Far more Americans are going to have their lives adversely affected by the price of insurance than by terrorist attacks. Even if we were to drop the fight against Al Qaeda entirely this would probably be true.

I don't know. I was England the other month. Three separate people asked me if I minded whether Obama was black in an attempt to tentatively feel out my political persuasions. Once I explained, no, I don't mind, they all sighed with relief as if to say, "Thank God you're not one of the whacko racist Americans." I took many questions about my opinion of Glenn Beck as well. The general impression I got was that the British are enormously relieved we elected an intelligent man to the White House.

put it best last November. "Nation's Worst Job Given To Black Man."

But do you believe in evolution?

More than one person has posted here than evolution requires "faith" because no one has ever seen one species evolve from another. Are you living in a cave? Entire breeds of dogs and cats didn't exist until a century or two ago. But perhaps that doesn't count because it's not technically a whole new species.

How about bacteria? Microbiologists can create a new species of bacteria in mere hours by selecting for different characteristics. Or maybe that doesn't count because bacteria are small. Or you think all bacteria count as one species.

Hey, no one has ever seen a mountain range come out of the ground but I'd put more stock in plate tectonics than divine intervention.

For the record I have never been employed by a wealthy person or wealthy company. All my bosses have been middle class at best.

I thought the ad was fine. Gets the point across. Maybe a better ad would be a bunch of insurance guys standing around in the shower of the gym. In walks Mark Wahlberg with Public Option written on his mammoth dong. Enter Heather Graham. The Public Option gets exercised.

I don't feel that the intent of the founders carries much relevance for the health care debate. The founders were right about some things, wrong about others, but healthcare, like interstate highways and AIDS, simply falls into the category of the unforeseen. First of all, they disagreed with each other far more often than they agreed, so if you want to invoke the "Founders", keep in mind that they're not a monolithic entity, and we can still argue which founders we should listen to and which we should ignore. In any case I think it would be unwise in any case to enshrine their intent as an irreproachable authority. Everyone agrees that civil rights and women's suffrage are "rights" but the founders certainly wouldn't have agreed.

Second, I think the merits of health care reform can be debated separately from the financial question. If we agree it's a just end, we can find a way to pay for it. Maybe we can travel back in time and cancel the Iraq war. But seriously, reducing the budget of the Pentagon by about 5% would go a long ways towards insuring every American.

Also, I hold it as a self evident truth that insurance companies are corrupt. My friend's dad is a union welder. When he needed bypass surgery his insurance company surreptitiously stopped sending him bills for his premium. Being the organized guy he is, he kept sending a check every month on time. They insurance company then tried to drop him, claiming he hadn't been paying his bills. In ended in court and he was able to show that the company had kept cashing his checks each month. Finally they backed down and paid for his surgery.

I could cite health care horror stories all day.

I challenge your assertion that the American people are "waking up". I don't think the awareness of the population really varies significantly from year to year. If you're so enamored of the American people you might thank them for electing Obama in the first place by a wide margin.

Also, I think you overstate the government/people dichotomy. You are the government. You vote, don't you? You can run for office just like anyone else.

I find it revealing that opponents of health care reform continually derail the debate, rather than debate reform on its own merits. It goes further than disrupting town hall meetings. Even on this thread the debate is less about health care than about taxation, the deficit, the intentions of the founding fathers, socialism, the merits of Fox News, or whether health care is a right (I think it's just as much a right as being allowed to possess wealth).

How about discussing something tangible and specific. Like denying care for pre-existing conditions? Which is like the fire department refusing to fight a fire that started before they got there. Who seriously thinks this practice is good for America?

At what point does the pie become large enough that every American is insured? Honestly, I don't care how we fund health care. Liquidate health care providers. But this is long overdue. If health care isn't a right, then what is? What could be more fundamental than the right to live? I'd say that right is more basic than the right to private property, among other things.

No matter how we fund it, health care in this country MUST be reformed. One of my older friends spent two years reviewing claims for a health insurance company in Madison. Bonuses for claims reviewers were based in part on how many claims they rejected. In other words, employees were given a financial incentive to find any pretext whatsoever for rejecting a claim. How is this legal?

"Life can be unfair."

Actually, life is arbitrary. People are either fair or unfair. Which are you?