Patch Adams was a real person.

I just watched the Latest Onion A.V. Club Inventory on Youtube and they pointed out Patch Adams was a real person. Surprisingly he seems to be a really great guy and a devoted political activist for Healthcare reform in the US.

Vermont is the best state in the Union.

Looks like Vermount is going to have singe payer healthcare and is doing so to save money.

Reminder why it will save money:


http://imgur.com/Kkx1O

Upbeat article of the day: "Matecrime" against those with learning disabilities

Its not just the Conservatives who want to abuse those with special needs it is apparently a loathsome pursuit that transcends class boundries.

There appears to be a growing trend of people taking advantage of people with learning disabilities to make money off them, from stealing to forcing them into prostitution, or to simply bully them for fun, sometimes to the point of murder, all the while they think those abusing them are their friends because they're lonely or naive. Hence "matecrime".

Why are these vulnerable people being put in such a dangerous situation? Well Thatcher's government realised it was cheaper to have social services look after people in the community than to maintain expensive institutions and care programs. Thus care in the community was born. Of course Thatcher and subsequent governments didn't bother to adequately fund this new scheme and large government cuts looming it is likely even more vulnerable people will be turfed out on to the streets. Yay.

This is what proper journalism looks like.

Enjoy a rare chance to see such a precious thing. The Exiled explains it better than I can but I will give you an interesting question to ponder. Aside from simple whineyness, you have to wonder how much of the reason she complained Ratigan was a bad moderator was because she was, like most of us, used to "journalists" weakly accepting both sides of the argument as equally valid and how much it was because she believed it is bad journalism to disagree with her. Now obviously you lean towards the latter but she is so deer in the headlights by the end of things you do have to wonder.

The Free Market has decided you should die.

Death panels, those awful things that could only occur under government bureaucracy and which are completely different from Medical Insurances companies denying you treatment to make a greater profit, were successfully headed off when the Obamacare package was watered down and deprived of a public option so becoming little more than a massive donation from the state to Private Insurance companies. A great outcome for the astroturfed protestors and the ill informed old people who could actually find the time to protest and who're protected by medicaid/medicare (for now).

Lamentably the far fairer and more equitable system of private insurance has lamentably found that a lot of poor people need to die. The free medical market (that is more heavily subsidised by the US government in terms of proportions of GDP than any socialised healthcare system) is infalliable, now please lie down and die quietly. That is to say the US has once again placed dead last in the rankings of western healthcare systems while paying far more than anyone else: USA! USA!

this gives me an excuse to post my favourite thing the National Geographic has ever produced:


But wait, theres more! The cost of individual purchased health insurance premiums have gone up around 20% since Obamacare passed and given that by law everyone will be forced to have insurance its likely employers will start to phase out their health insurance plans on grounds of cost and because its not like employees can go without in the near future.

Obama bringing this issue into prominence and promising something that didn't come to pass with single payer healthcare reform may have repercussions in the future as people realise how much this fucks them over. Likely though they'll just vote republican as the full extent of their protest because everyone knows a third party can't win.