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Today is a rest day. I’ve been on my bike 5 days a week and running 2 days a week for the last 3 weeks straight. My legs need a break. I need yoga. And compression tights baby.
It’s 18 degrees outside, and I’m cranky. I just paid a $245.00 heating bill. That’s for a four room house w/ an unfinished basement. Fucking crooks, Duke Energy, I HATE YOU!
Speaking of crooks…..
I just got another bill for blood work my stupid ass health insurance didn’t cover. What the fuck DO they EVER cover? I mean, I went to the doctor 3 times last year and had to pay over $1200.00 in unpaid claims.
I pay an ENORMOUS amount of money for my health insurance plan and it’s just – ridiculous. I am thinking seriously about canceling the fucking shit for good. Plenty of people go without health insurance. I went without it for years.
And calling them, to find out why they didn’t cover something, OMG, it’s a nightmare. You know those people get cussed out on a daily basis. I know I gave her some, right before I hung up on her.
This is old news by now. I meant to post it days ago. It’s still worth mentioning.
7 year old raises money for Haiti riding his bike.
Might be why everyone is so crazy.
Biggest and brightest full moon tonight.
For all the Lance haters (I do not hate him).
Lance during the Super Bowl
That’s my little bully boy, Fausto. He’s named after Fausto Coppi.
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Costumes like that are the reason that dogs bite people.
fausto would not bite! he likes his cow suit!
My wife has a thing for Holsteins. I hope she never sees that costume.
blackdog: zolawear.com
make your wife happy.
blackdog: victoriassecret.com
make your wife(and you) happy.
If you think health insurance is expensive now. just wait until it’s free.
dave— thank you for the opportunity to point out that you’re dead wrong:
1) the US health insurance industry runs FOUR TIMES the overhead cost of the health insurance industries of most other first-world countries. These for-profit corporations are robbing us blind. Regulation would save hundreds of millions of dollars per year.
2) item for item, health care procedures cost TEN TIMES as much in the US as Japan. US doctors earn FOUR TIMES the average of doctors in other first-world countries. These for-profit corporations are robbing us blind. Regulation would save hundreds of millions of dollars per year.
3) on either a per-capita or per-patient basis, health care in the US is vastly MORE expensive than in other first-world countries. According to my simple calculations, Americans pay at least ONE TRILLION DOLLARS PER YEAR too much for health care, while receiving mid-pack care and leaving FIFTY MILLION people without access to basic health care.
American are sucking corporate cock to the tune of a trillion dollars a year— there is a HUGE COST SAVINGS ripe for picking.
thank you mikey!
Moot point. Gub’mint-run health care is dead.
We don’t reform health until after we’ve reformed tort.
Word to your Mother mikey.
People always say “tort reform,” or “reform tort.” But I’ve no idea what the mean by it. Caps on awards in general? Actual damages only and no punitives? Immunity for medical service providers? All of the above?
Yo? Where’s all the Fat Reform at? This place is crowded with slurpies. Brow
Gnome – fat reform – dead right fucking on. Need a lot less healthcare if the general populace took some measure of care of themselves.
Seriously. I think that underlines this country’s issues as much as anything. Some real accountability for one’s own actions.
dave— are you saying you want to die before the USA joins the rest of the first world? Y’all do what you want, but no thanks.
Colonel— tort reform will be required to address the health care provider cost issue. Do your research, dude. Basically, ethical, regulated health care providers are immune to malpractice lawsuits. Just like the rest of the first world, where malpractice insurance COSTS TWO PER CENT OF WHAT IT DOES IN THE USA. Once again, Americans are sucking long corporate cock. Hundreds of millions of dollars per year can be saved. This is fiscal responsibility, bitch.
No, mikey. I’m saying I want to live to a ripe old age. The chances of that will diminish exponentially if the government rations health care. Remember what your Lord and Savior Barry Hussein said? “Don’t give Grandma a pacemaker. Give her a pain pill instead”. Got news for the both of ya. I ain’t “shovel-ready”. Not by a long shot.
i’m curious to know what the voting percentage is of libertarian kool aid drinkers living like they’re marionettes being operated by neal boort’z cock or some shit. they act like they stand for something, but they just hate shit. good job, those people. we’re getting closer to solutions every day.
