Thursday, August 18, 2005

Aetna gets on board with price transparency for medical costs. We talked about the mysteries of doctor bills around HoggFest -- it's tough to pay for things when you don't know what they really cost. 12:52:53 PM   permalink   comment []

Roch Smith Jr. has pics from a vigil for Cindy Sheehan in downtown Greensboro...and the Poor Man has his own comix version of the story. To me, Sheehan the Grieving Mom is quite different from Sheehan the Symbol. Viewing her through the first prism, I'm ambivalent: individuals, however sad their stories, cannot dictate the policies of a nation; many people suffer in wartime, she's not their sole spokesman; the media carnival and political opportunism around her is worth noting. But symbols have their own logic, and once things have become symbols they take on the specific weight of that symbolism and leave the rest behind. Sheehan the Symbol represents for many people the questions about the costs and purposes of this war, questions that are growing in urgency. You can blast away at Sheehan all you want, it doesn't silence the questions she has come to represent. 9:03:08 AM   permalink   comment []

Mickey McLean, aka Carolina Christian Conservative, will lead a session on faith blogging at Converge. I found the faith-blogging session in Nashville to be one of the most interesting, diverse, and dynamic blog-con events I've attended. People really opened up about their reasons for writing and reading about beliefs of all kinds. Mickey will be a great session leader, we're lucky to have him. 8:31:28 AM   permalink   comment []