A Fake War on Christmas
Well it looks like some crazed bastions of the right wing has decided to create another fake war and this freshly concocted creation is called the "War on Christmas". They claim that liberals, whom they say are at war with Christianity the whole year around, have made an spurious attack on Christmas. Now if you look closer you'll see who's really attacking Christmas and it's the corporations and even our own President.
A vocal minority in the Christian Right have been claiming that they have been under attack for years now even though a poll showed that 95 percent of Americans believe in God. They hate the idea of Separation of Church and State. They feel everybody should believe what they believe and that the state should be their way to reach the masses. They think that anybody who doesn't espouse their way of thinking will not just be damned, but are attacking Christianity. I don't want to take this article too far on that in that direction, so I'll keep this little ditty narrow to this most recent fabricated battle.
If we look closer, we'll see that corporations are the guiltiest of the guilty. They are so desperate for market share in this competitive world that they don't want to offend even %3-5 of the market. So that's why we have "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas". It's not some liberal, ACLU driven plot. It's all about the almighty and holy dollar. Wal-Mart greeters say happy holidays. Corporate cards say happy holidays. TV ads say happy holidays. It's about money, not belief.
I like the idea because it saves ink. You don't have to print "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year." That's a whole four words you don't have to print because you incompass both Christmas and New Years in one greeting. That's not counting Kwansa and Chanukkah.
Bill O'Reily has really stoked the fires on this brohaha and if you go to his website you'll see that he's selling "Holiday" ornaments, not Christmas ornaments. Man-o-man, he follows what he preaches, doesn't he?
And speaking of good old Bill, he also claimed that a school banned wearing green and red at school because of religious reason which turned out to be a total fabrication. When his own network, Fox, nailed him on it, he didn't recant.
Those who claim that Christmas is under attack say they are being excluded, but I think the phrase "Happy Holidays" is really inclusive because it includes all religions or lack of religion. By saying Merry Christmas, you're saying you believe what I believe and could exclude those who don't, but Happy Holidays covers all people.
From the White House we have cards that say, "Happy Holidays." That must really dig at those nutjobs who've started this idea of a war on Christmas. I see the card as being inclusive. We are a nation of different races, beliefs, sexual orientations, etc... and what makes this country great is that we tolerate these different beliefs. This has made this country work smoothly. Take a look at Iraq today and you'll see Shia versus Sunni in armed combat. When was the last time Baptist got into a gun battle with Methodists in the streets? The people behind this wacky idea want to drive a wedge between people of different beliefs, even though they are in the majority. This whole martyr, look at how under attack we are is tiresome and just downright false.
Now I will say, I don't care what people say to me. I'm just happy that they are being polite and caring to give me their good thoughts. The whole idea that somebody would be offended and feel attacked because somebody would wish them happiness over merriness is just absurd and the idea that it's a plot by godless liberals is even more absurd. It's not like we don't have more important things to worry about like growing deficits, keeping the peace in Iraq, keeping the peace in Afganistan, skyrocketing health care cost, 43 million uninsured, government officials exposing CIA agents, general political corruption...I could go on and on, but I don't want give this really dumb idea anymore time.
Happy Holidays.
Sources
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/polls/wat/archive/wat060198.htm
We Need Universal Health Care
We have a problem growing in this country. A BIG PROBLEM. Health care costs are skyrocketing out of control. Many strikes are over benefit cuts. Families who have to cover their own health insurance premiums are getting hammered with prices like $11,000 per year. GM is drowning in red ink for a myriad of reasons, but one is massive health care cost for employees and their pensioners. Small business is stifled because they can't expand due to high health benefits for new workers. We are living in the greatest, most powerful country in the world and over 43 million of our citizens do not have health insurance
Now those on the right will come up with the standard reasons why the government should not be in the health country.
1: The government cannot be trusted with efficiently spending your tax dollars to take care of your health. Horse puckie. Medicare spends only 2% of what it takes in on administrative costs. Private insurance companies look at 15-20% spent on paperwork or more likely they just put that money in their pockets. Hey they are there to make money, which is fine, but they do it at our expense. The government isn't looking for profits, just to provide services.