I’ll bet dave will love his medicare when he gets it… Hypocritical twat. He’s just a sad, cranky, bitter man, stuck in a loveless marriage, with kids who hate him… It’s best to not engage him.
“No, mikey. I’m saying I want to live to a ripe old age. The chances of that will diminish exponentially if the government rations health care.”
Dave— gosh, then why do people in about twenty other industrialized democracies, with regulated health care, live longer than Americans? Once again, you’re dead wrong.
el jefe-You can tell that much about my life, my marriage and my family from the computer in your parents’ basement? Truly, you are some kind of savant. Like rain man, perhaps.
mikey, there is an old saying. And you can take it as an axiom; so well has it stood the test of time. “Figures don’t lie. But liars DO figure.” There are so many variables in any spread sheet where the human element is involved that you’d just as well shove it up your ass. Hell, you’d probably like it.
“Figures don’t lie. But liars DO figure.”
dave— you disbelieve my simple facts, yet you’re happy to keep sucking that corporate cock? I’m sure the shareholders appreciate it; without you, their trillion dollar scam might see thinner margins, and there are houses in the Hamptons to be paid for.
mikey, listen carefully. Turn off your ipod and put down the comic book. Get a grownup’s help if you need it.
Statistics are nothing but numbers. They take the very very best and the very very worst. I’m sure that in some nanny state countries alot of people live longer than some people here in The Land Of The Free. And I’m just as sure that there are many, many people in those nanny state countries who die much too young. Of course there are many in this country who don’t take care of themselves. Obesity is epidemic. Gub’mint control is not apt to change that. And deaths from whatever violence you care to name is a factor, I’m sure.
But if you stay active like I do, exercise, eat right and see a doctor on a regular basis, your chances of living a long life are very, very good. But if health care starts being rationed like it is in those other countries, many an outcome will take a turn for the worse. In The United Kingdom, wards of the state are routinely denied a cancer drug that is available here. As a result, people die who otherwise would have lived. And if you Kenyan messiah has his way, that and worse will happen here. You can take it to the bank. Socialised health care is based on a simple principle: Delay, deny and hope you die. I want no part of that.
And mikey, what’s this “suck the corporate cock” nonsense? Project much?
give a rubber sword to a fat kid with one arm, send him to west point in monrovia, liberia, and he will be fucked and eaten. injected with disease to spite him, then popped open like a cooler of cold beers for a hungry mob of heroin-addled children. liberia is a sad sad place for anybody, especially a fat boy with one arm and a rubber sword.
“Obesity is epidemic. Gub’mint control is not apt to change that.”
dave— dead wrong. In the rest of the first world, preventive medicine controls obesity. We don’t get that here.
“In The United Kingdom, wards of the state are routinely denied a cancer drug that is available here.”
Dead wrong. In the US, fifty million people are denied ALL drugs.
“what’s this “suck the corporate cock” nonsense?”
Once again, wrong on every single point. There is a trillion dollar per year cost problem in US health care… Can you guess where that trillion dollars goes? There are over 2000, billion dollar-plus corporations in US health care. I know you hate numbers, but if you try real hard, you might notice that adds up to two trillion dollars per year. We have a huge opportunity to spend vastly less for better health care… Like the rest of the first world does. You’re a moron.
So when you’ve failed to make your case, you resort to insults and namecalling? Right out of the liberal playbook.
dave@19 – just goin’ on what you’ve posted here.
and actually mikey’s right @24 but in addition to the reason he says, people are regularly denied treatment here in the US by the bean counters at the insurance companies. But as Mikey said, facts don’t matter to you… never have never will.
So how many forums did you get kicked out of before you decided to come here and troll?
none. I was here long before you, and will be here long after you’ve gotten fed up with us liberals and put yourself out of our misery…
oh, and yawn…
Dave didn’t Dirt Rag you for life?
Ooops! Ban you for life that is.
Yes they did. I took it as a compliment.
“So when you’ve failed to make your case, you resort to insults and namecalling? Right out of the liberal playbook.”
D00d, it’s like shooting fish in a barrel. How’s this:
“so when you’ve failed to grasp a trillion-dollar annual cost savings opportunity, while preventing 22,000 deaths per year, extending the lives of all Americans and providing basic health care to an additional fifty million (mostly poor) citizens, you resort to namecalling. Right out of the MORON playbook.”
