Estonia as a financial model???

My mother's family hails from the tiny Baltic nation of Estonia (no, that's not near Romania or any of the -stans -- head north and look just under Finland).  Thus, I take special note of any mention of Estonia in the news.  Bloomberg has just published Brenden  Greeley's article titled Krugmenistan vs. Estonia, and he discusses the financial model of austerity used to get Estonia's economy moving.  Read the story here:  http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-07-19/krugmenistan-vs-dot-estonia#p1

Let me also point out that Toomas Ilves, the Estonian president, grew up in Fort Lee, NJ, the exact town where my husband and his sister grew up!  What a coincidence! 

Healthier kids --- Healthier US School Challenge

The USDA announced today that 3717 school across the country met and exceeded the goal of 2,250 schools becoming meeting the challenge of offering healthier food and beverage options while educating about correct nutrition.  The USDA offered schools awards based on their levels of performance, and the program was tied to the government program Let's Move!  I looked at the list, and Metro Nashville has a wonderful helping of schools (MLK magnet isn't on the list --- get on it, Sarah Laos), Ohio has a smaller helping of schools than Tennessee (and Lebanon didn't have any), and poor little Oklahoma only had one school in the entire state on the list.  Check out your state and see what you can do to get the schools in your area to help kids become healthier:  http://www.fns.usda.gov/tn/HealthierUS/index.html.

USDA news link:  http://content.govdelivery.com/bulletins/gd/USDAOC-49ca2f

Putting this program in a little bit of context, remember that the CDC has predicted that by 2030, 42% of Americans will be classified as obese. That will continue to bankrupt our healthcare system as we care for diabetes, hypertension, coronary artery disease, and many other weigh-related health issues.  Let's help ourselves and our kids be healthy for the future.

CDC warning:  http://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2012/t0507_weight_nation.html

Went to a wedding . . .

Last night, Sam and I attended a co-worker's wedding.  Here are some good pics from it:

 This is us when we arrived at the reception.

 The punch bowl was made of ice and had peacock feathers frozen into it.

Sam with the ice peacock.

Is that a Sam with a Sam Adams???

Team Hong

Mississippi Clinic to Stay Open, But . . .

A federal judge ruled that the Jackson, Mississippi, clinic for women's health may stay open while it tries to meet the demands of the new state law, which requires all doctors performing abortions to have privileges at local hospitals.  This is good because the clinic can stay open and continuing servicing women's MANY different health needs.  However, it is really just a delay until the courts rule on whether the fact that the local hospitals are ignoring privilege requests so that the doctors will not be able to meet the state requirements.  Again, that sounds like causing the effect of an undue burden on the women of Mississippi who need abortions.

See the article here:  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48181044/ns/us_news-life/#.UAGQrByubmw

In a related topic, Jill Lepore with The New Yorker wrote a great piece following Cecile Richards, the President of Planned Parenthood.  In the article, Lepore follows the historical development of medical-supervised and -provided abortions and the legal and policy debates.  It certainly helps round out the picture.  Then, when you read that in conjunction with Jeffrey Toobin's book The Nine (available at amazon.com here), you get yet a fuller picture of how the ultra-conservatives have swung the abortion debate to the main stage (the past conservatives agreed that what a woman does with her own body is completely private) and to the right.  I recommend reading what they both have to say.  

Spinning Your Wheels and Taxpayers' Money

I was astounded at the price tag attached to the GOP's 33rd attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act:  about $48 million.  It's disgusting.  I can't believe that in this time of economic woes, our representatives have voted on this 33 times, knowing that the Senate will defeat it, and have not voted on the jobs bill once.  I'm at a loss for words.  This propels me to write my congressman.  Join me in expressing your frustration and disgust for these senseless repetitious and wasteful acts. 

Read the story from CBS News here

Find your congressman here:  http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/ or http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml

To be completely catty, remember that insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.  I think we need to ship the GOP House members to the rubber room.

Voices for Victims in Tennessee Courts

Let's celebrate this victory for victims in Tennessee --- the Tennessee Supreme Court began providing for translation services for all victims in Tennessee courts on July 1, 2012.  Back in 2010, US Attorney General Holder issued a federal mandate that all states provide translation services to the parties involved in any court proceeding.  Recognizing the large number of non-English speakers we have in this country (and let's remember that general language needed for daily life does not correlate into being proficient in legal language used in a courtroom), General Holder declared that not providing those people with translation services violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and that the states could lose precious federal funding unless they provided translation services.  Recognizing that victims are often just as crucial to a case as the parties themselves, the Tennessee Supreme Court, after receiving numerous comments and support, created a victim's right to translation through its program to promote judicial awareness and openness.  Way to go, TSC!  To read the news article, go here.

Going Global

I absolutely love this article on NPR's website about the trend of young Americans being well-travelled and culturally aware.  It interviews some students who have spent years traveling and studying.  I have to say that I absolutely loved my time studying and traveling abroad.  I look forward to waking up in new lands and being surrounded by languages I don't know and cultures I need to learn.  Honestly, I never thought I'd go to Asia, but I've now been there twice, and I absolutely can't wait to go back!  I've definitely switched from an American-Euro-centric interest to more of an Asiatic interest.  Recently, I've been reading books about women in China and Afghanistan.  I'm about to start one that details the lives of the Indian ruling class women.  (I'm even gathering multi-cultural children's books for whenever we have children.)  I've also been listening to my CDs of Mandarin lessons in my car on my way to work --- it's so different from what I grew up hearing, but I embrace it as a part of my family's culture.  Looking to the future, my life plans include hiking the El Camino de Santiago, revisiting Taiwan and other Asian countries many times, visiting Estonia, and joining the Peace Corps (if Sam dies before me).  I also very much want to travel to the Galapagos to see the tortoises and spitting iguanas and to the arctic to see polar bears in the wild.  Bring on the world!!!  Where do you want to go???

Adding an adendum, I strongly believe that we have a duty to help othes across the world and that we have a duty to learn about each other.  Every day this world is becoming more and more connected.  With more connections, there will be more conflict.  As we engage in discussions to resolve conflicts, it will be important that we understand the other person's point of view and cultural ideas in order to properly interpret messages and identify his or her wants, needs, and interests.  An obvious sidenote is that, as we know and understand more about each other, any diagreements become less about people and their charactertistics that are different from "us" and more about the issues at hand.