The first we heard about Sarah Palin’s “death panels” comment was in a conversation last Friday with an acquaintance who was appalled by it. Our interlocutor is not a Democratic partisan but a high-minded centrist who deplores extremist rhetoric whatever the source. We don’t even know if he has a position on ObamaCare. From his description, it sounded to us as though Palin really had gone too far.
A week later, it is clear that she has won the debate.
Now we jump from James Taranto to James Travers (please check your parachutes)…
Bizarre and unhitched from reality, Palin’s wild hyperbole is fodder for a lunatic minority now mixing the old and new technologies of mob rule and web connectivity to escape the fringes. Across the U.S. they are silencing serious consideration of fixes to a broken system that maroons 46 million people without insurance and is a leading cause of personal bankruptcy.
(Besides, doesn’t that stupid woman know it’s the post office that’s always having problems?)
There are two words Mr. Travers might jot down for future columnar reference. The first is P – E – L – O – S – I.
The second is S – W – A – S -T – I – K – A.
First of all, don’t talk to T or phillboy. They are trolls. This blog is for talking, not wasting time trying to convince idiots of anything. Just saying.
It makes Travers (and others) feel intellectually superior to bash Sarah Palin’s alleged short-comings but- at the end of the day- that’s all they have. She saw right through the dreck and called it. It bothers them to KNOW (not think) that someone out their kicks their butts every time.
I do know of someone who lost everything here in Canada due to our health care system, sadly they didn’t live long enough on the waiting list to get around to the bankruptcy paperwork.
les and duffman – yes, you are right. Bankruptcies cannot be reduced to a single cause, medical or otherwise.
That’s why, for example, Travers is completely wrong to claim that most US personal bankruptcies are due to medical costs.
I don’t think the Fraser study was about causes of bankruptcies but about a comparison of one cause – and as noted in other reports, in the US, it was easier to declare bankruptcy than in Canada, until 2006.
There’s another factor to this causality. In the US, you CAN pay for treatment. You cannot do so in Canada, even if you have the money. So, in the US, it is feasible for a family to move into bankruptcy to assist a loved one, while in Canada, such an option is not available – unless you go to the US for treatment. And, to do that, requires a lot of money – more than a road to bankruptcy.
Les – as for Obama saying that he didn’t want the Canadian system, my advice is never, ever, believe a word Obama says. His words are always rhetorical; that is, they have a political not factual purpose. He was trying to calm fears, based on what Americans are hearing about the Canadian and UK systems. But, if you read his bill, it will inevitably lead to the demise of the private insurance system.
On another note, with regard to Obama’s bill, note that he has now taken to calling it ‘my bill’ and ‘I won’t or will do..’. Rather than OUR bill. Why the switch to a personal rather than Democratic Party bill? Because the Democrats, and that includes Pelosi, Reid, Specter et al, are becoming viewed in a very unfavourable light. Obama, despite the drop in his polls, still has a smidge of favourability to him – and that’s why he’s been Told to Link the Health bill to himself.
Of course, since he didn’t read, much less write it – that’s yet another dishonest statement.
Ah yes! Travers that fountain of wisdom and profound knowledge.
I suspect that If any of the Red Rag Riters ever produced something with actual facts, without the lefty slant … and IF the editors published it… they’d get bombarded with complaints from their readers.
How’s the rag doing as a business?
Faster Please!
Oshumash:
I invoke my First Amendment right to communicate with whichever troll I’d like to communicate with.
By speaking their language and agreeing with their rhetoric, it creates a bridge of understanding.
Remember, parody is our best weapon.
Anybody can do it. Just listen to the speeches from the NDP conventin this weekend and formulate your own anti-capitalist, pro-totalitarian rhetoric.
The troll will believe you agree with them when, in fact you are laughing at their lunacy by mocking their ideas which have proven to not have worked anywhere, any time in the history of humanity.
Remember, they’re the insane ones, who keep speaking out of the same playbook of failed regimes in the hope that the outcome will be different.
There’s no sense getting mad about it.
Chill, have some fun.
