Y2HH

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jul 9, 2010 -> 12:30 PM) LOL, yes, we're all out to get you. Just you. I don't actually feel that way, you realize, I'm joking. Personally, and I don't know this for sure one way or another, but I get the feeling that while the admins do enjoy when I mess up and they get to click the suspend Y2HH button, (and I'm POSITIVE such a button exists and was built specifically for me), they also don't dislike me and, from time to time, even enjoy some of my posts even if they disagree with a vast majority of them.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jul 9, 2010 -> 11:56 AM) Not at all. Passenger in the truck, right? I'd assume he was probably looking at the man yelling and then shooting at him, that only makes sense. Besides, even if he's facing forward, still can get shot in the face. You'd need a medical examiner to give you more information as to the trajectory of the bullet. Objection, your honor. You cannot assume in a case like this, and that's the point. From the beginning, aside from my "I wish he hadn't missed comment", which was more innocent than people took it, I made mention that things are not adding up and facts are missing, and we all need to get more information before coming to conclusions one way or another, which is what's going on now, and even I'm guilty of it to an extent (other than the fact they actually admitted to the theft). And I didn't wish death upon a member of this board, I wished death on some pieces of trash nobody here knows...which is no different, IMO, than wishing death on terrorist members or leaders, or even Hitler, for that matter. And if that's a rule of this board, I didn't know it. I did know, however, that wishing bad upon others present wasn't accepted, and it's not something I did.

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Jul 9, 2010 -> 11:51 AM) what did you get suspended for? I get suspended for breaking forum rules from time to time. Things like calling people idiots, stupid, etc. Sometimes, I cannot *not* say what's on my mind, and I tend to tell people how I really feel rather than sugar coating it and/or shutting up. I try to be nice, but sometimes I see things here that I disagree with so much, I cannot help but to say something. And that prompts the admins who are out to get me to suspend me.

Now, I don't mean to come off as a condescending prick...but all of these things you speak of, who decides what is illegal and not, what crimes are serious and what are not will differ greatly from person to person, depending on background, culture, where they're from, where their parents are from, the things that they've experienced in their lives, etc. Pretending everyone should act just like you or think just like you is ridiculous. Pretending the way you think is the only "right" way is also ridiculous, and this also pertains to me, and my own opinions toward others. But in my view, it's ok for different people to think differently about such matters, as to some of us, these matters are of great concern, and to others, such things are so out of sight/out of mind, they don't really matter, but we just like to comment on them anyway. Some people will choose to see the best in people, even if there are people in this world that have no "best".

QUOTE (Soxy @ Jul 9, 2010 -> 10:33 AM) Oh, goodness, you are rich. I'm doing well, but I wouldn't call myself rich. Thank you, though, your concern warms my heart. And do yourself a favor, while your at it, educate yourself on the difference between misdemeanors/petty crimes and felonies. Because, believe it or not, there IS a big difference.

QUOTE (Soxy @ Jul 9, 2010 -> 10:10 AM) So committing an illegal act makes you subhuman? Which ones in particular deny us our humanity? Speeding? Embezzlement? Illegally entering a country? Theft? Battery? Assault? What crime makes us dispensable? I don't care to drag this out with you, so I won't bother. There is a difference between having a brain and not having a brain, and using common sense therein. So do yourself a favor and figure out which of those crimes makes you a piece of s***, and which of them doesn't. That's your answer. And the answer CAN and WILL be different for different people, and that's ok, too. It's ok to think and feel differently than others...it really is.

QUOTE (Soxy @ Jul 9, 2010 -> 09:49 AM) I believe it may be more about wishing death on a fellow human being which, I think some would agree, seems to fly in the face of human decency. First, that's not a "fellow human being", at least, it isn't to me, so it's a good thing I have the free right to feel the way I do. We are talking about criminal pieces of trash, which I don't consider to be a fellow of, or on the same level of. Note that these thieves have criminal pasts/records, so again, not on the same level as a law abiding good citizen, not to me, not ever. I'm all for human decency, to those whom deserve human decency. These are animals, so fellows they are not.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 9, 2010 -> 09:17 AM) You know...we used to get really angry when we saw posts like this. Why, because of someones opinion on the matter is different than your own? Damn that American flag which grants such liberty!

It's also me posting less to avoid getting suspended again.

