LateDave's Comments (129)

“And their homes. Foreclosure is the next step.

Actually, the order is a little uncertain. Some get sick, then can't keep their jobs because they are too sick. Then they have no money for mortgages or meds or Cobra insurance or out-of-pocket medical care.

Some lose their medical because their "small business is the engine of jobs" employers can't afford it any more.

Some have their jobs sent offshore and become unemployed while still healthy, but once they are foreclosed on, they get sick while living out of the family car.

Me, if my college-age kid gets sick and can't keep his credits up, I'll have to pay out of pocket or go into hock to the credit card ghouls, so I'll be wiped out within a few months and have no home, no retirement savings, zip. Then I'll lose *my* job. Typical story.

The retirees with Medicare and paid-off homes are better off unless they get *really* sick, even temporarily. Then they slowly lose everything to copays, taxes, and utilitiy bills.

Notice, things don't happen this way when *everybody* has pretty good medical bankrolled by taxes. But that wouldn't be the Merkin way.”

“I prefer "umfriend," like when she says, "This is Bob, he's my umfriend." Nice connotations, approximately friend with benefits/p­rivileges, don't want to try to explain to mom.

"Unfriend" goes back to Kipling, circa 1902, but as a noun, not a verb. This is the usage isaidit presents. See _Kim_, past the middle somewhere, in the scene by the railway siding, IIRC, used by Mahbub Ali: "They are unfriends of mine."”

“Ah! But it will! There are bound to be mistakes. The difference is that the "private enterprise" plans leave you with no recourse. With a "government" plan, like those which serve some 1 in 3 of all Americans today, there exists a potential for appeal through the dread bureaucracy, and even penalties for malfeasance. The risk is truly indifferent or vicious staffers, but there is no place for concealed motivation to deny lawful benefits within a single-payer, federalized health care payment bureaucracy. Also, the benefits are spelled out in law and regulation, not buried in a contract unique to each client corporation, or even to each individual customer.”

“Yee haw. Lemme try it...

Fool me once, don't notice. Fool me twice, still don't notice. Fool me three times, hey, what is this? Fool me four times, I think I see what you're doing. Fool me five times, I'm gonna tell my daddy.

Did I get it?”

“Indeed. I know some orbital mechanics, and they never, ever invoke the aid of ghoulies and ghosties and long-leggety beasties and things that go bump in the night. It's interesting the way the software that controls the orbits of long-duration spacecraft has been modified in response to our discoveries about the solar system. Over and over, as we have found new phenomena that make our predictions about satellite motion invalid, we have had to tweak the control algorithms, just to keep the gizmos from falling down.

Note that the successive tweaks have been more and more refined, so the quality of the orbits has been getting better and better, but no observable phenomenon can be ignored or denied. One verifies its existence, simulates behavior based on incorporating it or not, and decides - for now! - whether to include it in as a factor.

Consider the effect of variations in solar emission on the size of Earth's atmosphere. As the very rarified outer gas density changes, satellites bang into more or fewer molecules, slow down more or less per time interval, and deviate from their previous orbits accordingly. We don't fully understand the causes of the variations, but we know how to observe and measure them, and we can adjust the motion and position of satellites accordingly. GPS and Dish TV depend on this, for example. Witchcraft? No, physics.

Just because it's news to you doesn't mean it's not *real.*”

“Simple! But-but-but-Clinton is no longer operative.”

“I disagree. Think about the recent performance of the Publicans, even in the minority, in word and deed. Now think about what they would have done - in the majority! - with a Democratic president. What manner of progress would have been possible with a crew like that allocating funds and defining crimes?

Still, Al, with his hair rapidly turning white, could not possibly have been as bad for the world, and especially for America, as what we have suffered.”

“Your link goes to a *wonderful* site! Beyond a few typos, it's just about perfect. I remember many of the items from daily news reports, which lends cred to the rest.

I would like to see comparable sites about Bushes pere et fils, but the lubricious encomiums directed to St. Ron's memory justify concentrating on his administration.”

