Thursday, July 29, 2010

Elizabeth Warren for President

Not really.

But our current president needs to appoint Professor Warren to head the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and to do so immediately. The agency is her idea, after all, and she is our leading consumer advocate in these times when those who should be protecting us aren’t.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and National Economic Council Director Larry Summers have long shown themselves too tied to Wall Street. Indeed, one of Warren’s main contributions in recent years is her role as Chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel, which investigates the big bank bailout. You need to watch only one YouTube video to see that she isn’t afraid to take on Geithner and to hold him accountable on our behalf.

As one who has long studied and published on consumer spending, debt, and bankruptcy, Professor Warren understands better than Obama’s elite circle the financial challenges facing middle America. She knows the predatory behavior of credit card companies and mortgage lenders and is willing to take them on.

Moreover, she resembles us. A Harvard professor, yes, but she graduated from Houston University and took her law degree from Rutgers. Finally, someone with non-Ivy League degrees. Someone, as she told Newsweek, who has “worried about money from the time [she] was a little kid.”

With her appointment we would finally have someone representing us. Isn’t it about time?

Monday, July 26, 2010

Cows Along the Blue Ridge

Hiking along a trail this weekend at the Moses Cone Manor, Milepost 294 on the Blue Ridge Parkway, we spotted cows facing in the same direction as they grazed. It turns out that cows all over the world graze in a north-south orientation, perhaps influenced by the earth's magnetic fields. Pictures from Google Earth confirmed this phenomenon in 2008.

Facts like this make me wonder. What would happen if we could amass the knowledge of all of the earth's creatures and make use of their wisdom? Unleash a new power perhaps? Render our weapons obsolete and sideline our technology?

The cows and the birds and the pesky mosquitoes could all teach us something, if only we could figure out how to listen.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

The Cost of the Copperhead

One of the biggest complaints about the new health insurance legislation—indeed, a main source of lawsuits against it—is the requirement that everyone obtain coverage or face penalties. I support the requirement and here’s why.

Earlier this year I was bitten by a copperhead in our backyard, a not-uncommon occurrence in North Carolina as we lead the nation in copperhead bites. It was a nasty, painful experience, but most of all it was expensive. I spent 23 hours in the Duke Emergency Room and came out with a bill of $65,000, before insurance kicked in. Yes, you read that right.

The main part of the bill was the charge for anti-venin: each dose cost $30,000, and I received two.

When I asked a pharmacist familiar with Duke’s operations why the cost was so high, she became defensive. She said that Duke probably paid about $10,000 for each of the doses, but had to pass along other costs to me and to my insurance company. One of the biggest of these, of course, is to cover those people who also show up at Duke this year with a copperhead bite but who, unfortunately, have no health insurance. In these cases Duke will absorb the costs because, frankly, who among us can pay $65,000 for an unexpected medical bill?

I realize that American health care is expensive for lots of reasons, and the new legislation doesn’t address all of the problems. We have a ways to go. But as long as fellow citizens remain uninsured—often because they can’t afford the outrageous premiums charged for individual plans—the rest of us will pay their bills.

I don’t mind paying taxes for the common good. But I do mind paying a disproportionate amount for other people’s health care. It’s time to make everybody sign up, to create affordable plans, and to put us all on a more equal footing.

Bring on the new legislation and follow up with more.

Monday, July 19, 2010

A Dog's Life: Happy Birthday to You


Cassidy and Sundance turn 12 this week. They may not enjoy the cake and ice cream on Wednesday night, but we will toast them just the same.

Some might say to dogs such as these, "You don't know how lucky you are to have such a good home."

I say to them, "You don't know how lucky we are to have you."

Many happy returns.

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Ellis Island Reflections

At the Michener Museum in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, an exhibit by Stephen Wilkes captures the melancholy of Ellis Island. Wilkes spent 5 years photographing the south side of the island, the site of a once-sprawling hospital complex left in ruins.

In one scene of the tuberculosis ward, two sinks attached to a wall of peeling paint hang below a small mirror, which reflects an image of the Statue of Liberty: a reminder that most of the people in this hospital never made it to freedom. In the measles ward stacks of wooden filing cabinets perch erratically on top of one another, some with drawers still open, as if people left in a hurry. Snow has blown in through broken windows along one corridor of the hospital, and a series of 5 opened doors in the nurses' quarters invites us into the past.

I'm struck by these images. Life once flourished here, even in spaces that held sickness and death. Dreams grew and faded, buried now beneath the snow and behind the broken glass.

Immigrants. People coming from other countries always gets messy. Does it need to be so?

These photographs bursting with humanity remind me that it's all pretty basic: other people like us--some sick, some not--wanting to make a home for themselves and seeking life in a new land.

Do we, or do we not, welcome them?

Monday, July 12, 2010

It takes a village. . .

. . . to rescue a dog. Especially Typhoon, an older Shih Tzu with behavior problems. Thanks to the villagers:

To Motch in Chapel Hill, who arrived as a modern-day Merlin (just when the search was flagging) and offered wisdom from her years breeding dogs.

To Dr. Hughes of Durham, who identified the profile of the rescuer I needed to find.

To Amanda of Durham, who would have opened her home to Typhoon anyway--knowing that he wasn't the companion she wanted for Mona.

To Stephanie and her friends in Rolesville, who were wholly unsuited to adopt Typhoon but taught me I needed to probe deeper.

To the animal rescue groups in our community, who offer a safety net for lots of creatures like Typhoon.

And finally to Ellen of Durham, who was determined that Typhoon be given another chance to live.

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Damned If You Do

There's a good chance that the sunscreen we're using contains ingredients harmful to our health. Retinyl palmitate, a form of Vitamin A that also appears in cosmetics products, could be increasing our risk for skin cancer when exposed to the sun. Oxybenzone, which I found in my favorite sunscreen, has been shown to penetrate the skin and may disrupt the endocrine system. Nanoparticles of zinc oxide, long used to coat the noses of lifeguards, may also penetrate the body and cause damage linked to cancer.

All of this and more from Michael Hansen, a senior scientist with Consumers Union, and other analysts and dermatologists in a recent New York Times commentary.

Of course, if you don't use sunscreen, you increase your risk for skin cancer. And if you don't get out in the sun, you don't get enough Vitamin D. Round and round we go.

A similar scenario presented itself on Tuesday's Diane Rehm Show. The discussion of battery-operated cars and their promise to eliminate oil dependency turned on itself when a listener questioned the energy source. If we use coal to power these cars, he noted, we're damaging our environment in yet another way. Harnessing sun and wind power for electricity would create energy-efficient cars, but for now, these are expensive and lie somewhere off in the distance for Americans.

That "somewhere off in the distance" usually has to do with money. Cosmetics and sunscreen companies are making lots of money promoting questionable products. Oil and coal companies continue to grow rich as they degrade the environment. Powerful lobbyists see to it that we consume goods that aren't good for us.

Our consumerist culture has come full circle. Damned if we do and damned if we don't.

Monday, July 5, 2010

Scenes from the Eno Festival




Rabbits took center stage at the Eno Festival this year, as t-shirts, sand carvings, and children's creations of bunny ears sprang up everywhere. The festival's a great way to celebrate the 4th of July without the fireworks. Enjoy the music and the crafts and the food and especially the people. Best of all, the weather this year: unseasonably not too hot.

Thursday, July 1, 2010

The Geese Go Marching



On their way through the parking lot of the North Durham Regional Library, these geese made me laugh.

Choose a book, any book.