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Showing posts from July 24, 2016

Helping the Elderly Downsize - The New York Times

In respomnse to Helping the Elderly Downsize I commented: Moving is stressful and can possibly kill, particularly older people. I found the line, "In a few weeks she managed to get him moved in with his wife, who died four days later at age 82." telling. Yes, it is good for our elders to live in places that are easy for them to ambulate comfortably, but we must be careful about how we go about this. We should should not 'kill the patient', and we need to be watchful of the mental effects of relocation, e.g., depression, feelings of isolation, loneliness, etc.

Hotels vs. Airbnb: Let the Battle Begin - Responses

In response to  Hotels vs. Airbnb: Let the Battle Begin , I wrote the following: Although we have had some good, and even excellent, experiences via VRBO, I prefer hotels, inns and B&B's. On trips, I have no interest in cooking or cleaning up after myself. Travel for me is about pleasure, relaxation, and enjoying local experiences. It helps that we can afford the costs, and the times we opted for a short rental was for cost, either because we had less money, or because hotels seemed to offer little for their high costs. Respectively, once on our honeymoon to Italy where we rented an entire house for a week on the Italian Riviera, and another a flat in Amsterdam, situated within the canals and near a university. I am not a big fan of such services, but what gets me annoyed is the illegality and the exposure to risk that these services create. We own our condo in a doorman building, and have entertained the idea of subletting for a year or more so we can enjoy the country and/o

What Is a Man For? - The New York Times

In response to an article What Is a Man For? in The New York Times, I responded: I saw this quote from the short article description and did a double-take, "woman realizes she doesn’t need a man to provide, protect or procreate" and I was dumbfounded. For some of us, it has always been about desire, about sharing one's life, about a marriage of equals. Granted, my spouse, takes care of me in many ways, but then again, so do I take care of her. In truth, we both provide and protect each other, but we also enjoy each other, build a life together, enable each other.

Sorry, We Don’t Take Obamacare: A Response

In response to Sorry, We Don’t Take Obamacare in the The New York Times I wrote the following: The 'failures' of the ACA will be used differently by the major parties. The Republicans will use it as a cudgel to reduce it, while the Democrats will see it as a reason to move toward single-payer ala Medicare. Even under a single-payer type system, there will be problems, but as a progressive and humane citizenry, we need to move toward a better system, one that covers all, regardless of the ability to pay, paired with FDA, FTC, and USDA - there are other related enablers of poor public welfare - that act in citizens' interests, not corporations.