Injustice persists

If this were a just place with a system that had just a touch of decency, men in charge of this kind of atrocious indifference towards the value of human life would be tried, convicted and in a cell with other murderers:

http://www.alternet.org/healthwellness/143308/health_insurer_accused_of_%22attempted_murder%22_by_man_stripped_of_his_coverage/

If you think that that is not proof enough that this country needs AT LEAST a public option, read the one about the 4 MONTH-OLD INFANT who was denied coverage because he was larger than most other infants.

http://rawstory.com/2009/10/insurer-refuses-to-cover-baby-says-hes-too-fat/

If that still isn't enough, read the story about the rape victim who was denied coverage because of her pre-existing condition, which was that she was raped.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/27/woman-denied-health-care_n_335000.html

Even teens know that health care in this country is fucked up:

http://www.northjersey.com/news/82334842_Students_discuss_health_care_bill.html

To opponents of health care reform, I'd like to ask you to truly look inside and question yourselves why you are opposed to it. Could you explain to the families of these people why you are opposed to a single payer option? What if this happened to your family? I don't know when exactly it happened but this country took a turn away from morality and moved towards reckless disregard for everything except the almighty dollar. I think senator Grayson was more right than most of you think. "Don't get sick. And if you do, die quickly."

I yield the rest of my time.

Wanted to make this a humorous post but I couldn't help it

So I was hoping to make this post funny, like the one about MTV and My Life As Liz but I couldn't help it. A new fighter jet coming out, the F-35, has got me all riled up. Let me just sum up the bulk of my rant in one single quote from the article. "The program, which is by far the Pentagon’s largest, is expected to cost nearly $300 billion if all of the 2,456 [F-35] planes are purchased in the next 25 years." That's right. $300 billion (http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budgeting/article/108749/gates-tries-to-get-f35-program-back-on-course)

So, approximately $120,000,000 for ONE GODDAMN JET?! HAS THIS COUNTRY LOST ITS MIND?! Why do we need another fighter jet? The F-22 Raptor is already probably the most deadly in the sky! We also have the F-117 Stealth Nighthawk. We also have the B-2 Stealth Bomber. Who are we afraid of? Why do we need more? Why are we building more and more and more? Are we not the most powerful country on the planet militarily? Do we have really need to build up our military even more? Why? Why? Why?!

Who are we afraid of? Do terrorists like the ones Fox News and Rush Limbaugh fear monger about really have the technology to threaten an invasion? Are Iraqi suicide bombers going to start showing up on US soil that are going to absolutely necessitate an entirely new line of joint strike fighter jets? Are Afghan Taliban fighters really going to start mounting a major offensive on the west coast? Do we have any other major enemies? I mean those are the only ones who we are having wars against. Those are the ones that we have been taught to fear. Those and the terrorists, which do NOT necessitate a fighter that costs roughly 120 MILLION. But honestly, who else is there to attack the United States?

If we're going to build more fighters, more bombers, more tanks, more everything, shouldn't the government AT LEAST fear monger us in to thinking we need more? I mean come on. Don't make me want to go to war without giving me a reason. Don't make me want to build up our military even more than we already have without giving me an enemy I should be afraid of. The point of this post is just to show how ludicrous we have become. We spend 120 Million on a fighter jet when that money could just as easily be spent on building homes and giving shelter to the poor and homeless. We could spend that on food to give to the hungry. We could be giving it to Katrina survivors who lost Everything. But no. We spend it on more bombs, more bullets and more military just for the fuck of it.

Now I don't know if inflation has changed the numbers on this but I'll just leave you with a quote posted before to end this little rant:

"The cost of one heavy modern bomber is this: A modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants each serving a town of sixty thousand population. It is two fine fully equipped hospitals…. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron… Modern weapons take food from the hungry and shelter from the homeless."

~President Dwight D. Eisenhower

Wanting for peace

I just started reading Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo and I have to say that I am becoming more and more anti-war by the minute (by the way, the Metallica song One is based on the book). In case you don’t know, the book is about a soldier who lost all limbs, his ability to see and his ability to talk after being hit by an artillery shell. It is set in World War I and it is just plain horrific. I don’t know why but I am just creeped out even thinking about it. I respect and understand the peace movement, hippies back in the 60's and Cindy Sheehan a lot more.

There is one thing that has been bugging me these past few days, a question no pro-war person has been able to answer. Is it so wrong to want for peace? Why do so many of the hawks out there see war as a positive thing? Certainly I am not one for a disarmament of everything we have. I do believe that war is in fact justified in certain instances if all forms of diplomacy have failed and an attack from another nation is imminent but why do Americans sometimes seem so eager to go to war?

I am not strictly speaking about Iraq and Afghanistan. There have been many other times when acting with the military was the first and only thing Americans wanted:

Guatemala, Iran, Lebanon, Cuba, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, Congo, Dominican Republic, Indonesia, Cambodia, Chile, Angola, Libya, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Grenada, Chad, Bolivia, Panama, Somalia, Yugoslavia, Macedonia, Bosnia, Yemen, Philippines, Liberia, Columbia

All these have been places where the United States military intervened. It makes one beg the question, Are we a violent nation? Perhaps I am generalizing. Perhaps we are not a violent nation and our government is. But I do not think so. You may disagree with me and say that our government is the violent one. Well, we elect our officials to the federal government. WE elected them. They are one of us. So what does that say about us as a nation, as a society?

I am becoming a bit of a hippy, I'm not denying it and I'll fess up to it. Sometimes I post things and comments on YouTube and a few political news sites. The negativity and name calling on those sites is unbearable sometimes. It's just sad. The things I post often deal with political commentators who I believe lie and distort the truth on purpose, the war in Iraq and health care. Those 3 things are very controversial and people have strong feelings about them. Some people can write some vile things about the way I see things. A friend just told me I should try to get my stuff published somewhere or see if I could be a blogger for a big site. That's not something I'd like to do. I don't like it when people make fun of my views or do the whole name calling thing.

I'm an advocate of health care and I'm anti-war and I'm trying to get people to not be dead. When I get criticized for that, it really bums me out.

Is it so wrong to not want to act militarily? All those countries above, there is NO way that every means of diplomacy failed and war was the only option for every single one. This is my rant for now. I’ll try to make my next one humorous. Maybe something about why my cat Roo Bear is so weird…