First off, it’s worth stating that this writer is indeed, herself, an American. I was born and bred here, and before you comment with death threats or anything you should be aware that I don’t hate the USA; so don’t even bother to assume that I do. In point of fact I love the potential of this country, I love what it was intended to be, and I love what it could be. I love many of the people who are here and the work that they do and the way that they do it.

I am, however, heartbroken at the current state of this country on a number of levels; and for years I’ve been trying to think of what I might be able to do to be part of the solution rather than perpetuating the problem. (Don’t bother to suggest that I could “help” by killing myself – suicide is not a sane act… and Ms. Sanity is a lot of things but she’s not a complete idiot. I humbly suggest that this country needs more people who are not complete idiots, not fewer… but I digress.)

I have the good fortune (and the interesting experiences) of both living with and working with a number of people who are not Americans by birth; including my husband and the clients I work with who hail from all over the world. I have noticed recurring themes that my fellow ‘mericans seem to adamantly believe and or assume about this country and the world. The only problem is these strongly held beliefs are untrue. That doesn’t make them insane, of course; just wrong. With no further ado, time and again I find that American people believe:

1. The USA is the best, most desirable place in the world, and everyone in the world, if they had a choice, would want to live here.

Absolutely untrue. Study after study, year after year, (not just recently) has shown that the happiest and most satisfied people in the world are NOT Americans. People in Sweden, Belgium, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland and Norway are all reported to be much happier than Americans, and much more satisfied with their lives/their countries. One source for this statement is here: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-happiest-places-on-earth-are-heavily-taxed . There are many other sources that would underscore this point.

2.When politicians and regular folk talk about “Protecting our American Way of Life” ™ they are referring to our “freedoms,” our ability to worship the way that we wish to do so, dress the way we wish to do so, and so on.

Nope. In general this is code-speak for “The continued ability of the US to use up 24% amount of the world’s energy, although we only have 5% of the world’s population.” It also means that we “want to be ‘free’ enough to NOT pay enough taxes to have a sustainable infrastructure.” Note the link above; people in those “happy” countries actually pay more taxes than Americans do. “You get what you pay for” is a pretty inescapable truism. It also refers to paying low prices for goods and services- both domestically and abroad- which of course keeps American wages low – and this is done, intentionally or no, on the “backs” of people in poverty, both American and otherwise. See: http://www.mindfully.org/Sustainability/Americans-Consume-24percent.htm

3. America and Americans are the most giving people in the world – we help out other countries more so than any other country does.

Wrong in the first case, partially true in the second. From the American Governmental perspective, “Foreign Aid” is only about 1% of the federal budget (per Wikipedia – yes, I know that’s not the strongest source in the world, but I’ve seen that citation elsewhere as well.) To quote from http://www.globalissues.org/article/35/foreign-aid-development-assistance#ForeignAidNumbersinChartsandGraphs (emphasis mine) “USA’s aid, in terms of percentage of their GNP has almost always been lower than any other industrialized nation in the world, though paradoxically since 2000, their dollar amount has been the highest.” The part that is partially true, is that as individuals – not as a country- Americans are fairly generous. But not to the level of “more than any other country.” Again, quoting from the site above, “ Americans privately give at least $34 billion overseas—more than twice the US official foreign aid of $15 billion at that time.” (2002 figures.) However, some argue that those figures aren’t even from Americans – they say that these are remittances from foreign nationals living in the US. Americans should feel proud of the help that is being given as individuals/small groups of people to others; but should not make the assumption that cutting out foreign aid as a country will help solve the country’s financial problems- (an assertion I have seen repeated over and over…) it’s a drop in the bucket that wouldn’t even pay one hour’s interest on the national debt. For more on this topic see the link above, The US is rated very far down on this list.

4. America has the best health care system in the world. Anyone who needs care can go and get it at an emergency room, whether they have money or not.

