jasonxctf

they should keep using those "puffer" machines.

Saw this poll from CBS News earlier this month. Thought it was interesting.. From 11/7-11/10/10 "Are you generally optimistic or pessimistic about the next two years with Barack Obama as president?" Optimistic 55% Pessimistic 38% Unsure 7% "Do you think Barack Obama will try to work with Republicans in Congress in order to get things done, or won't he?" Will Try 73% Wont Try 23% Unsure 4% "Do you think the Republicans in Congress will try to work with Barack Obama in order to get things done, or won't they?" Will Try 45% Wont Try 48% Unsure 7% "Which do you think Barack Obama should do: compromise some of his positions in order to get things done, or stick to his positions even if it means not getting as much done?" Compromise 78% Stick 16% Depends 3% Unsure 3% "Which do you think the Republicans in Congress should do: compromise some of their positions in order to get things done, or stick to their positions even if it means not getting as much done?" Compromise 72% Stick 21% Depends 3% Unsure 4% "What do you think will be the main goal of the Republicans in Congress? Do you think their main goal is to pass policies of their own, or their main goal is to block President Obama's policies?" Pass 36% Block 49% Unsure 15%

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Nov 19, 2010 -> 03:44 AM) he's been doing that since the mid 90's? rpg as400 programming.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Nov 18, 2010 -> 10:11 PM) Yes, this would be for the 99ers. I'll admit, I'm conflicted on this one. Frankly, you're somewhat right on the latter. On the other hand...damnit, there aren't enough jobs open even at cash registers to absorb 2 million+ people right now. I hear ya. I just feel that there is a good amount of the population who was "overearning" for the past 10 years who are having trouble accepting reality. We all probably know people, and I know of 2 of them, who feel like their job skills (which went the way of the dinosaurs) are worth a certain amount and they wont settle for less. Shoot I know of a guy who was an early-mid 90's computer programmer, with very old tech skills, who still thinks he'll get hired for $35-60/hr contract jobs for technology that not many businesses use anymore. Every once in a while he catches lighting in a bottle for a 30-60 day contract, but then its back to unemployment again for 6-9 months.

John Stewart's funny 6 minute segment about the "adult conversation" between Republicans, Democrats and the Media. http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-nove...10/-adult-spin-

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Nov 18, 2010 -> 11:02 PM) Not that anyone should really be surprised, but the House failed to pass a 90-day extension of unemployment benefits a little bit ago. It could come back under different rules in a bit, but getting through the Senate is of course, significantly murkier. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 2 million people will have their unemployment benefits end at right at the end of Christmas, if the Congress takes no action. is this for the 99'ers? If it is, I'll break with my party affiliation and say, let them lose benefits. If you can't find an acceptable job in 2 years, you're not looking hard enough or maybe your standards are a bit too high.

Approx $2,500 a year for medical and dental on an individual policy with BCBS of IL.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Nov 16, 2010 -> 09:27 PM) I also flash back to 2005 and remember that Scott Podsednik, the leadoff hitter, was a lefty as well. Personally I think the whole lefty/righty thing is overrated. If a right hander can hit left handing pitching, then who the hell cares. 2005 had the following LH.. - Scott Podsednik (507 AB) - AJ Pierzynski (460 AB) - Timo Perez (196 AB) - Willie Harris (121 AB) - Geoff Blum (95 AB)- Switch Hitter - Ross Gload (42 AB) - Joe Borchard (12 AB)- Switch Hitter In total, not including the pitchers hitting, 26.07% of the AB were from left handed (or left handed able) hitters in 2005. In 2010, this % jumped to 37.71%.

my bad. feel free to delete.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/16/c...d_n_784148.html

well all of these ratings are a joke anyway. There are approx 307 million people in this country. Congrats 1.62% of the US population watched you on TV the other day. (regardless of who it is) Now, if you throw up a SuperBowl number, like 106.5 million for the Saints/Colts, that's not too shabby. (34.6% of the population)

