You mean, no one's gonna call me on including Michael Jackson in the list...? But he's the most wholesome one on there (provided you skip the slumber party); he makes Rush Limbaugh look like John Dillinger!
I didn't put Rush on the list for his political views--he's there because I simply don't like him. That's right; it's a completely irrational gut-level dislike for the man--he just bugs me. His eyes are too small or something--I dunno. He just seems like that last person I would ever want to get stuck in an elevator with...! I really don't know anything about his political views, because I've never watched his show longer than two minutes. <font size=1>Click-click-click--! </font>
Yes, I am a Liberal. Democrat. Hippy. Bark-eater. Subjugator of the Status Quo. Man in the Street. Take your pick.
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If we're going to do the social/political discussion, I'd like to focus on my favorite rant topic: socialized medicine. In Europe, when you get sick, you go to the doctor...you get treated, then you get better. Here in the United States, we do the same thing, only we follow it with the bills, then the debt collectors, the bankruptcy and all that. That is, provided you can get treatment without insurance (and there are many, many more people who work but do not receive medical benefits than one might first imagine) in the first place. Just try getting treated for a bad tooth without the money to pay for it...you will be forced to wait until the thing abcesses, your life is in danger, and then you can go to the emergency room...and be billed for the rest of your life. Now...in civilized countries, medical treatment is free--you pay higher taxes, but when you need to go to the doctor...dammit, you just go!
In real life, my girlfriend is recovering from a car accident from a couple of years ago. The bills from her back doctors and surgeries would be enough to cripple us financially, if it weren't for the Oregon Health Plan. The plan is a recent program, resulting from the national attention that health care received after the president's first election. If it weren't for that brief spurt of liberal, hippy bark-eating
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So why is our health care system so f****d, anyway? Don't everyone rush the microphone, now...
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"The entire universe is simply the fractal chaos boundary between intersecting domains of high and low energy."
--Imladil the Wanderer
"If Jupiter obeys liquid rules of physics, wouldn't it be teardrop-shaped?"
--Little Jimmy
[This message has been edited by Imladil (edited December 25, 1999).]