The Bilerico Project

Talk the Talk, Walk the Walk

terrance@bilerico.com (Terrance Heath) — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 11:30:00 -0500

I just have one thing to say about this.

Forget WWJD. The new question is apparently What Would MLK Do? A coalition of politically and theologically conservative Christian leaders, including nine Roman Catholic bishops, who have just signed a declaration saying they will not comply with laws that could require them to recognize same-sex unions or allow their institutions to support abortions are arguing that the move is of a piece with King’s call for civil disobedience during the civil rights movement.

The declaration reads, in part: “We will not comply with any edict that purports to compel our institutions to participate in abortions, embryo-destructive research, assisted suicide and euthanasia, or any other antilife act; nor will we bend to any rule purporting to force us to bless immoral sexual partnerships, treat them as marriages or the equivalent.”

Instead of debating whether these causes belong in the same category as providing equal rights and treatment to racial minorities, the better question may be: Why now?After all, most people agree with the first part of the statement and believe religious institutions and individuals should be protected by conscience provisions that protect them from being compelled to participate in acts like abortion that they believe are murder. And, in fact, they are.

Fine. But if you’re gonna talk that talk, you gotta walk that walk.

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How Do You Just Watch a Rape?

terrance@bilerico.com (Terrance Heath) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:00:00 -0500

NOTE: TRIGGER WARNING, VIDEO BELOW DEPICTS GRAPHIC RAPE SCENE FROM A MOVIE.

WTF is wrong with people? How do you just watch a rape?

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Reclaiming "We"

terrance@bilerico.com (Terrance Heath) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 19:00:00 -0500

Mike Elk couldn't have been more right in his thinking about what Martin Luther King, Jr. would have thought of the Teabaggers, Birthers, etc. He would have seen that those faces that at first glance seem twisted in anger are really twisted in pain. He would recognize those faces as well as the source of the fear and anger distorting them.

It's not about adopting their politics, compromising our own, or even tolerating their tactics. It's about reclaiming "We" -- The same "We" that Dr. King and civil rights workers sang about, and that I remember singing about myself in church, on the occasions when we sang "We Shall Overcome."

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Singing For Health Care Reform

terrance@bilerico.com (Terrance Heath) — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 14:00:00 -0500

(Full disclosure: The group that organized the protest is one I work with on my job.)

This is something I wish I'd been a part of, and I hope they call me if they need an extra baritone next time. (It's rare that my vocal training and my politics intersect.) Plus, the guy who got "punk'd" was none other than Bill McInturff, the guy who gave us Harry and Louise. (Not to mention killing health care reform and giving us another decade of pre-existing conditions, recissions, etc.)

Republican pollster Bill McInturff was the keynote speaker on the final day of the America's Health Insurance Plans's state issues conference on Friday morning.
But his speech on how the health care reform debate was playing among the public was interrupted before it even began. A group of protesters began aggressively cheering McInturff for the work he has done for AHIP (he's a hired pollster for the private insurance lobby and, most infamously, was the force behind the 'Harry and Louise' ads in 1994)
McInturff, initially thinking that the cheering was legitimate, thanked the "AHIP officials" in the back of the room for giving him mental encouragement for his speech. He was not being paid for his appearance, he noted.
And then, the protesters -- dressed in business attire to fit into the crowd -- began singing. A relatively lengthy and harmonious rendition of "Tomorrow" from the musical Annie ensued, only with the chorus focused on government-run insurance. "The option, the option, we must have, the option... " went the rendition, in reference to the public plan.

The lyrics are available after the jump, if you want to sing along.

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Whatever, Mary

terrance@bilerico.com (Terrance Heath) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:30:00 -0500

I saw this on Friday and -- as is typical in my life -- didn’t get around to writing something about it until today. Since then, of course, bigger bloggers than me -- with bigger media megaphones -- have covered it. But when a Democrat says something as ignorant as Mary Landrieu did on health care reform, I can’t help chiming in even days later, if only because there can’t be enough voices in the choir on this.

Look, I know southern Democrats have a hard row to hoe. They’re smack in the middle of the hot, crowded, dark heart of a lot of political madness right now, and trying to hold on to a shot at getting re-elected. They are, if you will, trapped in the asylum that the inmates have now taken over. But when they say things like this, you have to wonder if they’re making their way towards the exits or making themselves comfortable in the middle of the madness.

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Pride and Joy

terrance@bilerico.com (Terrance Heath) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 15:30:00 -0500

Parents talk a lot, amongst ourselves, about the unending work of … well … parenting, and less about the immense rewards of that work -- when being your kids’ mom or dad pays off with moments of incredible “pride and joy.” That may be due to the reality that, as I’ve pointed out before, any mention of much else to any one else is met with derision, hostility, and other things that most of us are too tired to deal with by the end of the day.

