Lack of Rants

I haven't done a good political rant for a while, but it doesn't mean all's well or I'm not paying attention to what's going on. Sometimes it's just too depressing to follow the news too closely. Here's a story about Israeli plans in Hebron that made my heart sink when I read it. Megan and I were in Hebron last year and were absolutely appalled at what the ultra-orthodox whack-job Jewish "settlers" were doing there. Their only mission in life appeared to be to humiliate the local Arab population. Now Netanyahu wants to make the Cave of the Patriarchs an Israeli heritage site! That will surely help the peace process, or what's left of it.

Closer to home, it looks like there is some hope for health insurance reform, and the public option, though still on life support, has been brought back from the dead. The Democrats appear to have finally realized that they've got to pass something and that they will get zero Republican support for whatever they do. So if there's zero Republican support, they may as well go for broke and jam through reforms that include a public option. One can only hope.

The torture memo lawyers, Yoo, Bybee, et al.,  appear to have gotten off scot-free. I would have preferred to see them in jail or at least on trial. In Nuremburg in 1947, sixteen Nazi jurists and lawyers were tried in the Judges Trial for among other things,  "War crimes through the abuse of the judicial and penal process, resulting in mass murder, torture, plunder of private property." That indictment seems to me to fit perfectly what Yoo and Bybee did. Four of the defendants were acquitted, but the remainder were given sentences ranging from five years to life. Over here, where freedom reigns, Yoo still has his job as a professor at Berkeley, and Bybee has a lifetime job as a federal judge.

The American nutritional-industrial complex seems to be at it again, this time with their arch-enemy, salt. But at least there is some push-back this time. Not all researchers are swallowing assertions that lowering salt in the typical diet will improve the health of the average American. I love salt; I use lots of it; and I've always been skeptical of claims that lowering salt intake lowers blood pressure which decreases the risk of heart attach and stroke. I've never read a study that showed conclusively that lowering salt intake in an otherwise healthy person was beneficial at all. I went to the doctor a couple of weeks ago to have my arthritic knee looked at, and of course my blood pressure was taken. It was 112/75.

So instead of getting too worked up about stuff  I can't control, I'll go skating with Megan on the ice at Fish Lake near my Cabin in the Woods. Last night we went to Play it Again Sports, and she bought me the first pair of skates I've had in what, 30 years?? Thanks Megan.

She bought herself a pair of figure skates, so we'll soon start training for the pairs competition at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi.