--- In [email protected], Bhairitu <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > We have "Viper" squads in the Bay Area at BART: > http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19588150/ > > Probably not here so much as to protect us against "terrorists" (in the > Bay Area that could easily be right-wing hot headed Texans) but to ramp > up the terrornoia and keep the populace in their schizoid state. The > spokesman for the Viper squad on the local news last night looked more > like someone they would be interested in than running the show. > > I began celebrating the 4th early by seeing "Sicko" at the local art > house in one of the country's remaining dome theaters. Great film and > there is a slight theme (which no one has mentioned) change at about 1 > hour and 15 minutes to pick up on. That's why I'm seeing support for > Michael Moore from areas you wouldn't have expected. At that point he > begins to look at the bigger picture. Much of what Barry has been > saying about the French health care system is validated and even more. > You wind up feeling that we're really getting screwed in the US and > things really need to change. But gee we wouldn't want Shemp to miss > out on a buck or two on his way to becoming a billionaire would we?
....seeing as I'm one of the very few on this forum who grew up under a socialized health care system (and now living under a semi- socialized system here in the States) I'm probably in a better position than most to comment upon it. But all I will say is this: the solution to the health-care crisis is NOT more government interference in the field, but less. We do NOT have a free-market in health care in this country. It is a regulated monopoly controlled by the American Medical Association, as dictated by federal law. Let's have a real, true free market in health care in which the AMA does NOT control admissions to medical school (and thus control the supply of doctors) and in which alternative medicines are on par with western medicine. > > BTW, Bill Gates is now the second wealthiest person in the world being > replaced by Mr. Slim the Mexican telecom tycoon. Two observations on this: 1) The person most happy about Mr. Slim surpassing Mr. Gates as the richest man is the world is...Bill Gates! When Gates appeared on MSNBC's "The Big Idea" host Danny Deutsch asked Gates about his designation as the world's richest and without hesitation Gates responded that there was absolutely no good has ever come out of it for him, only bother. So I assume handing over the mantle to someone else is a matter of relief for him! 2) Aside from the fact that you gotta LOVE anyone with the name "Slim", I remember an item in the news a few months ago in which Mr. Slim was asked what he thought about Gates' and Buffet's incredible philanthropy (Gates has given about $20 billion of his fortune to charity and Buffet about $40 billion). Slim's response? He wasn't too impressed. He said something to the effect that if Gates and Buffet really wanted to help the world and the poor that they shouldn't give their money to charity but invest it all in other business ventures and become even richer. This is a man after my own heart! Slim does justice to the monologue of the character Arthur Jensen played by Ned Beatty in the movie "Network" in which he says: "It is the international system of currency which determines the vitality of life on this planet. THAT is the natural order of things today. THAT is the atomic and subatomic and galactic structure of things today. And YOU have meddled with the primal forces of nature. And YOU WILL ATONE. Am I getting through to you, Mr. Beale? You get up on your little 21-inch screen and howl about America, and democracy. There is no America; there is no democracy. There is only IBM, and ITT, and AT&T, and DuPont, Dow, Union Carbide, and Exxon. Those are the nations of the world today." "You have meddled with the primal forces of nature, Mr. Beale, and I won't have it. Is that clear? You think you've merely stopped a business deal? That is not the case. The Arabs have taken billions of dollars out of this country, and now they must put it back. It is ebb and flow, tidal gravity. It is ecological balance. You are an old man who thinks in terms of nations and peoples. There are no nations; there are no peoples. There are no Russians. There are no Arabs. There are no third worlds. There is no West. There is only one holistic system of systems; one vast, interwoven, interacting, multivaried, multinational dominion of dollars." "The world is a business, Mr. Beale; it has been since man crawled out of the slime. Our children will live, Mr. Beale, to see that perfect world in which there's no war or famine, oppression or brutality - one vast and ecumenical holding company, for whom all men will work to serve a common profit, in which all men will hold a share of stock - all necessities provided, all anxieties tranquilized, all boredom amused. And I have chosen you, Mr. Beale, to preach this evangel." > Those going out of > business sales at CompUSA must have been really lucrative. > > Happy 4th to everyone. It'll be quiet here for a change as the weather > has been too hot and fireworks are banned in this county. That still > usually means that people are setting some off but I only heard a few > firecrackers over the weekend. There's a big fine and jail time if you > set them off these days. But I was over in Union City which is another > country on Monday and the local kids soccer team had a fireworks booth. > Some message to send to kids eh? I love fireworks but where I grew up > as a kid we would set them off at my uncle's farm over a plowed field > where nothing would catch fire. I'm glad I got rid of my shake roof on > Monday. >
