leh-nerd skin-erd

No photos, he doesn’t care. Photos, he’s an attention *****. Can you imagine the outrage if Biden didn’t visit the southern border and the humanitarian tragedy down th——oh, wait. Never mind.

I’m torn on @aristocrat post. I don’t know anything about the AMA and would appreciate any additional thoughts you might share. Big picture, I think that the medical profession is like any other profession, great folks/good folks/bad folks. A consumer has to make informed choices to the extent possible, and the AMA seems to operate like a union for the benefit of its members. It’s unwise to trust blindly and assume information shared is always for your benefit. If, for example, the AMA advocates for removing a concerned parent from dialogue regarding gender reassignment issues, pregnancy etc, well, it would certainly make me question just about every other piece of advice they shared. Threats of violence and harassment should not be controversial issues. They should be investigated, and where appropriate, charges filed. I also think people that get their daily dose of credible information from social media posts need to rethink their strategy.

Sure, there are problems with the federal program because it's handled politically. The same scenario applies to Medicare, and Social Security. Government pensions and benefits are are not adequately funded, are borne by all Americans and benefit the select few, relatively speaking. Then there's this sort of thing: https://www.csus.edu/indiv/k/kusnickj/honors/northridge.html#:~:text=The United States government declared,in to assist in recovery. Local Response The United States government declared the Northridge earthquake a national disaster. $11,000,000,000 federal assistance was sent to the Los Angeles and Ventura counties.* The Federal Emergency Management System (FEMA) sent personnel in to assist in recovery. National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP) agencies were put in charge of helping in long-term recovery. (FEMA, USGS, National Science Foundation, National Institute of Standards and Technology). *$23,000,000 +/- when adjusted for inflation Why the special treatment for the poor folks on the East Coast? This is a federal program and should be fixed by the feds. Match risk with pricing, I'm all for it. But suggesting the feds abandon a program they designed and created would be devastating to the economy. An alternative might be to privatize the program, let the free market figure it out, but even then, the inherent nature of government seems to be to completely ignore the math associated with risk and reward.

Again though, why? The reality is the federal government owns the federal flood program. The decision-making, who gets what, when and for how much. Decisions made by individuals and financial institutions were/are made on the conditions of the program. I suppose they could offer federal forgiveness of mortgages for individuals who relied on the program, but that gets pricey.

You’re not making sense. The number of people that died during the most recent hurricane is dwarfed by the number of people who contribute to their greater good. Icy roads take almost 2,000 lives per year, and nearly 150k are injured every year. The numbers aren’t even close based on your standards, so it’s gotta be just that you’re a heartless person who doesn’t want to part with any of his money. We’re a community of citizens, Tibs. You’re with us or against us. Again, this makes no sense. NYC, Chicago, LA, California with earthquakes, cold winters throughout the Midwest all present hazards. I don’t need the assistance Tibs, and God willing I won’t.

To a certain extent, in order to exchange ideas, we must accept phrases like “humanly” from time to time. In the alternative, as Tibs always says, we spend so much time with the explainification of our thoughtishness that we end up wastifying alot of time.

How many people will die in car crashes, Tibs, yet we dump massive amounts of federal money into roads where they deaths occur on an hourly basis? Floridians pay taxes to the federal government and are stakeholders in the game, and in some cases that dwarves what people in NY and other blue states that receive tremendous benefits. It’s not a matter of thinking humanly, it’s a matter of thinking at all! Plus I have a house in Florida, so, you know, there’s that.

You’re grossly intolerant these days, and your contempt for Florida is telling. People on public assistance can move to areas with better job prospects, and folks on social security can get back to work, or learn to live with less. You know this and these programs are probably on your wish list to cut. I would think the money Biden has earmarked for bailing out $125000ionaires could go to help Florida—and you conveniently forgot Georgia South Carolina North Carolina and the rest of the east coast. Besides, while tragic, the byproduct of the hurricane will be a massive infusion of capital—public and private, and offer employment opportunities to tens of thousands of individuals willing to work. They call that a stimulus in the public sector Playa.

