One of the major insurance companies in my area was originally started by farmers that couldn't get crop insurance from other companies. They banded together and started their own company. Unfortunately it has gotten so big and diversified that it has forgotten its roots (dropped a bunch of farmers for having crop damage a few years back). But something similar could be started for health insurance if people really were serious about it. The problem is convincing healthy people to buy into a system where they end up spending their money caring for sick people, especially where one person can suck up the payments of thousands of others.This is in no way meant to be snippy or sarcastic.
You think that health insurance companies charge too much, but you don't want the government managing the health insurance as a measure to prevent the abuse that health insurance companies are getting away with.
Perhaps there is a middle ground?
Hey, question for the populace - My large corporation will be offering access to home and auto insurance 'at discounted rates' in 2009. No details out yet. I'm leery of it (eggs in 1 basket) but will check out the prices.
Anyone have experience with something like this?
Racism will always exist.
And as long as there are idiots it will continue to thrive.
See an idiot --> Generalize --> Label.
So easy.
Yes, but why does the generalization have to be around their skin colour?
See a pretentious idiot in a turtleneck --> Generalize to all people who wear turtlenecks ---> label turtleneck wearer's pretentious.
Racism requires the pseudoscientific concept of race and relative ignorance of the real diversity of racialized others. Ignorance will always exist. Racism can be reduced.
Living in Metro Detroit for all of my 45 years, (Detroit itself for over 1/2), racism has always been an issue. It's often perpetuated by those most affected by it. It's gotten better but still has a LONG way to go. Too bad there are those who profit from it, fighting to keep it alive.
Bury the n-word. No wait, it's OK if WE use it 'cause it has a different meaning that the way YOU use it.
My current area is diverse. Economics is really at the root of our prejudices. Unfortunately, it has a strong connection to racial lines.
|
Taco Bell is delicious. Beef burrito with meat and cheese only. Oh yes, that is happening.
You get a bad product that will most likely have you leaving with digestion problems?
What is it with gamers and getting only meat and cheese, anbd it's never, reggiano parmesiano or brie or camambere on smoked salmon or duck tartare, its yellow cheese product on processed overcooked beef, the most bland and stomach churning combination on the planet, gamers make me sad sometimes (your the fourth gamer I know who loves to get "just meat and cheese") and I'd much rather go to a real mexican restaurant where the food actually has flavor instead of fast food mexican which is only palatable after drowning it in sauces.
EDIT: if anyone gets the side joke of the generalizing/racism discussion thrown in there before reading this caveat you get the bonus points.
|
What is it with gamers and getting only meat and cheese, anbd it's never, reggiano parmesiano or brie or camambere on smoked salmon or duck tartare, its yellow cheese product on processed overcooked beef, the most bland and stomach churning combination on the planet, gamers make me sad sometimes (your the fourth gamer I know who loves to get "just meat and cheese") and I'd much rather go to a real mexican restaurant where the food actually has flavor instead of fast food mexican which is only palatable after drowning it in sauces.
EDIT: if anyone gets the side joke of the generalizing/racism discussion thrown in there before reading this caveat you get the bonus points.
The Four Gamer Food Groups
GreaseCaffeine
Sugar
Fat
Essential Gamer Vitamins
M(ountain dew)
C(aramel) 1
C(hips) 2
C(hips, other) 3
C(hips, even more) 4
G(rease burgers)
P(rocessed cheese)
H(ot pockets)
I learned that over 20 years ago when I first considered what people ate at conventions.
Our digestive tracts are based on essentially different nutrients from ordinary people, sort like left and right hand amino acids.
They tend to reset after 40, and they can reset before that in certain circumstances, like haute cuisine restaurants, but for the most part it is a full, long term mutation.
