A Little Of The Old In And Out



In: Christina Applegate. "The little white haired girl" from Married ... with Children has grown into a strong and powerful woman. And we love her for it. We have said some stupid thing about her in the past, but a brush with Death puts all of it into perspective and reminds us why we pay so much attention to her in the first place. She's a class act. From People:

"Christina Applegate, who was diagnosed with an early form of breast cancer this month, revealed on ABC's Good Morning America Tuesday that she has undergone a double mastectomy – even though cancer was only detected in one of her breasts.

"Privately, she admits, 'Sometimes I cry. Sometimes I scream, and I get really angry and I get really into wallowing in self-pity sometimes, and I think it’s all part of healing."

"Having watched her mother, Nancy Priddy, battle breast cancer – and then suffer from a recurrence many years later – the Emmy-nominated star of Samantha Who?, 36, told interviewer Robin Roberts that she wasn't taking any chances, especially since she has the breast cancer gene, BRCA1.

"'My decision, after looking at all the treatment plans that were possibilities for me, the only one that seemed the most logical and the one that was going to work for me was to have a bilateral mastectomy,' said Applegate. 'So basically I had a prophylactic double mastectomies.'"

This little blog stands in awe of the strength required of such a decision.



Out: Afghanistan. The war in Afghanistan is, to put it mildly, not going well. The Spring weather is being met with some of the most ferocious resistance since the war began. The instability in Pakistan and Kashmir is not helping matters. The end of Musharraf's regime, ironically, might signal an end to the recent calm in Indio-Pakistani relations. And Russia's incursion into Georgia, which exposed the limits of NATO's will, also doesn't make things swell. Now, this for The NYTimes:

"Taliban insurgents mounted their most serious attacks in six years of fighting, one a complex attack with multiple suicide bombers on an American military base on Monday night, and another by some 100 insurgents on French forces in a district east of the capital, killing 10 French soldiers and wounding 21 others, military officials said Tuesday.

"Three American soldiers were wounded and six members of the Afghan special forces in the attack on the base in the eastern province of Khost, bordering Pakistan, the Afghan military spokesman, Gen. Zaher Azimi, said. The battle lasted all night, 10 suicide bombers were killed or blew themselves up, and the insurgents were repulsed without entering the base, he said.

"The heavy fighting in the two places is a sharp escalation in insurgent operations in what is already Afghanistan’s deadliest year since the American invasion in 2001."