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I don't see why people should have to work just because they want something.

10 (55.6%)

The thought of my tax dollars going to helping another human being makes me so sick I'm lucky I have insurance.

2 (11.1%)

Government hands off Medicare!

6 (33.3%)

Total Members Voted: 18

[wombat]

And Superman for VP. Not president - being Superman would give him something to do at the times that your normal Vice President is just sitting around twiddling his thumbs.

[greenkoolayd]

Several years ago I was in the depths of a bout of clinical depression.  I called the special number our health insurer provided us to find out about talking to a psychiatrist.  The earliest I could be seen was 60 days later and for most doctors it was more like 90.  So I went to my GP and he wrote me a scrip for Prozac, which had worked for me before.

I am an American.  I had (and have) private health insurance.  Very good private health insurance, especially at that time.  So there that is.

I try to be a pragmatist on most political issues.  Maybe that comes from working in government and trying to actually accomplish some of the lofty programs our legislators impose on us.  I don't hold a lot of truck with serving some philosophical political ideal at the cost of something that works.  Government's job is to get the job done, not further the cause of liberalism or conservatism and I don't have a lot of sympathy for idealists on either side who forget that.  We'd all be better off if there were less political grandstanding and more focus on the work at hand.

That being said, I think our health care system is broken.  We spend more than anybody, but our infant mortality rate isn't great.  We don't live longer than anybody else.  Yes, the finest health care is available in this country, for a few of us.

Here's the thing.  We're paying for health care for everybody already.  We're just choosing to do it in a really fuck*ng stupid way.  If somebody drags their dying carcass into an emergency room, they're going to get treated.  We fund county hospitals and the like.  People without health care go to work anyway, infecting the rest of us and costing us productivity and days of work.  We are going to pay one way or the other.  Why not choose to pay for something at least a little more effective at providing quality care to more people than what we have now?

I read a statistic (which I can't vouch for the truth of, but I'll throw it out there anyway) that said the Medicare has a 3% overhead rate.  Private health insurance has a 30% overhead.  What exactly are we getting for our 30%?  I understand the idea of the free enterprise system and that competition should make businesses more efficient.  And I suppose it does.   

But what it makes the more efficient at is making profits.  What's most profitable does not equal the best health care system for the American people.  It just means the system that makes the insurers the most money.

I love the "Death Panel" argument too.  "I don't want some damn government bureaucrat deciding whether I live or die."  OK, so you're fine with an insurance company executive continuing to make that decision?  Whatever.  At least the bureaucrat ain't gonna get paid a bonus for letting you die.   

I don't understand why we don't do something like Medicare for everybody.  A minimum base level of government provided coverage with private insurers selling supplemental coverage.  There's a floor available to everyone and you can buy more if you want and can afford it.  It's worked fine for Medicare for 40 years.

OK, long rambling rant over.

im going to post a part of this rant in a message baord i post to on myspace.

[littlefallsmets]

While I would most want a full National Health model, I would not kick "medicare for everybody, private coverage for non-basic services" model out of bed for eating crackers.

Certainly not at this point.

[Choop]

army surgeons are getting really good at cosmetic surgery also they have great prices


one eight six six army doc

[AugustWest]

im going to post a part of this rant in a message baord i post to on myspace.

Well thanks.  Post me a link so I can see the reaction.

[Doc]

I don't understand why we don't do something like Medicare for everybody.  A minimum base level of government provided coverage with private insurers selling supplemental coverage.  There's a floor available to everyone and you can buy more if you want and can afford it.  It's worked fine for Medicare for 40 years.

This is what has always seemed like a good idea to me. There's no reason for government to take over the private companies, if you want to spend more to get a nicer room or speedier care then that's your call and you should be able to. What I don't see how competition can really exist in the healthcare industry without some sort of safety net, people can't vote with their dollar if the other option is permanent illness or death. It seems like they could use some motivating to improve their product and a government sponsored alternative could be just the thing.

I'll let Superman speak for me on this one.

It must be such a goddamn pain to live near Superman. You can't have a five minute conversation without him flying down and putting his two cents in in the form of a 10 minute monologue, then everyone just fauns over him and he flies off before you can even point out that David Irving's books have been long discredited.

