I am a post WWII baby boomer and I agree with you. It all feels so different now. We were discussing this today. There are many fabulous things now ..but it seems a lot of good stuff is lost. Like freedom and feeling safe ..really safe and trusting people and handshakes meant something ..not that I did that as a kid.

I am unable to articulate exactly what I am feeling about lawsuits, corporate takeovers ..no more gold watches and heck now even pensions that were a done deal and to be counted on are at risk.

I feel like nothing can be counted on anymore ..or is that just called “growing up”?

Does anyone remember that even though you were a young kid ..your parents let you leave the house and ride your bike anywhere you wanted to all day long… come in for lunch and back out until dinner and back out again and they would just say ..be in by dark? No one locked their doors. And the only warning I heard was “Don’t take candy from strangers and razor blades might be in apples”. I know bad things happened and maybe we just didn’t know because people lived in quiet desperation and/or we didn’t have the instant satellite news sources we have today. But it did feel safer and more innocent and I think kids were kids longer too ..which is a wonderful thing.

I was so careful with our boys born in 1980 and 1988 and I did not trust even then to let them have the same freedoms.

Delete if you want WC.

Regarding refugees ..yes that is correct ..they are looking to get away from oppression, but I also believe productive people around the globe also see us as a land of opportunity. I know my grandparents did.

If you are speaking about Israel, I believe in her right to defend herself. There are injustices done both ways in that situation. Unfortunately ..the roots of the conflict goes back to the days of Abraham.

One thing I don’t understand ..okay ..make that many things ..but with all the vast land that the Arabs own ..why don’t they give some to their fellow Arab Palestinians?

And why do the hostile Arab countries …want to push Israel out to the sea if they could? Also, they do have to have a safe perimeter so they can deter incoming missiles, etc. If her enemies have access from the mountains ..they could easily send missiles into Tel Aviv, etc.

Dwight you said:”“The worst day offshore on a boat beats the best day in a chair on the beach.”

Unless your boat is the Titanic.

I feel compelled to respond to SeaSpray.
On health care, let’s agree to forget the statistics which place us arguably somewhere around #37, maybe just ahead of that bastion of progressive government, Cuba. Instead let’s randomly select a statistically significant number each of Asians, Europeans, and Americans, evaluate them objectively through scientifically validated measures of intellectual, physical, and emotional health, and then still try to arrive at your conclusion that our health care is better than theirs. I have lived and worked among each of these three groups during the 40+ years of my medical career. I already know with certainty the inevitable conclusion of my proposed scientific inquiry.
On immigration, just who out there really wants to join us? Western Europeans, Chinese, Malays, Japanese, Scandinavians, Singaporeans, Kuwaiti’s; or is it maybe, just maybe, more likely to be long suffering refugees hopelessly beaten down by the desperation of life in the third world? Come on, I think you know the answer.
It should be obvious who is the arrogant and apartheid regime in the Middle East. That would be the one divided by a concrete wall, using religious and/or ethnic criteria to separate the haves, living a modern life in their democracy of the minority, from the have-nots, a seriously disadvantaged majority living under military occupation in overcrowded bombed out ghettos and Bantustans. Where does this diverge from apartheid South Africa, and why is not the solution the One State one, with Truth and Reconciliation, ala Nelson Mandela, mandated by the world community and supported by the US?
And SeaSpray, if the atavar behind which you anonymously hide hints at something nautical, my totally off topic parting thought would be, “The worst day offshore on a boat beats the best day in a chair on the beach.”

But this time ..this was huge. It was handled irresponsibly and should NOT have been RUSHED. And ..they should have read and understood it and the consequences.

I can’t speak for doctors, but there are some docs in the senate and they did speak up. They were not listened too.

I just quickly googled this link for republican ideas:http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/02/five_compronises_in_health_car.html

I an sure you can find more.

***Our HC system needed reform. But *RUSHING* this through is why we have this monstrosity of a bill. If Obama had his way ..he would’ve passed this bill in August, 2009 in even worse shape than now.

Why in the world rush something so profoundly important to our country and people? You would think that they would methodically change what was wrong in our existing system and methodically add what is good to it. Not turn it all upside down and create the problems that are already starting to happen. And what about the hardship of sm business owners being forced to pay for employee ins or be fined 2000.00 per employee? How does that help our economy? Or for the poor people that can’t afford insurance but will be fined if they don’t buy it?

Is it for the moment? Once people start becoming dependent on the system ..they won’t be able to reverse it?

I just wrote in the previous post that I am livid over this and the thought of losing our quality HC if we can’t afford to keep up with the premiums.

And that the quality plans will be taxed FORTY PERCENT ..except from their favored union’s ins plans which Obama administration said will be exempt!

It is like everything has been turned upside down overnight.

We all knew there were problems with the system. They should have targeted the most important concerns. Not do this major overhaul that affects 1/6th of our national economy.

Yes ..help the poor. We should. But there had to be a better way than this monstrous debacle.

They should’ve been talking to the med professionals in the trenches. Did they really care about insurance companies being expensive? Then they should’ve OPENED up the state borders and allowed competition for better price and quality. Instead ..premiums will go up and we can afford it even less!

They can’t get MDCR/MDCD right,they have people on welfare and so now they are creating more debt in massive proportions at a time when this country can least afford it. And it seems that as more and more people have to let go of their private insurance ..that more and more people will go on the public dole. HOW in the world is this good for our country? For our citizens? And for continued access to state-of-the-art, quality medical care? For funding for medical research? For state-of-the-art medical equipment?
***************************************
I know I have saud this too much ..but maybe if I say it often enough it won’t be surreal anymore, but: This administration does NOT KNOW WHAT IS IN THE BILL. THEY DID NOT READ IT. THE *PRESIDENT* DIDN’T EVEN KNOW THAT CHILDREN ARE *NOT* COVERED IN TH BILL! If he or *any of them* had actually READ IT ..they would have seen that was MISSING!!

They don’t understand long term ramifications of this bill, i.e., how it will affect our national economy, the people with excessive taxation and ultimately poorer quality of access and medical care. They don’t understand because they DID NOT READ THE BILL.

Who does that?

Would you sign your name to a car loan, mortgage or anything without KNOWING what you are signing for??? And yet ..these people did this ..but they keep their insurance in tact and it is the rest of us who will be profoundly affected ..medically and financially. And who knows how it will affect our national economy?

No wonder the tea partiers (comprised of different political persuasions,male,female, housewives, college kids,executives, blue collar workers,retirees, etc.) and the rest of us are angry! They did not listen to their constituents.

They did-NOT-listen.

What country are you referring to when you said:
“unconditionally supporting an arrogant and aparthied Middle East regime”

I hope things somehow get better so we don’t lose a lot of doctors. I understand though.