Unfortunately, none of this is anything anyone wants to hear from a parent, because once you're a parent you kind of cease to be a person, in the sense that you're not supposed to:

   1. have so much as a thought for yourself,

   2. want anything for yourself (beyond food, clothing, and shelter)

   3. have needs of your own (beyond food, clothing, shelter)

And along with above, you're certainly not supposed to have regrets or misgivings. And if you do, you're supposed to keep them to yourself, or face the flame-throwers.

There are things parents are usually safer off talking about with one another, because, at the very least, we do so without having to apologize for not being perfect, and qualify everything we say with how much we really do love our children. Usually, we give each other permission to be imperfect and credit for loving our children dearly.

But for many of us, those moments of “pride and joy” are far more abundant than we talk about, even amongst ourselves. I think that should change. So, here’s one of my “favorite dad moments” from this weekend.

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What "Capitalism" Is Not

terrance@bilerico.com (Terrance Heath) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 16:00:00 -0500

If I were to summarize message Michael Moore’s new movie, Capitalism: A Love Story in one sentence, it might be this: Capitalism is not a form of government. That’s the answer to the question posed at the beginning of the movie, via 1950s educational/propaganda films.

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Capitalism: The Prequel 2

terrance@bilerico.com (Terrance Heath) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 16:30:00 -0500

On my way to the DC premiere of Michael Moore’s Capitalism: A Love Story, it occurred to me that we all know the story, because we’ve been watching the “prequel” — and starring in it — for a while now.

Hell, just as some segments of Moore’s movie can be seen on YouTube (go to the movie to see them in Moore’s context), so can much of the “prequel”. In fact, you could almost put together the “extras” for the DVD from video available online.

I’m still working on my review of the movie, but in the meantime I thought it’d be fun to put together, scenes from Capitalism: The Prequel

Next up: The Biggest Bailout Bandits

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Capitalism: The Prequel Part 1

terrance@bilerico.com (Terrance Heath) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 17:30:00 -0500

I’m still working on my review of the movie, but in the meantime I thought it’d be fun to put together, scenes from Capitalism: The Prequel.

First: The Bailouts

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This Woman's Work

terrance@bilerico.com (Terrance Heath) — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 12:30:00 -0500

Talk about “desperate housewives.” This AlterNet article brings to mind something I’d noticed before. In even the most progressive households, the lion’s share of the housework and childcare falls to the woman.

But anyway you measure it, statistically speaking, women do about twice as much housework as men, even in relationships where the woman works outside of the home and the man doesn't.

The disparity might be fine if women benefited from it more than men. Or if, somehow, reclaiming cleaning as important women's work (without getting anything in return) advanced feminism. But in both cases, the opposite is true.

The disparity might be fine if women benefited from it more than men. Or if, somehow, reclaiming cleaning as important women's work (without getting anything in return) advanced feminism. But in both cases, the opposite is true.

Men benefit from relationships more than women, according to Michael Kimmel, author of Guyland, and professor of sociology at SUNY Stony Brook, because the current distribution of domestic labor means that when men marry, they tend to gain a chef and a laundress, among other things. Married men are happier, live longer, have lower rates of illness, and are less likely to be treated by a therapist than their unmarried brothers, but married women have lower rates of happiness than unmarried women, and more likely to need medical treatments and therapy.

Granted, we’ve come a long way from the idealized 1950s version of housework and gender roles. Though it’s argued to be a hoax, this heavily circulated “Good Wife’s Guide” is a pretty good “condensation of the worst of this particular ‘joy through subservience’ era”, as one writer at Snopes.Com described it.

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The Morality of Health Care Reform, Pt. 5

terrance@bilerico.com (Terrance Heath) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 17:00:00 -0500

“The fundamental truth about health care in every country is that national values, national character, determine how each system works.”

Prof. Uwe Reinhardt, Princeton Professor & Health Care Economist

“I think health care is a privilege. I wouldn’t call it a right.”

Sen. Jim DeMint, R-SC

Drop Dead

Whether or not it’s a crisis that millions of Americans are uninsured or underinsured, that thousands lose their health insurance every day, or that tens of thousands die every year because they lack health insurance is a matter of perspective. The same goes for the economic crisis, the foreclosure crisis, or any other crisis.

Depending on your perspective, there’s nothing wrong with hundreds of thousands, or even millions losing their homes to foreclosure. (Even if deregulating the finance sector made it easier to sell them time bombs, in the form of mortgages, that went off long after the people who really matter made an easy buck and moved on.) There’s nothing wrong with millions of people having no health insurance, and thus no access to affordable, quality care. There’s nothing wrong, because it’s all right, and there’s no need to do anything about it.

That’s why I have to disagree with the following assertion, from Simon Johnson and James Kwak.

