Tom Lehrer retired from performing because, he said, satire became obsolete when Henry Kissinger won the Nobel Peace Prize. If that killed satire, by now it has been consigned to eternal damnation, and forever forgotten.
But now I'm starting to think that words have become obsolete, along with rational thought. Pat Robertson endorses Rudy Giuliani for president? Now to me, that's equivalent to an endorsement from Charles Manson, but Rudy is happy to have it. I see a syllogism here:
Pat Robertson believes that the 9/11 attack happened because God withdrew his protection from the U.S. as punishment for our tolerance of homosexuality and abortion.
The abortion and homosexuality tolerating Rudolph Giuliani's main claim to the presidency is that he is the best candidate to protect the U.S. against another terrorist attack.
Ergo, Pat Robertson believes that Rudy Giuliani is more powerful than God.
QED
Of course, we don't expect the free press, guardian of our liberties, to point that out. Why should they? Diane Feinstein voted to confirm Michael Mukasey as Attorney General because she's afraid of the prospect of "diminished transparency" in the Justice Department. Dana Perino, referring to Pervez Musharraf, tells the assembled guardians that it is never reasonable to restrict civil liberties in the name of fighting terrorism.
If they started pointing out that stuff politicians say doesn't make sense, why there would be no end to it, would there?
Discussion of public health and health care policy, from a public health perspective. The U.S. spends more on medical services than any other country, but we get less for it. Major reasons include lack of universal access, unequal treatment, and underinvestment in public health and social welfare. We will critically examine the economics, politics and sociology of health and illness in the U.S. and the world.
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