Inspiring confidence?

I'm glad to see a few more names in this thread; some really good posts as well! People are starting to get over the kool-aid.

O'reilly has a good article on townhall.com this morning. Some of the comments are even better!

what else needs fixed?

Can anyone out there help me to understand what exactly the officer did wrong ?
I keep hearing that Mr. Gates and the officer over reacted but the only
specifics I hear are that Mr. Gates accused the officer of racism and would not stop badgering the officer.
How did the officer over react ?
Is it not proper for an officer to arrest someone that is being un-cooperative and challenging them ?

eric lavine wrote: bottem line, the wheel is broke and needs to be fixed, maybe this is a wake up call, if the system does fail they always turn to the government and always seems to get a hand out, thats nice knowing you have that cushion..so should they walk away and not be involved at all? including cutting of all funding?

Heathcare = Broken wheel need a new wheel


Government = Gets a set of 4 bad ass 22"s & new tires without even checking to see if they will fit, and dosen't want to wait for them to be on sale!

Unless you were there you don't know how this ordeal was escalating. At the time an audience gathering was turning the situation into a public spectical.
There were three cops there and they agreed it was the best way to handle the situation. The fact that this event involved a prominent black Harvard professor got Al Sharpton invloved then the cable news and then the President. Had it been you or me it would have been lucky to make the local Boston news. The charges were dropped and the prof has had his 15 min of fame. It should be put to rest.

Make no mistake about it, I have no idea what happened there but I can recite the average disorderly conduct police report for you word for word. Unfortunately a few bad apples have used that charge over and over to the point where it is referred to by many in the system as POPO, or pissing off police officer. The problem is it is still america and pissing off a police officer is constitutionally protected free speach unless it is done with intent to specifically block traffic or incite a riot. Therefore every report you ever read will include references to either blocking traffic or attempting to incite a crowd in a public place. If you have enough money to push it these charges will always eventually be dropped or dismissed because they would never withstand a constitutional challenge, they make it just as far as the courts and DA who have to deal with these cops on a daily basis have reach, and then only as "professional courtesy".

Moral of the story, it is America and you can't be arrested just for being an ***************, unless of course you don't have the time or money to fight it.

Back to the big elephant over there in the corner.

Everyone has access to healthcare in this country with or without insurance, I think everyone has agreed to that. We also have the best healthcare avaliable any where in the world, untfortunately people aren't like cars or boats and you can't always just change out some parts and make them good as new.

Health insurance doesn't insure your health, it insures your bank account in the event of a catastrophic health emergency. That is what it was designed to do originally, and I think if thats how it was used these days then things would be cheaper. You cover the regular check ups and office visits with your money, and the insurance takes care of things like when you blow your knee out on a wakeboard. That would make the doctors check their prices because I don't think many people would be willing to pay the prices they charge now if they knew what they were. I think the PA that I usually see is billing about $500 an hour if I calculate out what my insurance company and I pay for a 15 min visit. If you took the lawyers and lawsuits out of the equation, that price could probably be cut in half. Unfortunately this would require people to be responsible and not spend everything they make plus some, and there aren't enough people like that around anymore.

The more important issue here is the fact that the people in Washington want to take over more of the private sector. I don't have any official numbers, but with most of the auto industry, the large banks and the healthcare system I would think they would control somewhere between a 1/5 and 1/4 of the economy. Some of them think it would be a great way to grease the campaign wheels come election time, just more lies they can promise to give you if you reelect them. What really worries me are the ones that will use this to control what ever they want. They might decide boating is dangerous and we can't do that because it would raise healthcare costs.

The Constitution works just fine, the people in Washington just don't like to abide by it, that's why they should all be sent home.

Sorry for the rant, I should have gotten on this one sooner.

another BIG problem is the Doctors writing scripts, everyone knows someone hooked on painkillers, how do they get away with it? who needs to control the greedy doctors, Painkillers are also Big Business...Agree?

