[detbuch]

[QUOTE=spence;695573]You're ignoring the reason we have insurance in the first place. If everybody had a strong cash position and could absorb catastrophic bills, sure, we could let competition lower prices. [END QUOTE]

If the reason for having health insurance is to pay for catastrophic ills, then the comprehensive plans we have are superfluous. Catastrophic ins. has been proposed but doesn't catch on. If Everybody had a "strong cash position the price of EVERYTHING would go up since sellers charge what the market will bear.

[QUOTE=spence]That's not to say that insurance isn't part of the problem, it certainly is, but you haven't proved his position "not logical" at all. All you've done is argue in theory that had pure free market principals been allowed to shape our present health care system from it's inception that it would be different. [END QUOTE]

His position is not logical because if health care were not affordable we would not have it now. If he means less expensive, my position is that insurance makes it more expensive and that "pay out of pocket" would lower costs, not government "working" to make it more affordable. BTW, if he means Gov. health savings plans, which is a way of Gov. "pay out of pocket," I might go for that. But liberal politicians don't.


[QUOTE=spence]As for constitutionality, this has nothing to do with liberal or conservative. If a state government wishes to change it's constitution to provide health care, it could be quite constitutional and I'm sure you would argue still liberal. [END OF QUOTE]

How does that differ from what I said?

[QUOTE=spence]You score RIROCKHOUND a liberal yet nearly all who label themselves a liberal (less than 20% of the US) are for a single payer system which he clearly states isn't necessary. [ENDQUOTE]

I NOTED that he wished that health care should be more affordable RATHER THAN UNIVERSAL. What I don't see the logic in is the Gov. working to make it more affordable. That is the position which I called liberal, not that he nor 80% of libs don't want single payer. Again, if he backs Health Savings Plans, I could reverse my vote.

[QUOTE=spence]This is more of a mindless rant than an assessment of his position. [ENDQUOTE]

Your curt assessment of my position is typical. At best, it is nothing, at less than best, it is nasty.


[QUOTE=spence]RIROCKHOUND clearly advocates:
1) Limits on Federal intrusion on local school systems
2) Emphasis on critical thinking
3) Unfettered access to private education
4) Performance based pay contrary to the existing union standards
All sounds like something I'd hear from a conservative. [ENDQUOTE]

Of your four bullet points, nos. 1,3, & 4 have to be conjectures on your part. He may well advocate those positions, but that is not "clearly" propounded. In his position #2, what I think is liberal gobbledy gook is "work to improve thinking" as if there is some specific way other than good, sound, basic education to achieve his wish. How long has public education existed? How many reforms and progressions has it seen? And yet RR still laments that we need more work to improve thinking. Have we seen the likes of the Founding Fathers or Abe Lincoln since the wonders of education reform have attempted to find ways to "improve thinking"? And his "there should be more incentives to hire the best possible teachers" does not CLEARLY ADVOCATE anything specific. My contention that it is illogical, is that the best possible teachers (so-called "qualifications" being equal) are those who desire to teach rather then those who are in it for the money. Teachers make a good living now off the taxpayers. To create inordinate salaries for the "best" for doing what you love would create a star system as exists in sports.

[QUOTE=spence]It's a completely logical response when excesses are often gained by unethical or illegal means. In the financial sector it's certainly possible to make money while your clients loose (via transactional fees) but to see large gains usually requires your customers to be successful as well. We have had numerous events in the past few years of just the opposite which have led to exposed corruption or regulatory need. The lack of oversight for credit default swaps is a perfect example.[ENDQUOTE]

As for being sickended by this--to be sick over someones perfidy is a natural, emotional response. It is logical to assume that one would respond emotionally to such, but the response, itself, is not logical, it is emotional.

[QUOTE=spence]According to the last polling only about 21% of Americans believe abortion shouldn't be permitted. RIROCKHOUND's statement is really just stating the obvious. [ENDQUOTE]

I didn't argue that abortion, in general, is right or wrong. I'm agnostic on that. I tend not to like it as I feel it deadens our spiritual (not religious) and even emotional affection for life.

[QUOTE=spence]Most Americans believe abortion should be available in some form, and to be for some abortion doesn't mean you're for all forms of abortion all of the time. [ENDQUOTE]

RR picked a segment of the market that sickened him. In parallel, I picked a form of abortion that, in my opinion, should evoke FAR more sickness (horror for that matter) on the emotional level.

[QUOTE=spence]Believing in the right of a woman to control her body is more mainstream than liberal. Only a small segment of the fringe left believes in unfettered abortion. [ENDQUOTE]

If the "mainstream" believes "in the right of a woman to control her body" by aborting, then the mainstream is liberal in that respect. Certainly, the mainstream can be liberal or consevative on different issues. Pro-abortion has clearly been marked as a liberal issue.

[QUOTE=spence]Your focus on partial birth abortion is an emotional argument more than a logical one, as doctors do say there are legitimate reasons for the procedure in some circumstances. [ENDQUOTE]

"as doctors say" (are these weasel words?) As I said in my reply to RR--it's never been explained how delivering a live birth might, in some rare instance, endanger the woman's life, but delivering the baby dead, KILLING it just before fully removing it from the mother, removes the threat. Ergo, my question asks, LOGICALLY, is partial birth abortion really necessary to save the life of the mother?

Originally Posted by spence

As by your own teachings I've learned that liberals are driven by emotion over logic, I'd have to say that you are the liberal on this one.
-spence

I do have a strong emotional reaction to partial birth abortion. But I am not, in general, "driven" by emotion. Emotions, obviously, are important. They are part of human nature. But they should not be the driving force in crafting government.