News for today's 2018

THE NUMB BLOW FALLEN IN THE STUMBLING NIGHT: WHEN LIFE HURTS, WE ASK "WHY?" BUT DO WE REALLY WANT AN ANSWER? YES & NO

5:07 PM Tukiyooo 0

<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; font-family: Consolas;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Consolas, monospace; font-size: 12px;"><div>GOD OF OUR SILENT TEARS IS NOW AVAILABLE FROM THE CATHEDRAL BOOKSTORE (LOS ANGELES)</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://cathedral-bookstore.myshopify.com/">http://cathedral-bookstore.myshopify.com/</a></div><div>Phone number is 213.482.2040, ext. 228</div><div>bookstore@ladiocese.org</div><div><br /></div><div>Coming soon to Amazon.</div><div><br /></div><div>            <div class="WordSection1"> <div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial;">CHAPTER 1:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial;">THE NUMB BLOW FALLEN IN THE STUMBLING NIGHT:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-family: Arial;">WHY DO WE SUFFER?<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><i><span style="font-family: Arial;">With these hands I lifted him from his cradle, tiny then, soft and warm, and squirming with life. Now at the end with these same hands I touched him in his coffin.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 3.5in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 2.5in;"><i><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></i><span style="font-family: Arial;">Nicolas Wolterstorff, <i>Lament For A Son</i><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><i><span style="font-family: Arial;">If I knew! If I knew </span></i><span style="font-family: Arial;">why<i>!<o:p></o:p></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><i><span style="font-family: Arial;">What I can’t bear is . . . the blindness . . .<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><i><span style="font-family: Arial;">Meaninglessness . . . the numb blow<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><i><span style="font-family: Arial;">Fallen in the stumbling night.</span></i><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 2.0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Archibald MacLeish, <i>J. B.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">When I walked into her hospital room, the young woman was lying there in her hospital gown, her forehead damp from the physical ordeal of labor and delivery, her cheeks damp from the tears. She reached her hands toward me and called out a single desperate question: “Why?” The stark simplicity of her question made it huge, absolutely impossible. It haunts me now, a decade later. I said, “I don’t know.” <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Months earlier the young couple announced they were expecting their first child. As their priest, I was looking forward to the baptism. But at the end of a full-term normal pregnancy, the baby was born dead. And her mother wanted to know why.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">The pregnancy had gone smoothly. The baby girl had seemed healthy. There was no sign of any pathology at the birth. The baby was simply dead. In the absence of any other explanation for a stillbirth, doctors say, “It was a cord accident.” Maybe it was. But that answer is just something for doctors to say. When there is no other explanation for a stillbirth, “cord accident” is the default diagnosis, not a verifiable fact. It doesn’t really answer anything. If the doctors cannot give a reliable medical explanation, how is a pastor to decipher the mystery of death? Still, I would have given a fortune for something – anything -- to say. I had no theological equivalent of “a cord accident.” So I said, “I don’t know.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial;">Wanting Our Faith To Make Sense. </span></b><span style="font-family: Arial;">When life disappoints us deeply in ways that make so little sense, we ask “why?” For those who believe in God, senseless sorrow shakes our faith. We lose not only a child, a lover, a hope, but also our sense that life is good and meaningful. We lose our faith. We want faith to make sense. We need our beliefs to be reasonable so we can trust them. Disasters don’t fit with our trust in God’s benevolent care. They make belief in an all-powerful loving God appear absurd. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Philosophers and theologians call the disconnect between faith in God and all the bad things that happen “the problem of evil.” Right off, we have trouble with the vocabulary because philosophers and theologians use the word “evil” with a special meaning. Most people today use “evil” to mean seriously immoral behavior. In ordinary speech, we would not use the word “evil” to describe a medical condition or a natural disaster. But traditionally, “evil” has meant anything that is not as it ought to be. It could mean any kind of “bad” – bad weather, bad health, bad luck. “Evil” is very much like “malignant.” In the law “malignant” means something akin to malice; but in medicine a cancerous tumor is called “malignant.” Just so, “evil” can be used both in moral and other ways. The term an “evil day” in times past meant a day with bad weather or a day on which our army was defeated. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">            <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">That is how the philosophers and theologians use the word. So when we talk about “evil,” we mean sickness, natural disasters, and misfortune as well as people doing cruel things to each other. Rabbi Kushner used the phrase “bad things.” This book will use a variety of words to describe a variety of “bad things,” but it will also use “evil,” the way philosophers and theologians have been using it since the 1700’s, as an umbrella concept to include all of them.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">“The problem of evil” challenges faith. The challenge goes like this: “If God is omnipotent and God is good, then why is there evil in the world?”<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1941566034196038608#_edn1" name="_ednref1" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">[i]</span></span></span></a>Logically, it would seem that one of the following must be true: 1. God is not all-powerful. 2. God is not all good. 3. There is not really any evil in the world.<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1941566034196038608#_edn2" name="_ednref2" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">[ii]</span></span></span></a>You see “the problem of evil” is a serious threat to the faith of those who believe in a loving God. The poet, Czeslaw Milosz put it better:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">All my life I tried to answer the question, where does evil come from?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Impossible that people should suffer so much, if God is in Heaven<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">And nearby.<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1941566034196038608#_edn3" name="_ednref3" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">[iii]</span></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">            The problem of evil has been called “the rock of atheism.” Atheistic philosophers from David Hume in the 18<sup>th</sup>Century to John Mackie in our day have argued that this “problem of evil” makes belief in God irrational.<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1941566034196038608#_edn4" name="_ednref4" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">[iv]</span></span></span></a>  Theologian Gordon Kaufman, summed it up: “In the face of death camps, hydrogen bombs, and napalm, of unbearably painful and destructive diseases, of impersonal calamities and unmerited suffering, how can one say that the Ruler of the world is good, loving, or merciful . . .? The particularly overwhelming evils of the twentieth century have brought home this dimension of the problem of God with renewed force.”<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1941566034196038608#_edn5" name="_ednref5" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">[v]</span></span></span></a>Bart Ehrman’s book, <i>God’s Problem, </i>is his account of how the horrible things that happen to people make it impossible for him to believe in God. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">            <b>Our First Inner Conflict: Do We Want To Believe God Is In Charge? </b>The “problem of evil” runs deeper in our hearts than a logical conundrum in our heads. It is a matter of our conflicted longing. Do we want to believe God is in charge of what is happening or not? The “problem of evil,” at the feeling level, lies in our conflicted desires. On the one hand, we want God to intervene – to part the Red Sea when it blocks our way, to heal our diseases, cast out our demons, and raise our dead.  We need help finding our car keys, paying our bills, and keeping our tempers. We want a higher power to liberate us from alcohol. We want to turn it over, to let go and let God. All of that requires God to be both powerful and actively involved in our lives, even arranging occasional miracles to save our necks.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">            On the other hand, if God is powerful enough and involved enough to help us, then aren’t our problems his fault to begin with? Where was God when things went wrong? If God can help us, why hasn’t he already done it? What kind of a God would insist that we crawl and beg before he helps, and sometimes he won’t help even then. Better to think God is powerless or uninvolved. Such a God would be innocent and perhaps likeable, but not particularly important or even relevant to our lives. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24.0pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">            Then to confuse things further, miracle, wonder, and serendipity come along. Grace happens just often enough that we can’t dismiss the notion that God may be lending us a hand on occasion. Why then does God act only on occasion? Believing God could deliver us from suffering actually implicates God in our suffering.  A man trapped in the World Trade Center on September 11 prayed to be saved. He was saved, but his response wasn’t gratitude. This is his story:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span> <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">                        “Lord help me please,” he prayed, the primal prayer.  “Then,” he <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">                        said, “I feel like this strange force came over me, that I never felt <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">                        before. . . and I busted a little hole [and crawled out].<b> </b>. . My Lord <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">                        upheld this building.  Then we were in perfect safety, and the <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">                        building collapsed.  And here I am.  God delivered.  And I’m angry. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">                        Angry because all these good people who were there, all these <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">                        good people were left in this building.  So I’m angry.”</span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1941566034196038608#_edn6" name="_ednref6" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[vi]</span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24.0pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">If God can save but doesn’t, we have to blame him. But blaming God for suffering is problematic. If God is our ideal, our highest concept, what we strive to resemble, then blaming God for suffering actually corrupts our souls. Emulating the person we blame is a mind-twister, so we are inclined to say God cannot do anything about real world problems. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24.0pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">            Despairing of God’s ability to do anything about our suffering is practical atheism. God may exist but he does not matter. I know two people who each lost a child to death. One of them dealt with his loss by trusting that God caused his daughter’s early death for a greater good. The other bereaved parent exonerated God of her child’s death, insisting God does not run the world. Their opposite answers each helped them cope for awhile, but neither answer was truly adequate. The first answer made God a killer. The second made God a helpless bystander. Which one deserves our worship?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; line-height: 24pt;">          </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">            We can escape this dilemma by simply rejecting God. Indeed, if we want to reject God, the persistence of misfortune can give us reason to do so. We can say there is no God or that God is not good. Those responses, however, are not particularly helpful when it comes to finding ways to survive, to find the meaning in our experiences, or to overcome the obstacles that hold us back in life. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">            Perhaps the “overwhelming evils of the twentieth century” may lead us to re-think who God is instead of giving up on faith and succumbing to despair. This book will present such an alternative. Instead of using life’s sorrow as an occasion to deny God, we will <i>reconsider who God is</i>. We will use this occasion to find a truer, more praiseworthy God, a God who will empower us to overcome hardship and affliction.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">            <b>Our Second Inner Conflict: Do We Really Want An Answer To The Question “Why”? </b>There is another matter of the heart that makes it exceedingly difficult to come to terms with tragedy. On the one hand, we desperately need to makes sense of what has happened; on the other hand, we refuse to make sense of it because that implies accepting things we know are unacceptable. We are torn. Let’s look at both sides of this inner conflict.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">            Finding meaning in tragedy is vital if we are to keep breathing and putting one foot in front of the other. Victor Frankl learned an important lesson as a death camp prisoner in World War II: the people most likely to survive were those who managed to find some meaning in their struggle. So Frankl developed new kind of psychotherapy that consisted of helping people find the positive value in their pain.<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1941566034196038608#_edn7" name="_ednref7" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">[vii]</span></span></span></a> People survive by making some kind of sense of even the most senseless things that happen to us. Christians look to God for an explanation. We look to God to redeem our loss with a plan that leads to a greater good. Countless Christians over the centuries have consoled themselves at gravesides with such phrases as “It’s God’s will” or “The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 0in .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in 6.5in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">But there is the other side of this dilemma to deal with. Can we love a Lord who “giveth and taketh away” in arbitrary and sometimes cruel ways? Do such platitudes urge us to accept things we should not accept, things our hearts rebel against. Dostoevsky’s character, Ivan Karamazov, refused to accept religious justifications for the unspeakable suffering he saw. In an argument with his pious brother, Aloysha, Ivan rejected faith for this precise reason. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 0in .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in 6.5in; text-indent: .5in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 0in .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in 6.5in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">For the sake of argument, he conceded that maybe, in some mysterious way, God will someday make everything wonderful. He even conceded, for the sake of argument, that the sufferings people endure now are in some unknown way a necessary part of the plan that will lead to cosmic bliss for all. Even so, he found God immoral for using suffering to accomplish his ends. Ivan refused to be complicit in God’s immorality by accepting grace through faith. He recounted cases of children brutally tortured and murdered. Even if all will be set right and healed someday, and even if these atrocities were somehow necessary to an eternal harmony, Ivan insisted, that makes God no less monstrous.