Doublespeak Translation: Guaranteed coverage=Forced to purchase insurance

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Tuesday March 23, 2010 · 10:15 AM PDT

2010/03/23 · 10:15

It's official. The precept that the foundation of the American economy and it's health care system should be controlled by gambling interests for profit has been passed into law. Those who refuse to purchase their health care lottery tickets will be fined or jailed. But hey, let's celebrate the political victory of the democrats over the republicans! Let's not admit that both parties are controlled by insurance companies/gambling interests who are the only winners in this extortion scheme that's now been legalized.

Avatar: A Tale of Health Care Held Hostage

ottergirl

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Monday March 22, 2010 · 4:56 PM PDT

2010/03/22 · 16:56

As someone who votes with their money, I don't go to the theater very often. Curious about new advances in animation technology, an illustrator friend of mine convinced me to come along and see Avatar. Wanting to know just who and what my movie dollars would be supporting, I started researching Avatar. Specifically, I wanted to know who funded it. A little over 44 million of the 500 million dollars it took to make the movie was funded by New Zealand taxpayers, with 30 million being funded by American taxpayers in the form of government grants. (I can't help but digress here just long enough to ask "since I contributed to making it with my taxes, where is my cut of the billion dollar profit?") The names of other financiers were not as easily accessible, so if any of you out there have information about this, your contributions would be appreciated. The immoral moral of the story seems to be "All you have to do to receive health care is agree to destroy other civilizations until you find one with superior health care that will allow you to immigrate".

ottergirl

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Wednesday January 06, 2010 · 2:02 PM PST

2010/01/06 · 14:02

Portland, Oregon. Tuesday night. The hall is packed. The crowd waits with bated breath to be entertained, validated, recognized by virtue of their attendance at this lecture as bona fide fringe members of the intelligentsia, to see someone tell the truth and not be struck down by the wrath of god or tortured, exiled, sanctioned, assassinated or crucified by his minions. Look! He dares comment publicly upon the emperor's nudity, and yet he lives!

We are hungry for courage, for truth, for science, for eloquence, and we shall not be disappointed.

ottergirl

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Wednesday September 30, 2009 · 12:21 PM PDT

2009/09/30 · 12:21

I've been watching the recent crackdown on free speech by the non-elected illegitimate regime that recently seized power in Honduras with great interest for the last few days. Television and radio stations are being shut down, protesters being beaten bloody in the streets by corporate-funded riot police. It brought me back to post-9/11, when Bill Maher's show, Politically Incorrect, was cancelled, and rumors flew that all disc jockeys working for Clear Channel radio stations had been forbidden to play John Lennon's "Imagine".

In contrast, today, Bill Maher has a new show. Jon Stewart is still going strong, and Steven Colbert is perhaps the most politically influential comedian and social critic since the late great George Carlin. By all appearances, free speech is alive and well in America, as evidenced by Steven Colbert's public nose-thumbing of conglomerate media magnate Sumner Redstone (Rothstein), who, it turns out, voted for George Bush in the last election. Yes, one can certainly enjoy a remarkable degree of credibility with the masses when it appears that they are willing to bite the hand that feeds them in the name of the principle of free speech. But what does this evidence really mean?

ottergirl

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Tuesday September 15, 2009 · 4:42 PM PDT

2009/09/15 · 16:42

I believe that the recent resurgence in the popularity of Ayn Rand's works is based in fear, a fear similar to the kind that slave owners felt while Atlanta was burning.

As an arrogant youth, I too was seduced by the logic of Ayn Rand, mostly because I felt that because I understood For the New Intellectual, I could assume my rightful place amongst them. It was a bit like Revenge of the Nerds. Having been shunned by those more popular, with popularity being based on a mindless willingness to conform, it was our turn to have a table in the lunchroom, to be the cool kids who didn't care whether the masses liked us or not, to shun others. Why? Cuz we were better than them, anyway!

ottergirl

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Tuesday August 25, 2009 · 11:05 AM PDT

2009/08/25 · 11:05

The insurance companies, or, as I like to call them, professional gamblers, have done it again. By Joining forces with the banking industry, which then made loans dependent upon buying insurance for whatever item the loan was taken out for, they guaranteed themselves enough money to successfully bribe the government. By bribing the government, they successfully got laws passed forcing all drivers to buy insurance, whether the vehicle had a bank lien on it or not.
Of course, we are "free" not to buy car insurance--if we are willing to pay astronomical fines, lose our licenses, get arrested by someone with a gun, and do jail time. They think they can succeed in implementing a similar system for forcing us to buy "private" or "free market" health insurance.

Poll

19 votes Show Results

Have gambling interests completely taken over America?

19 votes Vote Now!

Have gambling interests completely taken over America?

Yes, banks and insurance companies own the government and resistance is futile

7 votes

Yes, more people work for government, banking and insurance than for all the other sectors combined.

4 votes

Almost, but there is still hope if people are educated about the dangers.

8 votes

No way! Their power is just an illusion that we can stop believing in at any time.

0 votes

Maybe, but it could be only temporary because people who work in these industries might occasionally suffer guilt.

