And Jesus said unto his disciples – After I leave you, each of you will be responsible for writing down your account of my time with you. It is very important that you give a full and accurate account of my teachings, as these “gospels” you create will become the basis of belief for people from lands near and far for a very long time. Over the next few hundred years your gospels will be compiled into a single work of writing called the “Bible”. There will be men such as popes, rulers and over-ambitious scribes who will try to add things to my teachings and attribute them to me. Some of these added writings will contain wisdom and beautiful verse, while some will be the ramblings of so-called prophets, most of whom spent too much time fasting in the hot desert sun, if you know what I mean. It is very important that you make it clear that these added writings are not part of my teachings. If you do not do this then some unscrupulous and misguided zealots will use these added writings to control and manipulate people, to start wars, to persecute others, to sully God’s creation, and to achieve their own desires for wealth and power. As you well know, these activities are in direct conflict with my message to humanity. It is so important for you to remember to stress this in your gospels that I want you to write it down now so you don’t forget. Luke – could you please pass around the stylus so everyone can make a note on their parchments? What’s that Luke? I couldn’t hear you. Oh for my sake Luke! If I put you in charge of bringing the stylus you’re supposed to bring it every time. Okay, well everybody just try to remember, because it’s very important.
Once upon a time, in the small town of Palookaville, there was a fire department. They weren’t very good firemen. They let their firefighting equipment fall into disrepair, failed to enforce the fire code, and allowed a few careless citizens (who were big donors to the Fireman’s Fund) to store highly flammable materials in places that would cause great harm to the townspeople if they were to catch fire.
The townspeople saw this and decided to hire a whole new fire department, starting the next month.
On the last day of the month, sure enough, a spark hit the flammable materials. The fire chief and his captains went to the townspeople and said, gravely, “We need the whole town to pitch in and help fight this fire, otherwise the whole town will be burned to the ground.” The townspeople saw that they were right. They left their homes and comfortable beds to help fight the fire.
The next day, the new fire department took over, and announced a plan to fight the fires. “Yes”, they said, “the townspeople will need to continue helping to fight this fire, for we have not seen a fire like this in many, many years and the risk of this fire spreading is just too great. We know how much of a strain this is on your busy lives, but there is no other way. It will take time, but we will fight this fire with all our might and rebuild the houses that could not be saved, and we will put in place new measures to ensure that this does not happen again.”
The former fire department heard this and refused to help. They yelled and screamed at the new firefighters that they should hold their hoses at a different angle, they blocked the new firefighters from accessing the hydrants and they went around the town pulling alarm boxes to distract the new firefighters from their work. They went to the townspeople and said, “See? These new firefighers are no good! Why should you have to help fight the fire? If they weren’t so incompetent, they would have it all put out and rebuilt by now and you could go back to your beds! Give us another chance and we will show you how much better we can do!”
Despite their hindrances, the new firefighters managed to get most of the fires under control, but a few still burned here and there. They got started rebuilding what had been lost, and made proposals to keep the town safe from this kind of disaster in the future, all the while continuing to fight the remaining fires.
Some of the townspeople (who were not necessarily the brightest bulbs in the drawer) began to listen to the former fire department members. “They are right”, they said, “Why should we have to help fight these fires? Isn’t that what we hired the new guys for? And all these newfangled fire-safety proposals are nothing but a drain on the town treasury!” They repeated these things over and over to anyone who would listen, and some of the other townspeople who weren’t quite as dim-witted, but maybe hadn’t been paying close attention, started to agree with them.
All of the townspeople were weary from fighting the fires. Some knew that it was hard work that had to be done, but others’ memories began to get foggy over what was to blame for the fire in the first place. “We are tired of this”, they said, “let’s bring back the old fire department and see if they can do a better job!” The others listened in amazement that such a thing would even be considered.
Tune in next time to find out if the old fire department is reinstated. Better yet – get active in YOUR community to make sure that bums like these are never allowed near YOUR fire department again!
In a 5 to 4 ruling on January 21st, 2010, with a single decision, the Supreme Court of the United States of America lifted nearly all restrictions on how corporate money can be used to influence the American political system. No longer will oil companies, mega-banks, insurance companies need to limit the amount of money they spend to get candidates who represent their interests elected or funnel the money through PAC’s. Their messages will be shown over and over on TV, radio and elsewhere to convince the public to elect the candidates they support.
