Health Care Is Not A Right

It's so typical of those in favor of government reform to cite all these "apple pie" type ideals, that amount to "full and free coverage for all, for life" ... with no cognizance of the fact that medicine is a service, medical products don't grow on trees and doctors should not be enslaved to work for free just because there are sick people in the world. What a lovely fantasy, how could one not be for that sort of utopia? Unfortunately, it is not realizable, and setting it as a goal means we must all be required to "chip in" against our will by forced taxation to pay for those who do not take the same preventative measures as we do to remain healthy, or even for those who do, but are simply victims of life and fate and fall ill to a disease through no fault of their own, the point is, it's not my fault if I'm lucky, and if I'm unlucky it's not your job to pay for me. If you want to live in that sort of country, move to Sweden or Canada! (Of course, if we had a free society then the private charity we see today would explode, as people had more of their own money to dispense on causes they chose to support, rather than having it stolen from them by an oppressive, out of control government that dictates what and who we all must support!)

Every socialist government program, of which the proposed socialized medical reform bill is just the latest, is run as a Ponzi scheme, relying on the increase in population and higher and higher taxes of succeeding generations to pay for them. It is irrelevant if Obama thinks he has found a way to pay for the INITIAlL costs of this program through cuts and efficiencies. Even if that were true, and there is no historical evidence to give us one iota of hope to believe politicians are capable of this, this program will, like every other program before it, eventually run out of control in costs and necessarily must increase the cost burden to pay for the lofty, fantastic ideals it proposes. The bill's free for all goals are simply not economically sound - not until the day doctors,nurses and technicians start working for free, hospitals can be built and maintainted for free, labs operate at no cost, etc. Ultimately, the only way to sustain these socialist programs going forward will be for the US to start rationing the population, through China like laws that forbid children or limit their numbers. The only way to bring a free food line to a close, is to close the line and deny further entrants. But our government has no plan to close the line, instead they are going to start charge higher and higher entrant fees - i.e. raise taxes further. When is the last time the government was able to reduce taxes because their programs were going to cost less to run in the following years? Uh, never has happened, never will!

Nothing is free, and nothing that is not free is - or can be - a right, including health care. It is a contradiction in reason to decree something as a right, that requires the enslavement - and therefore denial of rights - to another to provide. Health care must be provided by the brilliant minds of those who search for cures for disease and develop medicines, and they owe us nothing, on the contrary, we owe them everything! Health care is not one big ocean that we simply have to figure out how to split up among ourselves, its not a pie we need to cut at the dinner table. Those who believe anything to the contrary simply need to "Snap out of It" and go to the doctor for an economic reality check-up! Look at what the government has done with Medicare and Medicaid, which are bankrupt, and ask yourself, do we need more or LESS government involvement in our current system?

Stand by Me - The Power of Collaboration

I considered writing an introduction here, but frankly this amazing video speaks for itself.

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=2539741

Open Letter to President Obama

President Barack Obama

I am writing to express my outrage at the legal brief your administration filed in a California Federal Court defending the discriminatory Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) - a law you promised to repeal when you were running for President.

I am writing to urge you to immediately stop defending DOMA, call for its repeal and instruct the Department of Justice to take any and all actions to support that position, including asking the court to strike the brief from record.

I demand that you immediately call for an end to all discrimination against LGBT Americans, indeed against all Americans, and demonstrate that you are the "fierce" advocate for civil rights you claimed you would be.

One would think you would understand about discrimination which makes it all the more impossible to understand how you can defend any marriage laws that define this domestic partnership as anything more than "between two consenting adults" - the sexual orientation, gender or ethnic background of the two adult parties is irrelevant.

If it is ok to vote on civil rights, and this one in particular, then we should put all possible combinations of all protected classes on the ballot, and ask voters how they feel about blacks and whites marrying for example, or an Hispanic man marrying an African American woman, and every other combination of consenting adults marrying one another. Of course this would be ludicrous, but it is no more ludicrous than voting on whether a gay man can marry another gay man. There is no difference, in principle, between an African American marrying a Caucasian and two men marrying each other.

In a legal context, "marriage" is nothing more than a contract entered into by two adults, yet one for which the government offers special tax breaks and one which has significant immigration implications - which makes this particular contract unique, elevating the two parties to a special legal status. Unfortunately this special contract goes by the religiously charged term "marriage" and invites needless self righteous - and un-constitutional - interference from organized religion. As long as the government offers such an esteemed contract, with all of its privileges, it must be open to all or to none. The government's only proper role with respect to contracts is to uphold them through the judicial system, not to start creating groups and classes that are permitted or restricted from entering into certain contracts. When the government grants favor to some but not others, there is only one word for it, DISCRIMINATION!

The law should recognize only two categories of people, adults and children, and be blind to all groups and classes within the adult category. The governments own anti discrimination laws are therefore in and of themselves discriminatory, by attempting to name all the protected classes that should not be discriminated against - and failing to include everyone. When the law protects individual rights, there is never a conflict between groups, because the smallest minority, the smallest group, is the individual. Protect all individuals' rights and the many groups, past, present and future, will take care of themselves. Enter onto the slippery slope of defining group rights, as separate from individual rights, and you enter a never ending world of pressure group warfare - see Washington DC and our current push-me pull-you political system of lobbying for favors which are handed out based on the economic size, political clout or shear tenacity of any group.

Think in principles, act on principles, and help repeal these discriminatory laws across all the states that ban the legal right to marry the person one loves, for just a few, while offering it to the many! STOP telling us who to love!