The Health Care Debate is Unleashing Creativity from Every Crevice of America
This was not widely reported in the "MSM," but last month the delightful Michelle Malkin ran a very important "Obamacare poster contest" on her blog, which soars o'er the muck of the internet like a million eagles screeching into the sunset.
The submissions Michelle received were just as insightful, nuanced and discerning as you might imagine, and obviously this is an excellent way to advance the health care debate in the United States, some fun Photoshopping. It beats a lame sketch about Hitler, right? Really, I couldn't see how any of it would ever go wrong, this festive mix of rational thought and creativity and free speech and technology and all.
And then this morning someone forwarded me this email, which as far as I know is unrelated to the Malkin contest BUT follows a similar vein AND has been "making the rounds," as the kids say, under the subject line Obamacare Healthcare is coming soon!
Oh boy oh boy oh boy…
That's right, folks! Barack Obama will tax your health benefits and then flee with the money to Africa, where he will convert all the tribespeople to Socialism and become their king after developing inhumanly muscular calves.
Don't say you weren't warned.
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Cait and Canuk,
This just shows the world the level of ignorance in the US government.
Another example is France, where public health insurance is complemented by private insurance. Public insurance assures everybody, and encourages preventive treatments to avoid higher hospital costs later. Private coverage is paid by people who work, or all those who can afford it.
What's not fair about France's system is that costs are linked to salaries. The more you earn, the more you pay. In the US, rates are based on age, sex, and family.
The biggest problem in the US is that medicine is big business. Doctors don't go into medicine just to treat sick people, they go into a field where they can get rich.
In France, a doctor's visit costs around 25 euros. Prescribed medicine is free, covered by insurance. In DC, the cost just to see a doctor can be around $100. The examination and prescription costs are added to that.
People in Washington can't have an intelligent debate about anything because the vast majority of them are illiterate and ignorant of the rest of the world.
All against public health insurance are doctors, insurance companies, and drug companies that don't want cost controls because it would reduce their profits. Politicians don't serve the population, they pass laws to protect the industries that financed their campaigns.
As for this poster, all I can say is NICE LEGS, dude!
Thank you, Cait, Canuk and others for your reasonable, realistic and humane repostes.
Just on the fyi…
That's not an African man, that's a Melanesian man. Specifically, a warrior from Papua New Guinea.
Kind of adds that extra layer of stupid, doesn't it?
You all have lost your perspective. You are using some stupid submission from some stupid contest to fuel your anti-conservative fire? Really?
There are still numerous explicit (yes, sexually explicit) Bush/Osama photoshopped images floating around the net. I guess you forgot about those, but you'd probably blame those on the "paucity of imagination in the conservative camp" as well…
Morons.
Umm..Lee? You don't see the difference between racism and childish photoshopping?
"Socialized" health care involves long waits? WTH are you trying to kid, kid? I recently called to get pre-op certification (two months before surgery). Not a single doctor was available until seven weeks after the day I called, and he had only one open slot. My own doctor was booked up for three months! I waited FIVE YEARS for a knee replacement because the insurance company didn't want to pay for it "until you have exhausted all other accepted modes of treatment." "Socialized" medicine gave my mother state-of-the-art health care with no wait. I'll take socialized over what I've got.
Just had a run in with a bunch of LaRoucheies who had a poster up of Obama with a Hitler mustache protesting about health-care cuts.
I told them I'd worked with Holocaust survivors for 15 years and asked if either of them knew any, you know, like people who were slave laborers in Auschwitz or hopped off a train to Treblinka. The reply, "people in hospitals." Finally, exasperated, I told them, "You wouldn't know a Nazi if one came up and bit you in the ass," then kicked the Obama poster of couple of times (it was laminated so I didn't do much damage). They then proceed to whip out their cell phones and threatened to call the police. I told them go ahead, and I hope the guy that shows up is as black as the ace of spades. I then walked off, but I'm sure they didn't call the police, since they believe the U.S. is a police state.
Is there a problem with health care in the US? Absolutely! Should the US government do something about it? Absolutely NOT! President Obama inherited his administration's problems from citizens who have failed to hold representatives responsible for being "lawmakers" instead of the representatives they were elected to be for many, many years. Citizens who did not hold their representatives responsible when those representatives failed to hold previous presidents who abused power responsible for their actions. But is he saying, "You know what? I specialized in Constitutional law, and so I think it's time we actually get back to what the Constitution says. I'm going to reduce government and put the power back where it really belongs"? No… he's pushing for more and more government control "for your own good". The very thing the Constitution makes clear the federal government is NOT to do.
The saddest fiction about America is the idea that we are a democracy, and that the majority rules. In fact, we are a republic with democratic elections. The majority does get to say who will represent them, but those representatives are there to make sure all voices count, and that the minority does not get stuck paying for and living under the rule of something they are opposed to. Not only do our representatives fail to do this, but the citizens reward them for that failure by re-electing them. Whether Canadian health care works well in Canada or not, whether UK health care works well in the UK or not, it is not for the US government to reform health care in the US. Especially not when so many Americans have spoken up to say they do not want to pay for or live under that system. It's not just some people's opinion… it's the laws of our government.
These are the words of President Lincoln, who President Obama has shown so much admiration for: "You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot help the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by encouraging class hatred. You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn. You cannot build character and courage by taking away man's initiative and independence. You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves."
Why doesn't the coward who photoshopped Obama identify himself, so I can kick his ass! Incidentally, read the latest issue of AARP about the Myths of Healthcare Reform, you greedy bastards. The same ilk we bailed out for the bank failures in this country are the same "health care for their kids only" SOB's. Let's find out who posted that…I really would love to kick their ass!!
America likes too much being a country of haves and have nots. Having something the other guy is not entitled to.