Critical Brain Candy

Finally a nice source of proof to debunk the usual falsehoods beleived in the US about health care. Namely the study found that:
a) universal health care doesn’t have to cost more than privatized, and
b) universal health care can be as good a privatized

http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2004/05/04/sci-tech/compare040504

Having lived under both types now, I can make the educated statement that I much prefer universal health care. The debate that usually rages in Canada is how good everyone’s health care should be. The debate here in the US is who should get it. I prefer the first.

An interesting article that I can completely identify with. Talks about the North American tendency to drive absolutely everywhere. Even just around the corner. Every single morning I see people drive to work out of the apartment complex directly beside a large tech complex. The entrances can’t be more than a few hundred feet apart, and in total not more than a half mile. I also see people drive to the gym in the same apartment complex. This is absolutely absurd. You’ll go the the gym for 30 minutes, but can’t spend the 2 minutes walking there.

Also, it seems like everywhere except the east coast has non-existent public transportation. My wife and I share a car and I would absolutely love if there was some kind of public transportation to work. There is no bus that goes anywhere in the part of the city where I work. Not for many miles.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=18554

This is a quote from radio talk show host Jay Severin (found on www.ofrankenfactor.com). I’d never heard of him before but, then again, I’m not fluent in my neo-conservative talk show hosts. This just boggles my mind.

” I believe that Muslims in this country are a fifth column. . . . The vast majority of Muslims in this country are very obviously loyal, not to the United States, but to their religion. And I’m worried that when the time comes for them to stand up and be counted, the reason they are here is to take over our culture and eventually take over our country.

My suspicion is that the majority of Muslims in the United States, who regard themselves as Muslims first and not as Americans really at all, see an American map one day where this is the United States of Islam, not the United States of America. I think it pays to harbor those suspicions.”

Why is this guy (and all the others like him) so terrified? To me it just seems like good logical reasoning and common sense that the “vast majority of Muslims in the US” are not here to take over the country. In fact I don’t know how you could prove that there is any larger percentage of “anti-US sentiment” among Muslims in the US than any other major group. If there is proof to the contrary please let me know, as I’m interested.

I think this is another example of a person who is so conservative that they view any difference to their acceptable norm as a threat. They are then so lacking in any form of humanity that they think all people who are different from their norm are unimportant, and therefore expendable if it suits their interests.

Lastly, does the above quote strike anyone else as being very similar to Nazi policy towards Jews? The thing that scares me is that in Nazi Germany it was one insane person pushing this policy. Here in the US right now there seems to be an undercurrent (I don’t know exactly how large) that is willfully pushing these views and policies. So I guess I’m just as terrified as the guy above. Except I’m terrified about the repurcusions for humanity, not for fear of losing my tax return and my SUV.