Y2HH

QUOTE (Tex @ Dec 21, 2009 -> 09:38 AM) I have been noticing for the past couple of years how one side wants the other side to fail so they can say "I told you so!". Dems want Reps to fail, Reps want Dems to fail. What does that say about this country and what political parties have done? I think ol' George Washington was correct when he warned the country about the dangers of political parties. Too bad the us versus them mentality replaced the "I don't agree with this, but I sure hope it works, for all our sakes". To be absolutely honest, since everyone has a stake in America's health care, myself and my family included, I'd prefer it was Utopian and everything was perfect. Now, back to reality, where it's not and never will be Utopian, this is what we will be dealing with. This bill is bad, it was bad with the public options, and it's bad without the public options...it's being rushed, it's being written, rewritten, updated, edited, reedited, and I'm sure there are huge pieces that contradict other pieces. New policies, new fines, new disasters waiting to happen...and they will happen. It's politics. And I was hoping more people would see that it's nothing more than politics when they basically "gave it away" that all it was, was politics from the start. What do I mean? I mean the in your face deal they made with Big Pharma, once heralded as the worlds greatest and most powerful villain, now standing tall behind Obama, laughing their asses off as the dollars just roll on in. Our Govt REJECTED importing safe foreign drugs and cited safety as the reason for doing so, when it had nothing to do with safety. They did it because of the political deal they made with pharma...plain and simple, for a measly 80billion dollars. So, what do we end up with? They partially reformed the way insurance works...I think. They did nothing to stop hospitals from running business as usual, charging arbitrary unlisted rates for who knows what and why. They did nothing to curb drug costs or increase price competition in the drug industry. I'm just not sure what I'm supposed to be happy with here...and it has nothing to do with wanting the dems to fail. I can care less who succeeds in this, so long as it's actually beneficial to the people.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 21, 2009 -> 08:17 AM) Which is of course exactly why we didn't want the co-ops, we wanted a legit strong public insurance option, or better yet just opening up Medicare for everyoen. Right. Because that's economically feasible...in fantasy land. I honestly can't wait for all of these "benefits" to start kicking in on people -- and the taxes, fees, and other unforeseen nonsense that goes on to skim as much money from everyone as possible. Then the overdue and "accidental" fines people will undoubtedly receive for not having insurance...when they actually have it, then having to fight that for 2 years, amongst a myriad of other issues I can't even begin to think of yet. It's going to be fun to watch the complaints I'm sure to see in 5 years time. Hey, you wanted reform -- and now you're going to get it...whether it's good or not. Be careful what you wish for.

QUOTE (Athomeboy_2000 @ Dec 19, 2009 -> 10:14 AM) The last part is spot on. They only have the 60 votes if there is no public option (there are co-ops though) and no medicare buy-in. The public option will be back, just not this round of heathcare reform. baby steps. I'd prefer the public option never come back.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Dec 19, 2009 -> 07:48 AM) another factually incorrect statement. Oh, ok then, it has NOTHING to do with money. You need to wake up and realize its ALWAYS about money. Period. You may proceed living in fantasy land now.

I don't get it -- if they have the 60 votes, why did they remove the public options and the expanded medicare options? Sounds like they only have 60 IF those things remain removed.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Dec 18, 2009 -> 06:02 PM) Get 1080p regardless. Even an HD signal will be better. You dont want 720. What kind of tweaks did you do/where did you get them to match to your eyes?

This is an actual patent application from Microsoft -- which is just hilarious. From /. "A newly disclosed Microsoft patent application — Avatar Individualized by Physical Characteristic — takes aim at fat people, proposing to generate fat avatars in gaming environments for individuals whose health records indicate they're overweight, limiting their game play, and even banning them. From the patent application: 'An undesirable body weight could be reflected in an overweight or underweight appearance for the avatar. Only requisite health levels are allowed to compete in a certain competition level. A dedicated gamer could exercise for a period of time until his health indicator gadget shows a sufficiently high health/health credit in order to allow reentering the avatar environment." http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser...=DN/20090309891

Looks like all the climate talk is falling apart as other nations are showing what I thought all along -- they don't give a crap if it's going to cost money.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Dec 18, 2009 -> 09:59 AM) He may have been referring to this: That's part of the 5% of his post I disagreed with. While there are people that die and I'm happy they're no longer alive, that sort of hate is reserved for the worst kind of people in this world -- not football players that made some bad mistakes. Re-reading much of his post, I'd have to say in honesty I disagree with more than just 5% of it, mostly the truly hateful parts, but hey, whatever. I got his point, and some of what he said was dead on.

