@PaisleyPajamas: He ex-husband's name was Wilbur, so maybe Mr. Ed would be a better comparison.
My favorite moment when she was Lt. Gov in NY was when she stood up during Gov. Pataki's ENTIRE inauguration speech. Anyone who didn't think she was nuts after that was kidding themselves.
I still love watching her fumble through her documentation on the Daily Show, desperately trying to back up the "death panel" passage. And Stewart asking why didn't even bother to use stickies.
@BadUncle: And kudos to Stewart and his editors for sitting back in silence as she paged and paged and paged through and couldn't come up with THE ONE SECTION she kept saying everything hinged on. Bravo to them for recognizing the power of dead air.
There was this argument, see, back in the early days, the 70s. Archie Bunker opened up a new era in which a dingbat spewed his ignorance to the masses on primetime teevee! This was not Leave it to Beaver, friends.
The explanation was, the arguments are dispelled by a clown who delivers them. It's Vonnegut's theory of the wrang-wrang.
You want the spotlight of the enemy focused on a clown. It's why David Brooks is all upset and in denial about these loons in front of cameras on his side, and why you shouldn't be.
Well, Ezekiel Emanuel, a health care advisor to the Obama Administration, did argue for "healthcare rationing by age and disability" [en.wikipedia.org]
The entire article is here and is a scary read. Some highlights, "The fundamental challenge to theories of dis- tributive justice for health care [what is this exactly?] is to develop a principled mechanism for defining what fragment of the vast universe of technically available, effective medical care services is basic and will be guaranteed socially and what services are discretionary and will not be guaranteed socially. Such an approach accepts a two-tiered health system-some citizens will receive only basic services while others will receive both basic and some discretionary health services [to be decided by government bureaucrats]. Within the discretionary tier, some citizens will receive few discretionary services, other richer citizens will receive almost all available services, creating a multiple-tiered system."
He also, "suggests the need for public forums to deliberate about which health services should be considered basic and should be socially guaranteed...Conversely, services provided to individuals who are irreversibly prevented from being or becoming participating citizens are not basic and should not be guaranteed. An obvious example is not guaranteeing health services to patients with dementia."
In 2009, he co-wrote another article on a similar topic, "Principles for allocation of scarce medical interventions" in the journal The Lancet. The article advocates a health allocation system termed the "complete lives system". This system is based on the combination of "four morally relevant principles: youngest-first, prognosis, lottery, and saving the most lives".
So, I guess the death panel statement was true after all.
President Obama said this last year about his grandmother's hip replacement:
"I don’t know how much that hip replacement cost. I would have paid out of pocket for that hip replacement, just because she’s my grandmother. Whether, sort of in the aggregate, society making those decisions to give my grandmother, or everybody else’s aging grandparents or parents, a hip replacement when they’re terminally ill is a sustainable model is a very difficult question."
I think that most people agree that healthcare needs fixing. But most people also agree that moving toward a government takeover is not the solution. For example, Medicare only works because hospitals that are undercut on Medicare can charge privately insured patients more.
Ms. McCaughey should not have gone as far as she did with her death-panel comment. But otherwise, she has provided some valuable information, in the articles she has written. It would be nice to see someone discuss these points on the merits rather than talk about physical appearance, children's vaginas, etc., although that is what people do when they are losing.
@CountryClubRepublican: That is how the health care system currently works. Need a kidney, liver or other organ? Get on the list. You will not be approved if you have dementia, mental retardation or lots of other things. Even if you do get on the list, you have to wait your turn.
You are welcome to circumvent the list if someone is willing to give an organ to you you directly. This works better for kidneys and livers than it does for hearts, faces and hands.
@CountryClubRepublican: And C., the quotes you take from the allocation article are out of context---he is talking about when resources are scarce, say, like in a MASH unit or say in Louisiana after Katrina. In a hypothetical context. He's not talking about his ideas for reforming American healthcare. What is wrong with you?
This is somewhat different. Organs are in short supply; at the moment, we cannot make more on demand, as we can with many medical products/drugs/services. And so they are rationed. Public-health-insurance provision would apply this rationing theory to all health services, including services/products of which we can make more.
@Paddington: It's not rationing, dumbo. That's how any responsible system of socialized health care works. No system, private OR public can provide complete coverage of everything for everybody. Medical insurance companies MUST put a cap on services to stay solvent the same way governments must limit services in a single-payer system.
There is NO difference whatsoever except for the increased efficiency and compassion provided when the government is looking after you, as opposed to a giant consortium with a profit motive.
I'm pretty sure that's her headshot from her early '90's heyday. I think we deserve something more recent. Between natural shrinkage and poorly chosen stretching, her face surely looks like a Joan Rivers primer by now.
