U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid signaled that Congress may not send health-care legislation to President Barack Obama this year, fueling concern among some Democrats that the debate will continue into the 2010 election year.

“We’re not going to be bound by any timelines,” Reid told reporters in Washington yesterday after a closed-door meeting of all Senate Democrats.

With congressional elections coming up next year, some Democrats see risks because opponents of the health plan would have additional time to mobilize and lawmakers might focus more on getting re-elected.

“This is a battle against the clock,” said Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat. “When you’re in an election year, everything is seen through a different prism.”

The legislation, Obama’s top domestic priority, has been beset by delays in Congress because of Republican opposition and a lack of unity among Democrats.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky indicated he wants at least four weeks of floor debate on the measure, which would mark the biggest health-care expansion since the 1965 creation of the Medicare system for the elderly.

The overhaul is intended to extend health-insurance coverage to tens of millions of Americans, while curbing costs. Democrats are seeking a sweeping expansion of the Medicaid program for the poor and the creation of a government plan to compete against insurers such as Hartford, Connecticut-based Aetna Inc.

Obama’s Challenge

Obama originally challenged Congress to pass legislation by August and has said he wants to sign a bill into law by the end of the year.

Jim Manley, a spokesman for Reid, later issued a statement saying the majority leader’s goal remains to complete action this year and said the momentum is “unprecedented.”

“There is no reason why we can’t have a transparent and thorough debate in the Senate and still send a bill to the president by Christmas,” Manley said.

Reid is waiting for the Congressional Budget Office to complete cost estimates of his proposals as he struggles to win enough support among the 60 Senate votes controlled by Democrats to start debate.

Senator Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat who heads the finance committee, said there will be no CBO analysis this week.

House Starts Soon

The House of Representatives plans to begin debate late this week on its version of the legislation. Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told reporters yesterday a final vote could take place as early as Nov. 7 and no later than Nov. 10.

House leaders put the finishing touches on the legislation, filing an amendment late yesterday that made last-minute changes. Discussions were still under way on ways to reassure lawmakers opposed to abortion that the legislation wouldn’t permit government funds to be used to terminate pregnancies.

A White House spokesman said the administration was encouraged with the progress.

“We’re moving on the same timeline,” Dan Pfeiffer, deputy communications director, said. “The House plans to vote on the health-reform bill within days, and as Senator Reid said today, he shares the White House’s commitment to passing meaningful reform by Christmas.”

Still, limited time remains for legislative work this year. Senate Democratic leaders plan to recess for the week of Nov. 23 for Thanksgiving. Both chambers will be out of session for three days beginning Nov. 11 for Veterans’ Day.

Senate Delays

While legislation can move through the House in days, the ability of Senate opponents to delay the measure is likely to prolong the discussion there for weeks.

McConnell said health care is more important than many other lengthy debates, including legislation creating the Department of Homeland Security after the 2001 terrorist attacks. That was on the Senate floor for seven weeks.

“We are talking about restructuring one-sixth of our economy,” McConnell told reporters.

Senator Tom Coburn, an Oklahoma Republican known as “Dr. No” for his willingness to block legislation, said Republicans have “hundreds of ideas” for amendments and called the Democrats’ bill a “target-rich environment.”

Once the House and Senate act, it’s likely a House-Senate conference to resolve differences will be protracted, said Paul Heldman, a policy analyst with Potomac Research Group in Washington.

How to Pay

A big issue is how to pay for an overhaul that will cost $900 billion to $1 trillion, Heldman said. The House wants to impose a surtax on the wealthy that some Senate Democrats are resisting, while the Senate is eyeing a 40 percent excise tax on high-end insurance plans that’s opposed by House Democrats.

Heldman said House and Senate negotiators took more than four months to agree on a final bill during the 2003 debate over a Medicare prescription-drug benefit. If health care slips into 2010, Democrats might not face political risks if they can agree before the end of March, he said.

“As long as they’re making progress and they can demonstrate that, it’s not necessarily an impediment to getting a bill done,” Heldman said.

