fatandfast said:ruinboy..Trump is a tool..yes. I listened to his news conference about the US as a whipping post. I don't like his views, hair,production company, his brand of golf,vodka,aftershave. The cost of apts in his Trump Tower complex on the West Side Hwy are an outrage.. I mean really 4200 dollars for a 1 bedroom.. the nerve!! I personally worked on a public/private funded project to redevelop down town White Plains (City Centre) Trump took on a major role in building the apts there. He sold them to a Japanese development company for a price of 105 million more than he bought them for..in my book anything million is real money. After 9/11 I was very surprised how little Liberty Bond money that Trump went after compared to other builders. He has recently increased his portfolio in Soho by 10's of millions including WS Hwy,NYU area buildings. I did attend meetings and oppose the Trump Soho. I detest Trump but his brand name and ability to make money have little to do with his dad. Hold your breath because if and when the NYC bike classic every returns he will be sure to put up some cash toward the cause
rhubroma said:What theory! I have lived in the European system for the past 15 years and it has always worked to my advantage and to the greatest number of people in its society. Or if it must be about "theory" then yours is simply the more mendacious, egotistical and utterly self-serving one. That everybody gets treatment in the US, as you claim, only works to driving up everyone else's insurance costs. Its system merely and scandalously caters to the most economically capable and to the private insurance businesses, for which everything is determined solely by the logic of profit gains and losses. This simply is a rather base and indecorous construction.
Public health care is the only humane way to do it, because private care per force of the market logic and rules will de facto exclude a certain percentage of the citizenry that does not have the economic means to afford it, even if, in the end, those outside the system receive treatment, though not following some ethical and humane principle but only to avoid being sued. How perverse! People like you always bemoan the fact that "my insurance is paying for those lazy good for nothings who don't have it." Well this isn't a problem in Italy for me. Sure it has its costs, though it is at least money well spent and the duty of the privileged classes before the weak and those in need. The alternative is a cast based health care system, which is precisely what exists in the privatized one. We are not talking about cars, or TV's, or computers, we are talking about people's health which can not, well should not, be quantified merely in terms of the costs and market determinants. You are blinded by the ideology of the market, by the belief in the propaganda of the private sector. If Europe is suffering it isn't because of a principle, which is the more noble one....
runninboy said:Congratulations on another long winded rant! I had to do some serious editing so i could answer. It kept rejecting my reply because of the length added to your quote...
And Of course your expertise at name calling has really been honed to a fine art. Getting to the facts of the matter at hand. I have also lived and worked in various systems in Europe. Your experience is what Italy predominately? Well the Healthcare in many other countries has taken huge hits. that is a fact. The more socialist ones especially. You might want to be long winded in your response but the facts are very simple, more money less care provided. You might not notice becuase maybe you are not in the situation to use that particular service that has been scaled back. So to you , the system works fine. Talk about self serving ego! I do not say the US system is perfect far from it, however in my experience i can see it is far more efficient and humane than the socialistic idealism that is always offered up in comparison. Not just my personal experiences but those of friends of mine who reside in said countries and from watching & reading the news outlets for these countries. The government puts more and more money into the system and it becomes lesss and less efficient. People die waiting for treatment. In the US the law is the ambulance has to take you to the closest available ER regardless of your ability to pay and they must treat you also regardless of your ability to pay. The ambulance driver does not ask you what kind of insurance you have if any, the scenarios you have put forth have no basis in reality. You credit them to a friend who has no reason to lie. Really? Have you never sat around and heard friends tell stories and bs? People like to talk often about subjects that they have no personal knowledge. Whatever i am sure you will believe whatever you wish to believe. that is fine....
runninboy said:Congratulations on another long winded rant! I had to do some serious editing so i could answer. It kept rejecting my reply because of the length added to your quote...
