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/2009/10/27/five-things-for-a-happier-life/ http://www.manicmeltdown.com/2009/10/27/five-things-for-a-happier-life/#comments Tue, 27 Oct 2009 20:18:57 +0000 Ms. Sanity http://www.manicmeltdown.com/?p=296 We all have challenges in our lives, there’s no question of that. And some years (decades?) are far more challenging than others. However, there are some time-tested and fairly (to Ms. Sanity) unquestionable “laws” of life that will go a long way to helping folks lead happier, lest angst-filled lives.  Yes, some of you will know every inch of all of these. Life has taught me that things that seem self-evident to me are not so to everyone. So without further ado, here’s the list:

1.) You are really and truly the only – yes, only -darn person you can control.  There’s no question that you can affect others, you can, and you should. But change them? Nope, not in this lifetime, not on this spiritual plane. That doesn’t mean that we all can sit by and say “ho hum, well, then, there’s nothing I can or should do except do my own thing.” That’s a cop out. What it DOES mean is that trying to control others is futile and crazy-making at best, and a recipe for unmitigated disaster in many, many circumstances.  Once you really come to terms with this, every day gets easier. Make peace with this one quickly.

2.) Nobody gets a free ride.  Yes, I know that’s an old chestnut, but it may take some doing to really absorb the fact. I still remember the moment when someone (a man who taught me a number of extremely painful yet important lessons) said to me in surprise when we were on the topic: “EVERYONE suffers. EVERYONE ‘gets screwed.’ Nobody escapes it. Nobody has a charmed life.” It took until then (and I was well over 20) for me to realize that my suffering was not “special,” or anything of the sort, and that everyone else (or even a few select lucky bastards) was/is not living a constantly easy, happy, stress-free existence. Problems are part of life. Learn to see that this is okay.

3.) We are never, ever given just one chance at happiness or fulfillment.  It is easy, (and I think it’s perhaps human nature) to believe that our entire future happiness and good outcomes in life can hinge on a particular thing, such as “this particular relationship working out,” or “getting into this school,” or “getting this job” or “making x number of dollars.”  Again, that’s not a cop-out inducer to believe that you don’t have to do the best you can in life, you will find yourself far more fulfilled if you DO. However, it is certainly a relaxing-inducing knowledge, once you can find it, that there are ALWAYS going to be other deep, soul-level, meaningful opportunities for us, if the one in front of us, for whatever reason, does not come to fruition. To believe otherwise is to limit yourself, the universe, and your higher power, (if you believe in one) to a level that is really, when you think about it, not only painful but also pretty arrogant. Work this one out, and things become a lot easier. Really.

4.) Listen to others (who have shown they’re worth respect) but go your own way. Both bits of this one are challenging. For instance, your mother, just by virtue of being your mother, if you are an adult, does not, in and of itself, make her opinion very useful or helpful to you – particularly about things that she herself has never experienced. There’s a fairly obscure saying, though, that goes something like this: “If one person tells you you have a tail, you can laugh. If two people tell you you have a tail, then best turn around and LOOK.” In other words, of course, it’s not smart to just ignore every bit of advice/opinion you are given, particularly if you start to hear things over and over. However, ultimately you have to live your own life and it’s the only one you have at this moment anyway. If you decide that what your soul is telling you to do is to move to Italy and learn Italian (with the last $1,000 in your checking account…) and you are sure that this is what you most want and need to do, then GO, regardless of what anyone says. Hey, it worked out well for Elizabeth Gilbert (author of “Eat,Pray, Love”.)  If you wait till what you want is going to please everyone you might as well forget it. Life is short, and people who are completely invested in completely pleasing everyone are usually pretty darn unhappy.

5.) It’s your job to take care of yourself. Yes, the (very very small number) of conservative types who meander into this blog might be surprised to hear a liberal type like myself spout this last one, but it is my firm belief that in today’s world (and perhaps always, I don’t know) in order to be happy and sucessful we have all got to take personal responsibility for our own lives, advocate for ourselves, and not simply sit by and expect someone to come along and fix (any) problem. This also means that after a certain point, you can no longer blame your parents or the Government or whatever for your problems, you will have to make some choices and take some actions, and so on.  If you struggle with this one, it might be helfpful to start by thinking, say, of going to a doctor’s office (ick!) If your leg hurts, and you go to the doctor but don’t tell her that your leg hurts, how can you possibly be surprised if she doesn’t do anything about your pain? Learn to advocate for yourself. You are the one who is closest to knowing what you need. You can have a hand in making sure your needs get met. If you wait by the side of life for someone to notice that you are in pain/need help/etc., you can be waiting a very long time indeed.

Well, readers, if you’ve read this far… which one resonated the most with you (if any?) What are the other biggies I’ve left off? This list of course could have been fifty or five hundred things to consider, but your Ms. Sanity has to start somewhere… 

Photo credit: Chi from morguefile.com

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.

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.

Uh, I can answer that without having to bother anyone to tie me up or anything. Yes, it’s torture. Simple as that.

Apparently the powers that be said that the longest anyone has withstood this particular form of torture was something in the neighborhood of 14-15 seconds.

This guy lasted about 6 seconds. (See link here.)

How completely insane. And some people look to idiots like him to help form their opinions about the world? God help us.

Ok, so perhaps we can look at it as a publicity stunt, but it’s still perfectly appalling.  What next? Someone cutting off Rush you-know-who’s fingers to see if HE will confess to anything interesting?

Come to think of it maybe that’s not such a bad idea. Note to the humor challenged: my next statement is entirely meant as sarcasm, mmmmkay?

Well, heck, if we can water-board one “rethuglican” talk show host, why can’t we water-board them all?

Oh wait, because it’s TORTURE.

Ms. Sanity shakes her head in wonder….Who pays these idiots? and furthermore, who listens to them?

How Is This Sane?

Tipsy Dazy has a comment here that challenged me to think long and hard about, well, everything, and particularly about communication.

Most of the people I have ever known do all tend to make assumptions regarding what is meant by a particular turn of phrase or word usage, (not to mention tone of voice, and so forth…) rather than listening carefully and attempting to think logically or critically or to ask the communicator for more information. I’d be lying if I pretended for one nanosecond that I don’t exhibit that kind of behavior on a regular basis, but hey, I’m working on it.  Read on if you want to know more about my (sane, though I say it myself… heh) ….assumptions.

In thinking about this sort of thing, and as I am today attempting to think about the issues of equality or inequality in American society, Tipsy made me remember that I should at least attempt to consider what some of the assumptions are behind my statements and my “world view.” It may be clumsy but here’s my attempt at some definition.

One of the assumptions that I believe underlie some of my thinking about the world is the idea that it almost certainly is not possible in human society to “legislate equality.” I can remember in my youth as part of my education in literature, reading the story “Harrison Bergeron” originally published by Kurt Vonnegut in 1961.  (available in full here.) I remember marveling as a child at Vonnegut’s brilliantly made point that it simply is not possible–and it is silly to try– to pass laws that will supposedly somehow make everyone “equal” in any real, meaningful way. We are all born with different skills, talents, interests, and capacities, and no amount of law-making is going to change that.

Having said that, I also in my youth digested the famous line from “Animal Farm,” which states: ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL. BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS.

Whether I and my liberal brethren like it or not, (even though Orwell, of course, was speaking out against “some being more equal than others,”) the truth of the matter is that we are not in any way truly equal in the world except in the metaphorical sense of the worth of a human life which is immeasurable, of course….. and that this inequality does now and always will  include our incomes and cash assets. To oversimplify, our conservative brethren seem to me to also oversimplify, and that they worry that libruls (misspelling intentional, sorry) miss that point–e.g. that income, too, is not equal and never will be.

Actually we liberals/progressives, we understand that last point. Really. Anybody that’s tried to make an actual LIVING in America in the last twenty years or so, can hardly have missed it.

I also assume that conservatives (and too, libertarian types…) tend to think that liberals, and/or “progressives” furthermore have some deluded idea that somehow it is possible to wave our non-existent magical wands and make us all equal, in income or by any other measure. We aren’t equal, not in abilities, not in opportunities etc. etc. etc.

Another assumption that I hold, though I don’t think as a general rule that the majority of my countrymen would agree with me…(my friends, yes, and family… but most of the country? doubt it…. )….is that we ARE all equal, however, in terms of WORTH. (Inner, metaphysical, human-dignity type worth.)

Personally, I hold it to be self-evident too that (although, of course, it’s a slippery slope that requires much caution)  just because someone is in possession of assets – cash or other ones – does not mean that they acquired them legally or in any sort of morally acceptable fashion. This seems to be one assumption tenderly nurtured by the Republicans and Libertarians – e.g. that the assumption is that if someone has something today, that they are entitled to keep it in perpetuity.  (Witness the implosion of the entire financial world partly as a result of leveraging and re-leveraging “assets” that were backed by nothing or not very much or .0001 % of not very much… and the continuing clamor of investors to “be made whole.”)

