I'm Just Wondering... when the discerning American public will see through the crafty attempts of rhetoric to steer the Healthcare For All debate towards the master plan of the Republicans and the Healthcare Industry...
In the mid-90's, when the Clintons valiently forwarded an attempt (though faulted) to address the growing healthcare problem of "the rich stay healthy while the sick stay poor" (a quote from Bono, song 'God Part 2')... the Republicans and the Healthcare Industry came up with the burning phrase "socialized medicine" for the Democratic plan. Their polling showed that the term evoked the idea of Socialism in the minds of Americans, and the fear of the recent-fallen Spoviet Union fueled a repulsion of the Clinton attempts.
Move forward to 2009, nearly 14 years into the future. Healthcare in the United States is in a far worse position than the mid-90's, quality of care is decreased, helathy patient outcomes have diminished... while Americans are paying more for healthcare than ever before, the Healthcare industry profit margin is larger than ever before (forget investment banking or big oil...), and over 60 million Americans have NO or essentiall no healthcare access except public emergency rooms.
Yuck!
Enter the Obama Healthcare debate. Enter the Democratic attempts to place a "Public Option" for people who cannot afford the high premiums of the private insurance companies.
The initial volley by the Republicans, who are heavy contribution-recipients from the Healthcare industry, about Socialized Medicine... but with the Soviet threat a distant memory, and many of us read their playbook from the 90's ... well, the 'socialized medicine' sickle - and- hammer scare didn't work during the Presidential campaign of 2008.
Public Option are the words of the Dem leadership... and they are sticking to message. If you have your healthcare plan and you like it... keep it! If you have a doctor (or writ large, if you can AFFORD your own doctor!)... keep him or her!! BUT...If you don't have a plan, or can't afford the high premium, then a Public Option will be created.
(By the way, the ideas of Biblical Justice and responsibility should come into this conversation right about HERE....)
The Republican leadership, like Sen. McConnell and Sen Alexander, however are trying desperately to keep the 'Public Option' off the table... why? Because their contributors, the Healthcare Industry are trying to force legislation that requires ALL Americans to have health insurance, but it is all private, without a Public Option... meaning, they control the table and all the profit potential. Sen McConnell defends that this is sound economically, "let the market regulate the healthcare industry".
Guess he hasn't studied recent history, or is aware of the 60 milliion Americans with little to no healthcare access.
However, the Republican playbook for their message recently leaked. It is a paper written by a very smart word-smith and national message-crafter, Frank Luntz, called "The Language of Healthcare 2009".
David Welna of npr.org reported today on this playbook, and how the major Republicans are staying on-message, directly out of that document. Check out the Morning Edition text from 16 June.
Luntz did extensive market research with two key terms that he found made Americans cringe or repulse in the healthcare debate:
"Government Plan" and "Washington Takeover".
His playbook: use these terms, never let 'Public Option' stand up in the debate... and the Republican-Healthcare Industry will win, as they did in the mid 90's.
If you want to test the accuracy of this blog, just Google Senator McConnell or Senator Alexander, and look at the transcripts from their recent speeches or interviews about the healthcare bill. They are tripping over themselves to say "Govt Plan" and "Washington Takeover" at least three times in each sentence, and trying to get on every political show and Sunday morning "Meet the Press" they can to get their message out.
I am hoping that Americans will not be fooled by this rhetorical attempt to scare us.
Let the Republicans debate the facts and reality of modern healthcare, not play the 'good ole' boy' game and try to protect their vested campaign contributors.
cbaj
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Friday, June 12, 2009
Biblical References in U2 Lyrics
I'm Just Wondering... how do they do it??
The good peeps from the huge U2 fansite "@ U2 dot com"... and good peeps they are, I got to know many of them during the Vertigo tour opener in San Diego... they have an over-the-top web page that has all the (found) Biblical references in U2 lyrics... including the latest album "No Line On The Horizon"
Here's the website:
www.atu2.com/lyrics/biblerefs.html
Enjoy!
(ps, the upcoming U2-360 tour, with it's 'in the round' center stage is going to be mind-numbing!)
The good peeps from the huge U2 fansite "@ U2 dot com"... and good peeps they are, I got to know many of them during the Vertigo tour opener in San Diego... they have an over-the-top web page that has all the (found) Biblical references in U2 lyrics... including the latest album "No Line On The Horizon"
Here's the website:
www.atu2.com/lyrics/biblerefs.html
Enjoy!
(ps, the upcoming U2-360 tour, with it's 'in the round' center stage is going to be mind-numbing!)
Deconstructing the Harmful Society
I'm Just Wondering... when we will all appreciate the power of the 'fallen nature' that is inherent in Free Market economics?
A couple decades ago, I took a course in Biblical Economics from the philosopher and theologen John Peck from Brittian... one of the original fathers of the modern Christina movement in the UK... and he really fronted the case that free market economics is based in a non-Biblical assumption, and is inherently filled with the potential for evil.
He went on to lay out the economic structures that God built into the Old Testament Hebrew nation, all of which was to bring a Divine factor of grace and correction into play against free market economies. The kicker is the year of Jubilee, where every 50 years everything was given back...
OK... anybody notice all the things on the current political storefront? Big tobaccoo is about to be regulated by the FDA like Vicodin, USA HealthCare Inc is about to be choked away from huge profits on the broken backs of the sick and infirm, the massive industrial-military complex is going to be tied up and unable to play Jack Bauer-Rambo in their torture techniques, and the industries that had cushy 6-figure plans for putting 3 screws in a floorboard are going to find out that they can't make the same wages as brain surgeons. Then the oil industry had their wonderful last-minute sweetheart deal to drill on every lovely bit of American public land reversed and put on hold...
The 'Harmful Society' of the West has run out of credit, and the bill just arrived via a very large Gorilla who wants to collect - and re-arrange all the furniture at the same time.
The theme seems to be... sensible economics, as best as can be had in a fallen system. No, you can't sell cigarettes to kids. No, you can't make billions on the suffering of the sick and young children. No, you can't torture, even if that means your gov't contract goes away. No, you can't drill anywhere you want to make windfall profits. Hey, de-facto socialism in 6-figure incomes for whatever work you do (or don't do) cannot be sustained.
Time for across-the-board adjustment.
This is going to be painful.
A couple decades ago, I took a course in Biblical Economics from the philosopher and theologen John Peck from Brittian... one of the original fathers of the modern Christina movement in the UK... and he really fronted the case that free market economics is based in a non-Biblical assumption, and is inherently filled with the potential for evil.
He went on to lay out the economic structures that God built into the Old Testament Hebrew nation, all of which was to bring a Divine factor of grace and correction into play against free market economies. The kicker is the year of Jubilee, where every 50 years everything was given back...
OK... anybody notice all the things on the current political storefront? Big tobaccoo is about to be regulated by the FDA like Vicodin, USA HealthCare Inc is about to be choked away from huge profits on the broken backs of the sick and infirm, the massive industrial-military complex is going to be tied up and unable to play Jack Bauer-Rambo in their torture techniques, and the industries that had cushy 6-figure plans for putting 3 screws in a floorboard are going to find out that they can't make the same wages as brain surgeons. Then the oil industry had their wonderful last-minute sweetheart deal to drill on every lovely bit of American public land reversed and put on hold...
The 'Harmful Society' of the West has run out of credit, and the bill just arrived via a very large Gorilla who wants to collect - and re-arrange all the furniture at the same time.
The theme seems to be... sensible economics, as best as can be had in a fallen system. No, you can't sell cigarettes to kids. No, you can't make billions on the suffering of the sick and young children. No, you can't torture, even if that means your gov't contract goes away. No, you can't drill anywhere you want to make windfall profits. Hey, de-facto socialism in 6-figure incomes for whatever work you do (or don't do) cannot be sustained.
Time for across-the-board adjustment.
This is going to be painful.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
The God Movie... ready or not... in-coming!!!
I'm Just Wondering.... how, in the middle of this current crisis of economics and deep personal struggle on the part of many in the West, how the apologists (ie, thought-defenders) in the Christian church will be able to effectively respond to this one...
It's a movie called THE GOD WHO WASN'T THERE. It is showing around the country in many of the 'art house' movie venues. It's sub-titled "a film that's beyond belief". It seems to be drawing a significant amount of viewers, and is now for sale in DVD, and will be widely distributed by Blockbuster and Netflix for rental and viewing.