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 0in .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in 6.5in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">            “I challenge, you, let’s assume you were called upon to build the edifice of          <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">            human destiny so that men would finally be happy and find tranquility. If you        <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">            knew that, in order to attain this, you would have to torture just one single             </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">            creature, let’s say the little girl who beat her breast so desperately in the outhouse, </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">            and that on her unavenged tears you could build that edifice, would   </span><span style="font-family: Arial;">you do it? </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">           Tell me and do not lie!”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial; text-indent: 0.5in;">            “No, I would not,” Aloysha said softly.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial; text-indent: 0.5in;">              “And do you find acceptable the idea that those for whom you are building that edifice should                                                                                       </span><span style="font-family: Arial; text-indent: 0.5in;"> gratefully receive a happiness that rests on the blood </span><span style="font-family: Arial; text-indent: 0.5in;">of a tortured child and, having received it, should continue to enjoy it eternally?”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 0in .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in 6.5in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 0in .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in 6.5in;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Dostoevsky and Frankl represent the two sides of a basic dilemma. Frankl rightly says that we must find meaning in our affliction if we are to survive it. Dostoevsky protests that the horrors people too often face cannot be justified with any overarching meaning. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 0in .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in 6.5in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 0in .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in 6.5in;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">            A clear example of this conflict is the difference among Jews over what to call the genocide their forebears suffered at the hands of Hitler. Some use the word <i>holocaust</i>, the word for a sacrifice or offering, a word that suggests there is some spiritual meaning to be found even in the depths of this atrocity. Others use the word <i>shoah</i>, which means disaster or catastrophe. The word <i>shoah</i> insists there is nothing good to be found in such evil. We will not stand for such horrors to be defended or justified by any transcendent meaning. . . . <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 0in .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in 6.5in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 0in .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in 6.5in;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">            I have written this book because the current conversation over the problem of evil is lopsided. The atheist voices, such as Bart Ehrman in <i>God’s Problem,</i> state their case with a simple logic supported by powerful examples of how horrible things can be while God does nothing, if there is a God at all. The Christian voice in reply often turns to psychology, reflects back feelings, offers a caring presence. In offering pastoral care, that is exactly what Christians should do. But when people are up against the existential question of whether life can be meaningful, whether life is worthwhile, they need more than a caring presence – they need some answers. When they are up against the religious questions, “Does God exist?” “Does God matter?” “Is God even good?” they need answers. . . .<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 0in .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in 6.5in;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 0in .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in 6.5in;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">      </span><i style="font-family: Arial; line-height: 24pt;"> </i><span style="font-family: Arial; line-height: 24pt;">There are explanations of evil and suffering in the Christian tradition. We will consider those answers because most of them contain some truth. They are, however, at best partial explanations. We can offer explanations that help a little, but ultimately do not solve the problem. As philosopher Marilyn McCord Adams notes:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24.0pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">                        . . . (T)he pressure to provide rationales (for evil) . . .<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">                        drives us to advance credible <i>partial </i>reasons . . . as <i>total </i><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">                        explanations, thereby exacerbating the problem of evil by<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">                        attributing perverse motives to God.<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1941566034196038608#_edn8" name="_ednref8" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">[viii]</span></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 0in .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in 6.5in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 0in .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in 6.5in;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">We don’t want to “attribute perverse motives to God” because we cannot and should not worship and obey someone with perverse motives. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 0in .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in 6.5in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 0in .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in 6.5in;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">            There are two reasons we will not offer a solid answer to the question of why “bad things” happen. First, we don’t have one to offer. We have some insights -- but not a comprehensive answer. Let me be clear that taking God out of the equation doesn’t solve anything either. If we deny God’s existence, that changes the logical structure of the problem, but it does not give us an explanation of suffering. Evil is even more mysterious without God.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 0in .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in 6.5in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 0in .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in 6.5in;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">            Second, we don’t want to offer such an answer because to fully and satisfactorily explain evil would be to justify it. We don’t want to do that. We want to preserve the human voice of rebellion that says “No. This will not do.” We honor the voice that remembers the holocaust. We do not want to justify the holocaust. We want to join the voices of those who say. “Never again!” <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 0in .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in 6.5in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 0in .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in 6.5in;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">            <i>Will we offer a reasonable grounds for faith in the face of horror and tragedy?</i> Yes. We will offer a way of thinking about God that is credible and helpful. But it will not be God as so many philosophers have defined “God” in “the problem of evil” literature. It will not be the understanding of God that many believers hold today. We will reach back to an older, truer, and better way of understanding God. We will discover images of God that console, sustain, and inspire. It will not be the patriarchal God, the God of omnipotent domination. That is the God who makes “the problem of evil” intractable. If we are to grapple with our affliction creatively, it will be necessary for us to break out of the mental box of the logical problem of evil. It is built on misconceptions about God—misconceptions we must cast aside if we are to examine how the Triune God of the Christian tradition responds to us in our hour of need. In this book, we will rediscover the Triune God espoused by Christians in the first centuries of their faith, a mystical cosmic dance of a God, who heals, restores, and redeems. . . . </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 0in .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in 6.5in;"><span style="font-family: Arial; line-height: 24pt;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 0in .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in 6.5in;"><span style="font-family: Arial; line-height: 24pt;">         This book is about God considered in light of a central question in life: why do we suffer? That question leads inexorably to God. It makes us think seriously about who God is. The fact of suffering makes many beliefs about God impossible, including some beliefs that are widely held. Suffering may also open the way for us to believe in God in better ways, to see God as better than we knew God to be, more worthy of our worship. Theologian Jurgen Moltmann expresses the connection between God and suffering this way,</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24.0pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">                        God and suffering belong together . . . . The question about God<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">                        and the question about suffering are a joint, a common question.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">                        And they only find a common answer. Either that, or neither of them<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">                        finds a satisfactory answer at all.</span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1941566034196038608#_edn9" name="_ednref9" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[ix]</span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">And philosopher Michael Peterson echoes, “(W)hat a religious system says about evil reveals a great deal about what it takes ultimate reality and humanity’s relationship to it to be.”</span><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1941566034196038608#_edn10" name="_ednref10" title="">[x]</a> . . . .</span></span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1941566034196038608#_edn10" name="_ednref10" title=""></a></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 0in .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in 6.5in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 0in .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in 6.5in;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">           </span></div><div>  <div id="edn1"> <div class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1941566034196038608#_ednref1" name="_edn1" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">[i]</span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;"> Philosophers of religion may present this problem in terms of God’s omniscience as much as God’s omnipotence. From that perspective, the question is If God knew this would happen, why did he create such a world? This is a profound question. It goes to the question of ultimate meaning that the philosopher must ask. But we will focus on omnipotence since it is the characteristic of God that affects our immediate relationship with God and our immediate relationship with suffering. We want to know whether God can do anything for us, and if so, why doesn’t he do it?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoEndnoteText"><br /></div><div class="MsoEndnoteText"><br /></div></div><div id="edn2"> <div class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1941566034196038608#_ednref2" name="_edn2" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">[ii]</span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;"> This is a simplified version of the problem. A full statement includes God’s existence and omniscience. The atheist argues that these propositions are logically inconsistent. There are also three version of the final element: (a) evil exists; (b) large amounts, extreme kinds, and perplexing distributions of evil exist; (c) gratuitous or pointless evil exists. Michael L. Peterson, <i>God And Evil</i> (Boulder: Westview Press, 1998) pp. 23-24.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;">Marilyn McCord Adams, <i>Horrendous Evils And The Goodness Of God</i> (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1999) p. 9.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoEndnoteText"><br /></div></div><div id="edn3"> <div class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1941566034196038608#_ednref3" name="_edn3" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">[iii]</span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;"> Czeslaw Milosz, “High Terraces,” in <i>Second Space</i>, trans. Czeslaw Milosz and Robert Haas (New York: Harper Collins, 2004) p. 22.<o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div id="edn4"> <div class="MsoEndnoteText"><br /></div><div class="MsoEndnoteText"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">[iv]</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;"> Michael L. Peterson, pp. 17-18. Anthony Flew has more recently changed his mind on these issues and converted to theism.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoEndnoteText"><br /></div></div><div id="edn5"> <div class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1941566034196038608#_ednref5" name="_edn5" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">[v]</span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;"> Gordon Kaufman, God The Problem (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1972) p. 13<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoEndnoteText"><br /></div></div><div id="edn6"> <div class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1941566034196038608#_ednref6" name="_edn6" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">[vi]</span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;"> Andrew Silver, “Prayer In A Minor Key,” unpublished manuscript. January 2006.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><br /></div></div><div id="edn7"> <div class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1941566034196038608#_ednref7" name="_edn7" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">[vii]</span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;"> Victor Frankl, Man’s Search For Meaning (New York, Beacon Press, 1959).<o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div id="edn8"> <div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">[viii]</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;">. Adams, pp. 155-156.<o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div id="edn9"> <div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1941566034196038608#_ednref9" name="_edn9" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[ix]</span></span></span></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">.</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;"> Jurgen Moltmann, The Trinity And The Kingdom, trans. Margaret Kohl (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1993) p. 49.<o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div id="edn10"> <div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1941566034196038608#_ednref10" name="_edn10" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">[x]</span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;"> Michael L. Peterson, <i>God And Evil</i> (Boulder: Westview Press, 1998) p. 7.<o:p></o:p></span></div></div></div></div></span></span>

