The largest source of mercury and other heavy metal pollution is coal burning power plants. Unfortunately there is nothing available that can replace coal as a reliable demand power source in a reasonably cost effective manner. Oh, except for nuclear power, which if you include TMI, Chernobyl and Fukushima, have still spewed fewer nuclear isotopes into the atmosphere than coal plants.
They'll probably target dental amalgam next since it's half mercury, even though there is no evidence that dentists and auxiliaries have higher levels of disease than the general population. Who'd a thunk people exposed to it all day, every day would show no sign of disease. After all, we KNOW mercury is bad, bad, bad!
Scooby doo ending: We'd have fixed the environment already if it weren't for those pesky facts!
Dollars per square meter (or perhaps kilowatt-hour) is the only really relevant measure. Once it's cheaper to make electricity this way it will take off.
Utopia? Or merely a gilded cage? Is anyone really stupid enough to believe that the rule making process would be non political and unbiased? The cage would be filled with nice, fat sheep ripe for shearing, or slaughter.
No child left behind is exactly the kind of counterproductive government program to which I was referring, thus proving the underlying conservative principle that more government involvement is not better.
The single parent argument proves another conservative principle: that an intact and functioning family is far better at caring for children than government programs.
The poverty argument proves a third conservative principle: that the best means for improving people's lives is a robust competitive economy where the private sector can provide good paying jobs to allow people to lift themselves out of poverty.
Incidentally, just because it's easy to correlate poverty with poor public school performance doesn't mean that the solution is to throw more money at the problem. Why are they poor and poverty stricken? Is it because they don't value education, hard work and initiative? Another conservative principle: the value of individual responsibility.
Oh, wait. Never mind. I forgot - it's "the man" who is keeping them down.;-)
In their never ending quest to Make The World A Better Place, the do-gooders continue to dig us into an ever-deeper hole Because It's For The Children.
One of the biggest problems with big government solutions to everything is the difficulty involved in making changes as needed. Every decision requires congressional approval, every decision becomes political and once the decision is made nobody has a choice. Public education is a classic example of how such a system loses focus on it's primary reason for existence, i.e. educating children. I instead it becomes a vessel for social engineering experiments and and the political interests of the teacher's unions and politicians du jour.. The children themselves have essentially no representation as the various powers that be fight to further their agendas.
The worst part is that you can't buy or legislate the single biggest predictor of academic success: parental involvement. No amount of money, no law, no program can motivate parents to get more deeply involved in their kid's education. You can not change parents that want to dump their kids and attendant responsibilities onto the school districts.
Nah, just a bunch of scammers trying to bilk their investors. Heck, the fact that some of them were issued patents means nothing seeing as how they issue patents for just about anything these days. Nothing to see here.
Free speech can't be turned over for corporate governance. I wouldn't buy a kindle or any other "reading" device that includes remote content management. Paper an ink is bulky but lasts for decades if not centuries and requires actual jack booted thugs to be removed from your possession. Corporations behave predictably like cowards and it's ridiculous to assume they will ever act to defend the best interests of other if they conflict with their own.
It's a surprise that these people are just a bunch of script kiddies? The phrase "useful idiots" comes to mind: these knuckleheads will take the fall, giving the media and legal system someone to chew on while those with some modicum of coding skill avoid attention. I bet it wouldn't take a lot to ID the majority. Their safely is really in numbers, which isn't much safety at all.
In short, information isn't ever really free. Someone, somewhere is either donating their valuable time to development or there's an organization funding the devs. Nobody can really afford to slave away coding without compensation - everybody has to eat. The for-profit model works because it's a fair exchange of value for both parties.
This might seem like an unnecessarily elementary point, but there seems to be an awful lot of people who sincerely believe in the adolescent idea that work gets done by magic and the end product should be given away for free.
...yes, because all those third world countries have proven themselves to be politically stable enough to handle the responsibility. Just look at that paragon of responsibility - Pakistan. Surely the world is better off now that there is a nuclear armed nation slowly deteriorating into islamic fascism. It will end well. Really.
This kind of comment would be better aimed at ending the various aid and loan schemes developed countries use to buy off the various dictators-of-the-week. Except in that case absolutely nothing of use would occur in said third world countries. Unless you count mass starvation as useful.
