Texsox

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 29, 2010 -> 09:51 PM) It is an experience you will never forget. I got to ride out Alicia when I was 10. Wow was that somethingelse. Well I am sitting at home, 80 miles or so inland. I am reminded the story of the chicken and the pig at a bacon and eggs breakfast. The chicken is involved, but the pig is committed. Hanging around as a tourist while friends boarded up their businesses and homes seemed wrong. Plus there was a bunch of stuff we could do back here. Hopefully Alex will keep hooking west and make landfall about 120 miles south of the island.

While not a fan of handgun bans, I believe the logic to how this helps law enforcement and perhaps lowers the crime rate is anytime they catch someone with a handgun, they have caught a criminal and have the opportunity to punish them however the law allows. Additionally, if they use a handgun while committing a crime, there can be additional penalties. I decided that while my kids were growing up the dangers of having a handgun ready for protection were worse than the potential for someone breaking into my home and threatening bodily harm. People who live in different areas or think having the gun in less of a ready state are free to differ.

QUOTE (FlaSoxxJim @ Jun 28, 2010 -> 10:44 PM) Think of it as taking one for the team. If you gat a direct hit it means the storm will pass well south and west of Deep Horizon ground zero. Stay safe. It seems too greedy to catch a hurricane so soon after catching Dolly. I'm thinking I'll let deep south Mexico catch this one. But we are grateful it isn't churning up towards LA the panhandle.

Thanks SS. The past two days have been wonderful. Currently it is sunny and cool. Best weather since I hit the island. Thank God for weather forcasting. We took down camp yesterday and finished up some small stuff this morning. We're packing up our personal stuff and thinking about when we are going to leave. One possibility has us riding the storm out with friends here on the island. While I would really like to experience what a hurricane feels like first hand, it seems pretty dumb to stay.

Once again, I'm in the cone of a hurricane. At least this one has a better name than Dolly . . . Wish me luck. We spent t6he day taking down the camp, now we surf and wait . . .

Kap, you never answered, how is your insurance company helping improve your care by them trying to make a profit? It seems those two aims are opposing each other. And isn't most research either done at Universities or private (drug) companies? I know there are teaching hospitals, but are there many research hospitals?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 25, 2010 -> 04:44 PM) There's our first possible storm forming that could head towards the gulf. I am reading some reports here that there would be some benefits with a major storm. Mostly breaking up the mass and allowing more oxygen in. Of course there are a whole list of negatives.

Since I spend two months at the beach, board shorts, t-shirts, flip flops or Teva Dozers. I will toss on a nicer pair of shirts and shirt for dinner.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jun 25, 2010 -> 04:22 PM) Ok, but hospitals try to maximize their own profit by spending money to update facilities and employ the best doctors right? So, the more a hospital makes, the more it re-invests into specialty practices (and overall, better doctors) to attract the most customers. True, to the point that insurance allows it. So the areas where the insurance companies offer the best benefits get improved at the expense of the others. In other words, we have this new whiz-bang machine, the insurance company pays $XY dollars per treatment, let's use it. That may or may not lead to better treatment for you. Also, and all other things being equal (malpractice especially) they prefer the Doctors with the most active practice regardless of "quality". The doc keeping the operating room booked with lap band surgeries is better for them than a highly skilled, but lower volume doc.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jun 25, 2010 -> 03:48 PM) more money --> better facilities and programs --> easier to attract better doctors and more specialists --> you recieve better and more sophisticated health care. Except insurance companies do not want to pump more money into facilities and doctors, they want lower and lower costs, fewer and fewer treatments. That is where their profit comes from.

Hands Across the Sand tomorrow at noon (local time everywhere). I'll be at beach access 18 on South Padre Island. http://www.handsacrossthesand.com/

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Jun 25, 2010 -> 02:54 PM) Stop working for a paycheck... you shouldn't have any "profit motive". No house, no car, no food, no anything. It should be all given to us. How does a hospital and insurance company trying to make a profit improve your health care?

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Jun 25, 2010 -> 01:42 PM) From the FanGraphs comment section:

QUOTE (Rex Kicka** @ Jun 25, 2010 -> 11:15 AM) I'm pretty sure anyone trying to balance a county or municipal budget in Indiana would gladly give him to you. Hey, while that may be true, neither Kap nor I like ours. How the hell can you be disliked by Kap and I?