THE NUMB BLOW FALLEN IN THE STUMBLING NIGHT: WHEN LIFE HURTS, WE ASK "WHY?" BUT DO WE REALLY WANT AN ANSWER? YES & NO

GOD OF OUR SILENT TEARS IS NOW AVAILABLE FROM THE CATHEDRAL BOOKSTORE (LOS ANGELES) http://cathedral-bookstore.myshopify.com/ Phone number i...

Let's play meme again!

5:07 PM Tukiyooo 0

<b style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">1. What do you wear to bed?</b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"> Sport bra. I'd prefer totally naked but floppy is uncomfortable!</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>2. What's your favorite pet name for your SO?</b> If the kids are awake, its Daddy. If not then it's HEY!!!  </span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><br /></b></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>3. What's your favorite thing to do on a rainy day?</b> Not that I'm allowed to but I'd love to crawl in bed and laze around all day. </span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><br /></b></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>4. Your favorite snack food?</b>  Dry cereal. It satisfies the crunch factor without being terribly bad for me. Totally addicted to Honey Bunches O' Oats right now!</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>5. Do you cry at sad movies? </b>Always. And I cry at parts that aren't really meant to be sad. </span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>6. What's your favorite implement to be spanked with?  </b>Anything! The hand is the best it gets. But the hand is too sensitive so I don't get enough.  There was a sparkly purple crop a few times but it found its way back into the barn...</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><br /></b></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>7. Is your hair long or short? </b>Medium longish</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>8. What size is your bed? </b>King. We're small people but need space. </span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>9. Do you have sex with the lights on or off? </b>Usually off.  We're both more into the feel of it than visual. Though if they're on nobody's going to bother turning them off. </span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><br /></b></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>10. What's your favorite 'around the house' outfit? </b>Yoga pants and a cozy stretchy top. No I don't do yoga. I just like the pants lol</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>11. How do you drink your coffee or tea?</b> Grossed out by coffee.  My tea is iced and slightly sweet. Or extremely sweetened with Splenda.  Always lots of lemon.</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>12. Are you a bargain hunter?</b> Absolutely</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>13. Do you think bald men are sexy?</b> Not to me, but to each her own</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>14. Are you a good driver?</b> Depends who you ask. Hubby won't allow me to drive when we're together. Something about not signaling early enough and either driving too fast or slow in any given situation.  </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Oh and the man is supposed to drive.  </span></span>I've never gotten a ticket.  I was rear-ended a few times, obviously not my fault.  </span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><br /></b></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>15. In a 24 hour period, how many hours do you spend watching TV?</b> Getting better, less than an hour usually. </span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>16. Name the last book you read?</b> Entwined with You by Sylvia Day.... very very hot </span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>17. Would you rather be hot or cold?</b> hot but not too hot</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><br /></b></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>18. How many hours a day do you spend on the Internet? </b>more than I should but a lot of it is for work </span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>19. Do you like facial hair on a man?</b> No, but I do like the scratchiness on my skin before he shaves. </span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>20. Are you a smoker?</b>  eeeewww, gross!</span></span>

Let's play meme again!

