Slashdot Mirror
Google Protects Healthcare From Michael Moore
An anonymous reader suggests we stop over to ZDNet for a case where Google may be stepping on the wrong side of that famous Don't Be Evil line. A Google staffer is offering to help the healthcare industry contain the damage that Michael Moore's film is about to do. (Here is the original Google Health Advertisement blog post by Lauren Turner; in case it disappears, it is reproduced in full in the ZDNet post.) Quoting from the Google post: "Many of our clients face these issues; companies come to us hoping we can help them better manage their reputations through 'Get the Facts' or issue management campaigns. Your brand or corporate site may already have these informational assets, but can users easily find them? We can place text ads, video ads, and rich media ads in paid search results or in relevant websites within our ever-expanding content network. Whatever the problem, Google can act as a platform for educating the public and promoting your message. We help you connect your company's assets while helping users find the information they seek."
Just the fact that they are so marketing driven to have a slogan shows they are evil. After all all marketing is evil but waht more can you expect from what is basically an advertizing firm which happens to use tech a lot. I mean nothing besides ads makes money for Google.
**Life is too short to be serious**
Michael Moore is a steaming gas bag who's really only interested in one thing and that's Michael Moore. 95% of what he says is a load of crap.
Moore is a fat retard. He deliberately mis-represents a handful of facts telling far less than half the true story, to forward his own agenda. Opposing him is not evil, it's simply the other side of a disagreement.
Nobody I know or respect thinks Moore is anything but a clown. Google helping those companies, industries, and individuals that Moore craps all over only seems fair. Why shouldn't they get the chance to tell their side of the story too? Or is letting the accused tell their side of the story evil? In the US, fairness used to mean letting both sides tell their tale. Maybe Moore is now the only one allowed to say anything, and anyone who thinks he's wrong is evil? Ummm... Not.
The Gospel according to lolcat
"Universal health care" is a meaningless term. The correct way to identify if it is socialism or not is to see who pays for it. If the government pays for it through taxes, it is communism.
The government can't save you.
Yeah, because there can POSSIBLY be two sides to this issue. And a Moore can't POSSIBLY be lying in this new film like he has in all of his others.
So trying to make sure both sides of an issue get told is now "evil".
What the flying fuck has happened to Slashdot? It's like it's fallen off the Discworld into the inner circle of ideological hell.
You have a bunch of priors, and are insuring six people. Paying a lot of money for your insurance is plenty equitable.
I am single, employed, and healthy. I'm tired of paying for you and your four kids that you can't afford, so if you could accelerate the process, fuck off and die.
Seriously. Please get your whole head in front of the shotgun.
You don't have a right to my paycheck. Your child with lyme disease doesn't have a right to my paycheck. Your insane wife doesn't have a right to my paycheck. I earn it. I work for it. You are stealing from me. Stop it.
It is not evil of Google to help a corp get their message out. In fact, it doesn't matter what you believe about Sicko, the public is helped when both sides effectively present their case to the public. The public will decide.
Read my blog: HansMast.com
What's not OK here is that an utter fuck up like you is breeding. Sheesh, get the wife's tubes tied or chop your balls off.
I'm LIVING PROOF OF IT!!
You're living proof of a total loser. So fucking put a bullet in your head so you family can get a father that can actually provide like real man.
Don't you DARE say that the health care system...
I'll say whatever the godamn fuck I want, you trailer park sack of shit. Got that, motherfucker? GOT THAT???
Losers like you make me sick. If you want health insurance, get off your ass and work for it. If you are too stupid to make more than minimum wage, get an education, or teach yourself, and find a better job. If you don't like the fact that losers don't get free health insurance, YOU pay an extra 20 or 30 percent in taxes to provide it for them, YES, out of your pocket, NOT MINE! My wife and I own (paid for) 2 cars, an SUV (Lincoln, the only kind to have, according to my wife), a motorhome, a pickup, 2 motorcycles (250 and 900 cc), and a boat; we own a home (4br, pool, large lot, not yet fully paid for), have traveled extensively in the US and abroad (Mexico, Canada, Japan, France, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Iran, etc.), and we did it all by ourselves. And, we pay for health insurance, too, (medical, dental, vision), and insurance on our vehicles, and on our home, and on ourselves. AND I DROPPED OUT OF HIGH SCHOOL! I am self taught in many things that have been profitable over the years (butcher, mechanic, electronics technician, television engineer, code monkey, computer systems engineer, tool and die maker, teacher, network engineer, senior software developer, etc.) and not once was I afraid to change careers when what I have been doing becomes boring or less profitable than I would like. If I can do it, anyone can. (No, neither my wife nor I come from "money", nor did we get any from family) I work hard for what I have, and I pay enough taxes already. Screw your "social justice" bullshit - that's just loser-speak for gimmie-gimmie-gimmie. I take care of my family, and help my extended family if they need it, BUT I AM NOT WILLING TO PAY FOR YOU OR ANYONE ELSE TO GET A FREE RIDE THROUGH LIFE! YOU WANT IT, WORK FOR IT, AND QUIT WHINING! I have always had insurance, too, for my entire working career(s). I will not give up what I have for you losers...
