Every time I have a conversation with a republican, I’m struck by the fact that we don’t appear to be speaking the same language. This makes the conversation much more cumbersome than it needs to be because I find myself in the position of having to combine a history lesson with a lesson on what English words mean. So I’ve concluded that it’s about time to publish a dictionary that may be useful in any political debate, since I can’t be the only person running into this language barrier. I would first like to start with defining what I like to call "Bitchy’s Words". REPUBLICAN – A person that still approves of George W Bush, happily voted for McCain, fell in love with Sarah Palin, and believes everything that John Boehner tells them. These people are batshit crazy. They have no use for facts and they exist in some bizarre alternate reality. They cannot and should not be spoken to under any circumstances. Do NOT bother using this dictionary on them, as they won’t understand the big words. CONSERVATIVE – A person that believes in small government and fiscal responsibility, REALLY believes it. They believe in fiscal responsibility when it comes to matters of spending on social programs OR defense programs. They believe in small government when it applies ALL matters including; reproductive rights, federal taxes, states’ rights, gun rights, and a myriad of other issues. This is a person that hasn’t had a party that they can believe in for nearly 40 years. They used to identify themselves as republicans, but were forced out of the republican party due to ideological differences. Conservatives generally refer to themselves as independents, members of the Ron Paul revolution, and in some instances, tea partiers. These are people that can be reasoned with! You may engage them in productive conversation. Minds may not be changed, but meaningful ideas will be shared. DEMOCRAT – These are people that inexplicably believe that the democratic party is the party that stands up for the people. They are happy with all of their democratic leaders, and are happy to accept incompetence as an excuse for why their democratic representatives haven’t delivered any legislation that actually improves their lives. Unlike republicans, democrats don’t necessarily buy the entire democratic party package, but are easily placated with implausible excuses for why their legislators can’t deliver on promises that are made. PROGRESSIVE – (Sometimes also referred to as socialist or liberal). This is a person is a sunny optimist that believes in 2 basic concepts; good government can be achieved, and we are only as strong as the weakest among us. Progressives generally like to take wholistic approaches to problem solving and aren’t afraid of sweeping change. Progressives believe in creating a society where each citizen has the same opportunities for success. Progressives identify themselves with democrats but are so unsatisfied with the party that they are actively working on changing it, which is why the current Chief of Staff to the President refers to them as "retards". TEA PARTIERS – The original modern day tea partiers were known as libertarians. They were disciples of Ron Paul that would if given a choice, dismantle the government entirely. They are proponents of privatizing everything from the postal service, to the FDA, to fire departments and police forces. Tea partiers have morphed into ignorant racists, easily duped into protesting against their own best interests by Dick Army. You cannot communicate with these people since they don’t even have a clue as to why they’re protesting, or who paid for the bus to get them to the protest. LIBERTARIANS – These are people that have no use for government. They believe in "shrinking government down so that it fits in a bathtub". A true libertarian would allow government to exist only for the purposes of defense. Libertarianism sounds cute in theory but it’s a unicorn, in that there has never been a country governed by this particular tenet. Libertarians generally cling onto their beliefs, despite being unable to come up with an example of a successful libertarian government. I can think of an example; Somalia. Okay, now on to the English dictionary. SOCIALISM – A theory or system of social organization that advocates the vesting of the ownership and control of the means of production and distribution, of capital, land, etc., in the community as a whole. This is closely related to (but not the same as) communism. An example of a socialist program in the US would be the veteran’s administration. This is a government run, government dispensed system of delivering health care to veterans. Everyone involved in dispensing health care through the VA receives a paycheck from the government. This includes doctors, nurses, administrators, etc. FASCISM – A governmental system led by a dictator having complete power, forcibly suppressing opposition and criticism, regimenting all industry, commerce, etc., and emphasizing an aggressive nationalism and often racism. Fascism is a system of governance in which the lines between government and corporation are nonexistent. Nazi Germany is a great example of fascism because the state, military, and commerce were all under the dictatorial rule of one body. THEOCRASY – A governmental system ruled by religious tenets. The Vatican is an example of a theocrasy. If Al Qaeda had a country, they would be considered a theocrasy. Okay now that we have the words, let’s practice using them properly! Ready? A socialist government takeover of health care could be accomplished by extending the the VA system to all Americans. This would be socialist because physicians, nurses, and administrators would all be receiving paychecks from the government, which would have total control over the dispensation of health care in America. A system in which the government creates a marketplace of private insurance companies that must adhere to specific regulations in order to participate is NOT socialism because the insurance is not dispensed by the government. Doctors and their practices would not be taken over by the government since they would be paid through a private insurance system. Fascists would NEVER advocate for a socialist program because a socialist program would eliminate corporate entities entirely. Fascists want to CONTROL commerce, not decimate it. An "islamofascist" is a person that can’t exist because an Islamic extremist is driven by theocratic beliefs, thereby making them anathema to fascists, who believe in a corporate takeover of governance. Now that we have a mutually understood vocabulary, I hope that we can all go forth and have more productive political discourse. I hope you all find this helpful!