“I saw a wonderful "Book TV" presentation on C-SPAN around 2005 by an author whose premise was that the sins of the Cheney administration, whe he presented at considerable and savory length, were unforgivable. Near the close of his talk, he called the audience's attention to a lapel button he was wearing that read, "Impeach Cheney first."

I kick myself that I never got around to ordering one of the then-readi­ly-availab­le buttons or bumper stickers to that effect. Now, of course, it's too late, and we have sort-of survived, so far. But I'll go along with your proposition, a poor relation of the would-have-been glory of regurgitating that poison, and will settle for a thorough colon cleanse, provided we make sure the product thereof is not permitted to enter the recycling stream. If this metaphor escapes you, blame your teachers (or the teach-to-the-test policy).”

“I normally refer to this as "the John Mitchell defense." It didn't work for AG Mitchell, praises be, when he was on trial for the usual perjury and obstruction of justice charges, plus conspiracy. It did at least get to the point where the courtroom would buzz with anticipatory mirth every time a prosecutor asked him a question (okay, I just made that up, but it would have if I'd been there). I think I would remember if the courtroom was ever cleared for bursting into applause or raucus laughter after one of his endless string of "I can't recall" responses, so decorum must have been maintained somehow. Is there a count available from his trial record?

It's a shame he only spent 19 months in the country club, but it's better than nothing.”

“C'mon, you know we have the best Congress money can buy!

Unfortunately, you have to outbid the folks that already own them. And they won't give back the money they got from the last group. Unlike buying paintings at auction, you are still buying from the artist, not the guy who bought the painting last time. I guess that's what makes them such a great deliberative body - they have to work out compromises between all of the fat cats that keep dumping heaps of money in their laps.

This fits in with my rant about "looking out for the stockholders" referring only to the ones sitting around the boardroom table, and my other rant about how *cheap* it is to buy a politician - if you have a defense contract, the cost to buy enough politicians to guarantee a followon contract is less than a penny on the dollar. Much cheaper than advertising--or good workmanship. I could tell ya stories . . .”

“Everything involved in the health insurance racket is bad business.

Consider WallyWorld "associates"--you might wish not to have that colossus astride the retail industry, but all of those food-stamp recipients with not-quite-full-time jobs and no medical benefits would either be out of work or hired on at non-colossal retailers if WW went down. Would that be good or bad?

Once the country stabilizes in the new, single-payer paradigm, the transitional pain of the low-level staff will have to be carried over into a healthier economic model. The function of a government in this circumstance is to ensure survival and provide encouragement until we reinvent a more civilized society.”

“And Velcro(R). And Teflon(R). And communications satellites. And GPS. And weather satellites. And . . .”

“TR?”

“Also paper with higher tonnage yield per acre-year than farmed trees, requiring less bleaching. Seeds good for bird food. Non-synthetic rope with domestic source. (Note: industrial hemp is worthless for getting high.) and and and and . . .”

“Yes, perfect example of hypocrisy by so-called conservatives. Keep your hands off my polluting business, my insurance company, my guns, my . . . but I *won't* keep my hands off your wacky terbacky - in fact, I'll slam you into the cooler with mother-rapers and father-stabbers . . .”

“You overreacted.

While cigs are intrinsically harmful to essentially all users, alcohol is harmful in the same way as gambling, and potentially benign for at least some users.

Guns we could do without, but they are fun for collectors and "sportsmen" and psychologically reassuring for certain insecure people.

Prescription drugs are only *on* prescription because they are either patent-protected or dangerous (harmful unless used properly).

Automobiles are the glue of American society, however easily they can cause harm.

Religion? Well, David Koresh and Jim Jones called theirs "religions;" would you call them good? Lots of splinters led by charismatic extremist "pastors" teach and convince significant numbers of sincere seekers to adopt frankly harmful modes of action all around the world (term "charismatic" not intended to lump together all U.S. practitioners self-describing with that label).

I think Ms Johnson deserves the benefit of the doubt as to whether her "legal but harmful" tag applies to *all* autos, *all* prescription drugs, and *all* religions, or whether her point should be dismissed because *no* religion is ever "legal but harmful."”

