dmagicglock

real life does fit on a tshirt

barney frank isn't in prison? what about his boyfriend and all the fannie mae and freddie mac scandals?

justin i found a tshirt for you sorry couldn't resist!

but nobody is asking for complete anarchy... we just want LESS government, not NO government at all. Where as the communists/socialists/liberals have already taken over the private means of production here and are trying to take over more and redistribute more and more wealth and benefits. You can compare a conservative paradise to somalia, but then i'll have to compare a modern liberal paradise to say North Korea, which is sooo much better than Somalia.

A young woman was about to finish her first year of college. She considered herself to be a very liberal Democrat, but her father was a staunch Republican. One day she was challenging her father on his beliefs and his opposition to high taxes and welfare programs. He stopped her and asked how she was doing in school. She answered that she had a 4.0 GPA, but it was really tough. She had to study all the time and never had time to go out and party. She didn't have time for a boyfriend and didn't really have many college friends because of spending all her time studying. On top of that, the part-time job her father insisted she keep left absolutely no time for anything else. He asked, 'How is your friend Mary?' She replied that Mary was barely getting by. She had a 2.0 GPA, never studied, but was very popular on campus, didn't have a job, and went to all the parties. She was always complaining about not having any money, but didn't want to work. Why, she often didn't show up for classes because she was hung over. Dad then asked his daughter why she didn't go to the Dean's office and request that 1.0 be taken off her 4.0 and given it to her friend who only had a 2.0. That way they would both have a respectable 3.0 GPA. Then, she could also give her friend half the money she'd earned from her job so that her friend would no longer be broke. The daughter angrily fired back, 'That wouldn't be fair. I worked really hard for my grades and money, and Mary just loafs. Why should her laziness and irresponsibility be rewarded with half of what I've worked for?' The father slowly smiled and said, 'Welcome to the Republican Party'."

haha mine as well...

I saw this and voted.. thought the results were surprising. I figured a left wing media outlet would have higher grades for their "report" card. http://reportcard.cnn.com/ I am not sure how they do their math tho' because if you mouse over some of the states, that have a higher letter grade than they should if you do traditional GPA type calculations. Higher meaning they had a C instead of a D. Anyways tho' I was surprised at how much everyone is pretty disenfranchised with the government right now. I was also disappointed that they didn't have a question about the democratic leadership in congress, and just had one about the republicans. But some bias is to be expected.

what if this, what if that? sometimes life sucks, and you deal with it. America is the land of opportunity. Not the land of handouts. We make opportunity for success available to everyone, so that you can go out on your own and get it. It doesn't mean we should hand it to you. A government which robs Peter to pay Paul, can always count on the support of Paul. –George Bernard Shaw

you're missing the point, and your scenario makes a LOT of assumptions. Who's to say the government will cover it anymore than the private industry? The real point is that the President should not have direct executive authority over the private medical sector, or the banks, or the car industry etc... It removes the checks and balances from our system.

save money? when has the government ever done anything more efficient than the private sector? Alas I will say this, if you're for the bill thats fine, but your reasoning is that of a socialist and our country wasn't founded on that. If you want socialism, maybe YOU should GTFO. And no 30-40 million American's aren't without coverage, that number is inflated with illegal immigrants. And no I don't want to pay for your healthcare or anyone else for that matter. You know what I did when I needed insurance? I got a damn job that provided it. Your argument is completely baseless with empty rhetoric and references no intelligent statistics or real facts. So maybe you should "tighten up yo' game" and step to that. Or maybe you could just read the bill like I mentioned earlier instead of making terrible assumptions. But I should "prolly know betta, people don't wanna take they damn time" and actually read the legislation.

I guess the part that confuses me the most is that everyone wants to contest the guy that the OP referenced but fails to contest the actual legislation? I can understand questioning someone's credibility to say an article is biased. But read the damn legislation and see for yourself. It's not just "right wingers" not wanting to provide for apathetic people who do nothing to benefit society or themselves. The legislation is true government control of the medical industry. Check out page 30 of the legislation. Here, I'll actually quote it so I'm not misconstruing the wording for my benefit. "(3) MEMBERSHIP.—The Health Benefits Advi- sory Committee shall be composed of the following members, in addition to the Surgeon General: (A) 9 members who are not Federal em- ployees or officers and who are appointed by the President. " Weird? So with 80 czars we already have who "aren't appointed or approved by Congress or Senate" we now have 9 people, directly appt. by the President, without regard to a Senate committee like you would see with the supreme court, who are in charge of deciding what is deemed medically necessary. The executive branch is quickly gaining control over every facet of our lives, (bank, auto, insurance, housing, and now medical). Make fun, say the sky is falling, blah blah , but fundamentally its wrong and you can't deny it.

