southsider2k5

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 22, 2009 -> 01:22 PM) Not if they could entice Israel in to striking first. By tricking them into believing they have a nuclear weapon... Or even buying one from a cash starved NK? Its not a big leap of faith IMO.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Jun 22, 2009 -> 01:20 PM) That study was financed by the VA, I'm sure they'd love to give the uncensored opinions of the people on the receiving end of that superior healthcare without any spin! Grant Support: This study was funded by a Veterans Affairs Health Services Research and Development grant

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jun 22, 2009 -> 01:15 PM) I don't know Medicare that well, but in the case of VA, it certainly isn't a good example of how government could do health care well. Quality of care has been awful, as we've seen all over the news for some time. It may be cheaper, but it isn't high quality. This is 100% true from what I have seen, and this comes from having a DAV Vietnam vet as a dad. He has been in VA care in various forms for 40 years now, and has in many different situations, actually paid for private procedures because the VA f***ed them up so badly. The most recent was a shoulder reconstruction. It wasn't pretty. But it also comes from having the lowest paid medical personel in the entire country. All of the really good ones, leave.

QUOTE (Rex Kicka** @ Jun 22, 2009 -> 01:07 PM) I think the struggle has more to do with internal pressures than external. If they believe they can turn public opinion with a war against the country that achy has been saying he wanted to wipe off of the map, they will do it.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 22, 2009 -> 01:06 PM) As a free trader I'm surprised you don't come up with the other option. One of the reasons why there is a doctor shortage is that we refuse to allow free trade in so many industries; we only allow manufacturing to have to go up against foreign competition, so it gets dismantled. There are schools all over the world who can turn out quality doctors who would be easily willing to come work in the U.S. for a fraction of the wages that U.S. doctors currently make, but they aren't allowed to do so because health care providers are protected from foreign competition. Meanwhile, U.S. schools can't open up more slots to train doctors because they aren't allowed to by quotas; if more doctors were trained, then that would cause competition that would bring down the amount that a doctor can earn. It's a wonderful setup for anyone except the consumer. And as such a union proponent, I am shocked that you would encourage the undercutting of the AMA with cheap out of country labor.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 22, 2009 -> 01:07 PM) Medicare and the Veterans Affairs Health Plan both have DRAMATICALLY lower overhead costs than private insurance. By at least 50%. Maybe more, depending on who's estimates you believe. The VA is cheap because they are paying a fraction of the wages of their peers. They are paying military personal at whatever their paygrade is, not at a competitive wage as compared to most doctors and medical personel. They also have their own facilities which they own and care for, also at below market prices. Its easy to be cheaper when you can dictate WAY below market costs. Medicare is cheap, because again, they force doctors to receive less than they would for other patients getting similar procedures. That's why many doctors don't want anything to do with Medicare, not to mention the nightmares of being involved in government paperwork for everything.

The scariest thing to me is that Iran as a country does something stupid to try to legitimize the need for Ach to be at the top, and that is most likely trying to provoke a war with a "new" Hawk PM in Israel with Bibby back at the helm.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jun 22, 2009 -> 09:28 AM) I don't think there are any, or not many. Is your point that you don't currently have staffing for that sort of rebalancing? I think that's obvious, as is the case most of the time when you rebalance a company or industry to change personnel focus. You lose some of one type of personnel through attrition or whatever, and you open up new jobs elsewhere. QUOTE (lostfan @ Jun 22, 2009 -> 09:31 AM) It's a lot easier and cheaper to hire nurses than it is doctors isn't it? There are a lot of things nurses are capable of doing, and wish they could do, so I agree with that larger point. That's kinda my point. There are already shortages of doctors and nurses all over the country, and that is with the big 17% OF GDP getting spent for health care. Every facility I have been to for myself, my wife, and my kids is packed the gills. We have no more capacity in the system. There are no more doctors, in fact we are importing them for emergency situations from other countries. Why do you think you see so many more Doctor Patel's than Doctor Smith's anymore? There aren't any more nurses to be hired. I know for a fact that the state of Indiana has such a huge shortage of them that they are trying to figure out how to bribe more people to go to school to be nurses. Our hospital just had to add on at 50% of our old capacity just to keep pace with the need for beds. The idea that somehow we are going to add the new comical number of eighty million people to the system, and somehow we are going to get better care for cheaper is completely illogical. There is no where to treat the people we have now. We don't have enough personel to treat the patients we have now. But somehow we are going to treat all of our uninsured, plus 20 million of Mexicos, and things are going to be BETTER? Really? If they are serious about cutting the doctors wages, the shortage of staff is going to exaggerated, not to mention the attrition of supposedly asking these people to do about 30% more work (new patients totals according to Balta) who now have NO reason to be prudent in their pursuit of whatever health care they want because now someone else is paying for it. You will crush the system.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jun 16, 2009 -> 08:55 AM) I don't think we need to look at cutting Doctor salaries - I think we need to look closer at having doctors do less of the medical work. This is already a trend underway, of course. But I think a lot of things we currently go to "the doctor" for - regular checkups, immunizations, many basic treatments - can be handled well by medical professionals who are not doctors and whose time is cheaper. Who are all of these currently underutilized health care professionals, and what are they doing now?

