The latest from The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com
- Iris Erlingsdottir: "I'm sorry You're so Stupid:" Head of Iceland's Central Bank refuses to step down
- Birth Control Pill Yaz's False Advertising: Doesn't Help Acne, Pre-Menstrual Syndrome
- Rep. John D. Dingell: Why Health Care Can't Wait
- Michael Russnow: Tea and Sympathy's Robert Anderson was a Class Act: The Great Playwright Lured Deborah Kerr to Broadway
| Iris Erlingsdottir: "I'm sorry You're so Stupid:" Head of Iceland's Central Bank refuses to step down | Top |
| Iceland's interim Prime Minister, Johanna Sigurdardottir, has asked the members of the Central Bank to submit their resignations so that that institution can be overhauled in a way that will inspire trust in foreign investors. Although one of the three governors complied with this request, David Oddsson and Eirikur Gudnason have refused, with David sending a letter excoriating Johanna for her impertinence. A more humble man would perhaps have recalled De Gaulle's remark, that the cemeteries are filled with essential men, and left the matter to others. Unfortunately, however, in David's eyes this crisis is all about him and his legacy. Like a certain recent American president, he appears to see the admission of fault as an unforgivable weakness. The only apology he seems capable of giving is of the "I'm sorry you're so stupid" sort. The political firestorm surrounding the economic collapse has provided creative fodder for Icelandic artists. David does make one valid point. The Central Bank was created to serve as an independent body that would safeguard the nation's finances from political influence. To bow to Johanna's request would signal that the Central Bank is nothing but another governmental agency subject to the whims of the electorate. It is obvious, though, that the political independence of the Central Bank was nothing more than an illusion. David had no training in finance; he was the country's consummate politician, and he has retained his position of dominance within the Independence Party since he joined the Central Bank in 2005. By contrast, the first criteria for governorship of the proposed new Central Bank would be a master's degree in finance. David also fails to recognize that the Central Bank under his leadership has utterly failed in its primary missions of maintaining the krona's integrity and keeping inflation under control. He failed to build up adequate reserves of foreign currency to back the commercial banks' overseas expansion. The krona has lost half of its value in the past year, and is not in free-fall only because the IMF has used billions of dollars to support it. Inflation reached a record high of 18.6% in January. According to the Financial Times , this dispute is further damaging Iceland's standing in the eyes of foreign investors, and may endanger the IMF's plans for saving Iceland's economy. Surrendering gracefully is, no doubt, an art form. History is full of examples of leaders who made proper, timely retreats, and thereby paved the road for their eventual return. Disrespecting the office of the Prime Minister will not gain David the respect of the Icelandic people. Rather, it will only make it harder for the government selected in the forthcoming elections to rule. If the leader of the Independence Party refuses to obey a government formed of the country's other political parties, why would the leaders of those parties submit to a government led by the Independence Party? To acknowledge that the office is greater than the individual, that the nation is more important than the political party, is essential to the proper functioning of a liberal democracy. The protesters who brought down Geir Haarde's coalition no longer believe that Iceland's leaders believe in the rule of law. They see a very small group reaping vast rewards, while placing the country's economic security in grave danger. They wonder why no one has faced criminal prosecution for widely-rumored financial crimes, why bank officials who took out loans to buy bank stock have had their obligations forgiven, why the government officials who failed to control the banks remain in office. Today, those protesters have brought their pots and pans to the Central Bank to try to remedy this situation. Although David's letter to Johanna exhibited more Mugabe than Churchill, let's hope he reconsiders and decides to act in his country's best interest. Elections are scheduled for April. If he wants redemption, let him take his case to the people. His siege mentality only debases him and places our economy at risk. | |
| Birth Control Pill Yaz's False Advertising: Doesn't Help Acne, Pre-Menstrual Syndrome | Top |
| Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals has just introduced a new $20 million advertising campaign for Yaz, the most popular birth control pill in the United States. But the television ads, now running during prime-time shows like "Grey's Anatomy" and on cable networks, are not typical spots promoting the benefits of a prescription drug. Instead, they warn that nobody should take Yaz hoping that it will also cure pimples or premenstrual syndrome. | |
| Rep. John D. Dingell: Why Health Care Can't Wait | Top |
| I am fortunate to be the longest serving Member in the history of the United States House of Representatives. I've been a witness, a participant, and a leader in some historical and important moments in our country's history, including the civil rights movement and the enactment of the National Environmental Policy Act, the 1973 Endangered Species Act, and Medicare in 1965. Yet I believe today we face one of the most important decisions in our Nation's history--how to address the insolvency of our health care system that threatens to decimate our country's budget, stability, and overall wellbeing. For 19,420 days, it has been my goal to ensure access to quality, affordable health care for every American. I have been committed to this since my first day in office and today, more than five decades later, my commitment remains steadfast. The resolve to achieve universal health care is just as noble as it was when I first entered Congress, but the urgency is far greater. Our current system is failing the patients. People are having to choose between feeding their families, paying their bills, or filling their prescriptions. Copays and other fees are so high that even people with health insurance are opting not to see a physician. Further, the