Conservative leaders praised the decision, saying it was a win for free speech. If you’re a conservative, I’ve got news for you – you have been sold down the river. Your voice will be drowned out by the lobbyists and corporations with the megaphones the same as the rest of us. You may have the illusion for a while that your side has “won”, but just wait until the first time you disagree with what your corporate partners are pushing – your opinion will be ridiculed, your character questioned, and your intelligence insulted, as these masters of spin and language manipulation assault the airwaves with slogans that may sound reasonable on the surface but have no other purpose than to make money for the economic elite.
Our elected representatives will now, more than ever, have to weigh every vote based on the pressure they get from lobbyists – or face the threat of being opposed by massive media campaigns against them in the next election and losing their jobs. Keep in mind that it’s very hard to prove that a representative cast a vote based on economic pressure – they will always swear they are doing what is best for their constituents, and support their decisions with some other rationale. We will just have to trust that they are ignoring all the economic pressures and doing what is best for the American people. Yeah, right.
Keep in mind also, that many of these corporations that will be wielding influence in our elections are owned in whole or in part by non-US citizens. Decision about where to send our troops, how to spend our tax dollars, how to protect our civil rights, and how to regulate our commerce will all be effected in a big way by the flow of corporate spending. Don’t fool yourself for a minute that peoples’ votes are not effected by the messages they hear over and over on television – for many people, this is the only source of information they use to make their voting decisions. We will continue to be fed a constant diet of “controversies” to divide us and keep us at each others’ throats, while the real decisions will be made quietly in accordance with the wishes of the corporate lobbyists.
This is the day that the judges’ gavel became an auctioneer’s gavel and declared that from here forward the American political process will be for sale to the highest bidder. It is a sad day for our nation, and one that will change the fabric of our democracy for all time.
I am writing to you concerning the current debate over healthcare reform. I know you have long been a proponent of reform to our healthcare system, but I am going to ask you for something extra. If we fail this year to get a bill passed that includes a solid public option that can keep the insurance companies honest in their prices and their practices, we may never get it.
From what I have seen of you, you seem like a straightforward person, somewhat soft-spoken, not prone to hyperbole or exaggeration. These are traits to be admired and emulated.
At this time, however, I am asking you to pull out all the stops. Please use all your powers as Senate leader to help get a good bill passed. Take a page from DeLay’s book and knock some heads, twist some arms, threaten, cajole, hold staged press-conferences, work the media, distribute talking points, whatever it takes.
Yes, the Republican tactics are deplorable at times, and I know it would gall you to sink to their level, and I would not ask you to do this, except…
If we don’t pass meaningful healthcare reform people will die, people will suffer, people will lose their homes and their children’s inheritances, diseases and conditions will go untreated, and we will still be overpaying for a broken system.
Here is something I heard coming from the right (I can’t recall the exact source), maybe you can use it. This right-wing nut-job was going off on a tirade about how America has the best healthcare system in the world, and the proof was that foreign presidents, prime-ministers, kings, sultans, business tycoons, etc. all came to America when they needed advanced forms of treatment. I thought to myself – this is true, I have heard of rich and powerful people coming here to take advantage of our most advanced technology and expertise. What he didn’t say was that if you are NOT one of these rich and powerful foreigners, you may not get anywhere near the level of treatment that is available to them. Is this why generations of Americans have struggled and sweated and bled to make our country the greatest on Earth, so that only foreigners could take advantage of the progress we have made through the years, due in large part to research done by our publicly funded universities, our research grants, our public hospitals?
Please take this fight to the next level and win this for us.
You won’t see much of this on TV in our country. The huge corporations that control health care in the U.S. stand to lose too much if we move to a national single-payer health care system. But what would be better for us? Thanks to The Real News for bringing us what some Canadians had to say.
Engineers can’t afford to fail as consistently as politicians and bureaucrats, so they prefer accedence to resistance (as I do). For example, they know that no structure can be made rigid enough to resist an earthquake. So, rather than defy the earthquake’s power by building rigid structures, they accede to it by building flexible ones. — Daniel Quinn, Beyond Civilization
For years, Democrats have been in denial about how low-down and intellectually dishonest their Republican counterparts can be. Time and time again they have given conservatives the benefit of the doubt in discussions and debates , only to find out that their apparently rational positions were just a front and that the next day they would be right back in lock-step with their party talking points.
