Friday, August 14, 2009

SIGH...

I started this blog some time ago as an outlet for my feelings on the government. I have been quiet on it as of late because, frankly, I am SO DISGUSTED with the garbage that is going on that I cannot take it anymore. I have read recently about data centers being raided by the FBI with little cause and no arrest warrants issued, I see the 'debate' on government health care, I see the talking heads on the news doing nothing but praising gun control, and I am SCARED.

I am frightened for our country. I am frightened for our way of life. I am frightened for my children. I am frightened for my paycheck.

WTF are we doing? Really? Give the government more control of our lives? What?

Reminder: We are a REPUBLIC, not a Democracy. Look it up people... and don't be a sheeple. THINK! THINK for yourself. Do some REAL RESEARCH. Stop listening to Robert Gibbs, MSNBC, CNN, FOX... LOOK IT UP! We live in the MOST connected internet age of all time and we have people who follow like it's 1984 from Orwell. ALL HAIL BIG BROTHER OBAMA and PILOSI!

Do a little research:

** 42 Million without Health care coverage? Really? Are they all citizens? Are they able to get coverage but choose not to? Ask these questions.

** Stimulus package? Is it working? Are they REALLY too big to fail? Who is picking up the tab for that thing? Your country, your money.


-End of Ramble.

6 comments:

Pragmatic Guy said...

Let's face it. The scary part is not that the US government is going to help us get health care coverage or protect us against predatory lending, it's that a sizable minority of the country can't make the difference between reasonable government programs and Hitler, Stalin, Big Brother and Pol Pot. What kind of education system and culture promotes such nonsense?

We are tired of having crooks run the show, play with our lives, suck us dry. We have had enough -- we've been taken for a ride and we can't take it anymore. We voted for health care reform and we will get it. Scare tactics, astroturfing and fake rumormills shouldn't be enough to derail the process.

Of all the scandals that the country is sweeped in, such as Goldman Sachs, AIG, Guantanamo Bay, torture, warrantless wiretaps... all you find to complain about is health care reform and gun control. It sickens me.

The line that is drawn in the sand is not about liberty vs tyranny, or crooks vs innocents. The line that is drawn is representative democracy. Protecting individual freedoms, protecting the innocents is apparently a bad thing if it is performed by the government. Letting crooks and criminals run the show is apparently good if it is performed by the private market. Everything is put indiscriminately in the same bucket. That's not what's said, but that's what's implied.

The only groups that are being served by this rhetoric are the corporate interests that are doing their best to run our lives. Individuals such as myself are better served by legislation that takes power away from these corporate interests and puts them back into our collective hands. Health care is simply too important to let anything but the government manage it. You provide no alternative other than the status quo, which is unacceptable (maybe not to you, but to the overwhelming majority of us).

What scares me is that even the most blatant proof of the industry's incompetence and crookedness is not enough to convince the last remaining 17% of the US population that government (i.e. "we") needs to step in and rein in the private interests that have created such a mess. If there's really something to worry about, it's that.

Ordinary Guy said...

Pragmatic,

Don't let it sicken you that that is all I am 'complaining about'. I am sickened by the FBI raids, the lobbies running the country, AND " Goldman Sachs, AIG, Guantanamo Bay, torture, warrantless wiretaps..."

And I disagree with you here: "rotecting individual freedoms, protecting the innocents is apparently a bad thing if it is performed by the government. Letting crooks and criminals run the show is apparently good if it is performed by the private market"

It is not bad that the government wants to do this... it is bad that the FEDERAL government would do it. Too big a scale to be effective. Please notice where I argue that local governments should be responsible for this... not the Federal government.

You are fooling yourself here: "Individuals such as myself are better served by legislation that takes power away from these corporate interests and puts them back into our collective hands." They are in your hands. Vote with your wallet. Choose which ones you want to use. Make an educated decision.

