Journalist of the Day: Robert Barnes

Even before I have read the article, this award is for the first sentence of As Stevens retires from court, one final duel with Scalia:

It is fitting that the last duel between the old ink-slingers at the Marble Palace was over guns.

Interlude: Bjork and PJ Get It On

Thanks to FB friend Amy for turning me on to this... it instantly became my fave version of this tune, beating out the Stones, Devo, certainly trumping Britney, and even the love of my life Otis Redding. Sorry Otis, this version has your guts but adds The Tension Of Getting No Satisfaction.

Single-Payer was the only decent idea

With all due respect to my friends who have urged me to relax my objections to the upcoming changes in health insurance "because we need to change things, and this is a start," ... the new plan sucks.

There is no incentive whatsoever for the insurers to reduce premium costs by any means other than minimizing the bang for the buck. So unless you can afford the high deductible and co-payments that will be assessed if you leave your insurance network, the list of covered doctors and hospitals is very likely to be reduced. Meaning:

• you may have to leave a doctor you have been seeing for some time and whom you trust.
• you might be in trouble if you have a medical emergency in a location where there are no nearby hospitals in your network and you are admitted to a bed for more than ER care.
• the insurers have not been asked to absorb a single dollar's worth of impact in our attempt to create a more fair system.
• the Conservatives are right. This bill sucks and should be repealed. LET'S START OVER indeed.

 Of course, Conservatives would rather see a more free-market idea. I would rather see the health-insurance industry eviscerated and destroyed.

Let the Market Regulate Itself, Except When We Want To Impose Our Morals on The Rest of You?

Over the years we've all seen examples of Conservatives opposing industry regulation. The industry should be self-policing. The government should not be spending our money to inspect meat, or children's toys. If a company makes defective products, consumers will not purchase from them, so the problem will just take care of itself.

I would love to hear a Right-winger explain to me why the same market forces should not be allowed to regulate media content. Why moral standards of some of us must be imposed on all of us. Why it is OK to show someone getting shot to death, but not to show people making love, on television. These are the same people who whine about Government getting too deeply into our personal lives and choices. About "the nanny state."

I'm glad to see the FCC is finally reevaluating the arbitrary and unAmerican "decency" rules that control our media content. I hope they end up throwing all such imposed rules out the window for good.

If you don't like it, don't watch it. If you think it will corrupt your children, exercise your responsibility as a parent, use the parental controls available on your cable box and/or stay on top of what shows your kids are consuming.

Quote and Hero for Today: Rabbi Arik Ascherman

In the type of wonderful portrayal of people and places that Nick Kristoff knocks out "on the regular", he quotes Rabbi Ascherman who heads up the Israeli organization Rabbis for Human Rights:

In the long run, we’re going to live here together, he says, “or we’re going to die here together.

Ascherman himself has served as a human shield between West-bank settlers or Israeli soldiers and Palestinians.

This is the first combo Hero and Quote for Today post, Rabbi Ascherman is a real mensch. A deep bow to Kristoff as well for making his readers better people, not just better educated, by reporting to us so many great stories of human strength and spiritual beauty.

Today's Hero: Jim Keady, obscure goalie, real mensch

LA Times:

For years, the former professional goalie has waged a one-man campaign to highlight Nike's labor practices, complaining that the company pays Indonesian workers low wages to stitch together the uniforms that have made the company the world's most successful sports garment manufacturer.

Sitting at an outdoor coffeehouse here, Keady produced several Nike jerseys in Cup team colors. "These jerseys are real wealth you can touch," he said. "They're making Nike and the players rich while the workers who make them continue to grind out lives of abject poverty."

Keady's campaign goes back to 1997 when, as a soccer coach for St. John's University in New York, he questioned the school's plans to sign a $3.5-million endorsement deal with Nike.

The devout Catholic insisted that the contract would be hypocritical for a Christian university. "I was told to drop the issue or get out," he said. "So I resigned in protest."

...In 2000, the towering, redheaded Keady moved to Indonesia and lived on the same salary as a Nike worker, which at the time was about $1.25 a day, staying in a 9-by-9-foot home in a community where 10 families share bathroom and kitchen facilities.