In this section
Sports Blogs
In this section
Business Blogs
In this section
Entertainment Blogs
REAL ESTATE & RENTALS
Browse Classifieds: General Merchandise | Pets | Garage & Estate Sales | Events & Notices | Services & Professionals
Just when Philadelphia needed more voices, the city has lost one of its best, the British-American journalist Steven Wells, who found a home in the City of Brotherly Love and wrote frequently for Philadelphia Weekly. This is from his last column:
Life isn’t about grit and grime and squalor. Life is getting angry at destroyed cat jigsaws. Life is the amazement at seeing the Vanity Fair title erupt as a scarlet mohawk-cum-quiff across a dainty Johnny Depp’s forehead, and the drooling anticipation of watching a Brian McManus-recommended terror-comedy on my computer later tonight. And of course the sight of tireless, tie-less and tire-burning liberal rioters taking to the streets of Tehran.
I speak as someone whose greatest craving at this exact moment is not world peace and universal democracy or a rational and global redistribution of wealth, but a can of ice cold ginger ale.
He leaves us with a great body of work, and one more thing: His hellish tales of the American health care system where he did battle in his final years. That's a tale that our policymakers in Washington need to hear, so that the next generation doesn't have to endure what some of Wells went through.
(Photo from Philadelphia Weekly.)
So you observe the suffering of this man, trying to navigate the waters of Medical care, and you think it's a good idea to take our existing medical system and have it be managed by the inept tools at the Department of Motor Vehicles? Cruel. Why do you hate the sick and dying? Isn't their suffering enough? Now you want them to wait in line for months, to get approval for emergency care? Just cruel.— Mr. Smith
I don't understand...why didn't he return to England for his healthcare? We all know the U.S. system sucks - he could be alive today.— bird11
I read his account, harrowing situation, I hope the best family. At the risk of sounding cold hearted, why didn't he take advantage of the so called better system in England?— Tom813- AH, yes, clearly the best health care system which could ever possibly be conceived of by man... This is what the Hate Americans First crowd want our health care system to be. They don't want to change it. They don't want to fix it. They think it works. This is what passes for "analysis" among the marginalized minority. Beware.— E.Plebnista
Comment removed.- No doubt the 45 readers of the Philadelphia Weekly will miss his voice and his great body of work. You kidding or what, nobody ever heard of this guy. I assume you are busy cutting and pasting more Sanford stuff or watching soccer tapes, so this passes as news?— jimmymack
- Comment removed.
- Comment removed.
- Comment removed.
- LJL, it is incredibly stupid to compare expenditure to outcome, unless you control for genetics, diet, exercise, smoking, risk, murder rate, accidental deaths, etc. The list could go on and on and on. Those life expectancy comparisons start looking a lot better when you take non-healthcare factors into account. For instance we have shorter lifespans because we have way more traffic accidents because we drive way more. Murder rate too, both take the young predominantly. To call the comparison simplistic is an extreme understatement. Another key reason as to why spending per capita isnt always the best measure is that it doesnt take into account spending done that while not prolonging life, does improve the quality of life. Hip and knee replacements have a much higher incidence here in the US vs. the usual suspects of comparator countries. Hip replacement surgery is very expensive relative to the alternative of ibuprofren and a cane, wouldn't you say. Of course, this leads to questions of whether 75 year olds should be getting hip replacements on the governments dime...but that is another post. In any case, what is the life expectancy of a black male in DC, Baltimore or Philadelphia? That has nothing to do with health care.— legatus
- Comment removed.