they have a .380 in the Slim line, which is just a 9 mm bullet but shorter in length. I'm not sure I'd want a gun that small bigger than 9 mm, just my opinion tho... I think the recoil from a .45 or .40 would make trigger control difficult and the size of the bullet doesn't matter if you're not hitting your target. I haven't fired the XD series, but they're still compact but bigger than the slim line (unless you go with subcompact like fusion said) and I have some friends who have them and just like the people listed here, no complaints!

cheech i need to go to bed, i gotta work tomorrow so we'll have to continue this some other time. That being said, you ask for sources from me, I give you them then you question their credibility, yet your response to all my points is "empty blowhard rhetoric" with no facts. If you want to give a homeless man 5 bucks thats great. But if I put a gun to your head and make you give the homeless man 5 bucks is it still a good charitable act? Universal Healthcare is no different. If you don't see it as a violation of your rights, I can't spell it out for you any more than that. I've listed the 9th and 10th amendments, its the federal government imposing on states rights and the "rights of its people". I've done plenty of research, maybe you should read the bill, I posted the PDF link earlier from the house of rep. Page 124 mentions price fixing by the government, that limits a doctors pay. I tried to offer you solutions, if you don't like some of them, what solutions do you suggest besides a government handout? And please don't argue for some ideal perfect world scenario of universal healthcare, because thats not whats being proposed. Support the legislation thats in the docket, because that IS what's being proposed by our government. As far as more current figures, we'll get them in 2010 with the new census... sort of, because no where on the form does it mention whether or not you're a legal resident of the U.S. Alright seriously, I need some sleep. Sorry you just downed a pot of columbia's finest roast and I'm now heading to bed, have a good one.

i completely agree with you

Ah but you're referring to local government, not federally mandated government. With the exception of a military which is a necessity for a government to exist. If you think universal healthcare is a good function of the government, thats fine... but thats bordering on restructuring what our government was founded on: a capitalistic democratic republic (or something along those lines). As far as you having a heart attack, that is the case of a catastrophic event, this doesn't include check ups, prescription costs, preventive medicine, etc... The idea that a scenario like that is responsible for all the runaway spending is well false. If you don't have insurance, be proactive and sign up for a HSA and get payroll deductions pre taxed so that in the event of a catastrophic scenario you'll be able to pay for it or at least knock the bill down so you can pay less than 10 bucks a paycheck from the bill collector. As a full time student, you should also be eligible for health insurance through your University or College.

I'm saying that the government can't do better than what the private sector can. That doesn't mean we should try anyways and see if it "might work". I'm also saying that with unlimited funding they will bankrupt our economy. If a company is terrible they have the right to fail as well, shipping example: DHL. But the government system can be terrible but since it doesn't have to operate for a profit they can continually run tax dollars into it without it being a successful model. In this bill, a lot of the additional funding is not provided by the fed, its required to be provided by states (many of which are already in negative budgets). This also is unconstitutional because it imposes on states rights and individual state sovereignty. I'm not standing up for the bernie madoffs of the world, the enrons or the worldcomms, they deserve to be punished for poor business ethics. But we need to make our society more enticing for big companies to do business here without encouraging fraudulent behavior. I.E. lower the corporate tax rate, which is one of the highest in the world. Not too mention big corps also have to pay high state taxes too. Anyhow thats a WHOLE different thread.

