{"id":456,"date":"2009-08-12T11:27:33","date_gmt":"2009-08-12T15:27:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/evangelicalgateway.wordpress.com\/?p=456"},"modified":"2009-08-12T11:27:33","modified_gmt":"2009-08-12T15:27:33","slug":"morning-report-august-12-honesty-in-health-care-debate-heads-should-roll-the-gap-between-ideality-and-reality-love-in-two-dimensions-jesus-x-and-rip-eunice-kennedy-shriver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/philosophicalfragments\/2009\/08\/12\/morning-report-august-12-honesty-in-health-care-debate-heads-should-roll-the-gap-between-ideality-and-reality-love-in-two-dimensions-jesus-x-and-rip-eunice-kennedy-shriver\/","title":{"rendered":"Morning Report, August 12: Honesty in Health-Care Debate, Heads Should Roll, the Gap Between Ideality and Reality, Love in Two Dimensions, Jesus X, and RIP Eunice Kennedy Shriver"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

1.\u00a0 Sojourners, the magazine and website produced by Call to Renewal, a movement of liberal Christians devoted to social and political reform, has taken up the fight for the Democrats\u2019 health care reform.\u00a0 Although Sojourners and Call to Renewal are not explicitly aligned with either party, and seek to engage both parties on moral and religious issues, they have fought against the \u201cReligious Right\u201d and the Bush administration for years, and it\u2019s no secret where their sympathies lay.\u00a0 President Obama refers to Jim Wallis, the head of the organization, as his spiritual advisor.\u00a0 Jim has written popular books and finds himself today at the zenith of his power.<\/p>\n

Sojourners has just rolled out a page<\/a> on Health-Care Reform Resources.\u00a0 Jim himself identifies<\/a> three \u201cfundamental moral issues\u201d on which the Christian community can focus throughout the debate: the truth, full access, and cost.\u00a0 Regarding the first: \u201cWhat we need is an honest and fair debate with good information, not sabotage of reform with half-truths and misinformation.\u201d\u00a0 But does Wallis himself abide by this coda?\u00a0 Later today I will have a post on the health care debate and the dishonesties on both sides.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0 Who is to blame for the dissolution of the health care reform fight?\u00a0 \u201cHeads should roll,\u201d says Camille Paglia<\/a>, and Nancy Pelosi deserves blame above all.\u00a0 As mentioned before, I always find Camille Paglia worth reading; though she\u2019s committed to her liberal views, she is a strikingly honest and original thinker.\u00a0 She lauds Obama for representing the United States \u201cwith dignity\u201d abroad, but deplores the domestic policy apparatus as feckless and amateurish.\u00a0 \u201cWho would have thought that the sober, deliberative Barack Obama would have nothing to propose but vague and slippery promises \u2014 or that he would so easily cede the leadership clout of the executive branch to a chaotic, rapacious, solipsistic Congress? House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whom I used to admire for her smooth aplomb under pressure, has clearly gone off the deep end with her bizarre rants about legitimate town-hall protests by American citizens. She is doing grievous damage to the party and should immediately step down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post, another Obama supporter, is also growing increasingly critical.\u00a0 She refers to a \u201cdangerously wide gap between Obama\u2019s idealistic campaign-trail promises and the gritty realities of real-world governing.\u00a0 Every new president encounters this tension, but it is, I think, more acute, and therefore more politically treacherous, for Obama.\u00a0 The fundamental allure of his candidacy was that he could not only wipe away the stains of the Bush administration but overcome the partisan jockeying and special interest influence-buying that have alienated voters from their government.\u201d\u00a0 This was something that concerned me throughout the election process.\u00a0 Promises so grand cannot possibly be fulfilled.\u00a0 The possibility of implementation seemed a distant afterthought compared with the necessity of winning the election.\u00a0 Yet this \u201cdangerously wide gap\u201d only threatens to further disenchant the American electorate, especially the young, who thought that Obama, if anyone, truly believed in his ideals and would not compromise.\u00a0 (Where they saw evidence of this in his record<\/em> remains a mystery to me, but sometimes the voice is so mellifluous, the words so inspiring, that the record recedes from view.)<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0 As predicted, a quick peak<\/a> into Congressional perquisites is not at all flattering to our legislators, who can pocket as much as $3000 on a single trip in \u2018per diem\u2019 money.\u00a0 John Fund reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0 Today\u2019s Two-Sides (or More).\u00a0 Read John Mackey<\/a> of the Wall Street Journal on 8 things we can do to reform health care without adding to the deficit.\u00a0 Also, John Stossel disputes<\/a> the notion that \u201cbig business\u201d and \u201ccorporatists\u201d are behind opposition to the health care reform plan, for the simple reason that the insurance companies as well as \u201cBig Pharma\u201d support the reform as a whole.\u00a0 Not because they favor free markets, but because they want the market unfree <\/em>in their favor.\u00a0 These companies stand to gain tens of millions of new customers, and are especially eager for the young and healthy who choose not to purchase insurance because they don\u2019t believe they need it.\u00a0 These are the real cash cow for insurance companies.\u00a0 Meanwhile, Jesse Jackson tells us<\/a> that it is really not reform, but failure to reform, that we should fear.<\/p>\n

5.\u00a0 SIGN OF THE TIMES.\u00a0 Japanese men fall in love<\/a> with two-dimensional girls.\u00a0 Not women, mind you.\u00a0 Girls.\u00a0 And did I mention they\u2019re two-dimensional?\u00a0 Pillowcases, to be precise.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

6.\u00a0 The headline tells the story: \u201cX-Games Bad Boys Turn to the Bible<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0 And another: \u201cTemptation Harder to Resist Than You Think, Study Suggests<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0 And those most likely to succumb to temptation are precisely those who think themselves most immune to such pressures.\u00a0 If there were ever a case for moral humility, this should be a part of it.<\/p>\n

7.\u00a0 And finally, RIP <\/a>Eunice Kennedy Shriver.\u00a0 The Right is wary of all Kennedys, but Eunice deserves a special blessing for her work with the Special Olympics.\u00a0 The Kennedys, of course, are Catholics, and Eunice Kennedy Shriver gave expression to a classic Catholic social conscience.\u00a0 The world is the worse for losing her.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1.\u00a0 Sojourners, the magazine and website produced by Call to Renewal, a movement of liberal Christians devoted to social and political reform, has taken up the fight for the Democrats\u2019 health care reform.\u00a0 Although Sojourners and Call to Renewal are not explicitly aligned with either party, and seek to engage both parties on moral and […]<\/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":[],"class_list":["post-456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nMorning Report, August 12: Honesty in Health-Care Debate, Heads Should Roll, the Gap Between Ideality and Reality, Love in Two Dimensions, Jesus X, and RIP Eunice Kennedy Shriver - Philosophical Fragments<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"1.\u00a0 Sojourners, the magazine and website produced by Call to Renewal, a movement of liberal Christians devoted to social and political reform, has taken\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/philosophicalfragments\/2009\/08\/12\/morning-report-august-12-honesty-in-health-care-debate-heads-should-roll-the-gap-between-ideality-and-reality-love-in-two-dimensions-jesus-x-and-rip-eunice-kennedy-shriver\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Morning Report, August 12: Honesty in Health-Care Debate, Heads Should Roll, the Gap Between Ideality and Reality, Love in Two Dimensions, Jesus X, and RIP Eunice Kennedy Shriver - 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