The listeria outbreak blamed on cantaloupes grown in Colorado has now claimed 16 lives, making it the deadliest outbreak associated with a food item in more than ten years. Since the offending melons from the Jensen Farms in Holly, Colorado are not necessarily marked clearly or at all, it would be wise to get rid of cantaloupes you may have in your fridge or on the kitchen counter, even though they issued the recall earlier in September. Healthy adults are hardly at risk, but the elderly, … [Read more...]
Today’s cup: Afghanistan withdrawal, tapping oil reserves, and the nuclear family
Complaining, as Mitt Romney did, that President Obama is imposing an “arbitrary timetable” on withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan is an empty argument. What’s the alternative? Continue the longest war indefinitely, hoping against hope that someday Afghanistan will look just as we imagine it should? Secretly have a withdrawal plan, so as not to alert the bad guys when we’re outta there? Hasn’t WikiLeaks proven that there is no such thing as a secret when it comes to war strategy? The … [Read more...]
Today’s cup: the Arizona wildfire, Weiner’s wife is pregnant, Afghanistan is a bust, and coffee is the new LSD
No reported deaths or injuries, but Arizona is on fire. By Friday, there’s an excellent chance that parts of Texas and New Mexico will experience rolling power blackouts as the wildfire that has been burning across 600 square miles for eleven days heads toward transmission lines. Firefighters are struggling to bring the blaze under control as high winds complicate their efforts. Huma Abedin, the wife of scandal-plagued New York congressman Anthony Weiner, reacted to her husband’s icky … [Read more...]
My Tuesday take: the election season is over, the wars are not
On the front page of the Los Angeles Times today, an article titled “The war the election forgot” caught my eye. In a campaign cycle focused primarily on ugliness, lies, and the distortion of facts about candidates, the economy and Muslims, most of us have forgotten about our soldiers in a land so far away. Is it because we don’t care? I think deep down inside, we don’t. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq only seem to affect the daily lives of those who have loved ones enlisted in the … [Read more...]
Friday fodder: BP, the Koreas, DADT and Memorial Day
There is simply nothing left to add at this point regarding the BP oil spill. It has easily surpassed Exxon Valdez in size, and while the “top kill” procedure begun Thursday to essentially plug up the hole is so far “on track”, it is not yet “mission accomplished”. President Obama held a news conference yesterday to address the blame game, who’s-in-charge, the moratorium on new drilling, and answer questions about his rapidly graying hair. I’d resemble Barbara Bush if I had his job. How did … [Read more...]