Mitt Romney has just announced that Israeli state has enjoyed success stating:
“And as I come here and I look out over this city and consider the accomplishments of the people of this nation, I recognize the power of at least culture and a few other things,” Romney said, citing an innovative business climate, the Jewish history of thriving in difficult circumstances and the “hand of providence.”
And he will do well with this statement as racist as it is because he was pandering to several rich patrons who share this limited view. Of course this view will do nothing to help quell the anger in the impoverished Gaza Strip or other areas where Arab Palestinians live in the impoverished shadow of Israel's glory Announcements like this only fuel the fire that America does not understand or respect the Arab world.
The Arab world is right in this regard. America's arrogance is unabashed. We went into Iraq promising to make it a democracy and free. We proclaimed that her people would welcome us as liberators, we were found to be conquerors and an occupying enemy instead. We wanted to plant democracy, but were unprepared for the anti-American sentiment of the people and hence a democracy that we could not trust.
We destabilized the control that we had created over Iran and now face growing concern in all corners of the Arab world. Wherever former dictators, who have largely been secular, have been replaced with popular governments, we find that those governments are increasingly Islamist and radically anti western in their bent. Rather than forging an alliance for the future our last ten years of influence in the middle east have resulted in a rising new order that is more than ever opposed to Western values. We have planted democracy but at the same time ensured that confrontation of value systems will escalate.
Candidate Romney may gather voter and financial support from his saber rattling in the Middle East, but whoever wins the White House will inherit a more hostile world. The chances for peace diminish in a climate of aggressive display, sooner or later someone will decide to stand their ground and the dominoes will fall.
Monday, July 30, 2012
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Embarrassed millionaires and the health care controversy
It isn't your fault if you aren't in the 1%, but it is to your shame if you give the uber rich power and support their causes to your economic detriment.
Universal health care, like universal education benefits all citizens. Early access to health care reduces the strain on emergency rooms and the resulting financial drain on hospitals. Not surprisingly hospital stock went up when the health care decision came down. Access to healthcare promotes health and wellness and reduces the losses that come from write offs at the ER.
The only people who come to this country for health care are Saudi Princes and the like. People whose access to money allows them access to what I keep hearing is "the best health care in the world." For the rest of humanity it just isn't so. It ma be the best, but if it isn't available it might as well not exist.
Without insurance one can hardly afford preventative health care. When one looks at medications costing hundreds per month it takes a lot of income to survive. When one needs those medications often employment isn't in the picture. Shall we blame the sick or fight for health?
The sad truth is that hard work and perseverance more often than not will get you to the finish line tired and poor. Never the less many people who may never even make it to the upper 20% of Americans in wealth thus earning themselves a position which puts them in the middle wealth wise, people who could actually benefit from universal health care, are against it. It has confused me for years, but John Steinbeck understood it well:
“Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.”
― John Steinbeck
Universal health care, like universal education benefits all citizens. Early access to health care reduces the strain on emergency rooms and the resulting financial drain on hospitals. Not surprisingly hospital stock went up when the health care decision came down. Access to healthcare promotes health and wellness and reduces the losses that come from write offs at the ER.
The only people who come to this country for health care are Saudi Princes and the like. People whose access to money allows them access to what I keep hearing is "the best health care in the world." For the rest of humanity it just isn't so. It ma be the best, but if it isn't available it might as well not exist.
Without insurance one can hardly afford preventative health care. When one looks at medications costing hundreds per month it takes a lot of income to survive. When one needs those medications often employment isn't in the picture. Shall we blame the sick or fight for health?
The sad truth is that hard work and perseverance more often than not will get you to the finish line tired and poor. Never the less many people who may never even make it to the upper 20% of Americans in wealth thus earning themselves a position which puts them in the middle wealth wise, people who could actually benefit from universal health care, are against it. It has confused me for years, but John Steinbeck understood it well:
“Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.”
― John Steinbeck
Monday, July 16, 2012
Political Animals 40% of a great show.
The new show on USA is Political Animals. It is not about the Clintons. No, it really isn't because Bill Clinton would be fun to watch, even no drama Obama would be more fun to watch. Instead the writers have created a former First Lady turned Governor turned Secretary of State who is AMAZING and teamed her with a (ex)husband with no sense propriety, a egotist without charm. (and Bill had charm to burn).
Sigourney Weaver is absolutely incredible. I believe almost every scene with her in it, but the only other character that is even remotely interesting is the female reporter.played by Carla Cugino. If they could just limit it to them it would be an amazing show. The women have presence and spark and play well off of each other. It is a bit of a feminist manifesto that the men are totally expendable, but unfortunately for the viewers, the men's roles are big and important and therein lies the problem.
I will watch again, but fear that it will not be for long. So much promise, a bit like Gina Davis as President. :(
Sigourney Weaver is absolutely incredible. I believe almost every scene with her in it, but the only other character that is even remotely interesting is the female reporter.played by Carla Cugino. If they could just limit it to them it would be an amazing show. The women have presence and spark and play well off of each other. It is a bit of a feminist manifesto that the men are totally expendable, but unfortunately for the viewers, the men's roles are big and important and therein lies the problem.
I will watch again, but fear that it will not be for long. So much promise, a bit like Gina Davis as President. :(
Sunday, July 15, 2012
Did you really believe that?
My wife asked the other day if I really believed that. That being the Virgin birth and divinity of Jesus. She asked because well I have served as an ordained minister in a Protestant denomination. So it was a valid question. I had a hard time answering because it is so conditioned within us a Christians that certain truths are not only not non negotiable, they are so sacred that one does not even question whether questioning would be called for. The short answer for me has always been yes, I affirm the Divinity of the Christ, but I fear that the answer belies the truth as I believe fully and without equivocation in many scientific truths that a literally understanding of the Gospel would deny.
Indeed I have never been a very literal believer in most of the the sacred story. I have long been a believer in the story and a participant in the journey without actually being in word for word agreement. It was this dichotomy that led me to leave the ministry quite some time ago. My double think wasn't effective anymore, and though I longed to be a part of the host of saints, I was increasingly in the way of the beliefs of others.
So today I answer in a different way. No, I do not now, nor have I ever really believed that Jesus was born to a Virgin, never mind the controversy over whether she remained one after the birth. And I have never been totally sure of the claim of divinity. Jesus was and is for me a teacher and guide, a radical rabbi whose teachings of love and mutual understanding still resonate for me. I believe that in an inner way, Jesus was in touch with that quality of God that speaks to us. I believe that in the communion we are participating in a larger than life sharing of our common faith. It is easy for me to see myself a the table recreating an event that I share with those who have gone before and those who are yet to come. That is a part of my faith, an article of the mystery that has drawn me and continues to speak to me. But it is a dialogue that I largely share in private. There are a few who can understand the struggle as I do, there are far more who cannot comprehend that my struggle is valid.
Never the less, as oft I drink that cup or eat that bread I do it in memory of Him. He guides my walk and that, for me, makes me a Christian.
Indeed I have never been a very literal believer in most of the the sacred story. I have long been a believer in the story and a participant in the journey without actually being in word for word agreement. It was this dichotomy that led me to leave the ministry quite some time ago. My double think wasn't effective anymore, and though I longed to be a part of the host of saints, I was increasingly in the way of the beliefs of others.
So today I answer in a different way. No, I do not now, nor have I ever really believed that Jesus was born to a Virgin, never mind the controversy over whether she remained one after the birth. And I have never been totally sure of the claim of divinity. Jesus was and is for me a teacher and guide, a radical rabbi whose teachings of love and mutual understanding still resonate for me. I believe that in an inner way, Jesus was in touch with that quality of God that speaks to us. I believe that in the communion we are participating in a larger than life sharing of our common faith. It is easy for me to see myself a the table recreating an event that I share with those who have gone before and those who are yet to come. That is a part of my faith, an article of the mystery that has drawn me and continues to speak to me. But it is a dialogue that I largely share in private. There are a few who can understand the struggle as I do, there are far more who cannot comprehend that my struggle is valid.
Never the less, as oft I drink that cup or eat that bread I do it in memory of Him. He guides my walk and that, for me, makes me a Christian.
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