a portrait - Ellen DeGeneres

"David J. Littleboy" wrote in message
...
"Peter" wrote:
"David Ruether" wrote:

I'm not much for conspiracy theories, but one of them does
appear to stand out recently. The Republicans voted for the
VERY expensive *unfunded* Medicare "Advantage" plan,
and to me it appears likely to have been intended to bankrupt
Medicare much sooner (the Republicans are not normally
considered the party of public welfare...;-), and thus finally
eliminate that "socialistic" program. Much as I personally like
my Medicare Advantage plan (what's not to like about it,
except what it would do to the future of Medicare funding),
I would be quite willing to pay more for a "straight" form of
Medicare, without the deceptions and nonsense. With the
recent health care reform legislation, this change is likely to
happen. I tend to see the financial area nonsense as a "Gee,
how can we make it easy for our (rich) friends and us to
make even more money, the industry (and country) stability
be hanged!". Gosh, libertarian rapaciousness really CAN
still operate even in a "socialist" economy...! 8^)

To reform our Medicare system, just allow negotiation of drug prices. It is outrageous that I can purchase my pharms in Canada
for less money than my co-pay here.

This would help, but do relatively little, unfortunately, overall.
Cutting back on the Advantage plan (as is likely to happen,
with its "free" gym memberships, "free" exams, "free" *yearly*
expensive colonoscopies, and in Florida, basically 100% coverage)
will also help.

Toss in single-payer and strict control of medical services fees (as done in Japan, where medical expenditures are 1/3 (per
capita) those in the US and quality of care is better) and we can begin to make a dent in the Bush deficit. --
David J. Littleboy
Tokyo, Japan

You point out a better system, but don't you realize that *we* can't
understand that *someone else* may actually have a demonstrably
better way of doing things?! And if it looks even remotely "socialistic",
the idea is dead on arrival. Americans are so unbelievably "insular",
short-sighted, and tied up with their mythologies for their own good...
--DR

On Mon, 26 Apr 2010 10:54:20 -0400, "David Ruether"
wrote:


"David J. Littleboy" wrote in message
m...
"Peter" wrote:
"David Ruether" wrote:

I'm not much for conspiracy theories, but one of them does
appear to stand out recently. The Republicans voted for the
VERY expensive *unfunded* Medicare "Advantage" plan,
and to me it appears likely to have been intended to bankrupt
Medicare much sooner (the Republicans are not normally
considered the party of public welfare...;-), and thus finally
eliminate that "socialistic" program. Much as I personally like
my Medicare Advantage plan (what's not to like about it,
except what it would do to the future of Medicare funding),
I would be quite willing to pay more for a "straight" form of
Medicare, without the deceptions and nonsense. With the
recent health care reform legislation, this change is likely to
happen. I tend to see the financial area nonsense as a "Gee,
how can we make it easy for our (rich) friends and us to
make even more money, the industry (and country) stability
be hanged!". Gosh, libertarian rapaciousness really CAN
still operate even in a "socialist" economy...! 8^)

To reform our Medicare system, just allow negotiation of drug prices. It is outrageous that I can purchase my pharms in Canada
for less money than my co-pay here.

This would help, but do relatively little, unfortunately, overall.
Cutting back on the Advantage plan (as is likely to happen,
with its "free" gym memberships, "free" exams, "free" *yearly*
expensive colonoscopies, and in Florida, basically 100% coverage)
will also help.

Toss in single-payer and strict control of medical services fees (as done in Japan, where medical expenditures are 1/3 (per
capita) those in the US and quality of care is better) and we can begin to make a dent in the Bush deficit. --
David J. Littleboy
Tokyo, Japan

You point out a better system, but don't you realize that *we* can't
understand that *someone else* may actually have a demonstrably
better way of doing things?! And if it looks even remotely "socialistic",
the idea is dead on arrival. Americans are so unbelievably "insular",
short-sighted, and tied up with their mythologies for their own good...
--DR


Health care, Governments, Photography, Cameras ... they're all the same.
The more money you throw at health-care, governments, photography, or
cameras, the better they'll be!

