Because they won’t pool enough people together to have clout in the health insurance market. It’s that simple: without enough people to spread risk, this system of health insurance will not work. What would attain enough clout is a public option.

Here’s a good example from a failed co-op in Texas.

[From Andrew Sullivan]

What does this mean: police found “a body in the wall of a university laboratory” ?

(Link)

I don’t have a TV. And the 2009 VMAs were not even near my frontal lobes. I actually had no idea they were on tonight. That was until I logged on to Facebook. Three or four friends had status updates about Kanye’s disrespectful appearance on the VMAs when he ruined Taylor Swifts’ moment and claimed Beyonce had the best video. Whatever. But one Facebook update struck me: “i hope he [Mr. West] takes a bottle of tylenol pm and never wakes up.” Yikes. Do we really care that much? My brother, who is working on some video for Beyonce, only said he will be getting a call from his director. Nothing about killing, only a call. Anyway, it’s fun to realize how fast information moves these days. Never watching TV, I I found out what happened using Facebook, google blog search, and text messaging—all in a matter of minutes. It was as if I WAS watching TV. Now that’s scary.

…Al Franken would most likely not be in the Senate today. (For that matter, Norm Collman would have been a name lost in history.) I would have wanted that outcome. In any case, I hope Franken realizes he must now carry Paul’s legacy forward. It’s a heavy load for sure, but here’s to wishing Franken well!

What is happening in Iran must be seen as efforts forging a new balance between Islam and democracy. Sullivan thinks:

This will not look like Western democracy, but that’s the point.

Today will go down in history as the day the revolution in Iran turned from peaceful to violent. The government brought the violence and the citizens suffered. This video captures it all:

[Update 6/21/09]

Reported:

6:55 PM ET — A bit more on Neda. A blogger apparently in touch with Neda’s family members offers some new details (translated by reader Nima): she was born in 1982, apparently her full name was Neda Agha-Soltan, and she was at the protest with one her professors and several other students. She was, they said, shot by a basiji riding by on a motorcycle. Also, she was apparently buried today at a large cemetery in the south of Tehran. ABC News’ Lara Setrakian writes, “Hearing reports Neda was buried in Behesht Zahra cemetery earlier today, memorial service cancelled on orders from authorities.”

“It is absolutely essential that the oppressed participate in the revolutionary process with an increasingly critical awareness of their role as subjects of the transformation.”
- Paulo Freire

Freire contends in Pedagogy of the Oppressed, only the oppressed can pull themselves out of oppression; Any help from sympathizers must stop at encouragement or the periphery of action.

John Kerry almost hits this subtle point in his op-ed today.

]]> http://willbrehm.wordpress.com/2009/06/18/for-the-iran-protesters/feed/ 0 Will Brehm Iran http://willbrehm.wordpress.com/2008/12/29/what-are-we-leaving-behind/ http://willbrehm.wordpress.com/2008/12/29/what-are-we-leaving-behind/#comments Mon, 29 Dec 2008 14:17:54 +0000 Will Brehm http://willbrehm.wordpress.com/?p=403 ]]>

Looking at the NYTs 2008 in pictures, I find the pictures of the economy — many of vacant homes — give me chills: are large, empty homes the artifacts we are leaving to be uncovered by the next American society?

On Obama’s pick of Rick Warren:

The bitterness endures; the hurt doesn’t go away; the pain is real. But that is when we need to engage the most, to overcome our feelings to engage in the larger project, to understand that not all our opponents are driven by hate, even though that may be how their words impact us. To turn away from such dialogue is to fail ourselves, to fail our gay brothers and sisters in red state America, and to miss the possibility of the Obama moment. (Link)