The "business" of insurance has not, traditionally, been to selectively cover thoroughly-researched individuals to minimize its own risk while maximizing profit by insuring people who aren't in any particular need of the risk-sharing system (i.e., whose own risk is such that they will pay into but not take out of the pot). The business of insurance has been to pool the risk with wider coverage encompassing some uncertainty as to when the risk arises, and in which individual. The new privacy laws will hopefully prevent HMOs and traditional 3rd party payers from fishing for healthy folks and throwing those who are in need of coverage by the wayside. By way of honest disclaimers, I support, in theory, socialized common-denominator health care, with continuation of the for-profit system for non-essential facelifts, nosejobs, etc.
As for the comparison to auto insurance, well that's a big fat red herring. Unsafe drivers are in a position of choice - drive safely or drive like a schmuck. Those who choose the latter arguably should pay more. Someone with Schizophrenia has no say in the matter, and cannot ethically be punished for being ill, by being charged exorbidant insurance premiums.
Someday the majority of folks in this shithole of a country will realize that certain things are too valuable to be left to the corporate profit-mongers. Airline/travel regulation was one of those thing (thanks Crazy Ron!). Health care is another. Folks on/. like to bitch about Mister Bill and his digital tyranny. Well, Mister Bill's ideological cousins own your hospitals, your insurance companies, your HMOs. They could all use a good shot of Nader upside their microcephalic heads.
By and large, people do not run for public office for want of money. In fact, just the opposite tends to be the case - the wealthiest run for office because they have the money to run. The super-wealthy can even buy their offices outright (Jr. Senator from NJ, Jr. Senator from WA). You could make Congress an entirely volunteer-run show and still be "represented" by nothing more than mostly-vile, pre-existing wealth.
That said, I agree wholeheartedly with your notion that any rider should be related to the bill to which it's attached. But in the grand house of absurdity known as Congress, who's to say that anti-technology silliness is unrelated to pro-killbot-factory silliness? It's the damned Pentagram, er, Pentagon that didn't want citizens to have encryption in the first place.
Voting for Hatch "just because they're supposed to?!?" Sounds almost as responsible as the ignorant denizens of my state foisting the Blight of Carolina upon Capitol Hill lo these past 30 years...
Point of clarification - in the above mini-rant I refer to the blight of NORTH Carolina, aka jesse, and not the blight of SOUTH Carolina, aka methuselah thurmond. Here's hoping both are 6 feet under before they get within 6 feet of DC again.
The man with the pubic hair-bearing coke can notwithstanding, you'd be hard pressed to find a conservative USSC Justice with much respect for Hollywood's "content." Forcing conservative religio-morality on others is much higher on these folks' agendas than helping Sir Studio BigWig to make more money to produce the vile filth they abhor.
Wrong - see Regents v. Moore (Calif. case several years ago, and currently the most-recognizable precedent in biologic property law regarding human subjects, or donors). In the Moore case, even though Mr. Moore had expressly DENIED permission for researchers to take tissue or blood samples for "R&D," they did so anyway, and after a couple of years found out that their discovery was worth billions. So at that point, being the nice guys theyt were, they went back to Mr. Moore and said "surely you must have been mistaken when you checked the no box instead of the yes box on our form." Mr. Moore said something to the effect of "Fuck you, you shitty bastards. You owe me lots of money." Judge said Mr. Moore will never see a penny. But he can always take comfort in the fact that his leukemia brought so much joy to these underappreciated researchers.
Odds aren't so slim. Research on Selenium performed over the past several years has shown remarkable efficacy in prostate cancer. Research on St. John's Wort is turning up the heat for FDA to take some initiative in regulation because of potentially fatal interactions with your "AMA approved" drugs. And lets not forget the alternative therapies that get out into "mainstream alternative" practice sans research, like the fine art of pressing children to death during "rebirthing" procedures. And would you ever take anything called "rolfing" seriously? Not unless it has to do with Muppet pianists...
