A person I work with wears his libertarianism on his sleeve. He rails constantly at the workplace about liberals, hippies, taxes, Obama, etc. He has literally said in the workplace that Obama is evil.
Well, about a year ago, he got into a massive motorcycle wreck. He had been drinking and he wasn’t wearing a helmet. He had a fractured skull and spent weeks in the hospital and required months of therapy. He missed about three or four months of work.
Since then, he has railed about all the hassles he has gone through with our insurer (United Health Care) and how they try to screw him every chance they get. Even with insurance, he owes more than $50,000 in medical bills (I can’t imagine what the total cost of his treatment must have been), and he said he may have to declare bankruptcy because of his problems paying these bills.
On Monday, he posted on Facebook, a long-winded tirade against Health Care Reform. He called it the end of our country, and my favourite: “That slow sucking sound you here? That’s Hussein Obama’s socialism dragging this country down the drain.” He was obviously very, very, VERY angry about Sunday night’s historic vote.
Well, some people responded, as you can guess, and he told some people off. Someone got mad and called his boss.
It turns out this guy has to sometimes deal with health care professionals and local politicians as part of his job. More than 500 of his fans, many of them local, read this tirade of his. The boss wasn’t happy and they suspended him without pay for two days over it.
I honestly feel sorry for the guy. There was something not quite right with him even before the motorcycle crash. He has no impulse control; no filter stopping him from doing some of the self-destructive things he does. He can’t seem to help it.
But, what I’m struck by — again — is how he is so blinded by his idealogy that he was utterly incapable of seeing that if anyone could benefit from health care reform, it’s him. He’s looking at bankruptcy because of medical bills, but he rails about socialized medicine.
Honestly, if everything in this bill went into effect tomorrow, I don’t know if it would really help this guy. If he lived in Canada, which has genuine socialized coverage, he wouldn’t be facing $50,000 in bills he can’t pay and possible garnishment and even bankruptcy. He just isn’t making the connect.
I continued to be mystified at the disconnect.
Pepe: on the issue of the co-worker in the motorcycle accident–did he ever, once, make mention of the “personal responsibility” aspect of all this? You know–the part that righties are so fond of, about all of people’s problems being due to their own bad choices? Did the fact that he had been drinking and had chosen not to wear his helmet strike him–at ANY point–as having been a couple of those bad choices?
It would be almost impossible (for me, at least) not to mention to him that his bad judgement was probably going to cause everyone else’s insurance premiums to go up. “Thanks, dude.” Who could resist scribbling that on the old get well card?
“Personal responsibility” — now that’s a phrase I doubt he has ever used. It’s always the fault of someone else, and I bet he sued the light post, guard rail, curb, car, pedestrian, or whatever it was that “got in his way”.
You got it, boomer! Maybe he should throw in the manufacturer of the motorcycle on that lawsuit while he’s at it!
“Where was my auto-pilot?”
❗ According to C-Span the Senate is coming back into session at 2:15 am!!! Looks like the R’s are gonna have bring their jammies.
For the filibuster? For the vote?
Going though the 30 hours of debate on HCR. The Dems want to get it over and done!!
Yippee!
Hehe. Excellent. Those dinosaurs won’t last long under the pressure of a REAL filibuster.
AustrianSchool on huffy is another hypocrite. The guy works for a government contractor and is proud of the fact that he does not work hard at his job. I told him all you are doing is proving the point that using private contractors is wasteful not that government is wasteful. Another cognitive disconnect. We would like for government to administer all healthcare insurance but at least for now they are cutting Medicare Advantage which freed up much more money going directly to providers.
I’m disable so I’m at home during the day but I noticed a trend before and after the election that troll activity peaked during work hours. After about 7 pm eastern the boards were almost troll free. Know I don’t know about folks here but when I was working I did not have time to blog. It just shows again what hypocrites they are.
Yup, I’ve keenly noticed time patterns, as well, KQ. I’m glad I’m usually on them later, when most of the (as I imagine them) old bitter folk who want their country back have gone to sleep.
By the way, you have a gift in getting this info out of them.
😆 late night at huffy was always the best time to be there for sure.
And he’s an admitted pothead.
Honestly, for the life of me, he’s one of the ones I can’t get mad at.
😆 I missed that one. He’s not as bad as most and I never got mad at him I would just pick on his hypocrisy.
Hi Pepe,
I totally agree with your last paragraph about people being so blinded by their idealogy that they literally don’t care if they or their family members can benefit from health care reform.