I wish he hadn't missed and killed them both. That said, what's going on here doesn't add up. He fired 2 shots at 2 guys, yet is facing 4 charges of attempted murder? Bad math here, or bad reporting, either way, it's not adding up to me. He said they tried to run him over, something they didn't dispute, but again what facts are facts and what is hearsay who knows at this point. They confessed to their attempted theft the trailer, so this counts out any sort of repossession excuse, yet they were never charged. The fact that they are here illegally does matter, because it means they shouldn't have been here to steal his property, and if they weren't here illegally stealing his property, this incident never occurs.

QUOTE (Cknolls @ Jul 8, 2010 -> 11:54 AM) Keep up the good work. See, I wouldn't really call what I do work -- as it's easy and doesn't take skill, all it really takes is noticing the obvious we usually ignore. I use publicly available information and invest based on what I see the company doing, and where I see them going. For example, a company that holds tremendous debt, with a history of never paying it is a company I'd tend to avoid unless they were a very good reason for the debt (acquisitions, etc.) Where I get the ideas of what to invest in is even more simple -- the things right in front of me. Such as my investment in Casey's General Stores (Gas Stations), I got the idea from the numerous road trips/camping trips I tend to take and noticed tons of these things popping up in remote areas where people almost HAVE to stop for gas, etc. I thought, wow, this company has a great idea here using remote locations...so I looked them up. Another example is my investment in Conagra Foods -- looking through my refrigerator, like 70% of the things in it are from Conagra...I figured, hell, this company is everywhere and nobody even knows it! I didn't know it until I went out of my way to actually look. The things we tend to use everyday are the companies I look to invest in. Products around our desk at work, or at home...most are publicly traded and most people don't even consider investing in them, yet they buy these products ALL THE TIME. I prefer the set it and forget it mentality when it comes to my money -- my money works for me, not the other way around, as I already have a full time job at Blue Cross Blue Shield, I don't need another full time job investing day to day via trades. Thankfully I had these investments, because when it comes to the rainy day money, boy did me and my wife need it this year -- one thing after another. But in the end, that's what it was/is there for, peace of mind.

QUOTE (Cknolls @ Jul 7, 2010 -> 03:19 PM) Just keep dollar cost averaging and you will be back to 2007 levels by 2025. Guessing has worked for the last 15 years, so there is probably a little more to it. This would only be true if you bought high and now have to average it down. A good buyer/investor of stocks (buy and hold) doesn't buy high, they buy bargins. For example, I bought 500 shares of Casey's at 11 years back when nobody wanted it. Why would I dollar cost average that? It's currently trading at 36 and has been paying a dividend (albeit it a small div, its #1 in it's class), for years. I did the same for Bank of Hawaii, bought at 14...currently at 49. Coke...bought at 39, currently at 51. So I'm way ahead and have been for years, despite the great recession. All that really was, was another opportunity to buy. More examples -- bought Bank of America during the crash at 4. It's way above that now, needless to say. While everyone else was selling it during the "great recession" and the doom and gloom on financials, I was buying. An example of what someone would want to buy, right now? Nobody wants Pfizer -- it's trading at 14. Now is when you buy Pfizer for a buy and hold -- not 5 years from now when its back up at 30. Another buy right now is FE. At a 10 P/E ratio paying a 6% dividend. An energy company with solid fundamentals and ratings, and everyones bearish about it...fine...that means I'll be bullish about it BEFORE the bears disappear. No matter where a market is, high or low, there ARE bargin stocks out there to buy and hold...you just have to know how to find them. I have no doubt trading can yield money, but it's like gambling in many regards...but all that said, I maintain the following. If a person knows when a market will rise and fall -- and isn't a billionaire after a decade of knowing these things -- they need to reassess their station in life, because it means they're bad. If a person knows these things, but still cant turn hundreds into thousands and thousands into millions and millions into billions...they're too stupid to be involved in the market in the first place. If I knew when the market was going to rise and fall -- I'd be making millions per year, EASY. Why am I not? Because I don't pretend to know when the market will rise and fall with spot on precision, I just know good companies when I see them, and I invest in those good companies...long.

