Stephen Hawking, proud American

8/11/2009 11:55am by 71

Paul Krugman:

[H]ere’s the latest in the “Obama’s health reform will kill people” news: Investor’s Business Daily — which poses as a reputable source of financial information — opines that:
People such as scientist Stephen Hawking wouldn’t have a chance in the U.K., where the National Health Service would say the life of this brilliant man, because of his physical handicaps, is essentially worthless.

That would be Stephen Hawking, British professor, who was born in the UK and has lived there for his whole life.

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@aravosis | Facebook | Google+. Editor of AMERICAblog, joint JD/MSFS from Georgetown, worked in the US Senate, World Bank, Children's Defense Fund, and as a stringer for the Economist. A frequent TV pundit, he has been on The O'Reilly Factor, Hardball, World News Tonight, Nightline & Reliable Sources. Full bio and .

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  • Matt
  • Reagan

    Be better if you actually included a link to your source.

  • eddie84

    Only an American can be so stupid. Stephen Hawking openly admits that he owe’s his life to the NHS, a service where people are all treated equally no matter of your illness/skin colour/religion/bank balance.

    Not everywhere is as greedy as the United States, nor does anywhere else make such incredibly idiotic questions without looking into the facts first. This should be proof to all who read/watch/believe the news/media, that they really are talking a load of toss!

  • xxxevilgrinxxx

    Priceless.

  • annlewis

    where is Palin? in the outback of course, maybe shooting wolves? Health care will pass, what it ends up depends on people being sane, not insane, like so many bottom feeders we are seeing tv. Read, people, read the facts.
    don’t listen to that fat lardo from florida. You know what he is. check the facts. that is all it takes. FACTS FACTS

    FACTS!!

  • tmaxpa

    OMG

    No, it is the American system that would have killed Stephan Hawking.

    Let’s get that on some signs at some town-halls:

    “Private Insurance Would Have Killed Stephan Hawking”

  • Ed

    I hope nobody made investments based on the information in this rag.

  • anon6767

    That’s utter freaking bollocks.
    Just pure shite, the NHS would never EVER do that.
    Don’t believe this

  • slippytoad

    Clown shoes for IBD. Permanent, glued-on clown shoes.

    None of the rest of what they say can be taken seriously anymore. I mean, how could I read through their articles without feeling like I had to research each and every assertion?

  • Cornett

    Reality with that liberal bias has reared its ugly head again! Repugs phone it in anymore, they are ridiculous.

  • poetry

    If we’re not talking “Single Payer For All” in this country why bother with any posts. “For profit health industry”, the greatest Western invention ever!

    • JamesR

      Yes! – There will always be disease and suffering, sickness and death – just like war but constant! Way to go profiting from it and making more of it. Makes Haliburton and KBR look like pikers. Maybe we could legislate a private tax on food consumption next, or perhaps air?

      • tmaxpa

        “Makes Haliburton and KBR look like pikers.”

        Nicely said. Kudos.

  • Steve_in_CNJ

    Hawking’s voice synthesizer has an american accent. I’m sure he could get it changed, but perhaps he finds it amusing. In any case, it seems to have confused some people about his nationality.

    • mimsong

      DECtalk’s voice persona is usually described as a “drunken Swede”. He’s been quoted as saying that he knows he could change it, but he identifies with that voice now, esp. that no one else uses it.

  • http://ae911truth.info/ boloboffin

    IBW has taken out the sentence and issued a “correction”.

    “Editor’s Note: This version corrects the original editorial which implied that physicist Stephen Hawking, a professor at the University of Cambridge, did not live in the UK.”

    Only on the Internet.

  • mtiffany

    You liberals and your lying facts!

  • kmcdevitt

    Laugh…cry? Laugh…cry? It’s just so hard to decide anymore.

    • harry

      I know EXACTLY how you feel…….although I would probably throw “scream” in there too.

      • kmcdevitt

        Remember all that “primal scream” therapy that was going on back in the ’70s and ’80s? I’m not sure that it would cut through the sheer level of frustration I feel nowadays. I’d end up just as frustrated but with a sore throat and Suzanne Pleshette voice.

  • JohnNation

    And here we get to the heart of the matter… the “Death Panel” crazies are as dumb as fucking rocks.

    • xxxevilgrinxxx

      Yes, yes they are.

  • http://twitter.com/alephnaught Michael James

    Idiocy of comments on http://tinyurl.com/n77xg8 floors me. Apparently @Prof_S_Hawking = too much of a rich-ass jettasetta for the NHS. WTF?

    • mirth

      Comments are closed there. Maybe this example is why.

