August 12, 2012

Dear Dumbshit Republican who stopped by to argue that we don't need radical health care change.

In response to

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021115720
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=1117218

You came, you left your turd and now your gone. We don't want to waste our time having to go all the way back to Copernicus and reestablish ever logical point that the reactionaries have been fighting for the last 500 years so your ticket was punched. If you have observed the different voices at DU you might have noticed that I never use "Repug" and other pejoratives and I openly state that I have family I love and friends I respect who are Republicans, so when I use the word "Dumbshit" it is not a broad bush, it is aimed 100% at you and the millions of other obstinate knuckle draggers who think that you have any intellectual basis for your reactionary bullshit.

You have none. And if any of you have ever lived outside of the US you will find just how little respect your point of view gets in the other major democracies. And here I am speaking of other conservative even right wing parties.

Three years ago I spent an entire day researching the position of every major political party in every single developed democratic country and their stand on universal access to health care. I expected to find a couple of parties that agreed with you. There were none. Not even the racist far right nativist parties agreed with you.

You are alone in the civilized world when it comes to your repugnant, unethical, inhumane, counterproductive, parochial, hubrisitic, jingoistic, overburdened and anticapitalist approach to health care.


In the 'marketplace of ideas' that you like to pretend you believe in you are 0 out of 60. NO OTHER POLITICAL PARTY IN THE WORLD SHARES YOUR POINT OF VIEW. If you go to Europe and have dinner with a pious religious family who votes 100% of the time with the most conservative party in their country the first substantive question they will ask you when they want to have a meaningful discussion is "How can you justify a system that puts a price on seeing a doctor? In a wealthy country why should anyone have to worry about paying to go see a doctor?" And again this is from the conservatives. You are apart of the most reactionary far right wing movement in Western Civilization. You put on the clothes of respectability but does it ever bother you that the only reason that you are still in the game at all is that 30% of your votes are from self admitted racists who cannot correctly identify where the President was born. You have no shame, no respect from other conservatives. You have nothing and you are nothing and the American people are going to hand you a huge Electoral College defeat.



Here is the result of that original post.

The link has the original post with all of the HTML effects which make it easier to read:

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/grantcart/188


In the world of political opinion the Republican Party stands alone in not supporting either universal national health care or universal health care insurance


While the Republican Party gives lip service to the idea of competing in the 'marketplace of ideas', history has made its choice. Looking across the span of political parties in modern development Democratic countries there is broad unanimous agreement among political leaders and parties that health care should be universally accessible.

The overwhelming numbers support a nationalized health care system.

A smaller minority support a nationalized insurance, or nationally controlled health insurance system that requires insurance companies to issue guarantee acceptance at regulated rates.

Only one party, The Republican Party, supports the proposition that individuals are better suited to work it out on its own.

In glancing at the partial list below, the most striking point is that very Conservative parties in Canada, the UK, and Australia all support positions that are to the left of even the Democratic Party in the US.

In all cases these countries spend about 30% less than the US (as a percentage of GDP - 16% versus 10%) and deliver more effective care to more people.

This is because national health care does three things;

1) Eliminates an unnecessary profit center (The health insurance industry).

2) Eliminates the unnecessary cost of administrating an expensive mechanism to approve care and achieves other efficiences of scale.

3) Focuses care on earlier stages of health problems allowing for more effective and less expensive preventative steps to be more universally accessed.

Universal health not only works but it saves money. Because of the eradication of Small Pox by governments across the globe this year we will spend no money and suffer no human loss due to small pox.


Australia



Government programs underpin the key aspects of healthcare. Medicare, which is funded out of general tax revenue, pays for hospital and medical services. Medicare covers all Australians, pays the entire cost of treatment in a public hospital, and reimburses for visits to doctors.


Australian Labor Party (center left 43%) "defend and strengthen Medicare, which is the cornerstone of Australia's health system"
http://www.alp.org.au/platform/chapter_10....