While a little much since we are talking about a persons life, I like the fact that you spoke your mind without the PC filter covering up what you were really thinking. That said, I agree with about 95% of this. But I'm sure people expect that of me. QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Dec 18, 2009 -> 12:46 AM) It's been brought up a few times here so I guess I'll ask... where did I "wish death upon him"? All I said was this f***wad got what he deserved. He didn't give a s*** about himself, never bothered to turn his life around (where is the proof of this??? soemone watched Hard Knocks and believed what the f***ing narrator said????? the Bengals never gave a s*** about off the field, i never saw proof that Henry gave a damn... he collected his millions and laughed). If he cared about his "kids" (ie his f*** trophies that just so happened to exist) he would have cut the s*** from day one. No chasing baby mama out da house and jumping in a moving truck bed and POUNDING ON THE BACK WINDOW. You guys are a bunch of jagbags jumping on me because I happen to be able to say something that isn't PC. Big f***ing deal. Chris Henry was a pile of human feces. I'd like anyone to argue that fact. "Aw man, that ain't cool dog. This sucka was gettin' his life straight n s***. s*** man. That poor family. They no longer have that ghetto pile of s*** gettin' arrested once a year at the least and tryin' ta beat on his girl. What a great guy. Chris Henry is Jesus. Chris Henry is the greatest person ever." I know I just exaggerated big time, but the point is there. You guys all the sudden want to defend this sack of s*** when he's no better than any of your classic crooks. My GOD if i jumped in the bed of a truck while it was speeding and stood up and died, I'd sure as f***ing s*** pray to God no one sobbed because I was dumb enough to do that s***. His kids are better off now... maybe they stand a chance because they won't grow up idolizing a piece of work like their father. They can eventually read how stupid he was, and how he pissed away millions given chance after chance. DUI's, domestic disputes, violence... yup, let's get behind this guy and all plead that we're holier than thou because we think it's so classless and old Stevo is such an asshole. This whole board freaked out because I called a spade a spade. Man I'm such an asshole. Give me a break. I'm glad Chris Henry is dead, it's better for his kids.

Never going to happen.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Dec 17, 2009 -> 07:42 PM) I don't think a lot of us "defend the insurance companies". I do, however, staunchly oppose my government being my health care mandator/provider. I work for an insurance company and in some cases (not all cases), I don't defend them. Shady practices like dropping coverage or using technicalities to not pay, etc, I find ZERO excuse for. And while some of that is very bad, it's not all their fault, either. The biggest problem right now is they're the ones being blamed for EVERYTHING, not some things, but EVERY LITTLE THING. Take note that the insurance companies aren't the ones who set the price of that 1 tablet you need to take at 200$ a pop, despite the fact it costs 13 cents to make. Pharma does that. The insurance companies aren't the ones making out the hospital bills and sending them in chock full of unnecessary testing and unapproved practices (which the hospital knows better than to administer as depending on what you are diagnosed with insurance companies only cover certain types of testing), which happens A LOT more than most of you could imagine. There are so many factors that go into this, all left unchecked, and all resting on insurances shoulders...while the hospitals, the pharmaceuticals and many others in between share the blame. So far this bill has been nothing but a witch hunt against insurance companies. Meanwhile, hospitals and pharma got a cake walk pass, a sweet deal as some would call it, just to 'go with the flow'. In the end, I can tell you right now, it solves nothing. Rather than charging the insurance companies 200$ a tablet or performing unapproved tests and requesting payment for them, they'll simply charge the taxpayers. For hospitals and pharms, it's a hell of a deal...give up a little now and gain MILLIONS of customers. In the end, it doesn't matter to them, they're still making the money...they're just getting it from the public coffers instead.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Dec 17, 2009 -> 06:30 PM) Good post. I would like to add that buying an LED just because its an LED is stupid. The edge lit LED's that some companies are offering are absolute crap. They are selling a ton because people buy into the "LED is better" stuff. Read reviews, read cnet, read EVERYTHING if you want, but in the end, its YOUR eyes. For me, I watch sports on my main TV so I went with a plasma at the time, it kills. I tweaked it based on settings on the internet and my eyes and it rules. I got the LCD in the bedroom because it was cheap, and I pass out with the TV on so I didnt want even a hint of burn in. You wont go wrong with a brand name as long as you pay attention to the specs. Heh, this is the same exact thing I did. I have a 43" DLP (generation1) upstairs -- I bought this in like 2000. I have a 32" LCD in the bedroom. ...and a 50" Plasma in the basement -- this is my movie watching/sports television. I was skeptical of Plasma because of all the myths you hear about burnin, and while that was once a concern, it's really a thing of the past. My Plasma have a few different things it does to make sure it doesn't happen like pixel shifting, etc.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Dec 17, 2009 -> 09:17 PM) There were those who thought we needed to slow down when it came to not destroying the ecosystem, and then there was big business and the GOP and conservatism in general with its head firmly up its ass. You guys should have a kap-off to see who can make the most absurd, logically flawed and inconsistent arguments. Y2HH took a big lead in this thread. Fail.