Seriously, it's kind of surprising that a nuclear fuel bank as described didn't already exist.
Prices for chinese made goods have been kept artificially low due to currency manipulation by their government, slave labor-level wages and working conditions and a practical absence of environmental & consumer protection regulations. All these actions were deliberately taken by the chinese government in order to jump start their own economy while stealing entire segments of their competitors economies. Their carefully premeditated goal is nothing less than the destruction of the power of the west and the ascension of china to the pre-eminent power on earth.
When they finally do allow their currency to rise it will be with the goal of delivering an economic death blow to the west and the US in particular. If you think times are tough now, just wait until those cheap chinese goods cost roughly 10 times as much as their current prices. With our own industrial base crushed we will have no choice but to eat what we are fed at whatever price they demand.
People complain about abuse of power by the US; We will soon live in a world where the world's largest country (in terms of population) with the world's largest economy will be controlled by unelected dictators with no motivation whatsoever to adhere to standards of fair or ethical behavior.
Or the labor costs, or taxes, or environmental regulations, etc.. China is the shithole sweatshop of the world by design of their government: everything is secondary to economic growth. Nobody should be surprised that workers in high tech sweatshops should be any safer than in the triangle factory fire. The dangers may be more subtle but no less lethal. And if China should somehow undergo some fit of worker protection, another 3rd world dictator will volunteer his country to be sweatshop to the world.
But hey, your iphone would cost more if it weren't like that, and those people are on the other side of the world so quit worrying.
I'd like to point out that this sort of thing is very common in third world countries. When it happens, it drives up prices for actual paying customers by making it exponentially more difficult for utilities to provide service and maintain infrastructure due to the uncompensated stress put on their systems. As the increased taxes and regulations of the modern socialist nanny state crushes entrepreneurship and throws ever larger numbers of people out of work and onto welfare, expect to see more of this as a harbinger of things to come.
Remember, there ain't no such thing as a free lunch.
The sheer number of fallacies in your post almost defies belief. It's not clear if you have even the faintest understanding, beyond a cartoonish parody, of what entrepreneurship actually entails. The many people I know who have started successful businesses did it to have more control over their lives. They also recognized that as employees, much of their effort went to the benefit of their employer. It's kind of a trade between security and liberty. The money (if you manage to make any) is a nice reward but it comes at the expense of great responsibility - including taking care of your employees if you want to keep them.
Another common characteristic of entrepreneurs is that they don't want to hear excuses for failure. Success requires hard work, astute judgment and a keen understanding of the economic environment. Talk to any business owner and they'll have plenty of stories about scams, rip off artists and moochers who all want something for nothing. The essence of entrepreneurship is the fair trade of goods or services. If you aren't dealing fairly, in most cases your business does not survive because your reputation suffers. Mind you that you DO have to provide something for your customer's money. No business survives without repeat customers - fool them once...
Starting and running a business is HARD. Equipment and materials are expensive. Customers do not materialize out of thin air. Competition from similar businesses forces you to do it cheaper and better. Overhead expenses can ruin you and God forbid you try to start one in a recession.
Only a certain kind of person with an entitlement minded victim's mentality might feel that business owners are indifferent to suffering - absurd considering a tax burden approaching 50%, not to mention voluntary charitable giving. Only the most naive would think that goods and services can and should be had for free. Who is stupid enough to work their asses off day after day, only to watch the fruit of their labors be consumed by others without compensation? Is the satisfaction of "helping people" supposed to be enough? At the end of the day how is one supposed to feed their family? Nothing is ever free.
Have you ever even worked? What sort of "mental horizons" override the need for a business to operate efficiently enough to avoid bankruptcy? How is making enough money each week to meet your payroll "ruthless"? How does wanting a better future than is offered by your average McJob "self obession"? An ambitious person can start an organization that can give jobs to thousands. A lazy, whining leach might object that it's somehow "unfair", but deep down they know they could never have pulled it off themselves - and THAT'S what they're really angry about.
Meh, that's just splitting hairs. How many IT people are getting outsourced to India? Vs. how many plumbers? Perhaps job security is less important these days than career security.
