laws are made by man, not by God

[psychrofon]

God does not have an opinion about patent laws for drugs. Most people would like to see shorter patent windows so they can get essential drugs cheaper (i dont care how much Viagra costs, but AIDS medicine is essential to LIFE). you know who doesnt want that change? pharm companies and some of their investors (the ones who have more money than drug

Comments

[canadian_fbi]

this is partially in response to your comment in my blog - you're more likely to read it here. i don't really think you can get rid of poverty, any more than you can get rid of sadness or obesity or things like that. even welfare state france has a 6.5% poverty rate. that's more just semantics though than actual disagreement with anything you said. the minimum wage is a joke. i ran $5.15 through the inflation calculator and $5.15 back when they increased it to that amount is worth $6.25 now. so even the most basic of increases should put it to that level. who was the one saying that government programs create a cycle of poverty

[psychrofon]

interesting article. i read a long, but mostly interesting diatribe on conservatism at dailykos the other day (the walk back one). i think its interesting how the ideology of these people has begun to mimic the mental structure of their prominent base

[canadian_fbi]

the problem with ignoring reality is that sooner or later, reality catches up with you and bites you in the ass. because the bite will be bigger the longer you stay detached from reality, i'm hoping that the wake-up call comes sooner rather than later. but then, i think deep down you do too, when you talk about wishing that the abandonment of reason leads to suffering. eventually, it has to. you can't keep running huge deficits, ignoring looming problems, and doing what we're doing forever. i would have thought that katrina was a big enough wake-up call since it hit on most all of our problems - neglect of the poor, energy shortages, environmental neglect, leadership asleep at the wheel, but maybe not. hopefully in november it will be sufficient, otherwise it will have to get worse before it gets better.

[psychrofon]

yeah, if things don't change course the Republicans could be in permanent minority status again for a long time, especially if they continue to fail at governing.

things on our side: humanity improves over time, people find it hard to hate an entire group once they have interactions with them (i.e. Chris Rock says "if you hate gays, your son's gonna be a fruit"...), eventually there will be enough poor evangelicals who say bullshit about gay/gun/abortion/etc. and say why don't i have a job?

the only problem is that they are prone to "suck it up for Christ" and delude themselves as long as possible (my unemployed, Rush-loving uncle comes to mind. his mind is trapped in "Kerry wants to kill babies" world.

that's my hope. not that Democrats become a stop-gap, but that they begin a strong legacy of effective government, where partisanship is less important and intelligence, character, and ideas rule.

I think the 50s and 60s might have been like that, except really ignorant.