Renting a Home Shortens Life

For John, BLUF:  I wonder if planners take this into consideration?  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Research finds that renting ages you faster than smoking, obesity

From The New York Post, by Reporter Georgina Noack, 3 December 2023, 10:45 a.m. ET.

Here is the lede plus two:

No, renters, you are not imagining those grey hairs springing up on your head – your living situation is actually making you older, faster.

A landmark study out of the University of Adelaide and University of Essex has found that living in a private rental property accelerates the biological ageing process by more than two weeks every year.

The research found renting had worse effects on biological age than being unemployed (adding 1.4 weeks per year), obesity (adding 1 week per year), or being a former smoker (adding about 1.1 weeks).

It turns out that living in public housing does not have this impact on lifespan.

This is another reason why Beacon Hill should be working on giving us a major increase in affordable housing.  Affordable housing is not something we have in Lowell.  Our median income is $65,000, but the annual income needed to purchase the median home in this City is $140,000.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Surviving and Moving On

For John, BLUF:  Many of us will suffer tragedy during this Flu Pandemic, but it is possible to work our way through it.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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It’s Okay to Be a Different Kind of Parent During the Pandemic

Here is the sub-headline:

When something outside your control changes your life, it’s what you do with what you can control that really shapes your children.

From The Atlantic, by CNN commentator Mary Katherine Ham, 8 April 2020.

Here is the lede plus five:

What if you woke up one day, and had to be an entirely different parent from the one you were the day before?  For much of America, that day arrived last month.

With the spread of COVID-19, millions of moms and dads have started spending a lot more time with their kids, in new roles.  I’ve noticed a recurring semi-desperate refrain in memes as well as Facebook posts and Instagram Stories:  “But I’m not a stay-at-home mom”; “I’m not a homeschooling dad”; “I’m not a Pinterest mom.”  Along with the markets, the coronavirus has wreaked havoc on our mental health and parenting strategies.

What we’re all being called to do now is learn how to parent in a crisis.  This is familiar territory for me, and the good news is that the parent you are today is not the parent you have to be tomorrow.  Your parenting identity is not nearly as intransigent as your pantsless, potty-training toddler.

In September 2015, I was raising a 2-year-old with my husband, Jake, while I was 7 months pregnant with our second child.  My toddler was easy on me—she was laid-back, sociable, and slept through the night.  Aside from a Kate Middletonian amount of morning sickness, motherhood had been relatively smooth.  I had an established parenting identity: I was a chill mom who took her kid on morning runs and road trips, a working mom, a mom with a partner with whom I could share some duties.

And then one Saturday, I became something else.  My husband died in a cycling accident in a race to benefit cancer research.  I lost my partner, I lost his contribution to our household income, and I lost my idea of what kind of parent I was.

“Life changes fast. Life changes in the instant,” Joan Didion wrote in The Year of Magical Thinking, her memoir about the loss of her husband and daughter.  “You sit down to dinner and life as you know it ends.”  You’re probably feeling like you’re seated at that table now.  The coronavirus is serving up a rare and tragic mix of grief, drastic life changes, and economic stress to a huge swath of the country.

In the Air Force it is the dreaded Blue Staff Car pulling up to your house with a couple of officers in Class A Uniform, one of them a Chaplain.  You know why they are at your door.  Your Spouse has Bought-the-Farm.

I follow Ms Mary Katherine Ham on Twitter, because she is a very positive, chirpy kind of writer.  We need that kind of writing right now.  The survivors will get through this and move on to a better place, over time.

As a note, The Atlantic is offering for free their Coronavirus writings at this time.

Regards  —  Cliff

The Church Speaks Up

For John, BLUF:  Does the church have the right, does it have the responsibility, to call out members who are advocating for sin?  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Bishop Paprocki bars pro-abortion Illinois lawmakers from Holy Communion

From The Boston Pilot! by the CNA Staff, 6 June 2019.