1. What do you wear to bed? Sport bra. I'd prefer totally naked but floppy is uncomfortable! 2. What's your favorite pet name for y...

Physician lack of knowledge on Belviq

4:56 PM Tukiyooo 0

Physician lack of knowledge on Belviq

Today I was trying to help out 2 separate people who are desperately trying to find physicians who will prescribe Belviq. One is looking fo...

NPR host Scott Simon tweets his mother's dying days - latimes.com

3:26 PM Tukiyooo 0

<base href="data:"><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; color: black; text-align: left; "><p style="line-height: 1.5em; max-width: 700px; font-size: medium; margin: 15px auto; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><span class="firstLetter" style="float: left; font-size: 50px; margin-top: 11px; margin-right: 5px; margin-bottom: 1px; ">M</span></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; max-width: 700px; font-size: medium; margin: 15px auto; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><em>other asks, "Will this go on forever?" She means pain, dread. "No." She says, "But we'll go on forever. You & me." Yes.</em></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; max-width: 700px; font-size: medium; margin: 15px auto; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ">These are the words of a son saying goodbye to his mother in the 21st century.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; max-width: 700px; font-size: medium; margin: 15px auto; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><em>Mother called: "I can't talk. I'm surrounded by handsome men." Emergency surgery. If you can hold a thought for her now...</em></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; max-width: 700px; font-size: medium; margin: 15px auto; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ">For <a href="https://twitter.com/@nprscottsimon"><span style="color: rgb(34, 98, 204); ">Scott Simon's</span></a> 1.2 million Twitter followers, the end of his mother's story began with that wisecrack sometime around July 16.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; max-width: 700px; font-size: medium; margin: 15px auto; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><em>Mother cries Help Me at 2;30. Been holding her like a baby since. She's asleep now. All I can do is hold on to her.</em></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; max-width: 700px; font-size: medium; margin: 15px auto; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ">Most Americans know Simon by his voice: worn but fun, brightening up <a class="runtimeTopic" href="http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-0730-scott-simon-mom-20130730-dto,0,5370299,print.htmlstory#" data-topic-id="ORNPR0000040">NPR</a>'s "Weekend Edition Saturday." But on this weekend he was telling his story in 140-character installments on a medium more commonly used for ephemera than for navigating the suffering of an aging parent.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; max-width: 700px; font-size: medium; margin: 15px auto; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><em>I love holding my mother's hand. Haven't held it like this since I was 9. Why did I stop? I thought it unmanly? What crap.</em></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; max-width: 700px; font-size: medium; margin: 15px auto; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ">For several days, in a hospital somewhere in Chicago, the end-of-life struggles of Patricia Lyons Simon Newman Gilband, 84, have been watched the world over. Many readers have been moved to tears, while others have had to look away, taken aback by the intimate view Scott has shared of his mother's suffering, all the way to her last breath.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; max-width: 700px; font-size: medium; margin: 15px auto; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><em>I don't know how we'll get through these next few days. And, I don't want them to end.</em></p><p class="flourish" style="line-height: 1.5em; max-width: 700px; font-size: medium; margin: 15px auto; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEIjgCAeWhlhJyK29ET8ufEJPCFeZGahM2NJmsnwY1Kn_cHHpwxZ7iTo9NOAs59kr8VY_DL5ykNJeuVdmdCaZSiRK9S23ODVm3XDqx_gFpPJvZ98FSxwMQ7FC-ZYt-LTJJ4b8MhdQQG8I/s1600/prettything-721775.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5906538337614103794" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEIjgCAeWhlhJyK29ET8ufEJPCFeZGahM2NJmsnwY1Kn_cHHpwxZ7iTo9NOAs59kr8VY_DL5ykNJeuVdmdCaZSiRK9S23ODVm3XDqx_gFpPJvZ98FSxwMQ7FC-ZYt-LTJJ4b8MhdQQG8I/s320/prettything-721775.png" /></a></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; max-width: 700px; font-size: medium; margin: 15px auto; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ">The fact that Simon's tweets have gone viral say as much about life and technology in the 21st century as they do about his ability to transform his mother's pain into poetry.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; max-width: 700px; font-size: medium; margin: 15px auto; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ">Death wasn't always considered such a private matter. Before the 20th century, death in the United States "used to be very public," said Deborah Carr, a professor of sociology at Rutgers University who studies death, dying and bereavement. "People weren't so isolated in the hospital; funerals were at home."</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; max-width: 700px; font-size: medium; margin: 15px auto; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ">Western societies, as the historian Philippe Aries argued in 1974, began to praise quiet mourning to limit the "unbearable emotion caused by the ugliness of dying and by the very presence of death in the midst of a happy life."</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; max-width: 700px; font-size: medium; margin: 15px auto; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ">"Death, so omnipresent in the past that it was familiar, would be effaced, would disappear," Aries said. "It would become shameful and forbidden."</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; max-width: 700px; font-size: medium; margin: 15px auto; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ">Yet a different narrative has begun to take hold in the 21st century as death has collided with the age of reality TV, social media and publishing houses hungry for confessionals.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; max-width: 700px; font-size: medium; margin: 15px auto; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ">In 2009, British reality TV star Jade Goody's death from cervical cancer<strong> </strong>became a tabloid sensation<strong> </strong>with the aid of Goody's publicist. After pastor Rick Warren's son committed suicide in April, he memorably shared his grief over social media.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; max-width: 700px; font-size: medium; margin: 15px auto; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ">The ongoing transition hasn't arrived without friction. When the writer Susan Sontag died in 2004, her partner, the photographer Annie Leibovitz, documented the process, creating photographs that Sontag's son later criticized as "carnival images of celebrity death."</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; max-width: 700px; font-size: medium; margin: 15px auto; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ">Likewise, Simon's tweets about his mother have proven too powerful for some Twitter users who were also confronting loss.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; max-width: 700px; font-size: medium; margin: 15px auto; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ">"Too soon for me to read the @nprscottsimon tweets," one user tweeted. "But I'll save for later, for when I'm ready."</p><p class="flourish" style="line-height: 1.5em; max-width: 700px; font-size: medium; margin: 15px auto; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEIjgCAeWhlhJyK29ET8ufEJPCFeZGahM2NJmsnwY1Kn_cHHpwxZ7iTo9NOAs59kr8VY_DL5ykNJeuVdmdCaZSiRK9S23ODVm3XDqx_gFpPJvZ98FSxwMQ7FC-ZYt-LTJJ4b8MhdQQG8I/s1600/prettything-721775.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5906538337614103794" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEIjgCAeWhlhJyK29ET8ufEJPCFeZGahM2NJmsnwY1Kn_cHHpwxZ7iTo9NOAs59kr8VY_DL5ykNJeuVdmdCaZSiRK9S23ODVm3XDqx_gFpPJvZ98FSxwMQ7FC-ZYt-LTJJ4b8MhdQQG8I/s320/prettything-721775.png" /></a></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; max-width: 700px; font-size: medium; margin: 15px auto; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><em>My mother in ICU sees Kate & Will holding baby and tears: "Every baby boy is a little king to his parents. " So I tear too.</em></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; max-width: 700px; font-size: medium; margin: 15px auto; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ">"We usually only get to see moments like this in fiction, right?" Peter Sagal, the host of NPR's "Wait Wait ... Don't Tell Me," said in a phone interview Monday.