  • Butch1

    I am so sick of this right-winged BS but, we all know it will work for them and that small minority will influence Congress and this president in pushing something through that is a toothless status quo bill that will do nothing to correct this problem. I’m sick of what this country has become. Perhaps, everyone dropping their present insurance and filing bankruptcy would convince them. ( of course, cutting one’s nose off to spite one’s face is not the answer ) What can we do besides scream at our Congress and the President to grow a spine and fight these traitors of the people. Perhaps, those right-wing enablers should have their medicare taken away from them if they hate socialized medicine so much. Let’s call their bluff. They should sign their petition against single-payer health care. Then, we should turn in their names to the government that they do not want their socialized medicine anymore. Let’s see how long that lasts.

  • http://ae911truth.info/ boloboffin

    I’m stealing this shamelessly from another forum I frequent, but you have to admit that Hawking’s voice synthesizer has an American accent, so the confusion is understandable. ;)

    • http://www.facebook.com/ewilliams1 Eric Williams

      To prevent Hawking from continuing to “pass” as an American, he must immediately shift to a British-accented voice synthesizer. Maybe he can hire the guy who does C-3PO.

      • woodroad34

        Or Seth McFarland as Stewie….

    • Steve_in_CNJ

      sorry, i repeated this before reading comments.

  • xtophera

    To be fair, you can tell where Stephen Hawking is, or where he’s going, but not both.

    • chuckt2232

      LOL!!

  • nicho

    If the US were a live person, it would be taken into protective custody. The country has gone totally batshit crazy. It would be fun to watch if I didn’t live here.

    • http://twitter.com/home KerrynowCampau

      At a minimum a guardian should be appointed
      The US is clearly a danger to its self

      • Diogenes

        America, psychopath nation.

    • Õ¿Õ

      Well, we live here so at least we have ringside tickets to watch as our country goes to shit. Nothing that can be done, it seems. Pull up a chair by me.

      • http://www.seamastercruises.com/Stellent/websites/get_page.asp?nodeId=2125826&ssSourceNodeId=2125800 Soundboy_jeff_meanie

        I’ll make popcorn… I do love a good dark comedy.

    • xxxevilgrinxxx

      I live in Canada (with the evil socialized medicare that’s killing us all! ) and I have to say, it’s pretty scary from up here too, watching this lunacy. As crazy, as terrifying, as it looks from the inside, picture for a moment if you will what it looks like from the outside.

      • sjg19

        It’s the same in the UK, we were just sitting back laughing away!

  • Ubiquitous

    My partner is British, has lived in the UK all her life – and has a daughter with Turner’s Syndrome… who has had every form of necessary surgery, all possible treatment, help with implementing the Canadian Portage system and has recently – at the age of 20+ – married a similarly ‘special’ boy she met in the state-sponsored taxi that took her to the special school. They live together in a flat paid for by the Government.

    This is the biggest heap of bullshit I’ve seen to date…

  • johnnyleen

    Goodness! Of course Stephen Hawking is an American. He’s brilliant! And no other country on the face of the earth is capable of producing a brilliant person but the U.S.!

  • PeteWa

    the stupid is everywhere.

    • rickasrickdoes

      No, no, the proper terminology is ‘TEH’ stupid. Republican apology rags don’t deserve to use a proper article like ‘the’ in front of an adjective that puts their syndrome mildly.

  • KarenMrsLloydRichards

    Other great Americans Obama would put to death:

    Mother Theresa (osteoporosis).

    Nelson Mandela (over 90).

    Pope John Paul (Parkinson’s).

    Princess Diana (suicide attempts).

    • http://www.seamastercruises.com/Stellent/websites/get_page.asp?nodeId=2125826&ssSourceNodeId=2125800 Soundboy_jeff_meanie

      George W Bush (hopeless moron)

      • woodroad34

        Well, to be fair, he’s already brain dead.

  • Anonymiss

    It’s like a game of whack-a-mole….you just have to beat down these stupid comments every time they pop up….but they keep popping up faster and faster. Where will it all end?

    • Butch1

      When they win, of course. ;-(
      They are like spoiled children throwing tantrums until they get their way. They’re poor losers and are upset that they lost the election even though this country was going to hell in a hand basket. They don’t care, they never do research, they just continue to spew what they are told to spew. These people should not be allowed to breed, perhaps, then, they would die out when they reach old age. These people are embarrassing.

      • woodroad34

        You know, they scream and yell when they’re in power and they scream and yell when they’re out of power. Do they really know what they want? I guess their religion(s) don’t offer the peace they claim and/or there seems to be too much living next to power lines or toxic dumps, I guess. Whatever the case, bad upbringing all around.

        • Butch1

          They pretend and harp about being good christians but like most of these hypocrites, the left the good path a long time ago, yet, they are the first to point fingers at others and how they should act. It is incredible.

    • older_skool

      just like whack-a-mole… it ends when the time runs out.

