It's fantastic, if you're six years old.

I think you have to go to The Street of Small Gods now.

"Tyranny, because it needs no consent, may successfully rule over foreign peoples, it can stay in power only if it destroys first of all the national institutions of its own people."

— Hannah Arendt,"The Origins of Totalitarianism"

Certainly, observing the destruction of (organizations genuinely representing) the peoples' welfare/interests* serves as an important indicator or tyranny, but it cannot be solely relied upon for detecting the existence or emergence of tyranny: Consent itself can be tampered with (e.g., rigged elections, "approved" candidates (e.g., Larry Lessig's "Lesterland"), etc.), or it can be "manufactured" outright.

I think that perhaps by using various techniques, the illusion of both consent and freedom can be maintained, thus allowing tyranny to run amok, unburdened with widespread resistance.

* Having not read "The Origins of Totalitarianism," I've made an assumption here as to what Arendt was referring to as encompassing "national institutions."

And what's with this bullshit of calling Romneycare a "Republican plan"?

You bullshit. It's the same plan the GOP has been pushing since Heritage Foundation came up with it as an alternative to what the Democrats were pushing in the early 90's.

Republican Herbert Walker Bush ran on it in '92.

Republican Robert Dole ran on it in '96.

Republican Mitt Romney finally signed it into law in 2006.

But when a Democrat signs on, you guys all of a sudden lose your minds (insert Joker meme here). Good news everyone, gun control is now a Republican issue, because Mike Bloomberg supports it!

Shorter version: if you can't afford to pay, go die quietly in the street like the good little serf that you are. It's your fucking fault your last name isn't Walton, or that you

1. Even if we stripped the military budget to zero it wouldn't pay for your entitlements.

If Britain is like the U.S., and their advertized war budget is half of what it actually is, the U.K. could slash their own war spending, pay for the entire UHS budget and still be one of the more heavily armed countries on the planet.

2. As to eating the rich, there are several problems with this little idea of yours. For one, even if you took all their money it still wouldn't pay for your entitlements. There isn't enough. What is more, you confuse wealth with income. If you confiscate their wealth you'll be eating the goose that lays the golden eggs. You'll eat well for a day. And starve there after.

Shorter version: the usual "job creator" bullshit. Rich people don't create jobs. Demand does. Funny how working stiffs have to work hard at crappy jobs even though they pay crappy money, but we just couldn't find CEO's to do the job unless they make in one year what would take their employees hundreds of years to earn.

What happens if we taxed the richest people at Eisenhower tax rates? They'd still be the richest people in the country!

And of course we all know, health insurance reform has no change whatsoever on peoples health care

Is it change worth enrich a corrupt industry that was dying under it's own weight? Change worth establishing the precedent that the public can be forced to buy junk products from for-profit industries? Change worth kicking a public option down the road anther decade at least, and longer than that for single payer?

Except for people who now get healthcare, people who get cheaper health care etc.

On the backs of the poor, in the ultimate form of Lemon Socialism. A working stiff making $22k a year pays the exact same amount in deductibles and copays as a person making $66k per year or a $122k per year. So what's going to happen? The working stiff is going to be paying premiums for care he cannot afford, thus making it cheaper for the middle and upper classes.

This bill comforts the already comforted, while leaving those most in need of help still high and dry.

It shows that the republicans were never really against the plan.

It shows there are huge amounts of partisan hacks on both sides of the aisle. Democrats are hacks for pushing Single Payer for decades, only to hail the Heritage Foundation plan as the greatest thing since Medicare once it was their guy pushing it. And Republicans, who have been trying to push mandates for over 20 years, now scream bloody socialist murder once their own plan was passed by a Democrat.

So you're a mundane moran, as opposed to a blindly partisan tribalist moran?

Okay, noted.