I’m sick (pun intended) of the healthcare debate in this country.

Let me make things very simple for everyone: we need reform. There’s millions of uninsured people and children in this country, and it’s absolutely inexcusable that a country that calls itself the most powerful on the planet can’t take care of its citizens with free basic medical care. Yes, I know there’s people that would abuse it, but the cost in lives overrules that complaint.

The Republicans and the right-wing pundits blast any attempt at reform as “socialized medicine,” and lately, they’ve sunk to the new low of having their followers disrupt town hall discussions with violent protests. I’m all for peaceful protests, and even civil disobedience, but this is nothing but organized chaos along the lines of the Fox News Tea Parties. You’ve got misinformed and ignorant Americans, driven by the likes of Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck, shouting down any opposition to their views. I’m confident that most of these Republicans, pundits, and their listeners don’t even know what the word “socialized” means. Nor do they have any trouble with our other socialized programs, such as police departments, fire departments, or libraries. Their opposition to healthcare reform boils down to one thing, and one thing only: money.

There’s a lot of money to be made in the medical, pharmaceutical, and insurance industries, and any publicly-funded healthcare program would cut into the bottom line. In other words, the Republican opposition to healthcare reform is nothing but putting profits over human lives. Standard operating procedure for the right wing, I’m afraid.

The mess in Iran has let loose of flood of support for the protesters over there. While I certainly agree with them, as I’m no fan of religious dictatorships, I do disagree with many Americans’ hardline views on the matter. Plenty of pundits, politicians, and even my peers think we need to do more to support the fledgling democracy in Iran.

I think we need to do less.

Before you start shouting, hear me out. This isn’t some big middle finger to the rest of the world; far from it. My belief is this: who are we to decide what form of government is best for other countries? We’ve tried forcing our views on others countless times in the past, and it’s rarely worked out for the best. While the Iranian situation is deplorable, it’s their problem. The Iranian people need to work it out on their own, without our interference.

Furthermore, the United States has a boatload of internal problems right now. We need to fix our own country before we could even think of advising others on how to run theirs! Our economy’s in the shitter, our educational system is a joke, healthcare is a contradiction in terms, and billions of Americans are obscenely fat and appallingly stupid. (Don’t believe me on that latter point? Look at people’s obsession with celebrities and reality television.)

I’m all for other nations trying to better themselves through the will of the populace. We just need to back off and let them handle it.

Man, the right wing really hates President Obama. I expected a lot of vitriol, but the amount of evil ichor that Rush Limbaugh and his cohorts spew out on a daily basis is nothing short of staggering. It’s the kind of shit that if a left-winger said anything even remotely like it during the Bush administration, Ann Coulter and the GOP would’ve called for their public execution.

Hell, just the other day, Chuck Norris appeared on the Fox News talk show The Glenn Beck Program, joining the host in mercilessly bashing the president and his politics, and of course blaming Obama for policies enacted during the previous administration. I don’t care how cool all of those stupid Internet memes make Norris sound; he’s a fucking douchebag. This is the same clown who actually advocated the secession of Texas from the rest of the United States! Last time I checked, secession was high treason, making it extremely illegal. As to Norris’ talk of “thousands of cell groups”…aren’t those the same words we use to describe terrorists? Again, can you imagine if a liberal pundit was talking like this? They’d be dead by now!

I’m all for free speech; Norris and crew have every right to say whatever they wish. It’s the double standard that gets me.

I’m sure we’re all aware of the situation in Gaza. Long story short: those terrorist dickheads in Hamas started firing rockets into Israeli territory again, killing a few people. The Israeli government responded with its usual overkill, which has resulted in the deaths of over seven hundred people, many of them civilians. The Israeli response is continuing, complete with airstrikes, artillery shelling, and ground assaults. They won’t stop until Hamas is ground into paste. (There’s international attempts at a ceasefire, but who knows if they’ll work.)

While that certainly sounds good on paper, it covers up the real problem. Aside from the previously mentioned overkill (the Israeli Defense Forces have killed far more civilians than Hamas has at this point), the humanitarian disaster is even worse. Gaza’s almost completely cut off, with the populace hiding in terror from the IDF. Water, electricity, food, and basic medicine are scarce. As this confrontation goes on, the death toll is going to skyrocket due to these humanitarian problems alone, not just bombs and bullets.

It’s appalling that world governments aren’t doing a damn thing about it. We all know the United States approves of anything and everything Israel does; that’s always been the status quo. Israel could randomly fire a nuclear missile into Tehran, and the US would firmly support it. Plenty of other nations have expressed disgust over Israel’s actions (while condemning Hamas at the same time, mind you), but they don’t have the balls to step up to the plate and do anything about it. Trying to pass a resolution through the United Nations Security Council is obviously a pointless measure, as the US will veto it. General Assembly resolutions would pass, but they’re non-binding, and therefore equally pointless. So why not cut off diplomatic relations, trade, and so forth? Until they can behave like civilized human beings and quit blowing each other to smithereens, we should just cut them off from the rest of the world.

The other thing that pisses me off about the ongoing conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians is that you can’t criticize any Israeli actions without being called anti-Semitic. You shouldn’t even joke about that shit. Look, we all know how horrible the Holocaust was; it’s a giant black mark on human history. That does not, however, give you carte blanche to do whatever you want! Hamas and their ilk are horrible excuses for human beings, but killing hundreds more people than they have in retaliation doesn’t make you any better. It makes you worse, and the last thing you want to do is sink to a lower level than your enemy.

We all know Barack Obama won the 2008 presidential election and made history. As a prominent Democrat, it was only a matter of time before the Republican Party would go all-out in their attempts to paint him in a negative light. This time around, it’s a completely shameful set of attempts to link Obama to disgraced Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich.

As we’ve all seen in the news, Blagojevich looks to be a real douchebag. He apparently had his hand in all manner of questionable pies, including attempting to “sell” Obama’s now-vacate Senate seat. If proven guilty, he definitely deserves whatever punishments come his way. Meanwhile, prosecuting attorney Patrick Fitzgerald has made clear that Obama had nothing to do with Blagojevich’s activities, and even admonished people not to jump to conclusions on the case.

But does that stop the right wing? Oh, of course not. They’ve relentlessly attacked Obama since the story broke, on par with their attacks building up to the election. The man’s not even president yet, and they’re already trying to break him, and convince the American public that he’s “corrupt.” And, of course, a majority of media outlets are following them lockstep; it’s eerily reminiscent of the media’s dragging the Clintons through the mud during the 1990s. Remember Whitewater? The media and GOP brutally and viciously smeared the Clintons during that whole affair, and at the end…the Clintons were proven to have engaged in no wrongdoing whatsoever.

They’re trying the same thing all over again with Blagojevich’s problems, and desperately trying to find a way to blame Obama for it. I realize that GOP and their cronies are absolutely terrified of having a Democrat in the White House, let alone one who isn’t white, but this is disgusting. This is why American politics tend to make me seethe with rage at best, and become violently ill at worst.