Joe Monster's Blogtag:tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com,2010:/talk/blogs/joe_monster//18162010-03-23T15:33:31ZMovable Type Pro 4.21-entag:tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com,2010:/talk/blogs/joe_monster//1816.3263332010-03-23T13:24:07Z2010-03-23T15:33:31ZRepublicans have been trying hard to denigrate this President and make us appear weak internationally. They'd do best by contrasting their exceptional failures against perceived weakness. Russia, some South American burgs and our personal satellite Israel are all nipping at...Joe Monster But we've been very inward-looking lately. All the President's muscle has been used for restraint, and then for leverage. Now he likely has the wind at his back again- or still. And there will be no shortage of gassy wind coming from the RNC, they're still desperate to make America look weak and government appear pointless. Expect that to intensify.
Meanwhile, timing aside, Jerusalem is in fact the capital of Israel. I looked it up. You can only attack their development of land there if you agree to question the state's legitimacy which we kinda have to remind them about.
There were barely any borders there when England and the other Powers decided to put the Jews back in the desert. It's been the convenient phony obstacle to peace our towel-headed bigamist political class friends in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, etc. cling to, lest their perfectly distracted and near-perfectly ignorant masses catch on to the real secret threat of democracy. For now, they've safely hidden away the modern view. At the present rate, the subjects of their kingdoms can be expected to rise up sometime long after the Mayan Calendar predicts we're all going to go the way of dinosaurs.
Israel has no special status aside from our interest in pandering to a few voting blocs here. They're going to have to make some concession to the neighborhood, although it shouldn't get them stuck. Nothing will ever be enough unless the endgame is in sight. And that end game is on the other side of democracy in the kingdoms. So Yahu is playing to the passions of the wacko uncivilized his country is surrounded by.
So when Netanyahu gets uppity, we should ease back on the tap. Maybe see how they live on only $6,000,000 a day for a few months. This is a land of symbols after all, so we should react symbolically. We do need the confidence of the Palestinians and their benefactors. They can predict our behavior pretty well. They knew we would get puffed up and indignant to show the world a stern face, but nothing more. Moving forward will require more than a stern rebuke from Mom. Dad's going to have to remove Benny's spark plugs. "No, you're not going to the dance Benjamin. You've pissed off the neighbors again."
Concessions on Israel's part are unlikely to be matched by the other side, since they really have nothing to bargain with. But if the tensions can be affected at all, having the US attempt to become a more honest broker and penalize misbehavior, eventually installing a more moderate government in Israel, and time inevitably marching forward, opinion leaders in the Palestinian slums, Syria and elsewhere will begin to understand that monarchy is bullshit, owning a state is a matter of luck, and an iPod makes your toil easier.
Until then, the conflict of Palestine will remain essential to the stability of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, even Iran. And now that we've united the freaks from Morocco to Pakistan and Afghanistan, it's impossible to tease apart the various grievances of the Middle Easterners outside the political class. Putting a small hole in that tire will change it. Take some wind out of their braying lungs by taking a clear, symbolic step.
But I expect our President to do what he does best: Accept Ben's quiet apologies, agree to disagree, keep his cool, and stand his ground so progress can be made. ]]>
Israel joins the Tea Party Movementtag:tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com,2010:/talk/blogs/joe_monster//1816.3260372010-03-22T14:02:21Z2010-03-22T14:17:13ZJust in case there's anything left to heckle, the Israeli government is apparently campaigning for more hawks in the US midterm elections. They see that our President is stretched far, trying to appease the minority here, that we're going to...Joe Monster I'd like to remind myself that we're in a relationship, which requires commitment and forbearance, tolerance and protection. But I have no idea what we get in return that we couldn't get from Bahrain or any of the other places where a tiny oligarchy or monarchy can fortify banking and transit against commoners. We're on shaky ground as far as moral precedents regarding the status of people who were here before we gerrymandered it.
