Condoms & Early Corruption Are Human Rights

The UN asserts the right to condoms at an early AIDS age.

Shucks. If the UN's issuing standards for sex ed for kids, I hope they include the warning to stay away from UN peacekeepers. Though if you don't run fast enough, you'll be glad to know abortion on demand is also a human right.

Court Declares Public Schools Anti-Christian

Perhaps you saw that New Hampshire Court ruling last week that a ten-year-old home-schooled girl must attend public schools because she's too strong in her Christian faith.

The usual suspects (I meant that affectionately since in this instance I include myself) are horrified by the government busy-body-ism of the ruling. The case is a marital dispute. Everyone --including the court-appointed "marital master" (!) recommending this action-- agrees the little girl is bright, friendly and well-adjusted (so this isn't one of those slightly "off" families in which we understand the impulse even if we hate the government incursion into family life). The problem is, the mom's religious and the dad isn't.

Why the deserting parent should have any say at all in how the child is raised in her mother's home is my question. You want to influence your daughter's beliefs? Try living with her, [Expletive deleted]!

"Judge, Judge....I fled my home and have no influence with my daughter. Make it so her mother has no influence, either!"

Yes, that sounds fair.

The "marital master" writes the child is:

well liked, social and interactive with her peers, academically promising, and intellectually at or superior to grade level" and that "it is clear that the home schooling...has more than kept up with the academic requirements of the...public school system"

However

vigorous defense of her religious beliefs to [her] counselor suggests strongly that she has not had the opportunity to seriously consider any other point of view.

Has this "marital master," and indeed the NH court ever met any 10-yr-old children? Mimicry of their parents' views is intellectually appropriate for a 10-year-old. That's why the Scholastic school poll is such an accurate predictor of presidential elections.

(Indeed, as a former high school teacher I can tell you that real "thought" about any issue whatsoever sets in more or less Sophomore year. Earlier for some, but the cohort of the class will "wake up" one by one sometime Spring semester and get more interesting to talk to. Until then, they're just Perts, as Dorothy Sayers puts it. That is, they like to "catch people out," but they know only by rote and can't engage arguments. But I digress.)

But anyway, please note it is the considered opinion of a New Hampshire court that the "cure" for Christianity is public education. Well, duh. But it's nice to have it out in the open at last.

Cookie Monster Explains The Theater

A surprisingly apt take on Waiting for Godot.

Kennedy-B16 Correspondence

Cardinal McCarrick read excerpts of Sen. Kennedy's letter to the Pope & the Pope's response. The former is incredibly revealing. And sad.

It shows Kennedy to have been vastly more naive than I could have guessed.

There Must Be A Catch

WaPo found a defender of marriage it likes.

The reason Brian Brown is so effective is that he is pleasantly, ruthlessly sane.

Astonishing.

Curtsy: Ken Thomas

Obama To Control The Internet

Mr. W. says it's only right the Party that invented the internet should control it.

I look forward to the day when Wheat & Weeds is blocked in the US but available in China.

Better Looking

No Left Turns has a spiffy new facelift.

From JFK To Teddy

Dallas saw the demise of liberalism without tears, which was replaced by a liberalism regularly operating at the brink of hysteria.

William Voegli on the true impact of JFK's assassination.

The Wrestler With God

Mickey Rourke credits his Catholic faith for bringing him out of addiction and preventing him from committing suicide.

I've been wondering what happened to his face. Boxing.

So Crass

The good news is, I've been listening to Uncle Tom's Cabin in a truly stellar audio version. Buck Schirner's voicing is truly brilliant --which isn't something I thought I'd ever say about a book on tape.

The bad news is, every time I switched disks, the radio defaulted (I was in the car a lot today) to the all news stations and I had to face the fact that few people in our public life have any decency at last, sir.

Yes, I'm talking about the passing of Teddy Kennedy. I can't decide what is more sickening: the Conservatives unloading on him or the saccharine tributes from the MSM and the ultra-gross "win one for Teddy" use of his death as a point in favor of passing health care reform. Everything for political points, nothing for humanity, friendship, or even decent respect for a worthy foe.

Everyone used him today, enemies and "friends" alike, and few (there were exceptions) had the decency to just observe a moment of silence and awe before Death, the great leveller, and a man's passing. I've had few days when I felt so sickened by the monumental grossness and inhumanity of our culture or a more intense feeling of "a pox on all of youse."

May I just add as a point of logic that it is impossible to know the impact of a man's life on the day of his death, so spare me the retrospectives until you've gone to your closet and thought about it a little?

/Rant

Beyond The Stock Phrase

An engaging history of political correctness, well worth the time. Has anyone heard the two stories he leads with? Unbelievable.

Get Bush/ Obama Fail

Jennifer Rubin notes that Carville thinks prosecuting Bushies is politically stupid.

She writes: Carville is warning the administration: turn back. But Holder and Obama know better. They are in “Get the Bushies” mode. The country, however, is not and now barely tolerates the president. What will they think when the full force of the U.S. government is arrayed against low-level operatives who were trying their best to extract critical data from the worst of the worst terrorists? Why they might get the idea that the president cares more about his left-wing base than about protecting and supporting the intelligence community.

Mr. W. points out that Obama has already promised NOT to do this. That he feels he must is probably an indicator of how much he's catching it from the Left for being willing to drop the public option on his health care plan. He has to give his base red meat.

