YellowLinesandArmadillos

Not sure how hard Pot is to quit... I will tell you quitting cigarettes sucked and was the toughest thing I ever had to do. I still like the smell of them occasionally, but I don't have another quit in me... not worth it to do again.

There is no requirement for private hospitals to treat the uninsured and in fact they are turning folks away. Public hospitals don't have that option. Interesting to see if the for profit model works and if it controls costs any better. I have heard any recent stats on them and maybe there are too few. The other problem with the turn away model is the hypocratic oath that Doctors take. But of course we are subsidizing the old folks who use services more. ? Can we better serve them and provide them with more cost effective services as well?

And the woman has now been revealed... Cristina Kirchner, current president and former first lady of Argentina. http://thediscust.com/?p=491 If you are going to screw, do with a pair. I have to give to Sanford, he aimed high!

If fraud or price fixing were not true, why are costs going up so high or are they. It isn't lawsuits or settlements insureres like to trot out as the reason, they area only a small portion of the over cost issue. In fact health insurance is one of the most profitable industries to be in even right now and yet fees and premiums are going up over 9%. Maybe government should institute price controls... not, but seriously our insurance has a cartel that is better functioning then OPEC as far as cornering the market.

Okay, so you pan that part of my argument... fine. But what do you think about the crop insurance model of re-insurance, risk pooling and premium subsidy as well as an independent counsel to investigate fraud model?

LMAO

I agree with your post and thanks... Still I love potheads who say their drug does not damage and isn't addictive... That is a bunch of crap. I bet they say they can quit anytime... a sure sign of an addict. Whatever... sounds like the same crap an alchy or a herion addict shovels. P.S. An old joke.. what is the difference between an alcoholic and a heroin addict. They will both steal your money, but the heroin addict will help you look for it. HA

Not true one the fraud count.. and the administrative costs of private insurance cos are much higher than public insurance. So there has to some sort of law or rule that requires administrative costs to be equal. Then I would agree private is better than public... but not in the current structure of this portion of the insurance market. Hence why I would advocate the crop insurance model where the govt is the re-insurer, but that everyone is required to participate. But apparently you didn't bother reading my whole post before taking shots.

Can anyone give me a Jimmy Swaggart??

Romour is this had nothing to do with another woman... maybe another man, but not a woman.

That is why I wrote what I did the way I did. I know the law is useless and that is why I said "personally." The only way it should be enforced is a la current tough drunk driving laws and immediate loss of license to drive. However, if you do a crime while under the influence then punishment should be tripled. You are loading a gun and asking for trouble when you act irresponsibly, regardless of your motivation. The rest of of it, while personally watched my brother destroy himself, know no law could have prevented his destruction, and because he did commit crimes that I know of while on the stuff except through its use, I am not sure about laws that ban the use of these things. Prohibition is instructive and so are tobacco taxes. How not to and how to influence behavior.

Just catching up on this now??? http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=...5ieb&ref=nf

Live through the damage a few times and then come back and report to me what you think. I know the law is problematic and halfway unenforceable and taxing the hell out of both is probably the better answer like with cigarettes, but I still emotionally can't remove myself from my dislike of both drugs. Maybe taxing the hell out of both is the answer and any crime committed under the influence of either should have mandatory sentencing guidelines a la cocaine including dereliction of parental duties and DUI.

Sorry to go knuckle dragger on you guys, but Simon is wrong. I think both Pot and alcohol should be made illegal. Both cause to much damage to individuals and families. One is more violent, but both are degrading to the human experience.

At the very least, it might balance the deficit!