What do we get from Israel, except a semi-satisfied but permanently aggrieved vocal minority bloc of Israeli-Americans, and another, more glassy-eyed bloc of Armageddonist/Dominionists who urge their betters to turn the world into a final battle between good and democracy?
I'm sick of Israel. Nothing but brinksmanship on our dime for decades. We give them- GIVE THEM $8,200,000 every day. And it's gone. Having Joe Lieberman from Connecticut on their team doesn't help, but I'd be evaluating my brother in law for a bust in the face after this year's provocative and disrespectful behavior. Certainly wouldn't have him lying on my couch, drinking my beer, raising the morale of the wolf at my door.]]>
Don't care if it's a hoaxtag:tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com,2010:/talk/blogs/joe_monster//1816.3253612010-03-19T19:58:03Z2010-03-19T20:06:29ZThere's a disputed authenticity afoot! A disputed authenticity!And the Democrats have been on the receiving end of them. Granted, Bush was an AWOL ne'e-do-well, drunkard, abortion-getter, the whole bit- coke head. He traded Sammy Sosa.When I was younger, I wanted...Joe Monster
A disputed authenticity!
And the Democrats have been on the receiving end of them. Granted, Bush was an AWOL ne'e-do-well, drunkard, abortion-getter, the whole bit- coke head. He traded Sammy Sosa.
When I was younger, I wanted to be a spy. Wanted to have a fake passport to get me through Belgium and on to some ferry, where I depart to a speed boat somewhere near the Channel... but aside from various art heists and nuclear proliferations, nothing really up my alley has happened in the news in my lifetime, until the current generation of Republicans came to town.
Forged yellowcake invoices. Everything imaginable, fake photos, drug company lobbying disguised- US GOVERNMENT COMMUNICATIONS DISGUISED AS NEWS STORIES. The whole bit. No fingerprints.
It's more probably bullshit than horseshit, but either way it stinks and runs directly along the course of the RNC intention: to discredit the people about to score a victory and deliver something to the American Public.
Right now they're trying to stomp on the garbage parts to keep it from coming out in reconciliation. Fuck 'em. See who's boss when my insurance premium doesn't go up 10-15% every year, whether I went to the doctor or not.]]>
Positive Change is Slowtag:tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com,2010:/talk/blogs/joe_monster//1816.3249152010-03-18T12:55:03Z2010-03-18T13:04:28ZBefore throwing your hands up and going with the media flow, please remember that the Bush/ RNC orgy era lasted a decade. We've been with the Obama adminstration about 1.2 years.How long does it take to bring down a building?...Joe Monster How long does it take to bring down a building? Heck, the World Trade Center building both came down in about an hour. I suggest it takes a long time to build anything.
Republicans can look effective when they let things fall down and fail. It's their plan after all, to limit the function of government to easy help for capitalists- 'We won't take your money', 'we won't protect your workers', 'we won't resist your eastward migration.' They achieved their short-term goal of bankrupting municipalities and castrating the federal watchdogs.
I think we've seen astounding and gratifying change so far, and I'm not going to reflexively nod along with the other nabobs and let this opportunity for a sober present pass without mentioning that the RNC turned a half-trillion-dollar surplus into a trillion dollar deficit.
It took mostly inaction. That's the way to make radical change in our country. Smart stuff takes time. It took that decade to wake the majority of Americans up to the bankruptcy of the RNC doctrine of 'kill society'. Remember Hope. Yes, I got hope.]]>
No Sober Persontag:tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com,2010:/talk/blogs/joe_monster//1816.3248062010-03-17T19:50:16Z2010-03-17T20:00:39ZMs. Graham (can't take his voice seriously) said that ' no sober person would ' do what his party did with impunity for that bad decade we had back there, namely decide that the majority will carry the day. He's...Joe Monster
no sober person would ' do what his party did with impunity for that bad decade we had back there, namely decide that the majority will carry the day. He's trying to make it a moral deficiency to get your way if you're not on his team. He's trying to turn the entire past year into a sneaky, above-ground, transparent conspiracy to perform elective duties. But if he's sober, he knows he can't turn the public against their elected representatives, the majority who put the majorities there. He's just trying to keep the crazies pissed off.
