taks

some people say that cats are simply finicky, but they're really rather intelligent. i think they're stupid. rained here a bit the past few days. threatening now, but it's supposed to clear up. taks

i hope that's a joke... it is, right? taks

not surprisingly, this is a system that's not really regulated by the government. at least, not to the level of human health care. certainly _some_ limits/laws need to be in place, but it's gotten out of hand. medicare/medicaid doesn't help, either, since the government forces doctors/pharmaceuticals to sell their services/goods at bargain prices (not much different than a socialist country forcing a pharmaceutical company to sell drugs for pennies over manufacturing costs, rather than what the drugs are really worth). the average consumer has to pick up the remaining tab for losses in other sectors. taks

again, this is NOT a capitalism model at work, not even close. health care, and the insurance industry, is probably the most heavily regulated in the US. consumers cannot even sue the very insurance companies representing them. your logic is baffling on this one... on one hand, you're faulting a system heavily corrupted by the government, and on the other, you're advocating more government interference. if the government got out of the way, standard capitalistic models of competition would take over and things would naturally improve - and the insurance companies, and health care systems, that weren't operating properly/efficiently would bankrupt themselves. taks

i haven't figured out what they actually did in europe that was not covered by the US justice department ruling already. taks

no, a monopoly requires that you own the whole market, too, by definition. there's a word for what you're describing, but it escapes me at the moment. MS and carnegie are better described as oligopolies, i.e. a few competitors for the market only. i was just reading that MS actually peaked around 90%, but they got there illegally. taks

lean gov't is fine, but taking care of its people and their well being means trodding on the same people's rights (not to mention the fact that a lean government is contrary to the nanny-state idea of paying for its people, health care or otherwise). robbing peter to pay paul certainly qualifies as a rights violation. edit: we're kinda saying the same thing, GD. taks

oh, keep in mind, i'm no fan of MS, but they're hardly an example of "unfettered capitalism." their early practices were illegal, and they got busted, rightly IMO. taks

ah, yes, the UN. certainly the least biased source for evaluating anything the US does. btw, i had a guess this was the case anyway. fittingly, as i noted before, cuba is moore's example. that the WHO can rank the US only two places above cuba is telling indeed. i guess 37th place is the place where people naturally flock to get their health care from out of the country, and their real degrees... taks

neither were monopolies, though both are often accused. MS had maybe 85% at its peak, and competition from linux grew up on its own, without any help from johnny law. mac and unix have always been around. it is very easy to contest that. linux and mac are both genuine, and MS is really, really, really afraid of linux. taks

i've mentioned this before, and was waiting to see if anyone else would pick it up... a country with 300 M people and a $1T trade deficit hardly compares to 20 M people with a $90 B trade surplus. apples and oranges. even the apples of scandinavia are backing off and attempting to reduce benefits. larger countries do not fare as well, and people rarely want to mention all those that are failing miserably at their attempts. i'm curious btw, who ranked US health care at "37th, right above cuba?" taks

Modern: Microsoft Historically: Carnegie Steel and they did what that was bad for consumers? MS got slapped down for actually breaking the law, btw, and like it or not, they offer the best product in the world (and they never had a monopoly anyway), and carnegie actually offered low prices on steel. that was why they got so big in the first place... the world was buying. kudos to the mention of AT&T. that would have been easy to pounce on. taks

contrary to popular belief, stories like rainmaker and that silly lawyer chick (played by julia roberts) are NOT the norm here, either. my father, for example, has probably spent half a million in the last 4 months, beginning with back surgery in february which resulted in the drug resistant staph infection, till now, where he's sitting in some rehab that costs $1500/week and they don't even give you a freaking room phone. this doesn't count the myriad doctors that stop by. his insurance company? united health care, HMO. they're one of the worst in the nation, yet still they pay. people are so willing to believe that things are soooo bad they immediately jump on the first explanation that makes them feel better about themselves for thinking as such. michael moore, a rich, fat, slob worth in excess of $100M, tells them they should be wary of who? corporate fat cats and big capitalist enterprise: in other words, him. yet still the fools believe, as if being led around by a carrot dangling from a stick. too wrapped up in their own ideology to see the sign with big red letters that says "HAHAHA I'm scamming you and you're giving me either free advertising, or you money!!!!" taks

