And now, on the topic of healthcare reform...

[dwer.livejournal.com]

Comments

[blueduck37.livejournal.com]

I love the second one.

I wonder how these conservatives feel about their insurance premium $$$$ going to lobby Congress against reform.

[ragnarok-now.livejournal.com]

Anyone who finds joy at the US losing the Olympics would gleefully give money to ensuring the failure of the president.

[spaz-own-joo.livejournal.com]

That is patently false.
The Olympics are about spending way too much money on people who are really good at arbitrary physical tasks.
The President's job matters to actual people's lives.

[dwer.livejournal.com]

So American Olympian's lives aren't actual?

I'm agnostic about the Olympics. I think it's not a bad thing to celebrate physical accomplishment, especially in such a multinational way, but I know it rarely makes a lot of money for the host city.

[spaz-own-joo.livejournal.com]

Not all that actual. There's less than a thousand of em.

I agree that the Olympics are fantastic in the sense that they're a multinational media event, and the world really needs to get used to being able to watch stuff together. If only we could drum up this sort of interest in, y'know, human rights or starvation.

As a resident of Vancouver, I've observed some pretty crass behaviour on the part of the city. We've got a real homelessness problem around here, and instead of taking steps to address it in any real way, we've been setting up temporary housing and relocations, drafting "safe streets" bylaws that would have people arrested for panhandling, that sort of thing. Money has been diverted from an already overburdened bus system to pay for the fancy new Skytrain line that goes to the airport. All the billboard spaces in the city have been bought up by the Olympic committee, and apparently there are some deep freedom-of-speech problems in their new advertising guidelines and how they're planning on enforcing them.

[udoswald.livejournal.com]

You're laboring under the false assumption that when conservatives cheered Chicago's loss of the Olympics they were doing so out of some deep seeded concern for the taxpayers of Chicago and the costs associated with the Olympics. In reality, they were very clearly cheering the loss of the Olympics because they saw it as a loss for the President. I doubt there are too many cons out there who would shed a tear if Chicago went broke holding the Olympics, they just didn't want Obama to win something.

[jblaque.livejournal.com]

Bingo.

Opiate

[ragnarok-now.livejournal.com]

The Olympics were originally created to give warriors a non-violent area to compete in. A secondary effect was to foster good relations between the city states of the competitors.

Today the real goal is entertainment, with the arena aspect being the official reason. The secondary goal is political, but not necessarily good.

The money is a symptom of the entertainment goals, very little of which directly goes to the competitors. The merchandising & endorsements are outside of the Olympics.

That all being said the President actually has minimal direct effect on my life other than as a news item. And neither of your comments prove my comment false.

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

I wonder how these conservatives feel about their insurance premium $$$$ going to lobby Congress against reform.

Very good, since the end result, if successful, is better care than the alternative option.

[dwer.livejournal.com]

they're for single payer? Go Tories!

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

No, I said better results.

[dwer.livejournal.com]

Right. That's single payer.

[xforge.livejournal.com]

'Cuz it works so massively suckily for all the other countries that have single-payer, that they all voted it out and are now all paying ultrarich megacorporations for their healthcare instead, and getting denied care and coverage for ridiculous pre-existing conditions that aren't conditions at all.

Oh wait, no they're not, because they're not morons.

[blueduck37.livejournal.com]

So you're glad that health insurance $$ goes to propaganda campaigns rather than to, say, this (http://cbs2.com/local/nataline.sarkisyan.CIGNA.2.615167.html)?

That says a lot about you.

But then, we already knew that you value corporations over people.

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

There's propaganda on both sides. Both are guilty, but one result is much better for the bulk of us.

As for your last comment, that's a pretty vile lie.

[dwer.livejournal.com]

one result is much better for the bulk of us.

Yes. Single payer.

[blueduck37.livejournal.com]

As for your last comment, that's a pretty vile lie.

Prove me wrong one of these days.

[chasovschik.livejournal.com]

I'd rather have them to pay now than me to pay higher taxes and higher premiums for the rest of my life.

[xforge.livejournal.com]

I'd rather they used the fucking money I pay them to take care of my fucking health.

[chasovschik.livejournal.com]

In my case they already do that to my complete satisfaction.

[sophia-daniels.livejournal.com]

they blame congress for attempting health reform that the insurance companies have to lobby against.

or actually they blame the damn bleeding heart liberals for bugging congress about all this in the first place...

Death certificate/ first comic.

[verytwistedmind.livejournal.com]

When I die I hope my death certificate says "cause of death no health insurrance" just so I can believe the bull I've been sold.

For every 1000 people in the US 8.27 died last year (2008). My calculation is 300,000,000 divided by 1,000 times 8.27 comes to 2,400,000. If 45,000 of those died due to lack of health insurance. Does that mean the other 2,355,000 died with health insurance?

Last comic was funny. Poor old Uncle Sam

Re: Death certificate/ first comic.

[dwer.livejournal.com]

Well, yes, I expect that's exactly what it means.

Re: Death certificate/ first comic.

[mikepictor.livejournal.com]

I think his point is that it's disingenuous to claim that lack of insurance is the cause of 45,000 deaths per year.

We'd need a stat that shows the number of uninsured deaths that would have survived if they had insurance...which is a tricky stat to collect.

Re: Death certificate/ first comic.

[dwer.livejournal.com]

that number has been used by a lot of disparate sources. I'm gonna lean in the direction of it having been vetted.