The illegals are not being counted as part of the equation that is another falsehood used to influence those who do not do their research.

not to put to fine a point on it but prior to the advent of modern medicine chances are you wouldn't have a chance to pass on your muscular dystrophy or cardiomyopathy.

That's what we were getting to before this frakus broke out.

It's mind boggling just in how many people's DNA they have recorded. My GOD! They must have the DNA from millions of people all around the world.

value in what sense?

in what calculation are you trying figure in the value of human life?

I have to know before I answer the question.

Am I a general commanding an army at war?

Am I a doctor in a hospital?

Am I a sailor stranded at sea and choosing between cannibalism and death?

Have you killed someone I love?

gotta know things like that.

I'd have to look at the assumptions and observations in the work you cite but I'm skeptical of the concept that global human culture has accidentally found a way to invalidate the mechanism behind billions of years of evolution. Most people, on a global scale, reproduce within their own ethnic groups (think India, China, Central/South America)(and travel suprisingly little in comparison to how much Americans) and while that may not be within restrictions the hamlet enclaves of old tended to impose, I definately doubt the lack of that restriction has completely dismantled the evolutionary process..

don't trouble her with the facts, hb34. They will only confuse her, piss her off, and then she'll dismiss them as mis-information and propaganda funded by the rightwing media and corporate interests..

what I get sick of, and it's been a strategem of the left for a while now, is to attempt to claim some kind of intellectual high ground. Saying things like, Fill-in-the-blank Republican is just not smart enough to understand this or that, and Fill-in-the-blank Democrat is the smartest person for the job, no one's got the intellectual firepower this person has.

and the message rings true when they follow that rhetoric with some stained t-shirt wearing hick from the backwoods of Kentucky saying something stupid and racist.

This whole game about "my dad's smarter than your dad" is just juvenile and counterproductive.

For all the intellectual firepower Tim Geithner allegedly brings to the table and vast understanding of the tax code and federal regulatory authority, he still couldn't figure out how to pay his taxes for a significant part of the last decade, an offense that would have landed you or me in a federal "bone me in the a__" prison for tax evasion.. But no cellie named Art for ol' Timmy! No, this guy gets to head up the federal treasury because "he's smart".

God forbid a person should provide for himself and his family.

And I love the stats. The status quo kills 18,000 people a year. Does that include people that die of lung cancer from smoking or of liver failure from a lifetime of drinking whiskey?

does it include all the gangbangers that can't seem to stop killing each other in those wonderful urban utopias like Detroit, Chicago, Dallas, Houston etc..?

What about the glut of the urban poor who suffer from obesity and die of heart disease?.. is there anything in the "Public Option" that will stop their mothers from feeding them twinkies and cocacola with those food stamps their neighbors subsidise, rather than rice and beans, which are far more healthy and way less expensive?

How many of those deaths could a "public option" have saved?

what about the legions of the uninsured who drive around on $4500 sets of 22" rims but "can't afford the premiums" for insurance and who, instead, go to county hospital ER's and skip out on the bill??

what does the public option do about that??

No.. What this country needs is not another taxpayer subsidised entitlement program, but a good shot in the arm of some good old self respect, rugged individualism, and self reliance.

Dependence on Government leads to shackles of economic slavery.

There should be a safety net. We should not leave defenseless those who cannot fend for themselves. But for those that can provide for themselves and refuse to do so, there should be little sympathy. The safety net should not be a destination resort hammock for the perpetually irresponsible. It takes up all the room for those that could have been caught but end up falling through.

I agree that there are problems with the way doctors are forced to deal with their patients and how healthcare is "delivered" (as though it were a truckload of groceries). But the manner in which the Dems are going about fixing it is completely bass-akwards.

That is funny. That is what has supposedly been happening.