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From an old Onion story about Wild Bill.
Remember that time TV host Bill Maher took a swipe at Slovenia and some other countries? Well, he’s at it again. Last time it was America’s poor showing vis-à-vis Slovenia when it came to believing in evolution. This time, in an article for Salon that talks about health care, he chides Slovenia as being “years away from discovering dentistry.” What a pecker.
Luckily, nobody reads Salon.
(Thanks to A. Medved, who I’d like to remind everyone, is up for a Satin Pajama Award!)
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Well Maher’s an idiot anyway. Some of his points are not very good ones to bring up. I especially like his comments about France’s non-reliance on oil from the Middle East. That’s nice…I guess he would have rather paid today’s prices for gas the last 10-15 years living over in Europe. Only the last 3-4 years have gas prices come close to European gas prices and I believe it’s still cheaper in the U.S. by a little. So we should rely on Russian oil instead. Beautiful!
Honestly I love these people who think it’s as easy as copying one country’s system and that’s it. And really I don’t remember any of his liberal friends in Congress championing the French system lately, have I missed that? Most of the government solutions to these problems are just throwing more money at the system and hoping it’ll fix itself. Good luck with that!
Finally his comment “The Founding Fathers were erudite, well-read, European-thinking aristocrats — they would have had nothing in common with, and no use for, an ill-read xenophobic bumpkin like George W. Bush.” Hmm, well I think the Founding Fathers wouldn’t have much use for Bill or his liberal buddies either then. I’d like to think they’d actually like people around them to actually do something not just try to feign attempts at fixing problems just to look good in the public’s eye.
I’m relieved. This means I’ve been to an imaginary dentist a week ago.
Anyway, Maher is, sadly enough, falling for the exact same game he claims to denounce. Shrieking in every sentence of a two-page long editorial about how America should be more like France is not that very much different from O’Riley’s ‘Let’s all hate France’ campaigns. The polarity is different, the eggheadness is the same. Too bad, I thought Maher had more common sense.
(btw, Michael, the link is kinda hard to get to - there is some excess stuff in front of the actual link)
Voted! Go isoglossia.
Michael Moore also “criticizes” Slovenia about the health system - in his new Sicko. He put a part of an episode of Naša mala klinika in his documentary when they are sawing off a leg to show how “primitive” our health care is. Even more than American. Can’t really agree with that. I really don’t know what’s up with that - do they have something against us or they just like to build up their ego with comparing themselves with a country that a majority of population doesn’t know it exists?
Michael, I don’t want to be a nit-picker here, but the Onion story you linked to is quite clear on this point: Maher isn’t a pecker, he’s a wanker.
Thanks for your support, Klemen (and of course Michael). I really need some satin pajamas, and am not above whoring myself out to get them.
WTF is Bill Maher?!?
Jagoda: It’s not us per se that are on the line here, just our slot on the ranking. If Trinidad and Tobago was in the position just above the US, they would pick at them. All this doesn’t really get at me as much as it could.
Cannot open the incriminating page
But Issoglosia got my vote :)))
peng: There’s some misplaced stuff in front of the link. Try this: www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2007/05/04/france/index_np.html
Maher’s a comedian. What I find more offensive are the comments of wanker, er, wise respected NYT pundit Nick Kristof, who finds it shocking and scandalous that primitive countries like Slovenia and the Czech Republic have better infant mortality rates than the inherently superior USA. And unlike Maher, who actively urges Americans to take lessons from more successful countries, people like Kristof are a major obstacle to reforming the crappy American health care system because they like to keep telling us that a single-payer system is not politically feasible/possible. See his May 21, 2007 and January 31, 2006 columns.
Incidentally, someone already came to Slovenia’s defense over at Salon–here’s the letter, in case you missed it:
letters.salon.com/opinion/feature/2007/05/04/france/view/index.html?show=ec&order=asc
Right on about France — ummm, not so much about Slovenia
Fabulous article, as always. And very true. I live in Italy and know the area around Paris fairly well and frankly, especially for the past seven years, it has become increasingly clear that life in Western Europe is infinitely better, on almost every single plane you can think of, to life in America. I can’t even imagine having to worry about health care costs. My son’s high school curriculum includes art history and philosophy. the state university system costs something like $1,500 a year. People live longer and better here. Even the newspapers report news. I get real news about the real world from La Repubblica and Le Monde, much more than from the New York Times or the Washington Post. Line up ten politicians for any political party in Europe and you will not find 9 of them refuting evolution.
However, Bill, just so you know — Slovenia is a delightful little country, very beautiful, quite modern without having given up its soul, and yes, they have dentristy. Don’t know about Costa Rica because I’ve never been there. But medical care in Slovenia is quite acceptable.
My last point — watching the implosion of the US from afar is extremely painful. it used to be a beacon of light, a world of smart, free, lively people. What happened?
ejennings
Perhaps Maher didn’t really have Slovenia in mind but fell prey to the old Molvania/Slovenia mix-up. You’ve heard of Molvania , right? The land untouched by modern dentistryLinked text?
I really appreciate that last part from the letter Jean cited:
“My last point — watching the implosion of the US from afar is extremely painful. it used to be a beacon of light, a world of smart, free, lively people. What happened?”
Hey pirano, here’s what happened: they all moved to Slovenia!
@jagoda, most Americans have NO idea that it’s easier to get dental work done in most of the Balkans, than in large areas of the U.S. The problem here is the insurance companies are Sacred, Holy and Inviolate, and Thou Shalt Not Have Socialized Medicine.
And yeah the Molvanija/Slovenija mix-up.
Makes me mad.
@ whoever thinks all the good Americans moved to Slovenia, no, some are planning moves to other places…..
Reading about all the good Merkins moving out of the country or planning to do so, and how the good ole USA is imploding before our very eyes - I am ashamed to admit I’m currently looking at buying an appartment or a house in Colorado.
:blush:
OK, that should be “apartment”, not “appartment”.
Dysxelia skriets agnia.
Bill Maher is an idiot who shoots his mouth off about nearly anything whether he has any real insights or information or not. He calls himself a comedian and yet he isn’t funny. He calls himself a commentator and yet he is mostly uninformed. He is the worst kind of American cultural export and he’d do us all a service if he would disappear from public life.
Whoever thinks that Slovenia has not yet discovered dentistry is really wrong. Moore should do better researh before going on telling lies. But now some Americans will know what Slovenia is. It’s not another hurricane or food or even country in the USA (some of this answers where told in the interview where Americans were questioned “What is Slovenia?”).
Slovenia is the pearl of central Europe and we are as developed much as anyother county. And we now geografhy
Whoever thinks that Slovenia has not yet discovered dentistry is really wrong. Moore should do better researh before going on telling lies. But now some Americans will know what Slovenia is. It’s not another hurricane or food or even country in the USA (some of this answers where told in the interview where Americans were questioned “What is Slovenia?”).
Slovenia is the pearl of central Europe and we are developed as much as anyother county. Unlike SOME Americans we know were European countries lie