Actually, yes. Up here in Canada, they generally do a good job of keeping them private and confidential; hell, we even have federal and provincial-level privacy commissioners to hold them accountable to us, the taxpaying citizens. Who are paying them, among other things, to keep our medical records out of the hands of those other than our doctors and ourselves. Just as we are paying them to make sure our doctors (chosen by us!) get paid whatever the going rate is for treating us…

It’s the corporations I don’t trust. Especially those big on profit. Most particularly those who make it off people’s medical conditions. You may have seen them; they advertise Viagra and all its clones on your “freedom”-loving TV channels all the time.

Does anyone have an actual, legitimate reason for the gold standard, or is it all based on economic ignorance?

REAL money would be issued by PRIVATE BANKS and backed by GOLD, SILVER, and/or PLATINUM. This would have real value.

You rang?

Scene: A small town bank in America, 1830

Citizen: Hi, I’d like to exchange these bank notes of yours for some gold.

Bank Employee: Oh? Is there a problem?

Citizen: Well, yes. See, I went to a guy to buy a new plow for the upcoming planting season, and I tried to pay for it with your bank notes. But he said that your bank sucks and that he won’t take your notes. So I figure he’ll take hard currency instead. I have some in your bank, so if you could get it for me…

Bank Employee: Ah, well, see…there’s a little problem with that.

Citizen: What problem? These notes are backed by specie, right?

Bank Employee: Yes, of course.

Citizen: Why can’t you give me any? My money is in this bank.

Bank Employee: (nervous laughter) Uh, well, you know the economy hasn’t been all that great around here, and some folks got nervous and thought we weren’t dependable, so they won’t take our notes. Then a whole bunch of our customers came here and wanted their gold and silver. Said they couldn’t buy anything without it. But, ahem, it seems that we loaned a bunch of money and issued way more bank notes than we could redeem with gold and silver.

Citizen: So now what happens?

Bank Employee: We’ve suspended specie payments.

Citizen: So that means what?

Bank Employee: You’re not getting any gold for those notes.

Citizen: But it’s my money! You can’t do that!

Bank Employee: Uh, well, it’s not your money anymore…

Bank Employee puts “Next Window Please” sign in front of him and goes to the back of the bank.

End scene

“They heard the hum of the motors,
They counted the rotors,
And waited for us to arrive…

So they could charge us based on the market for emergency medical care, on the assumption we’d rather face bankruptcy than death”

Goodnight Saigon, 2009 remix.

Nope.

As the Bible correctly said, and Rand gravely misquotes, “the LOVE of money is the root of all evil.”

All you folks with the harrowing personal tales, I feel for you. And I can’t understand how anyone could be so blinkered philistine pig-ignorant as to attempt to justify a system that allows people to die horribly if they don’t have tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars. A system that demands that people be allowed to profit both from your illness and from your attempts to protect yourself from bankruptcy and homelessness in the event of illness.

Waiting months, for doctors?!? I gripe if I have to wait more than a week. Ten thousand dollars a year for health insurance? When I had health insurance, the extra-posh-with-all-the-trimmings plan was only about one thousand. And it’s not like we have surgery of the saw-and-bucket-of-pitch variety, either, as some wankers would probably claim (because that’s what ‘socialised medicine’ must have, obviously, since it can’t be as good as the might US).

Jesus. How can you people manage there? You poor buggers.

ARARARARARARARARARARAR
ARARARARARARARARARARAR

Emu oil- that’s like VO5 for the hoary albino freedom rock jam kicking-out engaged set.

Indeed, is Herky from Jay Jay?

Yeah, I bet the competition would be pretty exciting. Like the Gambino/Bollano family competition.

or maybe what’s going on in Juarez today.

The Adam Yoshida mention above got me to wondering what he’s up to. No activity on his blog lately so I looked him up on Facebook. He’s been busy campaigning for Prime Minister but it seems that his Oliver Hardy haircut and slave labor schemes were not what the voters were looking for. Huh.

But how much better, with pure emu oil?!

Tossed Swamp-Eel with Horrible Toasted Clotted Creams

Ingredients:
3 pounds furthest swamp-eel, dried
2 cans freedom-loving clotted cream, jellied
1 Manchego cheese, hypothetically French
5 sticks biblical thresher shark thorax, pickled
5 pints garlic
4 cans basil

Pick over the ingredients absurdly and discard excess clay. Place the swamp-eel into a small saucepan. Use a food processor to combine the Manchego cheese with the clotted cream. Stuff the resulting potion into the swamp-eel. Find some evaporated milk and drink it. Roast the thresher shark thorax, garlic, and the basil. Spread the latter combination on to the former. Toss as if your ancestor depends on it. Serves 11 enemies with fabulous stomachs.

Yet another example of GOP genius in action – a national budget without ANY hard numbers! ZOMGWTFBBQ!!1!eleventy-one!! Lowers taxes, curbs spending, creates jobs, controls debt … & it’s a floor-wax too!

Coming soon – the wheelless Goopermobile & wingless Gooperplane!