Here is the lede plus six:

Springfield, Ill., Jun 6, 2019 CNA.- The Bishop of Springfield, Illinois, has decreed that state legislative leaders may not be admitted to Holy Communion within his diocese, because of their work to pass the state Reproductive Health Act.  The bishop also directed the Catholic legislators who have voted legislation promoting abortion should not present themselves to receive Holy Communion until they have first gone to confession.

“In accord with canon 915 of the Code of Canon Law...Illinois Senate President John Cullerton and Speaker of the House Michael J. Madigan, who facilitated the passage of the Act Concerning Abortion of 2017 (House Bill 40) as well as the Reproductive Health Act of 2019 (Senate Bill 25), are not to be admitted to Holy Communion in the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois because they have obstinately persisted in promoting the abominable crime and very grave sin of abortion as evidenced by the influence they exerted in their leadership roles and their repeated votes and obdurate public support for abortion rights over an extended period of time,” Bishop Thomas Paprocki wrote in a June 2 decree.

“These persons may be readmitted to Holy Communion only after they have truly repented these grave sins and furthermore have made suitable reparation for damages and scandal, or at least have seriously promised to do so, as determined in my judgment or in the judgment of their diocesan bishop in consultation with me or my successor,” the bishop added.

Illinois’ Reproductive Health Act was passed by the state’s House and Senate just days ago, and observers credited the advocacy of Cullerton and Madigan with helping to secure passage.  It is expected to be signed by Illinois’ Gov. J.B. Pritzker.

The bill declares abortion to be a “fundamental right” in the state and would remove regulations on abortion clinics and doctors.

Among the provisions that the bill would remove are regulations for abortion clinics, required waiting periods to obtain an abortion, and a ban on partial-birth abortion.  In addition, it would lift criminal penalties for performing abortions and would prevent any further state regulation of abortion.

The legislation would require all private health insurance plans to cover elective abortions, and eliminate reporting requirements as well as regulations requiring the investigation of maternal deaths due to abortio.

How tough is too tough?  My Middle Brother gave me a lot of verbiage to say this was too much, but, he didn't cough up a way for Holy Mother the Church to respond to people, people in civil authority, who trashed Church Teachings, thus leading Church Members to believe that what is wrong is OK.  Or, worse, giving cover to people who know what is right but want to do what is wrong, because they are weak.

I am not advocating for Congress to abolish the right to abortion.  Given the plurality of our nation, Roe v Wade seems reasonable.  I do think those who wish for abortion up to, or even past the point of birth should be asked to acknowledge that the rights of one human being are being sacrifice for the rights of another (the right to life of one sacrificed for the right to happiness for another).

Regards  —  Cliff

Abortion Loosening in Vermont

For John, BLUF:  Vermont is, in my humble opinion, heading in the wrong direction.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Vermont bishop:  Abortion bill tests limits of human brokenness

From The [Boston] Pilot, by the Catholic News Agency Staff, 22 February 2019.

Here is the lede plus five:

Burlington, Vt., Feb 22, 2019 CNA.- With a bill to legalize abortion for any reason until birth advancing in Vermont, the local Catholic bishop has stressed that defending unborn babies is a matter of human rights.

“Do we really want to allow this? Do we really want to test the limits of where human brokenness can take us?  Please God, no,” Bishop Christopher Coyne of Burlington said in a Feb. 15 statement.

Coyne cited his previous comments from January, saying the bill goes beyond Roe v. Wade and “does not recognize a viable life at any stage of pregnancy.”

“This bill will legalize infanticide.  This is wrong,” he said.

The Vermont House of Representatives passed H. 57, called the “The Freedom of Choice Act,” on Feb. 21 by a vote of 106-36.

The bill had at least 90 co-sponsors in the House and has strong support in the state Senate.  It claims to “safeguard the right to abortion” by ensuring it is not “denied, restricted, or infringed.”  It bars the prosecution of “any individual” who performs or attempts to perform an abortion.

With regard to abortion this has to be about educating Mothers.  Educating them as to the fact that they are carrying an individual life.  Educating them as to what options are available to them if they feel they don't wish to raise a child.

