Over my dead body. Literally.

The Catholic Church has issued an "Ethical and Religious Doctrine" banning the removal of feeding tubes under any condition in every Catholic Hospital, Nursing Home and Hospice. From firedoglake:

"The Bishops’ directive even notes that patient suffering is redemptive and brings the individual closer to Christ."

The kicker is that nothing -- not a signed will, not family, not government can intervene. In many communities, Catholic health services are the ONLY health services. So their religion is determining my rights. Time to stop government funding, if you ask me. Read the whole insane inhumane medieval story HERE.

It's the Community, stupid!

Saturday afternoon in Dublin when I was there this May
Saturday afternoon in an American suburb
Click HERE for a brilliant article Andy found. It lays out our American problem more succinctly and personally than any I've recently read.

"What's the cost for living our American way? It's not just the thousands of dollars for the second car, insurance and gas. We also have to support a lake of concrete around us - and gas, electric and sewer lines to stretch out past the near-vacant belts beyond the older suburbs. Property taxes in Almería on our condo are one-twelfth our taxes in Milwaukee, even though the value of the two homes is roughly the same.

One-twelfth. Oh, and they throw in free health insurance."

Really, read the whole thing HERE. I, of course, feel proud of the section about New York, but the thing is, it wouldn't be THAT hard to turn the beat around . . . look, Europe was destroyed after WWII, and it's really not about infrastructure -- it's about mindset. Buy local, go out, buy often, repair (don't replace), and demand service for loyalty. The infrastructure is crumbling anyway, and it's up to us to replace it with improvements.

GOP cements it's adherence to it's losing party line

From the NY Times, a memo is being circulated by top GOP leaders to clarify their conservative agenda.

"According to the resolution, any Republican candidate who broke with the party on three or more of these issues– in votes cast, public statements made or answering a questionnaire – would be penalized by being denied party funds or the party endorsement. The proposed resolution was signed by 10 Republican national committee members and was distributed on Monday morning. They are asking for the resolution to be debated when Republicans gather for their winter meeting."

Here is the resolution’s list, with my explanations in red for clarity:

(1) We support smaller government, smaller national debt, lower deficits and lower taxes by opposing bills like Obama’s “stimulus” bill;

[We hate socialist programs like street cleaning and education. We prefer wiretaps and wars.]

(2) We support market-based health care reform and oppose Obama-style government run health care;

[We are in the gauzy pockets of big pharma and big insurance. It's cozy.]

(3) We support market-based energy reforms by opposing cap and trade legislation;

[We are in the hot slick pockets of big energy. Smell those profits?]

(4) We support workers’ right to secret ballot by opposing card check;

[We support making it as hard as possible for workers to unionize, which is good for ... um ... EVERYBODY, right?]

(5) We support legal immigration and assimilation into American society by opposing amnesty for illegal immigrants;

[Despite Regan's signing of the largest amnesty bill in US history, the new Republican is now more terrified than ever of brown people. Even if they believe in Jesus.]

(6) We support victory in Iraq and Afghanistan by supporting military-recommended troop surges;

[How can anyone not love the ROMANCE of our boys and girls shipping out over and over again to maintain an ineffective "calm" in the middle east? It's SO AMERICAN!]

(7) We support containment of Iran and North Korea, particularly effective action to eliminate their nuclear weapons threat;

[Diplomacy is for sissies, creating generations of America-haters is much better for the future of the Military Industrial Complex.]

(8) We support retention of the Defense of Marriage Act;

[Gay people are immoral second-class citizens. Now where's my Grand Theft Auto? I want to simulate beating women and shooting cops.]

(9) We support protecting the lives of vulnerable persons by opposing health care rationing and denial of health care and government funding of abortion;

[We're scared of death, we're scared of choice, we're scared of change, and to protect ourselves from all this . . . ]

(10) We support the right to keep and bear arms by opposing government restrictions on gun ownership.

[You'll have to pry it from my cold dead hands. Or the hands of my cold dead child. Or the hands of a cold dead innocent bystander. Or the hands of a tax-paying terrified cold dead Iranian-American shopkeeper. Or the hands of a cold dead social worker. I could go on.]

Put your hands together for WHAT?

Holy crap, check it HERE.

"Leaders of the Church of Christ, Scientist, are pushing a proposal that would help patients pay someone like Lewis for prayer by having insurers reimburse the $20 to $40 cost.

The provision was stripped from the bill the House passed this month, and church leaders are trying to get it inserted into the Senate version. And the church has powerful allies there, including Sens. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), who represents the state where the church is based, and Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), who said the provision would "ensure that health-care reform law does not discriminate against any religion.""

Now I'm all for regrouping and looking inward every so often, and if it helps to still your hands from action by folding them together -- then be my guest, but if I can't get coverage for a massage, then you can't get reimbursed for your magic.

Ignorance Emporium

We need to take this very seriously. These people are only MOMENTARILY ashamed of their near complete ignorance, and they're motivated.

" ... to be honest, I don't really know what she knows and doesn't know ... I probably wouldn't know half the stuff somebody'd ask me."

Motivate. Call your representatives and voice your views, read news from diverse sources, and talk to your friends and relatives.

Nude Coke makes tons of eco-sense!

It's something I've always wondered about packaging: how much ink or paint is used and wasted and removed and sent to the groundwater for products we would recognize anyway? Well here are some answers and an elegant solution.

"So using only classic Coca-Cola's daily sales figures, that means 24,773,757,785 are sold every year. Twenty-four billion cans. That is indeed a lot of paint and paint removal products. Because this doesn't only affect the production. It also affects the recycling process, eliminating one step:"

I likey.

Five Monkeys Explain Public Policy

Yeah, except there are 538 of them in our cage.

Shrinking cities movement means farming Detroit?

THIS from newgeography is amazing. The basic idea: Farm the abandoned "urban prairie" that is the largely empty Detroit (see pic). Build a sustainable progressive web of urban villages surrounded by green belts, and be the first American city to be 100% self-sufficient in the food department!

"Detroit has achieved something unique. It has become the test case for all sorts of theories on urban decay and all sorts of promising ideas about reviving shrinking cities."

Read the whole article, it's worth it, but one of the more interesting points is that Detroit's fairly ineffective and myopic government is actually beneficial to the situation!

Buffett buys BNSF, passenger trains soon?

Very rich man Warren Buffett has bought the second largest North American trans-continental railroad, and admits that it's a gamble on the future success of American business. Is it possible he plans to use some tracks for passenger trains? That would be awesome. Trains are very green. And fun. The Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad went for 44 BILLION.

"The deal, which including Berkshire's previous investment and the assumption of $10 billion in Burlington Northern debt brings the total value to $44 billion, represents what Mr. Buffett said was a big bet on the United States."

HERE is the story in the NY Times.

People's Design Award 2009

The 2009 People's Design Award goes tooooooo . . . this cool city bike for, well, anybody.

"A simple city bike with an upright riding posture, the Lime uses Shimano's Coasting automatic three-speed transmission (a pretty complex system with a very simple user interface) and a back-pedal brake rather than hand levers."

I'm kind of uncertain whether I could count on an automatic transmission and pedal brakes when I'm flying and weaving down Second Ave., but that's why we need those 100 plus new miles of bike lanes that Janette Sadik-Kahn has proposed (and it just might happen since Bloomberg's still here and if the City Council doesn't sit on her all year).