MsGuy

This is just too perverse to describe. The best part is at the end. q=elephant+eating+shit&docid=711141622310&mid=EB8EEB0FB82EC57BA76CEB8EEB0FB82EC57BA76C&FORM=VIVR6" target="_blank">Elephant Kink

Swig down some O.J. to rehydrate, squeeze on the Prep. H, and type standing up if you have to, boy! I wanna hear all the dripping details ASAP.

TY: We're posting past each other. I think too much of the Republican party is finantially dependant on the the different branches of the health care industry to expect much more than tinkering around the edges from them. As I type, I'm listening to Senator Jon Kyl, the minority whip, spinning away on C-SPAN about how the Dems. are cooking up an extreme left wing bill that's just impossible for America to swallow. Apparently any gov. competition with private insurance is just horrible. Using the gov.'s purchaseing power to negotiate lower drug prices from Big Pharma is also verboten. Hospitals are just find as they are. I keep looking for the hand in the puppet. Changes in the delivery system are more likely to be achieved by incentives (like paying for result rather than service) than by mandate. I don't think mandated change here is politically feasible and the government would probably screw it up even if it were. Ours a big diverse country; one size doesn't fit all.

TY: I can't disagree with much of what you posted, but considerations of justice and humanity are not going to be the only drivers for health care reform. My hope is that the needs of the uninsured/underinsured can piggy back the absolute necessity for cost containment because single payer is the only plan on the table that offers a reasonable prospect for reducing costs. My best guess is that in the end (5 or 10 years down the road?) we will wind up with basic medical insurance subsidized by the government with add on supplemental policies available for those who can afford them or can get them from their employer. The delivery system won't look all that much different from what we have now, except that it will operate under cost control measures administered by means of the basic coverage. Americans like incremental reform, not wholesale change.

RA1: If I can make it work, this link takes you to a study showing that Big Pharma spends nearly twice as much on marketing as research. It's not just these guys that are spinning their facts to convince the public that they are the good guys. Everybody in the health care industry wants you to belive the sky will fall on your personal head if their particular baliwick is messed with. Big Pharma Marketing Costs

Conway: When one considers the number of physicians and hospitals in every congressional district, reform becomes impossible. When one considers the number of midsized cities that have become essentially become one industry health care towns, reform becomes impossible. (Birmingham, Ala., comes to mind) When one considers the number of congressmen in the pockets of the insurance industry (not to mention their 100's of thousands of salesmen), reform becomes impossible. When one considers the massive lobby power of Big Pharma, reform becomes impossible. Except, of course, that paying 25% of GDP for heath care is also impossible and at its current rate of growth, we will achieve that benchmark well before 2025. My point is only that any number of players in the health care game have what look to be unassailable political blocking positions (which is why we've gotten ourselves into this mess) but none the less reform will happen because it must happen. The only thing that's truly impossible is to continue the current system. The economy simply can't support the load. The number of uninsured/underinsured is rising at an accellerating rate as more and more businesses find it impossible to pay for coverage for their employees and fewer and fewer individuals are able to foot the premiums. A friend of mine in good health was just quoted a price of $625/mo. for a second rate policy with big deductables & co-pays. Just birthing a baby now costs north of $7,500 and that's with no complications. The U.S. medical system is the General Motors of health care systems. Painful and difficult as reform will be, we can't continue much longer doing things the same old way. I suspect that every ox in the pen is going to get well and truly gored. I have my doubts that it will happen this year, but I guarantee reform will be back on the plate every election cycle from here on out because we no longer have the resourses to ignore the problem.

RA1, it's the cost containment problem that's forcing the issue. In 2008 Canada spent less than 11% of GDP on health care; the U.S. spent 18% of GDP on health care. On a % of GDP basis, that's 980 billion dollars in extra costs for the American economy of 14 trillion dollars to support. No reasonable person believes we're getting a trillion dollars worth of extra value from our system and that extra cost is crushing the economy. One structural problem (among many) is that our system of fee for service coupled with a system of 3rd party payment is inherently resistant to cost controls. At least since the 80's, American business has made a determined effort to rein in medical costs with very little to show for its efforts. The primary driver for a single payer system is that no credible alternative has been put forward for cost containment. Our lunatic liability system, enormous and expensive bureaucracy of the fee for service insurance industry, the blank check to Big Pharma, and perverse incentives that drive hospital costs all play their part. Did you know that there's actually a sub-industry that handles payment battles with insurance carriers on behalf of service providers? That for decades about 2/3 of the payout on medical liablity insurance has gone to lawyers (1/3 to the defense bar, 1/3 to the trial lawyers)? That nearly 1/2 the personal bankruptcies in the U.S. are triggered by medical bills? If we were starting from a blank slate, anyone who proposed to recreate our current system would be put in a straight jacket. By the way, physician's fees play such a small part in the overall cost of health care we could put them all on $200,000/yr. salaries and not notice the difference. (Current median income for physicians w/5 to 9 years experience is $149,000.)

Ph34r ( ) is hacker speak for "the extreme feeling of anticipation felt at the point of inevitable harm or death," or, in plain English, fear. I've been puzzling over this one off and on for two months and it never once occurred to me to google it. What's the point of this learning all these new internet tricks if I forget them the instant something distracts me? Jeez! Could it be early onset senility?

