Brain dead

Mark your calendar. The right is now officially beneath contempt.

The insurance lobby and its shameless bodyguard are spreading the story that Natasha Richardson's death was caused by the godless Canadian healthcare system. (Quebec has no med-evac helicopters, neurosurgeons weren't hanging around the hospital waiting to examine her, etc., etc.) When they lied about Stephen Hawking and the UK's National Health, Hawking told them they were full of shit. Much less risky to violate a dead woman.

Fact: People die every day of subdural hematoma. Kurt Vonnegut died in New York City, home to some of the world's most expensive private medical care. Garrison Keillor's brother David died in Minnesota. Chances of survival diminish when you don't seek immediate care because you feel fine. Time is the significant factor, not having Dr. House on speed-dial.

I don't know why I should be surprised. Since when have the right cared whom they caused pain? A week ago their radio arm was soliciting fresh Chappaquiddick jokes from mouth-breathing listeners and, no doubt, getting them. But this is different. Natasha Richardson's young sons don't need to hear that their mother would be alive but for incompetent Canadian doctors and their health-care-rationing politicians, even if it is crap.

Somebody produced a TV spot promulgating this garbage, and somebody is buying the time. I hope Liam Neeson hires the scariest lawyer he can find and sues them for every dime they haven't stashed under the floorboards.