We Need To Band Together To Sue The Shit Out Of S&P
Both S&P and Moody’s, actually. 60 Minutes did a fascinating piece on the financial meltdown last night. You can watch it here.
I’ve had an idea in my head for about a year now. And every time I read another story about this financial meltdown, I am more convinced that I’m onto something. I think that every single person in America with a 401k or a 403b should band together to instigate a class action suit against S&P and Moody’s. I believe that unions are the logical place for these class action suits to start.
Why sue the rating agencies? Because if they hadn’t rated these sub-prime mortgage bundles as AAA, they never would have ended up as investment options in your 401k. These agencies are responsible for analyzing investments and rating their viability. They were the first step in the disaster that we’re all suffering under now. I understand that Moody’s and S&P are relatively small fish in the grand scheme of companies that are responsible for stealing your money. But I believe that the discovery process in suing them will lead to the much bigger fish. I believe that the discovery process will show that the rating agencies are paid BY INVESTMENT FIRMS to rate their investment offerings!
I honestly don’t know why Moody’s and S&P are still in business. And why aren’t they forced to put emoticon winkies next to each and every investment rating that they put out?
Americans are understandably pissed. I’m pissed. So why are we acting like we’re powerless?
Our system of “capitalism” is broken and our government isn’t going to help us because the people that are benefiting from this broken system have bought our legislators. If go down the line and sue each of the players in this game of “raid America’s retirement plans”, we can start to fix our broken capitalism system by using it against the people that are using it against us.
No, it’s time that we took matters into our own hands. It starts with going after the rating agencies. I’m convinced that doing so will lead us to Goldman Sachs (and their brethren). We do have the strength in numbers thing going for us. We just need to get organized and band together to make things happen.
If we do nothing, I can assure you that there will be more privatization of profits and socialization of losses to come. This is surely something that we can all agree on regardless of party affiliation, isn’t it?
YOU Are The Problem With Our Crappy Government
I was reading this story over the weekend.
I have to tell you, I wasn’t really up in arms over the story. The guy was in a hot tub with a naked 15 year old a QUARTER OF A CENTURY AGO. There’s no evidence of rape and there doesn’t seem to be a repeated pattern of sexually harassing minors (or anyone else for that matter). The payoff is definitely an issue that needs to be investigated, but that’s not what most of the comments to this story were talking about.
Many of the comments to this article were just gratuitous attacks against mormons and Utah. Poignant commentary like, “An old guy in a hot tub with an under-aged girl… isn’t that called a honeymoon in Utah?” dominated the discussion. BRILLIANT! I think we’ve stumbled upon a modern day Soren Kierkegaard.
This kind of antiintellectual nonsense needs to stop. It exists on both sides, and it’s the reason why our government sucks. It’s amazing that “liberals” can spew off this bullshit while at the same time being offended by “San Francisco values” coming from the right.
You are all morons and you need to stop and think before you type (or vote).
Maybe we should all step back for a second before we claim outrage over these things. Stop and ask yourself if you would be as offended if it were a legislator from your own party. When your “outrage” is based solely on attacking the other party, you eventually lose sight of issues that are worthy of outrage. And it becomes impossible for anyone to actually communicate with you because you’ve become nothing more than a party hack.
We all need to stop gratuitously attacking the opposing party. We need to stop vigorously defending the indefensible actions of our own party.
Where was the democratic outrage when Bill Clinton dropped depleted uranium on Bosnia? Where was the outrage when he allowed the repeal of Glass Steagall?
Where was the republican outrage when W failed to get Bin Laden because all of our troops were busy losing a fabricated war in Iraq? Where was the outrage when the administration outed a covert intelligence agent? Where was the outrage over the fact that his entire presidency was an 8 year long period of deficit spending?