The big issue here is entrepreneurship - having an idea and turning it into a successful business. People seriously underestimate the value of entrepreneurship. Formal education is, well, too formal to foster a can-do sense of entrepreneurship. It's too much about connecting the dots, painting by numbers, checking off the boxes, following a previously existing program structure. It's the difference between doing what someone else is telling you to do versus forging your own path.
Starting and running a business, especially in a new field, requires an unusual amount of initiative and savvy. I can't think of any PhD program that's designed to foster entrepreneurship and initiative. You don't even need to be an innovator - it's about DRIVE. Gates never really innovated, at best he just used existing ideas, but he saw how things could be molded into a successful business.
Smart people are more likely than stupid people to earn a degree, land a job, start a business, recognize an opportunity. But regardless of intelligence, if you just sit there waiting for opportunity to fall into your lap you're going to be waiting a long time.
You guys are surprisingly lighthearted over this. The chinese control a significant percentage of various rare earth supplies. They're called "rare" for a reason. This embargo is just anther example of the strong arm tactics the chinese government so liberally employs in their bid to extend their power and influence over the world. Currency manipulation is another way they deliberately try to wreck western economies. They're succeeding, too. . They are not nice people. China is not "free" in any sense of the word. . As they continue to turn the screws, expect to spend more for just about everything, which will be extra hard since all the jobs are going to china... . Enjoy your coming third world lifestyle.
Did you sleep through it when gas prices in the US were hitting $5 a gallon? It was unbelievable how many alt fuel technologies were crawling out of the woodwork.
Peak oil is sensationalist bullsh*t. When petroleum based products become more scarce, prices will rise making these alternative technologies more attractive. Once they get established they get cheaper due to economies of scale, etc., and gradually oil isn't relevant anymore. The entire world economy is optimized for petroleum simply because it's cheap. When it isn't cheap anymore things will change.
The current "jackpot jury" system is sot irrevocably broken it's not even remotely funny. As a "health care provider" constantly staring at the business end of lawsuits it's clear to me that serious reform is necessary. Monetary awards merely increase costs without addressing quality of care issues.
As it stands, medical experts duel in front of a layman's jury. The jury isn't qualified to evaluate the data presented and inevitably comes to ridiculous conclusions. All malpractice/medical injury claims should be decided by a committee of practicing doctors to decide if there was actually malpractice. Decision could include requirements for additional training, suspension or revocation of license. After all, the goal ought to be to improve the quality of care given to the public.
The only ones winning now are the lawyers who make a business of malpractice cases.
A nation shouldn't protect it's interests? Don't get me wrong, I know darned well the US gets it's hands dirty. But equating the US to the mafia is childish. First off, the US does respond positively to criticism both directly and via the ballot box owing to a free press and democratic priciples. No other nation that ever wore (or is likely to wear) the "superpower" label can claim this. Second, the US can only do so much as we are constrained to work with the materials at hand, so to speak. For better or worse much of the last century was defined by the struggle against communism - hence choices were often limited to "communists" and "other". Allende was a marxist and started nationalizing private industries left and right. Have you even read the communist manifesto? Purest tripe intended only as cover to seize power. I suppose you think Chavez and Castro are great guys, too? Just look at Argentina in the 20th century to see how "socialism" destroyed a thriving capitalist democracy and created a economically moribund nation with a government that keeps power by buying off the poor. Why aren't we screaming for democracy in Egypt? Because muslim radicals would likely be elected. All our fault again? Remember, Israel is the only actual democracy in the middle east and it's history has been one of repeated attempts to exterminate it's existence by it's neighbors. Calling Israel a US puppet is simplistic in the extreme and reflects a lack of intellectual rigor in your thinking. Stop playing the blame game - we get enough of that with obama blaming Bush.
Just remember two things: every dollar a government spends comes from taxes levied on businesses that provide jobs and individuals working them. Every government program is paid for by working people. Second, a conservative is just a liberal who has put the pieces of the puzzle together. I'm not talking about the liberal cartoon character of conservatives that's religiously homophobic, etc., but one born of a reasoned analysis of the issues. I'm old enough to have read about most of the incidents you cite while they were occurring and remember the proper contexts. Given a few years maybe you will, too.
