Remember wayyyyyy back at the beginning of this, when I said that all the talk of single payer was distracting us from what would have made a difference? It’s right there, you can go back and see for yourself. Here, I’ll even make it easy for you and quote what I said:

Just so we’re clear, you are so suckered by talk of single payer that you can’t imagine any criticisms of single payer rooted in anything but partisan politics. Here’s a pretty good article on why single payer crashed and burned in Bernie’s literal back yard, and spoilers, it was medical costs that were the problem:

“Your argument is that because single payer can’t stop a disease it’s nothing more than a scam.”

“Single-payer refers to strategies that governments around the world use to “fix their medical providers” and provide people with universal healthcare, lowered costs and improved outcomes.”

Your faith in the magic of single payer is charming and naive. The bulk of our cost problems are not because of our coverage model, but because we make little effort to manage, control, and regulate medical providers. I see you get mad about for-profit insurance (which we DO regulate by the way, thanks to Obama and…

Oooh! I have officially subscribed to her channel; thanks!

1) Bernie gets far too much credit for being Mr. Health Care. Every Democrat wants some form of expanded health coverage. Bernie’s only real innovation is wildly overpromising what he can deliver. Why should it be a selling point that he lies the most? I want the people who lie the least.

I am going to buy a glove and a six-foot pole so I can give you a high five for your toolman moxie.  I think it’s part of our caveman DNA to want to build things and fix things, and that part is kicking in.  Pretty soon you’ll be going out looking for velociraptors to punch in the face.

Something else Bernie needed to do (related to what you’re saying): quit making like the problem is that the Democrats simply aren’t trying hard enough. The problem is numbers, and the fact that there are enough Republicans in office to block almost all progress almost all the time. People like sports analogies, so…

“Becky” may have started with Sir Mix-A-Lot, but the name holds on its own merits. An adult woman named “Rebecca” has options: “Rebecca”, “Reba”, “Becca”, “Beckmeister”, and so on. But when they go with “Becky” they’re deliberately casting themselves as 12-year-old (white) girls: old enough to be demanding, not old…

I think we’re very much on the same page. I just hate to think that I have advised anyone to not take on people what need to be took on, simply because I failed to mention the exceptions. I am in the (occasionally bad) habit of erring on the side of expansiveness. (Probably comes from being a computer programmer: I…

A friend of mine used to say, “there is always a kinder truth to tell”. I don’t know if there is always such a truth, but there is something to be said for looking for it.

“Don’t know when it became popular to be proud of being a dick to people, but please put those dicks away now.”

“I think—I hope—I’m less dumb now.”

I like how Jimmy accused Howard of killing Chuck; if anyone is to blame (besides Chuck) I’d blame Jimmy, while Howard did his best to deal with the Chuck / Jimmy situation but eventually could no longer.

I have a more charitable view of Kim. Life’s biggest challenges involve us getting caught between two principles, where you can’t fully honor one principle without also fully neglecting the other. So compromises and half-measures ensue.

“Smoke on the Water” is about a careless, reckless, and stupid action that burned a venue to the ground. Metaphor!

You don’t suppose a wig makes Alex make better choices, do you?  It’s like it corrects the asymmetry of her haircut and thus her thought processes.

This is one episode where I’m totally on Alex’s side. Not that I think she was “right” to feel as she did about her dad, or “wrong” to either for that matter. The point is, she felt what she felt, and emotions simply are what they are. It was Kara and Kelly who were in the wrong for once: the correct response to Alex…

When I was a kid, the hero in a cartoon would sometimes have the villain at his mercy, and after a tense moment, the hero would let the villain live and say, “If I kill you I’ll be no better than you!” I always hated that, because the hero was doing the right thing just to flaunt his superiority. Way to raise us…