My comments about environmentalism are directed at your original post. My comments about universal health care are directed at the post by Uncle B. The age if this post is completely irrelevant as long as it remains a part of the World Wide Web. I found its content so misguided and inflammatory that I was compelled to fire back with both barrels, as it were.

I’m assuming from your final sentence that your comments often aren’t approved at websites. Here’s why: You’re ranting about something TOTALLY unrelated to my post. There’s not a single mention of universal health care in this post – you’re talking about a passing comment made by another commenter over a month ago. Address him, not me.

Having said that, I think environmental concerns are generally overrated today. Environmentalism has become the new religion of the 21st century, and self-proclaimed experts like Al Gore have become its high priests.

Once these “experts” have a) conclusively proven a link between mankind’s activities and global warming, and b) proven that the current global warming observed is anything more than a normal cyclical change in our climate, then perhaps we can enact laws that will take us back to the stone age.

As a self-identifying “rabid capitalist”, I wonder how long until the sparkle wears off Saint Obama’s crown. Pin your hopes on him if you wish, but I will remain cynical until I actually see a greener, safer, and more prosperous world take shape under his leadership. I maintain the view that this man will not solve the world’s problems (nor will any other) because self-serving greedy mankind is himself the problem.

All this adulation for Obama as something akin to a new messiah is sounding somewhat similar to the “peace and love” movement of the sixties. And when the euphoria finally wears off, the disillusionment will probably be a great deal worse than it was then.

I found your mention of universal health care a bit too much. Is that really the highest ideal you can imagine for your little utopia?

My own mother in Canada was a ten-year “beneficiary” of a universal health care system that failed her miserably. She often had to drive to other provinces – or even the U.S. – to pay out-of-pocket for critical tests and treatment that she desperately needed because the waiting list was months long in her home province. She finally passed away of breast cancer at age 56 because overworked physicians fumbled her file, botched her tests, and bungled her diagnoses. This continued repeatedly over the course of at least three years. Her illness was diagnosed early and she stood to make a full recovery if the system had provided the correct care in a timely fashion.

My point? In Canada, a patient is just another name on a form. In the U.S., a patient is a paying customer. Health care is America’s number one industry, and I suggest it should stay that way, because the banking and auto industry sure as hell won’t put bread on the table.

Want universal health care? Go out and get a job with benefits that include health insurance! No jobs available? Perhaps we’d better remove some restrictions from those high-emission industries like coal, gas, oil, transportation, mining, and (gasp) even auto making.

I do support “safety net” public health care for those who are disabled, unemployed, etc. But corporate American should pay for working America’s health care.

Frankly, I think things are heading in a very wrong direction. Not to rain on your party – by all means, you have the right to pursue happiness, whatever you perceive it to be. But I reserve the right to say, “I told you so” in a few years’ time.

Forgive me if I sound bitter, but I suppose I really am. Allow this comment to stand if you dare; my money says you probably won’t.