Oh, finally the truth is out!  Everyone is waging a war on women: the GOP, Obama, Congress, Susan G Komen, Planned Parenthood, the Catholic Church, the Mormon Church, other churches, Warren Jeffs, Hollywood, Tucker Max, the media, Islam.... everyone but Oprah and your mother.  

Personally,… Read full post »

My older step daughter has moved in.  It didn't start this way.  I don't know when it will end.  Hmmmm. 

A few weeks ago when, after over a year of suggesting she try finding work in our area of the city, she finally realized she was getting nowhere at all.  It… Read full post »

How do you explain Arizona?  Nancy Hicks Marshall tackles the intricacies and politics of Arizona legislation, immigration rights and civil liberties in her new novel, A Dry Hate (Odio Seco).  Based in modern day Phoenix, this fictional account brings us closer to understanding the layered… Read full post »

All of use are someone else's children.  Even as adults, when we cross that mysterious border between being a child and being a grown up, we are still the children of our parents.  We are also still subject to their opinions as to how we should live and love.  Some of… Read full post »

I am in love with my niece.  She turns three tomorrow and I get to celebrate her birthday with her.  I saw her just at Christmas, and although that was not the first time we have met, it is the first time she remembers meeting me.  For weeks she has been… Read full post »

How do we define class?  Certainly, anyone and everyone will have a different opinion of it.  You are born with it, or you are raised to culture it.  You are raised in it, you create it for yourself.  There is no such thing as class in the US, despite 4 centuries… Read full post »

Why all the fuss about  a woman's pelvic health?  The recent outrage against the Komen foundation was not about access to breast cancer screening- it was pairing preventative health care with reproductive freedom.  Financial concerns about the cost versus benefit of providing preventat… Read full post »

In what seems to be a mindboggling flurry of activity, the GOP members of congress have decided to spend their election year in office focusing on issues that have nothing to do with the economy and everything to do with creating oppressive government.  Somehow, through the sum total of the vari… Read full post »

Today I had a little bit of a wine hangover, as I was up late talking with a cuz of mine.  We'd been out for drinks and some food, and ended up back at my apartment talking family, work, life, relationship.  I rarely get to catch up with him, and almost… Read full post »

There is an evil and ugly flipside to this job recession and economic downtown.  There are people who have not lost their jobs, for good or bad, and many of them are overworked, underpaid and exhausted.  

I don't know people who are unemployed (save one, and his unwillingness to work… Read full post »

My sweetie is a handsome man.  I noticed him sitting at a party, by himself, thinking "Wow, he's handsome, he's probably married".  His two kids were there, and I didn't look around for a Mrs.  Instead, I mingled with others, and he walked across the room and sat next to me,… Read full post »

My friend's wife has not yet passed away, since my post not long ago.  I saw him today for coffee, it has been ages, and it was good to chat.  About that, about life, about work, about everything.  Free to speak, he picked me at the office and we just drove and… Read full post »

Sounds like a crazy matchup, but it can only happen in the multiverse that is my brain.  However, I know there are fans that are crazier than me, know more stuff, dieharder, and diligent.  I was feeling like I was getting sucked into the Downton Abbyss, this last week, watching so… Read full post »

Many people in America cry out for universal health care, pointing to the other countries that do it well.  We point out that the  % of GDP here is much higher than in other places, and that we spend well over twice what the next country (Canada*) spends, on average, per… Read full post »

The real issue that they keep not addressing is that health care should not be tied to employment.  Adding health insurance benefits tied to employment has been devastating for millions of people who cannot find work that offers benefits, or plans that cost more than many can afford to buy into.… Read full post »

The art of medicine includes balancing knowledge with wisdom, facts with compassion, and blending the scientific with the subjective.  I have yet to give anyone really bad news, but I have had to face a few times when there was a chance of really bad news.  Questionable bloodwork, a suspici… Read full post »

When does the right to life end?

The recent debacle with the Susan G Komen foundation and the (now resigned) vice president, Karen Handel, highlighted some of the major dilemmas that go on in the political versus scientific arena.  The split between SGK and Planned Parenthood has probably had so… Read full post »

Atheists are popping up more and more in the news these days.  For the most part, it seems that a small but steadily growing stream of press is addressing the growing presence of unreligious, non believing members of our society who are outspoken and demanding their equal rights.  This is j… Read full post »

I will be the first to admit, The Pink Ribbon campaign has never been my cause du jour.  I have always found it silly to focus on breast cancer as the worthy cause, when breast cancer is not just one disease.  The causes of breast cancer are widely known or suspected,… Read full post »

I was a big fan of Xena, Warrior Princess in the 90s, when it came out.  I am not sure how much the show has impacted the world's image of kickass, powerful, independent women, but it must have just opened up a new acceptance.  In many ways, she was my role… Read full post »

I have just returned from a job interview.  It did not go bad, but it will not likely lead to a job offer.  Instead, I find myself pondering the ridiculous of this day and age of professionalism.  

I am employed, gainfully, in two part time positions.  For my career, that… Read full post »

Divorce is in the air.  It seems like this past year, the fastest way to lose weight is shedding your signficant other.  While I am not getting divorced myself (we aren't married), I find myself on the listening end of other people's divorce stories.  Plus, as family practice just as o… Read full post »

Some years ago, during a meditation exercise in which I did a little yoga, some breathing, and then experienced gong the first time, I had some very powerful insights.  This was not a class held at a religious center, and the leader of the class ended up becoming a good friend.… Read full post »

As I have generally given up New Year's resolutions, I was surprised to wake today wanting to throw out many old, dirty things and start fresh.  I am not much of a stuffaholic, so it had nothing to do with retail therapy and everything to do with reducing my personal debris… Read full post »

Yesterday afternoon, I found myself with an hour to wait until my plane boarded.  SFO is a more cosmopolitan airport than PHX, the shops and restaurants reflected that.  I have been in some pretty nice airports, and been to a few very small ones.  Usually, I expect to buy a magazine,… Read full post »