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Til Sick Days Do Us Part

This week I have been dealing with my mortality. Is being in good health an inalienable right or not?
I found it pressing to learn in America many people are not allowed paid Sick Days even if they are full time employees. If you get sick on the job, you go to the job and you do the job.

The reality, for a surprising percentage of the U.S. population, is more like the 19th century. Nearly half of all full-time private sector workers in the U.S. get no paid sick days. None. If one of those workers woke up with excruciating pains in his or her chest and had to be rushed to a hospital — well, no pay for that day.

For many of these workers, the cost of an illness could be the loss of their job.
The situation is ridiculous for those in the lowest quarter of U.S. wage earners. Nearly 80 percent of those workers — the very ones who can least afford to lose a day’s pay — get no paid sick days at all.

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Jerry Falwell is Dead

Jerry Falwell is dead.

He was 73.

Was he a good man?

A tolerant man?

A loving man of God?

Or did Jerry Falwell preach hatred in the guise of love?

Was he a creator of hurt?

Did Falwell dedicate his life to punishing those he believed did not follow in God’s light or did he welcome them in from the cold shadows?

Do men like the reverend Jerry Falwell find Heaven in the end? How do we know? Where is our proof beyond the faith of belief? Do all deeds matter in the defense of moral duty?

Are we better off with Jerry Falwell in the world of the dead or not?

What is Jerry Falwell’s international human legacy and what warnings must we take from his life in his death?

Learning Left Handed

There are few people in the world who are truly ambidextrous — my grandfather was one of them — I am not one. After Falling Down the Stairs and injuring my right hand, I was forced to find a new way to grab and hold things using my non-dominant left hand.

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How FTD Ruined Mothers Day

Janna and I learned a hard lesson yesterday: FTD Ruined Mother’s Day!

Incompetence has many feral fathers and its talent for boorishness is born in a variety of floral colors and indigent mothers — but when it comes to ruining Mother’s Day tomorrow — FTD barely edges out the DHL delivery service for the ultimate “I poop on you!” grand prize.

Janna and I ordered a lovely $60.00 USD bouquet for Janna’s mom in Iowa from the online flower powerhouse FTD — I’ll show you the flowers here virtually tomorrow since that’s the only way they’re ever going to be delivered anywhere — and we were incredibly disappointed to learn yesterday the flowers would not be delivered as promised. 

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A Miracle in Peanut Butter: Plumpy Nut

Because of the luck of the land, there are people in our world who are born into, live, and die in places with little water and less food. It is the children who suffer the most from malnutrition and the hardest thing in healing them is, ironically, getting them to eat when food is available.

Continue reading → A Miracle in Peanut Butter: Plumpy Nut