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Obama is saying that his insurance plan has a provision that will force us to get health insurance or face financial penalties. He says that requiring everyone to "share" the financial burden is the fair way and that now some people carry the "burdens" of other people. Well, ain't that the American way? We pay other peoples' burdens all the time! Anytime one person gets something for free that other people normally pay for, someone has carried that person's burden. He also claims that nearly every person is required to have auto insurance so this wouldn't be much different. Bullshit !! Everyone is not required to own a car. There are a lot of people out there who don't have to buy car insurance. In my case, if health insurance was the same $100 per month as my car insurance or the $80 per month of my homeowners insurance, I would buy it. The last time I priced insurance it was about $600 per month. That's a friggin' paycheck! I haven't been to a doctor in 2 years (thank you, God). I'd be out $14000! The talk now is that the "uninsured younger generation" is filling our emergency rooms, costing us money and driving up health costs. They don't have insurance because, when you are 23, you are immortal. Look around an emergency room. The ones there are generally people who either can't afford to go to a doctor (who wants $125 up front) or they get Medicare or Medicaid and act like it is a blank check to go there for every little ache and pain. The way to reduce premiums is to allow us to choose a la carte services and jack up doctor copays. Every time you pay a $30 copay, the insurance company pays the other $70 to $100. Where does that come from? Your premiums (or mine!). Bump the copay to $75. It will make people think a bit before going to the doctor. Now I know most folks have a legitimate reason for going to the doctor but there are just as many who are hypochondriacs who go at every twinge of pain. Stop the doctors from running stupid, useless tests. My last blood work included a blood sugar test. There is not a diabetic within 4 generations of me. That's a waste of the 50 or 60 bucks it cost me. One way to save on costs is to study up a little on your medical background so you can speak intelligently with your doctor or take someone with you who can. Let's hope someone with some common sense can prevail so we won't all end up with a burning sensation in our hind parts.
I watched Jay Leno last night and his guest was Michael Moore. Moore was pitching his new movie about capitalism. It got me to thinking. Although I think Moore sometimes puts things in a simplistic light and may not substantiate some facts, he made some interesting points. How about the fact that the top 1% of the population based on assets have more than the bottom 95% combined. He referred to capitalism as legalized greed. He's not pushing for socialism but some moderation in capitalism would be nice. This all goes back to some of my prior posts about the disappearance of corporate ethics. He also mentioned how 80% of the people were against the $750 billion bailout but it happened anyway. This also is a point I have made in the past. Instead of our representatives ignoring us, they should be voting our way. Our Congress was originally intended to give us representation in Washington. Nowadays, the only ones with representation are the lobbyists and political action committees. We need to reform the way business is done in DC. The first thing to do is stop all political contributions by anyone other than private individuals. Get rid of all of the special interest groups dumping millions of dollars into our senators pockets. Right now, our congressmen are just doing what the highest bidders want. Put the big stuff to a vote. Let us vote on the major things like healthcare reform and industry bailouts. How hard can it be? We don't have to go through a bunch of crap setting up for special elections and funding overtime for local election boards. We could vote like we do for American Idol or via Twitter polls. It is said that 90% of the US has internet access. That's more than the 33% who voted in the last election. There were about 115 million Idol votes the week of May 20, 2003. In comparison, 122 million voted in the last presidential election! Surely in our modern age, we can take more control of our government and our economic destiny. I guess our representatives in DC think we're just a mass of uneducated dummies who can't think for ourselves.