What does that say about the state of our country….or the Republican Party in general? God forbid that the Repubs get back into power in the next General Election. We still have a good opportunity to pass some form of Single Payer or Medicare for All in the next few years.
Hi! 🙂
Yeah, I just don’t get this guy.
I don’t get my own brother, to tell the truth. Wants Obama impeached for not putting Bush the war criminal on trial.
LOL. Too funny…..he’s just kidding, right?
I can understand your brother’s disdain for Shrub. He should add Cheney and Rummy to that list as well. : )
Hey Tweets. Nice to see you!
Hello my friend! Wonderful to see you as well! Happy Wednesday to you! : )
The lesson I gleaned from this is one I keep learning almost daily: Don’t start a fucking Facebook page.
The part about the cognitive dissonance hardly surprises me.
Fellow Puckhead!
Howdy! How about that Gold Medal game!
Yeah, what about it?
http://planetpov.com/2010/03/02/yes-it-really-was-that-important/
Looks like a good read. I will read it after dinner.
Next up to send them into orbit will be Immigration Reform. It needs to be addressed and honestly worked on in order to maintain the minority vote. But it will drive the pugs up the wall because they have to support it or lose constituent support, except for areas that have low minority populations. Grandpa McCain has already asserted he will work on nothing for the rest of the year.
I honestly don’t know how they’re going to have the will to take up immigration. They might be emboldened and energized by the HC debate, or they could be exhausted and scared. Pelosi said she wasn’t going to make the House Dems vote for another tough issue this year, which, IMO is not right. We send them there to WORK HARD. They get lots of perks and prestige, and they owe us, but what are ya gonna do? I hope they are at least too worried about the Latino vote to NOT work on it.
Obama has already laid it out to them they need to start the process. I don’t think a vote will come by any means, but they need to start the debates and initial writing of the legislation or they are going to lose the minority vote.
Health care has overshadowed all the other legislation this congress has passed — the tv heads have been acting like congress hasn’t been doing anything. I think a lot is in the works, not only immigration.
It would be great if they would do DADT, but I bet they don’t get to that until after the elections.
What’s safe? Banking reform? There’s a tax reform bill in the senate right now, I think…
I know, the MSM is so one minded. I was watching the local NBC channel and the only people Brian Williams showed on the clip about healthcare reform were those against it. My husband was saying WTF? Jack Welch has predicted a big surprise for repubs in the fall, I hope he is correct. What the Dems have to do is a major get out the vote campaign. Too many let the mid terms go by with no major effort. We have a major one here with that twit Meg Whitman running for gov. What a huge mistake that would be, but if Dems stay home that is exactly what is going to happen.
Jerry better run a better campaign than he ran for president. That’s all I’m sayin’.
Think “Meg Twitman” could catch on?
I don’t think the “Twit” will win. We’ve just had years of destruction under Repub-Lite Ahnold, will Californians want to accelerate the destruction? I don’t think so.
As long as she keeps the press at bay. She is not allowing more than 5 minutes for anyone to interview her. She does not want to answer the tough questions. I don’t think she can weather the legislative questions though. And her religion may be a bridge, but will republicans hold their noses and hit the button for her? More than likely, she is big business and that is what they like.
Adlib I hope you are right. I for one will campaign against her. Night everyone, have to go tuck my grandson in for bed and read a chapter in the hardy boys with him.
That sounds lovely. NIght, Sue.
I could be wrong, but it struck me as a backburner issue.
Lord knows they need to make jobs and banking reform a priority.
If for no other reason to shut the trolls up. 😆
..not like they’ll still not bitch and moan over something… 🙄
Khirad it is in the sense it won’t be passed this year, but if the President can walk and chew gum, the congress better be able to as well. They are paid to legislate.
Absolutely Sue, but, media wise, they aren’table to double-task, and for this reason – optics wise – Jobs and the economy needs to be the focus from here to November.
It;s like Jack Welch said. If Dems focus on this, and the economy keeps improving, “Republicans are in for a rude awakening come Novermber.”
Yeah, that was kind of weird, Cher. How many people have jobs where you can do one thing and then take the rest of the year off?
That man is such a fraud.
IMHO he is the lowest of the low. He is a panderer and the American people saw that. The only reason he was the candidate was Huckabubba lost and I cannot see the base ever backing Romney completely.
