Cheech

In the morning I invite you to re-read my earlier post. I provided rebuttals to your points that needed rebutting, agreements on the ones that I agreed with (the lawsuit thing), and smackdown on quoting a clearly biased think tank as verifiable fact. If you seriously believe that I'm giving you "empty blowhard rhetoric" (your words, not mine) as arguments then there's really no point in me continuing. No, it's extortion. I'm going to pretend for a moment that your underlying argument that universal government program == extortion by gunpoint is valid. By that premise, do you support the complete abolishment of Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, HUD (specifically housing assistance for the poor), unemployment benefits, etc? This thing you keep saying, I don't think it means what you think it means. I'll spell it out in a little more detail. Article 6, paragraph 2 delegates to Congress the authority to create laws which are the overruling laws of the country. Unless another state already has a law that's in direct conflict with Federal law, the Feds win. Now if (IF) it comes to pass that the bill requires individual state funding out of their respective general funds, I can consider that a legitimate constitutional beef. That doesn't limit a doctor's pay, that limits the amount a doctor can charge for a certain procedure. In fact, nothing in there says anything about a doctor's compensation. Zero. Guidelines for procedure payment are already in place by the insurance companies. In this case, if you go over you're the one paying instead of the insurance co. If you don't believe me, I think I still have my EOB from last year for a simple allergy test that cost me $150 out of pocket. I've already responded to your solutions. Tort reform is a decent thing, perhaps not done quite the way you'd do it, but it's a decent start and would put a dent in healthcare pricing. "Defensive medicine" goes away when frivolous lawsuts and bullshit drug marketing do, again playing into your solution. However, with arguments like this: it seems to me like you are basically arguing to keep the status quo, just tweak it a little. Clearly you must have more money than I do, as an asthmatic I'm getting killed with prescriptions. I will look forward to that. It's cool, I've got Pepe picking me some more beans right now and I'm off tomorrow. Go for broke. Have a good night.

Fuck it, I just bought an entire Columbian coffee field. No specific example yet, if you can allege a infraction on your rights surely you can tell me which right it is that is being violated. Come on man, stop regurgitating the mainstream stuff and do a little research. That being said, I suppose with that logic you are completely at odds with paying for Medicare, Medicaid, contributing to Social Security, paying income taxes that contribute to the functioning of the gov't at large? Gov't is forcing you to pay taxes, and you already have been paying for Grandpa's Viagra for some time now through Medicare. How is this some radically different concept? Where on the bill is it imposing the doc's right to provide? What does that even mean? Where on the bill is it imposing limiting pay for services? The little blurbs from the blowhard on the original post fails to mention that the private ins. co's have had a rate schedule for YEARS. Requring doctors to provide the service? Yeah, I totally want my doctor to give me a sugar pill and bill for open heart surgery. See PrincessPratt's post above. Reducing excess overhead like completely useless marketing would do wonders for recouping expenses, wouldn't it? Or are you completely satisfied with paying $100 for a pill knowing that the cost is inflated by a minimum of 10% in airtime charges for the evening news? Come on, really? You're going to cite as a source a non-profit think tank that relies on more than half its funding coming from the pharma companies? http://csdd.tufts.edu/About/Sponsorship.asp If I asked you about smoking, would you come up with something from the Academy of Tobacco Studies? Even so, you're talking 3 months until the gross profit breaks even with the R&D cost. With EBITDA let's be nice and say a year. Get rid of bullshit marketing and that number gets even lower. 7 more years of patent protection remain. That's your source? A series of rhetorical questions and a passive-aggressive remark? Wow. Oh wait, here's something... An Op-Ed piece. I'm not going to argue with his argument premise (too many frivolous lawsuits), but it's not the same premise (ginourmous jury awards jacking up malpractice ins.) you were arguing before. If the suits are baseless and frivolous then the plaintiff should have to pay legal expenses. Period. Problem solved. Take frivolous lawsuits out of the equation and this disappears. How to take frivolous lawsuits out the equation: make it cost cash money for plaintiffs to file them if they are found to be frivolous. Hadn't thought about couples, I'll concede that point. However where does 84.3% = 90%? Also, I'm curious to see where that number stands today with unemployment as it is now vs. 2004.