The right has used a layered approach to deliver their message – from the president right down to the talk radio freaks, they have all been unmovable in their opinions and positions, and no amount of logic or factual evidence has been able to move them one bit. Each layer being a bit more wild-eyed and loose with the facts, but all singing to the same tune. This may have worked for a while – Democrats tend to argue amongst themselves more and therefore are less effective at hammering home their positions with the public. But the problem is that when you engage in good faith debate with someone, you extend a trust and a promise – the trust that your opponent will not use dirty debate tricks (we all know what they are from when we were kids) and the promise that there is at least the possibility that you will alter your view based on the other side’s presentation. Like Lucy holding the football for Charlie Brown to kick, conservatives have broken the trust and the promise time and time again. Even now, when we find a conservative who will call out Rush Limbaugh for being the lunatic he is, we are shocked by the exception of a Republican going off-script.
Along with whatever political and social views conservatives have held in recent years, they have also had as part of their profile an aggressive, win at all costs mentality. I find it disingenuous when they complain over even a fraction of that kind of mentality being directed back at them.
I, like President Obama, have a very deep well of faith in people, and still hope for them to do the right thing, but I also understand people who are ready to attack anything Republican or conservative. You can only fool people so many times before they become hostile toward you and any others who march under the same banner, though some of them may be decent folks.
If we are to unite people of differing political and social views under a banner of common interest, it will take people with the courage to continue engaging their opponents in an honest fashion. Those people will take more hits and be called more names, and must be willing to call out a fool – be he of their own party or the other.
I hope we can all shed our many “ism”’s and look to tending to the things we all hope for – peace, freedom, prosperity, and good health. There is no need to layer ideologies on top of these things – they can stand on their own.
Couple things first – the version of the stimulus bill cited in the article is the House version and NOT the bill that was passed, that being said, there is nothing in either of them that addresses the doctor/patient relationship or what kind of treatments can be covered. The topics in the bill address the creation and maintenance of medical records and the creation of an IT system to handle them. There will be a LOT of IT work there to keep schmoes like us busy. It also includes some funding for studies to provide information to doctors so they don’t have to rely exclusively on pharmaceutical and medical equipment salespeople to keep up with current treatment options.
Though I can’t deny the need for such a system, my big concern is privacy, and there are extensive stipulations in the bill about privacy and access, including recourse and penalties if there is a breach.
The reference to “Meaningful users” refers to payments to be made to healthcare professionals as incentive for adopting the government system. I’m not sure what McCaughey was getting at with that, but she totally mischaracterized what is in the bill.
The funding in the bill for comparative effectiveness research supplies grants to public and private organizations to provide information needed by healthcare workers, but does not stipulate any form of restriction or limitation on how that information is used.
There is no mention of “means-testing” in the bill, as the bill is not a health care plan. In any case, means testing (in a health care plan) would affect how much people of various incomes pay for their coverage and NOT what is covered.
The only reference in the healthcare section to “protocols” is a recommendation that open-source solutions are used.
Conclusion: Either Betsy McCaughey didn’t read the bill, read it wrong, or just hoped that YOU wouldn’t read it and accept her paranoid ideological viewpoint as fact.
Originally posted as a Facebook note, but since my blog hasn’t been getting any love lately, I’m double posting it here too. Sue me.
My 15 favorite guitarists list is unique in that there are 17 of them!
There are arguments for many others to be on or off my list, but these are my picks and I’m stickin’ to ‘em.
I may have passed over some who possess a great voice/guitar or guitar/songwriting or guitar in a great band but who I felt didn’t merit being on the list solely for their guitar work. I may have passed over others who I haven’t been exposed to enough to have an opinion, and may have left some off just due to my poor memory.
The biggest factor in my picks is how that person’s playing evokes feeling in me, so this is totally subjective. Yes, I gave points for historical context, technical wizardry, and where I was in my own life when I heard them.
