Amy Welborn: July 2009 Archives

At the Weekly Standard, we read a good summary of what happened last night in the House Energy and Commerce Committee: 

Last night, the House Energy and Commerce Committee narrowly passed the Stupak-Pitts amendment to prohibit tax dollars from paying for abortions through the national health care bill, but when Chairman Henry Waxman brought the amendment up for reconsideration minutes after passage, Rep. Bart Gordon of Tennessee flipped his vote to 'no', defeating the Stupak-Pitts amendment 30 to 29. "I misunderstood it the first time," Gordon said of his flip-flop, according to The Hill. Gordon and Zack Space of Ohio were the only Blue Dogs on the committee to vote against the amendment to ban taxpayer-funding of abortion.

Instead of the Stupak-Pitts amendment, the committee passed an amendment that is being billed by some Democrats as a "common ground" measure on abortion. The amendment--sponsored by Lois Capps (D-Calif.), whose National Right to Life Committee vote-scorecard is 0 for 74--would allow the "public option" to provide coverage for elective abortions and would allow federally subsidized private plans to provide abortion coverage as well. How exactly could this be construed as "common ground"? Congress isn't requiring the public option to cover abortion--merely allowing it. And through some nifty bookkeeping, abortions will supposedly be paid for out of private funds rather than tax dollars.

Because money is fungible, it's difficult to say that tax dollars wouldn't fund abortions through this plan. Douglas Johnson of the National Right to Life Committee says, "Federal subsidies would also flow to private plans that cover elective abortions, under meaningless bookkeeping schemes -- and the amendment actually creates a federal mandate that there must be at least one private abortion plan in each premium rating areas of the health insurance exchange.

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I'm hot and cold on the Coen Brothers. Well, mostly warm and cold. 'Hot" is too strong. I liked...(everyone ready with your list - it's a pastsime) Raising Arizona, Fargo and No Country for Old Men the best, although with the last, I was more intrigued with the differences between the film and book more than anything else. I'll put The Big Lebowski on there in honor of Michael, who was somewhat of a devotee. One of the most most memorable note I received in February was from David Scott, who knew Michael at OSV and wrote something very affecting in reference to the movie. No, it wasn't The Dude Abides - I can't find it right now.  But it was near-perfect, and Michael would have nodded in agreement. And laughed pretty loudly.

Anyway.

What I don't like about the Coens is pretty much what others don't like: the mannered artificiality that is pretty to look at, entertaining, but most of the time soulless. The in-jokes and regular cast of characters.

So. May I say that their next film features (it seems) neither George Clooney, John Goodman nor (even spouse) Frances McDermond?

And it looks...interesting?




A Serious Man  is a movie loosely based on the Coen brothers' childhood ....."Imaginatively exploring questions of faith, familial responsibility, delinquent behaviour, dental phenomena, academia, mortality and Judaism" via the protagonist's taking of his problems to three different rabbis.

Eh, I'll probably be disappointed. But one can always hope.

Presumptions, important to remember, before delving into this post:

-health care in the United States has strengths and weaknesses.

-There are areas of health care in the United States which are in need of serious reform and/or adjustment.

-There are many different ways in which those issues - rising health care costs, individuals' access to health care, the complexity of the health care administrative and billing systems, fraud - might be addressed.

-Some of those means might involve local, state or federal government action, some might mean freeing up market forces and allowing individuals more choice and direct engagement with health care costs and providers

-there is no necessary and assumed relationship between the current Democratic party proposals for health care reform and Catholic Social Teaching. 

Please read that carefully. I didn't say that there is no relation. I said that there is no necessary relationship - that is, just because it's called "reform" and proclaims lofty goals does not necessitate a participant in the discussion to accept the presumption that because of this, the proposals are, of course, without question, the best embodiment of the goals of Catholic Social Teaching.

Some do believe that these proposals embody what CST calls for in terms of a society's obligation to provide adequate health care. That is fine. But others believe that these recommendations would actually harm more people than help. Some believe that other reforms: tort reform, disengaging health insurance from employment, allowing health insurance to be sold across state lines, increasing the numbers of doctors, aggressive seeking and prosecution of medical fraud - would contribute to the cause of more citizens having greater access to more affordable health care.  That is a defensible position in the context of Catholic Social Teaching.  It is perfectly defensibly to look at experiments in health care reform in states like Tennessee and Massachusetts and ask hard questions about intentions and unintended consequences and what can be learned from these experiments - whether they did, actually expand access to health care or end up restricting it as, among other reasons, health care providers find themselves unable to afford to stay in business as they are required to meet the government mandates? Those are fair questions to ask in the framework of Catholic social teaching.