1.) you're imposing on my rights because you're forcing me to pay for someone else's healthcare. You're also forcing me to choose to have it, whether it be employer or govt. provided. You're also imposing on the doctor's right to provide, limiting their pay for the service, requiring them to provide the service, etc... etc.. 2.) Patent length was increased to 20 years in 1999, so I was mistaken on that, but drug companies have to get the patent during development for the chemical structure that might not "be the one" often using up several years of the patent before they figure out the final compound. http://www.wikinvest.com/wiki/Patents 3.) cost to develop a drug: I was wrong, I thought it was 600 million, its actually 1.2 billion! http://csdd.tufts.edu/NewsEvents/NewsArticle.asp?newsid=69 4.) Since when did america penalize companies for making a profit? We are a capitalistic society? Unless you would prefer something else comrade? 5.) Medical Malpractice continued: "Defending a medical liability lawsuit in which the defendant prevails at trial costs more than $110,000, according to a 2005 Physician Insurers Assn. of America claims trend analysis. Even in cases where the claim was dropped or dismissed, the defense costs average more than $15,000, that analysis showed. Those costs add up, considering that 75% of medical liability claims don't result in patients receiving any money." - source http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2007/06/18/edsa0618.htm 6.) cost of defensive medicine: "If the Kessler and McClellan estimates were applied to total U.S. healthcare spending in 2005, the defensive medicine costs would total between $100 billion and $178 billion per year. Add to this the cost of defending malpractice cases, paying compensation, and covering additional administrative costs (a total of $29.4 billion). Thus, the average American family pays an additional $1,700 to $2,000 per year in healthcare costs simply to cover the costs of defensive medicine." - http://www.aaos.org/news/aaosnow/nov08/managing7.asp 7.) number of uninsured/insured: This is from a U.S. census in 2004, "The percentage of the nation’s population without health insurance coverage remained stable, at 15.7 percent in 2004." This doesn't include the advent of Healthcare spending accounts that people don't take advantage of, nor the people who are eligible for insurance but don't opt to take it. Also you mention, people getting laid off or without jobs. What about spousal or domestic partner insurance? Many people that don't get their insurance from their employer, often get it through a spouse, parent, domestic partner etc.

Well if you haven't noticed, the price of postage has gone up consistently and quite a bit over the past few years (percent increase). The postal system is actually headed for bankruptcy as well. Thats why they're trying to cut back their delivery days to M-F. In fact, the postal service is having trouble competing with the "private sector". And the postal service was around well before the private sector was... As far as considering the rights of a "small number of corporations... an entity whose existence is a product of our legal framework... its not a person..." well they make up 1/6th of our GPD and too bad the government didn't feel the same way about those "corporations" when they bailed out the banks or the auto companies.

I think universal healthcare is a bad idea because its constitutionally wrong. You can't provide someone the service without imposing on the rights of someone else to provide it. That being said, here's how you fix it, or at least start. Prescription drug care: Lower the FDA approval period time, 17 years on avg to get a drug from conception to market. The patents are up after 10 years, they renew it once for another 10 years and have only 3 years to make back their profits to cover overhead and reinvestment. The average cost for development is 600 million bucks! This means we pay higher prices on prescriptions because the FDA has a stranglehold on the industry. Tort Reform: 80% of all trial lawyers donate to democrats. They do this because they know the dems will not cap how much money they can recieve from frivolous lawsuits. Have arbitration committees made up of doctors/insurance reps/lawyers to determine payouts and limit them. This would drop the cost of malpractice insurance for doctors which would drop the cost of care for us... continued in my next point. Defensive medicine: Doctors spend up to 200 billion a year on unnecessary medicine to prevent lawsuits. This drives up our medical costs for tests we don't need, our insurance costs because they're paying for services they shouldn't and bogs down the over all efficacy of the system. Start with tort reform and this will work itself out, and dramatically lower medical costs and amount of time spent in hospital. The fact is 90% of american *citizens* have insurance and 80% of those who do are happy with it! It's the illegals and indigent are the ones that have the most to gain from this program. But you could fix the system with those 3 points, without more government bureaucracy breaking the bank and replacing something that already works for the most part.

maybe you missed the tenth amendment "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

the whole "its just a proposal" thing is crap. It's a proposal because they want to make it law. I think anyone who thinks they don't want to get this passed is naive at best. They were trying to cram it down before the recess. Once this passes, it'll be nearly irreversible. Granted it has to go to the Senate, and hopefully they'll block it. But I know for damn well the president will sign off on it if it gets to him, and the majority of dems want it in Congress. So to pretend the current legislation is just spitballing, is really naive. 2/3 branches necessary to make it law are pretty much in the books. People might have an idea that "universal healthcare" could be good, is good, or might work out? But this bill is not what most people think of as traditional "universal healthcare". Its a complete takeover of the system, with government overstepping boundaries and exploiting medical professionals. You don't need to blow up the house to fix a leak.

no prob, goodluck and have fun!

my father in law got them from taurus for some articles he was writing on them. I'm pretty sure they're for sale already tho. I know some ranges around here let you rent guns before you buy them, I'm sure some where up in Cleveland they do the same.

i might, i'm trying to get out of going to a some bday party with the wife for a girl I barely know. If I can I'll give ya a ring

Oh wait, I cited the "government", please look them up and tell me about its credibility and how it can't be trusted either