most simple, cost-effective, and efficient medical procedures, such as check-ups, physicals, and other preventative measures, are being forgone for more expensive, reactive treatments. For years, people made the case against a heath care overhaul, claiming it would ration medical care. I would say that because of our failure to act, that is what we now have. Instead of taking care of our people, the best health care goes to those who can afford to pay for it. Health care providers themselves are unable to navigate the inefficiency of our health care system. Primary care doctors, our first line of defense and the physicians most likely to serve underserved populations, can no longer maintain their practices. They can't keep up with payroll because of slow turn around on constantly shrinking reimbursements. We are driving doctors running small family practices into merging with mega-offices, where patients do not experience the kind of personal, quality care Americans need. Our failing health care system is also hurting our businesses and industries. Everyday, our businesses are forced to choose between providing much needed health care for their employees or surviving to see another quarter. Many years ago, my father and Walter Reuther used to discuss how health care would eventually break the back of our industries. Our current system has placed American businesses at a competitive disadvantage in the world market. I see it nearly every day in Michigan with our automakers, which need a leveled playing field to compete with automakers in countries with national health care. In a time of such severe economic crisis, we simply cannot afford to let our companies fail under the weight of our inaction. Our states are struggling under the weight of increasing unemployment and health care costs. States, which spend over 20 percent of their budgets on health care, are seeing 1.1 million new enrollees in Medicaid for every one percent increase in unemployment. Many of those newly unemployed do not consider COBRA a viable option. As Families USA recently reported, COBRA coverage would consume nearly 84 percent of family unemployment benefits - a price that is too great for many families to even consider. So, those people are forced to go without medical insurance. At a time when people need it most, the 45 million people without insurance--more than combined populations of California and Connecticut--are racking up debt at an even greater rate. In fact, medical debt has been cited as a factor in half of the home foreclosures wreaking havoc on our financial system. With our economy under strain, our patients, businesses, and states suffering, it is apparent that we need to act now to reform the health care system that hemorrhages money to stabilize our economy. Right now, health care spending is 16 percent of GDP, or $2.3 trillion, and is growing at a staggering rate. Health care costs have been cited by the Congressional Budget Office as the most important factor in achieving long term fiscal balance. If we are to succeed in making the necessary changes to reform our health care system, we must begin the process immediately. I know of which I speak, as I served as Chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce during our last major push to reform health care in 1994. Too much time passed between a superb February 1993 speech by President Clinton, which won the solid support of the Nation, and the time the legislation arrived in Congress. Inertia stalled, and it became too easy for critics to derail the process. Special interests also commandeered the discussion, pouring as much as $500 million into lobbying against reform. We cannot allow, nor afford, that to happen again. Our current financial stability and the health of future generations rests in our willingness to take action. We need a system that would lower costs and increase quality of health care, while making it universally available. I know that Congress has the ability and the ingenuity to create a new approach to health care, however, it is clear that we must not let our window of opportunity go by. We must put forth a plan that will provide the American people with security and the flexibility to choose what's best for themselves and their families. However, for this to work, emphasis must also be put on ensuring that universal coverage truly is universal in that it covers those that are healthy and those that are sick. Congress must guarantee that health insurance does not exclude pre-existing conditions or limit care for families buying their own insurance. For these families and small businesses, we must also increase competition in the insurance market so that affordable options are available. Congress will have to be vigilant in its oversight, to ensure federal dollars that are being spent on health care are being spent wisely, and not simply to line the pockets of corporate executives and insurers. As we move towards national coverage, we have to ensure that we have the public health infrastructure necessary to support additional patients. This includes addressing education and training of the next generation of health professionals, new investment into research and development for cures to chronic and debilitating diseases, disease management programs to improve outcomes, and improving access to school-based health care and support services. These are lofty goals; however, they are also achievable goals. I firmly believe that if Congress ensures that everyone is invested, that means individuals, small and large employers, providers, insurers, state and federal governments, we can deliver a health care reform bill to President Obama by the end of the year. Through collaborative thinking and collective action, we can and we will put together a good, bipartisan bill that will ensure the working men and women in this country will never have to worry about access to health care. [You can read my letter to President Obama here .] I know that this requires much work on my part, and for those that know me well, you know I never back away from a challenge. For more than 50 years, I have fought for universal coverage, and there has been no better opportunity than now. I will not let this window slip by, and I urge my friends, my colleagues, and the American people to join with me in making 2009 the year major health care reform legislation is delivered to the Oval Office. More on House Of Represenatives | |
