The world gave me life, my parents eased it, turned it, and I was given roses. These are the flowers on the inside, you can't see them. All you can do is water them with the sonnets of Shakespeare, the play of childhood, the late quartets of Beethoven, the smell of new mown hay. Oh the roses really like to grow. Don't let the calendar deprive you of your rightful rain. Now is a good time to water the soul. It's not so hard. Close your eyes, dream of the white moon, in the midst of clouds, far away from the reach of men.
"Last week, the Food and Drug Administration issued an announcement with a title only a federal bureaucrat could write: “FDA approves Kalydeco to treat rare form of cystic fibrosis.’’ In fact, it was a blockbuster development, the first drug that would treat the cause, rather than the symptoms, of cystic fibrosis, a medication that showed such breathtaking results in clinical trials that it was sanctioned by the FDA in about half the typical time.Behind that announcement sits a human narrative, a quarter century in the making, of loss, hope, and triumph."
Driven by loss, father inspires tireless pursuit of a cure
Check out this article that I saw in USA TODAY's iPhone application.
Surveys: Catholics want birth control coverage
Yes, Alan Bates was terrific as Burgess the spy, exiled and taking his comeuppance in the Soviet Union. But for me, the last minute of the film remains unparalleled. Dressed in his new, imported suit, a suit no Russian could ever own, a gift from home, Burgess/Bates takes a proud and unambifuously happy stroll. As my son Ross says, "it's the beauty of a high thread count!"
I made a mistake this morning and turned on the Joe Scarborough “Morning Joe” program. I was treated to Scarborough’s howling insistence that the rights of Catholics in America are being suborned by the vicious carrot and stick of Obama’s health care act. Scarborough sneered at the liberal blogs--his assertion, poorly framed, was that “liberals” are shoving their immoral agenda down the throats of sincere religious people who simply do not believe in abortion. A guest on the show tried to argue that the health care act doesn’t say you have to have an abortion, it just makes it available as an option. But Scarborough wasn’t having any of it. You see, Obama and his ilk are interfering with the moral consciences of Catholics who, presumably, like small children, will get “cooties” if they receive health care under Obama’s initiative. One could call this argument the “pox Romana”--if a religious person stands next to a free thinker on the bus he will inevitably be morally infected. And in this way, Scarborough partook of the the very thing he accuses liberals of doing: not trusting the people. BTW, you can always tell when Scarborough is in over his head--he yells at Mika Brezinski who is the smartest person on the show.