I’m not sure why the people of the middle east’s safety from their own government is more important than our own people’s safety from disease and injury.
If we invaded Iraq solely to make the people of the Mid-East safer, you’d have a point. As it is, we invaded for our own safety and theirs is a side benefit.
Iraq discussion is down the hall, to the left, out the door, and under the bus, please.
So, if I see you coming down the street and punch you in the nose, you’re ok with that, right? I mean, I have information that you may be a danger to me and others. Gotta stop that before it happens, right?
In fact, why don’t we just kill all newborn babies? They may grow up to be a danger, after all. Shit, let’s just nuke the whole planet now, just in case.
Re: the OP: disagree with his reasoning, sentiment and conclusion(s).
Can we PLEASE get back to the subject at hand? Pleeeeeassse?
I know it won’t do much to derail the Iraq hijack, but I disagree. However, that doesn’t mean I think we should drop millions and millions of dollars on months at the end of people’s lives that are not good months. You can think the government can give reasonable, decent health care to everybody without thinking the government should pay for every possible expensive eking out meagre existences.
Fine with me, I didn’t bring it up in the first place. 
We did it for neither, and accomplished neither.
I’d really like to have a thread that’s not about Starving Artist, if that’s possible.
Strongly Agree.
Just kidding. Eff that noise.
Hey! Give me a frickin’ break! I didn’t start the hijack, and I was completely amenable to stopping it – even to the point of not responding to further attempts to extend the hijack.
Why don’t you insult the people who started the hijack in the first place, rather than the guy who only responded to it when it was aimed at him and then backed out upon your request?
Strongly disagree. It’s no different than the government helping against fires, floods, and enemy nations; collectively pooling our resources and risks to better protect us from a general threat. It’s also a sociopathic attitude that would destroy civilization if it became the norm.
Strongly disagree.
Hmmm…it’s been over an hour now and it appears jsgoddess is a cricket.
No surprise there.
I disagree to a point, that said I dislike a Universal Health Care system on account of not liking to force the unwilling to pay for others. Personally my preference would be an online system hooked up to medical databases that gives age, disease and complicating diseases, cost of treatment, state, whether or not they have insurance, and maybe a few other facts (but no name or picture) that allow people to opt in towards paying as much as they like for others treatments with tax incentives to do so, with greater benefits for the uninsured. However, I’ve been known to overestimate human kindness more than a few times.
Vehemently disagree.
I’m in the UK, and the NHS, for all its flaws, is one of the facets of my country of which I’m most proud.
I have my limits. I don’t want to pay for your transsexual surgery or your facelift. If you broke your legs skiing it’s your own damned fault, and ditto if you need a quadruple bypass at the age of 26 because of your bad eating habits and lack of exercise. I don’t want to have to pay for your hypochondria. I don’t want to pay for your knee replacement surgery if you’re 85 years old.
But I’m willing to kick in a little something for your asthma, immunizations, repair of disfigurements caused by accident or birth, or knee replacement surgery if you’re 55 years old.
Also, if you want one of my kidneys, you should pay for my hospitalization costs, even if it does come out of the same fund I pay into.
Disagree very strongly and it really scares me that RR says he thinks like that and votes/drives/raises children.
Unclviny
Regrettably, I agree with Rand Rover’s statement, but only because of the way he expressed it. I certainly do not agree with the sentiment behind it.
Look upon it as an insurance policy. The wheel of fortune turns, and some day it may be RR or someone about whom he cares that’s poor and in need of assistance.
Disagree, and find the reasoning behind it unsound.