Decrepit Old Fool

The BBC reports: It didn’t take long after Prince Harry wore a nazi uniform to a party before German MEP’s began calling for a Europe-wide ban on the symbol.   You could almost hear the cartilage cracking from all the knee-jerk reactions.

What would you think of anyone who painted a swastika on a baby’s forehead?  Or printed it on a wedding invitation?

You know where this is going… the swastika is sacred to Hindus, and also to Buddhists.  Its traditional use far predates that hairstyle-challenged dictator of 20th-century Europe.  It’s just another example of how our opinions of others are often based on cultural assumptions or some other externality. 

The politically correct are not immune to this human foible, they’re just a little more self-righteous about it.  Ostensibly against censorship, they’re ready to ban a symbol all across Europe because some royal twit committed a gaffe at a party.

One British Hindu put it this way:

“Just because at a particular moment in history one section of society used it, or a mirror image, to unleash xenophobic ideology does not mean Hindus should be punished.  It’s like saying the Ku Klux Klan burn crosses so therefore let’s ban the use of crosses worldwide.”
- Ramesh Kallidai

Thanks to The Revealer for the link.

BBC reports the “We Are Family Foundation” (WAFF) has done a video remake of Sister Sledge’s hit, “We are family” featuring Spongebob Square Pants, and is planning to mail it to US schools in the spring “to promote tolerance and diversity.” 

A conservative group smells a rat… a gay rat.  Or more correctly, a gay sponge named Bob in square pants.  Apparently, Mr. Pants is gay.  At least, he’s popular with gays, and what else do you expect from a guy named “Pants?”

“We see the video as an insidious means by which the organisation is manipulating and potentially brainwashing kids,” Paul Batura, a spokesman for Focus on the Family, told the New York Times.

James Dobson even singled out the squishy one in a black-tie dinner in Washington.  But Pants’ creator Stephen Hillenberg responds that “Sponge Bob is not gay.”

The conservatives probably are right: the video probably is a vehicle to promote tolerance and acceptance of homosexuals.  Among others.

On Tuesday this week, US Senator Dick Durbin visited Bloomington and met with The Pantagraph newspaper editorial board.  AFter talking about many issues including social security, he came up with a stunningly simple suggestion for simplifying the tax code:  make members of Congress fill out their own tax forms.

It seems Durbin’s bookkeeper died, so the Senator decided, “What the heck: I’m a senator and an attorney.  How hard can it be?”  Heh.

The Pantagraph thought Durbin’s suggestion was made tongue-in-cheek, but I would like to see it really happen.  Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!

Luckily, I have a good accountant, whose services I cherish.  There’s no way in hell I could make sense of those tax forms by myself.  (As a bonus, he’s a Libertarian – just the perfect political persuasion for a tax accountant!)

I’m not a very consistent liberal.  Despite voting for both Clinton and Kerry, and opposing the war in Iraq, I disappoint my friends by shopping at Wal-Mart and opposing gun control.  (There are lots of other examples but I don’t want to get off-track here.)  Universal health care is one of those issues – I’m for it, but not for the usual reason.  Leaving aside the curious notion of a “right” to health care, I prefer a greedy, capitalistic “what’s in it for me” approach.  We’re spending more on health care than anyone else and getting less for it.  In short, we’re being ripped off.

Go read this entry at Stupid Evil Bastard: “The problem of 45 million uninsured Americans hits home.  Hard.  It seems that one of Les’ cousins died young because of pneumonia – because she didn’t have health insurance.  She thought she had the flu and couldn’t justify the expense of a doctor visit …
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I hope you will go read the entire article with the comments.  Here’s an excerpt:

…I called my mother back to see if there were any more details and that’s when I learned how Debbie had died. It wasn’t a bad car accident, as I had assumed, or a long term known condition such as a weak heart or cancer. Debbie was killed by pneumonia. That’s right. An easily treatable disease that is normally semi-serious to people our age only if left untreated. Debbie had been sick for awhile with what she believed to be the flu, but she never saw a doctor for it because her family didn’t have health insurance and she couldn’t afford to pay for the office visit herself. Her husband is working a newspaper delivery route that doesn’t offer benefits and I believe she was unemployed. Her kids were at home with her when she died. They called 911 first and then they called Diane who tried to talk them through CPR until the paramedics arrived, but it was to no avail. Debbie was gone before the paramedics ever walked through the door. Apparently Debbie never recognized just how ill she was as she never asked her mother for help. Diane says had she realized how sick her daughter was she would have given her the money to go to the doctor, but Debbie assured her she was OK. She wasn’t OK and she ended up drowning in her bed because she couldn’t afford an office visit.

