Observations

So… Conan O’Brien took Triumph the Insult Comic Dog to the Tonight Show after all.

Very funny Television Without Pity feature on the upcoming GI Joe movie, which isn’t like the 1980’s cartoon whatsoever (which might be the point, but that still feels rather wrong). Not that I’m going to go hating on a movie I haven’t seen or isn’t even out yet (I was already terrified of the idea of a live-action GI Joe movie, but now that it is about to be real, well… I’ll also admit that I’m not thrilled with the Transformers thing either, but oh well). But, if you really want to see a GI Joe movie, as also previously noted, so see that old cartoon movie – major drama with all the characters and the kookiest Cobra Commander scene (the YouTube link I include there include the classic Cobra Commander transformation as well as the sad Duke scene; for reference purposes only; no infringement intended; don’t come after me, Hasbro!…).

The latest Mary Worth comic strip storyline: give me a break – so Mary Worth’s friend, Delilah, a no-longer-newlywed, wants to dump her husband because she doesn’t want to talk to him about making a compromise to spend more time with her, because she knows he loves his career and he travels a lot for it, and to discuss raising children, because … she wants to avoid confrontation and expects him to read her mind? …

I’m sorry, but the whole institution of (heterosexual) marriage isn’t doing too well here when people don’t want to work on marriage (apparently not in Comic Strip land for Delilah anyway; it gets sillier in the 6/22/09 edition) or in someone’s real life – Sandra Tsing Loh’s article really depresses me on how it simply wasn’t worth it to continue (so, if marriage is too much work, give up? Am I missing something here?). Slate’s associated Double XX does present rebuttals by Hanna Rosin and Jessica Grose on how marriage and motherhood (parenthood generally) are pretty ambivalent but beloved stuff in America.

Interesting article in Slate, regarding the study of health care policy in medical schools. I think it’s not easy to pull off, obviously (as if we want more burdens on med students), but reasonable to consider. Imagine – students learning the complexities behind medicine, business, policy and law, and maybe doing something about these complexities one day! Heck, I vaguely remembered there was a health law class in law school as an elective; but in my law school, we studied NY law and practice, not so much theory (and other law schools might do the reverse). Bottom line: Really not easy to balance the study of policy and practice, sadly, but I think our future professionals and those who receive their services might depend on such a balance.

Speaking of NY Law — do we actually have lawmakers or something else in Albany? WPIX’s Marvin Scott with a terribly sad (but funny, if it wasn’t so sad) look at the State Senate mess.

While health care reform is very much a work in progress, President Obama is working on how to deal with tobacco. Considering that he’s still struggling with his own cigarette habit (well, he’s not alone, if that’s any small comfort; lots of people are struggling with their tobacco problems), and well, stress is stress (I wouldn’t be surprised that lapsing into such bad habits is how he or others deal with their stress; like Newsweek’s Gaggler, I could be sympathetic to the president’s situation).

So, does the smoking thing really make Pres. Obama that much of a hypocrite? Although it kind of is fair game as William Saletan notes in Slate, Obama’s only human (not a half-Vulcan — funny how the latest press conference had to make a Spock reference and that Obama made into something involving his ears – he does get sensitive about that too).

Otherwise, much of the health care stuff is going over my head, and I went to law school. Not easy to figure out.

The annual breakfast discussion on Slate about the US Supreme Court’s final decisions, with Dahlia Lithwick, Walter Dellinger, and Linda Greenhouse.

The passing of Ed McMahon, Tonight Show sidekick; link to Time.com’s James Poniewozik’s observation.