As a libertarian, the whole arrangement is patently offensive to me. Health policy in this country has always been about providing it as a welfare service to those who can't afford insurance while at the same time allowing the rest of us to decide as to whether our own situation dictates whether or not the purchase of health insurance is a gamble with some positive expectation. At least in a welfare system, there is no facade as to how taxation is used to provide services to the population as a whole. Massachusetts' system however is a tax where the collector is private enterprise with a profit motive. Taken together, the law should be enough to offend everyone. In Massachusetts' however - not enough people seem to be paying attention. Oh my god, it's a Libertarian who gets the fucking point.
As a Liberal, I'm frequently shocked by Libertarians utter disdain for public services(I'm looking at you Ron Paul) and blatant misrepresentation of what Government is, or even that it can do a good job(I'm looking at you Penn Jilette). However, as it can be easily shown, no matter how bad Government is and no matter how infinite it can be incompetent, there is no shortage of examples from within the private sector of private businesses and Non Government Organizations screwing up just as badly. The major difference of course, is accountability. We can hold our Government more accountable for it's actions through elections.
Most conservatives would say that you're just bloating an inefficient government program, but the reality is is that HMOs are just as bad, if not worse than Medicaid/Medicare.
I'd rather have my money go to Medicaid, which if the state elected bureaucrat fucks it up, I can vote the asshole out of office, than to say, Aetna or Kaiser, where if the CEO or other top level official fucks up, he gets a golden parachute and some bad press. There are just some things that we should not leave to profit-driven organizations. When people's lives are at stake, profit should be the last thing on anyone's mind.
A lot of people argue this is unfair and creates a two tier system for the haves and have nots, which it does, but basically life is unfair and the current system is the most effective way we have for ensuring everyone is looked after. Beyond that, they fail to examine the American system that has a several tier system. Haves mores, haves, have very little and have nots.
Between letting someone die because they can't afford insurance or making them wait for treatment, even if they might die waiting, at least gives them the hope that the system gives some level of caring. Plus if you take into account preventative health care, those kinds of issues become less and less likely. It may still happen, with a variety of diseases you could be carrying that might just suddenly pop up, but chronic illnesses do get treated.
i can read DBZ, Initial D, and even Bleach enjoy that all of the events are going to lead up to an end. That each of the characters involved have some sort of final outcome. American comics, except really awesome books like Warren Ellis' Transmetropolitan, just never end and the drama just never builds. We never get a sense that there's a deeper character there at all. We have vague outlines of what a character should be, but it's so flexible, it's pointless. Scott Summers, perfect example. Over the years he's been both an Emo Boy(Man now, I guess) and a really badass protagonist. How can I take that literarilly serious? How can I root for a guy who's backstory is super complicated, and probably has never had any effect on his current self? Batman, Superman, and Spiderman all have this problem. Batman has been working for over 80 years. I know he's a rich millionaire playboy, but for god's sake, RETIRE ALREADY. Superman's the same way! Peter Parker's hit over 40. In 10 years, the character will have been old enough to collect Social Security.
Comics, American style atleast, are the modern day answer to Greek Myths. Very entertaining, very dramatic, but in the end, very shallow.
Manga? Shounen Jump is like, 4 bucks a month for like, 5 or 6 comics jsut right for pre-teen/tween(god i hate that phrase)/early teen/late teen if htey're geeky enough.
Not that it couldn't be used for something interesting, but it was used mostly for games and uninteresting web animations. I never bothered installing the flash plugin for the browser I was using, ever, until YouTube came around.
Depends. The intelligence community knew something was up(thus the titled report), but didn't know when/where. We were kind of due for an attack at that point. Cole in 2000, embassy bombings in 1998, various smaller scale terror activity in the mid 90's, the first WTC bombing in 93.
Every report from within the Whitehouse during the 2001 year indicated there was ZERO interest in what was going on in the middle east. The National Security Advisor they brought in had little Mid-East experience and even less interest. Condi was an expert on Russia. Donald Rumsfeld, and numerous individuals within the administration itself just did not fucking care about Al Qaeda despite numerous people from Sandy Berger to George "Slam-Dunk" Tenent.