It does look like a woman peering out of an Afgan burqa, doesn't it. I didn't think of that. The typed out version is ph34r which factoid helps me not in the least. Thanx for your help.

" My computer was taken down by malware and I've been distracted dealing with the issues of recovery." TY, ain't no two ways about it, ya gotta learn to stay off those Russian porno sites.

Oz, if I remember right, at the time the Clintons took on the health care industry it represented about 14% of GDP. Now it's over 18% of GDP. That's about $2.5 Trillion a year. Lotta Bucks. Measured as a % of GDP against the next most extravagant health care system in the world, the U.S. spends an extra $550 Billion per year on health care. Lotta excess money there to protect. Obama is a smart guy. So are his opponents. Who knows what will come out of Congress? On the positive (?) side, health insurance has become a crushing cost on everyone from Big Business to small enterprises to individuals. Despite ideological misgivings, there's lot of hidden support for reform from business people, especially for cost containment and for shifting some of the burden to the government. Even within the medical industry folks realize that we are reaching the end of this road. Health costs are projected to exceed 1/5 of GDP by 2015, 1/4 of GDP by 2025 and 1/3 of GDP by 2040. Obviously, that's not going to happen, so the question becomes how and when we stop the madness. The big boys are already maneuvering to edge each other away from the pot. Watch the attack ads this summer to find out who is losing out.

"This Tar Heel is embarrassed to have had no idea. North Carolina -- historically a relatively poor sharecrop-oriented agricultural economy" That's O.K., AdamSmith, I've always had a serious weakness for Southern trailer trash. "Quite apart, the IMDB article on Janette Davis includes a link to Red Skelton's entry. About whom a new thread...? " Go for it! Freddie the Freeloader rules.

Since Obama has indicated that he would sign a health care reform as part of a budget reconciliation bill (proceedurally bypassing a filibuster in the Senate), there now exists a realistic possiblity that some kind health care reform legislation will come out of this session of Congress. I think we all need to put on our thinking caps about this; everybody would be affected one way or another and we are talking about 1/6 of the economy here. Here is a neutral overview of what's happening in Washington. The Moment of Truth

Kvetsh, kvetsh, I have trouble enough spelling in English.

O.K., Melba Moore for the 70's, a black vocal group in the 40's and who knows in the 50's. StuCotts, if you know the name of the singer for the 50's jingle, it would be a mitzbah to post it to Greg at the One Hit Wonders Central website. He's been researching this for 5 or 6 years. The jingle is available as a download from Ringtones. Hey! You wouldn't be aka Greg and still trying to find out the name of the singer, would you? Just asking.

Paula Deans, maybe?

Yes, it's much safer and working through the legislatures (& referenda) has the additional effect of educating straights out of their stereotypes about gays.

I think we've started posting past each other. On further consideration, I have to admit that cramming Mr. Cash and Simon Crowell together in the same sentence was a shameless reach for effect.

Thanks, deej, that's a much better link for the kiddies. Get a grip, AdamSmith. Johnny Cash's 1955 single "Hey Porter" ain't likely to be featured by Simon Cowell any time soon. How could I have forgotten "Can the Circle be Unbroken?" I guess it's so embedded in my life that it didn't register that someone actually wrote it. Sort of like "Amazing Grace." Thanks AdamSmith, thats the kind of Ur-text I can relate to.

And this one was truly obscure. Johnny Cash (click intro link to play) Who would have thunk AdamSmith a country fan? The mish mash of oddities he carries around in his head never ceases to amaze.

For all you young-uns without a clue ... Chattanooga Choo Choo

Pushing either Dont' Ask, Don't Tell or Gay marriage to the Supreme Court right now is the legal equivalent of thinking with the little head. My stomach hurts when I think of how much there is to lose by rushing ahead before the necessary spadework has been done and how close we are to achieving these goals through safer, if slower, means. If nothing else, there's the distinct possibility that one or two of the swing votes we need have gotten a little gun shy after a whole generation's worth of litigation on abortion. This is inherently a political issue and it needs to be at least partially won in the political arena before being presented to the Court for ratification. The California Supreme Court practically stood on its head to make clear its holding on Prop. 8 wasn't intended to be anti-gay but the media and the public read it as an endorsement of the anti gay marriage groups. Try to imagine reading a majority opinion on gay marriage written by Justice Scalia before donating any money to a legal group hot to get an immediate definitive ruling on these issues. Even very smart lawyers can let their personal ambition to write their names onto a landmark case cloud their judgement on the timing of a lawsuit. For some it's better to take their chance and lose than wait and let someone else win the credit. Like I said, it's the legal equivalent of thinking with your little head. There are very good reasons the established gay legal groups are shying away from the Supreme Court on gay marriage. Let's take our time and do this right. We won't get a second chance for a generation. Just my two cents worth, guys. Sitting here in a small Mid-South town, maybe I'm missing something that changes the risk/reward equation.

Maybe all the gay penguins in California ought to get their passports renewed. Chinese Gay Penguins Married

[quote name='Lucky' post='19229' date='Jun 7 2009, 04:21 Only 2 of the 3 showed their dicks, but that was okay as none of us wanted to see baby's. I was hoping Lucky would keep his promise and post a review, This one gets to the heart of the matter as only Lucky can.