You might not notice becuase maybe you are not in the situation to use that particular service that has been scaled back. So to you , the system works fine. Talk about self serving ego! I do not say the US system is perfect far from it, however in my experience i can see it is far more efficient and humane than the socialistic idealism that is always offered up in comparison. Not just my personal experiences but those of friends of mine who reside in said countries and from watching & reading the news outlets for these countries. The government puts more and more money into the system and it becomes lesss and less efficient. People die waiting for treatment. In the US the law is the ambulance has to take you to the closest available ER regardless of your ability to pay and they must treat you also regardless of your ability to pay. The ambulance driver does not ask you what kind of insurance you have if any, the scenarios you have put forth have no basis in reality. You credit them to a friend who has no reason to lie. Really? Have you never sat around and heard friends tell stories and bs? People like to talk often about subjects that they have no personal knowledge. Whatever i am sure you will believe whatever you wish to believe. that is fine.
Darryl Webster said:All you need to know about American health care :
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=sicko+part+1&aq=1
I paricularly like the contrast with Cuban health care were Michael Moore took several ill Americans and they recieved care far outstripiing that provided that at home..for free, no quibbles.![]()
Darryl Webster said:All you need to know about American health care :
:
	Darryl Webster said:Whatever the failings of Micheal Moore`s films are ( and they are there failings) the basic picture he paints is true.
Care to explain why Canada with a higher gun ownership per cappita than even America has such a low gun crime rate?. One of the issue`s explored in Bowling For Collumbine.
By all means atack a films editing but I`d be far more interested to know what you think of the Whitehouse tape of Nixon screwing the healthcare for profits?
Your healthcare systems a joke for a nation saposedly the most developed and powerful on the planet.
Cobblestones said:One interesting consequence of this might be that the limelight moves on from Egypt to some other country hungry for a change of leadership. As I understand it, there were protests in Jordan, Yemen, Syria and probably quite a few other places. Once the media circus moves on from Cairo, some other country might ratchet it up to seek the spotlight. I believe we haven't seen the end of the Arab revolution yet. The year is still young and two dictators have been toppled. Plenty still to go...
Cobblestones said:
Darryl Webster said:Whatever the failings of Micheal Moore`s films are ( and they are there failings) the basic picture he paints is true.
Care to explain why Canada with a higher gun ownership per cappita than even America has such a low gun crime rate?. One of the issue`s explored in Bowling For Collumbine.
By all means atack a films editing but I`d be far more interested to know what you think of the Whitehouse tape of Nixon screwing the healthcare for profits?
Your healthcare systems a joke for a nation saposedly the most developed and powerful on the planet.
rhubroma said:I got this far and literally dropped my jaws. For a moment I had recently thought about taking a friend back with me to the US with whom I could defend myself from the onslaught of people like yourself, someone of my own kind who could be a partner in a desperate and possibly hopeless situation, but I immediately abandoned the idea, as I wanted to spare this friend a confrontation with the US. He'd see everything I've told him in recent years is actually quite tame compared with the reality, I thought. At one moment I thought of taking him with me; the next moment I thought better of it. They wouldn't understand a person like my friend in the US, where harmless strangers are invariably greeted with hostility. They've always rejected anything unfamiliar, they've never welcomed anything that doesn't conform to their ideas of human advancement and cult like ideology in the private sector, while detesting anything with the word social in it, in a democracy that fanatically despises the public domain. Just throw money at it from the private purchases of health care insurance, your kind is always saying, that fixes everything. And nothing.
PS: Though it is you who shamelessly lie about people dying in Europe's emergency rooms waiting their turn. Let me inform you about something, people are given treatment on a priority basis. Even American tourists. No questions asked, no bill received other than what medicines will need to be purchased. By contrast a few years back an Italian tourist was, of no fault of his own other than being on vacation in the US, shot in his car while driving on a Florida interstate. He didn't buy insurance for the US before he left. After his hospital treatment, he was sent a bill for several hundred thousand dollars. The inhumane image this gave to Italians of the US health care system was stupefying.