- But we still don't need government run socialized medicine. 89% of people are happy with their insurance plan/health care. Why should I care about illegal aliens, people making over $75,000 who CHOOSE NOT to purchase insurance or people so young they think they won't get sick?— WriteWinger
"No doubt the 45 readers of the Philadelphia Weekly will miss his voice and his great body of work. You kidding or what, nobody ever heard of this guy." You're an idiot. - signed, one of the Philly 45— Hamlet
Are there any other details? I know he had insurance, and recieved hefty medical bills, but there are no specifics. What insurance company did he have? What plan did he have? This story is a poor substitute for real debate, but this is how the left gets things done. You can't just throw 1.5 trillion dollars of taxpayer dollars at a problen unless it has been thought through. Has Obama's plan been thought through? Not based on what I've heard. Obama hasn't given one direct answer to any question about this program. All we get are longwinded generalities that don't even address the questions asked. This bill should go down in flames, not because it's necessarily flawed, but because the President can't even articulate the details to the American people because he himself doesn't know.— jmc- Comment removed.
28 comments | View All Comments | View All By Latest
View comments: 1
|
2
About Will Bunch
Will's new book: Learn about it here and purchase it here.
Will Bunch, a senior writer at the Philadelphia Daily News, blogs about his obsessions, including national and local politics and world affairs, the media, pop music, the Philadelphia Phillies, soccer and other sports, not necessarily in that order.
Will Bunch, a senior writer at the Philadelphia Daily News, blogs about his obsessions, including national and local politics and world affairs, the media, pop music, the Philadelphia Phillies, soccer and other sports, not necessarily in that order.
E-mail Will by clicking here.
PLEASE COMMENT WITH PASSION...
...but not with racial slurs, potentially libelous allegations, obscenities or other juvenile noise. Such comments will, at our discretion, be deleted in their entirety, and repeat offenders will be blocked from commenting. ALSO: Any commenter advocating killing any government official will be immediately banned.
Thanks.
- Atrios
- Kiko's House
- Suburban Guerilla
- Booman Tribune
- All-Spin Zone
- Philly (Dragonballyee)
- Afro-Netizen
- Rowhouse Logic
- MyDD
- Bad Attitudes
- Billmon
- iFlipFlop
- CorrenteWire
- upyernoz
- Tattered Coat
- Fables of the Reconstruction
- Slacktivist
- Citizen Mom
- The Next Mayor
- Philly Future
- Philadelphia Will Do
- Philebrity
- Young Philly Politics
- Phillyblog
- Welcome to Phillyville
- Phawker
- A List of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago
- Keystone Blog
- Philadelphia - America's Hometown
- BlankBaby
- Above Average Jane
- Phillyist
- Metroblogging Philadelphia
- The Clog
- Josh Marshall
- Daily Kos
- Juan Cole
- Oliver Willis
- Andy Borowitz
- War and Piece
- Wonkette
- BuzzFlash
- Raw Story
- Cursor
- Crooks and Liars
- Swing State Project
- Kevin Drum
- Talk Left
- AmericaBlog
- Hullabaloo
- Mad Kane
- Think Progress
- Jesus' General
- The Carpetbagger Report
- Majikthise
- Echidne of the Snakes
- David Sirota
- Glenn Greenwald
- TBogg
- Fire Dog Lake
- Taylor Marsh
- Matthew Yglesias
- Jon Swift
- Drudge Report
- Beer Leaguer
- The 700 Level
- Dick Polman
- Balls, Sticks and Stuff
- Shallow Center
- Philling Station
- Phillies Nation
- A Citizen's Blog
- The Good Phight
- Romenesko
- Editor and Publisher
- Pressthink
- Buzzmachine
- The Inksniffer
- Media Bloodhound
- Eat the Press
- Mickey Kaus
- Media (Huffington Post)
- Blinq
- The Corner
- Instapundit
- Andrew Sullivan
- Free Republic
- James Taranto
- Blonde Sagacity
- ScrappleFace
- Blogorrhea
Blog Roll
Get it now
- May
- April
- March
- February
- January
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- January 2008
Archives
Philly.com Promotions
- News | Sports | Business | What's Happening | Restaurants & Food | Entertainment | Living | Marketplace | Jobs
Site Services:
Classifieds:
Partners:
