An article appeared in Wednesday's edition of the Times Online about how bosses are cracking down on social networks amid leaks of company information:

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/technology/article6801245.ece

We live in a virtual world where false information is passed from one person to another. If that information makes the receiver feel good, the fact that it is false is deemed to be acceptable. Why is this? False information is false information. By making false information acceptable, don't we run the risk that those wanting to influence us for our votes (local councillors, politicians etc.) will give out false information to make us feel good. If we deem that to be acceptable, isn't that what we will get?

Shelagh,

A very unfortunate situation.

Yes, indeed, Alice. It is unfortunate that people are willing to overlook false information as long as it makes them feel good about themselves. The 'net is full of helpful and useful information. However, it is all too easy to give out information that is misleading, especially through email messages on social networking sites and forums.

I belong to a PD forum. It is downight scary--they are able to write long diatrbes about why we shouldn't have healthcare-- how we can't afford it, how wretched they are, but are unable to answer how they would exist without their healthcare and why every other country in the world can afford it.

Are they expressing their own opinions or are they spreading ill-informed information through email messages? We are all entitled to our opinions but, for some, expressing them once is probably once too often!

They are scare-mongering, spreading lies. They make no sense. Everyone is out to kill the old people etc.

I finally said the best thing that could happen would be if we all lost our health care--after all, we are all supposed to be equal.
We might get more interested in a solution if we are all in the same boat. Stony silence.
They are probably plotting the end of me.

Dear Alice,
I never had health insurance until I got Medicare with Social Security.

I could not afford the 4-5 hundred a month and so I went with the local clinic that is set up for migrant workers. I could pay 40 dollars to visit and if I had a need for an anitibiotic they prescribed it. They have no great equipment to diagnose, but they do have the drugs you need to get well. They saved my life many times.

Once Medicare kicked in, I was sent for every test they could get paid to test me for. I believe in the government program. I am not sure how it works, but it works. If I need a heart transplant, it will cost me 250.00. Everyone gets paid, and it does not get better than that. I wish the government would take over home owners insurance.


A lot of drugs like penicillin are available for animals at the local feed stores. I have taken them. They have to be pure for animals as well as humans. I know all the reasons why you should not diagnose yourself. But, you often do what you can afford to do.

Love,
Betty

I took a course many years ago in political acumen. It had nothing to do with the truth. There were named techniques to confuse the public, to promote an idea that appealed to one lobbyist group with the big check, to stop progress, to incite revolt, etc. etc. all excellent brainwashing techniques.

My favorite was to lie until it becomes the truth. Accordingto my class, there is no room in politics for absolute truth. If a politician is accused of a dastardly deed, the rule is to lie it away and move public discussion to a hotter topic.

If a fact is interfering with a political agenda, then make sure it is refuted with such repetition that the original fact is lost.

To promote a lie, repeat it ad nauseum until it filters into the subconscious as something heard so often, it must be the truth. Then dress it up with celebrity speakers for the final kill.

There were many more. As long as the word "political" is part of the activity, honesty is hard to come by.

DK,

Too true.

Betty, I paid nothing for my triple bypass. I feel the pain and suffering and drug withdrawal is enough for anyone to pay.

I can get few folks to agree with me.


Frustrating in the extreme.

Free health care is something I grew up with living in Scotland. Every year millions across the UK are treated and save from an early grave and each year the oppisition party accuse the government of undermining the health system. Still we have free health care for all that need it. Without it we would be no better off than the third world nations. Are the politicians trying to turn the clock back to the bad o' days before the National Health System? Probably as then they could pay themselves bigger back handers. Will they ever get away with it? Possibly but it will take years for them to succeed, as it has become something we expect in this country and would cause to much trouble for which ever Prime Minister bisbanded it. Can private health care help everyone? No because many of us could never afford it and so would find, as in the past, that we wouldn't bother a doctor unless we were carried to him on a stretcher.

When I was in Virginia, the subject of healthcare came up. The person bringing it up was of an obvious political persuasion since they are all singing the same tune. The comments made were, "standing in long lines, substandard care, anything the government runs doesn't work, etc." I explained that I had a great healthcare program that was government controlled - and it works. No long lines, choosing the doctor of your choice, etc., and every one is covered. They are charged a fee based on their income. The government doesn't run it, it controls it. There are private healthcare companies that compete with one another to offer their program. What the government controls is the fact that no one can be turned down for any reason and they also influence the cost. The competition is also a factor in cost control.
I asked the man if he had a good program and he said yes. Then I asked him if he would have the same program if he became unemployed and he said that he would find a program if that ever occured, which he didn't think it would. Once one begins to talk hypothetical, any scenario can be employed to make a point. The fact is that government programs do work. How they are administered can make them work or fail.

For me, it's very simple. Those who have adequate employment and health insurance don't want change. Those who have none or inadequate or exhorbitantly priced insurance and medical bills have no voice. When someone speaks up for them, the speaker is labeled with some ugly word that encourages angry people to shout and and scream and drown reason.

I have no hope for health care reform in the U.S. President Obama had good intentions and so did his administration, but the American people put on their change hats to put him in office (because we were in such a downward spiral we had no other hope), but now there is a rallying point to keep him from doing good and staying there.

There are too many hands in the pot: the legal system earning exhorbitant fees from malpractice; malpractice insurers earning phenomenol profits from doctors afraid of legal fees; the pharmaceutical industry that does its "research" on the backs of the American public while spending $billions on television advertising of the newest drugs that are more expensive and work no better than exisiting generics and other drugs (and have you seen the "salesmen/saleswomen" they send to doctor's offices to push their education and drugs; they look like models); these same pharmaceutical companies have no trouble pushing their drugs off on undeveloped countries when the FDA doesn't pass them; the doctors pay horrific fees for equipment to test patients to death rather than face potential malpractice; the doctors have thousands in medical training loans to pay off so they expect the good life with their high fees; the hospitals charge the costs of processing insurance and the doctors charge the costs of processing insurance as part of their patient fees as well as recouping the costs of serving the uninsured. The shortage of nurses has finally run their wages to a deserved level, but that does add to the cost of care.

There's no hope.

DK said it all.

It's a shame that the American people can't have what many in this country take form granted.