Bigger than the narrow abortion issue is the one of judging that there is life unworthy of life.  If this idea gains ground it will not be held narrowly to the issue of abortion but will become a broader issue with regard to children and adults, to include the elderly.nbsp; Some will speak of quality of life, which is a cover for saying that some humans are disposable.  This is something we need to resist, lest we become like Germany in the late 1930s and early 1940s, and other nations, such as Cambodia under Pol Pot or China during the great leap forward.

Regards  —  Cliff

Like Sparta, Except the Mother

For John, BLUF:  As for Virginia Governor Northam, the fact that he was careless about "Black Face" or "White Hoods" is just a symptom of his being careless of life itself.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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But Is It Human?

From PJ Media, by Novelist Sarah Hoyt, 10 February 2019.

Here is the lede plus five:

When I was little, my dad told me about Spartan infanticide:  How a new baby was brought to the father, who then either accepted/recognized him/her or directed that the child be killed.

I wasn’t that little, and this was by the way of being a joke on the fact that I was premature, very small and would never have survived.  While old enough to understand the joke, I thought it was a barbaric and despicable system, putting the life of a newborn in the hands of a flawed individual who might just not feel really cordial that day, or kill the child for monetary and convenience reasons.

I was very glad we no longer lived in such a barbarous age.

For a while now, I’ve suspected I was wrong.  Governor Northam’s speech was only the glaringly obvious slap in the face to prove that indeed and in fact, we do very much live in a world like Sparta’s.  Only these days it’s not the father who gets to decide, but the mother.

You see, lacking a solid point at which we declare that life in the womb is/isn’t human, we have defaulted by degrees to “It’s human if it’s wanted.”  Specifically, if it’s wanted by the mother.

Unfortunately, this opens the door to atrocity.

It’s not even a slippery slope, just a working out of the conclusion.  If you’re not wanted once you’re born, why should you be accorded any more “humanity” than you were if unwanted in the womb?  Why should there be a limit to when you stop being wanted?

The implication is clear.  Under the current rules in New York State and as proposed for Virginia, the baby could be several hours old and be aborted, or a day old, or 14 years old and a disappointment to the Mother.

Here is the conclusion to the article:

We should respect humans as humans because we are human.

Once we open the door to granting conditional humanity for any reason, we are rendering ourselves open to also be considered non-human for any reason, as society shifts and the needs of government change.

At the end of that lie death camps and bodies piled like cordwood.

It’s time to turn back while we can.

I am opposed to elective abortion, but we are a pluralistic society and not all think the way I do.  The US Supreme Court Ruling in Roe v Wade seems like a reasonable compromise.  Getting too far out beyond that "first trimester" seems to me to be on a slippery slope.

If someone uses the "Hitler" analogy with you, mention that Governor Andrew Cuomo and Governor Ralph Northam are more the mold, men willing to eliminate those found to be unworthy of life♠ and thus to be eliminated in a quick and efficient manner.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  Which goes back to a 1920 Book, Allowing the Destruction of Life Unworthy of Life

Your Choice

For John, BLUF:  In the end you can think there is an evil force out there (from your siblings to God) which is holding you back, but it is all on you, in the end.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Being Miserable Is a Choice

This is from Medium, by Ms Brittany Hunter, 23 January 2018.

Me explaining it is not as good as you reading it.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Things Are Looking Up

For John, BLUF:  The world has improved a lot in the last couple of hundred years.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Proof that life is getting better for humanity, in 5 charts

An oldie but goodie from Vox, by Mr Max Roser, from 23 December of last year.

Go to the Link and view the charts.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Life is Not Fair. Buck Up

For John, BLUF:  To his son't graduating class.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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John Roberts Addresses Middle-School Grads

Source is The Wall Street Journal.