Our politicians will continue to abuse their power and lie to the American people as long as they still have the support of their party. Democrats attacking republicans isn’t going to stop corrupt republican politicians. Losing republican support will. The same is obviously true for democrats.
Pull your head out of your party’s ass and focus on what is good for your country!
Good lord, when this idiot Garn admitted what had happened, his fellow lawmakers “gave him thunderous applause for his honesty and embraced him,” according to the AP. Republicans did this with David Vitter, the senator that was a well known “John” in at least 2 states. This has to stop! We can’t go along with this crap because of a sense of loyalty to our parties.
I’ve said it before, and I will say it until I can’t say it anymore; we need to stop this from within our own respective parties. Attacks across party lines are futile. Our government serves us less and less every single day.
It’s time to stop being part of the problem. The only side we should be taking should be in the best interest of our country.
Democrats Suck!
And that’s possibly the biggest understatement I’ve ever made!
Nancy Pelosi came out a few days ago and announced that there will definitively be no public option in the final health insurance reform bill. I can’t say that I’m surprised. I haven’t thought that we would get a public option for several months now. Nancy Pelosi’s reason for not including the public option is that there aren’t enough votes in the senate. Meanwhile at last count, 51 senators have publicly announced that they would support a public option if it was in the bill. And on the day before Pelosi announced that there would be no public option, Dick Durbin announced that he would whip the votes needed in the senate to get a public option through if the house passed it. And then there’s the white house that would support a public option if…
It seems like most democrats would support the public option, if only… Seriously, what the fuck? Do you realize how stupid you all look standing in a circle pointing to the person on your right, and proclaiming that you will do something if that person does something first?
While all of this nonsense is going on, the American people have been completely ignored in this process. We all hate this bill. Republicans and democrats alike know that this bill blows. The media is happy to remind us of how unpopular this bill is. But they’re leaving out a big part of the equation; most of us want a public option. Here, see for yourself.
But ignoring the American people isn’t why democrats suck. Not directly, anyway. Republicans ignore the will of their constituents just as much as democrats do. Democrats suck because they lack the courage of their convictions, which makes them weak. When democrats are all claiming that they can’t get a public option done because they’re waiting for someone else to take the lead, they’re telling you that they’re weak. Americans hate weakness.
George W Bush showed us that Americans want a leader. We don’t even care if that leader is smart, honest, or even qualified. Dick Cheney got every half baked, ill conceived bill that he wanted through congress with nothing resembling a 59 vote majority. And he never whined about having a hard time getting something through. They pushed through a war, an occupation, and a trillion dollars in tax cuts for really fucking rich people with the greatest of ease. And you know what? They never even had to demonstrate that they had any intentions of paying for these things in order to get them through. That was some serious leadership, and it demonstrated strength. And because they seemed so strong, they got less scrutiny. You see when you’re weak it tends to make people want to pick on you more. But more than that, it makes people trust you less.
Democrats become more and more untrustworthy every time they claim to want to do something for the American people, but can’t get it done because of some insurmountable obstacle. We don’t trust you because you seem as if you’re either lying or weak. More accurately, you seem like you’re lying meekly. Americans don’t mind being lied to as long as it’s done with conviction. But no one likes someone that lies like a pussy.
All of this is fantastic news for republicans! They don’t have to do a damned thing to rehab their image. All they have to do is sit around and wait for Americans to hate democrats more than they hate republicans. I hate to say it, but this seems to be working. The public doesn’t like republicans any more than they have for the past 2 election cycles. But they do hate democrats more than they did 4 years ago.
Stand up and demonstrate that you believe in something, for the love of god! If you don’t, you’re going to see an ass kicking of epic proportions in November.
John Mackey is Delusional
In response to John Mackey’s editorial on August 12, 2009. Read it here.
I am a human resources consultant. I actually designed the exact the plan that Mr. Mackey described in his very well written editorial, for a client 3 years ago. What he said seems completely logical and makes perfect sense, until you have all of the details.
Let me map out this plan for you.
In exchange for a very high deductible, the insurance company offers the subscriber lower premiums. “High deductible” means $2500.00 a year for a single subscriber, $4500.00 a year for a family. When I received the quotes for the company plan renewal plan last year, the cost difference between a standard HMO and a high deductible PPO was $158 per month, per person. So for an annual premium savings of $1896.00, the insurance company is offering you an up front gap in coverage of $2500.00.
