Actually, claiming that the private sector is more efficient in all things is also ridiculous. Medicare/Medicaid has lower overhead costs than most insurance companies. It's actually run pretty efficiently, but the problems come from the Congress mismanaging the funding for it, and things like not adjusting for inflation. Private insurance costs are actually rising much faster than Medicare costs.

Health care is an area where having the largest insured population makes the most sense. We have already decided, as a country, that anyone in need of health care will get it. You won't be turned away if you show up to the ER with an injury or illness. We just couldn't possibly have come up with a more wasteful or expensive way to provide that care than the system we have now. The health care bill improves it a little, but doesn't go nearly far enough to bring down costs to something that is sustainable for us.

People, especially those on the right, complained about health care rationing throughout the whole health care debate, yet that's exactly what we see all over the place right now. It's absolutely rampant with insurance companies. If you're going to provide health care to everyone anyway, which we're already doing, it makes much more sense to design a proper universal health care system from the start. Yeah, it'll piss off anyone with a stake in the status quo, but we need to do what's right for the country, not what's right for insurance companies or what makes doctors the most cash. Yeah, they should be well-paid for what they do, but the current system is unsustainable.

You don't really have a wife, do you?

And the Tea Party people are just morons that will get yet another Republican elected. We're doomed.

That isn't what scares me. What scares me is that the Tea Partiers are so fucking stupid that they are voting for Republicans. One of the two parties (and really the worse of the two) that enabled the massive fraud that brought us to the brink of economic collapse. Who removed regulations in order to allow AIG sell insurance on bonds to people who didn't even own the bonds with no need to report the sales and no requirement for a capital reserve to cover that insurance? Republicans. Yet the Tea Partiers act like these guys are the ones that will save us. That or they let their social conservative interests blind them and start supporting insane people like Bachmann, or corrupt politicians like Perry, or lying nutjobs like Gingrich. How the hell are we going to change anything if we keep pulling from the same pool of assholes?

Ahh, yes. Reality's well-known liberal bias rears its head again...

That makes no sense at all. I'm pretty sure everyone knows we have a climate. Whether you believe climate change exists or not, there is plenty to study, and many more answers to find. There's also the potential to find and correct flaws in our current understanding, and to further refine it.

Yep, and I'm fine with that. It's only at the high school and lower grades that I don't think it should be introduced. At least not without the necessary foundations in history, language, literature, philosophy, logic, science, etc. Basically you're evaluating a whole mess of literature tied to belief systems. There are groups of people everywhere that actually believe that one or more of these various stories are absolutely true. Students need to be equipped to deal with that.

I don't disagree with that, and most colleges/universities do have courses in these things. I don't find it terribly useful in primary schools, as they have so many more fundamental things to teach that it would be very difficult to approach this subject without requiring all sorts of other courses first. Not to mention, parents tend to get all worked up if their kid hears anything about religion other than their own particular brand of dogma. Once you get to college-level, it is more open, and the students should have at least a somewhat better foundation for it.

I'll give you the word "outmoded", as it does represent a value judgement. I would substitute "ancient" instead probably. The statement is basically correct though, that religion shouldn't be taught in schools, unless it's specifically a study of such myths (aka fairy tales). There's no real evidence to support them as anything else, so aside from simple understanding of the stories, their literary value, or their impact on culture, there's not much to teach. You have the constitutional right to talk to whatever imaginary friends you like. You just don't get to advertise those friends in the schools.

One word: Artillery.

It shows that government can do something unbelievably valuable, that others can't or won't invest in. We've all benefited immensely from it though.

Which logic could you possibly be referring to?

Yep, when you allow magic into the equation, the sky's the limit! Or wait, no it's not! No limits!

I haven't read it cover to cover, but I've read more than enough of it over the years to know that aside from some common sense stuff and good old folksy wisdom, much of which predates the Bible anyway, most of the rest of it is just very boring or very crazy. That these things have been reinterpreted (read: spun) so much over the years that people get less of the crazy in sermons is probably a good thing. I'm not entirely convinced of that though, as it also allows them to have misunderstandings about their religion. Then again, religion is rather meaningless in the overall scheme of things, as it is only actions that matter. Most Christians haven't read the Bible cover to cover anyway. If they could make any sense of it, they'd probably be rather shocked by some of what they find.

There are about as many interpretations of the scripture as there are believers. People generally believe what they want. Of course these days it seems that these fringe groups are growing larger and embracing the crazy wholeheartedly. Look at Perry or Bachmann and the crazy stuff that they believe. Look at who was leading Perry's prayer event. These guys are truly nuts, and they're running for the most powerful position in the world.