Refuse serving all fat fucktards. Use the system that amusement parks use to count the number of people. If a fat fucktard can't get past that without doing something to try to get past it, then the fat fucktard has no fucking business there. When all fat fucktards are barred from doin business anywhere in the fucking world, they will feel so depressed they will all decide to commit suicide. A whole lot less fucktards in our gene pool and we won't have to worry about the food supply ever again. Oh, but then there would be no fucktarded shitdot sheeple left.
GO AHEAD FUCKING FLAME AWAY OR WASTE YOUR GODDAMNED MOD POINTS FUCKTARDED SHITDOT SHEEPLE!!!
It was evident to me that Google censors according to "business wishes" when I started to make some fan-art in 3D of a well known character.
n sorship.php. which incredibly enough isnt censored yet, but what it says - is clear enough and it has examples for you to try
Funnily enough - just about every image I've made gets scooped up by Google and placed to become searchable for everyone - which is perfectly fine with me, but when I became slightly suspicious about Googles business censoring where when my fan-art images dissappeared quickly while everything else remained.
Unfortunately - it doesnt stop there!
I really wish it was only protective of its own copyrights, fair enough - but what *REALLY* scares me is when Google censors information at will - even information Id consider perfectly legal and ok for eg. my country, but it actually censors a lot of pages (and I do mean A LOT OF PAGES!) from my Country which is a Democratic country and one of Americas allies, so this is very surprising to me, but research indicates that it absolutely censors. It censors pages with interesting knowledge about computer algorithms, chemical knowledge, electronics-pages with schematics - anything that Google or its customers may find inappropriate some way or another.
If you dont quite believe it and think that I am over the top paranoid - check out http://sethf.com/anticensorware/general/google-ce
Google became too big and too powerful - such powers could surely not stay innocent forever, dissapointing - but history proves its knowledge about power corrupts - time and again!
What this world is coming to - is for you and me to decide.
Why don't all the people who are fed up with their health insurance start their own health insurance company? They can get the socialist healthcare people to join them as well as the poor who cannot afford their own healthcare and that's already a large group. They charge a low fee to be a member, and they guarantee to pay for anything you need.
I mean, it's a free country with a basically free market. Why not take advantage of it and open up competition if you hate all the existing companies so badly?
Moore could lead the funding with all the money he makes off of his lie- I mean movies.
Not a Twitter sockpuppet... but I wish I was.
Google, this is evil.
Helping evil corporations (what a cliché) is just as evil as being evil.
There is little doubt of the consensus that health insurers are evil.
They're using their grammar skills there.
Yeah, but you're citing CNN as a source. They're the evil liberal pinko commies leading the charge against right-thinking conservative Americans. If you could find a source that's more fair and balanced, like Fox News, then you'd have my attention.(end sarcasm here)
Yes, I really have had a conversation that went just like that.
I don't know about you, but my servers run on the power of cotton candy and happy thoughts. -Anonymous Coward
I really wish someone would murder Jackass Moore
I would disagree that the entire race is afflicted, although I must admit that a signifcant portion of it indeed is, based on empirical evidence.
Please also take into account that by "greed" I do not mean a desire to create a comfortable life in exchange for labour or other contributions to society, but instead attempts to "get something for nothing" in their miriad of forms. That of course including a delusion of immense self-worth and thus pay completely out of proportion to labour performed, which afflicts many individuals, who would die arguing that they are getting only what they "deserve", i.e. $12300 an hour for playing golf with their socialite friends all day, or some such.
