Mainstream media on health care

The media seems, in my very limited perspective, to at least in part be shifting its concerns some regarding some of the recent legislation being pushed.

From Time magazine:

For Stupak, the pro-life Democrat, the battle over abortion in health-care reform is certain to continue when Congress returns from recess. "We are going to do everything we can to stop the rule, or the bill, from coming to the floor," Stupak says, adding that as many as 39 Democratic members of Congress may join him in the effort. It remains unclear how the Senate will deal with the abortion issue. There is also no consensus within the Democratic Party about whether a public option should be included in final health-care-reform legislation.

In the meantime, Stupak says that Obama's statements during recent public events signal one of two things: either he does not fully understand the current House bill, which Stupak maintains has the effect of publicly funding abortion, or "if he is aware of it, and he is making these statements, then he is misleading people."

Also, this clip from ABC's 20/20 is interesting.

You might be crazy

An interesting article regarding sleeping and dreams, which are possibly related to mental disorders according to the study.

Perhaps, even, by simply addressing sleeping habits, doctors could potentially interrupt the emotional cycle that can lead to suicide. "There is an opportunity for prevention," Bernert says.

The new findings highlight what researchers are increasingly recognizing as a two-way relationship between psychiatric disorders and disrupted sleep. "Modern medicine and psychiatry have consistently thought that psychological disorders seem to have co-occuring sleep problems and that it's the disorder perpetuating the sleep problems," says Walker. "Is it possible that, in fact, it's the sleep disruption contributing to the psychiatric disorder?"

YOU can't stop abortion

This is an expected response to the murder of George Tiller, they will merely fill his position with someone else, although I am not as optimistic that changing the law will prevent abortions.  People will still have abortions, it's just a matter of whether the mother will be put in danger or not because of the lack of medical license to perform them.  While it's a truly sad situation on all aspects, I believe mothers are responsible for their actions and should they choose to abort their children their lives are in their own hands.  But the laws on abortion must change.

Approaching this subject as social commentators, the question is whether we will be reductionistic or not.  What I mean is, we sacrifice all considerations/ aspects on the issue reducing the level of complexity of questions, save one: the one we focus on.  For example, we could approach it by proposing any number of things to fix the problem, such as:

• The murder of abortion doctors outside of the law (see how logical this argument is)
  
• Changing the laws
  
• Protesting abortion
• Start organizations
• Blog about it (I love contradicting myself)
  
• etc.
  

The "pro-life movement" has dabbled in all of these (if we can even include doctor murderers in this), but it is naive and foolish (and I would argue a tad idolistic) to think that we can fix this problem if we just do these things.  Granted, Christians (and those who believe in the humanity of the unborn) should stand up for the truth, but at some point there must be recognition that our efforts are very limited.  We cannot control the actions (much less the thoughts, if we are to believe Jesus' teaching on murder, Mt. 5:21) of others and make them be obedient to God, especially if they are unbelievers.  It is cruel and foolish to think that we can force those who do not know God know him and obey his commandments, including the issue of abortion.  Regardless of what the law is, people are going to continue breaking it and/or doing what they want.  This doesn't mean we shouldn't try to change the laws to honor God's laws (to avoid being reductionistic on the other side), but we should behave with prudence regarding all aspects of the issue and accept where we are powerless, and obey the statues of the land we live in.

The solution as I see it is this:  we must trust in God.  In his justice, in his laws, in his power, in his involvement in the world, and in his empowerment of his followers to do the right things we must trust.  This means we do all we can to stop the murdering of the unborn by changing the laws, while living in the land we do with the laws we have, which we must respect because of God's appointing of all world leaders.  We should speak and publish and protest to defend the pro-life position (see Scott Klusendorf whose work on abortion is impressive and much better than this blog, this argument is unbeatable, also this one, which is shorter).  Perhaps above all, we should pray for the country, that God would enact justice where it is due and have mercy on all.

Death announcements

I have a random thought.  Why is it that the only thing ever said in death announcements in the news to be positive about the deceased is that they "loved life"?  What does that mean?  And why are they the only positive words that seem to come to mind for the average person?  I guess we never hear about the people that hated life.

Octomom will have a new reality show...gag me

Almost all of this article about TV created using Americans as the subject and viewed by Europeans, specifically the infamous Octomom, makes me sad and a little ashamed to be counted among them.

"The Hand of Hope"

This is a cool story about the baby boy, who's now 9 years old, who was photographed grasping a doctor's hand when a surgery was being performed on him from his mother's womb.  Here's the link for the photos (caution, these are graphic).

Samuel, now 9 and living in Villa Rica, Ga., said the photo likely gave countless "babies their right to live" and forced many others to debate their beliefs on abortion, something he's proud of.
"It's very important to me," Samuel said of the photograph. "A lot of babies would've lost their lives if that didn't happen."

My answer as a religious relativist to people forcing birth control on cultures with large families that are "overpopulating the world" and "not being green"

How dare they impose their religious worldview on other people!!!

Myths of Columbine

USA Today has an article on myths of the attack at Columbine High School in 1999. A lot of the things that have characterized this event are actually distortions of the truth or complete fabrications, according to the article's research. This is very interesting.

A decade after Harris and Klebold made Columbine a synonym for rage, new information — including several books that analyze the tragedy through diaries, e-mails, appointment books, videotape, police affidavits and interviews with witnesses, friends and survivors — indicate that much of what the public has been told about the shootings is wrong.