I say yes, you say no, OR People are Strange

Glad to see y'all have landed back on Earth again.  Yes, we can change BCO screen names without re-registering or changing any of the stats from our previous life.  One of my chemo buddies did that when some people from her other life figured out who she was here and started harrassing her.

Lindasa, here's that link to the Kaiser Family Foundation page showing the implementation timeline. I made it active (I think .... we'll know in a few minutes when I shut up and submit this):

http://healthreform.kff.org/timeline.aspx

Blue, ... I sure hope your neuro docs can do their magic and settle things down again. 

otter

Thanks for the fix, Otter!  I thought that website offered the best compact, easy to read info.

I think Blue's experience has been expected, which is why she will have the electronic stimulator set, regulated and, if necessary, re-regulated until the movements are under control.  Blue, correct me if I'm wrong, please!

Lassie, I watched the last few minutes of the game (which took place in Buffalo).  I swear 3/4 of the fans there were from Toronto!   Always ready to help the New York State economy!

Blue .. thinking about you this morning. 

hugs,

Bren

Agreed. It is a move designed to send a message to the voters that they heard them. Stupid. Should be spending time on important things like cutting spending. But that's our government. Stupid.

The Republicans have to try to repeal health care reform, because they said they would. This will fail so they will then waste their time and our money holding hearings and trying to pick the thing apart. Wow. Responsible government?

The NYT commentary at the other end of this link mixes government legislation, Supreme Court decisions, First-Amendment rights, Internet anonymity, and societal behaviors -- all in one article.  I stumbled over it this morning on my daily wandering through Google News:  "Anonymity and the Dark Side of the Internet"...

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/03/anonymity-and-the-dark-side-of-the-internet/?partner=rss&emc=rss

Before anybody starts pressing any buttons, let me assure you I do not agree with the writer's position on the issue.  Or, do I?  I guess I don't know.  My genes are Libertarian, but my roots developed in the politically schizophrenic soil of Minnesota.

otter

There are at least two problems with this reasoning. First, it is not true that a text's meaning is the same whether or not its source is known. Suppose I receive an anonymous note asserting that I have been betrayed by a friend. I will not know what to make of it - is it a cruel joke, a slander, a warning, a test? But if I manage to identify the note's author - it's a friend or an enemy or a known gossip - I will be able to reason about its meaning because I will know what kind of person composed it and what motives that person might have had.

Copied from the article Otter posted.

Otter .. I agree with the author of the article.  If my sis sends me a note calling me a goofball, I know she is teasing me in a loving way.  If someone I don't like and who does not like me, sends me a text calling me a goofball, I would take it as a slight and that the person was insinuating I was stupid.

So, in fact, it does matter WHO is doing the writing, not just the written word itself.

Bren

BarbaraA - I really don't know enough about Boehner but I can assure you that my Senator McConnell will never, except under threat of death, issue such a statement. Hope I have to eat my words. Bren - when I was growing up my dear father described me and my sister as a dreamboat and a goofball. Yep, I was the goofball and proud of it!

Yeah E, we can agree that Medicare needs fixing and cutting the benefits and raising the retirement age really frosts me, since I was planning on retiring in 3-5 years. Right. Work for 46 years and be told your benefit will be x then to be told scratch what we told you; the benefit will be y and oh by the way, you have to work 3-4 years longer. Great.

 Alpal, I fear you are correct. McConnell is a true party man regardless of how stupid the party position is. Don't know enough about Boehner but suspect we'll find out soon enough.

Edited to correct my typo.

E .. at the end of the last thread we were also talking about how the area you live in plays a big part in whether doctors are cutting medicare and medicaid patients.  I live in a small impoverished area, and there is no way the docs in this area could cut those patients.

In large metropolitan areas, the docs may have more than enough patients with insurance to be able to let go the medicare and medicaid patients.

IMO.

Bren

That's right.  Thanks, Bren!

Barbara -

On the deleted thread, I also rambled on about tort reform.  I believe Texas has tried that with no corresponding decrease in physicians' expenses.  (If I'm wrong, somebody please point me in the right direction!)

Tort reform assumes that if the cost of lawsuits drops, then the cost to doctors will also drop.  Unfortunately, the cost to doctors is dictated by the malpractice insurers.  If the insurers choose not to drop premiums even though there's a decrease in their expenses, then the doctors won't experience any cost savings to pass along to us.  Odd how it keeps coming back to insurance companies, right? 

E

Maybe the malpractice insurance industry needs a makeover.

Now that is too logical to actually expect our reps to look into the "malpractice" insurance industry. They probably have a big lobby to make sure they don't change things.  I recently had to pay a chunk of money for double ultrasounds on my right boob because this "young" PA was too dumb to realize what she was feeling was a lump of fat!  I think the "malpractice" scare makes these doctors and their assistants go batty to make sure they aren't missing anything which could cause a possible lawsuit.  How many people have probably had to have all these needless tests just so the medical people can cover their butts!