4 and a half months???

it isn't a freak accident. it is not extremely common, but is not entirely uncommon either. i used to think it was an old wives tale, i was horrible with taking care of my teeth when i was younger, and was always told if you get a bad enough cavity it can spead an infection to your brain and kill you. several years later whlie working as an EMT in the bronx, i transported a 14 year old to the hospital who later died, and it was from exactly that. in the ten years since then, i know of at least 3 other cases of it in the nyc area, which leads me to believe that if one person in one area can hear about it happening 4 times, it must happen a decent amount.

The American Government doesn't care about you. Quite frankly neither do most affluent Americans. The last time this subject was breached and some of us tried to have a serious discussion about the possibility of standardized health care coverage for the whole of the U.S. at least half those who came on the board bitched that they weren't going to pay for some lazy jackass who doesn't have health coverage and just suggested that they "get off their ass and get a job". They all then came down on me for suggesting they have universal coverage like we Canadians do, telling me that the care I receive is inferior to theirs. I don't know anyone who can swallow a $250,000 debt without going bankrupt. I always find it amusing that people seem to think their health insurance companies are going to cover them if they get cancer or need multiple expensive sugeries. Any time the health system is set up for capatilist gain, the people will suffer. To the rest of the world, health care is like education. It is a fundamental responsibility of the government to provide for its citizens.
That is the reason things like this happen. Health care should be free. Your country spend over 200 billion dollars on war over the last couple of years and then has the arrogance to say it can't afford medical? Why aren't you all outraged? This I will never understand...

could be wrong, but I don't think brushing your teeth can avoid this sort of thing.

yeah, I don't know why more companies don't atleast offer a good direction towards health care. I've been in retail for about 9yrs. My first retail employer didn't offer benefits unless you were a lowbe manager, luckily I was young enough to be under Rents ins still. My current retail employer actually offers a choice benefits after your first year working, worked 1000hrs, 20hrs/wk avg, and it doesn't matter your pay lvl. It takes about $50-$60/mo out of my pay, but that's for both decent health AND dental. I've talked to many people over the years about this sorta thing and I've been told that alot of places offer a good amount of ins, in terms of retail/food/other jobs nobody likes.

Yes the country is generally screwed up in this sense and many others, but there's always help somewhere even if you don't like where it comes from.

/end of babbling

Let's not talk about this country and decent education for all...the past tends to haunt >.<

I couldn't agree more.

Or possibly, "here's what happens when parents are poor and have to work around the clock doing jobs that don't offer healthcare because they came from poor families and didn't receive proper education because the US spends less than 2% of the amount it pours into useless wars abroad on education so the parents were probably uneducated (of course, they should have known better as kids and moved to a better, richer neighborhood so they could get a decent education) and probably don't even fully understand what doors are open to them or how to break out of the cycle."

Either way, that kid didn't choose his parents and instead of blaming them, you should be thankful that yours were educated and well off enough to raise you so that you know how to make your own way in the world.

It's not about people getting a free ride, it's about making sure the basics like health care and education are in place so that everyone has a chance to realize the American Dream. I.E. work hard and reap the rewards. And don't think for a second that poor parents aren't working hard everyday just to make the basic ends meet. My parents were exactly that and if we'd been living in the US, we'd have been fucked. Finally, years later, we all enjoy productive, hard-working, successful lives but when I was a kid life was brutally fucking hard. We only made it because a) my parents came from a decent education system and b) we had the support we needed from the Canadian government in the form of healthcare and education. Twice we had to briefly rely on social services for help but have since paid off any debt we incurred in spades via taxes because we were able to get on our feet.

Funny fact: a healthy, educated and productive populace make for a strong economy. Weird huh?

I doubt any of those guys smoke the meth either, which is pretty unreasonable if you think about it... not doing meth

Holy broken record Batman.

I'm assuming you are talking about the mom in the article? Because poor black mothers obviously all do meth, right?

No. It's in reference to something else the author wrote

And I don't suppose I need to point out the ironic nature of you harping on this in the same way I'm harping on Bitch, but I will.

I was going to post this in your blog, but you don't have one.

Is there any reason you only refer to mothers, and not fathers, when you talk about single parent families? I'd agree that it's much more common for single-parent families to be mothers and children, not fathers and children.

this reminds me i gotta go to the dentist