2: All you'll see is lines and end up waiting on service. While this is a possibility I would rather have to wait for non-emergency medical care, than not get any care at all. If anything, a single payer system should eliminate many of the paperwork hassles of having to deal with your private heal care provider and Medicare.
3: You'll have no incentive for innovation because there's no profits to be made. Many of the medicines we have were created because a company saw a product that would make them a pretty penny. To an extent, this argument may hold some water, but a lot of government grants go to researchers who then patent or sell their intellectual property to a big drug company. I think many scientists create drugs for the reason any scientist any scientist does anything, to discover something new. To prove they can expand the knowledge base and maybe make history.
(Here's a little sidebar, which is a note to candidates for president for 2008, I'd like to see someone run on a platform of "A Quest for a Healthy America and World". I thought about a War on Disease, but we don't need another “war.” We need exploration and innovation just like what came out of the space program in the 1960s. With the mapping of the human genome, the government could pour massive amounts of money into creating cures for ailments which before we couldn't touch. We, the United States, would own these cures and could share them with the rest of the world (and maybe make a few dollars too.) If you want use the "war" analogy, you can, but this is a war in which nobody gets hurts and in fact all involved get better. We could be the leaders in curing the world. Mr. Presidential Candidate, come on, this is a no brainer. It would create jobs that couldn't be outsourced. Everybody wins. Go for it!)
I do have one argument against national health insurance and that's when I point at Bush's re-vamping of Medicare. The problem here is the Bush administration let the drug companies write the legislation to benefit them. The U.S. government cannot bargain for the prices of drugs even though we are the biggest volume buyers of said drugs. If the CEO of say Wal-Mart put together a deal like this I guarantee there would be a shareholder revolt that would see that CEO out in the street before he knew what hit him. That said, we need smart legislation. It will take time, honesty and people are willing to buck the system that enriches the big medical companies and instead puts making people better over making buck.
Too many of our citizens go through their days with no health insurance and worry about being bankrupted by an accident or illness. Even those with insurance worry that if some catastrophic illness or that their insurance company will not cover some life saving procedures. It's time for America to take charge of its health care system and not be at the mercy of big corporations.
I believe it is a sin that one person can have a certain amount of health care and another person cannot. As it is now, because the poor cannot afford insurance, they use expensive emergency services instead of regular doctor visits. They get very little preventive medicine which is costly later in life when something that could have been prevented with a few dollars of pills or simple procedures ends up cost thousands of dollars for involved, lifesaving care.
It just makes sense in so many ways and so does a Quest for Health. More jobs in the U.S. Better health for all the people of the world. What could be more compassionate than a Quest for Health?
What’s in a Name?
A name is an important thing. I’m certain that Madison Avenue types spend lots of money to name a new product to better sell it to the public. They labor over just the right name to provide allure, mystery, and irresistibility.
The Bush administration has done a good job of coming up with names to sell the public on the dubious benefits of some of their dubious programs.
To name one, The Patriot Act. Who wants to be against something like the Patriot Act? You’d have to be anti-patriotic to be against it. Of course, it could be an infringement on your civil liberties.
The Death Tax is another good example. What (you may ask)? They’re taxing death now when we all thought that death was what got us out of paying taxes. The death tax, as it is called, is a tax that is levied against estates when someone passes away. Its main purpose is to tax large estates. Middle class folks will rarely be affected by it. (For the record, only 3% of estates were subjected to the estate tax in 2002), but this administration has a distinct allergy to any tax, so it had to go. (Not that they have an aversion to spending.)
One of the primary reasons posited by the administration was that it was a direct attack on the family farm because while these farmers are usually cash poor, they are land rich and land must be considered an asset. Now, never mind that there has been no record of a family farm going under because of the estate tax and only 2% of these family farms were subject to the tax.
