The hypothetical? If a young healthy person elects not to get health insurance but encounters sudden catastrophic medical emergency, should society help?
In fairness, Paul hearing the chants of ‘yeah, let him die’ answered ‘No’, suggesting the hypothetically illl person a Randian martyr and offering local charities. That moment an accurate snapshot about the health of our social contract. How lucky are we to have such a resolute champion to articulate the America we remember.
Dr Leo Strauss says
@jwb Yup, new Twitter icon and profile background. Experimenting for a while. One day we all might look back at 140 characters and wonder how people could be so prolix.
Comment says
@DrLeoStrauss
140 characters is good therapy for moi – I have a tendency to drone on and on – But I used to be a bon mot kinda jokester – So trying to get the ol’ style back
jwb says
@Dr Leo Strauss
Did I imagine it, or did you change your twitter pic today?
Dr Leo Strauss says
@jwb Apt description of the Tweetmachine as brownian motion. It is, in the end, about power are you describe.
jwb says
@DrLeoStrauss It is fascinating engaging the tweetmachine in full combat mode, where you learn to trim your statements—not necessarily your thoughts—to 140 character bursts. It plays to adrenaline not reflection, obviously, and timing is everything. Or nothing, since I come away from tweetmachine with not much more than impression of a discursive browning motion. Mostly, however, I sense that the form of the tweet rewards power. The question is whether resistance to power can grow strong, undetected, under the cover of noise.
DrLeoStrauss says
Now the world’s moved on to 140 characters. Interesting to observe the new darlings of new media complain if a link is over 600 words. Unless it is 3,500 and unread. But recommended as ‘serious.’
DrLeoStrauss says
@cabbie @ 69th Street Bridge Hard to see us escaping some kind of Moe Tilden moment, well linked. Comment, that was a great line about the pools. Perhaps it will end with a bright sunny valley and loved one with a doctor intoning off camera ‘We’ve lost ‘im.’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLynM-GI_Mk
Comment says
@DrLeoStrauss
Best line in Copland (from memory) was when Sly said in defense of the modesty of the neighborhood – “Our pools are above ground”
Comment says
The page count was up to 20000 on that kristol script and the others – but for some reason the blogger counter returned to zero. Oh well
cabbie @ 69th Street Bridge says
Warren Buffet once said “There’s a class war in America and my class the rich is waging and we’re winning.” Apparently a lot of people think they play on Team Galt when in fact they don’t. They’ll realize too late that Randian nihilism + socialism for the ultra-rich isn’t as awesome as the AM radio jocks sold it. In the not to distant future I can see this scene from “Copland” playing out in the Bunker with the Stiftung & regular readers in the role of Moe Tilden. *language warning* http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGuVTw01vrM
DrLeoStrauss says
@Sam Lowry Share your foreboding and dismay at the quiescence, Sam.
DrLeoStrauss says
@Comment Great stuff. Remember that one clearly!
Sam Lowry says
Good to see the baby jeesus lovin’ “Real America” on display. From what I can remember of what used to be Christianity, the J-man (Jesus) was prone to saying things like “how you treat the least of people is how you treat me”, or something to that effect. But isn’t Islam supposed to be the politicized religion!? Ha! Ha!
Was struck a few weeks ago by a Matthew Vadum (obsucre guy to be sure, but expressing a sentiment similar to that expressed by covservative friends) piece where he said something like registering poor people to vote is anti-American.
And I’ve seen more than a few people who, in the name of limited government and all, celebrate states drug testing welfare recipients. Of couse, welfare for poor people; not bank bailouts or military industrial complex type welfare. The later groups are part of our Galtian overlord/producer class, afterall. No shortage of ominous signs that the values and norms of society have been thoroughly hijacked, inverted and subverted.
It would be sad if this is how America will be remembered. Not just for the expression of these ghoulish ideas, but how passively the rest of the US responds to them. On the plus side, academics from a variety of discplines will be pretty much guaranteed full employment for generations dissecting how the US unraveled from 2000 onward.
Comment says
http://gothamimage.blogspot.com/2006/01/future-bush-script-bush-kristol.html
Digital nostalgia
DrLeoStrauss says
What we saw tonight should be the answer why America will not benefit from a parliamentary system. With all the other shortcomings of a constitutional separate executive.
Comment says
Cruel crowd – luvin’ them some executions and let em die poor. Stupid and cruel is no way to go thru life, but it seems to be the basis for the new GOP.
Reminds me – Newt last year led a campaign against a religious minority – basically a repeat of the a kind of anti semitism of the 20s and 30s. but Moslems in the role of victim this.
TPaw felt he had to heap scorn on Argentina and Portugal, recall the francophobia – etc the arab hatred,
Hatred is fungible among the ignorant oaf Ghoulish Old Party – Moslems and Arabs today, Jews tommorrow – Maybe blacks. etc
And they wonder why the whole world hates their guts so much they give Obama a Nobel prize and 10000000 man rallies in Berlin just for not being one of these assholes.