Dear Ann Coulter,

Classic.

Unicron vs. The Sicko

This all-too-fun conversation with my brother-in-law was started as comments in my SiCKO blog. It was just too good to have it relegated to "old blog comments" wasteland where no one would see it. Have fun!

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Posted by brett on Wednesday, July 18, 2007 at 8:50 AM:
How can anyone take him seriously.....?

He's a propaghandist who distorst the truth.

His so called "documentaries" are always riddled with falsehoods and sometimes even outright lies. Even the mightly left wing bastien that is CNN has challenged several of his "facts" in this movie. That should be the first clue that this guy is a lying propaghandist - when the left wing media questions you!!!

(no i'm not conditioned - anyone with a 7th grade education can google his facts and prove that many of them are wrong and that he is spinning them in ways they should not be spun)

Wes... seriously...bro.... if you buy this guys load of crap - hook, line, and sinker, then you may be living in a fantasy land..... How's the weather?

Let's take his premises for sicko that socialized health care should be in play and come to a conclusion....

Taxes - Socialized health care countries pay approx 50% or more of their income to taxes to support these systems. (oops I'm sorry his country of choice - CUBA - doesnt pay taxes - they just pay with their blood and freedom by a dictator who jails and kills anyone who opposses him) - do u really want this?

Red tape - socialized health care is strife with red tape and nothing can get done in this system in a timely manner - can u imagine having a pregnancy in this system????

length of wait - in Europe where these systems are prevelant it can take you 6 mo's or more to get needed care. A mammogram can take this long just to be scheduled. To check this fact just ask anyone who has lived in the UK for a majority of their life and they will confirm this.

the government - do u really think the government can efficiently run a health care system? we cant keep illegal mexicans out of the country, how can the goverment treat 300 million americans in an efficent manner?

if you disagree with these 4 statements then you need to open your eyes to whats really going on. is our health care system perfect? no. is socialized medicine perfect? no no no no. its worse. could the government step in with subsidise to help the less fortunate attain health care? absolutely - and this is what we should be working towards.

Good to know that your $15 will go to help Michael Moore kick up his feet in the huge mansion he lives in.

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Posted by Wes & Claire on Wednesday, July 18, 2007 at 12:07 PM:
I'll get around to reading and responding to this sometime. But I can generally turn on Sean Hannity to get this cut and paste talking-point opinion. You're Michael Moore analysis is garbage. His movie isn't the manifesto toward social medicine...it is the packaged, entertaining argument for the masses to get people thinking. SiCKO isn't the first time I have heard the word "social medicine". And Wolf Blitzer and his pharmaceutical sponsors got tore up by Moore.

No, Mr. Hannity, I don't live in a fantasy land. No, wait...I AM in fantasy land. Because reality is full of greedy... [Vulgar analogy edited from this blog, for the kids. But a really good vulgar analogy. Don't bother looking, I deleted the original, too. =)]

Oh yeah, about your "liberal media" theory. That is garbage, too. Is our goverment divided up between two opposing parties with two separate belief systems? That is also garbage. That is YOUR fantasy land. It is a game of ping-pong, and we are the cats moving our heads back and forth, in awe of the moving ball. The reality is that the media is owned, our government is owned, and you are owned. There is no liberal or conservative, only who has the money. Why are the Democrats getting all the biggest corporate donors now? Because the corps know a Democrat will win...so the buy off begins now.

So again, you can be on the side of money...or you can be on the side of people.


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Posted by brett on Friday, July 20, 2007 at 5:40 PM:
Wes your seriously out of whack with the real world bro.

These endless hours of PBS watching have brainwashed you to the point of no return. You seriously need to get cable back in the ole homestead. Your losing your sack without Sportcenter. The internet and the vast blogs are turning u into one paranoid conspiracy laden dude.

Yes - the gov is divided into 2 sides... have u not been paying attention? Let me know where the 3rd, 4th, 5th sides are when you can find them. There is always a slight middle ground but even those on the middle lean one way. And the rest of the country just doesnt care and goes along with the flow. (ie the losers that dont vote)

Both sides have the money - and a lot of it - this doesnt mean everyone is owned - (generalizations will get u into trouble my man)... so by the way who owns your truly?

Corp donors always give big to both sides - its usually almost 50/50 so they hedge their bets, the buyoff isnt beginning now, its been going on for ages. (you really are a rook at these political tirades but your getting better.)

