MsGuy

Those inclined to prayer might want to gently remind their Deity that Justice Scalia has already had his full three score and ten and is currently hogging oxygen that could be put to better use. No wishing him ill, just drawing attention to a possible oversight.

The Indian government states it has the decision under study and so far has not reacted publicly one way or the other. As reported by China's international news agency The quote from the Catholic Bishop's Board is of little significance as Christians are an insignificant minority in India. Muslims are far more numerous (roughly the equivalent of Black + Hispanic in the U.S.) and played an essential part in Congress Party's recent electoral success.

Just back from watching our local fireworks show out by the river. StuCotts, AdamSmith and Conway, I hope you all three had a safe and enjoyable 4th.

A Yankee refugee to my Southern home town told me he spent his first year here puzzling over over the number of complete strangers that waved at him from their vehicles. Seems that our quaint custom of stopping a little early at red lights to allow folks blocked by traffic to enter the road was unknown in North Jersey.

"Details of who did what to whom are of course always welcome. " This from the guy who's still sitting on his promised tell-all report on his three-day with Andre? :- )__ [drool]

I thought I'd done a fair to middling job of tweaking your tail in my last post but durn if you didn't find a way to top me. That catnip I dabbed behind my ears must be working! P.S. Twink pixs? Have you been holding out on us? P.P.S. How come there's no emoticon for "drool"? TY needs to get his act together.

StuCotts: It's odd how two essentially similar enviroments can bring out different aspects of one's personality. Over here my gut instinct is to damp down acrimony. Over there I'm only too happy to watch the foodfights and even find myself stirring the shit occasionally when things get dull. It's not a conscious thing at all; I just react differently depending on which board I'm on. I guess what I'm trying to say is don't thank me for a "temperate attitude." Thank TY and OZ for the tone they've nurtured over here. As for Lucky, I hate to sound like a nanny but if you don't like him teasing you, don't react to his teasing. Tweaking the lion's tail is built into his dna. Much as he obviously loves posting, I've seen him keep teasing Daddy when he knows the guy is grumped out and has one finger quivering over the banned button. The trick with Lucky is to either enjoy him or ignore him. Get pissed and you might as well just rub catnip all over and get ready to get played with.

Party pooper. I want my illusions back. StuCotts: Some situations call for a little romance.

Twisting metaphors, Wraith snakes from great Stevens' brain; Wall-eyed, reach for Nips.

Couldn't agree more. Post over here more often. You're odd but you're fun. IMHO, you fill a unique niche in the two boards' ecosystem.

"A thread by "a" Stu Cotts, not this one, seemed pretty frivolous to me. Read it in tandem with the other frivolous thread about "a" totallyoz on twitter." As I said, once I had read the other threads, I understood the game. "Nothing mean about it when I just took up his own suggestion." 'Honing a mean edge' is a pun. Read rightly, one could take it as a compliment. On rare occasions, I've been known to hone my own humor to a mean edge. "How was I to know he had no sense of humor?" In the immortal words of Ronnie Raygun "There you go again!" or Ummm, and how many years have you two been posting on these fora? or Who? You mean innocent ole me?

Lucky, I just read the last posts on the Gay Gen Gap thread. Still think you're odd as hell but now I get the joke at least. You hone a mean edge on that sense of humor, don't ya.

Lucky, most people have a distinct writing style. To me this just doesn't read like something our StuCotts would have written. I've commented on your odd sense of humor before. Afraid I'm inclined to agree with StuCotts that you must be up to your old tricks. Would it spoil the joke if you were to post a link to the quote sub judice?

Ms. Robinson is making an often overlooked point. A professional friend of mine was trapped in a low wage entry level position for 6 1/2 years because her child was born with a heart defect that required several operations spread over a 6 year period. Don't think her employer wasn't aware of her situation or failed take full advantage of it. Basically her child's illness blocked any chance for career advancement during that period. I know of several excellent opportunities she was forced to turn down in order to maintain insurance coverage. I'd estimate her lost opportunity costs to be well in excess of $100,000.

I'm not sure if this bit of stranger than strange belongs here, but I found it fascinating so I thought I'd post a link for any of you who might find it of interest. Not a freak-show link, just a scientific puzzle. teenage infant

It just occurred to me that the best predictor of the chances of real health care reform would be the stock market. Way better the all the murky b.s. from the media. A lot of well informed people are betting real money on the outcome. A classic wisdom of crowds situation. And another example of my talent for overlooking the obvious. Barrons on Health Care Rally Sorry, for some reason the link only gets you the nonsubscriber version.

Damn right! I walked out the door at 1:00 p.m. and the heat just bitch-slapped me across the face. Humidity was like breathing hot fog. It's not even July yet, for Christ's sake. Thank God for air conditioners.

I neglected to mention that this breakthrough reopens the question of finding a cure not just a treatment for HIV. Even after all these years my ability to overlook the obvious continues to amaze me.

One of the most elusive tricks of HIV is its ability to "hide out" in the body even after being reduced to undetectable levels. Researchers have been frustrated for decades by their failure to pin down how and where the virus was managing to escape from ever more powerful treatments. Score another one for the good guys; all those billions spent on research are finally beginning to pay off. AIDS hiding place found

LeapYear: Don't give up yet. Most of the Democratic plans envision forming large groups of one sort or another from which folks with pre-existing conditions could not be excluded. Your premiums would be no more than any other individual in the pool. You would get no subsidy because of your income, but just being able to join a group would save you 30+ thousand a year. This is all very fluid right now, who knows what if anything will come out of Congress. Your situation is a case study in the mad finantial destruction our health care system can visit on individuals.

How can you look at that picture and not wish to have been standing beside that roughneck? super

Employer heath care costs to rise 9% in 2010. The U.S. economy can no longer support our parasitic health care system. We are not all that far from a mass exodus by employers from medical insurance. Should we wait for the resulting implosion of our current system or begin a orderly reform now? Today's system is dead. Those who believe a few patches around the edges will salvage the situation are just putting rouge on the corpse. 2010 health care costs

OZ, DADT doesn't bar military officials from grilling sevicemen about their sexual orientation. It only removes the line from the preinduction questionaire that asked if the inductee had homosexual inclinations. After that CID guys are free to hot box young and often not very well educated servicemen and women to obtain incriminating statements. I recently googled up the text of the act and, believe me, it's as rank a bit of homophobia as you're likely to find in a modern piece of legislation. It's fairly short; read it yourself. At first I pursuaded myself that the incest brief was just internet gossip, but apparently it's true. That's embarrassing, both the brief and my belief Obama wouldn't allow that kind of argument to be used. Oh, well.

Thanks for an excellent set of links. In the next few months America will be hammered with the mother of all media blitzes from every segment of the heath care industry that fears it has something to lose by reform. We have to use every forum we can find to present the facts on reform to the public or we'll be swamped by slickly spun ad campaigns. I really like the tone and approach Ms. Robinson uses in her blogs. I'll be posting these links in several other sites I participate in. (It's o.k., TY, MER is still my first love. )

Obama tries to calm AMA. AMA speech Hospitals warn us to be ready to dodge pieces of falling sky if they don't get what they want. Oh My! Some details on proposed cuts. The first ox is gored Some are speculating that Obama is demanding way more than he expects to get in order to provide political cover for a congressional compromise he can live with. The Galen Institute, a conservative medical think tank, has commented that everybody agrees with 80% of the proposed reforms and violently oppose 20%. Unfortunately it's a different 20% for each segment of the industry.