DavidBeckwith's Comments (18)

“I can feel your tears as I read your words. I think it is important that people hear your story, and those like yours. Products and services should not have this effect upon people. On the contrary. Especially at those rates. Especially given the cost, which in this, and in so many other instances, is life itself.
But that is not the end of it, sadly. Sometimes the costs go beyond death, to the surrounding family, who are then burdened with draconian expense. What if Disney World (not nearly so expensive) had this effect on families, instead of the effect it usually has, which is nearly the opposite? How do they please, nay thrill, millions, while keeping a spotless environment? What can our health industry learn from Disney World? What if a trip to the hospital was more like those families on the Extreme Home Makeover? Body falling down? In need of repair? Come to Oz! Doctor Oz!
We need a clear, bold, and beautiful vision for what health care in the 21st century could become. Tragedies like yours needn't be repeated. But they can show what not to do. May your sacrifices not be for nought.”

“Thanks for sharing this moving account. You have suffered deeply, and for another person other than yourself. You have carved the hollow space in your heart which should, by now, be filling itself with joy and love. This is the upside of suffering, if you will...and you have. What is empty will be filled. I can't wait to hear about the wonders that come your way. I am cheering for your great happiness, now and to come.
Cheers!”

“I think his reading Rumi, Tagore and, well, you, show he has been perched on high branches, and maybe, as such, his flight away from this earth will be made much easier. May he ever fly high!”

“I agree almost entirely. I don't, however, think his sins are unforgivable. It depends on how forgiving the forgiver. It belittles privacy to treat it publicly, and one's love life, among adults, should remain a matter of the involved parties, and not a public shaming ritual. I forgive Senator Edwards, and challenge him to overcome this trial. Poverty is going to be ended, even without him, but it sure would be great to have him, once again, leading a charge. Life may be like high school, but it needn't be like junior high school. Let us forgive, forget, and let the man improve the lives of millions. Or shall we continue to destroy the lives of millions? We can no longer stay that course.”

“Adam Lambert should win because he is, by far, the superior contestant, and it is probably obvious to the judges. He is not only the superior contestant this year...he is the best they have ever had, and shows more promise than any of the other winners...but then again, he has been at it for a good while, and was a star before entering the show, so maybe he had that advantage, although he never flaunted it before the others. He has been graceful, even if the judges have been over the top with praise. They have been going too far with poor Danny Gokey as well, and others. I like Kris, but he knows he couldn't do what Adam has been doing. I suspect FOX and Ford might rather a redneck won it all. Someone "Ford tough". Oh well. We have two gentle souls instead. I'm happy with the outcome. Give credit where credit is due.”

“Robert, You talk about "Bank of America and other Wall Street firms"...but the last I checked, Bank of America was a Charlotte, North Carolina firm. The "corrupt corporate elite" of which you speak is more applicable to Wall Street firms, but NCNB, NationsBank, and now Bank of America, are not part of that mindset, but rather have been good corporate citizens, emphasizing ethics, the arts, community development and such. I suspect that if you'd focus also on the good things the bank does, you might find that things are not exactly as you currently portray them to be. Ask Hugh McColl what he thinks.

I generally agree with your assessment of things, and your films are fabulous, but this time I wonder why you seem to be defending Wall Street corruption by diverting attention elsewhere. BOA is a Charlotte/San Francisco hybrid. Fire Lewis if you must, but don't paint the bank with Wall Street shades. Shine sunlight on the good as well as the bad. Impartiality is the best thing.”

“Writers are all selfish boors. In fact, all human beings are selfish boors.
But selfish boors make the world go round, I mean square.
That is why Jon Stewart is so happy about getting paid way more than bloggers.
Not really, but it could be.
The Jons and Ariannas should not compete, but rather default to the vision, not the process.”

“I figure he said that for the benefit of listeners who might not understand...but I have seen cases where folks in "competing" media complain without any real understanding or experience. His boss, Mayor Bloomberg, was a little slow in seeing the importance of the internet, as witnessed by early interviews with Mr. Rose. But now, they are both among the greatest facilitators.”

“http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/28/us/politics/28gambling-web.html?hp=&pagewanted=all

For McCain and Team, a Host of Ties to Gambling

"Senator John McCain was on a roll. In a room reserved for high-stakes gamblers at the Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut, he tossed $100 chips around a hot craps table. When the marathon session ended around 2:30 a.m., the Arizona senator and his entourage emerged with thousands of dollars in winnings."
"A lifelong gambler, Mr. McCain takes risks, both on and off the craps table."