Which is quite desperate, this early in an administration.

Fed Up

This is pretty good, but what interests me is that the guy has never to my knowledge touched politics with a 10-foot pole.

Funniest Item Of The Week

Nothing that happens later will top this, based on an actual event.



Wait for the last bit of dialogue. Curtsy: CMR

Plus Ca Change...

Someone sent me this cartoon from the 1934 Chicago Tribune.
Click to enlarge.

It's Nice To Have Options

Each year at this time --time to purchase school shoes & sneakers for the year-- my kids' feet prove to be so expensive to shod that I wonder whether it wouldn't be cheaper to amputate. The other day the President answered my question, telling us the going rate for amputations was $50,000. "Shucks, that's out," thought I.

Turns out the actual going rate is much more affordable.

NYS Medicaid Physician Surgery Services Fee Schedule Effective Date: April 1, 2009

AMPUTATION, FOOT; MIDTARSAL (EG, CHOPART 335.31
AMPUTATION, FOOT; TRANSMETATARSAL 424.57

Hmmm.

Um, No

In comments here, Brett McS asks

is RC2 going to start referring to her youngest as wee-Weed?

Probably not. Wish I'd thought of it first, though.

Our Regime of Broken Promises

Paul Rahe on Stimulus, Cap-n-Trade & Health Care.

Second, the first of these bills was an obvious scam - a massive pay-off to Democratic party constituencies at the expense of the American taxpayer on a scale that guarantees much higher taxes before long and that almost certainly will drive up interest rates. In the long run, it is not a stimulus bill in any shape or form. It is the sort of spending certain to retard growth.

Third - as I argued in some detail in "Obama's tyrannical ambition," rationing was the point of the Obamacare proposal.

He goes on to point out that even the Formerly Gray Lady now reluctantly acknowledges this, having gone from denouncing health care protesters as nuts to admitting

Medicare beneficiaries and insurance counselors say the concerns are not entirely irrational.

It's very telling, eg, that the Senate preferred to drop end-of-life counseling altogether rather than specify in plain language that it was neither mandatory, nor attached to penalties for doctors, nor to be used to coax the frail into "cheaper" outcomes.

The main problem with the health care bill, however, is what isn't in it. It takes 1000 pp to tell us that secret health advisers will be crafting the actual health care system. All we'll be doing is empowering faceless bureaucrats, as Wesley Smith discusses here.

The legislation is only the general outline, the skeleton if you will—of what the remade American health care system would ultimately look like if the bill becomes law. The flesh and blood would be created beneath the public radar by unelected bureaucrats in the federal departments and agencies through the promulgation of thousands of additional pages of rules and regulations. Thus, whatever bill is ultimately passed, it will still be a pig in a poke.

Running Short On General Practitioners

By 2020, just when demand will spike, we'll be short 40,000 primary care physicians, if current trends continue.

I've got an idea! Let's demonize them as greedy blood-suckers, prevent them from making living wages, dictate how they can treat their patients, violate their consciences, but still sue the pants off them if anyone ever dies.

What?

Why You Don't Want To Trust Your Conscience To Ethicists

The line in bold caught my eye in this blurb from Catholic Culture Newsbriefs:

Writing in Salon, Frances Kissling criticizes the United States bishops for “not working hard enough on behalf of the most important and desperately needed healthcare reform-- the public option … the bishops are squandering every ounce of moral capital they have, not on the public option, but on ensuring that in any reform bill not one penny of federal funds is used for abortion.” The rabidly pro-abortion Kissling, now a visiting scholar at the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania, is the former president of Catholics for a Free Choice.

Peter Singer and Frances Kissling are bioethicists. And your chocolate ration has been increased to .5 grams.

My Kids' Interests & Mine Intersect

Curtsy: Testosterhome

What Debauchery Is This?

"The boys are coming over to discuss Augustine's City of God," he said.

"Fine," said I, and dutifully hid upstairs with the kids, playing Clue and later watching an old, and very bad, version of Emma w/ Girl Weed.

This morning, surveying the detritus of the night before, I found a bowl of stale chips, used napkins, beer bottles, and....The Audacity of Hope?

Um, Fellas... That's not St. Augustine.

Every Vote Counts!

The gentleman on the right, whose MySpace page lists "Killing Crakkas" as one of his interests, is a certified Democratic poll watcher.

You remember the specific poll he was watching.

The Recession Is Over

Everywhere but where the government offered stimulus packages.

in Brazil, India, China, Japan and much of Continental Europe the recession has ended. In the second quarter this year, both the French and German economies grew by 0.3 percent, while the U.S. economy shrank by 1 percent. How can that be? Unlike America, France and Germany had no government stimulus worth speaking of, the Germans declining to go the Obama route on the quaint grounds that they couldn't afford it. They did not invest in the critical signage-in-front-of-holes-in-the-road sector. And yet their recession has gone away. Of the world's biggest economies, only the U.S., Britain and Italy are still contracting. All three are big stimulators

Instacurtsy

McCaughey v. Stewart

I know this is supposed to prove how ridiculous the notion of "death panels" is (because my liberal friends are sending it to me with collective "ah-hahs!"), but I find McCaughey utterly convincing and not even slightly hysterical in these clips. What Stewart says is not stupid, but he puts far too much faith in literal words on the page versus the code those words contain, our actual practice this very instant, the stated aims of the bill's architects, and his utter disregard of legislative history and the incentives & penalties built into the bill.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Betsy McCaughey Pt. 1
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Healthcare Protests

Part 2.

