Texsox

Not even a thank you. I do not know of any company that offered some offset.

Elton John is playing some pretty small venues. Has his popularity really fallen that far?

This how we managed to get electricity to everyone. Private business was not interested in serving all of America.

And 28% of American households earn less than $25,000. Life is hard and sucks for a lot of Americans. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_inc...e_United_States

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Mar 16, 2010 -> 10:19 AM) It is. So is crying that life is hard for some people. It's as obvious and telling me the sky is blue when the sun it out. It solves nothing. No one is crying life is hard except you. Small businesses, the ones least likely to outsource jobs, face the challenge of spending 25% or more of their payroll on health insurance benefits for their employees or have their employees do without. Your solution is saying life sucks, work for a health insurance company that can afford higher salaries and better benefits.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Mar 16, 2010 -> 10:05 AM) In the current world, with the value of the dollar what it is, 10-12.50$ isn't enough to live on. The world sucks...life isn't fair. Get another job. I never advocate going on welfare, but if that's all the effort their willing to put fourth, then they can either deal with it, or do something to move along...either way, it sucks for them. Why don't you help them out, since you seem to live in some sort of utopia? Look, life is a b**** sometimes...and people making that little, for whatever reason, life won't be easy for them...but it is what it is. That's life. That is what entry level jobs pay in much of the country. That is what businesses, your savior in all this, pay their employees. That isn't utopia, that is the reality for millions and millions of Americans and what the leadership in this country is trying to work with. Your solution is it sucks to be these people. Hopefully we can do better.

QUOTE (The Critic @ Mar 16, 2010 -> 10:08 AM) Ticketbastard. LOL. I was also checking livenation. The Doobie Bros and Chicago are playing the EAA Show in Oshkosh on the 26th.

QUOTE (The Critic @ Mar 16, 2010 -> 06:54 AM) Here's what I could find for "big name" shows in July: 7/6 U2, Soldier Field 7/9 James Taylor & Carly Simon, United Center 7/16 and 7/17 Doobie Brothers & Chicago, Charter One Pavilion 7/17 Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, United Center 7/18 Iron Maiden First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre, Tinley Park 7/30 Bon Jovi, Soldier Field 7/31 Vans Warped Tour, First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre, Tinley Park Where are you getting those? Doobie Bros or Tom Petty would be perfect, but we're getting there the 22 or 23rd.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Mar 16, 2010 -> 09:50 AM) It's the AMA, not much the insurance companies can do about the AMA. If that's true, then maybe the AMA needs reforms, as well. The insurance industry doesn't have to use the AMA. They would also save some money because they could stop lobbying the AMA to not approve certain procedures.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Mar 16, 2010 -> 09:17 AM) People only making 20,000 have other issues altogether. They'd be better of going on welfare and having free health care as it is...not to mention they'd make more than 20k. Are you really advocating people who make $10 to $12.50 per hour to quit and go on public assistance?

