Today, President Barack Obama is slated to sign the recently passed Insurance Reform Bill before it goes to the Senate.
While this bill (and the companion fixes and concessions) isn't perfect, it's most certainly a step in the right direction.
The idea here is that insurance companies are not doctors, and their bottom lines as for-profit corporations shouldn't be allowed to interfere with effective and efficient practices of medical experts.
Currently, insurance companies simply refuse to cover certain individuals who need it most due to 'pre-existing conditions'. They often drop people they deem as high risk or who make claims. Many customers who have paid insurance premiums for years are often refused tests, surgeries or other expert-recommended procedures which directly interferes with treatment and/or sometimes causes great financial hardship. Just as often, paying-customers and medical staff are given the run-around or denied coverage before or after-the-fact, forcing appeals, more red-tape and invariably, higher premiums for everyone.
The system as it is now is broken. Every other civilized country in the world which has Universal healthcare does it cheaper and better than America. France, which spends less than half of America does on healthcare, covers every single person in the country and has much lower administrative costs overall too.
This recent bill that cleared the House of Representatives wasn't even a public option though. It's a very small step and the first of many more necessary in the path to Universal healthcare. Call it symbolism, or an overly-politicized bill with too many concessions, insurance reform is a good thing and it's a harbinger of bigger and better chance to come.
The penalty for insurance companies who deny or drop people due to pre-existing conditions is minimal in this bill, but it's just the start. What starts out as a minimal fine to an insurance company for denying people insurance will most likely change as Americans get used to the idea of the public option.
In Germany under the current healthcare system founded way back in 1883 by the 'Iron Chancellor', Otto Von Bismarck, civilians keep private insurance their entire lives, with fixed insurance costs set by the government to prevent the rampant abuse. German citizens have a choice of some 200 insurance companies, all who compete for the government monies and offer incentives such as fast payment, elective surgery and even spa-time to de-stress. It seems this health-insurance is the closest to what many working-Americans have under their employer's group plan, the difference being that in Germany, any citizen, working or not, can get insured. My guess is that the German Bismarck system would be the most seamless for Americans to move into when Universal healthcare becomes a reality in the states.
Regardless of what kind of healthcare or public option America eventually adopts, we can guarantee that the insurance-company abuses will continue as long as we leave the healthcare of any U.S. citizens in the hands of for-profit insurance companies. Ideas such as profit and bottom-line are completely at-odds with the best-interests of Americans seeking healthcare. Our tax money should go to actually paying for healthcare as is routinely done in every other developed nation, not as some privatized racket where insurance companies play a shell game with your coverage and in-effect, your life.
America has historically been known for its innovation. It's about time a few Americans had the courage and conviction to finally work toward insurance reform and hopefully, into a real Universal healthcare system like every other civilized first-world (and sometimes third-world) country. America is the richest nation in the world, but ranks a miserable 37th in healthcare and 22nd in infant morality.
What's happening now is a baby step toward reform with real teeth, and the fact that some Americans are freaking out just shows the depth of their ignorance with how healthcare systems work in other countries. Sadly, America is saddled with Republicans, otherwise known as religious wacknut extremist xenophobes...but it's nice to see that real change can happen in spite of their collective fear-mongering and ignorance.
Just as religion has been on the wrong side of almost every American civil-rights issue, Republicans are on the wrong side of this issue as Bush was on the wrong side of the pro-choice and stem-cell research debate. Modern Republicans understand that Jim Crow laws are inhumane and wrong now, but try telling them that back then. Likewise, this too, shall pass, and Republicans will wonder why we didn't do it sooner, once universal healthcare in America is ubiquitous and unremarkable and more importantly, one of the hallmarks of a civilized people.
Sometimes, people have to be dragged, kicking and screaming into social-progress. I am looking forward to real Universal healthcare, regardless of marital or job status in the near future, but it's gotta start somewhere.
Congratulations to the House for passing this bill. Now we need to get it past the Senate and educate Americans about why Universal healthcare makes sense. Universal healthcare will make us a kinder, more civilized, healthier and happier country, and will finally bring us in line with other first-world natons in the 21st century.
Nobody said it would be easy, but it is necessary.
-dB-
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
The practical benefits of atheism.
And now for something completely similar, the practical benefits of atheism!
