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Resolved QuestionThere is great power in tapping into the fantasies of the masses. Law 33 . Law 48 Assume Formlessness By taking a shape, by having a visible plan, you . Law 47 Do not go Past the Mark you Aimed for; In Victory, Learn when to Stop .
The 48 Laws of Power - a review of Robert Greene’s bookThe 48 Laws of Power - a review of Robert Greene’s new book . Murray Waldren meets Robert Greene. H ALF a millennium ago, Florentine philosopher Niccolo Machiavelli tried to .
Head of IMF cleared of misconduct (ABC Radio Australia)The head of the International Monetary Fund has been cleared of misconduct, over his affair with a senior IMF economist.
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Michael Gerson, a new columnist for the Washington Post, has an important and insightful column, Wednesday, May 16, 2007, Washington Post, on the installation of the missionary bishop of the Nigerian Anglicans to northern Virginia, and the movement of the global south to re-Christianize the global north. This article is about the United States; my sense, however, is that a historically much more important re-evangelization will eventually take place in Western Europe, led by Africans and African immigrants.
On of these days, when I get a moment, I will write something about religion here. I suppose I might respond to part of Chris Hitchens’ new book, but I’m more interested in the sensibility about religion at this moment.
I was once a Mormon missionary, many years ago, in Peru. I am a long lapsed Mormon, but unlike a lot of lapsed Mormons, I hold no ill-feelings for the Mormon church. Most of my family is still devoutly Mormon, and I have enormous respect for how they live they lives, and well as a great fondness for Mormon culture, even if I don’t count myself as a Mormon believer. I don’t write about the Mormon church very much, although I wrote two long review essays about the Mormons some years ago - one in the Times Literary Supplement, on the intellectual and spiritual roots of Mormonism in gnosticism and the radical religious reformation, here, and a second in the Los Angeles Times Book Review, when under the editorship of the great Steve Wasserman, here, on a new journalistic account of the Mormon church.
Excerpted from Gerson’s column, midway:
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In 1900, about 80 percent of Christians lived in North America and Europe; now, more than 60 percent live on other continents. There are more Presbyterians in Ghana than in Scotland. The largest district of the United Methodist Church is found in Ivory Coast. And many of the enthusiastic converts of Western missions have begun asking why portions of the Western church have abandoned the traditional faith they once shared. Liberal Protestant church officials, headed toward international assemblies, are anxiously counting African votes, because these new voters tend to take their Bible both literally and seriously.
This emerging Christianity can be troubling. Church leaders sometimes emphasize communal values more than individual human rights, and they need to understand that strongly held moral beliefs are compatible with a commitment to civil liberties for all. Large Pentecostal churches are often built by domineering personalities promising health and wealth.
But the religion of the global south has a great virtue: It is undeniably alive. And it needs to be. A mother holding a child weak with AIDS or hot with malaria, or a family struggling to survive in an endless urban slum, does not need religious platitudes. Both need God’s ever-present help in time of trouble — which is exactly what biblical Christianity claims to offer.
Some American religious conservatives have embraced ties with this emerging Christianity, including the church I attend. But there are adjustments in becoming a junior partner. The ideological package of the global south includes not only moral conservatism but also an emphasis on social justice, an openness to state intervention in markets, and a suspicion of American economic and military power. The emerging Christian majority is not the Moral Majority.
But the largest adjustments are coming on the religious left. For decades it has preached multiculturalism, but now, on further acquaintance, it doesn’t seem to like other cultures very much. Episcopal leaders complain of the threat of “foreign prelates,” echoing anti-Catholic rhetoric of the 19th century. An activist at one Episcopal meeting urged the African bishops to “go back to the jungle where you came from.” Not since Victorians hunted tigers on elephants has the condescension been this raw.
History is filled with uncomfortable turnabouts, and we are witnessing one of them. Serious missionary work began in Nigeria in 1842, conducted by a Church Mission Society dedicated to promoting “the knowledge of the Gospel among the heathen.” In 2007, the Nigerian outreach to America officially began, on the fertile mission fields of Northern Virginia. And the natives here are restless. Michael Gerson in WP on African Episcopal missionary outreach to the US
Raise your hand if you think the FMLA is working. I know I can’t see you, but I have a pretty good feeling that a lot of hands will be in the air. Employees often don’t understand when they are entitled to or eligible for leave, think they should have more than 12 weeks of leave, and that leave should be paid. Employers are baffled by the notice and certification process, frustrated with intermittent leave, and petrified of terminating anyone who takes FMLA leave for fear of a lawsuit. My perception, after advising clients on the FMLA for my entire career, is that the law can be a mess for everyone involved - employees and companies alike, and that no one really understands the FMLA’s reciprocal duties and responsibilities.
Yet, a 181-page report published Tuesday by the Department of Labor (available in full here and in summary here), after receiving more than 15,000 comments from the public, concludes: “In the vast majority of cases, the FMLA is working as intended.” The Report does confirm tension between employees’ needs for intermittent leave to treat their own chronic health conditions and employers’ needs to efficiently operate their businesses is the most prevalent complaint. “In some cases, the use of unscheduled intermittent leave appears to be causing a backlash by employers who are looking for every means possible . to reduce absenteeism.” It also confirms dissatisfaction with the medical certification process, in that employees don’t like the time and cost of visits to health care providers to obtain certificates, and employers are frustrated with the lack of meaningful guidance to worker attendance. How can the DOL conclude that the FMLA is “working as intended”, and yet at the same time report confusion and dissatisfaction with two of its most critical components, certification and intermittent leave? It’s like saying the Indians played a great game last night, but their pitching was awful and the batters couldn’t hit anything.
The open question is what will Congress do with this Report. Will it take the Report to mean that the status quo is fine, or will it use the Report as a means to introduce legislation that will expand upon the FMLA’s protections for employees. Mandatory paid leave is certainly on this Congress’s agenda. Expansion of the FMLA is a scary proposition for employers, who have a hard enough time dealing with the law as currently written. I encourage everyone to post comments here and let me know your thoughts on how the FMLA is working, and what, if anything, could be done to fix it.
Move along, nothing to see here: DOL concludes FMLA is working
NetDoc now as a mashup of Google Maps and HHS hospital data. As Shahid Shah says, these types of tools takes mountains of data and makes it more accessible and easier to digest by the average public health consumer. Here is the view/data of hospitals that are 100 miles from Charleston, West Virginia.
Here is the summary of what the tool provides:
When it comes to treating heart attacks, pneumonia, surgery and other emergencies, you want to find the best medical care available.
To help you make these decisions, visit the NetDoc.com Hospital Rankings tool and enter your ZIP code to see how hospitals in your neighborhood rank on benchmarks set out by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in four categories: Heart Attack, Heart Failure, Pneumonia and Surgical Care Improvement/Surgical Infection Prevention.
Thanks to Shahid for the tip on this new tool. Hospital Mashup: Google and HHS Hospital Data
Sick of the 