Feminists for NFP

It's a start. A post at a feminist blog begins:

Lately, our thinking about birth control seems to be shifting. Earlier this summer, the Guttmacher Institute released a study showing that proper use of the withdrawal method is nearly as effective as condoms, and, as Double X’s Jessica Grose pointed out, lots of young, educated women are using it. Meanwhile, abstinence-only education funding has been zeroed out, and Guttmacher just published another study that reveals young women often abandon birth control methods they don't like. Several different liberal media outlets have been hashing out options beyond the trusty condom.

So why has nobody mentioned the highly effective, completely natural fertility awareness method, or its Catholic sister, natural family planning?

Then she goes on to say what us benighted Catholics have been saying all along. Minus the pesky God, life and morality stuff. NFP is highly effective, cheap, organic, and doesn't mess with your body as the pill does.

She has no moral opposition to contraception, but thinks we're missing the boat by not at least offering the natural methods as options (Common Ground Alert!). The main objection seems to be that no one has time to chart. Although charting takes less time than the act of marital embrace, so I'm thinking if you're too busy to take your temperature, the point might be moot.

Curtsy: Inside Catholic

Nat Hentoff Is Scared

Yea, though he walked through the valley of the shadow of Hoover, McCarthy & Rove, Nat Hentoff now fears some evil.

I am finally scared of a White House administration. President Obama's desired health care reform intends that a federal board (similar to the British model) — as in the Center for Health Outcomes Research and Evaluation in a current Democratic bill — decides whether your quality of life, regardless of your political party, merits government-controlled funds to keep you alive. Watch for that life-decider in the final bill. It's already in the stimulus bill signed into law.

Curtsy: Brutally Honest

All Dreams Of Fairness Become Dreams Of Tyranny

Andrew Klavan on the inevitable death panels.

It is very difficult to imagine the country making those decisions just through the normal political channels. And that's part of why you have to have some independent group that can give you guidance.
—President Barack Obama in a New York Times interview on how costly medical decisions should be made.

See also this excellent explanation of Obamacare, courtesy of my spy in NY.

Good Question

Why does it take over 1000 pages to insure the uninsured? Thomas Sowell's asking.

Bright Side

[S]ince lamentation about the state of the world is one of life’s unfailing pleasures, the world is a greater source of satisfaction than ever. --Theodore Dalrymple.

So...the glass is half-full because it's half-empty? Curtsy: Joy of Curmudgeonry

Obamacare Violates Human Rights

Come back, it's not about abortion, death panels, embryos or even conscience protections. Just Imagine you are a doctor. You kill yourself getting into and passing medical school, use up your twenties in internships, the work itself is rewarding but stressful, unrealistic expectations mean juries think everything is malpractice & you have to buy expensive insurance and ...blam....suddenly the government tells you how much you can be paid?

imagine how you would feel if the rest of us got together and proposed that the government should become the primary client for medical services. As part of the deal, the government will determine how much you will be paid. Lawyers, business executives, electricians, and plumbers (to name but a few) will all be allowed to command what the market will pay for their services—but not you. Simply because it is possible that a majority may be found who think this scheme is a good idea, you may lose all the benefits of offering your services in a free economy.

Is this situation really fair? Have your fellow citizens honored your inherent rights and freedoms? They have not, and this why a public option is so offensive. It represents a move by a majority of citizens to control the economic well-being of a person who has endured extraordinary hardship and trials in order to become a much-needed provider of medical services.

Amen To That

Archbishop Nickless understands Catholic doctrine on the government's proper relationship to health care access. Scroll down to the portion on health care reform.

Robert Novak, 1931-2009

Although he relished the moniker --and as the photo at right shows, milked it-- I've always thought it said something about Washington culture that its most fearless seeker after truth was called a prince of darkness rather than a bringer of light. Plus, although he was the most brutal skeptic of government power and bureaucratic motives, Robert Novak was a noble soul and a generous supporter of newcomers to the field of journalism. In collaboration with Stan Evans' National Journalism Center, he personally mentored a whole troup of younger journalists. For my fellow grads of that internship program, Novak will be the guy who taught us all

There are two kinds of people in this world: sources and targets.

This nice remembrance from Fred Barnes captures his importance as a reporter, and the WSJ calls him Prince of Light.

One irony of Robert Novak's long and admirable career as a journalist is that he wasn't a curmudgeon, though he played one on TV. In person, he was warm, loyal to friends and especially generous to young writers

I think my favorite piece so far, however, has been this one from Jeff Bell, which captures his unyielding quest for the truth. Describing his personal evolution from a country-club Republican to a Conservative, Bell writes:

Bob Novak had changed, and the single biggest reason he had changed is that he stayed engaged with the campaign and the issue mix. As a reporter he never wrote anyone off. He listened closely and was fully alive to argument and debate—and he was capable of changing his mind. Reagan had persuaded him, but it could never have happened if Bob had not been so conscientious a reporter.

