Single Payer Action

Do you, like most citizens including doctors, nurses, small business owners and health economists, think Universal Single Payer Health Care (aka Medicare for all or Canadian-style health care) is the answer?

Check out Single Payer Action and then tell your representatives to support HR 676.


Not sure about Single Payer? Try these ...

• HR 676 - House bill introduced by John Conyers
• The Case for Single Payer, Universal Healthcare in the United States
• Physicians for a National Healthcare Program and their Single-Payer FAQ
  Healthcare Now, What is Single Payer? and Cost control, universal care impossible without single-payer health system
  
• American Medical Students Association - Universal Health Care - scroll down to the "Educate Yourself" section
  

The Real Fair Tax

"If the IRS taxed the wealthiest 400 at the rate it did when Dwight Eisenhower was in the White House, it would collect $35.9 Billion more." - The Nation 4/27/2009

See the Institute for Policy Studies Reversing the Great Tax Shift: Seven Steps to Finance Our Economic Recovery Fairly

Um, what?

So I just got this really random IM:

****

IronedCoho: You know, I'm a Christian and your recent post offended me! What if my children were on? I mean, it's all the rage to be edgy and everything but is it really necessary to use such prejudicing words like the N-word? Grow up and read your Bible.

me: who are you and what the hell are you talking about?

ironedcoho is offline.

****

This was an interesting moment for me because, other than the telling fact that I never used the N-word in any post, the truth is that this guy could totally be talking about a post I wrote. So I thought I'd comment on a statement made to somehow make me feel guilty: "What if my children were on?"

First of all, it is not my responsibility to ensure that your children don't see things you don't want them to or to ensure that your children can deal with and understand those things. First there is the the obvious fact that you children WILL inevitably see/hear/experience things that a parent deems inappropriate/wrong/whatever. This works both ways.

Somehow it seems that many people, especially evangelical Christians, seem to think that because they believe what they teach their children to believe and value are categorically right (and apparently are the only ones to believe the things they teach their children) that no one should ever do anything in front of the children that contradicts that. Here's a news flash: If I had children, I would not under any circumstances want them to be exposed to evangelical Christianity and it's beliefs. A good example would be the anti-abortion protesters who, along with their children, stand on the street and hold up "dead fetus" pictures. This is not something I want to see let alone have my children see. And yet, it's "ok" because they believe they are right.

The point is this: what I deem inappropriate and wrong for my (hypothetical) children, you deem inappropriate and right for your children. This leads us to the general conclusion that unless you want to live in a dictatorial, whatever brand of Christianity you subscribe to society then you need to move out of the US or get over yourself and teach your children that other people believe different things.

Conclusion: "What if my children see this?" is not a justification for anything. My answer: then you'll have to have a talk with your children. It's scary I know.


Also, what the hell does being a Christian or reading the bible have to do with using or not using the N-word. I will just briefly bring up another thing that pisses me off: Christians do not, in any reading of history, have any sort of exclusive claim (or arguably any claim at all) to morality or doing what's right.

As a side note, I'm pretty sure this dude doesn't have kids anyway. Based on this post, I think "IronedCoho" is actually this 23 year old pharmacy technician from Corning, NY. What a douche.