I heard a clip this morning with a woman ranting about how she doesn't have health care and she doesn't want the government to force her to have it. And all I could think was that when she needs health care (and let's face it, we all need it sooner or later), she'll end up going to a hospital with no insurance, and who will pick up the tab? Right, the government.

The other thing that drives me crazy is that they're afraid of something happening that's already happened, with no apparent ill effects. "The government" (in the form of local school districts and public health departments) already requires vaccinations. And what terrible thing has happened? Measels, polio, etc. are virtually unknown, and small pox has been eradicated. Elderly people are already subject to a mandatory government health care system, and yet, somehow, they are still living and not being euthanized right and left. For that matter, if you actually believed that President Obama had a not-so-secret plot to kill the elderly, he wouldn't need a new health care plan: he could do it through the Medicare system they're already part of! So even if you accept their wild accusations as true, they still don't make sense as arguments against health care reform.

"She was for using bullshit fearmongering scary lies to cripple health care reform before she was against it.-- TimLehnerer"

We have a winner!

In addition to all the slurs "liberals" have to put up with (the most infuriating being people like Sarah Palin implying that people who aren't white fundamentalist Christians aren't "real Americans) the most annoying the conservative constantly telling us what we believe.

And for the record, unlike the author of this essay, I don't insult people for the beliefs I project on them, I don't even think they're crazy for believing something other than what I do. I judge the specific people who are actively behaving in a crazy manner by mindlessly believing bizarre lies their leaders are cynically feeding them.

"Even with the recession in full swing, though, my clients can still afford me. People who have money to keep their dogs in daycare can splurge for a Craigslist cleaner every once in a while to spare the lady of the house the indignity of scrubbing her own toilet."

I think your attitude is pretty good, but I would be nice if you didn't feel the need to denigrate the people who make it possible for you to pay the bills.

I hate housework (who doesn't?) but I don't think scrubbing my toilet is an indignity (in fact, I clean it between visits from my housecleaner). I've never paid anyone to do anything I wouldn't do myself if I had the time and the skill.

I have someone clean my house twice a month because I have a roommate and I don't want to argue about whose turn it is to mop the kitchen floor -- been there, done that. When the economy went bad, I thought about letting my housecleaner go, but hell, as long as I can pay my bills, she needs the money more than I do. Where would people like you be if people like me scrubbed their own toilets? Oh, and like most who understand what it's like to work to pay the bills, I pay a fair wage.

...I'm going to come down with Bernstein. The problem with new media is that it encourages people to exchange quantity and immediate gratification for deeper, more meaningful interactions. Why should we spend time getting to know someone -- or even go out to dinner -- when we can sit with facebook or twitter and be endlessly diverted? These activities can save time, but they also suck up huge amounts of time. Imagine what more productive (either personally or professionally) things you could do with the time you spend on facebook and twitter. I just joined facebook. I see a lot of potential to use it to keep in touch with people I otherwise wouldn't. On the other hand, if I couldn't find the time to keep in touch with them, then how much do I really care about them?

I've done the online community thing. I was addicted to Usenet almost 15 years ago. Facebook is just more of the same, but slicker. It's like crack, in that it's more addictive because it's a better delivery system that produces a more intense high. Sooner or later, most people realize they've "hit bottom" and quit. But I worry about people who are growing up in a culture where superficial connections like Facebook become the norm, and everyone's relationships are thousands of miles wide and one pixel deep.