An entertaining debate on whether the Catholic Church is a force for good in the world today.  The video is in five parts.  I’ve posted the first part here.  Here are the numbers for those for/against/undecided BEFORE the debate and the numbers AFTER the debate.  The motion put forth is:  The Catholic Church is a force for good in the world.

Results:

Before the debate:

• For the  Motion:  678
• Against the Motion: 1102
• Undecided: 346

After the Debate:

• For the Motion:  268
• Against the Motion: 1876
• Undecided:  34

Difference:

• For: -410
• Against: +774

Money quotes:

I’m slightly disappointed that anyone would say, “Ohhhh I knew they would bring up condoms, child rape, and homosexuality.  It’s a bit like a burglar in court saying I knew you would bring up that burglary or that manslaughter, you never mention the fact I gave my father a birthday present!  There is a reason we hammer home these issues, it is because they matter.  (Stephen Fry)

When my children were young I would have been proud to have Stephen as my babysitter and tell them they were lucky.  And if anyone came to my door wearing holy orders I would call first a cab then I would call the police. (Christopher Hitchens)

Somone must have traduced Joseph K., for without having done anything wrong he was arrested one fine morning…Who could these men be?  What were they talking about?  What authority could they represent?  K. lived in a country with a legal constitution, there was univeral peace, all the laws were in force; who dared seize him in his own dwelling?…”What are your papers to us?”  cried the tall warder…”We are humble subordinates who can scarcely find our way through a legal document and have nothing to do with your case except to stand guard over you for ten hours a day and draw our pay for it.  That’s all we are, but we’re quite capable of grasping the fact that the high authorities we serve, before they would order such an arrest as this, must be quite well informed about the reasons for the arrest and the person of the prisoner.  There can be no mistake about that.  Our officials, so far as I know them, and I know only the lowest grades among them, never go hunting for crime in the populace, but, as the Law decrees, are drawn toward the guilty and must then send out us as warders.  This is the Law.  How could there be a mistake in that?  (Franz Kafka, The Trial)

It is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law… (Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

I think we ought to only read the kind of books that wound and stab us.  If the book we are reading doesn’t wake us up with a blow on the head, what are we reading it for?  So that it will make us happy, as you write?…We would be happy precisely if we had no books, and the kind of books that make us happy are the kind we could write ourselves if we had to.  But we need the books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like a suicide.  A book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside of us.  (Franz Kafka, Letters to Friends, Family, and Editors)

We had to learn ourselves and, furthermore, we had to teach the despairing men, that it did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us.  We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life–daily and hourly.  Our answer must exist, not in talk and meditation, but in right action and right conduct.  Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answers to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets before each individual.

A Canadian doctor diagnoses U.S. Healthcare.  Read about it here.

Money quote:

American democracy runs on money. Pharmaceutical and insurance companies have the fuel. Analysts see hundreds of billions of premiums wasted on overhead that could fund care for the uninsured. But industry executives and shareholders see bonuses and dividends.

Compounding the confusion is traditional American ignorance of what happens north of the border, which makes it easy to mislead people. Boilerplate anti-government rhetoric does the same. The U.S. media, legislators and even presidents have claimed that our “socialized” system doesn’t let us choose our own doctors. In fact, Canadians have free choice of physicians. It’s Americans these days who are restricted to “in-plan” doctors.

Unfortunately, many Americans won’t get to hear the straight goods because vested interests are promoting a caricature of the Canadian experience.

Listen here as Bill Moyers sits down with Wendell Potter, former Vice President of CIGNA, to discuss healthcare in America.

Also check this out:

‘Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God.’…. Let us dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago: to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world.”