This, I learned, is what the NHS is about -- common decency. It is about the shared belief that all the people who live in the United Kingdom constitute a society, and a decent society provides certain necessities for its members. Freedom from hunger is one. Police protection is another. Free healthcare from the cradle to the grave is simply one more item on this list.
--Stephen Amidon, Salon
Man is the Rational, Transrational, and Irrational Animal
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If human beings are the rational animal, then it follows that "we need to
understand what it is to be rational and what it is to be an animal"
(Feser). A...
10 hours ago
8 comments:
Hello Nagarjuna.
Just dropping by to touch base on a personal note. But I will share some of my beliefs in regards to this quote of the day, too.
My husband has a wireless pc card for work and I use it when I need to. However he travels a good bit so its not always readily accessible to me. Yes, we have a family farm and my husband travels for business. So, when he his home you can only imagine how busy things are around our place.
I chose a while back to altogether drop my internet/phone LAN line and just go completely cellular for cost reasons. It hinders me at times but for the most part its been a good decision for me.
This weekend I'll be able to sign up with yahoo and jump into your discussion board. That will be new to me and I do hope that it will be mobile friendly.
Also, I don't know if you noticed, but I did obtain a blog through google. I was able to get that far by phone alone, but think I need to be in front of a pc to move forward with designing it. I'm going to mess around with that this weekend, too. I'm not too thrilled with what I named it...I guess I had the farm and gardening on my mind when I did so. I'm not certain where I will go with it (the blog). I kinda feel that blogging about my experiences outdoors would be boring to anyone else, but I also figure its a good way to get my feet wet with using a personal blog. Also, blogging about the outdoors and the farm is something my son and husband can take an interest in and contribute, too.
What do you think? I only ask bc you obviously have some experience with blogging.
Any advice with the personal blog would be much appreciated.
Peace and love to you and your family.
Coonhound, thank you for dropping by. Of course, I hope you realize that you're welcome to e-mail me too with your personal notes. Perhaps you're reluctant to do that, but I assure you that I won't bite. :-)
You will be most welcome to participate in my discussion forum. It's been pretty quiet there, but maybe if you come on board and we all make more of an effort to discuss things there, things will pick up. I too hope that it's user friendly for you and your smartphone.
As for blogging, I agree that it would be better for you to use a computer to design your blog. Afterward, I'm guessing it should be relatively easy for you to post to it and manage its functions mostly with a smartphone. I say "I'm guessing," because I've never owned a smartphone and probably would never be able to figure out how to use one if I did. :-) But I understand that hosts such as Blogger make it pretty easy to manage a blog with any kind of access to the Internet.
Your blog title is fine. It suggests that your entries are likely to be of predominately "sunny" disposition, which I think many people will like. But the title is generic enough that you don't have to write only about farmimg and family. I guess you need to figure out what your blog's purpose is and tailor its content to that purpose, especially if you're looking to attract a loyal and growing audience. If, on the other hand, you're using your blog as a place just to say what's on your mind about your family life and everything else that catches your fancy, you don't need to concern yourself at all with how you manage your blog other than, I suppose, wanting to make it at least moderately appealing to yourself and perhaps to others esthetically.
In time, you might even consider separate blogs for separate kinds of content. I plan to soon launch a blog devoted entirely to the free will vs determinism issue.
In any case, I wish you well with your blogging enterprise, Coonhound.
I'm more inclined to lean towards healthcare as being a privilage and not a constitutional right for americans.
But I also believe that morally it should be at least more accessible to all americans.
Also, I do not believe the constitution was intended to provide people with government funded healthcare.
BUT it does guarantee life, liberty and justice, as you pointed out in another blog. So, to me it is not out of the question to believe that the writers of our Constitution did NOT intend to "exclude" such an idea of universal healthcare.I believe that their intent was to allow for our democratic system to determine such things as our needs evolve as a society. Also, the writers were aware that as our democractic nation evolved, so would the needs of our citizens. Obviously our country has hit a WALL and that is unjust to us all.
I would like to see a system that places human need above capitalism. Sure, cost efficiency is important no matter what the system. But I don't understand why its SO important to make such "aggressive advancements" in cures and pills when there is clearly a need to strengthen our ability to provide day to day care and prevention.
I am not dismissing the importance of medical investment in order to make advancements in medicine.
Rather, prevention and accessibilty for today appears to be more critical for the good of all citizens.
I strongly believe that the USA is wealthy and stable enough to do so. And feel that we have a duty as a society to provide at the very least a minimal amount of care and assurance to all our citizens.
There is too much waste and red tape... Too much political warfare on "the Hill." Too much profit for a few at the cost of so many as a whole.
I have come in contact with so many hard working americans that our heavily burdened, financially and emotionally, by cost and insurance policy restrictions.
I have truely lost much respect and faith in regards to a healthcare system built on capitalism.
Well, that's just some of my feelings on that matter.
Bye.
Coonhound, I confess that I have considerable difficulty understanding the idea that healthcare is only a privilege, like driving, and not a right, like the right to police protection and public education. And I'm afraid that as long as a significant segment of our politicians and the public at large looks at it this way, we will never get REAL healthcare reform. I believe that we must become committed to the bedrock principle that healthcare is a RIGHT and then do whatever we have to do to provide it to everyone.
But I agree with you that we need to be much more focused on prevention than on intervention, and that this can be facilitated by better health education in and out of school and by social measures to encourage healthier lifesyles. Dr Andrew Weil has written an excellent book addressing these issues.
Thanks for your response and encouragement on my blog.
I won't be able to see your email address until I get my yahoo ID. Lol, I'm not concerned with your bite:) You and so many others have truely been a pleasure to converse with. (Yuck, a hanging prepostion...oh, well)
I am really looking forward to your free-will vs determinism blog. I so enjoyed philospohy and the debate of it when I was in college. But then found out that most people ouside of an academic setting do not fancy such debates or discussions.
I obviously do need to brush up a bit though. But I will enjoy doing so!!!
Here is an interesting fact about "coonhound"...
I originally was going to pursue a political science degree in college.
After my first year it became evident that it was not a passion. Rather I wanted to pursue the study of philossphy in conjuction with the history of religion.
I received a very, very negative reaction from my father. At that time I was unable for many reasons to go against his feelings and opinions. So, I ended up getting a business degree.
So you can see that it is no wonder that I have taken a "fancy" to our discussions.
I do have a suggestion Nagarjuna.
It would be nice to be able to easily get to a page where you list the books you have read with a brief commentary as to why you believe its worth reading.
You have suggested a few books to me and I must honestly say that I have not kept note of them. But that doesn't mean I'm not interested...I am, very much so.
The other day I bought this at Borders:
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
By William L. Shirer
One last thing...
If you converse with denise through email in the next day or so, please send her my salutations and tell her I miss her. I will definitely be staying clear from where we all first met...too much darkness overshadows the joy. I'm done with that nonsense.
If you don't mind to do so...let denise know that I will be checking in on your blog. I don't want to fill your blog up with personal chatter, but maybe you can send her this page so she can say "hey" to me.
But I understand either way. I'm still learning "the robes".
:)
FYI
Nice resource for free books to read on-line.
I ran into it while searching for a book written in early 1900's.
http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Gutenberg:No_Cost_or_Freedom%3F
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