I can picture Old Man Travesty as he prepares his regular diatribes for The Red Star:
Hunched over and squinting at the screen, a line of spittle trickling from one corner of his nervously twitching mouth while he searches his vast database of reusable slurs for gems like “Bizarre and unhitched from reality”, “Inflaming fear with fiction” and “mob rule”, accusing his political enemies of “wild hyperbole” even while pouring bucket after bucket of hyperbole and caustic scorn onto them, all interspersed with uncontrollable giggling, snickering, snorting and the regular expulsion of nasty greenhouse gases in self-satisfaction.
Kind of like an older, fatter, flakier Inspector Dreyfus in the Pink Panther movies.
Fewer and fewer people take what Travesty says seriously but occasionally his columns can be transfixing, like a train wreck.
As the headline suggests, since the phrase that inspired the ‘death panels’ has now been rescinded, Sarah Palin has outsmarted Dear Leader Obama.
Apparently, Travers still hasn’t caught on to the fact the phrase, which pays doctors for end-of-life consultation, has been taken out.
Dummy No. 2.
Indiana et al:
this is a book By Thomas sowell I intend to read before Christmas:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d.html/ref=mp_s_a_7/183-9661000-4975550?qid=1250373029&a=046508995X&sr=8-7
And this column by dr Charles krauthammer explains why more preventative healthcare – which Obama is claiming to be the big money saver – will make it far more expensive.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/13/AR2009081302898.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns
This quote from fupenguin.com “on the origin of douchebags” pretty much sums up my
thoughts about James Travers, The MSM and Teh Won.
“Personally, I’m not going to be seduced by some dinosaur wanna-be that thinks a laid-back demeanor and a shit-eating grin is going to convince me to sully my honor”.
Sarah Palin exagerated? Than why the backtracking ? Why an amendment?
Emanuel Changes Mind on Death Panels!
ConservativeAmerican.org
Leading the way Right
By Peter Andrew
Former VP Candidate Sarah Palin scores another victory in her truthful claim of health plan “death panels.” The Washington Times says…
Dr. Ezekiel J. Emanuel, the White House official targeted by Sarah Palin and other conservatives as an advocate for health care rationing and “death panels,” said Thursday his “thinking has evolved” on the need to decide who gets treated and who does not. “When I began working in the health policy area about 20 years ago … I thought we would definitely have to ration care, that there was a need to make a decision and deny people care,” said Dr. Emanuel, a health care adviser to President Obama in the Office of Management and Budget, during a phone interview. “I think that over the last five to seven years … I’ve come to the conclusion that in our system we are spending way more money than we need to, a lot of it on unnecessary care,” he said. “If we got rid of that care we would have absolutely no reason to even consider rationing except in a few cases.”
[quote]To try to provide everyone with a fault-free and risk-free life is communistic folly. It cannot be done. What would life be without risk anyway? [/quote]Momar
You would fit the mold of a typical American, but this generation wants to take the RISK & rewards, but not the consequences (free loaders). They are throwing away the American dream & won’t enjoy the same perks (rewards) for success that was common of my generation . Socialist America will become the global service industry..
Palin has pointed out one, of many, problems in the “Jelly Ball” Congressional Bill. Congress has been passing these ambiguous (scum ball lawyers make sure they are ambiguous), bull shit bills that can mean anything to anyone. The bill is a “Jelly Ball” that the Obama administration will implement in any way they please… Courts will have to resolve the issues with implementation.
Look at the Obama administration and ask yourself the following questions.
Do they represent the average American?
Do you trust them?
Why does Congress write “Jelly Ball” bills ?
Why will Congress give a “Jelly Ball” to Obama?
Phillip:
What means Jelly Ball and what are its origins?
I tried to get the picture of President Bush with a bullethole in his forehead but I am not that good. As a consolation prize though I have a zombietime link of Pelosi People showing the love.
http://www.zombietime.com/zomblog/
I’ve been reading the back-and-forth regarding bankruptcies, and how they are being attributed to medical bills.
