Amanda Cori Daugherty

I love long talks and debates. I enjoy music, food, cooking, public radio, board games, and coffee. I love [old] dresses, jewelry, farmer's markets, and cats.

I blog so that my family and friends have a better idea about what I'm thinking from day to day.

I'm in Bloomington working on my MPH. Almost done. :) I'm looking for jobs in NYC. Please help.

Archive

Jun
23rd

Mon

The most unfair thing about life is the way it ends. I mean, life is tough. It takes up a lot of your time. What do you get at the end of it? A Death! What’s that, a bonus? I think the life cycle is all backwards. You should die first, get it out of the way. Then you live in an old age home. You get kicked out when you’re too young, you get a gold watch, you go to work. You work forty years until you’re young enough to enjoy your retirement. You do drugs, alcohol, you party, you get ready for high school. You go to grade school, you become a kid, you play, you have no responsibilities, you become a little baby, you go back into the womb, you spend your last nine months floating…

…and you finish off as an orgasm.

— George Carlin (via poortaste) (via eec)

Jun
19th

Thu

boredorborder:

(via Leanne Surfleet)

trappedintime:

Which country makes most trips to the doctor?

The Japanese make most visits to the doctor of any rich country. Each person goes 13.8 times a year on average according to the OECD. The high rate could be explained in part by Japan’s high ratio of older people who require more care. Americans see a doctor less than four times a year, although the high number people without medical insurance may be a factor. Neighbouring Mexicans are the most doctor-shy. (via The Economist)

I need to research a more thorough post, but I’d like to go back and compare visit frequency to patient care. Where do these same countries fall on such a chart? What about overall human health index scores? I’m not sure if I’m more apt to believe Americans avoid the doctor - due to lack of insurance, high cost of healthcare, or fear of what they will be told - or are simply healthy enough to avoid frequent visits.

No, it’s definitely not that they are healthier. In fact, the United States falls way behind most other industrialized countries (and other “non-industrialized” countries) in health index scores which take into consideration many aspects of health including mental health and social support as well as traditional health measures (rate of disease, infant mortality rate, etc). From my understanding (I’ve been studying public health for some time now), the U.S. population, in general, avoid making visits to the doc mostly due to lack of health insurance, cost, little to no access, time (can we say limited number of sick days) and even distrust of the medical system in general. Sad, but true. Absolutely. I’m sure that we are experiencing a crisis.

Jun
15th

Sun

My grandfather always said that living is like licking honey off a thorn.

— Louis Adamic (via scout) (via whateverlolawants)

Jun
14th

Sat

ill doctrine: a hip-hop video blog

The United States Supreme Court yesterday rendered a decision which I think is one of the worst decisions in the history of this country. Sen. Graham and Sen. Lieberman and I had worked very hard to make sure that we didn’t torture any prisoners, that we didn’t mistreat them, that we abided by the Geneva Conventions, which applies to all prisoners. But we also made it perfectly clear, and I won’t go through all the legislation we passed, and the prohibition against torture, but we made it very clear that these are enemy combatants, these are people who are not citizens, they do not and never have been given the rights that citizens of this country have. And my friends there are some bad people down there. There are some bad people. So now what are we going to do. We are now going to have the courts flooded with so-called, quote, Habeas Corpus suits against the government, whether it be about the diet, whether it be about the reading material. And we are going to be bollixed up in a way that is terribly unfortunate, because we need to go ahead and adjudicate these cases. By the way, 30 of the people who have already been released from Guantanamo Bay have already tried to attack America again, one of them just a couple weeks ago, a suicide bomber in Iraq. Our first obligation is the safety and security of this nation, and the men and women who defend it. This decision will harm our ability to do that.

—

John McCain on Boumediene

This is revealing and worrisome. However moderate John McCain may be or have been, the same people who pulled Bush’s strings are now pulling McCain’s. If you like McCain himself, be scared of whomever is feeding him talking points.

To be clear, the case McCain is talking about did not hinge on citizenship—yet McCain is talking about “people who are not citizens.” Non-citizens in our country have habeas rights. If you are an immigrant awaiting citizenship or a tourist or even undocumented, the government must follow the constitution. Nobody would seriously challenge this except maybe Pat Buchannan or Tom Tancredo.

Furthermore, the sort of habeas plea has nothing to do with diet or reading material. Extending the purview of federal courts specifically for habeas corpus will not open a flood of litigation. It will not “bollix” up our courts unless we’re detaining a whole lot more people than anybody thinks we’re detaining.

This is not the statement of somebody who believes in the promise of America. John McCain, we are a better country than that.

(via squashed)

soupsoup:

zachlinder:

From last Sunday’s Times:

When he was 15, in 1992, the artist Andrew Kuo tagged along with his older brother to the second year of Lollapalooza in Stanhope, N.J. It was Mr. Kuo’s first summer festival, and he was so excited that he bought the albums by most of the bands on the bill beforehand. Then, halfway through the show, after sets from Pearl Jam (his favorite) and the Jesus and Mary Chain, “I didn’t want to be there anymore,” he said. “I felt like I was being held captive.” Thus began his lifelong ambivalence toward outdoor festivals. “When you finally get to the picnic, there’s ants everywhere,” Mr. Kuo said. Here’s a pessimist’s guide to the summer festival season, which kicks into high gear with the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival on Thursday in Manchester, Tenn. Mr. Kuo will be home napping.

It’s more trouble than it’s worth.

Jun
13th

Fri

Candidates Strongly Differ on How to Tax the Rich : NPR I think I’m more interested in closing the income gap than boosting the economy. So, I think I’ll vote for Obama.

derbygirl:

I’m really loving Swingtown … mostly for the tunes and the fashion. It’s kinda hot, too.

Agreed.

Another favorite part!