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; max-width: 700px; font-size: medium; margin: 15px auto; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ">Sagal knows both Simon and Gilband, and has been gripped by Simon's messages. When he tried to explain Simon's tweets to a friend, "it sounds awful, exploitative and weird — but when you look at the feed, it's not."</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; max-width: 700px; font-size: medium; margin: 15px auto; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><em>I just realized: she once had to let me go into the big wide world. Now I have to let her go the same way.</em></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; max-width: 700px; font-size: medium; margin: 15px auto; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ">"It's amazing to be able to watch this transpire in real life, this extraordinary weekend he's spending with his mother," Sagal said.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; max-width: 700px; font-size: medium; margin: 15px auto; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ">"This is happening right now to people we don't know, who don't have a public radio show, who don't have 1.3 million Twitter followers. … The hospital above and around them are filled by stories like this, and it's amazingly humbling to be able to follow along with one of them."</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; max-width: 700px; font-size: medium; margin: 15px auto; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><em>In middle of nights like this, my knees shake as if there's an earthquake. I hold my mother's arm for strength--still.</em></p><p class="flourish" style="line-height: 1.5em; max-width: 700px; font-size: medium; margin: 15px auto; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEIjgCAeWhlhJyK29ET8ufEJPCFeZGahM2NJmsnwY1Kn_cHHpwxZ7iTo9NOAs59kr8VY_DL5ykNJeuVdmdCaZSiRK9S23ODVm3XDqx_gFpPJvZ98FSxwMQ7FC-ZYt-LTJJ4b8MhdQQG8I/s1600/prettything-721775.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5906538337614103794" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEIjgCAeWhlhJyK29ET8ufEJPCFeZGahM2NJmsnwY1Kn_cHHpwxZ7iTo9NOAs59kr8VY_DL5ykNJeuVdmdCaZSiRK9S23ODVm3XDqx_gFpPJvZ98FSxwMQ7FC-ZYt-LTJJ4b8MhdQQG8I/s320/prettything-721775.png" /></a></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; max-width: 700px; font-size: medium; margin: 15px auto; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ">Social media is playing its own role in reshaping the handling of death in American life, partially as a medium that functions as a gathering point for public mourners while giving grievers room to express themselves how they like.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; max-width: 700px; font-size: medium; margin: 15px auto; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ">Many followers praised Simon's openness for giving them the sense that they were not suffering alone. As one user put it, "comforting to know others are going through the same thing as my fam. May your mom pass peacefully, as I hope my father will."</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; max-width: 700px; font-size: medium; margin: 15px auto; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ">The need for comfort is a powerful one among readers dealing with death. The publishing industry has enjoyed sales from a series of books about near-death experiences — with such titles as "90 Minutes in Heaven," "Heaven Is for Real" and "To Heaven and Back" — that have promised peeks at life on the other side of mortality. (One such bestseller, "Proof of Heaven" by Eben Alexander, recently fell under criticism after Esquire magazine published an expose questioning several details in Alexander's story.)</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; max-width: 700px; font-size: medium; margin: 15px auto; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ">For Carr, the Rutgers sociologist, the shifts in technology and the 21st century publicity culture have come hand in hand with ongoing medical shifts that have given Americans longer lives and, in so doing, longer deaths.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; max-width: 700px; font-size: medium; margin: 15px auto; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ">"We have many more opportunities to visit the dying person," Carr said, giving family members and friends wider windows of opportunity for seeking closure, or just getting to know one another better. The increased popularity of hospice care has also driven up the number of deaths that happen in the home, closer to family.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; max-width: 700px; font-size: medium; margin: 15px auto; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ">"On average, there's much greater acceptance of death today," Carr said, "largely because more and more people have seen death."</p><p class="flourish" style="line-height: 1.5em; max-width: 700px; font-size: medium; margin: 15px auto; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEIjgCAeWhlhJyK29ET8ufEJPCFeZGahM2NJmsnwY1Kn_cHHpwxZ7iTo9NOAs59kr8VY_DL5ykNJeuVdmdCaZSiRK9S23ODVm3XDqx_gFpPJvZ98FSxwMQ7FC-ZYt-LTJJ4b8MhdQQG8I/s1600/prettything-721775.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5906538337614103794" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEIjgCAeWhlhJyK29ET8ufEJPCFeZGahM2NJmsnwY1Kn_cHHpwxZ7iTo9NOAs59kr8VY_DL5ykNJeuVdmdCaZSiRK9S23ODVm3XDqx_gFpPJvZ98FSxwMQ7FC-ZYt-LTJJ4b8MhdQQG8I/s320/prettything-721775.png" /></a></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; max-width: 700px; font-size: medium; margin: 15px auto; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ">As her son tweeted from her bedside, Patricia Lyons Simon Newman Gilband — a train-car name she managed to put together from several marriages — was not completely voiceless. As her health made its final decline Monday night, a 2008 interview she gave with Simon, in which she banters with her son about living in Chicago, had already begun recirculating.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; max-width: 700px; font-size: medium; margin: 15px auto; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ">"You've always been a lot of fun. No matter what age, we all got — we were compatible. We got along beautifully," Gilband told her son in that interview.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; max-width: 700px; font-size: medium; margin: 15px auto; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><em>I know end might be near as this is only day of my adulthood I've seen my mother and she hasn't asked, "Why that shirt?"</em></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; max-width: 700px; font-size: medium; margin: 15px auto; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ">As their radio interview came to a close, Gilband told her son, "It's been a beautiful journey knowing you."</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; max-width: 700px; font-size: medium; margin: 15px auto; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><em>When she asked for my help last night, we locked eyes. She calmed down. A look of love that surpasses understanding.</em></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; max-width: 700px; font-size: medium; margin: 15px auto; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ">"I love you, sweetheart," she told him in 2008. "And stop crying."</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; max-width: 700px; font-size: medium; margin: 15px auto; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ">On Monday evening, a brief tweet.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; max-width: 700px; font-size: medium; margin: 15px auto; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><em>Heart rate dropping. Heart dropping.</em></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; max-width: 700px; font-size: medium; margin: 15px auto; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ">And then, finally, a son wrote these words:</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; max-width: 700px; font-size: medium; margin: 15px auto; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><em>The heavens over Chicago have opened and Patricia Lyons Simon Newman has stepped onstage.</em></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; max-width: 700px; font-size: medium; margin: 15px auto; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><em>She will make the face of heaven shine so fine that all the world will be in love with night.</em></p></div><a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-0730-scott-simon-mom-20130730-dto,0,5644002.htmlstory">http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-0730-scott-simon-mom-20130730-dto,0,5644002.htmlstory</a><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; color: black; text-align: left; "><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div>

NPR host Scott Simon tweets his mother's dying days - latimes.com

M other asks, "Will this go on forever?" She means pain, dread. "No." She says, "But we'll go on forever. You &...

