Shopping list: milk, bread, cigarettes and health care

I'm not sure my four faithful bloggees know this or not, but there's a serious debate going on about revamping the American health care system. The fact that you read this blog tells me you likely don't know what day it is let alone give a rat's ass about health care. And since I long ago lost my politically "conservative" readers (aka most of Stew's family), I'm guessing the chances of me offending anyone with this post is fairly low. Plus, my over-use of the word "douchebag" on this blog has most certainly scared off any readers who go by "Grandma" or "Grandpa", so I'm just going to go ahead and continue with my rant... but not until I post this funny granny picture.
I'm getting tired of hearing how the "free market" is the answer to all our woes. But don't get me wrong, I love me some free market enterprise. It's awesome. Stew even graduated college with a business degree (although none of us can figure out how he did it) and could still one day start his own business (that he will surely run into the ground). But there are some things the free market has no influence over, such as health care. We can't just pick up a nice little health plan at Super Target along with our Milkbones and hemorrhoidal cream. And I'm growing increasingly weary of rich, old, white guys (plus one young, handsome senator from South Dakota who is REALLY good at repeating GOP talking points instead of showing any sort of individual thought and, thus, pissing me off) going on TV every single day to tell the story that we should surrender all of our power to corporations and just let them govern us because a mystical but all-knowing godlike force called "the free market" will eventually solve all of our health care problems. Seriously? And when exactly is the free market going to force skyrocketing health care premiums back down to a level where ordinary citizens can actually afford to buy it?

But why should congress try to focus on a solution when they can get airtime on any cable news outlet any time they want to spew total bullshit about "socialized medicine" to scare all the Glenn Beck fans out there. By the way, thank you to the so-called "liberal" mainstream media for shining a light on these lies about rationing and "the government coming between you and your doctor." Oh, that's right - that's why we have PBS... where the only true journalism takes place these days (but nobody watches).

Come on, people! Are we a nation of citizens or a nation of consumers? Are we a democracy run by citizens, or are we a corporatocracy that holds consumers locked in dependency by virtue of their consumption? Um, unfortunately, I'm going with the corporatocracy thingy. By the way, please go read THIS article by Thom Hartmann that I just plagiarized word for word. And today I read a post on another blog that - in my opinion - makes the case of why "free market" principles cannot be applied to "health care". It's a slam dunk, and you can read it for yourself by clicking: The Cranky Media Guy.

The dildos we've all sent to Washington, D.C. (Douchebag Capital) need to stop destroying the country and finally learn how to work together on a health care solution... something that includes a public option along with private plans. Then again, who the hell am I kidding? As long as corporate interests can continue to give millions to THEIR puppets in congress, we the people are screwed. Damn, I should've written about campaign finance reform instead of health care. Oh well...
[Add the following to the Halliburton cartoon above]
5. In 2007, after you've made billions of dollars off no bid contracts, move your corporate headquarters to Dubai, UAE, to avoid paying corporate income taxes in the United States.