When I heard this I was stunned and angry. My heart breaks for Diane as I can only imagine the pain of second-guessing yourself over the death of your child. So too for Debbie’s husband and kids. I barely know these people so my sense of loss wasn’t immediate with the first phone message, but it hit home once I learned the details of what happened. This sort of story probably happens many times every day in a nation with 45 million people living without health insurance and that’s just insane…

One commenter thought the anecdote was not important to policy questions and that Les should be more “objective.” If you’re unmoved by that tragedy, you just don’t have a heart.  To me, being an American involves thinking about the best way to achieve “a more perfect union” and promoting domestic tranquility.  In other words, it does make sense to keep unnecessary holes from being torn in the fabric of society.  What’s the cost of this kind of travesty?  Here’s a partial text of the comment I left on the thread:
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…As for the proported debacle of government-led (“It would be a disaster”) health care, you have to ask, has it been a disaster in other countries where they do it?  No?  You mean those pinko countries are spending less per capita on health care than we are and living longer in the bargain? Exactly.  We are spending more and not getting our money’s worth.

Health care for all serves the taxpayer’s purely selfish interest.  It gives doctors a chance to spot early warning signs, so it often prevents unnecessary major medical expense.  It keeps people working (and thus paying taxes) because it helps them manage chronic diseases better.

As for the danger of an inefficient bureaucracy, what we have in this country is a whole bunch of inefficient buraucracies that can’t communicate with each other: health care providers and insurance companies.  The waste – the egregious diversion of money that is supposed to be for health care – is unconscionable…
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I included two personal examples of why bad health insurance (and its more-evil twin, no health insurance) aren’t just a hazard of poverty, they’re a hazard to the economy.  We all pay when people working low-end jobs don’t have adequate health care – believe it!

The objection might be made that the rich will always have better access to health care and I have no problem with that.  If the national policy didn’t cover heart transplants but did cover cholesterol screening, that would be OK. 

Please, go read the thread.  You’re welcome to be against universal health care if you like but please understand there are other reasons for it than just bigger government. 

UPDATE: 17 January ‘05, check out this article, “The nail hit him in the head” over on Capitalist Pig vs. Socialist Swine.

… “This is the second one we’ve seen in this hospital where the person was injured by the nail gun and didn’t actually realize the nail had been imbedded in their skull,” neurosurgeon Sean Markey told KUSA-TV in Denver. “But it’s a pretty rare injury.”

Lawler was recovering Sunday in the hospital, where he was expected to spend several more days.

Despite his lack of medical insurance and hospital bills between $80,000 and $100,000, Katerina Lawler said her husband is in good spirits…

My old minivan gets about 21mpg in town, but it’s getting about time to replace it. Since I never drive off-road, and seldom carry more than two passengers, a sensible car would be a good choice. Too bad car buying isn’t usually a rational process.
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How about an SUV – a really big one? Yeah! That would show ‘em. All those little cars, like Ford Tauruses or Toyota Avalons – would scatter when they see me coming. I could sit up high and see way down the road, when I’m not talking on my cell phone. And if I ever got in a collision, too bad for the other guy.
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Of course, the guy behind me couldn’t see anything around my SUV, either. But he should buy an SUV too if he wants to see what’s up ahead. What a weenie. He deserves to be walled in by real cars driven by real Americans.
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I know 15 of the 19 hijackers came from Saudi Arabia, and some peaceniks say that oil money supports terrorists. But that’s what the Department of Homeland Security is for. Besides, if anyone messes with us, we’ll bomb them until they don’t hate us anymore! If we can find them. Too bad for the innocent people they hide with.
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Recently I saw on TV how SUV’s aren’t really safer than weenie-cars, how they roll over, cause broken necks, and kill people in other cars. Then last month, two studies said the same thing. But I’d FEEL safer in an SUV, and how I feel is much more important than road safety or national security. Those anti-SUV people should just get a life. Which they can keep until they run into my SUV – Hah!
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Think I should get the onboard navigation system? How about the DVD player? How big are the drink holders? I like big drink holders… POSTSCRIPT: president of my fan club writes a response to this editorial!  ¶ 10:13 AM