We do not need these folks anywhere near our money...
db”

“I suspect there are many folks on Wall Street who are gambling addicts and who are also, sadly, alcohol addicts -- both of which reflect egoistic predominance. With egoistic predominance comes a lack of concern for the common good, as the ego tends to prefer the pulley model, rather than the stewardship model, of which you yourself are an exemplar. It is the unfortunate insatiability of these drunken gambling addicts which, and those who spawn them, which has been a major contributor to the current malaise, and I suspect it will take sober stewards to return goodness and sanity to the financial stage.

Peace and a widening conception of prosperity,
David”

“Fame. What you get is no tomorrow...”

“As a fellow David B, let me defend Mr. Brooks for his incrementalism by saying that I believe he is changing, if incrementally, into a progressive liberal democrat. The sheer weight of David Bs falling on the side of lefteousness will eventually cause him to crack, and realize that he has been cool all along.
He just didn't know it. Or maybe be couldn't find anyone to pay him to think it. I'll not be that harsh. I think he's a good man, and I look forward to having him on our side...where his public conversion might be as rewarding as was Arianna's.
He has yet to recognize Goliath.”

“I was brought up in a mainstream, Presbyterian church, where the pastor always spoke in modulated tones, and so I am always taken aback when I hear Pastor Hagee yelling and stamping his feet and calling for the deaths of many people. I've never known anyone in a mainline protestant, Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Taoist, Buddhist or Sufi tradition who has harbored such hatred at hothead Hagee and his unholy hootenanny. On the contrary, I have found most folks to be open and tolerant, even loving, toward different traditions.

Senator Lieberman, who is now getting his wish of living like a Republican, is a profound bafflement to me, and I am glad that Jewish people are challenging him on his bizarre neo-alliances. My suspicion is that Hagee realized that he his own anti-Semitistic proclivities, duly recorded, might come back to haunt him, so he has been doing double-duty to cover it over with these over-the-top broadcasts, conventions, and such.

Joe should quit cross-dressing.and go ahead and change parties. Then take up arms, with John Hagee, and go to the front lines where they can shoot all the bad people they want, and it will be AOK. Practice what they preach. This is their dharma.”

“I've got a better idea. Let's fasten securely the mindwinks, grant them even more power, let them start another war, then write glorious hagiographies about these saintly geniuses.”

“I have a list of so-called "flip-flops" by Obama and McCain, and McCain has nearly ten times the number committed by his youthful opponent. So if they want to continue with this game..let them! It will ensure an Obama victory! America really is that stupid!
OK. Maybe I too am being a bit harsh. I doubt it. Not after 2004 stamped "stupid" on our foreheads, where the third eye of intuition, had it been functional, might have steered us around the melting iceberg of Bush, and all the flooding that brings. But the iceberg is bouyed by the corpulent media, who are forced into being the administration's Ganymede, yet whose lips drip with Mammon, oil and blood. They have been told to suck under, a new war is under way. They are not free to speak for themselves. They are toadies and suppositories. They lack integrity and a spinal column.
Soon they will be blowing the trumpets again.
Anything to make Al hurt.”

“"Be not righteous over much..." (Ecclesiastes 7:16)

Methinks Mr. Gerson could stand a course in Bible learning, for if he did take that course, he might stop casting stones and aspersions on the Christ-like Franken (or Frankenchrist) and remove the logjam from his eye and toejam from his mind...or whatever it is that makes him think, or pretend, that his own monster is, or was, somehow, an immortal coil of God-league impunity, while the true fountain of love and light gets spun into Dacron throwrugs.

Al Franken will bring intelligence, wit, charm, grace, style, humor, respect and, dare I say it, fun, back to Washington, which has, itself, devolved into a mudfight between opposing lobbylubbers, whose minds are now fully marinated in the fotzepolitik, and mammoniacal self-absorption, of the day.

Do as Paul does, and support Al Franken. He is not a toadie.
He is probably even a member of The Nuculus -- that evolving progressive social entity made possible by Facebook, Twitter, Friendfeed, and the best of the new social media.

Al is there, here. His opponent is not. His opponent's party is not.
McCain is not only not a netizen...he is a computer illiterate.
Make him leader? No. Make him a student.

Bring on the Nuculus. Bring on the Frankens and The Harry Taylors.
Then I might shut up...”

“The viewer would best be served by a Bill Moyers or a Charlie Rose, who might well raise the show to a new level. Chuck Todd seems a likely successor, in title and temperament. What about David Brancaccio? Chomsky would be my personal choice. Why not have someone who truly understands both politics and language, and at a high level?”

“There is no reason to be, or become, a Republican. They have proven their lack of worth.
That said, if McCain does drop out, Powell and Hagel might be a formidable challengers, but the rest are ricecakes and suppositories.”