I should really make this title: “OF DREAMS AND DRIVES AND PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT”, since it highlights the importance of parental involvement in young children’s lives. This column deals with two black female attorneys and their two kids; and in both instances these kids were raised in single-parent households. Too often these types of situations are frowned upon; but I always caution folks not to stereotype: you will be surprised or contradicted quite often.

I know both parents involved here. They are both good friends and are also politically active. They have devoted their lives to developing their kids properly. They have also invested extraordinary amounts of time, effort, energy and money in their children’s overall development. Their combined goal has always been to maximize the potential in these kids. They both need to be commended. Maybe some organization could jointly award them the “Mother of the Year” award at some event, later this year.  read more »

Have you read Team Obama's proposal for health care reform? If you haven't, I suggest you do so immediately. Right on Page 3 of the PDF is what prompted me to write this blog post:

Invest in Community Health Centers. Community health centers play a critical role in providing quality care in underserved areas. About 1,250 centers provide care to 20 million people, with an emphasis on preventive and primary care. The Senate bill increases funding to these centers for services by $7 billion and for construction by $1.5 billion over 5 years. The House bill provides $12 billion over the same 5 years. Bridging the difference, the President’s Proposal invests $11 billion in these centers.

Those who know me personally, know the history of chronic illnesses and allergies that afflict my family. And they know that for a good 5-6 years we had to do without health insurance. Had it not been for Dr. Robert Schiller and the staff at Institute for Family Health (Sydney Hillman Framily Practice), we would have been in deep financial shit.

Our family doctor is not only the head of Family Health at Beth Israel Hospital. He is also a renowned homeopath with a vast knowledge and respect for non-allopathic (aka alternative) medicines. Every single MD in the practice is known for attacking allergies, chronic illnesses, addictions, AIDS & STDs using a mixture of western and alternative medicines. Why? Because it ultimately reduces costs.
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Liveblogged from NBC News:

She may have a fracture on the left side and may have something suspicious on her right side. Wednesday they went to the hospital. The cancer has returned and it is malignant.

She has had a battery of results. Her cancer is bad. It is confined in bone --he is saying it is a good thing.

When it goes into the bone it is no longer curable, it is only treatable. The tumor is small and that is why they are optimistic. John is saying that many patients go on to live for a long time. It is similar to what diabetes patients have to live with.

Elizabeth says the needed to talk to their family and the kids, The kids thought that it was cool for her to loose her hair the first time and are disappointed she may not go bald again.

She is saying that every cancer survivor goes through this. They know the ache on a side, that any symptom might be putting you into alarm mode. This is something that every survivor has to live with for the rest for their life. She doesn't forsee changing anything.

She is asymptomatic. Cracking the rib was a 'fluke'. Had she not cracked the rib, she would not have had the opportunity to catch the cancer.  read more »

No, not on the edge as in excitement and fun. More on the edge of sleep about 24 hours a day. Never really awake, never really able to sleep well. Living with a baby, and the brain suffers.

So there we were, ready to get ready to dress up to go to the special reception to meet John and Teresa Heinz Kerry on their book tour. We had told our son, Jacob, that we were meeting John Kerry and he was excited. He has no idea who Kerry is, but he remembers meeting Bill Clinton and he LOVED that. So he was excited. "We are go-ing to meet John Ker-ry...going to take a TRAIN." Yeah, taking a train was also part of the excitement.

So we were all ready to meet Kerry.

Until I saw Michael Bouldin's diary describing the very event we were about to go to...which actually happened yesterday.

D'oh! Only that is the polite version of what I said upon realizing I had gotten the day wrong.

Sleep deprevation is par for the course when you have a baby. And sleep deprevation is cumulative. It has been well over 2 years since I routinely got a good night's sleep and the cumulative effects show...memory declines, motivation declines. About the only thing that can get us to Manhattan in the evenings these days is Bill Clinton or John Kerry. I can assure you Hillary or Chuck wouldn't be enough to inspire us to make the trek and give up even a small amount of sleep.  read more »

I hate linking to Ben Smith these days because he has chosen to link only to Room Eight, his personal blog, from his site over at Politico.com. Yeah, double meow to you too. This Rudy clip though is too good to pass up.

The memories of that comb-over ... the horror, the horror. It's the drivel of him being "kind" and "compassionate" that really makes my stomach turn.

Make sure you have a waste basket close to you. This campaign ad may induce vomiting.

Via Politico.com.