ron paul, who's an obstetrician, on healthcare policy. now, this won't convince you that obama's plan is wrong. but it should convince you that it's false that only an idiot could disagree with you. but it won't, because even a thoughtful little catalogue of ideas can't be allowed to rip apart the last vestiges of your self-esteem. the healthcare debate is itself mental healthcare for the obamoids: the important thing isn't to convince or construct a good argument. the only question as you take a position or develop an argument: how does this make me feel about myself? the point is never the point. the point is: if i take a position, with what group am i affiliating myself? and with whom am i disaffiliating myself? so the question isn't: 'good policy?' but 'who am i?' in a situation where personal identity and group affiliation are conceived to be identical, and where group membership is a matter of delineating standards of exclusion. it's like the grail quest: i spend my life in a single-minded, heroic search to find out, in the words of elvis costello ("two little hitlers"), the names of all those i'm better than.