But no sober person would make that argument unless he didn't ever flinch. When he looks in the mirror, besides seeing a prissy girl, Mr. Graham (now he's a switcher!) sees none of the lying, division, cheating he and his team have been blatantly guilty of. It doesn't matter to him, see?
But no sober person would bring a gun to an Obama rally.
No sober person would shoot his lawyer buddy in the face.
No sober person would (insert Bush here- the whole guy).
No sober person would attempt to harm CHIP.
No sober person would compare the diligence of our Democratic Congress to the fanaticism from the fringe health-haters he panders to (who also hate government, taxation, immigrants, free market, socialism, the British...).
Anyone?]]>
Exactly- thanks Kurtztag:tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com,2010:/talk/blogs/joe_monster//1816.3247602010-03-17T16:43:49Z2010-03-17T16:48:24ZI'm not the only one looking at the Health Protesters with a raised eyebrow. David Kurtz came up with a crystalized angle.The crazies are going to be crazies. Anger is everywhere. But the RNC has recruited them, rounded them up...Joe Monster
Health Protesters with a raised eyebrow. David Kurtz came up with a crystalized angle. The crazies are going to be crazies. Anger is everywhere. But the RNC has recruited them, rounded them up and funded buses for them to go express their anger, and HCR is their lightning rod today.]]>
Beat Down the Health Haters- oh wait, we did that by firing them in 2000.tag:tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com,2010:/talk/blogs/joe_monster//1816.3247222010-03-17T15:10:25Z2010-03-17T15:33:42ZI'm certain of it. Only the vocal minority, politicians and status-quo stakeholders are out there picketing against health care reform. I'd be happy with just health insurance reform, but the entire industry is a gigantic tumor (insurance company) living comfortably...Joe Monster Their relationship is malignant commensalism, whereby the doctors and hospitals can charge exorbitant fees to keep everyone working and well-paid, except for the nurses, laboratory and support staff who get laid off, work too many hard hours, and get paid by salary instead of per interaction with patients. The insurers take income as premiums paid, and they rise at about twice the rate of inflation (when there's inflation, otherwise it's about 10-15%). We should be aware that this already offensive principle is consistently voided by these gambling rackets with outliers like the 35% increases recently published in California.
We're all aware of this, unless we are the lucky few who get insurance through work or live off the land in the woods with no interest in doctorin'. But work is declining. And employers are moving away from benefits. Landslide election victories for the Democrats didn't happen because Obama is black. They happened because politicians promised health care reform, and because the majority of Americans want it.
Still, we see photographs of the angry picketing against HCR on the front page of newspapers, in TV spots and cable, on blogs. Why? Because there are no angry pro-reform protests. We organized in 2000, remember? First black president? Both houses of Congress? That really happened. And as a result, the media are balancing that reality with the fringe who argue that we should not have health. Who argues against health? Even a tobacco company needs people healthy enough to start smoking and buy packs for a few years.
Health Care Reform is overwhelmingly opposed, as frequently claimed in media, but only at the RNC. It's feared by drug companies and insurers. It's especially feared at the RNC, because it would be a huge victory for Democrats and giant loss of esteem for their grouchy bullshit. But the humans who live here overwhelmingly support it. It's not a government takeover. Still, even that would be better than employing thousands in an industry set up to ration care, control doctors, make up for stock market losses and lobby like hell, without applying a single stitch or band-aid.
