Someone on this board suggested cutting off all military aid to the region (the Arab). I second this. We should not be giving money to any dictatorial state like Egypt or Saudi Arabia or a state like Israel, which likes to drop bombs on caged people in Gaza for kicks (there's that sanction against "collective punishment" JonathanInTelAviv, dear, that, oh, let's say, goes against UN law, that you are so fond of quoting).

Call your reps and demand from Obama the following:

1. Get the US troops out of Iraq! This will do wonders for our image in the region.

2. Get the US troops out of Afghanistan! It's not going to work. At all. The Soviets couldn't control the country I don't know why Obama thinks he can.

3. Cut off military aid to Pakistan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Israel. It only inflames tension, doesn't solve anything.

OH, and JonathanInTelAviv, dear, Israel is no shining example of human rights, honey. Maybe you need to get outside of Tel Aviv and go interview the souls in the West Bank. You might learn something, sweetheart. You're no different than the right-wing Republicans here in America who think that the US is a beacon of fairness and democracy while it funds scum-bag states like Egypt and Israel, and invades foreign countries like Iraq, leaving a million dead in its wake. Wake up, sweetheart, and smell reality. You need to have your sweet little bubble burst (maybe it might be too emotionally traumatic for you, but we all need to face reality).

Only humanitarian aid should be given to countries (sorry Lockheed Martin).

I oppose ALL religious states. Religion, in my opinion, when it's organized, has not done humanity much good. I oppose Christian, Jewish, and Muslim fanatical states across the board. These three are cut from the same cloth.

Whether it's the nutjob Bush, with his fanatical "talking to God" or some other loon, I oppose them all. The Republicans are trying to turn America into a Christian right-wing shit-hole, not much different than the Taliban in Afghanistan (the shooting of George Tiller case in point).

Israel has an abominable record with respect to human rights and is roundly denounced across the globe.

The "special relationship" involves every US president kissing the Israelis' collective ass. I'm personally sick of it. The murderous bastards rot and defend themselves. The Israelis have no intention of stopping settlements in the West Bank. Their refusal is proof that they get away with murder. Why stop building when there are no consequences from the US?

I have always opposed the state of Israel, as a "Jewish" state. What's wrong with a secular, free Palestine, where Arabs aren't treated like dogs, where Jews and Arabs are equal?

The Israeli treatment of the Palestinians is nothing short of genocidal. Caging them like animals in Gaza, and then dropping bombs on them is torture. No wonder the Arabs hate Israel and us, too, for supporting Israeli militarily.

Call your senators and congress reps to demand an end to the billions in military aid to Israel. And oh, while we're at it, let's cut off Egypt's aid, too. We could use that money here in the U.S.

And so?

Because you had coverage? If you had no coverage, your daughter probably would have died? She would have had a better chance in a single-payer system? We really don't know. I know people with no coverage who have had good outcomes, but they go bankrupt. What can we say with certainty about your daughter? We can't.

It's not scientific to claim that your daughter would have died in a single-payer system because the experiment was never conducted: you didn't place her in both and see what the outcome was. And if you in fact did, that is only one datum point, one instance.

Anecdotal stories are just that: they don't have the weight of scientific validity.

Canada has lower infant mortality and higher life expectancy than the US. Science deals with aggregates, not anecdotes. We should look at the big picture, not make claims that someone would die in such and such system because those are ultimately unknowable. Organizations such as the WHO have studied the outcomes and the verdict is pretty clear: the US system is no where near its industrialized sisters. That's pretty much all we need to know.

Yes, Mr. G. Walken is a coward, for using anonymous sources.

Also, he claims to be a former Bush Administration official. That probably means he still has Government insurance, really good coverage, or at least had it while he was in the Administration. I would like to know if he felt his US Government coverage sucked, and why he didn't go out on the "free market" and get an individual policy. If he is overweight, diabetic, had cancer or HIV, blood disorder, etc., he most likely would have been denied.

Cheney is a classic example of someone who would have been dead had he NOT had US Government healthcare.

I do not see veterans clamoring for "free market" insurance. Veterans do not go out and get individual policies because they think the VA system sucks. Rather, they fight for more funding of the existing VA system and correct diagnoses. The same goes for Canada. The problem there isn't delivery per se, but funding.

This G. Walken guy is so lame in his arguments that he would only get a C in a high school English class for this paper.