What seems to have been overlooked by both sides in this particular debate is that if you become seriously ill, you cannot work. If you don’t work, you have no income. Your expenses continue, though. Not everyone has disability insurance, and it certainly is not part of Canadian Medicare, is it?
And disability insurance, if you do have it, often has limitations on it.
I suggest that it is the loss of income brought on by illness that is the primary driver for medically-related bankruptcies, and the fact that bankruptcy rates differ only slightly between Canada and the U.S.A. is consistent with that.
Why anyone reads the Star still remains a mystery
>”I think that over the last five to seven years … I’ve come to the conclusion that in our system we are spending way more money than we need to, a lot of it on unnecessary care,” he said. “If we got rid of that care we would have absolutely no reason to even consider rationing except in a few cases.””> Ezekiel Emanuel.
Ezekiel Emanuel in The Lancet, January 2009
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2809%2960137-9/fulltext#article_upsell
These guys lie as easily as they breath.
My guess is Joe Citizen is a linear thinker. BTW, I liked your story – broke the monotony – humour is always good – I do hope you meant to be funny. ET can always be counted on to give a well thought out synopsis. Good luck with the test results…may have to wait awhile though – after all this is Canadian Health Care.
Joe Citizen, you strike me more as a volvo guy than an F150 type.
Travers repeats his talking points well, eh? That bilge looks like he did a cut/paste from on of Barry’s speeches.
Mr. Travers has obviously enjoyed good health his whole life, as have his close relatives. Or he’s getting major payola from the Liberals. Outside possibility, they have pictures of him doing something he’d rather everyone not know about.
Sarah Palin speaks the truth on this issue. “Death panels” is an accurate description. Its a panel of bureaucrats (not doctors, note) who decide which patients are going to get the required procedures and which ones are going to get the dirt nap.
Please note that -buying- the procedure will not be possible for those denied coverage by the Death Panel. To get private procedures you will have to leave the country.
You know, like we do.
No-One:
RE: Lineal thinking: The closest path between two points is almost the straight line.
Sorry”” That should read:
Re: Lineal thinking. The closest path between two pints is almost always the straight line.
Gosh–I’m losing my linear thinking.
That should have read: The closest path between two points is almost always the straight line.”
Unless you’re drawing a line across a basketball. Then the curve becomes the straight line. So said my Geometry teacher, whom I fell in love with in Grade 10. She and I went for a ride in the country one day. She wanted to give me a ride in her new VW beetle. She was only three years older than I was. That’s all I’m saying.
Looks like Travers incontinence continues from both ends as usual. Put the old leftie out to some useful posting like putting the cotton in asprin bottles, what a Toronto loser, always has been a has been.
all the bs aside palin is right. those working with obama will be more than happy to kill off the people they think are wasting air and they will do it with medical care rules.
Poor Jim,
The longer Harper is in power and the Libs getting nowhere and now down south the Oreo communist is falling like a lead balloon, the worse old Travers liver gets.
Hope your not too old to get treatment when you literally start turning yellow, crater nose.
“Not waiting for the cirrhoris”
Ignorance is winning the debate, as so often happens, and a reality Republicans count on. Palin specifically and conservatives in general seem to possess a never ending supply of the stuff, a veritable cornucopia of nescience.
Life sucks for you doesn’t it pillboy? Off your meds again? Must suck to be living in your mom’s basement!
Commisar philboy seems to be ignorant of the fact that we’re onto his tactics.
http://nukegingrich.files.wordpress.com/2007/02/take-2-obama-star.gif
Another one;)http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ONylrfDR86Q/Rdyo58N-7zI/AAAAAAAAAAM/DOjQxxPWtzk/s400/take-2-unhinged-pelosi75%25.gif
Joe C…so you are a linear thinker after all. Sounds like your teacher was into extra curricular activities. It was not meant to be an insult – the linear thinker bit – both my spouse and his father are linear thinkers – comes in handy when your an engineer.
” a veritable cornucopia of nescience.” – Philboy
Then verify it for us. Give us some evidence of this ignorance, and defend your position against all comers!
Yeah, Pelosi made mention of the documented fact that protestors carried swastikas at the town halls.
So what?