This is such an absurdly incorrect idea as to be sickening. No matter what measure you use, whether it is access to care, cost of care, patient outcomes, or any other – The USA is nowhere near the top. Yes, there is a federal law that if you show up at a hospital emergency room, and are in danger of losing your life, they have to treat you. However, if you chop your hand off with a chainsaw, and don’t have health insurance – they will stop the bleeding and keep you from dying, but if you think they’ll sew your hand back on, guess again. Some charity hospitals might but the cold reality is that most just plain will not. They are only federally required to keep you from dying. Period. Back to the original point re: “best” health care system, to quote from the link below, “The U.S. ranks last when it comes to providing safe care, and next to last on coordinated care. U.S. patients with chronic conditions are the most likely to report being given the wrong medication or the wrong dose of their medication, and experiencing delays in being notified about an abnormal test result.” See: http://7thspace.com/headlines/349077/health_system_performance_us_ranks_last_among_7_countries.html. Per this report linked to from CNN below, about 60% of bankruptcies in the US are due to medical bills. How is that humane, sane, or the mark of a civilized country – much less the “best” system in the world? http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/06/05/bankruptcy.medical.bills/ (hint: it isn’t) Anyone who truly believes we have the “best” system in the world here, cannot possibly be making frequent use of this so-called system. As a cancer survivor, who has had other ongoing medical issues her whole life, Ms. Sanity knows what she’s talking about. I am less than 45 years old, I have a college degree, I have been working full time for more than twenty years, and yet there have been several times in my life where I’ve had to make a choice between buying food and buying medicine. How is that reasonable? Or acceptable? Oh yeah, wait, it’s all MY fault. See #7.

5.“The Government” (and/or Government employees/employment, and/or “bigger government”) is bad/useless, and private sector employees are always more useful/valuable/productive.

Granted, the above position is generally taken by conservatives and libertarians, but there seems to be an underlying theme of this belief among many, many Americans. The problem is that we can’t make useful or sensible or meaningful blanket statements like this. Government is meant to be about more than just invading other countries in this day and age. Ms. Sanity cannot however disagree with the point of view some people espouse that “The government can only ethically operate with the amount of money that the governed consent to give to the government.” That bit is true. However, Americans would do well to look at what they are currently “getting back” for their investment into government. The largest budget expenditure in the US is on the military. I’m not anti-military by any stretch of the imagination and I think that they should be paid well for what they do. But I also think we should question how or why in this day and age we need a military budget that is larger than the expenditures of the next forty or so countries combined. Private sector employees and employers are not, in and of themselves, by their very nature, more virtuous or productive than government employees. The people screeching a la Norquist that we need to make the government so small we can drown it in a bathtub are deluded. Going back to frontier style society is not going to help anyone. Roads and bridges and schools don’t maintain themselves. What are you going to do? Make them all toll roads? Charge parents for all schools?I have heard it said correctly that private sector employees in the US are generally paid with no rational regard to their usefulness to society. We cannot live for long without, say, the people who come and collect our trash. I can live eternally without the CEO of a health insurance organization, who will be paid say $60 million dollars this year, vs. the trash guy who will be doing very well if he takes home about $48k (the national median income, give or take.) How is this sensible?

6. The American people have the most civil (and other) rights, freedom and privacy on the planet.

Not by a long shot. The Patriot Act, (which, I might remind you, is still in force) severely curtailed any privacy and long-held rights vested in the people; notably “Habeas Corpus” – which had been around since the Magna Carta – it basically means that the government can’t hold you indefinitely without actually charging you with a crime. Now they can. Some of the most appalling parts of the Patriot act were apparently fairly recently overturned/curtailed in court but not all of them. I can’t claim to understand it all (I am not a lawyer, after all.) It used to be if you were in trouble, the people charging you with something had to say what you were being charged with, and produce you in court. This is no longer always the case, and it apparently applies to American citizens and to non-Americans alike. It is my understanding that the Patriot act also gave law enforcement agencies the right – without a warrant- to come into your home, search it, (sometimes referred to as a “sneak and peek,”) and they don’t even have to tell you that they did so! For more recent information, see this link: http://leahy.senate.gov/press/press_releases/release/?id=cc2a44b9-a0be-4bab-9de0-b7374d6a3485 which includes a letter written by Senator Leahy that includes the fact that we now know that National Security Letters (a provision of the Patriot Act) were severely misused in recent years. Your internet activities,your telephone calls, your library books, all of these things can be monitored by the US Government even today should they want to do so. In February of this year, under the Obama administration, the Patriot act was extended for another year. If you think this has nothing to do with you, or me, as law-abiding natural born citizens of the US, think again. See: http://www.aclu.org/blog/national-security/congress-drops-ball-upgrading-patriot-protections. They can tap your phones, they can pretty much do whatever they want, if you become for some reason, a person of interest. Last comment on this topic: Workers in other countries, I’m thinking of the UK, specifically, have far more legal rights than they do here. If you get fired in the UK because you refuse to sleep with your boss, it’s my understanding that there is a nonpartisan, independent, watchdog tribunal – which has actual power – which will hear your case, and you can end up getting your job back, financial remuneration, or both. In the US, in most states, you are imply out of a job – unless you have the money to sue.

