A couple of pictures of beloved pets affected by the rat poisoning. The little dog on the right is dead from kidney failure. The white kitty on the right is suffering from kidney failure. I remember when I first heard about it, I went through all of our kitty products, and bags of food. None were produced by Menu Foods, the company that has announced a recall of all tainted products. You can really tell where my priorities are. As I ransacked the cupboards looking through kitty food and treats, I ran into three cans of peanut butter (recently tainted with salmonella). (Of course, I did tell the room mate not to eat the peanut butter). I can't imagine what we'd do if feeding our kitties had hurt them, or even killed them.
Then there's this sad story about folks losing their health insurance:
At issue are individual policies, the type needed by consumers who cannot get group coverage from employers or others. Although insurers cannot deny coverage to members of group plans, state law allows insurers to deny granting individual policies to applicants with preexisting medical conditions.
The state investigation found that Blue Cross used computer programs and a dedicated department to systematically investigate and cancel the policies of pregnant women and the chronically ill regardless of whether they intentionally lied on their applications to cover up preexisting medical conditions — a standard required by state law for canceling individual policies.
There are too many people who are living so close to the edge that one serious illness destroys life as they know it, and then they are told they won't get covered by their insurance plan.
Then there are all the folks who've gotten themselves into a sub-prime loan, and have gotten themselves into some trouble.
But as the housing market cools, thousands of subprime borrowers are struggling to keep their homes. A number of subprime lenders, saddled by failed loans and a shortage of cash, have folded or staggered. In some particularly hard-hit neighborhoods in Denver's suburbs — one of a few metropolitan areas where the problem is especially grave — home after home sits dark.
Clearly, this isn't how the American dream is supposed to play out, but who's to blame?
The experience of families like the Snearys show how the squeeze created by questionable lending can quickly be compounded by family economic crises, a lack of planning and knowledge, and the rapid shifts in a real estate market that once seemed unstoppable.
"You were set up to fail," one real estate agent told them.
It's a sobering thought for anybody who shares the American dream. After all, it hits so close to home.
Jack Benny arranged for roses to be delivered to his wife even after he died:
The roses will come every year,
and they will only stop,
When your door's not answered,
when the florist stops to knock.
He will come five times that day,
in case you have gone out.
But after his last visit,
he will know without a doubt!
To take the roses to the place,
where I've instructed him,
and place the roses where we are,
together once again.
And lastly, but certainly not leastly, there are so many US soldiers dying in Iraq.
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