I was off the grid this weekend as I drove several hundred miles to attend a really good soccer clinic. We spent twelve hours on the new clarification of offsides and what “involvement” and “deliberate play” should be, another four hours on man management, and several rounds of beer at the bar on odd-ball scenarios. I got a few very good take-aways to work on my game this spring.
I also saw plenty of colleagues and buddies. We talked about our kids, we talked about the same idiotic coach who has one technique on complaining, and we talked about who is advancing and who is getting scouted for bigger things.
I ended up talking with a buddy of mine who is primarily a basketball official who works soccer as a mind cleanser. He is a good ref and he currently works low level Division 1 men’s games, and a lot of D-2 and D-3 plus JUCO games. Those games pay him well enough where it is a very nice second job but he keeps his full time job of being a phys-ed teacher. He is getting scouted to start working at least one major men’s conference where if he has a half time schedule he has full time income.
I congratulated him on the opportunity. He was reluctant to take it as he said he was worried about finding health insurance as he has a history of knee and ankle injuries. Refereeing does not help that. I told him that he can get a policy lined up on the Exchanges if he gives up his full time teaching job with benefits.
“I’m not trusting anything that has that man’s name on it… those policies have to be horrendous, that’s what the Blaze is saying, Dick, you know that, you work in the industry, it is killing you guys….”
“Ummmmmm no, there are better policies on the Exchange than what you get at school….”
“I don’t trust that guy….”
So he’ll job lock himself into a situation that he does not want to be in (full time teaching, part time reffing) out of spite.
IowaOldLady
I’ve started three other comments and deleted them here because I don’t know what to say. It makes me tired.
Still, maybe you did a good thing. Your friend may grudgingly take a look at the exchange because he wants to see what you were talking about.
MomSense
I know a couple who have been uninsured for many years now and they are both smokers with other health problems. They would qualify for subsidies but they hate/don’t trust the pres enough that they would rather pay the fine and continue to go without insurance.
OzarkHillbilly
Proving once again that Stupidity is followed by an (R). But then why would that surprise anyone who has followed politics in this country the past 20 years or so?
low-tech cyclist
What do you do for people whose tribal loyalties have totally overwhelmed their rationality?
Really nothing you can do, is there?
Scott S.
I hope you actually said that last line to him. Maybe he actually needs to be reminded that he’s not hurting the Black Guy in the White House. He’s hurting himself, partly for spite, partly out of twisted loyalty to the demented weeping DJ at the Blaze…
NonyNony
It’s even worse than that:
Teachers who don’t want to be teaching make their students lives miserable. They may not even do it on purpose – just being in a job that you hate makes life worse for everyone around you. So the students are made miserable by the fact that their teacher hates his job.
The elimination of “job lock” for teachers is something that I’ve long pushed for. Too many burnt-out teachers should be retiring at 55 (or earlier! or at least changing jobs to do something else) but can’t because their job provides insurance for themselves and their spouse. You don’t want a burned-out 55 year-old teacher trudging to work every day to a job they hate just for the insurance! That’s misery inflicted onto kids and adults around them for no good reason at all.
DTOzone
Clearly if Obama used the bully pulpit…
maximiliano furtive, formerly known as dr. bloor
Eh. Looks like D-1 just lost a guy who won’t call the charge on the one-and-done superstar in the last few seconds because the no-name defender couldn’t possibly have had position…
The Thin Black Duke
I’m sorry, but I’m out of fucks to give.
And this guy’s idiotic prejudices is a textbook example of why we can’t have a rational and productive conversation about health care in this country.
Thanks, jerk.
JoyceH
Does this fellow even realize that “The Affordable Care Act” does NOT have ‘that man’s name on it’? It was the Republicans who dubbed it ‘Obamacare’ – because they don’t want people like him to have affordable health insurance.
Cassidy
@NonyNony: The unions are the answer. The teachers union is never as powerful as the police and fire unions, even though a lot of the spouses are in education. They need to somehow get those unions in their side. Cops and firefighters retire well.
Baud
You can bring a horse to water,and all that. This guy has a lifetime of bitterness ahead of him. Maybe he’ll start ranting about “thugs” soon.
tokyo expat
How is it he doesn’t believe you when you work for the insurance industry? How do you reach people like this?
I have lived my adult life overseas, primarily in Japan, aside from 4 years in London. I’ve had national health in both countries. Here in Japan, I like the fact that if I have a problem, I can see a doctor the same day. My kids pay nothing until 15. I’ve only had positive experiences with the healthcare delivery here and I’ve never worried about payments or billing.
