Meet the FCCCERs

According to a summary in the New England Journal of Medicine, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act includes a new Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research (FCCCER). Thank goodness they passed on the alternative name: Federal Oversight Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research.

It's a great idea, way overdue, but can we come up with a better acronym? How about the Pan-American National Association for Comparative Effectiveness Analysis (PANACEA)?

OMG! Emphasis on “My”

A story this morning on NPR's excellent show “On the Media” argued that reporters do not have sufficient knowledge of the Bible to accurately report on current politics, because they too often miss politicians' subtle invocation of scripture. The major example given was G. W. Bush's suggestion that critics remove the “log” from their own eye before attempting to remove the mote from another's, a reference to the Gospel of Matthew which was missed by a NY Times reporter in a front part article. (Oh, how embarrassing for those well-schuled NYers!) Obama avoided that risk in his inaugural address by explicitly attributing to scripture his call to “set aside childish things” (Corinthians).

There is no question that the Bible, the “book”, both new and old testaments, should be a shared cultural reference that does not require explicit citation, much as nobody should feel obliged to cite Shakespeare for any of the dozens of common phrases attributable to him. Public schools should teach the Bible as fundamental to understanding practically all Western literature (and art) for the past few thousand years. The new testament is relatively short, and so much of the 'new' testament knowingly cites the 'old' testament that it's a little surprising that even the echo isn't readily recognized.

The NPR story also told of a reporter for the LA Times who 'found religion' a few years ago during a personal crisis then lost it when reporting on sex abuse court cases. (Oops! where did I leave that faith?) More accurately, he lost his faith in religion and confused that with his faith in God. You don't have to belong to a religion to have faith in God. Indeed, if history and personal experience teaches anything, it is that an intercessor, a priest, a minister, a guru, can obscure the voice you should be listening to: your own beliefs of right and wrong.