I suppose you long for the days of the worker's paradise in the former soviet union? I invite you to did a little deeper to learn about about the alternatives. You also need to think long and hard about exactly who is to blame. The US to blame for starving children in Iraq? Saddam was such a nice guy who'd give the poor the shirt off his back, right? He only attacked 3 or 4 neighboring countries but I suppose the US is to blame for that, too. A-bombing japanese civilians? Tojo was also a real sweetheart. Don't forget all the jobs he provided for the "comfort women" in Nanking. Torture in abu graib? In most countries torture includes things like pulling out fingernails, attaching jumper cables to your balls, things like that. Stress positions and humiliation are on an entirely different level and even those practices, started during the worst of the reactionary period immediately post 9/11 were stopped once cooler heads prevailed.
A quick note before I continue: Try reasoning with any of the people on the other side. Just try - like we did with North Korea when they were promising up and down that they weren't building a nuclear bomb, until they suddenly admitted they did when they tested it. They love negotiations because it gives them political cover while the continue doing exactly what they shouldn't be doing. That Iranian nuke plant is for peaceful research purposes! Honest!
In short, you choose to believe the US is the bad guy in spite of all the evidence to the contrary simply because you haven't bothered doing the homework or to critically think about the facts of history. Security? Europe's little popgun armies would have lasted about 10 minutes against the soviets. Hell, just back in the '90's we were forced to send in the F-18's because none of the euros wanted to dirty their hands protecting Croatian muslims against the Serbs. The best the euros could manage was helping the serbs butcher people in Srebrenica. Just another part of the world incapable of managing it's affairs without adult supervision.
Good luck with that whole security thing, we'll be sitting over here laughing at you during your next crisis. Nah, just kidding! We'll be there to bail your asses out yet again.
Ok, so it's the US's fault that the taliban is cutting off woman's noses? OOOOOOOOOOk. Next. BTW do any of you idiots hail from former soviet bloc counties? Thought not.
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The largest source of mercury and other heavy metal pollution is coal burning power plants. Unfortunately there is nothing available that can replace coal as a reliable demand power source in a reasonably cost effective manner. Oh, except for nuclear power, which if you include TMI, Chernobyl and Fukushima, have still spewed fewer nuclear isotopes into the atmosphere than coal plants.
They'll probably target dental amalgam next since it's half mercury, even though there is no evidence that dentists and auxiliaries have higher levels of disease than the general population. Who'd a thunk people exposed to it all day, every day would show no sign of disease. After all, we KNOW mercury is bad, bad, bad!
Scooby doo ending: We'd have fixed the environment already if it weren't for those pesky facts!
Dollars per square meter (or perhaps kilowatt-hour) is the only really relevant measure. Once it's cheaper to make electricity this way it will take off.
Utopia? Or merely a gilded cage? Is anyone really stupid enough to believe that the rule making process would be non political and unbiased? The cage would be filled with nice, fat sheep ripe for shearing, or slaughter.
No child left behind is exactly the kind of counterproductive government program to which I was referring, thus proving the underlying conservative principle that more government involvement is not better.
The single parent argument proves another conservative principle: that an intact and functioning family is far better at caring for children than government programs.
The poverty argument proves a third conservative principle: that the best means for improving people's lives is a robust competitive economy where the private sector can provide good paying jobs to allow people to lift themselves out of poverty.
Incidentally, just because it's easy to correlate poverty with poor public school performance doesn't mean that the solution is to throw more money at the problem. Why are they poor and poverty stricken? Is it because they don't value education, hard work and initiative? Another conservative principle: the value of individual responsibility.
Oh, wait. Never mind. I forgot - it's "the man" who is keeping them down. ;-)
In their never ending quest to Make The World A Better Place, the do-gooders continue to dig us into an ever-deeper hole Because It's For The Children.
One of the biggest problems with big government solutions to everything is the difficulty involved in making changes as needed. Every decision requires congressional approval, every decision becomes political and once the decision is made nobody has a choice. Public education is a classic example of how such a system loses focus on it's primary reason for existence, i.e. educating children. I instead it becomes a vessel for social engineering experiments and and the political interests of the teacher's unions and politicians du jour.. The children themselves have essentially no representation as the various powers that be fight to further their agendas.