Ok, maybe this has been done before, but I am compiling my own list off the top of my head.
1. Sleep in on Fri. Sat. Sun. or whatever day the predominant religion in your culture insists you get up early to reinforce your claim of faith with sleep-deprived co-miserators. In essence, you're 'Taking Back Sunday'. Or Friday, or Saturday. ;)
2. No waiting around. Since you won't be praying, there's no need to wait around wondering when the all-powerful creator of the Universe will see fit to help you clear up that zit before your date with Jamie in accounting.
Worse, you won't have to wonder why he DID clear up your pimple but made a ginormous tsunami for Southeast Asia, or giant earthquakes for Chile and Haiti.
3. You are now free to embrace science. Since you no longer believe in a bible of any sort, you're free to appeal to reason and logic, as well as offer provisional acceptance of the peer-reviewed opinions of experts in the sciences. The Earth is 4.5 billion years old? No problem. We share common ancestry with other primates? Great! Atheists don't need to shun any established, peer-reviewed science due to supernatural claims which contradict that science. If the science is valid, it gets published. If peer review can't falsify it, it stands. Atheists don't have conclusions about reality that they need to twist reality to fit, since atheism is simply the absence of a belief in any god(s). The pursuit of facts is unfettered by religious dogma.
4. You don't have to fear looking stupid. As a theist, your faith is all well and good until you run into a non-believer who can undermine your religious logic in a few sentences. You won't have to face another believer who should agree on some basic doctrine but doesn't!
5. If you encounter another believer you disagree with, you're faced with the futile task of convincing him or her with dogma when the dogma of others hasn't yet swayed you. Worse, you won't have to be made into an ass when you trot our ridiculous arguments in favor of god in front of real skeptics, making yourself and humankind look like muttering crazies and forcing you into intellectualy uncomfortable position of dishonesty, excuses, transparent distractions, intimidation or attempting to silence or run from the messenger. On some level, theists know the weaknesses of their arguments, which is probably why some resort to childish distractions and intellectual dishonesty when their claims are challenged head-on.
6. Save money. No more dumping money in to the coffers of kid-diddlers or rich churches who squander it on hush money or support legislation which might impinge your rights and the rights of your loved ones (read: Prop H8 funded by the Mormon church). Instead, save your money or give it directly to causes you support. Most churches don't even pay taxes in the U.S., so you're going to be supporting them indirectly anyway, so you may as well stop giving them extra.
7. Save time and energy. It takes effort for all those unanswered prayers, and your food gets cold in the process. Bar/Bat Mitzvahs cost money, time and energy as well as Baptisms, Communions, Confirmations. Hell that chicken you're using in your Santeria ritual might be better off eaten fried with a side of corn rather than just wasted on some pointless ceremony...or just leave that chicken alone to do what it will.
8. No religious reason to get married. Weddings are generally religiously-inspired and cost a huge amount, and even if you get to choose your own bride or groom you're still often left with a gargantuan bar tab. Atheists don't need to pray, waste time and effort in church or church events, spend resources on magic rituals or buy religious paraphernalia of any sort. If you're not religious, you'll almost certainly never be one of those poor people who spend their life savings making Benny Hinn rich thinking he'll cure your cancer, which he most likely won't, and amputees, you're right out!
9. Nobody asks atheists to kill or die for atheism. You don't see Sweden standing at the border of Denmark, ready to convert passive atheists to explicit atheism! You don't see the French Universalists invading the UK to forcibly convert agnostics. Atheists don't strap bombs to themselves in the name of Darwin to blow up those who espouse the science of Einstein or who mention Wallace in the same sentence. Lacking belief in a religion is without dogma and thus, there's nothing to die or kill for. Imagine that. (The astute reader will note the homage to John Lennon's song, 'Imagine').
10. No enforced silliness or crazy rituals: No funny suits, clothing, hats, berkas, hijab, habits, skullcaps, fFez, pointy duncecaps, dresses, robes, etc. No speaking in tongues or 'Glossalalia' as it were, no slaying in the spirit or having to talk to perfect strangers with uncomfortable intimacy. No confessions to the celibate, no virtual cannibalism, animal sacrifice, blood drinking (as wine or otherwise), no zombie beliefs, or circumcision (male or female) and omg leave the poor virgins alone!