Liberal Party of Australia (center right 36%) The government should &quot make) health services available, while encouraging preventative measures and private insurance http://www.liberal.org.au/info/docs/federa...


Austria
(no party advocates major changes to their health system http://www.economist.com/countries/Austria... )

Social Democratic Party (socialist 57 seats) (website is in German but the SDS is considered one of the most socialist parties in Europe http://www.spoe.at /

People's Party (center right 51 seats) Access to medical care must be guaranteed for every human being, regardless of his/her financial situation, social status and place of residence. http://www.oevp.at/download/general/036201...

Freedom Party (far right 34 seats) The freedom Party has a 5 point platform - none of them relate to changing health care http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_Party...

Alliance for the future of Austria (eclectic some far right some far left 21) The AFA has a 21 point platform - none of which advocate any change to Austria's socailized health care. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliance_for_...

Green Party (center left 20) build a society respectful of fundamental human rights and environmental justice: the rights to self‑determination, to shelter, to good health, to education, to culture, and to a high quality of life;
http://www.greens-efa.org/cms/default/rubr...


Belgium


Belgium's health care system is one of the best in Europe and none of the parties want to make major changes to it;


Devoting only half as much of its GDP to health as the United States does, Belgium has created a flexible, public-private partnership to pay for and deliver health care that preserves many of the attributes that Americans desire: universal coverage; comprehensive coverage of physician services, hospital care, and prescription drugs; free choice of primary physicians and specialists; and acceptable waiting periods for non-emergency services. (Belgium parties each have a seperate Flemish/Walloon-French speaknig Parties which are listed together) http://www.brookings.edu/events/2007/0205h...

\
Christian Democratic and Flemish/ Humanist Democratic Centre (Christian Democratic 25%)

Reformist Movement/Flemish Liberals/ (Liberalism 12%)

Flemish Interest (Right wing popularism/facist/anti immigrant 12%) Even this party, one of Europe's most far right wing parties, does not include any change in the health system in its extensive 18 point platform. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vlaams_Belang

Open VLD (Liberalism 12%)

Socialist/Socialist Different (socialist 21%)

Ecolo/Green (green 10%)



Canada




Since 1962, Canada has had a government-funded, national healthcare system founded on the five basic principles of the Canada Health Act. The principles are to provide a healthcare system that is: universally available to permanent residents; comprehensive in the services it covers; accessible without income barriers; portable within and outside the country; and publicly administered. http://www.medhunters.com/articles/healthc...


Universal Health Care is considered "sacrosanct"

Conservative (center right 36%) A belief that all Canadians should have reasonable access to quality health care regardless of their ability to pay; http://www.conservative.ca/EN/4679 /

Liberal (center left 30%)
Medicare—single tier, universal access, publicly-funded health care is still regarded as sacrosanct, and people are very concerned that we’re losing it. More and more people understand that within that system, some publicly-funded services can be privately delivered—the far larger concern is wanting to avoid a two-tier system. This creates an opportunity to have a more open discussion—
even if we don’t have the answers, we should be looking for them. http://www.liberal.ca/pdf/docs/platformrep...


Quebec Party (french national 11%)

New Democratic Party (Center left 17%) NDP wants to expand public health care including expanded dental and prescription drug coverage, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Democrati...


Czech Republic


Civic Democratic Party (Center right 81 seats) Ideologically similar to British Conservative Party

Christian Democratic Union (Center left 29 seats) "the creating of a universal health care system and the guarantee of its functionality" http://www.kdu.cz/EN_Videa/Media_11_2006_5...