Do not forget: These are men in suits, not doctors in lab coats. Don't forget the tech bubble, the stock bubble, the housing bubble all grew in the face of petering economy. This one can only survive with continued protection from the Liebermans. Their service is unnecessary, except insofar as the underwrite the daily operations of the Device- and Drug- Delivery companies (hospitals).]]>
Already voting for Spectertag:tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com,2010:/talk/blogs/joe_monster//1816.3245592010-03-16T21:25:12Z2010-03-16T21:31:52ZPat Toomey is one of those eraser head guys, with the superhigh forehead. Other than that, I've read parts of transcripts of the Heritage Foundation stuff he says. He's one of those leave 'em to die types. "No money in...Joe Monster On the other hand, Specter and I have a lot in common. We're always at a different angle than the herd. We're both principled, and those principles don't allow us to be simple. Life isn't simple.
This 'Club for Growth' circle jerk is great if you can get paid after the growers leave the country. Oh, you didn't realize the manufacturing base has left? So the only growth is merchandising, retail, or the service sector? Like I could hire somebody to fix my hot tub, if I could afford a hot tub.
But if you've already made it, I guess you'll vote to keep it while the infrastructure continues to crumble. Good thing the government was there to bail your ass out.
Toomey will get the RNC primary, and Specter will be tangled up in a pissing contest with Sestak, who is clearly more appropriate for the House and would lose that seat for the Democrats, who hadn't budged Weldon for how many decades?]]>
Desperate RNC tag:tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com,2010:/talk/blogs/joe_monster//1816.3244892010-03-16T16:33:21Z2010-03-16T16:45:33ZTPM has a nice treatment of the desperation factor at the RNC. Somebody is going to produce something of value to the American public, and we are insisting that they stop. Government, according to the RNC, is a failure. It...Joe Monster They will stop at nothing of their own accord. It's up to us to stop them. Shut them down with soundbites. Be vocal. Look for the man-on-the-street news van. Write reaction letters. This won't stop them at first, but as they become increasingly cartoonish- even to their own, leadership will have to step in and shut them up.
They're not 'fast and loose' with facts. The reason they're ready with so many facts is pretty obvious. They read the memos, and they make everything else up on the spot.
Your talking points:"America overwhelmingly turned the United States Government over to the party of CAN to enact health care legislation. We're thankful they stopped the global financial free-fall, but we still just want health care straightened out."
"All the Democrats ran last time on Health Care Reform, so we made them the majorities in Congress and the Senate and gave them the Executive."
"Oh yeah, health care reform? Only Republicans oppose it, because they can't stand to see government succeed. That's why Bush was so popular on their home planet, all the failure."
"Insurance companies are at the heart of the global financial meltdown, and at the core of our health care industry. They need to be regulated."
"TORT reform? Eliminate the lawyers, not the rights."
"Republican members of Congress don't complain about their government-provided health care. Why complain about ours? Is this a class thing? We're not good enough? "
]]>
TX School Board Unwrites History, pencils in 'Newt Gingrich'tag:tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com,2010:/talk/blogs/joe_monster//1816.3243742010-03-16T12:27:12Z2010-03-16T12:35:26ZThe Fox philosophy of balancing fact with fiction makes for a more entertaining take on reality if you want to see the veins in your forehead. But it will make your kids stupid and pliable.Deposed serial philanderer Newt Gingrich will...Joe Monster Deposed serial philanderer Newt Gingrich will be in the History books now because the Texas School Board says he deserves to be illuminated in history books in his lifetime. They apparently did not comment on my observation that every girl (woman under 20) I've met from Texas has one or more of the following: Breast implants, prescription dope on her, offspring, abortions, no grasp of her role in the family or society.
A legend only on the 'Right', his 'Contract with America' marketing ploy made it seem real easy to understand the workings of RNC philosophy in society. It's hard to remember any of it, since the only practical work actually done by the RNC during Newt's tenure was to demean the Presidency and badger the commander in chief until they found out he did something that would poll negatively.
