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child rape

On Polanski, said way better than I could.

2:06 p.m. - Sept. 29, 2009

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sympathy?

I fail to understand apparent public sympathy for Polanski. He gave alcohol and drugs to a 13 year old, and at age 43, had sex with her.

He had originally been charged with six counts, including rape and sodomy, involving an incident with a 13-year-old girl.

I have no sympathy for him whatsoever. They should bring him back and throw him in prison as appropriate for someone who skipped bail after raping a child.

8:58 a.m. - Sept. 29, 2009

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weather changes

Weather in Seattle continues to be amazing. However, perusing weather.com, I noticed the following weather advisory:

... A SIGNIFICANT CHANGE TO COOLER AND WETTER WEATHER WILL BEGIN LATER TODAY AND WILL CONTINUE THROUGH AT LEAST NEXT WEEKEND...

THE RECENT DRY AND MILD WEATHER PATTERN WILL COME TO AN ABRUPT END TONIGHT AS A COLD FRONT IN THE GULF OF ALASKA SWINGS SOUTHEAST THROUGH THE AREA.

I'm in denial. It's still sunny, and I'm hoping they're just mistaken.

The weekend was great except that we didn't get to take a planned kayaking trip. I love Seattle when the weather's nice. At this point, I'm getting spoiled and forgetting there's an alternative. (Every so often I remember that there are places where it really is like this all the time.)

In any event, I'm off to W. Texas for a few days next week, so I'll be enjoying more sun in the short time regardless.

Right now, B and I are starting to think about his. He's probably moving in in about 2 or 3 weeks. Just writing this gives me a few butterflies. Crazy. At the age of 29, I'm going to be living with someone for the first time. It'll make the marriage seem real, I think.

11:25 a.m. - Sept. 28, 2009

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health care

Is health care really worse in the US? It has certainly been argued that this is true with infant mortality and longevity as two of the primary pieces of evidence. Both are suspect for a variety of reasons. An article on the subject.

Americans pay more for health care partly because they get more thorough treatment for some diseases, and partly because they get sick more often than people in Europe and other industrialized countries.

This longevity gap, Dr. Preston says, is primarily due to the relatively high rates of sickness and death among middle-aged Americans, chiefly from heart disease and cancer. Many of those deaths have been attributed to the health care system, an especially convenient target for those who favor a European alternative.

Perhaps most important, [Americans] used to be exceptionally heavy smokers. For four decades, until the mid-1980s, per-capita cigarette consumption was higher in the United States (particularly among women) than anywhere else in the developed world. Dr. Preston and other researchers have calculated that if deaths due to smoking were excluded, the United States would rise to the top half of the longevity rankings for developed countries.

For all its faults, the American system compares well by some important measures with other developed countries, as Dr. Preston and Ms. Ho enumerate. Americans are more likely to be screened for cancer, and once cancer is detected, they are more likely to survive for five years.

�The U.S. has had one spectacular achievement in preventive medicine,� he says. �It has had the largest drop in cigarette consumption per adult of any developed country since 1985.�

1:31 p.m. - Sept. 22, 2009

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forked

B and I hung out in Forks recently. Forks is nothing to shout about, but nearby Rialto Beach is a mazing.

1:17 p.m. - Sept. 22, 2009

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lying

It's scary to realize Edwards could easily have been our president. It's not the philandering that bothers me, though that certainly does bother me, but the lying.

8:24 a.m. - Sept. 22, 2009

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the path of least resistance

Ah, the joys of vacation. I worked all of four days in the last two weeks, and being back is not easy. I was really dreading being back at work this weekend mostly because work is not fun when I'm not on top of things, so the few days I had been at work had been a little frustrating. I've had a major focus problem in recent weeks and even months, for obvious reasons. In some ways, it's nice to return to normalcy, though I'm trying to find the new normal. B is moving in sometime in the next month, perhaps sooner rather than later. I'm very excited, but it'll be an adjustment. Mostly I'm worried he won't be happy in the 'burbs. Since he works from home, it's not like he's just there in the evenings. Him moving in with me is the easiest since all he has to do is give up his apartment and my house is bigger (1200 sq. ft.) than his apartment (maybe 750 sq. ft.). I'd have to rent my house, and I'd have to commute about 30 minutes. Anyway, it's certainly the path of least resistance, but I'm worried B will be less happy. So maybe we'll move somewhere else. We'll see.

6:29 p.m. - Sept. 21, 2009