Recent Comments
Re: “Stewart Says DesJarlais Unfit for Office”
"Unfit for office" describes the bulk of the Tennessee State Legislature.
Re: “Not the Kardashians: The Fruitful and Multiplyin' Duggars Come to Nashville Saturday”
The Duggers are part of the 'Full Quiver' movement, an evangelical religious cult that (as most cults do) fixates on a biblical phrase to infer that couples should marry young and then have as many children as God gives them. It's not a faith or a lifestyle I can imagine any woman not brainwashed into it from birth would readily adopt. Still, I find the Duggers as a focus for reality TV genuinely creepy.
Re: “Vandy Law Alum's Nonsensical Judgment on Health Reform Constitutionality”
These days, all you need to see to know that somone is a knee-jerk, Fox News conservative is a mention of the Constitution. Which wasn't handed down like the 10 Commandments on Stone Tablets. It's been amended, folks. For good reason. It accounted for slaves as 3/5 of a person. It was written in a different time. The idea that anyone, even as bright a guy as Antonin Scalia, can perfectly divine its original meaning is as dumb as the idea that a document originally written in Greek and Aramaic can be inerrant in an English translation, preferably the King James. It also reminds me of Johnny Carson's old Carnac the Magnificent routines - hold the document up to your turban, and divine its contents. Puh-leeeeeze.
My hope is the outcome of all of these challenges will be a health plan that includes a public option. The Republicans opposed that, and the Democrats compromised by crafting a plan using private insurers, who will tell you that everyone must participate in the risk pool for the plan to work. If people are allowed to opt out and not buy insurance, but hospitals are still required to provide emergency care to any and all comers, regardless of the ability to pay, then we've still got the same problem we've always had -- which is that we're already paying for everyone in the country to receive health care services in the most expensive and difficult way.
The irony is that a lot of people who are vehemently opposed to health reform are the people with most to lose if it fails. Poor people already have Medicaid. It's not great coverage; studies show people on Medicaid receive a worse level of care, but if they have a cancer diagnosis or develop a chronic illness like diabetes, they have access to health care. A very few people have deep enough pockets to 'self-insure' and pay out of pocket if they need $1 million of care for cancer. Middle class people and people who work, but don't earn enough to buy insurance, are the ones who end up bankrupted (and ultimately on the dole) if they can't get insurance because of a pre-existing condition or can't afford to pay the premiums (which, I can tell you from personal experience, go up hugely for not great benefits when you're in your 40s, and then you can't count on lots of fights with a faceless 1-800-whocares number with umpteen automated menus in order to get any benefits - costly fights in terms of personal or work time and stress.
Is the idea of living in a society where everyone has just a basic level of care and coverage for chronic illnesses, and may have to hold off on 'elective' surgeries truly so terrible? Why are so many people so downright hostile toward the idea that, in a civilized society, people shouldn't have to fear bankruptcy and fight tooth and nail with an insurance company that specializes in benefit denials so they don't lose everything. I sincerely hope we're a better country than that.
Re: “Vandy Law Alum's Nonsensical Judgment on Health Reform Constitutionality”
These days, all you need to see to know that somone is a knee-jerk, Fox News conservative is a mention of the Constitution. Which wasn't handed down like the 10 Commandments on Stone Tablets. It's been amended, folks. For good reason. It accounted for slaves as 3/5 of a person. It was written in a different time. The idea that anyone, even as bright a guy as Antonin Scalia, can perfectly divine its original meaning is as dumb as the idea that a document originally written in Greek and Aramaic can be inerrant in an English translation, preferably the King James. It also reminds me of Johnny Carson's old Carnac the Magnificent routines - hold the document up to your turban, and divine its contents. Puh-leeeeeze.
My hope is the outcome of all of these challenges will be a health plan that includes a public option. The Republicans opposed that, and the Democrats compromised by crafting a plan using private insurers, who will tell you that everyone must participate in the risk pool for the plan to work. If people are allowed to opt out and not buy insurance, but hospitals are still required to provide emergency care to any and all comers, regardless of the ability to pay, then we've still got the same problem we've always had -- which is that we're already paying for everyone in the country to receive health care services in the most expensive and difficult way.
The irony is that a lot of people who are vehemently opposed to health reform are the people with most to lose if it fails. Poor people already have Medicaid. It's not great coverage; studies show people on Medicaid receive a worse level of care, but if they have a cancer diagnosis or develop a chronic illness like diabetes, they have access to health care. A very few people have deep enough pockets to 'self-insure' and pay out of pocket if they need $1 million of care for cancer. Middle class people and people who work, but don't earn enough to buy insurance, are the ones who end up bankrupted (and ultimately on the dole) if they can't get insurance because of a pre-existing condition or can't afford to pay the premiums (which, I can tell you from personal experience, go up hugely for not great benefits when you're in your 40s, and then you can't count on lots of fights with a faceless 1-800-whocares number with umpteen automated menus in order to get any benefits - costly fights in terms of personal or work time and stress.
Is the idea of living in a society where everyone has just a basic level of care and coverage for chronic illnesses, and may have to hold off on 'elective' surgeries truly so terrible? Why are so many people so downright hostile toward the idea that, in a civilized society, people shouldn't have to fear bankruptcy and fight tooth and nail with an insurance company that specializes in benefit denials so they don't lose everything. I sincerely hope we're a better country than that.
Re: “Congressman DesJarlais Posts Facebook Letter to Supporters”
Good thing Desjarlais is not Pinnochio or he and his nose wouldn't fit in the same room.