Of the three choices here, only one has won the world series from what I know, despite the other two having multiple playoff opportunities. Therefore my decision is Ozzie.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jul 7, 2010 -> 02:16 PM) Its called that if you think that's what's going to happen. It might. But explain this to me... if you really think the market knows globally that its going there... what purpose does "time on the side" serve? Why wait for the rest of the crowd to jump out, why not jump out now? There's a logical flaw in this assumption. That'd be because it's all guessing, only the people who guess don't like to call it guessing...they like to call it skill. But that only applies if they're right, despite them taking no action to very little action to back their bold claims. Now, if they're right, they'll brag to you about that one time they called it, however, if they're not, they never mention it again. Here is why I say this: IF these people making these bold and certain market calls weren't guessing, they wouldn't be 1) here, 2) talking to you/us about it, 3) typing themselves Why? And please, Y2HH, explain reasons 1, 2 and 3 for us! Well, most certainly! 1) Because they'd be vacationing on one of their 5 yachts, complete with a helipad. 2) See 1. 3) Because they'd be so unbelievably rich, they could hire someone to type for them on diamond encrusted computers from the South of France on their Yacht named "Market Timer". Simple fact is, if you know what a market is going to do, you'd be a billionaire many times over. That includes knowing when markets are going to 'dip' or 'jump' or 'correct'. Furthermore, if you know these things but are NOT a billionaire, that means you are a f***ing moron many times over and should consider drowning yourself in the tears of a clown.

QUOTE (Tex @ Jul 7, 2010 -> 08:03 AM) Looking at the bright side, while average starting pitching is hard to find mid season, it is probably better to have a pitcher out for a few starts than several of our position players. If that winds up being the case.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jul 6, 2010 -> 09:12 AM) Even if you believe the markets and the economy are headed for a double dip, the fundamentals and causation of the Great Depression are nothing like the problems we have right now. Two very different animals. This is why technical traders often get the short run right, but the long run wrong, and why technical trading is therefore much more useful for day traders. A big fall is of course possible, but these situations are very different. I agree 100%.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jul 2, 2010 -> 12:34 PM) Hey, that's great, I didn't say they provide no service. I asked what innovations we get out of a for-profit model of insurance. I don't see that really being answered there. Actually, that's not what you asked at all. QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jul 2, 2010 -> 07:17 AM) Hey kap, why does a for-profit insurance company benefit me? Explain it to me because I'm a dumb lib. ^^ That's what you asked, and it's what I answered.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 5, 2010 -> 10:46 PM) We could compare stories... My dad is on our version of socialized medicine in the USA as a veteran. Even after the national stories broke about how bad their care was, nothing has changed. As a matter of a fact I could detail the last month of run arounds he has had as he tries to find someone to do an operation that would usually be considered an emergency surgery. At the VA, he got sent home. This is the version of health care that was supposed to be what we should all aspire to... If you talked to a lot of people on Soxtalk, all you'd hear is how great our VA care is...and I've seen MANY examples of this from many of those posting here already. No, I don't care to go back and mine for these posts with such claims, but they existed, and those of you who made them know who you are.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 2, 2010 -> 09:00 PM) Kap tells me that the way to lower health care costs is for me to be able to shop around for all of those. That would be one way, but not necessarily the *only* way.