Much later, this same instinct led him to convert to Catholicism:

The same elements of Bob Novak's character were also at work in his conversion to Roman Catholicism in 1998. He was as willing to open a new door in religion as in politics or economics. But once he had walked through that door, he brought eloquence and loyalty to the cause. In his first years as a Catholic he was reluctant to speak about his faith. But once he began to do so his story, and the way he told it, moved more than a few other hearts.

Growing up I remember my own father being a great admirer of Novak's because his column wasn't a simple spewing of opinion, but always had "facts." Information you could get nowhere else. Which was the result of his being engaged with the world --truly engaged with it-- as few in the field are.

Strangely, Neither Richard McBrien Nor Tom Reese Is Cited

A piece in the Formerly Gray Lady regarding Catholicism worth reading.

Supplements

Natural Medicine, according to Dr. Boli:

the art of removing the joy from naturally occurring foods. Thus if red wine, green tea, chocolate, or other natural sources of contentment are believed to have some kind of medical value, they must be compressed into tasteless pills.

See also his culinary supplement to his famed encyclopedia.

Rep. Kevin Brady 'Splains House Health Care

Curtsy: Patrick Madrid

Flips Flop

Oh, joy! Someone shares my irrational hatred and --even better-- makes it seem rational.

flip flops are a leading indicator of the unseriousness of a people.

But then he has to ruin a perfectly good rant with man-sandals. Bah!

The Palate of a 12-yr-old

What accounts for the connection between boardwalks and deep fried items? There's something about a day in sand and sun that makes hot oil sound utterly unappetizing to me. Fresh-squeezed lemonade? That hits the spot.

Nevertheless, at stand after stand, behold, the deep-fried oreo. Sounds sickening, but Eldest Weed insisted they had to be tried.

Eh. Not so bad. Like a little, hot, filled donut if you like that kind of thing. EW pronounced them yummy and ate 3.

Jed Smith Broke The Chain & His Angiogram Was Never Seen Again!

Don't break the chain! David Axelrod sent me this. Pass it on to everyone in your address book. Or else!

Dear Friend,

This is probably one of the longest emails I’ve ever sent, but it could be the most important.

Across the country we are seeing vigorous debate about health insurance reform. Unfortunately, some of the old tactics we know so well are back — even the viral emails that fly unchecked and under the radar, spreading all sorts of lies and distortions.

As President Obama said at the town hall in New Hampshire, “where we do disagree, let's disagree over things that are real, not these wild misrepresentations that bear no resemblance to anything that's actually been proposed.”

So let’s start a chain email of our own. At the end of my email, you’ll find a lot of information about health insurance reform, distilled into 8 ways reform provides security and stability to those with or without coverage, 8 common myths about reform and 8 reasons we need health insurance reform now.

Right now, someone you know probably has a question about reform that could be answered by what’s below. So what are you waiting for? Forward this email.

Thanks,
David

David Axelrod
Senior Adviser to the President

There follows a lot of propaganda, most of which dis-provable by simply reading the bill. In my life I've never seen anything like the town hall meetings going on around the country. People aren't being cowed by politicians because they're armed: by having actually read the bills!

But really. Chain mail?

P.S. We launched www.WhiteHouse.gov/realitycheck this week to knock down the rumors and lies that are floating around the internet. You can find the information below, and much more, there. For example, we've just added a video of Nancy-Ann DeParle from our Health Reform Office tackling a viral email head on. Check it out:



8 ways reform provides security and stability to those with or without coverage
1. Ends Discrimination for Pre-Existing Conditions: Insurance companies will be prohibited from refusing you coverage because of your medical history.
2. Ends Exorbitant Out-of-Pocket Expenses, Deductibles or Co-Pays: Insurance companies will have to abide by yearly caps on how much they can charge for out-of-pocket expenses.
3. Ends Cost-Sharing for Preventive Care: Insurance companies must fully cover, without charge, regular checkups and tests that help you prevent illness, such as mammograms or eye and foot exams for diabetics.
4. Ends Dropping of Coverage for Seriously Ill: Insurance companies will be prohibited from dropping or watering down insurance coverage for those who become seriously ill.
5. Ends Gender Discrimination: Insurance companies will be prohibited from charging you more because of your gender.
6. Ends Annual or Lifetime Caps on Coverage: Insurance companies will be prevented from placing annual or lifetime caps on the coverage you receive.
7. Extends Coverage for Young Adults: Children would continue to be eligible for family coverage through the age of 26.
8. Guarantees Insurance Renewal: Insurance companies will be required to renew any policy as long as the policyholder pays their premium in full. Insurance companies won't be allowed to refuse renewal because someone became sick.
Learn more and get details: http://www.WhiteHouse.gov/health-insurance-consumer-protections/

