The Rage Is Not About Health Care

Frank Rich photo: Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times

By FRANK RICH

The New York Times Op-Ed Columnist Published: March 27, 2010

THERE were times when last Sunday’s great G.O.P. health care implosion threatened to bring the thrill back to reality television. On ABC’s “This Week,” a frothing and filibustering Karl Rove all but lost it in a debate with the Obama strategist David Plouffe. A few hours later, the perennially copper-faced Republican leader John Boehner revved up his “Hell no, you can’t!” incantation in the House chamber — instant fodder for a new viral video remixing his rap with will.i.am’s “Yes, we can!” classic from the campaign. Boehner, having previously likened the health care bill to Armageddon, was now so apoplectic you had to wonder if he had just discovered one of its more obscure revenue-generating provisions, a tax on indoor tanning salons.

But the laughs evaporated soon enough. There’s nothing entertaining about watching goons hurl venomous slurs at congressmen like the civil rights hero John Lewis and the openly gay Barney Frank. And as the week dragged on, and reports of death threats and vandalism stretched from Arizona to Kansas to upstate New York, the F.B.I. and the local police had to get into the act to protect members of Congress and their families.

How curious that a mob fond of likening President Obama to Hitler knows so little about history that it doesn’t recognize its own small-scale mimicry of Kristallnacht. The weapon of choice for vigilante violence at Congressional offices has been a brick hurled through a window. So far.

No less curious is how disproportionate this red-hot anger is to its proximate cause. The historic Obama-Pelosi health care victory is a big deal, all right, so much so it doesn’t need Joe Biden’s adjective to hype it. But the bill does not erect a huge New Deal-Great Society-style government program. In lieu of a public option, it delivers 32 million newly insured Americans to private insurers. As no less a conservative authority than The Wall Street Journal editorial page observed last week, the bill’s prototype is the health care legislation Mitt Romney signed into law in Massachusetts. It contains what used to be considered Republican ideas.

The Pope and those pesky sex scandals of the priestly kind

Pope will ‘not be intimidated by petty gossip’ over sex abuse scandals

Pope Benedict XVI began Holy Week on Sunday by suggesting in his Palm Sunday address that the Catholic Church would “not be intimidated” by the sex abuse scandals sweeping it.

By Nick Pisa in Rome
Published: 3:30PM BST 28 Mar 2010

Pope Benedict XVI Leads Palm Sunday At St. Peter’s Square Photo: GETTY

In a clear indication that the Vatican continues to insist the stream of abuse revelations are part of a conspiracy the Pope said: “From God comes the courage not to be intimidated by petty gossip.”

Although he did not directly mention the crisis that has seen claims of abuse from Ireland, Germany, Austria, Holland and Brazil the 82 year old Pontiff’s message was evidently clear.

As he spoke, thousands of pilgrims who had gathered in a sunlit St Peter’s Square clapped and shouted “Viva il Papa” (Long Live The Pope). The scandals seemingly not to have had an impact on their faith.

Last week the Vatican’s official newspaper L’Osservatore Romano said the abuse allegations were part of an “ignoble attempt to strike at Pope Benedict XVI and his closest collaborators at any cost”.

President Obama signs historic health care bill

Richard Adams Tuesday 23 March 2010 16.21 GMT guardian.co.uk

The final, formal act that ends the long journey of US healthcare reform into concrete legislation happened just before noon this morning, when President Obama signed into law an $938bn overhaul extending coverage for 32 million uninsured Americans.

“Mr President, you’re the guy that made it happen… You’ve done what generations of great men and women have attempted to do, Republicans and Democrats,” said Joe Biden, introducing Obama at the signing ceremony. (Embracing Obama after his remarks, Biden appears to have been picked up on an open mic saying to the president: “This is a big f*****g deal”.)

The signing ceremony took place in a packed East Room of the White House before a crowd of congressional leaders, guests and members of the Kennedy family, including Vicki Kennedy, the widow of Senator Edward Kennedy, who had fought for years to reform America’s healthcare system and remove many of the system’s worst abuses. Representative Bart Stupak, who helped broker the anti-abortion compromise that brought his voting bloc on board and provided the crucial margin of victory, was also in the audience.

Before signing, Obama ticked off a list of the benefits that the new law would bring immediately. “This year, insurance companies will no longer be able to drop people’s coverage when they get sick,” he said, to loud applause.

Healthcare

Updated March 22, 2010

 Health Care Reform Fight Shifts From Congress to the Courts

 Now that the House, in a historic vote, has passed the Senate’s health care bill and sent it to the president’s desk, state lawmakers and attorneys general already are lining up to challenge its constitutionality and wage an outside-the-Beltway war against it in the courts. 

The health care reform fight isn’t over. It’s just changing venues. 

Now that the House, in a historic vote, has passed the Senate’s bill and sent it to the president’s desk, state lawmakers and attorneys general already are lining up to challenge its constitutionality and wage an outside-the-Beltway war against it in the courts. 

IT’S JUST NOT ABOUT HATE

I was thinking about my comments last night on Steven Weber’s post, thinking about this subject.
I realized that I had probably come across as insensitive and ignorant about some of the truly desparate situations concerning this issue.  I thought about my own experience. 

I was a teenager and unmarried when I got pregnant. And I was terrified. My daughter’s father, being young himself was not very receptive to the idea of becoming a father.  He wanted me to get an abortion.