-Rhetoric on any side means...nothing. Rhetoric and labels have no relationship to whether something actually might or might not contribute to the important task of a society's provision of health care.

-There is no such thing as "free" health care. Somebody pays - the question is who and when and what comports most closely with the call to justice and charity.

-Assertions of health care as a "basic human right"  - with no further discussion of what that means in terms of how much health care is a right, who has a duty to provide it, at what cost to whom - and what responsibility that places on the human beings who have the right to basic health care - are just way too common. 

So while the CCC does describe "the right to medical care" as a responsibility of "the political community" (section 2211)  -  that's it. There are innumerable ways in which a society, via government, can expand and build up my right to medical care. Some of that might involve government provide free vaccinations and primary care up to a certain level, or provision of catastrophic insurance or laws regarding insuring of those with pre-existing conditions, but some of that might involve governments allowing freer competition among various entities - insurance companies, medical institutions - that could lower the costs I might face. It's just not as simple as: Health care is a right, therefore government must provide. It is just not. That is not what Catholic social teaching assumes or declares.

-The "Catholic" conversation on this, such as it is, tends to inadequacy, as do most inter-Catholic discussions of public policy, unfortunately. Ad hominems, assumptions and caricatures of positions tend to start flying fairly quickly, and more importantly, in my book, the discussions tend to fly on a fairly abstract level, not really grappling with the complexities of economics and health administration both here and in other countries.

(a good example - and an easy one to grasp - are comparisons of, say, the US and France. There are many systemic differences, including the fact that the French system has strict controls on malpractice suits and awards and that medical schools have strict admittance standards, but are tuition-free, factors, along with simplified billing practices, lead to much lower costs for a physician.)

Oh, and one more thing. I tend to look at what "the bishops" or even "a bishop" has to say about a matter like this within a particular prism, that prism having two sides: a) what do employees of Catholic institutions in a given diocese have in terms of health care coverage? What is the Church willing to call for and sacrifice in terms of what it offers its own employees and b) what is going on in a particular diocese in terms of supposed "non-profit" Catholic healthcare institutions, particularly hospitals?

(And before we move on - the NCRegister has a good article summing up where the issue of abortion and health care reform stands right now.)

Okay -

There is a bit of a discussion going on here and there about some large Catholic organizations' statements on the Democratic party's proposals for health care reform. Catholic Charities, the St. Vincent de Paul Society and the Catholic Health Association issued a joint call to action. But there not the only ones. The Catholic Medical Association has a different view. Both are linked after the jump:





 

Melanie Bettinelli has an excellent post - helpful not just in the links she provides, but in her perspective as one who has prayed the LIturgy of the Hours - with varying degrees of "success" - for years.

A good rule of thumb is not to get too stressed about it. If you only have time to pray one psalm, pray just that. In the past few years as a mother of small children I have learned how to pick up and put down my prayer book as the demands of my children allow, how to pause in the middle of a psalm to read The Big Red Barn five or six times and then pick back up again where I left off when the toddler wanders off again in the middle of the sixth read through.

It is very nice to wake up before the kids do to have some quiet prayer and at certain seasons I manage it; but at other seasons (like in the first trimester or as now when nursing a newborn) I listen to my body's need to sleep and just pray when I can after breakfast. I'm much more of a night owl anyway and do try to set aside some time for prayer after the kids are in bed. Sometimes I involve Bella and Sophie, reading the psalms and prayers out loud, singing the hymns with them, getting them to recite the antiphons, etc. If you've got older kids, you might try having them read the prayers with you or take turns reading.

One thing I would stress is going slowly and being prepared for failures. It can be hard to keep it up and over the almost ten years I've been praying the Liturgy of the Hours I've fallen away from the habit and then picked myself up and started again many, many, many times. I always do find that when I fall away I miss it and it eats at me until I pick back up again. But I try not to beat myself up over the times that I am too tired or too distracted to pray. Likewise, don't worry too much about praying the entire office if it is too much at first. You might start off with just one psalm. Don't worry if you get interrupted and have to stop in the middle. Especially if you're a busy mom.