Sounds like a terrible deal, right? Not necessarily. If you never use your health coverage, it’s a great alternative because you’re saving that monthly premium money. That’s money that you spend whether you use your insurance coverage or not. If you have any sort of chronic illness, this is a terrible deal because you’re spending $2500 to save $1896!
So how is Whole Foods saving all that money on health coverage? Well, here’s where you get a lesson in how socialism works.
Whole Foods generously reimburses its employees for most of that deductible money, which is great for the employee because it limits their exposure. This is also great for the company because statistically, only 55% of all of the available reimbursement money will be spent. Most of their employees will use their health coverage 0 – 1 time per calendar year. Statistically, 15% of their employees will use all of the reimbursement money available to them. So the people that never use their coverage make is possible for those who chronically use their coverage to get a better deal. Now in Whole Foods’ case, that national average of 55% is much lower because of their employee demographic. The younger the demographic, the bigger the savings will be. This is a win-win-win for all parties involved. The insurance company makes out because the profit margin on this type of plan is higher than any other plan. It’s a win for 85% of the employees in the plan that use little or no insurance. And it’s a big win for the company providing this type of coverage because they are spending less money when people don’t use their coverage. There is that 15% who would be much better off in a traditional HMO, but the pool takes care of them.
This is pooled risk, which is by its very nature, socialism.
This type of plan only works when you are pooling risk. If you are out there purchasing a plan on your own, you’re back to that paying $2500 to save $1896. The only winner in this deal is the insurance company.
I don’t know where Mr. Mackey thinks the savings are coming from, but the money that his company saved perfectly illustrates how well capitalism works when it embraces socialist ideas.
The other lesson to be learned by these figures is that we’re being gauged by the insurance companies.
Remember how I told you that the national average for that reimbursement money is 55%? That means that 45% of people paying into the system don’t use their coverage at all. That’s a pretty big profit margin, especially when you add in that $158 per month, per person that the insurance company is reducing your monthly premiums by.
Incidentally, if we all had the option to buy insurance across state lines, all of the insurance companies would move to states that have legislation that is most favorable to them, exactly the way credit card companies did. All of your credit card companies are headquartered in New Jersey and Delaware because those states allow credit card companies to charge you far more interest than any other state. This is definitely not a “solution” that will favor the consumer.
Accelerating The Race To The Bottom
On Friday, the Texas Board of Education (they’re going to have to replace “education” in that title, as you’ll soon see) approved some seriously alarming changes to the social studies curriculum.
You can read the article here.
I’m actually stunned that a handful of ignorant amateur theologians and racists can be allowed to accelerate America’s already rapid decline to the bottom of the world’s rankings in education. These people want to erase Darwin’s theory of evolution and make the United States a country that was founded on christian principles. They want to erase Thomas Jefferson from our history. They want to make all of these bat shit crazy revisions to our history to “add balance” because “History has already been skewed. Academia is skewed too far to the left.”
Let me go off on a quick tangent about something that had been bugging the shit out of me for a long time now. This notion of “balance” that we’re constantly being fed by the media. Presenting a balanced view on an issue where both sides are presented fairly is a really good thing. Creating a false sense of balance where no balance exists in something else entirely.
A great example of this is creationism versus evolution. These are not 2 sides of a coin. One argument has thousands of years of scientific evidence to support it, and the other begins and ends with “I have faith”. You can’t weigh carbon dating against Adam and Eve to create a balanced argument. That’s just insanity.
Diminishing Thomas Jefferson’s role in the history of the United States isn’t “creating balance”. He wrote the fucking DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. Diminishing his role in our history means pulling shit out of your ass in order to create a reality that you WISH were so. It’s revisionism, and it’s dangerous. It reminds me of the most brilliant thing that Stephen Colbert ever said; “Reality has a well known liberal bias”.
When you attempt to make faith a reality, you diminish the power of faith and you turn it into something ugly and dangerous like say, Al Qaeda for example.
These people need to be stopped because their ignorance is dangerous. They need to be saved from their own insane notions that, if left unchecked, will turn the United States into a crazy fundamentalist cult like Al Qaeda.
Creating generations of ignorant neanderthals is NOT the way to disprove the theory of evolution.
We don’t lead the world in secondary education anymore. We’ve fallen to the eighteenth spot. These ignorant dumb fucks in Texas are doing their best to knock us off the top 20 list within the next decade.
