Sunday, January 20, 2013
ARE YOU PAYING ATTENTION, BOBBY?

The recent mass killings in Tucson, Aurora and Newtown have sparked public conversations about the deficiencies in state-run mental health systems across the United States. But few states are poised to spend their own money to reverse as much as a decade of budget cutbacks in those areas.Louisiana is not presently known for its sterling mental health care system. Nevertheless, our governor, Bobby Jindal, has opted out of the Medicaid expansion which would cover mental health care on conservative principles, but I wonder if he may reconsider. The majority of the citizens of Louisiana are against any sort of regulation of firearms or ammunition, giving as their reason that it's not guns that kill people, but deranged individuals who manage to get their hands on guns who kill people. How about it, members of the NRA in Louisiana? Why not start a campaign to urge the governor to sign on to the expanded Medicaid program that will enable more persons with mental illness to get treatment?
Instead, many of them are counting on an infusion of federal mental-health dollars. Because Medicaid includes mental-health benefits, those states that opt into the Medicaid expansion included in President Obama’s Affordable Care Act will be able to make mental health coverage available to thousands of their citizens who do not now have it.
For the first three years that additional coverage would cost the states nothing: Under terms of the Affordable Care Act, the federal government will cover 100 percent of the costs of new Medicaid enrollees for the first three years and 90 percent after 2020.
The mentally ill deserve the same treatment as those with physical illness, because it's the right thing to do, but whatever your motive behind opting into the Medicaid expansion, just do it, Governor. The Medicaid expansion program would serve a good many people with physical illnesses and offer preventive care. What's not to like? If conservative principles prevent you from giving the citizens of Louisiana services they need, then, in the name of simple compassion for the well-being of the people you serve, you should ditch your principles.
Also, Governor, in the event you hadn't noticed, the line of Republican governors who refuse to participate in the Medicaid expansion program is broken. I expect more Republican governors will decide to adopt the program, so you would not stand alone if you changed your mind. Perhaps you and your good friend Rick Perry (Tweedledum and Tweedledee?) from Texas might have a conversation about a change in policy.
Arizona will participate in the expansion of Medicaid, Gov. Jan Brewer said Monday in her State of the State address, making her the third Republican governor to agree to one of the key components of President Barack Obama's health care reform.
Brewer said that if she did not accept the Medicaid funds for Arizona, other states could claim those federal dollars and create jobs that otherwise would be created in Arizona. Fellow Republican governors Susana Martinez of New Mexico and Brian Sandoval of Nevada also plan to expand Medicaid to anyone who earns up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level, which is currently $14,856 for an individual.
But 10 other Republican governors have already decided not to participate. The Supreme Court's 2012 ruling that affirmed Obama's health care law allows states to refuse to take part in the Medicaid expansion.
Saturday, January 19, 2013
"TENSE" - A POEM
Tense
What was or is or will be, no sense
in this craving certainty
facts on which to safely stand, defense
the default pose of wisdom
as if all imperfect past pretense
of knowing could guarantee
passage through high reeds or forest dense
tangle of conformity
assumed, silent threat of violence
individuality
an idea, in practice the province
of lone eccentricity
tolerated in rare great talents
muffled in society
where ritual mutes the mass conscience
to accept disparity
as the price of managed turbulence
balance of security
held in place by a gossamer fence
decorum of brevity.
The perfect, not without flaw, complete.
Some believers claim
just one
error free leader,
teacher, God’s Son
fret that he/she/it
with us is done
indulge the urge to compete
mark clear grace with penitence
as if the gift was some short-term loan
a debt re-paid in fragments
pain the test of unearned interest
currency of consequence.
Love, the real thing, is given, not lent
no tensile integrity
of high wire show, by no human rent
just response ability
the impulse to pray, a need intense
to veil the fragility
of subjunctive, iffy existence
in terms of nobility
power vested in high thrones
armaments, mobility
secrets glorified, the work of drones
scorched credibility
on the altar of the last unknowns
what shall not, cannot, should never be?
To lose the true
living sense
present tense, that
life is, is holy
each and every one intense
precious, not some beta test worthy
only if one can convince
some self-appointed authority
eager or reluctant prince
to hold Love bestowed as surety
against the void, the absence
of even one, small, humanity.
(Marthe G. Walsh)
"Love, the real thing is given, not lent..." True and lovely words. Thank you for the poem, Marthe. It is all good.
Friday, January 18, 2013
THAT KRUGMAN GUY AGAIN

It’s looking increasingly as if House Republicans won’t crash the world economy by refusing to raise the debt ceiling, at least not right now. Score a big one for the White House (provisionally); its bet that it wouldn’t need a way to bypass the ceiling is looking like a winner (although it ain’t over until the tanned guy cries).Paul nearly caused me to spew orange juice all over my keyboard with his final parenthetical comment. Don't misunderstand me: Krugman has a biting wit, but it's not usually of the sort that will cause liquid to be spewed, so I was unprepared.
The reality that they will be blamed for a default seems finally to be dawning on Republicans. That they would even contemplate such a move as not paying bills that the government owes seems quite reckless. Their chief supporters of the GOP, investors, banks, and corporations, don't like the present uncertainty either. Even now, the fact that the matter of the debt ceiling is not settled puts a drag on economic recovery.
