Oh, it’s been an interesting 24 hours.

We got a new health care bill, and suddenly everyone who has access to a computer is sharing their opinion.

I’m not going to share mine, because as great, important, awesome, amazing, fantastic, incredible, magnificent, and ridiculously good looking I may be, my opinion is not.  Mostly, because 99% of the people who shared something on the internet (I’m mostly speaking about Facebook), I don’t have all the facts.  And until I do have all the facts, my judgement can’t be anything but faulty.  And my opinion will only be based on what little I do know, what rumors I’ve heard from other people ranting about rumors, and what personal opinions I’ve already developed about Washington, the President, and politics.

What I just wanted to say is that everyone is so quick to share their opinion that many a person has been a jackass today.  And they didn’t even have to work in Washington to do it.

Now hold on there.  Before you zip down to the bottom of this post and retort my statements with your own, read on.  As I’ve already said before, I’m not sharing my opinion about the health care bill.  What good would that do anyway?  All I will say is that I hope and pray that it doesn’t keep me and mine from getting the health care we need.  Please don’t tell me how you think this is going to affect me, because you don’t really know.  No one knows.  You may know more than me about this whole thing, and you know what?  I’m ok with that.

What I’m not ok with:

1. Somebody telling my wife that she’ll buy her an “I love Obama” sticker because my wife pointed out: “Government regulation of business (e.g., healthcare) does not equal socialism.  But thanks for trying.”  (I am ok with how my wife retorted and called the comment asinine, which is such a fun word.)
2. People who mix up the facts when trying to complain about the new bill:
   

   just a thought… So a news sources says the Health Overhaul will cost 900B a year. That same news source claims that this new bill will make healthcare available to 32M people. Do the math, 900B/32M=28,125 per year. The answer to this mathematical query is how much the American taxpayers pay per person, per year for healthcare.

3. Misused facts.  If you’re going to hand out mathematical figures, at least know what you’re calculating. Every person in the US isn’t going to pay that much a year. Why? Because there are 300 million+ people in the United States, not just 32 million. That’s how many people it will extend health care to.   $3,000 a year per person would also suck…but most of that will be burdened on those that make far more money than you (speaking to the person whom I quoted above).  But thanks for playing.
4. People who share their opinion but can’t spell or use proper grammar (including, but not limited to: capitalization, punctuation, subject/verb agreement, etc.).  I mean, if you’re going to put your foot in your mouth, you might as well do it with proper style.
5. My cousin telling my wife that she’s arrogant.  If you’re a college drop-out (less than a year); lived with your parents most of your married, adult life; and the only reason you got out of their house is because they bought you a house, you probably shouldn’t tangle with a well-read, witty, articulate woman who can say exactly what she’s thinking with her words.  Because she will make you cry.

And most of all, I’m just sick of all the bickering back and forth on Facebook.  People can have a difference of opinion.  Our school counselors always told us that it would be such a boring place if we all had the same opinion.  I respectfully disagree.  I think it would be anything but boring.  It would be hell, because I’m an idiot about 90% of the time, and it’s only because of the good grace of God that I have learned to keep most of that idiocy inside and also keep it from killing me.  (Ok, 90% is an exaggeration.  87% is more accurate.)  Just think how bad it’d be if everyone thought like those people who are dumb 110% of the time.  (Oh…it’s mathematically possible.)

The health care bill isn’t the biggest problem.  I think it’s the idiocy of people as a whole.  (This means that Washington may actually be a fair representation of the American people.)  Men in Black said it best: “A person is smart.  People are stupid.”  However, in my experience today, I’m starting to think that it depends on the person you sample, because today it seemed like every time a person posted something insightful, they had to endure an onslaught of comments making personal attacks on their integrity.

A person can support and love their country without agreeing 100% with its leaders.  And today, a U.S. citizen can love and support their country, and that doesn’t make them a socialist, no matter how many “enlightened” Facebookers think otherwise.

Now, please don’t take anything I say personally.  As I’ve already stated, I’m an idiot around 87% of the time.  But before we all start commenting up a storm on the interweb, we should stop and ask, “Do I even know what I’m talking about?”

There’s just two problems with this solution.  Everyone who really needs this advice a) will never read this post, and b) would forget to ask the question before leaving a stupid comment.

Currently listening to: “Violin Concerto In G, Op. 4, No. 12” by Antonio Vivaldi.