""The first rule in the House of God is -- first, do no harm."

Thank a Pagan for Hippocrates, then. :) Haha.

Rohit:

"A system which devotes so much of the medical resources and costs to the last few months of life, and starves many of the young and healthy, and at great cost, needs to change."

Actually, you can chalk a lot of this up to conservative monotheist versions of religion (which just happen to be profitable for mass promotion right now) : 'life is to be suffering,' but 'death is bad.'

They'll call special sessions of Congress to hold out for a 'miracle' for someone whose brain had literally decomposed, but scream 'Socialist!' if someone gets health care before they 'work for it' which they can't if they have a 'pre-existing condition,' etc etc.

It may be indirect and deniable through politics and ideology, but it *is* torture. Let's face it. The ideology of the Right is that people who can't make money because they are sick and/or 'undesirable' are intended by 'Christianity' to be subjected to every disadvantage possible, in order that they may in hunger and pain convert to conservative Christianity in hopes of a bowl of soup and the very social supports so vehemently denied them.

This just so happens to make a lot of people a lot of money, whether they think that makes them Calvinistically divinely-favored, or if they're just laughing at the whole lot of us and wondering how much Botox it takes to keep their faces from matching their attitudes.

It's *not* hyperbole or metaphor. It *is* actually torture to put people through illness in the name of your ideology. Dangle the 'American Dream' in front of people you know damn well you wouldn't hire cause the profit-based insurance won't cover 'pre-existing conditions,' and claim this is the only just and right way for a 'Christian nation.'

What-ev.

Having been subjected to more obvious forms of torture, as well as these games... not to mention seeing so many stories out there, I think I know whereof I speak.

What the Right is stirring people up to defend does torture people. always has. And for some reason their followers feel good about it.

Maybe, I think, a lot of people are just terrified to face that.

First, don't hurt yourself.

Politicians and citizens in favor of the health care reform should maintain the high ground. Keep the arguments rational and no shouting.

Imagine how it will look and what impact will have in the country and in the international community if democrats and independents start shouting things like these:

**Torturers!!!
Republicans are torturing 40 million Americans by negating them health care coverage to the uninsured.

**Criminals!!! Pro-death squadron!!!
Top political figures in the Republican Party are taking a pro-death position on health care. They want to allow insurance companies to continue to execute millions of death sentences by denying services and cut from policies as much ill people as they can just for the sake of exorbitant profits.

**Out Mr. Corporation of my treatment decisions!!!
Corporate bureaucrats are making today death and life decisions about the insured.

A friend remarked yesterday that everyone wants to go to heaven but no one wants to die! Ultimately the real issue is America's nonacceptance of death.

A system which devotes so much of the medical resources and costs to the last few months of life, and starves many of the young and healthy, and at great cost, needs to change.

But it comes smack in front of the American people's desire to have unlimited medical care (at someone else's expense), and the Republican desire to exploit the issue for political gain.

Republicans are not scaring us for nothing. We do need to ration care for the severely ill - otherwise there is no solution. I am pretty sure that Obama knows this, he cannot say it, and so he is hamstrung.