The Internets Is Proof That Science Works
I run across a LOT of science denying on the internets. Climate change denying, evolution denying, stem cell research denying. You name the science, I’ll find you thousands of deniers on the internets.
Each time I run across one of these I laugh my ass off over the stupidity and the hypocrisy of the author.
Don’t these people understand that the internets that they’re using is proof that science is a valid method of figuring out how the world works? Seriously, if you believe that people are reading your lunatic rantings, then you MUST believe in science. Using the internet to spread your denial of science is like running from an avalanche while denying gravity. It’s inane and you need to stop.
If you really don’t believe in science, my recommendation is that you get the “creation” word out by using carrier pigeons. Stop cluttering up my internet with your stupid bullshit. And by the way, let me point out that the thumb you use to hit the space bar is proof of EVOLUTION!
Here’s the thing about science; the bad kind doesn’t last very long. That’s why we don’t clutch onto our belongings for fear that they may fall off the edge of the earth if we don’t. Good science is proven repeatedly, and then evolves to the point that you have the internet in your living room!
But unlike bad science, stupidity is forever. It can’t be disproved because it’s not interested in facts.
It’s fine if you want to be an ignorant science denier, but do you have to do by using a medium that proves that you don’t even believe your own stupidity?
The Public Option Is A Unicorn
I’m really starting to think that the public option is to democrats, what abortion is to republicans. It’s an empty promise that fires supporters up to open their wallets.
It should be obvious to any thinking person by now, that republicans are NEVER going to move to upend Roe v Wade. They’ve had plenty of opportunities to try. When the Bush administration controlled all three branches of government, they didn’t do a fucking thing about abortion. They have a stacked court that just demonstrated (with the Citizens United case) that they can do any damned thing they please. They fast tracked Citizen’s United up to the supreme court with astonishing speed. Think about it, have you ever seen a case make it up to the supreme court in one year? That’s almost unheard of. And when the Supreme Court got the case, they made a ruling that had only a tenuous connection to the issue at hand. They were obviously looking for a case that would fit a ruling that they intended to make all along. My point in bringing up Citizens United is that they have the means when they have the will.
So why haven’t they moved to overturn, or at least severely diminish Roe? Because the will isn’t there. Abortion is the carrot that they can dangle in front of their supporters to raise money for as long as Roe is in effect. Once Roe is eliminated, republicans lose a BIG revenue stream. Think about it, they’ve been railing against Roe for nearly 40 years now and yet, the most significant move that we’ve seen to kill abortion is coming from a democrat. Bart Stupak has done more to nullify Roe than any republican ever has. Roe v Wade is a money making machine for republicans, which is why abolishing abortion will always be a republican unicorn.
I’m starting to suspect that the public option is going to become the democrats’ unicorn. We now have 40 senators that have signed on to support the public option if it’s proposed in reconciliation and yet, I’m hearing no indication that anyone is actually making a move to write it into the bill. With a headcount of 40 senators, a public option should be likely. If we get 45, it should be a foregone conclusion. My prediction is that we’re never going to see it materialize.
My suggestion? Call your senator and let them know that a contribution will be forthcoming AFTER a vote to pass the public option.
There are too many unicorns in our politics. I’m keeping my wallet firmly shut until I see some results.
Et Tu Markos?
Markos Moulitsas appeared on Countdown last night to put his boot on Dennis Kucinich’s throat. He said that if Kucinich votes against this bill, he will most likely get a primary challenger. He accused Kucinich of practicing “a very Ralph Nader-esque approach to politics”. And then, he showed off his skills for hyperbole by stating that he’s going to hold people like Dennis Kucinch responsible for the 40,000 people that die each year because they don’t have health insurance.
You’re WRONG Markos.
I get that this health care reform has been a long and tedious process, and I feel Markos’ frustration. I’m exhausted too. I want to put this whole debate behind me as much as the next person. But this bill blows. You know it, I know it, and anyone that has been paying attention knows it. That said, I too have been worn out by this process and think that this crappy bill should pass. I understand that every hope of getting something that will actually work well for the American people has been systematically undermined every step of the way.
But I (unlike you) haven’t forgotten the process that we’ve been through. I haven’t forgotten how this process was undermined, or who undermined it. This entire process has been one of “fuck you, pragmatists” from the beginning (by pragmatist, I mean anyone that has taken an unbiased look at our health insurance system and compared it to those of other countries).
Let’s review.
