Excerpts from recent editorials in newspapers in the United States and abroad:
Aug. 8
The Austin (Texas) American-Statesman, on the recent health care debates:
... When you go to hear elected officials or political candidates discuss the issues of the day, be polite as well as respectful of others attending the event.
Feel free to be -- and in fact we encourage you to be --challenging, assertive and skeptical of what you hear. Make the officeholders and candidates talk with you, not at you.
That's good for democracy.
What's bad for democracy is screaming at, shouting down or in any way discouraging conversation. ...
Here's an ... example, taken from a memo from the Tea Party Patriots, a group that wants members to harass Democratic lawmakers:
"Be disruptive early and often. You need to rock the boat early in the rep's presentation. Watch for an opportunity to yell out and challenge the rep's statements early. ... The goal is to rattle him, get him off his prepared script and agenda. If he says something outrageous, stand up and shout out and sit right back down. Look for these opportunities before he even takes questions."
There's a bad idea. These tactics are not productive and probably won't change any minds.
So how about if we try to show each other as well as our elected leaders, love 'em or hate 'em a little respect? ...
___
On the Net:
http://www.statesman.com
___
Aug, 9
The Blade, Toledo, Ohio, on obesity and health care:
Just as the national debate over health-care reform enters a critical stage, along comes a national study pointing out that obesity adds $147 billion every year to the cost of health care in this country. ...
Americans consume an average of 250 more calories per day than they did two decades ago. That's 26 extra pounds to burn off every year just to stay even. And medical costs associated with the resulting obesity have nearly doubled in less than a decade. ...
The extra weight Americans are packing leads to numerous and often avoidable health problems: heart disease, diabetes, stroke, high blood pressure, heart failure, kidney problems, and arthritis. As Congress debates health care reform, the question becomes: Who will foot the bill? ...
While the debate over health care reform has focused mainly on the cost and how to pay for it, what's been missing is any real discussion of the preventive component — how to avoid weight-related maladies in the first place.
... Choosing a healthier lifestyle is the best way to hold down medical bills for everyone. Failure to heed that message may turn out to be the deciding factor in whether health care reform succeeds this time. ...
___
On the Net:
http://tinyurl.com/kw7sqc
___
Aug. 9
Chicago Sun-Times, on the American Psychological Association and sexual orientation:
There's nothing like a dry research paper to help clear up the sexiest and most controversial of topics.
With a 138-page report to back them up, the American Psychological Association this week declared that mental health professionals should not tell their gay clients that they can become straight through therapy or other treatments. ...
We doubt this will dissuade die-hard proponents of "reparative therapy," but we applaud the APA for taking a sober look at the topic — and for coming out strongly against it. The group has long espoused the view that homosexuality is normal. But this declaration, we hope, will reach gay people who are considering this discredited therapy and will lend more authority to the therapists who reject it.
The association also gets credit for carefully examining the difficult conflict between a person's sexual orientation and his or her religious views, which often leads gays to seek out such therapies. The APA discusses this conflict in its report, noting several studies that document the intense emotional stress it can cause. Therapists are urged to respect their client's religious views and to help them explore ways to live a spiritually meaningful life, including choosing celibacy.
But the APA didn't back down on the conversion question, urging therapists to first and foremost address "the reality" of a client's "sexual orientation."
The APA was respectful when it mattered — both to a range of religious views and to the facts.
___
On the Net:
http://tinyurl.com/mm62lk
___
Aug. 11
Daily Freeman, Kingston, N.Y., on Bill Clinton, the Obama administration and North Korea:
So the former president of the United States flies half way around the globe on a secret mission and, to the surprise of the world, comes home with two Americans who'd been imprisoned in a ruthless foreign land.
You would have thought that Bill Clinton getting two Americans out of a tough jam in North Korea would be universally received as a good thing.
You'd a'thunk wrong.
Critics in the United States have bent themselves from here to Pyongyang and back to criticize the whole thing.
The Obama administration, which negotiated the release and sanctioned the trip by Citizen Clinton, surely rewarded North Korea's bad behavior, setting a terrible precedent, they say.
Or the trip was really about Bill Clinton weaseling himself into an Obama administration role.
Or surely Clinton's discussion with Kim Jong-il must have strayed into areas that compromised official U.S. diplomatic policy toward North Korea, despite White House insistence to the contrary.
Or the stage managing of the return of the plane carrying Clinton, Laura Ling and Euna Lee was unseemly.
The manufactured kerfuffle over Clinton's humanitarian trip shows just how poisonous our politics have become. It's in danger of being all partisan, all of the time. ...
The critics are wrong. In the end, what happened was no rollover by the Obama administration. Reduced to its essentials, the deal secured the release of two American citizens from a hellish fate at the cost of a photo op. That's solid diplomacy in the service of a limited, but humanitarian, outcome. And that's worth celebrating.
___
On the Net:
http://tinyurl.com/kn35uc
___
Aug. 7
The Paducah (Ky.) Sun, on taxes:
Your taxes are going up.
