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E.J. Dionne with a very good point about what the nature of the health care debate says about us. And this is what happens when our health care system embraces false economies.
The Kristof/WuDunn book is reviewed as very good and very important.
Civics in the internet age: the road to stonerocracy?
How I'd love to see stimulus funds that stock food pantries go toward buying fresh food.
This just came up on Saturday--a friend and I were talking about how, even with reasonable incomes, we can't bring ourselves to buy organic when it means shelling out two to three times as much money. We both try, but when the price differential is especially egregious, it just doesn't happen (which brings us to the issue of perverse incentives--what's subsidized, what isn't, etc.). Speaking of which, check out the graph in that article.
Incidentally, that friend asked me not to hate her for suggesting we make apple pie with store-bought crusts. I suggested that we make apple crisp instead. With Bisquick. The apples couldn't have been more local (i.e., from her backyard).
This is frightening for many reasons, but lets focus on the prosperity gospel:
"A 2000 DVD from the black evangelist Creflo Dollar featured African-American parishioners shouting, “I want my stuff — right now!”
Joel Osteen, the white megachurch pastor who draws 40,000 worshippers each Sunday, about two-thirds of them black and Latino, likes to relate how he himself succumbed to God’s urgings — conveyed by his wife — to upgrade to a larger house. According to Jonathan Walton, a religion professor at the University of California at Riverside, pastors like Mr. Osteen reassured people about subprime mortgages by getting them to believe that “God caused the bank to ignore my credit score and bless me with my first house.”"
This, also, was the subject of a recent conversation I had, with another friend, whose father was a Lutheran minister. This friend is reading Christopher Hitchens' book and quite agrees. I don't know that I agree--I believe religion can and often is a force for good. I think it can serve as people's spiritual Suze Orman, in the way that Liz Pulliam Weston described Suze Orman's purpose: she's great for one-size-fits-all advice, for people who don't want to or can't make their own financial decisions. You can draw up a budget, and also think hard about the opportunity cost of your next purchase, or you can ask Suze whether or not you can afford it. She doesn't know you, your dreams, your priorities--but if you give her some financial data, which is one half of the equation, she'll give you an answer. Jennifer LaRue Huget also discussed this kind of advice--I can't find it, but she wrote in the Post, probably in her blog (The Checkup) last year that some people prefer to be told exactly what to eat (rather than follow general rules about nutrition and make the more specific decisions on their own). So faith is a bad analogy, because I think it's so much more than that--but I think "that," i.e. when it's used for one-size-fits-all morality, is really, really dangerous.
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I was talking to someone whose dog eats things (entire books, metal objects, etc.) to indicate he lacks your attention. In the sense that he will ignore neutral items like junk mail, but the book you are currently reading will get chewed up (presumably because it smells like you). Just more proof that Gracie is a dog-cat.
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