As such, those chiclets are growing, if only by perception.
Good luck sleeping with that mental image stuck in your noodle, kiddies.
Whereas Gawker and Cambell Brown try and cast such scrapes as the one between Olbermann and what's-his-o'name as an equal battle between two "big swinging anchors," the truth is - all on one side. The reason the right lies is it's so easy for them because their core comprises the most depraved morons on earth. How is some drooling yokel gonna figure out the truth of birthing or a Death Clause if his only source of information is Pox Noise or the overweight pill freak?
10/05/09
And Seabiscuit's teeth!
10/05/09
Something tells me Republicans are willing to drop the Kissinger's brain requirement when confronted with the Jessica Rabbit body.
10/05/09
10/05/09
My favorite moment when she was Lt. Gov in NY was when she stood up during Gov. Pataki's ENTIRE inauguration speech. Anyone who didn't think she was nuts after that was kidding themselves.
10/05/09
[www.thedailyshow.com]
[www.thedailyshow.com]
Unfortunately the extended version (off air portion) was taken down.
10/05/09
Jon was extraordinarily patient with this nincompoop.
10/05/09
10/05/09
Still gloriously preserved on HuffPo.
10/05/09
Not only a liar, but a dimwit.
10/05/09
10/05/09
The explanation was, the arguments are dispelled by a clown who delivers them. It's Vonnegut's theory of the wrang-wrang.
You want the spotlight of the enemy focused on a clown. It's why David Brooks is all upset and in denial about these loons in front of cameras on his side, and why you shouldn't be.
Keep Sarah Palin.
10/05/09
10/05/09
10/05/09
10/05/09
What's up death doc?
08/15/09
08/15/09
The entire article is here and is a scary read. Some highlights, "The fundamental challenge to theories of dis- tributive justice for health care [what is this exactly?] is to develop a principled mechanism for defining what fragment of the vast universe of technically available, effective medical care services is basic and will be guaranteed socially and what services are discretionary and will not be guaranteed socially. Such an approach accepts a two-tiered health system-some citizens will receive only basic services while others will receive both basic and some discretionary health services [to be decided by government bureaucrats]. Within the discretionary tier, some citizens will receive few discretionary services, other richer citizens will receive almost all available services, creating a multiple-tiered system."
He also, "suggests the need for public forums to deliberate about which health services should be considered basic and should be socially guaranteed...Conversely, services provided to individuals who are irreversibly prevented from being or becoming participating citizens are not basic and should not be guaranteed. An obvious example is not guaranteeing health services to patients with dementia."
In 2009, he co-wrote another article on a similar topic, "Principles for allocation of scarce medical interventions" in the journal The Lancet. The article advocates a health allocation system termed the "complete lives system". This system is based on the combination of "four morally relevant principles: youngest-first, prognosis, lottery, and saving the most lives".
So, I guess the death panel statement was true after all.
08/15/09
President Obama said this last year about his grandmother's hip replacement:
"I don’t know how much that hip replacement cost. I would have paid out of pocket for that hip replacement, just because she’s my grandmother. Whether, sort of in the aggregate, society making those decisions to give my grandmother, or everybody else’s aging grandparents or parents, a hip replacement when they’re terminally ill is a sustainable model is a very difficult question."
[www.nytimes.com]
I think that most people agree that healthcare needs fixing. But most people also agree that moving toward a government takeover is not the solution. For example, Medicare only works because hospitals that are undercut on Medicare can charge privately insured patients more.
Ms. McCaughey should not have gone as far as she did with her death-panel comment. But otherwise, she has provided some valuable information, in the articles she has written. It would be nice to see someone discuss these points on the merits rather than talk about physical appearance, children's vaginas, etc., although that is what people do when they are losing.
08/15/09
You are welcome to circumvent the list if someone is willing to give an organ to you you directly. This works better for kidneys and livers than it does for hearts, faces and hands.
08/15/09
We're talking about a.) what is IN THE BILL, which, as of now, there is no bill, just drafts.
b.) You and I both know a Wikipedia entry is the first resource of the desperate liar, as it can be edited to say all number of things.
08/15/09
08/15/09
08/15/09
This is somewhat different. Organs are in short supply; at the moment, we cannot make more on demand, as we can with many medical products/drugs/services. And so they are rationed. Public-health-insurance provision would apply this rationing theory to all health services, including services/products of which we can make more.
08/16/09
There is NO difference whatsoever except for the increased efficiency and compassion provided when the government is looking after you, as opposed to a giant consortium with a profit motive.
08/15/09
As such, those chiclets are growing, if only by perception.
Good luck sleeping with that mental image stuck in your noodle, kiddies.
08/15/09
08/14/09
08/14/09
08/14/09