To me, he’s a spoiled, entitled, benefactor of tragic happenstance who has been milking his personal tragedy for all it’s worth. I wish I could see him less harshly, but I think he’s an opportunist — and a fraud.
Sue — who in the world are they going to run in 2012? I can’t think of anyone who isn’t a complete joke — even to the Republicans.
They will put someone up there even if another loser like grampa. Those people have no shame, they will lie first then come back and apologize. The same people who heard the lie do not hear the muted apology so the lie stands.
Yeah, his tragedy. He went to Annapolis because his father and grandfather were Admirals and almost flunked out. He then crashed three jets before he was captured. He was a total fuck up and LUCKY. By the laws of chance he should have died in any of those crashes but was lucky enough to be a POW– and as you say, milked to to this day. You described him perfectly– an entitled and spoiled fraud. No hero.
I really wish I could find his commercial they’re playing here, nellie. It typifies what you just said.
Seriously, I just spent way more time than I should wading through his website and mucking through YouTube conservahell but came up with nada.
It’s
conservahell — that’s a keeper!
I made it up on the fly. Seriously, some very bitter people.
Visit – but do not linger.
omg that PHOTO!!!
I had forgotten about that…
Geez.
Khirad, did you read the comments? Down the page aways is a pretty funny subtext of that ad (which made my teeth ache!)
I think it’s likely going to be Mitt Romney for the GOP in 2012.
And they’ll be holding their noses and alienating the Baggers when they do.
Oh, they very much had this dual purpose in mind.
We already saw the seeds of it with the ‘s’ word and “go back to Mexico”.
Seriously, they complain all the time that Dems are only doing this for the Latino vote.
My response: yeah? And, so?
Wish you had of thought of it, huh.
Instead, you have to stoke xenophobia to even entertain staying demographically relevant.
Lord knows already you can’t compromise.
How’s Miss Lindsey now? Wasn’t Sunday a deal-breaker?
You are right, Sue. Now the Big Racist Guns are gonna come out.
Jesus, we go out to dinner, and it goes from 4 comments to 66?
WTF?
Hey Pepe, where you in CT lately, my dogs were sprayed last week and after dousing them with three large cans of tomato juice and two baths EACH….they have the essence of Le Pew still lingering…. 👿
Ew. You have my greatest sympathy, BDM. My greys got nailed TWICE last year, and the little fella is still around. He sprayed the yard last week and I smelled it in my basement. Luckily my dogs weren’t involved in that one. How the hell do you get rid of a resident skunk? This bugger must be living under my neighbor’s shed or maybe in the shrubbery along my house. I’m afraid to investigate!
Hee, hee.
I think a bald eagle is building a nest on my property.
I am VERY excited about this.
I would be too! Last summer, I saw a golden eagle sitting on the trail near my house, eating a critter. It was almost 3 feet high, just sitting there–what a thrill! Zorro and I just waited happily a few yards away.
Wow. How cool.
Trap the sucker…that’s what I did. It’s a little pricey, but well worth it…..he is now residing up state at a nice national park…you could say he is now on the government doll! 🙂
I do believe it’s going to come to that. I’ve had to replace four dog beds, numerous blankets, four collars, and some clothing.
It will take a while, mon cherie!
No one messes with ze skunks … but dumb ol’ dogs.
Speaking of which, I ran over a skunk yesterday with my new car. Yuck!
Call me crazy– I like the smell of skunk! And gasoline too.
Ewww!
There is a great line in “Kelly’s Heroes” in which one grunt says to another a latrine smells like home. And the other one says, “Yeah, it does.”
That’s how I feel when I’m driving past farms. Smells like home!
GIRL YOU ARE CRAZY!!!
The smell was so bad in the back yard when the thing sprayed that our eyes where burning and tearing while we were dousing the dogs with tomato juice….
(ps: I love the smell of cigars)
How can you LIKE skunk?
I love skunk! On that trail I just mentioned I see them once in a while. I’ve even seen a pair walking jauntily together down my block. And shortly after that, it was so sad! I went to the trail and saw them both, dead, hugging each other. ~~sniff~~ (no pun intended.)
Have you really, actually genuinely smelled it. It makes your eyes burn! It’s actually a kind of acid!
Not up close and personal, truth be told. More like just in the vicinity.
BDM, I hate tobacco, but I love the smell of cigars, too.
Not cigarettes, though.
I love when my father-in-law lights one up, I think I’m the only one in the family that let’s him smoke in the house…he like the big Cubanno’s, I think they’re called. The stinkier the better…but the next morning the house doesn’t smell that good, so I open all the windows!
