{"id":266,"date":"2009-07-29T12:40:36","date_gmt":"2009-07-29T16:40:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/evangelicalgateway.wordpress.com\/?p=266"},"modified":"2009-07-29T12:40:36","modified_gmt":"2009-07-29T16:40:36","slug":"morning-report-july-29","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/philosophicalfragments\/2009\/07\/29\/morning-report-july-29\/","title":{"rendered":"Morning Report, July 29: Obama's Faith, Black Church, Blue Dogs, and the Amazing Flying Homeless"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

1.\u00a0 President Obama said<\/a>, in an interview recently conducted for Nightline, that he begins each day with a devotional and \u201cpray(s) all the time now.\u201d<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0 The Barna Group (which has been studying evangelicals for decades) has issued an excellent new study of African American Christians.\u00a0 Check out the article<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0 Christopher Hitchens asserts<\/a> that Henry Louis Gates was wrong to presume to know that officer James Crowley was motivated by racism\u2013yet Gates should have stood instead on Civil Liberties grounds and insisted that a man has a right to harangue a police officer in his own home.\u00a0 Ed Morrisey, a moderate conservative at Hot Air, agrees<\/a>.\u00a0 \u201cJames Crowley sounds like an outstanding officer, but arresting someone on their own property for yelling at the police sounds a little strange.\u00a0 It seems at least plausible that Crowley had a bad moment and used poor judgment, not because of race, but simply because he\u2019s human and has a tough job. \u00a0\u00a0 Had Gates stuck to just those facts, he would have provided a teaching moment and a lesson on civil liberty and the right, at times, to yell at the representatives of our government when they appear to trample on the rights of citizens \u2014 even when the citizens are wrong in assuming the motivations involved.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tomorrow the President will meet with Gates and Crowley.\u00a0 Some will see this as leadership-by-example, Obama showing the way toward healing the racial divide.\u00a0 Others will see it, especially in light of the \u201cstupidly\u201d comment, as cynical political theater.\u00a0 You can be sure that the President\u2019s advisors have already developed the language they want the participants to use when they emerge and speak with the press.\u00a0 One wonders what it will be.\u00a0 Crowley may be willing to admit to pulling out the handcuffs too quickly; yet he will not admit to racism, which is what Gates desires.\u00a0 And surely Gates will not admit to racism on his part, in assuming that a white police officer was inspired by racist impulses.<\/p>\n

To we have a right to berate police officers publicly, or do police officers require a certain amount of respect and compliance in order to perform their duties of keeping order and safety?\u00a0 You cannot be arrested for resisting arrest; restisting arrest is only possible if one is already being arrested, as a secondary charge.\u00a0 Gates was booked on disorderly conduct, and Crowley cited the concerned attention the incident was drawing.\u00a0 Probably Crowley should not have arrested Gates\u2013but many cops stand with Crowley on this, including African American cops who say he is a sterling policeman.\u00a0 Colin Powell chides<\/a> Gates and says that one should not argue with a cop who is trying to his job.<\/p>\n

The woman who made the 911 call, Lucia Whalen, is not white, and did not cite Gates\u2019 race when she made the call.\u00a0 Her lawyer, speaking with a local radio station, says that all she could hear of the arrest \u201cwas Gates screaming.\u201d\u00a0 Gates would win major plaudits in many quarters if he, still objecting to his rough handling, said that he was wrong to assume racist motives.\u00a0 Was he wrong?\u00a0 Perhaps we\u2019ll never know.\u00a0 But the African-American community could do with a little less suspicion, and a little more cooperation, with law enforcement.\u00a0 After all, Gates and Crowley are family<\/a>.<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0 Rahm Emanuel was hailed as genius when, heading the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, he recruited moderates and social conservatives to run in traditionally Republican districts, significantly increasing the Democrat\u2019s hold in both chambers of Congress.\u00a0 Now some, like Maxine Waters, are blaming<\/a> him for bringing on board people who are not really on board.\u00a0 Now the Blue Dogs, she claims, are holding up important legislation such as the health care bill.\u00a0 It now appears that health care reform will be passed neither in the Senate nor the House before the August deadline, and Waters urges that Democrats run liberals against the Blue Dogs in the Congressional primaries.<\/p>\n

Waters presumably knows that the Democratic power structure would be interested in no such thing.\u00a0 They do not want to lose their supermajorities.\u00a0 Yet some grassroots organizations could throw their support behind liberal Democrats in those districts.\u00a0 Regardless, Waters\u2019 statements should be understood for what they are: threats and intimidation.\u00a0 Michelle Malkin points<\/a> to the pressure coming from the Obama administration and sees it all as part of \u201cWhite House Thuggery.\u201d<\/p>\n

The other person (or group of persons) to blame for stalling health care reform is\u2026you.\u00a0 \u201cThe problem with health care is that it\u2019s so big and so complicated that the public is never really going to understand all the moving parts of this,\u201d NPR health policy correspondent Julie Rovner said on air Wednesday.\u00a0 Others<\/a> suggest that the public is not being swayed because they \u201cknow enough to spot obvious chicanery.\u201d<\/p>\n

