Today...

...my government decided it would be a good idea to take more of my money than it already does and give it to others to buy health care that they most likely don't want in the first place, so that insurance companies can make bigger profits. Then my president told me it was all right because it was best for me. Because he clearly knows better than I do.

God Bless America.

Health Care Question

I want an honest answer from anybody who actually still reads this thing (and thank you, if you do, by the way!) because this is bugging me. I was talking to my brother, a student at UT-Houston Medical School, about this whole health care reform thing. Apparently Medicare expenditures have gone up nearly threefold in 8 years, from 230 billion to almost 600 billion. This is why Medicare is unsustainable, and why everyone agrees something has to change.

Now, I'm not an economist, but is there any good reason why we can't just abolish Medicare as a program, and take a portion of those funds and provide subsidies to low-income families to buy private insurance? Forget issues of fraud, etc. because those can be dealt with. Conceptually, what's the problem with this? And if it's a good idea, why is nobody talking about it?

Screw you, Pat Robertson

Pat Robertson combines everything I loathe about sensationalism, religious bigotry, and mass media into one white male. His latest antics only bolster my feelings.

Haiti just experienced probably the worst natural disaster in its history. Thousands upon thousands of men, women, and children are still lying dead in the streets. Food is scarce. Water is even more scarce. Hospitals, schools, and churches all leveled to the ground. Rescue workers from all nations are racing to the scene to help repair the untold carnage.

And Pat freaking Roberston has the gall to sit back in his comfy little chair on TV and tell his impressionable audience that this happened because Haiti swore a pact to the devil so he would free them from France's control waaaaaaaay back in the day.

I cannot adequately describe how abhorrent this is on so many different levels. It's not often that such a short statement can manage to be so offensive on so many simultaneous levels. It's irresponsible, hateful, presumptuous, arrogant, and spiteful all at the same time.