Was that a sneeze?
I have friends who are struggling with rising health care costs. My insurance costs just went up, too. I listen to the stories on NPR (& try to absorb all the nuances of the discussion), and I just get frustrated. I can't say that it's evil to have a prescription drug benefit for the elderly, but hey, there are kids who don't have access to the most basic care! Here's the big question: how much should the government take care of us? Should we all get government-paid preventative care coverage (physicals, shots, annual gyn, annual prostate) and then pay out of our own pockets for extras? Then we could buy insurance to cover the extras? I just don't see how the "system" can be fixed. There's only so much money available. And as soon as we start giving the government more responsibility for our lives, we have to give up some of our autonomy. What's the tipping point?
- posted by Chris @ 11:52 AM

 
One reason the peace is harder than the war:
Iraqi Family Ties Complicate American Efforts for Change: "Americans just don't understand what a different world Iraq is because of these highly unusual cousin marriages,' said Robin Fox of Rutgers University, the author of 'Kinship and Marriage,' a widely used anthropology textbook. 'Liberal democracy is based on the Western idea of autonomous individuals committed to a public good, but that's not how members of these tight and bounded kin groups see the world. Their world is divided into two groups: kin and strangers.'"

The author of the article goes on to point out that the post WWII experience of Germany and Japan can't be repeated in Iraq. Those countries were "ready" for democracy: they had an underlying culture that could accept the overlay of a government based on law, not kinship. We're going to run into this throughout the Middle East. If you think Iraq is difficult, just wait until we get to Saudi Arabia.
- posted by Chris @ 2:28 PM

 
A little more of the good stuff, please
Talked to a fellow Blogger blogger yesterday. She was all over this process, and has really taken to the format. I feel like a lost (pre-millennium) computer soul. I've been out of the Microsoft loop for sooooo long now, and I just haven't kept up with the technology. Lots to learn!
- posted by Chris @ 1:59 PM

 
New attempt at blogging. I was taking myself WAY too seriously. I do think seriously, and rather a lot, but I don't want to be bored when I visit my own site!
- posted by Chris @ 1:54 PM