First Looks category archive

From the Guardian:

For parents too stretched to make sure their offspring are perfectly turned out at all times, it may just be the scientific cover they’ve been waiting for.

They will now be able to answer the disapproving tuts of their more fastidious friends by pointing to research which gives biological backing to the old adage that the more germs a child is exposed to during early childhood, the better their immune system in later life

Researchers from the School of Medicine at the University of California found that being too clean could impair the skin’s ability to heal. The San Diego-based team discovered that normal bacteria that live on the skin trigger a pathway that helps prevent inflammation when we get hurt.

The writer of the story could not avoid the oh-so-cutsy-poo lead that still implies that parents who let their kids get dirty are somehow bad parents.

I know someone whose daughter, when she was young, was sickly. It was 30 years ago that her doctor told her, “Let [the kid] play in the back yard.”

Mother followed his advice, the sickliness went away, and now, oh so many years later, daughter is a quite healthy adult.

There is evidence that the recent increase in asthma is related to parents’ keeping kids too clean.

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Furniture shopping.

GI Statue, Philadelphia, Pa., Korean War Memorial, Foglietta Plaza. A citizen has added the rose, no doubt taken from one of the hundreds of rose bushes in the Penns Landing and Society Hill areas.

Sun setting behind Society Hill Towers.

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Joshua Bell and Frankie Mureno.

I remember when I was a young ‘un, pundits would talk about the limitless potential of the oceans to provide food.

Not so then, not so now.

From the BBC:

A species of skate could become the first marine fish driven to extinction by commercial fishing, say scientists.

A study reveals that an error in the classification of the species has meant researchers have failed to see just how close to the brink it is.

On the south side of Chestnut between Front and Second.

The inscription reads

From the People of the
Bicentennial to the People of
the Tricentennial Our Mementos
to be Opened Only by the
Mayor of Philadelphia
July 4, 2076, 3 P. M.

Depth 5 Feet

It’s not going to make it.

I made it to the Philly Drinking Liberally for the first time in a couple of months. Some of my friends were there; some were out of town. It was good seeing those who were there and, oddly enough, good missing those who were out of town. Even though some were missing, the fellowship was not.

Now to investigate Liberallies in Norfolk and Virginia Beach.

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One knows that the Newsweek issue about Sarah Palin must be really bad when even diehard carpet chewing liberals are complaining that it’s disrespectful and sexist.

Afterthought: I gave up on Time and Newsweek a long time ago and U. S. News and World Report even a longer time ago. All they are good for is passing time in the dentist’s waiting room.

Well. Not even that. I have internet on my cellphone.

From a “Recovering Republican”:

I am a former Republican. And I wasn’t merely the libertarian, live-and-let-live, fun-at-parties kind of conservative whose primary concern is balancing the budget; I was a spiteful, narrow-minded, fire-breathing paranoid lunatic who questioned the patriotism and morality of my liberal fellow citizens. Recognizing the error of my ways has done wonders for my mental health but left me with constant, unremitting remorse; I really want to go back in time and kick my own ass.

(snip)

Strangest of all, I developed a finger-wagging puritan bent, which made absolutely no sense for a 20-year-old guy who was getting laid and intoxicated on a steady basis. I blamed “the anti-family Left” for encouraging couples to divorce and youngsters to fornicate, as if liberals were all conspiring together to destroy the traditional family, as if liberal states do not have lower rates of divorce and teen pregnancy than their conservative counterparts. My hypocrisy is mystifying in retrospect — why would I bash sexual liberation while having sloppy drunken unmarried sex whenever possible? — but perhaps conservative politicians such as John Ensign, Mark Sanford, David Vitter, Larry Craig and Newt Gingrich can explain.

A golden oldie from Eileen Davis.

Well, maybe.

Act here.

Amber waves of grain.

More than 49 million Americans — one in seven — struggle to get enough to eat, the highest total in 14 years of a federal survey on “food insecurity,” the U.S. government said on Monday.

While Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said programs such as food stamps softened the impact of an economic recession, anti-hunger groups pointed to the huge increase from the preceding year when 36.2 million people had trouble getting enough food and a third of them occasionally went hungry.

And then pouncing:

In the space of just three days, Wachovia Bank hit (Benjamin) Cohen with $630 in overdraft fees for what the bank said were 18 overdrafts, all for use of his Visa debit card.