7.Liberals/Progressives and their leaders just want the government to take care of all of their needs, from the “cradle to the grave,” they don’t believe in personal responsibility, they expect the government to somehow magically make everything fair, and they want the population to be controlled by the government. That’s how it is in Europe, and that’s what the Liberals want here too.

Ah, no. I do not, myself, want or expect the government to provide for my every need. I already know from experience (I did my first professional job at age 9) the satisfaction that comes from working and working hard, I learned early that there is no such thing as a free lunch. I have known lots of well to do people and even more not very well to do people, and never once have I heard any of them say: I think the Government owes me a living, I wish there was a robin hood to steal from the rich so that I can sit around and do nothing. In Europe, which of course varies greatly country to country, there is simply a stronger commitment to the provision of a strong social safety net. Generally speaking, there seems to be a more compassionate view of each other than there seems to be (again, very broadly) here in the US. For some reason, in the USA, if a person or a family falls on hard times, many people seem to take the attitude that “it’s your own fault… you didn’t work hard enough/plan enough, etc.” When of course, like it or not, hard times/disaster can happen to anyone, rich or poor, etc. I have heard with my own words the (oddly famous and listened to right-wing conservative blowhard) Rush Limbaugh say in these words: “look, folks, liberals don’t trust you individuals to do the right thing, that’s why they want to make all these laws to control you.” That has not been my experience in the very liberal and progressive circles I’ve been working in for more than a decade now. What “the libruls” do not trust, is that just because an organization is not the government, that it will be responsible or behave ethically or treat people well or even follow the law. There are far, far too many historical examples where corporations both large and small – took the little guys to the cleaners. Oh wait, Wall street Just did that… and you and I footed the bill, and will be doing so for generations. Do the “libruls “expect the government to prevent that sort of crap – whether it’s done by Wall Street, Enron, or the coal mining operation down the road? Yes, they sure do. And they are not wrong, to do that. Life is not and never has been and can never be made “fair.” Anyone with one functioning brain cell is aware of that.

We had better learn to start talking to each other and to get serious about seeing clearly what has been happening in our society, and what, as a people, we wish to change. Yes, life is changing, life is always changing, and the United States that existed in 1955 is no more. We could perhaps start by trying to be at least a little more compassionate toward our fellow Americans. I’ll try, for example, to not get so riled up and mind-bendingly furious at what I perceive from the Right-wing as being wrong wrong wrong and horrible. It’s a start. You? What the hell else can we be doing, at this very late stage in the game?

I know there are a bunch of other untrue things that my fellow Americans tend to believe. What are your top seven that aren’t on my list?

]]> http://www.manicmeltdown.com/2010/07/03/untrue_american_beliefs/feed/ 13 http://www.manicmeltdown.com/2010/03/13/they_are_calling_for_war/ http://www.manicmeltdown.com/2010/03/13/they_are_calling_for_war/#comments Sat, 13 Mar 2010 19:32:24 +0000 Ms. Sanity http://www.manicmeltdown.com/?p=322 Photo credit: taliesin from morguefile.com

More and more frequently, I am seeing public, blatant, explicit statements and calls to action from my fellow Americans urging violence and war here at home. It’s easy to dismiss those as the statements of a few kooks when they are few and far between, but I am running across them more and more frequently. And in far more “mainstream” places than you might expect; most recently, quite literally in the comments section of the Wall Street Journal. And I’m not just talking about one comment by one person, I’m talking about hundreds of comments, there and elsewhere, over a period of months.

These people are calling, quite literally, openly, and explicitly for civil war.

I am calling for people to get a grip and to think things through very carefully.

There’s no denying that large portions of the American population are angry and frightened to an extent that has certainly not been seen in my nearly 42 years of existence. But calling for violence should be the absolute last resort. Ideally it should never, ever happen. But what it won’t be, even if it does happen, is glorious. It’s not possible to be romantic and glorious and wage war at the same time.

Leaving the issue of the morality of war aside, the fact of the matter is that any time there is civil war, innocent people – men, women, and children- are always hurt, always killed, maimed, and at the very least, traumatized and displaced. It is also very difficult in a society like the USA to identify precisely “who the enemies are.” For all of you who are calling for blood it’s a good idea to stop and take a look in the mirror, first, and to try to use your logical faculties. The fact of the matter is that we ALL created this culture which has led us to where we are. We have ALL contributed to thing being the way that they are. Most of us have made poor decisions, been apolitical or disinterested, and we have given ourselves the “leaders” which we deserve. We have voted with our pocketbooks, for example, to say that sports stars are more “important” than schoolteachers, we have allowed our infrastructure to crumble to the point that there are third world countries with better systems in place, all in the name of “we don’t want to pay taxes.” Let’s face it, nobody likes to pay taxes. But, the fact of the matter is – taxes are how we purchase civilization. (to steal from Judge Oliver Wendell Holmes.)