Here’s a Reuter reporter’s take on the French healthcare system her French father decided to use for his final days. It’s worth a read.
http://blogs.reuters.com/anya-schiffrin/2014/02/12/the-french-way-of-cancer-treatment/
gvg
If some “other” had hurt them as much as they have hurt blacks, they would want to get back at the other when they got any power, therefore it’s dangerous to them when a black man gets power. Not exactly irrational to expect spite back either. Lots of history shows that can happen.
He’s an idiot though. It’s not like blacks have become the power in this country. There aren’t enough of them. Obama is the leader of a coalition and the president of the US is not a dictator and never was. Obamacare was pushed through by a lot of people of every color because we all needed it and I would say the majority of the ideas and negotiations and votes still came from whites. Even the Democratic party is still very white, it’s just not exclusive. I explain all that to show why your friend is a paranoid idiot, not because I think Obama has a secret agenda or whatever.
This actually relates to the problem for the GOP trying to back out of a corner and appeal to minorities. They weren’t first in that (Civil War yes but they lost that way) and they have been vicious for decades. If they come out nicer in someway I think it would take…around 10 years action not talk before many blacks would trust them to actually carry through. That’s a long time to get by without much in new votes and losing your crazy but votes base. Not sure the other minorities would take as long because most haven’t been so specifically targeted but it still wouldn’t be instant.
I guess the only line I can suggest to use with your friend is to remind him Presidents aren’t dictators and Obama only got elected because he said he would try to do certain things that a lot of people including whites wanted…specifically healthcare. A lot of other people helped design it all and it’s still insurance with private insurance companies with all the good and bad that implies. He could get a bad insurance company that screws up but he also might get a good one and he should ask around about reputation….Obama and the democratic party are not personally going to pay his doctor if he gets sick. It’s insurance…which actually is kind of scary but we’ve had to deal with that all our lives.
MattF
The imbedded ‘Don’t judge too soon’ ad is pretty funny.
Also, for some people, politics is an exercise in self-injury. It’s grim, but I don’t think there’s a lot you can do about it.
rikyrah
no pity for stupid mofos like this.
none at al.
randomworker
He’s not trusting the wrong people. If those policies go away it won’t be the presidents doing.
NonyNony
@Cassidy:
The problem is that a lot of teachers don’t believe in unions. There is a long-standing debate among teachers about whether their “unions” should be “unions” or, instead, be “professional organizations” like the accountants, doctors, and lawyers have.
Teachers don’t view themselves as working class. Unions are for working class people. Therefore teachers don’t need unions.
(It’s the same kind of blindness that the IT industry is also in. IT professionals don’t view themselves as working class. Unions are for working class people. Therefore IT professionals don’t need unions. It’s even worse for the IT professionals because they refuse to even consider having a viable professional organization to have standards and provide certification the way doctors, accountants and lawyers do. To be fair, lawyers provide a strong counter-example to the idea that a professional organization can help you keep wages high, but accountants and doctors have historically managed to thread that needle.)
IowaOldLady
@MomSense: Now that ticks me off. At least Richard’s friend has health insurance. These folks expect the rest of us to pay if they have a heart attack.
satby
Spite is the lubricant that American politics runs on. Krugman did a great column on it sometime ago.
Cassidy
@NonyNony: Then they’ll always be left behind. Police and fire have strong unions for a reason.
Rob in CT
So he acknowledges that you have expertise in the area that he doesn’t, yet refuses to believe you when you provide him with information.
I wish I was surprised, but when I saw the refernce to “the Blaze” I knew what was coming.
sherparick
I would just remind him that contrary to what he might be reading in “The Blaze” or listening to on Faux News, he will be dealing with an insurance company and not the Government or “that Man in the White House” when exploring possible plans.
We are unfortunately all tribal, and the tough economy of the last 7 years (and in many ways the last 40 years), people retreat into their respective tribes and tell reinforcing stories of resentment that their problems are all the fault of the other tribes (with American plutocrats using the old American trick of sending “racial” signal of bond -that we pale skins are all in this together – to the white middle and working classes that the old Bourbon planter class of the South worked so well for the last 200 years. In the current Republican version it is the Blacks, Browns, gays, slutty women, and Yankee hippies who taking away stuff from you to give to their “dependents” and are changing your life in ways that make you uncomfortable and are engaging in “sin.”
slippytoad
Oh, I think I would probably be rubbing in how he can just keep cutting off his dumb fuck nose to spite his dumb-fuck face.
Jesus I’m sick of these fucking asshole morons. I’m sick of fucking dumb-shit know-nothing know-it-all fucking conservatard jackass pissant motherfucking little pricks Arrogant little cocksuckers strutting around with an answer for every fucking thing that is one hundred percent guaranteed to be one-fucking-hundred FUCKING percent WRONG.
