Classy: You heavily imply I'm a liar without saying it straight out, thus preserving deniability if challenged. That's cowardly behavior I thought (and still hope) beneath you. Oh, but perhaps I'm not dishonest, merely stupid; I guess that's--not really much better. Note that I continue to distinguish between unacceptable behavior and unacceptable people. Frankly, you've disappointed me. Again. However, if we're going to live in the world of "Why should I care...?" it's only my problem if I allow it to be. You may thank God I and most other liberals don't usually take that view (and believe it or not, that's usually more pragmatism than compassion. )

Which returns us to my earlier point: Thank you for reminding me why I'll never be a Libertarian. Government has a duty to protect your right to marry as you please, despite the fact you would be perfectly productive and healthy without it, but it has no obligation to assist, let alone ensure, anyone unable to obtain things you admit are vital to bare survival. Government should spend your tax money (and mine) on what matters to you and spending it on anything else is theft; it's a very tempting position. Something perhaps like, "Yeah, it's horribly unjust that gay people are denied the right to marry as they please, but it's also NOT MY PROBLEM: I'M straight. "

Meanwhile, I'll bet if your only transportation to work cost around a thousand dollars to repair (despite getting a buyers check before buying it, and I'll never be back to THAT mechanic) you'd pay for that "fun. " I'll bet if your right arm was hanging out of its socket and causing so much pain that you couldn't stand erect, you'd drop another three grand putting it back in its socket and going to physical therapy so you could raise it above your navel and hold a glass of water again (wheeeeee! ) Lazy SOB that I am, I went back to work after three weeks instead of six like my physical therapist recommended. If one of your best friends in the world was dying you'd do all you could to save him. At least I hope so; to be a not-liar once more, what you've said here gives me cause to wonder. Perhaps you'd just tell him to make better choices next time and stop whining to you about his problems. I had a mountain of unanticipated expenses, most of them after what had seemed a growing savings was already largely committed elsewhere. Again, I try not to come here whining too often (though I DID go off a bit on that BS my companys disability carrier tried to pull; on the other hand, I didn't fly a plane into a federal building over it, like another guy in Austin did at the time, so count your blessings. ) When I posted this thread I wanted to vent and nearly everyone i care about was working or sleeping. It should've been a Journal Post; I concede that, but on the other hand I genuinely believe this is one of the things killing this country, and it's not like I'm the first or will be the last person to do something like this on the CMB.

For the record, the request for "$9k you don't need" was sarcastic and rhetorical; next time I'll try to use a less ambiguous smiley. Unless you mean the idea of medicine as a tax based social service itself, in which case we're back to you not getting to decide unilaterally how 300 million peoples tax dollars are spent. I'm not moving to Norway in search of a preferable government, but I'll reiterate my standing offer: If American upper class taxes and social services are so oppressive, maybe you should find a First World democracy that will give you a better deal. Oh, wait, there aren't any; maybe try Saudi Arabia then (you might want to leave the rainbow flag here though.... )

See, the thing is, the government ALREADY provides a great deal of food and shelter to those who can't afford to provide it for themselves, however much it irks and robs you, not because we love the impoverished so much, but because having millions starving on the street is bad for productivity (also because they've been known to TAKE what they need by violence. ) It's bad for society as well as the starving homeless people. Note that all of these same principles apply to medical care; a dead worker is an unproductive worker. He may have been a Nazi (literally) but even Henry Ford understood you have to pay your workers enough that they can also be your customers. A lot of folks (like that yutz from The Weekly Standard, but I'll get to him shortly) have forgotten that because they're so out of touch their neuropathy is nearly terminal (and may prove just that for the US. ) It's OK though, the Far East and the WTO are about to remind them....

I don't hold myself blameless in this; I haven't done my share of the work to take care of my teeth, and I admit that, but the situation is far from irretrievable. There's no reason I MUST loose my teeth now except that getting rid of taxes on seven figure inheritances is more vital to the country than its citizens ability to eat. It's pretty pathetic that my tax dollars (for which I work as hard as anyone) can be spent on subsidies for over priced SUVs gulping oil that funds terrorism from which my army must then defend me, but not what we both agree are my actual necessities.

Meh. Given our history and how personal this is getting I think I'm done; last word is yours if you want it. Yet given how woefully ignorant you are of my life, how INCAPABLE you seem to be of beginning to comprehend it, I'm not sure why you bothered in the first place.