Say Anything Blog

John Edwards exemplifies why I am forced into paying attention to politics. This guy is dangerous.

I’d like to see him tell Ted Kennedy to put down the Chivas Regal and go to the doctor. The guy is a walking heart attack. Edwards needs to clean his own house before he comes knocking on mine.

Democrats want to erase the freedom to fail. Bad credit decisions? No prob. The government will bail you out. Bad health care decisions? No problem. The government is here to play mommy. Bad farming practices? No prob. There are billions for that. Bad career decision? No prob. Here’s money stolen from another poor schmuck’s paycheck.

What a joke. They really don’t understand the concept of minding their own business.

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”

Ah, yes, isn’t socialism wonderful.  But it’s all for the ‘common good’.  Big brother (or mommy of nanny, whatever) knows what is best for you.

Our freedoms are on the cusp now.  If the Democrats get control of the white house (that loony Edwards is not the only one to fear) and the Congress, you can kiss them (what’s left of our freedoms) goodbye.

You don’t have to be a moron to be a liberal Democrat but it sure helps.

You forgot what I think is one of the most significant drawbacks of Edwards’ totalitarian health care system: Doctors would be wasting monumental amounts of time examining healthy people instead of concentrating on the ill.  It would be a financial boondoggle of epic proportions.

I, for one, would flat-out refuse to participate.  Would they jail me for that?  It’s hard to believe that modern *scarequote* liberals */scarequote* have become so totalitarian in their outlook, but that’s what you get with post-modernist thought.

Edwards is just what America doesn’t need: An authoritarian a"Ambulance-Chaser-in-Chief." He’s smarmy pool of scum.

doesn’t that set the framework for other prerequisites as well?

My thought exactly.

What I want to know is: WHO will monitor our compliance, WHERE will they get the data, and HOW will this provision be enforced?  I’ll bet if Edwards had to answer those questions in a public forum his campaign would be sunk.

iAMbs

i think edwards would answer it with ‘ann coulter is a she devil’

If that’s true, how is that any different from the current system where people who refuse to get jobs and secure their own health insurance aren’t given care?

Ummm....What about the larger population of people who can’t get a job OR a job with healthcare OR healthcare that will even cover them?

What about the larger population of people who can’t get a job OR a job with healthcare OR healthcare that will even cover them?

And who specifically would that be or are you just posting meaningless words without evidential support?

You don’t have to be a moron to be a liberal Democrat but it sure helps.

In short, posting scare stories about Socialist boogeymen cannot conceal how treacherously awful the current system is and how severely both low income and middle class people in this country are getting shafted.

What about the larger population of people who can’t get a job

Larger than what? Do you have any idea what the unemployment numbers have been lately? It’s about as close to full employment as you’re ever going to get!

The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.8 percent during the week ending Aug. 18, unchanged from the prior week. The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 2,375,170, a decrease of 39,533 from the preceding week. A year earlier, the rate was 1.7 percent and the volume was 2,268,911.

For any voter trying to choose between the two candidates for commander in chief, there is no better test than this: When American strategy in a critical theater was up for grabs, John McCain proposed a highly unpopular and risky path, which he accurately predicted could lead to success. Barack Obama proposed a popular and politically safe route that would have led to an unnecessary and debilitating American defeat at the hands of al Qaeda.

Frederick W. Kagan

And who specifically would that be or are you just posting meaningless words without evidential support?

Since you asked, that would be me and many people I know. I work a full-time job (on occasion TWO jobs) and have a good college education. I’m also from a comfortable middle-class family. And yet I have gone for long periods of time unable to get insurance or have been denied coverage for urgent procedures. I suffer from severely debilitating Crohn’s disease and need a total hip replacement due to bone deterioration. I’m not yet 30 years old.

Please, I also ask that you don’t call me a “liberal”. Thanks.

