College football is my exposure. They are 'Bama, never Alabama, unless joined together with Crimson Tide, in which case you say Alabama, not 'Bama.

Geez, people! :)

Football is not hockey.

However, more on the subject, women typically are more expensive to insure during child bearing years because that's when they incur the most cost. The older you get, the more expensive you are to insure, because you incur more medical expenses.

While many find this offensive, insurance is a business to make money.

And we all thank the good lord above for that.

Which is exactly why I support socialized medical care. My health should not be someone else's business decision.

Words right out of my mouth.

Insurance shouldn't be at the behest of shareholders. I've seen, from the inside, what it does to the quality of health care. And it isn't pretty.

I still don't get why it should be the responsibility of others to pay for my medical expenses, nor do I understand why health care is considered a right to a large portion of society. I understand there is that portion, and while I don't belittle that viewpoint, I don't understand it. I suppose paying into a government system is not that much different, but i'd rather ahve a business that is competing against other businesses for my money having a say rather than the government. I don't think the giovernment manages well the responsibilities it already has. I don't want government mandated exercise programs (though I exercise daily) or any other government requirements determining what I must or must not do to receive benefit X.

I've been mulling over going deeper (it keeps getting longer the more I re-edit), but I won't. We've been down the road of medical care and insurance before.

I'll tell you why it's considered a right. Because IT IS SO CONSIDERED.

All we have to do as Americans for something to become our right, is to declare it so. We have that freedom. And we have a government that, by design, exists to support the general welfare. That's one of the guiding philosophies of America, enshrined in the preamble to the Constitution as a duty of the government We the People form on our behalf.

What is necessary to support the general welfare is something that evolves, and I think it's finally evolving to a right we Americans declare for and demand.

If it is a right, then it should be constitutionally guaranteed as one. If the rights we have can be determined by what society considers to be one, then rights we have can be removed by the same whims. The general welfare clause, as noted in the federalist papers (which one escapes me at present, and while I realize they are not a binding document, they certainly note the intentions of the writers) was never intended as a blank check for the federal government.

I can't possibly state it more simply than I have hundreds of times already.

Because those of us who believe it is a right believe that the value of someone's life should not and cannot be equated to their material worth.