Not a windmill after all?

Dad was certainly a visionary, and I have inherited that particular gene, or curse, or blessing, depending on your perspective. At times it’s all three. It’s a wonderful thing because visionaries can see a beauty that isn’t yet, and be driven by that beauty, and try to make it real. It’s a horrible thing because there can be few or no others who can see anything similar, and when others pay any attention at all, it’s likely to scoff or worse.

Open Records blog on transparency pros and cons

So nice to come across someone else’s post that’s about one of the things on my list of topics to get to. Open Records is a blog I’ve mentioned before.

Of Gladiators and Children

One of my avocations is archeology. I’ve never been on an archeological dig (yet), but I like reading about them and their discoveries, and the stories they suggest about the people who lived once upon a time.

Bob Schieffer on Church Bureaucracy

To follow up on yesterday’s post, here’s a great commentary by CBS’s Bob Schieffer on Catholic Church bureaucracy and the pedophile priest scandal.

Cigna: “That’s just the way it is;” but not if Dawn can help it

Every now and then a bureaucracy finds out that they’ve messed with the wrong person, and now it’s Cigna’s turn to find out they shouldn’t have messed with Dawn Smith.

Crystal Lee Sutton, “Norma Rae” dies after denied timely care by insurance company

Crystal Lee Sutton, whose labor organizing efforts inspired the movie Norma Rae, died September 11 in North Carolina at age 68.

Heartbreak and horror, knee-jerks and demonizing

Late night channel surfing can lead one into all sorts of unfamiliar territory. It has led me to writing this.

Catamount Health flub up

Vermont’s Catamount health insurance option is truly a wonderful thing for many people who would otherwise have no health coverage. And I haven’t heard any horror stories about them such as one reads about private insurance companies refusing to pay for medical treatment for people who’ve paid in their premiums faithfully.

“There’s a dynamic change in people’s views about transparency”

Tim Geithner has apparently been cutting deals with some of the banks that received bail-out funds and which are now posting significant profits. That level of recovery is great news–their profits are up, which means taxpayers’ investment should be receiving a nice return, yes? Um, not so much.

We really must have transparency and accountability

Having been clear, I hope, in presenting my progressive/liberal credentials, I’ll say that for some things there simply is no middle road. Transparency and accountability are among those things.

President Obama has so far signaled, if not outright opposition, at least considerable foot-dragging when it comes to undoing some of what can be undone of Bush’s legacy, and pursuing accountability for Bushies who may have committed crimes.