America 1.1 -- Public Option for Health Care

Since the first day President Barack Obama tried to institute public health care into the United States, it has been misconstrued, altered and defecated on by the Right wing and often by even the "Left" wing (I use quotations because it is still right of center from a European or Canadian point of view).

Every time I watch CNN (thankfully not incredibly often), read the New York Times, or watch my Daily Show snippet of the day, I see Republicans yelling profanities and demonizing the President as some Nazi-loving mass murderer. I watch the United States with incredulity, not understanding exactly what the big problem that Americans have with their government doing something. In Canada, we pay taxes in exchange for services...in fact we do this in almost every country in the world. These services are provided by the government. Those streets you drive on? the government. Those electrical wires that bring at least your house (unfortunately not your mind) out of the 18th century? the government. That huge hunking army you have to fight all the wars you've started, monitor all the areas you've destabilized and maintain a military presence all over the world? The government. If the government or Barack Obama wanted to kill you America, it could do it a hell of a lot easier than with "death panels." There's a pretty little red button with a code that could end all life on Earth, but I'm not sure we'd miss all of you.

So I came to ask myself a number of questions:

Firstly, is the failure of health care reform in the United States Barack Obama's fault?

I think this has to be answered with yes and no. No, it's not his fault that the right wing has dominated his town hall meetings through their badgering, illogical questions (Calling it a Nazi policy is a disgusting question that should offend the conscience of any person in the world who knows anything beyond a 3rd grade education). It's also not his fault that they simply have more power in spreading their message and it's certainly not his fault for his policy because it's pretty good.

However, it is his fault that the Democratic party is not rallied behind him and continuously undermines his message. It is stupid that he even asks the American people what they want, he is being far too democratic and it is giving voice to the idiots who can't understand the system and are fed too many lies. He simply needs to push through the American health care reform, set up a public option without bothering to ask the people what they want. He's the most powerful person in the world and more than that, he was elected president to do these kinds of things and to make decisive decisions. Make the decision. Bring America to the 21st century and give them public health care.

Secondly, a question which really can't be answered in just one post but as food for thought:

What has made America lose its place as the last bastion of freedom, world leadership and instead become the least progressive country in the Western world?

1.1 -- The Middle Yeast

I am going to use the decimal system to discuss policy because I feel that there is going to be necessarily follow-up on the issues which I'm going to complain about. It's going to be mostly oversimplifying the situation but more importantly than that, it is expressing my anger. At everyone involved.

What am I going to complain about today? Israel, Palestine and the general Middle East clusterf@!% of a situation brought to North America.

Israel, I don't understand why you persist in the settlements you know have cost you thousands of times more to sustain, through the defensive budget and the cost of policing a tenuous border, as well as potential aid gained by withdrawl from the area. It just doesn't make any sense. There's nothing that's really valuable in those areas, I've been there, its like any other villages, and I don't see why you care about it.

Palestine, what the hell. You are trying to win a war on two fronts -- through the increasing of fear in Israelis while simultaneously trying to win a public relations battle throughout the world by showing how awful they treat you (see Gaza is an open-air prison, unfair checkpoints, Israel has committed humanitarian atrocities etc. etc. violated international law, etc.). How can you expect this to win? You are trying to pit the world against Israel, but you haven't realized that the more you push Israel away and alienate even the left-wing from your cause, the more likely a military encounter is. What does fear do to a country? It makes them put physical security above every other right as the most important. What group consistently promises security? the right-wing. You pressure the army into attacking you and then cry foul. Where is the legitimacy in that? Where is the solution in that?

Fundamentalists on both sides: I hate you. I think many years ago, there was a chance for a middle ground, before the idiots on both sides decided that the best policy was an arbitrarily violent policy. It's like a war of Nudges on MSN or Pokes on Facebook. It starts with being very minor, and although not as playful as it is on IM or social networking sites, it's to push the other person to go further. One nudge isn't enough so you nudge 50 times or 100. Finally they get angry and go too far. But worse, it squelches the lines of communication, because once you push someone too far, they ignore your cries for assistance.

Jews and Muslims not in the Middle East but content on globalizing the conflict: I hate you even more than the fundamentalists. Many of you have not even been to the Middle East or if you have, you've only gone to the place you're supporting. That's garbage. I'm not saying that you can't have productive arguments about places without visiting them, but you certainly can't spew the hatred on both sides that is even more extreme than the hatred either side has in the Middle East. They will kill each other and yet still be more amenable and find it easier to speak to each other than you idiots.

Things I have to say to you:

A) Don't talk if you won't listen. I know you're Middle Eastern so you like yelling and who cares if anyone listens to you, but for the sake of your cause, at least show some respect to the other side. It is unneccessary to be consistently inflammatory just for the sake of releasing your anger. Go work out if you want to do that.

B) Who do you think you are to speak for the extreme side of both of your conflicts and sound as if there is no dissent within both of your groups? Not all Jews support the settlements or the military action and not all Palestinians support their means of resistance or methods of warfare. Why does this silent minority have no representation? It's because the extremists took over on both sides and stole the voice of the people who can actually make peace, the ones who can see a middle-ground, the ones who believe in more than a perpetual conflict.

C) Stop doing what you're doing. Your advocacy convinces only the people already on your sides. You have educated no one while miseducating too many. Take responsibility for the problems you have generated, both attacks on Jews, and attacks on Muslims because when your entire conversation is about demonizing the other, it's your fault that your followers don't get the distinction. The war isn't here, stop trying to bring it here.

That'll do for now.

Doughnation.