Communist Party (Communist 26 seats)

Christian and Democatic Union (Center right 13 seats)



Denmark




Every resident in Denmark has free access to the ealth care system with free examinations and treatment. Residents receive a health insurance card from their municipality, which also arranges for the patients choice of doctor. http://www.ouh.dk/wm237197


Venstre (Center right 26%) Recently ran on increasing investment into Denmark's national health care system to reduce waiting lines http://www.venstre.dk/index.php?id=4620

Social Democrats (25% Socialism) Equality means applying decency and engendering a socially fair distribution of society’s goods. It means equal opportunities and equal access to education, health care and other services regardless of gender, social or ethnic background. http://socialdemokraterne.dk/A-English+ver...

Danish People's Party (Right Wing Populism 13.9%) The party is mostly an anti immigration policy and does not advocate major changes in the Danish Health System. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danish_People...

Socialist People's Party (Socialist/Green 13%) Supports universal free health care.



France





Although the French system faces many challenges, the World Health Organization rated it the best in the world in 2001 because of its universal coverage, responsive healthcare providers, patient and provider freedoms, and the health and longevity of the country's population. The United States ranked 37

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial... /




Union for a Popular Movement (Center Right 317 seats) refund at fair value both dental work expenses and spectacles, to put an end to inequalities in health care. http://www.support-sarkozy-france.com/nico...

Coalition of the Left (Center Left/Socialists 204 seats) Several different Leftist Parties all supporting universal health care.



Germany



Germany has the world's oldest universal care system and is arguably the most successful. Like Americans, most Germans get their health coverage through their employers. But Germany's rich pay higher premiums to subsidize insurance for the poor — a principle the Germans call "solidarity" http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.p...

The principle of "Solidarity" has been endorsed by all of Germany's political parties".



Social Democratic Party (Center Left 34%) Free or low cost nursing, doctor medical and hospital care for those who are sick, injured or unable to care for themselves. This may also include free antenatal and postnatal care. Services may be provided in the community or a medical facility. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_th...


Christian Democratic Union (Center Right 28%)

Free Democratic Party (Center 10%)

The Left (Socialism 9%)

Green (Center left 8%)

Christian Social Union (Center Right 7%)




Greece






Many Greeks have been clamouring for reform in their country’s health care system. Still, it was ranked by the World Health Organization as one of the best health care system in the world. Health care cost is the lowest among the European Union member countries. . . Public health system in Greece provides free or low cost health care service to residents contributing to the social security system including their families. Other benefits include free laboratory services, maternity care, medical-related appliances or gadgets, and transportation. Other European Union nationals can also avail of the free health care benefits provided they have with them their E111 forms.

http://www.expatforum.com/articles/health/...




New Democracy Party (Center Right 42%)

Unrestricted healthcare, guaranteed by the State. Healthcare is the principal social benefit.
For current and future generations, a person's quality of life will depend on healthcare. We struggle for a healthcare system, free of restrictions; lifetime healthcare, covering all health needs, for all citizens.
http://en.nd.gr /


Panhellenic Socialist Movement (Center Left 38%) Ensuring good education, health care, child care, et cetera for all citizens through government fundings.


Ireland





All persons resident in Ireland are entitled to receive health care through the public health care system, which is managed by the Health Service Executive and funded by general taxation. A person may be required to pay a subsidised fee for certain health care received; this depends on income, age, illness or disability. All child health and maternity services are provided free of charge as is emergency care.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_care_i...


All Irish Parties support Universal Care

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_care_i...

A survey, commissioned by the HSE in 2007, found that patient satisfaction with the health service was quite high, with 90% of inpatients and 85% of outpatients saying they were satisfied with their treatment. In addition to this, 97% said they were satisfied with the care provided by their GP.




Fianna Fáil (Center Right 41%)

Fine Gael (Center Left 27%

Labour Party (Socialist 10%)




Japan





In the Japanese health care system, healthcare services, including free screening examinations for particular diseases, prenatal care, and infectious disease control, are provided by national and local governments. Payment for personal medical services is offered through a universal health care insurance system that provides relative equality of access, with fees set by a government committee. People without insurance through employers can participate in a national health insurance program administered by local governments. Since 1973, all elderly persons have been covered by government-sponsored insurance. Patients are free to select physicians or facilities of their choice.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_care_i...

