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The evidence from all OECD countries shows that the private sector is far more bureaucratic and much less efficient than the public sector when it comes to providing health care.
Ten Health Care Myths

Gentlemen from Hooker - and many other places - are quite literally pouring these and many other poisons into your coffee and your kids' juice. They just do it in a more indirect, anonymous, and apparently socially acceptable way.
150 Years of Dirty Water

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Capital is reckless of the health or length of life of the laborer, unless under compulsion from society.
– Karl Marx

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In a Direct Line - Photo by Ulli Diemer

The reliable tyrant

By Ulli Diemer

Letter to the Editor, Guardian Weekly

The Bush administration is starting to look a bit desperate as it seeks a way out of the mess it created with its invasion and occupation of Iraq. The weapons of mass destruction that were supposedly the reason for the war are nowhere to be found, and the Iraqis are acting anything but grateful for their 'liberation'.

Fortunately the solution to the whole debacle is within the Americans' grasp.

All they need do is release Saddam Hussein from custody and put him back in power. Given a second chance, he'll soon crush the opposition and restore order. He's got the credentials and the track record for the job, if anybody does. It's true that he's a truly nasty piece of work, but his methods, including mass murder and torture, didn't stop the U.S. from supporting him enthusiastically throughout the 1980s, the period of his greatest crimes. It was only when he made the mistake of disobeying the U.S. that he became an enemy.

No doubt a deal could be worked out. Saddam would be happy to return to power in exchange for an undertaking to follow orders. And the U.S. could withdraw its troops, secure in the knowledge that a reliable tyrant will maintain order and keep the oil flowing.

Ulli Diemer
April 2004
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