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Nov 15, 2010 -> 07:57 PM) I will say, I think that on almost all of these, there's a balance that can be struck. For example, on retirement questions...if there was no such thing as OASDI, I'd be incredibly conservative with my personal investments, because I wouldn't want to wind up being hit with a 2008 or an Enron. Even decades out, I'd be much more conservative if I didn't know I had the federal backstop. But because I know OASDI exists, if I want to put money into a riskier venture with a chance for high gains or total losses, at this point that makes more sense. On education...we can argue back and forth about whether private school admission should pay as much attention to funding as it does, but at the upper levels, we've managed to come up with at least a moderately workable balance between community colleges, publicly funded larger institutions, and privately funded top tier schools. which was my exact point in the health insurance debate with a co-worker. Why couldn't we model our Health Insurance System like our Public K-12 School System? Everyone has a basic level provided to them. If they don't like it, or the program doesn't work for them, they can still go out and buy private insurance. (aka- Private Schools) This concept is also similar to "protection". We all get local Police Protection, but if you want to go out and buy an ADT System as an added booster, you're free to do so.

QUOTE (Controlled Chaos @ Nov 15, 2010 -> 08:26 PM) ‘Sarah Palin’s Alaska’ Premiere Draws 5 Million, Breaks TLC Ratings Record And Jersey Shore drew 6.7 million on a random episode recently. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/02/j...-_n_748033.html Should Snooki run for President too?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Nov 15, 2010 -> 06:18 PM) Isn't the reason that a lot of universities run their own hospital that the university also runs a medical school, and therefore they can dovetail everything together and use the same resources? maybe. I think they are classified as "teaching hospitals" which I'm sure gives them some extra help.

good topic. some crossover's here too. For ex here in Illinois, you've got the University of Illinois at Chicago which also has a hospital/medical center. Would you privatize both, none, some, parts, etc?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Nov 12, 2010 -> 08:37 PM) Did you excerpt this from somewhere? I'd just like a link to know where. it was an article linked on the Huffington Post. Yeah, I'm not sure how much I believe and don't believe. Personally, I could care less if he did it or not. Just an interesting read. In the interviews that I've seen with him recently, I keep going back to the same feeling. While I disagreed with a lot of his policies, I think he's a nice guy, who tried to do his best, who was just way in over his head.

Wonder how true this is? When Crown Publishing inked a deal with George W. Bush for his memoirs, the publisher knew it wasn't getting Faulkner. But the book, at least, promises "gripping, never-before-heard detail" about the former president's key decisions, offering to bring readers "aboard Air Force One on 9/11, in the hours after America's most devastating attack since Pearl Harbor; at the head of the table in the Situation Room in the moments before launching the war in Iraq," and other undisclosed and weighty locations. Instead, Crown got a mash-up of worn-out anecdotes from previously published memoirs written by his subordinates, from which Bush lifts quotes word for word, passing them off as his own recollections. He took equal license in lifting from nonfiction books about his presidency or newspaper or magazine articles from the time. Far from shedding light on how the president approached the crucial "decision points" of his presidency, the clip job illuminates something shallower and less surprising about Bush's character: He's too lazy to write his own memoir.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Nov 11, 2010 -> 10:13 PM) let's hope he becomes a 4x All Star too.

Baseball reference has this neat feature which takes the stats/performance of each player and closely matches them up with another baseball player at the same age. So, that being said, here's your 2010 Chicago White Sox. (its a slow day at the office) At Catcher= The 33 year old Benito Santiago At First Base= The 34 year old Fred McGriff At Second Base= The 23 year old Don Money At Shortstop= The 28 year old Charlie Neal At Third Base= The 43 year old Rabbitt Moranville In Left Field= The 32 year old Willie Wilson In Center Field= The 29 year old Amos Otis In Right Field= The 27 year old Bo Jackson Pitching Rotation Consists of The 31 year old Frank Viola The 29 year old Kevin Appier The 35 year old Chris Carpenter The 27 year old Adam Eaton The 25 year old Ken Brett The 26 year old Kyle Lohse And your closer is the 29 year old Brad Lidge

