Weekend Open Thread

Happy palindrome day 01-02-2010! Welcome to the 2nd day of 2010. For me it’s already much better than the 2nd day of 2009. One year ago today I didn’t know if I would have a job in a month. Now the economy still sucks but there are definite signs of improvement.

Humor? I don’t get it.

National Review’s Cliff May had a brief item the other day, headlined, “A Bipartisan Proposal.” It read, in its entirety:

Step (1): Return all Gitmo detainees to Yemen.

Step (2): Use Predator missiles to strike the baggage-claim area 20 minutes after they arrive.

Just an idea.

Glenn Greenwald reminds us that, according to U.S. officials, many of the Yemeni detainees have done nothing wrong and are not considered a threat. The “idea” of executing them, based on nothing but their country of origin, is, of course, insane. Indeed, if an outfit like al Qaeda in Yemen wanted to convince potential recruits that the United States is hostile towards Yemenis, it’s not hard to imagine an item like May’s being exploited.

May later said his item was an attempt at “humor,” and accused Greenwald of failing to recognize a “parody.” (It’s unclear who or what May was parodying; perhaps he meant “satire”?)

I can’t count how many times a conservative had said something completely insane and then said it was just a joke. These jokes usually involve killing someone. This item just reminds me of how much we’ve screwed up the prosecution of terrorists. We can’t tell good guys from bad guys and we can’t prosecute the actual bad guys.

Multimillionaire Rush Limbaugh says there’s nothing wrong with the U.S. health care system.

At a New Year’s Day news conference in Honolulu, Limbaugh said Friday that tests revealed nothing medically wrong with his heart.

Severe chest pains landed him in a Hawaii hospital Wednesday.

“The pain was real, and they don’t know what caused it,” Limbaugh said.

Doctors said he did not have a heart attack and he doesn’t suffer from heart disease.

Turning from his health to politics, Limbaugh declared Friday he got the best health treatment in the world “right here in the United States of America.”

“I don’t think there’s one thing wrong with the United States health system,” Limbaugh said.

Our doctors and facilities are the equal of anyone in the world. Unfortunately, the system only works for some people and not for others. Multimillionaires never have to worry about health care. I’ll bet he doesn’t even need to buy insurance since he’s rich enough to pay for his treatment. It’s the working poor and the middle class that has the problem. Rush does realize the problem is access right?