When I was watching Obama's healthcare speech last week, he mentioned something about insurance companies having near-monopolies in various states and that this caused rates in those states to be higher than surrounding states. I did some digging online and found some interesting info. It looks like a lot of money has changed hands to get states to add obscure procedures and unneeded drugs to their lists of requirements. Every state is allowed to have its own set of health regulations, which has resulted in a patchwork of varying coverage. Perhaps there needs to be a federal set of regulations to make it consistent across the nation although that may not be a good thing (like Bush's No Child Left Behind). On the flip side, there are opinions that the health insurance industry should be deregulated. Judging by the premiums and spotty coverage, it doesn't look too regulated now. As in other industries of late, the insurance industry is doing the typical merger and acquisition dance. Their record profits are being used to buy up the competition and improve their bottom line instead of reducing premiums and increasing coverage. When you have a 90% monopoly in a particular area, you can pretty much charge what you want. If the public option plan did nothing other than cause premiums from private insurers to go down, it would be achieving its goal. The cable company in our city has a similar monopoly. When the city discussed getting in the cable business, the cable company lowered its rates. Fast forward 3 years and rates are back up because the city never actually got in the cable business. This shows us that just threatening to have a public option isn't enough.
Here's a couple of links that offer causes and opinions:
http://tinyurl.com/oaktzzhttp://tinyurl.com/ms972j
1. If you get tired of the view, you can move without losing your deposit.
2. No property taxes.
3. You don't have to get up to get anything (unless it's in your trunk/storage room).
4. You won't be late for work if you park it at work.
5. Bill collectors can't find you.
5 reasons why living in your car is a bad thing
1. Bringing home a date is embarrassing.
2. Thanksgiving at your house is out of the question.
3. If the dog shits in the floor, it stinks up the whole house.
4. You can't get "out of the house" because you have to drive it to get there.
5. It doesn't build equity.
8 years ago a group of cowards started a chain of events that reshaped the American psyche. 8 years later, Osama and his hairy band of goat masturbaters are sitting in a cave somewhere, waiting for the missile that will eventually find them. Osama, may the STDS of a thousand prostitutes forever infest your genitals.
Let me preface this by noting that I hate going to Walmart and only go to the pharmacy if at all possible. That being said, the arrogance of Walmart as reported by this article http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20090909/us_time/08599192069800 is amazing. Although it's wonderful that a business could actually do well during this recession/depression, going that extra mile to grind the rest of your competitors into bankruptcy reinforces my earlier opinion that business ethics disappeared a long time ago. Since Walmart stock isn't performing at 1990's levels (no stocks are!), the shareholders are whining. Whining shareholders are why we are in the economic dump now! When every aspect of a business revolves around the bottom line, 2 things suffer: employees and ethics. How can Walmart pat themselves on the back for all their charity work when they have succeeded in driving out all competition and causing thousands of people to lose their jobs?
The article states that Walmart is cleaning up their act in regards to crowded aisles and friendly employees. They have a long way to go. Good luck finding an employee or "associate" as they call them. If you find one, they either don't know the answer to your question, or they don't give a shit. They all walk around like they would rather be anywhere but Walmart (just like me!) Just to be fair, our Walmart pharmacy does have knowledgeable and helpful employees. It just sucks to stand in a line of 30 people waiting to pick up medicine. Ol' Sam started out pushing "Made in USA" products only. He apparently realized he could make more money by selling the cheaper shitty products produced by countries that don't have oversight on workplace conditions or product safety. How many times have there been product recalls where the major player is Walmart because the product is some off brand that they paid to have made cheaper somewhere besides the US? How many times have you bought something that either didn't work to begin with or lasted just long enough to be out of warranty?