Nor would I accept quotes from O'Rielly, Coulter, or Hannity, unless they were backed up with good documentation. They have been shown repeatedly to lie, alter facts, like, make shit up, and lie. Bring me a credible right wing pundit (they do exist - they just aren't the big names) and I'll be much more likely to accept what they have to say. PJ O'Rouke.
He should stop hating democrats. He has more in common with democrats these days than he wants to acknowledge.
Guns, drugs, sex and rock'n'roll. Where he and most modern democrats differ of course, is fiscal policy.
Note that he didn't prevent the attack, he reacted to an attack that had already happened. Personally, that's all I would expect of a government, but people seem to think 9/11 was easily preventable. In that case, the original WTC attack should have been preventable as well. The 2nd WTC attack was preventable.
Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US. In August of 2001.
The 1st WTC attack was on the day of February 26, 1993. A scant month after Clinton took office.
Howevr, the 2nd one took place, of course, on September 11th, 2001. Nearly 8 months after Bush took office. In those 8 months was there any evidence that there was activity within the white house that he was actually pursuing Bin Laden?
Yeah, but UMK3 wasn't close to having the tough requirements that Virtual Fighter has in terms of timing. Plus it was on a dedicated T1 that wasn't connected to anything else but Williams.
You're also worrying about sync problems too, which just adds to your overhead.
Fighting games since Super SF2 Turbo have been about tightly timed combos and counter attacks. If there's even a little bit of lag, some players will complain, whether there's a problem or not.
yes, but of those phones, very few of them have a decent webbrowser or PDA like functions.
Those with PDA like functions, or smart phones, have screens and interfaces that are not friendly to touch only operation. Styluses suck. Period. Removing the need for styluses removes the need for tiny pieces of plastic that are easily lost yet required for daily operation of a smart phone. It makes it... easier. Like, there's a focus on the ease on how to use it.
after being a smart phone/PDA/Nintendo DS user and at the same time a habitual stylus mis-placer, THE MERE CONCEPT of stylus-free operation makes me want to go out and buy it.
It depends on the situation. If they're sharing a machine, then it's pretty hands off the software. If a machine however, is going to be occupied by a single user, there should be some leeway given.
Slashdot Mirror
Torvalds is like his representative icon.
A penguin.
A penguin is fun, friendly and unassuming.
As a Liberal, I'm frequently shocked by Libertarians utter disdain for public services(I'm looking at you Ron Paul) and blatant misrepresentation of what Government is, or even that it can do a good job(I'm looking at you Penn Jilette). However, as it can be easily shown, no matter how bad Government is and no matter how infinite it can be incompetent, there is no shortage of examples from within the private sector of private businesses and Non Government Organizations screwing up just as badly. The major difference of course, is accountability. We can hold our Government more accountable for it's actions through elections.
Most conservatives would say that you're just bloating an inefficient government program, but the reality is is that HMOs are just as bad, if not worse than Medicaid/Medicare.
I'd rather have my money go to Medicaid, which if the state elected bureaucrat fucks it up, I can vote the asshole out of office, than to say, Aetna or Kaiser, where if the CEO or other top level official fucks up, he gets a golden parachute and some bad press. There are just some things that we should not leave to profit-driven organizations. When people's lives are at stake, profit should be the last thing on anyone's mind.
Between letting someone die because they can't afford insurance or making them wait for treatment, even if they might die waiting, at least gives them the hope that the system gives some level of caring. Plus if you take into account preventative health care, those kinds of issues become less and less likely. It may still happen, with a variety of diseases you could be carrying that might just suddenly pop up, but chronic illnesses do get treated.
