— 1 —

Basque DNA. Facebook had a fabulous link to a study on Basque DNA on their sidebar today. I found it to be interesting reading and it also explains the uniqueness of the Basque language.

— 2 —

What Obamacare looks like. One of my email lists reported that Rep. John Boehner’s lawsuit against the Obama administration regarding the Affordable Care Act has been allowed to proceed. Instead of harping on the 35+ times the Republicans in Congress have tried to repeal it and failed (each time costing taxpayers around $35 million), I’ll just post a picture of what the Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. Obamacare) actually looks like:

For those new to this blog, that picture is of me the first time I got to hold Daniel almost 6 1/2 years ago when Daniel was 3 1/2 weeks old. Before that, he was on a ventilator so I couldn’t hold him. Because of his premature birth and the health problems that resulted, no insurance company would have covered him that wasn’t an employment benefit of Jon or me. In addition to our two insurance companies, he thankfully qualified for SSI and Medicaid because of his size and his prematurity. That knocked out $300K of hospital bills that would have economically devastated us. With the passage of the ACA also came rules that insurance companies could not put a lifetime maxiumum on Daniel’s care (a good thing because he has literally been my “million dollar baby”) and no insurance company could refuse to cover him. The ACA has also meant that I can’t be denied coverage based on my medical history (and Daniel’s birth alone would have been reason for that as I almost died and ended up with complications that I’ll have for the rest of my life) and that any further pregnancy of mine (if I ever get pregnant again because I am super high-risk) will be covered.

— 3 —

Denali and renaming airports. When President Obama officially changed Mt. McKinley’s name back to Denali, the local Athabascan name for the mountain, the Congressional delegation from Ohio (at least the Republican ones) had a screaming hissy fit because President McKinley was from Ohio. (It *IS* kind of stupid that a mountain in Alaska was named for him instead of some geographical feature in the Buckeye State). In response to this, a couple left-leaning PACs decided to circulate a tongue-in-cheek petition to Boehner to have Reagan National Airport’s name changed back to Washington National Airport because it *IS* in the Washington DC area and Reagan did some nefarious things to the air travel industry. If you want to sign it, it’s here.

— 4 —

The prerequisite “vaccinate your freaking kids!!!” take. Can I just say that I’m happy to live in a state which requires parents to vaccinate their kids unless there is a compelling medical reason other than “I read the scribblings of some pseudoscientific moron on the Internet who allegedly has an MD and is illiterate but claims that vaccines cause ____________ based on research that has been disproven and also based studies from which I have carefully cherry-picked data despite the fact that I have no science background and a high school chemistry student can refute everything I say” or “I had _____ or my sibling had _____ and it wasn’t that bad”? Anyway, an ER doctor friend of mine posted this picture on Twitter and I thought I’d share:

Just for those who are playing along at home, I *DO* know people who have had polio and I cannot fathom why anyone in their right mind would choose not to receive this vaccine when it causes lifelong damage and then comes back later on in life to kill people painfully.

[/steps down off of soapbox]

— 5 —

You know it’s hot when… We’ve had several days of temperatures over 100F in my neck of the woods and our local power company has been having so many problems that it has been having rolling brownouts which means that our A/C has been cut at some point every day. This has meant that it has gotten so hot in cupboards in the house that I found my new jar of Noxzema had melted when I opened it tonight! (Coconut oil is a main ingredient and it melts around 95F.)

— 6 —

Weeping. You know you miss living in a place with four distinct seasons when the Lands’ End and L.L. Bean catalogs arrive and you burst into tears with envy for a climate that isn’t bloody hot 6 months of the year.

— 7 —

Daniel’s dentist appointment. The sedated appointment went well this morning. There were no problems with the sedative (Versed) and they were able to do everything they needed to do between that and the nitrous oxide they gave him. He does not have any cavities (this is fabulous considering that it takes almost 5-point restraints to brush his teeth) and the front two teeth are loose. (I forsee some super-cute pictures coming!) His dentist and hygenist are in love with him and spent time at the end of the visit cooing over how cute he is and how beautiful his eyes are as he was coming out of sedation. He was loopy enough that I had to carry him to the car and then to his bedroom when we got home but he had no other issues. Yay for this being done!

For more Quick Takes, visit Kelly at This Ain’t The Lyceum.