While I'm at it, let me give some props to Melanie - there are a lot of very fine writers in the Catholic blogosphere and in the blogosphere, period of course. I do think that Melanie is one of the best - she taught English at the college level, is an avid reader and eloquent writer about books.

Every once in a while I dip into the world of "MommyBlogging" - not in terms of participation but in terms of..I don't know...a subculture? Because subcultures fascinate me? Because, aside from being a child development researcher I should have been an anthropologist? Up until recently (probably the "April Rose" scam a couple of months ago) I had no idea that MommyBlogging was

1) such a big, self-defined and even (for some) lucrative area of blogging

and

2) such a hot battleground of infighting and finger-pointing about fraud, greed and deception.

I mean - step back, people. You're gonna get hurt, definitely.

The big women's blogging convention - BlogHer  - was held in Chicago this past weekend, and already the stories are flying - the thing, I am gathering (man, I thought I was up on this Internet thing, but apparently not, and in a big way) is that marketers have discovered bloggers, escpecially mombloggers, as great assets, and so bloggers are regularly sent free stuff to review on their blogs - which, of course, none of us with stacks of books on the floor from Doubleday or Simon and Schuster or Ave Maria Press can criticize. But...it's a really big deal, and I had no idea. You've even got a little kerfuffle about a Crocs rep saying that he was threatened by a momblogger at Blogher - because she missed out on the Crocs giveaway and if he didn't give her some, she'd badmouth the brand on her blog.

(Pause to say....badmouthing Crocs? Gee, I can't imagine why...they're so pretty....)

As far as I can say, the two major MommyBlogging subcultures are:

1) The Christians

and

2) The Don't-Give-A-F***- MommyBloggers who are in turn either

a) of the "Martini Play Date" cadre

or

b) some version of really green/punk/boho/unschooling visionaries.

Some combination of (1) and 2(b) is certainly possibly, but (1) and 2 (a) rarely intersect, even, you might be surprised to learn,  among Catholics.

All are valued for their presumed honesty, either about their faith and (often) children's health problems or their conflicted emotions about parenthood.

I don't say this to mock - at all - way too often people take my mere descriptions as some kind of criticism. It's not. I really don't care, except to the extent that it interests me and tells me something about human nature, even my own. I'm into observing and describing and figuring stuff out, that's all.

I'm mostly interested because it reveals to me, in my own little bubble, how small that bubble is, with bubble walls that are more opaque than I thought.

I mean..until a month or so ago, I had never even heard of Dooce, aka  Heather Armstrong, but now I understand she's on Forbes' list of 30 most influential women in media.

(Although I have to take that back a bit - I do recall reading about her firing from her job for blogging...yeah, I remember that.)

My ignorance says nothing about Dooce or anyone else , but, I think, something about the fractured nature of our culture, which is all about the niche - and again, let me jump in and say - I don't think the niche thing is a bad thing - it's just the way it is. Personally, I'd rather have a couple hundred channels rather than 3, and it's perfectly fine with me that Walter Cronkite has not been replaced as The Most Trusted Man In America or whatever people said he was. I'm not into media gurus or a monolithic culture.

It's just interesting to me, that I, in my little world of blog and Internet-perusing that is mainly limited to religion, politics and culture, can be so totally ignorant of another part of the culture that is apparently really absorbing and interesting and heated.

So how did I get here from the beginning of this post?

There are many good comments on the Padre Pio post below - Fr. John just wrote one that I think sums everything up very nicely:

In addition to all the things noted above, I think that Padre Pio had three characteristics that made him attractive while he was alive, and even more so after his death. First, he was on the side of the poor and suffering. The establishment of the hospital, and his compassion and concern for the social welfare of people was legendary. Second, he was accessible (even despite the will of his order and Vatican officials). Pio listened. He put himself in the position of encountering people. His time spent in correspondence, in the confessional, in talking to people, made an impression. Third, Pio connected people to the mystery of the holy. There was no watering down of beliefs and practices, and no attempt to over-rationalize them. To encounter Pio in the flesh or by reputation was to touch a man who was absolutely convinced that God is mystery, and who was caught up in that mystery. In an age where the poor are downtrodden and unsightly, in an age where ordinary people wonder if anyone cares or truly hears them, and in an age where God and worship have been rationalized to the point of near extinction, Pio appeals to hope, to faith, and to the sense of the ineffible.

Nice article in the WaPo today about Franciscan friars walking on pilgrimage from Roanoke, VA to DC: She pressed $3.52 into his hand, which he accepted reluctantly. "I realized she wasn't giving this to us or to me," Goodin said....

