medical therapies and imported foods. The report found FDA is unable to recruit and retain leading-edge scientists in key areas and now has a turnover rate twice that of other government agencies.

 

The report cites an Institute of Medicine estimate that the $1.8 billion FDA budget needs a boost of at least $350 million to address drug safety[.]

It is troubling that the agency regulating drug safety isn’t sufficiently up to the task. Also troubling is the agency’s apparent interest in promoting off-label uses. An off-label use is a use of an FDA-approved drug for which the FDA did not review safety and efficacy. As most of us know, plenty of drugs are prescribed for off-label uses. However, companies aren’t allowed to market unapproved uses.

Texas Education Agency Firing

12/7/07 UPDATE: Someone who is close to this situation reminded me that the media seldom provides a complete picture of events. My own experience with the press, particularly over the last year, certainly confirms that perspective. It is possible that media reports haven’t provided enough detail for me to make a fair assessment of Lizzette’s role in this matter. I know the liberal blogosphere is unlikely to be particularly concerned with the details in light of the end result. Comer shouldn’t have been fired and the concerns about science education her firing raises are legitimate. But upon further reflection, I am willing to withhold judgment of Lizzette’s action in this case given that the media reports may not be complete or completely accurate.

As I read the Statesman editorial yesterday about the TEA science curriculum director who was fired, my first reaction was to sigh in frustration – yet another infuriating example of a Republican-led government promoting a religious belief.

Then I noticed the name of the TEA advisor who recommended the firing. Lizzette Reynolds? I looked up from the paper and asked my husband – That couldn’t possibly be Lizzette Gonzales, could it? Actually, it is, he said. She married So-and-So Reynolds and they’ve moved back to Texas.

I knew Lizzette back when she was working for then-Governor Bush and I was working for a state senator. I really liked her – she was smart, funny…and didn’t strike me at all as a Republican true-believer, just someone doing their job.

Which isn’t that unusual. There are people who wouldn’t even consider working for an elected official of the other party, but there are lots and lots who just enjoy political or policy work and will take a job for the job, not the political affiliation of whomever they or their boss or their boss’s boss (etc) ultimately reports to. Technically speaking, I worked for Bush too, since he was Governor for most of the time I worked in a state agency. But I, like countless others not on the top couple of rungs, didn’t perceive my job as ‘working for Bush’. I actually perceived more impact from legislation than from Governor fiat, although certainly that would be different for the head of an agency. And even though I disagreed with the policy direction of some of the legislation my agency had to implement (or, more importantly, with the budget priorities put in place by the Legislature), I viewed my role to some degree as trying to make lemonade out of the lemons the agency was handed. Much of my work pertained to Medicaid services for people who are elderly and have disabilities, so it was a question of doing the most good for those people as possibly within the constraints imposed by the budget and legislation.

Anyway, the point is that people don’t necessarily buy into the ideology of the person at the top of their chain of command, so to speak. And Lizzette was someone I would have pegged in that way. In fact, you could look at her action in this case that way. Part of her job is to make sure the agency stays in the good graces of the Governor and legislative leadership (which every agency strives to do, obviously). After all, they are the ultimate ‘bosses’ of the agencies. Part of doing that in Texas, apparently, is playing to the ultraconservatives who support intelligent design.

However, Comer wasn’t setting or implementing agency policy with that email. Sending out a notice of a lecture whose content conflicts with someone’s religious beliefs cannot reasonably be construed as undermining agency policy, unless squelching any mention of evolution is in fact agency policy, which obviously is the big issue raised in all of this. What Lizzette did is an explicit endorsement of a religion-over-science policy. And to me, she’s crossed the (admittedly fine) line between just doing her job and actively pushing the ideology.

And as strange as it probably sounds, I still sort of have a hard time believing she could have done that. Maybe I’m just not good at reading people.