Credo
"Sign on, young man, and sail with me. The stature of our homeland is no more than the measure of ourselves. Our job is to keep her free. Our will is to keep the torch of freedom burning for all. To this solemn purpose we call on the young, the brave, the strong, and the free. Heed my call, Come to the sea. Come Sail with me." -- John Paul Jones
"Pardon him, Theodotus; he is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature" --George Bernard Shaw, "Caesar and Cleopatra"
"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music."--Friedrich Nietzsche
"A kind Providence has placed in our breasts a hatred of the unjust and cruel, in order that we may preserve ourselves from cruelty and injustice. They who bear cruelty, are accomplices in it. The pretended gentleness which excludes that charitable rancour, produces an indifference which is half an approbation. They never will love where they ought to love, who do not hate where they ought to hate."--Edmund Burke
“You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours.”--General Sir Charles Napier
"Μολὼν λαβέ" -- Leonidas
"Blogito Ergo Sum" -- Neptunus Lex
Go to Babaloo blog if you want the real skinny on Cuban health care, complete with pictures. The guy that writes this blog is a Cuban living in Miami. One only needs to question why a celebrity recently had her film taken from her on boarding a plane back home (she hid a roll on her person and got it out).
Knowing what I know the whole thing is kind of scary…
If spectacular, world-class healthcare is the only upside of living in a dictatorial communist regime, I’ll take NAMI any day of the week.
~Ens Tim
I just love how Moore can’t make up his mind about the President. Either he’s stupid and the anti-Christ, or he’s super-smart and the anti-Christ. You know, they just should cut to the chase and call him the anti-Christ and get it over with.
What will these people do when he’s out of office come January 2009?
I couldn’t understand why anyone would actually believe the bilge that MM puts out, then I saw with my own eyes, people affected with BDS, it all became so clear. P-3W I hope these “people” aren’t in office when “W” leaves
I can’t understand how all these liberal Democrats and Hollywood types can be so enamored with Castro. They can’t be so stupid that they really don’t know that Cuba is a brutal police state. I honestly don’t understand why they troop down there for photo opportunities with that monster.
Damn,Cap’n, Is it that dull around here that you have started hunting moonbat’s?
I’ve known some folks who’ve traveled to Cuber to bask in teh enlightened socialist glow.
You ask them why they went and their evasive answer is to ‘see for themselves’ how Amerikka ruined this tropical paradise. As for the blighted lives of the people actually forced to stay there, well that’s not their personal problem.
They get their limousine liberal Che’ fix, catch a tan, then scoot right back to whine safely in [and about] the Land of the Free. They know very well they are bulletproof with an American passport, that real Cuban dissidents suffer, and the second-hand thrill of avoiding [while fawning over] real repression is all that really matters.
‘Cause it’s all about them
Unfortunately for the US the population seems to like this guy, or at least enough to pay to see his movies. I was delighted to find out that the full length of Sicko was already on the internet, and off of a DVD, making it a pretty good bootleg. I hope it detracts this guy from making money off this in some kind of way.
To see a bit of reality about his last score go pick up Fahrenhype 9/11 from the local rental shop. Interviews with the same people, just not all chopped up.
I’m not saying there is no truth to what is being said. Some of it is plain fact, and you can’t really edit sound/video bites from public access. But is this really something to go see at a theater? Is this Michael Moore the answer to Investigative Journalism? I think not.
Yes, it’s good to shed light on particular subjects, Global Warming, Health Care, McDonald’s/Fast Food, etc., but I truly wonder what kind of movie would prevail if ALL of the profits went back into said subject.
That is my biggest concern: Who’s pockets are going to bulge from this flick. I seriously doubt it’s going to be anyone displaced by a lacking health care system.
I guess so, CPT J, but I just can’t quite wrap my mind around the idea of hating America enough to make common cause with someone as evil as Castro. Seems as though it would be possible to vehemently criticize this country without lionizing dictators in the process.
Are you an Army captain or a Navy captain? My brother-in-law is a captain in the 82nd Airborne. He’s in Iraq right now – just shipped off some care packages to his unit today.
Bashing MM, liberal democrats, and ‘moonbats’ may be great sport for some, but it sorely misses the point and ignores the problem ?
