Posts filed under 'Politics'
I suppose it’s no surprise that a country that was started with the ringing phrase:
We hold these Truths to be self-evident, buy viagra nurse that all men are created equal, cialis sales patient that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, illness that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
…would be obsessed with the idea of “rights.”
Setting aside the legitimacy of the whole concept of “rights” (I think it’s an artificial construct, but that’s not the argument I want to make here, today), I am very concerned about the recent elevation of healthcare to a “right.”
This morning I heard a story on NPR where the commentator kept referrring to how Wal-Mart “offloaded” the medical expensives of their employees onto state governments.
Implicit in the report was the assumption that healthcare was the “right” of each of Wal-Mart’s employees and that Wal-Mart was reponsible for providing it.
Why is Wal-Mart responsible for paying for the healthcare of the people that work there?
Just because some company long ago decided to offer a health plan as a benefit?
Some employers pay for parking, does that make free parking an inalienable right?
Furthermore, why is healthcare the only “right” that requires someone else to pay for it for us?
I don’t expect someone else to pay for my pursuit of happiness.
I pay taxes, so that the government can “provide for the common defense” and thus secure my liberty.
I’m responsible for the running of my own life.
So why is healthcare the one “right” that my employer or the government is supposed provide me free of charge?
Thinking like this is dangerous because it leads us to believe there is such a thing as a free lunch. That someone else should pay the bill. That I’m entitled to things I haven’t earned.
If enough people believe these things, the entire society eventually collapses under the greedy expectations of the populace.
A similar law to the one that just passed in Maryland (and which inspired the NPR report) is under consideration here in Wisconsin.
I hope we’re farsighted enough to realize that the healthcare crisis in America won’t be solved by declaring healthcare a “right” and forcing third parties like Wal-Mart to pay for it.
By the way, I’m actually open to some type of public/private approach to solving the issues presented by healthcare in America. But writing laws aimed at forcing one particular employer to provide healthcare to its employees is not the way to go about it.
January 14th, 2006
People are already talking about John Stossel‘s news story: Stupid in America.
So you’ve probably already read it.
Read it again.
Then email it to every politician you can find.
January 14th, 2006
I’m worried about the Democrats’ total misunderstanding of how the law works.
EVEN if Alito were to cast the vote that strikes down the abomination of logic which is Roe vs. Wade, viagra sale view he would NOT be making abortion illegal.
He would be making it possible for the state legislatures to again exercise their democratic duty of regulating the matter.
Some states would certainly prohibit abortion. Others would not.
The posture that Alito could single handly deny women access to abortions is dastardly and duplicitous.
I’m so mad I could spit.
Either there are U.S. senators who are so stupid that they don’t understand the roles of our three branches of government OR there are U.S. senators who are such manipulative pieces of trash that they don’t mind misrepresenting the truth in an effort to panic the American public into thinking that the Supreme Court is going to make abortion illegal IF Judge Alito is confirmed.
Shame on you, Senators. Shame on you.
January 11th, 2006
The Christian Science Monitor reports that the Iraq war could cost more than $2 trillion!
I lean conservative and I don’t think we can just abandon Iraq the way it is right now, viagra canada cialis but…
….HOLY CRAP!
$2 TRILLION!
With that kind of cash you could buy the world a Coke.
Didn’t the word “conservative” use to pal around with its friend “fiscal?”
Is there any way we can get those two back together again?
They made a cute couple.
January 10th, 2006
According to cialis buy cialis +go+to+jail/2010-1028_3-6022491.html?part=rss&tag=6022491&subj=news”>CNET News.com “annoying” someone via the Internet is now a federal crime.
WHAT?
When did simply annoying someone become a crime?
Hell, even the Journal Sentinal conceded that there is no constitutional guarantee against being offended.
And if there is no guarantee against being offended how can someone being merely annoyed lead to jail time?
Seriously, if annoying somone is a crime, then I hope Howard Dean, Eugene Kane, and Dave Berkman look good in orange jump suits.