| Michael Russnow: Tea and Sympathy's Robert Anderson was a Class Act: The Great Playwright Lured Deborah Kerr to Broadway | Top |
| At lunch today, a friend told me he'd just heard on the radio that Robert Anderson died at the age of 91. He knew that I knew the renowned playwright and wanted to make sure I was aware. For those not familiar with his name, Robert Anderson wrote Tea and Sympathy , one of the most famous and popular plays of the 1950's -- a play remembered eternally for its final line delivered by Deborah Kerr, "Years from now when you talk about this -- and you will -- be kind." It was one of the tenderest moments in Broadway history; an older woman bedding a young man to save him from what she perceives might be a tortured life. A scene eerily familiar to what takes place in The Reader , except, as Laura Reynolds, Deborah Kerr's actions are entirely selfless. This was Robert Anderson's most memorable hit, though he had others, such as You Know I Can't Hear You When The Water's Running , Silent Night, Lonely Night and I Never Sang For My Father , the latter of which as a film earned him a Writers Guild Award and an Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay. He also received nominations from the WGA and the Academy for his script work on The Nun's Story and wrote the WGA nominated screenplay for The Sand Pebbles . Additionally, in his long career he wrote the film versions of Until they Sail and Tea and Sympathy , as well as major television movies such as The Patricia Neal Story . He won the ACE Cable TV award in 1991 for The Last Act is Solo . But this is not so much an obit of Mr. Anderson's achievements, but a prelude to a story I wanted to tell about the man's dear friendship with Deborah Kerr and how I got to know him. As some of you may know, I wrote a Huffington Post piece about Deborah Kerr last year, which among other things mentioned my campaign to get her a long overdue Oscar and later a royal honor from the Queen. In the course of this, I wrote to Robert Anderson and others with whom Deborah had worked during her fabulous career. Many responded and sent letters to the Motion Picture Academy, but Anderson and I began a warm relationship as well. He thanked me over and over for what I was doing for this wonderful star, who meant so much to him and whom he called every year on her birthday, September 30, which coincidentally was the anniversary of the Broadway opening of Tea and Sympathy . When the honorary Oscar was finally announced three years later, Mr. Anderson (I always called him that), upon learning I was coming to New York, said he wanted to take me to lunch. It was a great meeting, one-on-one with a theatrical icon -- perhaps not as famous as contemporaries Tennessee Williams or Arthur Miller, but nonetheless the writer of a play which during its era received equal acclaim with the top works of the period. He regaled me with personal stories, such as his affair with Ingrid Bergman when she performed Tea and Sympathy in Paris and added -- almost to prove it to me -- "She mentioned it in her biography." He told of going out with Deborah for drinks after the show and feeling guilty about the fact that his first wife, Phyllis, was dying. I suggested that he needed to have some sort of relief from the pain he was suffering and he thanked me, indicating "It's what I rationalized to myself, but it's still hurtful to think about." He complained about the lack of work possibilities, that the Roundabout Theatre, after an excellent reading of Tea and Sympathy in the nineties and much talk of a revival, wouldn't return his phone calls. That representatives at his agency gave him little notice after his long-time and beloved agent Ben Benjamin had died. I must say it was fascinating hearing these negative comments from someone who continued working and collecting awards until well into his eighties, when so many of us in the entertainment industry would love to have had his career and "problems." Indeed, he wrote me just before his 81st birthday in 1998 that it had been "a year full of wanderings to various theatre conferences...a few awards... (I'd rather be produced)." After the Oscar success for Deborah, I enlisted him to join me in writing the Queen urging her to honor Deborah Kerr as a Dame and we both laughed at getting letters from the Queen's private secretary sternly informing us that only the Prime Minister could communicate directly with the Queen. Undaunted we wrote the PM and, after a series of attempts joined by some of my screenwriter friends and former Scottish Film Council head David Bruce, finally succeeded in getting Deborah an Honor, though it was to be a CBE and not Dame. He called Deborah in Switzerland to congratulate her and then called me a bit later telling me he'd told her about what I'd done and then said, "Why don't you give her a call?" I didn't want to bother Deborah, but he insisted and so I did. Needless to say, hearing the familiar, oh so lyrical voice thanking me on the phone from Klosters -- well, the experience was wonderful and unforgettable. I saw him one more time almost ten years ago, again in New York, when he took me to the Harvard Club for lunch and advised me how best to deliver a talk I was giving at a screen and television conference in Providence. Robert Anderson was a down to earth, intelligent and kind man with a certain degree of humility and a lot of class. He deserves to be honored and remembered for that, as well as the incredible body of work in the theatre, film, television and novels he created and left for us to enjoy forever. I, for one, treasure the memory of knowing him, however slightly, and for his standing beside me to pay tribute to our much beloved Deborah Kerr. | |
CREATE MORE ALERTS:
Auctions - Find out when new auctions are posted
Horoscopes - Receive your daily horoscope
Music - Get the newest Album Releases, Playlists and more
News - Only the news you want, delivered!
Stocks - Stay connected to the market with price quotes and more
Weather - Get today's weather conditions
| You received this email because you subscribed to Yahoo! Alerts. Use this link to unsubscribe from this alert. To change your communications preferences for other Yahoo! business lines, please visit your Marketing Preferences. To learn more about Yahoo!'s use of personal information, including the use of web beacons in HTML-based email, please read our Privacy Policy. Yahoo! is located at 701 First Avenue, Sunnyvale, CA 94089. |
No comments:
Post a Comment