pot, kettle

Everybody's having fun with David Brooks' inner thigh this Friday afternoon, but I haven't seen anyone pick up on this yet:

BROOKS: Yeah, I wish I could think of sort of St. Bernards, sloppy women who are licking their aides, but but no, I can’t think of any.

Maybe you shouldn't try so hard, David.

from the "just because you can, doesn't mean you should" file

Few would have imagined it might one day be possible to create human sperm in a laboratory, but that is now the proud claim of Professor Karim Nayernia of the North East England Stem Cell Institute.
...
Reactions two years ago, when the same team not only grew mouse sperm from embryonic cells but used it to produce baby mice, were somewhat warmer, which perhaps says something about the sensitivities around the creation of human sperm. Pacey said at the time that the mouse experiment would be "very useful to study the basic biology of sperm production".

Using technology to produce the essence of human life is a sensitive matter: the baby mice all died after a few months.
...
Still, all the experts say what has been done in Newcastle is interesting and good for research. Discovering how to make sperm will teach us more about sperm malfunction, and therefore could help treat infertile men, rather than replace them.
...
Interestingly, the team's success came from stem cells with XY (male) chromosomes. The same process on XX (female) stem cells did not work...

I'm all for expanding our scientific understanding, but creating sperm cells in the lab from germline cells will not tell us exactly what processes occur in the human body to make this work. Cloned animals seem to have a significantly shorter lifespan than naturally-conceived individuals, but we don't know why. Children conceived through IVF also seem to have a higher rate than the general population of certain birth defects and genetic disorders - but again, we don't know why.

My husband and I went through our own bout of infertility, so I know the desperation and frustration of not being able to make your body do what so many others seem to do effortlessly. But there are limits to how far we should tamper with reproduction - especially given the rapid consumption of global resources by an ever-expanding population.

Instead of spending money and time to figure out how to make one particular human fertile enough to reproduce - the end game of this sort of research, to give any individual infertile man the chance at natural fatherhood - why don't we look at the causes (especially environmental and social) of the rapid growth of male infertility, especially in industrialized countries?

Making adoption more affordable would also help enormously. We would have given up at the first sign of infertility and simply gone the adoption route if we could have afforded the $15-20k price tag. Instead, I spent months on covertly-acquired hormones left over from a friend's failed infertility treatments (under the care of a physician - we just couldn't afford to buy thousands of dollars in drugs from the clinic, by far the greatest expense); bloated with grapefruit-sized ovaries, with the cystic acne and emotional stability of a premenstrual 15-year-old, I still came up empty. And this was just for intra-uterine insemination: making my body pump out as many eggs as possible at one time, and then delivering J.'s sperm via syringe to my fallopian tubes right when the eggs were exploding like Jiffy-Pop from an overheated pan. IVF ("test tube") and other fertility treatments were far beyond our reach.

There is an animal drive to reproduce using our own genetic material, no question. But we've tempered other of our animal drives, and we risk the health of the greater human gene pool (and the health of the individuals so conceived) by mucking about with the elemental, cellular-level processes of reproduction.

it's enough to wipe last year's grant park vibes right from your soul

Via Think Progress:


Even if Pew's March numbers still hold, and only 27% of U.S. voters self-identify as "Republican," that's 19.44% of Americans that are at least "somewhat likely" to vote for the Shilla from Wasilla if she somehow manages to claw her way to the top of the GOP ticket - and this is after last Friday's teevee quit-o-rama.

I need a drink.

more like malaise redux

Jim DeMint may be a ridiculous asshole:

[W]e’re about where Germany was before World War II where they became a social democracy. You still had votes but the votes were just power grabs like you see in Iran, and other places in South America, like Chavez is running down in Venezuela. People become more dependent on the government so that they’re easy to manipulate. And they keep voting for more government because that’s where their security is.

But Obama had better kick Larry Summers & Co. under the bus while he has the chance, or it will be Mourning in America all over again:

President Barack Obama gets a lackluster 49 - 44 percent approval rating in Ohio, considered by many to be the most important swing state in a presidential election, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today. This is President Obama's lowest approval rating in any national or statewide Quinnipiac University poll since he was inaugurated and is down from 62 - 31 percent in a May 6 survey.

By a small 48 - 46 percent margin, voters disapprove of the way Obama is handling the economy, the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University poll finds. This is down from a 57 - 36 percent approval May 6. A total of 66 percent of Ohio voters are "somewhat dissatisfied" or "very dissatisfied" with the way things are going in the state, while 33 percent are "very satisfied" or "somewhat satisfied," numbers that haven't changed since Obama was elected.
...
"The economy in Ohio is as bad as anywhere in America. These numbers indicate that for the first time voters have decided that President Barack Obama bears some responsibility for their problems," said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

It's not the socialist part I'm worried about, Sen. DeMint. It's the rabid, xenophobic, blame-shifting fascism that seems to rear its ugly head every time we have an economic downturn in this country.