We may as well write our own history books.]]>
Obama 2012tag:tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com,2010:/talk/blogs/joe_monster//1816.3243692010-03-16T11:47:32Z2010-03-16T12:26:49ZI don't get my opinions from TV. I like good argument shows, and I recognize the quality of some of my opponents' opinions. My opinions were framed long ago, and a commitment to broadening my perspective without losing touch has...Joe Monster For example, universal health insurance for everyone, including the people who, unlike me, didn't pay attention growing up or willfully ignored the basic tenets of health. Forget about political orientation, none of your neighbors has spent any time on it. 'Balance' the facts with wild nonsense? How many of our parents would be too far gone? Just focusing on health in this post. You knew it caused cancer, or at least caused coughing and shortness of breath, but you kept smoking until the bartender told you to stop or go outside. You sell donuts, and prefer trans fats because they don't go rancid- you can buy the big tub and save some money. You eat bacon. You can't run a mile, touch your toes or see your genitals.
There's a realpolitik aspect to adult life. It requires us to act on faith. We have to do a thing to bring about a result, and to go on with our lives we need that cause and effect relationship. I'm doing a lot to delay my first heart attack. But the reality we're confronted with is constant, inescapable mortality. So no matter how long my liver holds up, my rotator cuff stays together, my amyloids don't plaque, I know something's coming. Could be that 'freckle', the risky sushi I don't resist, or I could slip on ice and break a hip.
I'm for the public option. I can't understand why humans would be so callous toward each other that we wouldn't want to pitch in. Virus doesn't care how much money you make, just whether you make contact with other humans. We're already paying for an army, and we keep that healthy. We're subsidizing the lifestyles of globetrotting Congress types, and keeping them healthy. We're warehousing 2,000,000 humans in prisons, and keeping them healthy. I'm avoiding all of you, keeping my body limber and strong, eating fish oil, all that crap. All I want is a fallback. I want stitches- seriously, why wouldn't you include 'stitches' in the list of items your tax money already paid for? X-rays.
Mr. Kucinich and I have some things in common. We stick to our guns. We don't quit fighting, we were fighting for a list of things before we got here. And the principle counts. The ideal matters. Our values are based on universal truths, on justice and equality and truth, beauty, love. But I got tied up in German philosophers. The symbol is not the thing, but it is symbolic. If the gay flag (that rainbow thing is the gay flag, right?) were to fly over city hall, it wouldn't turn everybody gay but it would lift the spirits of people fighting for equality or positive imagery for the alternative lifestyles community. And we would collectively be a bit better for it.
So here, now, despite decades of opposition from the stakeholders and their representatives in government, we have an opportunity to put it on the books: The United States of America has decided that health, like mortality, is of universal concern, like anticommunism, global research and development, re-marketing for off-label indications, riches from the government to reward us for riches we earned ... all by ourselves, without any help from the taxpayer who underwrites the justice system and property rights by hiring police and judges...
Does it look perfect? No. Does it look good? Well, not really. But it takes our country in the right direction, specifically calling the insurance rackets what they are. They aren't health care, they are the rationing element in the economy. There's no food insurance industry, just a futures market. They are a bubble, at best commensalizing with the medical establishment, underwriting daily operations. Like the $14 Tylenol delivered by a $40,000/year professional. This is the growth engine. And it doesn't produce or sell objects. Salaries rise, commissions are distributed, administrative staff is hired, so premiums rise to feed the beast whether or not a lot more people got sick this year than last year.
The truth is that it is better than its absence, and therefore I'm willing to ignore the deep-fried, cheese-stuffed potato balls fermenting in your gut. This is the right way to start addressing American health. I'm not having the government prohibiting those cheesy balls, mandating helmets in cars, searching out and destroying all the tobacco plants. I want the government to empower me to do my stuff. Like raising my children with the understanding of how their bodies work, and how faith only gets you so far.
In reality, these symbolic steps really happen and affect the national mind. A lot of people say it can be changed to make it better. I'm just glad they're finally tying up resources for something worth caring about.
