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June 28, 2009
hellish health care, great food, and other updates
It's difficult to find food around here at night. Always difficult, I guess, to find food in business districts (in my case, south of Dupont Circle in Foggy Botton area) when the people that typically walk those streets are out of sight, tucked under their suburban comforters. But I found an interesting place. It's called Nooshi - oodles noodles and sushi - a great Southeast Asian fusion restaurant. I had a veg hot pot (cellophane noodles, napa, scallions, onions, carrots and tofu) for $8.95 plus tax, along with a coconut drink for $1.25 plus tax. (No, I'm not advertizing for this company...although I might consider it.)
I am currently reading a book called Modern International Law: An introduction to the law of nations by Wolfe. It's a total rip-off, as you can see from the Amazon.com price of $81.27 - and for a measly 198 pager! Are you kidding me? Fortunately, this was the most expensive book I purchased for the class I'm taking at Georgetown, Just War Theory, and I got away with paying about $50 for it. The class, despite its right-wing tendencies, is a great one. In fact, it's a welcome change. And it's always fun when such volatile issues, in a class of four, explode. The combination of the class, which is only for the month of June, along with my full-time internship has kept me quite busy. Well, as Chaucer said, "Idle hands are the devil's tools."
Along with the rest of the interns, thousands of union workers, doctors and nurses, and victims of our health care system (and, later, my brother) I rallied for the insertion of the public option into the forthcoming - and critical - health care bill. I attended a hearing of the House Energy and Commerce committee, which will play a crucial role in crafting the end product. We'll see how it turns out. Krugman, who has been writing fervently on the topic, offers a good analysis and defense of the "public option." And what is the public option right now? Your guess is as good as mine.
Speaking of food, my family was in town a few days ago and we went to a great restaurant, Nora. Afterward, we ended up getting into an argument with an HMO lobbyist about "the public option" and the Canadian system in a quiet, dark street of the Dupont Circle Historic District. (The industry overheard our conversation, I suppose, and beamed her in.)
Posted by dmbenn at 10:29 PM | Comments (0)
June 22, 2009
talking torture - and defending the sixth amendment
I never got around to blogging about this event, but I think it is worthy of mentioning here. The event took place earlier this month in response to the release of the torture memos and the flurry of controversy that ensued. The event was hosted by several human rights organizations; I attended on behalf of my organization. There were about 80 in the crowd. The event was entitled "The Law Against Torture and The Moral Imperative for Accountability," and it took place at the Arlington Central Library in Virginia. There were two speakers; one of them was an ethics professor, and the other was an attorney, Brent Mickum, representing Guantanamo detainee Abu Zubaydah. Brent had a lot of interesting things to say, and I respect him for his courage. While it is now fashionable to stand up to the prison and the U.S. torture policies, it was not so easy to do so, say, ten or even five years ago. But Brent was at the forefront of the battle throughout, fighting to ensure a fair trial - not to mention basic rights - for one of these unfortunate prisoners.
Here is a link to a blog covering the event, as well as a youtube video with part of Brent's talk: http://www.openleft.com/diary/13869/torture-yields-highvalue-mistakes
Posted by dmbenn at 09:44 AM | Comments (0)