From the Common Room…..

The Equuschick herself, a staunch believer in the differences between men and women and their God-given roles in family life, is often both amused and annoyed by the way these roles are defined or sometimes even manipulated by people who claim to be following God-given roles.

Far too often a couple who claims to be following the Scriptural model for gender roles are actually following a cultural tradition without any foundation.

And what fascinates her the most, is that it is just as often women who manipulate the roles to serve their own purposes as it is men.

Would have been rant of the week, but we had too many other good choices. And if we waited another week, we would have forgotten it. But its tone and content reminded us of our very own Troll. She can do the work of two strong men and she only eats as much as your average tabby cat. That is what you call a deal.

Edit: In the interest of being fair and balanced it should be pointed out that she does not make brownies as often as the Bible says a good female should. Indeed, she seems to be shirking that particular duty lately.

Edit Again: Some may doubt that the Bible has anything to say on the subject of brownies. But we are indebted to the early church father Origen for pointing out that the deeper meaning of Proverbs 31:14 -15 is “Woman, make brownies.” If you doubt me, it is clear you know nothing about Origen. Our conclusions follow directly from his methodology.

From the BBC….

A UK researcher said he found evidence that the Persian Empire used poisonous gases on the Roman city of Dura, Eastern Syria, in the 3rd Century AD.

The theory is based on the discovery of remains of about 20 Roman soldiers found at the base of the city wall.

The theory is plausible enough, though it is a little over sold. In any case, the historical evidence is clear that it sucked to be Roman soldier trying to stop the Persian invasion.

The Major General at Fort Drum recently started his own blog. This is an extraordinary rare thing for a General to have (I think he is the only General with a blog in the army, but a I could be wrong). In fact, the military has taken to discouraging its officers from having blogs. In this case Mike Oates (the general in question) seems to have decided to go against the trend.

His blog is not about expressing his opinion, but about getting feedback from his subordinates. Each blog post is a question for people to sound off on. At first it does not seem that many people took him up on the opportunity. But more and more people seem to feel comfortable spouting off. For example, take a look at this post regarding why many people do/do not want to be stationed in the Fort Drum area. Or this one about allowing civilian air traffic to take off from Fort Drum.

It is interesting to read about the issues that get the people in uniform worked up.

From The New York Times…

For years, doctors thought they had done their jobs if patients came out of an intensive care unit alive.

Now, though, researchers say they are alarmed by what they are finding as they track patients for months or years after an I.C.U. stay. Patients, even young ones, can be weak for years. Some have difficulty thinking and concentrating or have post-traumatic stress disorder and terrible memories of nightmares they had while heavily sedated.

While patients may be suffering lingering effects from illnesses that landed them in the I.C.U., researchers are increasingly convinced that spending days, weeks or months on life support in the units can elicit unexpected, long-lasting effects.

So now some I.C.U.’s are trying what seems like a radical solution: reducing sedation levels and getting patients up and walking even though they are gravely ill, complete with feeding tubes, intravenous lines and tethers to ventilators.

The whole article is interesting in a “No Duh” sort of way.