Travel/Father's Day Siesta

A weak weekend for blogging. Wiped out from the flight, but do want to raise a couple of things before I take a good father's day nap:

• Is it just my recent experience or are health scares a problem on transoceanic flights? On my flights to and from Paris, the pilot asked for a doctor. Yesterday, it was a passenger in distress a couple of rows behind me. I never was on a flight with such an annoucement and now twice in one trip?
• Father's Day seems less contrived and more meaningful after a two week absence from my daugther, expecially after a laugh-filled shopping expedition. I didn't realize how much joy I get out of quizzing her knowledge of rock music while we drive somewhere.
• I think the Obama Administration is making most of the right calls on foreign policy, but could be doing better on the domestic front. If you are going to give benefits to same-sex partners, get serious about it and make everything completely equal. Half-measures annoy everyone. Why bother unless you are serious? On Iran, I think Obama's increasingly serious tenor is at the right pitch. By staying somewhat low key, we stay out of it and let the Iranian powers that be reveal themselves. I am still pessimistic about the outcome, but the cracks within the government might widen as the various security forces are not entirely united.