Everything Seemingly Is Spinning Out of Control

Everything Seemingly Is Spinning Out of Control
“The Baa-con Buttie: In Fast-Food UK, One Child in Four Thinks Bacon Comes From a Sheep”–headline, Daily Mail (London), Jan. 21

Great Moments in Socialized Medicine
“UFC [Ultimate Fighting Championship] heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar announced his ‘miracle’ recovery from a career-threatening digestive disease Wednesday while slamming the health care he received in Canada after falling sick during a hunting trip,” the Canadian Press reports:

The six-foot-four Lesnar, who has to cut weight to make the UFC heavyweight limit of 265 pounds, said he had been ailing for some time last year, before falling seriously ill during a trip to Canada. What had started as flu-like symptoms was upgraded to mononucleosis and then diverticulosis.

Asked about the low point during the last few months of his illness, Lesnar said: “Probably the lowest moment was getting care from Canada.”

“They couldn’t do nothing for me,” he noted in a later media conference call Wednesday. “It was like I was in a Third World country.”

“I’m just stating the facts here and that’s the facts,” he continued. “I love Canada. I own property in Canada but if I had to choose between getting care in Canada or the United States, I definitely want to be in the United States. Canadians, don’t get me wrong here. Listen I love Canada, some of the best people and best hunting in the world. I have family up there. But I wasn’t at the right facility. And it makes sense for me to say that.”

Whether or not you care for Ultimate Fighting (we don’t), it’s a reminder of why we should be celebrating the demise of ObamaCare.

It also underscores how odd it is when people in countries that do have socialized medicine want America to adopt it as well. Lesnar is American, but lots of Canadians take advantage of America’s proximity to get care the Canuck death panels would deny them.

The night of the House ObamaCare vote in November, we were at a party where an Italian man was exulting over the coming of socialized medicine to America. He criticized our system for spending such a high proportion of gross domestic product on health care, and we pointed out that one reason for that is that we pay the price for pharmaceutical innovations, on which other countries then free-ride. If America adopted price controls, as Robert Reich has pointed out, innovation would be retarded–and that would be to the detriment of Italians as well as Americans.

The guy from Italy didn’t care. There is such a thing as foolish national pride.

For more “Best of the Web” click here and look for the “Best of the Web Today” link in the middle column below “Today’s Columnists.