The Evil That (wo)Men Do

I could spend all my waking hours mocking the idiocy of the de-facto leader of the Republican Party; the disastrous and vicious tongued right-wing nut job, Sarah Palin. Aside from dedicating her voluntarily unemployed days to directing her staff to update her Facebook and Twitter pages, the former Alaskan Governor has been dreaming up new ways to misrepresent the intent of President Obama's Health Care Reform.

Interspersed through her meandering ramblings are surprising and ludicrous fabrications of reality. Her 'Death Panel' claim; where she stated that the 'end of life counseling' that was to be offered in the bill (a service that provides voluntary support to those who need help navigating the painful and sad decision when death looms) was in fact covert language for the government deciding whether American Citizens live or die - has, despite its safe status as a bold-faced lie, picked up steam among the more ignorant and foolish out there. And sadly, their numbers seem to be growing.

To make matters worse, she recently described the National Health Service (NHS), the free health care provided by the United Kingdom, as "evil". Evil? Providing for British Citizen's health care needs, from heart surgery to broken arms; from pulmonary fibrosis to ingrown toe-nails is evil?

Sadder still is the parroting of such lunacy by those in the GOP who would give their left leg (and their under-read Twitter account) to hold as much sway and media attention as the Alaskan nut who made it up in the first place. Former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich recently augmented the "evil" comment by saying the NHS was run by "Orwellian" bureaucrats.

Learned are those who understand what they read; comprehend what they hear and can critically think through what they have been presented. A shame, then, that two significant figures of the Republican Party (Palin and Gingrich) seem to feel more comfortable pandering to fear; appealing to hate and stirring up anger, without investing the small amount of time it should take to reflect on such things, and realize that they are just plain wrong.