Ammunition for Opponents

Opponents could get some added traction if the debate moves into January, said Ross Baker, a political science professor at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Among other things, the CBO will issue a new federal budget deficit projection, which would give fresh ammunition to Republicans who say the Democratic legislation costs too much.

“That could well shift the debate,” Baker said.

The CBO said last month the budget deficit for fiscal 2009 was $1.4 trillion, the highest level since 1945.

Senator Charles Schumer of New York, the No. 3 Democratic leader, said it’s still possible both chambers could finish before the year is out.

“We’re going to spend lots of time getting this done, even if it means nights and weekends,” he said.

        

WYMT Issues and Answers – Part 1 Topics: Who is Rand Paul, Qualifications for office, Term Limits, Principles vs Career Politicians, TARP, Bailouts, Too big to fail Dr. Rand Paul is running for US Senate for the seat being vacated by Jim Bunning

        

Donate to Rand Paul on December 16 for the Rand Paul Tea Party Money Bomb, learn more @ www.randsteaparty.com

        

• ISBN13: 9781568987255
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

Product Description
As one of the most influential and inspirational graphic designers of the twentieth century, Paul Rand defined modern American graphic design. His iconic logo designs for IBM, UPS, and the ABC television network distilled the essences of modernity for his corporate patrons. His body of work includes advertising, poster, magazine, and book designs characterized by simplicity and a wit uniquely his own. His ability to discuss design with insight and humor made him one… More >>

Paul Rand: Conversations with Students

        

Week of October 19, 2009

Inside-the-Beltway politics were in full swing last week as the insurance industry came under heavy fire from some members of Congress and the media for releasing a PricewaterhouseCoopers report prior to the Senate Finance Committee’s scheduled vote on its health care reform proposal. The report found that the Committee’s reform package would drive up the cost of private insurance coverage for individuals, families and businesses. As a result, the industry was openly accused of trying to scuttle health care reform, even though America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) stated clearly in a press release and a letter to key Senate leaders that the industry was simply fulfilling its responsibility to bring to light serious flaws in the bill. The industry still intends to work toward bipartisan reform. By the time the furor died down, no one had seriously refuted the substance of the report. In fact, just a day later a new report from Oliver Wyman arrived at very similar conclusions. Regardless of these reports, Aetna has consistently warned that meaningful health care reform must address rising costs and that insurance market reforms must be linked with a strong individual coverage requirement to work effectively. Aetna will continue to deliver this message and help others understand how the market works.

Quoting & Saving just got easier…EasyToInsureME Health Insurance

Individual health insurance
Health insurance quotes

Federal

While there was some drama, the actual outcome of the Senate Finance Committee’s vote to approve its health care reform bill was never really in doubt. By a vote of 14 to 9, the Committee approved the bill with all Democrats and one Republican, Olympia Snowe of Maine, saying yes. The drama was two-fold: a) would Snowe agree or hold her powder dry until the floor debate to improve her ability to bargain for changes; and b) would Ron Wyden (D-OR) and/or Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) vote no or hold their vote to protest the absence of the public plan. Neither possibility materialized, but the “drama” could merely have shifted from the Committee to the Senate floor. The Finance Committee approval of health reform set in motion the next step in the process, as the Senate Democratic leadership began the process of melding the Finance and HELP Committee bills. Majority Leader Harry Reid is working with Finance Chairman Max Baucus, HELP Vice-Chairman Christopher Dodd and Chairman Harkin to hammer out a single bill, and three issues appear the most contentious: the Finance Committee’s weak individual mandate vs. HELP’s stronger one; a HELP public plan vs. the co-op approach from Finance; and the HELP employer mandate vs. no mandate from Finance.There are hundreds of subordinate issues as well, all of which translates into a contentious merging process that will likely delay debate on the floor to late October/early November.

Senate Democrats, led by Senator Stabenow (D-MI), will likely vote this week on a stand-alone bill to eliminate a scheduled 21 percent cut in physician Medicare reimbursement on a permanent basis. The one-year cost of this doctor “fix” in the current Senate Finance Committee bill is $10.9 billion; the permanent fix (buried in the House reform bill) would cost upwards of $250 billion. The idea behind this maneuver is to pull out a costly item from the health reform bill, which is supposed to be deficit-neutral, in order to free up more money to spend on other items or to reduce the total cost of health reform, e.g., the House Democrats want to get their bill under $1 trillion. While most agree that the payment level for physicians should be much more aligned to quality and performance, the debate will likely turn on whether Democrats can shift to the deficit another $250 billion in money for doctors without stirring up the American public.