After-all, "You get what you pay for!" Right?

Well, that's what all these fools always keep claiming anyway.

:-)

Fun anecdote: Back in the 80's, I researched the studies done by the Nobel
Laureate who got his award for discovering the Hep-B virus. In his studies
I also discovered that he found the cure for the virus, in a plant from
India. In Ayurvedic practitioner's lingo it's known as Bhumy Amalaki (the
easiest name to buy it under from Indian herb dealers). In scientific
circles it's known as Phylanthus niruri, P. nituri, or P. amarus, 3 names
caused by regional dialect variations and confusion in the identification
of this plant (which added another 9 months to my research to pin down and
sort out the confusion). The drug companies tried to cover it up by
meticulously sending out reps to all libraries to rip out those pages from
the Lancet. Scouring and contacting 5 states of libraries I finally found
the pertinent pages in a small town library that the drug-reps missed
visiting and I got the name of the plant. Bhumy Amalaki is sold for $8 a
pound (back then), and that is enough to cure about 10 people. For less
than $1 you can completely cure someone of Hep-B. But no, the drug
companies can't patent a whole plant. Only the whole plant is effective and
the active constituent can't be synthesized. They tried a few times, coming
up with a drug they were going to market as "Phylanthenol", which failed.
The FDA (government) also prevents all doctors from prescribing a plant. So
they'd rather not tell anyone of the simple cure and let people suffer and
die for the last 30 years until they can make a profit from it.

Back then I sent my findings to the headquarters of the "Act-Up" activists,
with all my research and the recommended dosage regimen. 3 tsp. 3x per day
for 1 week, 1 tsp. 1x per day for another 3-4 weeks. Just spoon the
powdered plant on your tongue, wash down with water, totally safe, no bad
flavor, cannot overdose, been used for other ailments for over 3000 years
in India. If anyone needs to be cured of Hep-B they need only contact
Act-Up (or use the information from this very post), and they can save
their own lives for $1. (Sorry, it is ineffective on Hep-C.)

Or ... you could go on a many-multi-$thousand$-dollar expensive, still
experimental, and deadly interferon program provided by the "excellent"
health-care system.

After-all ... you get what you pay for! Right?

:-)

[**Ooops. dosage correction.**]

On Mon, 26 Apr 2010 10:54:20 -0400, "David Ruether"
wrote:


"David J. Littleboy" wrote in message
m...
"Peter" wrote:
"David Ruether" wrote:

I'm not much for conspiracy theories, but one of them does
appear to stand out recently. The Republicans voted for the
VERY expensive *unfunded* Medicare "Advantage" plan,
and to me it appears likely to have been intended to bankrupt
Medicare much sooner (the Republicans are not normally
considered the party of public welfare...;-), and thus finally
eliminate that "socialistic" program. Much as I personally like
my Medicare Advantage plan (what's not to like about it,
except what it would do to the future of Medicare funding),
I would be quite willing to pay more for a "straight" form of
Medicare, without the deceptions and nonsense. With the
recent health care reform legislation, this change is likely to
happen. I tend to see the financial area nonsense as a "Gee,
how can we make it easy for our (rich) friends and us to
make even more money, the industry (and country) stability
be hanged!". Gosh, libertarian rapaciousness really CAN
still operate even in a "socialist" economy...! 8^)

To reform our Medicare system, just allow negotiation of drug prices. It is outrageous that I can purchase my pharms in Canada
for less money than my co-pay here.

This would help, but do relatively little, unfortunately, overall.
Cutting back on the Advantage plan (as is likely to happen,
with its "free" gym memberships, "free" exams, "free" *yearly*
expensive colonoscopies, and in Florida, basically 100% coverage)
will also help.