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jun 24, 2010 -> 12:28 PM) A little anecdotal addition to this disussion.. A few doors down from us, back in 2008, someone bought a single city lot (in a slot between Bucktown and Lincoln Park), with an existing but dilapidated 2-flat, for $580k. He took out a total loan of $1.1M for the property and cost to build. Asked for a zoning variance to go 3 units, was denied due to neighborhood resistance, and decided to build a single family home. Needless to say, things didn't go well - I don't see what single family home you can build on a single lot in our neighborhood that would net you above $1.1M. The building went up, framed, but the guy lost the building in foreclosure before anything other than the frame could be finished. So there was this partially built structure just sitting there for 2 years. Bank just sold the property for... wait for it... $180,000. It listed at that price from the bank, and was under contract within a week (hell, the land is worth twice that, even with the big price drops). Someone, long run, got a steal there. Hopefully we won't have a derelict building there for long. There was a similar story down here, but the kicker was the group that bought the lot and partially finished building was controlled by the guy who originally had it.

Over the last twenty years a growing segment of the population doesn't care what happens to America as long as their side "wins". So we have Liberals wanting Bush to screw up and Republicans wanting Obama to screw up. That same segment will defend anything "their" party does and turn around and attack the other party for doing the exact same thing. The Tea Party folks are perhaps the most visiable of that group, but there are a lot more, and again, on both sides. There has never been a better time to be a politician. When they screw up, and they do, their mistakes can be blamed on the media, judges, the other party, you name, anyone and anything other than themselves. One way to turn the tide is to have people demand that their party be fixed. Sadly, I do not see that happening anytime soon. The other is for people to be greedy and cheerfully accept gains the other party makes. But I don't see that happening. Too many GOP fanboys want, for example, health care to be an epic fail, much like Dem fanboys wanted Bush's war to fail. Running our country has now become much like sports and soft drinks. It would be funny if it wasn't so damn tragic.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jun 25, 2010 -> 10:17 AM) I've brought this up in here many times. If the insurance industry didn't exist, then the natural consumer/provider dynamic would mean that the profit drivers align with quality of product, so yes, it would work. But as this is an insured industry, the buffering throws the at equation out the window. Your posts certainly weighed heavily in my thinking. It is a fundementaly flawed system with consumers as the big loser.

I forgot there is a reason they play all the games.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jun 24, 2010 -> 06:15 PM) Fine, you dont have to agree. I see Nix with 412 career AB hitting .200/.291/.347 and Lillibridge with 200 career AB hitting .185/.264/.281. Nothing in either of those slash lines says that one is so much better that you have to keep him over the opposite player. Lillibridge is cheaper and more versatile. Sorry Jayson, see ya yeah, what he said. They could have thrown both names in a hat and pulled out one and basically it wouldn't have made a difference.

As I've been pondering this whole process I've come to a single thought, actually a question, about health care in this country. Does the requirement for profit that drives a corporation help or hurt the quality of health care they deliver to the patient? When a customer walks into a car dealer, the employee of the car dealer they meet has the task of maximizing the profit the company makes both short term and long term. Same with walking into a restaurant, beach shop, or gas station. Does that also work in a Doctor's office or hospital? For most Americans, the people who are paying the bill (your insurance) and the people preparing the bill (the provider) both are trying to earn a profit from your visit. Seems like a losing play.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Jun 22, 2010 -> 10:52 PM) That's one of the few things you've posted that is actually cool. It's too bad you were being sarcastic, gramps! Stay drunk!! It's the only way to have fun. Reality is too tough, makes babies cry.

Oops, just saw he lost. Duh

What will be interesting is how well he plays in his next match. This reminds me of the old joke about Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles playing tennis, endless love . . .

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 25, 2010 -> 07:50 AM) One plausible response to that argument Tex is that the goverment is actually going out of its way to encourage college education as a method for improving society...because it's generally thought that increasing education levels promotes better lives and a stronger economy. Thus, it makes sense for the government to be doing exactly that because there is a general benefit to society, and the college is actually helping the government achieve its goal. OTOH, the idea behind food stamps, for example, is to provide food assistance to people who are in need, not to give lower paying employers a method to undercut their competition. If those programs are not helping society, than they should be eliminated. That case can be made for every employer who is paying their people wages that qualify them for these programs. It shouldn't matter who the employer is.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 24, 2010 -> 08:46 PM) I'll bet my governor against yours. I'd rather have yours.