QUOTE (pittshoganerkoff @ Jul 2, 2010 -> 09:08 AM) I've seen plenty of players that are right-handed and bat either switch or left-handed, but there are not many who are left-handed and bat from the right. I wonder why. How many players started batting the way they do when they were little leaguers? If a player became a switch hitter, is that something they picked up early or later on in high school? So, let's start a discussion. Whether you play organized ball or just mess around in the backyard with the kids, do you throw right or left-handed and how do you bat? The only "organized" ball I've played is slow-pitch softball, and I always threw and batted right. But now when I play wiffle ball or a pick up game with my kids and their friends I'll bat left and right. I throw right, but can bat either side -- however, in the latter years of my play I've stopped batting from the left side, as my accuracy has fallen from that side.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Jul 2, 2010 -> 08:55 AM) Touche. But I've done a ton of research since I've changed my diet/lifestyle and study after study shows that people on primarily plant based diets have much lower cancer rates. Oh, and don't get me wrong, I'm not denying that your lifestyle choice is a very healthy one all things being equal, you will live a long, happy and healthy life. I just believe that genetics have a LOT to do with our long term health, and these genetics will supersede any lifestyle choices we make (unfortunately), and there really is no way for us to know if they will or will not affect us. If we get a dealt a bad genetic hand, and our genetic code is flawed in a way that will someday fall into cancer, it doesn't matter how well we ate, or what we ate, or if we smoked or not -- cancer it will be. When it comes to diets and long term lifestyle choices, people tend to assume everything is going according to plan, i.e. our genetic code is rock solid, and there are no major flaws, but this assumption aside, there often ARE flaws, and nothing we do will change that. I just think nothing would be worse than to devote 20 years to a healthy lifestyle and then die of the very thing you were trying to prevent, only to find out it was never preventable -- that'd just piss me off.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Jul 2, 2010 -> 08:48 AM) I guess that's why doctors recommend a diet consisting of bacon, blue cheese and spam after someone has a heart attack. So now heart attacks and stroke are the same as cancer.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jul 2, 2010 -> 08:24 AM) Over the years, I swear, every food we eat has been found by one study or another to both cause, AND prevent, cancer. That's exactly what I mean, and I agree -- I don't know how many times I've seen such studies show that X prevents cancer, and then five or so years later a similar study shows X causes cancer. I'm not saying certain things won't raise the risks, but I've also come to the conclusion that this is a genetic flaw, and sometime it will be eradicated through genetics, not through what we eat.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jul 2, 2010 -> 07:17 AM) Hey kap, why does a for-profit insurance company benefit me? Explain it to me because I'm a dumb lib. Why does a computer repair tech benefit you? Why does a mechanic benefit you? What kind of question did you honestly ask? Do you REALLY need this answered? Are YOU going to personally deal with the doctors office when they send you a bill for 2,900$ when what you had performed appeared on your bill as: Lab Services : 1,500$ Misc. Services : 500$ Consultation : 700$ Other: 200$ Now, if/when this escalates because you disagree with said bill and tell the doctor you aren't paying it, are you going to hire a lawyer to fight the claim in court, too? Because we have to do this quite often. Do you even know what those charges mean or why they are listed? Do you remember every little thing they performed on you when you went in for this office visit? Do you know what the average cost from hundreds of other providers who have doled out similar care are? Can you compare the fact that this doctor charged you 1,500$ for labs when labs shouldn't have even been necessary for what you had performed? The answer is no to all of these. You have no idea...but insurance companies *do*, and while you think they are an evil scheming bastard, they *are* performing a service to you that's far more complex than you could possibly imagine. While I work for a non profit insurance company, I also know that health insurance profits aren't very high unless you speak in strict dollar amounts. The numbers are HUGE because of the amount of claims you're talking about, but their profit margins are actually quite low.

QUOTE (Tex @ Jun 30, 2010 -> 09:14 AM) So no one has figured out how your insurance company's requirement to produce a profit results in better health care for you? I wasn't able to figure that out either. Currently insurance companies control what your Doctor, hospital, etc are being paid. Do you believe if your insurance negotiates lower reimbursment rates (increasing their profits) it will cause you to receive better or worse care? If Humana (to pick on one) pays a Doctor $25 per office visit, do you think he's thinking, hey if I offer superior services they will increase what I am getting paid? Or is he thinking, I'm only getting $25 for this patient, but $32 for that one, if I spend less time with the $25 patient I can increase my profitability? After all, profits drive innovation and better care. That's not how it works at all, nor has it ever, and of everyone here, I actually *do* know how it works. We have minor control over what doctors, hospitals and other health care providers are being paid for routine services (this is part of the initial negotiation) and only applies to the routine, such as yearly checks, etc. We have no control over what they charge for any/all non routine services. The only thing we can do is see if what they're charging is in line with what most others charge and go from there. One broken arm may take 15 minutes to reset/case, while another may take an hour for who knows what reason -- but the charge will be 4X more for the latter and there isn't much we can say, as they can cite numerous reasons why it took longer and/or needed to take longer. The illusion of this "control" you speak of, is while we know what things "should cost under normal circumstances", we have no way of controlling said circumstances or the quantity of services being administered. For example, if you are suffering from an ailment and the doctor asks to see you once a week for the next 3 months "for checkups", we can't stop them, but we know the average price these checkups should cost, unless he did something extra during these checkups...but that doesn't mean much when he wants 12 checkups when 1 would have sufficed. Also, keep in mind when you see "Laboratory Services" on a claim from a doctor with a 2,000$ charge...that could mean a LOT of things, and there isn't much we can say about it. There are so many ways doctors/hospitals can jack up the costs of patient bills that we have ZERO control over it's not even funny, so stop pretending the insurance companies have this godlike power you seem to think they possess. Those "co pays" you see, or "office visit" charges are ONLY for routine checks, i.e., yearly checkups, and *only* if absolutely nothing is wrong. The reason what you suggest doesn't work, and has never existed, is because if that were the case, doctors would be sure to find something wrong with *every* patient that comes through the door.