Anyone who can claim a Michael Moore movie is anything other than a propagandist piece of film designed to further his agenda and stuff his pockets with money (hmm...maybe u should take your own advice about the money, greed, etc) is misguided indeed.

Moore doesnt tear anyone up..... ....he spews hate, lies, and vitriol to those he disagrees with. And he always looks like an ass in the processes. This man is a piss poor role model for anyone - let alone for u.

I truly feel sorry for u if you honestly believe this way.

As grimes said to homer........... "if u lived in any other country but this one you'd have been dead long ago"....... to which bart replied.... "he's got u there dad"


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Posted by Wes & Claire on Friday, July 20, 2007 at 11:59 AM:
Ha. Thanks for the condolences and am glad you feel sorry for me. I am a sad soul with no cable. But I also feel sorry for you. Your proclaimed cable-reliance, and putting down those that choose to go without, pretty much debunks anything you say. For anyone that thinks cable keeps you in the real world (what I would call your "fantasy land") is a sad, sad being. You need TV shows for something to do at night. That's fine. TIVO makes a great companion. And don't even get me started on Sportscenter.

I am an idiot for blogging or something? "Vast blogs"? It's called writing. Just because it is on the internet makes it a blog, I suppose. Would it be called a blog in a newspaper? It has a little more merit than "huge Sportscenter fan". Or "I heart Dan Patrick".

"Yes - the gov is divided into 2 sides... have u not been paying attention? Let me know where the 3rd, 4th, 5th sides are when you can find them."
Man, I at least thought you would have a clue as to what I am talking about. Maybe a strong disagreement, but at least a clue. That isn't to say it is complex. It's not like I thought it up. I am talking about 1 side. Not "3rd, 4th, 5th sides." The two-party system ultimately works together for the common goal of profit and protecting big business's legal obligation to maximize profit at the expense of the public.
Issues like immigration don't get decided on (as you said) because it ultimately is not in the interest of their true constituents. In fact, corporate and economical reliance on illegal immigrants is something they will ultimately protect. Mexicans aren't going anywhere. Immigration is a ping-pong ball. The two-party system has been a big success for a long time for the single purpose of making you think you have a choice. Why are 3rd party candidates always blocked from late-season debates? If you think that this Democrat/Republican tag-team is a conspiracy, then you should cut back on the Sportscenter. Or the cable. Or whatever commercial-filled bliss you use to waste the time. That includes the "liberal" media.

"Both sides have the money - and a lot of it - this doesnt mean everyone is owned - (generalizations will get u into trouble my man)... so by the way who owns your truly?"
Well, Sportscenter, for one. Consumers that eat crap foods are owned (thus leading to bad health and feeding your precious health-care industry. A vicious, profitable cycle indeed.). Consumers that buy lots of stuff they don't need are owned, especially since most products have built-in obsolescence which requires said consumer to come back for more. How is that for some generalizations? No trouble here, my man. I just generalized you three times. I know you won't like hearing it, but you are easily generalizable.

"Corp donors always give big to both sides - its usually almost 50/50 so they hedge their bets, the buyoff isnt beginning now, its been going on for ages."
50/50 my ass. I will give you props if you support that data instead of spewing crap. Republicans have always been the biggest corporate moneymakers in Washington. Company A will always give money to both parties, but never 50/50. Yes, the Democrat presidential buyoff is beginning now. I had to say it again to get it through your big head. Of course both parties have always taken money from the same corporation, that doesn't even require opening a book. However, they aren't giving the same amount of money to Mitt Romney than they are to Hillary. They are giving most of it to Democrats for a reason.

(hmm...maybe u should take your own advice about the money, greed, etc)
I hope that was to Michael Moore. Because if it was to me, you obviously know nothing about me.

No need to argue Michael Moore any more. He has been polarizing folks for 18 years...moreso since Fahrenheit. If you love Fox News and their super awesome red, white, and blue graphics, that's cool. You like pretty lights and cool sounds. Sportscenter has similar flashy objects. Way cool! Yeah! Wait...isn't Fox News the biggest Propagandist on television? Shame, shame. That, or you read other propaganda like FreeRepublic.com or the like. Did you misspell "propaghandist" because you listen to Propaghandi? I hope not, because that would be the biggest contradiction of all time. Why do you listen to punk rock anyway? I don't see the connection.

