caeron

Ha! I had the exact same experience with our President botching a speech I wrote and the CEO calling him on it. The place was kinda fucked up, but they paid a ton, and the work was easy.

As someone who has written a fair number of speeches, this is a common problem. Speakers often think that once they have the speech they're done, and they don't practice at all. Very few are good enough to get away with that. Most of the rest end up feeling like they're reading it, not giving it.

I sat at a table with a bunch of 80 year olds not long ago in Florida. To a one, they all wanted to vote for Biden, including my mother. He does have a demographic.

Great. We're going to have to choose between two old white guys... again.

I just hope the fight is mano a mano. Up close and personal.

Yeah, that worked out so well historically. I guess you think we should have just kept denying black folks voting rights until us whities decided that we loved them enough to share, huh? I do not think your arguments are well considered. We can get better healthcare, cheaper with single payer. I spent my entire career working for corporations. They have one single motive. To make money. If people died in ditches while they profited, they wouldn't care except that such a thing might impact their ability to continue making money. Corporations are soulless profit machines. That's not bad really, but it really does mean that you have to give them strict rules to live within, because they will happily do horribly things to make money. Corporations are very efficient at making a profit. That's their sole purpose. But you really need to ask yourself if making a profit should be the purpose of healthcare, or whether it's to make people better...

I don't think you're thinking this through. If spreading the risk is what insurance is all about, then what better way to manage risk than to make universal healthcare? The insurance companies naturally say, "Give us more customers and profits, yeah, that's the answer!" but think about this practically. Why should we as a society use a more expensive, less efficient model to deliver something essential just so companies can profit. Compare the other 'socialist' institutions of police and fire. Does it make any sense to have people individually sign up for police protection and pay 'police insurance'? Ditto for the fire department? No, it doesn't. As a society we all benefit when the police try to protect everyone and enforce the law on everyone. Ditto for trying to stop stuff from burning down. Because in both cases, failure to protect everyone has costs for everyone. When people get sick who don't have insurance, guess what, when they show up at an emergency room they have to be treated. Guess who pays for that. All of us who pay for our insurance. The simple and direct answer that pretty much every other civilized nation has come up with is to provide care for everyone that everyone pays for.

My father was a physician who consulted all over the US and world on building healthcare systems and ensuring quality care. He was very clear that single payer healthcare systems provided better care that was far cheaper. There is plenty of empirical research to back up this position for those who care to actually inform themselves. I am also a bit baffled why this has become a party divide issue. When I worked in a start up, one of the top three issues of pretty much every company was how to get healthcare for employees. The lack of universal healthcare that is portable and dependable negatively impacts startups and new business activity all over the country. It is part of the essential safety net that people need to step out and try new stuff. I guess telling women what to do with their bodies is more important than making sure they and we have them.

It is unlikely. But my point is that THAT is the kind of socialism that Bernie wants. It isn't scary. Our European friends do quite well with it.

If we get socialism like Europe has it, I would be very happy. Our healthcare system is awful. It costs much more and produces worse results. But, hey, insurance companies are making bank so go capitalism!

The food pyramid and the like certainly impacted what I ate because my mother paid attention to it. See my previous comments about how she's still obsessed with low fat, but thinks carbs are great. It may not have impacted your family, but it was an enabler for a lot of diabetics. That is not to say that personal responsibility isn't key. It is. But it is harder when you are given bad information.

Having been on several juries, I was generally impressed with how seriously my fellow citizens took the duty. So I feel no urge to have an opinion without reviewing the case presented. I trust that the jury will get it right. If he convicted, he deserved it. If he doesn't, it wasn't proven.

That's a good idea. I need dinner to sleep, so I do my time restricted eating from noon to 8pm. Try to do no calories outside of that window, and not go crazy at my two meals (lunch and dinner). Works for me. I typically do one cheat day a week where I'll have indulgences. I think it doesn't really matter what kind of diet you do, as long as you have some discipline around eating. When I was working, and stressing, I didn't exercise or watch my eating with predictable results. But, my 46" waist is now a 32" and I don't hate what I see in the mirror any more. I don't like that old guy who stole my hot young body, but I don't hate him!

The sugar lobby helped sell americans on the foolish idea that fat was the enemy, and not carbs. My mother, bless her heart, still obsesses about low fat stuff when she ought to be eating more of it. But eating sensibly and exercise is the answer, not obsessing about carbs or fat. I still eat cake, just as a splurge. I don't want the 120 lbs I lost the hard way coming back.

I was just surprised at the news. I didn't think that slugs had lungs.

To be clear, my chicken little comment was about the media and other hype around this. A muscular response to the threat is completely appropriate and is why any number of previous events like this didn't turn into something worse. I spent a career working with the media, and there is nothing they love better than breathlessly telling you about some new thing that might kill you. They love peddling fear because that shit sells. Being aware of the threat is useful. Being paralyzed by fear of it, not so much.

Arrive at airport. Get in cab. Go to hotel. Stay in hotel. Go to meeting in cab. Go to airport in cab. Go home. Don't walk the streets, don't go to restaurants. Stay in. Your worst risk in in the plane. Joking aside about the crowds of Asia, you can reduce your risk. The Flu killed 10,000 people last year. Do you not go out because of the flu? I'm sure a quick google would report many more than that killed in car accidents and pedestrians run over. flu season deaths Your life, your call. But I reiterate the risks of this are far, far, far smaller than many other normal causes of death today. Maybe that will change in a few months, but I think chicken little is overblown at the moment.

I think with due caution, you will be fine. Minimize exposure to people, get in, do the meeting, get out. My view is that the real risk is very small currently. This could become the spanish flu, but it isn't today. At the moment, you're more likely to get killed crossing a street than from this. It is in our nature to fear the new threats and discount the old.

I am sure that Meth would make me its bitch in a new york minute, so I have stayed well away. I'm not sure we're not talking about it though, because this topic is hardly new. It's been a scourge on our community for a long time now.

People who have no difficulty with something failing to understand that other people have difficulty is hardly new. I just add the people who can't resist attacking people to my ignore list(great that the forum has one!). Life is short. Who needs to listen to that shit? It sure as shit is true that you aren't going to change them, however witty you are.

I've lost more than 120 lbs and am in the best shape of my life. Exercise and diet. It's just hard work that you decide gives you enough reward that you do it. But, I do have the luxury of time since I retired to do the work. Losing the stress of a job that paid very well but that I annoyed me helped a fair bit too.

So, it is, after all, about you not wanting to be around these guys, and not at all about the price. It's about what you're comfortable with, and only that. Just own that. You don't know or interact with these guys, so stop putting your rationalizations for your own views on them. Ugly American isn't a good look on anyone.

Everybody into golden showers, this is your thread! Enjoy!

So simple solution. Offer these guys 1000s of euros. Your reaction to these guys says a great deal about you, and pretty much nothing about them. For a guy who claims to be in the VC business, you seem woefully unaware how global markets work. Imagine all those desperate people in Thailand! They're all selling stuff for a lot less than you pay in NYC!!

I'm not sure the point of standing in a new club, talking about the old club. Sorry some are still mad at how they were treated. Maybe it's a blessing to be able to move on from the nastiness.