Open Thread: Disturbing and Simply Wrong

The thing about personal responsibility for healthcare is, (4.00 / 4)

Close to nobody can afford that. That's why we have health insurance at all, instead of just paying for all our healthcare needs out of pocket--including major surgeries, in-patient care, hospice care, etc, which can have costs into 5 or 6 digits.

Insurance is, by definition, collective responsibility.  Private insurance just means the company that administers the system of collective responsibility skims some money off the top for profit and administration.  The only issue with respect to Obamacare is whether we want our democratically-controlled public institutions to set rules that govern the profit-driven insurance companies.

Rules like: (1) you have to treat sick people (2) At least 80% of revenue from premiums has to go to patient care instead of the company's coffers (3) government will help those in need to afford insurance and (4) because this is collective responsibility, you can't just freeload on the system by going without insurance until the day you need it, thereby making everybody else pay for it.

--
Twitter: @DougLindner

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by: Douglas E. Lindner @ Sun May 06, 2012 at 17:11:16 PM UTC

And a democratic government (4.00 / 1)

is how we keep personal prejudices and ignorance from deciding who is "worthy" of having their health issues taken care of .  I am concerned that allowing our elections and our candidates to be bought by special interests who control enormous sums of money is leaving us with a "democratic" government in name only.  

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by: Lucy Edwards @ Sun May 06, 2012 at 18:16:30 PM UTC

There's a canard that Republicans love: (4.00 / 2)

"A conservative is a liberal who got mugged."

Lot of subtext there. But I've always though there was a counterpart:

"A liberal is a conservative whose family suddenly needs help from the community."

Thanks to Mr. Kirby for sharing his story.

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by: elwood @ Sun May 06, 2012 at 20:25:49 PM UTC

NPR and Guy Raz running a feature on (0.00 / 0)

libertarian momentum.

France gets in the way of their meme.

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by: elwood @ Sun May 06, 2012 at 21:09:41 PM UTC

I suspect (0.00 / 0)

that anyone who thinks European "conservatism" is anything like libertarianism here doesn't know much about European politics.  

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by: Lucy Edwards @ Sun May 06, 2012 at 23:00:37 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

They didn't compare them - (0.00 / 0)

And I'm not comparing them, beyond the "austerity" agenda that the banks, the Republicans, the libertarians, and Merkozy have championed.

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by: elwood @ Sun May 06, 2012 at 23:06:06 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Go Chaz! (4.00 / 2)

Dems out in force for Rye GOP fundraiser.

"Politics ain't beanbag" - Finley Peter Dunne

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by: William Tucker @ Sun May 06, 2012 at 23:24:04 PM UTC

Avengers, X-Men, FF, Supes, Bats, Spidey - (0.00 / 0)

The movie-going public is ready for Flex Mentallo!

The best origin story of all. No radioactive spider, no gamma ray bomb, no lightning bolt in the chem lab. Mentallo was just your everyday shlub when he saw an ad in a comic book that promised to make him The Hero of the Beach. No more getting sand kicked in his face...

It turns out those ads were real!

I coulda been a contenda!

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by: elwood @ Sun May 06, 2012 at 23:44:45 PM UTC

More letters - (0.00 / 0)

I'm not going to cut any of it because I didn't get any joy out of it.  It's short, painful - not sweet, and right to the point.  We've elected the most horrific cast of misogynistic tyrants that have ever disgraced a Statehouse.

Marina Baldassaro fights back:
http://www.concordmonitor.com/...

I really don't make it a habit to wish my life away, but I can't wait for November.  

In the immediate aftermath of Since the start of the financial crisis, the Fed/Treasury lent, spent, or guaranteed $28 $29 $30 trillion to save the banking system.

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by: StraffordDem @ Sun May 06, 2012 at 23:56:22 PM UTC

This letter from the former Mrs, Baldasaro (4.00 / 2)

is interesting to those of us who have listened (repeatedly) to Rep. Baldasaro tell us he knows all about how abortions are wrong because having one blighted his former wife's life.

Kind of puts a whole new perspective on things.

Here is a fact that should help you to fight a little longer.
Things that don't actually kill you outright make you stronger.

Piet Hein, Grooks

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by: Lucy Weber @ Mon May 07, 2012 at 00:24:09 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Well (4.00 / 1)

I always knew Baldassaro was on the fringe politically, but this letter puts him a whole other category. Talking about his former wife in the pages of the Concord Monitor on private matters is - well, let's put it this way, he is not a gentleman.



"When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on."  Franklin D. Roosevelt    

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by: Kathy Sullivan 2 @ Mon May 07, 2012 at 20:06:46 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Here's what Al said: (0.00 / 0)

Rep. Al Baldasaro , a Londonderry Republican, testified about the "mental torture" men experience when a woman aborts a baby, as his wife did before she met him. He also criticized abortion providers as people interested primarily in making money, not the health of women and babies.

"You just show up and get on the table," he said. "It's like a meat market."

So... I think he's saying he's suffered "mental torture" from a (non-existent) abortion his ex had before he met her.  He's a much more sensitive new-age guy than I gave him credit for.

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by: The Money Magician @ Mon May 07, 2012 at 23:24:17 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Ayotte for Vice President! (0.00 / 0)

I have as much experience in the Congress as Jack Kennedy did when he sought the Presidency.

Sen. Dan Quayle, Vice Presential Debate, 5 October 1988

I have, some would say, better experience than Barack Obama had when he was a senator and ran.

Sen. Kelly Ayotte, Meet the Press, 6 May 2012

(Ed. note -- Too busy laughing to add additional commentary)

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by: Dartmouth Dem @ Wed May 09, 2012 at 13:12:27 PM UTC

I support Romney picking a NH Republican, but... (0.00 / 0)

I am all in favor of Romney picking a New Hampshire Republican as his running mate--- but I just wish it could be someone whose term runs out this year.  If Ayotte runs, we are still stuck with her for two more years, unless she pulls a Palin.


sitting state rep: running for re-election in 2012.

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by: TimothyHorrigan @ Thu May 10, 2012 at 00:26:58 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

or... (0.00 / 0)

There is one way Ayotte could run for VP and lose her Senate seat. Romney might win. But that scenario is too horrible to contemplate, and seems highly implausible.  


sitting state rep: running for re-election in 2012.

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by: TimothyHorrigan @ Thu May 10, 2012 at 00:30:46 AM UTC

[ Parent ]