Generally speaking, the healthcare in Japan is not only provided free for every Japanese citizen, but also for expatriates and foreigners. http://www.allianzworldwidecare.com/health...

All Parties in Japan support universal health Care






Democratic Party of Japan (Center Left 40%)

Liberal Democratic Party (Center Right 28%)

New Komeito Party (Buddhist 13%) Supports Universal Care and wants cancer coverage expanded. http://www.komei.or.jp/en/policy/manifest....




Italy




The National Health System of Italy, called the Servizio Sanitario Nazioanale, offers inexpensive healthcare to all European citizens. In-patient treatments which are covered include tests, medications, surgeries during hospitalization, family doctor visits, and medical assistance provided by paediatricians and other specialists. The health system is also responsible for drugs and medicines, out-patient treatments, and dental treatments.

http://www.allianzworldwidecare.com/health...


All Italian Political Parties support Universal Health Care




PDL (Center Right 275 Seats)

PD (Center Left 217 Seats

Lega Nord (Regional Parties 60 Seats)

UDC (Center Right 35 Seats

Idv (Center Left 29 Seats)




Netherlands





http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_care_i...

Of all of the developed Democracies (besides the US) the Netherlands relies most on private insurance to combine with government subsidies and is therefore the closest to the US system:

The Netherlands has introduced a new system of health care insurance based on risk equalization through a risk equalization pool. In this way, a compulsory insurance package is available to all citizens at affordable cost without the need for the insured to be assessed for risk by the insurance company. Indeed health insurers are now willing to take on high risk individuals because they receive compensation for the higher risks <3>.

A 2008 article in the journal Health Affairs suggested that the Dutch health system, which combines mandatory universal coverage with competing private health plans, could serve as a model for reform in the US.


Nevertheless the Dutch system is both substantially lower and provides higher care;

"In 2003, the Netherlands spent 9.8 percent of its gross domestic product on health care, below the spending levels in Germany, France, and Canada and more than one-third less than the United States. Even under the constraints of this budget, the Netherlands has implemented a number of health sector reforms that have led to important quality improvement. . ."

While it is not a nationalized system it does provide for Universal Health Care Insurance

Since 1 January 2006, there has been a single healthcare insurance system in the Netherlands, Everyone living in the Netherlands, or paying income tax here is required to take out compulsory healthcare insurance, Although the basic package is fixed by law, people are free to choose their insurer.

Insurers have a duty to accpet everyone for the basic package and older or chronically ill people may not be charged higher premiums for the basic coverage. The new system should lead to more efficient and client-centered healthcare services.


All parties in the Netherlands support Universal Insurance (or completely nationalizing the medical service).



CDA (Center Right 41 Seats)

Labor Party (Socialist 33 Seats)

Socialist Party (Socialist 25 Seats)

VVD (Center Right 21





United Kingdom




The National Health Service (NHS) is based on the principle to provide a universal service for all based on clinical need, not ability to pay. It is supported by all major parties in the UK.




Labour Party (Center Left 350 Seats) Labour considers NHS "their greatest achievement'.

Conservative Party (Center Right 193 Seats) Now supports the NHS without reservation. In 2006, for example, David Cameron unveiled changes to his party's stance on healthcare which effectively undid Thatcher's efforts to try and subsidize patients going to private medical insurance. In his first speech becoming leader he said that he wanted the NHS to be free for all.

Liberal Party (Centrist 63 Seats) Supports NHS and would like to decentralize it and expand its drug coverage.



Discuss (18 comments) | Recommend (+15 votes)

August 11, 2012

All in.

No lesser of two evils.

Two dramatically counter visions of America.

This is all out political war.

