On more than a few occasions, President Obama has trotted out a few nightmarish sob stories about people who couldn’t afford “health care” in America, or were turned down by “greedy, soulless insurance companies” that deprived the poor victims of much needed medicines/surgeries/etc….resulting in the untimely death of the poor victim. This tactic is also trotted out by more than a few sycophantic Obama supporters who eagerly trumpet the “Public Option Now” clarion call.
More than a few people on the opposing ideological side have been showing off a few stories of their own, exemplifying the consequences of government run health care.
Several of these stories, whether they be ‘pro’ or ‘con’, have since been debunked in some fashion or another…
(Maybe it’s just me but it seems that more of the “Pro-Public Option” sob stories have been debunked than the “anti-Obama Plan” sob stories…but don’t take that as incontrovertible)
…but I’m not going to speak on any of them, be they ‘pro’ or ‘con’.
I’m simply going to share with you my own sob story. I’ll keep it short & sweet.
I thank you in advance for thinking that my story is worth hearing about.
My Stepfather, Roy, is a US Army Veteran who served in Germany during the so-called Vietnam Era. He witnessed President John F. Kennedy’s famous Berlin speech back when the Berlin Wall still had that “new car smell”, so to speak…and he & his German-speaking buddies couldn’t help but laugh at Kennedy’s famous remark “Ich bin ein Berliner” (“I am a Berliner“) which, according to some parlances, literally translates as “I am a jelly doughnut“.
As a veteran, he is afforded such perks as government-subsidized health care at the nearest VA Hospital for his noble service to his country. Back in 1998, during a routine check-up, the VA doctor diagnosed him with an arrhythmic heartbeat. Nothing too serious, the doctor said. Roy was prescribed some very expensive medication (I’m afraid I cannot remember the name of the medicine) and was told to take one pill a day in order to treat his condition.
Fast forward to 2003…my Mother & Stepfather move to Bonner’s Ferry, Idaho. The nearest VA Hospital is in Spokane, WA…a two and a half hour car trip, one way. However, there was a local doctor in private practice who offered reasonable rates (and occasionally would work in trade; Bonner’s Ferry is a very rural town…lots of hunting for venison!). So, being handy with carpentry and tools, the doctor was willing to give Roy an exam in exchange for Roy helping to fix his leaking septic tank. As expected, the doctor also diagnosed Roy’s arrhythmic heartbeat…whereupon Roy immediately presented the doctor with the pills he was given to treat the arrhythmia.
The doctor read the label and bellowed “YOU’RE TAKING THESE……?!?!?!”
Long story short: If the VA doctor who treated my Stepfather was even remotely competent, he would’ve known that all that was needed to resolve Roy’s arrhythmic heartbeat was to “shock” it back into normal sinus rhythm…kinda like the defibrillators you see doctors use on TV, only not as severe. A quick zap and bingo!…arrhythmic heartbeat problem is resolved!
But no. That’s not what happened.
Instead, due to the length of time that it essentially went untreated, my Stepfather’s arrhythmic heartbeat is now permanent…no amount of defibrillation will ever return him to normal sinus rhythm again.
In addition, the now-permanent arrhythmia caused tiny blood clots to form in his circulatory system. This resulted in a series of “mini-strokes” that plagued Roy for years…mini-strokes that were never diagnosed until well after the damage had been done.
What’s worse…the pills that were originally prescribed to Roy for his arrhythmia didn’t treat his heart: they actually damaged his heart instead.
Now, not only does Roy have an arrhythmic heartbeat but his weakened heart now has to pump harder & faster to do the same job that it used to do. In other words, if Roy does the dishes after dinner he has to sit in his chair and take a nap once he’s finished.
That wasn’t an exaggeration…that is what actually happens. Roy does the dishes, then he has to sit down to rest. It is actually that exhausting for him to do the most menial tasks now.
Consequently, any idea of exercise is out of the question…even walking the aisles in the supermarket seems a herculean task…so now Roy is borderline to morbidly obese.
Did I mention that Roy is severely diabetic?
Do you know what happens to severely diabetic people who don’t exercise & get overweight?
Yep…he’s got that too.
This tragic tale would be quite the fodder for a malpractice lawsuit, don’t you think?
