I really enjoyed the Fresh Air interview with T.R. Reid, author of The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care. He does a good job of cutting through the B.S.

So does Kevin Drum, in Back to Basics:

Let’s recap: the United States spends about twice as much on healthcare as any other developed nation in the world and in return receives just about the worst care. Can someone remind me again why there’s even a debate about whether we should put up with this?

Finally, as I think about a good friend of mine who’s currently in the hospital, I keep hearing Matthew Good’s “99% of Us Is Failure”. Here’s a live solo version:

Apologies for leaving lies.com adrift in the waves of outrage washing back and forth from the folks who get their healthcare-reform information from the likes of Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck. There have been lots of high-profile lies I could have been commenting on, but Cheney-like, I had other priorities.

And look, along comes the Debunker-in-Chief to summarize the grownup response to all the silliness, and save me the trouble of running after every little bit of crazy, in today’s NYT Op-Ed: Why We Need Health Care Reform.

The HealthScare ‘debate’ is sure heating up here in the good ol USofA (must be all them heaters folks is bringing to the townhall meet-n-greets).

Recently the Investors Daily Bulletin claimed:

“The controlling of medical costs in countries such as Britain through rationing, and the health consequences thereof, are legendary. The stories of people dying on a waiting list or being denied altogether read like a horror script … People such as scientist Stephen Hawking wouldn’t have a chance in the UK, where the National Health Service would say the life of this brilliant man, because of his physical handicaps, is essentially worthless.“

Ummm, folks, Stephen Hawking is from the UK, where he has had the Evil Socialized Medicine his entire life. But don’t trust me on this, Professor Hawking can and has responded (read this back in a computer voice for best effect)

“I wouldn’t be here today if it were not for the NHS,” Professor Hawking told us. “I have received a large amount of high-quality treatment without which I would not have survived.”

Also congratulations are in order: Professor Hawking was just awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by our President. Well done sirs, well done.