The worst part is that you can't buy or legislate the single biggest predictor of academic success: parental involvement. No amount of money, no law, no program can motivate parents to get more deeply involved in their kid's education. You can not change parents that want to dump their kids and attendant responsibilities onto the school districts.
I had a biochemistry teacher who was a dyed in the wool creationist. She said everything was "too complicated to be by accident".
The saddest fact is that there really need be no conflict between science and religion, since science can only address the "how" and never the "why".
itunes is basically all singles?
Still, it's hard to believe the record companies were still doing that. More proof the entire industry is composed of dinosaurs.
Nah, just a bunch of scammers trying to bilk their investors. Heck, the fact that some of them were issued patents means nothing seeing as how they issue patents for just about anything these days. Nothing to see here.
Free speech can't be turned over for corporate governance. I wouldn't buy a kindle or any other "reading" device that includes remote content management. Paper an ink is bulky but lasts for decades if not centuries and requires actual jack booted thugs to be removed from your possession. Corporations behave predictably like cowards and it's ridiculous to assume they will ever act to defend the best interests of other if they conflict with their own.
It's a surprise that these people are just a bunch of script kiddies? The phrase "useful idiots" comes to mind: these knuckleheads will take the fall, giving the media and legal system someone to chew on while those with some modicum of coding skill avoid attention. I bet it wouldn't take a lot to ID the majority. Their safely is really in numbers, which isn't much safety at all.
In short, information isn't ever really free. Someone, somewhere is either donating their valuable time to development or there's an organization funding the devs. Nobody can really afford to slave away coding without compensation - everybody has to eat. The for-profit model works because it's a fair exchange of value for both parties.
This might seem like an unnecessarily elementary point, but there seems to be an awful lot of people who sincerely believe in the adolescent idea that work gets done by magic and the end product should be given away for free.
That is precisely my point.
...yes, because all those third world countries have proven themselves to be politically stable enough to handle the responsibility. Just look at that paragon of responsibility - Pakistan. Surely the world is better off now that there is a nuclear armed nation slowly deteriorating into islamic fascism. It will end well. Really.
This kind of comment would be better aimed at ending the various aid and loan schemes developed countries use to buy off the various dictators-of-the-week. Except in that case absolutely nothing of use would occur in said third world countries. Unless you count mass starvation as useful.
Seriously, it's kind of surprising that a nuclear fuel bank as described didn't already exist.
Prices for chinese made goods have been kept artificially low due to currency manipulation by their government, slave labor-level wages and working conditions and a practical absence of environmental & consumer protection regulations. All these actions were deliberately taken by the chinese government in order to jump start their own economy while stealing entire segments of their competitors economies. Their carefully premeditated goal is nothing less than the destruction of the power of the west and the ascension of china to the pre-eminent power on earth.
When they finally do allow their currency to rise it will be with the goal of delivering an economic death blow to the west and the US in particular. If you think times are tough now, just wait until those cheap chinese goods cost roughly 10 times as much as their current prices. With our own industrial base crushed we will have no choice but to eat what we are fed at whatever price they demand.
People complain about abuse of power by the US; We will soon live in a world where the world's largest country (in terms of population) with the world's largest economy will be controlled by unelected dictators with no motivation whatsoever to adhere to standards of fair or ethical behavior.
Say hello to your coming third world existence.
Or the labor costs, or taxes, or environmental regulations, etc.. China is the shithole sweatshop of the world by design of their government: everything is secondary to economic growth. Nobody should be surprised that workers in high tech sweatshops should be any safer than in the triangle factory fire. The dangers may be more subtle but no less lethal. And if China should somehow undergo some fit of worker protection, another 3rd world dictator will volunteer his country to be sweatshop to the world.
But hey, your iphone would cost more if it weren't like that, and those people are on the other side of the world so quit worrying.
Attempting to argue with eco-communists is essentially the same thing...
I'd like to point out that this sort of thing is very common in third world countries. When it happens, it drives up prices for actual paying customers by making it exponentially more difficult for utilities to provide service and maintain infrastructure due to the uncompensated stress put on their systems. As the increased taxes and regulations of the modern socialist nanny state crushes entrepreneurship and throws ever larger numbers of people out of work and onto welfare, expect to see more of this as a harbinger of things to come.
