If you guessed that freeing the terminally ill Lockerbie bomber was due to Great Britain having socialized medicine, you'd be thinking along the same lines as David Smith, who published just that assertion in the Dallas County Republican Examiner. (Never heard of Examiner.com? It's more competition for The Dallas Morning News' online product.) David Smith lists no professional medical background of any kind in his bio, but according to him:
"The Scottish system issued a death sentence on this man because its Socialized health care system could not 'work him in.' And this is, once again, my point--that this will be the end product in our system if we allow such a Socialized, or public option, or government-run, government-mandated system of co-op's to become the system here."
It's ironic that this right wing commentator is simultaneously upset that Great Britain showed compassion for a terminally ill prisoner (by releasing him) and didn't show compassion for a terrorist bomber (by not giving him better medicare care). David Smith might want to learn a lesson from the epic FAIL of Investor's Business Daily, which also passed judgment on Britain's National Health Service (NHS). In a now infamous editorial, IBD said:
"People such as scientist Stephen Hawking wouldn't have a chance in the U.K. where the National Health Service would say the quality of life of this brilliant man, because of his physical handicaps, is essentially worthless."Well, as Steven Hawking himself subsequently pointed out, he is British, he does get his health care from the NHS, and he is here today to rebut IBD because of that care:
"I wouldn't be here today if it were not for the NHS. I have received a large amount of high-quality treatment without which I would not have survived."
3 comments:
Who cares about print media anymore?
On a whim, I opened the DMN Sunday edition and perused the articles. I do this from time to time (about once a year) to remind myself that I am not missing anything. Even with their 'higher' quality writers, I remain unimpressed.
So do these two examples show the desperation of the right to find any way possible to degrade the health reform initiative, or are they just more examples of the dumbing down of America.
Andy, the DMN is desperately trying to claw a toehold in the online media market. New competition like Examiner.com is what they are up against there.
Sherri, I think the answer to your question is "both" but in this case more the former than the latter.
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