What is it with gamers and getting only meat and cheese, anbd it's never, reggiano parmesiano or brie or camambere on smoked salmon or duck tartare, its yellow cheese product on processed overcooked beef, the most bland and stomach churning combination on the planet, gamers make me sad sometimes (your the fourth gamer I know who loves to get "just meat and cheese") and I'd much rather go to a real mexican restaurant where the food actually has flavor instead of fast food mexican which is only palatable after drowning it in sauces.
EDIT: if anyone gets the side joke of the generalizing/racism discussion thrown in there before reading this caveat you get the bonus points.
The Four Gamer Food Groups
Grease
Caffeine
Sugar
FatEssential Gamer Vitamins
M(ountain dew)
C(aramel) 1
C(hips) 2
C(hips, other) 3
C(hips, even more) 4
G(rease burgers)
P(rocessed cheese)
H(ot pockets)I learned that over 20 years ago when I first considered what people ate at conventions.
Our digestive tracts are based on essentially different nutrients from ordinary people, sort like left and right hand amino acids.
They tend to reset after 40, and they can reset before that in certain circumstances, like haute cuisine restaurants, but for the most part it is a full, long term mutation.
So now gamers are mutants?! I'm offended! ;-)
Actually I play a mutant in Champions so I guess it's OK.
*shambles off, wondering why trees don't get any love. I mean most everything is food to us. Some just take longer to decompose. mumble, mumble...*
|
|
So now gamers are mutants?! I'm offended! ;-)
Actually I play a mutant in Champions so I guess it's OK.
Everyone who has played Gamma World knows that mutants are cooler than pure strain humans.
*shambles off, wondering why trees don't get any love. I mean most everything is food to us. Some just take longer to decompose. mumble, mumble...*
Vegetables are such savage carnivores.
:-P
|
1) Skin Color? What about people who hate Americans?
Tangentially related to this topic, this article was kind of nice to read, after the last few years.
|
|
He was a WWF star from the 80's Iron Sheik
The fact that he got busted by the police all coked up palling with a wasted Jim Duggan probably broke a thousand WWF fans' hearts.
Tangentially related to this topic, this article was kind of nice to read, after the last few years.1) Skin Color? What about people who hate Americans?
My feelings on this can be characterized by the words of that inspiring hero, Ashe from Army of Darkness.
What is it with gamers and getting only meat and cheese, anbd it's never, reggiano parmesiano or brie or camambere on smoked salmon or duck tartare, its yellow cheese product on processed overcooked beef, the most bland and stomach churning combination on the planet, gamers make me sad sometimes (your the fourth gamer I know who loves to get "just meat and cheese") and I'd much rather go to a real mexican restaurant where the food actually has flavor instead of fast food mexican which is only palatable after drowning it in sauces.
EDIT: if anyone gets the side joke of the generalizing/racism discussion thrown in there before reading this caveat you get the bonus points.
The Four Gamer Food Groups
Grease
Caffeine
Sugar
FatEssential Gamer Vitamins
M(ountain dew)
C(aramel) 1
C(hips) 2
C(hips, other) 3
C(hips, even more) 4
G(rease burgers)
P(rocessed cheese)
H(ot pockets)I learned that over 20 years ago when I first considered what people ate at conventions.
Our digestive tracts are based on essentially different nutrients from ordinary people, sort like left and right hand amino acids.
They tend to reset after 40, and they can reset before that in certain circumstances, like haute cuisine restaurants, but for the most part it is a full, long term mutation.
You forgot the two most important Gamer vitamins
Pi(zza)
B(eer)
|
|
What is it with gamers and getting only meat and cheese, anbd it's never, reggiano parmesiano or brie or camambere on smoked salmon or duck tartare, its yellow cheese product on processed overcooked beef, the most bland and stomach churning combination on the planet, gamers make me sad sometimes (your the fourth gamer I know who loves to get "just meat and cheese") and I'd much rather go to a real mexican restaurant where the food actually has flavor instead of fast food mexican which is only palatable after drowning it in sauces.