Yea, I think I need to log off from reality today.
Keith G
@DTOzone:
He does and when asked, he admits he could a better job.
That tag line has never been accurate.
MomSense
@IowaOldLady:
Yup. I’ve given up.
RaflW
We have to consider that many of these folks are, in effect, members of a cult. Loyal readers of The Blaze – or it’s many equivalents – who do not scout the intertubes and read a variety of sources and opinions have, for reasons that elude me, volunteered to join an information cult.
As @sherparick says, some of that likely comes from the corrosive effects of decades of wage stagnation and job insecurity. A neatly wrapped package of false but internally consistent finger-pointing answers to life’s miseries can be motivating.
And, this guy may well also be sort of an idiot. Not necessarily stupid per se, but he may lack emotional intelligence to be able to make sense of his world without the infectious “help” of the Blaze. God help him.
Barry
@NonyNony: “The problem is that a lot of teachers don’t believe in unions. There is a long-standing debate among teachers about whether their “unions” should be “unions” or, instead, be “professional organizations” like the accountants, doctors, and lawyers have.”
Actually, I’ve never heard that. From everything I’ve ever heard, teachers like unions.
Barry
Richard, one way that might work would be if the Exchange in his state was run by the state. You could then tell him that it’s purely a state matter.
D58826
@IowaOldLady: Maybe that is the answer. Rather than taxing folks who refuse to signup the hospital should just attach their salary and place a lien on their property. If you don’t pay the electrician he can file a mechanics lien on your home and you can’t sell it until the lien is satisfied, i.e. the bill is paid. The lien/attachment happens as soon as you receive the fist bill. From that point on it’s your problem and your family’s problem since if you die the estate still can’t sell the property.
boatboy_srq
Is it insensitive to suggest that wingnuttery is a terminal condition in many cases, and that enabling wingnuts to live longer (through better healthcare, in this case) may be doing society a disservice? If they’re this committed to impoverishing themselves and/or dying off from inadequate infrastructure, allowing that may be kinder (and certainly will be less infuriating over time) than trying to persuade them otherwise.
bemused
Their constant companion, hate, obliterates any sense of self-preservation or common sense.
D58826
@slippytoad:
Come on tell us how you REALLY feel!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Davis X. Machina
@Barry: No, they don’t. I was our building rep for a long time, used to go around with the clipboard twice a year soliciting memberships and getting signatures for payroll withholding for dues, and I used to get an earful. Blue state, too.
slippytoad
@D58826:
I’ve really distilled the entire gestalt of today’s conservative vs. liberal debate down to dumbasses versus the rest of us. Dumbasses need to shut up, sit down, take a number, wait their turn, and butt out of things they don’t understand. Were the simple basic rules of civility enforced, much of our political discussion would be of no import because what the conservatards are all raving about is 99% of the time none of their actual concern.
boatboy_srq
@MomSense: Perhaps once they’re bankrupted and homeless they’ll rethink their opposition.
D58826
@slippytoad: well that pretty well hits all the nails on the head
RadGal70
Teachers are liking their unions more these days, at least in Portland. Years of being called lazy, overpaid leeches with too many benefits has taken its toll; In Portland we are 4 days away from what would be the 1st ever strike by teachers. The issue on which the Board is not budging is class size – teachers want the additional money voted by the legislature this year to be used hiring more teachers – the Board wants to hold on to it as a reserve. Fortunately, in spite of a disinformation campaign by the local newspaper, most parents back the teachers.
ruemara
@slippytoad: it’s like you read my mind.
@Keith G: your interpretation has never been correct.
The Raven on the Hill
And perhaps he is right to be concerned that the policies will go away. Certainly the Republicans will take them away (and his good teacher’s pension as well) if they can.
There are other reasons to hold on to a job, these days.
Gex
@boatboy_srq: Nope. They’ll blame Obamacare for driving up prices and breaking the system, never having understood that the system was already broken and that the ACA is an initial attempt at fixing some of the problems in the system.
We all like the idea that maybe, just maybe, if these morons actually get to see the consequences of their actions they will see the light. There is absolutely no reason to think this will happen. If they were capable of looking at the situation and seeing it for what it is, they wouldn’t hold these opinions in the first place.
If they can’t see it now, they are never, EVER, going to look back at the situation later and blame themselves. They are already preemptively blaming Obama. They will continue to do so.
Elizabelle
@tokyo expat:
Great article on French healthcare and its humaneness.
Thanks for posting. I would not have seen.