The first “fuck you” came when we were told that single payer wasn’t even going to be debated. Why not? Countries that have single payer systems are getting much better results at a much lower cost than we are. Isn’t that at least worthy of debate?
While that was going on, we got a “fuck you” from the white house, on the issue of negotiating prices with pharmaceutical companies.
The next “fuck you” came when we were told that there weren’t enough votes in the senate for a public option, never mind the fact that a public option is the only way to truly create a competitive marketplace for health insurance.
After that ship sailed, we got the “fuck you” on a medicare buy in, quickly followed by another “fuck you” to lowering the age of eligibility for medicare from 65 to 55.
So now we’re reduced to an exchange that has no visible means of reigning in the audacious insurance companies, who threw in a “fuck you” in the form of 30% – 70% increases for health insurance, just because they can.
This whole process has been a “fuck you” to pragmatists (labeled liberals by the press and everybody else). Every time one of our representatives steps up to do something that would be beneficial to the American people in a demonstrable way, they get a “fuck you” for their troubles.
Why does the right always get their way, even when it’s detrimental to the American people?
Because everyone is telling liberals to shut the fuck up and go along to get along. That’s how we’ve ended up where we are now. It’s because of a systematic “STFU you liberals”, over the past 30 years. Liberals have been told to shut the fuck up by the far right, the middle, and (now) by you.
I understand the desire to have a boot on someone’s throat over this whole health care debate. But you need to recalibrate the GPS on that boot, and point it in the direction of a blue dog democrat that helped to undermine the efficacy of what we all collectively set out to do here.
Dennis Kucinich isn’t wrong here. He’s standing on principle, and that’s good for all of us. We need more principled people to govern us.
I’m ready to hold my nose and jump on the “pass this piece of shit bill” bandwagon because my optimism has been worn down. But I am NOT ready to attack people that are trying to make it better. Go after Stupak or one of his merry band of women haters to make up for Kucinich’s vote.
Going after another liberal and telling him to shut the fuck up is very bad short term thinking, and you should know better.
If Rush Limbaugh Leaves the US, Americans Will Save Money
Rush Limbaugh promised to leave the US yesterday if health insurance reform passes. Watch the video here.
Personally, I say good riddance! I’m sick of Rush bleeding my wallet dry. Why do I say that? Well, I have a couple of reasons.
Let’s start with Rush’s well known drug addiction. Being the elitist that he is, Rush wasn’t addicted to street drugs. He was addicted to Lorcet, Norco and hydrocodone (among others). I make the distinction between being addicted to street drugs and being addicted to prescription drugs for a reason; an addiction to prescription drugs requires the drug user to abuse the health insurance system in order to maintain one’s addiction. You see, Rush had to go doctor shopping in at least 3 states in order to get the drugs that he so loves shoveling down his throat.
Health insurance is a system of pooled risk. Healthy people pay their premiums which subsequently go to pay for less healthy people’s medical costs. So when El Rushbo was defrauding the health insurance system to feed his addiction, he was siphoning money away from you and I.
On top of all of that doctor shopping, Rush still found himself short of that sweet spot of utterly dazed and confused that he so craved, so he sent his maid in Florida off with a cigar box full of cash to obtain black market prescription medications. So hundreds, maybe thousands of people were committing health insurance fraud in order to feed the black market with the pills that he desired. That translates into more of our money wasted.
But that’s not all. There’s a second way that Rush’s irresponsibility is bleeding us dry. Rush is unspeakably fat. Please don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against fat people. I was egregiously fat for most of my life, until I got over it 7 years ago. I have issues with fat people that talk to me about personal responsibility, since being overweight is directly linked to dozens of health issues such as heart disease, diabetes, high cholesterol, etc. If you’re going to point the finger of “personal responsibility” at others, you should expect to have that same finger pointed at you. I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect that people are going to be fine with paying for medical procedures that can be avoided by walking for 30 minutes a day. Maybe you should exercise a little self control before discussing your views on our health insurance system.
I will NOT listen to Rush spew that “pick yourself up by the bootstraps” crap while he’s being rushed to the hospital for chest pains that I’m helping to pay to treat. Get on a treadmill Rush, and THEN talk to me about personal responsibility. I swear to god, the last time that man saw his own penis, he was watching a porno on laser disk. I’ll make you a deal Rush – when you can actually see your own penis enjoying internet porn, I will actually see your threats to leave my country as a loss.
Until that happens, my wallet and I aren’t going to miss you at all.