hmm, the PPC450 is a new architecture originally slated for comm/network apps. curious choice. i've not read much about it. taks

wow, cant, 15k miles bugs you? in my younger days i averaged 20-25k/year for many years in a row. i used to drive from melbourne, fl, to st. louis 3 times a year, straight through (1100 miles each way, 2 stops for gas each way in my stealth). on topic, my wife and i plan to get a pair of cruisers when a) her car is paid off and b) the child is old enough to hang on for life. option a happens next summer, b may be a few more years since the squirt is only 4 now. i'm looking at a v-star, 1100 or so (i'm pretty big, so a big bike will be a benefit in the mountains) and some sort of 600 for the wife. i've done several canyons/passes around here in a G35, a Cherokee, and soon my new Xterra, and i am absolutely dying to take the plunge on a bike. taks

which are? taks

if the government got out of the way, and foreign cradle to grave countries paid the market price for US-based services, this wouldn't be a problem. health care costs are driven by bureaucracy as well, which is in place due to government regulation. btw, to all you whining about how much it costs, i have a reasonable plan for both me and my son, for only $130/month. rather high deductible, but it can be reduced pretty easily. only folks like you, those who so desperately want socialization in every aspect of our lives, complain about how "bad" things are. the problem started with government interference. so quickly we forget. the more we regulate, the worse it gets, and those that don't understand simple economics then advocate more regulation. this is an endless cycle. taks

btw, i should add, the obvious that you pointed out but were too obtuse to understand: take government out of the health care system and exactly what reason would there be for bribing by all those "evil and greedy corporations?" this is such a simple concept. it's not like rocket sciece you know. i also get a kick out of the master of excess, moore, lecturing us on greed. taks

greed = competition, which improves quality. moore's conjecture is nothing but hogwash. pharmaceuticals are only a very small portion of the overall healthcare system, and newsflash, the US is paying the bill for new drugs due to all the rest of the hand-out states in the world. nice try, but why don't you try to actually post something pertinent next time. it's always about big, greedy corporations to you fools. you just don't get it. taks

uh, hate to tell you but these problems were in a large way created by government interference. you do recall that it is not possible to sue HMOs because of government regulations, right? the list of ways the government has screwed up the system is endless, and here you sit advocating more of the "necessary evil." because that requires taking money away from people that have earned it in order to pay for those that haven't. rights do not overlap so neatly. \no, but competition for profit is what makes for efficiency and quality. simple economics. taks

interestingly, cuba is moore's "example." yeah, both the health care (essentially) and education system are run by the government. HMOs are no different than government agencies, and the government has its hand in anything health related in general, and ultimately, they're one of the biggest reasons the health care system in the US sucks. thanks for proving my point, btw. why anyone would think an even larger bureaucracy will benefit the US health care system is beyond me. that's always the socialist plea, throw more money at it, make it more inefficient, throw even more money at it, ad nauseum. taks

you don't know that. contrary to popular belief, people are not dying in droves in the US. and exactly where did you hear that? keep in mind, however, that the US has a pretty big state sponsored health care system as well. those that can afford it avoid it like the plague, however, and the fraud perpetrated on the system is ridiculous. taks

uh, and the term "socialized" means "provided by the government." taks

cuba has socialized health care, and they are far from rich. their health care also sucks compared to the rest of the world. if anyone thinks the picture moore paints re the condition of cuban health care is even remotely accurate, i have a bridge in san francisco to sell them. whether or not they are rushing there for degrees is immaterial to the point moore is making anyway, and i'd be willing to be those "free" degrees aren't getting them hired in the US or any other country that has a more advanced system. of course the people like it. they don't know anything else and it's "free" as far as they're concerned. never mind that the wealthy that actually pay the taxes for it hate it. taks

yeah... his venture into the socialized health systems leaves out all the problems they face. people aren't rushing to cuba for their health care for a reason. moore picks the worst examples of things in the US, in all of his documentaries, and exemplifies these as the norm, when they are in fact, just the worst examples. taks