“Canadians to clear up health care myths for Americans: rabble.ca posts ... - CNW Group” plus 2 more |
- Canadians to clear up health care myths for Americans: rabble.ca posts ... - CNW Group
- Book reviews: 'Traveling With Pomegranates' and more - Newsday
- Interesting Readers Society - Book Reviews by Young Adults - School Library Journal
| Canadians to clear up health care myths for Americans: rabble.ca posts ... - CNW Group Posted: 11 Sep 2009 09:14 AM PDT | Canadians to clear up health care myths for Americans: rabble.ca posts U.S. health care page debunking myths and posting health care testimonialsTORONTO, Sept. 11 /CNW/ - In the wake of President Obama's health care speech, rabble.ca is asking Canadians to weigh in on the American health care debate by providing testimonials on a new section of their website that can be found at: http://rabble.ca/issues/healthcareUSA. rabble.ca's new "Health Care USA" section presents some simple facts about Canadian health care, links to resources on single-payer for Americans and testimonials from Canadians from all walks of life on the Canadian health system. "Canadians are shocked and even angry that their health-care system, what we call 'Medicare', has been used to frighten Americans trying to make up their minds. Some of what has been said about our Medicare system are outright falsehoods, like the claim that we can't choose our own doctors or that government 'bureaucrats' can deny us needed treatment," said rabble Senior Contributing Editor Murray Dobbin. "These falsehoods would be laughable were it not for the fact that Americans might abandon the opportunity for excellent, less expensive health care because they believe these stories," Dobbin said. rabble will be posting testimonials from ordinary Canadians who have used our system and from the professionals, doctors, nurses, and administrators who provide the service. rabble.ca is Canada's most popular source of independent news and views, and features original news, opinion, book reviews, podcasts and live and pre-recorded video exploring issues facing Canadians. rabble.ca is in its 9th year of providing 100% free news content to Canadians. rabble is a non-profit, community supported organization. For further information: Murray Dobbin, Contributing Senior Editor, (604) 483-9667; Derrick O'Keefe, Editor, (604) 803-6927; Kim Elliott, rabble.ca, Publisher, (647) 477-8534 |
| Book reviews: 'Traveling With Pomegranates' and more - Newsday Posted: 10 Sep 2009 02:38 PM PDT TRAVELING WITH POMEGRANATES: A Mother-Daughter Story, by Sue Monk Kidd and Ann Kidd Taylor. Viking, 282 pp., $25.95. In 1998, Sue Monk Kidd was 49. Her daughter Ann was 22 and had lived away from home for four years. Her mother missed her "almost violently." After Ann's graduation from college, the two traveled to Greece. Ann was teetering on the brink of depression; rejection from graduate school, a breakup and a wavering sense of her purpose in life caused her to create a distancing force-field. Sue felt her body abandoning her and felt a constant "ache for some unlived destiny." They found themselves in the emotional and physical landscape of Demeter and Persephone - Demeter grieving for her daughter whom Hades has dragged to the underworld, Persephone grieving for her mother and her lost self. In the myth, Persephone eats pomegranate seeds from Hades, guaranteeing that she will be with her mother for only a part of each year. In a shop in Greece, Sue buys two pomegranate charms, one for each. Ann is fascinated by Athena, Aphrodite and Venus during their travels. Sue is captivated by the Virgin Mary, and finding the Old Woman (a character from a May Sarton poem) within herself. On this trip, Sue begins to write "The Secret Life of Bees," a novel she was not sure, ironically, would even be published. On subsequent trips, to France and back to Greece, Ann decides to become a writer after struggling with the idea. This book, written in chapters that alternate between mother and daughter, is her first. Mothers of daughters are the best audience for this thoughtful, honest and uplifting book, but it is also about letting go and moving forward against doubt. Something we all must do from time to time. IN CHEAP WE TRUST: The Story of a Misunderstood American Virtue, by Lauren Weber. Little, Brown, 288 pp., $24.99. Lauren Weber's economist father kept their New England house at 50 degrees in the winter. He tried not to use the brakes on his car in order to conserve them. Weber wonders when cheap became a dirty word, as in: "Cheap suit. Cheap date. Cheap shot." Has the history of frugality in the United States been a straight line toward laziness and debt, or is it cyclical? Starting with Benjamin Franklin's writings on the subject, Weber takes us through the Puritans and Quakers, the Depression, the post-World War II sea change toward denying ourselves nothing and finally to eco-cheap. She works hard not to moralize (humor is always the best antidote to preachiness) and introduces some fantastic characters along the way, for example, Hetty Green, listed in the "Guinness Book of World Records" as the "world's greatest miser." NO IMPACT MAN: The Adventures of a Guilty Liberal Who Attempts to Save the Planet and the Discoveries He Makes About Himself and Our Way of Life in the Process, by Colin Beavan. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 258 pp., $25. Blogging has inspired a rash of projects in which the author spends 365 days on a quirky experiment (say, cooking Julia Child's recipes). For Colin Beavan, 42, it was wanting to know if a life with as little impact on the environment as possible led to greater happiness. He was living in Greenwich Village with his wife, Michelle, who "grew up all Daddy's gold Amex and taxi company charge account and huge boats and three country clubs." Colin "grew up all long hair to my shoulders, designer labels are silly, wish I was old enough to be a draft dodger and take LSD, alternative schooling, short on cash, save the whales and we don't want to be rich anyway because we hate materialism." Their daughter, Isabelle, 1, was so far innocent of either stereotype. It is fun to watch Beavan face each new question: Do I blow my nose in paper products? Do we give up takeout? Stop using the elevator? He finds the parameters of his new life comforting; it's living without rules that makes decision-making difficult. "If I want to change the world, I have to change myself," he writes. There's something inspiring about a smart, committed person coming to an elegantly simple conclusion. | |
| Interesting Readers Society - Book Reviews by Young Adults - School Library Journal Posted: 01 Sep 2009 04:57 PM PDT There are no comments posted for this article. |
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