smccrory

You may be right. I hope not. I just want it better than it was. I believe that a fundamental obligation and success criteria for humanity is basic care of our brothers and sisters. Not extravagant, but basic. I think the ACA brings us closer to that.

Well, Target's breach is just one example of course, and it's indicative of both a level of InfoSec incompetence and alternatively how hard it really is to truly secure personal information in the information age, no matter who you you work for... http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/03/14/target_failed_to_act_on_security_alerts/ And I don't think we need a race to the bottom between government and corporate data stewardship - I'm pretty sure private industry is winning this decade... http://www.csoonline.com/article/700263/the-15-worst-data-security-breaches-of-the-21st-century My sustained point is that Ayn Randian worshipers of pure-profit motive should be far more sanguine about its effect throughout history. Those very folks with key financial interests are once again actively co-opting libertarian sentiment into demonizing government for the purposes of free reign (except when protectionism serves them of course - ahem HD during the mid 80s). I can say with direct experience, Government is no more or less designed for corruption than corporations are. Frequently both align through collaboration or mutually-agreed exclusion to truly screw the public. On a philosophical level, there is tremendous good that both industry and government provide - something both sides forget again and again. As it pertains to health care, it's ridicuous to demonize either one in moronic cable-tv-and-scream-radio false diadic.

Welcome, and sorry about the bike addiction. I'm on #6 in 24 months myself, so you've got me beat!

There is some merit to this comparison (and coming from a 2nd amendment supporter). Might as well link up your Google and Facebook accounts too - the NSA already has. ;-)

How is that different from companies that hire former regulators? I've been in the financial industry for 15 years, and while it's not the evil that some make it out to be, industry outplays government like a boss.

I'm in! 2. Smccrory on a blue DL650, and possibly a pillion

I've never led or swept but I'd like to learn. I'll voice that to my group the day of the ride to see if there's a best position to observe etc.

I agree with your term, and certainly any time humans are involved, there's room for political motivation. But that said, the potential for political motivation in analyzing risk and determining disbursement is far less likely than that of financial motivation in both private and public insurance markets. Heck, it's done every day by hospital administrators, private practitioners and public entitlement offices in the opposite direction, but where are your guys calling them "Life Panels?" Tonik, I hear what you're saying, but have you successfully sued Target yet? Or ExactTarget, Citi or any one of a dozen firms who have leaked your info? How many cases like that have you seen in 1st-world state-run healthcare systems?

Yes, and that's not just true with government assistance, it's true with EVERYTHING especially PRIVATE healthcare insurance. Any mention of Death Panels is the pinnacle or fucktardness - it intentionally paints a picture of tribunals of steel-faced penny-pinchers who don't care about grandma, and would rather watch her die than pay for her life-saving procedure. Except that they don't exist. It demonstrates fundamental ignorance about insurance underwriters having actuaries to determine 1) what they will and won't pay for, 2) how much they'll pay in the form of negotiated rates, 3) deductable limits, 4) per-claim limits, 5) per-individual out-of-pocket maximums and 6) per family out-of-pocket maximums. They do this based upon Risk Pools I've been prattling on about, as well as recorded treatment efficacy rates and predominant medical studies. That's how it works, and that's how insurance companies make their money - they play the game like any casino house, except that their game mechanics are far more complicated than a casino ever will be.

And with that, my desire to converse with you is over.

Agreed, I bet it'll be extended. Not indefinitely, but certainly beyond this month or else the risk pool will be asymmetrical and insolvent. Again, those who say that "Obamacare has failed" are revealing their own political bent more than observing the end of a story. This thing is just getting wound up. Tonik, I completely agree that anything short of total coverage will fail, because it'll leave the risk pool asymmetrical as it was prior to the ACA. I see nothing from the GOP that takes the total risk pool into consideration, even their February 2014 proposal. Speaking of, it's great that the GOP has finally offered an alternative - years and years too late. Had the GOP been more than actively disengaged when the ACA was crafted, it would have been a better bill, but the GOP couldn't bring themselves to do anything that would help the president, betting their whole farm on blocking it completely (their gamble failed).