From time to time in the years to come, I hope you will be treated unfairly, so that you will come to know the value of justice.  I hope that you will suffer betrayal because that will teach you the importance of loyalty.  Sorry to say, but I hope you will be lonely from time to time so that you don't take friends for granted.  I wish you bad luck, again, from time to time so that you will be conscious of the role of chance in life and understand that your success is not completely deserved and that the failure of others is not completely deserved either.  And when you lose, as you will from time to time, I hope every now and then, your opponent will gloat over your failure.  It is a way for you to understand the importance of sportsmanship.  I hope you'll be ignored so you know the importance of listening to others, and I hope you will have just enough pain to learn compassion.  Whether I wish these things or not, they're going to happen.  And whether you benefit from them or not will depend upon your ability to see the message in your misfortunes.

Regards  —  Cliff

Life—Pain and Hope

TRIGGER WARNINGS:  Snow Flakes, you don't learn this in college.  You learn it in life, if you engage.

For John, BLUF:  .  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Adults-Only Observations:  Five Bad Things and Five Good Things about Life

This article, at the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE), is by Mr Jeffrey A Tucker, from Thursday, 4 May 2017.

Five Bad Things

1. No one is ever wrong. People will defend an opinion or an action until the end, even if every bit of logic and evidence runs contrary
2. Excellence makes you a target of envy and can often harm your prospects for success.
3. Average people will sacrifice every principle and every truth for the sake of security.
4. If you ever wonder why people around you are behaving strangely, or believing and doing seemingly irrational things, you can find the answer by asking the question: what’s in it for them?
5. Absolutely no one can keep a secret.

Five Good Things

1. There are human miracles all around you if you only take the time and have a mind to notice. Human action is not scripted.
2. Humans are survivors. Everyone faces seeming disasters in life: deaths in the family, divorces, job terminations, houses burning down.
3. At some point in your life, your heart will be broken through some devastating betrayal and you will be tempted by the idea that love is not real, that it is a made-up delusion. This is false. Love comes in many forms and is authentic…
4. In childhood, we supposed that everyone around us was well-intentioned, but later discovered otherwise in adulthood. You can wallow in this or see beyond it. Most people, despite all foibles and failings, have a heart.
5. Powerful institutions can be scary and ominous, but look more closely. No power can ultimately rule this world. The promises of politicians, even the most powerful, turn to dust…

Go to the link to see each idea developed more fully.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Jeffrey A. Tucker Jeffrey A. Tucker Thursday, May 04, 2017

Life on the Bleeding Edge of Medicine

For John, BLUF:  advances is science and engineering demand advances in our understanding of the law.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Sofia Vergara is being sued by her own frozen embryos

This is by a staff writer at The Pilot, the newspaper of the Archdiocese of Boston.  Here is the lede:

Emma and Isabella are suing their mother, Sofia Vergara, according to court documents obtained by the New York Post.

Emma and Isabella are Vergara’s frozen embryos.

Vergara is a Colombian-born actress perhaps best known for her role as the quirky but loving Gloria Delgado-Pritchett from the ABC series “Modern Family”. In 2013, she created and froze embryos with then-fiancé Nick Loeb, a businessman, in a California clinic through in-vitro fertilization.

Here is a key fact:

The state of Louisiana legally recognizes a fertilized egg as a "juridical person".

The idea of fertilized embryos is one the Roman Catholic Church does not support.  On the other hand, they are a fact of life.  But, are they "life" or just material?

This is why the whole area of right to life is complicated.  When does life begin?  The whole area of Neonatal Intensive Care says that there is human life before the normal term birth.

Regards  —  Cliff

Life

For John, BLUF:  Adapting and adjusting.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Being unready and ill-equipped is what you have

to expect in life….You never have the capacities,

the strength, the wisdom, the virtue you ought

to have. You must always make do with less than

you need in a situation vastly different from what

you would have chosen for your special endowments.