What about the Clean Air act? It poses as something that will provide all Americans with clean, unscented air when it is actually legislation that takes the teeth out of already existing legislation and gives large corporations a break. Who cares that it increases the amount of mercury in our environment?
Master’s of stagecraft, the Bush administration certainly wouldn’t leave out the chance to come up with a snappy phrase for a banner. Who can forget “Mission Accomplished?” This banner was placed prominently over the deck of the aircraft carrier after a dramatic fly in by the commander-in-chief. This was supposed to give viewers sense of accomplishment when we all knew that there was years of work ahead. But we knew better because since then the U.S. soldier casualty rate doubled.
When it seemed as if the wheels were coming off the administration, it was time for another banner – A Plan for Victory. Now, who would put up a banner that stated, “A Plan for Failure?”
So, just remember, everything is in a name. Just make sure you know what the name really means.
Sources
http://www.factcheck.org/article328.htmlhttp://www.savethecleanairact.org/pdf/FS-S-131-Mercury.pdf
Bush: A Middle Class Report Card
Ronald Reagan used this key phrase in his campaign for the presidency in 1979, “Are you better off than you were four years ago?” I would assume that he was blaming Jimmy Carter for the economic woes of the country and the middle class in the late ‘70s.
What if you are middle class and applied this same criteria to George W. Bush? As someone from the middle class, is your life better off than you were four years ago?
I put it to you that the middle class is worse off than they were four years ago.
To examine specifics, let’s break down some economic factors.
Wages: Real wages have dropped significantly in the past 5 years, down nearly 8%. The divide between the average worker and the CEO has widened even further. The average CEO of the top 100 U.S. company makes more than a $1000 an hour while the average worker makes just over $16 an hour.
Taxes: Yes, federal tax rates are down, but when you see the division of who benefited the most from these tax breaks and who was placated, you know that the middle class was the placated and the wealthy got wealthier. By 2006, 88% of all Americans will receive $100 or less from the Administration's latest tax cuts while the upper 20% income Americans will receive 48% of the tax breaks.
Health Care: While real wages have decreased during the last five years, the cost of health care premiums has risen alarmingly. Workers in the U.S. have seen their out of pocket cost for health care more than a $1000 a year than it was five years ago. From 2004 to 2005, the health care premium increase 9.2%.
And the percentage of companies that are offering health care coverage is down 9% from 2000 to 2005. So, the premium for many may be moot as they won’t have any health care.
Energy Costs: Whether it’s at the gas pump or heating your home, the cost of energy has increased dramatically in the past 5 years. The national average increase for the cost of heating homes across the U.S. is estimated to be up nearly 38% this winter. Anyone who has filled up their car has seen gas prices higher than $2.50 a gallon.
Price of Goods: While the prices of goods and services have remained stable for the most part, there has still been a slight increase here.
The Government Budget: Anyone who has paid attention will notice that we went from have balanced budget to building up a tremendous deficit. This has had a negative effect on the strength of the dollar and has
I am trying to saddle the Bush administration with the blame for all of this? No, that wouldn’t be fair, but if you used his role model’s criteria, certainly, most Americans would say they are not doing better than they were 5 years ago.
What could George Bush have done? He could have worked to find a way to decrease our dependence on foreign energy sources. He could have supported an increase in CAFÉ standards for cars and trucks (this decreasing usage and demand and hopefully decreasing prices). He could support meaningful health care reform. He could have skewed the tax cuts away from the wealthy and more towards those who really need it, the middle class. He could have decided to avoid a costly pre-emptive war in Iraq.
On the whole, the divide between the middle class and the wealthy in this country have increased during the Bush administration. As a member of the middle class, I have to examine how this administration has skewed its policy away from supporting the middle class and catered toward the wealthy.
Some might say that with the last couple statements that I’m inciting class warfare. Well, I would say that the war has begun and you need to decide which side you want to be on.
Make up your own report card and you judge for yourself.
Sources:Kaiser StudyMoney Magazine ArticleWashington Post Story
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