I'm going to put on a pot of coffee, something tells me I'm going to be here for a while. Which rights are being violated? Please, cite specific examples. In 2006, the pharmaceutical industry AS A WHOLE had a 27% increas in profits. Pfizer, the largest privately funded pharmaceutical firm, had an increase of 73% over a 6 month period when the new Medicaid drug plan went into effect. (Source here: http://oversight.house.gov/documents/20060919115623-70677.pdf) If you are accurate in saying that the average dev cost is 600 mil, and they made 2.7 billion in a 6-month span, I don't think you need me to connect the rest of the dots.However, I'm all for streamlining expenses, so let's open up Pfizer's financials and have a peek (isn't doing independent research fun!) So you can follow along at home, here's the link: http://media.pfizer.com/files/annualreport/2008/financial/financial2008.pdf On page 19 you will see the income/expenses chart. R&D - 7.95 billion dollars for FY'08. SI&A (Pfizer's lovely term for marketing expenses, see page 29 for the full explanation) is 14.6 Billion dollars. You want to lower prescription drug costs? Explain to me why it takes DOUBLE the cost to market the drug to physicians than it takes to make it in the first place. In that same vein, explain why it's necessary to bombard drug ads all over the media for drugs we are unable to get ourselves? I'm not going to argue that the medical tort system isn't in need of a little overhaul, and that malpractice insurance is a HUGE barrier to entry for people starting out. However, having docs/insurance/lawyers instituting caps for payouts is a little like the fox guarding the henhouse. We already have a mechanism in place to check a runaway jury's egregious award, it's called the appeals court. Let me ask you this, if you were a doctor and I asked you how much you would be comfortable in parting with if you made a mistake and I sued you, how much would you say? Got any sources? I've got a few doubts about this. Got any sources for this too? Last I checked, the measurable unemployment rate nationwide was 9.5 percent. This, of course, only measures people who are actively collecting unemployment benefits and data sent back by employers. It doesn't take into account the guy that can't find a job for 6 months that just lost his benefits. The real number is probably way south of that. This guy: http://blogs.moneycentral.msn.com/topstocks/archive/2009/07/06/true-unemployment-rate-already-at-20.aspx says it's at 20%, so let's split the difference and say 15%. I'll venture to say without employment they don't have healthcare, so that's putting a little damper on 90% of "citizens"

In that case, I would steer you away from the Icon Squad II. I loved that pack when I had it, it held everything beautifully, but the stitching separated in the front right under the rubber ICONMOTO badge exposing the contents to the outside. I looked at others and it all looks like they would do the same thing. Ended up taking it back to Iron Pony for a warranty fix, and they ended up giving me store credit. Kreiga backpacks seem to be very highly reviewed on 600rr.net. I haven't actually seen one in person, and they are a little spicy at $105 - $185, but some of them have the same shoulder strap system as the Squad II. Direct link: http://www.shop.superbikestore.net/category.sc;jsessionid=8B5654A90CDC2F829E70483B79CD14E3.qscstrfrnt02?categoryId=222 In the end, it all comes down to your body type, how they fit on you, and how much you want to carry.

No, I got that one. Re-read it again:

First off, it is just a proposal. This is why we have 100 people on the opposite end of the building drafting their own version, and given the fact that IT JUST CAME OUT OF COMMITTEE means that there are 376 additional people besides the committee that just voted on it to debate it further. So that means we have almost 500 people who have direct access to the bill to make changes as their constituents (if only I still believed that) see fit. I mean seriously, this is the time to debate the provisions but everyone is carrying on like they've already passed the thing and it's a active law. So you tacitly admit that the current system is flawed. How would you fix it?

Riiight, I forgot you had the sofa. In that case, a smallish tank bag might be the way to go. It doesn't screw with the curve of the bike that much, having a big honkin thing on the tail would be worse IMO than a little something on the tank, especially when you are riding you're over it anyway.

OK, this one is just too good. I think I just might have to don my mankini and jump in this pool. I disagree with that statement but to give you the benefit of the doubt, I'll ask 2 simple questions: Do you think the current healthcare system in this country is a sustainable option? If you happen to lose your job for whatever reason, do you think it's acceptable that you are 1 debilitating disease/accident away from bankruptcy? Ah, a strict Constitutionalist. Although I will not argue your point that the bailouts of AIG and GM were and are completely bullshit, I will argue that everything does not need to be spelled out in the Constitution. I can, however, tell you what IS spelled out in the Constitution: Article 6, paragraph 2 - This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof; and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding. Any questions?

and in response I bet she backfired a few times for good measure...

If you are looking for something unobtrusive, there's a tail bag for the RR's called FastPack that goes right over the rear seat. Review and pics here: http://www.2wf.com/content/view/1675/45/ I just bought one for the 600RR, and it fits and looks great. You can easily get a 6-pack with room to spare. What you can't do (or shouldn't) is sit on it as the straps aren't designed to take a lot of lateral motion from an adult sliding the seat around. IP has them for $73. They're a little pricey, but I didn't want a buttload of straps all around and a undertail exhaust made it that much harder.

Agreed. I thought your Shadow had a oil leak before, but it was just crying over how beautiful Lance's bike was.

you know what else happens behind the sound console... Cooties Moose. Cooties happen.

I and a bunch of my friends will be there Sunday, not sure what time. I may end up riding down, just found out that my SS lines are waiting for me at the house, so between that, rotors, and tires I've got a Saturday morning of wrenchin' to do.

What did the solution end up being?

but she's "gone", so it's cool.

happy birthday wild man!

For a little amusement for yourself and your users, I give you the Bastard Operator from Hell (BOFH) Chronicles. http://bofh.ntk.net/Bastard_Indexes.html Sorry for the 1995 website color scheme, there's some massive funnay to be had here though.

and the macbuyver type will use an entire box of zipties...

That's what I'm going to do. Better to know these are totally virgin rotors than roll the dice with something used.

I was a little skittish too, but the prospect of spending 600 for the set vs. 130 made it irresistable.

The beauty of this is shittygsxr pointed me to a place in Columbus that had aftermarket new rotors for 50 bucks more than I spent on these. Pickup same day, on bike that night.

Anyone can take stuff apart, can you put it back together and have it work is the real skill...

I see what you mean. The box that it came in couldn't hold brake rotors if it tried, so I think I've got a pretty solid case.