kapkomet

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Aug 18, 2009 -> 08:37 AM) Who are you kidding? We all know that you've taken up dog pageantry as a career. It would be better then sitting on my duff. I don't care about all that, did you vote?

Hey guys and gals, I have some friends who are doing very well in a dog picture contest. Can you please help them out? http://www.cutestdogcompetition.com/vote.c...0E1308B8669D7EA You can vote once a day. They are doing very, very well and would like to keep it up as the later rounds go. I would appreciate the help! Kap

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 17, 2009 -> 06:11 PM) The latest 2009 Federal Deficit prediction is $200 billion smaller than the last one. Then why did they wait so long to release this? It's funny how all the stars are aligning so that everything is rosey and now not as bad as we thought only a month ago when we were going to need ANOTHER stimulus. Since then, rosey smelling crap has been generated. Why? Gotta pass that health care. Then reality will come back.

QUOTE (Controlled Chaos @ Aug 17, 2009 -> 09:28 AM) I believe so. I sent it to you this morning. oops one thing I noticed and it isn't a big deal, but I usually hide the row and column headers on the picks page. Tools - Options -View - Uncheck row and column headers. Also, if you go to view full screen you will see more. That's great! I just didn't give my email enough time to catch it coming in. Thank you for this!

CC - did you send this to all in the thread who've requested it?

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Aug 16, 2009 -> 07:48 PM) "Deregulate it and have the individual get real choice. " As I said, employers started offering insurance in 1942 - it was a part of unions, IIRC. And it's a law of some type that made this practice. Deregulate THAT part of it, and you need other reform of insurance law - and together you can get accomplished what you want without government takeover. No one is offering that, not even this bulls*** fake "compromise" of co-ops. This is a trojan horse - government health care in a different name to make it sound prettier. I called this months ago.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 16, 2009 -> 04:09 PM) ^ this. When I come in this thread and post something that I think might be interesting, I flag where the source is because otherwise people won't pay attention. I post stuff from Fox News in here the same way: I flag where it's from so that you folks might actually see whether there's anything interesting in it. Alpha took what you did the complete other way. Most of us knew what you were trying to say.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 16, 2009 -> 04:01 PM) This has all been tried and tried and tried. The costs of illegals are minimal, they're usually too scared to go get health care because they'll be arrested. And heck, when they do need care it's usually in the emergency room anyway; it'd be cheaper to actually give them free insurance than to keep having them go to the ER. The places with serious tort reform show virtually no cost savings. And if you cut down on the regulation of the insurance industry, all that happens is they'll cover less. You might wind up with fewer people "uninsured" but you'll wind up with vastly more underinsured...everyone in the country will be happy with their insurance until they actually get sick and learn that the only thing that is covered is lupus. The insurance companies are the problem here. I didn't say cut down on regulation, I said change it. Big difference. ER costs are the most costly of anything in our system. There's billions if not trillions written off that we won't even know because they have to treat everyone they see by law. They cannot turn people away. Again, "cost vs. individual choice".

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 16, 2009 -> 04:07 PM) No, the difference is that you and I have totally different definitions of "Individual freedom". For me, I don't see much freedom in a system where: I have no choice of which insurer to use, it's chosen by my company I have no choice of plans, they're offered by my company I really don't get to choose a doctor; I get a list of 2 or 3 in-network places and I need a referral to go anywhere else. If I lose my job, I have no ability to get insurance at all because the individual market is the worst of the worst, no one can get coverage there My company really has no choice in insurers, since the markets for 80% of the country basically meet the definition of a monopoly If I actually get sick, the insurance company does everything humanly possible to avoid spending money on me There really is shockingly little "Individual freedom" in this system. The only freedom right now is the freedom for insurers to find creative new ways to drop people. This is the biggest FEAR MONGERING load of s*** I have seen for a while. You want to talk about crap? You always spew this stuff about the "right wing" and how the talking points are ridiculous, and you just spouted all the talking points from the other side that's BS. Nope. You can CHOOSE to decline coverage. That's an individual choice. Frankly, the reason it's done this way is a government law that started in 1942. Deregulate it and have the individual get real choice. Again, a hyperbolic statement - if you want to get something for yourself, you can choose to do that, or not. That is the point of "cost vs. individual choice". You choose to be pissed off that it's so expensive and get bitter unless the government saves us all. Same point said a different way. And most doctors under an HMO plan (which I don't like either but it is what it is) will do you pretty well, unless you want to find issues with the coverage, and obviously what we have sucks so bad that we have to go to a HMO system that isn't going to change a damn thing and in fact make it worse because you're going to interject a s***load of people into it by forcing the issue which will increase wait times. But now I'm fearmongering. Sucks doesn't it? I'm there, but you can make the choice of what to do. Yea, ok. I guess Aetna, UHC, Tricare, Medicare, Medicaid (yes, I realize that these last two are different but they are an option), PHCS, BCBS, and a s***load more that I can't think of off the top of my head don't count for anything - they're a monopoly. The problem is they make money, and now they're evil. By the way, they aren't even close in terms of % profit of the most profitable companies. Not even close. But any profit is evil. That's the worst statement of them all. Wow, this is Kaperbolic ™ and then some. They just want to see you dead when you get sick. Yep! Insurance companies are death panels and they avoid paying anytime, anywhere. I've used insurance more in the last calendar year and and most people get good responses from these people. It's just the way it is. But again, the system sucks, and we need to fix it the government way. Now I'll go read your other post you made back to me.