 Not only was I looking at the most terrifying personal dilemma ever in my life (that only a woman can fully understand) I had realized that he (the father) had lied to me.. clearly, he didn’t truly love me like he claimed he did… I was alone.  I became even more terrified.  Even then, as a teenager I knew abortion was out of the question.  But, in order to receive some kind of desparately needed immediate emotional comfort,  I pretended to agree.

The next day when it was officially confirmed that I was pregnant, my daughter’s father came thru and did the right thing. WE did the right thing. His Christian upbringing, I’m sure, had a lot to do with his decision. I know I was one of the “lucky” ones.  I realized that again last night.  I thought, what if he hadn’t “come thru”?  I’m sure I would have continued living with my parents and raised my daughter on my own. But, what if my parents were not supportive, what if I hadn’t had that option either? I do understand COMPLETELY that with each step it gets harder and harder to resist the quick and “easy” way out.  But, there is help, there are programs and church organizations, there ARE OTHER OPTIONS. It may not be easy, it may be a scary and lonely road to go down but it IS the best choice.. it IS the right thing to do for EVERYONE. 

Stem Cells make ‘Milestone moment’ Possible

(PA) The stem cells are now reconstructing the airway and ensuring it is not rejected by his immune system

From Times Online

March 20, 2010

‘Milestone moment’ as boy undergoes transplant to regenerate trachea

Sam Lister, Health Editor

A British boy has undergone a groundbreaking operation involving the transplantation of a windpipe which is being regenerated inside his body using his own stem cells.

Scientists described the operation, carried out on Monday at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, as a ‘milestone moment’ in the development of techniques that could allow people to rebuild damaged or transplanted organs inside their bodies.

The replacement trachea, the bony tube that connects the nose, mouth and lungs, was stripped of the donor’s cells to leave a scaffold which was then laced with the child’s stem cells. The boy, aged 10, then received the transplant hours later. The stem cells are now reconstructing the airway and ensuring it is not rejected by his immune system.

God-belief runs rampant in USA. Well, duh…

In a study that seems almost redundant, Canadian researchers took the results from two U.S. surveys regarding people and their faith in god and came to the (quite obvious) conclusion that many Americans are deluded habitually giving god credit for everything from a winning touchdown to getting voted into power to getting a speeding ticket.

“In American culture — much less so in Canada — there’s a really constant flow of God-talk that references these small, personal interactions. It’s almost like a self-absorbed view of divine will,” says study author Scott Schieman, a professor of sociology at the University of Toronto.

“The extent that it’s so visible, almost saturating the culture at times, makes me think it’s not just metaphor or symbolism; many, many people believe these processes are real.”

Eight in 10 Americans say they depend on God for decision-making guidance.

Seven in 10 believe that when good or bad things happen, the occurrences are part of God’s plan.

And six in 10 believe God has set the course of their lives.

Crazy. The article also reports on the fact that a third of those surveyed believed there was essentially no free will, that god is the guiding hand in every event, for good or ill.

“If you feel like, ‘No matter what I do, it’s all going to work out a particular way,’ what does that do for your motivation?” says Schieman, who suggests the 32 per cent of people who behave this way do so because it relieves anxiety in desperate circumstances, shifting the pressure skyward.

For others, they treat the invisible dude like he’s a BFF and get great feelings of love and confidence out of their delusion.

The concept permeates shows such as So You Think You Can Dance, American Idol and Big Brother, all of which frequently feature participants who credit their victories to a higher power. They also assume their failures are part of His plan, rely on prayer to further their competitive success or talk as though the right hand of God is cramped from texting votes on their behalf.

“People will weave a divine narrative into just about anything,” says Schieman …

Personally, I think the bigger question should be why. Why do so many people still cling to religion to get through life? Even if they claim they aren’t following a religion, that it’s all spiritual and godding around town with best buddy Jesus as a co-pilot is just something to brag about. Why do it? Why think it? Aside from feeling like they have big important friends solving their problems for them, what else is going on in their heads to make this logical and worth believing?

How did it come about? Has it always been this bad, or is something making it worse? Why does faith become such a powerful force for so many people? And why does faith have no impact for other people?

(cross-posted)

Hollywood Liberalism knows no boundries.. Exhibit 1… the movie “DOUBT”

 

Well, the liberals ON ADKOB are going to say… “here we go again”…

Yep… liberalism certainly gives me a lot to gripe about.  Right now, I’m going to gripe about the capital of progressive liberalism… Hollywood.

I’ve watched the movie “Doubt”, with Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman, several times and I now know that my first impression was correct.  This movie promotes Hollywood’s ultra liberalistic movement to stifle (or completely wipe out ) Christian values.  And it’s frustrating because of the great amount of influence Hollywood has.  I believe, unfortunately, they will ultimately win and their views will reign in main stream society, if they don’t already.

The reason I say that I “now know” that my first impression of the movie is correct is because, on the surface, the movie seems to be very ambiguous.  Even to the end, we can’t truly be sure who the protagonist is and who is the antagonist.   But really, one could know this just by learning of the major components…. a staunch, hard lined, by the “Book” Catholic (CHRISTIAN) Nun, a Priest who wants to “modernize” or “LIBERALIZE” the church, and Hollywood. And to be more descriptive… a Nun who holds on to traditional Christian values and a Priest who believes that “love” is the most important thing above all, but… oh yeah, this kind of “love” just happens to express itself sometimes through sexual contact with a 12 year old boy.