I beg to differ. This is probably the very reason why I and many people like me seem to operate on a different wavelength alltogether. I would not do it for a billion dollars, as I do not see a point at all in desiring money beyond what I already have, thank you very much. I work so I can be comfortable and I do not need a lot to achieve comfort. You would be surprised how much nonsense you "desire" is actually completely psychological, induced by mindless advertising propaganda and indirectly by peer preassure. Once you wake up, it is like living in a world inhabited by marionettes. You can see all their strings out of a sudden, pulling them this way and the other, while you are free. It is quite an experience.
The reason why healthcare must be provided to all citizens with no charge (be it by the government, non profit mutual-corporations paid from taxes or what not) is that healthcare is not a business and thus does not fall into the realm of the marketplace. One cannot shop for a best doctor while one is unconscious in an ambulance. One cannot "return" a faulty abdominal surgery for a refund. Normal rules of competition, and thus capitalist marketplace, simply do not apply as they do with underware and plastic lawn chairs.
Helthcare, like roads, is one of the foundations of a civilized society, which must be provided to all in order for the society to function. The result of "private" healthcare is pretty much the same as having evey road being a "toll" road. Those who own the critical arteries i.e. the ones which cannot be circumvented, will choke the society with their greed, very much so as the US is being chocked by the "medical insurance" industry.
That is why every OECD country, other then USA, has universal healthcare. Every one.
Everyone knows the reason you HATE Socialist health care is the fact that your current HMO package won't pay for the in-vitro fertilization and other fertility treatments you and your wife need.
You're jealous that the French, English, Canadians, even the Commie Cubans can get those things for free or next to nothing.
My answer is an abolishment of corporate charter (and thus return to personal responsibility of business owners for the actions of their companies - a key element which you forgot to mention being circumvented by the corporate charter) but more importantly, return to 90+% tax brackets. We do not need large businesses and super-wealthy super-businessmen in any area. We need a lot of smaller businesses competing for everything. That is what ensures that the "invisible hand" of the marketplace remains working. Very, very, very steep progressive taxation (along with near 90% inheretance taxation in higher brackets) is what ensures that the capitalist game remains functional, by preventing consolidation and runaway (due to some market failure) fortunes. Otherwise, the removal of "tax friction" to unlimited consolidation of companies and unlimited acquisiton of wealth results in feudalism, which the USA is at this point far too close to for any comfort.
Maybe because of the fact that most of the population in the US (and increasingly most of the West) has a negative savings rate?
Because we increasingly are owned. As an example, in an area we nerds find dear to us: where I live, all cell-phone service providers have merged into two cartels, who now charge identical rates of ~0.5$ per kilobyte for internet access on your phone, or roughly $21,000 for 4Gb. Your "consumer choice" is that of a Dick A up your ass, or Dick B up your ass. Same applies to land-based ISPs whose best uplink rate (in a densly populated city centre) is 384kbit/s for a mere $95 a month.
The problem is not that they are making money. It is the way in which they are making money. What I am pointing out is the total breakage of the basic, fundamental rules of the whole "capitalist" society!
Oh yea! That will cure the problem! I will just hop on to my bank, get a loan for, say, $5 billion, get the government to sell me some radio spectrum presently used by someone else (I will have to buy a few politicians to do that, bribing them more then the other guy) and then I will start my own cell-phone company and I will never have to pay 50 cents a kilobyte again! That's the truly practical plan for all citizens in my area, surely .... not!
As an aside. I do own my own small business. This however is not a cure to what ails the society. We are discussing systemic, nation-wide problems, not what some more fortunate individuals are privileged to do for themselves. Not everyone can own a business. Not even 1 in 10 people can do so, for many, many reasons.
Yes, apparently, as in the example above, we, the individuals (or more accurately our grand-parents), have sinned gravely by deciding to live in this area, no? And higher education will certainly solve the problem of oligarchies, cartels and duo-polies! That is of course righ
My health insurance payments made my family HOMELESS! We spent last year living in Extended Stays for 45 dollars a night. I didn't QUIT my job, I got LAID OFF. I didn't consult by choice, I consulted BECAUSE I COULD NOT FIND A JOB! It took me two years to find one and I STILL don't have health insurance because my employer doesn't offer it until you've been here 90 days.
