VA is Single Payer

Some time ago I, along with others, warned about how bad an idea it was to have the federal government running the the health care system in this country. The example that I used was the VA system which is totally run and funded by the federal government. I argued at the time that based on my own experiences at the VA that this was going to be an unmitigated disaster shoved onto the backs of Americans from a government that can't keep the post office running and has a multitude of inefficient bureaucratic heavy agencies that have all but bankrupted this country.

Now, in the last few weeks, the American public has finally gotten to see, and hear, just part of the nightmare that the VA has become to those of us whose only option is to use one of those facilities.

At last count, and this number seems to grow daily, there are 26 VA hospitals being investigated for everything, including the secret “death lists.”

I personally have not seen these death lists but I can tell you, again, from my own experience, that it certainly seems like they have lists for a whole lot of things.

Here's just one small example. Eleven years ago, right after I returned from my tour in Iraq, and before being discharged I had to have a physical done. In the course of that physical it was determined that I had pieces of bone floating in my foot as well as a cracked knee cap from a rather unfortunate incident with an explosion. There were other injuries as well but for the sake of brevity, I will keep it to the two afore mentioned injuries, and the fall that came with it. As of today nothing has been done about it, even though it was acknowledged in further exams by the VA, in fact it is buried so deep in my records that I have essentially given up on it. While it hurts it's not life threatening.

So, here is my question for you; If the government can't handle the needs of disabled veterans that make up about one half of one percent of the total American population and they go out of their way to hide, and doctor , records, how in the name of Pete do you think they are going to be able to handle 330 million people?They can't, and what you are seeing, courtesy of the VA, is just a small taste of whats to come to everyone.

This my friends is what single payer looks like in the US. I can't speak to other countries medical systems but I do know that our government is too corrupt and incompetent to take on such a massive plan.

Here is another question; if we are spending 158 billion dollars a year on the VA ,which has proven itself to be a bureaucratic heavy entity and has been caught in fraud and massive spending bonuses to failing bureaucracy, this while poorly covering the ½ percent of Americans who have served, what do you think it's going to cost when you add the other 99.5 of the American population to the equation?

This is a government that can't balance a check book and we are willingly giving them 17 percent of the economy to control? These are the people who you want, the people making their revised death lists and waiting lists, to control your health care? Do you really want to wait months or years for medical treatment only to discover it's too late?

This is what the American health system is going to turn into and this is what single payer is going to become. I will agree that we have to do something to fix some of the inequity that has existed in our health care system but handing the control of it over to the government is a recipe not just for fiscal disaster but also physical disaster for all of us who value our health. The VA will prove to be just the tip of the iceberg.  

I am a bigoted,racist homophobe...

I am coming out of the closet today. Or should I say I am being forced out. It would seem that by today's standards, or lack there of, I am a bigoted, racist, homophobe. There I said it, don't we all feel more empowered now?. I wonder if there's an AA type meeting for me somewhere? Probably not, for me nothing short of shutting up, being audited by the IRS or losing the job that I don't have is going to be the only cure.

For those of you who are a bit confused please let me try to explain before you start picketing on my front lawn because I'm not really fond of pitchforks...

Back in the old days say like 6 or 7 years ago I wasn't any of the afore mentioned things. I had a multicultural bunch of friends, my brother had come out of the closet and married his partner almost 20 years ago and I was good with it. My cousin I had known was a lesbian since I was something like thirteen ,which was an incredibly long time ago, but still I didn't take issue with it because it wasn't my problem. Life was good, I didn't hate anyone, though there are certainly people I wouldn't trust with my back to them, but over all I was at peace with the world and it with me.

Something happened though. The definitions of what it is to be a racist or a homophobe seems to have changed.

Back in the dark ages, when I was much younger, and had more hair, there were people that were massively racist. These were people who had no use for anyone that was not white Anglo Saxon protestant. It had nothing to do with what they said or how they dressed or even what they believed. They hated anyone who was not white. Period. End of argument. These were people who were truly racist. If you were black you were nothing but a lazy nigger. If you were Hispanic, you were nothing but a spic or a wetback. These were the kind of people that invented the Jim Crow laws and the KKK. They were true racist.

But in today's PC world if you are critical of anything a black leader ( please note my racism is confirmed by the fact I won't call black Americans “African” as they are Americans and not African) does or says, or you disagree with their political ideology, think President Obama, Al Sharpton or Jessie Jackson, then you are called out on the carpet as being some sort of racist. If you point out the hypocrisy of the news media in reporting only white on black crimes or ignoring Islamic extremism then that makes you a racist and a bigot. So because I have done all of the above over the last few years and have angered some on the left for having the nerve to be critical, I am, by today's definition, a

racist.

That's only part one. Apparently I am homophobic as well.

I didn't used to think that I was, but I discovered that I must be because I have had the nerve to defend the rights of Christians, and others, to believe as they do, and to speak freely about it, based on the first amendment to that pesky constitution of ours. I have defended the rights of the KKK and the Black Panthers to spew out their hateful garbage and for others who disagree with them to shout out louder but apparently that’s not good enough. Apparently if you express any view that might be not PC or that does express your religious point of view concerning gay marriage you are going to be hammered and quite possibly lose your job or position because of it. Or, as in the case of the NFL, you may be forced to go into classes, if you wish to continue to play, to reeducate your mind to PC thinking. Soviet Union anyone?