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Mar 16, 2010 -> 09:42 AM) It's going to end up on the taxpayers either way, but that's besides the point. There should be NO illnesses that aren't covered. I work at Blue Cross IL, and I personally don't know of any plan we have that doesn't cover specific illnesses, it covers them all. The only things NOT covered are unproven treatments for said illnesses, and doctors who have these methods performed should know better and NOT perform them. The problem is they don't care, because one way or another they'll get paid. If the AMA approves certain drugs/treatments, it's covered by us...without exception. What's not covered are unproven treatments the AMA says should not be administered as they're a waste of time/resources. This is another problem entirely. When a person is sick and life becomes no fun to live, they look for ANY lifeline to get well again. Doctors often prey on this -- and begin to offer alternative treatments (very costly and unproven) -- and of course at that point the patient will try anything, even if it doesn't have a prayer in working...doctors who do this should be stripped of their licenses...and it happens a LOT. And for every 1 anomaly in which it works, that patient probably would have gotten well without that fake costly treatment, but there is no way to prove that. Either way, for every anomaly, there are thousands of cases where the costly treatment does nothing, and the patient is stuck with the bill because the insurance company doesn't cover non AMA approved methods...and they shouldn't. Doesn't every treatment go through a period of time when it is not AMA approved? Our approval cycle os much longer than most other countries.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Mar 16, 2010 -> 09:14 AM) And where is Enron now? Private companies should be allowed to fail, just like Enron failed. I'm not for bailing out private companies. Let them die, someone else will rise up and take the business. The Government, however, cannot die...or the country folds. The Government can run in the red for an indefinite amount of time until a revolution overthrows them and uproots everything the country was. A regular company can operate in the red until they can't continue to operate, then someone else takes the business. Exactly. What would happen if say our electrical grid was allowed to fail? Our telecom system? The internet? At some point it is in our national interest to have something that can not be allowed to fail. With our reliance on the internet, it makes sense we make it more bulletproof. It will also allow us to be more competitive in a global economy.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Mar 16, 2010 -> 09:10 AM) It creates a government monopoly, and that's bad. The current semi-monopoly's only exist because of the laws preventing out of state competition. When I want to buy a TV, I'm not FORCED to buy it only in IL...insurance should be no different. There are MANY insurance companies out there, a lot of them non-profits, that many of you would love to be able to negotiate with. And their prices are still not low enough for most Americans to afford. I have yet to hear of a plan anywhere that someone making $20,000 to $25,000 can afford. Should it really cost as much as a rent payment to have health insurance? And that doesn't even included co-pays and deductibles once you need the insurance.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Mar 16, 2010 -> 08:23 AM) It's impossible to get consumers choice when consumers have no idea what they paying for or why they need it. When you're car engine dies, you shop around, find out the cost of the new engine and labor to install it properly...for non emergency care/non emergency surgery, you can't ask a doctor or hospital, how much is that going to cost so I can shop around at other hospitals and see if I can get a better deal from an equally skilled surgeon. They perform the procedures first, THEN tell you how much it cost...it's backwards. So the only method the patients have to shop around right now is different insurance companies. Actually to make the comparison correct, most of the time the auto insurance company has a list of pre approved service shops that you are required to use and which they have pre negotiated rates. I know last year my girlfriend, who is uninsured because her private school does not offer insurance, needed an expensive test and she shopped around for prices. There was very little difference between prices. They all offered a standard "cash price". Not much different than trying to save a couple dollars on gas or an iPod.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Mar 15, 2010 -> 06:58 PM) All private industry sucks. Government saves! Our government sucks! Enron GM Lehman Brothers Walmart saves.

QUOTE (JorgeFabregas @ Mar 15, 2010 -> 04:35 PM) What kind of show are you looking for? Mainstream acts that never play closer than 5 hours from our house. Who is touring this summer?

I saw AC/DC there way back when. First row. LOst my hearing for a while. It was known as the Aragon Brawl Room. QUOTE (farmteam @ Mar 13, 2010 -> 08:13 PM) Aragon. oo

Damn, it has been too long since I've been back home. I will be back up in July and looking for a concert. Any suggestions?

A good friend of mine loves his. He is a bit of a hardware realist who wants the right tool for the job. For him, he loves his home desktop for most of his computing. He has a laptop he uses for work that travels back and forth with him. He uses his cell phone's internet for quick info on the run. He calls his netbook his coffee shop/campout computer. A bigger screen than his cell phone so he can easier read his mail and do some light word processing, but not a table space killer like his laptop. His complaints are the smaller keyboard is tough to adjust to when you constantly move back and forth. No DVD drive. The internet is about 75% as effective as his home PC.

QUOTE (Athomeboy_2000 @ Mar 13, 2010 -> 03:34 PM) I am exactly the same when when it comes to my car radios. I HATE the fancy tripped out stereos. She also isn't really excited about an add on unit, but a portable may be the way to go.

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Mar 13, 2010 -> 03:26 PM) She should have just bought a Honda Pilot, the XM comes built in. She considered it, it is a very nice vehicle. But she wanted to pay cash and her budget was about $20,000. Also, the Pilot was about the size of what she was trading in and she wanted something a little smaller.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Mar 13, 2010 -> 03:27 PM) But those indirect costs are directly related to how broken our current system is. I was speaking only to the comparison between government required car insurance and health insurance.

I know you want to engage Kap in this, but one difference is mandatory car insurance only protects the other person. What the government mandates is coverage for who you may harm, not coverage to cover yourself. There is a direct out of pocket expense when an uninsured person is involved in an accident. A person without health insurance who needs serious medical treatment only indirectly costs us money.

My girlfriend has a new Honda CRV and wants to add a XM radio but hates the look of a lot of LEDs, electronic graphs for the EQ, etc. She also doesn't want to pay $500 for a factory head unit. So far the usual big boxes have yielded no satisfactory results. The regular season is coming up fast and I am trying to help her along.

QUOTE (Soxy @ Mar 9, 2010 -> 03:44 PM) When Rue McClanahan was recently hospitalized Betty White sent her a card that said something to the effect of "Hurry up and die so I can be the only Golden Girl left." That's awesome.