No one is against expanding health coverage on principle. As we come down to crunch time, the health-reform debate is all about money.

Continue reading "The Morality of Health Care Reform, Pt. 5"...

The Morality of Health Care Reform, Pt. 4

terrance@bilerico.com (Terrance Heath) — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 10:00:00 -0500

...[Q]uality care shouldn't depend on your financial resources, or the type of job you have, or the medical condition you face. Every American should be able to get the same treatment that U.S. senators are entitled to.

This is the cause of my life.

Sen. Ted Kennedy, 'The Cause of My Life'

As I noted in the previous post in this series, it can't honestly be said that the reason millions of American's go without health insurance is because we can't afford it. Nor is that the reason why more than 14,000 Americans lose their health insurance every day, or why:

25 million are underinsured -- up from 16 million in 2003 -- and pay more than 10 percent of their income on medical expenses despite having health insurance
nearly 86 million Americans under 65 went without health insurance at some point between 2007 and 2008
45,000 Americans die every year because they lack health insurance, and thus access to care

None of this is because these people don't want health insurance, and certainly not because they don't need it. Nor is it that we cannot afford to guarantee quality, affordable health care to all citizens. A fraction of our military budget, or the amount sunk into the Iraq war, for example, could go a long way towards providing coverage for many. So it's not because we can't do it.

We can. So, perhaps we simply lack the will to do so; to make it so. Maybe we just don't want to. If so, the question remains: Why?

Continue reading "The Morality of Health Care Reform, Pt. 4"...

The Morality of Health Care Reform, Pt 3.

terrance@bilerico.com (Terrance Heath) — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 16:00:00 -0500

"I don't understand you Americans. You blow billions on a useless war in Afghanistan and Iraq, and billions more to bail out banks that nearly bankrupted the world economy, but you don't ensure healthcare for your own people. Even Obama can't make a difference. It's as if your democracy doesn't work anymore."

Anonymous Man in Budapest

Where There's a Will

In the first post in this series, I recalled saying something to the effect of "In a country as wealthy as this one, that a single child doesn't have health insurance or health care is criminal." The implication is the same implied in the words above, said to Steven Hill by an anonymous European man in a Budapest sauna, after Hill identified himself as an American.

According to Hill, the man's reaction was typical of Europeans observing our political paroxysms over health care.

He was Austrian but spoke in a near-perfect English that was as good grammatically as that spoken by some of my relatives.

And his reaction was typical. As Europeans watch the United States flailing about over something as basic as healthcare, they are reminded once again of the impotent US response following Hurricane Katrina. TV images of stranded, poor, black people in New Orleans have been melded to those of this new healthcare insurgency with pitch forks, leaving an indelible impression. The last remaining superpower is not looking so super anymore, whether in Iraq, Afghanistan, healthcare, the economy - not anywhere.

Can you blame them for wondering why an issue like access to quality, affordable health care for all citizens -- a no-brainer to them -- is difficult for us that it's taken almost 100 years for us to get something that their countries got long ago? Can you blame them for wondering if it's because we can't do it or because we just don't want to do it?

Continue reading "The Morality of Health Care Reform, Pt 3."...

The Morality of Health Care Reform, Pt. 2

terrance@bilerico.com (Terrance Heath) — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 17:30:00 -0500

"We are determined to make every American citizen the subject of his country's interest and concern; and we will never regard any faithful law-abiding group within our borders as superfluous. The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little."

Franklin D. Roosevelt, Second Inaugural Address

"Sixty years after Roosevelt's Second Inaugural, that egalitarian test, I think, is still the best measure of our progress and humanity, and the core of The Triumph of Meanness is the contention that as a nation we are failing that test."

Nicolaus Mills, The Triumph of Meanness - America's War Against Its Better Self.

Home of the Mean

As with the election of Barack Obama last fall, the health care reform debate presents us with another opportunity to decide what kind of country we want to be. But that making that choice requires an unvarnished look at the country we have become.

In the seventy-plus years since Roosevelt's Second Inaugural, and the dozen years since Nicolaus Mills' offered his assessment that "as a nation we are failing" at "providing enough for those who have too little," we have actually become a country where a surprising number believe that those who have too little don't deserve to have any more than they do. It's a phenomenon at play in our reactions to any number of current crises, including health care reform.

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Second Acts

terrance@bilerico.com (Terrance Heath) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 15:30:00 -0500

There are no second acts in American lives.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

It struck me as simultaneously ironic and poetic when, a few weeks ago, two of music biggest icons -- each of whom in their own way represented the intoxicating excess that goes with a certain level of celebrity -- went through transitions that were as similar as they were different. And within days of each other.

One, at least, no longer has to please his public -- or seek its forgiveness. The other now faces the task of disproving the famous F. Scott Fitzgerald quote above.

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