States

COLORADO: The Colorado Division of Insurance adopted amendments revising the state’s early intervention services (EIS) benefit mandate in accordance with newly adopted legislation. Individual and group policies or contracts that include dependent coverage are required to cover EIS delivered by qualified providers to eligible children through age 3. The new law modifies this mandate by requiring, among other things, an increase in the reimbursement rate for EIS by carriers, if the base rate for state-funded EIS increases by more than the cost-of-living adjustment. The amended rule was effective October 1. The DOI also adopted amendments establishing standards for the sale of limited benefit plans by HMOs. This legislation allows HMOs to offer access to basic health care services through limited benefit plans to employer groups that have not offered health coverage to their employees for the previous 12 months and to individuals who have been uninsured for the previous 12 months. HMOs are prohibited from offering limited health benefit plans in Colorado counties with a population of more than 25,000 people.

ILLINOIS: The Department of Insurance (DOI) has taken the position that carriers cannot require, in their contracts, that claims for proceeds on a life insurance policy be made “in writing.” The insurance industry has requested that the DOI reconsider its position. The DOI maintains that the only required documents for a life insurance claim are the insured’s death certificate and a copy of the claim check. The insurance industry believes that this interpretation of the law runs contrary to generally accepted claim procedures that were put in place to confirm that coverage was in force, that a covered loss occurred, and that there are no exclusions or limitations that affect the claim payment. Illinois statute directs a life insurer to settle a death claim within two months of the receipt of due proof of the insured’s death and places no limit on what an insurer may reasonably require during the statutory period to assure proper verification of the insured’s death, as well as verification that claim proceeds are being correctly paid to the proper claimant.

KENTUCKY: Last week the Department of Insurance held a public meeting at which it briefly discussed its proposed 2010 legislative package, approved by the Governor’s office, for the upcoming session. The proposals include updating state laws to incorporate federal changes with respect to mental health parity, Michelle’s law, HIPAA clarifications; updates to the limits under the life and health guaranty model; and uniformity changes to the producer licensing law. Also discussed was the possible elimination of the requirement that insurers offer a standard benefit plan under the Kentucky Access law.

MASSACHUSETTS: The Commonwealth Health Insurance Connector Authority is proposing amendments to the Minimum Credible Coverage (MCC) regulations, with a public hearing on the matter scheduled for Nov. 17. The MCC regulations set the standard for minimum benefits Massachusetts residents must carry in order to be considered insured and avoid penalties. The proposed regulation changes were approved by the Connector Board and filed with the Secretary of State. They would: make prescription drugs one of the categories of services/benefits that are considered “core services” under minimum creditable coverage, thus prohibiting the imposition of dollar caps on its prescription drug benefit; require a health benefit plan covering dependents to provide coverage to all “broad range of medical benefits” as provided to subscribers in order to ensure that maternity benefits are extended to pregnant dependents; and allow employer groups to pair a high-deductible health plan with a Health Reimbursement Arrangement (HRA), as an alternative to a Health Savings Account (HSA). There likely will be some push back on the additions to the MCC standard. However, some version of the amendments is expected to pass. If enacted, the prescription and dependent benefits amendments would be effective in 2011; the HDHP/HRA amendment would take effect on 1/1/2010.

NEW JERSEY: The state has launched a database designed to track autism cases and direct affected families to health care and other services. The New Jersey Autism Registry requires psychiatrists, psychologists, neurologists and medical professionals to register children diagnosed with autism and birth defects such as Down’s Syndrome, cleft palate, and heart or muscular defects. The registry is confidential and will be used to enable officials to better assist New Jersey’s families with autism and other special needs. Access to the database is restricted to medical professionals.