My dad died of lung cancer, my mom has COPD and I grew up with asthma, but so help me, three or four times a year, I light up an illegal Cuban.
I have several of these types in my life unfortunately. I just got a note from my sister in law. I had a bunch of family over for dinner on Saturday. My sister’s note said she insisted to my bro (republican) that he leave his politics at the door. He apparently has been fuming and storming about HCR all weekend. He runs a small construction company. His health care costs are astronomical because he’s too small to get a good deal. I don’t get it either. This is going to HELP him. And I have explained to them I don’t know how many times that the reason I have no insurance is because they wouldn’t frigging sell it to me. I don’t get why they won’t be relieved when I tell them I’ll finally be able to get it. They lived in Canada for seven years. Canada paid for the birth of both their kids.
My brother is a really good person and I love him. But I think there are some things going on in his brain that prevent him from understanding this. (He still believes Republican presidents balance the budget and Dems spend freely).
1) He doesn’t feel empathy or sympathy for people he doesn’t know. 2) He is uncomfortable about people who are different from him.
3) He likes to stay in his comfort zone. He’s not adventuresome.
4) He prides himself in being “independent.”
5) He sees some people “working the system’ and that’s all he can see. He can’t look beyond it. (We have another brother who does this and everybody in the family wants to strangle him after years of his bullshit)
Anyway, I’m so glad my sister in law told him to can it before he came into my house, because the way I feel about this and the way he apparently feels about it, there would have been a really ugly fight. I don’t want that. I already had a similar ugly fight with my other brother (the Rush Limbaugh fan). We already made a truce that we can’t talk politics.
It disturbs me though. How can something like health care cause such anger and division?
Maybe we can trade brothers!
Seriously, I love my brother. I just don’t get him. Quasi-pseudo Libertarian type.
I’ve got three of ’em! One is a candidate for Ted Kasynski’s cabin as far as I’m concerned. The next is only still human because of his wife (the Limbaugh fan). The third is a smart businessman who has been more than generous with more than one family member by giving them jobs when they didn’t deserve them or appreciate them. All three are hyper-conservative.
My one brother is a flaming liberal, my sister is a flaming liberal who briefly liked Ron Paul, until I forced her to read up on what RuPaul is really about. My third drug-addled brain-damaged brother — I just can’t figure out. I mean, he thinks Obama should be impeached for not prosecuting Bush for war crimes against Humanity. I just don’t know what tack to take with that!
I have one of those too (addled). I didn’t include him in the above count. He has no opinions on anything. Doesn’t appear to be capable. The only other lib in the family was my mother, and she passed away.
I mentioned below, the disconnect comes from being brainwashed.
Remember that poll during the election that showed the more people watched Fox News, the less correct about issues they became?
The right wing appeals to the simplistic, emotional reptile brain. Good or evil, American or Democrat, our way or destruction of the country.
It’s easier for people to hear and understand, “Look for yourself, the horizon is a straight line, the Earth is flat!” than to comprehend the more complex truth about why the horizon appears as a line while the Earth is round.
Then, add to that the narcotic of extreme emotions such as hatred and fear and you’ve got the political equivalent of crack.
Once they’re addicted, even motorcycle accidents that bankrupt people don’t have a prayer against a mind that’s been hooked.
Such people, in the areas that they are conditioned, are immune to reason, logic and truth. They have been given permission to hate and blame which makes them feel clearer about why they are unhappy in their lives and the only way you’ll take away that thinking from most of them is from their cold dead head.
They are a minority, it does make sense to try and de-program those that can be but as your story points out, some are as committed to being brainless as a motorcycle rider without a helmet.
Yes, they are a minority, but, unfortunately they are the ones given air time now by the MSM because car crashes are viewed more than feel good stories…
But I believe that this will change soon, it has already started with the evening news and the morning shows, like Good Morning America. Diane Sawyer has now dedicated a segment every night with a feel good story, triumph over tragedy in these trying times.
People need this, people want to see that there is a light at the end of the tunnel, they want to see that there is hope for the future and that the good guy wins in the end.
The November elections will be the indicator whether the GOP hate machine has burned itself out….
In a weird way, I hope that the baggers keep it up (without escalating from vandalizing Democratic offices). The longer the GOP courts them, the longer the middle will be wary, and if not voting Democrat, at least sitting out. They risk burning out the Republican Party from both ends.
