From today’s Ecumenical News International:
UN, NGOs told Faith-Based Organizations crucial in AIDS fight
Geneva (ENI). Up to 40 per cent of health care in poor countries is delivered by private religious institutions according to the first systematic study of faith-based organizations and HIV/AIDS.
Last year, when I was still a Legislative Assistant in the Michigan House of Representatives, I had a front-row seat for the debate over House Bill 5632, the legislation that raised cigarette taxes by 75 cents and placed Michigan at #2 on the list for highest cigarette taxes in the country.
If my memory serves me correctly, the debate was utterly predictable. Those in support of the tax argued in two primary (and seemingly contradictory) directions: first, that the state desperately needed the increased revenues that would result from jacking up the tax in order to continue serving the low-income community’s health care needs through the state’s Medicaid program; and second that increasing the tax would be beneficial to public health because many smokers would be forced to give up the habit due to the drastically increased cost. This mindset is summed up nicely in this excerpt from Nurseline, a publication of the Michigan Nurses Association, which supported the tax increase:
It is estimated that with a 75 cent increase in the tobacco tax, there will be roughly a 13 percent decrease in youth consumption and a 7 percent decrease in adult consumption of tobacco. These declines in consumption will end up saving Michigan about $1,590 billion in long-term healthcare costs. Additionally, the revenues generated would protect health care for 200,000 Michigan children, improve the state’s health status by reducing smoking, protect thousands of Michigan health care jobs by earmarking the revenues to health care, and bring real dollars to Michigan from federal Medicaid matching monies.
Conservatives argued that a reasonable person might conclude that the second benefit (a reduction in smoking rates) would eventually cancel out the first (increased cigarette tax revenue) – although it would be just as reasonable to assume that a great many smokers wouldn’t quit smoking but would instead find ways – often illegal – to circumvent the new tax.
They also pointed out that the increased tax would disproportionately impact the poor, and would in the end be counterproductive in that it would greatly harm small businesses (such as gas stations and convenience stores), causing job losses and further hampering Michigan’s already struggling economy.
Needless to say, the tax was raised.
Read more on Go and Sin (Tax) No More…
In reading Is the Market Moral? (Brookings Institution Press, 2003), I have come across a passage containing what I suspect is a common misconception about markets.
"Unlike the market, which values people according to their resources and the productivity they bring to the market, Christian teachings on poverty ascribe value to a group that has no resources."
The problematic premise implicit in this statement is that ‘the market’ somehow bestows value and that the value it bestows is somehow absolute. But the ‘market’ is not a willful being; the market is a term for the free association of willful beings, namely persons. In the market — a particular sphere of human interaction — the involved persons do recognize certain types of value in other persons based on what those persons offer in that sphere. But recognition (or lack of it) of a person’s ‘value’ in a given sphere is not an absolute value judgment. The ontological value of the human person is inherent. But ‘market value’ is not the same as ‘ontological value’. The confusion comes with the word value: same word; different concepts.
Now that Chief Justice William Rehnquist, 80, has cancer, coupled with talk that Justices Sandra Day O’Connor, 75, and John Paul Stevens, 85, might also consider stepping down, there is quite a buzz in the beltway about the Supreme Court. Majority Leader Bill Frist said Tuesday he’s been talking to Democratic leader Harry Reid about nominees for a potential vacancy on the Supreme Court.
Read more on Senate Leaders Now Discussing Supreme Court Nominees…
Recent high-profile examples of the combination of violence and technology, such as “happy-slapping,” bring into sharp focus the need for moral judgment in the marketplace. The social nature of violence and sin mean that “no government, economy, family, or society can survive if a critical mass of citizens do not exercise a particular level of self-government and restraint.”
Here’s a valuable article highlighting the author’s experience with Augustine during “a homiletical emergency.” David Neff writes in “Preaching Augustine” that the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) “is heavily used by college and university teachers who want to assign classic spiritual reading without adding to their students’ already hefty textbook bills. The other main users seem to be people preparing sermons or Bible studies and those who simply want to read for edification.”
Rapper and actor Will Smith urged rappers to serve as role models for black communities at the annual BET Awards. "The kids that are making these trends, making these songs, don’t understand the level of effect that black Americans have around the world," Smith said in an interview. "Black Americans are so elevated, it’s almost worship." The gangsta lifestyle is celebrated in black communities for its portrayal of strength, Smith said. "That’s the image of survivors. The dude that sells the drugs or has the guns or is most willing to kill somebody is the dude that has the greatest potential for survival, or at least that’s the perception. So that’s what people strive for."
In my years of observing and participating in the legislative process both as a voter and as a legislative aide, I have noted a number of tendencies common to politicians of all political persuasions. High on this list are two items: first, politicians have a deep desire to be seen by their constituents as helpful problem-solvers. If that means bringing the full force of the federal or state government down on an issue that should be solved at the local level, well, so be it. Re-election beckons.
AMD is suing Intel, claiming "freedom of choice and the benefits of innovation…are being stolen away in the microprocessor market," says Hector Ruiz, AMD chairman, president and chief executive.
This case raises concerns over at Fast Company Now, as Kevin Ohannessian writes,
USAID Administrator Andrew Natsios set the record straight at a U.N. conference when he told the gathering that the United States has "no intention" of committing to a goal for foreign aid pegged to a percentage of gross domestic product. Some countries are pressing for the U.S. to commit to an official development assistance (ODA) goal of 0.7 percent of GDP, a figure that would oblige the United States to spend more than $90 billion annually. The Washington Times reported that Natsios "vigorously defended" the American aid policy, and had this to say about pegging assistance to the U.N.’s or anyone else’s "official" number:
