Category: Politics

On Health Care

The Nobel Prize discussion quite reasonably morphed into a health care discussion.  So, if anyone wants to continue that, here’s a place to do so.  My position is as follows:

For purposes of this discussion, “profit” refers to money that comes from appropriating the labor of others (“exploitation” in the strict economic sense).  If a company bills a nurse practioner at $75/hour, and pays the nurse $20/hour, the $20/hour is wages; the portion that goes to the company out of the remaining $55 is profit.  Money earned by a doctor is not profit, money earned by an insurance company is.

That said, I do not believe it is possible to solve the health care problem, or even significantly improve it, while profit is still a consideration.

The Nobel Peace Prize, forsooth

As I mentioned on Twitter, giving Obama the Nobel Peace Prize would be like if the 1907 committee had given the Nobel Prize for Medicine to Mary Mallon.  It would be interesting to have some documentary filmmaker speak to the Afghan and Pakistani civilians who have lost family members and get their reactions to Obama’s prize.  But I guess it’s better now than after he has “convinced” Congress that Iran has to be invaded in the name of peace and democracy.

Obama gets the peace prize.  There really needs to be a stronger word than “cynical” for situations like this.

On Roman Polanski

All right, this is getting to be too much.  I ignored it when a friend warned me not to “defend rapists” on her LJ for linking to an article  (See sidebar for the link.)  Now another friend has signed a petition calling for this 76-year old man to “receive justice.”  The cynicism is appalling.

There many issues and sides to this, but three of them come to mind: One, the power of the media to sway even smart people.  Two, as an example of PC thought: if you say rape, or child molestation, or racism, or certain other words, then suddenly nothing else matters, and people must line up and declare their allegiance or be A Bad Person.  Three, the way the wishes of the victim are being systematically ignored, as if she has no interest in this whatsoever, with the result she and her family are forced to be victims still and again.  That is what really pisses me off.