8 common myths about health insurance reform
1. Reform will stop "rationing" - not increase it: It’s a myth that reform will mean a "government takeover" of health care or lead to "rationing." To the contrary, reform will forbid many forms of rationing that are currently being used by insurance companies.
2. We can’t afford reform: It's the status quo we can't afford. It’s a myth that reform will bust the budget. To the contrary, the President has identified ways to pay for the vast majority of the up-front costs by cutting waste, fraud, and abuse within existing government health programs; ending big subsidies to insurance companies; and increasing efficiency with such steps as coordinating care and streamlining paperwork. In the long term, reform can help bring down costs that will otherwise lead to a fiscal crisis.
3. Reform would encourage "euthanasia": It does not. It’s a malicious myth that reform would encourage or even require euthanasia for seniors. For seniors who want to consult with their family and physicians about end-of life decisions, reform will help to cover these voluntary, private consultations for those who want help with these personal and difficult family decisions.
4. Vets' health care is safe and sound: It’s a myth that health insurance reform will affect veterans' access to the care they get now. To the contrary, the President's budget significantly expands coverage under the VA, extending care to 500,000 more veterans who were previously excluded. The VA Healthcare system will continue to be available for all eligible veterans.
5. Reform will benefit small business - not burden it: It’s a myth that health insurance reform will hurt small businesses. To the contrary, reform will ease the burdens on small businesses, provide tax credits to help them pay for employee coverage and help level the playing field with big firms who pay much less to cover their employees on average.
6. Your Medicare is safe, and stronger with reform: It’s myth that Health Insurance Reform would be financed by cutting Medicare benefits. To the contrary, reform will improve the long-term financial health of Medicare, ensure better coordination, eliminate waste and unnecessary subsidies to insurance companies, and help to close the Medicare "doughnut" hole to make prescription drugs more affordable for seniors.
7. You can keep your own insurance: It’s myth that reform will force you out of your current insurance plan or force you to change doctors. To the contrary, reform will expand your choices, not eliminate them.
8. No, government will not do anything with your bank account: It is an absurd myth that government will be in charge of your bank accounts. Health insurance reform will simplify administration, making it easier and more convenient for you to pay bills in a method that you choose. Just like paying a phone bill or a utility bill, you can pay by traditional check, or by a direct electronic payment. And forms will be standardized so they will be easier to understand. The choice is up to you – and the same rules of privacy will apply as they do for all other electronic payments that people make.
Learn more and get details:
http://www.WhiteHouse.gov/realitycheck
http://www.WhiteHouse.gov/realitycheck/faq

8 Reasons We Need Health Insurance Reform Now
1. Coverage Denied to Millions: A recent national survey estimated that 12.6 million non-elderly adults – 36 percent of those who tried to purchase health insurance directly from an insurance company in the individual insurance market – were in fact discriminated against because of a pre-existing condition in the previous three years or dropped from coverage when they became seriously ill. Learn more: http://www.healthreform.gov/reports/denied_coverage/index.html
2. Less Care for More Costs: With each passing year, Americans are paying more for health care coverage. Employer-sponsored health insurance premiums have nearly doubled since 2000, a rate three times faster than wages. In 2008, the average premium for a family plan purchased through an employer was $12,680, nearly the annual earnings of a full-time minimum wage job. Americans pay more than ever for health insurance, but get less coverage. Learn more: http://www.healthreform.gov/reports/hiddencosts/index.html
3. Roadblocks to Care for Women: Women’s reproductive health requires more regular contact with health care providers, including yearly pap smears, mammograms, and obstetric care. Women are also more likely to report fair or poor health than men (9.5% versus 9.0%). While rates of chronic conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure are similar to men, women are twice as likely to suffer from headaches and are more likely to experience joint, back or neck pain. These chronic conditions often require regular and frequent treatment and follow-up care. Learn more: http://www.healthreform.gov/reports/women/index.html
4. Hard Times in the Heartland: Throughout rural America, there are nearly 50 million people who face challenges in accessing health care. The past several decades have consistently shown higher rates of poverty, mortality, uninsurance, and limited access to a primary health care provider in rural areas. With the recent economic downturn, there is potential for an increase in many of the health disparities and access concerns that are already elevated in rural communities. Learn more: http://www.healthreform.gov/reports/hardtimes
5. Small Businesses Struggle to Provide Health Coverage: Nearly one-third of the uninsured – 13 million people – are employees of firms with less than 100 workers. From 2000 to 2007, the proportion of non-elderly Americans covered by employer-based health insurance fell from 66% to 61%. Much of this decline stems from small business. The percentage of small businesses offering coverage dropped from 68% to 59%, while large firms held stable at 99%. About a third of such workers in firms with fewer than 50 employees obtain insurance through a spouse. Learn more: http://www.healthreform.gov/reports/helpbottomline
6. The Tragedies are Personal: Half of all personal bankruptcies are at least partly the result of medical expenses. The typical elderly couple may have to save nearly $300,000 to pay for health costs not covered by Medicare alone. Learn more: http://www.healthreform.gov/reports/inaction
7. Diminishing Access to Care: From 2000 to 2007, the proportion of non-elderly Americans covered by employer-based health insurance fell from 66% to 61%. An estimated 87 million people - one in every three Americans under the age of 65 - were uninsured at some point in 2007 and 2008. More than 80% of the uninsured are in working families. Learn more: http://www.healthreform.gov/reports/inaction/diminishing/index.html
8. The Trends are Troubling: Without reform, health care costs will continue to skyrocket unabated, putting unbearable strain on families, businesses, and state and federal government budgets. Perhaps the most visible sign of the need for health care reform is the 46 million Americans currently without health insurance - projections suggest that this number will rise to about 72 million in 2040 in the absence of reform. Learn more: http://www.WhiteHouse.gov/assets/documents/CEA_Health_Care_Report.pdf

The Senator & The Pea

I feel global warming when I fly says Michigan's Senator Debbie Stabenow.

Curtsy to Drudge. Some of the comments are lol funny.