Moron. Yeesh.
mikey, a trillion dollars? 22,000 deaths a year? Fifty million citizens? Where did you get those numbers? The daily KOS? ACORN? Off the top of your head? Thin air, maybe? Should I do as Archie Bunker advised and “look it up”?
Weak sauce. Weak and sad.
“mikey, a trillion dollars? 22,000 deaths a year? Fifty million citizens? Where did you get those numbers?”
dave— we’ve been over this before. Have you been paying attention?
The trillion dollar per year cost problem is arrived at simply by taking GDP figures and doing a little arithmetic. Swiss health care (the second-most expensive in the world) would save us about 800 billion dollars a year. French, German, English, Canadian or Taiwanese health care would save us a nice, round $1T (the figure I use) and Japanese health care would about $1.5T every single year. But no, you’d rather keep schlurping that fat, profitable corporate cock.
22,000 US citizens die every year of preventable ailments because they do not have access to health care. This does not happen in any other first world country.
Fifty million is a slight exaggeration; the figure was 47 million in 2006… oh but oops, actually I’m probably low, as I’ll bet at least three million people have lost their health coverage during this “economic downturn.” Never mind, I’ll stand by the 50M figure. The only industrialized country which leaves more people uninsured is India. Yay, we’re better than India!
I would recommend T.R. Reid, _The_Healing_Of_America_. His is a well-written and impeccably researched and edited survey of health care in eight or ten industrialized democracies around the world. The facts are clear: we pay a trillion dollars a year too much for mid-pack care while leaving fifty million people without access to health care. It’s completely fucking stupid, and people like you are too ignorant and lazy to grasp this titanic opportunity. So keep schlurping, if you must, and the rest of us will try to fix the problem.
dave, I’m going to tell you this as I would the 7th graders I’ve been working with: Maybe, if everyone keeps telling you that you are an jerk and you need to stop behaving the way that you are, you should think about it, and possibly change your behavior. After a while the evidence suggests that YOU are the problem, not the rest of the world. Maybe less people will hate you.
Now, I’m going back to laughing at you.
We pay double per capita for health care compared to other industrialized nations and get below average life expectancy in return. Would WalMart be in business if it charged double and had lower quality?
Compression pants. The 50’s-60’s girdle manufactures changed from white and creme to black and marketed to men. Viola Compression pants and we all ate it up….
Guess what! Canadians don’t want to give up our health care for yours. Nor do the French, Germans, Japanese, Italians…
Figure that one out.
Health care schmelth care. I used to care, (still do) but it’s not going to happen for a while. We need reform of the system first and then gradually move into a system over the next 10 to 15 years that works for us. Sucks, but I think it’s reality.
Enough about health care… Let’s talk about Fausto. He’s great! I’m a big bully advocate. They’re so mis-understood. They are the sweetest, kid loving, attention seeking, lap-dogs. Mine’s named Petty after the great Tom Petty. Give Fausto rub for me.
Judi
I hope you are claiming that on taxes as “noncovered medical expenses”. $1200 is a huge chunk.
bike scag – you better believe i did!
See? It’s a deduction. You get your gub’mint cheese either way.
jesus fucking christ there are 41 comments on this post!
nathan, i’m so glad SOMEONE noticed my baby fausto. thanks. i hate bsl too. we actually live in an area that banned pits yet we walk around with him and no one says anything. bsl is a crock of shit too.
@dave – no, it bumped my return up about 50 bucks. if that.
Fitty dollah? Gub’mint cheese is gub’mint cheese.
Well, you’re welcome. He’s the first thing I noticed. He’s awesome!
BSL IS a crock of shit. Legislators who legislate shit like that are uneducated fools. It’s like saying car accidents have killed/hurt X many people this year so we’re going to make cars illegal. There’s never talk of the real problem… PEOPLE. the lack of RESPONSIBILITY. People will always fuck things up. Dogs are here and want to be companions. It’s ridiculous! Bull shit and lazy on their part on the part of the legislators.
By the way, my Petty loves it when I get my Kona Africa bike out because he knows that means he gets to run next to it, which generally means frisbee time! I bought that bike specifically for him to run next to.
I figured I should point this back to cycling somehow.
While I’m here, has anyone ridden HED Ardennes or Rolf Elans? I’m looking at both right now. Leaning towards the Ardennes at the moment, but would love to get some opinions if anyone’s got one.