Will the most powerful government in the world be turned over lock, stock and barrel to an elite group of extremely rich manipulators that have corrupted capitalism and now want to undermine the basic foundations of the modern developed state simply so a privledged few can start adding zeroes to a largess that they will never be able to consume in a hundred lifetimes,

or

Does the government provide basic services, health, education, safety net and leadership for all its citizens so that the maximum level of opportunity can be spread to the maximum number of citizens.

The differences are wider than the gap of the Grand Canyon.

Any liberal or leftwing Democrat or independent that is not 100% behind the reelection of President Obama is the best friend of the most reactionary national ticket to have run for the Presidency in a hundred years. From today on there is nothing lower than a Naderite (or Stein-ites) in the 2012 election.

Nothing.

August 10, 2012

From an Ex CEO: Why John Schnatter's comments about a 20 cents add on are laughable.

In 1988 I cashed in my retirement account and started a factory making leather furniture in Thailand and within 2 years we had grown the company to 450 employees and dominated the discount leather furniture market in Europe, replacing cheap discount production in Italy with better quality and lower priced product. IKEA was our largest, but not only customer and Ingmar Komprad came to visit our factory. We had Thai and Japanese shareholders, shipped more than $ 10 million a year, paid our workers 30% more than the market and had zero turnover. A few years later they took down the Berlin Wall and IKEA took our model to Poland where the inflated post liberation currency made labor virtually free and they could ship directly to their European stores, saving a 20% warehousing fee. We had signed personal guarantees on our loans we lost everything, house, retirement account. But I really enjoyed it, everyday was a different problem solving exercise.

I did learn however to look at markets like a CEO and I am continually shocked how idiotic statements by American CEOs are allowed to stand. Now I am not talking how their are idiotic from a public policy or morals point of view, as this one is, but how they are idiotic from a CEO point of view. I keep waiting for somebody with some business background to make the points in the national media but they never do.

Putting aside all morale, ethical, human issues regarding the wisdom of adding of dimes to a pizza so that the employees can have access to a doctor there are numerous reasons why they are just plain stupid from a CEO's point of view.


1. Marginal increase in costs are completely irrelevant.

The only thing that is relevant is are you going to get a cost disadvantage versus all of your competitors. Is Papa John's going to have to pay an additional 20 cents a pizza that other pizza makers are not going to have to pay? Of course not. So where's the harm? To think of it another way the direct cost of gasoline that goes up because say "President Romney attacks Iran and with 1/3 of the oil going through the Persian Gulf gas prices would go to $ 6.00" would have a much greater multiplier effect on Papa John's per pizza cost because not only would his raw material costs, direct energy costs and delivery costs would go up much much more than the lousy 20 cents he has mentioned. But Schnatter doesn't really care about this because he knows that if those costs go up for him then they will also go up for all of the other Pizza makers.

For this reason marginal increase in costs are completely irrelevant if they are applied to all the manufacturers equally, there is no competitive advantage or disadvantage, they are irrelevant to the manufacturer's position in the market place.

2. It eliminates one of his major benefit nightmares

Now Papa John's doesn't have to fight it out in the benefit wars where a competing company poaches his workers by offering better benefits. Working as a management consultant my first task was to ask the CEO what his major problems were. They were never the real problems but you had to let the guy ventilate. Sometimes they would say "unions" and this was never the case. Most of the time they were in prevailing wage bids so that the union rate had to be paid whether they were union or not. I would ask "since you are costing and paying on prevailing wage set by they government and your union now becomes responsible for discipline (if you had a problem with a particular worker he could simply notify the shop steward and they would send that pipe fitter back to the shop and get another one) where is the disadvantage? None.

By having a universally defined benefit Papa John's is spared the headache of trying to compete in the market place trying to convince workers that his companies health benefits are competitive with another company, they are now all going to be more or less equal.

3. It puts more disposable income into his customers pockets

What is Papa John's major problem? Disposable income in his customary base is declining. The Affordable Health Care Act will mean that when the working Mom has to go to the doctor and get breast examination or a new prescription her monthly budget isn't going to be wiped out. Now when she is on her way home from the doctor and doesn't have enough time to make dinner, she can order a pizza rather than feeding the kids breakfast cereal.