I'm also thrilled to have a level-headed, practical President, and most of you are too, despite the TV noise, TV stars, and TV ratings. I like having a slow-moving government instead of the radical freak show offered by the RNC.]]>
Balkanize the RNCtag:tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com,2010:/talk/blogs/joe_monster//1816.3243312010-03-15T22:42:25Z2010-03-15T23:03:25ZI'm really glad the Democrats have finally figured out they were all hired to create a national health care policy. I'm not going to bother announcing that they haven't done that, or that the insurance industry and the others involved...Joe Monster And now, hopefully, they'll move on to more populist economic topics.
While they do that, I'm stewing. Have been since Bush I. The Republicans are coming. They don't exactly go away, they get their knuckles rapped, crawl under the refrigerator, and keep eating our food and shitting all over the floor until we turn out the lights again. And they're noisy. They throw up so much noise it's hard to see through. Which angle is the bent one? Can't tell. Now they have s Supreme Court Justice's wife on record as having participated in the Justice crimes, where lawyers were replaced with RNC hacks wherever possible.
How can we separate those assholes from their mouthpieces? They hate the gays, but they're all gay. They're 'fiscal conservatives' who turned a $500 Billion surplus into a Trillion-dollar debt. They're for big government, but only if it really means hiring thousands of high school grads to harass travelers and buying their votes. They only cheat on the wives they marry, which I wrote that way to give them a positive.
I think we need to find the other Madoffs and Abramoffs, the Ken Lays out there. And I think we have to assume there's at least one behind every successful Republican. Who pays for Dick Cheney's lunch? Liz? How about that Supreme Court? How'd they get to where they are? Writing snarky letters about how the government must be destroyed from within?
The Democrats have repeatedly shown they lack such an apparatus. So let's go find the one we know about and take it apart, starting with Rupert Murdoch the alien and his big national broadcast network. Fox must be sold, because we reject Murdoch's citizenship on the grounds of Fox News.
Then we need to bury anything inviting Georgie Bush to speak.
And in the process we should certainly end the practice of inventing University status for anyone whose school bases their curriculum on the current edition of the Bible. Popularity among a minority of Americans is not appropriate for assigning truth.]]>
Republicans researching ethics or something?tag:tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com,2010:/talk/blogs/joe_monster//1816.3238722010-03-12T16:23:43Z2010-03-12T16:29:40ZRepublicans have raised questions about Democratic leaders in Congress, who they may allege had deeper knowledge of Massa's inappropriate behavior than they may wish to let on. Are they demanding to know who knew he was... you know. Like Barney...Joe Monster
Republicans have raised questions about Democratic leaders in Congress, who they may allege had deeper knowledge of Massa's inappropriate behavior than they may wish to let on. Are they demanding to know who knew he was... you know. Like Barney Frank, or more importantly like the string of serial perverts and unfaithful bastards among the RNC ranks ?
But they were all there while Bush was boxing up the nation's glory and shipping it out to donors, magnates, extraction and logging companies, anybody with huge pieces of real estate.
I say we witch-hunt every single one of them. I'd do it for free for a little while if somebody could get the information to me. Better done by the organized Democrats, who should take this opportunity for a retreat. They should all get together, serve snacks, and talk about why they hate to compete for the first hour, then switch to how they're going to hang Republicans from their words and deeds. ]]>
Heavy Lifting in Californiatag:tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com,2010:/talk/blogs/joe_monster//1816.3238322010-03-12T14:40:44Z2010-03-12T15:03:32ZI remember hearing Governator use 500 situps as a threat, if something legislative didn't happen or somebody in their assembly didn't do something, and I'm pretty sure it was about balancing the CA budget.Having traveled to northern California, the Berkeley/Hayward/Palo...Joe Monster Having traveled to northern California, the Berkeley/Hayward/Palo region particularly often, I've only been to San Fran a few times. The sushi was amazing, and the Chinese New year was incredible. I live right outside Philadelphia and spend a lot of time in our Chinatown, I know it well. I haven't seen their New Year celebration, but it's such a small town. I'd rather go in the daytime so I can get Pho, soy milk with chrysanthemum, big packages of somen, soba, etc. For trade shows, I recommend San Francisco. It's a nice place to walk, if you don't have to walk through a gauntlet of panhandlers and plain homeless. The diversity is impressive.