I agree with you that education has taken a back seat to blind following. "What scares me is that even the most blatant proof of the industry's incompetence and crookedness is not enough to convince the last remaining 17% of the US population that government (i.e. "we") needs to step in and rein in the private interests that have created such a mess. If there's really something to worry about, it's that."

VOTE with your wallet. The government does not allow you to do that. I contact my Low Life, No good Congressman and he sends me garbage form letters about how great a job he is doing. How do you solve that problem? Stuck with this one for 2 years now. WTF is that about? How do we do real change when these bozo's don't listen?

Pragmatic Guy said...

Ordinary:

Voting with one's wallet sounds like a good idea, as long as we're talking iPods and restaurant bills. When my child is faced with illness, my spouse with a broken leg and I'm faced with the prospect of never being able to work again, my wallet is worth nothing to the hospitals, doctors, insurers and others that make the real life and death decisions. When I'm shopping for an insurance plan, the insurance companies have enough suckers who'll sign up for pre-existing conditions and other limits that seemed reasonable at the time -- and I'll end up with a crappy plan that is ultimately worthless, but that I'm going to have to pay anyway. Besides, I could not actually afford health insurance if it were not sponsored by an employer. No, the service providers are not in my hands, I am in their hands, at their mercy. The educated decision that we are forced to make is to find a big employer and latch on to their negotiated prices. Is that the American Dream? Running away from entrepreneurship, independence, so that we can huddle together in hope that we don't lose health care coverage for our loved ones? What kind of independence is that? I want the same ability to be covered regardless of whether I'm working for the Man, for myself or if I'm unemployed. Unfortunately, working for the Man and being unemployed both provide health care, but working for oneself provides the biggest conundrum -- the worst rates, the worst limitations and no tax deduction on premiums. What kind of choice is that? What kind of life does it encourage? What does it mean to vote with your wallet if the bill depends so much on what you do with your life? Voting with your wallet becomes akin to letting someone else run your life. I'm not the one fooling myself here.

Just like you don't leave defense to mercenaries, justice to television tribunals or nuclear power plants to Wall Street traders, you don't vote with your wallet when it comes to your literal, physical life. It is not a merchandise.

Ordinary Guy said...

Pragmatic,

I did not say that there was not room for improvement...

But what is the the indication that the Federal Government is capable of being successful? Medicare? Nope. Social Security? Nope.

The States need to get involved. Local governments need to make the peoples voice heard. Regulation can be put into place. But providing a "public option" is not the answer... We have one, and it is bankrupt.

There are options out there for the entrepreneur. There are group policies. I know the actuaries and statisticians are part of the problem... Also the fact that hospitals are required, by law, to treat everyone who comes in their doors... So those who don't have insurance have their tab picked up by those of us who do. Now, make the environment a bit more friendly for the hospitals and perhaps that will help the change... I don't know, and have not done a detailed business case... but I know there are several variables at play that are difficult to comprehend the long term effects unless they are analyzed and modeled together. Why does the government not look at that and understand the problem first... then propose some solutions that might help people understand, instead of forcing it?

-End of Ramble

Lucid Guy said...

Pragmatic, really? "...a sizable minority of the country can't make the difference between reasonable government programs and Hitler, Stalin, Big Brother and Pol Pot." I guess that depends on your definition of "reasonable". Let's take a look at the evidence.

The Communist Manifesto:
1). Abolition of private property.
2). Heavy progressive income tax.
3). Abolition of all rights of inheritance.
4). Confiscation of property of all immigrants, and rebels.
5). Central Bank.
6). Government Control of Transportation and Communication.
7). Government Ownership of of factories and agriculture.
8). Government Control of labor.
9). Corporate farms, regional planning.
10). Government Control of Education.

My evaluation indicates that we seem to be making nice headway on numbers 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10was done long ago.

Someone commenting on this blog is blinded by ideology, but I don't think it's me or Ordinary.

Oklahoma City Divorce Attorney said...

Viva Republic!