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@Bryan: wonder how long a piece of paper, like a corporate charter, would last under water-boarding? Do you look for water-marks for the truth?
@rewinn: we should sign up the prison industry to get behind applying those laws!!!
topic: violence in Mexico. Now the Red Cross cant do their work. Wonder how conditions in Mexico would be right now if Calderon hadn't stolen the election from the people's candidate, Obrero?
@harry: better yet, we should waterboard them like the Rethuglicans like to think is perfectly legal ;-)
@Harry/Brian - "Three Strikes You're Out" laws should apply!!!
@Nels - "Cooperatist" is good, but how about "Team Player"?
@Bryan: yeah, and the corporate charter can be thrown in the pokey!
Here's a substitute word for Socialist... Co-operatist.
Now that corporations are citizens according to the Supreme Court, can the insurance companies be tried for murder for killing people by denying them coverage?
@Nels - I totally recommend John Brunner's "Stand On Zanzibar". He wrote in the late 1960s and his forecast is pretty right on. The multilayered ending was especially sweet, in being both satisfying storywise but very thoughtful in terms of the problems posed .
I also loved some of his neologisms, e.g. "Hipcrime (n): You committed one when you opened this book. Keep it up. It's our only hope."
re: single-payer and young people: i would tell young people that, until I retired, i had dental coverage. Still, most of the time I couldn't bring myself to have the quarterly cleanings, although I did brush and floss.
Medicare doesn't cover dental. Since I retired, I've spent over $60,000 trying to save my teeth. So, i would tell this to a young person, and ask them to estimate how much it would cost them in 40 years to do the same. Or, do they want to wear dentures in their '40's?
In regards to the Pentagon shooter yesterday, has any here ever read 'Stand On Zanzibar'? If you have you'd know what I mean by saying this guy is a 'Mucker'. Excellent book, I highly recommend it. I'd put it on the level of 'Brave New World' 'Fahrenheit 451' or '1984'.
Dear Thom,
I am one of those 55 and over who would rather not work and retire but my family cannot afford to pay health insurance. I have a 16 year old son, and me and my husband will be 56 this year. My husband is diabetic and I have arthritis. I wish I do not have to work but I have to. My job is mostly physical and it is aggravating my pain but this is the only job I can find at this time. But the main reason I have to work is because of the health insurance benefit my job provides. Otherwise, I would rather stay home or find a job that is less physical even if it does not pay me much or provide health insurance, but just to keep me busy. If we have to pay for our insurance, it might cost us some $1500 a month or more. My husband is self employed now after he got laid off from work and with Cobra before I got employed, 4 years ago, we were paying $1300 a month on our premium.
We cannot afford not to have health insurance because of my diabetic husband but I cannot wait until I am 65, and does not have to work to have health insurance. But that's almost ten years of waiting for me and my pain is getting worst daily. I would not want to take prescription meds if I can, just OTC. I have no medical problems other than arthritis and seasonal allergies, and I am afraid taking prescription meds would only give side effects that will cause me to take more prescription drugs.
Sincerely,
HEY THOM --- just a detail ...
...B-52s didn't drop agent orange - smaller spray craft did that.
However your point is correct: B52s and other bombers killing civilians, and agent orange mutilating them, worked against our own interests (...quite apart from the whole moral thing ...)
One of the elements that Democrats want in health care legislation is an end to pre-existing conditions. So how WILL insurance companies be able to deny coverage? My guess is that they will use medical necessity to deny coverage, and that they will be the sole determining party in judging what constitutes medical necessity.
Unless congress passes a law saying that denials for any reason are illegal, insurance companies will continue to deny coverage and rake in the profits, especially if a mandate is passed with the bill.
So, Ashburn blames the car! I assumed he would claim he was doing "research" on "the gay problem."
"I wanted to be a philosopher, but i couldn't pass the metaphysical." -harry ashburn (no relation to Roy Ashburn, that I know of.)