Roughly in this order:
1. Stevie Ray Vaughan – A transcendent guitarist. Major influence not just the players coming up after him but the older players who he derived his inspiration from. Speed, innovation, wizardry, but at the same time 100% pure emotion. From the first time a friend handed me a cassette tape of Stevie’s playing, up until the present, he continues to amaze and inspire me. The only time outside of John Lennon where the passing of a famous person I didn’t know personally brought me to tears.
2. BB King – Can say more with a single note than most can say with a thousand. Influenced his peers and his successors. Even in his sad notes there is somehow an undercurrent of joy and hope.
3. Jimi Hendrix – Threw the rule book out the window and reached into his soul to create something totally new. To borrow a phrase from Van M. – All the people passing by stared in wide-eyed wonder…
4. Freddie King – One of those rare people who did not play the music – he WAS the music. Many a time I have picked up my guitar, dialed in a tone to approximate what Freddie used, played the same notes that he did, and it sounded like ass – yet when he played those notes it sounded like the perfect thing, the only thing that made sense in that space and time.
5. Eddie Van Halen – Took rock guitar and shook it by the neck until it became something else. Spawned a whole generation of imitators, yet where many of them came off sounding cold and mechanical, Eddie’s playing was 100% balls.
6. Mark Knopfler – Clean, melodic, beautiful tone. Borrows from many different genres but always comes off sounding like himself. At a time when popular music was turning toward heavy rock histrionics, chaotic punk, electronic, edgy New Wave, Dire Straits was putting out some of the most down to earth, tasteful, guitar music of all time.
7. Tab Benoit – His Louisiana roots are evident in everything he does. I’ve seen Tab perform several times, and he never plays a song the same way twice. Sometimes seems like he’s headed off a cliff, but always manages to pull everything together. Lesson learned from Tab: If you break a string in the middle of a song, don’t just try to get through the rest of the song – make it the best song of the night.
8. Danny Gatton – An absolute master among masters. His jazz/country/blugrass/rockabilly fusion was unique and awe-inspiring. It was a major loss when Danny decided to take his own life.
9. Duane Allman/ Dickie Betts – While I could have made a fine case for inclusion of either of these two here on their own, the combination was greater than the sum of its parts. They were the peanut butter and chocolate of guitar duos. When they jammed it was not just two guys taking turns soloing, but two distinct styles forming a synergy of mind and purpose.
11. Buddy Guy – There is a take-no-prisoners, fuck you attitude to Buddy’s playing that even the hardest rockers usually fall short of. In an interview with Buddy, he tells of a time back in the ’60’s when his son thought dad’s kind of music was old-fashioned and that he preferred the “new” sound of guys like Hendrix. It wasn’t until some time later that his son found an interview with Hendrix where he was asked who his major influences were – and there was dad right at the top of the list.
12. George Harrison – It is my humble opinion that without George’s guitar the Beatles never happen. A talented guitarist who just got better and better, yet was always dedicated to making those around him sound better. The right notes at the right time, and the rests are as important as the notes. A study in taste and subtlety.
13. Eric Clapton – I’ve heard some digs against Eric Clapton, and the fact is you either get it or you don’t. At a time when every guitarist was borrowing bits and pieces from the blues and applying it to their pop music, Eric took it upon himself to become a blues master – and then bring that back to his rock music. From the outset, other guitarists studied him,emulated him, integrated his style into theirs, until a few generations of guitarists later the things he brought to rock guitar were ambient and became part of everyone else’s style. Ask Van Halen or a thousand other guitarists who their major influences were.
14. Carlos Santana – Soaring, climactic guitar solos on top of Latin rhythms – what’s not to like?
15. Django Reinhardt – Way back in the day Django was playing guitar riffs that would make your toes curl. Wonder if he ever smashed up any hotel rooms?
16. Jimmy Page – The riff-master. Loud, crunchy, heavy guitar riffs that whack you in the head over and over until you have to buy a new needle for your turntable. Zep’s music defined the line between what would become hard rock and progressive rock.
17. Tom Morello – How does he get those sounds? I’m a big RATM fan and I think his playing lifts that band and sends it flying through the air at 1000 miles per hour, breaking glass all the way. BUT he can also play it pretty and does stuff that is more musically intricate in his other projects. BTW – he builds his own electronic effects.
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