Sunday, March 07, 2010, 2:10 PM
In the News, Stop the Presses
By Kevin Moreau

Leaps of logic

The ongoing debate over national health care is building to a fever pitch. At press time, President Obama was pushing for a House vote on the issue by March 18, a deadline that prompted Georgia’s Rep. Nathan Deal to postpone his resignation from Congress. Deal had originally planned to leave on March 8 to concentrate on his campaign for the governor’s mansion. But his fellow Republicans convinced him to stick around so that he can vote against what he called “the most liberal health care agenda ever proposed” in a statement released last week.

It’s worth noting that Rep. Deal didn’t feel the need to label Obama’s health care agenda as “socialist,” as so many pundits have done. It’s no longer necessary. The L-word has become so emotionally charged that its suitability as a synonym for “socialist,” or even “evil,” is understood.

For the record: I don’t vote along party lines, and I don’t consider myself a liberal, as conservatives define the term. And I do have some concerns about our Obama’s health care plan. Still, from all the hue and cry, you’d think the White House was proposing legislation to sacrifice newborns to the dark lord. The president wants every American to have access to some form of health coverage. Obviously, he won’t be happy until we’re all saluting statues of Joe Stalin on our way to the brainwashing camps.

Such leaps of logic are nothing new, of course.

Last month, a man named Joe Stack flew a plane into an IRS building in Austin, Texas, killing one employee and allegedly leaving behind an online diatribe railing against our totalitarian tax system. Congressman Steve King and Sen. Scott Brown both paid lip service to the horror of Stack’s crime—before conceding that, you know, he had a point about the whole tax thing. (This would never have happened if the IRS didn’t exist in the first place!) Those ill-considered comments, however, paled in comparison to those from nutjobs who hailed Stack as a hero.

It’s hard not to pick up a newspaper and feel your stomach lurch in dismay at the steady erosion of reason. It’s been snowing like crazy, so global warming must be a sham. The Bible states that God created Adam and Eve, therefore evolution is a hoax. (Given the contempt with which science is regarded by some conspiracy theorists, it’s no wonder that former Playboy model Jenny McCarthy is taken seriously for suggesting a link between vaccines and autism.)

But don’t mind me: I’m clearly just another loony leftist logic-lover. If you’ll excuse me, I have a black helicopter to catch; I’m late for a meeting with the Trilateral Commission.