Bengal: Those people you name are getting shafted by the amount of govt intrusion into the healthcare business that exists today.  The govt approach is to mandate a one size fits all approach, denying low income people an appropriately priced healthcare solution.  In a free market situation, every level of income is marketed to, with appropriate solutions at every income level.  You can pay anything from $500 to $500,000 for a car, and everywhere in between.  Govt regulation kills markets and deprives people of choices.  The solution to the healthcare “problem” is not more govt, but the removal of govt.

Leftie political philosophy, from a DU commenter:

It doesn’t matter if it’s true or not. RUMOR IS TRUTH. The modern laws of media hype and political warfare have a useful tenet: Repeat ANYTHING or raise false concern over ANYTHING and it is likely to be planted in the conscious/subconscious of many voters.

Bengal: In a free market, you would be able to get appropriate healthcare, instead of having to pay for a “package” dictated by govt regulations.

Leftie political philosophy, from a DU commenter:

It doesn’t matter if it’s true or not. RUMOR IS TRUTH. The modern laws of media hype and political warfare have a useful tenet: Repeat ANYTHING or raise false concern over ANYTHING and it is likely to be planted in the conscious/subconscious of many voters.

In short, posting scare stories about Socialist boogeymen cannot conceal how treacherously awful the current system is and how severely both low income and middle class people in this country are getting shafted.

Perhaps you will unconceal how treacherously awful the current system is.  You are the one posting scare stories I guess in support of your socialistic agenda.  i.e. things are so bad that we must have revolution so we can make them worse.

You don’t have to be a moron to be a liberal Democrat but it sure helps.

In short, posting scare stories about Socialist boogeymen cannot conceal how treacherously awful the current system is and how severely both low income and middle class people in this country are getting shafted.

I don’t think anyone is saying that the current system is satisfactory.  We’re just saying that a socialist system would be worse.

And this is no socialist “boogeyman” story, though I know the left loves invoking McCarthyism every time they’re called out on their insidious totalitarianism.

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

-- Thomas Jefferson

Rob’s recently listened-to songs:

As far as the “scare story” charge is concerned, how is quoting Edwards a “scare story” unless he is actually saying something scary with his mandatory program?

Leftie political philosophy, from a DU commenter:

It doesn’t matter if it’s true or not. RUMOR IS TRUTH. The modern laws of media hype and political warfare have a useful tenet: Repeat ANYTHING or raise false concern over ANYTHING and it is likely to be planted in the conscious/subconscious of many voters.

Guys, I appreciate some of your more reasoned responses and I thank you for the coversation. You are all entitled to your opinions and I realize I’m fighting a losing battle in a place like this. I just came across this page and thought I’d add my own feelings/experience on the subject, which are not intended to be gospel or the final word. Perhaps even if you don’t agree with me, you might consider how I have reached these conclusions based on my own view of things. If not, I’m glad I’ve given you something to focus your energy against (surely too much consensus is a bad thing?).

I can’t say I see a free market system as any kind of system that has good, honest people’s interests at heart. A business has to make a profit, and good luck to that. But when it comes to the suffering of myself and many people I know and love, these interests are the LAST people I would trust and if it has to be the government in place of such people, so be it. The system needs a vision and leadership from somewhere, I’m afraid.

Nonetheless, I imagine deep down in your hearts some of you know a change is coming. I’m not expecting a miracle and I’m not advocating “revolution”, but it is inevitable and hopefully all of us will benefit from it. So long and good health to you.

I can’t say I see a free market system as any kind of system that has good, honest people’s interests at heart.

Such a canard.  The free market isn’t a “system,” though modern socialists like to cast it as such with evil mustache-twirling robber barons at it’s helm.  But really, the free market is just free people making free choices (with, optimally, a bare minimum of government regulation).  Nothing more, nothing less.

A business has to make a profit, and good luck to that. But when it comes to the suffering of myself and many people I know and love, these interests are the LAST people I would trust and if it has to be the government in place of such people, so be it.