You can also get a doghouse-sized home with a 1- car garage under it on a slight hill overlooking the ocean for about 12 millions bucks- because SOOOOOO many people want to live there. I could tell that if I stay in San Francisco for any period of time I'll get really comfortable. So I'm inclined to think that whoever's been running the place is doing okay. So I'm understandingGavin Newsome is Setting himself the lofty goal of Leutenant Governor. I've also heard Jerry Brown talking about coming back with hindsight and insight and rallying the state government to wright itself and try to restore the place. It was teeming with innovation and production. It has a huge pool of resources in talent and technology, plus an agricultural sector with important niches- avocados, garlic, oranges? Grapes. Probably cows too. What if somebody creative got control of some money and decided to put solar arrays on burned out scrub parts of the state instead of million-dollar insurance scams people live in part of the year? Anybody know anything about California?]]>
Not exactly bashing insurance company profitstag:tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com,2010:/talk/blogs/joe_monster//1816.3235452010-03-10T20:53:59Z2010-03-10T21:24:19Z-Keep in mind, a company should get profits. They should sell something people need or want, and get paid whatever the market will bear- unless it's something like rationing a commodity regulated by the government to keep non-doctors from treating...Joe Monster
-Keep in mind, a company should get profits. They should sell something people need or want, and get paid whatever the market will bear- unless it's something like rationing a commodity regulated by the government to keep non-doctors from treating patients and prescribing drugs, and to limit the suppliers and supplies of the medicines distributed through a decidedly closed and otherwise highly regulated market.
Then it's more like a public utility, since we're all carrying some baseline risk of heart disease or cancer. Did you know there is still a 100% mortality rate? We need care to be available, if only because the best educated and trained among us improve in productivity while our risk of hospitalization increases, long before we become slow and grouchy. This applies especially if the industry enjoys an exemption from antitrust law, without which they can't operate the way they must to enjoy those profits we make possible by maintaining a civil justice system and subscribing to their services. I think the only part of this industry not regulated by the government is the medical insurance industry. Doctors get licensed, they can only issue treatments from a list approved by the government. Health insurers charge for zero doctor visits. They charge more when there are more doctor visits. They charge more when there is poor health or old age. They can refuse to let you do something. The fact that someone will have to shell out $10,000 to get an operation means that there is a place for these underwriters. A lot of that $10K is going to very highly qualified labor, and taking somebody's organs out and putting them back in should net you some bucks. But a lot of the money is in a fee-for-use instrument, or a license fee for a test, and always a patented drug authorized for marketing. If the NIH is involved in the discovery of the treatment, the patent should expire fast. The government currently protects these property rights when they are acquired from NIH, even though we're the inventor. This jacks up the price by injecting a long list of patent holders into a case ("Share Holders"). Drug companies should not be the dominant feature on our medical landscape. Food and exercise should be, along with clean air and water. Remember, there's a sales guy getting a commission on everything. But it's the full-time corporation speculating on your health I want us to focus on right now. They either have to become altruistic, or they have to be broken into little pieces. Remember: those antitrust laws were invented because industries were using parts of you for something nasty. I recognize that many of you don't work out every other day, drink red wine in moderation and eat lots of vegetables like I do, so I know I'm surrounded by people who need doctors to tell them what to do. And so they don't go without a ride in an ambulance. And I'm willing to accept your different shapes and experimental consumption strategies, because it means we can all afford our heart attack. ]]>