A friend sent RedStateVT New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof's 11/11/2009 Opinion piece (America's Defining Choice) and asked for comment. Short answer? How does sophomoric stuff like this get published? Kristof first sets up the old guns versus butter question, using the "choice" of more troops in Afghanistan versus more money for health care. He then rolls out the tired liberal shibboleth of the poor victim. Here it takes the form of the hardworking single mom (she works two jobs!) who can't afford health insurance, gets cancer and dies. Kristof writes: "...she felt she couldn't afford to splurge on herself to get gynecological checkups. For more than a dozen years, she never had a Pap smear." A dozen years? In a dozen years, she never could afford it? Putting aside the question of personal responsibility, what were the choices she did make during those dozen years? Kristof doesn't say, of course. Truly our heart goes out to this woman and her daughter, but to hold her up as the reason that we need Obama's health care fix is laughable. There are other targets that Kristof could just as easily pick, but avoids. How about the bailout for GM versus health care? Is it better to keep a moribund car company alive or to fix health care? When in doubt, however, liberals like Kristof will always scrimp on national defense.
Afghan Decision Update -- Latest word is that President Obama is not happy with the options that he has been given on Afghanistan and it's back to the drawing board. We're a bit perplexed because we guess the options would have included: A) 40,000 troops that your hand-picked General asked for, B) something less than 40,000 troops, and C) no new troops. The Ditherer-in Chief instead chooses D) none of the above.
It has now been 74 days since General McChrystal made his request.
are you aware that chavez is gunning for outlawing golf? that's funny
ReplyDeleteA friend also sent me a recent Kristof column (Unhealthy America - 11/04/09) asking for comment. What is it about Kristof? He seems to be the new voice of knee-jerk feeblemindedness.
ReplyDeleteSophomoric, and snarky. Get a load of this quote. "In several columns, I’ve noted indignantly that we have worse health statistics than Slovenia. For example, I noted that an American child is twice as likely to die in its first year as a Slovenian child. The tone — worse than Slovenia! — gravely offended Slovenians. They resent having their fine universal health coverage compared with the notoriously dysfunctional American system."
Slovenia? As if. What a twit!