It's a big mistake to extrapolate from a message board. You can't accurately or legitimately condemn "the left" based upon responses to articles on the Internet.

But notice something very important here. Public figures on the right -- public figures, not anonymous posters on the Internet -- are all too often shrill, hate-filled, bigoted, racist, incendiary, xenophobic, jingoistic, homophobic and in general, incredibly stupid.

The left doesn't have that problem in general. As in, public figures on the left just can't compete with the right when it comes to hate.

But, back to message boards, etc. My experience on the that kind of board goes back roughly 15 years. It's been my observation that for shrillness, invective, hatred and over-the-top venom, the right (in general) wins hands down.

Both sides of the aisle need to be civil. Both sides need to try to work together for the common good. But when I hear righties try to pin this all on the left, I just have to wonder what planet they live on.

You make some excellent points.

Yes, it matters not where a good idea comes from. Left, center, right. Makes no difference. If it helps people live better, healthier, more fulfilling lives, if it makes our planet greener, healthier, cleaner, more vibrant, it's all good.

That said, I don't want "bipartisanship" for its own sake. I think that actually stands in the way of "the good". All too often, good legislation is weakened in order to accommodate the feelings of all parties, and mediocrity becomes established law. Sometimes I think no bill is better than a watered down bill.

For instance, I think Single Payer is slam dunk the best possible way to fix our health care crisis. I don't want to compromise on that, because it's just too logical, too efficient, and it would save the country trillions over time. But neither party is willing to go there. It was a very slight possibility that the Dems might. Might. We know the GOP was adamantly opposed. But, looks like neither party has the courage to do what's best for the nation as a whole on that one.

Which makes me think that so much of our crossfire is for show. With exceptions, I think the leaders of the two parties just play us, rile us up, get us to go after each other, rather than look for the guy behind the curtain. It's smart on their part. Get the right and the left to fight it out, while the Money Party rips us all off. If the non-rich in America ever stopped to really look under the hood, I think we all could come together and push the Money Party out of power.

The best ideas would be the ones that help everyone, not just the elite. The elite have been brilliant at making us think we have more to fear from each other than we do from them.

Did Camille Paglia seriously just blame Matthew Shepard for his own murder? Seriously?

-- Cassandra13

No. To stretch her comment to that extent requires your skull to have instantly aborted any and all capacity for common sense, if it existed in the first place.

To question Shepard's thuggish company is to be floored by his foolish exposure to severe risk. Anyone with a brain behind their eyeballs should be able to ascertain this easily without directly assigning blame to the victim.

Wink, wink. Palin cleaned out Biden's Clock in the debates, wink, wink, wink. Can I call you Joe, wink, wink? Yeah right. Wink, wink, wink, wink, wink, wink, wink, ad nauseam, wink, wink.

I am curious how you leap so immediately to the conclusion that a single payer system is so logical, efficient and would save trillions. If it were so certain, why is there any debate at all? Thanks.

Oh Camille. You're letting your lust overtake your brain, just like a lot of the guys here did.

You didn't like that rambling, wacky, poor-me, vague, finger-pointing resignation speech? Sorry to tell you, that's the real Sarah Palin. I've known her up close and personal for more than a decade; you just see her on TV and in your hazy fantasies.

No media consultants or brainiac advisers can change the real Sarah Palin.

P.S. - That Vanity Fair "hit piece"? 100 percent spot-on, according to actual current employees of Sarah Palin. And anyone who cannot reasonably manage the Alaska legislature, any governor who has alienated almost every single member, even almost every single member of her own party, has no business seeking any bigger office.

Every time I hear or read someone bemoan the horrible press reaction to Sarah Palin and accuse the media of being out to get her, I wonder why. Now you see this kind of commentary all the time from "average" Americans, but to see it from Camille Paglia is ridiculous. Camille, in case you didn't know it, there is a whole network called Fox News, located in the Northeast by the way, and with one or two exceptions their commentators and newscasters never have a bad word to say about Palin. Add to them people like Bill Kristol, Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly (the last two millionaires many times over and if that isn't elite I don't know what is), and I think it fair to stipulate that Sarah Palin has a huge cheering block in the current media crowd. Now we all know that your schtick is playing the renegade; it is how you maintain your profile as a maverick (like Sarah), how you put bread on your table; but Salon readers should call you on your disingenuousness when they see it,so I just did.

It's no leap. It's fact. And common sense. Math. etc. Straight math, percentages, common sense.

Right now, we spend twice as much for health care as the rest of the civilized world, and we don't even cover 50 million people. 62% of all our personal bankruptcies are a result of medical costs, and 78% of those cases are for people who have insurance. Out of pocket costs crushed them.

18,000 Americans die each year because they can't afford coverage.

All this is happening while private insurance companies execs make eight figure and nine figure salaries. As in, some top execs make more than 100 million a year.

Private insurance companies, at best, have an overhead of at least 30%. Medicare has 3%. If we extend Medicare to everyone, we would save even more. Because Medicare covers the people who need coverage the most, and it still comes in with 3% overhead.

At minimum, you're talking an instant cut of roughly 30%. We spend more than two trillion a year, most of that on the private side. A rough guess of savings just from overhead costs per year? 300 billion.

There are many reasons for its (Single Payer) higher efficiency. Single Payer would mean one source of payment for all hospitals, doctors, etc. No more endless paperwork, sifting through hundreds of plans from hundreds of companies. It would be just one. Medicare for all could also drive down exorbitant Big Pharma costs. Americans pay many times more for the same exact prescription drugs as they do in other countries. A Medicare for everyone could push those prices down to normal rates.

Private insurance companies practice "recission". which Congress looked into recently. That is the practice of canceling sick people who have paid their premiums, are current, but get sick and need coverage. Private insurance companies have an obvious and direct incentive to deny you coverage. The government doesn't. It doesn't have to make a profit. Private companies do. That alone is enough reason to go Single Payer. It's also reason enough to prove Single Payer is less costly by a huge amount, more efficient, and better for patients.

Single Payer means no premiums, no out of pocket costs. That will save Americans tens of thousands of dollars every time they need serious care. Single Payer means that if you lose your job, you don't lose your health care coverage. It follows you. And that can be the difference between keeping your home and losing it.

Bottom line: Private insurance companies add zero to the quality of your health care. They are parasitic middlemen, and totally unnecessary. All they do is add a massive surcharge that a sane and rational nation would not pay.

The government can cover everyone, and do it for far less. It doesn't need to make a profit. It doesn't need to kick sick people to the curb. It doesn't need to pay execs 100 million a year.

One source for financing, and we save trillions over time. And individual patients save tens of thousands out of pocket.

It is a slam dunk.