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Thom Cardwell
James Duggan

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James Duggan

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Thom Cardwell

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Expressed opinions are that of the author(s) and do not represent the thoughts, feelings and /or opinions of any person, organization, company, staff member, or any of our advertisers.

A just and civil society must naturally give consideration to how health care is distributed to, and accessed by, its citizens. With over 47 million Americans living without health insurance, with tens of millions struggling to keep up with the cost of their health insurance, and with millions of families and children being negatively affected by lack of insurance, we need to do something. Doing nothing is not an option.

Yet when we are faced with the opportunity to discuss, to debate and to improve our current system we devolve into shooting matches and are bombarded with lies in order strike fear among the population.  This is especially true for those on the far right who scream that "socialism," "death panels" and "abortions" would become the norm with any reform.

Helping to spread these lies is former Gov. Sarah Palin who wrote on her Facebook page that the elderly and mentally handicapped may have to appear before "Obama's 'death panel' so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their 'level of productivity in society,' whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil." 

This is an outright lie used to instill fear and stir opposition to reform.  There is no such provision in any of the various pieces of health care legislation.

However, if I were a senior or handicapped or a caregiver, I, too, would be concerned if I was told this by someone I respected. But Palin is LYING. She does herself, her constituents and the American people an injustice.  She and her lies must be rejected and anything she has to say about health care reform must be looked upon with suspicion and ultimate rejection.  Clearly, I say this to my friends on the right; Palin is simply pandering for the sole purpose of advancing her own political career.

Abortion has always been a hot button in America and the far right is now using this to also raise opposition to health care reform.  They are spreading the lie that any health care reform will force the Federal Government to pay for abortions.  This, however, would be impossible because of the Hyde Amendment (1976) which bars the use of federal funds to pay for abortions.  It's just one more lie to stir the emotions and fears of good hearted Americans.

Cries of Socialism are being heard from coast to coast, but universal health care is no more socialistic than Medicare yet we not only accept this benefit, we defend it and seek better benefits from it.  How many seniors reject Medicare because it can be argued that such a benefit is socialism?  None, if any!  Our Republic is replete with systems that can be called socialistic, which neither threatens who we are as a nation nor as a people.

Just this week Conservative Newt Gingrich took to the airways (via FoxNEWS) and called for Americans to "terrorize" their elected officials in order to stop any reform in our health care system. 

With militias on the rise, with racism showing its ugly head, and with the increase of hate crimes, Gingrich becomes a fool with his call.  Shame on him and on anyone else that would spread lies and fear to the American people!   They do our great nation a profound injustice.

Lies, distortions, racism, homophobia, and outright ignorance is pushing the opposition to the health care reform this nation needs in order to be a more just people, only a just people can bring about a just nation.  Those who would ignore the health needs of tens of millions of citizens ignore the great possibilities we have yet to achieve.  We require civil, intellectual discourse and debate, not lies and fears. 

Know the facts, not the lies - reform health care NOW!

Cybill Shepard is recreating herself--again--and she's resurfacing, too!  I've always adored Ms. Shepard, from her first leading role in "The Last Picture Show" to "Moonlighting" to "Cybill" and even those made-for-TV movies like "The Martha Stewart Story" (actually, when you think about it, it's a bit of brilliant casting, and Cybill gave a more than creditable performance, won accolades from some critics, and even some award nods). Then there's her queer foray into "The 'L' Word" though Showtime canceled the series, Ms. Shepard was all about playing a lesbian and kissing queer costar Jane Lynch on the lips! I liked Ms. Shepard as a talk show host, too, though the ratings didn't skew well for her in "Women are from Venus, Man are from Mars." It seems an apt title for what we all know and love about Ms. Shepard. Her career has more than its share of peaks and valleys but she always manages another comeback. Perhaps it's the Memphian in her, drawing strength from what Mark Twain liked to call "The Mighty Mississippi" (that's the river, you know) and her determination, tenacity and sheer will to be who and what she is. The 59-year-old Tennessee native was recently profiled in The New York Times (Sunday, July 26, 2009) about her latest gig on the Hallmark Channel's "Mrs. Washington Goes to Smith."  Forever close to the rich and fame, Ms. Shepard recalled: "Years ago one of my mentors, Orson Wells, told me: 'A career is made not by what you do but by what you don't do.' But so much about these past few years has been about saying yes, and it's really paid off."

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Jon Foster, brother to actor Ben Foster, has its all covered on the big screen with roles in two major studio films, "The Informers," based upon the short story collection by literary darling, Bret Easton Ellis, and "The Mysteries of Pittsburgh," based upon the celebrated early novel of the same name by the NY Times best selling bisexual author, Michael Chabon. Foster, who shares a curious tattoo, back-to-back "E"s standing for "engage" and "expand" with his older brother, was also mentored by the four-year older sibling. Maybe it has to do with Foster's "upbringing in a transcendental meditation community in Iowa"? But the young actor admits to enjoying getting naked, playing gay and having an explicit sex scene with hottie Peter Sarsgaard in "The Mysteries of Pittsburgh."  Bill Keith profiled Foster in OUT (May 2009) where the actor had no bones about criticizing the industry about cutting down or cutting out much of the sex. "It's discouraging to know that when you're trying to make something, you don't have complete freedom. You should be able to share something as it was intended and created. The problem is that the people who are running Hollywood are so old-school, and it's the same as most of our laws today. They're working to please a generation that doesn't really exist anymore!"

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"Birds do it; bees do it; even educated fleas do it" are lines from the witty, playful and charming queer or bisexual (difficult to define because of so much of his life being kept "under wraps") American composer-lyricist Cole Porter for "Let's Fall in Love."  Evidently, according to biographer Charles Schwartz (Cole Porter: A Biography, The Dial Press, 1977), Porter was busy doing it with lots of men during his colorful and celebrated lifetime but always behind closed or, should I say, closeted doors. From chorus boys and extras to leading men of Hollywood (particularly the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s), they were all closeted, many of them married with children. It's purported to be that Cole even had an affair with a fellow Yalie of his own graduating class of 1914, according to Schwartz, the "flamboyant and handsome, John Vernon 'Black-Jack' Bouvier, later to become the father of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis." "I'm mad about Jack," Cole is supposed to have enthused . . . to his very close friends at the height of their relationship. Though it didn't last long, Cole and Bouvier "remained on amicable terms for the rest of their lives" wrote Schwartz. Cole was evidently attracted to the "virile he-men types" that populated the Hollywood of his day. "With a friend of his, an actor's agent, serving as a kind of procurer or sexual middleman for Cole," reports Schwartz, "he had practically his pick of the Hollywood gays." He would attend these get-togethers at what he called "fucking parties" and enjoy and indulge in the acquaintance of the young hopeful actors seeking to get ahead in the film industry.