Q'uran Burning By Gainesville Nutcase.

[BridgeTroll]

This sounds like a new(or old?) topic...

[Cricket]

Well duh yerself, NotNow. Wake up, who do you think is paying indirectly for the uninsured now but the insured like yourself?

Just out of curiosity Cricket, what "other countries" are you referring to?

Why bother? Whichever country's health system is referred to is going to be inferior because we lead the world and all others should follow.

[ChriswUfGator]

Duh.  So those that have not protected themselves with health insurance, and those that have suffered tragic medical disasters, and those who have for what ever reason wound up in circumstances that they think they cannot afford medical insurance think that the USG should provide the insurance to them at little or no cost (except to the taxpayers).  Wow, that's news.  

Just out of curiosity Cricket, what "other countries" are you referring to?

You consistently fail to address the 800-lb gorilla in the room, NotNow. It simply must be intentional. The problem with healthcare isn't that people are unwilling to pick up a phone a "protect themselves" with health insurance, as you're making it sound. The problem is that health insurance has become so unnecessarily expensive that 1/3'rd of the country cannot afford it. And everyone else is forced to pay the bill for that anyway.

So the net result is that we're already giving free treatment to the "unprotected" who you seem to so revile, and the other 2/3'rds of us are getting gouged on our own costs, while providers and insurers have turned in steadily growing profits. It's a runaway train at this point, totally out of control. At the end of the day maybe it's time to take a step back and take a deep breath and realize that not everything was meant to be a business, and not everything was supposed to be about making money.

[Dog Walker]

ALL of the OTHER developed countries in the world have some form of "universal" health care and they ALL have better morbidity and mortality statistics (better health outcomes) than we do.  ALL of them also spend less of their GDP on health care.

Switzerland and Germany use highly regulated, private insurance companies and everyone is required to have insurance.  France, Spain, Italy, Scandinavian countries all have a single payer, government unit that pays for health care.  Britain has a dual system.  National Health Service has physicians as employees and owns hospitals or you can buy private insurance from a private insurance company and go to private physicians and hospitals.

There are several models out there and all of them have their drawbacks, but all of them are better and less expensive than what we have now.

[Cricket]

The problem with NotNow (and this is true of most conservatives)  he sees social issues through the same prism: "Every man is an island".

[JC]

Duh.  So those that have not protected themselves with health insurance, and those that have suffered tragic medical disasters, and those who have for what ever reason wound up in circumstances that they think they cannot afford medical insurance think that the USG should provide the insurance to them at little or no cost (except to the taxpayers).  Wow, that's news.  

Just out of curiosity Cricket, what "other countries" are you referring to?

You consistently fail to address the 800-lb gorilla in the room, NotNow. It simply must be intentional. The problem with healthcare isn't that people are unwilling to pick up a phone a "protect themselves" with health insurance, as you're making it sound. The problem is that health insurance has become so unnecessarily expensive that 1/3'rd of the country cannot afford it. And everyone else is forced to pay the bill for that anyway.

So the net result is that we're already giving free treatment to the "unprotected" who you seem to so revile, and the other 2/3'rds of us are getting gouged on our own costs, while providers and insurers have turned in steadily growing profits. It's a runaway train at this point, totally out of control. At the end of the day maybe it's time to take a step back and take a deep breath and realize that not everything was meant to be a business, and not everything was supposed to be about making money.

+1 !

[Dog Walker]

Well, we could always build a health care system like that in India.  Absolutely world-class medical care if you can afford it and people who die in the streets if they cannot.  And that is NOT a figure of speech.

[Cricket]

That's all we need now in Jacksonville ... a magnet for some Muslim crazies!

[Jumpinjack]

He could join up with some of our city councilmen and gain an even larger audience.

[ChriswUfGator]

Dude you beat me to it! I was going to say Don Redman already cornered the market on religo-bigotry here...

[civil42806]

how in hell did this move from burning the koran to a health care issue.  

[civil42806]

Oh by the way the latest take from the religion of peace.  Am amazed by the newly found sensitivity of our resident progressives about religion.

http://www.seattleweekly.com/2010-09-15/news/on-the-advice-of-the-fbi-cartoonist-molly-norris-disappears-from-view/

[Cricket]

Pastor Jones will have to ask his congregation for a special offering this Sunday.

Orlando, Florida (CNN) -- The city of Gainesville, Florida, plans to send a bill estimated at more than $180,000 to Pastor Terry Jones for security costs surrounding his controversial threat to burn Qurans on the anniversary of the September, 11, 2001, attacks, a police spokeswoman said Friday.

Police agencies spent more than a month working on security plans to ensure the community surrounding Jones' Dove World Outreach Center -- the planned site of the burning -- was safe, according to Gainesville police spokeswoman Cpl. Tscharna Senn.

Jones also told authorities he received numerous death threats because of the planned protest, which he called off amid increasing pressure from world leaders.

The Gainesville Police Department said it spent more than $100,000 while the Alachua County Sheriff's Office spent an estimated $80,000 during the weekend of the planned demonstration.

"We have 286 sworn officers and almost everyone was working either at the Dove Center or at other soft targets," Senn said. "Unless you were sick or injured you were working" the day the burning was to take place.

Officers secured malls in the region, the University of Florida's football stadium and areas around the church in the days leading up to the planned event.

Jones said Friday that the church was "not aware that we would be billed for security."

"If we had known this in advance, then we would have refused to have security," he said.

Some have accused authorities of over preparing.

"It's easy to say we over prepared but if something horrible had happened we would have been criticized for being unprepared," Senn said.

The planned burning prompted demonstrations by Muslims around the world this week, including Iran, Afghanistan, Somalia and India.

[finehoe]

This country was founded with a great distrust of government, and a great respect for the empowerment of the individual.  It is a concept that I agree with heartily. 

I find it curious that so many who are rightly suspicious of big government seem to have no problem at all with an individual's rights being crushed if it's a big corporation doing the crushing, 'cause you know, it's the "free market" at work.

[buckethead]

I find it curious that this discussion has found it's way so far off topic.