What would you say if the government came in and said that you can no longer charge xx for your services because it MIGHT adversely affect the economy. That is not a free capalistic economy. As I said before this is not about reforming anything it is simply about control. Do you realize that part of this healthcare bill being considered there will be an executive oversight medicare panel (only reports to the president with no oversight) that will be making decisions on what kind of healthcare will be provided to the all Americans. Lets say you get cancer and the panel has looked at the statistical chances that with the type of cancer you have there is less than a 5% chance of survial (as was the case with Lance Armstrong), than most likely you and everyone in the country with that type of cancer will be denied care. (Except the politicians since they exempt themselves from this bill)

If the government wants to do something that would be positive and really make a difference here are a few solutions that would be relatively inexpensive compared to what they are proposing.

1. Offer catatrophic coverage for every American to cover those situations that has the potential to bankrupt a family. (Like your example of the Shell employee Eric)
2. Open up the ability of Americans and companies to look beyond the state they are in for coverage. This would end up reducing cost and allowing companies to offer less expensive coverage.
3. Tort reform. For example an OB doctor pays about $500,000 a year for malpractice insurance. This will never be part of a bill because our country is run by lawyers.
4. Do not cover anyone who is an illegal alien. The way the bill is written if you reside in the US you will be eligiable for the government healthcare. That is about 12 million people. This is part of the reason that California is bankrupt.
5. Allow physicians in the Emergency Department to denie care to individuals that do not need Emergency care. This would require tort reform that will never happen.
6. If the government want to be in the insurance business have them provide malpractice insurance at a reduced cost. (I personnaly do not like this because the government is invovled. It might be ok if they did not try to dictate to the practitioner how to practice)
7. No political contributions to politicians from healthcare related or any big business.
9. Subsidise small business that are willing to offer healthcare coverage to their employees.
10. CUT TAXES, CUT TAXES, CUT TAXES AND CUT TAXES. Give us our money back, including businessed of all sizes, and get out of the way and let capatilisim work.
11. Offer temporary healthcare to the unemployeed with a time limit.

These are a few ideas that would not give government complete control and begin to help and not change the quality of care we recieve or our choices.

If we want new and inovative ways to keep us healthy and well there is going to be a cost associated. I saw something yesterday, not sure how accurate, that about 50% of the cost of rising care is due to new technology. I work for a university based hospital system and there are always new innovations coming out to help all people live longer.

Yes we do have the best healthcare in the world and if we want to keep it do not allow the government take control.

If you want any of your 11 points you have to change the players in Washington. They have stacked the deck and rigged the game for themselves. We need to take back government, or nothing will ever get better. Our only chance is at election time. If your term is up your OUT. The new polititions will have to agree to pay their taxes, healthcare, social security and term limits. The only thing they truley care about is winning the next election. Why else woould they spend millions to get the job. Where else can you take a year or two off to try to get a new job without any reprecussions if you don't get it? Politics. I don't know how we do it but it has to be done. Once we have people running the country for the people then the bulls**** can be curtailed and maybe once again we can prosper. We have to stop giving the country away and start taking care of ouselves.

Everyone needs to watch, record or TIVO Glenn Beck. He brings is all together.

I must live on the darkside....I called the Jackson thing 4 weeks ago, doctor assissted suicide, homicide? nothing more than a greedy doctor, on his payroll for 150k a month, according to my calculations he should be able to pay off school in around 4 months..not provable, so now the *************** family is going to file a civil lawsuit lets say for 150 million, who will pay the 150 milly's? malpractice insurance. for the most part Doctors are good, but i dont have enough fingers to tell you the guy's i know that are getting 90 per month 80mg Oxy-Contins that go for a minimum of 50 bucks a crack...thats $$4500.00 per month tax free...doctors havee the power to write these scripts and i know these people do not need that kind of pain medication, why are they writing these scripts? because the entire industry benefits, thats why there are pharmacies at every corner. a high school friend of mines father took one to the head, self inflicted, 3 weeks ago, on his calender the day was circled and it said "no more doctors" maybe if they rounded off that 12 minutes to 15 they could of recognized there was a problem there........

will you take the swine flu anti virus?

I have not taken a flu shot in 20+ years and have not had the flu since.
Finally talked the wife out of getting her free employer flu shot a few years ago and she stopped getting the flu each year.
It is better to practice good hygiene than to have them put a virus in you.

i have a feeling im hanging with the GOP here, it takes alot more to ruffle me, i just try to put another point of view out there. thats allright you guys got beat up in November,
dont throw Palin out there or we ill see another 4 of this guy