QUOTE (Controlled Chaos @ Nov 11, 2010 -> 07:22 PM) From my work... BCBS PPO Due to Health Care Reform and other factors, such as medical trend costs, claims experience, etc., many employers are experiencing unprecedented rate increases (generally over 30%) for 2011, and we are no exception. Our initial BCBS plan renewal called for an overall rate increase of 33%. Applying a portion of our current rate stabilization reserve balance and other plan changes allowed us to reduce this cost to 23.8%. and that doesn't surprise me. We want to eat unhealthy, not exercise, smoke/drink/do drugs and have the best medical care in the world, all without paying for it.

My point being, for someone to pay $81,000 a year, with the actual caregiver (who splits their time amongst 10-12 patients) getting $33,000 a year, there's a huge hole. Now, I'm not picking on Sunrise. I know that they got hit with a huge accounting scandel a few years ago driving their share price down from $41/share to $4/share. I'm sure the costs are similar, elsewhere.

i agree. the whole system is out of whack. - doctors bill way too much - hospitals charge way too much - insurance companies are a gigantic nightmare - lawsuit awards are way too high - drug companies charge us citizens much more than other worldwide citizens for the same drugs nursing home costs are insane too. My grandmother was being charged $9k/month at a Sunrise private nursing home facility. That was for everyting. Drugs, Room, Meals, etc. The caregivers, were only earning $16/hr. For example, I've seen the financial statements for a for-profit hospital in the Chicagoland area. Do you think posting a 9.7% bottom line profit margin, is a bit steep?

Insurance Profits up an average of 41% from 2009. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/10/h...-_n_781636.html

after the past election, take polls with a grain of salt, but found this one from the Kaiser Institute interesting. http://www.pollingreport.com/health.htm In summary... - 42% Favorable 40% Unfavorable split on the Health Bill as a whole - 49% Unfavorable 42% Favorable for those who actually voted in the midterms - Since April, consistently respondents believe that our country will be better off with the new law. (however it went from +10 in April to +2 today) - Since April, its been a mixed bag on respondents believing that they will be better off with the new law, personally. - On individual benefits, most people want things kept in place, except for the law requiring citizens to have insurance. (27% pro 68% against)

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Nov 5, 2010 -> 10:34 PM) I'll look for the rest when I get home, bt about the Acorn thing, there have been discussions on here about voter registration and its link to potential fraud. Several of the more liberal posters insist that registration of false names is no big deal, they dont vote, etc. But in my district, I was not asked for ID, I could have been anyone voting. They didnt even really look at my signature before I voted. And with false registration, you leave the potential for abuses, especially with absentee ballots and mail ballots. And some states have it for if yu sign up to get your ballot by mail once, they auytomaticly mail it to you every year after that. No potential for missues there at all. SOME groups get paid per voter registered. Some don't. So what is the incentive to register false people if you are not getting paid per registration? Just askin. I'll tell my early voting story. Each polling place has a Republican/Democratic judge (or at least they are supposed to). I walk in about 20 minutes to closing on a Sat afternoon and give my id to the poll worker. My DL has my old address (which is also in the same County/District) and the Republican judge overhears me talking to the Democratic judge saying that the address they have in the system is correct, not my DL address. I changed the official address with the SOS on-line and got one of those good driver stickers to place on my old ID. I've been voting this way for years. She comes running over yelling, he can't vote.. he can't vote. I calmly explain the situation, bust out my Allstate Insurance Card showing my name and proving the address that they have in the system as a 2nd form, and she calms down and says, "well I guess its ok. But we probably shouldn't let him vote." I then say, my wife's in the car with the Baby, she'll be coming in 2 mins when we switch who's watching the baby. Her DL has the correct address. I vote, go to the car. My wife goes in and as she's walking in the door, the Republican judge starts racing towards the door to lock it (even though it was 5 mins before closing) my wife gets to the door first and she says, i guess we'll let one last one in. Nice huh.