Now I’m no fan of communism but your right, what would have happened to you if nobody had stepped up to offer help when the site was struggling what if nothing had come in.
But that’s exactly the point. People did step up, and the site kept going. It doesn’t happen all the time, but an engaged populace will get behind the things it values. It has been proven time and again and again. I find rousing people from their complacency to be a better solution to the world’s problems, then enabling such complacency by relieving them of the burden of having to care about someone other than themselves.
The well off support this kind of system because they can afford to step up and help themselves.
They also support it because they can help other people. Andrew Carnegie donated $50m of his own fortune ($500m in 2006 dollars) and basically built our modern public library system from the ground up. Bill Gates and Warren Buffet have combined to form the Voltron of charities: the latest financials value the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation at 30 BILLION-WITH-A-B DOLLARS.
left to run unchecked results in the US having 2.5 Millionaires in a population of over 301 million and then bush goes and drops the maximum tax bracket to 35% in 2001 which helps out who?
Everybody. Tax revenue is at an all-time high, and the economy has been growing steadily for four (nearly five) years now.
Long story short, I think we have more than enough resources to mend the holes in our society without handing things over to an inefficient and wasteful bureaucracy. We need to engage people and motivate them, not with misleading agitprop extolling the virtues of a gunless nation or government-controlled health care, but with education and information to instill the same sense of social responsibility that certain people are currently trying to cram down the throat of corporations. Such a small amount can go such a long way: working with your church to reach out and help people, mission trips, clothes for the Salvation Army, sponsoring a foreign child through World Vision or Compassion Int’l, adopting an orphan child through Shaohannah’s Hope, there are so many ways to do it. If every household (not every person, but every HOUSEHOLD) took $300 and put it into a big pot, that would equal the sum total of the Gates Foundation instantly. That is a HUGE difference with a small amount of money that does not have to come from rich dudes, or from the guvmint.
We can take care of ourselves, if only we try. We don’t need the indignity of having other people do it for us.
LsDavis, I can’t believe you used ELF and other green enviroterrorist groups as “proof” that The Patriot Act stifles the freedoms of law abiding citizens. You do realize, don’t you, that ELF and ALF have claimed responsibility for burning and blowing up state university research labs, “spiking” trees in the northwest that have resulted in personal injuries to forestry employees, and burning down auto dealerships and homes and resorts that were being constructed legally in the U.S., resulting in personal injuries to property owners and/or their family and/or employees.
John Lewis, the FBI’s deputy assistant director for counterterrorism, said animal and environmental rights extremists have claimed credit for more than 1,200 criminal incidents since 1990. The FBI has 150 pending investigations associated with animal rights or eco-terrorist activities, and ATF officials say they have opened 58 investigations in the past six years related to violence attributed to the ELF and ALF.
The ELF has been linked to fires set at sport utility vehicle dealerships and construction sites in various states, while the ALF has been blamed for arson and bombings against animal research labs and the pharmaceutical and cosmetics industry.
Radical groups formed in England with a record of physically attacking people perceived to be their enemies have begun operating in Canada and the United States. Arson is becoming a more common tool, threatening employees of torched buildings. Personal harassment amounting to psychological violence has been directed against the family members of those accused of harming animals or the environment. And the rhetoric from such groups increasingly warns of personal violence.
“The evidence is indisputable that they’re turning more and more to violence,” says Mark Potok, editor of the Intelligence Report, a quarterly publication of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors political extremism and domestic terrorism. “When you start burning buildings it just seems to me obvious that, at some point, some night watchman is going to get burned up.”
In a recent “communiqué,” the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) claimed responsibility for a fire last month at the US Forest Service Northeast Research Station in Irvine, Penn. causing over $700,000 damage and destroying years’ worth of research. Such messages have been standard operating procedure for ELF, a shadowy organization that tends to operate in “leaderless cells” much like antiabortion radicals and right-wing extremists.
But in this message, ELF also issued a stronger warning: “In pursuance of justice, freedom, and equal consideration for all innocent life across the board, segments of this global revolutionary movement are no longer limiting their revolutionary potential by adhering to a flawed, inconsistent ‘non-violent’ ideology. While innocent life will never be harmed in any action we undertake, where it is necessary, we will no longer hesitate to pick up the gun to implement justice....”
By mentioning Alf/Elf, you’ve made a good case in favor of the Patriot Act.
And siting Dick Durbin? He’s the senator that called our soldiers “nazis” and said that the activities at Abu Gharib were on par with those that took place in Russian gulags and in Pol Pot’s regime. As if piping in Christina Aguilara music and turning down air conditioning is the equivilent of what happened in Nazi Germany, the gulags and under Pol Pot’s command.
I loooooooooooooovvvvvvvveeeeeeeeeee the people who trample all over the patriot act without ever actually reading or knowing what it does. If you’re really interested, the most recent revisions actually provided for MORE legislative oversight, not less.
The vote of 89 to 10 Thursday followed an agreement last month by the White House to add more protections for individual privacy.
The revised bill adds additional judicial oversight to the original law. It would give recipients of subpoenas the right to challenge an accompanying judicial order not to discuss the case publicly, though they would have to wait one year while complying with the subpoena in the meantime
LsDavis
Surely If its true that 50 million have no insurance the cost to keep them well and alive comes to much much more than the total of any charitable grants that are available.