I believe this will make Kap laugh, it made me laugh. However, the rest of you liberals will no doubt cite numerous reasons why it's not true.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 17, 2009 -> 04:05 PM) Punching the other guy makes you a hero. Punching this guy makes you a big mean bully. I mean, honestly.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 17, 2009 -> 04:02 PM) Didn't it take you longer to type this post than to actually do the googling? And I just assumed that a guy who has a mortal kombat avatar would know what an astral plane was.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Dec 17, 2009 -> 03:23 PM) You, sir, are on the wrong side of history. You know, there were those who thought we need to slow down when it came to slavery. There were those who thought we needed to slow down when it came to women's rights to vote. There were those who thought we needed to slow down when it came to civil rights. Come on, now is not the time to slow down. FULL SPEED AHEAD, BABY! You know utopia awaits those who agree with me!

QUOTE (lostfan @ Dec 17, 2009 -> 03:03 PM) I would be okay with this if I knew what an astral plane was. See, I was waiting for you on the astral plane and you never arrived...I won via forfeit.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 17, 2009 -> 02:58 PM) The flaw in this logic though is that it assumes what we're doing right now has no flaws, such that there is no negative consequences to doing this waiting that you try to advise. This is of course wrong. Your argument is letting the perfect be the enemy of the good. No, I'm not saying don't start doing something -- but be smart about what. Don't just pick something and sink trillions into it now because "we must act RIGHT NOW OR EVERYONE WILL DIE OMG OMG OMG"...because this is the direction we are going right now...I'd prefer a smarter/slower approach.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Dec 17, 2009 -> 02:50 PM) Says the guy with the 3rd most posts in the thread, lol Have I reminded you today that you remain my mortal enemy and someday we will have to fight to the death on the astral plane?

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Dec 17, 2009 -> 02:40 PM) 2,418 posts in the Health Care Reform thread. Have we ever had a non-catch-all thread that had this many posts in the Buster? 2,401 of them are you.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Dec 17, 2009 -> 01:55 PM) I mean seriously. It's like he's begging to be pummeled. STOP, YER KILLING ME HERE!

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Dec 17, 2009 -> 12:46 PM) Have you seen a more punchable face than this? It's not often someone makes me laugh out loud while sitting here at work, but this did it.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Dec 17, 2009 -> 09:13 AM) Didn't that mercury already come from the earth to begin with? How are you adding more mercury content to the earth unless you brought it from another planet? While true, not quite fair. Removing something from the earth to be used in a product doesn't mean it's meant to be reintroduced into the earth in the fashion in which we will inevitably reintroduce it -- via it leaking from a landfill back into the earth -- possibly poisoning water supplies, etc. The point is, those new light bulbs may save electricity, but they introduce a NEW type of pollution during their manufacture and after their discarded. Until we have tons of those types of bulbs leaking in landfills, and years pass so we can study what happens when enough of them leak down into the earth again, we won't really know what damage we may be causing with them...but hey, meanwhile we're saving a few cents on electric bills! This goes back to my very point on the subject -- we need to carefully study all of these alternatives before we just start using them. Throwing tons of money into poor technologies only to have to go back and REDO it all in future because we realize how shortsighted and stupid it was is NOT the answer to our problems. We have to be smart about it. Otherwise we are repeating the same mistakes we made when we hooked the world on oil -- I mean, back when we did that it seemed like a damn good idea...and it was cheaper than the alternatives!