Health Bill Summary

She doesn't say which bill she read --I'm going to assume the House version-- but here are 50 highlights from the first 500 pp. I like the government having direct, real-time access to all our bank accounts (p. 59). And p. 203:

Page 203: "The tax imposed under this section shall not be treated as tax." Yes, it really says that.

p.354: government to restrict enrollment of special needs inviduals.

Read the whole list.

Work Cures Depression

Maybe this isn't so surprising, in that everyone knows the link between unemployment and depression, but physical activity --not exercise, but work-- cures despondency.

“Depression directly involves the way we think about ourselves,” says Gladys Sweeney, academic dean at the Institute for the Psychological Sciences, a Catholic graduate school (online at IPSciences.edu). “When we’re depressed, we see ourselves as worthless or hopeless. The relationship between the physical, mental and spiritual is so strong that even mild depression can become a biological depression if left untreated.”

Sweeney is convinced that when blended with spiritual exercises physical productivity can enhance or even replace conventional depression therapies. (Typically these include some combination of medication and talk sessions.)

Exercise alone probably won’t do it, she says. To be truly reparative, the physical activity must be truly productive — cooking, gardening, building, fixing or, best of all, helping someone in need.

Exercise affects the body in a positive way, she adds, “but it doesn’t draw one out of oneself in the same way as doing something that benefits others.”

Probably explains the link between tv/net surfing and depression, too.

Doing The Jobs Canadians Won't Do

As a practicing Catholic, natch I can't approve of sperm donation. Still, this has to rank as the funniest unintended consequence of the culture of death ever.

Why Buy The Cow?

What health care reformers can learn from the p0rn industry's decline.

The Benedict Generation

Priests attracted to the priesthood by the example of John Paul II we call "the JP II generation." Now there's a Benedict generation as well, it seems. Following World Youth Day in Sydney, Australian seminaries have three times as many seminarians as they did in 2000.

Sensible Liberals Do Exist

A culture of death Liberal against Obamacare.

Of course, I like this guy because he makes the very point I've been making:

even if limitations were put on certain tests and procedures, the only people who would be affected by it would be the people who, presumably, are the ones meant to be rescued by the very plan that would be imposing those limitations. The financially strapped, in other words, who are the intended beneficiaries of the health care plan would be the only people forbidden access to expensive life-extending technology.

Why must we have a gazillion dollar federal program to deny access? Can't we be denied access for free?

The only disagreement I have with this fellow (apart from his dismissal of culture-of-life Conservatives) is that he thinks denial of service to the elderly is a tactical "mistake." I think it's the point.

The Spirit of Adam Smith

Is it an ad, or is it a lesson in free enterprise? Curtsy: American Digest

In Oregon, Paying People To Die

Fr. Neuhaus always pointed out that in our culture of death, the "right" to an abhorrent "choice" always becomes the mandate. Case in point.

opponents say the legislation introduced in Oregon - the first state in America to allow doctor-assisted suicide - simply does not work. And it's not just the experience of lumberjack Mr Prueitt that supports their argument.

They point to the fact that although the rules require those handed the lethal prescriptions to have a life expectancy of only six months, some who subsequently decide not to kill themselves have gone on to survive for a year-and-a-half more. Or even longer.

Critics warn that because many doctors refuse to participate, patients end up shopping around for the handful of physicians willing to prescribe.

It makes it all the more likely the person who is writing the prescription will neither know the patient nor provide an impartial assessment of them.

It is also said that those suffering from depression, a condition that can impair decision-making, are rarely excluded from the process as they should be.

All those are the usual arguments against assisted suicide/"death with dignity" --that and the fact that "6 months to live" is a guess, not a prophecy, and many, many folks with such a prognosis outlive it.

But here's the truly offensive thing:

perhaps most worrying of all, say critics, is the trend for other treatment to be denied to those who are terminally ill. Instead of being given the medicines that might prolong their lives, they are being offered £30 to cover the cost of drugs that will end their days in a matter of hours.

The law removes the incentive to provide proper care --so those who insist on killing themselves ruin the system for those of us who choose otherwise.

It is something that came to blight 64-year-old Barbara Wagner's last days. Diagnosed with lung cancer in 2005, the former bus driver vowed to fight the disease so she could spend as long as possible with her family.

Even after her doctor warned last year that she had less than six months left, she refused to give up, pinning all her hopes on a new life-prolonging treatment.

But her request, at the beginning of last year, for the £2,500-a-month drug was refused by Oregon's state-run health plan as being too expensive. Instead, she was offered lethal medication to end her life.

'It was horrible,' Barbara told reporters. 'I got a letter in the mail that basically said if you want to take the pills we will help you get them from a doctor and we will stand there and watch you die - but we won't give you the medicine to live.

'I told them: "Who do you think you are to say that you will pay for my dying, but you won't pay for me to possibly live longer?"

'I am opposed to the assisted suicide law. I haven't considered it, even at my lowest ebb.'

Hearing of her plight, pharmaceutical company Genentech decided to give her the drug, Tarceva, free for one year. Barbara died in October last year and her family believes the added stress of her brush with the state hastened her end.

'She felt totally betrayed,' her ex-husband Dennis, 65, said this week. 'It comes down to the buck. It's not about compassion and understanding. The bottom line is that it is all about money and Barbara fell into the middle of it.'

