Hypocrisy has a different definition. Choose your words more carefully. Just because you have an agenda to support every expensive liberal issue and claim moral high ground to do so does not make you right or your causes reasonable or your programs affordable.

No, I develop medical devices. Look it up. The stuff I do helps to patch up the people who did not take care of their health in some cases and the people with special needs in other cases.

How you propose to know what I care about is beyond me. As a fact I happen to take my work seriously for the sake of those who might need the devices. Someday you may need one as well. Most of the work I do is for small corporations, struggling to make their mark in the field of medical science and to make a difference in the lives of people.

Its easy for someone like you who considers 35 billion to be chump change to criticize me about whether I might have an interest in money. I do not think you are well connected with the real world.

That's ok fitness, I have friends in the industry.

Do you have any idea what percentage of the population eventually winds up in an extended medical care facility funded primarily by government money? When they get there the government essentially takes all of their wealth and then picks up the tab for their care from that point forward. Its not a pretty sight. Families are devastated and left essentially in poverty as the patriarch forfeits all his wealth.

Ultimately we are not in control of our fate where that sort of thing is concerned. Most of the world is uninsured. Some countries cover their people fully with inadequate health care services. There are not a lot of good options. Health education seems the best bet for my money.

At some point if you take all of everybody's money and give it to someone else, nobody will want to work anymore. Then you will be in a financial hell.

Right now, today, I am working on advances in medical science. (this is break time) I work a lot and I build stuff that will help you, or your friends or relatives. I get paid for the products I develop. Read Ayn Rand's book Atlas Shrugged. At some point the best will walk.

Don't ask what I am building. It is proprietary technology. Usually my projects are confidential.

Yeah, tell him to take a hike.

My medical expenses for the year were about 7 bucks. I had to buy some Nyquil for my kid. It was pretty tough spending so much. I was looking at the Walgreens equivalents and thinking if I should save the 2 bucks or just go hog wild and spend the whole 7 dollars in one whack. Then I found a sale where I could get 2 for 1, so I got a bottle of Nyquil and a bottle of Dayquil, all for one price of 7 bucks. A three year supply. Imagine that.

The year isn't over yet though. My costs for the year could go way up to 10 bucks if I have to buy some aspirin.

Don't ask me to pay your medical bills. I can't afford you.

Nobody is picking up on something I said so I am going to repeat it. Hopefully it won't be too much of an annoyance.

For the case of serious illness or emergency care, it is just as urgent a 35 year old woman, or a 25 year old man as it is for a 4 year old child. And for emergency situations such as this, the young adults are very likely to be no better at providing for their own emergency situation than the child of 4 years old.

I love children and I want the best of care for them, but to get on a high moral ground for children while forgetting the rest of the population is just a lie.

In some cases the people you take money from in order to pay for insurance for others, may actually take away that person's ability to have insurance himself or herself.

Well. I just don't want the guy here. I think he represents despotism, tyranny, communism, terrorism, religious extremism and hate.

Fanta, on the other hand, would just as soon let the guy have nukes. I was thinking of maybe making a topic about that possibility, but then I would probably look disingenuous since I have already come out against it. Perhaps you would like to start the topic. After all, if we just give him a couple nukes to play with, maybe he will be satisfied and stop developing his military and supporting anarchy all over the middle east. Any takers on that topic?

Having issues with communication skills are you bear?

Well bear, you should apologize to a lot more than Bigsister. Your words are absolute racial hatred.

Most of the people I know try to get along in race relations. Most of the people I know are pretty decent overall. That's a good thing. Without that our country would be in a hell of a mess.

Nobody in this incident has been charger with a hate crime, not the guys who hung the noose, not the guys who attacked the white kid. Both might be construed as such. Individual acts need to be addressed in individual court or police actions if they involve breaking the law.

If you wanted to say the police should look at the kids who hung the noose and consider what charges might be warranted, that would be reasonable. It is a separate case though.

I don't want the kids who attacked and beat the one boy to get an unfair shake, but I do not believe you can excuse a bad act by blaming it on another.

Its like this. If someone robs a store they should be prosecuted for that. If the store owner finds out who did it and goes to his house and murders him. Then the store owner should be prosecuted for murder. To say that one was black and the other was white would not change the facts.

Paranoid isn't in it. People don't like him for supporting Hezbollah and Hamas. They don't like him for swearing to destroy Israel. They don't like him for harboring Alqaeda. They don't like him for persecuting his own people. They don't like him for fomenting anarchy in South America with the help of Chavez. They don't like him for pursuing nuclear weapons. They don't like him for standing in front of a Death to America poster for a photo op before coming to America.

People don't like him for what he does and for what he says. They don't want him at the site of the twin towers. They don't want him in the United States at all. They don't want him at the United Nations, and they don't need him to speak to a university here.

That is pretty simple. Can you understand that?

Fitness, I took the time to think through the issues and give you a considered opinion. You responded by attacking me personally. I disagree with you but I gave you the courtesy of a thoughtful response. So now I am going to have to be more pointed in my critique.

First of all if 35 billion dollars is chump change to you, what the hell are you doing here? I suggest you go buy yourself a villa in France or whatever. You should be beyond local politics.