11. No violating naughty bits! Naughty bits remain untouched in atheism. There's no need to circumcise boys (or girls for that matter) as a part of not believing in sky pixies. Your kid's nether-regions can remain unscathed and untouched by the meddling hands of doctors or Sandeks by those who deem there to be some pressing galactic reason why the omnipotent creator of the Universe finds them unecessary or offensive.
12. Relationships, you get to pick your own girlfriend/boyfriend or spouse, and you even get to have sex with before marriage! Arranged marriages are practically unheard-of as a direct tenet of atheism, since atheism of course has no tenets and they don't believe there's any tenant in 'Heaven' either. Hell, as an atheist, there's no pressure to even get married if you don't want to, and no instruction against gay marriage or even poly-amory among consenting adults.
13. Politics. Vote how you want. There's no atheist doctrine or masses of churchgoers asking you to vote in lockstep. Republican one year, democrat the next...green party....well nevermind the green party. Vote how you want!
14. Food. Eat how you want. If you like pork shank with dairy, have at it. Meat on good Friday? Pass the steak-sauce. Passover? Pass it right over. Ramadan? Eat that Top Ramen™ till you're Ramadone. No starvation or simu-fasting in atheism. Nobody's passing around atheist food prohibitions and it's not likely to happen anytime soon.
Googol. Religion invariably restricts freedom, expression and social-progress.
Without religion, you're free to make your own choices for logical and ethical reasons without consulting the myth of one of 80,000 some-odd religions. Whether the issue is personal freedoms, sex, food, dress, behavior, etc., religion has no say in the life of an atheist. Instead, any restrictions in personal freedoms must be sold with an appeal to logic and reason, not mere dogma and tradition.
Religion has been on the wrong side of most social issues, including gay rights, civil rights, women's rights, atheist rights, unpopular opinons or self-expression and science in general.
The very definition of 'freethinker' is one who thinks about religion outside the confines of tradition and dogma....and the extra day to sleep in doesn't hurt either.
-dB-
Ok, maybe this has been done before, but I am compiling my own list off the top of my head.
1. Sleep in on Fri. Sat. Sun. or whatever day the predominant religion in your culture insists you get up early to reinforce your claim of faith with sleep-deprived co-miserators. In essence, you're 'Taking Back Sunday'. Or Friday, or Saturday. ;)
2. No waiting around. Since you won't be praying, there's no need to wait around wondering when the all-powerful creator of the Universe will see fit to help you clear up that zit before your date with Jamie in accounting.
Worse, you won't have to wonder why he DID clear up your pimple but made a ginormous tsunami for Southeast Asia, or giant earthquakes for Chile and Haiti.
3. You are now free to embrace science. Since you no longer believe in a bible of any sort, you're free to appeal to reason and logic, as well as offer provisional acceptance of the peer-reviewed opinions of experts in the sciences. The Earth is 4.5 billion years old? No problem. We share common ancestry with other primates? Great! Atheists don't need to shun any established, peer-reviewed science due to supernatural claims which contradict that science. If the science is valid, it gets published. If peer review can't falsify it, it stands. Atheists don't have conclusions about reality that they need to twist reality to fit, since atheism is simply the absence of a belief in any god(s). The pursuit of facts is unfettered by religious dogma.
4. You don't have to fear looking stupid. As a theist, your faith is all well and good until you run into a non-believer who can undermine your religious logic in a few sentences. You won't have to face another believer who should agree on some basic doctrine but doesn't!
5. If you encounter another believer you disagree with, you're faced with the futile task of convincing him or her with dogma when the dogma of others hasn't yet swayed you. Worse, you won't have to be made into an ass when you trot our ridiculous arguments in favor of god in front of real skeptics, making yourself and humankind look like muttering crazies and forcing you into intellectualy uncomfortable position of dishonesty, excuses, transparent distractions, intimidation or attempting to silence or run from the messenger. On some level, theists know the weaknesses of their arguments, which is probably why some resort to childish distractions and intellectual dishonesty when their claims are challenged head-on.
6. Save money. No more dumping money in to the coffers of kid-diddlers or rich churches who squander it on hush money or support legislation which might impinge your rights and the rights of your loved ones (read: Prop H8 funded by the Mormon church). Instead, save your money or give it directly to causes you support. Most churches don't even pay taxes in the U.S., so you're going to be supporting them indirectly anyway, so you may as well stop giving them extra.