There’s just one small problem:
The VA Hospital is a Government run federal health care program.
That means it, and the so-called doctor who “treated” Roy, is exempt from any & all malpractice lawsuits.
A lot of people, when hearing about my Stepfather’s plight, have mentioned to me that too many doctors that take jobs at VA hospitals are the dregs of the medical profession…meaning that they would never be able to successfully practice medicine in a privatized system. Working under the protection of federal exemption, they can be just as incompetent as they want and nobody can touch them.
Only a fool would believe that a “public option” health care plan that would add tens of millions of additional potential patients into an already overburdened medical system…
(while the number of doctors treating this massive influx of patients would pretty much remain the same!)
…not to mention escalate the amount of red tape and paperwork by one thousand-fold…
(and yet not cost the taxpayers one single dime…according to Pelosi, Reid, Obama, and the rest!)
…wouldn’t result in more cases like my stepfather’s story.
That is, unless something even worse happens to them.
Government-Run Health Care….yay.
Thanks again for your time
On September 11, 2001…
President George W. Bush was told that the World Trade Center towers had been the target of a terrorist attack while in the middle of telling a story to a group of schoolchildren.
Eight minutes later…
President George W. Bush finished the story and quickly left to deal with the crisis.
The Left howled with rage over the 8 minute delay.
On August 30, 2009…
General Stanley McCrystal requests an additional 40,000 US troops be deployed in Afghanistan in order to win the war.
On December 1, 2009…
President Barack Obama finally decides to send 30,000 troops to Afganistan….not 40,000 as requested.
If an 8 minutes delay is all the justification needed to condemn President Bush…how about 93 DAYS?
Is it our turn to howl now?
A popular tactic utilized by many who support any of the multitude of agendas promoted by Leftist ideology (and by Scientologists) is to turn the tables on any argument and force your opponent to “prove a negative”.
That is, if somebody dares question your beliefs or intentions, simply respond to their question with a question of your own. This forces the skeptic to try and justify their own views, more often than not forcing the skeptic to essentially prove a negative, which the Leftist can subsequently criticize or attack….freeing the Leftist from the responsibility of having to justify their own opinion on the subject.
This tactic has been a highly effective tool utilized by groups ranging from Holocaust deniers to so-called “9/11 Truthers” to gay marriage advocates.
Being forced to “prove a negative” is a particularly difficult tactical position…i.e.- “Prove that gay marriage would harm traditional marriage” or “Prove that 9/11 would still have happened if Al Gore was president” etc, etc….
Another group that has latched onto this particularly reprehensible tactic, like a lamprey to the belly of a carp, are the Global Warming believers…especially in the past couple of days.
The reason for such desperation moves, especially in light of their so-called “proven science” and so-called “scientific consensus”, can be summed up in two words:
What I find interesting is that the traditional (read: cowardly) tactic doesn’t work this time.
I speak from personal experience. As I type this, I just had such an encounter with a Global Warming advocate a few hours ago. She was a die-hard Eco/Green/AGW puppet who can’t seem to keep her opinions to herself. Naturally, she just had to pontificate to the rest of us about the typical global warming rhetoric…so I calmly responded about how I didn’t believe in global warming.
She smugly turned to me and insisted that I prove to her & everybody else that global warming wasn’t real….in other words, she demanded that I “prove a negative”.
Luckily, I only needed two words to respond:
She sniffed condescendingly and said that such evidence was nonsense.
Smiling, I said to her “Prove that Climate-Gate is untrue…“
She paused, made a rude comment, and climbed down from her Global Warming soapbox.
Hee-hee! No wonder so many on the Left use such underhanded tactics!
This blog is simply a hat-tip to Josie at the blogsite Domestic Dame. She is a proud American, a staunch defender of traditional values, family, and Conservative ideology, a real smart cookie, and a good friend and a decent person.
Read her stuff….it will be well worth your time:
http://domesticdame.wordpress.com/2009/10/31/obamas-snake-oil/
And if you can’t access her page by my link, here’s the gist of her latest contribution:
My two cents: I find it both interesting and very heartening that they were able to figure this out back in 1948.
You think that any of today’s PDA (Pompous Dumb Ass) Lefty Socialists currently infesting the once-respectable Democrat Party would have the brains to figure it out?