[lprkn]

Superman is kind of a dick.

Tangentially related: I am super-stoked for Warren Ellis' new series, Supergod.

[Ben-San]

It must be such a goddamn pain to live near Superman. You can't have a five minute conversation without him flying down and putting his two cents in in the form of a 10 minute monologue, then everyone just fauns over him and he flies off before you can even point out that David Irving's books have been long discredited.

To be fair, he's saying "Hey! Fuck Superman, I ain't need no fancy big-city hospitals!" at a hospital fundraising event where he's just been told Superman is in attendance. Superman overhearing and responding is not unreasonable under those circumstances

Also, not sure what David Irving has to do with this.

[greenkoolayd]

Well thanks.  Post me a link so I can see the reaction.

http://forum.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=messageboard.viewThread&groupID=102791268&page=3&EntryID=74376242&CategoryID=0&get=1&adTopicId=0&lastpagesent=0&Mytoken=1E899A71-7AD1-4FB5-8570787BD88F17B6101926594

(FYI, on myspace, im Tony-Boy Curtis)

[theinevitable]

if superman existed, I hope he would pop in and tell people I was right about stuff. Or set me straight when I was wrong.

I think I would buy it if superman told me I was wrong.

Although you never know, he might be a dick in some way.

[lprkn]

Ta-da!

[jaydub]

Ta-da!

Oh my lord, I haven't laughed that hard in a long, long time.  My wife made me bookmark it because I was distracting her from SVU with my howling.

[Doc]

Also, not sure what David Irving has to do with this.

I was building to a joke where it turned out superman was arguing that the holocaust never happened but everyone went along with it because it's superman and that's what happens in that sort of comic/tract. Then I decided it wasn't that funny but kept the Irvine reference anyway so it could live on in my mind.

[Ben-San]

So the thing about Superdickery is that it's a site that relies on the assumption (usually well-founded) that the reader has never actually read the comic in question. It assumes that the typical reader has neither the time nor the inclination to actually go read terrible Silver Age comic books and find out the answers to the dramatic questions posed on the front cover - what is the actual mystery of Superman's Mystery Song? Superdickery is aimed at the reader who will never know or care.

Superdickery, in other words, is not a site that is aimed at someone like me. Do you dare to follow along as I reveal the terrible secret of..

Superman's Mystery Song?!

As we begin our story, Clark is going to Lois's apartment to help her move some books. On seeing the inside of her apartment, we find out...



Lois is a Pat Boone fan. And why shouldn't she be?



These guys like Pat Boone.



Even Clark likes Pat Boone. Do you like Pat Boone?
Then some inexplicable nonsense happens.



With that out of the way, we find out Pat Boone is visiting the Daily Planet! And more than that..



He overhears Lois singing a song and asks her to perform with him! What a swell guy. No wonder everyone likes him.



Clark's a newspaperman, so he's got to be good at writing things. That naturally includes song lyrics, right?



Well, maybe not. (Click the image for a bigger version if you can't read the lyrics.)
Kids! Can YOU figure out the secret of - Superman's Mystery Song?!
While you're working on that, Superman spends a couple of pages on more inexplicable nonsense.



Why would Superman prevent Pat and Lois from performing their song? Because it takes him time to work out a real solution to his problem! Which as it turns out..



Is that he dreams in acrostics. As you probably noticed.

So Superman doesn't actually prevent Lois from performing with Pat Boone - he just stalls them in really weird ways while he comes up with new lyrics for them. It's entirely a problem of his own creation, but who among us hasn't accidentally revealed his secret identity by writing terrible song lyrics in their dreams now and then?

This is my problem with Superdickery. Silver Age Superman isn't an asshole, he's batshit insane. And so is the universe he lives in.

[wombat]

Actually one thing I liked about that site was that they admit that:

   3. The purpose of this site is to make you laugh, and half the humor of these covers is that they're completely devoid of context. Trust me, finding out what's going on in the pages within makes some of them actually make sense, and then they're just not that funny anymore.

I'm doing you a favor. Really.

After reading Ben's post I am inclined to agree that they were doing me a favor by protecting me from full knowledge that this is what went on in the comics. There are some things it is better not to know. People got paid for this?