7. Save time and energy. It takes effort for all those unanswered prayers, and your food gets cold in the process. Bar/Bat Mitzvahs cost money, time and energy as well as Baptisms, Communions, Confirmations. Hell that chicken you're using in your Santeria ritual might be better off eaten fried with a side of corn rather than just wasted on some pointless ceremony...or just leave that chicken alone to do what it will.
8. No religious reason to get married. Weddings are generally religiously-inspired and cost a huge amount, and even if you get to choose your own bride or groom you're still often left with a gargantuan bar tab. Atheists don't need to pray, waste time and effort in church or church events, spend resources on magic rituals or buy religious paraphernalia of any sort. If you're not religious, you'll almost certainly never be one of those poor people who spend their life savings making Benny Hinn rich thinking he'll cure your cancer, which he most likely won't, and amputees, you're right out!
9. Nobody asks atheists to kill or die for atheism. You don't see Sweden standing at the border of Denmark, ready to convert passive atheists to explicit atheism! You don't see the French Universalists invading the UK to forcibly convert agnostics. Atheists don't strap bombs to themselves in the name of Darwin to blow up those who espouse the science of Einstein or who mention Wallace in the same sentence. Lacking belief in a religion is without dogma and thus, there's nothing to die or kill for. Imagine that. (The astute reader will note the homage to John Lennon's song, 'Imagine').
10. No enforced silliness or crazy rituals: No funny suits, clothing, hats, berkas, hijab, habits, skullcaps, fFez, pointy duncecaps, dresses, robes, etc. No speaking in tongues or 'Glossalalia' as it were, no slaying in the spirit or having to talk to perfect strangers with uncomfortable intimacy. No confessions to the celibate, no virtual cannibalism, animal sacrifice, blood drinking (as wine or otherwise), no zombie beliefs, or circumcision (male or female) and omg leave the poor virgins alone!
11. No violating naughty bits! Naughty bits remain untouched in atheism. There's no need to circumcise boys (or girls for that matter) as a part of not believing in sky pixies. Your kid's nether-regions can remain unscathed and untouched by the meddling hands of doctors or Sandeks by those who deem there to be some pressing galactic reason why the omnipotent creator of the Universe finds them unecessary or offensive.
12. Relationships, you get to pick your own girlfriend/boyfriend or spouse, and you even get to have sex with before marriage! Arranged marriages are practically unheard-of as a direct tenet of atheism, since atheism of course has no tenets and they don't believe there's any tenant in 'Heaven' either. Hell, as an atheist, there's no pressure to even get married if you don't want to, and no instruction against gay marriage or even poly-amory among consenting adults.
13. Politics. Vote how you want. There's no atheist doctrine or masses of churchgoers asking you to vote in lockstep. Republican one year, democrat the next...green party....well nevermind the green party. Vote how you want!
14. Food. Eat how you want. If you like pork shank with dairy, have at it. Meat on good Friday? Pass the steak-sauce. Passover? Pass it right over. Ramadan? Eat that Top Ramen™ till you're Ramadone. No starvation or simu-fasting in atheism. Nobody's passing around atheist food prohibitions and it's not likely to happen anytime soon.
Googol. Religion invariably restricts freedom, expression and social-progress.
Without religion, you're free to make your own choices for logical and ethical reasons without consulting the myth of one of 80,000 some-odd religions. Whether the issue is personal freedoms, sex, food, dress, behavior, etc., religion has no say in the life of an atheist. Instead, any restrictions in personal freedoms must be sold with an appeal to logic and reason, not mere dogma and tradition.
Religion has been on the wrong side of most social issues, including gay rights, civil rights, women's rights, atheist rights, unpopular opinons or self-expression and science in general.
The very definition of 'freethinker' is one who thinks about religion outside the confines of tradition and dogma....and the extra day to sleep in doesn't hurt either.
-dB-
Haiti and Chile
The Earthquake in Haiti and Chile may be, depending on your worldview, a result of the impartial and inexorable movement of continental plates or perhaps the work of an angry god, but either way, the people in Haiti need our help. The non-god-infected amongst us can donate to secular charities knowing full well that our monies won't be spent on god-bothering whilst offering charity, or holding help ransom demanding Christian conversion or even worse, handing out useless solar-polared Bibles or taxing the relief efforts by showing up nearly empty-handed (like some Scientologists have been purported to do recently).