TOM: So…how do you like your eggs?
BILL: That’s not funny.
TOM: What do you mean?
BILL: Asking me about eggs? I’m a vegetarian.
TOM: Since when?
BILL: Since I discovered exactly what happens to animals when they are turned into food.
TOM: You’re kidding, right?
BILL: Nope. I saw a PeTA video online showing the suffering and the mistreatment that chickens have to endure at those slaughterhouses for KFC restaurants. It’s sickening!
TOM: I don’t understand…what did you think happens to them?
BILL: They’re butchered! They’re tortured! It’s grotesque!
TOM: They’re turned into food.
BILL: They don’t have to be tortured, though!
TOM: So…what, we should find a gentle, humane way to kill them before they’re turned into food, then?
BILL: How about not killing them at all? That would be humane.
TOM: That would mean starvation for millions of humans.
BILL: There are alternatives to eating meat…you could go vegan, like I did!
TOM: But I don’t understand why you’re so upset over how we treat a chicken if it’s going to be turned into food anyways.
BILL: They shouldn’t be made to suffer like they do. It’s barbaric.
TOM: So the chickens should be coddled and pampered…until we kill them and cook them to be eaten?
BILL: Or don’t eat them at all! That way we won’t need to do anything to them. They could just be left alone.
TOM: Maybe the chickens don’t see themselves as suffering?
BILL: What??? You think the chickens enjoy what happens to them?
TOM: Maybe they don’t suffer at all. Maybe you’re just projecting your own feelings onto the chickens as you watched the video?
BILL: Oh please! The captive chickens peck each other to death from all the stress and suffering they endure! I’d say that proves that chickens are capable of feeling pain and experiencing suffering.
TOM: How do you know it isn’t merely an autonomic response instead of an actual cognizance of pain and suffering?
BILL: Give me a break! What could possibly behave like those chickens do yet not experience pain and suffering?
TOM: Fetuses.
BILL: What?
TOM: Fetuses. You know, a human fetus…when it’s being aborted…?
BILL: Spare me….a fetus isn’t a viable life form. A chicken is.
TOM: Yet when a fetus is being aborted, it always displays the same reaction as the chickens: a cognitive comprehension of the terrible pain it is experiencing and the suffering that follows….just before it is killed.
BILL: It’s not the same thing!
TOM: Oh? How is it different?
BILL: It just is, that’s all…it just is.
TOM: You mean “it just is” because you say “it just is”?
BILL: A fetus isn’t a viable life form. A chicken is a viable life form.
TOM: …Because you say “a chicken is a viable life form”…right?
BILL: *sigh* You’re so ignorant.
TOM: So because you decree that a chicken is a viable life form, and a fetus is not, you therefore decree that the chicken is suffering but the fetus is not?
BILL: Not because “I decree it”…because it is so!
TOM: Based on your say-so.
BILL: Based on science, stupid!
TOM: That’s not true. Numerous studies by doctors and medical professionals prove that a fetus is fully cognizant while still in the womb. And if it’s cognizant, then it feels pain and suffering. Then an abortion clinic is just as horrible as a chicken slaughterhouse. Right?
BILL: No.
TOM: Why not?
BILL: It just is.
TOM: So, you’re essentially choosing to believe that a chicken is a viable life form, but a human fetus is not?
BILL: If it shuts you up, then yes.
TOM: This still doesn’t explain why you won’t eat any eggs.
BILL: Eggs that come from chickens! It’s meat…and as PeTA says, “Meat Is Murder“!
TOM: It’s only an unfertilized chicken embryo. It’s not like a baby chicken was killed to make anyone’s omelets.
BILL: But it’s still part of a chicken…it comes from a chicken…and it’s still murder.
TOM: Then just call them “abortions”.
BILL: What?!?!
TOM: Don’t call them “eggs”, call them “chicken abortions” and everything will be fine.
BILL: That’s appalling! How does that make any sense at all?!?!
TOM: Well, since you can arbitrarily decree that a fetus, despite showing incontrovertible evidence of being able to feel pain and experience suffering during an abortion, isn’t a real, viable life form…just call an egg “an aborted chicken fetus” and everything will be fine.
