2011-02-19-samantha-clemens.Mp3
– What’s driving the Wisconsin governor’s attempt to break the union (can only negotiate on cash compensation – not on benefits?? what’s up with that? why not? how bizarre. And, it’s also bizarre that working class tea partiers have no concept of why unions exist – since it was their forebears that died/were injured just to be treated decently.
– Were Republicans voted into office to dismantle everything women fought for since I was growing up? Really? Will we eventually be banned from running in the Boston Marathon (again) because we’re too weak (yes, I was alive the first time a woman was permitted to run)? On the other hand, once they gut healthcare, maybe we WILL be too weak to run a marathon (cuz we’ll all be pregnant cuz no birth control and husbands have the right to demand their wives have sex and women need his permission to open a checking acct or buy a car (yes, I remember when my mother bought a car in her own name) and there was no alimony and the guys got the kids. You know, the good old days that conservatives are just dreamy about.
– Are we really experiencing a moment in history that will forever change the world? Do young citizens living in Islamic countries want to live more fully in the world? And, what does this say about US tea partiers who want to build walls and shut us off from the world (like, before the invention of the airplane)
Paul Krugman clears up some of the baloney that’s been going around about the health care reform effort…
Don’t believe it?
What’s on my mind…
What’s on your mind?
* or, why I adore Warren Buffet…
Audio
Michael Smerconish: For Me, the Party Is Over.
I think President Obama is earnest, smart, and much more centrist than his tea party caricature suggests. He has never been given a fair chance to succeed by those who openly crow about their desire to see him fail (while somehow congratulating one another on their relative patriotism). I know he was born in America, isn’t a socialist, and doesn’t worship in a mosque. I get that he inherited a minefield. Still, the level of federal spending concerns me. And he never closed the deal with me that health insurance is a right, not a privilege. But I’m not folding the tent on him. Not now. Not with the nation fighting two wars while its economy still teeters on the brink of collapse.
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Krugman says:
California’s case shows that to do nothing to reform healthcare would be a disaster…
A not to be missed commentary on our current health care system…..
Segment 1
The Importance of Economic Equality: What if there was a way to raise a population’s life expectancy and reduce its rates of crime, suicide, teenage pregnancy and mental illness, among other social problems? British epidemiologists Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett believe they have found one. In The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger, published in the U.S. on Dec. 22, they present data suggesting that almost every indicator of social health in wealthy societies is related to its level of economic equality. (See the data here). Comparing statistics between developed economies and within the U.S., Wilkinson and Pickett argue GDP and overall wealth matter little to wealthy societies. Rather, it is the gap between the rich and poor that is telling. They spoke to TIME about what they believe are revolutionary findings.
What if there was a way to raise a population’s life expectancy and reduce its rates of crime, suicide, teenage pregnancy and mental illness, among other social problems? British epidemiologists Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett believe they have found one. In The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger, published in the U.S. on Dec. 22, they present data suggesting that almost every indicator of social health in wealthy societies is related to its level of economic equality. (See the data here). Comparing statistics between developed economies and within the U.S., Wilkinson and Pickett argue GDP and overall wealth matter little to wealthy societies. Rather, it is the gap between the rich and poor that is telling. They spoke to TIME about what they believe are revolutionary findings.
Segment 2
Explains what Naturalists celebrate during the holiday season, where they find meaning in life, and how they answer questions of ultimate concern.
