These past weeks have witnessed much dysfunction in the federal government of the United States. I think that the Motely Fool has a few good points to make about it in their recent posting titled "What You Need to Know About the Debt-Ceiling Crisis". Here are a few excerpts:
The only use of an obstacle is to be overcome. All that an obstacle does with brave men is, not to frighten them, but to challenge them. -Woodrow Wilson
On a more personal level I had been experiencing a lot of muscle pains (especially in my legs) for the past month or so. I kept telling myself that it was just because I was not getting enough exercise. On Monday morning I woke up with a new thought - what if Trilipix, my cholesterol drug, was causing my muscles problems. I googled the drug and found that muscle pain was a side effect of it. I have been so much better since I stopped ingesting it.
I love the idea that the love and the will of God involves making us perfect like Him. I wish that it was not so but I think that we would never change except for pain. Pain is designed to bring us all to a place of humility. The helplessness felt often causes us to pray. I believe that this is in part why the Apostle Paul said that he was strong when he was weak."Love, in its own nature, demands the perfecting of the beloved; that the mere 'kindness' which tolerates anything except suffering in its object is, in that respect, at the opposite pole from Love. When we fall in love with a woman, do we cease to care whether she is clean or dirty, fair or foul? Do we not rather then first begin to care? Does any woman regard it as a sign of love in a man that he neither knows nor cares how she is looking? Love may, indeed, love the beloved when her beauty is lost: but not because it is lost. Love may forgive all infirmities and love still in spite of them: but Love cannot cease to will their removal."
I think it’s important to say that. We obsess in this country about how to eat and dress and drink, about finding a job and a mate. About having sex and children. About how to live. But we don’t talk about how to die. We act as if facing death weren’t one of life’s greatest, most absorbing thrills and challenges. Believe me, it is. This is not dull. But we have to be able to see doctors and machines, medical and insurance systems, family and friends and religions as informative — not governing — in order to be free.
Not much going on today at Northwestern Hospital in Chicago. Ann has been getting chemo all week - number six today. Sunday will be a day of rest and then a brand new immune system will be born on Monday - click the NMO pic on the top of the sidebar for more info.
This morning I heard a man associated with the Wounded Warrior Project using the term "Invisible Injury". It got me to thinking about how so many wounds are intensely felt but cannot be seen. In a world that fixates on visible wounds it is good to remember the following excerpt from the book, "Surviving and Other Essays." "What cannot be talked about cannot be put to rest. And if it is not, the wounds will fester from generation to generation."The book was written by Bruno Bettelheim, a concentration camp survivor who took his pain and became a child psychiatrist. Yet in the end, Mr Bettelheim suffered from depression as he battled the aftermath of his wife's death and the effects of a stroke which impaired his mental abilities and paralyzed part of his body. He was 86 when he committed suicide.
Yesterday Jessie Becker, Netflix's vice president of marketing, announced that rates are going up again at that juggernaut of all things video. They are splitting their DVD and streaming services and each will cost you $7.99 per month - a total of $15.98 if you have both plans. I read a few of the over one thousand (and counting) comment reactions on Mr Baker's blog post and found this one to be interesting:Yes, be a good service long enough to run Mom and Pop video stores (and even Blockbuster) into bankruptcy, then once things are looking up, the gloves are off and aimed at the customers.I had not thought about that aspect of this announcement. I have to admit that the end result here seems to agree with that comment. I know that I have not used my Blockbuster account since I joined Netflix. I guess I am wondering if the new rates have been in the mind of Netflix strategists all along or if they have simply found themselves in a place where they can cash in big time. As for me, I doubt that I will keep the streaming services but I may stay with the DVDs as we generally watch a DVD or two a week.
On the positive side Mr Chapman is open about his intentions. Yet I doubt that many will go into the movie theater knowing of his intentions. Even so I would welcome conversations about the movie. Perhaps I will add it to my Netflix DVD queue. Never know when a sincere atheist will want to talk about it with me. What do you think about such movies?"My hope was to make an emotional appeal."
"Really, The Ledge is at the beginning of a movement toward more open discussion of atheism and agnosticism."
"There are a lot of us; we are thinking people; we care about many of the same issues as believers, and yet we are rarely heard and widely hated."
"I hope atheists who are still in the closet will take heart from the film and think. I am not alone."
He goes on to describe this faction saying that "The members of this movement:"But we can have no confidence that the Republicans will seize this opportunity. That’s because the Republican Party may no longer be a normal party. Over the past few years, it has been infected by a faction that is more of a psychological protest than a practical, governing alternative.