NO ONE should have to choose between food, housing and their health. NO ONE!! None of you ASSHOLES do!I'm 52. My only regret is that I wasn't YOUR father. You'd have grown up with a bit more empathy and a bit less hypocracy...and your butt would have been a bit pinker along the way too!
You know nothing of canada you stupid american. Since when do editors get involved in debates liek this? They should pull your fucking commission.
Why dont you go back to you fox news and ann coultier porn you fuckign fascist.
"Riiiiiiight. It is "justice" to take away someone's liberty and force them to have a reduced standard of health care. That makes perfect sense!"
YES!
Is it "justice" to take away someone elses life in the name of your pocket-books liberty? The GPL gives up certain "rights" to protect others. The rich and "middle class" need to give up some "rights" to protect the rights and lives of others its called a moral obligation. I have an obligation to push a small child out of the road if I am about to see it get hit. I run the risk of dying from the impact. I am having a reduced standard of living if the car kills me.
I am in this middle that is being more and more screwed right now in ways you cannot even imagen and being pushed to the bottom. I make $46k a year. I am $3000 away from being able to be on Medicade for my wife, my company offers no insurance and I have two children with another baby on the way. Maybe I fucked up and my wife did by having another kid. You know what? Its not the fucking poor kids fault that now her normal doctor which takes medicade wont even see us without an extra $1250 out of pocket up front. Guess what? I don't just have 1250 laying around. I tried to work out a payment plan. $700 up front. No. $800. No. $900. No Before we got married she could just walk right in and get first class service. Now we get married as (as some on the right would say is the only proper way to raise a family) and she can't even get an OB exam. You know what happens when my family of four gets sick out of the blue in the winter? We get fucked! It happend last year. Being set back $800 in medical costs in one month blows dude.
Think about it Pudge, I used to be on the right on this issue. This is just fucked. There is no other way to look at it. Why does every man woman and child not have basic dental? I'd pay more in taxes for that. What about eye glasses and contacts? Why don't we give LASIK to every poor underclass person that cannot afford it? We as a socity could and we could share the costs. We already do it for the GODDAMN ROADS, WE ALREADY FUCKING DO IT FOR DEFENCE. IT ALREADY DO IT FOR POLICE. These are basic fucking services and we all sholder the costs. The middle and rich shoulder more, AS THEY SHOULD THEY HAVE MORE TO LOSE!
Just think about it. Then do something to change it. Don't play devils advocate, you cannot win here.
That is untrue. The general public does normally prefer low price and is willing to mindlessly destroy their own livelyhood in its pursuit. But where low price alone is insufficient, it is scientifically proven that the public is also subject to mass scale media-based brainwashing, which in marketing circles goes by the name of "branding". That is why people will buy McCrap burger, even though a Mom & Pop store is offering much better cousine next door. They are simply inundated with incessant multi-billion psychological manipulation, from very young age onwards, for which very purpose the so called "mass media" exists. That is why the advent of "franchise" stores is so popular, as they do provide the mass-media centered mass-mind-warping mechanisms, which individual stores cannot even dream of. So the unholy duo of low price (at the expense of foreign slave labour and environmental destruction) and "branding" pretty much seals the fate of all locally owned opertions.
Really? What was the last time "expensive and revolutionary" development occured by a private company, not in any way stolen from the government-funded academia?
You forgot about the barriers to entry. If the barrier to entry (most of the time artifically created by the participants of the cartels) is so high that only a mega-bazillionaire multi-mega-national can enter, the mom & pop crowd is at a distinct disadvantage. Say a government demand that some spectrum be sold whole as a unit to the highest bidder (for a mere few billion dollars usually), instead of being managed by the government and small participants sharing in its use for a nominal fee. Same applies to city wide conduits, which instead of being privately own (and thus monopolized due to geography and building restrictions) should be managed by the government or a non-profit consortium, and leased at a nominal fee to small businesses competing on service delivery. Etc and so on.
And oft there is no solution, no matter how many try. Go check out the "perpetual motion machine archive" for examples. Raw willpower is not a substitute for reality.
So I guess it is all right to be owned by our feudal betters, as long as the TV keeps playing and the bread is available, right?
See your own post above. The foreigners (particularly oriental where all the manufacturing and thus wealth is heading) have far more purchasing power then the locals, and the locals have been repeatedly burned by investing in useless education, only to become underpaid corporate drones, and so their lesson learned was that the educatio