Doctors Increasingly Ignore Evidence In Treating Back Pain : Shots - Health News : NPR

3:19 PM Tukiyooo 0

The misery of low back pain often drives people to the doctor to seek relief. But doctors are doing a pretty miserable job of treating back pain, a study finds.<br /><br><br /><br>Physicians are increasingly prescribing expensive scans, narcotic painkillers and other treatments that don't help in most cases, and can make things a lot worse. Since 1 in 10 of all primary care visits are for low back pain, this is no small matter.<br /><br><br /><br>What does help? Some ibuprofen or other over-the-counter painkiller, and maybe some physical therapy. That's the evidence-based protocol. With that regimen, most people's back pain goes away within three months.<br /><br><br /><br>But when researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston looked at records of 23,918 doctor visits for simple back pain between 1999 and 2010, they found that doctors have actually been getting worse at prescribing scientifically based treatments.<br /><br><br /><br>Doctors were recommending NSAID pain relievers and acetaminophen less often. Instead, they were increasingly prescribing prescription opioids like OxyContin, with use rising from 19 percent of cases to 29 percent. Over-the-counter painkiller use declined from 37 percent to 25 percent. Other studies have found that opioids help only slightly with acute back pain and are worthless for treating chronic back pain.<br /><br><br /><br>"That's a big public health issue," says Dr. John Mafi, chief medical resident and a fellow at Beth Israel Deaconess. Mafi was the lead author of the study, which was published online inJAMA Internal Medicine. In the 1990s doctors were criticized for ignoring patients' pain, Mafi says. Some of that criticism was valid, but doctors have overreacted. "What magic bullet better than a very powerful pain medication?"<br /><br><br /><br>About 43 percent of patients taking opioids for chronic back pain also had other substance abuse disorders, the researchers found. In 2008, almost 15,000 people died from overdoses of prescription opioids, and abuse has surged among women. Opioids may be necessary in some cases, Mafi says, but "they're certainly not first-line."<br /><br><br /><br>Doctors were also quick to whip out the prescription pad and call for CT and MRI scans for people with lower back pain, the study found. The number of people getting scans rose from 7 to 11 percent. Though those scans won't hurt the patient, in most cases they don't find anything wrong. And they are expensive, costing $1,000 or more.<br /><br><br /><br>Patients are partly to blame for the rush to scan, Mafi says. "Patients are expecting very comprehensive evaluations," he tells Shots. "There's a sentiment perhaps if my doctor ordered an MRI for my back pain they really listened to me. It's almost validating."<br /><br><br /><br>And in an era when doctors are rated online by patients, "doctors have an incentive to make patients happy," Mafi says.<br /><br><br /><br>Financial incentives for doctors may also be a factor. This study didn't examine why doctors aren't following clinical guidelines for treating back pain, but other studies have found that when doctors own imaging equipment, they are more likely to use it.<br /><br><br /><br>Doctors should be cut a little slack, a journal commentary accompanying this study says, because guidelines have been conflicted on back pain treatment until recently, and it takes 17 years, on average, for new treatment standards to be widely adopted. But creating checklist-type guidelines for doctors would help speed that process, the commentary says. So would requiring patients to pay more of the cost of expensive imaging, and providing payment incentives for doctors who do the right thing.<br /><br><br /><br>"For the majority of new-onset back pain [cases], it gets better within three months," Mafi says. "Unfortunately, we don't have fancy treatments that cure it." Time, some ibuprofen and gentle exercise aren't sexy. But they most often do the trick.<br /><br><br /><br><a href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/07/30/206910829/doctors-increasingly-ignore-evidence-in-treating-back-pain">http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/07/30/206910829/doctors-increasingly-ignore-evidence-in-treating-back-pain</a>

Doctors Increasingly Ignore Evidence In Treating Back Pain : Shots - Health News : NPR

The misery of low back pain often drives people to the doctor to seek relief. But doctors are doing a pretty miserable job of treating back ...

2nd day of fast food strikes hit Kansas City, St. Louis

2:08 PM Tukiyooo 0

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHrUbr8Qh7eRP20qPBspqmnQ3tKHoEi9K4mlU2hgsO3e0uuEXHRkrDOdSe53GiyvG7LuwMdus4F5dyE03D3RokTuB9n9_YHbY22_EqGMgNSBgVoU_urAp-5Z71szdq6o1qXl_ewnrZ3Agu/s1600/fast+food+workers+strike+in+Kansas+City.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHrUbr8Qh7eRP20qPBspqmnQ3tKHoEi9K4mlU2hgsO3e0uuEXHRkrDOdSe53GiyvG7LuwMdus4F5dyE03D3RokTuB9n9_YHbY22_EqGMgNSBgVoU_urAp-5Z71szdq6o1qXl_ewnrZ3Agu/s320/fast+food+workers+strike+in+Kansas+City.png" width="278" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fast food strike in Kansas City</td></tr></tbody></table>Fast food workers walked off the job today in Kansas City and St. Louis, fed up with poverty wages and employer retaliation. The action followed a one-day strike in New York City by hundreds of workers at fast food restaurants such as Wendy's, McDonald's and Burger King.<br /><br />In Kansas City today, a Family Dollar worker inspired by the fast food strike walked off the job and joined the action.<br /><br />Andre Houston, a McDonald's crew member in St. Louis, is featured on the "Low Wage Is Not OK" Facebook page. The message: His family relies on his salary just to live. His family can't survive on poverty wages.<br /><br />Sixty Teamster first responders in El Centro, Calif, are also <a href="http://teamsternation.blogspot.com/2013/07/teamster-first-responders-strike.html">striking Gold Cross Ambulance</a> for a third day. They're fighting against low wages and substandard equipment that puts patients at risk.<br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.890625px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.890625px;">The labor unrest will continue to escalate through the rest of the week with short strikes against fast food companies in Chicago, Detroit and Milwaukee. And in San Francisco, <a href="http://teamsternation.blogspot.com/2013/07/teamsters-to-protest-against-mckesson.html" rel="nofollow">McKesson will face a large Teamster protest</a> tomorrow because it retaliates against workers for trying to form a union. </span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.890625px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.890625px;"><a href="http://business.time.com/2013/07/30/fast-food-strikes-unable-to-unionize-workers-borrow-tactics-from-occupy/">Time Magazine</a> compared this week's industrywide strikes to the wave of actions that galvanized the labor movement during the 1930s:</span><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 16.890625px;">This week’s walk-outs seem less about truly unionizing (even though the workers’ efforts have received support from the Service Employees International Union) and more about building public momentum for a higher minimum wage. Instead of taking the traditional route of trying to reach some sort of collective bargaining agreement, they’re betting that an Occupy-style public awareness campaign, based on the idea that their wages are inherently unfair, perpetuate inequality and fail to move them up the economic ladder, will lead to change at either the state or federal level.</span></span></blockquote>Sign the petition demanding no retaliation against fast food strikers <a href="http://lowpayisnotok.org/noretaliation/?utm_campaign=LowPay&utm_medium=FBPage&utm_source=NoRetaliation">here</a>. And give them a Facebook Like <a href="https://www.facebook.com/LowPayIsNotOk">here</a>.

fast food strikes low wage workers 2nd day of fast food strikes hit Kansas City, St. Louis

Fast food strike in Kansas City Fast food workers walked off the job today in Kansas City and St. Louis, fed up with poverty wages and emplo...

