Weekend Update 06-18-2011

Through a Glass, Darkly. It’s a story about growing up with a parent who is mentally ill. One line in particular grabbed my attention. “And I didn’t talk about my family life with anyone.” Read the article. Think about it.

GOP belief in utterly debunked economic voodoo has become their official religion. Sadly, a significant portion of the American people clearly can’t do basic math and believe in magic — all evidence to the contrary aside.

We don’t have a Medicare problem; we have a health care cost problem. Surely the second graph (comparing the rise in private health care costs vs. the rise in the cost of Medicare) makes that abundantly clear in a graphic even the densest person can comprehend? Medicare saves money. We should be expanding it, not proposing plans to cut it.

The British citizens fear our health system. Their politicians reassure them that they would never inflict such a monstrosity on them. Of course, Americans are so insular, they probably won’t even notice as “American-style” becomes even more of an epithet abroad.

Republicans continue their war on poor women and children in proposed cuts to WIC. Particularly as a poor teen parent, I remember what a lifesaver WIC was.

In the US, food kills one person every two hours.

Sadly, many middle-class Americans continue to vote for a party engaged in open class warfare against them. It’s irrational, but it’s largely a mistake to expect people to behave rationally. Most of the time we don’t. And that’s true of all of us, myself included.

This editorial on the recent Republican “debate“ almost makes me wish I had watched it. Nah, not really, but I did enjoy the editorial.

We are a country who has become second-best, even in the quality of our psychopaths.

Finally, the truth about the economy in 2 1/2 minutes.