What rights have you lost?

As a proud member of "the bottom of the food chain," I have a couple of questions. From the picture you post, I think you might be eligible for social security and medicare. Are those liberal or conservative programs? Which group wants to strengthen them and which group wants to gut them? For example, Medicare Advantage, pushed by conservatives as a more cost effective plan, but which is more expensive than regular Medicare, and Paul Ryan's plan to replace Medicare with a voucher system which would soon make medical care unaffordable for seniors. And the water you pulled that fish out of, is it liberals or conservatives who are more concerned about industry not being able to pollute it? Let's see, who is it that keeps calling for "deregulation?" That deregulation, put in place by conservatives, worked well for the nation's economy in 2007-2009, didn't it? So I think being at "the bottom of the food chain" is the only sensible place to be. Why do you think differently?

Google it. Every site that comes up gives the same information. This is from Factmonster (http://www.factmonster.com/us/supreme-court/supreme-court-members.html:
Current U.S. Supreme Court Members

The following table lists the current members of the United States Supreme Court, including the Chief Justice and eight Associate Justices.

See Also: Past U.S. Supreme Court Members

Service Birth
Name, state Assoc. Justice Chief Justice Yrs Place Date Died Religion
Antonin Scalia, DC 1986– — N.J. 1936 — Roman Catholic
Anthony M. Kennedy, Calif. 1988– — Calif. 1936 — Roman Catholic
Clarence Thomas, DC 1991– — Ga. 1948 — Roman Catholic
Ruth Bader Ginsburg, DC 1993– — N.Y. 1933 — Jewish
Stephen G. Breyer, Mass. 1994– — Calif. 1938 — Jewish
John G. Roberts, DC 2005– — N.Y. 1955 — Roman Catholic
Samuel A. Alito, Jr., N.J. 2006– — N.J. 1950 — Roman Catholic
Sonia Sotomayor N.Y. 2009– — N.Y. 1954 — Roman Catholic
Elena Kagan N.Y. 2010– — N.Y. 1960 — Jewish

"This is an alien/demon skull. Not extraterrestrial, but interdimensional. Genesis talks about them, and the history channel that used to be like the Hitler channel has turned to the ancient alien channel. They are preparing you for their soon return and they will be instrumental in providing the delusion for the New World orders one world religion. They are at the top of these satanic illuminati and are controlling the controllers. Fasten your seatbelt. It's going to be a bumpy ride, and it only gets worse from here. "

I think you're pretty much wrong about everything else, but you're really on to something with that skull.

Wow, all this because we twice elected a very moderate Democrat who has a funny name and darker skin than his predecessors and because we have made a small first step in joining the rest of the industrialized nations in providing health care to all our citizens? Seems to me all the destruction and treason happened during the previous administration. Certainly, I'm disappointed that our president has continued some of the worst things, like the (Un)Patriot Act, but, hey, we survived four years of Reagan and twelve years of Bushes, we'll make it through this, too.

How does what I said, that you respond to this way, differ from what Linda Joy said, to which you replied, "I totally agree." Or is the difference who said it?

I think it matters how we live our lives, however short or long they may be. Your message here seems related to one that holds that it is pointless to worry about what is happening here on earth, whether it is the environment, war, starvation, or disease, because the Apocalypse is just around the corner. I think JFK's words from his inaugural address offer a better philosophy: "With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God's work must truly be our own."

Martin Luther said, " Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree." I think we have an obligation to try to leave the world a tiny bit better than we found it.

You are correct, but that is only part of the story:
Estimated Exchange QHPs as of 9/09/14: 8.03M PAID (9.30M Total)

Estimated Total, all sources: (23.7 Million - 28.4 Million)

Exchange + Off-Exchange QHPs: 16.0M • Medicaid/CHIP (6.0M - 9.1M)

ESIs (155K confirmed; up to 8M more possible) • Sub26ers (1.6M - 3.1M)

http://acasignups.net/

Yes, because that number couldn't possibly be right. If it was, Fox News would have told you so. Or would they?

Since there is a provision in the ACA that insurance companies must spend 80% of the premiums they collect on actual health care (which I think is too low a percentage, but it is a step in the right direction), I don't think the insurance companies are going to scam the system. But I think an even better solution would be the one they came up with in Switzerland, which has a system very much like the ACA. After it had been operating for some time, The Swiss decided that all health insurance companies had to be non-profit.

Here's a link to an article by a doctor who includes his bill for malpractice insurance. The annual cost is $3,046.48. He says the highest annual cost for any doctor he knows is $5,500. So I am certain you won't find any doctor paying hundreds of thousands of dollars. A clinic that employs twenty or more doctors might have a bill that high. Tort reform is pushed by the insurance companies to reduce their liability, not to make insurance cheaper for doctors or hospitals.
http://www.truecostofhealthcare.org/malpractice

They are recent rankings, but I don't think Obamacare has been implemented long enough to make a significant difference. The WHO uses about 60 criteria to determine their rankings. They are grouped into five main categories: "WHO's assessment system was based on five indicators: overall level of population health; health inequalities (or disparities) within the population; overall level of health system responsiveness (a combination of patient satisfaction and how well the system acts); distribution of responsiveness within the population (how well people of varying economic status find that they are served by the health system); and the distribution of the health system's financial burden within the population (who pays the costs)." (Taken from WHO website)

Here is a thoughtful criticism of the WHO's rankings: http://www.creators.com/opinion/john-stossel/why-the-u-s-ranks-low-on-who-s-health-care-study.html

When we get insulted for being stupid, ignorant, brainwashed, Communist, Socialist, Fascist, or any of the other labels that substitute for actually debating our positions (it's called "ad hominem attack"), some of us, instead of pushing back, pull. It's like judo. "Yes, you must be right, you can tell how stupid and ignorant we are because we write grammatical sentences, occasionally use big words, and provide logical arguments with evidence to back them up. So much more stupid than putting labels on people."
Try checking the credibility of our opinions by the logic and evidence provided rather than the labels that others hang on us and that we sometimes jokingly agree to.

From the June 2014 Forbes magazine:

For this year’s survey on overall health care, The Commonwealth Fund ranked the U.S. dead last .

1. United Kingdom
2. Switzerland
3. Sweden
4. Australia
5. Germany & Netherlands (tied)
7. New Zealand & Norway (tied)
9. France
10. Canada
11. United States

It’s fairly well accepted that the U.S. is the most expensive healthcare system in the world, but many continue to falsely assume that we pay more for healthcare because we get better health (or better health outcomes). The evidence, however, clearly doesn’t support that view.

World Health Organization Ranking; The World’s Health Systems

1 France
2 Italy
3 San Marino
4 Andorra
5 Malta
6 Singapore
7 Spain
8 Oman
9 Austria
10 Japan
11 Norway
12 Portugal
13 Monaco
14 Greece
15 Iceland
16 Luxembourg
17 Netherlands
18 United Kingdom
19 Ireland
20 Switzerland
21 Belgium
22 Colombia
23 Sweden
24 Cyprus
25 Germany
26 Saudi Arabia
27 United Arab Emirates
28 Israel
29 Morocco
30 Canada
31 Finland
32 Australia
33 Chile
34 Denmark
35 Dominica
36 Costa Rica
37 USA
38 Slovenia
39 Cuba
40 Brunei

We finish higher in the Commonwealth Fund rankings because they only consider the major economic players.

But at least we're ahead of Cuba.

From the Canadian Health Care website: "Canada's health care system is a group of socialized health insurance plans that provides coverage to all Canadian citizens. It is publicly funded and administered on a provincial or territorial basis, within guidelines set by the federal government." Sounds good to me.