I served my country proudly in the United States Navy for twenty years. I love my country. But I have become deeply ashamed and embarrassed by the selfish greedy bastards that have taken it over.

Our country has evolved since it's birth to keep pace with advances in technology, industry and morality. At our country's inception it was acceptable for one human being to own another. It took a gruesome war and a great many lives to finally end that injustice. It had already been outlawed in most of the world by then. Women only got the right to vote in this country in 1920. Again, most civilized nations of the world were ahead of us.

Now we are debating health insurance reform. The debate should be about the best way to provide health care to our citizens. Our current “system” of employer provided health insurance began during World War II, when there were labor shortages and wage freezes. Defense contractors discovered they could provide health care benefits to attract and keep workers.

Every corporation exists to make a profit. That includes insurance companies. Can someone explain how is it morally acceptable to make a profit off sick people? I have traveled our planet extensively and have seen that the rest of the industrial world (and even many “third world countries”) are capable of providing the necessities to keep its citizens healthy. Is our great country not capable of doing the same? We should be setting an example for the rest of the world. Are we NOT our brothers keeper?

I simply do not understand how people who claim the moral high ground can be against taking the obscene profits out of healthcare. If you took the money that insurance companies call profit, and the savings that providers could realize by not having the administrative overhead of dealing with them, there would be more than enough to extend health care to all our citizens.

Unfortunately we have the best government that money can buy. There are far too few honest politicians for there to be any true health care reform this time. All of the bills/proposals being discussed in congress right now are so hopelessly complicated that the end result will just help the bottom line of the insurance companies at the expense of us taxpayers. I'm sorry but I just can't believe in this change. Maybe next time...

Faith

Most of us are taught that Faith is a good thing.  Even the president says so.  Why?  Faith is the belief in things that can not be proven.  Why is that a good thing?  It really means that you can be tricked into believing anything.  Most monotheistic religions claim to be the only path to salvation, but except for extreme fundamentalists (of all kinds), they respect each others beliefs.  Once you get people to believe in things that can't be proven, you can get them to believe all kinds of things that are not only unprovable, but also down right proven false.  Just look at those that reject the Theory of Evolution.  You just have to have Faith and Believe.  It seems to me that "Communities of Faith" mainly exist to reinforce a shared delusion.  

Does that seem harsh?  I don't think that no good has come from religion, but western religions seem to have a primary goal of controlling those they"serve".  Historically, this has been "the church" itself and then in the guise of political leaders.  Kind of sounds Marxists doesn't it?  But political leaders have usually felt they were "Anointed by God" to lead His people; from Moses, to Queen Elizabeth to George W. Bush. Surrendering the ability for critical thinking is perhaps the greatest of all evils and is required by most religions in order to be "saved".

So I'm probably going to Hell.  Or not.  Does Hell exist if you don't believe in it?  Is living on earth Hell?  Some religious leaders claim to have the answers to these questions, but since no one has died and come back to talk about it, it can not be known.  If someone tells you that they know, they are lying.  They may believe, but they can not know.   And neither can you or I.