Doesn't sound like it. Sounds like a group of bitty old hags who don't want their low-level misery threatened. I bet they puff up, talk all gruff and say redneck shit to compensate and hide the fact that they have no clue what excellence feels like.

Now that is classic! And true!

I can name 3 friends without insurance prior to the ACA, who have it now. I'll be sure to call them profiled talking points this weekend.

He brings out an exceedingly generous and gracious nature in Casper. I'm not sure I like it.

I have a busy day today so I gotta be brief, but a big problem with this whole healthcare debate is that a vast number of voices don't understand the fundamentals of risk pools, and that in this country, because we have made the ethics decision to NOT let anyone go untreated at an ER, there is no real separation between risk pools - it all flows into the same risk ocean. Do you have private insurance? Great, so do I! But if you then join my company and enter my insurance risk pool you've now increased or decreased my pool's costs, right? Except that you don't really. You've simply transferred your risk from one private pool to another, and both are serviced by the same providers, who price their services accordingly, thus mixing the individual pools' risks. And if you weren't on insurance before, or drop your insurance, you've now transferred your risk to the public, even if deferred, because of national identity's ethics thing. It's even way more complicated than that, but I don't have time at the moment. The upshot is that costs are pooled, no matter how you look at it, and the absence of coverage means that well people don't share the costs of unwell folks directly enough (they still do, but it's time-delayed and abstracted) and unwell people get worse because they don't have preventative and maintenance care, thus increasing their risk components to the rest of us in private, public and uninsured plans. The single-payer concept, derided by corporatism as a communist notion, fundamentally acknowledges that all pools drain into the U.S. healthcare risk ocean. Unfortunately the concept is harder to game by health insurers and healthcare providers, and so they use the libertarian rouge of "government intervention" to rally citizens who are already paying for it all to their side.

Is it a problem that I don't care enough to negatively rep droll trolls? Because I don't.

We're a ways out before being able to conclude much about the ACA. Remember the website? It's pretty much functional now by all accounts, but that wasn't true in late 2013. At the end of '14 the situation will likely be changed yet. Anyone offering conclusions at this moment is revealing their political bias more than offering game totals. And yes, of course the previously uninsured cost everyone the same now... But under the ACA they have coverage of preventative care when they want it, that's the point. The GOP's solution? We're still waiting... because it was more important to turn the ACA into a Waterloo than to tune the ACA into something far better with more direct cost-reducing measures while providing coverage to people before their conditions turn chronic and expensive. You can't do that with a shrill who barks out "government death panel" comparisons while giving corporate insurance actuaries and appeals panels a pass.

Sure, it's a cluster. And you'd rather we go back to pre-ACA days, when we all paid for the uninsured, pre-conditioned and chronically ill who didn't have (or use) preventative care while abusing their lungs, livers, hearts and arteries?

My CB700SC's carbs are a bitch to remove as well, so I feel your pain. Can you replicate the problem in the garage? If so, do you have an aux fuel supply to eliminate the tank and petcock from the problem?

If a float is sticking, it'll be one carb, not two, and you should see a temp differential on the pipes.

The nice thing is that petcocks are relatively cheap to repair or replace. If the Seafoam doesn't help, check the petcock screen if it has one. If it's a vacuum type, check the nipple and it's seal, as well as the suction line. It may not be opening completely when the bike's on.

Excellent advice, especially right out of winter stasis. I did 50 miles on my CRF230L enduro tonight. Fun little thumper.

You're right!

Cosi, R&R Hall of Fame, Salt Fork and Mohican state parks, lots of great mountain biking and kayaking, golfing, music and arts venues, plenty of stuff to do for the kids, most of it is pretty safe by national standards, great local produce and livestock... I could go on. As I mentioned above, I grew up in WV and while its mountains sing to my soul more than Ohio's farmland has, I prefer Ohio. That doesn't mean I won't move elsewhere someday, but for now, I think it's a great state. I bet a lot of folks will feel better in a month when they's actually riding every week.