Marine Atrocities

The whole country, and especially George Bush, needs to share some responsibility for the killing of civilians by marines last November. It was a terrible thing, and they must be punished. But we must consider that WE SENT THEM THERE (after we trained them to kill). Most of them are no more than kids and none of us can say with truth what we would have done if we were 20 years old and our buddies were getting blown up and shot at by an invisible enemy . It's the kind of pressure that very good people crack under. You might, too.

These men must be punished, but it would be wrong to judge on the same basis as we would if their crimes were committed in the U.S.

The Only Thing that Still Makes Me Proud

About the only thing that still makes me proud to be an American is the fact that, one way or the other, the kind of "news" that the government would like to keep under wraps gets out.

I'm not proud of our unjustified and foolish invasion of Iraq. I'm not proud of the Abu Ghareb photos and Guantanamo where detainees are being held without charges or access to lawyers for going on four years now. I'm not proud that our leaders have no problem with the fact that our country, a mere five percent of the world's population, consumes 25% of the world's energy. I'm not proud of our reckless fiscal irresponsibility that is bound to come to roost. I'm not proud that we have a president who thinks "God wants me to be president".

What I AM proud of is, no matter how bad it is, the word always gets out. The latest is the alleged killings of civilians "in cold blood" by a group of Marines. How horrible! They must be punished, of course, (assuming it turns out to be true), but they also have my sympathy. When your buddies have been killed by an enemy you can't identify, I can understand how the rage can explode. And I believe, in the right circumstances, it could happen to the best of us.

Again, as I've said countless times before, THANK YOU GEORGE FOR GETTING US INTO THIS. And thank you, too, for assuring us again and again that you would "do it all again even knowing what you know now . . . "

Oh, and thank you, too, to those of you who voted for Bush in 2004, and especially the 29% who still support this leaping screaming asshole of a president!

Just a few observations about healthcare

I read a blurb in Time magazine today that says our country has the "second highest infant mortality rate among industrialized nations," behind only Latvia. If that's not shocking to you, then you're not thinking! What the blurb did NOT mention, but I will, is that the U.S. spends MORE PER CAPITA ON HEALTCHARE THAN ANY OTHER COUNTRY IN THE WORLD. Isn't that strange? We spend more, but get less, than any other industrialized country.

And yet we have a president who not long ago spoke of the wonders of our system of "private healthcare system." I forget the words, but it was a stern commitment to keep the system PRIVATE.

Keeping the system " private" is of course what the drug companies and HMO's want. Same for the advertisting industry. But with Bush and others on the Right, it's also about their deeply-held "freemarket ideology." They have this belief that the "private sector" is, by definition, ALWAYS better.

I wonder if the "private sector" would fight as well in Iraq as our troops do, even though they're paid one-third of what private security contractors earn, many of whom scurry at the first sign of a firefight. This inbalance alone has had a debilitating effect on our troops' morale! And what about our Veteran's Administration hospital system. Our government-run VA Hospitals are ranked among the best in the country by the experts.

I believe in "free enterprise" by the way. I think it's the most efficient way to deliver goods and services. But it does not work in healthcare. We need a government-run healthcare system that provides a basic level of care to all citizens. Yes, taxes will be higher, but the net effect will be less spent on healthcare overall.

The U.S. spends a higher percentage on healthcare "administration" than any other industrialized country because our system (if we can call it a system) is so cumbersome and complicated. Look at the recent drug benefit program, designed to mainly benefit the drug companies, if you need an example. Add to that the 'PROFITS' that pharmaceuticals and HMOs need to make to stay in business. (By the way, I don't criticize the drug companies and HMOs. They have to play by the rules of the system. It's the "system" that needs to be changed).

Then there's the ridiculous cost of 'MARKETING'. It's a fact that tThe drug companies spend more on marketing than on research! Do we really need them persuading us to "Ask your doctor about Lipitor" before they even tell us what Lipitor is? (I didn't even know what Lipitor was for a full year after first hearing the commercial).

It's not just the influcence of the profit-driven Healthcare Industry that is to blame. Right Wing Conservatives have this ideology that says "government can't do anything right." Their long-term and oft-stated mission is to "starve the beast" by squeezing funding. They say "let the private sector do it." Could they be wrong in the case of healthcare? The evidence that they ARE wrong grows stronger all the time. Being second only to Latvia is just the latest piece of evidence.

By the way, I work for the UCSD School of Medicine, which includes a "state-run" medical center that is second to none. So I know first-hand that we don't need the "profit-motive" in order to deliver good healthcare.