There is a famous story about how Ford increased his daily labor pay to $ 15 per day even though he had plenty of workers willing to work for half of that. He wasn't being generous, he needed them to be able to make enough money to buy a car.

I predict that eventually the management of Walmart will become big advocates for increasing minimum wages. They are coming quickly to the point where there are not that many quality locations to build new stores. They are trying to expand the range of quality products and services that they provide to get in more customers. But as the disposable income of the middle and lower class continues to disintegrate they will see (and I believe that they are already seeing) that the per trip ticket for their customers start to decline. In the stock market they are competing against other companies for investment and they are required to find ways to increase profits. For their domestic market they are fast approaching the point where the only way that they can increase profit is to increase the per ticket total of their customers buying and that can only happen if the minimum and working wages at the bottom increase.

4. Communicating a negative message to your employees

In addition to all of the above is the callous, heartless point that John Schnatter is communicating to his employees. He is saying I will not provide and I do not care if you have access to medical services and he is putting his lack of care with a price tag, 20 cents a pizza. Businesses can only be successful on the long term if a) their suppliers win b) their employees win and c) their customers win. If any of those three are threatened then the long term viability of the business is uncertain. Papa John's has now communicated to all of their employees that they are nothing more than cannon fodder and are completely disposable. This puts Papa John's at a competitive disadvantage in hiring and attracting the best workers, or keeping morale up. And he created this disadvantage without gaining any comparative bottom line advantage. It doesn't help your bottom line to alienate your employees, especially when you do it without actually increasing your bottom line performance, it is an unforced error.



Of course there is the whole moral, ethical and public policy point of view as well. But looking at it strictly from a business point of view Schnatter's comments rise to the level of a junior high school business class. If I was a major shareholder in Papa John's I would be worried about how competent a CEO was managing my investment.

The fact that the media simply passes on statements like this without challenging them simply shows again that they are becoming less and less professional with each election cycle and are completely intimidated by business people no matter how senseless their comments are.

August 4, 2012

Government and government regulations kill businesses and create poverty.

That is why Somalia, without a functioning government, is such a rich country




And why Switzerland, that has more regulations per citizen than any country on earth, is so poor;




The country of Switzerland spends over 11 percent of its Gross Domestic Product on universal health coverage for its citizens. This is a very high expenditure per capita, but gives its residents a high healthy life expectancy of age 71 for men and age 75 for women. Switzerland’s physician density is about 3.61 per 1,000 residents. Switzerland also has a high level of air pollution. There are many gardens and parks located in Zurich for citizens to walk and bike in. Most of the people of Zurich enjoy an active lifestyle and sports are an integral part of Swiss culture. The abundance of sporting facilities make Zurich a gathering place for sport lovers in Switzerland. Several international sport federations make their home in Zurich.

http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GNP.PCAP.CD/countries/CH--XS?display=graph

http://www.studentsoftheworld.info/infopays/rank/PNBH2.html

August 1, 2012

Nate Silver; "Ohio polls show trouble for Romney" downgrades Romney chance to 31%

We are seeing the first major shift in the campaign. The significance of this is big because all pollsters have, so far, noted how static the race has become and the likelihood of a big swing back is not great as so few people are undecided.




Now Drunken Irishman brings us news of yet another poll (Quinnipac Obama + 6) that shows similar results for Ohio:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/125162820#post20

This would seem to indicate that the outsourcing and outbanking ads are having a huge impact in Ohio.

Note that Nate Silver has downgraded Romney's chances of winning the electoral college to 31%.

There is no reasonable path to an electoral college victory for Romney without Ohio. Portman is the only VP pick that helps in Ohio, so Portman's chances of being on the ticket just went up.

