Reeling ... But Healing

Yesterday started badly, got better, and then fell off a cliff.  Today, the climb back up has gotten  underway. Hooray.

Early Saturday morning, the Picayune delivered more small-minded nonsense from Cal Thomas.  It was the usual blind alley trip to the corner of ignorance and condescension, one that is easily derailed.  But my schedule did not allow me to take time with it then.  Instead, I was committed to hitting the campaign trail on behalf of Chad Lauga, our union brother running for a seat in the Louisiana State Legislature.  That was the better part of the day in terms of time and enjoyment.  More on that in a future post.  The evening soured, however, most likely as the result of my ravenous disposal of dozens of dubious oysters.  Nausea and worse filled the balance of the day and most of the night.  Hence, dismissal of  that cad, Cal, has had to wait till now. 

Inasmuch as the piece ran yesterday and I really do not like looking back in time,  this will be brief. Thomas, a self-proclaimed Christian columnist, came to the defense of Ron Paul's ridiculous answer to a question regarding health care in the most recent Republican/Teacan debate.  Paul is a devoted acolyte of the radical right-wing atheist founder of libertarianism, Ayn Rand.

Libertarianism, as we all know, is anti-government almost no matter the issue, and so Paul was left to feebly assign the responsibility for the provision of "last resort" life-saving care to our charities and churches.  Thomas was all in on this idea. The irony of a political philosophy, founded by a crusading atheist, having always to resort to taking sanctuary in the tender mercies of our churches every time it is stuck for  an answer to a tough question is obviously lost on old Christian Cal.  But that by far is not the worst of it.

Paul, who is a medical doctor, went on to blame the out-of-reach cost of health care on overreaching government regulations. Specifically, he cited licensing requirements as needless cost drivers.  The notion that anyone who wishes to practice medicine should be permitted to simply hang an MD shingle over the door and start selling snake oil and horse lineament to credulous patients places Paul's regard for standards in the field of medicine in line with those last accepted in the U.S. sometime in the 1800s.

As for Christian Cal, his solution to the problem of making people tow the line of personal responsiblity for every need in their lives, including health insurance, is to resurrect an even older set of social norms.  He reports having read an intriguing idea from England which would encourage Tories to adopt families of a lower station.  The Tory class would then steer the lower class into meaningful employment and more responsible behavior.  Cal likes this notion so much that he recommended it be taken up by the rich and well-off here in this country.  This places old Cal's thinking in the European feudal period, circa 1000 -1600.

When it comes to inducing a nauseating reeling, bad oysters have nothing on Cal Thomas and Ron Paul.  If their backward looking ideas should ever really be taken seriously, a whole lot more than our currently aching and ailing economy would desperately need healing.