“Succinct . . . objective. Nice riposte to the troll jibe about do-nothing Demos.

However, I think the ownership of our two-branch, one-party government (Plutocrats command, Repo branch and Demo branch take turns at the podium) extends beyond merely the banks and insurance companies.

Certainly defense contractors get a seat at the table - look at the recent ACORN shriekfest, with the proposed law to ban accused criminal perp businesses from fed contracting being extended to *any* such business, followed by realization that *every* major def contractor stands credibly accused and/or convicted. Whoops!”

“Amen.”

“Marable, Manning, _Race,_Ref­orm,_and_R­ebellion_, 1991, p. 149.”

“You're gaming this. Real right radicals don't want any gun laws - even for RPGs and tanks. Age limits are more of the same - infringements on our blessed right to teethe on a Glock!

Whether permitted (and long guns are casually controlled) or hot, and whether the kids are under 15 or over 30, the mindset that everybody oughta carry is very wingy. There are even jurisdictions that have [tried to pass?] laws that *everyone* must pack heat. Nutty? Sure. But that's who we're talking about.

Not since the SLA, Baader-Meinhoff, Red Army Faction, and other 60s politicals were active during Viet Nam has there been a significant left ideological movement advocating revolution. The armed hooligans in western countries are all about social identity and access to illicit recreational chemistry.

Would gangbangers respond to rightists attempting a brownshirt-style putsch to "make the trains run on time?" Response would probably be very ad-hoc - parts of cities (mostly) closed off to outsiders, lots of revenge actions masquerading as political. The good ol' boys in the hills would probably do the same. The 'burbs would be in deep trouble, with raids burning out whole neighborhoods. Since outsiders don't own city stores as much as they did at the time of MLK, city burns would be lessened. Still total disaster. Is that what fundies want?

BTW, the rage is not being "sold TO banks and politicians" but BY them.”

“Au contraire! C'est le chauvinism!”

“Does bg concede about the USPO?”

“Right!

Pollution is a great counterargument for an "idealistic" laissez-faire type. Asimov argued, "My right to swing my fist stops where your nose begins." The same applies - painfully - for pollution. If it is clear that your clear-cutting a forest you own will wash out a town downhill from your land, then *you* *don't* *have* *a* *right* *to* *use* *your* *own* *land* *as* *you* *see* *fit.* You can't build a lead smelter upwind of a school. You can't dump hazardous waste into a mineshaft that leaches into a river others use for drinking water.

There are too many people in this world for you to be utterly free. If you can afford to buy an island someplace, great. Goodbye. And with the sea level rising due to "freedom," good luck.

The opposite is also true. *Not* being free, like China, destroys the most important aspect of being human. Balance is essential.

As an aside, I'm afraid that the law granting businesses the rights of humans is very misguided. Likewise the law that identifies management's highest duty as maximization of stockholder wealth.”

“This is a great conversation, and you, Saint, are a great participant. You have correctly reminded us once more (with numbers) that every medical service transaction (doctor visit, etc.) involves paperwork that is very possibly unique.

For example, I took my offspring to a doc-in-a-box to get a minor injury looked at. The billing went to my insurance company. They responded by asking for more information (this is the same delay tactic you use to try to get out of a speeding ticket). The DIAB didn't respond, but billed me directly. After time ran out, the insurer told me it was my responsibility to pay. Poof! Now I hold the bag, and everybody is happy. Almost everybody.

With Single Payer (my choice also), there would be nothing but one standard form (likely online) that would go to the "Insurer," which would pay at a uniform (possibly regional) rate. Fakery would be impeded by uniformity.

With a "Public Option," there would be standards for forms, rules, and fees for all non-private coverage. This would be beneficial, since there would be pressure on the private insurers to accept the standards in place of their own devious arcana. We could even pass laws requiring that the insurers accept the standard paperwork or computer input. Bad for fraudsters, although I suspect they would still be at work, judging by scam efforts on line.”