You're talking-down style is amusing. I am glad you think that I am somehow less-read than you and a "rook". It doesn't work though, and you are wrong. Your opinion isn't anything new. In fact, it is pretty shallow, pretty status quo, and pretty arrogant. I don't know if you thought your responses were cute little smarty-pants quibs or something, but you should have expected this response.

-Calling someone a loser because they don't vote is pretty lame, too. I have never missed an election, but I wouldn't go there. You should read what abolitionist and my fellow-Christian William Lloyd Garrison wrote about why he and his comrades didn't vote. Good stuff. If he is a loser, then I can't even fathom what kind of terrible human-being I am.

One great thing I thought of in these tirades... The progression of personal socio-political thought is an amazing thing. As in, looking about at a younger Wes, say 18 years old. That Wes had a similar ethos than I do now, just less mature. I find it fascinating that you can always learn and grow your brain into something bigger and stronger. Like Unicron devouring planet after planet. Unicron was always a bad mofo, but gets even badder with every planet he consumes. After all, he could consume planets ever since his conception. I have hope that everyone adopts this attitude. A different kind of consumer! A consumer of information, void of Babylon's distractions. Just thinking about what 10 more years will bring has me even more hungry.
But what really made me think of this, is that I have said hello and goodbye to opinions like yours long ago (the "Hello" was like passing a gimpy stranger on the sidewalk, not over a cup of coffee). It's like you are stuck in headline-land. Your cable hasn't taught you anything over the years. You just aren't right. Despite what you think. That goes for any response, as well.
That, and you write "you" as "u". Do you dot your i's with hearts, too?



You were once this planet.

The beauty of July 12

So apologies to any of my grade-school readers filling the dog-days of summer by digging giant holes, going on crazy day-long forest adventures, and making deadly spears with pocket knives and sticks. Don't use that kind of language until you are angry enough.

Just thought I would share a story about Claire that is mathematically rare enough to mention.

First off, being a new Dad is pretty wild. Some of the following is pretty cliche, but I don't care. Which is probably why every Dad says the same thing, knowing everyone has heard it before. But a child is certainly mind-blowing. Wow, that is our baby. We made that. What was once sperm (really, really good sperm) and an egg is now a brain, eyeballs, nose, mouth, and tiny hands and feet...a human being that I will unconditionally love for the rest of my days, and vice versa. The miracle of birth, indeed. I can't stop staring at her. And like Joe told me would happen, I can't stop kissing her head.

When she was in the womb, I knew it was a baby...but not knowing what she looks like, I attributed to her a soul instead of a face...kicks and jabs instead of cries. So when she emerges from the bloody mess, my first reaction is, "Woah! Who is that! It's a flippin' baby! She is my baby, and she is filthy!" Then the emotions hit hard. Surrounded by emotionless people in scrubs that do this dozens of times every day, this one is mine. I felt an adrenaline high for the last 90 minutes or so, making it more of a challenge to coach Julie, who was beginning to lose her mind! (She is going to write a blog, too. So I will leave details to her.)

So back to the story. It isn't really a story, but a tidbit. Claire's due date was July 5th. Julie had a doctor appointment on her due date, and it was pretty clear that Claire wanted to stay inside a little longer. To be on the safe side, the doctor recommended an induction a week from July 5th in case she hadn't come naturally yet. They don't like babies to go very late these days. That day was July 12th. My initial reaction was, "July 12th. 7-12. 7-12-07...hmmmm, that is a pretty lame birthday!"

After all, we had passed a few other cool birthdays that would have been desired. July 3rd was her late, maternal great-grandmother's birthday, whose name was Nona (Claire's middle name), and her watercolors adorn almost every wall of our house. A July 4th birthday would be pretty awesome, too. (Despite my blogs about constitutional protection of flag desecration, I love America. Or at least what it is supposed to be.) July 5th was her due date, which we had gotten used to and really liked. Then we started passing days in the week leading up to July 12th. Of course, 7-7-7 would have been really cool. July 10th because numbers divisible by 5 are always nice (my Dad and I are both fifteens, Wyatt is a 5). OK, that's ENOUGH!