Esp. with Japanese competition?
i can read DBZ, Initial D, and even Bleach enjoy that all of the events are going to lead up to an end. That each of the characters involved have some sort of final outcome. American comics, except really awesome books like Warren Ellis' Transmetropolitan, just never end and the drama just never builds. We never get a sense that there's a deeper character there at all. We have vague outlines of what a character should be, but it's so flexible, it's pointless. Scott Summers, perfect example. Over the years he's been both an Emo Boy(Man now, I guess) and a really badass protagonist. How can I take that literarilly serious? How can I root for a guy who's backstory is super complicated, and probably has never had any effect on his current self? Batman, Superman, and Spiderman all have this problem. Batman has been working for over 80 years. I know he's a rich millionaire playboy, but for god's sake, RETIRE ALREADY. Superman's the same way! Peter Parker's hit over 40. In 10 years, the character will have been old enough to collect Social Security.
Comics, American style atleast, are the modern day answer to Greek Myths. Very entertaining, very dramatic, but in the end, very shallow.
Manga? Shounen Jump is like, 4 bucks a month for like, 5 or 6 comics jsut right for pre-teen/tween(god i hate that phrase)/early teen/late teen if htey're geeky enough.
Nope. Dennis Kucinich also voted against the war.
Even with the odds stacked against him, he's still running.
James Lee Witt wasn't an idiot. Neither was Sandy Berger.
iPhone - 495
My Stylus habit? 20 bucks a week.
An iPhone will save me 500 bucks in a year.
No, it just means that there's nothing in the user experience dictates that you must be a communist left wing Steve Jobs hippie to use it.
before FLV, Flash was a novelty.
Not that it couldn't be used for something interesting, but it was used mostly for games and uninteresting web animations. I never bothered installing the flash plugin for the browser I was using, ever, until YouTube came around.
Rush Limbaugh loves Apple computers.
Did you go to college?
Depends. The intelligence community knew something was up(thus the titled report), but didn't know when/where. We were kind of due for an attack at that point. Cole in 2000, embassy bombings in 1998, various smaller scale terror activity in the mid 90's, the first WTC bombing in 93.
Every report from within the Whitehouse during the 2001 year indicated there was ZERO interest in what was going on in the middle east. The National Security Advisor they brought in had little Mid-East experience and even less interest. Condi was an expert on Russia. Donald Rumsfeld, and numerous individuals within the administration itself just did not fucking care about Al Qaeda despite numerous people from Sandy Berger to George "Slam-Dunk" Tenent.
He should stop hating democrats. He has more in common with democrats these days than he wants to acknowledge.
Guns, drugs, sex and rock'n'roll. Where he and most modern democrats differ of course, is fiscal policy.
Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US. In August of 2001.
The 1st WTC attack was on the day of February 26, 1993. A scant month after Clinton took office.
Howevr, the 2nd one took place, of course, on September 11th, 2001. Nearly 8 months after Bush took office. In those 8 months was there any evidence that there was activity within the white house that he was actually pursuing Bin Laden?
Okay
Bin Laden Determined to Strike Within the USA.
Yeah, but UMK3 wasn't close to having the tough requirements that Virtual Fighter has in terms of timing. Plus it was on a dedicated T1 that wasn't connected to anything else but Williams.
You're also worrying about sync problems too, which just adds to your overhead.
Fighting games since Super SF2 Turbo have been about tightly timed combos and counter attacks. If there's even a little bit of lag, some players will complain, whether there's a problem or not.
The problem is games like Tekken require accuracy down to the individual frame. Online fighitng game play is just now coming into fruition.
Being broke, hungry and a college student, I kind of got dragged kicking and screaming into IT.
yes, but of those phones, very few of them have a decent webbrowser or PDA like functions.
Those with PDA like functions, or smart phones, have screens and interfaces that are not friendly to touch only operation. Styluses suck. Period. Removing the need for styluses removes the need for tiny pieces of plastic that are easily lost yet required for daily operation of a smart phone. It makes it... easier. Like, there's a focus on the ease on how to use it.
Yes, it's much easier to not do your job than it is to do it.
If it's not part of your job as an IT professional to learn new platforms, leave. They clearly have no idea what's going on.
after being a smart phone/PDA/Nintendo DS user and at the same time a habitual stylus mis-placer, THE MERE CONCEPT of stylus-free operation makes me want to go out and buy it.
It depends on the situation. If they're sharing a machine, then it's pretty hands off the software. If a machine however, is going to be occupied by a single user, there should be some leeway given.