I don't remember Hitler or Goebbels (or Reagan) being all that concerned about universal health care or labor union rights.

unfuckingbelievable

I tried to post on this yesterday, but Li'l Kim clogged my intertoobz:

July 8 (Bloomberg) -- Morgan Stanley plans to repackage a downgraded collateralized debt obligation backed by leveraged loans into new securities with AAA ratings in the first transaction of its kind, said two people familiar with the sale.

Morgan Stanley is selling $87.1 million of securities that it expects to receive top AAA ratings and $42.9 million of notes graded Baa2, the second-lowest investment grade by Moody’s Investors Service, according to marketing documents obtained by Bloomberg News. The bonds were created from Greywolf CLO I Ltd., a CDO arranged in January 2007 by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and managed by Greywolf Capital Management LP, an investment firm based in Purchase, New York.

Two years after the credit markets began to seize up, costing the world’s biggest financial institutions $1.47 trillion in writedowns and losses, banks are again taking so-called structured finance securities and turning them into new debt investments with top credit ratings. While the Morgan Stanley deal is the first to involve CDOs of loans, banks have been doing the same with commercial mortgage-backed securities in recent weeks.

A lot of banks and insurers “cannot buy anything but AAA,” said Sylvain Raynes, a principal at R&R Consulting in New York and co-author of “Elements of Structured Finance,” which is due to be published in November by Oxford University Press. “You’re manufacturing AAA out of not AAA, therefore allowing those people who have AAA written on their forehead to buy.”
...
Structured finance securities fueled the writedowns and losses at the world’s biggest financial institutions since the start of 2007, helping to plunge the U.S. economy into the worst recession since the 1930s. Finance companies have been forced to raise $1.27 trillion in capital, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
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Banks are using re-REMICs to protect against losses on residential-mortgage securities during the worst housing slump since the Great Depression.

About $27 billion of home-loan bond Re-REMICs have been issued this year, up from $17 billion for all 2008, according to a June 12 report by Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Re-REMIC stands for “resecuritizations of real estate mortgage investment conduits,” the formal name of mortgage bonds.

‘Make Magic’

The strategy is increasingly being used for commercial mortgage debt.
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“Somebody does something and it seems to make magic, and the other guy says ‘Hey, let’s do that, too,’” Raynes said.

New York-based Goldman Sachs plans to sell $216.9 million of repackaged commercial mortgage debt, according to people familiar with the sale who declined to be identified because terms aren’t public. The re-REMIC is being carved out of four bonds sold in 2006, said the people. Michael DuVally, a Goldman Sachs spokesman, said he couldn’t comment.

Anyone in the Obama Admin care to comment on this? Larry Summers? Little Timmy? Anybody?

Jesus Christ on a Hermes-covered throw pillow: Do they never learn? Or care? Or get sent to a fucking mental ward?

h/t atrios

athenae ftw

No one has (or could) say it better:

Somebody, somewhere, will get something I didn't approve of. Somebody who's overweight, maybe, or smokes, or drinks too much, or took drugs once or a thousand times. Somebody who has been ignoring a nagging illness, somebody who should have eaten more vegetables, somebody who lives near a power plant, somebody who had a family history of something and gave birth anyway and now has the temerity to want ME to pay for her kid's care with MY TAX DOLLARS and OH MY GOD THE HORROR I NEVER SAID YOU COULD DO THAT.

And the only possible response to any of that is the one nobody in elected office really wants to make, which is fuck you, you smug, self-satisfied, sheltered bitchweasel who thinks the only virtuous choices are the ones you made and that everybody else is scamming you.

I am dreaming nightly of the day when someone at the forefront of this debate points out that most of this wanking — about how women will use free health care to get abortions when they shouldn't have been such sluts, and fat people will use it to get treated for their heart disease when they should have just laid off the cheeseburgers — is just people being judgmental dicks and YES IT IS THAT SIMPLE. All the people in this country who have made choices you or I might not approve of do not constitute a greater drain on America's vast resources than a single week of either war we're fighting, nor a single lifetime of a gazillion-year-old senator who works on Tuesdays and spends the rest of his company time eating oatmeal in the Senate cafeteria on your and my dollar.