Haitians don't need your gods, they need help. Secular givers can visit Richard Dawkins's relief site to donate easily and painlessly through Paypal and other means:
GivingAid.RichardDawkins.net
Paypal is even waiving fees for donations.
In other news, Pat Robertson had this to say about the Haitian disaster:
They were under the heel of the French. You know, Napoleon III, or whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, we will serve you if you'll get us free from the French. True story. And so, the devil said, okay it's a deal [...] ever since, they have been cursed by one thing after the other."
Ah yes, his usual douchery, and it's nothing new. Look Christians, if you feel your religion doesn't apply in 'natural disasters', then why credit your god with the good stuff? Likewise, if you do take seriously the idea that a god controls all, then he necessarily creates all earthquakes to his specifications....down to the location, timing and intensity....and yes, death toll.
Here's a little ditty from a book called the King James Bible, Isaiah 45:7...
'I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things'.
That's right, it's right there in the bible. God creates it all, and even if you read one of the new fancy copywritten versions of the Holey Babble which try to dumb down the embarrassment of this quote, the fact remains that an all-powerful, all-knowing creator can't *not* be in control and know everything which will happen, meaning he's probably not all that good, and not worthy of your faith.
That said, Pat Robertson's foundational beliefs are just wrong, and his wacky magical delusions can be safely ignored, as long as he isn't actually acting on his beliefs (or inciting others to act on them). We can safely ignore the lunacy of religion, but that's 'safe'. The best thing to do when you hear wild claims of divine credit is to treat it like the lunacy as it is....this sort of nutball thinking needs to be challenged, early and often. Not challenging it often enough provides as Sam Harris might put it, 'comfort and cover' for the nutjobs who say crazy things reading the same Bible as the fundies.
Just as a ranting toddler-God™ might create a beautiful puppy, he seemingly enjoys wanton destruction just as well, if not better.
No matter what you believe, expect to be challenged if what you're saying is without foundation...and no matter what, sometimes people need your help. Thankfully, there's a way to help the people of Haiti or Chile without wrapping it in Bibles and fairy tales.
-dB-
Haitians don't need your gods, they need help. Secular givers can visit Richard Dawkins's relief site to donate easily and painlessly through Paypal and other means:
GivingAid.RichardDawkins.net
Paypal is even waiving fees for donations.
In other news, Pat Robertson had this to say about the Haitian disaster:
They were under the heel of the French. You know, Napoleon III, or whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, we will serve you if you'll get us free from the French. True story. And so, the devil said, okay it's a deal [...] ever since, they have been cursed by one thing after the other."
Ah yes, his usual douchery, and it's nothing new. Look Christians, if you feel your religion doesn't apply in 'natural disasters', then why credit your god with the good stuff? Likewise, if you do take seriously the idea that a god controls all, then he necessarily creates all earthquakes to his specifications....down to the location, timing and intensity....and yes, death toll.
Here's a little ditty from a book called the King James Bible, Isaiah 45:7...
'I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things'.
That's right, it's right there in the bible. God creates it all, and even if you read one of the new fancy copywritten versions of the Holey Babble which try to dumb down the embarrassment of this quote, the fact remains that an all-powerful, all-knowing creator can't *not* be in control and know everything which will happen, meaning he's probably not all that good, and not worthy of your faith.
That said, Pat Robertson's foundational beliefs are just wrong, and his wacky magical delusions can be safely ignored, as long as he isn't actually acting on his beliefs (or inciting others to act on them). We can safely ignore the lunacy of religion, but that's 'safe'. The best thing to do when you hear wild claims of divine credit is to treat it like the lunacy as it is....this sort of nutball thinking needs to be challenged, early and often. Not challenging it often enough provides as Sam Harris might put it, 'comfort and cover' for the nutjobs who say crazy things reading the same Bible as the fundies.
Just as a ranting toddler-God™ might create a beautiful puppy, he seemingly enjoys wanton destruction just as well, if not better.
No matter what you believe, expect to be challenged if what you're saying is without foundation...and no matter what, sometimes people need your help. Thankfully, there's a way to help the people of Haiti or Chile without wrapping it in Bibles and fairy tales.
-dB-
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