I like how this number keeps going up and up. Not even two years ago it was widely reported as 40 million. Then 42 million, then 43 million, then 48 million and now 50 million.
As far as the Patriot Act goes, name 3 verifiable cases of the patriot act taking away individuals rights.
When Moore does eventually slouch on screen, it’s to play the innocent abroad, a wide-eyed chump bowled over by the wonders of socialized medicine as it’s practiced in Canada, the UK and France. This will be an eye-opener for many—including the Canadians, the Brits and the French, probably.
Having “enjoyed” first-hand experience of two of these three health systems—the British and the Canadian—I can attest that they’re not quite as idyllic as Mr. Moore paints them. Except in comparison with the U.S. system, of course, and that’s the point. Moore is a master of overstatement, but his comic shtick hits the target more often than not. It only hurts when we laugh.
If Moore missteps, it’s in the one sequence he and the Weinstein Company have made sure everyone has already heard about (with a little help from the U.S. government): the boat lift to Cuba for three ailing 9/11 heroes. It’s Stunt Man Mike at his crudest, and not as effective as he intended.
To be sure, it’s bitterly ironic that Guantanamo detainees have access to better medical care than the soldiers who guard them, but Moore is easily diverted into a silly commercial for Cuban socialist medicine that plays exactly like the kind of Soviet propaganda films he sends up earlier in the movie.
When Moore does eventually slouch on screen, it’s to play the innocent abroad, a wide-eyed chump bowled over by the wonders of socialized medicine as it’s practiced in Canada, the UK and France. This will be an eye-opener for many—including the Canadians, the Brits and the French, probably.
Having “enjoyed” first-hand experience of two of these three health systems—the British and the Canadian—I can attest that they’re not quite as idyllic as Mr. Moore paints them. Except in comparison with the U.S. system, of course, and that’s the point. Moore is a master of overstatement, but his comic shtick hits the target more often than not. It only hurts when we laugh.
If Moore missteps, it’s in the one sequence he and the Weinstein Company have made sure everyone has already heard about (with a little help from the U.S. government): the boat lift to Cuba for three ailing 9/11 heroes. It’s Stunt Man Mike at his crudest, and not as effective as he intended.
To be sure, it’s bitterly ironic that Guantanamo detainees have access to better medical care than the soldiers who guard them, but Moore is easily diverted into a silly commercial for Cuban socialist medicine that plays exactly like the kind of Soviet propaganda films he sends up earlier in the movie.
I don’t know if this is the right thread to say this on, ( or if it has been said already ) .. but , I liked moore’s roast on hillary clinton. I’m still only half way through the film, his whiney voice is hard to take in long stints. wish me luck
i live in england and what strikes me as weird is everyone moans about the NHS, of late we have even had terror attacks linked to the NHS.
it is true that we have alot of foreign doctors and nurses, reasonably long waiting times, and dare i say it, mistakes, serious mistakes are sometimes made.
even our worst serial killer, Dr harold shipman was a NHS GP.(with a headcount of about 260 i think)
But, after watching this film i couldn’t feel more proud of my countries heath care system. every time I’ve injured myself(usually in some drunken silliness on the way home from the pub) i have never had any concerns about the financial worries incurred by popping up to A&E;(ER)
never have i been treated by a foreign doctor or nurse whom has not been utterly professional.
never have i waited longer than 2 hour’s(only once, and that was because they couldn’t inject me with that much beer in my system!)
and never have i been refused treatment because i am a smoker, this it utter s**t. infact when i gave up 2 months ago i got all my nicotine replacement therapy on the NHS, £6.65, cheaper than fags!
I would just like to say, can you imagine what it would feel like to never,ever think about heath care, to live in a world knowing that if you have an accident or a major car crash, someone will come along, pick you up,mend you and set you back on your way and all you have to do is say “thanks”
England doesn’t have much to be proud of these days, but the NHS is something else.
Things may have changed since then, but I recall many German doctors’ offices only being open for patients 4-6 hours per day, with the rest reserved for “admin”. Just securing a scheduled appointment 6 months away was oft an 8 month affair.
I would just like to say, can you imagine what it would feel like to never,ever think about heath care, to live in a world knowing that if you have an accident or a major car crash, someone will come along, pick you up,mend you and set you back on your way and all you have to do is say “thanks”
I don’t have a heck of a lot of worries, either. I live in America and my wife and I have group coverage through her employer. Sure, it’s not free, but why does it need to be? I’m still not very worried about being denied coverage for any particular issue.
Tell me, do you think that all (or most) Americans walk around terrified of being injured because we may not be covered? If so, did you get that idea from Sicko, or somewhere else?
But, after watching this film i couldn’t feel more proud of my countries heath care system. every time I’ve injured myself(usually in some drunken silliness on the way home from the pub) i have never had any concerns about the financial worries incurred by popping up to A&E;(ER)
Your one of the people Moore markets to.
You pay money to him, he makes you feel proud about your system by unfairly comparing it to the US.
Seriously, Europe is a major market for his product. Its not really for only US consumption. Actually, whoever and whatever he supports (in US politics) always goes down to defeat.