Much as we hate to be the bearer of bad news, we think you ought to know.
No, we haven't forgotten the president's oft-repeated campaign promise not to raise your taxes. Unless you are rich, of course. But to the middle class he promised, "You will not see your taxes increased by a single dime. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains tax. No taxes."
At the time, Obama's opponents said the math didn't work — he simply would not be able to do all he promised without broad tax hikes. But Obama insisted he could and would. Since then, however, economic realities have set in. And those economic realities were manufactured in Washington.
Now the administration is starting to gently break the bad news: one way or another, you're going to pay more for the federal government's excesses.
But don't take our word for it. Listen to Timothy Geithner, the former New York Fed chief whom the president chose to lead the Treasury Department because Obama deemed him the only person capable of steering the U.S. economy out of the recession. On ABC's "This Week" Sunday, host George Stephanopoulos asked Geithner if the president would have to break his pledge not to raise taxes on 95 percent of Americans. He responded, "We're going to have to do what's necessary." ...
Congress is showing no signs of getting deficit spending under control. Higher taxes are inevitable. The only question is the form. ...
Yes, middle class taxpayers, you're going to pay more. The rich just don't make enough money to keep up with the spending appetites of Congress.
___
On the Net:
http://www.paducahsun.com/
___
Aug. 10
The Decatur (Ala.) Daily, on Obama:
Among the many criticisms hurled at President Barack Obama is that he is a pacifist. How can a man willing to talk to Iran and North Korea have the backbone to exert our military might against enemies?
The reported death of Taliban leader Hakmiullah Mehsud in Pakistan is a reminder that the pacifist label, like so many others pinned to Obama, is inaccurate.
Missile strikes in Pakistan have increased, not decreased, since Obama took office. Evidence suggests that the relentless attacks have disrupted al-Qaida and Taliban operations whether or not the recent strike killed Mehsud.
For the American people, there is a lesson here. Homegrown enemies of Obama — think talk radio — are masters at labels. Obama is not just a pacifist, they say he's a socialist and a fascist and a control freak.
The fact is, he is an intelligent man who is proving himself adept at processing the facts before him. As the missile strikes make clear, he prefers diplomacy but understands that force sometimes is necessary.
Obama is our president. A majority of our population saw in him the wisdom necessary to guide a powerful nation. His detractors, vested in his failure, are increasingly venomous.
Notwithstanding the constant slanders, we as a people can be proud. We saw through the campaign blather and found the right man for the job.
President Obama has made mistakes, and he will make more. But at a time of crisis — international and domestic — he is the best America has to offer. If anyone can see us through these travails, he is the one.
___
On the Net:
http://tinyurl.com/r8jumj
___
Aug. 10
The Ledger, Lakeland, Fla., on teens sending sexually provocative photos via cell phones and e-mails:
"Sexting" - sending sexually provocative photos via cell phone or e-mail - is hardly an innocent pastime. Yet teens who engage in this risky behavior often have no harmful intent, no clue to the potential consequences, and no idea that they may be committing a crime.
Their exhibitionism should not be condoned. But when it is not intentionally exploitative, it should not be prosecuted as felony child pornography.
Unfortunately, too many communities are doing exactly that. In Pennsylvania, for example, a district attorney is threatening to file child-pornography charges against three girls, pictured partially clad, in photos from a slumber party. ...
In such circumstances, a pornography charge is not warranted. It is an overreaction that subjects these children to humiliation, fear, legal expense and a criminal record.
What is needed is a more sensible, moderate response - one that offers juvenile first offenders a life lesson without destroying their lives. ...
__
On the Net:
http://tinyurl.com/m3dpeg
___
Aug. 6
Home News Tribune, East Brunswick, N.J., on a Little League team's sportsmanship:
An act of sportsmanship and decency occurred on a baseball field in Green Brook last week that we couldn't let pass without notice.
The East Brunswick 9 years old and under Little League team gave their championship trophy to Ryan Walsh, a member of the defeated Green Brook 9 and under team, following their championship victory. In June, Walsh had lost his father and coach, 54-year-old Marty Walsh, to cancer two years after losing his mom, Elizabeth Walsh, also to cancer.
Ryan will soon be moving to a new home in Colorado. ...
Sportsmanship and decency are two qualities too often lacking in today's sports world, on all levels. In pro sports, high-priced athletes parade like peacocks around playing fields, then demand exorbitant sums of money for mediocre performances. In youth sports, the stands are often a place for boorish and vulgar hostility emanating from frustrated parents who view their children as athletic surrogates. Or just because it's all being taken far too seriously.
The role of sports should be to build strong bodies and even stronger character, especially at the youth level. Instead, athletics seems to have become a me-first exercise where teamwork is secondary. And when we see that from the pros and the top stars, it's our children getting all of the wrong messages.
We can all learn much from brave Ryan Walsh, who heroically carried on despite his loss, and the members of the East Brunswick squad, who recognized Ryan's courage and fortitude. ...
All involved are champions.