In the face of frustration, rage, sorrow, and fear, it can be very easy to feel that the only option is violence. I urge those feeling that way to stop and think again. There are always other options. The truth with a capital T is that there is no glory in war. There never has been. There never will be. That is not to disparage the service of soldiers, or to demean it in any way. And if you think that there is, I suggest that you spend some time examining some of the very excellent documentary and feature films which have been made on the subject, and see if your opinion still holds. For instance I would suggest Stalingrad, the very excellent series about WWII, The World at War (30th Anniversary Edition) and Soldier Blue
, among many, many others.

There is no question that many things need to change here in the USA, the country where I was born, and the country where my family and most of the people I care deeply about live. These changes need to take place culturally, practically, and methodically in how we operate. I don’t begin to know the fullness of all of the changes needed or how they can come about. But beginning with violence is a recipe for disaster. Please, I pray you, think again. Then think some more. This is a time to get very, very specific about the changes we want to see and about who, precisely, is responsible for the situation that we find ourselves in. (There are many who would fall in this category.) “Shoot ‘em all and let God sort ‘em out,” is an ugly, reprehensible way of thinking. Surely we have evolved beyond that mentality…right?

We can change our society but what that will take is for the American people to work together, to stop with the polarization which prevents progress, and identifying some clear plans of action. Blowing things up and killing people is not a clear plan of action. It is simply terrorism. The last civil war in this country was an ugly, brutal time, that left thousands and thousands dead.

It is tempting to blame all of our problems on the “other,” to think it is all Wall Street’s fault, or the president’s fault, or what have you. There is no doubt that there was some criminal and unconscionable behavior along the way which led us to the grim situation our country finds ourselves in, however. Walt Kelly said it right, in 1970, however:

“We have met the enemy, and he is us.”

We absolutely must Learn from history, or we are doomed to repeat it. And the repeating of it will be even more painful than it was the first go-around.  If we come to civil war in this country, there will be no glory in it.  The tenor of the times seems to be a lot like a woman who wakes up one morning and decides that she doesn’t like what’s been happening in her home, and rather than talking to her family, trying to make a plan of how things can change, or considering what part she herself may have played – instead she sets fire to the place with everyone inside and walks away.

Of course, in order to be a good blogger, one has to be consistent, one has to post regularly. Obviously Ms. Sanity has been falling down in that regard. Ms. Sanity’s Mother has noticed this behavior for many a year now–she calls it the “Refusing to write a letter unless all the pencils in the house are sharpened, and you have the most beautiful stationery to use phenomenon,” when of course, the recipient would just be happy to get a durn letter from Ms. Sanity.

Mum’s right on the money there. One should just write the letter. And I know for a fact that I am not the only one with this phenomenon.

I was horrified and pretty annoyed with myself on this Thanksgiving Day when I realized that it has been 29 days since my last post. That’s simply not acceptable. See, when I make a post, I want it to be thoughtful. Original, well-written, preferably well (or at least marginally well) illustrated.

Here are some of my excuses. See if they mesh with any of YOUR excuses. (My father would say: There are always REASONS, but rarely excuses.)

• I’ve been busy.
  Well, we are ALL busy, in one way or another. If Ms. Sanity wants to be a blogger, she needs to blog, yes?
  
• I wanted my posts to be good. Exceptional, even.
  Well, my readers are looking for helpful, hopefully thought provoking information from me, and perhaps a little entertainment here and there, not proof of my substantial brilliance. (heh)
• I wanted to do research and provide LOTS of useful information in my next post.
  Well, even one piece or useful information or one link can make a difference to someone’s life. It doesn’t have to be fifty links! Helping out even a little is better than my silence, yes?

So, now: the flip side is this. I will do my best stop the habit of trying too hard, and perhaps you need to do the same. (Some of us, perhaps including yours truly, may need to watch out for “trying too hard not to try too hard,” but that’s a whole other post….)

Nike’s relatively inspired slogan “Just Do It,” is actually more than a good way to sell shoes. It’s a mantra many of us would do well to hold in mind, and act upon. So here’s my “Just did it” post… and I wish everyone, everywhere, a day or at least a moment of thanksgiving, as we celebrate here in the USA. Have a lovely day.. and don’t try too hard. Good enough is really, good enough, and something is almost always better than nothing…Nobody is perfect, anyway, no matter how hard one tries.

