CSpan, documenting absurdity for all to see

I keep an eye on a lot of public information sites that post on youtube, including C Span, but for the last six month haven't kept up on them, although I have downloaded some to watch when I start to feel better.

So what do I see on C Span today?
Elton John giving testamony to the US congress on Global Health problems.

LINK 2.

Duh. John is a wonderful entertainer but isn't this outside his area of expertise? I mean, how many years has he worked in public health in poor countries? And given his history of promoting druguse/promiscuity, hasn't he sort of been the poster boy for HIV/STD spread, not disease prevention?

another speaker is a preacher from one of the big mega churches, who testifies that the church invented hospitals.

uh, not quite true: The ancient Egyptians did that, although the early (Catholic) church did establish hospitals, and monasteries often had outreach hospitals and lepersariums (calling Brother Cadfael) attached to them, along with libraries and schools.

So why have testimony from a preacher whose church isn't renowned for running hospitals? What, no Catholics around? (Or Mennonites or SDA's, all of whom run a lot of hospitals not just in the USA but also in a lot of third world countries and get little publicity).

oh well.

They do have other things to keep you up to speed, such as a short film on asymetric warfare folks from Camp APHill training on the Washington DC subway system.

there are also book discussions and concerts via the Library of Congress website.