This story comes from the Daily Mail, which took it up because other nations are starting to use Oregon as a model for their own suicidal tendencies. Learning death from the Americans. I couldn't be more proud.

Which brings me to this, posted by various FB friends.

In fairness, although the quick clip sounds as if the President is looking the lady right in the eye and saying her mother should have received pain medication rather than life-saving surgery (and this is why the clip's gone viral), I don't think that's what he's saying. I think he's only claiming his plan will make necessary treatments more available by cutting waste.

However, while he's innocent of that barbarity, his comment still reveals a disturbing mindset, in that he takes a personal question, "what about this case" and responds by talking about what "we, as a culture" will decide. That is precisely my objection to nationalized health care --it's simply government rationing, where medical decisions are made in a sense by majority vote. "We, as a culture" better not be deciding anything about me, as a patient.

Those Exaggerated Pro-Life Conscience Concerns

Let's see how earnest the President is about protecting conscience rights and the free exercise of religion. His EEOC says Belmont Abbey College discriminates against women by not covering contraceptives in the employee health benefit program.

I'm just guessing Planned Parenthood isn't required to cover NFP charts and fertility monitors in its plan.

This is on the heels of this nurse in NY being compelled against her will to assist in an abortion.

We Are Here

Thunderstorms predicted all week. Good thing I packed many novels.

There Are No Words

Oh, Lawd. al-Maliki wants to ban smoking in Iraq. You will never convince me that's not malign American influence at work. Next the Iraqi Parliament will mandate sex ed and condom distribution in Iraqi schools (smoking bans and condom distribution being "proof" of one's civilization in this world in which we wouldn't want to impose our Western ideas on anyone).

It was al-Qaeda's smoking ban that turned many Iraqis against the bad guys. Iraqis don't want to live under sharia; impose the Western form and they're not going to be impressed.

Comments on the piece are amusing.

Curtsy: My spy in NY

Joe Eszterhas & Guadalupe

Joe Eszterhas is writing the screenplay for a film on Our Lady of Guadalupe?! That seemed, um, inappropriate, until I read this.

Budd Schulberg

Budd Schulberg, screenwriter for On the Waterfront, passed away yesterday at the age of 95.

Born in New York but raised in Hollywood, he was the son of B.P. Schulberg, head of Paramount Pictures, and grew up with the likes of Clara Bow & Marlene Dietrich in his living room.

He went to Dartmouth, where his extracurricular activities included collaborating on a play with F. Scott Fitgerald (his novel Disenchanted is assumed to be a thinly-disguised account of that experience --it later became a Broadway play).

After graduation his parents, members of the Communist Party, placed him on the board of the Screen Actors Guild so he could push for Party causes.

Even his war service was movie related. Entering the Navy during World War II, he ended up working with John Ford's unit documenting Nazi atrocities, and was the guy who personally arrested Leni Reifenstahl.

Schulberg broke with the Party over its refusal to break with Stalin --although his relationship with the Party was always rough. His own father asked him to repudiate his 1941 novel, What Makes Sammy Run, which introduced the archetypical Hollywood Shill, Sammy Glick, but also criticized many "progressive" ideas.

Schulberg willingly testified before HUAC in 1951. He would later explain:

I felt that what the Party was doing secretively was very wrong; it could have been the Ku Klux Klan or the American Nazis. And nobody came out and said that Stalin was killing more people than Hitler.

It was shortly thereafter that he penned On The Waterfront, his collaboration with director Elia Kazan. He also wrote A Face in the Crowd (working again with Kazan), reviewed here recently, which is one of the best explorations of demagoguery on film. If there's a theme to his work it might be the exposure of corruption.

He wrote of Fitzgerald's novels and his own father's movies that both were:

stricken with a double vision and a double morality, glorifying the society they were so heatedly exposing, exposing the society they could not resist glorifying.

He was also a lifelong boxing fan. Somewhere in his youth he was the boxing correspondent for Sports Illustrated, and he wrote both a novel about the business, The Harder They Fall, and a biography of Muhammad Ali.

Predictably, many of the obits are snarky --the crime against the Holy Spirit in Hollywood is HUAC testimony. But here's a nice one, which includes other odd brushes with history --sparring with Hemingway, and being present at Bobby Kennedy's assassination.

He is survived by his wife and 5 children.

Update: My spy in LA found me a Catholic angle. The spy, who once lived in NY, was present for this address Schulberg made at Fordham. "Great stories," he reports --including much on his relationship with John Corridan, SJ, on whom "On the Waterfront's" Fr. Barry was modeled.

Another questioner asked, in effect, how a nice Jewish boy like Mr. Schulberg had ended up writing a movie in which so many characters are very identifiably Catholic.

''It was not a big leap for me,'' Mr. Schulberg said. ''I thought of Jesus as a very, very moving Jewish prophet. I agreed with so much of the social message of Jesus,'' and ''I was very affected by the depth of the commitment of people like Father Corridan.''

Mediocracy

Is that the world for rule by the press? Here's the press' desire to rule made explicit.

Proletariat Admitted Free!

Everyone's favorite millionaire documentarian is going to 'splain why the rest of us should renounce capitalism. You first, Mike.

Notice: You Must Be As Slovenly As This To Protest This Government

Barbara Boxer explains the new official citizen protest dress code. The Anchoress collects further evidence. CMR shows how to identify a "K-Street Mobster."