5.\u00a0 New York City has begun<\/a> buying one-way tickets home for homeless families who wish to leave the United States, since this is cheaper than providing them with services.\u00a0 So if a family comes from San Juan, and becomes homeless, if they can prove they have a residence awaiting them in San Juan, they can be flown back.\u00a0 The question: is this compassionate?\u00a0 For the family that wants to return to where it has a home, but cannot afford the return flight, the answer would seem to be yes.<\/p>\n

6.\u00a0 Sign of the times<\/a>: \u201cThe body of an elderly shopaholic was found underneath a pile of clothing and other items after she died of natural causes, an inquest heard.\u00a0 Joan Cunnane\u2019s bungalow was so crammed with purchases it took five visits to the house before she was found.\u201d<\/p>\n

7.\u00a0 I share this without taking any position in relation to anthropogenic global warming.\u00a0 Jonathan Manthorpe writes, \u201cGlobal warming is the new religion of First World urban elites<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0 Quite apart from the question of whether the basic claims of global warming theorists are correct, there are more extreme claims that are almost certainly false\u2013and it is interesting to compare what you might call global warming alarmism to a religion.<\/p>\n

8.\u00a0 Today\u2019s Two-Sides.\u00a0 Obama explains<\/a> his health care plan in further detail with Swampland\u2019s Karen Tumulty.\u00a0 Also on the Left, Harold Meyerson of the Washington Post takes the Blue Dogs (notice their new extended appellation) to task:<\/p>\n

But the Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee and the right-wing Democratic Blue Dogs on the House Energy and Commerce Committee want to go in different directions. The Blue Dogs want to reduce payments to doctors except in the rural areas they disproportionately represent, where they want to increase them. They oppose, so far, the public option, though it would be the most effective way to bring down costs in their districts. They oppose partly funding the subsidies by taxing the wealthiest Americans. And they are waiting to see what the Senate Finance Committee turns out before they subject themselves to the ordeal of actually voting on a bill (oh, the horror).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Meyerson also explains why bipartisanship is no longer worth pursuing: \u201cProblem is, bipartisanship ain\u2019t what it used to be, and for one fundamental reason: Republicans ain\u2019t what they used to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the other hand, Theodore Dalrymple (no relation) disputes<\/a> the notion that we have a \u201cright\u201d to health care.<\/p>\n

People sometimes argue in favor of a universal human right to health care by saying that health care is different from all other human goods or products. It is supposedly an important precondition of life itself. This is wrong: There are several other, much more important preconditions of human existence, such as food, shelter and clothing.<\/p>\n

Everyone agrees that hunger is a bad thing (as is overeating), but few suppose there is a right to a healthy, balanced diet, or that if there was, the federal government would be the best at providing and distributing it to each and every American.<\/p>\n

Where does the right to health care come from? Did it exist in, say, 250 B.C., or in A.D. 1750? If it did, how was it that our ancestors, who were no less intelligent than we, failed completely to notice it?<\/p>\n

\u2026The question of health care is not one of rights but of how best in practice to organize it. America is certainly not a perfect model in this regard. But neither is Britain, where a universal right to health care has been recognized longest in the Western world.<\/p>\n

Not coincidentally, the U.K. is by far the most unpleasant country in which to be ill in the Western world. Even Greeks living in Britain return home for medical treatment if they are physically able to do so.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And finally, Megan McArdle, a centrist who writes for the Atlantic, explains why she opposes the \u201cpublic option,\u201d or putting in place a government-run insurance program that would keep prices low in order to force private insurers (in order to complete) to do the same:<\/p>\n

I know, most of you have already figured out why I oppose national health care. In a nutshell, I hate the poor and want them to die so that all my rich friends can use their bodies as mulch for their diamond ranches.\u00a0 But y\u2019all keep asking, so here goes the longer explanation.<\/p>\n

Basically, for me, it all boils down to public choice theory.\u00a0 Once we\u2019ve got a comprehensive national health care plan, what are the government\u2019s incentives?\u00a0 I think they\u2019re bad, for the same reason the TSA is bad.\u00a0 I\u2019m afraid that instead of Security Theater, we\u2019ll get Health Care Theater, where the government goes to elaborate lengths to convince us that we\u2019re getting the best possible health care, without actually providing it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1.\u00a0 President Obama said, in an interview recently conducted for Nightline, that he begins each day with a devotional and \u201cpray(s) all the time now.\u201d 2.\u00a0 The Barna Group (which has been studying evangelicals for decades) has issued an excellent new study of African American Christians.\u00a0 Check out the article. 3.\u00a0 Christopher Hitchens asserts that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[542,427,565,576,579,591,598,651,664,310,696,719],"class_list":["post-266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crowley","tag-environment-2","tag-environmentalism","tag-gates","tag-global-warming","tag-health-care","tag-homeless","tag-maxine-waters","tag-michelle-malkin","tag-obama","tag-profiling","tag-shopaholic"],"yoast_head":"\nMorning Report, July 29: Obama's Faith, Black Church, Blue Dogs, and the Amazing Flying Homeless - 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