Quote of the Day

“Naturally the common people don't want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.”

-Herman Goering at the Nuremburg Trials

The Real Threat

Poor Tracy Morgan has fallen for the current Threat du Jour to society. In his blundering rant he declared if his son were gay he would stab him.

Funny, thirty years ago a white guy could say if his son dated his white daughter he would stab him too. And the people would nod in agreement. A portion of in this country still view interracial marriages as immoral.

It’s easy to demonize a small minority as a threat to our children and the moral fiber of our society. Like the bully at school we find a easy target of our fear in the defenseless. People want so hard to believe in a clearly identifiable cause of our problems and solutions that are just as clear.

If we liquidate all the money grubbing Jews, Germany will be great again. If we drive out the commies lurking among the liberal intellectuals- then democracy will be safe. If we stop those uppity blacks who need to know their place then everything will be fine.

It’s common for us to point the finger at those who are truly guiltless as the real danger. With a large dose of hyperbole and fear they become immense and frightening. Why do we do this? Because the real source of our unease is change but that’s subtle, inevitable and hard to pin down, blaming -fill in the blank - is far easier.

Healthcare is big business because. . . .

As pointed out on Andrew Sullivan's blog site one of the reasons why healthcare cost so much in America is that Americans want to see specialists ( thanks to the promotion by the AMA) and they cost so much because people think that medicine has to be expensive to work. Good cheap doctors- which a lot of patients in other countries get without too much compliant -are hard to come by in the profit driven healthcare business here.