Second, the numbers are in your original post. I simply divided one by the other. Read it. Read it.

Finally, the government has not got a really good track record in private enterprise. In fact no governments have. This is not limited to the United States. Even China had to legitimize private industry in order to move into the modern world.

Keep in mind that this program is for children only. And it is for children of low income families only, so it is a small portion of the population. But health care such as this is needed primarily for high cost health issues, such as emergency or special disease. Ordinary health services like checkups and colds and simple needs are typically not the issue with these types of plans.

For the case of serious illness or emergency care, it is just as urgent a 35 year old woman, or a 25 year old man as it is for a 4 year old child. And for emergency situations such as this, the young adults are very likely to be no better at providing for their own emergency situation than the child of 4 years old.

So on the issue of 'have a heart' your program falls way short in my opinion.

Now as to whether I am as smart as Bush or whatever, that shouldn't matter to you because you have the intellectual depth of a teacup. When you look at the broader spectrum of issues you will gain a lot more respect. For now stay home and meditate. Or go spend your 35 billion of chump change on a new hairdo.

If you want a civil discourse consider the comments rather then simply noticing that I disagree and then attacking me personally.

Your quote had the numbers 35 billion by 40 million kids is 8750 each. Seems kind of high to me. I have a heart and I care about kids, I just don't thing the government is going to be very efficient in managing the program. What I actually think will happen if the program is enacted is that the government will set standards for letting children into the program that are somehow higher than expected, so a LOT less children will get in the program. Then there will be barriers for treatment much like you would find in an HMO. Finally the bureaucracy will grow so that the cost of administering the plan will increase every year. What you will most likely see as an end result is that the program costs several times the estimated budget, and the number of children will be a fraction of the original estimate, and finally people will make careers in working in management of the program, who would do society a whole lot more good working in private enterprise somewhere, and we wouldn't be paying for their pensions in 20 years.

If you cut them in half you can peel them easier. That way you can eat one really fast, just in case you have an orange emergency.

Your first paragraph made sense fitness. Diplomacy is a good thing. I do not believe Ahmadinejad can be negotiated with, but aside from that diplomacy is good.

Your second paragraph, he is not extending any olive branches, that much is true. He was actually elected as a moderate based upon the fact that people were wanting social reforms. Unfortunately he has his own ideas of reform and mostly they were hard-line muslim extremism, which he proceeded to shove down the people's throats. So mostly you missed on that one.

Some are saying that having him speak is giving him a platform which will make him look good in the eyes of other extremists, as if he has some extra power for being accepted as a speaker after sticking his thumb in the eye of the United States. I think that is largely true. Because he is in the habit of telling some outrageous lies, such as claiming there was no holocaust, and making threats, such as saying Israel should be wiped off the earth, I would not give him a venue.

I would look for legal means to arrest him though. How about if the United States attacked Iran while he was here and declared the Iranian government to be canceled, and then since he was no longer a representative of his country his diplomatic status would be canceled as well and he could be arrested and tried for terrorism. Howzat?

I bet a lot of people didn't like that comment. But oh well. I was mostly kidding anyway. Where is your sense of humor anyway?

I'm thinking if I should give you all a perspective from my inside track to the Iranian mind. The views I am hearing from actual Iranians is so weird you would all be amazed. I'll give you a hint. Well, no I won't. It would take way too much typing and I want to get some politically-incorrect, illegal-alien, Mexican food. Yum Yum. When I have more time.

Yeah its nice, kind of relaxed, good drinks. Novelty mainly. Worth going once or twice if its not too far, just to see the place.

Aren't you glad common sense prevailed? Even with a democrat majority in congress they couldn't pass this dog.

That price 35 billion is very high. It is $8,750 per child. Wow.
That is a lot to pay. If they go through the normal uninsured emergency care they will probably only cost a quarter of that.

Throwing around billions here and there starts to add up after a while. It might be somewhere between 175 and 300 dollars for every working person in the country.

Besides that, if you keep hitting the cigarette tax eventually people will quit or smuggle. Its a no-win situation.

If I were a smoker I would think it was unfair. Its like kicking them when they are down.

Does anybody have an opinion about Ahmadinejad being invited to speak at Columbia University?

Anybody in favor of it? Anyone have an opinion about why Columbia should or should not invite him?

I wouldn't invite him because he supports terrorism and is trying to develop nuclear weapons so he can continue to support terrorism with impunity. Just my opinion of course. What's yours?

Hey Bear, since you took the comment personally,,,

First let me repeat the comment you took exception to:

Behave yourself and don't gang-beat someone, things will be better all around.

The comment goes for everybody. It is a general comment. If you disagree I would be surprised. If the kid in jail had followed that simple rule he would not be in jail.

Write this on your wall. "Behave yourself and don't gang-beat someone, things will be better all around."

People, police and courts do not take assault lightly. If you excuse it based on race you are a fool. That's just my opinion of course and perhaps you actually deserve the nobel peace prize, but I doubt it.

Sorry for the double there. I walked away and when I came back it looked like it had not posted.