This weekend, think about the “financialization” of our democracy.
It’s not that difficult to understand. Our democracy has been weakened because our politicians
have surrendered themselves to the global 1%.
Money governs. That’s your inspiration
for today’s homily.
The margins for conducting political
dissent have disappeared. And trying to find middle ground to pass legislation
is nearly impossible. Politics has become just marketing. And most politicians
have become part of the financial system: They are political entrepreneurs selling
just to make a buck.
Willy Loman says in Death of a
Salesman:
you the law or give you medicine. He’s a man way out there in the blue, riding
on a smile and a shoeshine
Willy Loman discovers
there’s a problem:
that’s an earthquake. And then you get yourself a couple of spots on your hat,
and you’re finished…
America is out there in the blue. It’s time for the earthquake.
The decline in our working environment never ends:
Politicians have trouble with CVS’ decision:
Political and dating advice: Don’t use Huck as your wingman:
Leno hurts job statistics:
Security is tight at the Sochi Olympics:
I am still amazed at what Mike Huckabee said. Which is that (for Democrats) the it is female libido that is the issue, that it is about women who need sex and must have it so often that they need to take a pill to prevent pregnancy. And Democrats want us to pay for the pills.
To begin with, lets start with whose libido this is about. Birth control was never about women’s libido. As a teenager in the 60s, I heard lots of stories about women who had bundles of children in the days before the pill. So finally, with birth control, women could accept their partner’s advances and not get pregnant. And it WAS the partner who pushed the issue. As a man married now for 37 years, I can tell you that it was my team doing the urging, so our libido.
The ACA mandates the purchase of insurance, and in most cases, these policies are not inexpensive. I ran a sample cost for NJ for a family of four with 2 adults and 2 children – I also used income over $100k so that the plan was not subsidized. My sample plan would cost from $8500 to $9500 and my out of pocket maximum could be $12,000. So, after paying $8500, what about birth control? To encourage preventive care the ACA created a list of treatments, tests and so forth that policies must cover up front, before the deductible. The list includes colonoscopies, mammograms, chemotherapy to prevent breast cancer and birth control pills. Birth control pills are part of preventive care for most adult women under 50, and to be frank, it is a lot cheaper that the cost of having a baby. Nor is there anything new in mandating that insurance coverage include birth control. But the right has made an issue anyway, and the Catholic Church has seen fit to make noise as well.
The press has dropped the ball here. The media may skew center left but it is hardly a shill for Obama. And this issue is the perfect example.
In today’s homily, the Wrongologist proves, as have countless others, that Willie Loman is a prophet for our time. Even as we continue a slow slide down the slippery slope, still most of us don’t grasp that the bottom of the hill is waste land as far as the middle class is concerned. God bless us every one