It’s not your dime, Tibs. It’s our collective dime. In fact, with this heartless approach of yours, we certainly know that other public funding options cannot be far behind. Soon, you’ll be slashing benefits to those less fortunate than you. You cold b@stard.

You’re squeamish about helping people because of natural disasters? That’s an unusual take, given that the federal government is heavily involved in just a bit every aspect of a national emergency like the aftermath of Hurricane Ian. Some even say the E in FEMA stands for Emergency, but I don’t know about that. Some folks suggest the federal flood program with its extraordinarily high premiums, pricing it out of the budget of many hard-working people, is run by the feds. If I read you right, gross mismanagement of a massive corporation, the byproduct of poor investment choices by professionally managed organizations that should know better, and decisions made by Dem leaders make perfect sense, but helping a widely diverse group of individuals recover from a devastating storm is beyond the pale? To quote Nancy Wilson, you’re “Heartless…heartless!”.

One of the main reasons the Florida insurance market is a complete dumpster fire because of excessive regulation and interference in the market. The reality is when the complex math formula that is “insurance” is regulated/politicized to the degree that the math is removed, you get a completely f’d up system. On the federal government chipping in to solve a state-created problem, what have you seen that makes you concerned the feds are going to solve the problem of an insolvent carrier, or more importantly, the family that lost their home and their carrier was mismanaged to the point there is no money to pay their claim? Assume they are Biden supporters. Do they eat cake? Finally, there is history of the federal government subsidizing and bailing out private industry. You may recall the Troubled Asset and Relief Program under the Obama administration doing just that—financial firms, auto makers, insurance companies, banks, etc all received an infusion of capital under the guise of the greater good. Yet, now, you’re squeamish about helping those in need?

I would think, after his wife was compelled to testify before the 1/6 tribunal, Judge Thomas is now quite conflicted. A lifetime of service to the American people, an attempt made by his enemies to paint him as a deranged sexual deviant because he was nominated to the highest court in the land, and now this. After failing miserably in their attempt to destroy him, they switched gears and are attempting to destroy those close to him. This is a good write up of where we’re at politically, @nedboy7. I caution you before reading it—-the author considers the lead-up to Stop the Steal in historical terms and challenges to the integrity of our system of elections by people unaffiliated with Donald Trump. He also acknowledges what many conservatives believe—there is insufficient evidence to support claims of widespread election interference by democrats, but it’s hardly the first time such claims have been made. It’s done because it works. https://jonathanturley.org/2022/09/30/thats-just-wild-cnn-and-other-media-eagerly-report-that-ginni-thomas-remains-unrepentant-on-the-2020-election/

I can understand wanting all the facts and whatnot, but I will not sit around being rational when there’s all this speculation afoot. Seriously though, it’s only been 6 days since he hit his head and the first head has already rolled (no pun intended). That speaks volumes about this situation.

I’m getting a definite “You wanna send a guy with head trauma back into a professional football game, fine, but you roll in here with THAT attitude during the cover up…I won’t have it.” vibe here.

One of the more interesting discussions I had was post-Katrina, when at a party, I discussed the federal response to Katrina by President Bush. What followed a seemingly innocuous conversation about state v federal responsibility morphed into a crazy lady yelling at me about how George Bush left people on rooftops to die. I realize now I should have walked away, but I tried to have a civil conversation and simply kept correcting her. At one point, she looked at her husband and asked why he wasn’t helping her out, and he said “Because he’s right.”. The way a president/gov is judged by media in handling a crisis is directly related to the agenda and spin of the media reporting.

I do. Those were good times. 😀

We had the moderator selection election? Freaking @Tiberius had me all jimmy-jangled in that whole wtf-is-a-Christian-National-I-don’t-know-I-thought-you-did thread and I missed it?? I was voting for you most likely, but now I just the damn thing was illegiti——ah, never mind.

Everyone calls it something!