DOGS WILL GET THEIR REWARD
A charming commentary on dogs as portrayed in classic Jewish literature. Thanks to my friend Linda, who posted the link on Facebook.
It is taught that in the World-to-Come, dogs will lead in singing the praises of the Almighty. They will say to other creatures "Come! Let us prostrate ourselves and bow, let us kneel before G-d, our Maker".
Throughout classical Jewish literature they are portrayed as the most insolent of animals. How could it be, he wondered, that this very same creature will merit to lead in the singing of praises to G-d in the World-to-Come?
(Rav Yishaya)
The answer to the question may be found at torah.org.
Good Shabbos!
Thursday, January 17, 2013
ZACK WILL GO FAR IN LIFE
For Zack Kopplin, it all started back in 2008 with the passing of the Louisiana Science Education Act. The bill made it considerably easier for teachers to introduce creationist textbooks into the classroom. Outraged, he wrote a research paper about it for a high school English class. Nearly five years later, the 19-year-old Kopplin has become one of the fiercest — and most feared — advocates for education reform in Louisiana. We recently spoke to him to learn more about how he's making a difference.Below is a video of Zack on Hardball in 2011
Kopplin, who is studying history at Rice University, had good reason to be upset after the passing of the LSEA — an insidious piece of legislation that allows teachers to bring in their own supplemental materials when discussing politically controversial topics like evolution or climate change. Soon after the act was passed, some of his teachers began to not just supplement existing texts, but to rid the classroom of established science books altogether. It was during the process to adopt a new life science textbook in 2010 that creationists barraged Louisiana's State Board of Education with complaints about the evidence-based science texts. Suddenly, it appeared that they were going to be successful in throwing out science textbooks.
What courage and determination in one so young. I'm so very proud of Zack and what he has accomplished. Sadly, the ignorance displayed by the reverend who objected to science textbooks that are biased in favor of evolution is not so rare amongst the citizens of the Gret Stet. Govermor Bobby Jindal, a major force behind the Louisiana Science Education Act, surely knows better with his major in biology from Brown University, but he is the consummate opportunist.
Following his success in halting the practice of removing science textbooks from the classrooms, Zack plans to focus his attention next on voucher schools, religious fundamentalist schools that use supplemental materials in science classes to teach young-earth creationism to their students, whose numbers include those whose tuition is paid with state vouchers. Zack has paid a price: he's been called the Anti-Christ and accused of causing Hurricane Katrina. (Multiple eye rolls) Geaux Zack!
H/T to my Facebook friend Chris H and others for the link to the article.
WELCOME, BROTHER SUN
When I woke up this morning, the bright light shining through the windows caused me to squint and had me baffled for a spell, but then I remembered the light came from the sun. It's been so long since we've seen sunlight (and shadows, those dark things) that I'd forgotten. Good to see you again, Brother Sun.
Praised be You my Lord with all Your creatures,UPDATE:
especially Sir Brother Sun,
Who is the day through whom You give us light.
And he is beautiful and radiant with great splendour,
Of You Most High, he bears the likeness.
(From Canticle of Brother Sun and Sister Moon - St Francis of Assisi)
We praise You, Lord, for Sister Moon and the stars,Tonight was the first night I've seen the moon and stars for quite a while.
in the heavens you have made them bright, precious and fair.
MAKING CRIMINALS OUT OF ORDINARY CITIZENS
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Carrie Nation |
The Eighteenth Amendment, the Volstead Act, and better known as Prohibition, took effect on this date in 1920, a year after it was ratified. It made the manufacture, sale, and transportation of liquor illegal. The temperance movement had been fighting this fight for almost 80 years. Its activists wanted to protect families and communities from the horrors of alcohol abuse. They saw the 18th Amendment as a major victory for morality — but in reality, it made criminals out of a lot of ordinary American citizens, and made liquor even more desirable than it had been before.The law was surely honored more in the breach than in the observance throughout many parts of the country, including south Louisiana. I believe the citizens in the states who voted to legalize marijuana did the right thing. My father was an alcoholic, who was periodically on and off the wagon as long as he lived, so I'm well aware of the evils associated with alcohol addiction, but prohibition was and is not the solution. Nor does prohibition seem to be the answer for marijuana, for it makes criminals out of ordinary citizens who wish to use marijuana, which, so far as I can discover, is no more harmful than liquor or cigarettes.
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
"BEL GIORGIO" MAKES THE COVER OF "VANITY FAIR"
Hmm. Of course, it's no sin to be handsome. Georg's hairline seems to be receding a bit, but bald can be beautiful, and he has a way to go. The brand new archbishop and keeper of the pope's household admits to listening to Pink Floyd and Cat Stevens and wearing long hair in his teen years. Georg is a pilot and a skier, a "man-of-action". Italians call him "Bel Giorgio". I expect Georg will continue his quick climb up the hierarchical ladder. He may even be pope one day.Now Georg Ganswein, the Pope's private secretary, has appeared on the cover of the Italian edition of Vanity Fair.
The 56-year-old, blue-eyed Bavarian, who was recently elevated to the rank of archbishop by Benedict XVI and wields ever greater influence within the Vatican, was placed on the cover of the latest edition of the magazine, which went on sale on Wednesday.
"It's not a sin to be handsome" the magazine wrote on its front cover, describing Father Ganswein as "the George Clooney of St Peter's".
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