At the very least it's fun to watch the Repukes' blood vessels pop

[lapsedmodernist]

As an exception I went to freerepublic.com this morning, for the purposes of [see subject], and goshdarnit, half of America is a nasty, nasty, ugly country full of illogical morons. I know, this is not a revelation or anything, but what makes me seizure every time is utter willful disregard of any and all facts in favor of batshit-insane logic. And I don't even mean, like, the grant batshit-insane logic of the War on Drugs or something--I mean, just this total delusion about, well, everything:











There was someone on my lj list--I feel like it was either pdanielson or hoyvenmaven posted something brilliant some months ago about what really defines American character is (sorry if this is badly paraphrased here): an American is totally willing to be homeless live in his car under a bridge shooting pigeons with arrows and grilling them on the car battery, as long as his neighbor under that bridge, a black, Mexican, or gay person, has no car, and no pigeon to cook in the car oil. Can someone link me to the original phrasing of that plz?

PS: do you think the Abundy handle is for "Al Bundy"?

Comments

[heresiarch.livejournal.com]

i could only read through a few of those, but do any of them realize that many european countries have 100% (or close to it) health coverage, and yet there are plenty of insurance companies still in business? europeans actually smoke way _more_ than americans.

interestingly, though, i noticed today that some of the german news coverage of the health reform bill is actually mixed -- on one hand, i think most europeans remain amazed that a country as wealthy as the US doesn't already have universal health care, but on the other, Der Spiegel, for instance, seemed to fear that Obama's efforts were too domestically oriented, and that now he has spent a lot of political capital that he might've directed internationally instead. i really hadn't thought of it that way.

personally, though, i don't see how the US can move forward on any foreign policy without fixing some of the fundamental problems within the US....

[fengi.livejournal.com]

That executive order has major potentional consequences. It says "new protections prohibit discrimination against health care facilities and health care providers because of an unwillingness to provide, pay for, provide coverage of, or refer for abortions." Remember those pharmacists who want to refuse to fill Plan B, RU486 and birth control perscriptions, and the doctors who refuse to write them? They may now argue they have executive order protection.

[nearly-there.livejournal.com]

Wow, the screenshots. Yikes. The bill is a mess, particularly due to the Stupak disaster, but the amount of crazytalk out there is simply phenomenal.

As I posted on fb this morning because the bloody "omg we can't choose anything anymore THE GOVERNMENT WILL" contributors to my news feed were driving me crazy:

"I would like to remind everyone debating health care that insurance bureaucrats are /currently/ making health care decisions for you without your input. They decide what to pay for & unless you're independently wealthy, the cost makes the decision. This bill is a mess for many reasons, but the idea that it will remove a vast swath of personal choice is hyperbolic propaganda."

[pdanielson.livejournal.com]

“The salient fact of American politics is that there are fifty to seventy million voters each of who will volunteer to live, with his family, in a cardboard box under an overpass, and cook sparrows on an old curtain rod, if someone would only guarantee that the black, gay, Hispanic, liberal, whatever, in the next box over doesn’t even have a curtain rod, or a sparrow to put on it.”

I had to search for where I found it - I got it from here (see the "27 Percenters" entry):

http://www.balloon-juice.com/balloon-juice-lexicon-a-h/

The "Crazification Factor" post linked in that entry is also great.

[vulgarlad.livejournal.com]

That example is a thing of genius.

~m

[monkeypunk.livejournal.com]

My Constitutional Law professor yesterday actually said he doesn't know (and never has known) anyone who is uninsured, and that "10% of Americans" number that gets bandied about must all be illegal immigrants, and they don't deserve benefits anyway.

We're a small inner city community college, where most of us get financial aid to cover our $20 units. The school doesn't offer insurance. His arrogance is breathtaking.

[mjmj.livejournal.com]

His arrogance is breathtaking.

I hope that it only takes away your breath this one time. From now on, you should know that there is a socioeconomic class that has this perception that your teacher expressed based on their experience. the bill that was signed into law is the legislation that it is because the people who are in congress (and especially the senate) are of a different socioeconomic class than the majority of the country. everyone in the senate, with the possible exceptions of bernie sanders and al franken, is a millionaire.

congressman pete stark was talking about his insurance premium on the radio some months ago. he pays $500/month for his family's insurance, but, he pointed out, as a congressman the taxpayers' pay for 3/4 of his insurance bill. so the full premium is $2000/month or $24,000/year -- completely beyond anyone making the median income in the u.s., which is approx. $50,000/year.

because all of these people have all of the insurance they need, and because their friends and family members have insurance, they only changed the parts of insurance that concerned them, namely, the "pre-existing conditions" policy cancellation and the "yearly cap". the rest of insurance is "fine" with them. this is why, among others, kucinich could change his vote. he would never have done that if his family couldn't get some treatment. he and all of the other democrats would have passed a much different bill if they themselves did not have insurance. the democrats went along with obama because they are not at risk for not getting treatment, but are at risk of not getting re-elected and not getting campaign money. this was a vote for themselves.

on top of all of those reasons, congress people have friends and family members who work for insurance companies, hospital administration, pharmaceutical companies, and medical equipment makers. actual reform would have hurt members of their socioeconomic class (who are doing unproductive work) while benefiting people who are not of their socioeconomic class, namely, the majority of the country's population.

[monkeypunk.livejournal.com]

I'm sure you didn't mean that to sound as condescending as it reads, so I'll just point out that "breathtaking" is not the same as "shocking".

His arrogance is breathtaking, in the same way Mount Kilimanjaro is breathtaking; of obscene proportions, seemingly immutable, and treacherous to many.

Acknowledgment of that need hardly be a one time thing.

[mjmj.livejournal.com]

... of obscene proportions, seemingly immutable, and treacherous to many.

your comment reminds me of an observation that noam chomsky made on democracy now! a few weeks ago. he was describing the response of the "elite" versus the response of the general population to the vietnam war after it was over (early 70s). he said that the "elite" thought that the war had been a "only" a mistake, while the general population thought that it has been (morally) wrong. "of obscene proportions, seemingly immutable, and treacherous to many" -- yep, that sounds about right.

the amount of money that their socioeconomic class would lose if there was reform of the way that health care is paid for is in the many hundreds of billions of dollars per year, possibly even as much as a trillion dollars each year. that loss would put a serious dent in their class. so we should not be surprised that they will not allow the reform to take place until there is either an economic collapse or riots (which would likely come following the economic collapse).