Another spontaneous 'spread the wealth around' moment

Jake Tapper and Karen Devers get it. At the recent ABC informercial/lovefest touting President Obama's national health care intitative, there was one comment that stood above the rest. As they wrote: "Dr. Orrin Devinsky, a neurologist and researcher at the New York University Langone Medical Center, said that elites often propose health care solutions that limit options for the general public, secure in the knowledge that if they or their loves ones get sick, they will be able to afford the best care available, even if it's not provided by insurance. Devinsky asked the president pointedly if he would be willing to promise that he wouldn't seek such extraordinary help for his wife or daughters if they became sick and the public plan he's proposing limited the tests or treatment they can get. The president refused to make such a pledge, though he allowed that if "it's my family member, if it's my wife, if it's my children, if it's my grandmother, I always want them to get the very best care"

So it's another let them eat cake moment. The peasants can fend for themselves, but since he has money, to find good care he will go outside of the very system he is setting up.

Wife Swap Long-Fowler family

Oh, boy is the 'net howling today after that disastrous pairing of Stephen Fowler and Gayla Long in ABC's Wife Swap. Stephen Fowler's insistence that his education, accent, and standing in the world gives him license to demean and abuse the woman from Missouri was shameful. I believe it was unnecessary for ABC to continue with that pairing, since he refused to participate in the Rules, and reneged on his obligations to participate fully in the show. He kicked Gayla out and she wound up in a hotel room, for heavens' sakes. What does it take for ABC to decide to end something? They canceled Boston Legal quick enough. But they didn't release Gayla Long from her abuse inside that house of horrors with Stephen Fowler. What a long and lonely night in the hotel room that must have been for her.

Mr Fowler had called her names, insulted her for the fun of it, (and in the so doing insulted all his wife's clients), taught his kids to do the same which to me, is child abuse, and refused to participate in the obligations of the show on the basis that he was above her and her ideas were beneath him.

That is not how we treat people. That is not how we fulfill our business obligations. Why ABC continued subjecting Gayla to the classless boor is beyond me.

Now. Taking a breath. My family was blessed enough to have money and emphasized education, world views and culture to the same extent that Stephen Fowler did. However, they also taught me to be thankful for the material comfort we had, to listen to other points of view, and never ever think myself above another person. Certainly they set the example that you are courteous to all people in public and treat them respectfully. I do not know why or how Mr Fowler ended up so heartless, but to showcase that level of meanness on a national television show was just too crass for words, especially since Mrs. Long was such a classy person and stayed true to Christian values in the face of hard, deep, and constant abuse on national television no less.

ABC: do not let your show participants be abused for the sake of ratings. I enjoy Wife Swap for the sake of seeing how others cope when living outside their element and seeing what they could and do learn, but abuse should never be part of the mix.

So that is my rant. This is another person's rant and they said it much better than I could:

Wow. At present, I am two-thirds of the way into this evening's episode of Wife Swap. I am so aghast at the actions of Steven Fowler that I had to write in. I actually took the time to grab my laptop, power it up and sign up for an account on ABC.com, merely in hopes of Mr. Fowler reading this message. So Mr. Fowler- You should be absolutely ashamed of yourself. Before you label me with one of your stereotypes and dismiss me as some wannabe Internet opinionist, let me give you my background. I was educated at Le Rosey through my A -levels, did my undergrad at Harvard and my post-grad at Columbia.

While I am proud of my education, it does not define who I am, nor do I deem it as a measure of my self-worth, in any way. Education is a wonderful thing and the fact that you place such emphasis on it is admirable. The fact that you use it to judge others and to assume some kind of superiority over them is pathetic. As an educated person I would hope that you would be beyond acting in such a callous and classless manner - this is clearly not the case. You were immensely rude and obnoxious to the other family and should be ashamed of yourself. Absolutely ashamed.

What's even more pathetic is how you continually spewed academic euphemism, sesquipedalianism or some polysyllabic bit of arcane jargon just to make the wife from the other family feel beneath you (see how it comes off?). With the grace of god and a bit of luck, I have been extremely successful and I would never, ever try to intentionally make someone feel like they are beneath me. That is sadistic and beyond reprehensible. I don't judge people to begin with; I do, however, look to their heart and actions in drawing my conclusions about them - not their education (or lack of it) or wallet. I learn from different people EVERY DAY - rich, poor, educated or not. I just try to be a good human being.

The priorities you preach to be important (education, environmentalism, etc.) are indeed so; however these are all tools for self-improvement. It seems you would rather use them in the context of measuring your own self-worth or more disgustingly the lack of worth in others. I usually attribute some of the characterizations I see on reality shows to editing, but not in your case. You just came off as an incredibly small-minded, petulant, narcissistic jerk. I hope you watch yourself on camera and are able to learn from it. Class is an intrinsic quality; it is not mutually exclusive to wealth or education. You, sir, proved that this evening. I hope, for the sake of your children, that you grow from this experience.