Here's an example of the typical Walmart experience. My wife bought some groceries one day at Walmart last year. When she was checking out, the cashier noticed that one of the packs of ground beef was missing a label or the barcode was illegible. The cashier told my wife she could go back and get another pack of meat. She wouldn't call for a price check. My wife wasn't going 2 miles back to the meat department for more meat so she said she didn't want it. The front end manager was also involved in this whole discussion. The meat was subsequently tossed in one of those buggies you see by the checkout that have all the stuff people didn't buy. It was sitting in there with toilet paper, T shirts, shoes, etc. How long do you think it sat there before it was relabeled and replaced in the cooler? That's why I hate Walmart. Check out this link for more reasons not to go to Walmart. http://peopleofwalmart.com
Whenever I read comments on various topics, I see that most respondents are anonymous. I then noticed that most of these anonymous comments aren't something that would be said face to face. The web makes it easy for cowards to hide behind this anonymity and spout out bullshit that their momma never taught them. I'm all for freedom of speech and, if your manners and upbringing cause you to come off as an ignorant dumbass, that's your problem. Here's my opinion: If you aren't willing to back up your comment with some sort of identification, then keep your mouth shut. Here's a case in point. Liskula Cohen, the model in New York disfigured in a bar brawl, has won her case against an anonymous blogger who talked trash about her. The courts forced Google to identify the blogger. From what I gather, the blogger overstepped the line on what is opinion and what is defamation. Now, if the blogger had a name to start with, it would not have gotten as far as it did. Now the blogger is suing Google for "breach of a fiduciary duty to protect her privacy". Huh? Obviously some law was bent or broken for it to get to the Manhattan Supreme Court. Commenting anonymously on any topic reminds me of the hyenas slinking around the lion while he eats whatever. They aren't willing to go face to face with the lion because they might get their ass kicked. By the way, Ms Cohen's lawyer says the upcoming defamation suit against the now known blogger is not about the money but because "something was done that was wrong". Yeah, right!
Gotta follow up on my previous article about this. As you know, the guy named Guy was arrested for murder. While this may be an opposite outcome to my previous opinion, 2 facts still remain. He couldn't have done it by himself and our current economic situation has a lot to do with this.
What the hell is wrong with people today? For 2 or 3 days now, I have been watching people protest Obama's speech to the school children of America. One lady on CNN was actually crying! One would have thought that the devil himself was going to eat her kid at the end of the speech. Did I miss something? We weren't taken over by the rebels or the Commies! This is our duly elected president. Has patriotism died out or is this a result of the "me, me, me" society we're living in? We have 3 basic types of parents. There is the satellite parent who watches or is involved in every breath of their child. There is the parent who thinks school is the best way to get their child out of the house and doesn't get involved in any aspect of their education. Then there's the rest of us who struggle with making sure our kids are fed, clothed, and educated while trying to understand the sometimes interminable study programs our kids are in. But that's another article subject.
It is being said that this school speech is just a platform to push "Obama Socialism" on us. Go here to read the speech: http://tinyurl.com/mqw42h Nowhere in this speech does it mention anything about any of the current or past agendas of Obama like health care reform, global warming, etc. You get the drift. This speech is about staying in school and doing your best to make yourself into a contributing member of our society. He's not preaching " sit on your ass and sell dope all day" or "see how many indigent care programs you can enroll in". He is preaching social and community responsibility. He is preaching that you can't get rich quick, but you can get rich if you work at it. This is how our country was built. This speech doesn't have Republican or Democrat overtones but is a commonsense approach to making good decisions about how you want to turn out when you become an adult.
As a side note, Obama is relating to his upbringing in his speech. The same can't be said for the Bushies who, belonging to the silver spoon crowd, were able to skate along on social positioning. You can't learn anything real that way, as evidenced by our past 8 years.
I'm sure anyone who watches CNN saw this story. 9 or 10 adults living in a single-wide mobile home because of job loss makes you want to say "Gee, thanks" to the greedy assholes who started this recession. (Yes, the recession isn't accidental) What irritates me is that the guy (named Guy!) who found the victims obviously realized that the cops would find his pot stash so he moved it. Now, this is pure conjecture and not based on anything other than reading the story from the AP. This guy got arrested for possession, tampering with evidence, and lying to a police officer. As a side note, isn't it odd that they can lie to you? They have a much larger crime to deal with than a lowly pot smoker. Thinking that this guy could possibly be a suspect is a stretch too. How can 1 man beat 8 adults to death? Let's hope that the cops stop with the shotgun approach and actually solve this thing.
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