We could end abject stupidity and do much more good! “Hey gurl…let’s dye a waterfall!!”. 🤫

Most people don't like being called out for their own limitations, and in fairness I suggested he was a bigot before he accused me of that. He wasn't particularly original, but it's a natural reflex for some to punch back. After his response to Deek's question about religious freedom and the government, coupled with his complete cluelessness on COVID lockdowns and houses of worship, he's not exactly the DaVinci Code on this subject. I'm completely comfortable in my thinking that Stop the Steal was a natural evolution of political manipulation that started with democrat leadership in 2015. I've yet to encounter a person on this board who's provided a reasonable counterpoint to the argument that the words and actions of dem leadership was an assault on the integrity of our elections, the legitimacy of the Trump election, and on the question of dems suggesting Trump was guilty of treason. I asked Ned about that, he moved on. It could just be the format, but Ned suggested I said Stop the Steal was an "extension" of the Russia Investigation, but that's a mischaracterization, deliberate or otherwise. I referred to it as the 'evolution' of the allegations of illegitimate elections, accusations of treason etc. The point is simply this--the hard sell on integrity of elections and treasonous behavior worked very well for the dems. Their supporters accepted the notion as fact. So, it worked for them, why wouldn't the same branding and message points work for republicans? I'll acknowledge I could be wrong--maybe the most informed people in the world about Russia etc truly thought they had evidence of treasonous behavior but just couldn't prove it after nearly 4 years of door kicking, witness interviewing, deal offering, and such. What actually happened was that allegations of illegitimacy/treason/coup gave way to 'collusion' which morphed into 'obstruction'. but hey, could have all been a grand coinicidence.

I think it’s because, after hitting his head on Sunday, he looked like he had funnel-shotted a handle of Jack Daniels.

Hey Buff--just checking back in--hope you and yours are well!

A few years ago, I was in Las Vegas with a friend. My friend stayed out drinking all night, came back the next morning and announced he wanted to go have a burger. As it was 7am, I had no interest on doing so and told him he should go sleep it off in his room. Well, he was drunk and insisted, and I figured he was likely to get into some trouble, so I went with him. 5 minutes into our quest, we walked past a lady dressed as an opera singer and shouting nonsense at the top of her lungs. My friend heard her, and in his intoxicated state, looked at me and asked "Is she *&*(ing talking to me?" and turned to engage. I grabbed his arm, told him she had issues and that we needed to keep moving. He was somewhat insistent on speaking with her, and it was only when I told her she was spouting gibberish that he relented. Previously, I asked you about the dems actions and statements about illegitimate election, coup and treason. You had no reply, even though you were pretty heated up about Trump's allegations of a stolen election. It seemed to me then, and moreso now, that you are ok with spreading information about the integrity of elections when you get what you need out of it. That seems hypocritical, of course, but just about everyone is a hypocrite from time to time. Now, after your link to the wiki, a free-form, open-sourced collaboration for everyone who wants to chime in on any given subject, I realize that here, I'm my drunken friend and you're the lady in the opera dress. I appreciate your feedback, I'll consider what you've shared and my role in our conversation. Btw...wiki on wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_is_not_a_reliable_source#:~:text=Wikipedia is not a reliable source for citations elsewhere on,in progress%2C or simply incorrect.

Ah, fair enough. I try not to assume too many things, though I’m guilty of that from time to time. You never know who people “were” when they were younger. It’s been suggested I have liberal tendencies or certain issues, and I do. I enjoyed listening to Rush Limbaugh and didn’t really do so until later in life, past 10-12 years. I found his commentary interesting, though I tend to view people in that vein as more Dave Chappel than not. I may at one time have thought the way you did on virtuous leadership, but that day is long, long past. People upset with Trump and his comments about women had no issue voting for Biden and his actions with women. The same applied the other way. I stopped looking for moral guidance from people in elected office a long, long time ago.

Why would anyone be surprised you listened to Rush Limbaugh 30 years ago? I listened to Howard Stern faithfully back then, his show was a staple when I was driving in/around metro NY/Hudson Valley back then. Heck, I listen to him now, though only when he’s interviewing someone I want to hear. Ironically, the sorta judgey judgementalism you displayed here is often reserved for people like MTG. Or, on then other side, AOC.