“Or else what?” I hear you ask. Well may you ask. My local fire department has now adopted the practice (totally illegal in many states but not West Virginia apparently – of billing anyone who uses their services who hasn’t coughed up the “voluntary” donation.

What a fine shining example of capitalism. Making money out of other people’s misery. And don’t think for one second that if you have insurance and the fire department bills you that they will cover the cost – insurance companies are fighting that one and refusing to pay up. So… if you haven’t met their demands donated to them but you do have insurance it’s probably cheaper to let your house burn.

And what happens if your neighbor calls them out because your house is on fire? Who gets the bill then? Inquiring minds (well.. mine anyway) want to know.

It’s time this iniquitous practice was stamped out nationwide.

Frankly I’m not prepared to waste my time on this fine example of brain power, suffice to say…

It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you’re a fool, rather than open it and prove it.

This is all about money and profit. Not health care. $1.5 million per day to speak out against the “evils” of universal health care says it all. Is America really dumb enough to fall for this baloney again?

Poor little sausage. Finding a job by herself is obviously all too much for her. Welcome to the real world Trina. Perhaps anyone who has ever had an education could also sue if they can’t find a job. After all… God forbid that anyone anywhere should ever have to take responsibility for their own life. Whatever next?

I am all for colleges helping their students try to get a job, but to hold the college responsible when the student can’t find one they like? Give me a break.

It seems Thompson wants her $70,000 tuition refunded. I assume she will, of course, return her bachelor’s degree and sign an affidavit that she’ll never try to use it in the future. Or is this another fine example of someone wanting something for nothing?

No degree means a life of flipping burgers or such but that’s a small price to pay for getting the tuition back.

Lawyers will take anything to court of course. They don’t care – they’ll get paid either way. But as Thompson is already complaining about mounting debt from student loans I can’t help thinking that sueing wasn’t the smartest move in the playbook.

As someone once said – If you can’t get what you want, you have to take what you can get.

The figures are really quite staggering. An estimated 1,500,000 Americans will declare bankruptcy this year. Now many people would put that down to Americans chasing the myth of the “American Dream” and buying crap that they really don’t need and certainly can’t afford. A new study (to be published in the August issue of The American Journal of Medicine) however, suggests that 60% of those declaring bankruptcy this year will do so because of medical bills.

Apparently this is a 50% increase in a six year period since 2001, when it was only a meagre 46%. Now don’t make the mistake of thinking that all those bankruptcies must be because they didn’t have insurance. They aren’t. Three quarters – I’ll say that again – three quarters will have medical insurance and they will go bankrupt owing an average of $17,749.

Now we’re not talking elective surgery here are we? Nobody, but nobody, gets a nose job just so they can mortgage their house, be unable to pay any other bills and have to declare bankruptcy. Nor are we talking minor complaints and illnesses. We’re talking life-threatening conditions.

How fucking civilized is that?

Taking someone’s house away and forcing bankruptcy just because they had the audacity to want to prevent a loved one from dying.

How could anyone not think that America has the best system in the world?

As a result we seem to have gone on the mailing list of every damn charity out there.

We are very selective about whom we donate to and do not donate to charities that do not conform to the criteria we have. Which is most of them.

And mailing me day after day is not going to get them one cent from me. I don’t like spam online, I do not like it through the mail either. They will all be going in the garbage without even being opened now as they are so prolific. I doubt I am the only one to choose that method of dealing with them.