Month: August 2009

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A short observation on sensory experience and age

  By About me, Music

I really have trouble listening to music while I write now. And that’s because, even though I have always love music love, the intensity of the pleasure I get from is stronger now than it has ever been. Something similar seems to be true for all my senses. They are all duller in some ways than they were twenty years ago. I’m starting to have trouble hearing things and not only am I as nearsighted as ever but I’ve totally lost my near point and have to take my glasses off to see close up. My touch is still pretty good but I’ve started to notice that I can’t pick up quite the level of details on a surface as I once did. But the intensity of my sensual experience is much greater than before. Continue reading

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A eulogy for my grandfather, Frank Stier

  By Family Stories

What I’m thinking about at any one time tends to be massively over-determined, for good or ill. In the last few days I’ve been thinking about the elderly. (I hate the term senior citizens). Partly this is because I’ve been doing a lot of health care events with old folks. Partly it is because my mother-in-law had a stroke last week and I’ve been talking with daughter about grandparents and what they mean to us. And partly its because Ted Kennedy just died and I think of him, as I thought of my grandparents, as someone who passed  a political and moral tradition on to me, not in theory but in practice. I’m a political philosopher and I believe in the importance of theory and reason in politics. But I’ve always believed that my  fundamental commitments come from some place deeper than theoretical reasons, from a way of life that is exemplified… Continue reading

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Don’t freak out about the public plan, yet or you can call it a turtle for all I care.

  By Health Care

Yesterday, Secretary Sebelius said that the public option is not an “essential” part of health care reform but we do need some mechanism to provide “competition” for private insurers and a “choice” for Americans. Many of us are concerned about what seems like a retreat by the Obama administration from something we’ve worked hard for, a public health insurance plan. But before we freak out, let me point out a couple of things: Continue reading

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PA HCAN, SEIU, UFCW, and partners hold huge statewide effort for health care reform

  By Health Care

PA Health Care for America Now, SEIU and Partners Hold Huge Statewide Effort for Health Care Reform Governor Howard Dean kicks-off Aliquippa Event Health Reform Advocates Reach Out to 10,000 Pennsylvanians In Support of President Obama’s Health Care Reform Plan Jenkintown, Upper Darby, Middletown (Bucks County), Allentown, Wilkes-Barre, Pottsville, Reading, Williamsport, Aliquippa, Erie, and Sunbury, PA— The dog days of August did not keep over 400 activists from spending hours reaching out to their neighbors in support of President Obama’s health care reform plan in twelve locations in every corner of Pennsylvania. Canvassers talked to over 5,000 Pennsylvanians and left fliers at the homes of another 5,000. Continue reading

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Health Care Weekend: 15 Events Around Pennsylvania

  By Health Care

Dear friends, We in Pennsylvania have built a huge movement for health care reform, so it is not surprising that we were one of the first places to witness the right wing’s vicious campaign of lies and intimidation at the Town Hall held by Senator Specter and HHS Secretary Sebelius in Philadelphia last week. We are fighting back. And if you are willing to step up and join us I guarantee that this opposition will not stop our movement for quality, affordable health care for all. I don’t want to take up space here to explain the right wing strategy and how we will overcome it. Click here for detailed analysis of the situation. Instead let me tell you what you can do in the upcoming week to move health care reform forward. Continue reading

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How the right wing crazies are going to help us win!

  By Health Care

Dear Friends, We in Pennsylvania have built a huge movement for health care reform, so it is not surprising that we were one of the first places to witness the right wing’s vicious campaign of lies and intimidation at the Town Hall held by Senator Specter and HHS Secretary Sebelius in Philadelphia a week ago. I’ll admit that we were all surprised by anti-democratic tactics that I had not seen in over thirty years of political activism. But, if we are all willing to work hard and keep to our strategy and take immediate action when we need you to, I guarantee we are going to win health care reform this year. And the right wing craziness is going to help us. Here’s why: The right wing strategy has two parts. The first is to bring small numbers of people to events to get media attention by means of utterly… Continue reading

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The Culture of Viagra and Violence Against Women

  By Love and Sex

A column today by Bob Herbert, and a blog post by a friend, point to the continuing epidemic of violence against women. Thinking about it today led me to do a little work on an essay that will appear in a book I’m writing about politics and sex, called Civilization and Its Contents. The argument of the essay might help us understand some of the sources of violence against women. A warning. This essay is mainly not about violence against women. It’s about certain views of sexuality and certain sexual practices that, I believe, are part of a larger set of misogynistic practices and beliefs that encourage violence against women. I’ll say something at the end of the essay about violence against women. But I take a long and meandering path back to the subject. I initially began this essay because a friendly commentator on the central essay of my… Continue reading