Julie got a little upset with me because of my immature response to a birthday. Which I knew was a little ridiculous. I mean, our calendar isn't even universal. Other countries don't even have July 12th. The sun rises and sets, and tomorrow is just another day, so aren't dates a little arbitrary? So a while after the appointment was made, we decided to check out the history of July 12th. Right there in front of our eyes was Henry David Thoreau: born July 12th, 1817. Julie laughed in my face. My humbleness was overshadowed by this awesome mathematical oddity. For those that have read some of my blogs in the past, I am a pretty huge Thoreau fan. I consider him one of the prophets of the 19th century. If we had a boy, his first name would have been Walden. If we ever have a boy, his name will still be Walden. Not coincidentally the name of Thoreau's most-famous work, and the lake he lived by in solitude for 2 years. That book is one of the blueprints on how I try to live my life. But our precious daughter is not named Walden. She is named Claire, and has Thoreau's birthday instead. Wow!

One more tidbit. During labor, and through the entire process, I was playing 18 albums worth of relaxing music that we both love (300+ songs). Common during labor. The song that was playing when Claire's head emerged was John Denver's Rhymes & Reasons, which I have on my profile now. That is one powerful song to be playing when your baby is born! Some of you might remember that John Denver (Annie's Song) was also our first dance at our wedding 4 years ago.

Better Days in Anacostia

This segment was on Bill Moyers Journal tonight. Julie and I both think you should watch it. Here it is...


Earth Conservation Corps on Bill Moyers Journal

Put Away The Flags

This is my second-annual July 4th blog of this essay written by the great Howard Zinn.


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Put Away The Flags
by Howard Zinn

On this July 4, we would do well to renounce nationalism and all its symbols: its flags, its pledges of allegiance, its anthems, its insistence in song that God must single out America to be blessed.

Is not nationalism -- that devotion to a flag, an anthem, a boundary so fierce it engenders mass murder -- one of the great evils of our time, along with racism, along with religious hatred?

These ways of thinking -- cultivated, nurtured, indoctrinated from childhood on -- have been useful to those in power, and deadly for those out of power.

National spirit can be benign in a country that is small and lacking both in military power and a hunger for expansion (Switzerland, Norway, Costa Rica and many more). But in a nation like ours -- huge, possessing thousands of weapons of mass destruction -- what might have been harmless pride becomes an arrogant nationalism dangerous to others and to ourselves.

Our citizenry has been brought up to see our nation as different from others, an exception in the world, uniquely moral, expanding into other lands in order to bring civilization, liberty, democracy.

That self-deception started early.

When the first English settlers moved into Indian land in Massachusetts Bay and were resisted, the violence escalated into war with the Pequot Indians. The killing of Indians was seen as approved by God, the taking of land as commanded by the Bible. The Puritans cited one of the Psalms, which says: "Ask of me, and I shall give thee, the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the Earth for thy possession."

When the English set fire to a Pequot village and massacred men, women and children, the Puritan theologian Cotton Mather said: "It was supposed that no less than 600 Pequot souls were brought down to hell that day."

On the eve of the Mexican War, an American journalist declared it our "Manifest Destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence." After the invasion of Mexico began, The New York Herald announced: "We believe it is a part of our destiny to civilize that beautiful country."

It was always supposedly for benign purposes that our country went to war.

We invaded Cuba in 1898 to liberate the Cubans, and went to war in the Philippines shortly after, as President McKinley put it, "to civilize and Christianize" the Filipino people.

As our armies were committing massacres in the Philippines (at least 600,000 Filipinos died in a few years of conflict), Elihu Root, our secretary of war, was saying: "The American soldier is different from all other soldiers of all other countries since the war began. He is the advance guard of liberty and justice, of law and order, and of peace and happiness."

We see in Iraq that our soldiers are not different. They have, perhaps against their better nature, killed thousands of Iraq civilians. And some soldiers have shown themselves capable of brutality, of torture.

Yet they are victims, too, of our government's lies.

How many times have we heard President Bush tell the troops that if they die, if they return without arms or legs, or blinded, it is for "liberty," for "democracy"?

One of the effects of nationalist thinking is a loss of a sense of proportion. The killing of 2,300 people at Pearl Harbor becomes the justification for killing 240,000 in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The killing of 3,000 people on Sept. 11 becomes the justification for killing tens of thousands of people in Afghanistan and Iraq.

And nationalism is given a special virulence when it is said to be blessed by Providence. Today we have a president, invading two countries in four years, who announced on the campaign trail in 2004 that God speaks through him.

We need to refute the idea that our nation is different from, morally superior to, the other imperial powers of world history.

We need to assert our allegiance to the human race, and not to any one nation.



Howard Zinn, a World War II bombardier, is the author of the best- selling "A People's History of the United States" (Perennial Classics, 2003, latest edition). This piece was distributed by the Progressive Media Project.