QUOTE (KipWellsFan @ Aug 16, 2009 -> 01:57 PM) Meh, I don't think that has to be the case, but I'm going to stay out of this one. I've got no clue when it comes to this topic. I just believe you shouldn't receive far more or far superior care because of one's economic position. I don't believe in equality of condition, but without proper health care people simply don't have equality of opportunity to succeed. IMO. I understand your point - and there are ways to solve this. If our (especially current) government weren't so hell bent to make Democrats for life with all this entitlement s***, we would have a much different perspective on this whole thing. If you want serious health care reform, take the political crap out of it, quit paying for illegals, get real tort reform going, and change the regulations of the insurance industry. Problem solved. But will anyone listen to that? Of course not, because we have to try to get massive voting blocks out of all this legislation. That's more important to the parties then getting serious issues resolved.

QUOTE (KipWellsFan @ Aug 16, 2009 -> 12:45 PM) I don't really give a hoot what program is implemented but I want to see a system where everyone is covered no matter what their socio-economic position and I don't think anyone EVER should go bankrupt because of medical problems. I don't care if you think that's socialism or not. So I guess what I'm saying is... is this co-op thing supposed to cover everyone not already covered? Well, under "socialism", people will just die while waiting for the care, so I guess it won't "bankrupt" them. /fearmongering but it will happen -- it happens now but it will happen much more prevelantly under "ObamaCare", whatever form that takes. It has to - services MUST be rationed moreso then they are now to get these great cost savings he's after.

QUOTE (Palehosefan @ Aug 16, 2009 -> 12:59 AM) Ha, thanks Bob. Hope you are doing well. I'm still waiting on that church template :-P. She got it done somewhere else because I was too slow.

And here comes the trojan horse that I've been saying they would do. Drop "PUBLIC OPTION". This is just as I described, a trojan horse, to "public option". All it does instead of one big mass program, it breaks it up into these "co-ops" and the mechanisms are all the same - they will shut down private insurance. This is just a rebrand, just as I called it 30 pages back in this thread, to get this passed. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_health_care_overhaul

Chris is one of the best posters on the site, by default. Hope you have a great birthday.

This is kind of "anti-environment" but this is a historical perspective on the drilling of oil. Edwin Drake Why does this matter? It's where I'm from originally. There's a lot more to this then what this story publishes, but I always had a personal interest in this since this is where I spent the first few years of my life.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 15, 2009 -> 10:11 PM) How being locked in to a job you might not want so you can't afford to lose your health insurance, or not being able to start a small business because you won't be able to have health insurance, or not being able to work because you're sick, or having health insurance but then being cut off when you actually get sick, or having your employer choose your health insurance, or having no choice in health insurance because 80% of the country is considered "Highly concentrated" and run by only 1 or 2 insurers could possibly be interpreted as having any economic freedom at all is beyond me. How our government gets all access to all of our life's decisions is economic, or better yet, any freedom is beyond me.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 12, 2009 -> 10:59 PM) The thing that no one is talking about, as usual, is individual economic freedom. That is the one thing that this country was really founded on. We keep losing more and more of our rights and freedoms "for the good of the masses", but no one seems to care about it. It amazes me that the same groups of people who could throw the Franklin quote about sacrificing liberty during the freedom of speech and privacy arguments, have no problem sacrificing their own economic liberties permanently. Woo hoo. Someone gets it (I'm down to 5 more pages in this thread).

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 12, 2009 -> 10:47 AM) It's only evil if the government sits in a room and decides it. It's not evil if the private sector has panels that sit in a room and decide whether or not they're going to pay for people's treatment. Lie. (I still have 7 more pages to go through this damn thread.)

Punish those evil rich motherf***ers. They must give to the poor... oh wait. Nevermind.

[email protected]. Shoot it my way.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Aug 5, 2009 -> 10:54 AM) I was just messing with him. I thought maybe I did something in my sleep or something.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Aug 5, 2009 -> 09:37 AM) What, exactly, is Obama doing wrong here? Like you said, he released his COLB over a year ago now and the State of Hawaii, including their Republican governor, have repeatedly said it is valid and accurate. Nevermind. I can't obviously make the point here.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Aug 5, 2009 -> 08:50 AM) It's exactly what he said to me via PM. what?

It's kind of like Sarah Palin. WOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOO she's acting stupid! YEAAA! YEA FOR ME!!!!! WOOOT! The whole discourse is pathetic. Let's be "excited" for people acting like morons because it makes my guy look better! Oh wait, that's why Biden's our VP now. Nevermind, I get it.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Aug 5, 2009 -> 07:44 AM) What would you do if you were him? These people live in some other version of reality where they can't be convinced. He could release his "original copy" or his "long form" or whatever and they'd still be crying. They are more willing to believe the phony Kenyan birth certificate was authentic and his Hawaiian one wasn't. Hilarious. As I said. Both sides of this are pathetic. This was dealt with a year ago when it first became a question. EVERYONE involved needs to STFU and go on. Now, Obama's "better to let his opponents commit political suicide" (as I've seen it written). I'm reminded of this: Maybe not on this particular topic because it's not even a relevent issue in reality, but the point remains -hope and change that your political opponents "kill themselves off (metaphorically, of course). We are supposed to just behave like sheep and accept Messianic policy. Now, of course, it's disingenuous and "lies" when the shoe's on the other foot.