Damned mallards. Tell 'em to get back to the mall, where they belong.
Hal
On Sun, Mar 1, 2009 at 11:08 AM, Martin Walker <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> OK, Mark - I see where you're coming from now. But I'm not offering the
> American Right convenient sound-bites - I have no connection with these
> circles. The same kind of forces that have undermined health provision in
> the USA have seen to it that the NHS, conceived as a socialist innovation
> during WW2, is being hollowed out, whatever the surface rhetoric of the
> "managerial" Nu-Labour party. It hasn't - yet - been subverted entirely.
> There are so many stories - how could one begin to illustrate the process?
> Daily I register & forget the details of more outrages. I mentioned Italy
> because I see a gradual encroachment in Europe of a new kind of fascism, a
> kind of Imperium of the pseudomanagerial cheap con-trick, panem et
> circenses for hoi polloi while sustaining local & ecological
> infra-structures are destroyed. I kept off the subject of the USA
> deliberately - it seems to me the Constitution there has been subverted
> almost out of recognition. And what is perhaps the most ecologically noxious
> organisation, Monsanto, comes from there. Its chief European executive
> lives a few miles from Lagorce, Ardèche, where I live half the time:
> despite popular opposition the company has got its claws into the EU and the
> dreaded GM seeds are being introduced. But we cannot speak of incompetence
> and not mention the great British "mislaid data" scandals - which
> demonstrate the government's utter contempt for the individual's security
> while trumpeting security issues in order to justify more surveillance.
> Here in Berlin Wilmersdorf the mallards have reoccupied the local lake, as
> the ice melts.
> Quack!
> mj
>
> Power always thinks it has a great soul and vast views beyond the
> comprehension of the weak and that it is doing God's service when it is
> violating all His laws.
> John Adams to Thomas Jefferson.
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mark Weiss" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Sunday, March 01, 2009 5:00 PM
>
> Subject: Re: pullman on liberty
>
>
> Sorry to have ruffled feathers. Ducks are prone to that.
>>
>> There are stakes here. You must be aware that the NHS is presented as a
>> bogeyman by the American right, while the situation in large parts of this
>> country becomes desperate and is merely intolerable in the more favored
>> places.
>>
>> Note that I don't defend Italy, which continues to redefine incompetence.
>> I'm not sure why you raised it.
>>
>> Mark
>>
>> At 04:54 AM 3/1/2009, you wrote:
>>
>>> I can't hear the canard quacking. As you don't say, you are as abrasively
>>> rude as ever. What I know and what I am going to spend time putting in a
>>> mail to this list are two separate things. But what the hell.
>>>
>>> Power always thinks it has a great soul and vast views beyond the
>>> comprehension of the weak; and that it is doing God's service when it is
>>> violating all His laws.
>>> John Adams to Thomas Jefferson.
>>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mark Weiss" <[log in to unmask]>
>>> To: <[log in to unmask]>
>>> Sent: Saturday, February 28, 2009 7:43 PM
>>> Subject: Re: pullman on liberty
>>>
>>>>
>>>> My luck has been surprisingly consistent over ten years.
>>>>
>>>> As you say, you don't know much. Most of this is a very old canard
>>>> fortified by a few anecdotes. There are always horror stories--I could tell
>>>> a few myself about the US, tho just the much higher rate of iatrogenic
>>>> illnesses and the lower life expectancy here may speak for themselves. And
>>>> folks began complaining when Attlee was PM.
>>>>
>>>> Your Austrian friend was probably triaged (apparently accurately, as
>>>> witness her speedy recovery). There are strokes and strokes. In this country
>>>> we do scans for cuts and bruises, at enormous cost, to amortize the expense
>>>> of the machines. That three days in the hospital would have cost upwards of
>>>> $6K in the US, by the way, and that would include no care whatsoever, just
>>>> the bed and the linens.
>>>>
>>>> As to British resistance, there seems to be near unanimity about
>>>> preserving the NHS. Maggie Thatcher tampered with it, but it's why she got
>>>> tossed. What I did notice was a nursing shortage, fueled by lowered
>>>> investment, which seems to have been reversed in the past year. In Scotland,
>>>> at least, the nursing shortage is being addressed--beyond the standard free
>>>> tuition for nursing students, they're now getting slaries while they're in
>>>> school, and the shortage should be a thing of the past in about 5 years.
>>>>
>>>> There's an enormous nursing shortage in the US as well. In most places
>>>> nothing's being done about it, and nursing degrees are so expensive that new
>>>> hires are largely from other countries, where people can still afford to go
>>>> to school.
>>>>
>>>> Mark
>>>>
>>>> Tim can probably make more interesting comments on how daily life is
>>>>> affected by all the laws, the virtual suspension of Habeas Corpus &
>>>>> hollowing out of individual rights, the monstrous personal data balls-up etc
>>>>> etc, general incompetence etc etc. - Italy has gone down the drain, too, of
>>>>> course - I have a very good friend living there, her reports of corruption &
>>>>> inefficiency are horrific, and the levels of racism & intolerance have
>>>>> become truly shocking under Berlusconi, as you must know from the papers.
>>>>> Things will get much worse in the years to come. I wouldn't mind dying soon,
>>>>> but that's just me - other people I know say well, it's interesting to see
>>>>> what will happen, isn't it? I'm going to start smoking again...
>>>>> mj
>>>>>
>>>>> Power always thinks it has a great soul and vast views beyond the
>>>>> comprehension of the weak; and that it is doing God's service when it is
>>>>> violating all His laws.
>>>>> John Adams to Thomas Jefferson.
>>>>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mark Weiss" <
>>>>> [log in to unmask]>
>>>>> To: <[log in to unmask]>
>>>>> Sent: Friday, February 27, 2009 10:47 PM
>>>>> Subject: Re: pullman on liberty
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> It's a shame I can't read the article. The snippet of comment below is
>>>>>> certainly provocative, and at odds with my experience of the UK, where I
>>>>>> spend a lot of time, and France, where I used to live. Of course I'm
>>>>>> comparing with the US, which hopefully Obama will make more nanny-like. The
>>>>>> alternative seems to be the clutches of the evil stepmother of markets
>>>>>> regulated only insofar as they guarantee profits and predation.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> My last trip to the UK I wound up in hospital in Glasgow for four
>>>>>> days. Every system can improve, but compared to what one has on this side it
>>>>>> was heaven. My experience with the French system has been even better. (When
>>>>>> I got back to the States I made a trip to the emergency ward. Ten hours
>>>>>> waiting.)
>>>>>>
>>>>>> In fact, Britain and France always strike me as youthful. Folks don't
>>>>>> carry nearly the burden of anxiety that we do here and tend to be far more
>>>>>> adventurous as a result. Which is to say that the restrictions on the
>>>>>> downside amount to a grant of freedom on the upside.
>>>>>>
>>>>>
--
Halvard Johnson
================
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