___
On the Net:
http://tinyurl.com/msw9yy
___
August 7
The Times, London, on health care:
There is a truth about modern health care that, in the politics of the day, is consistently ignored. Demand will always beat supply. ...
That is because the demands we have of the service are now out of all alignment with our willingness to pay for them. There are more pensioners than there have been in any previous era and they are living to the ripe old ages at which they contract expensively treatable diseases. The innovative genius of health scientists has made more diseases treatable, usually with new drugs that are, at least initially, very expensive. It is not surprising that citizens demand all that can be done. In a public system, every citizen is sensitive to pain and insensitive to price.
At the same time, health care is getting less effective at preventing conditions, such as obesity and its associated links with diabetes, that are the upshot of dietary and lifestyle choices. The National Health Service has never really been that. It is more of a national illness-fixing service. The health of the nation actually has rather little to do with the NHS and that poor correlation is getting worse, to costly effect.
These are serious problems, but the solutions are not hard to enumerate, even if they are difficult to swallow. We cannot afford all that we can do so health care will have to be rationed further. We can do this by price, by availability or by time. Patients can be charged for some services that are currently free; some elective and non-catastrophic services may have to be excluded from the core set of NHS interventions; or people will again have to get used to waiting a long time.
The disposable income of the Britain of 2009 is vastly greater than it was in 1948. It makes no sense to pretend that fully comprehensive health provision can all be funded out of general taxation. ... The greatest danger to health care in Britain comes from those false friends who are still pretending that we do not need to change.
___
On the Net:
http://tinyurl.com/mwjl3c
___
Aug 11
Svenska Dagbladet, Sweden, on ETA's terror attacks on Mallorca:
The Basque separatist group turns 50 this year and a perverse celebration is under way. ... (T)hree bombs were discovered in bars near the beach in Palma. This after a car bomb exploded on June 29, ... injuring 46 and after two police were killed in a bomb attack in Calvia on Mallorca. ...
It has happened before that the terrorists have targeted tourist areas. But in combination with that they have also started to attack police families lately, this weekend's warded off attack must be seen as an expression that the ETA violence could be on its way to change.
Unpleasantly, it is not completely unlikely that the terror, now to a higher extent than before will be directed directly at civilians. ...
The earlier conservative government put up a strong fight for several years, which triggered a serious attempt to assassinate former Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar. But the successor Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero naively believed it was possible to negotiate with the barrel of a gun, and therefore the government's hold on the terror organization softened. ...
As such the Basque separatists will continue to be a problem for, and pose a threat to, Spaniards as well as to foreign tourists. ...
___
On the Net:
http://www.svd.se
___
Aug. 12
Dagsavisen, Norway, on Aung San Suu Kyi's trial:
... (T)he Burmese regime extended Aung San Suu Kyi's house arrest by 18 months. In total, the government has stolen 14 years of her freedom, and there is no guarantee that the regime will release her after she's served this latest sentence. The trial was a farce from start to finish. ...
Aung San Suu Kyi has become a symbol of the struggle for freedom — not only in Burma, but the world over. The international community must continue to put increasingly greater pressure on the Burmese regime to free her. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has proposed a global ban on selling arms to Burma. The EU has warned that it may use "targeted measures" to punish those responsible for Monday's ruling against Suu Kyi.
This is the right approach, and Norway should support these measures. But what's especially important is that Burma's neighbors — as well as key countries like China, India and Russia — also put pressure on this despotic regime. For Burma, the release of Aung San Suu Kyi would be a step in the right direction.
__
On the Net:
http://www.dagsavisen.no
___
Aug 6
The Jerusalem Post, on government H1N1 preparations:
When mid-summer headlines warn that 700 young Israelis may die in the course of 2010 from the H1N1 virus, it is natural to feel anxious. A quarter of Israelis, say health experts, may contract swine flu, leaving a third of the population sick at home. Some 150,000 Israelis could find themselves hospitalized. ...
Two basic questions come to mind: How concerned should Israelis be? And is the government of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu -he's also health minister - managing preparations for the crisis effectively? The two issues are obviously connected. ...
Netanyahu has ordered that NIS (Shekels) 450 million already earmarked for the purchase of medications that would expand the arsenal of treatments available for cancer, mental illness, heart disease and other serious disorders be redirected for battling H1N1.
In contrast, U.S. health officials plan to focus their vaccination efforts on pregnant women, people who live with or care for children younger than six months, health care and emergency services personnel, people between the ages of six months and 24 years, and people aged 25 through 64 who are at higher risk for H1N1 because of chronic health disorders or compromised immune systems.
Israeli health experts are divided over the wisdom of Netanyahu's approach. Deputy Health Minister Ya'acov Litzman favors something closer to the U.S. approach, which would protect those most vulnerable and avoid decimating the expanded health basket for other diseases. ...
We urge him to rethink his plan for mass inoculations at the expense of the expanded health basket.
___
On the Net:
http://tinyurl.com/qnyyes
___
Copyright 2009 AP Features