BILL: You’re being ridiculous!
TOM: Even better…don’t call them slaughterhouses, call them abortion clinics! That way you can eat your chickens and eggs in peace, safe and secure in the knowledge that your food came from a Planned Chickenhood Clinic!
BILL: That’s sick!
TOM: Why? Because I’m comparing eggs to abortions? I thought you said eating eggs was murder but abortions aren’t? Or are you sickened that I would take a subject that you find so dismissive…namely abortions…and elevate them to the status of eating omelets?
BILL: That is the most vile thing I’ve ever heard! You’re not being funny….you’re pathetic!
TOM: Well, maybe those of us who like our chicken sandwiches and our omelets are simply exercising our “Right To Choose”?
BILL: You should “Choose” to be more compassionate and live a vegan lifestyle!
TOM: Why?
BILL: It’s a better way to live, that’s why. It’s healthier….it’s more beneficial to your well-being and to the well-being of the planet…
TOM: But it’s not who I am.
BILL: It could be if you just tried.
TOM: No it isn’t. It’s not what I am.
BILL: What do you mean by that?
TOM: I can’t choose to be a vegetarian…because I’m not that way. It isn’t a choice for me.
BILL: Ridiculous! It’s an easy choice! All you have to do is try!
TOM: But it goes against what I am…what I was meant to be.
BILL: What about your “Right To Choose“, eh? Heh heh….not so clever now, are you?
TOM: You can’t “Choose” to defy what God and/or Mother Nature intended us to be.
BILL: Of course you can!
TOM: That’s not what the Gay Rights Movement claims.
BILL: Wha…what do they have to do with this?
TOM: Gay activists have long claimed that homosexuals are born that way….there’s never been any proof to substantiate such a claim, but that’s a topic for another time. Anyhoo, gay activists have been quite vocal in opposition to claims that you can choose your sexual orientation. They get incensed when somebody even suggests that they should try to live their lives as heterosexuals because it goes against what God and/or Mother Nature intended them to be.
BILL: And they’re right. So what does this have to do with eating eggs?
TOM: Look at my eyes.
BILL: Wha??…ummm….okay….
TOM: What kind of vision do I have?
BILL: Umm….20/20?
TOM: They’re binocular…..binocular vision. Two eyes used to focus on a target in order to gauge distance and accuracy.
BILL: Okay…so?
TOM: The kind of vision commonly found with successful hunter/predator animals…like lions and wolves.
BILL: Again…so?
TOM: Look at my teeth….do you know what these teeth along the front are called?
BILL: Um…I know this…incisors and canines, right?
TOM: Exactly. And our canines and incisor teeth are specially used to grip and tear flesh. Now I can’t show you my stomach, but if I could I would point out the key gastro enzymatic digestive processes necessary for proper digestion of meat and assimilation of its nutrients. So, if I was born with binocular vision, canine and incisor teeth, and a meat-ingesting gastro enzymatic system….odds are that I was born a carnivore.
BILL: Oh brother…
TOM: And if I was born a carnivore, then God and/or Mother Nature intended me to be a meat-eater. So if it’s wrong to try and convince a homosexual…who might’ve been born that way even though there isn’t any proof to substantiate such a claim…to become a heterosexual then it is equally wrong to try and convince a carnivore…who was indisputably born that way…to become a herbivore.
BILL: Humans are not carnivores, they’re omnivores! They eat both plants and animals!
TOM: So…maybe humans are also born bisexual, then?
BILL: There is the prevailing theory…yes.
TOM: Yet you want all humans to be exclusively heterosexuals.
BILL: What?!?! No I don’t!!
TOM: Then why do you want all humans to be exclusively herbivores?
BILL: I don’t…I mean…aw come on, you’re stretching things out of proportion here!
TOM: How so?
BILL: Homosexuals are born that way…exclusively homosexual! Humans are not born exclusively carnivorous, though! They can choose to live a vegan lifestyle!
TOM: Where’s your proof?
BILL: Proof of what?
TOM: Proof that homosexuals are born that way?
BILL: Wha?…well…I don’t have any, but it’s been proven long ago…
TOM: When?
BILL: …ummm…a while ago…
TOM: By who?