EDIT: if anyone gets the side joke of the generalizing/racism discussion thrown in there before reading this caveat you get the bonus points.
The Four Gamer Food Groups
Grease
Caffeine
Sugar
FatEssential Gamer Vitamins
M(ountain dew)
C(aramel) 1
C(hips) 2
C(hips, other) 3
C(hips, even more) 4
G(rease burgers)
P(rocessed cheese)
H(ot pockets)I learned that over 20 years ago when I first considered what people ate at conventions.
Our digestive tracts are based on essentially different nutrients from ordinary people, sort like left and right hand amino acids.
They tend to reset after 40, and they can reset before that in certain circumstances, like haute cuisine restaurants, but for the most part it is a full, long term mutation.You forgot the two most important Gamer vitamins
Pi(zza)
B(eer)
I guess I've just never felt myself to be a gamer (big lie) because for me, I'd rather have a meal than snacks and I'd rather it be well made then cheap crap.
That's not to say I never eat fast food, I do. But only when I need to stay low cost. If I can afford otherwise, or otherwise is availabe (not a lot of restaurants open at 11pm) I won't choose fast food. Fast food is something you should only get when you have too.
|
|
You forgot the two most important Gamer vitamins
Pi(zza)
B(eer)
Actually, I think we should elevate Pizza to a food group, Fat is a bit too generic.
Vitamin B(eer) is legitimate, but it is limited. It os only required (legally available) to certain age groups, and some (like me) prefer alternatives like vitamin S(toli).
The Four Gamer Food Groups
Grease
Caffeine
Sugar
Pizza
Essential Gamer Vitamins
M(ountain dew)
C(aramel) 1
C(hips) 2
C(hips, other) 3
C(hips, even more) 4
G(rease burgers)
P(rocessed cheese)
H(ot pockets)
B(eer)/S(stoli)/Other alternatives
|
|
I guess I've just never felt myself to be a gamer (big lie) because for me, I'd rather have a meal than snacks and I'd rather it be well made then cheap crap.
That's not to say I never eat fast food, I do. But only when I need to stay low cost. If I can afford otherwise, or otherwise is availabe (not a lot of restaurants open at 11pm) I won't choose fast food. Fast food is something you should only get when you have too.
I guess that makes you a . . .
Mutant Gamer!:D
You forgot the two most important Gamer vitamins
Pi(zza)
B(eer)Actually, I think we should elevate Pizza to a food group, Fat is a bit too generic.
Vitamin B(eer) is legitimate, but it is limited. It os only required (legally available) to certain age groups, and some (like me) prefer alternatives like vitamin S(toli).
The Four Gamer Food Groups
Grease
Caffeine
Sugar
PizzaEssential Gamer Vitamins
M(ountain dew)
C(aramel) 1
C(hips) 2
C(hips, other) 3
C(hips, even more) 4
G(rease burgers)
P(rocessed cheese)
H(ot pockets)
B(eer)/S(stoli)/Other alternatives
Yeah, I think you got it all. This was the way I used to eat when I was in college. Probably the reason why my a$$ grew to four feet wide at the time.
|
|
Yeah, I think you got it all. This was the way I used to eat when I was in college. Probably the reason why my a$$ grew to four feet wide at the time.
Yeah, that would be a Texas sized a$$ for sure...
Vitamin B(eer) has my abdominal area taking on the coveted "party keg" look. Six packs are for lightweights ;)
|
|
Fast food is something you should only get when you have too.I'd say that on average, 15 of my 16 meals per week are fast food. But my doctor just told me today that my bad cholesterol is a little high, so I may have to cut back a little.
Trying to beat the guy from Super Size Me?
you should do what I did when I was a teenager, just give up fast food and snacking for a month. you'll be amazed how unnapetizing the stuff is when you actually go back to eating it.
Fast food is actually pretty bad tasting stuff, but we have a culture that makes it the best option a lot of times and so our taste buds develop to start liking it.
