John Adams

I hope you're right and that he follows it by withdrawing from Iraq quickly and disentangling us from the really thorny situation in Afghanistan.

I'm not sure we disagree. I don't find the book creepy--seeing those things frolicing around on screen is scary.

Neon lights, Nobel Prize... I actually supported his pledges to withdraw troops and stop torture...having backed off from those promises, he now wins the Nobel Peace Prize? If you're going to award someone in the cult of personality, give it to Bono or Bill Gates. Both are doing tons more--and have accomplished far more--for world peace than Obama.

"mistakes were made" mixes my favorite 2 ways of distancing yourself from the action. First call the awwful thing that you willfully did a mistake. Then use the passive voice so there's no clear actor who made the mistake.

I honestly thought it was an Onion headline. My liberal wife is even laughing at it. "What has he done" and "Isn't he debating about whether to send more troops to Afghanistan" were her initial responses. Then she remembered that he's not against torture! How deserving. BTW, nominations were submitted in February.

I have no problem with forgiveness--I have a problem with people who willfully act and then request forgiveness to be handed out like penny candy.

We should tax the Chinese. They seem to be making a ton of money.

Where the Wild Things Are looks creeptastic and the stuff of nightmares. I do not think the story translates at all to the screen without heading into an awful place. I predict that lots of kids will have nightmares after seeing it, judging from the trailers. (All this from someone who probably read the book 50 times a day as a kid.)

I love how people use the word "mistake" these days. The word "mistake" begs for easy forgiveness. You drop a glass. Mistake. Forget to check the oil. Big mistake. Don't zip your fly. Mistake. Forgot your wife's birthday. Huge mistake. Take a bunch of nude photos and send them to an old crush? Sorry, not a mistake. More like a selfish and awful thing to do to your husband. Vick used "mistake" to cover for his multi-year reign as sick and twisted dog-torturer. Just noting this amusing take on the word.

2 years ago the windfall tax was on big oil because gas prices were high. Then the oil bubble popped. Now it's on healthcare because the Dems aren't getting their way on socializing. I don't like poor people. Can we just get a windfall tax on them?

I missed it too. Bravo. Conner: No person here is saying the system isn't a mess. What people are suggesting is that given the government's abysmal track record in, well, only every big beuracracy its ever created from the military to the VA to medicare, its ability to oversee such an important part of our lives is suspect. Moreover, there are some good ideas out there to help combat some of the problems, many of which stem from a lack of medical resources. Even Steely Night Ranger can only admit that a small percetange of ER doctors work a measely 40 hours a week. How can the limited number of docs we already have (not to mention the huge nursing shortage in the US) cope with 30% more people jumping into the system? Many of the suggested reforms (tax breaks to offer health benes, co-ops) pour more money into healthcare, which could lure more people into the field. That is really important here.

The culture gap between East and West is maybe not as great as I thought. http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-10370556...ag=2547-1_3-0-5

Just move it to PPP. Our motto is "Give us your poor, your tired, your huddled woman-chokers." We tend to be more open-minded to this sort of thread. In fact, it's unfortunate that Steely introduced it over here in the first place.

The TBD sampling is worse than the national numbers but even the national numbers are bad. Damn unChristians!

The VA is his Utopian ideal.

As bad as it is, it's not that bad if they are letting you stay in your house. If it helps you tough it out, remind your family that the people affected by Katrina had it worse than just some fan noise.

Your understanding of hard work, or even work, is amusing. So wait. You choked a woman at work. You are unemployed and on medicaid. Your family is on medicaid. I wonder why you're all for socializing medicine! At least Lance works.

ER=Emergency room. They have the best lifestyles in terms of hours worked. I know several surgeons and they all ackowledge it. Some are ER surgeons. Some are other types. Almost all surgeons and most surgeons work tons of hours. ER surgoens--because of the instantaneous stress of their jobs--work less. Comprende? This is like talking to a child. Tell me the truth. Are you older or younger than 22? BTW, love the great insurance company scandal stuff. What makes you think the government that runs the VA and medicare/aid will do a great job reforming the healthcare industry?

Then why all the stories of treatment denial in government-run systems?

Maybe so. That's why I have a good life insurance policy.

I said that most surgeons work 80 hour workweeks. You said ER surgeons do not. I countered by noting that of course you'd raise ER surgeons because ER surgeons have the best lifestyles of all surgeons. They are the notorious exception. Get it now? The Canadian system in Ontario sent 160 patients to America because their system approved them for transfer. Are you not aware that many thousands of other patients just got sent to the back of the line (some to die) like the article says? By the way, where do you think America would send patients when the lines get too long? (Cricket, cricket.) That's right. Nowhere, because the USA still has the best healthcare system in the world despite its flaws. Is it possible you don't understand unless someone bolds and raises font sizing? 160!

Since this turned into a news network thread, here's what's happening in our office. We installed a big screen TV in our work lunchroom last year. We agreed to just leave it on the news except for big events (Olympics, World Series, local junk). Sounded simple in practice, of course, until our resident right-wing wacko started whining about how CNN hurts his head. Some owners want CNN. Some want Fox. Debate ensues and we now have a retarded equal time schedule for both Fox and CNN. I feel like I've lost no matter which one is on TV. Where's the original CNN? I see glimpses of it but the above stories make me ill. (At least it's not MSNBC.)

Are you this dumb or just playing dumb? It's not easy to tell with you.

The tuna steak issue on this point makes me mental. Look, if you're serving me a good tuna steak, you should be OK with searing it and serving it the way tuna should be served. I'm willing to take the risk on my side. Cooking a tuna until it's all cooked through is a !@#$ing crime punishable by death.

OR surgeons notoriously have the BEST lifestyle of all surgeons so of course you bring them up. Again showing off your limited knowledge of the subject at hand. And by the way--some defense...in it you admit that many doctors are worked to the bone as it is? That works for...umm...well it works against your entire premise. Try Google sometime. Here's the first one I found that was from a Canadian doctor. Sorry I could only find you a first hand account from someone within the system you desire. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124451570546396929.html Just a snippet from the article. I can't even quote the last rambling bits of your post because they don't resemble anything sensible. It seems like you're indicting a strawman: Some selfish business that doesn't care about its employees. As usual, you're only dead wrong. I know almost no business owner or business that isn't cutting tons off the bottom line these days to protect its employees jobs and health benefits through this recession. You're naive to think otherwise. In my own business, the only layoffs we made as our business bucked in the last year were those we would have otherwise made because we didn't want to send unemployed people out into this marketplace. Profit is way down. I went without pay for several months. And whatever. It's what more than less businesses have tried to do over the last year. Do you resort to quoting the magic man when reason fails you?