Left is right

Today is election-day in our country. We're gonna elect members for our parliament and government for the next four years. I have to make up my mind about which party to vote for.

The election is serious stuff. That’s when we do our duty as citizens. We dress up in our best suit and tie and walk with dignity to the poll place. Not anymore. That’s the way my grandparents did it, the generation who had lived through the war, and really understood the value of democracy.

But it’s still important to vote, even though we show up in washed-out jeans and black T-shirts, to put the ballot in the brown envelope. I agree with the election analyst in radio who said: If you don’t vote, you effectively give half of your vote to the guys you don’t like.

Our political landscape Is quite different from e.g. the United States, where the options are only right wing (Democrats) and ultra-right wing (Republicans). We have a much richer fauna of political parties to choose from. We have the right-wing parties (two of them), the Christian-democrats, the social democrats, the socialist party, the left-liberal party, the environmentalists, and the communists.

Usually, but not always, I have voted for the social democrats, the Labor Party. They’ve been in the government office for eight consecutive years now, and I think they need a break. Some years in opposition would be good for them.

I support the general idea of a society of equal opportunities, free education and free health care, and just distribution of wealth and prosperity (and I’m happy to pay about 50% income tax). Therefore, I can’t really imagine voting for the right wing, or any party in their coalition.

So who should I vote for?

Maybe I should vote for the communists this time. I like some of the ideas of Marx and Engels, but experience has shown that the system doesn’t work very well in practice. Marxism doesn’t fit with human nature. I don't want to be ruled by the communists, but it’s good to have one or two of them in the parliament, as watchdogs and whistleblowers, when the bonds between right-wing politicians and Big Corp become too tight.

Yes, I think I’ve found a solution.

But wait, we have two communist parties; the China-communists and the real (Soviet) communists. Hmm … there’s still a choice I need to make.

And after all, the ballot is secret; I won’t tell what I’m actually going to vote >:)

(I took the picture last week, in the Russian ghost town Pyramiden. The Lenin statue is still there, more than 20 years after the fall of the Soviet regime. I guess nobody have bothered to remove the statue in such a remote location.)

Birth certificates

The US national debt is more than 14.000 billion dollars, and the country is close to losing the AAA credit rating.

In the meantime the Republicans and the Tea-Party sheep argue about Obama's birth certificate.

These guys know how to prioritize.

By the way, I was born in Winterland. If you don't believe it, I might be willing to post my birth certificate here >:D

(I admit it: I'm a big fan of Obama, just like I was a fan of Clinton. Nice to get an oportunity to post a picture of the President on this blog. Unfortunately, I've never had the chance to take a picture of Obama, so I stole one on the Internet.)

Health or wealth

The Republicans are back in the House. On their agenda is to stop Obama's health reform.

In my mind, the health of the many is more important than the wealth of the few. But that's obviously an insane idea for the Republicans.

Then the good news: With Republicans like Jack Conway, Christine O'Donnell, Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich in free action, it will hopefully help the Democrats in the next election >:)

A big fucking deal

The president won, and the vice president said the F-word in pure happiness. That’s cool. I like people who dare to say it, in particular when it appears inappropriate (I guess it’s that little rebel in me). The train has started to move, but Obama’s reform is not really a health reform. It’s rather an insurance reform, a step in the right direction, a beginning. But it doesn’t even touch the real problem.

All over, the US health care system is the most inefficient in the world. USA is spending 16% of the GNP on health care, for about half the population. For comparison, Canada and European countries are spending 8-9% of the GNP to give health care for the entire population. And it’s been like this for more than 40 years. Basic health care is offered by public hospitals. We pay for it over the tax bill; about 7% of the tax is for health care and social services, such as one year maternity (or paternity) leave. The rich and wealthy can buy additional services and cosmetic surgery if they want to. Yes, that’s possible, even in the most fucked up “socialist regimes” in Northern Europe (sorry about the F-word, it's just my Tourette again).

The American system is sick, infected by parasites sucking money out of the system; insurance companies, drug companies, hospitals, and lawyers (the lawyer assholes are everywhere). The main purpose of the US system is, not to produce health care for the people, but to make profit for the companies involved. The republicans are their loyal spokesmen and defenders (like they are for the gun industry, and used to be for the tobacco companies).

The health (or insurance) reform limits the insurance companies’ possibilities to refuse insurance due to “pre-existing conditions”, or cancel the insurance if you get sick. That’s insane isn’t it? The health insurance is cancelled when you need it, when you become an expense rather than a source of income for the insurance company.

The hospitals also take their big share of the cake. Some years ago, we lived in Colorado for a while. We didn’t have an insurance, since we were covered by the public health care in Winterland, within reasonable limits. When needing medical care for the kids, we learnt that it was important to tell the doctor that we were self-paying customer. Then the price was greatly reduced compared to treatment covered by insurance.

It’s amazing to see how those opposing the health reform are defending a bad system with such enthusiasm. It’s a good system for the rich and very bad for the poor (like USA in general). I know there are historical reasons why Americans are suspicious to government involvement, and prefer coffee before tea. But there’s no reason to be afraid of King George III anymore. He died in 1820, and is not coming back to force you into the British Commonwealth again (there’s not much left of the Commonwealth anyway).

In general, I think there are a few things that are best handled by government and authorities. This includes road construction, power supply, water supply, and basic health care. This may of course involve commercial sub-contractors to perform the actual work. I know this is crazy European socialist thinking (we call it social democracy), but all over it’s a quite beneficial system for both the rich and the poor.

But who cares about the poor anyway? They’re probably just lazy and stupid. If they were smart, they would have been rich and republican, of course; insurance agents and lawyers and vampires and stuff like that.