Charleton Ogburn, Jr.
The Marauders

Regards  —  Cliff

When in Doubt, Blame the "White Guy"

TRIGGER WARNING:  In which I discuss distortions of the facts with regard to abortion.
For John, BLUF:  You have to listen to every argument, but then you have to discard a lot of them for just being flat out factless.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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The InstaPundit is on the abortion issue this morning, and not without reason.  The reason is the distortion of information to allow the intellectually lazy to feel good about abortions, rather than seeing them as the small or large tragedies they are.♠  This item is from News Busters, where Reporter Katie Yoder does a fisking of CNN's Sally Kohn in "Sally Kohn Blames Planned Parenthood Videos on ‘Patriarchy,’ ‘White Supremacy’".

Well, I do have to give credit to the "White Supremacy" argument, given that Ms Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood, wanted to reduce the number of Black babies.

The early 1900s are not over, they have just changed cloths.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  Yes, I grant that for some it is a medical necessity, the Mother against the unborn child.  I wonder if we ignore the fact that it may not be a slam-dunk decision for the Mother.  Might she not feel a twinge of regret along with the relief that a life threatening situation has been overcome.  A small twinge for what might have been?

Professor Singer on the Disabled

TRIGGER WARNING:  Discussion of killing little babies.
For John, BLUF:  We need to think about the brave new world we are creating.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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This article goes back to 20 April, but it is about Professor Peter Singer, of Princeton, so it is always timely.  This is about a radio interview in which the "Princeton professor calls for killing disabled infants under Obamacare".

Professor Singer's views on letting the just born die is not news.  What is news is that he tells us that under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PP&ACA)♠ it should be part of the program.

According to an article published Sunday by World Net Daily, a Princeton University professor has suggested that severely disabled infants be killed to cut health care costs and for moral reasons.nbsp; In a radio interview Sunday with Aaron Klein, broadcast on New York’s AM 970 The Answer and Philadelphia’s NewsTalk 990 AM, Princeton University ethics professor Peter Singer argued it is "reasonable" for government or private insurance companies to deny treatment to severely disabled babies.

Several times during the interview Singer argued the health-care system under Obamacare should openly acknowledge health-care rationing and that the country should acknowledge the necessity of "intentionally ending the lives of severely disabled infants."nbsp; Singer also repeatedly referred to a disabled infant as "it" during the interview.

I am not saying it doesn't happen.  Rather, I am saying that it is cynical and heartless, that it is human life we are talking about.

And, can Professor Singer say "Death Panels"?

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  "Obamacare".

"Something Even More Bizarre..."

For John, BLUF:  All this effort just to squeeze in a good quote.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Out on Facebook Reporter Carl Prine said:

I've decided to invoke the "Tom Ricks" Rule for We Are The Mighty.  Until you say something that's not slack-jawed idiocy, I pretend that you don't exist.

Mr Tom Ricks, is a former Washington Post reporter and a current author (e.g., Fiasco:  The American Military Adventure in Iraq).

Well, moving on, we find a comment from Ms Fiona Fisher, who quotes a passage from The Restaurant at the End of the Universe.♠

“There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened.”

Ms Fisher then asks:

So how do we know that you are the Real Carl Prine?

I am going with we can't be sure, but all the signs are there.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  I must confess I have not yet read the first book, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Expanding the Definition of Abortion

For John, BLUF:  This is not a good trend.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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From The Telegraph [London] we have "Killing babies no different from abortion, experts say".  The Reporter is Stephen Adams, Medical Correspondent.  The encapsulation is:

Parents should be allowed to have their newborn babies killed because they are “morally irrelevant” and ending their lives is no different to abortion, a group of medical ethicists linked to Oxford University has argued.

Here is the lede:

The article, published in the Journal of Medical Ethics, says newborn babies are not “actual persons” and do not have a “moral right to life”.  The academics also argue that parents should be able to have their baby killed if it turns out to be disabled when it is born.

Hat tip to the Instapundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Family Disagreements

For John, BLUF:  .  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Over at the Althouse blog is an item from Think Progress that the wife of Texas Governor Rick Perry, Anita Perry, says that women have "a right to choose".  Governor Perry, who happens to be a Republican, is seen as Pro-Life.