0 votes

Twisted deather logic--profit or euthanasia--can I pick none of the above?

ottergirl

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Tuesday August 11, 2009 · 9:28 AM PDT

2009/08/11 · 09:28

Euthanasia or profit-based health care--are those my only two choices? Really? I keep trying to wrap my brain around the twisted logic of the "deathers", but I can't seem to do it. The math logic seems to go like this---health care minus profit motive equals euthanasia. This seems like reverse logic to me. Insurance companies make more money by NOT treating illnesses. It is in their best financial interests for those customers who require expensive treatments to die. Apparently, we are being asked to trust insurance companies based only on the fact that they want to keep us alive because only live people can pay premiums. This logic does not seem to take the pre-existing condition called "life" into account--or more importantly, the quality of life.

ottergirl

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Monday August 10, 2009 · 8:40 AM PDT

2009/08/10 · 08:40

Why, in the public debate over the creation of a national public health care system, aren't we listing all the pros and cons? My reasons for being in favor of the public option are similar to the reasons I am for limiting private land use. Sure, my neighbor is free to use his land as he sees fit--unless he wants to store nuclear waste on it for a profit, because all the surrounding land will be affected by it, including mine. Similarly, if my uninsured neighbor has a deadly communicable but treatable disease, chances are that I, along with the rest of the community, will contract the disease as well. Man-made laws of private ownership are powerless to overrule the laws of nature, some of which are apparently socialist. Aside from the obvious benefit of protecting public health, there are other compelling reasons for creating an all-inclusive public health care system. Paradoxically, by obeying the socialist laws of nature, the Darwinian theory of natural selection, which capitalism is fond of appropriating for its own purposes, would be allowed to actually operate without interference. This would result in the extinction of the unfittest, namely, asshole bosses.

ottergirl

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Thursday August 06, 2009 · 11:23 AM PDT

2009/08/06 · 11:23

In my continued efforts to learn more about the people and processes involved in creating the global economic crisis, I'm currently slogging my way through the Wikipedia article on the Federal Reserve Bank. One of the most disconcerting things I've found so far have been the seemingly contradictory high court decisions concerning whether or not it is accountable to the public, since it is only a "quasi-public" institution.

The very existence of the Central Bank/Federal Reserve Board as a private, for-profit, yet public and semi-regulated entity seems to me both a symptom and a cause of America's economic schizophrenia, which has resulted in the global economic meltdown.

I also learned that the current Federal Reserve Board of Directors, whose members are appointed by the President, currently has two vacancies. Now I'm wondering why appointments to the Supreme Court get so much media coverage, when appointments to a powerful board that controls the economy gets relatively so little.

ottergirl

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Monday August 03, 2009 · 5:16 PM PDT

2009/08/03 · 17:16

Trying to educate myself about economics, I wanted to find out more about the process of setting daily currency exchange rates. Specifically, I wanted to find out who does it. Since so much money changes hands every day based on the buying and selling of currency, I thought it would be a good idea to know more about how the rates are set. So I googled it.

ottergirl

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Friday July 31, 2009 · 11:40 AM PDT

2009/07/31 · 11:40

There are few Americans left who aren't in agreement that the degree of government corruption has reached staggering proportions. Our voices are united in vilifying the evil lobbyists of corporate America and the politicians who take their bribes for personal power and profit after having sworn to serve and protect the public interest. And those Wall Street speculators with their greed, causing the whole system to collapse--off with their heads! Our collective moral outrage is powerful, indeed. We demand reform! And when do we want it? NOW!!
Yes, we insist that THEY reform, the big THEM, the ones to whom we give the power to control us, and who are clearly abusing it. I submit that the level of government corruption remains more or less constant at all times, much like the truism that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. The only difference between the corruption of today and the corruption of yesterday is that now that we are no longer receiving our cut of the action, we are no longer willing to turn a blind eye to it.

ottergirl

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Thursday July 30, 2009 · 9:56 AM PDT

2009/07/30 · 09:56

I’m a progressive. I’m also a free-market capitalist. Contrary to popular belief, the two are not mutually exclusive. I’m just as aghast as the next guy at the corruption and excesses of certain CEOs in certain industries, but I really must speak up against the media demonization of Wall Street as a whole.
Before I go further, perhaps I should count the ways in which I love Wall Street. Investing in Wall Street has increased my sense of personal power. It has both made me more knowledgeable and forced me to closely examine my own personal beliefs and priorities. Sadly, as of yet, it has not made me any money. In fact, like nearly everyone else, I lost money during the last crash. Yet, I persevere. Why? Because free-market capitalism is a gamble. Furthermore, it’s supposed to be a gamble. If you wants your share of the profits, you takes your share of the risks. That’s the deal.

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Doublespeak Translation: Guaranteed coverage=Forced to purchase insurance

Avatar: A Tale of Health Care Held Hostage

Christopher Hitchens Plummets from Intellectual Pedestal

Free Speech for Sale

Ayn Rand: Pledging Allegiance to the United States of Me

"Free" trade at gunpoint

Twisted deather logic--profit or euthanasia--can I pick none of the above?

Delicious fringe benefits of national health care

Banking and Investment--Venture versus Vulture

Currency Exchange Rate Setters--Who Are They?

Corruption, Like Charity, Begins at Home.

In Defense of Wall Street