I favor getting rid of the insurance industry all together private, government or otherwise. I know that won't work, but short of stringent government regulation and rate setting which I know you would oppose and would not work, there has to be another answer. The current system doesn't work, so let's scrap it and start from scratch... a little idealist I admit and politically untenable... it will never happen. That has largely been addressed by prohibiting building in very high risk areas and keeps happening, areas prone will not be insured, even so short of any insurance the people end up crying for and getting government bailouts, no matter who is in charge in DC. So at least they are paying into the system. So at least they are paying something into the system. A comprise may be to set up risk pools a la crop insurance with three risk pools. FCIC Subsidizes premiums especially for higher risk pools and has the government be both a re-insurer and watch dog against insurers and patients committing fraud or over charging. The penalties need to be severe enough including jail time for fraud. But for those that say that the private sector is the answer. They are fooling themselves. Medicare's administrative costs sadly enough are cheaper than private health insurance. You are right, entrenched bureaucrats are not effectively motivated to provide efficient care. And finally not enough people are covered. I say if you want health benefits, you have to enroll in an insurance programs and then the program should be a private public partnership with incentives for all sides, the patients, the government and the private sector to serve a check and balance against the other side. Also, increasing the size of the risk pools by requiring everyone to carry insurance, like auto insurance, will help better fund insurance and lower overall rates by reducing overall risk. But this needs to be done now and saying any plan won't work or calling a government option, a government takeover is just being obstructionist and an excuse to do nothing. At least a government option is a start to providing some competition to these over bloated inefficient insurance companies that do nothing but cherry pick and deny coverage when a serious medical issue occurs. What kind of health system is that. We pay, but we get no benefits yet our tax dollars still fund this crap.... Please, the current system only benefits the rich and the poor and once again taxes the hell out the middle class with little benefit.

Doubt that, conflict of interest. But you keep spreading that misinfo. She would have had to divest like everyone else. That being said, Dodd bothers me. But he along with many others who have been in DC too long on both sides no matter their rhetoric are in the pockets of the insurance companies. If we are going to reform healthcare we first must make health insurance companies illegal and start from scratch on how to deal with risk pooling. Liability insurance rate then need to be heavily regulated to deal with ridiculous unfounded costs to Doctors. Lawsuits are 1/10 of 1 percent of the justified costs of liability. And then finally, we need to find a way to reign the costs of drugs and cost to drug companies for developing drugs. Not sure how to deal with this, but one way would be to cut all the federal grant funding to them unless they lowered costs. They are subsidized the hell out of by the taxpayerand to a large extent still complain about their development costs. But lets start by removing the middle man from the equation, the health insurance companies.

My two cents, been away shooting wedding but had to check on the board on this one. Palin is irrelevant, why the heck to Letterman make her come back into the news. This whole joke reeks of stupidity and in general was in bad taste. Watch your back Letterman, Todd is a good ole boy and well you never know.

True, it would just be a tease unless you were getting some back stage!

I agree the whole deal was stupid and not the place to raise the question, but even then, both the question and the answeree's response could have been handled better. Finally, the clown that asked to question should have not even been allowed to be part of the pageant. In a nut shell, I am less offended by the question, thought contestant's response was lame even though I disagree, but the judge's utube post was outrageous and disrespectful... once again, what an a-hole.

I don't anyone thinks they will play nice... that is beside the point.... We are dealing with terrorists who don't care about the tenants of their own religion or morals... the beat their women and treat them like cattle... that is beside the point. What we need to think about is who do we defend ourselves while living up to our own moral code... it may be more difficult but we need to live up to our standards not others. Both extremes do this, but if RWers don't understand their own hypocrisy on this point than I guess I can now understand why they don't live up and consistently justify their own mistakes while attacking everyone else for not living up to so called religious crap they shovel on everyone else. Also, water boarding it appears the other techniques listed would not necessarily fall the torture category. P.S. I don't trust anything that drunken shoot a friend sack of Sh$t Cheney says anyway.

Reasonable question, but I have had brides call me up an hire me on the spot without meeting me...What was the ruling? However, if that logic were applied we would still have segregated schools and establishments, your logic really doesn't work if you think about it... authority needs to be challenged. Trying to frame discrimination and hate as protected under religious freedom is akin the sanctifying cross burning.

Never heard him, but if what you say is true than that is on the pageant...

Look at Mississippi's k-12 educational system and look at NY's. Miss can use all the help it can get, from the feds and anywhere else... Go Haly Barbour turn down that stimulus money... keep your people poor, starving and ignorant.

Agreed. Perez is obviously an a-hole. They come in all shapes and sizes and gays are not exempt. I thought her answer was a little awkward and she could have handled it better, but the idiot who asked the question given his response on u-tube showed that he should not ever be considered to be a judge. I would have had the same reaction of the the question was the opposite and he reacted similarly on the right.