Like when people start eating those pre-packaged weight loss meals, at first they are gross but after a while they start finding ones they like and pretty soon they like them all.
|
|
I love the hell out of gamer food (Mountain Dew, I worship at your toxic altar), but I only eat it about once a month. It's the big deal breaker in my relationship - I can be a geeky freak all I want, but if I get fat I have to put down my gaming books, cancel my MMOs and hit the jogging trail.
6'1", 185 lbs. So far so good. I despise jogging, and all excercise really. But I do it religiously, because not getting fat in the first place is far less work than trying to lose weight.
Anyone have experience with something like this?
I think that's awesome and it's certainly the most efficient and effective way to keep people healthy... but:
We all know that government sometimes does need to step in. And I bet we also agree that they're not very good at it.
Racism can be reduced though. I didn't say it would be easy. As far as cognitive theories of racial prejudice, psychologists say that around the age of eight, with meaningful encounters to people who look different than you, racial prejudice starts to diminish.
Interesting. I was in an almost exclusively white peer group until I was 15. Hasn't been the same since.
It would be nice if the kiddies could grow up in mutiracial elementary schools. I wonder what it's like to have parents who are bigots when your classmates hail from the world over.
Racism can be reduced though. I didn't say it would be easy. As far as cognitive theories of racial prejudice, psychologists say that around the age of eight, with meaningful encounters to people who look different than you, racial prejudice starts to diminish.Interesting. I was in an almost exclusively white peer group until I was 15. Hasn't been the same since.
It would be nice if the kiddies could grow up in mutiracial elementary schools. I wonder what it's like to have parents who are bigots when your classmates hail from the world over.
Growing up in a multiracial community is not a sure fire way to avoid racial prejudices. Consider if a kid is repeatedly beaten up by individuals from another racial group. Is it unreasonable for this kid to develop negative feelings towards that other racial group in general?
I went to a multiracial h.s., (50% white, 48% black, 2% other) and students often self-segregated when given the opportunity (the teacher allowed people to sit whereever they chose).
Growing up in a multiracial community is not a sure fire way to avoid racial prejudices. Consider if a kid is repeatedly beaten up by individuals from another racial group. Is it unreasonable for this kid to develop negative feelings towards that other racial group in general?
I went to a multiracial h.s., (50% white, 48% black, 2% other) and students often self-segregated when given the opportunity (the teacher allowed people to sit whereever they chose).
Pres-man, I gotta agree.
What's interesting is that in my HS we saw both self segregation and mixing. Mixing or not mixing seems to have depended on the personality of the students, and perhaps their family backgrounds.
|
|
Racism can be reduced though. I didn't say it would be easy. As far as cognitive theories of racial prejudice, psychologists say that around the age of eight, with meaningful encounters to people who look different than you, racial prejudice starts to diminish.Interesting. I was in an almost exclusively white peer group until I was 15. Hasn't been the same since.
It would be nice if the kiddies could grow up in mutiracial elementary schools. I wonder what it's like to have parents who are bigots when your classmates hail from the world over.
Growing up in a multiracial community is not a sure fire way to avoid racial prejudices. Consider if a kid is repeatedly beaten up by individuals from another racial group. Is it unreasonable for this kid to develop negative feelings towards that other racial group in general?
I went to a multiracial h.s., (50% white, 48% black, 2% other) and students often self-segregated when given the opportunity (the teacher allowed people to sit whereever they chose).
Heh. My freshman year of high school, I was literaly the only white male at the school (Irvington High School, Irvington New Jersey). I sprinted home from school EVERY DAY. One of the track coaches saw me running home one day, keeping just ahead of a couple kids intent on kicking my a$$, saw me in school the next day, and asked me to join the cross country team. So that was kinda cool.
The problem with racism is the insistence of the media and a lot of people to assume racism means only "whites hating an ethnic group". When we as a society decide hate is a two way street, and not just the "white man's burden", maybe we can have a real dialogue. Until then, making one group feel guilty (even people in that group who aren't racist) and giving everyone else a pass is just going to stagnate the issue further.
