My friend Mark gets the honor of being our quote of the day. He posted the following on my Facebook wall in response to my recent post on the continuing antics of HRH Peggerton Noonanshire:
I love it. Liberals protest war. Conservatives protest health care.
Leave a Reply
Snack Food
Politico parodies itself (via): The Senate, once the chamber of deliberation and reason, is getting its own extreme makeover. Moderates such as Maine Republican Olympia Snowe and Democrat Ben Nelson are bolting an institution that barely resembles the one they entered as idealistic deal makers. Ben Nelson? Idealistic dealmaker? These are words that should not be in the ... (1 comments)Despicable Quote of the Day - Icky Gay Sexytime Is A Threat To National Security
“Given the propensity for members of the homosexual community to engage in frequent and anonymous sexual encounters, the risk to national security of having a homosexual in a high-ranking position with access to secret information is obvious.” Bryan Fischer, Nutbag (0 comments)Newsweek Hearts America. Seriously. They Really F*cking Mean It.
I guess a cover featuring Uncle Sam hungrily masturbating to a painting of Jesus wearing an American flag was deemed to be insufficiently patriotic.
[Embiggen]
(1 comments)Paul Ryan Suddenly Realizes That Ayn Rand Was A Rabid Atheist
Republicans Cave Again: Student Loans Edition
Mississippi: A Shining Example Of Limited Government
Ah, the land of Mississippi – that shining bastion of God-fearing, limited-government conservatism. Well, unless you want to father illegitimate babies — then the government will throw you in jail. (5 comments)Over in the UK, Labour is now up big over the ruling Tories. Part of that is almost certainly a stalled, ailing economy, but what’s sort of interesting because a big part of their drop is due to implementing a cap on charitable deductions, which is essentially what Obama wanted to do here to cut ... (0 comments)Death Penalty Loses Another One
Connecticut ends the practice. I have to say, this is one of those social movements that is regularly winning big victories, but almost nobody seems to be paying attention. Which is fine by me–under the wire is probably the best way for this thing to go for now. (0 comments)Look, Mitt, I know you want to get women back on your side, but the notion that women have lost 92.3% of jobs in the recession may be technically correct in some manipulated and spun context, but it’s not correct, and it’s not even a good bullshit statistic. You might have been able to get ... (0 comments)What Do You Want Schwarzenegger To Write About In His Memoirs?
The Santorum Has Officially Been Mopped Up In The 2012 Race
I think this gets it right. Additionally, though, while I find Rick Santorum’s beliefs to be pretty risible, and his inability to accept that his ideas had some less-than-ideal results during the ’00s is a personal failing, but at the very least he seemed to possess some sense of personal honor and integrity. Not as good as ... (0 comments)I hadn’t used Instagram because I’m not so much a pictures sort of guy, but an article in the SF Chronicle article makes an interesting point that they were a much bigger threat to Zuckerburg’s empire than the other commonly named competitors. (0 comments)Fun Friday: Robocop Is Filmed In Front Of A Live Studio Audience
(THE GRAPEVINE
Why not protest both?
I think it's a question of priorities.
Further to my point, it's also a question of existential seriousness. An unjust war that we were led into by lies and that resulted in the death of thousands of american solidiers (more than died on 9/11), the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of innocent iraqis and the sanctioning and embrace of torture is about a 9.5 on the 1-to-10 scale of Existentially Evil Things One Should Protest. Obama's health care proposal, no matter what perspective you look at it from, could only be at most a 5 on that scale. Just shows you what people really care about. Hundreds of thousands of tangible, real, physical lives lost or esoteric arguments about what health care system produces the most "innovation". go figger.
"As an empirical matter, I believe that national health care is going to kill a lot more people every year than the Iraq War when fully realized." --Megan McArdle
I don't know what hat she pulls this "empirical" assessment out of, but some of us actually do think national health-care is a pretty fucking terrible idea. If not in the same ballpark as the Iraq war, at least the next-door one.
I could be wrong--and if something like HR 3200 puts us on a path to national health-care, I hope I'm proven wrong. But don't say I don't have my priorities straight.
crap like that from Megan I just can't waste more than a few minutes on. it's twaddle. pure, unadulterated twaddle.
as you noted, she doesn't have ANY empirical basis whatsoever on which to claim that a hybrid public-private health insurance system along the lines of what Obama is proposing would lead to more or less deaths than the current nightmare of a health care system we have now. if you were going to ACTUALLY look for empirical data on such matters, you'd probably need to turn to ACTUAL examples of systems involving some kind of public health insurance, such as the nordic countries and france.
… oh crap… i guess looking at ACTUAL empirical evidence would lead one to say that their health care systems are vastly superior to ours in terms of life expectancy, healthy outcomes and cost. i guess megan will just have to continue relying on a baseless, evidence-free hatred of government involvement in anything. i guess that's good too.
P.S. "If not in the same ballpark as the Iraq war, at least the next-door one. "
I really hope you're just saying that for dramatic effect. if you really believe that the existential danger/evil of reforming our health care system is even close to an unjust war that's killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people and wasted trillions of dollars then, well, i don't know what to say to that.
Well at least you are not using you unsupported allegation that health care reform will kill R&D or that the European nations get their entire R&D from us. You obviously have not convinced me that your arguments have much merit.
Actually, that's exactly the "allegation" I'm basing assessment on.
But loss of future innovation is pretty damn hard to quantify, which is convenient for liberals who's rather pretend there are no unintended consequences and that we can increase coverage, decrease costs, improve care, reduce waste, and not stifle innovation--all at the same time.
Its also terribly convenient for people like McArdle to scaremonger onthe basis of completely unsubstantiated fears of innovationdestruction. The sword cuts both ways and the lack of basis forrefuting those scary libtards who don't have evidence for you alsocuts against the lack of evidence McArdle has to offer. All she offersis fear of gubmint
There's nothing convenient about trying to explain things that are difficult to quantify--as unintended consequences so often are--to those who would rather not listen because, uhm…insurance companies are evil! Yeah.
As long as you don't try to play like you have any evidence to back upyour ephemeral, visceral fear of gubmint, we're good.
While I can appreciate your opinion I would be nice to have some facts to back then up. Something that we can look up and verify ourselves. It is really difficult for me to try and comprehend that the other leading industrial nations all depend on the USA for their R&D research because their national health care has suppressed their R&D.
While I would not go as far as to say that the insurance companies are evil per see, I would point out that the effects produced in the search for constant profits are not in the public’s interest and that the constant fines and regulations will point out the problems. The industry has a long history of paying fines and continually ignoring the problem.