Scalzi dropped an interesting statement last night, asking if it makes sense to anyone else: As I get older, I worry less about “life being fair” and worry rather more about justice. For my part, I think it does, though to talk about it, one needs to define, exactly, "fairness" and "justice" mean (which is […]

The President is clearly a Jedi master of this element of the Dad-ric arts. Witness Mr. Obama at yesterday’s event promoting Chicago’s quest to host the 2016 Olympic Games: This only really works if he was making hmmmm…zzzshhssszzzz…..hmmmm…zacht! noises, which, come on, you know he was doing (and quite possibly, quoting Darth Vader as well). […]

We all know that Obama gives a good speech, and last night’s health care address to a joint session of Congress was no exception. While I’m still one of those who think that the President’s team ought to have made single-payer the opening debate position, and then compromised on the “public option” idea, I think […]

This guy wants to be the Governor of my state? Not with stuff like this on his record. From the Washington Post: “At age 34, two years before his first election and two decades before he would run for governor of Virginia, Robert F. McDonnell submitted a master’s thesis to the evangelical school he was […]

…but from what I’m reading in this Salon piece by Stephen Amidon, there’s a lot that’s right about the quality and egalitarianism of care in the British NHS. In the piece, the author (an American) describes his experience with the NHS while he was living in London, describing in some detail his experiences with both […]

NPR listening can be really expensive. We’re just minding our own business, driving home from our weekend away, and catch today’s episode of Fresh Air, in which Terry Gross spends the hour talking to author and journalist T.R. Reid about his book The Healing of America. The book discusses Reid’s research and investigations into the […]

A theoretical West Wing B-Plot come to life as Deputy Chief of Staff Josh Lyman Rahm Emmanuel* is forced by the President to go read to kids as a Department of Education photo op. I can see the lead-up, Toby and Sam leaning on doorframes in the West Wing waxing philosophical on the benefits of […]

I’ve been writing a lot about the health care debate these last few weeks, both because I think it’s terribly important that we catch up with the rest of the post-industrial world in the way we take care of our citizens, and because I think it’s terribly important that occasional bits of information make it […]

Over the weekend, a bunch of Obama surrogates (including Secretary Sebelius) started dropping suggestions that the Public Option part of the health care reform package might be expendable in the name of compromise. Boo Hiss. This discussion should have started with single-payer as the opening position, leading to compromise from there. What’s the point of […]

Please indulge me in a quick little political action plug that will only take a few minutes of your time. All of my kids were breast-fed; it’s cheap, and the healthiest way to feed a baby. I think it gave my kids a good start at life; my kids were certainly sick less often than […]