On the other hand just because I might not think, for example, that Alan Greenspan has come by whatever assets he has in his bank account in any sort of moral, acceptable, or legal way,  does NOT give me the right to just ride in and seize his assets. That’s why we have due process, that’s why we have courts, and that’s why the framers tried to limit (not eliminate) the openings for “mob rule.”

Mobs are notoriously not great at critical thinking.

Back to what I think that conservatives and such assume; I think they assume that liberals think that assets can be/should be just taken away willy nilly from the have-mores and given to the have nothings. I don’t think I’ve ever met a person who really believed that.

However what I do assume – and think is self-evident- though again I do not think the majority would agree with me in the United States - is that the inequalities of income CAN and should be leveled at least to a degree.  Take a close look at the graph on this post. How the hell does that make sense in a civilized society?

Oh yeah, that’s another thing. I do not assume that this really is a civilized society. Maybe never has been, when you take even a moment’s glance at our history.

And I certainly do not assume that this country is a representation of “the good guys” in the world, or that we have any right whatsoever to tell other countries how to run their affairs. Clearly our own “house” is not now and perhaps never been in order.

Two last ones before I stop… I DO also assume that taxes are part and parcel of the dues I and anyone else have to pay for living in a society. I do not assume that taxes are bad. Even if I do not think that the people I pay taxes to are stewarding them the way that I would steward them.

Last, and perhaps most important  assumption: I assume, with few and narrow exceptions, that there is not such a thing as “US” and  “THEM,” at least not on this planet. We live in a literal fishbowl – I assume that it is ALL  US. We are all in this damn life together. That seems pretty damn self evident to me.

And I assume that some day we will all assume that – but I don’t think it will happen in my lifetime.

What do YOU assume? What is self evident to you? I really would want to know.

His Holiness The 14th Dalai Lama

I don’t know exactly when I first became aware of the (current) Dalai Lama, but I can vividly remember reading his autobiography and being utterly impressed and astonished at the depth of his thinking and his compassion–even for people in my (young and not very compassionate) view who “didn’t deserve it.” (e.g. those that had tortured and killed his countrymen, invaded and overtaken his country, forced him into exile, and so forth.)

I am not a Buddhist, but there is much about Buddhist teaching that calls to me, and much that I think we all can learn from.

I know it’s a lifelong journey, etc. but personally I am struggling with attempting to feel compassion for people I find reprehensible: e.g. those who identify as being “American Conservative Republicans.” Yet, my lack of compassion toward them, mainly only hurts me, and it certainly does not contribute to something I believe in: which is the propagation of personal, local, national, and world peace and happiness.

In an essay, the Dalai Lama wrote:

Under present conditions, there is definitely a growing need for human understanding and a sense of universal responsibility. In order to achieve such ideas, we must generate a good and kind heart, for without this, we can achieve neither universal happiness nor lasting world peace. We cannot create peace on paper. While advocating universal responsibility and universal brotherhood and sisterhood, the facts are that humanity is organized in separate entities in the form of national societies.

And furthermore, in my country, we seem to be organized in the form of separate entities in the form of political persuasion and/or parties: We have the Rush Limbaughs and Ann Colters of the world who think “liberals” have no morals and should be wiped off the face of the planet.

Yet I further this schism and add to the divisiveness when I rage against the republicans and the conservatives and think of them (and speak of them) as though they have no souls, no hearts, and no concern for their fellow man.

I’ll work on it.  H.H. The Dalai Lama speaks the truth when he says:

Living in society, we should share the sufferings of our fellow citizens and practise compassion and tolerance not only towards our loved ones but also towards our enemies. This is the test of our moral strength. We must set an example by our own practice…

So I’ll start where I am, and for the rest of today, I will try to have compassion for the republicans/conservatives, try not to speak or think ill of them, and try to embody the principles set forth by H.H.T.D.L. (and many other people whom I admire, including my mother.)

I mean, if the Dalai Lama could forgive the Chinese, I should be able to forgive anybody anything… right?

If you’re interested, you can read the rest of this very sane essay written by The Dalai Lama here: A Human Approach to World Peace .

I would encourage you to do so, and to join me in these efforts. This kind of stuff is sane, and may even help make a better world!