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Listed below are comments made by AAPrescott between Wednesday, 22nd April 2009 and Wednesday, 9th September 2009.

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A case for healthcare reform? 12:24pm on 09 Sep 2009 I suspect that you are seeing this 'objectively' as a European (coming with a certain set of assumptions) having their first encounter with this strange polarized and dichotomous country. I would also suspect that you are going to be astonished by the vehemence of some of the responses that will shortly follow. Dare I suggest that the terms 'liberal bias' and 'socialism' or 'socialized medicine' will appear in some of these.
Why America deserves three cheers 6:44pm on 13 Jul 2009 I actually think that the linked article is very reasonable. But what I wonder is if America can really bounce back from this one in the same way. The very strenghts that are mentioned are part of the problem. Everyone is patting themselves on the back over the G8 summit and limiting global warming to 2 degrees. Apparently 2 degrees is not enough to save the coral reefs. Our very existence on the planet may need a reevaluation of the very ideas that are most exemplified by America. We may need as a planet to adopt more Eastern ideas of cooperation and harmony that will necessarily limit the individualism that is the Western way in particular and the American way especially.
Big week for healthcare 12:20pm on 24 Jun 2009 Some others have done a good job of making some of the major points. The central facts are that the US health care has some of the best in the world at a huge cost, and some of the worst for a sector of the population. Most developed countries have decided to have a reasonable/basic level of health care at a reasonable cost for all.

The main difference between the US and a third world country is that the best of the best is available to a larger proportion of a sector of the population the 'middle class' not just the very wealthy. But the main similarity between the US and a third world country is that such quality of life needs such as health care is not generally available to a larger sector of the population.

You can debate if a long wait for hip replacements is 'reasonable' but is people dying because they have no health care a reasonable price to pay for some getting the best of the best. People can still choose to have extra private coverage and get the best of the best. And clearly no one is denying the right of people to get the best of the best if they are willing to pay extra. But for me the bottom line is a public health sytem avaiable to all at a reasonable price.
A quieter voice on the Obama speech 7:51pm on 04 Jun 2009 I brodly agree with Gary_A_Hill above. We have to deal with the world as it is. People are going to be unhappy on both sides. But I thought I was a brilliat speech. And the world can at least incrmentaly move forward rather than be stuck in the status quo, or travel headlong to oblivion sooner or later.
An interview with President Obama 1:18pm on 02 Jun 2009 Let us dispel the myths about Arabs and Jews and race and ethnicity and who lived where 40 years ago, centuries ago or a 1,000 years ago. We tend to think of peoples as homogenous entities. But in reality all are mixtures. Take the British Isles, succesive waves of invaders, the first humans, the Celts which we now know was a cultural influx rather than an 'invasion' in terms of numbers). Then the Romans, then the Angles, Saxons, Jutes (which did represent large scale influxes of peoples), Vikings, later Danes, then Normans. Recent DNA studies show that the majority of peoples of the British Isles whether in the Celtic fringe or the mainland of Britain are actually predominantly related - newer 'invasions' added some spice to the genetic soup, but invaders largely did not supplant the original inhabitants they married in and absorbed them. So it would seem with the Middle East. The Jews were not really a group separate from the other peoples, they were certain tribes among other tribes that settled in areas which became identified as Canaan or Judea or Egypt or whatever, then came the Arabs who were just other tribes from nearby areas who established a certain culture absorobing other peoples along the way. But again recent DNA studies shows that all the peoples of the middle east are largely related.

We can not unravel history. The Scots-Irish of NI cannot go back to Britain, and after all where did the Scots of Scotland come from originally -Ireland and all intermarried along the way. Those who identify themselves as Jews or Arabs or Persians or whatever have to learn to live with each other.
A diabetic on the Supreme Court? 11:40am on 27 May 2009 Perhaps there is a knowledgable person on legal matters who can explain the relation of her remarks about 'policy', and the common law and whether there is any conflict. Much of the law of English speaking countries is made in the courts. And most state constitutions say that the English common law shall apply untill such time as it is trumped by an act of congress.
Iran's Michelle Obama? 12:11pm on 12 May 2009 re no 7
No one tried to hide Biden's tendency to verbal Gaffes. To describe him as on his best behaviour in a particular situation was meaningless unless one recognizes that we understand what this means. So to see some attempt at subterfuge in this is contradictory.

Sarah Palin's shortcomings were also obvious.
100 days in 100 words 11:52am on 29 Apr 2009 As far as the long term versus short term it depends on your perspective. According to the folk at http://www.onehundredmonths.org/
we have 92 months left before the tipping point of global warming. Has Obama done enough to change that calculation? If not then indeed he has not taken enough of the long term view, instead focusing on restoring the short term status quo. But he has done more than many of us would have thought possible so let us hope the calculations are too pessimistic and it is enough.
The view from rural South Carolina 12:32pm on 28 Apr 2009 When the two main settlements of the Carolina Colony split the more affluent Charleston colonists were quite happy to separate from the the northern colonists. One popular joke in the play 1776 is the repeated refrain 'North Carolina defers to South Carolina'.

The last major news item before the recent wildfire, I remember hearing about SC was that fundamentalist christians were encouraging each other to move there to form a christian state and possibly succeed from the union.

Moving along a few hundred years the economic power and political importance certainly shifted north, North Carolina tipped towards the Democrats partly because many people have moved into the state and urban population has increased, high tech has taken over from rural industries. Why did you not visit Durham, North Carolina to see a majority black city at the heart of change. In the 60s a prosperous black 'wall street' was bulldozed to put through a freeway - many people think this was intentional, today the site of Research Triangle Park where high tech business has provided some of the diversity that is helping NC weather the economic downturn. And the downtown is making a great transformation, but the problems of urban America have not gone away yet. A tractor in a field in SC just does not seem like the pulse of the nation.
Dissenting voices on torture covered up? 12:06pm on 22 Apr 2009 I am also rather suprised by Justin's link to livingland. Read it twice but I can't actually make out what the point is.

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