Bashing MM, liberal democrats, and ‘moonbats’ may be great sport for some, but it sorely misses the point and ignores the problem – our country has a serious healthcare crisis.
It is embarrassing to me that our rich and great nation does not even rank in the World’s Top Ten when it comes to national healthcare.
In 2005, nearly 82 million people in the US – about one-third of the population below age 65 – spent a portion of the prior two years without any health coverage.*
80% of the uninsured come from working families.*
One third of firms in the U.S. did not offer health coverage in 2005.*
Members of my family and I, for brief periods, have been without health insurance. At the time we couldn’t really afford even routine or preventative healthcare. Had a major injury or illness occurred during that period – and two did later, when fortunately covered – it would have wiped out a lifetime of savings, and put us seriously in debt for many years, if not bankrupt.
So pardon me if I am sensitive to the subject and become offended when people want to banter about their favorite liberal icon or ‘commie’ and play cutesy political games, while totally ignoring and avoiding this serious, national American crisis.
* http://www.nchc.org/facts/coverage.shtml
No, no – please: Go ahead and get offended, fliterman. Take it personally, go from the specific to the general, tell us what might have happened if things had only transpired at the worst possible time.
This is, after all, what you do.
lex – Whatever it is you think “What I do,” this issue is certainly not about me.
It is about the excessive expense and limited availability of healthcare for a large section of citizens of this greatest country on earth. And it is currently a regrettable system.
You and your wife are protected healthcare-wise in perpetuity, so you may not be as sensitive. You “have.” But there are many “have-nots,” albeit through no fault of their own. And they are at great risk, and a large number will indeed suffer – either health-wise, finacially, or both. And certainly emotionally.
Consider the young Marine or sailor who leaves active duty, finds work where healthcare may not be a benefit, or is in-between jobs. He is at great risk; and so is his family. And many get burned badly. Some of their stories are heart-wrenching. It’s about them.
So please try to attack my message, rather than this messenger. And think about what it would be like for you and your family without coverage, and without the necessary income to purchase exorbitant, private insurance. It ain’t pretty.
Major Premise: Man suffers disproportionately.
Minor Premise:Consider the young Marine or sailor who leaves active duty…their stories are heart-wrenching.
Conclusion: National compulsory healthcare.
How could I not see that?
Filterman,
Why do you think we should be responsible for other peoples bill’s?
Health care is not a right, it’s a service.
There is no Health care crisis. You don’t see thousand’s of people die in the streets on a daily basis, do you?
Do you think I should be responsible for the roof over your head, the food on your table or your conveyance to work?
I just don’t see why y’all WANT to have national health care, the least efficient, most expensive and deadliest health care available.
fliterman, please forgive me my uncharitable response. You happened along at a time when I was feeling cranky and besieged for other reasons not having to do with you and I lashed out.
All that said, I do so get weary to hear that we are eternally in one or another kind of crisis. After all, during Hillary’s first term back in the early 90′s, we were in a crisis too – and yet somehow the Republic stumbles on.
I don’t have the numbers in front of me and am loath to look them up right now, but I have been reliably informed that the vast majority of those who are uncovered by medical insurance at any given time are young workers in their late teens and twenties who are least likely to need the kind of care provided by health insurance and fully protected in the much more likely case of trauma by laws mandating that hospitals treat severely injured persons regardless of insurance status.
I know that our current system is something of a historical accident. I also know that it has created the most innovative and capable medical care providers in the world, even if the benefits of that care are not universally shared.
I realize that there are terribly stories of people that have fallen through the gaps – the “specifics” from which activist politicians seek to generalize a universal remedy. But I’m also deeply suspicious when the political class places the deadening hand of government into a huge segment of the national economy.
And as a “customer” of a form of socialized medicine, let me just say that for my own reasons – specific reasons – I am leery of extending that same “quality” of care to all the citizenry. You trade one set of demons for another when the pols decide what a procedure should cost and the market, denied a cost basis to determine the value of a limited supply of a product, rations it by waiting time instead.
And Moore is a demagogic buffoon. Just needed to get that in there.
Anyway, this is from a conservative’s perspective something of a fin de siecle discussion anyway. We are almost certainly due for a new president in 2008 of the flavor that will favor a government solution to one after another series of “crises.”
