[Buddha-l] Fsat Mnifdlunses?

[Richard Hayes]

On Aug 15, 2009, at 5:45 PM, Dan Lusthaus wrote:

>
>> You'll be wanting to get a copy of the Canadian news weekly magazine
>> MacLeans.
>
> It's amazing how you leap to conclusions. Anyone who expresses  
> reservations
> about the Canadian health care system must be working for the  
> insurance
> companies or a Palin-ite? You've taken ad hominems (conflated with  
> straw
> men) to a new level.

Oddly enough, I thought I was joking, and I assumed it would be  
obvious that I was.

> Would I
> want to trade the current US system for the current Canadian system?  
> As far
> as I can see, both suck.

The Canadian systems are all vastly superior to the dysfunctional US  
situation, which is much too disorganized to count as a system. Still,  
even more that a collection of several good provincial health-care  
plans, as Canada has, I'd much rather have something along the lines  
of one of the European plans or the Japanese plan.

> I see nothing in what is allegedly passing for a debate about health  
> care in
> the US that has the slightest bit to do with what is wrong with  
> health care
> in the US, so for all the bluster and polarization, a "cure" is not  
> likely
> to emerge. That's tragic.

It is, indeed. What passes for health care in the US is a prescription  
for duḥkha. Even thinking about it as a Madhyamaka does not provide  
much relief from the miseries of American health care.

> Pretending I'm a Republican (which I am not, and never have been)  
> won't
> solve anything.

Sorry, but this one went right over my head. Are you pretending to be  
a Republican? I hadn't noticed, nor had I given your political  
affiliation any thought.