  • annieWash

    When the President get’s to tonight’s Town Hall meeting, he’ll be met by all the ‘sicko’ republicans. I suspect he’ll feel like John McLain in “Die Hard” One, when the terrorists start shooting out the lights. “Welcome to the neighborhood, Pal !” Now he’ll see what all the congress and senate staffers have been seeing on the road for the last week.

    • njprogressive

      Hate to nitpick, but its John McClane, and the quote is “welcome to the party, pal”. =)

  • Indigo

    LOL! Maybe a literate mole inserted that article to discredit the periodical. It worked.

  • ewastud

    Samantha Bee on last night’s Daily Show made a comment (in jest, of course) that we don’t need the gov’t intervention of Obama’s “Death Panel”, the private health insurance companies are quite capable of providing that themselves.

    • drobert

      Well, she shouldn’t have “jested”…. Health Insurance Companies all have actual “death panels”, which decide on a daily basis whether someone is worth the care their doctors decide they need. Although solid numbers are not available, it’s estimated that 10% of all procedures get rejected by insurers; a significant number of them are life-and-death. So yeah, the private sector is very good at the “death panel” business; in fact, I’d call it their specialty.

      • ewastud

        Yes, Samantha Bee “jested” in the sense of telling the awful truth on
        the private health insurance companies – like Will Rogers’s
        witticisms used to do. All of the lies and inflammatory rhetoric of
        the health insurance lobby aimed at “ObamaCare” is in reality a
        mirror projection of their own evil selves.

  • http://www.seamastercruises.com/Stellent/websites/get_page.asp?nodeId=2125826&ssSourceNodeId=2125800 Soundboy_jeff_meanie

    I think they were going to use Marie Curie as an example first… but they hate the French.

    so, if socialized medicing will ration care to the point where people will die on a regular basis… why did the NHS let Hawking live?

  • NotTimothyGeithner

    Stephen Hawking doesn’t believe in God. How can he be a ‘merican?

    • HelenRainier

      Which God? The traditional Christian God? The Buddha? The Jewish God? The Catholic God? There’s a heap of those buggers running around up there in the sky so which one?

  • lynchie

    Is there no one in this Dem House, Senate, White House that has the balls to call these guys what the are–LIARS. We on the supposed left continue to look like weak, ineffective and scared.
    The organized, concerted effort to destroy the health care reform is a good example of the whole right wing of this country realizing that the left is a useless, divided group who have no idea what to do with the majorities we hold. They show us every day that the truth does not matter, that honesty and integrity is worth spit and that they control the talking points and shape all legislation because we want to be seen as bi partisan.
    Enough horseshit Obama, get Rahm whipped into shape, clean out the Bush appointees from top to bottom and start acting like the President we elected not the one you replaced.

    • http://www.seamastercruises.com/Stellent/websites/get_page.asp?nodeId=2125826&ssSourceNodeId=2125800 Soundboy_jeff_meanie

      no… get rahm OUT of there.

      he’s a fricking asshole… and probably THE reason the administration dropped GLBT rights as soon as they won.

    • timncguy

      even better, is there no one in TV News other than on MSNBC, which isn’t seen by that many people, that will call out these blatant LIES?

      Where is Walter Cronkite when you need him? Why aren’t the lies called out as lies every night on the three major stations, NBC, ABC and CBS?

    • timncguy

      even better, is there no one in TV News other than on MSNBC, which isn’t seen by that many people, that will call out these blatant LIES?

      Where is Walter Cronkite when you need him? Why aren’t the lies called out as lies every night on the three major stations, NBC, ABC and CBS?

      • woodroad34

        Walter Cronkite is in Britain being managed by their healthcare.

    • Butch1

      “Is there no one in this Dem House, Senate, White House that has the balls to call these guys what the are–LIARS. ”
      ====================================
      I hate to say it, but Pelosi tried to do that and was shot down by Obama and the White House. This is the administration who is supposed to be on the same side.

  • http://insideoutandbackwards.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/creepy-clown-nun.jpg Ritorna Vincitor

    ROTF!

  • http://www.seamastercruises.com/Stellent/websites/get_page.asp?nodeId=2125826&ssSourceNodeId=2125800 Soundboy_jeff_meanie

    that’s soooo screwed up.

    first of all, in a country where a chimp can get elected to the highest office TWICE (debatable, I know)… how can repugnicans truely believe we’d ration healthcare?

    /snark

    the odd thing is, they don’t realize healthcare is rationed NOW! God forbid they actually wind up with inoperable cancer or something, eventually their insurance company would drop them like a hot rock… that isn’t rationed? that isn’t a ‘death list’??

  • http://www.bloomsburyreview.com Webster

    Almost makes you want to weep.

  • SCLiberal

    Oh, for pete’s sake.

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