No small deal.
It's getting a fair amount of attention by Time and Newsweek magazines. Newsweek said that it "irreverently lays out the case that Jesus Christ never existed" and wrote that it will definitely bring up the church-vs-secular culture wars to a new notch.
I encourage you all to go to YouTube and type in the movie title, and watch the 2-and-a-half minute trailer. (I won't put the link here... it keeps bogging up my blog account)
SOOOO... looks like this rather articluate group of scholars and social scientists are saying that there have been many stories of Jesus-types who yes, born of a virgin, did miracles, was killed by execution, rose from the dead and ascended into heaven... all part of the 'Hero Myth' of the 100 AD timeframe. Oh, and that the Jesus of the Gospels didn't exist for real.
Wow!
I'm going to investigate more, so further comments pending... but this may be a better-formed attack than everybody in churches thought would come from the DaVinci Code a few years back...
One thought off the top... the apologists of today had better suit up for the back-and-forth debate without using or quoting the Bible as their key text... that book gets shot down and dis-regarded pretty early in most debates today, and most non-believers will dismiss everything you say that is 'chapter and verse' there...
That means the Living Christ, signs and wonders and vibrant "I talked to God today, so I know He is there" will have to come into the conversation...
cbaj
It's a movie called THE GOD WHO WASN'T THERE. It is showing around the country in many of the 'art house' movie venues. It's sub-titled "a film that's beyond belief". It seems to be drawing a significant amount of viewers, and is now for sale in DVD, and will be widely distributed by Blockbuster and Netflix for rental and viewing.
No small deal.
It's getting a fair amount of attention by Time and Newsweek magazines. Newsweek said that it "irreverently lays out the case that Jesus Christ never existed" and wrote that it will definitely bring up the church-vs-secular culture wars to a new notch.
I encourage you all to go to YouTube and type in the movie title, and watch the 2-and-a-half minute trailer. (I won't put the link here... it keeps bogging up my blog account)
SOOOO... looks like this rather articluate group of scholars and social scientists are saying that there have been many stories of Jesus-types who yes, born of a virgin, did miracles, was killed by execution, rose from the dead and ascended into heaven... all part of the 'Hero Myth' of the 100 AD timeframe. Oh, and that the Jesus of the Gospels didn't exist for real.
Wow!
I'm going to investigate more, so further comments pending... but this may be a better-formed attack than everybody in churches thought would come from the DaVinci Code a few years back...
One thought off the top... the apologists of today had better suit up for the back-and-forth debate without using or quoting the Bible as their key text... that book gets shot down and dis-regarded pretty early in most debates today, and most non-believers will dismiss everything you say that is 'chapter and verse' there...
That means the Living Christ, signs and wonders and vibrant "I talked to God today, so I know He is there" will have to come into the conversation...
cbaj
Facebook is like the Chatterbox Cafe on the Internet
I'm Just Wondering when the pundits and critics of social networks will realize that they are the digital equal of a local Cafe for our insane, crazy and fragmented world called The New Milennium.
For me, Facebook has been like Garrison Keeler's "Chatterbox Cafe" in Lake Wobegon.
I'm running into old friends and people I haven't heard from in years... ALL PRECIOUS AND MISSED... and hearing about the woes of rearing toddlers and cold, windy days and the sadness of family loss and economic struggles. I also hear the giggles and joy over a great chocolate ice cream dish, or the wonder discovered in a spring flower breaking through the ground.
Every day that passes, I realize the THE most important and precious thing on this planet are people... like in the movie Cosmos, "the only thing that makes the loneliness bearable is each other!"
Come join Facebook, pull up a chair and chat in!
For me, Facebook has been like Garrison Keeler's "Chatterbox Cafe" in Lake Wobegon.
I'm running into old friends and people I haven't heard from in years... ALL PRECIOUS AND MISSED... and hearing about the woes of rearing toddlers and cold, windy days and the sadness of family loss and economic struggles. I also hear the giggles and joy over a great chocolate ice cream dish, or the wonder discovered in a spring flower breaking through the ground.
Every day that passes, I realize the THE most important and precious thing on this planet are people... like in the movie Cosmos, "the only thing that makes the loneliness bearable is each other!"
Come join Facebook, pull up a chair and chat in!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