NEW YORK: Governor David Paterson last week proposed a new two-year, $5 billion deficit-reduction package (DRP) that will fill the $3 billion (and growing) gap in the 2009-2010 spending plan and have a recurring impact of $2 billion in 2010-11. The new proposal does not include new taxes or assessments, a reflection of the extraordinarily high taxes already imposed on health plans in the main ’09-’10 budget. The Governor’s new DRP focuses on across-the-board Medicaid cuts, a $14.7 million cut in the managed long-term care program, a $14 million reduction in the Child Health Plus program, and a $7 million reduction in section 332 assessment sub-allocation, which includes both the Healthy New York and Timothy’s Law programs. The budget announcement was sharply criticized by the hospital industry and hospital workers’ union SEIU/1199. Assembly Democrats have already scheduled two hearings on the Governor’s proposed DRP for Wednesday, October 21st, in Albany and Friday, October 23rd in Syracuse.

OREGON: The state Insurance Department has issued a second bulletin regarding legislation that established a premium assessment on health insurers. The primary purpose of the new bulletin is to provide information about the approved manner of calculating premium increases to offset the cost of the new assessment. The bulletin states that the law limits the amount carriers are allowed to increase premiums, as a result of the assessment, to one percent. The amount derived from dividing premiums by .99 is greater than one percent and is therefore illegal. Any insurers that calculated the increase in the .99 manner and have already collected premiums are required to issue refunds.

TEXAS: The Department of Insurance held a stakeholder meeting last week to discuss implementation of the new “Healthy Texas” program, legislation that passed in May. The program is modeled after Healthy New York and will offer state re-insurance for up to 80 percent of the claims corridor of $5,000-$75,000 for an insurance product, which can be sold only to small groups that have been uninsured for at least a year and have at least 30 percent of their employees’ salaries at a maximum of 300 percent of the federal poverty level. The employer must agree to pay at least 50 percent of the premiums, and at least 60 percent of the employees must enroll. The legislature provided $17.5 million dollars annually to fund the program for the next 2 years. TDI and the Texas HHSC have been awarded almost $5 million a year for the next five years in HRSA grant money to assist with costs of actuarial contracts, marketing contracts and additional staff to help fully implement the program. They have posted informal rules to implement the program and plan to adopt a formal rule by the end of 2009. They would like to see members enrolled in qualifying plans by June 1, 2010, at the latest. Aetna has been involved with the drafting of legislation for this program from the beginning and will continue to be involved throughout the rulemaking process.

WASHINGTON: The state Office of the Insurance Commissioner has released its legislative agenda for 2010. The OIC proposals include; 1) new and extended grace periods for individuals to take up conversion coverage — 31 days after a person has received notice of termination of coverage; 2) a revised definition of emergency services and the elimination of a requirement that the covered health care services are provided in a hospital emergency department; and 3) a health care reform proposal that would cover catastrophic medical costs over $10,000 per year and limited preventive care for all state residents. The catastrophic health plan was also proposed in 2009 but failed to gather much attention in the legislature.

        

Blue Season – answers from an astronaut

By Wendell W Solomons

Click link for illustrated Power Point Show

http://www.scribd.com/doc/24836300/Blue-Season-–-Answers-From-an-Astronaut

History had seen waves of demonstrations contribute to ending the Vietnam War. How would you, if need be, keep demonstrations off the street in cities such as New York, London and Paris?

Later, young people were to hang out and then drop out of street protests seemingly alone. The West hasn’t seen such waves of demonstrations since the 1960s.

Curious?

Lysergic acid, a hallucinogen, had been extracted in Sandoz Labs in Switzerland in 1938 through experimenting with a fungus affecting rye, the food grain.

Sandoz went into production of LSD in Switzerland in 1947 soon after World War 2. This pharmaceutical producer was owned by S. G. Warburg, a financial firm connected to US Federal Reserve founder Paul Warburg (‘Warburg’ was a name assumed by merchant Venice’s noted Abraham Del Banco family.)

When large-batch production of the mood-altering drug began, far away in Paul Warburg’s USA, an intelligence service received high-level directions to begin research into the effects of LSD on people. The program, code-named MKULTRA, was disclosed two decades later in a report to Congress.