And, personally, I’d rather have my health care provided by someone who has to do a good job with it or risk losing business to his/her better-performing competitors than some unaccountable bean counter more beholden to a politician than me, the person actually getting the health care.

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

-- Thomas Jefferson

Rob’s recently listened-to songs:

Bengal: If your condition is as you describe it, you should be eligible for assistance.  I’m sure you are aware that your situation isn’t anywhere near the typical one for a person of your age, so the socialist “solution” isn’t the answer for the vast majority of us, and shouldn’t be forced upon us, IMO.
FYI, profit creates production, and actually reduces costs.  Your Marxist-derived premises are simply wrong.  Socialism always brings out of control costs and shortages.

Leftie political philosophy, from a DU commenter:

It doesn’t matter if it’s true or not. RUMOR IS TRUTH. The modern laws of media hype and political warfare have a useful tenet: Repeat ANYTHING or raise false concern over ANYTHING and it is likely to be planted in the conscious/subconscious of many voters.

BTW, every dollar the govt confiscates from us is 100% profit.  Even the collection costs(IRS) are contributing to the size, cost and power of govt.
What do we get in return?
Every dollar govt takes raises operating costs for everyone, directly and indirectly.

Leftie political philosophy, from a DU commenter:

It doesn’t matter if it’s true or not. RUMOR IS TRUTH. The modern laws of media hype and political warfare have a useful tenet: Repeat ANYTHING or raise false concern over ANYTHING and it is likely to be planted in the conscious/subconscious of many voters.

The system needs a vision and leadership from somewhere, I’m afraid.

How about from yourself? While I sympathize with your situation, I have a novel approach for you: YOU pay for your surgery. If you have to borrow the money, so be it. I know I would. But stop demanding that someone else pay for your problems.

Reaching into your own pocket to help someone is noble, and I do that plenty. But reaching into someone else’s pocket to do it is theft. Besides, if the government let people keep more of their money in the first place, they wouldn’t need so much help paying for stuff.

The system needs a vision and leadership from somewhere, I’m afraid.

What it doesn’t need is totalitarian use of force, like Edwards is proposing.  We already know that doesn’t work.  How about free people making free choices.

Leftie political philosophy, from a DU commenter:

It doesn’t matter if it’s true or not. RUMOR IS TRUTH. The modern laws of media hype and political warfare have a useful tenet: Repeat ANYTHING or raise false concern over ANYTHING and it is likely to be planted in the conscious/subconscious of many voters.

if the government let people keep more of their money in the first place, they wouldn’t need so much help paying for stuff.

But that won’t happen because then the government would lose its control of the people.

You don’t have to be a moron to be a liberal Democrat but it sure helps.

I suffer from severely debilitating Crohn’s disease and need a total hip replacement due to bone deterioration. I’m not yet 30 years old.

There should already be government programs to assist you.  Medicaid is one of them and there may be others.  Have you tried to get assistance from any of them?

You don’t have to be a moron to be a liberal Democrat but it sure helps.

I can’t say I see a free market system as any kind of system that has good, honest people’s interests at heart.

Very true Bengal. Thing is, no system of any kind will have people’s interests at heart. Systems are heartless. Only YOU (or maybe your spouse if you’re lucky) have your interests at heart. You have to look out for yourself in this world. Never expect your employer or your government to have your interests at heart.

Very true Bengal. Thing is, no system of any kind will have people’s interests at heart.

Which is why socialism and all its iterations end up being totalitarian, which is the denial of peoples’ interests.
As Rob has already posted on this thread, the free enterprise system isn’t a “system” in the same sense as Marxism and the others.  It is built from the bottom up, by the individual decisions of free people making free choices.  See the difference?

Leftie political philosophy, from a DU commenter:

It doesn’t matter if it’s true or not. RUMOR IS TRUTH. The modern laws of media hype and political warfare have a useful tenet: Repeat ANYTHING or raise false concern over ANYTHING and it is likely to be planted in the conscious/subconscious of many voters.

Yeah, more utilization is what we need Edwards you idiot!