The reason this argument gets any traction at all is that for years now we've thought of health care as a reward, as a sign of your virtue, as something you get because you're a contributing member of society who works hard at a good job and tries on average not to drown in Bugles filled with spray cheese every night... Health care is something everybody doesn't get, so if you get it, you must be doing something right. Like eating salads, or exercising, as if people who do those things don't ever get clobbered by potato chip trucks on their way to work.

If it's not a reward, though, if it's something everyone should get, then how on earth will you know you're special? It seems all we do, in this new reality these days, is take away the things assholes can cling on to make themselves feel superior to everybody else. And if we want this to work, that's how it's going to have to be. Somebody you think is a totally irresponsible slut is going to get a free abortion, somebody you think shouldn't have any more kids is going to get IVF, somebody you think is a hambeast is going to get blood pressure medication, somebody you think is a goddamn worthless drunk will get treated for liver disease. If we want this to work, people are going to have to look at those possibilities, yawn loudly, and say, "So fucking what?"

Discussing healthcare with my folks last week (on a 4½ hour drive to my 70-y.o. Dad's orthopedist for his pre-op appointment for his knee replacement "revision"), I heard a lot of this. Yes, we should all get healthcare, BUT. Obese people shouldn't get knee replacements. Drunks shouldn't get liver transplants. Meanwhile, we'll find out on 7/14 whether Dad's need for a new knee replacement is due to an infection - which he couldn't control - or a mechanical failure due to the fact that he's 6'5", has abnormally long tibias, went skiing within 6 months of the replacement, and followed that up with singles tennis against a guy half his age.

I love my folks, but the truth is that everybody thinks they're doing the best they can. Playing a tough game of tennis on new knees will keep your heart in good shape, but may cause failure of your artificial joints.

We all make mistakes. I stripped the cartilage from my "good" hip by pounding the shit out of it while pregnant with my son, walking 3-5 miles a day with progesterone loosening all of my ligaments and making me blissfully unaware of the damage I was doing with its magical anti-inflammatory properties. And the joke is that I was walking so much to try to keep the extra weight off my "bad" hip. So now instead of one hip replacement, I'll need two.

Like Athenae says, we need to forgive each other our trespasses, and just get this done.

that's one way to fill potholes

without a second stimulus:

NEAR MULTNOMAH FALLS, Ore. -- Interstate 84 heading east into the Columbia River Gorge was going to be closed six to eight hours as crews worked to clean a massive spill after a truck tipped, according to state officials.

The truck tipped over about seven miles east of Multnomah Falls, closing all lanes heading east, ODOT said.
...
The truck was carrying a load of hot asphalt and overturned in the curvy section of interstate between Cascade Locks and Multnomah Falls, according to ODOT.

State spokesperson Christine Miles called it a "mess" and said anyone heading east would be stuck in traffic a good part of the morning.

One lane of westbound I-84 may need to be closed during the cleanup as well, she said.

Unfortunately, there were no easy detours with the river on one side and Gorge cliffs on the other.

All semi trucks heading out I-84 eastbound were told to take detour routes in Washington, ODOT said. Freight trucks are not allowed on the Bridge of the Gods in Cascade Locks, though.

Commuters and travelers heading east were urged to take Washington State Highway 14.

back and burnt to a crisp

and remembering the moment when "sun poisoning" became known by its more clinical appellation: HERPES.

Not one, not two, but SIX distinct eruptions on my lower lip - and one on my chin - after 4 hours in the sun last Saturday. And it's all on you, Fred Gratta - had you not come over during Saturday's reunion fest when you did, with your charming partner David and his titillating stories of assimilating your cat with his three Afghan Hounds, I would have remembered to re-apply my 70 SPF sunblock completely and not just to my arms and shoulders in the blistering Anna Maria Island heat.

You will be forgiven, however, if you remember to call when you're driving through Portland later this month.

proof that florida is indeed the deep south

This greeted us as my parents and I drove from Bradenton to Jacksonville to see Dad's orthopedist about his upcoming knee replacement revision surgery.

To all of those who have argued with me for years over whether Florida is, in fact, part of "The South" - you still want to argue?

The Sons of Confederate Veterans in Tampa plan soon to raise what they claim is the world's largest Confederate flag on a private triangle of land tucked near where Interstates 75 and 4 meet. The flag measures 50 feet by 30 feet.

John Adams, commander of the organization's Florida division, has spearheaded the flag project, which includes plans for an accompanying memorial park. And he wants to make sure that the only objections the group faces are based on opinion, not the law.

"You're going to hear some complaints about it for sure," Adams said. "But it's a free country as far as I know."

Free, yes. Intelligent?...

feeling the burn

The sunburn, that is.