Citizen_X
Meh. When I hear stories like this, I keep my mouth shut. Inwardly, though, Mr. Darwin and I are high-fiving each other. “Selection pressure FTW!”
Ben Cisco
I think Ms. Billingsley had this one covered.
boatboy_srq
@Gex: All of that – with which I can’t help but agree – goes right back to my first comment.
Ben Cisco
@Ben Cisco: OK, FYWP.
Go here and check 1:41 mark.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@tokyo expat: Thanks so much for that blog post. I knew there were significant differences – Slate had a similar post about a birth – but I had no idea how profound it would be for someone at the other end of a life, and the family.
SFAW
@slippytoad:
I think your 99% estimate is being generous.
Thanks FSM their ignorance has no practical effect on fixing problems such as global warming, poverty, health care, and so forth. Because, if it did, then we’d REALLY be screwed.
Bokonon
@boatboy_srq: No … if these people end up bankrupt and homeless as a result of not having insurance, I predict that they will blame Obama and the Democrats for that too. Pretty safe prediction.
Sort of the way that a recent poll of GOP voters showed them holding Obama responsible for starting the 2008 recession … which, you know, started BEFORE OBAMA TOOK OFFICE and stuff.
I mean, if people can’t follow a calendar and a timeline without interjecting their irrational political views and hatreds, I don’t know what we can do.
boatboy_srq
@tokyo expat: Thank you. There’s too much anti-IslamoFascoSoshulism in the GOTea and the MSM on this (and other) topic(s), and we need more stories like this to counter all the Reichwing propaganda.
FYI I heard a similar tale from a UK resident whose wife had surgery and went to France for it. And while my cousins gripe about the NHS, a) complaining is the British national pastime and b) they complain about specific things about NHS and not the burden of actually having it.
J.D. Rhoades
@MomSense:
Let ’em die.
SFAW
@Bokonon:
Well, as any right-thinking, loyal American knows, those Kenyan Moooslims have the ability to go back in time to fuck things up. I mean, look at how Obama was able to change the Honolulu newspaper’s birth announcements, to magically include his.
Looking at it another way: have you ever seen David Axelrod and David Tennant in the same room? That should be proof enough. (Apologies for the semi-obscure geeklike reference.)
SFAW
@boatboy_srq:
In case you don’t already know, Cole (or mistermix or someone) fixed the FYWP “socialism” problem.
Chet
This seems utterly predictable. Conservatives have called Obamacare everything under the sun, comparing it to socialism, communism, fascism, nazism, slavery, and sharia (some of those things contradict each other I know). I honestly can’t think of any boogeyman that it hasn’t been compared to by someone. Is it any wonder that someone fed on a steady diet of demagoguery will find it hard to rationalize with contradictory information?
JR in WV
Can someone with such limited vision actually be a competent referee?
If you can’t see truth right in front of you, how can you call offsides?
I do feel sorry for the students that have to put up with a teacher who can’t tell fiction (nasty fiction intended as propaganda) from simple fact.
boatboy_srq
@SFAW: I did know. In case YOU didn’t know, I’m playing on the inability of morans to spell.
Ruckus
I want to be pissed. But I just don’t have the energy anymore. If people want to be so basically stupid, when given alternatives, why should anyone give a damn? This is probably not an ignorant person and he can’t be totally uneducated, but he is being willfully stupid. Let’s just hope he and the rest of his willfully stupid club members don’t do too much damage to the rest of us. Because we won’t change their tiny little minds in any noticeable way.
SFAW
@boatboy_srq:
Thanks for clarifying, I thought it might have been a holdover from the dark ages in this joint.
However, I noticed the lack of the obligatory “Get a brain!” I’m assuming it’s due to you being rushed or some such.
boatboy_srq
@SFAW: Why suggest it to them when they’ll never do it? Also too the cortex has a proven left-brain bias, and the right-brain is “artsy”, so no skull-respecting Teahadist would ever want one.
/snark (at least I think it was snark)
SFAW
@boatboy_srq:
No, the “Get a brain!” was from the picture of the Teahadi holding a sign with the word “Morans” writ large.
Fasteddie
you missed the unsaid words –
“I’m not trusting anything that has that BLACK man’s name on it…”
“I don’t trust that BLACK guy….”
Did he say “I’m not racist, but…” I would bet real money that he did.
These folks are so racist in their souls – first they double down on birther nonsense so that Obama is ineligible to be President, then they spend every waking minute believing that anything he has done must be BAD because otherwise it would disprove their notion that he is not worthy. Why do we have to keep fighting this over and over? GIVE UP THE RACISM.