ISLAMABAD (AP) — The U.S. drone strike that killed al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri on the balcony of a Kabul safe house intensified global scrutiny Tuesday of Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers and further undermined their efforts to secure international recognition and desperately needed aid.
No doubt you have heard, “Life is just one damned thing after another!” It’s not true. The truth is that life is one damned thing over and over and over! COVID is a good example of that fact.
Much of the state received from trace amounts to upwards of 3.00 inches of precipitation. Isolated areas in the Northern High Plains received up to 6.00 inches. Drought conditions ranged from none to exceptionally dry with the High and Low Plains, the Edwards Plateau, the Blacklands, and South Central Texas being the driest. There was an average of 6.2 days suitable for fieldwork.
We have all been through a period of time in which it seems that literally everything was difficult or changed, and all of us were worried. Most of us have had at least one experience of having contracted COVID, a disease that was entirely unknown three years ago and is in many respects unlike anything we have ever seen previously. Most of us also have lost friends and/or loved ones who have died with this disease. In addition, the responses of governments here and abroad have perhaps been well intentioned, but they appear to have been largely counterproductive. In addition to the massive dislocations attributable to COVID, there are other forces that have for some years been in the process of transforming American society in ways that are unhealthy. To chose just one example, life expectancy in the geographic US had been generally increasing since well before the birth of our nation, until 2014; it has been decreasing since that year. Whenever you read such things, it is natural to expect that the writer is about to suggest that something be done about all of this. These days it seems that we are forever hearing about one or another form of impending doom from which we will be saved if we simply support this or that cause or candidate, because they can surely rise to the implied challenge, “Don’t just stand there ... DO SOMETHING!” That is not my purpose today. As an Emergency Physician I know the wisdom of, “Don’t just do something, stand there.” Standing there for a short time, and using that time to better understand what is taking place, is far superior to intervening in a bad situation that is in the process of correcting itself, or doing something else that will make things worse. What I would like to do this week is to stand here with you for a bit as we try to understand our situation a little better, so that any action we then take will likely do more good than harm.
Several weeks ago I experienced a mess in my van. I had gotten into my van and prepared to drive to set up for a dance. I noticed the radio dial was sticky. I also noticed the console was sticky. Not to mention the heavy smell of Dr. Pepper. This did not compute until I noticed one of those small Dr. Pepper cans in the drink holder.
Both my dogs are having identity crises. Ginger is an outside dog who thinks she’s an inside dog.
I sat on a mesquite stump on the small ridge and looked to the north and east. The haze of smoke covered everything and with dusk approaching the red glare on the horizon was undaunting. It probably wasn’t going to go away anytime soon.
You love your electricity and your gas. You just expect it to be there when you need it, turn on the light switch and turn down the AC, or go down and fill up your truck tank. Life has a funny way of changing, and here recently it has happened almost overnight.
We’ve all heard of the futility of trying to take “country” from rural lads after they’ve moved to town, and the same likely applies to attempts to take “clown” from rodeo entertainers, even when they climb the educational ladder to school superintendencies.
This is the first of a new series of weekly columns called Medicine, Science and Culture. As I see it, these, are nested subjects, like Russian dolls; medicine is a part of science and that is a part of culture. When I first had the idea for a weekly column with this title I had expected to use the first week or two to define ‘science’ and ‘culture’ and also address how medicine relates to these in the modern world. However, the issue of abortion has evolved with such speed and ferocity that I think anyone who can say something which would potentially bring the opposing sides closer together should feel obligated to speak up now, as loudly and clearly as they can. That is my purpose today, so I will ask my readers to be patient as I proceed to use ‘medicine, science and culture’ without further clarification.