Oh, and BTW, beyond citing [obscene] CEO salaries in the pharma & insurance industries, you might do well finding out what their yearly loot is.
But no! It’s those damn brown immigrants that are to blame…and not the rich fucks who hire them off the books to do work no one else will. Why hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if SA has a private brownie to change his Depends®
Well, thank you for that, Starv, I will certainly give that all due consideration.
You don’t want to get old? Get dead.
We’re about the same age, and given that people often see in others things about themselves, I’m forced to wonder if perhaps you have a problem with, uh, “waste management”? 
As far as the rest of your post, it’s got me wondering whether you’ve been hitting the sauce again.
None of these questions will ever be “properly” answered as it all comes down to personal opinion. I’d rather have government out of the way as much as possible and you want them running everything.
Difference of opinion maybe?
As far as smoking goes. I can follow the argument of “second hand smoke” harming the innocent bystander. Why doesn’t the “innocent bystander” just refuse to eat at an establishment who happens to prefer smoking? The rights of the business owner are clearly being infringed upon.
More and more of governmental involvement involves taking rights they aren’t legally supposed to be taking.
Seat Belts? Why do they need to tell me to be safe? Motorcycle helmet laws? How did that one go? It got repealed. I’m surprised no one has challenged the seat belt law because it is also “Unconstitutional”
I’m not one to shout “Socialism” because of one small detail in the big picture but I can tell you that the more government gets involved with every “Free man” it is going that direction.
Maybe because money has to come from somewhere? And a bloated, ney, pregnant-with-quintuplets budget seems like a logical place to find some.
So which is it? You don’t give a rat’s ass or do you want them to find ways to trim said monstrosity?
Do you like spending more than any other industrialized nation on earth in health care while providing services that are ranked below most of them?
Or is it simply that you’re a Social Darwinist?
At last we have an area of agreement.
[This is not a wish for Red’s death (I almost like him), rather it’s only to acknowledge the truth in luci’s statement.]
If a decade’s difference makes us “the same age”…then, yes, we are.
And the only “waste management” I’m involved in at the moment is posting to you.
Two projections in one post. How very Freudian of you.
Hey, Lou Dobbs is here! Let’s give Lou Dobbs a hearty Straight Dope welcome, everybody!
I don’t give a rat’s how big government is, so long as its ours. Of the people, by the people, for the people. Right now, its a mish-mash, but we’re working on it. Its taking a lot longer than we thought, and we could use your help, if you’ve nothing better to do. Or you can bitch about it.
Your call.
Damn! You’re only fifty and look like that?
Oh, well…point still stands. I believe incontinence can be an offshoot of too much booze, too quickly drunk. As for me, no diapers or little blue pills…yet! 
"Or is it simply that you’re a Social Darwinist? "
Closer to the truth, I suppose.
“So which is it? You don’t give a rat’s ass or do you want them to find ways to trim said monstrosity?”
If by monstrosity, you mean the USG then yes, I want as much trimmed out as possible. This includes any future “entitlement packages”.
You mean you’re not attracted to me? Must admit, it’s going to be extremely difficult for me to get over that.
I have no reason to doubt your personal experience.
Thank you. Appreciate the honesty as it makes it clear there’s little to “debate.” Would that the other hollering simians be as clear.
Little blue pills? What kinda buzz we talking here…oh, wait, I get it. “Four hours, seek medical attention”, those pills?
In the circles I run, four hours is just passing the audition. You may get a call back, you may not.
Hey! You left out the part I was proudest of! 
I bow to my superior. 
(Think what a monster you’d be without smokes. ;))
With booze you lose, with dope, there’s hope. Learned that in '68.
I have passed your suggestion on to the proper authority. Overruled.
"I was confronted by an elderly woman who pleaded for my advice, she was in desperate health, going down and down, and the doctors could do her no good.
Why, it was simple, I said, all she need do was give up smoking, and drinking, and swearing, and she would be quite well again!
But, Mr. Clemens, she replied, she couldn’t give up those things because she had never done any of them!
Well, there you have it.
She was a sinking ship with no baggage to throw overboard! Why, just one minor vice might have saved her! But she was a moral pauper.
If you can’t make eighty by a comfortable road, don’t go…"
(Mark Twain, freely and very loosely paraphrased after Hal Holbrook’s recording of Mark Twain Tonight)
Due respect, Red Fury. But some people use that same data to argue that the reason European countries and Japan can afford so many social programs (including heatlh care) is that the US provides such a substantial portion of their defense. Don’t forget that we have troops stationed in more than half the nations on earth (not counting diplomatic guards or that sort of thing). We also provide a missile and fighter jet shield for people other than ourselves. Defense costs a lot of money.