Just finished up my 26-yr high school reunion (Manatee High School of Bradenton, FL - we're far too f'd up to manage a 25th anniversary on time). It was terrific: we've all gained far less weight and lost far more of our high school baggage than I ever could have imagined.

Now J. has flown down to join me (L. came with me to spend the reunion wknd palling around with his grandparents), and we'll spend the week doing nothing more than deciding whether the pool or the beach is the best option on any given day.

So enjoy your 4th of July week, and I'll see you next Monday.

Oh, and please be kind to whoever may be kind (and motivated) enough to post here in my absence.

Cheers!

my healthcare conundrum

And why we really need a public option - NOW:

I've worked for the same small company for the last 14 years. We have 5 employees, one of whom - the President - is 81 years old and finally capitulated to socialism by joining Medicare last year. So only 4 of us are on the company-provided healthcare plan.

I'm pretty lucky: my employer pays for 100% of the premiums, and we have medical and dental. We have gone from a co-pay only, no deductible plan to first $250 deductible (last year) and $500 deductible (this year), because the cost of premiums without those deductibles was exorbitant.

Here's the problem: I desperately want to leave this job, for a variety of reasons, but without a healthcare-providing job in hand, I can't.

But even if I don't, we're probably going to drop health insurance coverage here all together within 5 years. My employers would have dropped it this year - and just upped employee pay for each to get their own - except for my explaining to the Vice President (the President's wife, who's 59), that she would find it impossible to get healthcare coverage on the open market, given her myriad health problems. So in 61 months, when she's eligible for Medicare, all bets are off.

I must have healthcare coverage to survive, both literally and practically. In addition to my degenerative hip disease, which will require a dual hip replacement sometime in the not-too-distant future and which requires me to take daily pain meds ($235/mo without insurance), I suffer from chronic migraines - a hereditary condition passed from grandfather to mother to me, and now, unfortunately, to my 10-year-old son - which also require daily as well as episodic medications (+/- $400/mo without insurance); and, as of April, I have melanoma, which no insurance company would touch on the open market. The melanoma requires no medication, but it has so far necessitated eight minor-to-moderate outpatient surgeries, and in the months and years to come will require skin checks every three months by a dermatologist, and innumerable biopsies to rule out a recurrence of the disease.

Without the question of medical coverage, I would have left my bad employment situation years ago; and with the new addition of melanoma, I cannot leave this now intolerable situation without having another job in hand - almost impossible in the current marketplace.

The joke is that in today's USA, I am one of the lucky ones. While I may have limited choices, I do have healthcare coverage and a job. For those with neither, life is an unmitigated hell of choosing between prescriptions and food, or giving up entirely because the battle is too exhausting.

And for those who say that publicly funded healthcare would lead to rationing, please explain to me how the fact that I have spent the last 4 months waiting for an appointment to my local pain clinic because only one physician there takes my particular insurance is not rationing. Or how it is not rationing for my insurance company to allow my only 6 doses of abortive migraine medication for month when I may need 12-15 doses?

We have healthcare rationing in this country, but it is rationing care on the basis of preserving the insurance company's profits rather than on treating the most urgent medical crises first. It is red-lining pretending to be triage.

Yes, there will be up-front costs to providing healthcare to everyone, but those costs per-capita will be minimal (and reasonable) when compared to the social and economic costs of 50 million Americans going without care, and employers like mine having to absorb 20%-40% premium increases, year upon year, making them less competitive and innovative, and less productive within the overall economy because insurance costs eat up any budget for capital improvements or equipment purchases.

I don't know what it's going to take to shake up our bought-and-paid for Senate and get a plan that actually eliminates health insurance as a class wedge in this country (while not incidentally improving our infant mortality and overall morbidity and mortality statistics). But I will be contacting my Senators and Congressman to tell them my story.

Will you?

Who's Watching the Watchers pt. XXIII

More on the coward culture and the most surveilled city in America:

This historic town, where America's founding fathers plotted during the Revolution and Milton Hershey later crafted his first chocolates, now boasts another distinction.

It may become the nation's most closely watched small city.

Some 165 closed-circuit TV cameras soon will provide live, round-the-clock scrutiny of nearly every street, park and other public space used by the 55,000 residents and the town's many tourists. That's more outdoor cameras than are used by many major cities, including San Francisco and Boston.

Unlike anywhere else, cash-strapped Lancaster outsourced its surveillance to a private nonprofit group that hires civilians to tilt, pan and zoom the cameras -- and to call police if they spot suspicious activity. No government agency is directly involved.

Perhaps most surprising, the near-saturation surveillance of a community that saw four murders last year has sparked little public debate about whether the benefits for law enforcement outweigh the loss of privacy (...)

Read whole article at the LA Times.