(snip)

But here’s the thing: Cohen, for all his youthful foibles, was a savvy enough consumer that he had already taken the very step the Fed says all bank customers deserve. After an earlier taste of penalty fees, Cohen had opted out of Wachovia Bank’s system of routinely covering overdrafts at $35 a pop.

There are some complications to the story which I won’t go into to, including a transfer into his account that wasn’t credited until the next day; considering the timing of the transfer, I think the timing of the credit was quite reasonable.

But here’s the kicker:

(Benjamin’s father–ed.) Alan Cohen says he spent at least an hour on the phone with Wachovia representatives, trying to understand the system and express his dismay at the charges.

“They’re barely able, if at all, to explain what happened,” Alan Cohen says.

Full disclosure: I bank at the same bank covered in the story and have received only satisfactory service ever since they gobbled up my preceding bank as long as I have been associated with them.

I almost never use my debit card for anything other than ATM withdrawals and deposits. When I see persons using a debit card to buy an $.89 cup of coffee and a $.50 newspaper, I wonder, “How the hell do they ever keep their checkbooks straight?”

I guess the answer is, “They can’t.”

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Calling out the Stupak. Makes sense to me:

For example, budget hawks in Congress say they’ll vote against the (US Health Care–ed.) bill because it’s too expensive. Maybe you could win them over if you volunteered to cut out funding for male-exclusive stuff, like prostate cancer, Viagra, male infertility, vasectomies, growth-hormone shots for short little boys, long-term care for macho guys who won’t wear motorcycle helmets and, I dunno, psychotherapy for pedophile priests. Men could always pay in advance for an insurance policy rider, as women are blithely told they can do if Stupak becomes part of the final bill.

From Bloomberg:

The German drugmaker (Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH) is putting the finishing touches on a pill designed to reawaken (women’s–ed.) desire by blunting female inhibitions. Unlike Viagra, which targets the mechanics of sex. . . , this drug works on the brain.

All this means to me is potentially more stupid commercials with persons sitting in bathtubs located where bathtubs aren’t.

At least the bathtubs are slightly less offensive than the inane Viva Viagra song, the sheetmusic for which should spontaneousy self-distruct like a Mission: Impossible tape.

Aside: Wonder whether they ever get out of the damned tubs and get on with it already?

Unsainted Nick:

An . . . child photographer, arrested last month following an online child pornography investigation, was charged in a 60-count indictment Monday by a New Castle County grand jury.

(snip)

[Name redacted], a former foster parent and Santa Claus who advertised himself for home visits, operated Studio H Photography, specializing in children’s photography.

There is no indication that he did anything other than collect pictures.

And since the original owner retired and sold out, it had a greater variety on the menu. One doesn’t expect to find excellent stuffed grape leaves at a small diner in the middle of not much of anywhere. But they had them.

I saw the fire trucks when I drove by yesterday on the way back from Virginia Beach. I ended up lucky enough to get a seat here for breakfast. I say “lucky” because there is usually a line.

Fortunately, the owners plan to rebuild.

NCIS agent to gun-totin’ babe: “Who do you think you are, Sarah Palin?”

When Sarah Palin becomes joke on NCIS, it’s pretty clear . . .

. . . she’s done.

Address changes are in the works.

It is not uncommon to see my fellow lefties bitching that Obama hasn’t lived up to expectations.

Dan Froomkin where have they been?

But on some key issues such as jobs, the bank bailout, the war in Afghanistan and a whole slew of executive-power related issues, Obama has fallen way short of expectations. He surrounded himself with too many people who represent politics-as-usual, and he has buckled under to pressure from the national security establishment that Bush put on steroids.

How much of that would be different, however, if the people who voted for Obama had remained politically active? If they were visibly and energetically not just supporting him, but pushing him to be bolder?

But Obama’s supporters aren’t giving him even rudimentary political cover.

Almost forgotten these days is the fact that in Obama’s first address to Congress. In February, the new president served up a pretty darn bold agenda, backed up by a respectably progressive budget proposal. So what was the reaction? Obama looked over his shoulder and saw — no one.

Politics is the art of the possible. More is possible when persons stop bitching and start acting, or even keep bitching and start acting.

Phone calls are all well and good, but I used to work in Washington and knew lots of folks who worked on the Hill.

Someone who takes the time to write a real letter, in his or her own words, gets more of a listen than someone who calls or someone who signs a form letter, whether it be printed or electronic.

Effort counts.