Of course, that would require a sea change in the way we think, collectively, so i'm not holding my breath...
|
|
I've kept my highschool weight at age 31 by eating lots of veges, little red meat and exercising 3 times a week usually.I'm glad I haven't kept my High School weight. I was 6'3" and weighed 145 lbs.
Yeah, same here, i was 6'1", 148 my senior year. I weighed 180 after basic and AIT in the army five months later. I hated being a beanpole...
|
It would be nice if the kiddies could grow up in mutiracial elementary schools.
I remember in first grade, I'd often walk home with a black classmate (I'm white). My school was not allowed to have a 2nd grade (mandated by the government to promote racial commingling), so we were bussed off across town to a "black school". We didn't commingle though. The school had a main building (where all the black kids went) and separate "pods" for all us white kids from across town. Go go gadget government!
Racism can be reduced though. I didn't say it would be easy. As far as cognitive theories of racial prejudice, psychologists say that around the age of eight, with meaningful encounters to people who look different than you, racial prejudice starts to diminish.Interesting. I was in an almost exclusively white peer group until I was 15. Hasn't been the same since.
It would be nice if the kiddies could grow up in mutiracial elementary schools. I wonder what it's like to have parents who are bigots when your classmates hail from the world over.
Growing up in a multiracial community is not a sure fire way to avoid racial prejudices. Consider if a kid is repeatedly beaten up by individuals from another racial group. Is it unreasonable for this kid to develop negative feelings towards that other racial group in general?
I went to a multiracial h.s., (50% white, 48% black, 2% other) and students often self-segregated when given the opportunity (the teacher allowed people to sit whereever they chose).
Heh. My freshman year of high school, I was literaly the only white male at the school (Irvington High School, Irvington New Jersey). I sprinted home from school EVERY DAY. One of the track coaches saw me running home one day, keeping just ahead of a couple kids intent on kicking my a$$, saw me in school the next day, and asked me to join the cross country team. So that was kinda cool.
The problem with racism is the insistence of the media and a lot of people to assume racism means only "whites hating an ethnic group". When we as a society decide hate is a two way street, and not just the "white man's burden", maybe we can have a real dialogue. Until then, making one group feel guilty (even people in that group who aren't racist) and giving everyone else a pass is just going to stagnate the issue further.
Of course, that would require a sea change in the way we think, collectively, so i'm not holding my breath...
I can relate. White people don't have a monopoly on racism and hate.
|
|
This may shock some of you, but I have a big problem with government provided healthcare...
Where do you think the government will get the money to pay for this?
Let's say you have a neighbor a few houses down. You hardly ever see him, but those few times that you do, you never talk to him...
One day, he comes knocking on your door...
He says he's having this operation next week, and he demands that you help pay the bill...
Do I think that insurance companies are charging to much for personal health care? You bet...
But I think the government should stay out of our business!
A few years back, people were talking bad about Wal Mart, and the fact that they don't take care of their employees as well as some people thought they should...
It was said that the government should step in and force them to pay benefits..
Again, I turn this around and make it personal to you...
YOU have this business, and you are doing well...
Then this guy steps in and says you're making too much money, and that guy over there isn't doing so good. So you must start giving him a percentage of your profits or you can no longer run your business...
It is my opinion that if you want to help somebody out, it should be your choice, not the government's...
-That One Digitalelf Fellow-
So you oppose Taxes in general then?
P.s. The EU offers universal health care to all, and we have 200 million more people then America. Heck, the US is the one western industrialised nation lacking universal health care.
|
|
And you said they gave people shovels to build roads, not tractors.