Anyway, ran across this, and it needed more eyeballs:

Apparently Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL), explaining the Republican health care plan could pare it down to two little words:

“Die quickly.”
~Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL)

Major hat tip to twitterist @Ander517 who brought this to my attention.  Said Mr. Anders also added the following link which has a video clip, lest you think we make all this stuff up: click here.

Personally I couldn’t watch it. One is wise to know when to limit one’s news consumption, and I hit that mark a while back….

Onward and upward folks. Personally, I hope none of you die quickly. But then I’m not afraid of health care reform. And it’s not because I expect the frigging government to take care of all my needs, either. But that’s another post…

Over and over and over ad nauseum I’ve seen blogs and “tweets” and letters to the editor filled with craziness, outright, bald-faced lies and inaccuracies not only about the intentions and effects of the (FOUR) potential, proposed bills/new systems – but also about what life is like in the rest of the civilized world where they DO have universal health care. (For you accuracy buffs, there’s no such thing as “Obamacare”… yet, anyway.)

Few people -if any – are idiotic enough to believe that having a system of universal health care creates instant nirvana, nor would any thinking people living in a country with such a system insist that their systems are perfect.

However, because of the work that I do and the fact that I am married to a man who was born in Europe, I know and work with- regularly and intimately- people all over the world. I also, obviously, have relatives by marriage living in other countries, and I am here to tell you that NOT A SINGLE ONE OF THEM would come here for health care, nor would they trade our system for theirs, nor do any of them have any desire whatsoever to come here to live. Period. In fact, none of them will even set foot on US soil without (expensive!) traveler’s health insurance, due to the fact that any sane person knows that a minor accident (much less a serious one) can BANKRUPT a person who doesn’t have health insurance.

Unlike what people have assumed elsewhere, and asked me about, these people/relatives/clients I am referring to – in various European countries – are not exclusively or even usually:

• Very Young
• Very Healthy
• Extremely Poor
• Incredibly Heavily Taxed
• Interested in coming to the USA for health care
• Of the belief that the US is the sole seat of innovation in health care and science in the world. (Check the facts! Other countries invent and produce things too!)

I’m sorry that I’m screaming at you if you have read this far but I’m truly annoyed and sickened and disappointed in the way this health care debate thing is going. I despair at the apparent level of discourse and the seeming inability to think critically about this issue. It’s all fear, fear, fear, machismo, “we’re number one,” fear, money, fear, socialism strawmen, and “I’ve got mine, to heck with the rest of you.” (Oh yeah? Who’s going to perform the roles you take for granted if we little people all kick the bucket? You gonna take your own trash to the dump? Fix your own sewers, your own car, wait your own tables???)

Yes, okay, as someone once  said to me, reasonable people can disagree about the best way to solve the problem. It’s just that there seems to be precious little reasonableness around this issue in the public fora. From anywhere or anyone (quite frankly, at this moment, including Ms. Sanity!)

If you’ve been paying attention, and are living in the USA, you must have seen this stuff flying around also.

Here’s a quote from one of the more authoritative writers who has bothered to do research and to try to deconstruct some of the lies (which are being widely circulated!) One thing many of my fellow Americans are insanely failing to do is to consider the costs of DOING NOTHING. Here’s a glimpse, folks:

The US CBO {Congressional Budget Office} estimates that, with no changes to the {current USA} health care system, premiums will increase by $1,800 per year for the next ten years. That means a family will pay an average annual premium of more than $32,000 by then.

Oh, yeah, that’s going to be easy to handle with an average income in this country of about $48K or so. You really think that with this fabulous economy that your wages are going to go up that much in a decade? Think again.

Look, please, for your own good, for our collective good, for heaven’s sake, do some research, consider (shocking, I know) actually speaking to someone who lives in a country besides the USA about their experiences with their health care, read more than one source, don’t just believe the first chain email you get or the supremely unintelligent Sarah Palin stupidly telling you that we’re suddenly going to start killing off old people.

The simple fact is this: We ARE all in this life together. You do not live in isolation, you do not single-handedly completely create the prosperity and wealth that you have amassed, no matter how much you have–and you have a vested interest in the good health of your fellow man.

If a majority of people in this country cannot begin to grasp that simple fact, then our collective future is far darker than it seems.

In the meantime, cut the crap. There are a bazillion resources out there (factcheck.org is a good one, too) if you don’t trust the ones the government is putting out. But if you’re pulling your hair out over some chain email (or even blog posting, purporting to be from someone’s brother in law who is just “concerned” or from some dude the “health care ranger…”) first have a look here:  at the aptly named “Please Cut the Crap.”

My grandfather once, with a grimace,  years ago, said “People get the government they deserve.” (When the people of the state I live in elected – for his second term- a guy who if not a felon, was certainly “crooked.”) If that’s the case, then by the look of things at the zeitgeist, we are deserving not very much…since so many of you seem to believe you are all living on desert islands, and so on….

To riff on a lovely line from the movie Serenity:

You are not John Galt. Universal health care is not some Evil Empire or socialistic conspiracy leading us to the evils of communism. The Obama Administration is also not some Evil Empire. You people railing against health care are not the plucky heroes. This is not the grand arena.

Get a grip. Cut the crap. Read some stuff and don’t limit your information intake to Fox (Faux) news or, for that matter, Daily Kos or the Huffington Post.

If you don’t or won’t, don’t go crying to the rest of the world in a few years when only five perecent of the population has much access to health care, your premiums are $20 grand a year, and our trade imbalance and business competitiveness is even lower than it is at the moment.

I grew up in this land of hyperbole, these United States, and I know I am prone to overstating the case, (culture seeps in, inorexably, after all.) But these days I cannot escape near-constant visions that many, many thousands are going to have to literally lose their lives due to inadequate health care, before the “plucky heroes” of the right-wing begin to see it. And that quite literally breaks my bleeding heart. It doesn’t have to be that way.

Occasionally I see a thoughtful comment or an infomed and rational opinion about it, and to further that end for people that want to really do a bit of homework about this issue (rather than insanely repeat other people’s talking points…) here’s a few links where you can get some information and make up your own damn mind. Ms. Sanity suggests that instead of just  believing health insurer funded public relations/urband legend lies in your email (which might be said to be from someone’s brother in law)–check to see that the facts are straight.

In the forwards I’ve seen, they’re not even close!An excellent post and analysis about the practice of “recission,” (based on recent comments to congress by a health insurer CEO)…which is when they DROP paying customers because they get sick. This is so well written that even people like me who struggle with wrapping their heads around the math can get what he’s talking about. Link is here.

Yes, there are some people who are worried, angry, totally against reform all on their own and who are not part of an “astroturfing effort.” However, it sure looks like some of the “I’m agin’ it…” stuff happening IS quite literally being run by some PR hacks. Witness this:

Conservatives for Patients’ Rights, the operation that’s running a national campaign against a public health care option, is now publicly taking credit for helping gin up the sometimes-rowdy outbursts targeting House Dems at town hall meetings around the country, raising questions about their spontaneity.

CPR is the group headed by controversial former hospitals exec Rick Scott that’s spending millions on ads attacking reform in all sorts of lurid ways, a campaign that’s being handled by the same P.R. mavens behind the Swift Boat Vets.

Link to the post I excerpted from is here. It’s a post (with some comments) worth reading.

A writer at the wonderfully named blog called “Please Cut the Crap” has posted a most excellent refutation and analysis on some of the email stuff  making the rounds. Here is a MOST excellent refutation of this specific email I’m talking about which is still  apparently flying around the intertubes…. see: http://pleasecutthecrap.typepad.com/…

Yeah, exactly…. please cut the crap, okay? Yes, there are things to be concerned about with regard to health care and its’ reform in this country.  Yes, other countries have challenges as a result of their “health care as a human right” approach. But you know what? Every single person (and I know and talk to many because of the work that I do) who lives in a country with universal health care feels that they have it much, much better than any American but the uber-rich.  They pity us and they don’t understand why we are not effectively having a Bastille Day.

Let’s open our eyes, folks, and be sane. The UK has had universal health care since around the time my PARENTS were born (the late 1940′s.)

Having said that, we don’t have to follow anyone else’s model exactly. (Such as it doesn’t have to be structured like the UK’s exactly or Canada’s or whatever. ) But we do have to do something.  This situation cannot stand. It is up to we Americans to do something about it. But before you go screaming about how awful some sort of health care safety net might be. (Me, I advocate for single payer…) .. take twenty minutes and learn the facts behind all this stuff and the incredible amounts of money that the pharmaceuticals and health insurance companies and so on are playing to keep. The health insurance lobby–I kid you not–has been reported by several reputable outlets to be spending more than 1 million dollars a DAY to block this reform.