Remember, there ain't no such thing as a free lunch.
The sheer number of fallacies in your post almost defies belief. It's not clear if you have even the faintest understanding, beyond a cartoonish parody, of what entrepreneurship actually entails. The many people I know who have started successful businesses did it to have more control over their lives. They also recognized that as employees, much of their effort went to the benefit of their employer. It's kind of a trade between security and liberty. The money (if you manage to make any) is a nice reward but it comes at the expense of great responsibility - including taking care of your employees if you want to keep them.
Another common characteristic of entrepreneurs is that they don't want to hear excuses for failure. Success requires hard work, astute judgment and a keen understanding of the economic environment. Talk to any business owner and they'll have plenty of stories about scams, rip off artists and moochers who all want something for nothing. The essence of entrepreneurship is the fair trade of goods or services. If you aren't dealing fairly, in most cases your business does not survive because your reputation suffers. Mind you that you DO have to provide something for your customer's money. No business survives without repeat customers - fool them once...
Starting and running a business is HARD. Equipment and materials are expensive. Customers do not materialize out of thin air. Competition from similar businesses forces you to do it cheaper and better. Overhead expenses can ruin you and God forbid you try to start one in a recession.
Only a certain kind of person with an entitlement minded victim's mentality might feel that business owners are indifferent to suffering - absurd considering a tax burden approaching 50%, not to mention voluntary charitable giving. Only the most naive would think that goods and services can and should be had for free. Who is stupid enough to work their asses off day after day, only to watch the fruit of their labors be consumed by others without compensation? Is the satisfaction of "helping people" supposed to be enough? At the end of the day how is one supposed to feed their family? Nothing is ever free.
Have you ever even worked? What sort of "mental horizons" override the need for a business to operate efficiently enough to avoid bankruptcy? How is making enough money each week to meet your payroll "ruthless"? How does wanting a better future than is offered by your average McJob "self obession"? An ambitious person can start an organization that can give jobs to thousands. A lazy, whining leach might object that it's somehow "unfair", but deep down they know they could never have pulled it off themselves - and THAT'S what they're really angry about.
Meh, that's just splitting hairs. How many IT people are getting outsourced to India? Vs. how many plumbers? Perhaps job security is less important these days than career security.
The big issue here is entrepreneurship - having an idea and turning it into a successful business. People seriously underestimate the value of entrepreneurship. Formal education is, well, too formal to foster a can-do sense of entrepreneurship. It's too much about connecting the dots, painting by numbers, checking off the boxes, following a previously existing program structure. It's the difference between doing what someone else is telling you to do versus forging your own path.
Starting and running a business, especially in a new field, requires an unusual amount of initiative and savvy. I can't think of any PhD program that's designed to foster entrepreneurship and initiative. You don't even need to be an innovator - it's about DRIVE. Gates never really innovated, at best he just used existing ideas, but he saw how things could be molded into a successful business.
Smart people are more likely than stupid people to earn a degree, land a job, start a business, recognize an opportunity. But regardless of intelligence, if you just sit there waiting for opportunity to fall into your lap you're going to be waiting a long time.
You guys are surprisingly lighthearted over this. The chinese control a significant percentage of various rare earth supplies. They're called "rare" for a reason. This embargo is just anther example of the strong arm tactics the chinese government so liberally employs in their bid to extend their power and influence over the world. Currency manipulation is another way they deliberately try to wreck western economies. They're succeeding, too.
.
They are not nice people. China is not "free" in any sense of the word.
.
As they continue to turn the screws, expect to spend more for just about everything, which will be extra hard since all the jobs are going to china...
.
Enjoy your coming third world lifestyle.
Did you sleep through it when gas prices in the US were hitting $5 a gallon? It was unbelievable how many alt fuel technologies were crawling out of the woodwork.
Peak oil is sensationalist bullsh*t. When petroleum based products become more scarce, prices will rise making these alternative technologies more attractive. Once they get established they get cheaper due to economies of scale, etc., and gradually oil isn't relevant anymore. The entire world economy is optimized for petroleum simply because it's cheap. When it isn't cheap anymore things will change.