This seems pretty stark, although the actual interview would seem a little more nuanced.  Somewhere out there are those who oppose all abortions and those who would allow abortions in all cases, not just up to live birth, but beyond.  The American People are somewhere in between. As usual, the comments are interesting.  I liked this comment on diversity of opinion, with cooperation:

My wife as a pro choice ob/gyn and I am prolife. When she retires, she is going to volunteer in a clinic. We will carpool, because I will be protesting outside.

Maybe we should encourage Governor Perry to push for abortion laws like those in Europe. Hat tip to the Althouse blog.

Regards  —  Cliff

Goodbye to All That

For John, BLUF:  A life terminated is a life never lived.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

It seems that Chelsea Clinton wishes she had never been born.

How else to interpret her remark about her maternal Grandmother:

From the stage at the recent Women Deliver conference, former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s daughter Chelsea revealed that her much-admired maternal grandmother was the child of unwed teenage parents who “did not have access to services that are so crucial that Planned Parenthood helps provide.”

The thing is we are all unique and if THAT sperm doesn't fertilize THAT egg, our moment on the stage never comes.  There are no substitutes.  No Hillary.  No Chelsea.  No President Bill Clinton.

Hat tip to the Instapundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

NB:  The title is from Poet and Soldier Robert Graves, in a different context.

What The Heck Is Water?

For John, BLUF:  Life is grinding routine, day after week after month after year.

From the background to the below video:

In 2005, author David Foster Wallace was asked to give the commencement address to the 2005 graduating class of Kenyon College.  However, the resulting speech didn't become widely known until 3 years later, after his tragic death.  It is, without a doubt, some of the best life advice we've ever come across, and perhaps the most simple and elegant explanation of the real value of education.

This is the abridged version.

Hat tip to the Althouse Blog.

Regards  —  Cliff

Determining Pregnancy

For John, BLUF:  The Army doesn't knowingly deploy pregnant soldiers.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

At a previous post, Kad Barma commented:

Is it that hard to understand that "I cannot think of any more unreasonable search than the government insisting they need to know if a woman might be pregnant"?

This Spring the 12th Combat Aviation Brigade, a helicopter unit based near Ansbach, Germany, deployed subordinate units to Afghanistan.  it being the Army, there were female soldiers.  To the surprise of one soldier, and her chain of command, she delivered herself of a baby boy some time over the Summer.  She, and the baby, we're immediately returned to Germany.  The question on some minds was why she was in Afghanstan in the first place.  Quoting the Stars and Stripes 25 October 2012 article by Reporter Steven Beardsley:

Army regulations require all female soldiers undergo a urine pregnancy test 30 days before deployment, and those who test positive are to be referred for further evaluation, according to a statement from the Europe Regional Medical Command.

The Army doesn't deploy pregnant soldiers, or at least works to avoid it.  Therefore "they need to know if a woman might be pregnant".

Or should pregnant women deploy to a combat assignment?

Regards  —  Cliff

-0 S2 0.5

Defining Life

For John, BLUF:  We have a big murky area that is our consensus as to when life begins.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

Washington Post Columnist Sally Quinn takes on the brouhaha over Indiana Republican Senate candidate Richard Mourdock, and his view that (1) life begins at conception and (2) all life comes from God.  From the Candidate:

"I struggled with it myself for a long time," he said, "but I came to realize that life is that gift from God.  And I think even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen."

Mr Mourlock believes life begins at conception.  Ms Quinn writes:

Here’s the problem:  All of these guys are anti-abortion.  They believe life begins at conception.  Therefore, they believe an abortion is murder.  So if that’s true, how can they possibly believe it is okay to murder a fetus (a fully realized person in their eyes) simply because of the way the child was conceived?  This is baffling.  I admire Mourdock for telling the truth about what he believes.

OK, so if we think Mr Mourlock is flat out wrong, when DOES life begin?

Remember, in a few days those readers from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts will get to vote on when life becomes no longer supportable as life.  I write that with a level of trepidation for what my future might hold.

Regards  —  Cliff