Do you think they’re spending all that money because they’re concerned about morality or anything of that nature??

In my mind the only question is whether we are going to collectively get saner about this in the very near future or whether a whole hell of a lot more Americans are going to be devastated or dead due to the health care status quo.  I’m having a hard time believing it’s anything other than the latter. If you are not well informed on this issue you better get that way real quick like your life depends on it. Because it might.

Please prove me wrong.

Of course the intelligent people who read this blog probably were already clear that this so-called explanation is utter BS.  Or, as they might say in Britain, total bollocks.  Here’s one study (printed in the reputable PubMed Central and also the British Medical Journal) which shows the above popular misconception for what it is… a lie promulgated by the people who stand to profit by the curent state of affairs. For my non-American buddies who may somehow not know this: the truth really is on the ground here that people, (and not just poverty stricken elderly people or people who have never had a job) often have to make choices such as whether to buy food or refill a prescription. I have been there many times myself. So the next time people trot out that misconception..call a spade a spade. If there were truth to this, drugs would cost the same or nearly the same in all industrialized countries. They don’t. Oh and not only that, drugmakers in other countries are still pulling in handsome profits, even with their lower (much lower) prices.

On a perhaps happier note, Ms. Sanity also just became aware that as I write this, there is under consideration a bill in the US Senate which would make it legal for Americans to “re-import” drugs from Canada by purchasing from Canadian pharmacies over the internet. If this actually happens, this could be a good thing for some Americans, (though our Canadian brethren might not be too happy about it…)

Not surprisingly, the conservative alarmists are, well, alarmed. They’re claiming with straight faces, even, that allowing Americans to “re-import” these drugs, is unsafe.

Yeah, right, spare me. You’ll notice that there aren’t throngs of Canadians and British folk dropping dead left and right from the medication they’re taking…..

Allowing re-importation (which thousands of Americans are doing or trying to do right now anyway) is all well and good, but shouldn’t we freaking fix our own broken so-called system, rather than sponging off of countries such as Canada and the UK who have been taking better care of their citizens healthwise for decades?

Well, at the very least, US citizens should stop telling themselves (and each other) the lie that we pay such exorbitant and usurious prices for medication because we are politely covering the R & D costs for the entire world.

We pay these prices because we want to keep the big US Pharmaceutical companies really, really, really well-to-do.  I shudder to think what those in management at, say Pfizer, are paid for a year of work. (Yes, they save lives, and so on and so forth, but they also end them, thanks to the crazy prices people are asked to pay for the medication here.)

I don’t have the stomach to look up their salaries right now, though I’m sure the information is available. If one of you trusty readers wants to do so and report back, by all means…feel free.

Instead of using their Federal credit cards to go to brothels and such, these folks are helping their fellow man. Cool!

In today’s busy world it seems that most of us are juggling a great deal. Work, family, friends, and very often in this economy—a side business or two. It can all get to be too much.

And of course our culture, unlike several others, doesn’t typically allow for the long term vacations that, say, many working people in Europe will get—e.g. six weeks or so of paid vacation a year. One would think looking forward to a rest like that yearly could help keep your batteries recharged.

We’ve got to deal with the culture we’re living in, of course, and that means that we need to keep re-charging our physical, emotional, and spiritual batteries on an ongoing and regular basis.

Your faithful Ms. Sanity has assembled some links that may help you to do just that. Complete – as you might have guessed – with a bit of snarky commentary involving current events.

http://www.lifeoptimizer.org/2009/06/18/managing-your-energy/ I’ve linked here to a particular post on this overall most excellent blog on keeping your act together. This post covers the basics…if you aren’t paying attention to the list of things in this item, there’s little chance that you’re going to feel good and function well.

http://www.powerfull-living.biz/blog/ Life coach Lorraine Cohen has many useful and thought provoking ideas about how to live a fuller, more balanced life. Check her out.

This guy apparently was one of the Republicans who were all claiming that  Bill Clinton’s dalliances rose to the level of treason and high crimes and misdemeanors… and whoa, wait, look at him (Sanford) now. (hey, at least everyone KNEW where Clinton was…)

Personally, I don’t think that someone’s marital life or sexual escapades or anything else generally has an impact on whether or not they can do their jobs. I do have a big problem with hypocrisy, though, and with the “it’s ok if you’re a ____ (insert political party here)” attitude. (I do not think that Bill Clinton’s actions were “OK” just because he’s a Democrat. Tacky and in extremely poor taste? Sure. High Crimes and Misdemeanors? Umm, on what planet?)