So I guess we’ll see.
Filterman,
This thing we call health care would be more aptly called medical crisis response.
Health is something that, when you are in possession of it, you might be wise to endeavor to maintain. You are the caretaker of your health. Not me, not the government.
Our country and the West in general, have developed a highly sophisticated approach toward emergency response medicine.
Funny how most of the preventative (alternative, complimentary) health care modalities have their origins in much more ancient civilizations.
In older, pre communist times, the Chinese would pay their local doctor to keep them well. If you got sick, he didn’t get paid until you were back in the pink. The incentive was prevention.
No one makes any almighty dollars here to prevent you’re sickness. In fact its just the opposite.
If I’m mangled in a car accident, do not hesitate to take me to the nearest E.R. (except for most inner city hospitals that are overworked with providing band aids for the poor, ignorant and criminal, uh, I mean undocumented, immigrants.
If I whine to you about the many chronic ailments I’ve developed over the years, be sure to ask me about my habits and diet etc.
Are you and all other tax payers responsible for patching up the effects of thirty years of bad eating, alcohol consuming, cigarette, inhaling, non exersizing, drug abusing etc.?
Ask the lawyers. John Edwards can tell you. Millions of lawsuits garnered with outrageous cash rewards have made the cost of medical insurance sky rocket. Go and see your doc about a sore boil on a buttock and rest assured he’ll cover his own butt first. Probably an EKG just to rule out that it’s not you who is the A…hole.
Some on the left are calling access to a Doctor’s services a right.
Like freedom of speech, freedom to believe in whatever religion or philosophy you agre with, the right to defend yourself etc.. Rights are something that wise people have decreed a condition of reality, endowed by the creator, that no government should have the power to take away from you. Not the other way around; not a gift the government gives you.
Doctors, X ray technicians, pharmacists, acupunturists, nurses etc, like mechanics, accountants, carpenters, plumbers, newspaper delivery boys, waitresses etc. provide a service. Do you have a right to all those as well? Or are you fortunate to live in a society where such services flourish because of free enterprise. If the whole of the medical profession weren’t slammed with frivolous lawsuits and regulations and if the public were wise enough to embrace real “health care” i.e. prevention, then perhaps the costs would be much more in line with all the other services. Remember supply and demand?
Can’t you and the MMs of this world read? I think there is more than ample proof that forced socialism / communism etc. just doesn’t work nearly as well as any hoped it would.
Gee, if only Castro were ruler of the world! What a beuttiful healthy world it would be.
Of course we need some sort of safety net to help the poor disadvantaged (which may soon include most of mexico) Social medicine does exist here. They call it Medicare / Medicaide
You could defect and move to Cuba!
Just don’t slam the door on the way out.
Kristen,
I’m afraid hating America is the default setting of too many bitter souls that find it fashionable and ‘authentic’ to fawn over monsters –monsters who would destroy them without a second thought. That is the fate of self-important intellectuals who have outlived their usefulness in totalitarian states. Absolute power crushes all dreams [including theirs] to dust.
Actually, I’m a Civil Air Patrol captain, aircrew member and ground team leader. Several of my former CAP cadets have completed tours in the Sandbox. My deep pride in their service is mixed with parental relief for their safe return.
Best wishes to your brother-in-law. Your support means everything to him and his troops.
lex – Accepted and appreciated. And given many of the ?
lex – Accepted and appreciated. And given many of the “comments” on the other post that you are receiving, I certainly understand. I would likely be a little uncharitable too.
“Crisis” is perhaps too strong a word; except and unless one is caught ill without being insured. Then it is indeed a personal or family crisis.
And being uninsured or underinsured is only part of the problem. The cost of healthcare is accelerating at alarming rate to excessive levels. But the overall quality of care seriously lags behind that of several world nations. Indeed, healthcare in Canada, France, Germany, Japan, and the UK exceeds our own in most respects. That is just not right!
The nonpartisan, National Coalition on Health Care has many of the depressing statistics.
While I can appreciate the Conservatives’ abhorrence to anything with even a hint of being ‘socialistic,” some form of national healthcare will happen…. because it must.
