The
Obama administration has broadened the scope of what it wants to
dismiss as unrealistic, utopian and unpragmatic, i.e. as for all
practical purposes impossible. These claims have typically been
accompanied by the assurance that “This is not something that Americans
would go for – it’s not the American way.” Obama’s case against a
single payer health care system is a conspicuous case in point. His
position on this issue features weak arguments and serious factual
errors.
The Alleged Impossibility of Universal Health Care
President Obama, in his visit to China, held a "town meeting" with
Chinese students in which he praised openness and lectured them on the
value of freedom of information, saying that he is a "supporter of
non-censorship" and that open access to information was a "source of
strength."
Last month, the Pew Research Center released its latest poll of public
attitudes on global warming. On its face, the news was not good: Belief
that global warming is occurring had declined from 71 percent
in April of 2008 to 56 percent in October - an astonishing drop in just
18 months. The belief that global warming is human-caused declined from
47 percent to 36 percent.
Ever since I started meeting jihadis, I have been struck by one thing - their
Britishness. I am from the East End of London, and at some point in the past
decade I became used to hearing a hoarse and angry whisper of jihadism on
the streets where I live. Bearded young men stand outside the library
calling for "The Rule of God" and "Death to Democracy".
I have stopped hating Thanksgiving and
learned to be afraid of the holiday.
People who read my work often say, “Okay, so it’s clear you don’t
like this culture, but what do you want to replace it?” The answer is
that I don’t want any one culture to replace this culture. I want ten
thousand cultures to replace this culture, each one arising organically
from its own place. That’s how humans inhabited the planet (or, more
precisely, their landbases, since each group inhabited a place, and not the whole world, which is precisely the point), before this culture set about reducing all cultures to one.
In America -- in my country
-- I fear we are losing the battle for our humanity. Some say we have
already lost it.
Deep down I think they may
be right.
Such is the level of violence,
voyeurism and detachment displayed this October in Richmond, California,
when at least two dozen students cheered, laughed or simply stood by
and watched as a 15-year-old girl was repeatedly raped, beaten and brutalized
by an "unknown number of assailants."
"What is seen with one eye has no depth."
I'm thinking, as I ponder the wisdom of Ursula LeGuin, that American culture is at the end of what it can accomplish with its single-eyed vision. For all our material progress, for all our ability to dominate just about anything or anyone we encounter -- this is our history, our manifest destiny -- things are falling apart in every sector of society.
We’re driving down Highway One in deep south USA, alongside Bayou Layforche in Louisiana - the old course of the Mississippi river. We’ve nearly finished filming our story about the disappearing communities of the wetlands alongside the Gulf of Mexico. They’re being forced out by a rising sea and by man’s destruction of this precious environment.
There’s one more element we need - some people speaking Cajun French. It’s proven harder than we thought - it’s a disappearing culture. Only the older folk still talk the old way.
Living on the doorstep of Acadia National Park, my family hardly needs to be reminded that national parks are a good idea. But are they America’s best idea, as Ken Burns’ PBS documentary suggests?
Scott Klinger and Rebecca Adamson of the First People’s Alliance challenge Burns’ unequivocal enthusiasm. They credit Burns for acknowledging the violence against first peoples that stains the history of our parks. But for them the problem with the parks endures.
