Healthcare

Hmmmm, there was a very interesting post from http://curmudgeonisms.blogspot.com/ that I liked:

"If you're going to knowingly do something detrimental to your health, maybe you should pay more for insurance. But why limit it to smokers and fatties? Shouldn't drinkers pay more too? Booze is bad for you, is it not? And druggies. Their insurance should be way higher. In fact, everyone should get drug tested on a regular basis, shouldn't they? Make sure they aren't on the verge of killing themselves.How about snowboarders or motorbike riders? Why should they be let off the hook? Chances are higher they'll hurt themselves than someone who doesn't participate in those sort of activities.And players on the local softball team - there's a better chance they'll get hurt than someone watching from the bleachers. Especially if they had a quick cheeseburger before the game, have a beer and a smoke break between half innings, then ride home on their motorbike. See where this is going? Where do we draw the line? "


I think he has a good point. With cities like NYC looking to ban transfat because it's bad for people, so that the healthcare costs go up for everyone else, we need to look at the big picture.

I think we should not be passing any victimless laws, like banning transfat. Educate people so they know what it does to them, and let them make the decision. Big brother doesn't need to watch over everything for you.

A Pledge

I really liked this pledge:
A Liberal's Pledge to Disheartened Conservatives November 14th, 2006

To My Conservative Brothers and Sisters,

I know you are dismayed and disheartened at the results of last week's election. You're worried that the country is heading toward a very bad place you don't want it to go. Your 12-year Republican Revolution has ended with so much yet to do, so many promises left unfulfilled. You are in a funk, and I understand.

Well, cheer up, my friends! Do not despair. I have good news for you. I, and the millions of others who are now in charge with our Democratic Congress, have a pledge we would like to make to you, a list of promises that we offer you because we value you as our fellow Americans. You deserve to know what we plan to do with our newfound power -- and, to be specific, what we will do to you and for you.

Thus, here is our Liberal's Pledge to Disheartened Conservatives:

Dear Conservatives and Republicans, I, and my fellow signatories, hereby make these promises to you:

1. We will always respect you for your conservative beliefs. We will never, ever, call you "unpatriotic" simply because you disagree with us. In fact, we encourage you to dissent and disagree with us.

2. We will let you marry whomever you want, even when some of us consider your behavior to be "different" or "immoral." Who you marry is none of our business. Love and be in love -- it's a wonderful gift.

3. We will not spend your grandchildren's money on our personal whims or to enrich our friends. It's your checkbook, too, and we will balance it for you.

4. When we soon bring our sons and daughters home from Iraq, we will bring your sons and daughters home, too. They deserve to live. We promise never to send your kids off to war based on either a mistake or a lie.

5. When we make America the last Western democracy to have universal health coverage, and all Americans are able to get help when they fall ill, we promise that you, too, will be able to see a doctor, regardless of your ability to pay. And when stem cell research delivers treatments and cures for diseases that affect you and your loved ones, we'll make sure those advances are available to you and your family, too.

6. Even though you have opposed environmental regulation, when we clean up our air and water, we, the Democratic majority, will let you, too, breathe the cleaner air and drink the purer water.

7. Should a mass murderer ever kill 3,000 people on our soil, we will devote every single resource to tracking him down and bringing him to justice. Immediately. We will protect you.

8. We will never stick our nose in your bedroom or your womb. What you do there as consenting adults is your business. We will continue to count your age from the moment you were born, not the moment you were conceived.

9. We will not take away your hunting guns. If you need an automatic weapon or a handgun to kill a bird or a deer, then you really aren't much of a hunter and you should, perhaps, pick up another sport. We will make our streets and schools as free as we can from these weapons and we will protect your children just as we would protect ours.

10. When we raise the minimum wage, we will pay you -- and your employees -- that new wage, too. When women are finally paid what men make, we will pay conservative women that wage, too.

11. We will respect your religious beliefs, even when you don't put those beliefs into practice. In fact, we will actively seek to promote your most radical religious beliefs ("Blessed are the poor," "Blessed are the peacemakers," "Love your enemies," "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God," and "Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me."). We will let people in other countries know that God doesn't just bless America, he blesses everyone. We will discourage religious intolerance and fanaticism -- starting with the fanaticism here at home, thus setting a good example for the rest of the world.

12. We will not tolerate politicians who are corrupt and who are bought and paid for by the rich. We will go after any elected leader who puts him or herself ahead of the people. And we promise you we will go after the corrupt politicians on our side FIRST. If we fail to do this, we need you to call us on it. Simply because we are in power does not give us the right to turn our heads the other way when our party goes astray. Please perform this important duty as the loyal opposition.

I promise all of the above to you because this is your country, too. You are every bit as American as we are. We are all in this together. We sink or swim as one. Thank you for your years of service to this country and for giving us the opportunity to see if we can make things a bit better for our 300 million fellow Americans -- and for the rest of the world.

Signed,
Michael Moore
mmflint@aol.com

The Election

Well, fortunately, it's just two days now and all the waiting is over. I have been reading and posting on a forum, www.carypolitics.org. It's very interesting, because the site is run and mostly populated by extreme right wingers, and that is something that I am not. There's one guy on there who really seems to have lost it, but it's kinda fun to beat him up in arguments. I'm just a little worried that I'm going to get a package of white powder in the mail one of these days if I push him too far.
One of their biggest anti-Clinton issues is that they say he gave missle technology to the Chinese. When the latest news about the current administration having had put up a web site with information about how to build a nuclear bomb, and then taking it down because it had too detailed information on it, I posted that and asked them where their outrage was now.
They pointed out that it was Iraqi documents and tried to clain that this justified Bush's war of aggression because here was proof of WMDs. So, an aly and I had to fight that for a while, and finaly ended up pointing out that these documents were from before the first Gulf war when Iraq did have a WMD program, and proved absolutely nothing.
Now I can finaly get them back to the original question of where is their outrage at the Bush administration for posting detailed instructions that probably helped North Korea perfect their nuclear technology.

There's probably not much point to these debates, but I'd like to think that if I could get just one of these people to think a little more clearly, and a little more logically and see the lies and hypocrisy that we've been given for the last 6 years, I'll have made the world a better place.

Of course, I get my own gains too. Once you have a goal of trying to prove something to others, you do a lot more research, and find out things that you didn't know.
For instance, I ended up in the position of having to defend Kerry's mis-statement. I did research and did find that about 5% of the enlisted in the army had a college degree or greater. About 30% of the overall population has a college degree or greater. Almost 100% of the officers have a college degree or greater. In the army overall, but 19% have college degrees or greater.
Now, I have only the highest respect for the military, and am very glad they are working to defend the country. Also, there are many smart people in the military, and the officers are exceptionaly well educated. The enlisted aren't quite as well educated as the rest of the populace though.
However, what my opponents should have argued, is that most of the enlisted are 'college aged' people, who may have entered the military rather than going to college. And, after 4 years in the military, with the special training that they constantly recieve, maybe they are more educated than your average college graduate.
In any case, it's a moot point, because that's not what Kerry was trying to say, as anyone who listens to his speech would know. This is just another smoke screen to try to turn us away from the real issues.

I'n 2 days, we will see.