Neoconomania

¡Hola! Everybody...
I wrote a few months back, but it needs re-stating... Some people, when faced with evidence refuting their frame of reference will eschew the evidence and keep the frame. After years, I am firmly convinced such people will never be able to think in an original manner. I have my own special pet name for such people...

* * *

-=[ Necons & Healthcare ]=-

Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness. Broad, wholesome, charitable views cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth.
-- Mark Twain

It never fails: whenever the national dialog comes to the issue of universal single-payer health care for all Americans, neocons predictably spew out the usual myths.

Any talk about changing one of the most expensive and least effective health care systems in the industrialized world brings on the cries of “socialist!” These are usually the same people who blame blue-collar working stiffs (instead of predatory lending practices and derivatives) for our financial collapse and who most likely voted for a dimwit like Palin.

In other words... idiots.

First, they tell me that health care is not a right. They say it’s each individual’s responsibility to provide for his or her family. “Don’t take my money!” they squeal. This is just another excuse for neocons to look down on the poor who cannot afford the “luxury” of medical insurance. It makes them feel superior. But the irony is that it isn’t just the poor who can’t afford medical insurance. You might have insurance and the muthafuckas running the show won’t let you get life-saving treatment!

In any case, my response to the cunts and twats (aka neocons) is to point out that health care is indeed a basic human right as articulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to which the United States is a signatory.

Article 25(1) of the UDHR states:

“Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.”

But human rights standards don’t tend to sway the cunts and twats. After all, these are the same people who praise and defend the practice of torture. Nah, rights don’t mean a damned thing to neocons. That’s why they’re cunts and twats in the first place.

Their favorite rallying cry is the accusation of “socialism,” as if that’s a bad thing. The radical right (aka cunts and twats) too often (and very stupidly) equate socialism with Communism or Marxism, which are not the same as socialism. They fail to see that national single-payer health care managed by the government would not be much different from our current system of socialized libraries, socialized fire departments, and socialized police departments. These services are paid for with our tax dollars, and they’re readily available to us when we need them. It’s all for the greater good. Not just for the corporate good, but the greater good.

But what the cunts and twats love to do the most is wave the flag and tell us that we must not change our health care system because the U.S. offers the very best health care available.

Huh?!!

Here, too, they need a bit of education. In fact, the United States ranks 37^th in the World Health Organization’s rankings of the world’s health systems (below Malta, Iceland, Saudi Arabia, and numerous other countries that would surprise you).

Additionally, as a recent report suggests, “the costs and performance of the U.S. health care system have put America’s companies and workers at a significant competitive disadvantage in the global marketplace.” Simply put, Americans spend a lot more on health care than other countries, but along with getting an inferior product, we aren’t as healthy. In addition, we put our industries at a disadvantage. How would automakers in the US, for example, have fared if they had the same advantage of universal healthcare systems of foreign automakers? That seems to confirm the World Health Organization’s assessment of our less-than-stellar level of care, with the added issue of how we’re paying so much more to get so much less. Corporate profits over the health of the people. God bless America and Corporate KKKhristianity!

That brings me to my final point: many neocon types describe themselves as “Christian.” Well, wasn’t Jesus all about healing the sick? And, I’m far from a scholar, but from my take on how the bible describes his ministry, I don’t think Jesus ever charged a penny for his healing services. (Lazarus would still be payin’!)

I have yet to see a valid, logical response from the assorted twats and cunts to this last point.

And I don't expect to.

Love,

Eddie