Teamsters to protest against McKesson worker retaliation

2:01 PM Tukiyooo 0

McKesson Corporation will face a large Teamster protest tomorrow outside its shareholder meeting in San Francisco tomorrow because it abuses workers at its distribution facility in Lakeland, Fla. Though McKesson employees voted for Teamster representation more than a year ago, the company still will not agree to a first contract that provides decent wages and affordable health care.<br /><br />McKesson, the largest pharmaceutical distributor in North America is retaliating against its Lakeland employees,. The company hired a union-busting law firm and has threatened and intimidated the workers rather than agree to wages they can live on.<br /><br />The San Francisco-based pharmaceutical distributor is a poster child for corporate greed and corruption.<br />Accused of stealing from taxpayers and payors by fixing drug prices, it had to pay nearly $1 billion in legal settlements. Then the board allowed CEO John Hammergren to loot the company of roughly $50 million a year, with a pension estimated at $159 billion.<br /><br />Tomorrow, McKesson will also face an investor backlash inside the shareholder meeting over the company’s excessive executive pay practices and poor corporate governance. The Change to Win Investment Group has called for a vote against Hammergren – as well as two other board members – because of the company’s pay practices and financial and reputational risks arising from widespread price fixing allegations.<br /><br />Rome Aloise, Teamsters international vice president and president of Teamsters Joint Council 7, said it's no wonder health care costs are rising.<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">Teamsters won’t stand by while McKesson fleeces workers, investors and the American public.</blockquote>Stay tuned. <br /><div><br /></div>

CEO Pay low wage workers union busting Teamsters to protest against McKesson worker retaliation

McKesson Corporation will face a large Teamster protest tomorrow outside its shareholder meeting in San Francisco tomorrow because it abuses...

Potential TPP costs keep going up

1:32 PM Tukiyooo 0

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL5GNPh4L9dyFEjafZgdiLgok9fpP5_M0vgNOuTOWAXZejHvGXGnGsP1spLECr7NtKsbzE1Y7RlXgK3QNdhzmGV_vRO4iWp0vuqjkx_b7TV33eLlje3d5hnhidRw71jJ4kMMouyRMMkqih/s1600/tpp.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="130" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL5GNPh4L9dyFEjafZgdiLgok9fpP5_M0vgNOuTOWAXZejHvGXGnGsP1spLECr7NtKsbzE1Y7RlXgK3QNdhzmGV_vRO4iWp0vuqjkx_b7TV33eLlje3d5hnhidRw71jJ4kMMouyRMMkqih/s320/tpp.jpeg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Looking for </span><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-p-hoffa/congress-shouldnt-outsour_b_3618561.html"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">another reason to oppose a possible TPP trade deal</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">? How about this -- America could be on the hook for potentially billions of dollars if an international company sues the government because it decides our health and safety rules are getting in the way of its profits.<o:p></o:p></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">South Centre, an intergovernmental think tank based in Geneva, Switzerland, </span><a href="http://www.southcentre.org/" rel="nofollow"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">details how a biased arbitration system</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> used to decide cases between corporations and countries who are members of bilateral investment treaties (BITs) and “free trade” agreements is driving some nations to the financial brink:<o:p></o:p></span></div><blockquote class="tr_bq"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Under these treaties, foreign companies can sue governments if they introduce policies that these companies deem affect their future incomes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>The treaties define “expropriation” to include depriving investors of future profits due to new regulations.</span></blockquote><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So a tobacco firm has sued Australia and Uruguay for requiring cigarette boxes to have plain packaging. When Ecuador cancelled a contract with an American oil company for violating the terms of the contract, the company won took a case and was awarded US$2.4 billion.<o:p></o:p></span></blockquote></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A report released last year by two European groups explains how </span><a href="http://corporateeurope.org/publications/profiting-from-injustice" rel="nofollow"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">a small group attorneys working for investors or as arbitrators have benefited from such litigation</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">. The lawyers also encourage big companies to sue governments for potential fat paydays.<o:p></o:p></span><br />  <span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Among some of the findings are:</span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">•<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Only 15 arbitrators, nearly all from Europe, the US or Canada, have decided 55 percent of all known investment-treaty disputes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">   </span>This small group sits on the same panels, acts as both arbitrators and counsels and call on each other as witnesses.<o:p></o:p></span></blockquote></div><blockquote class="tr_bq"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">•<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Many arbitrators show a clear bias towards investors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>Several prominent arbitrators have been members of the board of major multinational companies, including those who filed cases against developing countries.</span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">•<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>A few law firms have been encouraging investors to sue governments, as a weapon to weaken or prevent laws on public health or the environment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>These investment lawyers are the new “ambulance chasers” and have fuelled an increase in cases from 38 in 1996 to 450 known cases in 2011.</span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">•<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Countries have to pay exorbitant legal and arbitration costs averaging over $8 million per dispute, and exceeding US$30 million in some cases.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>The Philippines spent $58 billion defending two cases against a German firm.</span></blockquote><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The U.S could be a huge target for such litigation if it enters into the TPP deal. Our country has more stringent labor, workplace safety, health and environmental rules than many of the 11 other nations we are currently negotiating with as part of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade pact. If we agree to the TPP, the only solution to avoid these lawsuits would be to lower our standards. That’s no solution at all.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana;">It's time we negotiate trade agreements that protect American workers, not the big corporations. We should be setting the standards on how to treat workers, produce the best and safest products, and protect the environment. If the TPP is going to sink the workplace standards to the level of sweatshops in Vietnam, we should pass.</span>

deregulation TPP workplace safety Potential TPP costs keep going up

Looking for another reason to oppose a possible TPP trade deal ? How about this -- America could be on the hook for potentially billions o...