Romney's chances on Intrade have gone below 40 %

http://www.intrade.com/v4/home/

July 31, 2012

Brown ad: "Let America be America", uses scenes from Europe

It appears that the Brown spokesman was not available because he was on the phone with his banker and the banks in Zurich close 5 hours before those in Boston.

July 28, 2012

Romney in Israel "Governments should spend like Jews"

My good friend "The Desperate Blogger" has just published his finest satire ever and perhaps the greatest of the whole campaign season and I base that solely on the title of this brilliant satire piece.

If you have followed The Desperate Blogger's other satirical pieces you will see that they are so funny because they are so close to what is actually happening, to what is actually being said. Time and time again he comes out with his satire a few days before and event only to have the people he is lampooning say almost exactly the same thing.

And no one more richly deserves the "Goy Clip" than Governor and one time Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney, make it so.

July 28, 2012

The Opening Ceremonies humane dimension.

The salute to England's National Health Service wasn't political it was saluting United Kingdom's deep affection for all things humane.

It was a constant thread through all of the ceremony.

Noting the joy of the 7/7 announcement ceremony they took a brief moment to remember those that were killed the next day in a terrorist attack (and that other threads have pointed out was edited out by NBC for the Seacrest/Phelps interview).

But this wonderfully generous view of humanity was seen through out the entire ceremony. It was appropriate for a country that has taken telling adventurous children's stories where good always wins into a national industry. They didn't salute their tradition of childrens stories because it helps with their national trade balance they did it because it helps give a better view of the world.

Its a world where everyone should be able to see a doctor if they need to.

Now I have been roundly lampooned in my family for having the worst singing voice in human history even bringing all of the loud cathartic weeping to a standstill at a funeral while people looked around in my direction trying to find out 'what in the hell that noise is". So how is it possible that you can have an integrated choir of hearing and deaf children sing like angels when they sang the British National Anthem. There are two issues here. One is that they would be so clever to think to invite them. The second is that some music teachers were so brilliant to think of such a choir. Singing and signing together. How wonderfully humane.

Read about the choir here: http://www.thekaos.org/#/the-kaos-signing-choir/4534466631

And then they had dancers in wheel chairs. Did you see that. Wonderfully athletic dancers jumping around and then if you looked carefully you could see dancers wheeling around in wheelchairs.

There is a common value in British society that no one should be left behind, not in singing, not in dancing and not in health care.

It wasn't always that way. They had a conservative opposition that wanted a minimalist government.

Then World War II landed on their doorsteps and they learned that they really did literally need each other.

After the war that sentiment was used to form the NHS. It wasn't easy.

Through the combined sacrifice and terrible experience of WWII where the whole nation was under attack a profound change occurred in Great Britain where a simple empathy for every single other citizen became the norm. That is what was on display last night. It was beautiful to see. Everyone benefits from it, even the conservatives for they too have children in wheel chairs and children who have to sign when they sing and children who need to see a specialist.

Well done English cousins, well done.

July 27, 2012

RW "WeAskAmerica" Ohio - Obama way up. More Republicans are moving toward the President.

Ohio has been ground zero for the President's campaign. Its where he is running ads non stop on Bain and Romney's outsourcing.

We Ask America (read Jenmito's thread about them here) a pollster based in IL that is " is a partisan Republican pollster and an arm of the pro-business Illinois Manufacturer's Association" is showing that Ohio is moving for the President 48 to 40.

But here is the big news:

http://weaskamerica.com/2012/07/27/oh-bama/

July 27, 2012

duplicate

We all know Americans like that don't we? One of my cousins. One of my neighbors. One of the secretaries of the office. They are just so full of American hubris and so intellectually rigid that they should just never leave the country. Not good for them, not good for the people they meet and not good for anybody who is going to base what they think the US is like on meeting them.

Those Americans that shouldn't leave the country, they also shouldn't lead the country. The last one that needed to be held by the hand as he went from country to country was George Bush and we saw how that worked out.