Russell Brand: The Clown Case for Socialized Medicine
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By now, most people have seen rapper Kanye West’s inappropriate comments during singer Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) last weekend. While Swift was talking, West rushed the stage, took away her microphone, and told the audience that the artist Beyonce’s video was more deserving of the award Swift had received.
This shouldn’t surprise anyone. After all, West is the person who claimed, after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, that “George Bush does not care about black people.â€Â President Obama is right about one thing: West is a jackass.
Last night’s Red Eye discussed another jackass at the VMAs, comedian Russell Brand. His political slant is no secret. In the past, he has mocked Sarah Palin’s daughter Bristol because of her out-of-wedlock pregnancy: “That is the safe-sex message of all time. Use a condom or become a Republican.â€Â This past weekend, he made more off-color comments at the VMAs.
Host Greg Gutfeld discussed these:
“When he wasn’t talking about his genitals, Brand joked about the differences between Britain and the U.S., saying, ‘Instead of letting people die in the streets, we have free health care.’  (By ‘we,’ he means ‘England.’) Well, he’s right, Britain doesn’t let people die in the street, it lets them die in the hospital.â€
Gutfeld continued by giving some staggering statistics. Each year, Britain’s National Health Service’s (NHS) patient deaths due to medical errors are as high as 60%, according to January’s issue of Nursing Times. Also, the Telegraph reports that nine out of ten deaths under government care aren’t even reported. Out of some 72,000 NHS patient deaths, only about 3,200 are reported by the National Patient Safety Agency.
Gutfeld continued:
“This is why people truly scared of socialized medicine are those who already have it. Now, I lived in Britain for three years and can verify that folks like Russell Brand didn’t take advantage of Britain’s free health care. No, they paid out of pocket like I did, so we all wouldn’t end up dead on a gurney in an empty hallway.â€
It is hard to argue in favor of socialized medicine with numbers like these. What kind of a corrupt agenda drives people fighting for socialized medicine, when they themselves are surely aware of the statistics? Many people in the U.S. may have been sheltered from these numbers, but we know folks like Brand know the truth, so why, then, wouldn’t he embrace our successful system?
Brand is nothing more than a low-class comedian who dressed up like Osama bin Laden after 9/11. Even though he shouldn’t be politicizing events that are viewed widely by kids, most people know he is just a dirty comic who doesn’t represent the voice of reason on anything. Like West, Brand is a jackass, but at least he gets paid to be one.
Where Have All the Strategic Thinkers Gone?
Since when were comedians considered intelligent enough to be elected federal officials in this country? Oh, sorry Minnesota…LOL!
Actually, I’ve heard of lots of people dying in British streets, often at the hands of young thugs. That darn gun control!
“It is hard to argue in favor of socialized medicine with numbers like these. ”
It’s not about medicine/healthcare – it’s about power & control
Very true…it is about power. When the right people hear these numbers, the arguments are powerless.
Brand was funny in Forgetting Sarah Marshall. I thought he was brilliant until I realized, after seeing him in several other contexts, he had just been playing himself.
Not 20 miles from me at this moment, an enquiry is being conducted at Stafford U K, over the deaths of several hundred patients. Guess what? it’s in secret, so the devastated relatives of the victims cannot find out what is going on. When it is completed, no one will be sacked. They never are. N H S own figures show that in 2006, 34000 patients died avoidable deaths in our hospitals. If you don’t kill this bill you will suffer for years to come.
Exactly, in the know! Minnesota got a clown indeed- I hope they are thrilled now with their new clownship leader.
So why do you suppose these kinds of misrepresentations aren’t made about health care in Canada? Could it be that theclose proximity of both people and evidence ready to refute these assinine claims? Don’t you realise they get their start in the PR departments of huge multi-national insurance corps whose sole purpose is to maximise their own profits at your expense?
The US is the ONLY developed nation that still leaves the health of it’s citizens in the hands of profiteers. Why do the citizens of these nations almost unanimously reject a return to the bad ol’ days of private payment and health care to those who could afford it?
You’re being lied to when stories are transmitted over those viral emails that are sent to conservatives /only/, apparently due to their unique ability to get wound up over things that most people would dismiss out-of-hand. Canadian healthcare, while paid for out of government coffers, is NOT run by the goverment. All the doctors here are in private practices, they choose the treatment you receive, you choose the doctor you see, and the only time the government is seen is when they show up to pay the bill the doctors present them with.
Period. That’s it.
But the bulk purchasing that this gives us drastically cuts down the fees that Big Pharma still extorts from individual people in need of their product down there. You pay almost double what we pay overall, and for much poorer national health stats. This idea that Americans pay more for superior service is another demonstrably false lie; again told you by people willing to let you die for a buck because…that’s what they’re in business for.
It’s absolutely mind-boggling how ready so many of you are to cut off your own noses merely to spite Obama and remain true to another myth the insurance corps floated. That’s the one that says capitalism works best when there’s no oversight of those engaged in making the trade deals. LOL! Gawd!! That’s such an obviously self-serving meme they’ve floated, and yet you bite — hook, line and sinker.
Wild! And also the reason why social psychologists are so curious about y’all.
He WAS excellent in “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” — one of the best comedies of 2008. My review here: http://www.wthr.com/Global/story.asp?S=8237908
Gary Williams said:
“Why do the citizens of these nations almost unanimously reject a return to the bad ol’ days of private payment and health care to those who could afford it?”
Why do you spend so much time berating the health care “splinter” in your neighbor’s eye and ignore the log in Canada’s eye?
Perhaps you should Google a bit of Canadian Health Care History. You might find that Canada has not only reversed the ban on purchasing private insurance; in the few years (approx 5) since it’s been allowed privately purchased insurance and out of pocket payments account for nearly 30% of health care expenditures in Canada.
And although it’s a bit premature to extract reliable health outcome data since the ban was lifted my own observation as a provider in a border US state is that the health care access and outcomes of those with privately paid healthcare in Canada is far superior to those on the public dole.
Julie