Toss in single-payer and strict control of medical services fees (as done in Japan, where medical expenditures are 1/3 (per
capita) those in the US and quality of care is better) and we can begin to make a dent in the Bush deficit. --
David J. Littleboy
Tokyo, Japan

You point out a better system, but don't you realize that *we* can't
understand that *someone else* may actually have a demonstrably
better way of doing things?! And if it looks even remotely "socialistic",
the idea is dead on arrival. Americans are so unbelievably "insular",
short-sighted, and tied up with their mythologies for their own good...
--DR


Health care, Governments, Photography, Cameras ... they're all the same.
The more money you throw at health-care, governments, photography, or
cameras, the better they'll be!

After-all, "You get what you pay for!" Right?

Well, that's what all these fools always keep claiming anyway.

:-)

Fun anecdote: Back in the 80's, I researched the studies done by the Nobel
Laureate who got his award for discovering the Hep-B virus. In his studies
I also discovered that he found the cure for the virus, in a plant from
India. In Ayurvedic practitioner's lingo it's known as Bhumy Amalaki (the
easiest name to buy it under from Indian herb dealers). In scientific
circles it's known as Phylanthus niruri, P. nituri, or P. amarus, 3 names
caused by regional dialect variations and confusion in the identification
of this plant (which added another 9 months to my research to pin down and
sort out the confusion). The drug companies tried to cover it up by
meticulously sending out reps to all libraries to rip out those pages from
the Lancet. Scouring and contacting 5 states of libraries I finally found
the pertinent pages in a small town library that the drug-reps missed
visiting and I got the name of the plant. Bhumy Amalaki is sold for $8 a
pound (back then), and that is enough to cure about 10 people. For less
than $1 you can completely cure someone of Hep-B. But no, the drug
companies can't patent a whole plant. Only the whole plant is effective and
the active constituent can't be synthesized. They tried a few times, coming
up with a drug they were going to market as "Phylanthenol", which failed.
The FDA (government) also prevents all doctors from prescribing a plant. So
they'd rather not tell anyone of the simple cure and let people suffer and
die for the last 30 years until they can make a profit from it.

Back then I sent my findings to the headquarters of the "Act-Up" activists,
with all my research and the recommended dosage regimen. [**Correction**] 1
tsp. 3x per day for 1 week, 1 tsp. 1x per day for another 3-4 weeks. Just
spoon the powdered plant on your tongue, wash down with water, totally
safe, no bad flavor, cannot overdose, been used for other ailments for over
3000 years in India. If anyone needs to be cured of Hep-B they need only
contact Act-Up (or use the information from this very post), and they can
save their own lives for $1. (Sorry, it is ineffective on Hep-C.)

Or ... you could go on a many-multi-$thousand$-dollar expensive, still
experimental, and deadly interferon program provided by the "excellent"
health-care system.

After-all ... you get what you pay for! Right?

:-)

On 4/26/2010 7:54 AM David Ruether spake thus:

You point out a better system, but don't you realize that *we* can't
understand that *someone else* may actually have a demonstrably
better way of doing things?! And if it looks even remotely "socialistic",
the idea is dead on arrival. Americans are so unbelievably "insular",
short-sighted, and tied up with their mythologies for their own good...

Yep. You've just described the concept of American exceptionalism to a T
(IOW, the laws of economics, sociology, history, etc., apply everywhere
except to the U.S. of A.)


--
The fashion in killing has an insouciant, flirty style this spring,
with the flaunting of well-defined muscle, wrapped in flags.

- Comment from an article on Antiwar.com (http://antiwar.com)

On Sun, 25 Apr 2010 19:40:39 -0400, "Peter"
wrote:

"David Ruether" wrote in message
...


I'm not much for conspiracy theories, but one of them does
appear to stand out recently. The Republicans voted for the
VERY expensive *unfunded* Medicare "Advantage" plan,
and to me it appears likely to have been intended to bankrupt
Medicare much sooner (the Republicans are not normally
considered the party of public welfare...;-), and thus finally
eliminate that "socialistic" program. Much as I personally like
my Medicare Advantage plan (what's not to like about it,
except what it would do to the future of Medicare funding),
I would be quite willing to pay more for a "straight" form of
Medicare, without the deceptions and nonsense. With the
recent health care reform legislation, this change is likely to
happen. I tend to see the financial area nonsense as a "Gee,
how can we make it easy for our (rich) friends and us to
make even more money, the industry (and country) stability
be hanged!". Gosh, libertarian rapaciousness really CAN
still operate even in a "socialist" economy...! 8^)

To reform our Medicare system, just allow negotiation of drug prices. It is
outrageous that I can purchase my pharms in Canada for less money than my
co-pay here.