@Gerald, I hope you were talkimg about children killed in war. Morality does not come from any god or gods. The God of the Bible was a genocidal maniac that had his son with another man's wife, and then he had his son murdered in order to keep himself from sending the whole human race to hell. This son taught that any man who did not believe this ingnorance and priestly lying would go to hell and burn eternally in fire and brimstone . Do you rally believe any of this?
On Wednesday, there was a bizarre "report" (aka sales pitch for HSAs) on CNN on how "shopping" for health care "services" (such as a hernia surgery) can save you money ... why would I drive around to hospitals and "shop" for surgery like milk or jeans? I agree with Thom, being philosophically opposed to them (HSAs / HRAs combined with a high-deductible PPO-based coverage), but we use it too based on practicality.
Great article titled "Rise Up Vegan Republicnas" on Huff Post at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rich-karlgaard/rise-up-vegan-republicans_b...
Talks about uniting rather than further dividing! Even food is now considered a tribal division. Check it out!
Who was that GREAT caller talking about "Economic Terrorists" with their IED "Instruments of Economic Destruction" and so forth? She should blog that so we can link and copy!!!
Thom - I just wanted to let you know that I am one of the people you surmise the existence of - I'm over 55, I've lived a fairly simple life, avoided getting into debt, and have no heirs to leave anything to. I would GLADLY retire - right now! - if I could be assured that my wife and I could retain some affordable level of protection from medical calamity.
The way things are going these days, though, it looks like I'll be spending at least the next 10 years trying to hold a job that I'd rather not have, while somebody else's unemployment benefits lapse.
@Thom - while McCain/Palin's lack of legal and constitutional KNOWLEDGE is important, of greater importance is their lack of CARING about the law and constitution. Oh, they talk a good game but they're happy to ignore the constitution when it suits their purpose ... or, rather, their masters' purpose.
A Legal Ethics teacher once told me, "I can't make you act ethically; it is enough that I teach you to know when what you want to do breaks the rules, and then you will make your decision."
I cringe every time I hear the joke that is termed "tort reform"! The only thing it's designed to do, contrary to the talking points, is to allow corporations to budget human harm and loss of life. A side benefit of tort reform, however, is to de-fund Democrats by capping the amount trial lawyers, generally a supporter of Democrats, can take as payment for their services.
For free-for-all Friday, I am observing that CNN’s tabloid news shouter Jane Velez-Mitchell likes to rage about the “war against women,” but back on the home front, the victims just can’t seem to play the part very well. There was an incident in a women’s NCAA basketball game Wednesday night between Baylor and Texas Tech in which a blond-haired white player deliberately, and for no apparent justification other than her defense being third-rate, grabbed the black player she was guarding by the arm and literally swung her around and let her “fly.” The AP story claimed that they “were battling for position near the lane before Barncastle (the white player) spun around and sent Griner (the black player) lunging toward the baseline.” But the actual video flatly contradicted this version of the incident. It was a punk move, and as she walked away with a punk’s arrogance, the obviously irritated Griner stepped forward and gave Barncastle a roundhouse right in the face, apparently breaking her nose. Now, I don’t think fistacuffs has a place on the basketball court, but the incident are also part and parcel of the racial undertones and petty egotisms that infuse women’s sports, such as in basketball starting at least at the high school level, which, of course, goes addressed by the sports media.
@Mugsy, re: "If the results are good, Democrats will be rewarded in November (and obstructionist Republicans punished)."
A major problem with this way of thinking is that it does not take into account the delay between the passage of a piece of legislation, and the time when the lives of We the People are actually affected by said legislation. It's far from immediate, and it's often YEARS before we truly know the full effect of new laws - i. e., the unintended consequences.
That's why it was important for Obama to get some good things done in his FIRST year in office, so that we would now be feeling at least the beginnings of their effects. Any new legislation passed by this Congress is not going to have much in the way of positive effect between now and November. What we WILL have, is the Becks, Limbaughs and Hannitys of the world standing on their bully pulpits and whining about the damage these new, (your favorite right-wing expletive here) laws passed by the Democrat party will do, with little in the way of progress for us to point out to refute their claims.
I once suggested to adam schiff's people that he do more interviews and they responded, "Hmm, interesting." I'm going to suggest they come on Thom's show.