Donna Smith has been a hard working advocate for a truly good health care system. Her pre-Thanksgiving article on Common Dreams brought up her common themes.

UNITY-PROGRESS COMMENTARY
Not a single job in more than 10 years. And despite the increase since March, not a single dollar added to the stock market averages in more than 11 years. Interest rates on savings are below 2 percent. Homelessness, hunger, abandoned housing etc. are all at, by far, all-time records. Adding both insult and additional injury is that there is even a half-abandoned city: New Orleans, Louisiana. Detroit Michigan and other cities are also virtually half abandoned.

This is obviously a collapsed, failed system, yet it grinds on because of the super forces of greed and arrogance, because of the closed, corporate-controlled political system, because of good old-fashioned living in the past, and perhaps because non-right-wing people do not seem to understand the concept of political marketing, as for example the Canadians running the New Democratic Party do and as many Europeans, Asians, Australians, New Zealanders, South Americans, and still others understand, as shown by the healthy existence of their successful to one extent or another non-right-wing parties.

Meanwhile, in America there is just this big political hole and this show of futility by marginalized figures like Dennis Kucinich, Howard Dean, and Bernie Sanders, in the background. Overall, it seems that American non-right-wingers are more likely to be arrested where they are not welcome for trying to make their views known than they are to be serving in Government!

As a result of the futility of the non-right-wing in the US, there is virtually no real representation in US government anymore for workers, so it will be no surprise if we reach a 15 or even a 20 year milestone with no jobs.

By the way, is it actually essentially a conspiracy that American non-right wing forces develop only futile political parties, such as the Greens, who are inevitably tagged as one-issue wonders? Very plausibly so, because although it is the right wingers who are known as the great marketers, it seems hard to believe that ALL non right wingers could be naturally less than competent at political marketing. I mean, I know I am probably less than competent at political marketing, but are ALL non-right-wingers less than competent? I find that hard to believe, thus the conspiracy theory.

Anyhow, it was nice not only to check out this Donna Smith article, but also this from Jeffrey Flier, the Dean of the Harvard Medical School:

Dean of the Harvard Medical School Declares Health Care Reform a Failure

As you can see if you go there, the Dean of the Harvard Medical School knows that this legislation is dead on arrival in the sense that it does almost nothing about what was most in need of doing, which was real, true, no pretending, and no kidding cost control. What was by far most needed was left out.

As a major member of the establishment, Mr. Flier had to support the mandate, since there has been an unstated rule in 2009 that every respectable member of the establishment must support the mandate. He had to support people, unless they wisely dodge it, being on the hook for the gross overcharging for health insurance. But at least he was honest about the overall failure and futility of this legislation, which when all is said and done is simply about the Democrats being able to say they did something.

Let's face it, American politicians, the ones in the two corporate parties anyway, in the context of a collapsed system that has been very, very right wing for 30 years and counting, are most likely not going to think of themselves as being responsible for passing legislation that is actually good and effective.

Admittedly, it’s a lot harder to pass truly good legislation in the present context than it was before the system collapsed. So maybe we should have some sympathy for their passing garbage? No, common sense tells you that no one in government should ever be excused from peddling garbage and playing pretend games.

Which brings us back to the need for a non-right wing party that is not a dead on arrival marketing failure like, unfortunately, the Socialists and the Greens and the Independents are. A New Democratic Party-US would be one option that would actually work.

RE: By GotTimeToKill ....

Please do not generalize so broadly on parental views. Your word choice implies that all rational parents agree with you, and that is clearly not the case.

I understand your "think of the children" overview, but I disagree that everything in a child's life must be completely practical. I also disagree with your restrictive view of responsible parenting that seems to preclude non-traditional topics. If a parent believes that teaching a particular skill will impart an advantage to their child (however minor), it would instead be irresponsible not to do so.

We also disagree on the relative importance of some core values like pragmatism and honesty. In my view, teaching a child an impractical thought puzzle is not remotely comparable to teaching a child to lie for attention."

---- However; teaching a child to speak a nonsensical fantasy language as if it had some validity in Reality is in effect LYING to the child.
Had this parent sought to give his child a grounding in a second language, as many parents do, then the time would have been well-spent.
No matter how hard you may try, you cannot pass Klingon off as a ligititmate language, because ultimately; There Are No Klingons To Speak It. There Never Were.
This brings into question the entire point of this so-called 'linguistics experiment'...
Was this man truly surprised that his kid began to 'learn' Klingon--when that was all he spoke to him with ?
Children begin to learn to speak through thier attempts to copy their parents` speech patterns. This is BASIC. It does not require reaffirmation through experimentation.

If then, you discard an actual scientific value in this situation, you are left with the unsettling alternative of a parent merely having 'fun' by starting his child off on an linguistical Dead End.
The argument that speaking Klingon could be useful as either a cognitive learning tool or merely as an enjoyable venue for spending time with the child is obviated by the simple fact that the man could have spent that time actually benefitting his son with something remotely useful.
Further, parenting is not merely about spending time with the child--an abusive parent 'spends time' with their battered offspring-- the value lies in spending QUALITY TIME.


As for my "restrictive view of responsible parenting that seems to preclude non-traditional topics. If a parent believes that teaching a particular skill will impart an advantage to their child (however minor), it would instead be irresponsible not to do so."....
I taught my son martial arts and philosphy. I taught him how to shoot, throw knives and use a Bo Staff and Nunchaku... ( 'non restictive' enough for you ? ) But y`know... I did not teach him those things until he was mature enough to handle them. Likewise, I taught him the difference between Fantasy and painful Reality The first lesson that I taught him with Guns was that " All The 'I`m Sorry`s In The World Will Not Make Up For One Stupid Mistake With A Gun".

Which makes better sense.... Starting a child off on perhaps a second language from the family heritage or that the child may very well encounter during it`s lifetime ( such as Spanish if you are keeping up with the linguistic evolution in America ) ...
Or RESTRICTING the child`s learning development to a nonsensical fantasy language ? ( and yes, READ THE ARTICLE he did restrict his child`s learning development for three years)

Now....Who is the RESTRICTIVE Parent here that you have a problem with ?

Incidentally, I defy you to point to one instance wherein I stated that " everything in a child's life must be completely practical."

Bloody Hell.. I am into Sci-Fi... Does it seem likely that I would make or endorse such a statement ?
That was purely a fantasy of your own making.

Like some others I have taken issue with; you seem to be skimming my posts and then reading into them what you would like to be there so you can then complain about it.

As for our disagreeing about " the relative importance of some core values like pragmatism and honesty. In my view, teaching a child an impractical thought puzzle is not remotely comparable to teaching a child to lie for attention."

....You are just not grasping it are you?

This child is now 15 and reading about his father--supposedly one of the two people that he can always trust in this life-- spending the first three years of his young mind`s cognitive development INTENTIONALLY LYING TO HIM. Constantly, Consistently and Repetitively LYING TO HIM.
"Hey son guess what? Just for fun--since you could not possibly have gained by it--I made sure that you heard nothing but a bogus fantasy language for the first three years of your life..Isn`t that great ? It was such a hoot !"


Being 15, the kid like as not has no problem with it--for now. Later on, he may think differently, however. Much of the root cause for cases of Elder Abuse stem from childhood traumas ...such as finding out that your parent treated you like a Lab Rat.