Rather respond piece by piece to your reply, which would be rather frustrating, I'm just going to quote myself: "I really don't see what the difference, is economic terms, is between the state hiring a man to build roads in national forests using shovels, tractors and trucks paid for by the government, and the [state] hiring a man ...to kill enemy soldiers with rifles, tanks and bombers paid for by the government."
So no Sam, I did actually say "shovels, tractors and trucks." I don't know if you're a sloppy reader, or if you're just so eager to refute the point you couldn't be bothered to actually attempt to understand it first, but yeah, you're wrong. I said tractors, and then your comment implied that tractor factories can't be converted in tractor factories.
Also, you clearly know nothing at all about the public works projects engaged in during the new deal, which you rather ignorantly dismiss as "building nature trails."
I'd just bail out of this conversation if I was you, because you look pretty silly, and you certainly aren't going to get a fair response from me, what with me now thinking your blinded by ideology and not very good at following a conversation, and thus not really worth talking to.
|
|
Sam, just so you can know what you're talking about, and not say dumb things like "building nature paths", here's a little bit abvout the Public Works Administration:
"The Public Works Administration of 1933 was a New Deal agency that made contracts with private firms for construction of public works. It was headed by Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes.
The Public Works Administration (PWA) was created by the National Industrial Recovery Act on June 16, 1933. It was budgeted several billion dollars to be spent on the construction of public works as a means of providing employment, stabilizing purchasing power, improving public welfare, and contributing to a revival of American industry. Simply put, it was designed to spend "big bucks on big projects."
Frances Perkins had first suggested a federally financed public works program, and the idea received considerable support from Harold Ickes, James Farley, and Henry Wallace. After having scaled back the initial cost of the PWA, Franklin D. Roosevelt agreed to include the PWA as part of his New Deal reforms.
More than any other New Deal program, the PWA epitomized the Rooseveltian notion of "priming the pump" to encourage economic growth. Between July 1933 and March 1939 the PWA funded the construction of more than 34,000 projects including airports, electricity-generating dams, aircraft carriers; and 70% of the new schools and 1/3 of the hospitals built between 1933-1939. It also electrified the Pennsylvania Railroad between New York and Washington, DC. The PWA did not create as much affordable housing as supporters would have hoped, building only 25,000 units of in 4½ years.
The PWA spent over $6 billion, but did not succeed in returning the level of industrial activity to pre-Depression levels. Nor did it significantly reduce the unemployment level or help jumpstart a widespread creation of small businesses. Roosevelt, personally opposed to deficit spending, refused to spend the sums necessary to accomplish these goals. Nonetheless, the historical legacy of the PWA is perhaps as important as its practical accomplishments at the time. It provided the federal government with its first systematic network for the distribution of funds to localities, ensured that conservation would remain an element in the national discussion, and provided federal administrators with a broad amount of badly needed experience in public policy planning.
When Roosevelt moved industry toward war production and abandoned his opposition to deficit spending, the PWA became irrelevant and was abolished in June 1941." - economicexpert.com
|
|
I did not know any whites lived in Scurvington. One day I took the wrong bus from Penn Station Newark and got onto the Irvington bus instead. When it veered off of South Orange Ave I remember thinking to myself "Wow, Newark looks even worse than normal today." After I realized my mistake I walked back toward South Orange Ave with the bottle atop the old brewery as my landmark. (What was that plant? Pabst? It has been so long I do not remember.) All the way there I was worried that I would wind up in a bag. Thankfully, during my college years I looked like an extra from a Hell's Angels movie. Or perhaps people just had better things to do than mess with someone at random.
I think me and my uncle, and our German neighbors were the only ones (stuyvesant ave @ clinton). I moved in with my grandparents a couple of months later (after I was caught for the first time and wound up in the hospital with a broken orbital bone and cracked ribs) and went to Columbia High (Maplewood). I moved back to upstate new york for the end of my freshman year after my mom got it together.
Do you know that more people die from black widow bites than from rattlesnakes every year?
Did you know that hippos kill more people in Africa every year than all of the snakes there put together?