I didn't write much about Michael Moore's Sicko when it came out but now I'm wishing I had. He's got a new film on the way Capitalism: A Love Story and that's a great idea for a follow up. One might even call it a sequel, though I doubt it's intended to be (more on that in a minute). Here we are two years later and people are still denying the obvious... when systems are broken they need fixing. I'm not sure that Capitalism is broken exactly but it sure is sickly. It's been on an all sugar immediate satisfaction diet and now it has diabetes. Healthcare is broken. How much more fulfilling could people's lives be if their decisions about how they would contribute to society did not have to come down to "which mega corporation can I work for so my family can (possibly) get medical treatment if something terrible happens?"That rabid right wing site Big Hollywood has a post up by a former SNL cast member I used to like (oops) Victoria Jackson. She always played dumb blondes. I had no idea she wasn't acting. In the post she claims that up is down and down is up and then goes on to prove that it is (only not in the way she thinks) by completely blaming our nation's financial woes on policies that have not even taken effect yet. I already knew that extreme right-wingers weren't exactly reality based thinkers -- I grew up in a very conservative home. I'm familiar with the thought processes -- but I was not aware that they had now invented time machines! What upsets me more than basic economic stupidity (I'm not exactly a math pro myself so I can be forgiving there) is the absurd and damaging attacks the Republican loonies are always making on universal health care. They want the system as is, the system that only benefits insurance companies and not people. Republicans like to scare Americans into thinking that socialized medicine kills people. I suppose they assume Americans are dumb enough to imagine that the streets of Canada, France and England are continually overflowing with dead bodies. The scare tactic question they love to ask is this "Do you want the government making decisions about your health?"
You know, that's actually a good question. But what they fail to ever acknowledge is that none of us, save the extremely wealthy, get to actually make these decisions for ourselves. The insurance companies make them. Didn't these people see Sicko? (Oh right, they didn't. They rejected it out of hand because Michael Moore -- their idea of an 'evildoer' -- made it). The insurance companies are only responsible to their shareholders and guess what? FACT: Our best interests when we need medical treatment are in direct opposition to the best interests of shareholders. The more money they pay out for our health, the less profit they have to split. I'll take my chances with the government, thank you. At least when they screw up, I can attempt to vote them out of office. And, theoretically speaking, the government's best interest (gross domestic product) is not in direct opposition to the health of the population.I'd like to propose some legislation: From this day forward, crazy Republicans like Victoria Jackson should have to dig the graves (bare handed) of each person who dies because they couldn't get the medical services they needed.