(Oh yes, re M. Moore – although he may sometimes raise valid issues, he is an embarrassment to the Left, and often does them more harm than good.)
Just to clarify. No MM fan here (can proudly (?) say that to my knowledge I’ve never actually watched anything he has created), not in love with Hilary either (she’s not my type)
But just one comment. Not all chronic conditions are caused by the lifestyle of the individual and it always strikes me as misleading when “prevention” appears to be touted as the be all and end all. Certainly for some, yes. A majority … maybe?
But walk the floors of any children’s hospital or visit the pediatric ward of your local hospital (or be forced to spend a large amount of time in either place) and the world starts to look a little different.
Speaking of inner city hospitals, anyone see the tape circulating of the 911 calls made and apparently ignored concerning the woman who died in a hospital waiting room because … well, it loooked like she was being totally ignored by medical staff while she bled to death in the waiting area. LA I think?
Okay, that’s two points. I’m done now. Honest!
That was a sad incident in LA last week I believe. In a nutshell, woman was puking blood on the ER floor and died despite two 911 calls from inside the ER. Preventable death for sure.
Be successful and you will get what you want. If you don’t have something that you need figure out how to get it. Saying ‘It’s just not possible’ or ‘It can’t be done’ is not acceptable. And we really don’t have a problematic system: [unkawil] “There is no Health care crisis. You don?
That was a sad incident in LA last week I believe. In a nutshell, woman was puking blood on the ER floor and died despite two 911 calls from inside the ER. Preventable death for sure.
Be successful and you will get what you want. If you don’t have something that you need figure out how to get it. Saying ‘It’s just not possible’ or ‘It can’t be done’ is not acceptable. And we really don’t have a problematic system: [unkawil] “There is no Health care crisis. You don’t see thousand’s of people die in the streets on a daily basis, do you?”
Besides that, show up to the hospital with no ID and give a fake name and SSN. Tell them to put the bills on your tab. That way you can get back at all those meanies that don’t want to give you free health care for your cuts, bruises, overweight, smoking, and drinking problems and make it so the rest of us can pay more for you anyways.
#16. Geo, Well said sir!
Michelle
Medically we are not really doing much to prevent anything. Slowly, the thought of living a healthy life-style is re emerging into our collective conciousness. Used to be called common sense.
And,I, like most thoughtful people wouldn’t tout prevention in the case of a child facing leukemia.
We call that tragedy and no amount of socialized medical insurance will prevent that. Life has always had tragedy. Spending time in a pediatric ward doesn’t nescesarily lead one to the conclusion that, “gee, if only we had socialized medicine, like cuba, none of this would have to be.”
Ad as far as I can tell, children suffering such horrors are not ignored in this country.
We have a system of safety nets for the poor.
You are invoking compassion. A virtue society truly needs if it is to flourish and survive.
My point was more about health care as a interwoven technical system of services that we are blessed to have seen develop and thrive in our free society and how readily it is threatened by the likes of socialists that believe said services are somehow owed to them.
The system is under attack also by tort lawyers and greedy juries that don’t have the maturity to see that there are no winners in the game (unless of course if you end up as wealthy as John Edwards, you might be under the illussion that you’ve come out ahead)). To the point that no doctor can afford the cost nor can afford to ignore the need to pay the extortion, oops, I mean insurance premiums.
The system was good. It attracted dedicated and talented students drawn to that vocation. Major break throughs were discovered. Diseases were iradicated.
Now, I know doctors that would not advise their children to go into the field.
Of course we all feel compassion for the child And many may reserve a bit for the 50 year old crystal meth addict and smoker for thirty years that has learned s/he has a spot on a lung and is experiencing a slow death due to his or her lifestyle choices.
Sure they both need compassion and on might pray for both and perhaps even be drawn to contribute to help help end the suffering.
I give you this. Should the government, by taking money from you and I by force be the enforcer of said compassion.
If it is so great in Cuba, why do people risks their very lives to cross the sea in makeshift rafts to come here?
Of course we all want to to good. I suspect even Michael Moore wants to do good.
I just don’t understand why any one thinks the government the best choice to make it so.
Comment self-deleted, resulting in a collective sigh of relief from the readership.
Michael Moore? I thought he met his demise down in GA a cuppla back…
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