StrangeSox

I'm not sure how your getting to that conclusion. Before the aca, premiums increased at am average of x% every year. Since the aca started to take effect, premiums are increasing at less than x%. That's saving money. I posted a study from kaiser family foundation *a couple of pages back that actually found overall premium decreases over the last year in many states for individual plans. *whoops, KFF, not K-P

Year over year premium increases have slowed significantly during the same time period. That's not true for every individual obviously, but in the aggregate more people are insured and for cheaper than they otherwise would have been.

Memories of high school (parents live near there)

This is really f***ed up. A 73 year old "reserve" officer who's really an insurance exec who donates money to campaigns for the police is put on the Violent Crimes task force and ends up shooting a killing an unarmed man. Police departments let wealthy donors play cop and give them deadly weapons.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 13, 2015 -> 06:08 PM) Congrats Jason!

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 13, 2015 -> 06:07 PM) The smokies were awesome. We hit both Clingman's Dome, plus the pull off at the state line. Awesome. Gatlinburg wasn't much more than a tourist slut of a town, but the surrounding parks and such were incredible. I think that's the town bill Bryson talks about in a walk in the woods. Coming upon it after more than a week on the trail and cut off from civilisation must be surreal.

As far as trips, go to Yosemite. Everyone should go to Yosemite. The payoff at Yosemite Point last weekend after hiking up from the valley:

My wife and I are considering something similar in the next year or two but thought I'd be a good idea to rent one for a trip first to make sure it's a good fit.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Apr 13, 2015 -> 05:01 PM) People were saying that last time, too. Then, Obama came out of nowhere and demolished. It's definitely possible but the fatal flaw in 2008,her Iraq war vote, isn't a big deal in 2015/2016. I don't know who's going to really step up and challenge from within the Democratic party.

QUOTE (shipps @ Apr 10, 2015 -> 12:10 PM) Has anyone ever had Ted's Montana Grill? My wife wants to go there tomorrow but it looks like it might be another one of those generic chain steak houses. There's one right near my house in Bolingbrook that we've gone to occasionally. It's not a Morton's or a Sullivan's but I think it's definitely a step above a Longhorn etc.

One of the cops is being held on unrelated charges right now, but nobody is (or should be) going to jail over these tweets.

They absolutely deserve every bit of due process their contract affords them, and I hope their union does its duty in properly defending its members. There's plenty in there that's not "jokes" at all, and even if they are "jokes," they're still incredibly racist jokes only s***bag racists would find funny. I hope these guys are socially ostracized for being the s***bags that they are--there's pretty much zero context that could ever explain those sorts of "jokes" and the other texts that aren't even attempts at jokes but just straight-up racism away. eta: for example, that first quoted text. He talks about how he's watching the two black kids at his kids' school "like a hawk" simply because they're black. That's a direct reflection of his attitude towards black people and how he approaches his work (assumed criminality/likely criminality), and it's not even an attempt at a joke. It's just a plain statement.

It's pretty much psychologically impossible to be that big of a piece of s*** racist and not have it reflected in your everyday work.

QUOTE (shipps @ Apr 8, 2015 -> 03:11 PM) This was before he knew there was a video of this out there, right? yeah

always the groomsman, never the groom

QUOTE (shipps @ Apr 8, 2015 -> 03:05 PM) So my guess is the defense of this officer is going to be something that he says happened before the camera was recording. And they are going to try to bring down the character of the murdered man such as unpaid child support and every other arrest on his record that he may have. The initial statements from Slager contained all of the classic hits: "he was resisting arrest!" "he was going for my weapon!" "I feared for my life!"

Springfield, Missouri, Voters Repeal LGBT Rights Ordinance

QUOTE (chw42 @ Apr 8, 2015 -> 11:14 AM) The officer must have felt "threatened" by a 50 year old man who just got taser'd and runs a 13 second 40. He was probably bulking up to run through the bullets

Also apparently tried to cover it up by placing something near the body.

I don't understand why but my brother is a vocal Rahm supporter. I figure Rahm will take it, your margin sounds right.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Apr 6, 2015 -> 10:50 AM) You heard it coming from teachers, until it comes contract time. LOL no

QUOTE (shipps @ Apr 6, 2015 -> 11:47 AM) That is where I have been trying to convince my wife for us to move to because I love it there but she always brings up the housing costs. There has to be some place to live there that is affordable. Same, though I'd be more interested in the central coast or around the bay area than socal. QUOTE (knightni @ Apr 6, 2015 -> 12:49 PM) South Central and Watts. Lol

I have no idea how anyone affords housing in California.

This "rent a DA" to scare people into forking over a bunch of money was pretty awful. Good on the Consumer Finance Protection Board for helping put a stop to this. http://www.philly.com/philly/business/2015..._A__scheme.html