Monthly Archives: December 2009

(Community Matters)

Healthcare costs currently total 16% of our nation’s GDP. Medicare & medicaid currently consume 23% of our federal budget (they account for apprx 35% of overall US healthcare costs).  Healthcare as a percentage of GDP and medicare/medicaid as a precentage of the federal budget are expected to escalate drastically over the next several years. Already, American manufacturers are at a competitive disadvantage against manufacturers in countries offering universal healthcare, over 40mm Americans don’t have healthcare coverage and our longevity is dismal compared to other industrialized countries. It’s a joke to say we have one of the best healthcare systems in the world, though we do have the most expensive.

Though the current first step toward reform doesn’t go far enough in containing costs, increasing affordability or increasing competition, it represents the first real reform in over 70 years of presidents and congress trying.

Republicans had lockstep control of Congress and the White House for six of eight years and did nothing to avoid the financial trainwreck we face. I don’t understand why the Senate hasn’t approved via reconciliation status the House plan sans Stupak/Pitts amendment and with a robust public option freed of silly little amendments intended to safeguard the anti-competitive protections such as no selling across state lines.

Absolutely it’ll be imperfect but it will be a step in the right direction. No, I do not support a single payer system. I believe those who can afford more than the government provided baseline should be able to purchase additional services. And, yes, seniors must bear some of the burden of fixing a system that is unsustainable as it currently exists. Do not defund their programs to provide broader coverage but amend Medicare & Medicaid to make it economically sustainable.

yes I am worried about deficits.  That we are returning to borrowing levels reminiscent of WWII should come as no surprise – especially in light of our failure to finance our two wars, instead irresponsibly cutting taxes

(Community Matters) if only

Anti-Terrorist And Monitory Crime Division

Federal Bureau Of Investigation.

J.Edgar.Hoover Building Washington Dc

Attn: Beneficiary,

This is to Officially inform you that it has come to our notice and we have thoroughly Investigated with the help of our Intelligence Monitoring Network System that you are having an illegal Transaction with Impostors claiming to be Continue reading →

(Community Matters) grrr, not exactly 100%, probably closer to 60.  Problem is, I tend to feel best in the mornings when fighting bugs.  Hope this doesn’t prove true today.  St James this am, Bill White’s rally this afternoon, Bishop Andy Dole this evening – plus I’d like to catch up with Luke if able.

(Community Matters) Regret missing this evening’s Acton Business School faculty/staff holiday event and, most especially, adopted-goddaughter Melissa Henderson’s birthday bash.

My almost flu, turned head cold, decided to turbo charge today, and even if I did feel good othewise than horizontal, wouldn’t want to expose anyone.  Imagining I’ll wake up 100% tomorrow.  Glad Steven’s out carrying the household flag.

(Community Matters) I’m proud of Los Angeles Episcopalians for not discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation. Congratulations Bishop-elect Glasspool.

Sad this will cause some pain, and our church still works through this issue in communion.

(Community Matters) Holiday cheer and merriment – what a super time of the year. 

Cocktails and hors d’ouevres at Alexa & Blaine Wesner’s last night as they welcomed our 2020 colleagues to town.  So many dear friends in attendance including John Thornton, Marc & Suzanne Winkelman, Lynn Meredith &  Jim Martson.  There’s a magic to their home that allows extraordinary elegance while preserving intimacy and casualness.  (we had to duck out eary) At today’s 2020 meeting we’re discussing healthcare with a couple of stellar panels.  

and healthcare reform became one of the topics at our subsequent dinner celebrating David Booth’s birthday with Suzanne, Chandler and four of their dear friends.  Most insightful to gain the perspective of UCLA professor & LA Dept of Health Service Director, Dr. Jonathan Fielding as well as that of all guests, including Karol Fielding, Pam & Edmund McIlhenney.

(Community Matters) NYT best selling author Barbara Ehrenreich’s blog

So welcome to the Women’s Movement 2.0: Instead of the proud female symbol — a circle on top of a cross — we have a droopy ribbon. Instead of embracing the full spectrum of human colors — black, brown, red, yellow, and white — we stick to princess pink. While we used to march in protest against sexist laws and practices, now we race or walk “for the cure.” And while we once sought full “consciousness” of all that oppresses us, now we’re content to achieve “awareness,” which has come to mean one thing — dutifully baring our breasts for the annual mammogram.

Hat Tip: Jan Hill

(Community Matters) I haven’t had the time to read up on the email/global climate change controversy but am doing just a bit today.  The below CNN piece gives some context to the controversy.  Appears mostly communication between colleagues at one UK university –  with some outside engagement including Prof Michael Mann director of Penn State’s Earth Science Center.

Discussing this last night, a friend in the academy noted the risk of reviewing email exchanges between academic colleagues since there’s a presumption of knowledge and integrity and the language of quick email exchanges read out of full context could easily yield misleading interpretations.  In the video, the explanation of “tricks” within the context of scientific experiment is but one example.

That Oklahoma’s Senator Inhofe is leading the charge to publicize & exploit the emails, interestingly on the eve of Coppenhagen, should be a huge flag.  Senator Inhofe receives more oil & gas industry support than all but a few US Senators, and the disingenuous  involvement of the oil & gas industry in global climate tricks & skuldruggery is legendary (eg. Exxon Mobil’s $16mm tobacco-like disinformation campaign). As an aside Inhofe denies evolution and compares global climate change concerns to Nazi big-lies.

(Community Matters)

Happy Birthday, Melissa

good gosh, I’ve known her most of her life

Love ya, Lis

(Community Matters) Breakfast yesterday morning with Tim Sulak who is running for State District Judge (353 District Court – the late Scott Ozmun’s bench).  Tim comes highly recommended by Russell Bridges and John Hildreth.  I’m impressed by his sense of duty, intellect and his history of judicial involvement – also by his list of supporters.

Supporters include David Butts, Becky Beaver, Elizabeth Christian, Rowland Cook, David Escamilla, Deborah Green, Ora Houston, Rep Donna Howard, Rebecca Lightsey, Susan Longley, Jim Martson, Glen Maxey, Mary Ann Neely, Rev. Parker, Mark Perlmutter, Paul Ruiz, Nancy Scanlan, Rob Schneider, Brigid Shea, Bruce Todd, Michael Whellan, Bill Whitehurst and Anne Wynne.

I was going to wait for the filing deadline to endorse anyone in these races but Tim is just too compelling a candidate, has lined up the right supporters and is working appropriately hard already.  Check out his website and I recommend him.

John Hildreth was unable to join us for breakfast.  His mother passed away yesterday morning

(Community Matters)  Leonard Pitts:

Among African Americans and Hispanics, Obama’s approval rating remains staggering – 91 percent w/ blacks and 70 percent w/ Hispanics – but just 39 percent among whites. Obama’s performance has been neither as execrable as the rating among whites would suggest, nor as walk-on-water miraculous as the rating among blacks and browns would have us believe. And that gap between them is less a measurement of a president’s performance than of a nation’s enduring irresolution.

I almost can’t believe these numbers, would like to know more about the source

If true, what do they tell us beyond what Leonard Pitts writes?

(Community Matters) Too coincidental that Steven would have an Amazon package lost and I would have a Barnes & Noble one derailed (now five days shipping vs three).  Appears some major systems crashes or errors underway at UPS