Shorter Washington Post editorial page

A Critical Question

• We would've cared about people dying from lack of health care if only they were killed by Muslims instead
  

There's poo in there

I seem to be awash in crankism lately (truthfully I've become pretty fascinated by it after reading Pope Brock's book on John R. Brinkley). I've been digging into the famous New Madrid earthquake prediction of Iben Browning for the museum, and now I've stumbled upon the weird world of anti-vaccine conspiracy theorists, who have apparently become re-energized with the availability of the H1N1 flu vaccine.

While the anti-vaccine people are wrong, it's worth nothing that, as far as I can tell, their instincts aren't necessarily incorrect.* As long as we maintain a for-profit health care industry which can control and manipulate government regulatory agencies, people ought to be skeptical about the appearance of "wonder drugs" which coincidentally give pharmaceutical companies a license to print money. Capital can and will attempt to purchase scientific credibility to suit its interests; global warming denialism being the most ready example.

As with many conspiracy theorists, vaccine cranks end up doing their own side a disservice by making actual muckrakers of corporate malfeasance look crankish by association. They should be dealt with according to their ineptitude, but not without reminding the public that they are the natural byproduct of an inhumane system.

*Okay, there are also your bog-standard nihilists who think the world is doomed to be run forever by a cabal of Jews and Masons, but there's no saving those folks.

Bipartisanship

When did it become unconstitutional to pass a bill with no votes from the opposition party? I was previously under the impression that the makeup of the legislature was decided during elections, not by Very Concerned pundits who must have Balance at all costs even if it means overturning the unfortunate decisions of the voting public.

My sweet Nobel

So, Barack Obama wins the Nobel Peace Prize. As best as I can figure, this can only mean one of two things:

1) The previous administration set such a low bar that anyone else looks like Jesus and Buddha put together by comparison.

Or

2) The rest of the world has basically said to America, "Look, we'll give you whatever trinket you want, just please stop blowing stuff up."

The Nobel Peace Prize, of course, doesn't mean a whole heck of a lot. The committee is apparently obligated to award it to someone every year, and there sadly aren't enough people who actually deserve it. Hell, they awarded one to this guy, so you know this isn't the worst choice they've ever made.

Conservatives are naturally unsure of what to make of this given their hate-hate relationship with the rest of the planet. It was just last week, after all, that they crowed about the international smackdown delivered to Obama by the Olympics. The result is also interesting in light of this poll showing the United States is apparently the most-admired nation in the world once again in the post-Bush era. Righties, and many Sensible Liberals, believe as an article of faith that many global surveys, like the infamous World Health Organization rankings or Reporters without Borders' press freedom survey, are skewed because of the rest of the planet's irreversible 'Murica-hatin' syndrome. As it turns out, the rest of the world apparently likes many Americans, it merely shares a mutual hate society with American conservatives.

From the archives of Republican Jesus, vol XVIII

This may be the best thing ever.

…and then a Samaritan passed by the man, and saw that he was grievously wounded, and would surely die, so the Samaritan said, “let us offer this man a tax cut so that he can afford a high-deductible catastrophic care policy, combined with a tax-advantaged health savings account to defray his expenses. Furthermore, let us mandate that all must purchase such policies from the insurance companies, so that they may increase their wealth, and raise rates for all policyholders, lest the increased burden of covering unfortunate wretches like this one before me who…appears to be dead…(kicks body to be sure)…yup, dead! Oh, well, he would only have been a burden to his insurance provider anyway, and would have caused my rates to go up too.”