One less annoyance on TV?

This morning as I was walking into the metro I received, as I usually do, a Washington Post Express. While waiting for the train to arrive, I began to read the stories about the Green Bay Packers defeating the Washington Red Skins, the rate of cancer deaths falling and Secretary Rice's new round of Middle East talks. But then I arrived upon page 38. Along with Ben Affleck's "I'm Bad at Acting" headline and T.I.'s "Celebrity the First Caught Ridin' Dirty While Parked" headline, I saw a headshot of "The View" co-host Elisabeth Hasselback. And what did the headline associated with her story say? ... "One Less Annoyance on TV." Interesting. Though the actual text did not mention her conservative view, however, it is easy to correlate the headline with her opinions.

So, why am I writing about this? Well, because it annoys me.

Why is Elisabeth deemed an "annoyance?" Oh, wait, it's because she's not afraid to let her conservative beliefs be known. She's not afraid of Rosie or Joy Behar and she persists when she is berated and told her opinions are wrong.

I understand the headlines in the "People" section are meant to be amusing. But this particular statement crossed a line. It referred to a person's beliefs and values as "annoying."

This annoys me. It annoys me everytime someone who subscribes to the ideology of so-called "love&compassion" believes someone that fights for their beliefs is annoying or wrong or shouldn't have a "soap box" with which to express these beliefs.

It also annoys me when a person advocating what they deem a good program has to criticize the other side with viscious words such as:

"they are a pitchfork-wielding mob of hate-filled sociopaths who saw an opportunity to extract their pound of flesh from some random and defenseless family that had dared to align themselves with their political opponents. That's pretty sound as explanations go."

Here's a question posed by the author of the aforementioned article:

"What, for instance, would Bush, Malkin et al say to a woman in her 30s with an infant child and a husband who wants stay at home as the primary caregiver, but can't find affordable health insurance on the open market?"

My usual response to people on the left asking questions such as this is, well, if you are so concerned for families without (fill in the blank), why don't you contribute your own money and ask others who feel the same concerns to donate and then you can sponsor (fill in the blank) for the family.

My biggest problem with social programs such as the SCHIP is that it takes away money from people who have worked hard at their jobs and are therefore able to afford to insure themselves and it gives it to people who expect the government to give them handouts and are therefore unmotivated to work harder or to be personally responsible for themselves and their family. This misuse of the system ruins it for everyone, but it is nearly impossible to fix.

Continuing with the discussion of healthcare:

I found a post on the DailyKos saying that Democrats are more trusted and are believed to be able to do a better job with regard to healthcare. Here's a link to the results of the poll.

Let's take a look at the CBS News Poll, Sept. 14-16, 2007.
From 9/14-16/07, 42% stated they were very dissastisfied with the quality of healthcare BUT from 2/23-27/07, only 28% claimed by be very dissastified. This is a huge increase in the number of people dissastisfied with the quality of healthcare, a 14 point increase, actually.

Could this be because of the proliferation of healthcare coverage in the media? Could it be because the mainstream news media is tellling us to think about the healthcare system in America? Or could it be because the poll was skewed (I believe it is possible to make a poll say what you want it to)?

I honestly don't know. I despise insurance companies and their stupid policies and ways of doing business. But do I think the government should get involved? No. No matter who tries to fix it or what party is involved, the government will just screw things up worse.

As Ronald Reagan once said, "The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.'"