Jester's Musings and Missives

An Explanation of the Credit Crisis for Non-Financial Wizards

This isa terrific explanation of the credit crisis.  Love the visualization!

The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

Now Playing in Your Hometown!

And so it begins...

~Thanks to AmericaBlog for posting the YouTube video

To Spite their Faith...

Catholic Charities is building a just and compassionate society rooted in the dignity of all people. - Catholic Charities Archdiocese of Boston

Apparently, the Archdiocese of Boston doesn’t really mean “all” people.  Perhaps they should modify their tagline to read “all people who meet our bigoted standards.”

Pondering Poverty

On Sunday, I watched Meet the Press with Tim Russert.  While discussing race relations in America, Marian Wright Edelman spoke eloquently about the Martin Luther King, Jr. legacy – how far we’ve come and how much further we have to go. 

In addition to race relations, Ms. Edelman and her fellow guests discussed the issue of poverty in America.  Their all-too-brief conversation stressed how education is critical to changing poor people’s fortunes.  It opens minds and doors.  It wasn’t groundbreaking thinking, but it certainly was refreshing to hear the topic being discussed on national TV. 

Review: Country Boys

I just had to share how much I loved the recent Frontline documentary, Country Boys, by director David Sutherland.  It’s a powerful story about two young men in Kentucky trying to improve their lives in extremely challenging environments.  The movie’s three 2-hour segments topics cover family dysfunction, poverty, drugs, alcoholism, violence, and how hope and hard work occasionally prevail.

This documentary is excellent; a really interesting story tracking two boys through their last few troubled years of high school.  I was particularly moved by Chris Johnson’s story.  He’s such a likeable kid; you can’t help but root for him through the entire movie.  I was emotionally invested in his efforts to get his high school diploma and go on to college.   

Death to the Death Penalty

Voters in oh-so-blue Massachusetts may be schizophrenic when it comes to electing governors, but at least the elected officials in our State House manage to keep Romney’s red state initiatives out of our law books.   

Target Contraception Interventions

Yesterday, I received an email from Planned Parenthood regarding pharmacists refusing to fill emergency contraception and/or birth control prescriptions at several pharmacies (e.g., Target, Osco, Brooks, Eckerds).  In addition to presenting first-hand accounts from women whose prescriptions were rejected, the email said:

Planned Parenthood Federation of America has made three unanswered attempts to contact the following corporations in order to ascertain their policy regarding pharmacists' refusal to fill valid, legal prescriptions for birth control, including emergency contraception:

·                     Target

·                     Safeway

·                     Giant

·                     Duane Reade

·                     Piggly Wiggly

I used Planned Parenthood’s TAKE ACTION function which enabled me to email each of the above-listed companies to request information about their policy. 

Apparently, I’m not the only one who’s upset.  Check out AmericaBlog's post and all the comments on this issue.

Supreme Court Jester

Miers, oh Miers…what do we have here?  More cronyism in the Bush administration?

What’s next?  Let’s see, Greenspan is leaving soon.  Perhaps Bush will nominate his personal CPA to head the Federal Reserve. 

It’s too bad that Bush can’t seem to learn from his mistakes.  Apparently, the Brownie-Boy-Masquerading-as-FEMA-Director debacle didn’t deter him from nominating another underwhelming buddy to an office of influence. This time, Bush nominated his personal lawyer to the highest court in the land – a lifetime appointment for someone with the weakest legal resume of all nominees in recent history. 

The Fallacy and Fallibility of the Faithful

Terry Schiavo’s autopsy report confirmed what most Americans already knew – she was in a persistent vegetative state.  In fact, “the autopsy found that her brain was so severely damaged that no amount of therapy would have helped to regenerate it…her brain weighed only about half of what a healthy human brain would.” [Reuters]

She was blind, too.  That debunks the myth perpetuated by Terry’s parents and others that she responded to visual stimuli (e.g., balloons moving or loved ones entering the room).  Apparently, movement and noises were, as originally diagnosed by her doctors, reflexive. 

As much as I don’t care for Frist as Senate Majority Leader, I definitely don’t want him as my primary care physician.  Diagnosing a patient you’ve never met?  Contradicting her on-site long-term doctors’ (plural) studied diagnosis?  Politicizing an incredibly sensitive and private family medical decision?

Get Thee to a Dentist!

Okay, here it is, another terrific reason for kids to just “Say No to Drugs”.

…methamphetamine seems to be taking a unique, and horrific, toll inside its users' mouths. In short stretches of time, sometimes just months, a perfectly healthy set of teeth can turn a grayish-brown, twist and begin to fall out, and take on a peculiar texture less like that of hard enamel and more like that of a piece of ripened fruit.  [NYT]

If the words aren’t enough, take a look at this gruesome picture from the NYT article.

 

Grody to the max!