How Did Ignorance Become the Armor Plated Kevlar Body Armor of the New Millenium?

I was speaking to a friend yesterday about The Affordable Care Act.  She said she was against it because Congress and their staffers were exempt.  I allowed as to how that was untrue.  They just didn't have to sign up because they were already covered...just like any of us who are already covered.  She said that she didn't like it because government could screw up a wet dream and they were running it.  I said that she was right about the government sucking balls mightily at doing just about anything part, but that they weren't providing the insurance or the care, and that the insurance companies were.  She sighed and said it was just too expensive for the government.  I said that the tax payers would individually carry the cost and that eventually it would become self-sufficient as everyone joined up.  She said, "How do you know all this?  Did you read the law?"  I told her that as much as I'd love to, no, I don't have time to read even the 1000 page condensed version of the law.  So I go to sites I trust and get summaries.  If I find a site that leans one way or the other, then I try to get confirmation or dissent from the other side.  I went to Forbes and the Wall Street Journal.  I looked at BBC articles.  I went to factcheck.org, and politifact.com and then checked their sources as well.  I'm no slouch on research, because I expect to defend my position and defend it well.  She wasn't impressed with my sources.  She asked who was behind THEM?  I said, Steve Forbes, Rupert Murdoch, Eugene Kiely, The Tampa Bay Times and other sundry writers and researchers.  I am as familiar as I can be with the politics of these people. These publications, and the others I refer to are about as neutral as can be found.  I asked what sources SHE used for her "facts".  Her one source was her fucking mother-in-law.  This is what I'm dealing with day in and day out.  
I am not an instant fan of "Obamacare".  There are issues with the law...but it is the law and it has been deemed constitutional by The Supreme Court of the United States.  I know several people who will pay more than they used to for insurance.  I know people who were willing to play the odds and forgo insurance that will no longer be able to do so...at least not without a penalty.  Insurance companies already had too much power before this law.  They collect too much money and look for any reason not to pay out.  That is bad.  And look at the odds.  The fact that they make so much money shows that many people do not need insurance.  What I am for, however, is an end to lifetime coverage limits, preexisting condition restrictions, and the idea that with coverage people will get preventative treatments and examinations where they haven't previously.
My friend was unimpressed with my facts and my neutrality.  Nothing I could say would sway her.  Why is she so entrenched in her beliefs?  I am going to look into this, because when I figure that out, I'll have the answer to why this country is in the shape that it is.

Caustic the Clown

On This 9/ll, Please Keep Your Silence To Yourself

     Lots of assholes will be jumping on the 9-11 bandwagon today.  As you watch them spew their nonsensical and poorly reasoned requests for silence, take a moment and really think about that day and what it means to you and your country.  Think about the real heroes that died trying to help save the person in the next cubicle, or who stopped to help a co-worker when they may have made it out in time on their own or the heroes that rushed into the collapsing WTC in the hopes of saving anyone at all.  Think about the heroes that tried to clear rubble in the hopes of finding anyone alive at all (and they did).  Also think about the work-a-day schlubs that died no more heroically than a simpleton who stumbles out into oncoming traffic, but let's not make them heroes.  They're just dead people.  Did they deserve to die?  Most likely not, but let's try to reserve the word hero just a bit, can we?  Think about the sorts of businesses that could afford to have offices in the WTC.  Maybe think about the people who worked in the insurance companies, and law offices and financial institutions some of whom made their livelihoods out of dicking over Americans.  Not heroes at all, really.  Think about what drove men to hijack and crash the planes and the people on board who tried to stop them.  Think about a plane smashing into the outer wall of our own Pentagon and then remember the international atrocities which have been planned and executed from that building.  Think about what over-reacting to this day's events in the first place has done to our rights and our freedoms.  Think about all the people, Americans and otherwise, who have died in our mission to fight something that cannot triumphed over using violence...terrorism.    Think about all these things...and the silence will come of its own accord.

Caustic the Clown 

As always, I welcome your comments below as well.