Outside The Asylum

Opposition to providing every human being with health care *of some sort* is Cain and Abel all over again. I *am* my brother's keeper. Matthew 25 says I will be judged by how I treat him. By what stretch of the imagination can we be greedy and say "I don't care what happens to him"? And the wages for this sin aren't far behind. In today's world where oppressed people commit acts of terrorism, the lack of health care is a HUGE defensive hole that fails to be filled. If I were al Qaida, I'd be concentrating on highly contagious diseases. Far better than a suicide bomber with a vest of dynamite, is one guy with a cough and a bunch of frequent flyer miles in a country with inadequate health care.

Or at least, some people I'm close to are getting strange. Christopher's godparents are getting a divorce- and she's cracking up, been diagnosed with a whole host of mental illness problems. Our pastor at St. Clare's has decided at 57 that he no longer wants to be alone the rest of his life- at least he's doing the right thing by resigning from the priesthood instead of causing a scandal by breaking his vow of celibacy. I admire his integrity in this choice, but what timing! He'll be lucky to have a job again in less than six months- right now the average unemployment period in Oregon for *anybody* is more like a year or two. Six applicants for every job. OTOH, for his direct problem of loneliness attached to his vow of celibacy- he's the man, he's the man, he's the man- who doesn't exist. Moral, upright, never been divorced because he's never been married, and over 50, an age where single women outnumber single men 2:1. I suspect he...

An interesting post - and an interesting point. The War on Terror has been utterly, utterly lost, and: It doesn’t matter either way. Dead or alive, Osama bin Laden is the greatest strategist in the history of human conflict. With no navy or air force or anything that resembles a formal army, he’s managed to whip the world’s mightiest nation like a rented camel. Our economy is shot, the best-trained, best-equipped military in history has been proven impotent, and our moral standing in the world has gone through the sub-basement. I seem to remember making a similar point before the 2004 election- that the Republicans, as war makers, were a failure to invade Iraq, and that one old guy in a Turban with a kidney condition had effectively beat the US military all hollow.

A wonderful alternative to Autism Speaks, A Hope for Autism, is having a fundraising dinner April 10th at the Benson Hotel in Portland .

The original Equal Rights Amendment was simple- the law should have no gender differences. A man makes his decision to become a father the instant he has consensual sex, at least, under the law. I should emphasize the word consensual; we're not talking about rape or incest here, we're talking about normal sex, inside of some form of committed relationship. He can't back out past that point. Yet Roe V.Wade allows a woman to. This creates a difference in the law- a difference in parental rights. Yeah, I know, women try to justify it with "It's my body and I have to give up 9 months of my life for the child". But I'm talking cusps here- the moment of decision. And the moment of decision, legally, should be the same for a man as for a woman. And that moment shouldn't be *after* the fact. Non-consensual sex, like incest and rape, isn't included in this. In fact, I consider abortion due to incest and rape to be murder- and the murderer to be the ra...

I'm Roman Catholic. To me, that means marriage is a sacrament designed to last, and even divorce should not be permitted. Recently I participated in a joke post on somebody else's blog, playing devil's advocate: Why California can no longer afford divorce But I fear it might have left my real position confused. So here goes- the gay agenda has highlighted one thing in particular. Writing marriage into civil law comes dangerously close to violating the establishment clause of the First Amendment to the Constitution. Which causes a conflict for me between faith and patriotism. Thus I propose this answer: We split civil recognition of marriage into three parts. First of all, Sacramental marriages may no longer be recognized by the State at all . They are fully in the province of religion, and follow the rules of the religious sect of the person who officiates at the marriage. The person officiating at the ceremony has the full right to require premarital classes and cou...

Or rather, in certain industries in the United States, the consumer isn't the customer. Yeah, that's right- especially in Debit and credit cards apparently, the consumer isn't the customer, the bank is. VISA and MasterCard especially, but also smaller networks, sell their brand name to banks. To get banks to buy their brand name (for which they get a few pennies off of every transaction) they have been pushing up the fees in a perverse price-inflation competition, which returns those interchange fees to the banks. Which raises the price on EVERYTHING else you buy- because it is the consumer that ultimately pays these interchange fees. In other words- a certain business has learned how to enact a completely legal, hidden sales tax. von Mises must be spinning in his grave- it's a case of laisez faire competition raising prices and creating inefficiencies equal or greater than any government bureaucracy. Funny how the Roman Catholic Church predicted something like th...