Hurlshort

I don't remember if I talked about this, but I had a solid B cup on my leg after crashing my bike. It was just this weird sac of fluid hanging out right where I impacted. When I started running again, it would jiggle up and down painfully, so I started wearing a compression sleeve on my thigh. My wife used that as an opportunity to lecture me about the importance of good sports bras. Anyways, the fluid is nearly gone now, and my wife has upgraded her collection of sports bras. You have my sympathy, Azdeus.

My apologies. I must have misunderstood your stance on the issue.

So far you are the only person in the thread that seems to think the US system is alright. It's not a Euro vs. US thing.

Eh, we've talked this to death with Gfted1. I suppose it is good he doesn't stress about it, as that could lead to a lot of health issues, and the bills from that may surprise him.

So the current system: 1. Charges you thousands of dollars every year in premiums, which are probably matched by your employer, whether you use it or not 2. Charges you co-pays for most services. Sure, $20 to see the doctor seems reasonable, but that doesn't count towards your deductible. This gets trickier with extras. I went to the ER a few weeks ago, and even though my deductible is met, I have a co-insurance bill of $90 from the ER, $15 from radiology, and I will get another one from the ER doctor, I assume. 3. My family max deductible is $2000 for in-network coverage. That's not crazy. We hit it every year, because I believe in preventative care and we are super active. Of course, if you end up out of network for something, this ratchets up to $40,000. Basically I am an emergency room visit to a non-network hospital away from massive debt. Gfted, you probably are too. Of course, if you get something like cancer, you can expect all of these numbers to go crazy. All the while, the insurance company profits by providing as little service as possible. It's a dumb system that isn't built around health, it is built around profits. Which unless you are seeing those profits, I don't see why you would defend it.

I just don't understand how anyone can look at the way we pay for healthcare in the US and think it is working. It is completely broken. It shouldn't be a partisan issue. Everyone needs health care. We provide a K-12 education to every child in this country. We manage to feed the entire country. There is clean water. There is electricity. When a community fails to get one of these basic services, it is a big outrage. People aren't expected to go into debt to secure them. Why can't we figure out how to offer health care to everyone at a reasonable cost? Everyone in the country should want that!

I will always remember the Giants pitching Zito in 2012 during the playoffs, and then bringing in Tim Lincecum in relief. The other team had to be thinking "How many Cy Young pitchers they got waiting over there?"

It's never too early! But realistically, EA hasn't nailed a good single player campaign in awhile, so I would say pessimism is the right approach for me. I'd be glad to be wrong, but I wish they'd separate these games. Battlefront doesn't need a campaign, focus on making it the best multiplayer game possible. If you want to tell a good story, keep it single player and make that the main focus. edit: Rockstar does this well, I think. They start with the single player story and build everything around it. Then they develop the multiplayer mode around the engine and art assets, and really don't work on it fully until the story is done. But then again, many would say the multiplayer suffers because of that focus.

Squadrons looks like it will be 5 on 5 battles. I'd rather have a single player story, like X-Wing/Tie Fighter. Elite: Dangerous and X4: Foundations seem to have that pretty well covered.

I had a buddy in college get a DUI at a tailgate for a football game. He was behind the wheel but not actively driving. He was cited and not arrested. I assume he was blasting his music or something obnoxious. I think he got it dropped.

Trump cancelled his Juneteenth rally, which was a bit of a surprise. I mean, credit is deserved for being willing to make a change to something. Still has quite a ways to go though.

I doubt anyone will care or notice until it is time to pay your property taxes, GD.

There is a long and glorious history of making fun of new console designs.

Hades, may he rest in peace, would have hated this game.

So...apparently this guy races with the confederate flag. And in keeping with confederate tradition, he never wins.

In other news, Rage Against the Machine had a hilarious response to complaints that they've become too political: https://www.nme.com/news/music/tom-morello-twitter-respond-to-people-only-just-realising-rage-against-the-machine-are-political-2685353

I tried to navigate through the crazy amount of Stellaris DLC before starting a new campaign. I already had Federations, but I decided to add the humanoid pack so I could make a dwarf galactic mining consortium, and the artifact story pack. I know I should have waited for a sale, but I want to play now! This DLC stuff is dangerous, you can spend waaaay too much on it.

So last month we had local militia folk showing up armed to government buildings to protest wearing masks or whatever, and now we have local antifa folk showing up armed to parks to protest the police or whatever. What is the difference, again?

You guys are crazy. It is clearly the fact that cities are filled with democrats and small towns are filled with Republicans.

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-52990714 I've never really seen any of the characters in Gone With the Wind as positive. They are all pretty terrible people. Rhett and Scarlett are both anti-heroes. That being said, this reaction to the film is not new. It goes back to when it was released. https://www.umass.edu/newsoffice/article/professor-offers-black-perspective-anniversary-gone-wind

It's crazy when you think about some of the talent the Mariners have had, too.

Sooooo excited for Bill & Ted. edit: I've been trying to watch Mortal Engines. It is ponderous.

I've been getting my sports fix from HBO documentaries. I watched a 2-part series on Muhammad Ali. It is an interesting contrast to see his career after watching the Michael Jordan Last Dance series a couple weeks ago. Jordan came across as a win at all costs champ. He was hyper focused on that and would sacrifice anything else. Can't argue his greatness, but it can be hard to admire what he did to get there. Ali, on the other hand, was willing to sacrifice his titles to do what he thought was right. He transcends his sport. I also watched one on Kareem Abdul Jabbar. I was too young to really know much about him, but he also has a fascinating story. It made a great parallel story after watching Ali. He was a lot more likable than Jordan. These were also good reminders that we've come a long way since the 60's. People tend to look at current events as if these are the worst times ever in history. They aren't. Get some perspective.

You leave Mr. Volo alone, you!