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Ugh
Sept 13, 2011 5:59:07 GMT -5
Post by patchoulli on Sept 13, 2011 5:59:07 GMT -5
Scary and sickening. Who are these people who would let the guy die?A bit of a startling moment happened near the end of Monday night's CNN debate when a hypothetical question was posed to Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas). What do you tell a guy who is sick, goes into a coma and doesn't have health insurance? Who pays for his coverage? "Are you saying society should just let him die?" Wolf Blitzer asked. "Yeah!" several members of the crowd yelled out. Paul interjected to offer an explanation for how this was, more-or-less, the root choice of a free society. He added that communities and non-government institutions can fill the void that the public sector is currently playing. "We never turned anybody away from the hospital," he said of his volunteer work for churches and his career as a doctor. "We have given up on this whole concept that we might take care of ourselves, assume responsibility for ourselves ... that's the reason the cost is so high." The answer may have struck a truly libertarian tone but it was clearly overshadowed by the members of the crowd who enthusiastically cheered the prospect of letting a man die rather than picking up the tab for his coverage. You can view the video here:www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/12/tea-party-debate-health-care_n_959354.html
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Ugh
Sept 13, 2011 6:01:24 GMT -5
Post by MacBeth on Sept 13, 2011 6:01:24 GMT -5
Just one of the reasons why I read transcripts of speeches and debates - the politicians are disgusting, the audience is often worse.....
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wheelspinner
Are We There Yet? Member
Nobody's perfect, I'm a nobody, so ...
Posts: 4,103
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Post by wheelspinner on Sept 13, 2011 6:15:07 GMT -5
This is like the audience in CA, of all places, that cheered the fact that Rick Perry had signed off on the execution of some 234 prisoners, at least some of which were highly likely to be innocent.
No matter what you think of the death penalty, some things are not a matter for cheering. The GOP's followers are rapidly turning into the kind of people who treated public executions at Tyburn and Paris as entertainment, centuries ago. We are supposed to be better than that now.
I have been reading reports that suggest that the GOP elders are worried about what the success of people like Perry is going to do to them in 2012. The Tea Party rabble-rousing goes down great in the primaries, but it's unlikely to appeal to the broad spectrum of voters that will put the GOP in the White House. I think they are hoping that someone like Romney will see of the extremists and give them a real shot at winning.
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Ugh
Sept 13, 2011 8:47:16 GMT -5
Post by patchoulli on Sept 13, 2011 8:47:16 GMT -5
Rick Perry also said, re the death penalty, that he never lost any sleep wondering if Texas had executed innocent men. Even if you are a proponent of the death penalty and think it has merit, one would still have occasional qualms about it. If one had a conscience. If one had an ounce of empathy. Apparently he has neither.
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Pax
Are We There Yet? Member
quod erat demonstrandum.
Posts: 5,103
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Ugh
Sept 15, 2011 10:41:51 GMT -5
Post by Pax on Sept 15, 2011 10:41:51 GMT -5
We knew a guy ourselves -- Wayne -- who was absolutely convinced beyond all reason that there is no such thing as an innocent man on death row. Certainty makes life simpler.
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