What's happening in the UK is similar but different: I think our
National Health Service has been learning the worst practices from
your HMOs and now vice versa. After our Election I suspect control of
the NHS will be handed to your insurance companies who have already
been making inroads.

Currently doctors are being told they MUST NOT prescribe test strips
to Type 2 diabetics, and MUST NOT encourage other than high carb low
fat diets. Now they are being told to ensure that Type 2s do not
achieve A1cs lower than 6.5. This may save money short term but long
term it will cost a LOT, Unless of course they succeed in killing off
enough of the diabetic population early, then it will be quite cost
effective.

Currently medications are sourced from India, Turkey, wherever they
can buy them cheapest.

In your case the plan is to maximise profit for the HMOs, here it's to
employ more managers rather than medically qualified people. Well
since they destroyed industry they have to work somewhere G

"Bill Graham" wrote in message
...

"Peter" wrote in message
...
"Bill Graham" wrote in message
...

"Peter" wrote in message
...

The customers that were buying these mortgage backed insured securities
were pension fund managers who were duped into believing they were
buying AA rated investments. The seller's knew the rating was pure
bull****.


Who rated them, "AA", and why isn't there a comfortable jail cell for
those who have this power and misuse it? It seems to me that such things
would be easy to regulate, and not something that has to be handled by
rocket scientists. Has it become politicized? does every "regulation"
bill carry some sort of expensive "rider" that gives lots of money to
some undeserving person or organization?


Moody's & Standard & Poor. Do your own research.

Why can't our government handle even the simplest task without F****** it
up?

Too many people don't want to pay for proper oversight. They claim it's
an intrusion into our rights.

--
Peter
Why don't the losers sue Moody's and S & P for their losses?


Wait.

--
Peter

"Albert Ross" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 25 Apr 2010 13:58:16 -0700, Savageduck
wrote:


I'm surprised the "Goodfellas" aren't hunting them down.
They can be relentless that way.
When I was living in Up State NY, I remember a protected card game on
the Italian side of Utica NY, which three very stupid guys held up in
1971. It took about 6 weeks for all three to show up in the NY Barge
Canal. When the game is protected, it is protected.

Yeah. The problem is people like Madorff and the rest are Protected by
their heritage and friends.

Imagine a Scottish criminal breaks into a bank and robs it using a JCB
and gelignite. He would get a prison sentence.

Imagine another Scottish criminal who breaks into a bank and robs it
by becoming its director. Because the Prime Minister is also Scottish
he gets early retirement and a lifetime pension paid by the taxpayer.

Utica was a strange city back then. One side of town was Italian, the
other Polish, with a WASP line down the middle, and some projects near
the station.
Nothing got done in that town unless it got OKed by the local "Boss" a
guy named Rufus Elefante, who held court in a back booth of "Henry's
Pancake House"
Hell the police chief was Angelo Benedetto! It was like a scene from
the Sopranoes. We had Carmen Basillio's (the boxer) Italian Sausage
factory operating there in the '70's.

At least you knew where you were with those guys


Very true. For the most part, if you didn't get involved with them they left
you alone. (unless they wanted something you had.)

BTW There's a reason I don't eat much sausage, having nothing to do with
Jewish dietary law.
--
Peter

"David J. Littleboy" wrote in message
...

