Brit Buys Pup
Today's title is in honor of Britney Spears, who recently walked into a pet store and plunked down $3K for a puppy. Some society representing pound dogs is having a fit, saying that pound dogs are every bit as good as any other dog. Well, no: They aren't. I own a purebred poodle and a malti-poo and I can actually breathe because I spent the extra money to get dogs I'm not allergic to. Yorkies are also hypoallergenic. So, although I'm not a Britney fan, I see this as a shameless publicity ploy on the part of [insert society name here].
SCHIP
Currently there is a Democratic attempt to expand the State Children's Health Insurance Program, or Schip. Schip is a program that provides health insurance to children from families that are poor, but not so poor that they qualify for Medicaid. Republicans are scrambling to see if they can beat the Dems at their own game by devising their OWN version.
Although the Wall Street Journal calls this "stealthy, slow-motion socialism", I beg to differ. We became a socialistic nation many years ago, beginning with Roosevelt's New Deal.
This reminds me of the old joke from my grandparents' time: A wealthy man met a lovely young girl of loose morals during an elegant dinner party. She flirted with him wildly, encouraging his attentions, until he was emboldened enough to ask her if she'd sleep with him for a million dollars. She grinned and said that for such a sum of money, perhaps something could be arranged.
"Well then," asked the man, "Would you sleep with me for a dollar?"
The girl gasped. "What kind of a girl do you think I AM?" she demanded.
"We've already established THAT," replied her suitor. "NOW we're just haggling on the price."
The United States already IS a socialist nation. We're just trying to figure out how far we want to go.
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5 comments:
Animals are free. Dogs and cats. The only dog we paid for turned out to be a big lumbering beast with bad skin.
A "Christian" society would be socialist. Unless you think Jesus would say to hungry people "feed yourself you lazy bum! Get a job doing something! And if all you can eat on the money you get from that job is old bread and rice - too friggin bad! It is not my fault rent is so high".
I just sit back and watch the circus.
that's an excellent joke that sadly is truly representative of America today.
For what it's worth, that joke was in a movie in about 1940 or so. I remember the film vaguely but can't remember whether it was Groucho Marx or WC Fields that told the joke. We may be the only two nominal conservatives in the country who don't go into trauma at the thought of Socialized Medicine, though the downsides concern me a little.
3Score&10+, I wish I had seen it. I love Groucho Marx... but I don't believe I've ever seen a movie with WC Fields in it, though I've seen excerpts. There definately ARE downsides to s. medicine, but at this point I think they are outweighed by the benefits. ;o)
Green, isn't it, though?!
Lazy, you are correct. A truly Christian society would be idealistically socialist. However, the problem is that there is no pure form of government anywhere: Not socialist, dictatorship, communist, capitalist, or democracy. There is always someone that screws it up. In fact, it is human nature. Now if ALL participants in a society were TRULY Christian, socialism would probably work well. But it calls for honesty, integrity, and sacrifice and if even ONE person can't do all three, it is doomed to fail.
I'm on the fence about socialized medicine and I have a question - and maybe you or 3 Score can answer.
Let's just say the government does set up a socialized medicine program - everyone has "free" healthcare (nothing is really free).
What's to stop doctors, hospitals, pharmacist, etc. from setting up a secondary private system for those who will pay out of pocket? And what about cooperative medicine (we have some of that now), which is sort of like insurance? My thought is, corruption and loopholes would bring us right back to where we are now. Technically, we already have a small form of socialized medicine in our Medicare/Medicaid programs -and that is FULL of corruption!
On a similar note, I'm sick of people claiming they don't take their employer offered insurance because they "can't afford it" yet they CAN afford cigarettes and/or Starbucks on a regular basis. Maybe they're a minority, but they are also very loud voices for socialized medicine.
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