Mailbag: Public Option

This recent comment on my recent post on the Public Option for health care insurance was so good I had to post it:

Joe said...

It may be a surprise, but health care has - throughout human history - been a for-profit enterprise. Only in nations brimming with people's commissars has health care been not for profit, and - since I lived in the Soviet Union for three years, while it was still communist - I can assure you that government-run health care is nothing about which one should get excited.

It may amuse your elitist sensibilities to tilt at your ideological windmills with phrases like "guvmunt," but it does your poor argumentation no favors and is unseemly in an alleged Christian forum.

Judging from your book reviews, I might suggest you balance our your mental diet with a few good studies from the other side of the ideological chasm.

I've always found that engaging the opposition fairly and resorting to clear, fact-based argument - not silly stereotyping and name-calling - goes a long way.

My reply--

Well, Joe, I'm sure that the over 40+ million men and women, and children without a doctor or insurance can all sleep better thanks to your fair and balanced comment. Knowing how you like the facts yourself, I was crestfallen that you neither mention any facts nor cite any of your suggested good studies.

You know the book reviews only represent a tad of my reading material. I'm now on my 8th (or is it 18th?) time through Das Capital, and I've continued daily passages from the Communist Manifesto, so don't judge a blog or its writer by its reviews alone, or whether it fits your idea of "christian."

I know you don't like my use of "guvmunt," so I want to express appreciation to you for refraining from name calling yourself, and not using words like elitist, silly, and unseemly to describe your opposition. But calling me a windmill tilter, well, that's really poetic, Joe.