"Peter" wrote:
"David Ruether" wrote:

I'm not much for conspiracy theories, but one of them does
appear to stand out recently. The Republicans voted for the
VERY expensive *unfunded* Medicare "Advantage" plan,
and to me it appears likely to have been intended to bankrupt
Medicare much sooner (the Republicans are not normally
considered the party of public welfare...;-), and thus finally
eliminate that "socialistic" program. Much as I personally like
my Medicare Advantage plan (what's not to like about it,
except what it would do to the future of Medicare funding),
I would be quite willing to pay more for a "straight" form of
Medicare, without the deceptions and nonsense. With the
recent health care reform legislation, this change is likely to
happen. I tend to see the financial area nonsense as a "Gee,
how can we make it easy for our (rich) friends and us to
make even more money, the industry (and country) stability
be hanged!". Gosh, libertarian rapaciousness really CAN
still operate even in a "socialist" economy...! 8^)

To reform our Medicare system, just allow negotiation of drug prices. It
is outrageous that I can purchase my pharms in Canada for less money than
my co-pay here.

Toss in single-payer and strict control of medical services fees (as done
in Japan, where medical expenditures are 1/3 (per capita) those in the US
and quality of care is better) and we can begin to make a dent in the Bush
deficit.



Takes more than that. The issue is not so simple and fraught with political
pitfalls.
We also need to eliminate the need for defensive medicine.
Doctors, not insurance companies should control medicine.
We also need to maintain the right to see the doctor of our choice, provided
he/she is not so busy that patient care suffers. Some medical offices have
become factories. Medicine is not a commodity. Remember, the guy who
graduated last in his class in medical school is called "doctor."

--
Peter

"Peter" wrote in message
...
"David J. Littleboy" wrote:

To reform our Medicare system, just allow negotiation of drug prices. It
is outrageous that I can purchase my pharms in Canada for less money
than my co-pay here.

Toss in single-payer and strict control of medical services fees (as done
in Japan, where medical expenditures are 1/3 (per capita) those in the US
and quality of care is better) and we can begin to make a dent in the
Bush deficit.

Takes more than that. The issue is not so simple and fraught with
political pitfalls.

No, it really is quite simple: single-payer (with all the power and control
that implies, and that power and control being used to protect patients and
keep costs in control) and progressive (income-based) rates so everyone is
covered. Works great. But the political pitfalls bit is true.

We also need to eliminate the need for defensive medicine.

This is basically wrong. The much ballyhooed (by the right) costs of
defensive medicine and malpractice insurance are a tiny (on the order of 1%
for the malpractive stuff) percentage of the costs. There simply aren't any
significant savings to be had. And to the extent that defensive medicine
reduces injury to patients, it's a very very good idea.

The reason that there are so many malpractice cases is that there's so much
malpractice and so many patients are hurt (the MGH killed my father through
a series of incredible stupidities). Lots of people are being hurt every
day. The doctors need to be doing their work a lot better. And the
malpractice system needs reform so that it provides compensation to a lot
more of the patients that are hurt: the two main problems with the current
system are (1) only a small percentage of hurt patients receive any
compensation, and (2) doctors who hurt patients aren't punished.

Doctors, not insurance companies should control medicine.

No, a single-payer, income-tax-funded goverment agency should control all
non-elective medicine. It's too important to leave to a group with a vested
interest control. (It's also a problem that most doctors aren't really
scientists and most don't keep up with the literature. It's understandable,
since they need to put in long hours working. But they really don't have the
intellectual background to make the choices that need to be made.) We need a
strong committment to science-based medicine, and that won't come from the
working doctors. Or at least is getting a lot of opposition from them and
their conservative friends.

We also need to maintain the right to see the doctor of our choice,
provided he/she is not so busy that patient care suffers.

That's how Japan works. I take my insurance card to any private practice (or
other provider) I can lug myself to. (The major teaching hospitals try to
discourage walk-ins for minor things, but once you insist, they see you.)

Doing the insurance and control bit right does not preclude choice of
provider.

Some medical offices have become factories. Medicine is not a commodity.
Remember, the guy who graduated last in his class in medical school is
called "doctor."

This is why doctors shouldn't control medicine. The good ones, the ones who
follow the literature, or who also have a PhD, or who work with scientists
on real science, are very good. But as a group, there's too much dreck.

--
David J. Littleboy
Tokyo, Japan

Based on the recent history of this newsgroup, I assume DSLR photography is
now off-topic here?