Finally, Barnes and Noble frees up the Wi-Fi signal in its stores. Long overdue  - anyone who steps into a Panera Bread midafternoon will be struck by the number of folks w/open laptops, together or in groups, obviously doing work-related...

I blogged about this before,  but as I am finally going through my pics for posting on Flickr, it's simply reasserted - Padre Pio, Patron of Italy.As I said previously, I do believe a statue or image of Padre Pio...

I have been struggling - in a mild kind of way - on what and how to blog. I have been avidly following the debate on health care and have strong opinions, but cannot quite figure out how to blog...

Little Michael's memory is freakish. Or maybe all 4-year olds are like this, all children...maybe even all of us, and it gets obscured.When we were staying at the Sillitti Agriturismo, our only fellow guests were a woman from San Diego...

From today's (Monday's)  Office of Readings, St. Caesarius of Arles:I ask you, brethren: when you come to church, what do you want? Well?What are you looking for? What is it?Is it anything other than mercy? Well, then..Then give earthly mercy...

I am so superstitious, I could not write this post until I'd received my credit card bill for the car rental in Sicily.Superstitious as in "don't count your chickens before they hatch," which, to tell the truth, I do not...

Michael, delighted, feeling the back of his own neck:"I have FUR!"...

...around the world. Outside the Chattanooga Aquarium, June '09Agrigento, Sicily, July '09(Yes, I know the stroller is empty...)...

From today's Office of Readings, St. Ambrose:Why do you turn your face away? We think that God has turned his face away from us when we find ourselves suffering, so that shadows overwhelm our feelings and stop our eyes from...

The grass is there, but patchy. The stone is there, too. His name, etched as if on the pages of an open book. It was not my first choice, but I did not notice that design at first. When I...

Sometimes Daddy comes in my dreams.Does he say anything?Yes.What does he say?I don't remember....

(Update: Jack Smith at the Catholic Key blog has an excellent roundup of this week's past and coming events on this issue, including news about the presser which I mentioned below...which happened this morning.) Tomorrow is the day for a...

The new issue of Dappled Things is out, and includes and interview with Carlos Eire.Who is that, you say?Well, Eire is the author of a book I have had on my list for ages now, but somehow have never managed...

As I blogged before, my friend Matthew Lickona is hard at work on his multi-part graphic novel Alphonse. He has taken matters into his own hands and is self-publishing the work, and since he is the writer, that means he...

And you think there's something wrong with a dinner of cream cheese, crackers, cantaloupe, apple juice and yogurt? Bring it!(as in "be my guest to bring something else")Spying on the neighbors:In all the time I've spent in Florida, on...

I thought it would be interesting to take a little tour through the last four Sunday Masses I've attended.I would say, first of all, that  worries about the loss of the universality of the Mass after V2 are sorely misplaced....

Or, as I call it, "meds"...

I broke down and bought one, not at Mount Etna, but at one of the souvenir stalls outside the Archaelogical Park in Siracusa:I have to admit, seen alone, when not lined up in the midst of dozens of other similarly-glittered-up...

All over Sicily, we lit candles for Daddy.In Erice: In Siracusa: (Santuario Madonna delle Lacrime) In Modica:..and some other places.  Not as many as they would have liked. Partly because in most of the churches we were able to get...

This is not to be morbid or obsessed, I promise.It's just that the cemeteries in Sicily fascinated me. Perhaps this type of arrangement, this landscape is common in southern Europe or Italy. I don't know.  It was a bit like...

Carmelite church, Scicli, Sicily, Italy....

Improvise I really need to pay more attention to what they're up to....

Okay, okay...not a parable. A saying. Got it. On the western coast of Sicily, they harvest salt. Not as much as they used to, but they do , indeed, still do it.(The tiles are placed, obviously, to hold the salt...

Or, actually, weeds among the chickpeas.I have written a bit about the agriturismo at which we stayed - and which I absolutely plan to return at some point - the Sillitti Farm, owned by Sylvia and Bruno (photos here)....

The Good Shepherd: South of Caltinessetta, Sicily...

I am slowly getting back into the groove. I am not exhausted or even tired, and no one else is either. I was fairly efficient in unpacking - unusual.  it's just that there have been and are things to do...

On our way from the agriturismo (south of Caltanissetta) to the beach place in the south, we took a bit of a long way, via Caltagirone, very famous for its production of ceramics. The stair steps are quite well-known: Photo...

