"Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of stupidity." - Frank Leahy

The new AZ illegal immigration law continues to generate national attention, and like most issues of this type there's more heat than light. Shakira was in Phoenix today to protest the law. Don't know if anyone asked her to show her papers. Linda Ronstadt added her voice, too (she's Mexican-American), but she spent years as Jerry Brown's partner, which pretty much blew her cred.
According to surveys something between 64% and 70% of Arizona residents support the law and 50% of Americans would like to see something similar in their state.
Yesterday they arrested 105 illegal aliens crossing the border near Tuscon. And this after the law passed the AZ legislature.

Another of the big news items today is a "vaccine" for men with prostate cancer. It's not really a vaccine in that it doesn't prevent the disease. It's a therapy for men who already have the disease. In the trials they gave it to men with advanced cases who had already tried chemotherapy and hormone therapy without success. The trials showed the men lived an average of four months longer than those who didn't take the vaccine.
It requires three doses, with a total cost of $93,000. For an additional four months.
No thank you.
Why would I pay that kind of money to delay glory?

Speaking of items from the field of medicine, do you get the TV ads for Advair? That's the med that helps people with asthma and COPD. It comes in a plastic purple disk. But what is it?
Until I asked Pam, who has seen them used at the hospital, I assumed it was a pill dispenser, something like they use to package birth control pills. (Now THAT was a long time ago!) Turns out it's an inhaler. But how would we know? You never see anyone holding it, never mind using it. You can't even tell how big it is because they never show it with anything to give it perspective. It could be the size of a frisbee for all we can tell. I wonder why they chose to make those ads in that way. They must have had a reason, huh?

I had planned to sneak out today to play 9 holes on the executive course close to our house. But the 30 mph winds and a high of only 70 degrees convinced me otherwise. So I stayed inside and kept my nose to the grindstone. I'm now a bit ahead of schedule, so if tomorrow's weather is better....

I did go out a little before noon to take Sunday's music over to Matt and then stop at Costco. Josh alerted me to a tent they're currently carrying - a Kelty 3-man dome style tent for $60. Kelty gets good reviews and at that price we couldn't pass it up.

We're going tent camping this summer! It's probably been 25+ years. It was the only vacation we could afford when the boys were young but it was also something we truly enjoyed. So we're headed back to the state parks along the coast of northern CA and southern OR to enjoy some of the most beautiful scenery God created. Tent camping is about simplicity - very basic meals cooked over a camp stove, walks along the beach or in the woods, reading beside the campfire at night and...the best part...quiet. Just the two of us. Maybe a conversation with the folks in the tent site next to ours, but if we can get a "primitive" site (no hookups, no water, hike back to the clearing) we'll be isolated from everything but nature.

We have a friend who says her idea of roughing it is running barefoot through the lobby of a Holiday Inn. Pam said this morning that our camping trip is her "light at the end of the tunnel" as we enter a very full next couple of months. We've got more gear to get - we sold off our stuff decades ago - but today's purchase of a tent brings that light just a little closer.