Simple Math: Palin - L = Pain

Welcome to what has become my weekly blog (but will be more frequent, I promise). It was a busy week, though, with a friend in town and Rosh Hashana, which included a trip to Philly and a trip to D.C., and a debate-watching party at my place last night. But now I'm back.

First, the debate. So much has been said about Palin's idiocy, so I won't bother with more Palin-bashing, although it is fun. But watching the debate last night, I couldn't help but think that our political system and this country is turning into a big joke. Yeah, she's an idiot, but she also might actually be the first woman in the White House because there are even more idiots in this country who actually believe that she belongs there. There are people who want someone "just like us" running the country (if and when McCain keels over while in office, of course). Why? Elitism is not a bad thing! Check out this fake meeting between Obama and the West Wing's Jed Bartlett, written by Aaron Sorkin. He sums up this point much better than me. Palin deserves to be in office as much as I do, and I don't deserve to be there at all. It's insulting that she may be the first woman in office. And as a woman, it is certainly not something I can be proud of.

Enough of that. This blog is supposed to be about public health.... (although I could talk about McCain's idea for a $5000 health insurance subsidy that will only benefit the wealthy, not the middle class who will have to use a large chunk of their income to pay for the rest of what the subsidy won't cover... but I won't get into it.). I will continue on with politics though. Yesterday, I heard Congressman John Sarbanes speak at school and holy shit, I was impressed. Sarbanes, being at the school for public health, spoke about the importance of public health, but in a way that at least seemed like he wasn't pandering to his audience. He's actually been working on public health initiatives, including No Child Left Inside, a program to get kids outside (the average kid spends 4 minutes outside playing, and something like 4 hours in front of the TV, video game, or online). What I like about this initiative is that not only will it get fat kids moving and benefit their health, but it'll also get kids in touch with the environment.... which will in turn lead to an increased awareness and some feeling of obligation to help protect it (Another fact he threw out was something like kids can recognize 40+ brand logos and 3 types of flora or fauna. Sad.) Anyway, Sarbanes was smart and very thoughtful in answering questions. You could tell he knew what he was talking about (a nice contrast to the potential future V.P). His next stop after Hopkins was D.C. to vote on the bailout plan once again. Neat! Politics in action!

This weekend is all about studying for me. I told myself I wasn't going to worry about grades, and I'm not worrying, but I'm finding that I actually care about them. Also because I may have rocked my Epi exam, but not Biostats. (Annoyingly, I got the math questions right but messed up on the names of concepts, which were worth the same as the tough math questions. Grr. It's like they put those concept questions in just for the English majors. Oh wait.) So, it's Biostats weekend for me! I haven't posted any pictures in awhile, so maybe I'll get outside and finally take some of Baltimore in Autumn, which is actually quite nice. Who knew? (Not Sarah Palin, because she doesn't know anything. Oh, I'm hilarious!).