Christmas: The Celebration of One Solitary Life

This week is Christmas. While we all celebrate it in different ways, consider how improbable it is that we celebrate it at all.
He was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another obscure village, where He worked in a carpenter shop until He was thirty. Then for three years He was an itinerant preacher.

Can "The Best Interest of the Child" Be a Bad Thing?

Can it ever be a bad thing for a court to give a child what it believes is in the best interest of that child? I think so. Consider the following real examples.

Two-year old Zak Hassey was removed from the family home because his mother refused to give him chocolate and cake. Zak is a finicky eater and wouldn't eat the food his mother was offering. The doctor told her she should feed him chocolate and cake to help him gain weight. When she decided that was not a good long-term solution, the hospital reported her to social services and Zak was removed for four months. After the court found that they were very good parents and returning the child, a spokesman for the hospital said, "While we understand Mr. and Mrs. Hessey's distress, Zak's welfare was paramount, and we believe we acted in [the child's] best interest."

Is health insurance a right?

In addition to being thankful, I spent a portion of my Thanksgiving weekend discussing health care reform with members of my family. At one point, one of my relatives got to the nut of the discussion when he said, " I guess it depends on whether you think health care is a right or not. I think people have a right to health care."