BUYER’S REMORSE: American unions at odds over health care bill, saying provision that would impose an 'excise tax' on insurance companies will end up hitting the middle class hard.

WARD MOORE was ahead of his time. By 32 years, to be precise.

It finally happened. The medical establishment has taken over the civilized world. Orwell’s Big Brother is a doctor, and there is a prescription for everyone ... usually thanatization or ‘modification.’ The all-powerful high court of Medics will decide. The primitive operations and drugs of an earlier culture have been replaced by more sophisticated methods and controls.

The population at large, described as Patients, willingly observe the codes of behavior set by the ruling Medics. It is a strange and cold world, still evolving from the devastation of ancient bacteria aerosols. All that is visible, from architecture to transportation, has been newly created by the Medical technologists. The minds and bodies of the citizens are on ‘hold.’ Nothing must encroach on the Public Health. Every facet of life has been measured and made safe.

The synopsis of Caduceus Wild, a 1978 novel by Ward Moore and Robert Bradford.

Change “medical establishment” to “government healthcare bureaucracy”, make a few other minor wording changes, and you’ve got ObamaCare.

TEXANS: you gotta love ‘em.

A CONCLUSION from last week’s "Red Alert" rally on Capitol Hill. Jim Geraghty reports:

The Tea Party crowd began this process disliking the health-care bill, but what's really driving their current fury over it is the degree to which a majority in both houses of Congress have refused to listen to the skeptics or engage those who think it's a bad idea.

Every step of the process, the leaders of the majority have engaged in the worst possible responses — avoiding meetings with skeptical voters, clinging to talking points in the face of counterarguments, attacking the motives of the critics, demonizing them as extremists, un-American, etc. If they had treated the concerns that the plan will only expand bureaucracy and increase costs with respect from the beginning, the debate would be quite different today.

Note the congresional leadership’s attitude of anointment: “We are the leaders; our job is to lead. Your job is to follow along - not question our leadership.”

“SOMETIMES THERE’S NOTHING MORE AMUSING than hardcore liberals realizing they've been had.”

"We are in a sense being punished for our own charity," [NY Gov. David] Paterson said Monday.

“Of course that charity comes with other people's money. The left is always charitable with your money. Their own? Uh, not so much.”

Realization always comes late ....

SANTA CLAUS promotes child obesity. A study by [Melbourne, Australia] Monash University public health “expert” Dr. Nathan Grills found Santa could be promoting obesity and speeding — and damaging millions of lives.

Please tell me that universities aren’t breeding grounds for stupidity ....

[Update & bump] It was only a joke, he said. Uh-huh. Sure.

IF OBAMACARE PASSES, I (hope I) can take some small solace in knowing that the Democrats who brought this abomination to fruition will get screwed as well.

“THE ECONOMY IS SO BAD that I got a pre-declined credit card in the mail.”

Can we pre-decline the Congress? The Administration?

CHANGE YOU CAN BELIEVE IN FEAR: A bill so reckless that it has to be rammed through on a partisan vote on Christmas eve.

IT’S NOT A DEATH PANEL; it’s a “Life Panel”.

AGREE WITH ME OR ELSE you’re one of “the birthers, the fanatics, the people running around in right-wing militia and Aryan support groups ...”

Guess the good Senator’s political affiliation.

WHY THE ‘ANGRY MOB’ IS ANGRY:

Our anger comes not simply because we are poor sports. We are not racists who abhor the idea of "a black man in the White House," because in truth, we have wanted to see that bridge crossed for years. We are not "just angry people" -- quite the contrary, which underscores the point. Conservatives are not usually angry, nor are we protesters. That we show up to a protest at all is a huge statement itself and expressive enough of our anger. When we do protest, we don't vandalize local merchants, topple cars and set them on fire, or require the police to control us or cart us off to jail. We're not violent people -- but we are human, and we do get angry. We're just regular folks who prefer to not protest or make a stink about anything. We just want to live our lives in peace. What lights our fire is any threat to that peace and the freedom that provides it.

Read it all.

Link from Instapundit.

UTTERLY TASTELESS AND JUVENILE Congressman seeks prison term for critic. This is the idiot who argued the Republican’s health care plan was to “die quickly.”

His (justifiably) angry critic’s website is here.

24 HOUR BUG? Let’s hope it lasts a bit longer.

BILL MOYERS: “Aren't you saying that in order to save the Democratic President and the Democratic Party in 2010 and 2012 you have to have a really rotten health insurance bill?”

Uh, yes.

Linked from Best of the Web.

“AMONG THE INTELLIGENTSIA, there have always been many who are ready to jump on virtually any bandwagon that will take them to the promised land, where the wise and noble few -- like themselves -- can take the rest of us poor dummies in hand and tell us how we had better change the way we live our lives.”

Read it all.