BILL: …uhhh…I don’t know who…but I know it’s true!
TOM: How do you know it’s true?
BILL: I just do, that’s all!
TOM: So….you’re choosing to believe that there is irrefutable proof that homosexuals are born that way…
BILL: Yes!
TOM: …and, as such, you can’t choose your biologically predetermined sexual orientation…
BILL: Yes!
TOM: …but that you can choose to be a vegan…
BILL: Yes!
TOM: …even though a human is born a carnivore…
BILL: An omnivore, you mean.
TOM: …and you believe that chickens feel pain….
BILL: Definitely yes!
TOM: ….but a human fetus does not…
BILL: Yes.
TOM: ….even though it is proven that both the chicken and the human fetus both react in the same way to pain and suffering…
BILL: Well, I kinda doubt that…
TOM: …and, despite their similarities in reaction to pain and suffering, the stuff that happens to fetuses in an abortion clinic isn’t nearly as barbaric or as horrible as what happens to chickens in a slaughterhouse…
BILL: Yes.
TOM: …and, as a result, you refuse to eat an omelet because it comes from a chicken….
BILL: Yes.
TOM: …even though it’s nothing more than an unfertilized chicken embryo…
BILL: Yes.
TOM: …which means it’s even less of a viable life form than a human fetus…
BILL: Yes.
TOM: …and despite being born with the propensity to live your life as a carnivore, you still choose to not eat omelets because they were once part of a chicken…
BILL: Uh…yes.
TOM: …and you choose to regard it as meat, as in “Meat Is Murder”…
BILL: …yes.
TOM: …yet you don’t view a human fetus the same way you view an unfertilized chicken embryo…
BILL: …um…..yes.
TOM: …so, even though you say you can’t choose to be straight when you might not have been born that way, you can choose to be a vegan when you were definitely not born that way. In addition, you seem to have a higher regard for a chicken embryo than for a human fetus.
BILL: ….um……*sigh*……yes.
TOM: So, you regard a biologically predetermined behavior like eating chicken as part of a carnivorous diet to be disgusting and necessitating a lifestyle change…but you also regard a supposedly biologically predetermined behavior like homosexuality to be sacrosanct. And you regard an omelet, made from an unfertilized chicken embryo, to be a vile product because it is meat…and “Meat Is Murder” because of the pain and suffering that a chicken experiences as a result of being processed for food…but you don’t hold a human fetus…an unborn baby…being aborted in a Planned Parenthood Clinic in the same high regard?
BILL: ….well……..yes.
TOM: …and why again, exactly, are you thinking this way and living this way?
BILL: ….*sigh*……because I choose to.
TOM: And how do you justify such glaring contradictions in your ideology?
BILL: I don’t see them as contradictions at all. All my beliefs originate from a compassionate point of view on the subject.
TOM: So advocating a vegan diet…?
BILL: Is compassionate to animals.
TOM: And encouraging a pro-gay culture…?
BILL: Is compassionate for gays, of course.
TOM: And anyone who doesn’t advocate your ideology is cruel and evil…?
BILL: Evil? I wouldn’t go that far…but it is still cruel and deserving condemnation.
TOM: You think that when a person treats a chicken like an aborted fetus, it is cruel…and when a person tells a homosexual to be just like vegans, it is deserving of condemnation?
BILL: Stop twisting my words around! Besides, I told you that a fetus is not a viable life form; an abortion is nothing more than unwanted biological matter that is properly removed from a female. A fetus hasn’t even had a proper life, unlike a chicken…so you can’t even compare the two!
TOM: So, again, an aborted human fetus is no better or worse than an unfertilized chicken embryo?
BILL: Yes…wait…what?
TOM: So….how do you like your eggs?
BILL: ….that’s not funny.
To all those who continue to promote the idea of homosexuality as normal, healthy, biologically predetermined, and deserving of cultural acceptance…I have a request:
Prove it.
That’s all.
Just prove it.
Go on…prove it.
And forget all that “empirical data” bullshit. If I went to Westborough Baptist Church and took a survey of what they thought of homosexuality, then my empirical data would overwhelmingly be anti-gay…would that still be valid “empirical data”?
Of course not.