So yes, everyone gets treatment, only those outside the private system also get sent the huge bill. I'm done listening to your arrant nonesense.
The Hitch said:In my defense, this is what i meant when i said "on with the revolution", in the post that post of yours quoted.
Though im wary because many dictatorships have taken big steps to protect themselves since they saw whats going on in Egypt.
It would be nice for the Algerian dictatorship to fall. I wonder what role france would play though. THey dont have too clean a record in their colonies.
But if it did, well theres one country which borders Egypt Algeria and Tunisia.
Colonel Gaddaffi, the winds of change are knocking.
patricknd said:so did he pay the bill? if he did then obviously he could afford it, and if not, then he got his free health care, right?
The Hitch said:Why do you refer to it as "your healthcare". You should see in my bar that my location is "london". And that isnt "london,alabama".
Why would i defend Nixon or American healtchare or Nixon or American gun ownership.
If you had actually read my post Daryl you would have noticed that I made it very clear that i OPPOSE both american healtchare which is very cruel to the poor, and its lax laws on guns.
SO to put it more simply i am on your side on both counts but my complaint is that Moore is hijacking this side.
I will oppose figures like Michael Moore when they attempt to hijack ideas and political positions i support, as much as i oppose them when they are on the opposite side.
Its a shame that so many people are willing to excuse the most appauling demagoguery and cheap tactics, so long as that person is on their side.
But those who do can hardly complain when the American right comes out with figures like Glen Beck or Sean Hannity to match.
1) he survived a horrible crimerhubroma said:The Italian state came to his rescue. No he couldn't afford it.
The Hitch said:But those who do can hardly complain when the American right comes out with figures like Glen Beck or Sean Hannity to match.
Darryl Webster said:Appoligies Hitch re your location, my error.
Obviously Micheal Moore isnt everyones cup of tea and his style can be a bit haphazared and mis placed but then I cant think of anyone else who`s wrapping such strong critisisisms in to such a digestable form for those who seem to need a degree of humorous entertainment to serious subjects.
I`d rather see work by John Pilger and Naim Chomsky geting people chating but allas "serious" work of the like they produce`s dont get the larger audiance.
If Moore succeed`s in just getting people to think about the issues and research further then thats good enough for me.![]()
The Hitch said:This is such a underplaying of Moores bigotry. He doesnt wrap arguments into a digestable form. He doesnt even use arguments or support thought. He just lies and lies and lies.
He types up pages, and presents them to the viewer as state documents. He cuts and mixes separate videos to make people sound like they said thinks they never did. He lies about the dates of clips he has to make them seem relevant to an event that hadnt yet happened. He makes up stats. He makes up occupations (to make irrelevant people sound relevant). He makes up events that never happened.
He lies about dates, he lies about locations he lies about identity he lies about sequence and he then packages it into a story which makes him seem like a master journalist and the world seem so simple.
If you think this kind of scam and editing is what is needed to make politics digestable then you seem to believe people should be propagandised and lied to in order to hold the "right" opinions.
And i hope you will never attack the likes of Glen Beck or Anne Coulter. Or for that matter any, political operative liar or scumbag anywhere in the world.
Because remember by your standards they are just making their points of view digestable to the the general population.
Moore doesnt appeal to a larger audience.
As with all such loudmouths in america, he appeals to his base.
The people who like him and watch him are already on his side.
Welcome to America, the right has their demagogues, the left theirs, both make their points of view "digestable" to the the general public and no progress is ever made,
The Hitch said:Oh and take note that one of Moores closest friends is Sean Hannity, one of the major faces of Fox news.
Im pretty sure that when moore and hannity meet, they just laugh at how easy it is to make a lot of money by lying to people and planting hate.
Same way that in animal farm (ill use it again) the pigs (communists) are by the end drinking and playing cards with the humans (capitalists) even though the subjects on both sides are told that the other is the enemy.