So I guess that makes me homophobic. I disagree with the notion of forcing people to violate their consciences or causing them to lose their employment simply because they are following their religious beliefs instead of conforming to what they see as being wrong.

Now, for the 4 or 5 of you who might still be reading, I want you to notice something. In all that I wrote I never said that I hated any one nor was I condemning any ones way of life, yet in the PC world what I have written is just enough to label me as a bigoted, racist, homophobe. There are no actual facts to defend such a position but this is what we have come to in this nation.

If you are not for PC or you are critical of something that is PC you are against us and you will pay dearly. That’s what it all boils down to. This is just mt Simple Minded opinion.

HGTV And Tolerance

As many of you likely know HGTV canceled a television show featuring the Benham brothers, twins who have made millions restoring and fixing up houses and “flipping” them. The show was supposed to feature the both of them helping others learn how to fix up and then flip houses, but before it could even air it was canceled. Why? Because they are Christians who have openly expressed their beliefs. First they oppose abortion and they are for traditional marriage as opposed to gay marriage. Wow, now there's a shocker. Two conservative Christians who happen to believe what they have been taught all their lives, and what most Christians actually believe but are afraid to come out and say. So my question to you o gentle reader and to HGTV is this; What does their religious views have to do with teaching others how to flip houses? Not sure I see the connection.

But alas the left wing media took offense and outed them trying essentially to make them look like some kind of monsters and pressured HGTV not to air the show. So much for tolerance.

Perhaps it's a lack of understanding of what the word “tolerance” actually means. From the dictionary: “Tolerance is a fair, objective, and permissive attitude toward those whose opinions, practices, race, religion, nationality, etc., differ from one's own; freedom from bigotry. a fair, objective, and permissive attitude toward opinions and practices that differ from one's own.

interest in and concern for ideas, opinions, practices, etc., foreign to one's own; a liberal, un dogmatic viewpoint.”

Funny it doesn't say a thing about us agreeing on anything. To quote “The Princess Bride” “ you a keep using thata word, I donna think it mean what you think it do.” What we actually have here is a serious lack of tolerance for those who think or speak differently from what is considered politically correct.

My cynical side that this is little more than a publicity stunt done by HGTV to try to boost their ratings. Perhaps they noticed what happened with AE over Duck Dynasty or how well Chick Fillet did after they were outed, I don't really know but I am very hard pressed to believe that HGTV had no clue as to what they believed before they even started filming.

So some of you might be thinking so what? The brothers themselves aren't really bothered by it so why should you be? It's because it's starting to look like that the only freedom of religion that you can have is one that you have to sacrifice on the altar of political correctness in order to make it in the business world especially if you are in the service industry.

Everyone who pays attention knows about the bakers and photographers who refused to give services for gay weddings,citing their religious beliefs, and what happened to them as they were dragged into court, but I wonder how many of you know that this has happened over 600 times in the last couple of years as various groups, mostly gay and lesbians, as well as some atheists, have gone after Christians and Jews for various reasons over their faith. Tell me something my left leaning friends, why not go to someone else who will provide a service for you rather than showing them, said offending businesses, the same kind of intolerance you feel is being heaped on you? You will get a lot further in getting support for your cause if you show the kind of compassion and mercy that you felt you were denied years ago.

This is where the hypocrisy of the left comes in. Thirty years ago a gay man or woman was risking a lot by coming out of the closet. Many Christians were not very accepting and some openly suggested the AIDS was a direct act of God to kill homosexuals. Gay people were looking for tolerance and acceptance that seemed to be lacking yet over time, and it has taken time, many who were once against homosexuality, never mind gay marriage, have come to accept it. Yes there are still a large number of people, Christians and Jews, who still disagree with the “gay lifestyle” but for the most part it has become a live and let live situation. Gay marriage is already accepted in about 15(?) states and will likely gain acceptance in all the rest before to much longer, yet those very people who wanted tolerance and equality are now attacking the very people they wanted acceptance from in the first place.

Apparently you folks on the left haven't learned a thing.

At some point in time the political winds will shift against you, as it has in the past, and when it does all those people that you have hammered and made martyrs, all the lack of love and tolerance you have displayed is going to come back and bite you in the backside. It's like watching what happened in Northern Ireland between protestants and Catholics one would kill the other because the other had killed the one. It wasn't until they actually sat down and talked that things calmed down and that's the whole point of this.

If all your going to do is try to intimidate and silence Christians and Jews instead of engaging them in open , honest discussion, showing the mercy and compassion and real tolerance that you once so dearly desired ,than you will have a massive fight on your hands that you will eventually lose once the political winds change again.

What I want to see is real tolerance. Tolerance that accepts that others view the world differently and most likely always will. Tolerance that learns that the best approach is always going to be with mercy and love not threats and lawsuits or government intervention.