As I mentioned, I've been up for a while, everyone else is asleep, I just got that work I had to do finished, so let's post pics and blog madly with this fantastic Wi-fi here in Charlotte.I really liked Barcelona...

Currently at the Charlotte airport, on the last leg of this crazy itinerary. Tried to get an earlier flight from here to BHM, but it was overbooked anyway. (Thanks, Gashwin for your advice!)Katie and Michael are crashed on the floor....

I'm so confused. I keep wanting to say Ciao. The Sardana, danced in the Cathedral square after noon Mass: And adios from two now-experienced Barcelona public transit navigators, using up that final T-10 ride on a last look at Sagrada...

Well, not really a manifesto. But anyway...Down at the port, Barcelona....

Buying the boys little notebooks to take along on this trip was genius, if I do say so myself. They forget them a third of the time, drop them while crossing streets a few times a day, but all in...

And I got them...Gracias!...

On a backstreet in Barcelona....

Today began with rain in Barcelona. And continued. And kept going. And still kept falling, even after we had decided it was tapering off, then emerged from the subway station into the midst of umbrella-sellers (I cannot possibly reproduce with...

I have to say, first off, that I know next to nothing about Spain. I have an interest in some aspects of Spanish history especially the Counter Reformation and the Spanish Civil War,  but had never really thought about it...

Glad to be here, for many reasons, including a decent little washer-dryer combination (one of those that does both functions in the same machine.) Was going to go to Montserrat, but I think we're worn out enough from day...

He's everywhere.No, not Michael Jackson.Padre Pio.Yes, I knew he was popular. Yes, I knew Italians loved him. But I had no idea almost every church I would enter would hold an image of Padre Pio. I have to say, I...

Yes, I left my camera in the apartment this morning as we set out for Modica. Durn. There would have been some good photos there. Ah, well, I photographed it with my brain, I hope.This southeastern part of Sicily is...

The text is here.Preparatory reading Populorum Progressio, Paul VI's 1967 encyclical, which is a primary reference point in this one. I have to say right out that I am never sure what the ultimate point and effect of an encyclical...

Yesterday was a beachy sort of day - and I'm also very glad to report that yesterday I discovered that what looked like a hole-in-the-wall down the road is really a nifty little pizzeria/tavola calda that does excellent pizzas in...

Or just south of it. Acres and acres..er..hectares and hectares.I need to try this before I leave......

It's Sunday night, I'm sitting here on the front porch of our little apartment in a beach town on the southern coast of Sicily. Sitting out here not only because it is comfortable, but because it is the best place...

..or there..Lost internet for a couple of days, but it's back. It's been quite interesting. Going to Mass by the sea - a special Mass they have at 8:30 on Sunday nights literally right around the corner from our apartment....

The duomo, which is interesting for many reasons, including the visible evidence of various stages of construction and restoration. The mosaics give way to baroque decoration, which has been removed from the rest of the church in order to better...

It's early morning here. I've just hung out a load of laundry in the sunny, slightly cool morning air - there's a breeze, so it will dry fairly quickly, in time for us to pack it up and move on.Everyone...

Because nothing says "charming, busy medieval beach town" better than a stuffed....something.From here. An enjoyable little museum containing the Baron's personal collection. Art, archaeological finds, coins, seashells and....critters. I really enjoy these small Italian museums in which they hand...

Joseph: "I wish we could have Sicily and America mixed together..."Me: "Why?"Joseph: "Because then we wouldn't have to eat so late!"Rest assured, we had food back here at the apartment. No waiting until 9 to eat was necessary for the...

Moving on tomorrow (Friday) to another destination. We are loathe to leave this:  But are hopeful that as we move on, the next spot will hold experiences just as interesting and rewarding.Because really, what else can you do? ...

So yes, today was Mount Etna.Totally worth it, as the kids say. Totally.I had promised several things, including castles and volcanos. That's out of the way. I had also promised  puppets, but I don't know if that's going to happen...

When it comes to buying souvenirs, I am usually all for the tacky. My dad and mom went to London right after the Diana/Charles marriage, and I asked them to bring me back the tackiest thing they could find...

Joseph demonstrates his muscles at Mt. Etna.And you know what? Yeah, it's volcanic, and it's really light, and it's a joke, but he is strong. He is....

"We haven't watched television in over a week." "And we'll take anything..even if it's in Italian..."...