The only saving grace is that this law apparently only applies to anonymous annoyers.
People like me who are publically annoying are theoretically safe.
But what does this law mean for guys like Dennis York? He’s anonymous. And I’m sure he’s “annoyed” plenty of people. Could he go to prison for two years the next time he decides to speak an annoying truth?
What really makes me crazy is that legislators keep passing crap like this when they have to KNOW it will be struck down by the Supreme Court. (Even a conservative judge like Alito is generally a champion of the first amendment.)
They are just wasting all of our time and money.
Not to mention annoying the heck out of me.
Hey…I wonder…
January 9th, 2006
It used to be enough for the left to defend quotas in front of the Supreme Court, discount viagra and now it looks like what they want is a quota FOR the Supreme Court.
Isn’t that really what all this talk of maintaining “balance” and the importance of the “swing vote” really means?
At the risk of repeating what we all already know: the court currently breaks down into four conservatives, four liberals, and Justice Sandra Day O’Connor – the sacred “swing vote.”
By arguing that O’Connor must be replaced with someone exactly like her, isn’t the left really saying they want to maintain a de facto quota for the Supreme Court?
Where did this weird fallacy arise?
Who decided that there must be a swing vote?
Why can’t there be a solid conservative (or liberal) majority on the Court?
And who decided that the Supreme Court was currently “balanced?”
Personally, I think the Supreme Court has been tilted too far to the left for decades.
Moving it in the other direction won’t be “tilting” it…it’ll be righting it.
And let’s just recap shall we?
The Republicans won the Whitehouse.
The Republicans won the Senate.
The Republicans won the House.
And they’ve won the right to appoint a conservative to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court is not a consolation prize.
The left does not get to keep control of it just because they keep losing everywhere else.
Justice Sandra Day O’Connor was a “swing vote” who kept giving the liberals what they wanted.
If it’s any consolation for them, “her” seat will still be a swing vote.
Just now, it will swing the other way.
January 8th, 2006
Ok. I was just kidding about the bird flu and the tooth decay…but all three seem just about as likely to me.
Before I had a chance to finish this post about an article blaming George Bush for the mine disaster, tadalafil sick Jessica McBride did a better job than I would have deconstructing it.
Soooo, buy cialis ed I think I’ll just step aside and let the feisty Ms. McBride have the controls to the wrecking ball on this one.
January 8th, 2006
FIRST THE NEWS: The vouchers, buy cialis viagra known as Opportunity Scholarships, pharmacy are a cornerstone of Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s education agenda, cialis but in a 5-2 opinion the Florida Supreme Court rebuked Bush’s approach, declaring the program unconstitutional and saying it funnels tax dollars into “separate private systems parallel to and in competition with the free public schools.”
THEN THE SARCASTIC COMMENTARY: Yes. The last thing we want in America is competition. Competition never accomplished anything.
By the way, if public schools are “free” what the hell are they doing with all my property taxes?
And if you want to talk about unfair…what about the people who are already paying for the “free” schools with their taxes, but have to come up with the extra money to send their kids to private schools because the public schools SUCK?
January 6th, 2006
In a blog entry about France creating a national day of remembrance for slavery, cialis buy decease Eugene Kane said, sickness “In many ways, acknowledging the pain of slavery is a form of reparations.”
So, if announcing a day of remembrance counts as a form of reparations, what do the 360,000 Union soliders who died in the war that freed the slaves count as?
January 6th, 2006
Jay at folkbum’s rambles and rants really was ranting when he posted an opinion entitlted: Republicans want to kick your kid out of the voucher program.
But he did get me thinking.
How can Republicans who created No Child Left Behind be against testing for voucher schools?
And how can Democrats who loath No Child Left Behind (and the very idea of holding WEAC accountable) be for it?
Hypocrisy like this is exactly why I created a Golden Rule Breakers category.
January 5th, 2006
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