What Are They Thinking?

The absolute cluelessness of the GOP continues to either reach new heights or plumb deeper depths, I can't decide which.  Rep. Sue Myrick of North Carolina used the GOP radio address to tar and feather government run health care by claiming that it would cause delays in treatment that would threaten our health.  Using her own breast cancer as an example she complains that it took "took six doctors, three mammograms and one ultrasound before they finally they found my cancer. This process took only a few weeks."  Most citizens only have one doctor and the uninsured have none.  Crystal Lee Sutton, also from North Carolina and known to the rest of the world as Norma Rae, had health insurance and died of brain cancer.  Her insurance company withheld authorization for chemotherapy medication for two months and the normally slow growing cancer spread at a rapid pace.  I'm sure she would have rather had Rep. Myrick's government run access to treatment, but I'm not so sure Ms. Sutton would complain about it saving her life on national radio.

With the right determined to occupy the outer fringe, the center has become the new right.  Obama was already right of center and that he is acquiescing to pressure and moving further right is not much of a surprise.  It's tough to balance when everything is on one end, eventually things tip over.  At what point will the issues of the people who elected him be addressed?

According to a gentleman on the Texas Board of Education, that august body responsible for influencing what's in the textbooks of tomorrow, as a minority female I should be grateful to white men for the rights I currently have.  Wow, it's nice to know that being human isn't enough to qualify for basic civil rights.  No wonder we can't have a rational discussion on health care.

But here we run into a terrible problem.  The health care debate cannot be understood in historic context because many Americans have never heard of Thomas Jefferson.  Extrapolating from state surveys, only 14% of American high school students can name who wrote the Declaration of Independence.   Nearly 75% do not know that George Washington was our first president.  More than 90% could not pass the exam given to immigrants who wish to become citizens.   No wonder that Jay Leno has so much material for his Jay Walking segment.  We can say that our educational system has failed when the vast majority of American students do not know enough to pass an exam to qualify as American citizens

On my last few trips to California I had the misfortune to eat at both a Denny's and a Marie Callender's.  They both had a laminated sheet with the nutritional information of the menu and they are going to have to change their menus if people start reading them on a regular basis.  While Marie's had a more appetizing breakfast menu, you know you're in trouble when the healthiest item on the menu are in the pancake section.  I settled on the breakfast quiche special because it had less sodium and that was still one third of my daily requirement.  Healthy options?  It would take more time to find the one or two relatively healthy items than the server is likely to give you.

The GOP can't really be this clueless, can they? 

BBB