QUOTE (lostfan @ Jun 19, 2009 -> 11:44 AM) Cubano, if you go to "full edit" you can change the title. This guy sounds pretty legit. How many years has he been in the Cuban pros? LF, only mods and admins have the ability to change thread titles.

I'll be honest, the way the Sox lost the last game against the Cubs, and played the first couple of games against Cincy, I thought we were looking at the turning point into the basement for this season. For some reason something seemed to click yesterday in the middle of that game, so who knows what is going to happen now. It would just be nice to see some consistancy one way or the other so management knows what to do with this team before it is too late.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 19, 2009 -> 02:38 PM) He is a free agent at the end of this season. His current salary is $2.825 million, so it's plausible the Cardinals could offer him arbitration. If that is the case, I wouldn't offer much for him without a contract extention being agreed to.

QUOTE (shipps @ Jun 19, 2009 -> 02:24 PM) You know we really shouldnt give up on this season. Things are imploding in Detroit. I wouldnt be mad if the Sox won another division title even if we were knocked out first round. WIth the status of their payroll and finances I'll bet the last thing they want is to be in that race. They are going to lose so much money up there, they have got to want to shed payroll, but they can't do it while in first place.

What is his arbitration/free agency status?

QUOTE (tommy @ Jun 19, 2009 -> 11:52 AM) I was gonna ask earlier how much does it cost you guys to run the website annually and who is paying for it right now? Jason won't say, but we know he strips on the weekends at the old lady's home in the cateract unit, so no one can see.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jun 18, 2009 -> 10:01 PM) Maggs is getting benched. He hasn't hit for power and he's in the same boat Frank Thomas was in with the Blue Jays last year. A huge option becomes vested if he gets enought plate appearances. Personally, I think its good for the Sox. Maggs would eventually start mashing. I really wonder if he is a PED guy. His power numbers have gone completely into the toilet.

QUOTE (GreatScott82 @ Jun 16, 2009 -> 12:16 PM) Carlos Guillen is going to likely miss the rest of the year for Detroit. Per Foxsports Thats a big blow to their team, they are going to need all the offense they can get. Esspecially with the way Willis and Galarraga have been struggling. According to The Detroit Free Press , the Tigers will be buyers. I'm guessing they will try to add another starting pitcher and a left fielder with offensive pop. My question is, will Detroit be the only buyer in the AL Central division? I'm thinking the Twins will likely stick with what they have and hope to compete with that. The Royals are closer than last season, but still need to address many possitions, they'll likely be sellers in hope to address those positions for next season. Cleveland is a big mess, injuries, lack of pitching depth and so on. They need to sell DeRosa now while his stock is super high. The Sox are in a weird position, they have potentially 4 experering contracts that will shed about 40 million from their payroll next season, do they sell those players now? Or do they sit back and wait alittle longer to determine if they can be in this thing the rest of the way? If they can get to .500 by July 1st and be about 2-3 games back, i garuntee you KW will be a buyer. He won't be a significant buyer (meaning he won't trade away his farm depth) but he could easily add another bat in the lineup to add pop to the top of the order. The Tigers are in line to lose about $50 million this year. I really can't see them adding anything.

QUOTE (scenario @ Jun 18, 2009 -> 09:39 PM) He's had more big hits late in games than anyone in our minor league organization. Not just this year. All 3 years he's been with us. One thing I will say for the Cuban players, they aren't scared to win a game.

Its nice to see someone out of the Swisher deal doing something positive.

Montgomery Texas REPRESENT!!! I really hope Allen continues his hitting spree through the minors. He is a step away if Konerko's thumb doesn't hold up.

I love the Viciedo/Caballo comparisons. It really sounds like Dayan doesn't have the athletic ability to hold down 3B in reality, and when Dye moves on, you will see TCQ move into RF, and that opens up LF for one of these guys. Viciedo would be it for me.

QUOTE (YASNY @ Jun 18, 2009 -> 12:41 PM) Nah ... he's good, but he's not that good! I'm sure he has a rotten personality.

QUOTE (IlliniKrush @ Jun 18, 2009 -> 08:20 PM) Dudley resigned...becoming the Assistant GM in Atlanta. I think the door just opened for Bowman's kid.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jun 17, 2009 -> 10:27 PM) Me too. I was against the signing of Pods. Was anybody on here in favor of it? Pods is shutting up the naysayers. I don't want to jinx him, but what a great season he's had so far. I was on it for the simple logic that a healthy Pods was better than Wise and Lillibridge.