The Church and Nationalized Health Care: An Anecdote

We accidentally went to a Presbyterian USA church this weekend. We had gone once before, and it seemed a little "off." But we went again because it's the only local Presbyterian church and I didn't know what the little cross and flame symbol meant on the sign (no where else do they advertise "PC USA".) The youth minister gave the sermon on "faith, love, and hope", the three main tenets of Christianity, focusing on faith this time. As a passing remark on recapping the "love" part, he mentioned that opposition to nationalized health care is just "selfish" as "americans greedily hold onto what they want for themselves." (And if you lack love, in the form of approving of nationalized health care, you can go on to ask the question "Are you really a christian?") Quite a bit of love shown to the opposition, no? I didn't walk out, but listened to the rest of it as a somewhat angry sermon on faith was given. We won't be going back. But I thought it interesting that self-righteous smugness is not a endemic to any one side of the aisle, whether theological or political.

*PC USA is the more liberal branch of the Presbyterian Church (notice the effort to "turn the tables" on the giant agrifood companies on the front page). The PCA is the more conservative branch, for those of you outside the little Presbyterian world.

Drudge Today

These two stories, here and here, had me thinking that this is not such a good idea.

If we all live together in a big, dependent huddle of a city, what happens when there is a system failure?

Remembering Ted Kennedy

Selectively.

Ironic

and a little sad.

The New Voice for Obama's Health Care Marketing Campaign

He's a doctor too- so he knows of what he speaks:

Public Option No Longer on the Table?

Says this AP article.

I'd quibble with the AP about the source of the opposition, as Republicans don't comprise nearly 60% of the country. But instead...hooray, the wicked plan is dead!

Glenn Reynolds warns of a feint. While the proposal has always been dishonest, if that turns out to be the case and it is somehow slipped surreptiously into a bill, I predict rioting.

Update: A public option by any other name... This fight is not over.

If I've learned one thing

being married to a nurse- you don't mess with nurses.

State College, Pa. - Nancy Snyder says she kept quiet when abortion was legalized and prayer in schools was eliminated. Not this time. “They did it for prayer, they did it for abortion, and they're not going to do it for our health care,” the 70-year-old nurse from Philipsburg, Pa., said Wednesday as she and her husband Robert, 74, a retired coal miner, waited in a long, snaking line for Democratic Sen. Arlen Specter's town hall meeting.

Translated: "No more runnin'. I aim to misbehave." Just another member of the Angry Mob.

We Interrupt this Healthcare "Debate"

To talk some sense. This article by the co-founder and CEO of Whole Foods is today's must read.

Civility My Ass

"Get in their faces." "Punch back twice as hard."

- President Obama, the Great Divider

This monstrosity of a health care bill isn't deserving of civility. I am in favor of a scorched earth policy. (And I would not be if most of Americans actually favored a single payer system. I would accept it with sadness and resignation. But it's not even being honestly debated about what the bill actually is.) Those on the right are always held to a higher standard of conduct and what does it get us? Bupkis. The Left is so accustomed to those on the Right standing by in docile fashion while they scream and rage and effect their policies. They don't know what to do when their own disruptive tactics are used against them.

The townhalls were propaganda/photo ops that were not designed for give and take. They gave the best seating to supporters, tried to shut out opposition, then called in the goons when sentiment started shifting. And let us not forget that this intended overhaul of 1/6 of our economy (and our entire society; see Steyn's article below) was not intended to be debated. It was supposed to have been passed in a legislative blitzkrieg couched in terms of dealing with the perpetual economic crisis. That sort of contempt for the citizenry, who will be stuck with this nonsense while the elites have their pick of what is left of the top tier health care system, is reprehensible. That the town halls and opposition to the health care bills are being publicized at all by the media are a direct result of the open hostility. And all of the actual violence that I have seen has been by Obama supporters.

This isn't just a health care bill- it's an attempt to redefine our society.

But if they think the hostility will die down once a bill is passed. Think again.

Rant over.

Update: What this guy says.

The House Un-American Activities Committee

Is back, baby!

That sound you just heard was that of the health care bill being beaten, stabbed, drowned, electrocuted, and strangled...by its own proponents.

Give 'Em Hell on Obamacare

Arkansas style.

Arkansas, Arkansas
I just love ol' Arkansas
Love mah ma, love my pa
But I just love ol' Arkansas

-from the musical Big River

Cash for Clunkers

the Health Care Version.

Quote of the Day

"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would 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."

-C.S. Lewis

A glimpse of the near future?

Man lives without money on back of super rich society, joining about 40% of the nation.

Here's One Way to "Bend" the Cost Curve

for Health Care

via Lucianne.com

Of course, another way would be to institute medical tort reform, but that wouldn't play very well with the plaintiff's bar, who might not be inclined to donate as much to the Democratic party.