Yet, the effects were long known to experimenters. A quantity as small as the weight of 1/10 of a grain of SAND produced hallucination.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) put LSD on a list of restricted drugs. At the same time influential think-tank men such as Aldous Huxley were advocating the use of LSD. Their queer voices prevailed.

ATF – a contrast

Troopers of the ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives) had famously been signed in to tackle the Branch Davidians by President Bill Clinton’s Attorney General and classmate Janet Reno.

The ATF troopers cast incendiary gas canisters into the wooden building of the Branch Davidians. The little-known group is thought to have been broken away by US intelligence from the Assemblies of God (the group was one of several used as pilot commune for behaviouralist studies by the agency.) Janet Reno’s incendiary gas triggered an inferno and besides sealing the lips of “David Khoresh” all adults and children in the Texas building perished too. Other such control groups where all subjects died were the People’s Temple and Heaven’s Gate (Paul Wilshire and more sources on the Net suggest David Khoresh was among the decoys whom the intelligence agency used for branching off the group)

Resuming..

Now, if you look at the Net you will notice that a ‘mysterious other’ kept troopers of the FDA away from rock concerts for young people when contract men were distributing packets of LSD (the Woodstock Festival came in August 1969). This included distribution at concerts of the Beatles.

A promoter who found the future Beatles, the independent Brian Epstein (he ran a record shop) was converted into a paid manager of EMI (or Electrical and Mechanical Instruments, an axial UK defence contractor). The musicians then received their name “Beatles”, a commercial pun replacing their original, mundane name “Quarrymen.”

The play-by-ear performers had been reproducing Rock ’n Roll music imported from USA (where it had evolved from black America’s Boogie-Woogie). For the performers, poets then shadow-wrote songs such as “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” (“LSD”). Musicologist drew on classical music (for instance, Tchaikovsky and Borodin) and EMI contributed with bankrolling the issue of Parlaphone-label disks and finally to the new compositions receiving broadcast hours. This combination suddenly pushed UK and US national audiences upwards from 3-chord music.

The rebellious Irishman in John Lennon wasn’t placated with the fame and fortune that arrived (at a command performance for the Queen he asked those with jewels to rattle them.) A sense of fair play caused him to glance from the West towards Asia.

EMI manager Epstein was withdrawn through his death in his London flat at age 32 and the Beatles were broken up. Lennon went on to crucifixion. Bullet holes entered his left side according to the autopsy report now on the Net and were thus fired from a service door (alleged plot-scripter Robert Rosen and the ‘New York Times’ had claimed in 1980 that ‘assailant’ Chapman fired while on Lennon’s right.)

New substance – Limitless “I”

In the aftermath of the artificial, drop-out subculture, two issues arose:

(1) The global South remained thick with dissent. Developing nations suspected that Northern elites were keeping off manufacturing industry in the South with an argument that small industry would employ more people. At the same time, India, China and the East Asian Tiger economies were seen developing modern manufacturing. So the anti-industrialisation fable began to falter. Conscientious academe – in both global South and North – had seen through the scheme of “Small is Beautiful” (Western protectionists such as E F Schumacher and Dudley Seers.)

(2) After the zenith of protest rallies of the 1960s, the newly induced drug culture saw young people not only drop out of rallies and take to hippy lifestyle. Some chose to become yuppies (young upwardly mobile young people.) They took it that the office should afford them a BMW if they were singing along. So in both fashions, yuppie and hippy, true commitment to social and corporate institutions began to fade. Anglo-American innovation tapered off. Yet, how do you still control the world?

A new fable was required so as to keep the levers of control with the dynastial Bold and Beautiful versus the world.

The new substance administered was “Free to Choose”. The fable was injected into media by Nobel laureate Milton Friedman from 1976.

Its consequence, a cult of Limitless “I”, was hurried on in countries distant from the West like Sri Lanka. Western news agencies (e.g. Reuter) and TV (e.g. CNN) would outmuscle local journalists and TV news presenters. Later, the IMF / World Bank anchored this Limitless “I” by using “reforms” that dismantled or made dormant Central Bank and other controls.

