The Health Care Thing

Brizoni here. The Ransom Note was "kind" enough to let me use their account (I ran this blog, once upon a time, but they've appropriated it, I think just to shut it down, but who knows what plans those guys have until their sprung) to post. They're not pleased I used as many swears as I did, but, well, whatever.

Watch video of Michael "I Don't Talk in Soundbites" * Moore shit his fat. I haven't seen Sicko, and other than this evisceration, I don't know what the movie claims. I do know the political spectrum is littered w/ doucebags whose disingenuous populism can be smelled readily by their use of the phrase "the American People". Whenever someone goes on and on about "the American People", they're trying to sell you something (Moore) or get you off their backs (the President). I don't know that you'll ever hear that expression out of sincerity. It's kind of code for "you assholes".

I don't know if we just deserve free health care. I don't know that we don't, either, although I'm inclined to think that, given where we're at as a species and a culture right now, we actively don't deserve a damn thing. I do fear turning hospitals over to the government will turn them into DMVs, and that old jokes about skeletons in waiting rooms will start hitting too close to home**, but again, I don't know for sure. I want to know why exactly health care costs so much. What's the actual reason(s)? Anyone?

I've decided not to let either group of cumrag get me agitated about this one way or the other, until I've had time to think it through for myself. If that's still allowed.

What do you think?





*Actual goddamn quote.

**Want your drugs invented and open-heart surgery performed by the people who gave us FEMA, Amtrak and the CIA? Does the Post Office do a better job than FedEx? I can't mail a package via the federal government without waiting in line 20 minutes--and the Post Office is the best-run federal agency." - same guy

Reason to Love Comics #90,227 (Fourth of July edition)

This is from Action Comics #309, which has a cover date of February 1964. To let news vendors know when to remove items from their shelves, comics are traditionally dated two months ahead of their actual publication date, making this, more accurately, the December 1963 issue. President Kennedy was shot November 22, which means this story hit America's red, bleary eyes a month after the assassination at the latest. Could have been as early as 12 days.*

The story has Superman tricked by his friends into being a guest on a "This is Your Life"-type show called "Our American Heroes". Since everyone else from Superman's life has been notified and scheduled to appear, Clark Kent's absence would be conspicuous, so Supes has to produce a Clark double, and quick. But, all his usual doubles-- Chameleon Boy from the 30th Century, Batman, one of his Superman robots-- all fall through. Luckily, JFK shows up in a rubber mask, saving the day.

Imagine the impact this comic had on the youth of a traumatized nation. The ghost of JFK masquerades as Clark Kent. How does a child's mind process that symbolism (whether intended or not)? And "If you can't trust the president, who can you trust?"? Prophecy, much? All these old-school Superman books are fertile American mythology, but the implications of all the elements in this issue seem aggressively resonant. I wonder if history should take more notice of this book coming out when it did. Maybe it had... I don't know, some notable impact. It's strong enough to have.




*A full comic takes months to produce. The creators of a comic are about two-to-six months ahead of the readers, which is why this came out at all. Years later, another Superman book, depicting the smoldering wreckage of Lex Luthor's twin Lexcorp towers, came out a day after 9/11. That entire crossover stunk, so I skipped it. My haul for September 12 did include this gem, however, and imagine my surprise when I turned a page and saw this.