After some interesting Twitter discussions about healthcare reform last week, I began to think about the conservative right position against universal/socialized/single-payer/public-option healthcare in America. Since the Republican party has so inextricably linked itself with the increasingly odious politically evangelical Christian movement in order to win elections, I'm rather insulted at the hostile reaction our Republican political establishment has shown towards any option that doesn't allow private insurance companies to bankrupt ordinary Americans with high premiums and denial of coverage on financial grounds. No one in favor of some form of public option for healthcare is under any illusion that the program won't be costly. I personally feel that it should likely be expected to cost the country a metric fuckton. If there was ever a government program for which deficit spending is a necessary evil, it's providing healthcare to every citizen regardless of ability to pay. Better to lose a dollar saving a life than to spend fifty cents taking a life in war. But the argument I'm so often hearing against healthcare is the "I shouldn't have to pay so some lazy bastard without a job can get healthcare."

Let's cut the bullshit. For the record, you are already paying for the lazy bastard without a job to get care at the emergency room. The law does not allow emergency rooms to refuse care to anyone. When that "lazy bastard" gets care at the ER, he does so on the hospital's dime if he cannot pay. The hospital passes that loss off to the people who can pay - if you have health insurance, that's you and your insurance company. You pay higher costs at the hospital, the insurance company charges you a higher premium, and healthcare costs continue to balloon well past the normal rate of inflation. Of course, just calling that person who can't pay a "lazy bastard" assumes that the ER isn't the only healthcare outlet for the working poor, who often can't take afford to take time off of work to visit a doctor during banker's hours.

But continue to call anyone who receives any kind of government aid a "lazy bastard" if that's what helps you sleep at night knowing you are condemning working mothers with three kids as shiftless drains on society. Forget the fact that not only do you receive government benefits for paying insurance premiums (it cuts down on your taxable income - so in effect, it's a tax credit) but your employer does as well (who also gets deductions for providing health insurance). We can quibble about the amount of benefit you receive in comparison, but don't act like you aren't sucking at a government teat just a wee bit.

The most galling part about hearing someone who claims to be a Christian criticizing a universal program as forcing them to pay for "lazy bastards" is how dissociated that attitude is from the teachings of Jesus Christ. Now, I'm no Christian - I find organized religion odious. Nor am I a Biblical scholar, but having grown up with Baptist and Assembly of God teaching, as well as having done my own reading, I can safely say that your attitude would make baby Jesus weep.

Jesus did a lot of healing in his short time as wandering prophet. He healed lepers, cripples, whores, the poor - you know, pretty much every shitheel he could find. If you believe the stories, he even cured a zombie (or created one - we don't know if Lazarus developed a taste for brains). I don't ever remember Jesus asking for a co-pay, or checking for an insurance card. He didn't even moralize about your life choices, or refuse to help someone who might have been gay, or had an abortion, or didn't vote Republican. He didn't ask if you were crippled from birth and therefore might not be eligible for MessiahCare™. Perhaps the disciples forgot to mention Jesus easy payment terms, or the fact that he took checks, debit or credit cards for service. No, Jesus healed the sick with nothing more than a few words about his father and a helpful life lesson. Maybe he asked for a loaf of bread or a fish for his posse, but even then, he was the original Discover card - give one fish, get five back in his handy Fish Back™ program.

If Republicans/Conservatives want to claim they are Christians and that our nation is a Christian one, founded on Christian values, it's time to put up or shut the fuck up. Jesus didn't charge a co-pay. Of course, neither the government nor healthcare professionals are Jesus; they can't practice medicine without some costs. Jesus had no drug costs, his time was free and his materials were divine. But the philosophy is what's important here. Jesus wanted to heal the sick, regardless of whether they were "lazy bastards" or working members of society, whether they were moral followers or the dregs of immorality. The government may not be Jesus, but they damn sure should aspire to one of the basic tenets of the founding of America: every citizen has the right to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," all of which is difficult when one has to choose between crippling bankruptcy or crippling sickness.

It's almost like the political establishment expects everyone to get their healthcare from this guy.

Labels: Corporate Corruption, Government Corruption, Government Idiots, Health Care, Politics, Religious Corruption

   Read more!

I hate to be one to pile on to a dogpile of media scrutiny, but there's just a little bit I have to say about The Rev. Ted Haggard and his fall from grace. For those who have not paid attention, Haggard was, until this past week, an evangelical minister in Colorado who preached from a pulpit of bigoted discrimination against gays as well as all that family values twaddle the evangelicals eat up like candy. You know, marriage is only between a man and a woman and anyone who isn't part of that is a sinner and destined for hell, abortion is unforgivable, everyone must have children and live the exact same way. Only Haggard, who preached that homosexuals should not be allowed to have the same civil benefits as heterosexual monogamous couples because homosexuality is a sin, is a liar and a hypocrite.

Rev. Haggard has had according to his accuser, regular homosexual encounters topped off with meth use, and according to the Reverend, sexual immorality of an unspecified nature. He has expected us to believe that he was completely innocent, then that he bought meth but didn't use it, and then that he isn't gay but is sexually immoral. He just has a "sexual problem" that has affected him for his entire life. I realize through the distorted lens that is the worldview of evangelicals homosexuality is a sexual problem, but let's get down to brass tacks.

You don't have a sexual problem, Rev. Haggard; you have an honesty problem. You are a homosexual, or at least a bisexual. That isn't a problem, it's a reality. I realize that reality is not often something evangelicals like to deal with, but it eventually can't be avoided any longer. Instead of apologizing for "immoral acts" to your congregation, why don't you apologize to them for teaching them bigotry and hatred disguised as moralizing? After all, you are a hypocrite. You are a homosexual man, yet you want to hide that part of yourself from everyone around you. You want to come across as in enough control of your inherently sinful nature to judge others' behavior, when you are not in control of it yourself. You aren't just a liar, you have cheated on your wife and broken the sanctity of your marriage, and you don’t' even have the balls to admit it fully. You are a hypocrite and you should have been exposed, because your message is misleading an entire congregation into a bigoted, close-minded agenda that could lead to an entire class of American citizens being denied their basic Constitutional rights.

You ask for forgiveness, but if you are asking to be forgiven for the wrong things. You need to ask for forgiveness for being a hypocrite and a bigot, for being a poor shepherd to your flock, not for being gay. Being gay doesn't require forgiveness, it requires acceptance. If you want forgiveness, admit that you are gay and try to live with that. Admit to yourself and everyone else that you have a drug problem. Admit that being gay isn't the sin, trying to hide it behind a heterosexual relationship is.

The evangelical position on homosexuality is based on Bible verses that claim being gay is a sin. Boiled down to its barest essential elements, this belief is based on some guy in the Middle East thousands of years ago claiming that God told him that homosexuality was a sin. Is it that the claim was made thousands of years ago that makes it special? The same man in the Middle East saying that God spoke to him now would get laughed at and ignored by Haggard's congregation. Or is it the claimant to secret God knowledge? Again, those same claims today would get laughed at. Is it just the ick factor of thinking about two men snogging which makes homosexuality an unforgiveable sin to the evangelical crowd?

Whatever the reasoning is, these hypocritical rabble need to realize that if their leaders are hypocrites, liars and adulterers, what does that say about where they've been led? I'm not claiming their leaders can ever be without sin; sin is inherent in man's nature. But I am saying that when these leaders start tossing around Bible verses to justify a bigoted set of laws, the flock needs to learn to think for themselves instead of following hypocrites like Rev. Haggard.

Labels: Politics, Religious Corruption

   Read more!