Mar 26

Chloe Sevigny says last season of Big Love was ‘awful’

I said it’s great to be a Tennessee Vol

that didn’t last long

up by five!

The latest updates from Barack Obama's Facebook news feed.

Media falsely claim Obama and staff are "exempt" from health care reform

Congress Calls on Christians to Reverse “Fight Club” Mentality of National Politics

The Republicans Who Made Health Care Reform Possible

Mar 25

$100,000 spills from armored car; passers-by pocket most of it so far | The Columbus Dispatch

The Road to Montellano Leads Straight Through My Heart

Mar 24

Wyden: Health Care Lawsuits Moot, States Can Opt Out Of Mandate

We have something to fear from fear-mongering itself

The risk of health-care reform

An attack on inequality

Mar 23

don't be hatin'

hmmm. according to this, it kinda seems like Obamacare takes away our freedom to be a d-bag. bravo. http://bit.ly/btZ497

The Fourth Branch

This is response to the numerous critics who have suggested that the Democrats were somehow unethical, anti-democratic or even tyrannical to enact their health care policy at a time when it polls…

Republicans might reform health-care reform, but they won't repeal it

RT @TimothyArcher: National anthem splits Indiana’s Goshen College - USATODAY.com http://is.gd/aTEfg

Mar 22

I’m an eye-witness that it’s not always sunny in Philadelphia

Mar 21

216

RT @ezraklein: The GOP’s argument on the bill is 1) it’s socialism and 2) it cuts Medicare too much? So, too socialist and not socialist …

Finn says - If someone crashes a car on purpose, it’s not a car accident. It’s a car on-purpose.

RT @ezraklein: Shame that the Sunday shows invite Rove and Plouffe as opposed to people who actually know about, and can explain, the he ...

Why I Support Health Care Reform: A Personal and Theological Journey

House, Bart Stupak reach abortion agreement - David Rogers and Patrick O'Connor and Jonathan Allen - POLITICO.com

Who does health-care reform help?

Last night we watched Honey, I Blew Up the Kid (1992,PG) for family movie night.  From IMDB:

Wayne Szalinski is at it again. But instead of shrinking things, he tries to make a machine that can make things grow. As in the first one, his machine isn't quite accurate. But when he brings Nick & his toddler son Adam to see his invention, the machine unexpectedly starts working.

A bit of wisdom from the film:

There's one thing every kid knows: daddies mean fun, mommies mean business.

The kids enjoyed it.  I give it 3 out of 5.

A few examples:

Deut. 2:  They destroyed towns of King Sihon...killing men, women, and children...leaving no survivors.  The context would seem to indicate this was done with God's blessing.

Numbers 31: Instructed by God to take vengeance on the Midianites, Moses gives instructions to kill all boys and non-virgin girls while saving the virgin girls for themselves.

1 Samuel 15: God instructs Saul to destroy the Amalekites, not sparing children and infants.

I think it safe to say that the followers of Jesus are unanimous in considering infanticide to be a gross violation of God's moral code.  How does that square with these passages of God-sanctioned infanticide?  I don't have a good answer.  One unsatisfying answer is that these sorts of things represent an ancient people using God to justify there barbaric actions.  I'm not ready to accept what that says about the reliability of scripture.  Another answer is "who is the clay to question the potter", God can do what he will regarding life and death.  That's not satisfying either, but is probably where I am at this point.

Elliot poses with a school project that he worked on with his mom, Aunt Kathryn, and Grandma Moore.  Elliot volunteered that Kobe didn't go to college.  Lisa asked what he would do for a living if he got hurt and couldn't play basketball.  I said he'd manage his millions.

I used to be a fan of James Taranto's Best of the Web Today column from The Wall Street Journal.  He was witty and seemed take a no-nonsense, rational view of politics from a conservative's perspective.  He even occasionally defended Obama against his critics (e.g., regarding the birther conspiracy or his response to the Tiller shooting and the shootings outside the Little Rock Army recruiting center).  However, he has seemed to lose his even-handed-ness and rationality over Obamacare during the last few months.  It began to seem like I was reading the writings of just another political hack.

His two columns since the House passed the Senate's health insurance reform bill have continued this trend as he writes with the bias, lack of objectivity, and near delusion for which he usually castigates others.

From yesterday's column:

Expansions of the welfare state have always been controversial, but this is unprecedented: massive social legislation passed by a single party over the objections of a clear majority of voters.

Objections of a clear majority of voters?  Though conservatives had perhaps convinced themselves otherwise, about half of us either favored the bill or thought it didn't think it went far enough.  A new Gallup poll today indicates that, by a 49 to 40 margin, more Americans think the bill's passage was a good thing than think it was bad.  Nate Silver has more on why the talk of going against the people's will doesn't hold water.  Nate also highlighted a couple months ago something that I've observed in my personal interactions: people have generally lacked basic knowledge about what the House and Senate bills actually contained.  Furthermore, the Republican opposition wasn't really based on the content of the bill either (which is fairly characterized as a moderate Republican's bill), but rather was primarily a strategy for reversing the party's electoral fortunes.

Back to Taranto...from today's column:

So Republican unity was an accomplishment--but not much of one. The GOP, their numbers severely depleted by the 2006 and '08 elections, simply did not have the power to prevent a determined legislative majority from imposing its will on the nation.

Remind me again.  How did the GOP's numbers get severely depleted and the Democrats get a legislative majority?  Oh yeah, that's right, it was partly because the Democrats campaigned on health care reform (among other issues) and were elected by the nation.  Now, as that majority delivers on its election promise and passes legislation by majority rule...democracy has somehow now become an imposition of will?!?

Also, over and over again during the last few months Taranto has cited news stories from the U.K. and Canada in an attempt to discredit the proposed reforms.  However, among our peers (all of which have some form of universal health care), the U.K. and Canada are two examples that are among the least similar to our reforms (here's a tool for comparing us pre-reform to several of our peers; Obamacare is most similar to the Swiss system).  That's the kind of fallacious editorializing that normally gets Taranto's knickers in a twist.  Maybe, now that the reforms have been passed, he'll be more like himself.  I hope so.