So don’t waste my time with so-called scientific “empirical data” showing that because a bunch of homosexuals thought of themselves as normal, it “proved” their normalcy.
And you can take any studies or results from anything from a guy named “Kinsey” and stuff them in the trash bin….unless you are also willing to lend credibility to Kinsey’s many claims in those same studies that homosexuality and pedophilia are inexorably intertwined…and are both normal.
(I’ll gladly discuss this comparison later!)
And before you try to turn the argument around and demand that I prove my side…let me point out that, in spite of any of your claims to the contrary, I don’t have to prove anything to you!
I’m not the one demanding that centuries of cultural norms be kicked to the curb in favor of something completely contradictory to both social upbringing, theological teachings, anthropological development, Darwinian Theory, and the gut instincts of billions of human beings….you are.
If I stood up and demanded that violence and murder….something that has been an integral, if unpleasant, part of human existence since the dawn of man itself…suddenly and completely be regarded as normal, healthy, and deserving of cultural acceptance…
…how ridiculous would it be for me to demand that you, who are aghast at the idea and vociferously oppose any such radical social re-engineering, be the ones to justify their arguments against such actions?
So, if you insist that I embrace homosexuality as normal and as something deserving of cultural acceptance, I’m not the person who needs to justify my views on the idea.
You are.
This is your argument.
So prove it.
You can’t, can you?
Don’t bother trying to find excuses…we both know you can’t.
What’s worse is that we both know you won’t even try.
I’ve read your book: After The Ball: How America Will Conquer It’s Fear And Hatred Of Gays In The 90’s by Marshall Kirk and Hunter Madsen.
I know how you play the game.
And I know how you are “gaming” the system in your favor.
And what’s more, I understand why you need to “game” the system in order to get your way.
Because if you were telling the truth…if science is on your side…if you had all the facts…and you were on the side of right…
If all that was true…my earlier request would be a snap.
And we wouldn’t be having this debate, would we?
And this is only the first reason why I may never jump on the pro-homosexual bandwagon. You can’t prove your viewpoint…in fact, you won’t prove it. Instead you manipulate and deceive others into either embracing your views or, at the very least, questioning their own views.
You see nothing wrong with such tactics, eh? Then let me put this to you:
Mathematicians don’t debate whether 2 + 2 = 4.
Firefighters don’t debate whether fire is or isn’t hot to the touch.
Yes, there is a group called “The Flat-Earthers Society” but they hold no credibility in the eyes of astronomers and even cosmologists.
Yet, the so-called experts on psychiatry and sexuality still debate the validity of your claims about the normalcy of homosexuality to this very day.
And again, you won’t even try to rationalize your views…you only pompously demand that I justify mine.
Still insist I’m wrong? Still think I shouldn’t be saying these things? Still think I’m just being a closed-minded idiot and an intolerant hater?
Prove it.
Barack Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize! Thank you, Affirmative Action ……………… and George W. Bush!
So…
Only two weeks as president and Barack Obama had enough qualifications and accomplishments under his belt to win the Nobel Peace Prize.
Hmm…
If I were of a suspicious nature……
————————-
You know…something just occurred to me.
Jimmy Carter won the Nobel Peace Prize as a big “F*** you” to George W. Bush…
Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize as a big “F*** you” to George W. Bush…
Now Barack Obama has won the Nobel Peace Prize….as a big “F*** you” to George W. Bush.
Maybe George W. Bush should win a Nobel Prize for introducing so many Nobel Prize winners to the world?
Just a thought….
Scene: The Ed Sullivan Theater during a taping of The Late Show with David Letterman.
“Did’ja hear that Sarah Palin was in New York this week? She attended a NY Yankees game this week…kind of embarrassing, though. Her daughter got knocked up by David Letterman during the seventh inning stretch….“
*Audience laughs*
“No…actually I was referring to Bristol Palin getting knocked up by Letterman, not Willow Palin…“
(A-Rod was unavailable for comment.)
In the spirit of the season, I suppose…
————————————–
“Hey, you ever heard of this guy named Roman Polanski?”
“Didn’t he do Rosemary’s Baby?”
“Among others, I’m sure…but he’s also a movie director.”
—————————————
(H/T to Jim Treacher…he always brings the best funny!)
