Health Care vs. Property Rights. Do Police and Fire Depts. make us socialists?

Opponents are mounting their predictable arguments against real health care reform and if you listen to conservative talk radio ( I do so you don't have to) or read their blogs it quickly becomes obvious that something more visceral than a simple policy disagreement is going on.  To be honest Im not sure why but for the right health care has seemingly become the economic tipping point beyond which we start dissolving individual property rights, much in  the same way social conservatives think gay marriage will cause the sky to fall.  Neither makes much sense. 

In the interest of full disclosure I should say I don't love Obama's plan but politics are the art of what is possible, not what is best.   That said it seems strikingly clear to me that to the extent we believe in morality and common goods we should not have such arguments about disengaging health care from profit motives.  It should be the obvious thing to do.

The reality is that governments in fact do a very good job of providing tax funded single payer services that protect private property, we call them police and firemen and as far as I can tell nobody is arguing that you should only get the police or fire response that you can pay for.  That would be an obvious moral failing.   The point we should be asking conservatives to expand on then is why they believe society should value personal property above personal health. 

If it is unthinkable for us to allow a house to burn or be burglarized if the owner cannot afford protection how is it any more reasonable to allow people to suffer or die needlessly if they cannot afford adequate health care?   No matter what my income conservatives see my property rights as sacrosanct but for some reason they believe  my health should be contingent on how much money I have.  

They should have to explain why.

Judge Fleming Needs Some Grief Over This

This decision by Judge John Fleming is ridiculous regardless of whether the man involved was a cop or not.   Judge Fleming is an employee of Cook Co. meaning he sets his table and buys his clothes with our tax dollars so its only fitting that when he gives a slap on the wrist to a man who beats an unarmed woman with no provocation at all and expresses no remorse for his actions he needs to hear about it.  

Here's what you do:

Judges can't be contacted directly but there are several numbers for the Circuit Court of Cook Co. that you can call and politely express your disappointment.

Clerk of Circuit Court

1-312-603-5031

Executive Clerk for Court Operations

1-312-603-5400

And secondly be sure to file this away come election time and make absolutely certain that you find Judge John Fleming on the butterfly ballot and vote his ass out.

Thank you, that is all.

Burqua Free France

Appropriate sentiment I think but I would not support governmental proscription.  As I have said before I do not find it credible to view burquas as just another in a series of otherwise morally neutral choices.   The line between the patriarchy that enforces the practice and the men beating and killing people on the street in Iran is necessarily direct. 

Where are the tanks?

While this has certainly been horrible the carnage hasn't reached the level of Tiananmen yet and there must be a reason for it.  China '89 didn't produce these kinds of images of riot police throwing stones and running away in fear from mobs of people.

The mullahs have more than enough firepower at their disposal to crush this in a day and clearly they have no qualms about murdering people in the street so it must be something else.  Could it mean that the military will not participate?  If the best they can do is send helmeted police into the street to swing sticks at thousands of people willing to die then it is already over and the only remaining issue is how soon will they be out of power.

The moral arc.

Its hasn't been entirely clear to me why matters in Iran have become so visceral to me but they have.  Trying to stay on top of events amounts to most of what I've accomplished these last nine days or so and I don't think I've even done that particularly well.    Things reached a crescendo yesterday afternoon when I saw the tweeted video of that young women bleeding out in the street and for the second night this week I didn't sleep much because I couldn't turn my head off.  

Why the hell do I think this is so important?

I feel like we're watching Paris 1788 and a large swath of the world will be forever changed as a result.  It seems that when viewed in context with Obama's win and the recent election in Lebanon a very cool and unexpected thing is happening in a troubling part of the  world.   The fuckers are losing, or at very least getting pushed back.  The old fear and hate-mongering looks exposed and weak, and slowly slowly slowly the bulk of humanity is turning towards its better self.  Or that's what I hope.  

In Clash Of Civilizations   Samuel Huntington offered that the fall of the USSR and the end of the Cold War would not lead to a less dangerous world but rather a more dangerous one.  Global tensions might fall away but they would be replaced by ancient and festering localized and tribal conflicts that were likely to be more passionate and far more vicious than the proxy hot-spot wars waged between the US and Russia since WW II.    Think Sarajevo.

In particular Huntington painted a bleak demographic picture for the West as future Eastern and Muslim worlds in particular grew younger and increasingly polarized around traditional orthodoxies that would necessarily be in conflict with us.  For the better part of the last 20 years there has been scant reason to think he might be wrong and I've often thought that my kids or grandchildren could likely have that clash passed on to them tenfold.

Until Iran.  

In his statement yesterday Obama referenced MLK in saying that he believed that the moral arc of the universe may be long but that it always bends towards justice.  I don't know that I can or should believe that.  Ideas like justice can be relative and are often zero sum.  But its no small thing to be reminded that things do get better.

Reference Points.

Certain moments of recent history will always have the capacity to both choke me up and give drastic perspective to the fact that beyond raising my children I have done virtually nothing of consequence with my life as of yet.  Taken no risk on behalf of a greater cause.  Sacrificed no safety.  Never put someone else's interests substantially above my own.

The man who stood in front of the tanks in Tiananmen.  Pat Tillaman's sacrifice.

And now this woman's murder on the street in Tehran.   As her eyes go blank they catch the camera, and the stare is penetrating.

Why daddy has no friends.

I've long been aware that I don't do "other people talking" very well so this how-to win friends and influence people post from Volohk is advice I'd do well to take. 

  

But lets not hold our breath.

Fortunately Im married to a socially  gifted woman who is loved by all, probably because she doesn't struggle to remember people's names or birthdays and really seems interested in most of what they have to say.  Thats just not me.  Im no more likely to stop being a socially isolated dick than she is to start being one.   Its hardwiring.  Im not aware that Im making a series of  dick choices.  Im just experiencing things as they come.   Lots of people really seem kind of boring or facile in their interests and its not at all clear to me how being friendly with them would be a boon to either of us.   

Pass it along

GOPers not grasping the social aspect of social networking.

For whatever reason the sudden rush among the right wing to counter the on line networking skill of the Obama campaign and subsequent administration just makes them seem more and more like our fathers mowing the lawn in black socks and wing tips.   Its like they don't realize that other people might actually be reading their posts, as in people who aren't racist and ignorant hayseeds.  I realize there aren't many conservatives left out there but this is getting ridiculous.

First we're treated to this boob who evidently couldn't foresee that comparing an escaped gorilla to Michelle Obama's ancestors might lead to trouble so he tops it all off by claiming she started it  (?!?) and then we get another deep thinker on the right who cant resist mining comedy gold in another racist joke about Obama and aspirin being white.  

Could it be a coincidence that both these guys were from South Carolina? I think not.  When you are reduced to  a southern rural party these are exactly the kinds of dogs you'll lie with.  Its one thing to be racist but its another thing entirely to be so inept that you cannot help but reveal yourself to be a racist.  This is your GOP.

They're killing protestors now

This is what is happening to students and young people protesting the election.  The Twitter feed is one of many reports that the muscle for this crack down is not coming from Iranian secret police but Hezbollah Hessians shipped in from Syria.