Usually when people say “It’s not about the sex, it’s about the lying,” as one comedian pointed out not long ago–It’s really about the sex.  But I think in this case I feel ok speaking for nearly every one of the progressives/liberals that I know in saying: We don’ t care about the sex, we don’t care at all who you are sleeping with, Mr. Governor, Mr. President,  Madame Speaker. We just want you to do your damn jobs, and don’t be hypocritical in the process. Is that really so much to ask?

Well, apparently it is, for the moment. But the times they may be a-changing, who knows.

It’s long past time that we stopped pretending that public figures don’t have affairs, have seedy sex, make mistakes, and so on and so forth. The Democrats, Greenies, and doubtless even the screaming loonie party (in the UK) (I never get their name right…) probably do it too. Can’t we just stop being hypocrites, concentrate on doing our jobs, and get on with it? We’ve got people living in tents in America now and a car wreck can leave you homeless and your families financial future ruined.

I don’t give a damn about this guy’s personal life, and I don’t think you should either, but in the meantime, I think people like him (read: all politicians) should ALSO stop trying to meddle in everyone else’s personal lives. We’ve got bigger freakin’ fish to fry, we really do… with all apologies to Mrs. Sanford, who no doubt deserved better.

Executives of three of the nation’s largest health insurers told federal lawmakers in Washington on Tuesday that they would continue canceling medical coverage for some sick policyholders…

Note that these are POLICY holders–who have been paying premiums.  To continue from this same story, located here:

An investigation by the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations showed that health insurers WellPoint Inc., UnitedHealth Group and Assurant Inc. canceled the coverage of more than 20,000 people, allowing the companies to avoid paying more than $300 million in medical claims over a five-year period.

Are you clear on what that means? It means that, by God, they feel perfectly justified in dropping you from your health care if the care you need is too expensive.

A little more from the story:

The executives — Richard A. Collins, chief executive of UnitedHealth’s Golden Rule Insurance Co.; Don Hamm, chief executive of Assurant Health and Brian Sassi, president of consumer business for WellPoint Inc., parent of Blue Cross of California — were courteous and matter-of-fact in their testimony.

But they would not commit to limiting rescissions to only policyholders who intentionally lie or commit fraud to obtain coverage, a refusal that met with dismay from legislators on both sides of the political aisle.

So, again, these people losing coverage are not liars are fraudsters, it could be you or your Aunt Mabel.

And there’s ANYONE in America who would prefer the status quo rather than some sort of Universal Health Care?

Now from the “not much hope” department, here’s some info on our Congresspeople who are currently trying to draft some sort of bill for universal health care.  Have a little look at THIS:

Almost 30 key lawmakers helping draft landmark health-care legislation have financial holdings in the industry, totaling nearly $11 million worth of personal investments in a sector that could be dramatically reshaped by this summer’s debate.

And there’s more…

The first big congressional moment on health care comes Tuesday in the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, which will consider a liberal-leaning proposal that includes the creation of a “public plan” meant to be a government-administered alternative to private health insurance.

On that 22-member panel, at least eight senators have financial interests in the health-care industry worth a minimum of $600,000 — and potentially worth as much as $1.9 million. The investors include  Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), a senior member of the panel, who holds at least $165,000 in pharmaceutical and medical stocks, and freshman Sen. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.), who holds at least $180,000 in investments in more than 20 health-care companies.

And the list goes on, see the link above if you want to see the full list. Sure, it’s very possible that these folks can have all this investment in companies which “refuse to stop dropping sick people off of their health insurance!” and still do the right thing–e.g. provide health care to everyone who needs it.

My point is only that each of us had best be watching, that we need to keep our eyes on the ball here. It’s well past time that they stopped throwing their hands in the air (they meaning our so-called leaders) and crying “We can’t do this, it’s too hard...”

Your life may hang in the balance, folks. Whether you have health insurance or not. If you’re sane, you’re going to be paying very close attention to this issue – and you’ll be investigating it, and letting your representatives know what you think.

But the insurance companies? How can you read the first article and feel for two seconds that they are NOT the bad guys? Especially when, say, the CEO of WellPoint, Angela Braley, was paid $9,844,212 in 2008…. for running a company that denies claims to people who have health insurance! How nice!

By the way, that didn’t include her private plane or an additional “$10,000 for legal services relating to her employment agreement and cash credits.”

If you’re not outraged, you are not paying attention. This situation cannot stand. And if you think it “couldn’t affect you” or someone you love because you have health insurance, THINK AGAIN. It’s the only sane way to go.