ALEC link to official who cheated on charter school grade

1:00 PM Tukiyooo 0

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisqbBvOSjWyjb8EovjG4xMi2cYSqbWLEpgNJdfwfWxgXoT2P1fAht8UrnSOvGijhszYW4rUhFQcXUFFvacYCorY1_l8XLm4Z6hyX0xpROYBXY9slOUBW_cOZWT1R-xiqBE092AFGTKVc4j/s1600/alec-exposed-600x400.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="229" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisqbBvOSjWyjb8EovjG4xMi2cYSqbWLEpgNJdfwfWxgXoT2P1fAht8UrnSOvGijhszYW4rUhFQcXUFFvacYCorY1_l8XLm4Z6hyX0xpROYBXY9slOUBW_cOZWT1R-xiqBE092AFGTKVc4j/s320/alec-exposed-600x400.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>There's an <a href="http://alecexposed.org/">ALEC</a> link (what a shock) to the Indiana school superintendent who inflated the grade of an outsourced school run by a wealthy political donor. <br /><br />Our friends at the <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2013/07/12198/former-indiana-superintendent-lauded-alec-and-education-privatizers-cheats-school">Center for Media and Democracy</a> found the ALEC link. We're cross-posting their story below: <br /><br />New documents show that former Indiana Schools Superintendent Tony Bennett -- who now heads Florida's schools -- overhauled Indiana's much-heralded school grading system to guarantee that a charter run by a major campaign donor would receive top marks. These revelations shine a light on the big bucks behind the education privatization agenda, its continued failure to meet the need of students, and provides another instance of cheating to cover up poor educational outcomes.<br /><br />Bennett had been applauded by education privatizers like the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) for enacting reforms like school grading, vouchers, and anti-union measures. He was a <a href="http://www.alec.org/nearly-1000-state-legislators-business-leaders-and-public-policy-experts-discuss-free-market-solutions-to-creating-jobs-at-alecs-states-nation-policy-summit/">keynote</a> <a href="http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2012/04/at_arizona_gathering_alec_teac.html">speaker </a>at ALEC’s December 2011 States and Nation Policy Summit, and the education reforms he pushed <a href="http://www.alec.org/model-legislation/indiana-education-reform-package/">were adopted by ALEC</a> <a href="http://www.commoncause.org/atf/cf/%7BFB3C17E2-CDD1-4DF6-92BE-BD4429893665%7D/education_35-day_mailing%20-%20new%20orleans.pdf">in August 2011</a> as a stand-alone bill called the "Indiana Education Reform Package" -- in no small part because they reflected ALEC model legislation.<br /><br /><b>"This will be a HUGE problem for us"</b><br /><br />Christel DeHaan, a big Republican donor in Indiana and school privatization supporter, gave Bennett an astounding $130,000 in campaign contributions for his 2008 and 2012 elections. But when DeHaan's Christel House charter school received a "C" last September under Bennett's grading system, he and his staff scrambled to fix it, according to <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/29/tony-bennett-indiana_n_3672196.html?utm_hp_ref=tw">emails obtained by the Associated Press</a>.<br /><br />"They need to understand that anything less than an A for Christel House compromises all of our accountability work," Bennett wrote in a Sept. 12 email to then-chief of staff Heather Neal, who is now Gov. Mike Pence's chief lobbyist.<br /><br />Bennett had made the A to F grading system a signature item of his 2011 radical education reforms, which he spearheaded with the support of then-Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels and <a href="http://stateimpact.npr.org/indiana/2011/12/16/meet-the-influencers-the-american-legislative-exchange-council/">ALEC legislators in the state</a>. Bennett often cited Christel House as a model charter school as he secured support for his education overhaul, and <a href="http://hosted.ap.org/specials/interactives/documents/ineds/ed2.pdf">according to the emails</a> had assured the Chamber of Commerce and legislative leaders that Christel was an "A" school.<br /><br />"This will be a HUGE problem for us," Bennett wrote to Neal about the school's "C" grade. <br /><br />Neal emailed back a few minutes later: "Oh, crap. We cannot release until this is resolved."<br /><br />"Legislative leadership as well as critics of A-F are going to use this against us to undo our accountability metrics through legislation," Bennett wrote in another email. "I hope we come to the meeting today with solutions and not excuses and/or explanations for me to wiggle myself out of the repeated lies I have told over the past six months."<br /><br />According to the Associated Press, Bennett's staff scrambled to alter the grading system over the next week, and Christel House's grade jumped twice, eventually reaching an "A." <br /><br /><b>Indiana Has No Campaign Contribution Limits</b><br /><br />In most states, a donor like DeHaan would be prohibited from directly giving a candidate tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars, but Indiana has no campaign contribution limits for superintendent.<br /><br />Bennett, first elected in 2008, <a href="http://stateimpact.npr.org/indiana/2012/08/02/interactive-map-whos-giving-money-in-the-campaign-for-state-superintendent/">raised an astounding amount of money</a> for his 2012 reelection campaign: DeHaan gave $75,000, and was one of Bennett's top donors, behind Wal-Mart heir Alice Walton, another major school privatization funder, who gave him $200,000. <a href="http://inschoolmatters.wordpress.com/2012/10/22/indiana-superintendent-campaign-finance-the-rich-vs-the-many/">Other donors</a> included voucher proponent Eli Broad ($50,000) and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg ($40,000).<br /><br />He also got <a href="http://stateimpact.npr.org/indiana/2012/08/02/interactive-map-whos-giving-money-in-the-campaign-for-state-superintendent/">$45,000</a> from Hoosiers for Education Reform, a group bankrolled by the DeVos family's American Federation for Children, which itself has run into some campaign finance problems. <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2013/05/12101/issue-ad-charade-american-federation-children-uncovered-wisconsin">As CMD has documented</a>, AFC boasted to funders in 2012 that it spent $2.4 million in Wisconsin helping elect nine Wisconsin state legislators, but told the state's Government Accountability Board that it spent only $345,000 that year. <br /><br />But despite significantly outraising his opponent, voters rejected Bennett and his education reform agenda, in what the head of the teacher's union called the biggest upset in Indiana history. <br /><br />Money may not have bought that election, but given these latest email revelations, it sure did seem to buy some special treatment.<br /><br /><b>How Common is Cheating?</b><br /><br />For years, educational reformers have promoted the notion that schools need to be run more like a business, with "competition" from for-profit entities and increased "accountability" through testing regimes. But the promised improvements in educational outcomes have not followed, apparently leading some to cook the books.<br /><br />Perhaps the best-known cheating scandal came from former Washington, D.C., school Chancellor Michelle Rhee, whose controversial reforms had been credited with improving test scores in the District's schools -- an accomplishment that has been cast into doubt by evidence of widespread cheating, where teachers or school officials appeared to change students' incorrect test answers to improve results. Investigations have found extremely high erasure rates that were statistically anomalous, and <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/class-struggle/post/surprise-dc-admits-school-test-tampering-at-meridian-public-charter/2013/04/25/818ccb2e-ad66-11e2-a8b9-2a63d75b5459_blog.html">some charter schools have been cited</a>. <br /><br />Despite these scandals, both Rhee and Bennett have moved on to greener pastures. After resigning from her position in 2010, Rhee went on to found the 501(c)(4) StudentsFirst, and after Bennett's election loss in Indiana, he was appointed by Florida Governor Rick Scott to head that state's school system.

ALEC Indiana privatization ALEC link to official who cheated on charter school grade

There's an ALEC link (what a shock) to the Indiana school superintendent who inflated the grade of an outsourced school run by a wealth...

Day 3: Teamster first responders strike against low wages in CA

12:44 PM Tukiyooo 0

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIPQa4bdExLJdoovg0CrwpI4BQPqAjxuihKNGpzV5ghYXDYGBrtJpvdvCCICzPPboc62jax1V_6uNgzuL58ksXC8gFEpQnCwnfAghv1ifMFX46Fl7K7aYBUEz8vVNYi1hoeptSRAEK5p0T/s1600/Teamsters+strike+Gold+Cross.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIPQa4bdExLJdoovg0CrwpI4BQPqAjxuihKNGpzV5ghYXDYGBrtJpvdvCCICzPPboc62jax1V_6uNgzuL58ksXC8gFEpQnCwnfAghv1ifMFX46Fl7K7aYBUEz8vVNYi1hoeptSRAEK5p0T/s400/Teamsters+strike+Gold+Cross.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Teamster first responders picketing Gold Cross ambulance.</td></tr></tbody></table>Teamster first responders for Gold Cross Ambulance are on<a href="http://www.kyma.com/slp.php?idN=8646&cat=Local+News"> strike for a third day</a> in their fight for a wage that allows them to feed their families and pay for medical coverage.<br /><br />Sixty of our Teamster brothers and sisters in El Centro, Calif., are standing strong against Gold Cross Ambulance, which pays them starting hourly wages ranging from $8.78 to $9.77<span style="color: #114477; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"> </span> for saving lives as ambulance drivers, EMTs and paramedics. They are members of Teamsters Local 542 in San Diego.<br /><br />Phil Farias, president of Teamsters Local 542, said the Teamsters deserve a fair wage, better benefits and decent working conditions:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">These are dedicated employees who want to do this work, who want to serve their community.</blockquote>The Teamster first responders are joining a wave of strikes engulfing low-wage employers around the country. Labor unrest is escalating this week with a series of shorts strikes against fast-food companies. Hundreds walked off the job at Wendy's, McDonald's and KFC yesterday in New York. Today low-wage workers went on strike in Kansas City and St. Louis, while more workers are expected to strike in Chicago, Detroit and Milwaukee over the next few days.<br /><br />In California, <a href="http://www.kyma.com/slp.php?idN=8646&cat=Local+News" rel="nofollow">KYMA News</a> reports: <br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">Alex Ochoa has been working for Gold Cross Ambulance as a paramedic for 13 years. </blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">"We're running out on calls--we break down going to a call. Or we have a patient on board--A/C's not working in the back. We're handing them ice packs and apologizing to them," Ochoa said.</blockquote>Despite the 106 degree heat, the employees on strike are out 24 hours a day holding signs near the corner of Imperial Avenue and Vine Street in El Centro.<br /><br />“Our members are strong and they will stay out for as long as it takes to get a fair contract,” Farias said.<br /><br />

Day 3: Teamster first responders strike against low wages in CA

Teamster first responders picketing Gold Cross ambulance. Teamster first responders for Gold Cross Ambulance are on strike for a third day ...