Khirad, I believe by November they will have burned themselves out with the mainstream voter…especially if Obama keeps up this momentum he has and continues to go around the country on this info campaign.
Why do you feel sorry for this guy? He made a decision to ride his motor cycle without a helmet while he was intoxicated.
Now I don’t wish bad things to happen to people. He obviously needed some kind of emotional therapy before his accident but thought that there’s nothing wrong with me, it’s the other guy with problems. I don’t think his ideology has anything to do with his tirade against Obama and health care reform. He seems to me to be unable to think for himself and requires a guru to tell him what to think.
I feel sorry for him because he’s self-destructive and he mostly just hurts himself.
Sorry, call me a softy! 🙂
I’ve known the type. He’s never really sat down and thought through what he believes, but just feels it in his gut and acts, I’m guessing.
I know, it’s hard to hate them. It’s more like that Libertarian guy from Parks and Recreation that you just roll your eyes at.
Or your mailman that knocks on your window when he sees you at your desk and wants to talk about how the world and the post office has mistreated him for 30 years.
You nod your head yes, trying to sympathize with him. Then you quietly ask him not to walk across your lawn to your neighbors house, because you just put seed down. Which he then proceeds to yell at you because the post office has given him a time limit to deliver your mail, turns with a huff and walks across the lawn anyway….what do you do?
Pepe,
I was just having a chat with my sister about facebook.
My sister lives in a mountain community in So Cal
and is about to start working for the census.
When she told a neighbor what she was going to be doing
That neighbor was aghast.
“Oh I don’t have anything to do with the Government, we home-school our kid and
don’t trust the government at all,
I don’t want the government to know any of my business,
I won’t have anything to do the census.” the neighbor said.”
Yet my sister tells me that the neighbor is on facebook and twitter all day
Telling the world about her business.
Now really, come on
If the gov wanted to find you
you are making it way to easy on the facebook
Turns this couple has just gone foreclosure, lost their home, in debt.
Hmmm no wonder they are hiding.
This is hilarious! Your sister and you have cut the legs out from most of these paranoid hypocrites out there. They claim to have a fear of government knowing too much about their private life but ladle it out on Facebook for millions AND the government to see?
A disconnect like that is exactly what is consistent among the Baggers and other ignorant types of Americans. They rail against a government takeover of health care then yell, “Keep your government hands off my Medicare!”
What this is, is conditioning. A form of brainwashing. Hatred and fear of a specific thing programmed into the brains of these people, untouchable by reason or logic.
I think it is the same part of their mind where their belief in religion resides, they simply have accepted hatreds and fears from those they see as their political “ministers” and are fundamentalist about them. What they have been told is true about the government and Dems being evil simply is true and no one can convince them out of their “faith”.
It cracked us up for quite some time.
True story !
Their leaders are leading off the cliff….
Amazing. Do you know that Facebook is the number one tool of today’s detectives? You’d be amazed at how many criminals brag about their plans and their deeds online. And if you can’t find them directly, you can find them through their friends’ Facebook accounts.
http://abcnews.go.com/International/facebook-finds-mafia-boss/story?id=10124958
😆 What a gooblehead!
Speaking of cognitive dissonance:
This is a photo of Rush Limbaugh’s NY apartment, now up for sale. This is what that guy is really like: 1049 Fifth Avenue
I think we can take him.
HAHA! Yep. Looks like a French dandy’s residence or a high-class bordello!
Cher, I think it IS a dandy’s bordello. (Probably not so high-class, though!) Perfect description.
Moulin Rouge?
More like Pink Flamingos’ Divine meets Rob Halford.
😆 😆 😆
😆 Yeah! the biker version.
Thanks, now I’ll be trying to scrub that from my mind the rest of the night…
Just don’t close your eyes! 😆
OMG!
😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆
OMG is right
I have a hole burned in my retina!
I should have put a WARNING! in there first, Patsy!
Thanks Cher
Now I have to go watch kitty videos
OK, that’s just gross… 😯
you got that right!
I will NEVER get that image out of my fragile little mind!
No kidding, who decorated, Donald Trump?
http://www.hulu.com/watch/10329/saturday-night-live-chandeliers
😀 “Ya gotta getta chandaleeh!
I hate it when hot redheads dye their hair blonde. Just a pet-peeve I thought I’d get off my chest – though it may be overshare.
*That was in reference to Scarlett Johannson, btw.