Go to your room, Mr. President

If you have ever watched children argue, you can tell which side is losing the debate.  First, the losing side shifts the blame - "but it's not my fault".  Then, the whining starts - "I have been doing all this work, and you won't play nice with me."  Finally, it sinks to straight-out personal attacks - "Well, you're a stinky poo-poo head."  About that time, just before it comes to blows, a parent has to step in and send everyone to time-out.  

This week, we got to see that there is not that much difference between the average seven-year-old and our sitting president.

Hold the sugar please

The Lancet, a British medical journal, published the results of a new global diabetes study by the World Health Organization and the Gates Foundation. According to this new study, almost 350 MILLION people worldwide now have some form of diabetes. In the US alone, close to 25 million people are currently diagnosed as diabetic. In a separate report, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) reported that diabetes killed more Americans in 2009 than AIDS and breast cancer combined. These are sobering statistics for the parent of a diabetic child. However, the reports also raise more questions than answers... what is diabetes? what does it do? how prevalent is it really? how do you get it?

Does that ceiling come with a fan?

If you have listened to the news in the last month, you have probably had flashbacks to the story of Chicken Little. The stories about the debt ceiling sound a lot like "The sky is falling! The sky is falling!" Unfortunately, this problem can't be blamed on an acorn (or a tile from the bottom of an alien space ship).

If Congress takes no action, in six short weeks, the United States Government will no longer be able to pay its bills. Whether we reach this debt ceiling, and how we address it could have an enormous impact on both the national and global economy. Why isn't it easy to fix? To explain, picture a single household trying to manage their budget. (Yes, it is an over-simplification, and it misses some key points, but as they say, "it is close enough for government work.")

We are gathered here today...

It seems appropriate to start this blog by talking about why I am starting this blog. (Think of this as those few pages at the beginning or end of an actual book -- the foreward, dedication, acknowledgements, etc. I personally like to read those and understand what inspired the book. If you don't, you might want to skip this post.)

Has this ever happened to you? You are in the car alone, and the voice on the radio is expressing (ranting?) an opinion about whatever story is dominating the day. Suddenly, you find yourself talking to the radio, telling the talking head they don't have the slightest clue? For the rest of your drive you keep thinking about how simple the answer is, wishing you had the chance to explain your point of view?

Or maybe you were struggling with something around the house (a new recipe, a stubborn stain, a parenting dillema) and found the perfect solution. Didn't you want to tell everyone you knew about the answer?

Well, it happens to me all the time. I get excited about something I learned, or some story in the news, and I want to share it with others. And so this blog was born.