The current "jackpot jury" system is sot irrevocably broken it's not even remotely funny. As a "health care provider" constantly staring at the business end of lawsuits it's clear to me that serious reform is necessary. Monetary awards merely increase costs without addressing quality of care issues.
As it stands, medical experts duel in front of a layman's jury. The jury isn't qualified to evaluate the data presented and inevitably comes to ridiculous conclusions. All malpractice/medical injury claims should be decided by a committee of practicing doctors to decide if there was actually malpractice. Decision could include requirements for additional training, suspension or revocation of license. After all, the goal ought to be to improve the quality of care given to the public.
The only ones winning now are the lawyers who make a business of malpractice cases.
A nation shouldn't protect it's interests? Don't get me wrong, I know darned well the US gets it's hands dirty. But equating the US to the mafia is childish. First off, the US does respond positively to criticism both directly and via the ballot box owing to a free press and democratic priciples. No other nation that ever wore (or is likely to wear) the "superpower" label can claim this. Second, the US can only do so much as we are constrained to work with the materials at hand, so to speak. For better or worse much of the last century was defined by the struggle against communism - hence choices were often limited to "communists" and "other". Allende was a marxist and started nationalizing private industries left and right. Have you even read the communist manifesto? Purest tripe intended only as cover to seize power. I suppose you think Chavez and Castro are great guys, too? Just look at Argentina in the 20th century to see how "socialism" destroyed a thriving capitalist democracy and created a economically moribund nation with a government that keeps power by buying off the poor. Why aren't we screaming for democracy in Egypt? Because muslim radicals would likely be elected. All our fault again? Remember, Israel is the only actual democracy in the middle east and it's history has been one of repeated attempts to exterminate it's existence by it's neighbors. Calling Israel a US puppet is simplistic in the extreme and reflects a lack of intellectual rigor in your thinking. Stop playing the blame game - we get enough of that with obama blaming Bush.
Just remember two things: every dollar a government spends comes from taxes levied on businesses that provide jobs and individuals working them. Every government program is paid for by working people. Second, a conservative is just a liberal who has put the pieces of the puzzle together. I'm not talking about the liberal cartoon character of conservatives that's religiously homophobic, etc., but one born of a reasoned analysis of the issues. I'm old enough to have read about most of the incidents you cite while they were occurring and remember the proper contexts. Given a few years maybe you will, too.
I suppose you long for the days of the worker's paradise in the former soviet union? I invite you to did a little deeper to learn about about the alternatives. You also need to think long and hard about exactly who is to blame. The US to blame for starving children in Iraq? Saddam was such a nice guy who'd give the poor the shirt off his back, right? He only attacked 3 or 4 neighboring countries but I suppose the US is to blame for that, too. A-bombing japanese civilians? Tojo was also a real sweetheart. Don't forget all the jobs he provided for the "comfort women" in Nanking. Torture in abu graib? In most countries torture includes things like pulling out fingernails, attaching jumper cables to your balls, things like that. Stress positions and humiliation are on an entirely different level and even those practices, started during the worst of the reactionary period immediately post 9/11 were stopped once cooler heads prevailed.
A quick note before I continue: Try reasoning with any of the people on the other side. Just try - like we did with North Korea when they were promising up and down that they weren't building a nuclear bomb, until they suddenly admitted they did when they tested it. They love negotiations because it gives them political cover while the continue doing exactly what they shouldn't be doing. That Iranian nuke plant is for peaceful research purposes! Honest!
In short, you choose to believe the US is the bad guy in spite of all the evidence to the contrary simply because you haven't bothered doing the homework or to critically think about the facts of history. Security? Europe's little popgun armies would have lasted about 10 minutes against the soviets. Hell, just back in the '90's we were forced to send in the F-18's because none of the euros wanted to dirty their hands protecting Croatian muslims against the Serbs. The best the euros could manage was helping the serbs butcher people in Srebrenica. Just another part of the world incapable of managing it's affairs without adult supervision.
Good luck with that whole security thing, we'll be sitting over here laughing at you during your next crisis. Nah, just kidding! We'll be there to bail your asses out yet again.
Ok, so it's the US's fault that the taliban is cutting off woman's noses? OOOOOOOOOOk. Next. BTW do any of you idiots hail from former soviet bloc counties? Thought not.