Stuff Happens

Well lads (and lassies), I guess I may still be recovering from St Pat's Day (the Harp Lager was excellent) because it's another Monkey Brain Day. You can escape now while there is still time -or just slip on some jogging shoes and let's follow the yellow brick road for a while...

First, let's talk about George Cloony. He got himself arrested along with is father while protesting outside the Sudan Embassy in New York on Friday. I like George's acting but I have never been a big fan of his politics -a tad bit liberal for my tastes. Having said that I have heard several interviews with him recently, mostly involving his work on the situation in the Sudan. I have to admit he makes a good case and presents his evidence in a very understandable, I might say professional, way. Plus, I have to admire anyone of his stature willing to go to the rope by getting arrested for his beliefs. I think we should take a second look at what he is saying about what is happening in the Sudan. There is nothing wrong with having a healthy debate about what needs to be done and what should be done (and by whom).

Rick Santorum  stuck his foot in it again. Here he is, running to become President of the United States of America and instead of going out and talking about solving the many very pressing problems facing the nation (Iran, North Korea, unemployment, oil, the deficit, the trade deficit, Chinese military expansion, and on and on...) -and instead he starts a debate about speaking Spanish in Puerto Rico.... If anyone ever needed a good "Gibbs head slap"..... it's him.

I see our friends in North Korea are being unusually fast in trying to pull a fast one on us again. Just a few short weeks ago they agreed to stop rocket launches and stop nuclear programs at one of their sites -and we agreed to send them 500 million metric tons of food (paid for out of US Tax dollars, by the way). Well, apparently they forgot to ask for the ice cream and chocolate syrup for dessert -so they announced they are launching a ballistic missile (supposedly to launch a satellite, but many analysts doubt that story). So much for Hillary Clinton's "small step forward". Lets see, that only makes the zillionth time they have promised something only to go back on it before the ink in the signatures dried. What is that old saying? "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me...." Maybe that's too simplistic a notion for professional diplomats to understand.

We are getting to a rest area on the road so I'll just talk about one more little thing today. Women in Arizona trying to get reimbursed for birth control drugs through their employer-provided health plan could be required to prove that they are taking it for a medical reason such as acne, rather than to prevent pregnancy. A bill nearing passage in the Republican-led Legislature allows all employers, not just religious institutions, to opt out of providing contraceptive coverage when doing so would violate their religious or moral beliefs.

When a female worker uses birth control pills, the bill would allow an employer who opted out to require her to reveal what she was taking it for in order to get reimbursed. --So let's see, you can get your money back for the birth control pills as long as you don't use them for birth control... yeah, makes sense to me... ouch...

Live Long and Prosper....