Rationing is an easy scare tactic. There's already rationing of one kind or another, and there always will be.

Why We Must Ration Healthcare

By Peter Singer, professor of bioethics at Princeton University. He is also laureate professor at the University of Melbourne, in Australia. His most recent book is “The Life You Can Save: Acting Now to End World Poverty.â€

anyone who's first response to trying to bring down health care costs is "tort reform" should be laughed and pointed at until they cry in humiliation. i'm not saying it shouldn't be looked at, but its pretty damn far down that priority list.

agreed.

It's totally crackpot, but I also understand the way it gets adopted by some social cohorts. "They" the privileged and the "regulators" want to "interfere" with holy unfettered commerce... and restrict "our" liberty. They hate John Edwards and his fancy haircuts and commie ideas and big, big house. They know that these "Democrat supporting lawyers" are anathema to "real people." They think that a lawsuit is contrary to common sense.

And as too often happens, the middle and lower middle classes buy whole... hog... constructs that are not in their interests. The same crowds who respond enthusiastically to Erin Brockovitch populist entertainments also hate litigation as the enemy of the common folk.

It's a talking point put out there by Rush Limbaugh and other GOP mouth pieces without any actual thought.

Because Fox = "modern repressive governments"? Or does Fox = "a social condition"? Is Fox out "to control"?

You throw around terms that you believe will make you seem educated, but you have little clue what they mean. You derive your insight from Comedy Central and Wikipedia. Very Rabelaisian. Very typical.

Fox is out to make money, but they use propaganda, misinformation, denial of truth, and manipulation of the past to keep their audience loyal and coming back for more.

Things don't have to directly mimic the plot of 1984 to be casually described as Orwellian.

Rabelaisian might be just such a term... holy mother of self-referential infolding... two mirrors reflecting each other into infinity.

Read again the bold type.... that is a fair enough definition of Fox for most reasonable people. Your objection, and your characterization of what is typical, is, well, typical?

Apparently, you're attempting to discourse with Billzebub here, so don't go in thinking HEG DUMGIE. Or he'll eat your shit for breakfast. Then feed it back to you, like a mother bird does for her ignorant chicks.

Did you just call me an ignorant chick? One laughs, one is amused.

Heh heh, Harry's a bimbo.

Never having studied french philosophy or literature, I had to look that one up.

But after looking up Rabelais and definitions of Rabelasian, I have to say I wouldn't really mind if the characterization applied to me.

Unfortunately, I'm not quite clever or profane enough to deserve the title. Perhaps once, but no longer.

http://www.1011now.com/news/headlines/54860882.html

Here's a link to a shitty local news story covering our health care rally on the West Steps of the Capitol Building here in Lincoln. A reasonable estimate of attendance is 500 people. They had to close of a lane of traffic, since folks started to spill over into the street and brought in extra cops and State Patrolmen. I got a brief headshot while sitting on the steps in my rally shirt with my sign, but didn't do any interviews or speeches at the event.

The news coverage was pretty weak, as there were 5-10 anti-reform folk there who barely made a peep during all the speeches, yet the coverage makes the event look contentious with a significant counter protest.

I watched a minute or so of that, Prom, but local news gives me the willies.

Edit: I can't believe they put the email addy of the DOGB reporter on there. I might send her a pic of my hog.

Yeah, this is the crappiest local channel for news too. A college friend of my brother did most of the camera work. I think they put the email addresses on all things for local press, be it print or tv. I'm surprised they haven't went Twitter or Facebook.

I think this is a fair assessment of FOX in the same way it describes pretty much any other television news channel/program. There may be a few breaths of fresh air out there, but in general, I don't see FOX perpetuating anything worse than the others; it's just a different end of the spectrum that most people here find offensive, ignorant, and annoying.

[img][333:500]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3270/3859383114_c678b82a23_o.jpg[/img]

A photo of the rally I took from the Lincoln Journal Star website. My head sticks out like I'm in a Where's Waldo photo.

I want this as a poster.

THAT IS FUCKING AWESOME!

http://neappleseed.org/blog/?page_id=20

More self promotion and photos of the rally here yesterday.


also a ridiculous article courtesy of an Omaha News Station covering the event yesterday.

http://www.action3news.com/Global/story ... =menu550_2

One of the wife's old highschool friends was in town this weekend with her husband and 2 kids. Husband is an air force flight instructor / pilot who is now beginning to pull duty on Air Force One. He's also a very, very conservative Bush fan, but he's funny, intelligent, considerate, and a consummate professional, so things never get wierd when we visit. He also plays guitar, and we always have things to talk about. It does make for interesting dinner conversation, though.

Saturday night at Al Dente in the North End, paraphrased as best I can remember it:

"I was curious how genuine Obama's public persona is, that 'nice guy' humble thing. So I asked the crew on AF1 who've been there the whole time so far, knowing they'll tell me the truth. They HATED the Clintons, for example, and have some amazing Hilary bitch stories. [he went on here for a bit] Anyway, I asked how Obama has been, and they said every time he's aboard, he pops his head into the cockpit to ask the pilots how they're doing, shakes their hands, and makes small talk. Everyone said he and his family have been nothing but nice, even when no one's looking, so I guess it's genuine."

_____

"As much as I respect senator Kennedy, I'm really glad another powerful liberal is dead."

_____

"The one thing Obama cannot do is lead this country. He is incapable of making tough decisions - he wants too much consensus. Sometimes you need someone to just lay down the law."

You mean like Bush did? THE DECIDER?

"Well, in a way."

You mean you want him to be more impulsive, more cock-sure. Shoot from the hip, Texas-style? [here I made gun-fingers and "pew pew" sounds]

"Hey now, he didn't take that stuff lightly, he was able to make decisions and stand behind them."

Yeah, but he also stood behind his mistakes, and that's not an admirable quality.



etc.

at what point did you end up vomiting in his lap

That food was so fucking good there's no way I would've wasted it. And I actually really enjoyed talking to him. All you guys do is coddle me.

mugwump did a pretty good job of explaining what i meant.