Ranging from Sri Lanka to the US, Limitless “I” was to transform (logically) into Limitless “Obligation” for millions of ordinary households. Behind the allure adapted from advertising industry (“Your Right to Choose”) , it was Milton Friedman’s task to ensure that fat-cat financiers came out winners. He had compiled part of this agenda in 1964, for Barry Goldwater, Las Vegas casino mob asset, to step into the shoes of slain President Kennedy.

After President Reagan entered the White House with Milton Friedman gaining the position at last in 1976 as economics advisor to counter Kennedy’s advisor J K Galbraith. Private financiers got their free lunches; you and me – Limitless Obligations. Next, the Anglo-American banks – that the fat cats controlled – hid away the private winnings, the banks knowing that they could assuredly ask the taxpayer for missing capital.

Now – over to astronaut

Astronaut Leonov was on the list of five people overseas whom Arthur C Clarke named when Sri Lanka decided to celebrate Clarke’s 90th birthday. An unknown to the Nobel committee, Clarke created the concepts of the earth-orbiting artificial satellite and the Internet that help the world everyday.

Sri Lanka’s Foreign Ministry had selected me, your narrator, to serve as Astronaut Leonov’s translator. The three days that I served helped me benefit from the experience of the person who now heads Russia’s Space Academy. Our relation-ship chanced to lead him to confide much, speaking openly with me. When I was seeing him off finally at the airport he left me with the words, “I must now leave or else our conversation will never end.”

Leonov turned out to be a fancier of spicy food. The hotel with verandah looking out on the ocean also has lobster and crab in abundance.

One morning I put this question to him, “What is the most important quality in a man?”

Leonov thought briefly and said, “The ability to fight with oneself.”

I understood him. Suppressing the self has been taught by sages including those of the subcontinent where Leonov was speaking.

Let me introduce counterpoint.

World should revolve around me!

I was seated on the self-same sea-front verandah with a second Clarke guest. This was a PhD scientist working for NASA. I asked him too what the most important quality in a man was.

The scientist replied, “Self-respect. “ He meant well but this ethic was undone towards “Obsession with oneself” for the “Me Generation” of the 1970s.

“Self-respect” must be heard in the context of the outlook of the era that extends from Reagan’s comrade-at-arm’s Margaret Thatcher too. She had announced, “There’s no such thing as society – there are only individuals and families. “

A popular song declares with no apparent sarcasm, “I believe that the world should revolve around me!” Did swindlers like Bernard Madoff need more prompting?

Earlier, SONY had got no further than use BetaMax and Walkman for names when launching new products. The later commercial pandering to self-adulation evoked MyYahoo, WindowsMe, iMac, iPod and iPhone. A UK jewelry store calls itself “Me Me Me.” With everyone drifted into doing his own thing I must get suspicious of my neighbour’s agenda. This follows naturally when my neighbour claims fame and gives everyone else the blame for ills in the street. I GETTA DA FAME – U GETTA DA BLAME.

Our possibility to share useful information breaks down. To overcome dullness of mind I turn to TV. There a machine-wash recycles my mind.

An emptying loneliness? Videos supply me with air-brushed godlings with whom to mingle Ego.

New “Cold War”

Neighbourhood chat? My iPhone takes me up, up and away to MySpace on the Internet where I can overcome the loneliness of life in neighbourhood and office where a post-US-USSR Arms Race dividend has arrived. The dividend arrived in the form of a new “Cold War” of Each-against-the-Other.

Regarding the war of Each-against-the-Other, it was proposed by pamphleteer Thomas Hobbes. He suggested that a population could be managed easiest by the sovereign if society was atomised to the individual.

Hobbes method was found dangerous and was rejected by British statesmen in the 17th Century. These statesmen were correct; its introduction in the 20th Century has triggered the atomisation of society. In the UK, consequently, innovation has tapered off and the country has grown an external debt that is larger per citizen than US debt.

Some astute researchers have managed to study aspects of the issue. Jean M. Twenge and W. Keith Campbell put their research into a book entitled, “Me! Me! Me! American’s Narcissism Epidemic”. A brief excerpt follows below.

