Author: Aaron Weber

Ezra Klein discusses the impact of good parenting. Apparently there’s a lot of conflicting data about various child-rearing methods, but one thing that everyone agrees on is that you have to at least show up. Babies that get plenty of time with their parents do better in all sorts of ways.

Conservatives are all in favor of stay-at-home parenting, but somehow they oppose anything that will make it available to the average family. The wealthy are offered the luxury of spending time with their families, and the rest of the country does the parenting it can afford.

Just like health care: a well-fed, well-raised, well-exercised child will be a healthier, taller, fitter, more long-lived, smarter adult. And in the US, that seems to be the territory of the rich. So, where’s my minimum-wage and family-leave act now, Family Values Party?

On the next episode of Ask A Man Who Thinks His Blog Will Change The World: An Inconvenient Truth and The Omnivore’s Dilemma, with special guest Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms.

Stephen Karpiak, the research director at ACRIA (and cousin to the famous Bookdwarf) announced the release of a new study on HIV in people over 50 years old.

Apparently a lot of new HIV infections are in the 50+ and senior citizen populations: people who have been out of the dating pool for a long time, but are now widowed or divorced and hopped up on Viagra. They’ve ignored a lot of the STD information because that applies to sailors, or college kids, or people having promiscuous sex– not to grandma and her new gentleman caller she met down at the library.

Improvements in general medicine mean that people live longer and stay active — phsically, socially, and sexually — longer. And so, now we have to address HIV+ seniors. It’s a good thing our medical establishment is well-equipped to provide for the needs of large numbers of chronically-ill adults….