they should go try their pick up lines on the sheep and goats.

They do. That's where they get their practice, because the sheep and goats just bleat at them.

I don't know how many times Hubby has stood at the pharmacy desk and said, "So how do I sue the insurance company goons who are denying me this drug for practicing medicine without a license?"

But if a stranger walked up and said something like that, I'd think, who the fuck are you, and why do you think it's okay to talk to me in a manner that assumes a pre-existing intimate relationship with me, and also fuck right the hell off.

Teppy is me.

I seriously don't understand how someone who isn't a complete idiot would believe it.

I don't think they're idiots; I think they're middle-aged men (or older) who seroconverted during Reagan or Bush 1, and learned that the US doesn't give a rat's ass if they take another breath. They've been programmed by a total of 5 Republican Presidential terms to assume that the system of health care in this country is just going to let them to die as the "most moral" choice available (since only faggots who should burn in Hell get HIV, natch).

And now the same Republican pundits who have been pounding that lesson into our (my generation's) head for the last 30 years are suddenly AFRAID that the DEMOCRATS are going to do this to everyone, not just AIDS folk?

Of course they're scared - it's entirely plausible. (Except that it ISN'T, it's FEAR MONGERING, but like I said before - the rational counter-arguments are totally lost in a sea of DEATH DEATH DEATH chants in the media.)

EXACTLY. Seriously - a bureaucrat standing in between you and your doctor? IS WHAT WE HAVE NOW, DUMBASSES.

'Cause the guv'ment can't run anything as well as big business can! Duh!

Except, of course, for that pesky business where actually treating you eats into the profits. Can't have that.

Why are you guys trying to give me a rage attack?!?!?

Sorry! Sorry! I just didn't want to be ragey by myself anymore!

I am right there with you, full of rage blackouts.

I'm a rageaholic. I'm addicted to rageahol! t /Homer Simpson

I am also full of rage. I'm waiting for a patronizing auto-response from "Doc".

I'm not really sure how a stranger would get to know me...I admit I am wary. Shinning sincerity might help

God...that pick-up stuff,I think I can hear Gavin de becker scream from here(although I did enjoy the show "The pick-up Artist" a few years ago, in a guilty-pleasure way...those guys were mostly sweet geeks, though.) But it is creepy recognizing dating techniques from "The Gift of Fear"(as don'ts of course) But seriously, if Dude can create a dynamic where he can make you think you have to defend yourself, you might bend over to prove him wrong. Which is how rapists isolate us from the herd as well, actually, and how eight nurses let one sick psycho overpower and kill them all. (/Gavin de Becker likes empowered women's carrots) Gee, I bet I'm crazy-fun on a date. Well, maybe with Gavin de Becker.

I'd ask the people opposed to public healthcare if they feel we'd be better off without public education either, but I'm worried that the answer would be yes.