People strive to create a “personal brand” (also called “self-branding”), packaging themselves like a product to be sold. Ads for financial services proclaim that retirement helps you return to childhood and pursue your dreams. High school students pummel classmates and then seek attention for their violence by posting YouTube videos of the beatings.

Although these seem like a random collection of current trends, all are rooted in a single underlying shift in American psychology: the relentless rise of narcissism in our culture. Not only are there more narcissists than ever, but non-narcissistic people are seduced by the increasing emphasis on material wealth, physical appearance, celebrity worship, and attention seeking. Standards have shifted, sucking otherwise humble people into the vortex of granite countertops, tricked-out MySpace pages, and plastic surgery. A popular dance track repeats the words “money, success, fame, glamour” over and over, declaring that all other values have “either been discredited or destroyed.”

The United States is currently suffering from an epidemic of narcissism… In data from 37,000 college students, narcissistic personality traits rose just as fast as obesity from the 1980s to the present, with the shift especially pronounced for women.

The rise in narcissism is accelerating, with scores rising faster in the 2000s than in previous decades. By 2006, 1 out of 4 college students agreed with the majority of the items on a standard measure of narcissistic traits.

Mere cunning

“Celebrity narcissism: A bad reflection for kids” is a report filed in USA TODAY newspaper by Sharon Jayson.

She interviews behavior expert and physician Drew Pinsky and S. Mark Young, a social scientist, on their book “The Mirror Effect: How Celebrity Narcissism Is Seducing America.”

She quotes: “It may be especially dangerous for young people, who view celebrities as role models.”

Q: Let’s begin with the title. What do you mean by the “mirror effect,” and why do you say it’s a problem?

A: I’ve been working with celebrities many, many years. I’ve treated many for chemical dependency and the like. They have profound childhood trauma. It’s not something to do with their job or the life they lead. They just happen to be people driven to seek celebrity as a way to make themselves feel better… We’re taking someone who needs to be a god and making them a god.

*  *  *

Now to move onwards from the US observations, the godling effect comes as corollary to Limitless Choice. To have bitten into this apple makes the victim try to say “No” to obligation. In the family, children subject to programming by TV often say “No” to guidance by an elder (Madonna’s handlers supplied the video “Daddy Don’t Preach!) Besides the office, this bequeaths aggression, cold war and emptiness to the home too.

A morning experience.

I was at a state-owned bank that serves the public in Sri Lanka.

I was speaking with a bank worker with around 20 years of experience.

I asked him of two tall, slim women bank clerks, one a Hindu wearing a sari and the other wearing a trouser suit and Muslim’s head-scarf, “Which of the two women is smarter?”

He said, “There’s not much difference. You see, young people rely on mere cunning and won’t be responsible.”

I had to call at the Post Office. This also being a government institution, I decided to query the grey-haired postmaster. His response was instantaneous, “The young are irresponsible.”

What a sea change between the two generations!

Reflections of old amity

Later, on the midnight of Xmas eve 2009, I chanced to hear a televised transmission of mass from a Catholic cathedral in north Colombo.

A teenager recited a prayer in Tamil and followed up to perfection in Sinhala. A short Sinhala sermon was then delivered by a senior priest and this was followed by a sermon in Tamil because the neighbourhood has a large Tamil population. Yet, prayer and response soon arose in Sinhala. Then came singing in Tamil. Now this is the nation that schemers tripped into warfare in 1983, five years after the use of Limitless Choice as a principle for the nation.

Looking at the world, the principle of Limitless Choice led US foreign trade into a huge dependence on imports. To foot the bill for financing these imports, the US chose to depend on China’s and other savings arriving in the US for purchase of Treasury bonds and commercial paper. With the US in recession, the transfers of these funds are now being switched elsewhere.

China is turning its foreign currency earnings towards improving infrastructural access for China’s economy. That includes the development of a port complex in southern Sri Lanka and pipelines overland for oil and natural gas from Central Asia to China. Today the world waits on China that retained the tradition of keeping one’s Ego under control, the principle that astronaut Leonov mentioned.

*  *  *

An English friend asked me some days ago, “What do we do?”

In benumbing times we must hold on in some sort of a fortress.

I responded, “Old wine, old shoes and old friends.”