Bill & Norko

Gosh I hate conspiracy theories, so I hesitate to bring this up. But does anyone besides Mr. W. & me find the Clintonian rescue a bit odd?

• The journalists worked for Al Gore.
• In July they told their families they thought they'd be freed if Bill Clinton would come to rescue them.
• "Success," coupled with the marked public reconciliation of Clinton & Gore.

I'm glad the gals are home, but at best this strikes me as Obama dancing to Norko's tune, sending them the guy they demanded to see for unspecified, but certainly nefarious, purposes. I don't mind so much that Clinton went, but the instant he landed he should have denounced the Norkos as barbarians and shown their sorry publicity stunt for what it was.

Update: Hitch notices other oddities.

Mass for Clunkers

Shamelessly pinched from CMR.

Sums It Up

For the record, Elijah found the voice of the Lord in the "tiny, whispering" sound, not the "breathy, moaning" sound. Curtsy: Patrick Madrid

I See Nothing About "Health" or "Care"

Sing it, Sister! A woman in Philly gave Sen. Specter & the HHS Secretary what-for on health care. Medicare is broke; Medicaid is broke; Social Security is broke; ...how can we entrust our health to the government that can't put on a cash for clunkers program?


The crowd was having none of it. (They really didn't like it when Specter said they needed to move quickly.) See more of this Q &A here. It's the most heartening display of public spirit I've encountered in a long while. Even better than tea parties, because these are well-informed citizens demanding responsibility from elected officials.

Vat I Deed Summer Wacation

It's just not summer 'til Putin poses with his shirt off.

See Vlad swim the butterfly, take down a tiger, tag a whale, dive in a submarine, light a bonfire, win a martial arts match, channel Yul Brynner, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Curtsy: ninme

Farewell "Tita Cory"

Corazon Aquino passed away Saturday of colon cancer. The Times' obit is decent; it's amazing how much of her story --once so well-known--I'd forgotten. For instance, that she was educated in Philly & New York; that she came to prominence after Marcos imprisoned her husband (his chief rival), and she'd memorize his messages and promulgate them; that the Aquinos lived in Boston for three years when Marcos released Benigno for heart surgery here; the chants of "Cory! Cory! Cory" during her campaign.

Benedict XVI of course sent condolences to the nation, but more importantly, he'd accompanied her in prayer on her deathbed.

I found this Philippine blogger who said this of her:

In 1986, the Filipino people, inspired and emboldened by the sincerity and courage of Corazon Aquino, took back the democracy that was taken away from them in 1972. Armed only by their faith and a firm belief in their capability to decide their own future, they faced down tanks.

Their valor and audacity proved that Mao’s famous adage on power was just another lie foisted by oppressors. Edsa established, once and for all, that power comes not from the barrel of a gun but from the hearts of the people.

Corazon Aquino understood power. From day one of her presidency, she knew that the power she held was not her personal property nor was it for her personal gain; she only held it in trust for her people. And she never betrayed that trust. That’s why years after she left Malacanan, Corazon Aquino continued to be loved, trusted, and heeded by the nation.

That's her body being transported to Manila Cathedral. She's the only person other than an Archbishop ever to lie in state there.

Here's kind of an off-beat article about her Marian devotion.

Her funeral is tomorrow.

Update: Mr. W. writes about his experience as an election observer in the Philippines when she came to power.

"I Don't Buy It"

Here's one of the best pieces on marriage & mid-life crises I've ever read, and in a surprising source: The formerly gray lady. Woman's husband comes home one day after decades of marriage saying, "I don't love you anymore....don't know that I ever did."

RTWT.

Cash For Clunker Healthcare

Friends of mine spent a week among Canadian families in July for a conference. They spent the week asking people about their experiences with the Canadian health care system. They got a smattering of the usual horror stories and this matter-of-fact assessment from most folks.

• If you're relatively young and fit and have a serious curable illness or accident, you'll receive immediate and excellent care. These Canadians are extremely worried at the prospect of the US moving toward a single-payer system, because the standard of care for their health service is set in the U.S. The only reason the Canadian system works at all in their view is because it's next door to the excellent U.S. system. Remove the U.S. standard and we all plummet together.
  
• And then the usual complaints: forget about timely treatment for less serious (but more common) needs. General medical service advice if you complain about having to wait weeks for an x-ray? (Bored DMV-style shrug) "If you want faster service pay for it yourself at a private clinic."
  
• If you are an infant, frail, handicapped, elderly, mentally ill or suffer from chronic or terminal illness, the state is unlikely to determine your care is worth its investment. (But aren't these precisely the conditions people worry about when we speak of a healthcare crisis? As I've noted before, we can just not treat for free: problem "solved.")

Meanwhile, Mr. W. notes that the simple, straightforward Cash for Clunkers program (buy a more fuel-efficent car, get a rebate) supposed to run for 4 months is hopelessly fouled and went bankrupt in days. Yet Congress thinks it can enact an enormously more complicated health care system and project costs out for 10 years?

Here, with the aid of hidden cameras, Steven Crowder takes Canadian friends to clinics for treatment of a broken wrist and to secure a simple blood test. Coming soon to your neighborhood:

We're Doomed

The spirit of innovation is the key to the future

says the President. And he's taking over each sector of the economy bit by bit to ensure there will be none.