SICKO

SEE THIS MOVIE NOW! I LOVED IT! 3 SNAPS UP!



It was #2 at the box office last weekend and I pray it's #1 this weekend. Forget buzz, I hear an Oscar ROAR in the distance! Unlike his Bush-bashing Farenheit 9/11, the national frustration with health care crosses party lines and Moore's treatment of what could be a dull list of facts is transormed into an entertaining expose with humor, a few tears, a ton of information and valuable comparisons between our health "care" system vs those of other countries, including even Cuba. We lose in comparison to each country, and we've dropped on the list of health care quality to 37, right above Slovenia. (A cameo from Sascha Baron Cohen as a Slovenian quack would have been heaven!) And as wronged as one feels hearing the horror stories of doctors who are given bonuses by denying insurance valid claims, Moore doesn't just gripe. He clearly demonstrates that in fact, we're the only country in the developed West WITHOUT some form of socialized medicine. So it leaves the audience with a feeling of hope--and a burst of entusiastic applause at the screening I attended. One pivotal moment came from an interview with an english MP, who when asked how the UK's National Health Care System came about, said (paraphrasing) "If we have the means with which to go out and kill people, surely we should have the means to care for our sick." Can I get an amen? And can someone please show this to W and the goons at the Pentagon?

One point that it is touched on but not driven home is that you can't have free health care and college education without much higher taxes. But after hearing several cases of folks with insurance whose claims are denied on insane technicalities, I think I'd rather pay higher taxes than shell out astronomical insurance fees each month and still have the insurance companies reject your claims. And I'd pay extra taxes for free college education, if you qualify. Ah hah! An incentive not to be stupid! This would send Paris Hilton, Britney Spears and "professional" wrestling lobbyists to fight for their careers if this nation had a fucking clue anymore. And the fantastic point is made that if the government keeps us stupid and poor, we are much easier to govern. How are you going to protest the 2003 bill which Bush signed into law which gives drug companies the right to charge whatever they wish IF YOU AREN'T AWARE OF IT? OR EVEN AWARE OF WHAT A BILL IS? Can you easily run out in the streets to join a protest if you several mouths to feed an can't afford a baby sitter? Can you write a blog slamming the Bush administration if you are working 3 jobs? Can you donate to a political party or hell, even Greenpeace, if you can't pay off your student loan or your damn job's been outsourced? (This has morphed into my own soapbox now, but it's not too different from Moore's.)

The president has the lowest approval rating of any in history and so does this bloody war which we're losing. Why aren't we out in the streets shrieking to take back our government from a corrupt puppet of corporate greed? I marvel at the insanity of this notion of a "surge". In other words, everyone is sick of the war, but we'll fund a "surge"--which means nothing but continuing the war! Just slap a new name on it and we'll buy that newly lip-sticked pig. Speaking of which, it's time for me to get in drag for one of my 3 jobs that I need to pay for my good-for-nothing health insurance with HIP, a company so bottom of the barrel that few doctors are even in their blasted network and a few receptionists have even smirked when I mention it!

SEE THIS MOVIE NOW! LET MOVIE STUDIOS KNOW THAT THEY ARE RIGHT TO INVEST IN MOVIES WHICH TELL THE TRUTH TO OFFSET THE PROPAGANDA WHICH PASSES AS NEWS! A GLOBAL WARMING FLICK (THE 11TH HOUR) PRESENTED BY LEONARDO DICAPRIO IS ON IT'S WAY AS WELL. SICKO IS NOT THE FEEL-GOOD MOVIE OF THE YEAR, BUT YOU'LL FEEL FUCKING MAGNIFICENT IF IT STIRS YOU TO SOME SORT OF ACTION WHICH MIGHT CURE OUR AILING HEALTH CARE SYSTEM. BEFORE YOU START TO AILING YOURSELF AND YOUR CRAP INSURANCE COMPANY REFUSES TO PAY FOR YOUR EXPENSES.

PS: For what it's worth, CNN checked out Moore's facts and figures and they on the money.