The Hemlock Society is still around for much the same reason that hospice centers don't close when all their patients die - there's a steady stream of new people in need of that care/knowledge/compassion/understanding/etc. On another note, it should be understood that the goal of the Hemlock Society (and I would presume of the website in question, although I admit to never having seen it) is not to encourage suicide. Rather, these organizations and services exist to give people INFORMATION so that they may make up their own minds as to whether or not suicide is an option for them. Most decide it's not. You can only hope that it's the right decision for those who do so choose. But therein lies the key - it is THEIR decision, and nobody should censor their access to INFORMATION that may help them in deciding. This information "wants to be free," right?
Finally, to the people who think that no-one should ever be able to end his own life of his own free will under any circumstances: get yourselves a few rounds of intensive chemotherapy/radiation/vector transfers or whatever, and see how sanctimonious you can be about the "sanctity" of life between the (not infrequent) episodes of bloody vomit. You'll sing a different tune when the melody is played by a mechanical ventilator.
Walk into any (name-your-favorite-or-most-hated-bookseller-here) and grab a copy of Derek Humphrey's book(s) on Physician Aid-in-Dying. There are some graphic examples and thorough instructions on how to end one's own life. The Hemlock Society exists to promote the availability of this information to those who may need it, as well as to those who may need to see it to realize that they didn't need it in the first place. Knocking off this website makes about as much sense as yanking Humphrey's book off the shelves, or outlawing the right to association enjoyed by the Hemlock Society. It is censorship, and it is wrong. Forcing your beliefs about the "sanctity" of life on those who disagree is irresponsible, at best.
"In my world, if I don't like an EULA, I don't use the software."
I myself am not too fond of paying however much money for the privilege of reading the EULA only to determine that it was, in fact, written by cretinous baby-eaters, and that the now-opened product is completely unreturnable. UCITA - straight from the wrenching bowels of the law-talker industry to you.
"First we will examine the Tyranosaurus Rex, here forward referred to as T-Rex. The Tyranosaurus has two main attack methods."
Now we will examine the Posterus Slashdoticus Ignoramus, hereafter known as Mustard. Posterus Slashdoticus Ignoramus are often seen ignoring the stuff they say in the sentence right before the one they're writing at present.
No personal offense intended, Mean Mr. Mustard. I rather enjoyed your post, actually.
I think I see a pattern, here. I, too, was slammed by AT&T after signing up for Worldnet internet access in late 1998. Eventually these AT&T bills started showing up, and I wrote them repeatedly to tell them they were not my phone company. Finally, a year and a half and 2 states later, I got a letter from their collections agency (read: kneebreakers) claiming that I owed them some absurd amount. This is the point at which the law turns to favor the consumer. NEVER let a collection notice go by without replying. When you tell them (within one month of receipt) that their charges are in error, they are legally prohibited from contacting you by phone or in person (!) until the matter has been researched and a conclusion reached as to the validity of the charges. If they are found to be valid, then all protections are off and you are liable to have your kneecaps busted if you don't either hire a law-talker or pay up. If you never hear back (which has been the case with AT&T's nonsense), you win. Moral of the story - AT&T linguates my anus.
Well thought out and well stated. I have a couple of minor quibbles: There were probably not too many other genetic tests involved, as the parents specifically sought to rule out Fanconi Anemia and were presumably not concerned with screening for other dioxyribonucleic nasties. It is also quite wrong-headed for people to assert that this child was conceived and born "for parts." The parts used were cells from the umbilical cord which would have been discarded (or, in most large hospitals, stored according to a contract with some biotech firm for future commercial use). I do think that the parents will have some careful tap-dancing to do when explaining this to BOTH of their kids later in life, but if they sling enough of that "love" crap around they should be able to satisfy the curiosities of both animated cell clumps.
Which of the United States' 50 "big government bodies" known as the Dept. of Transportation would get the TLD? I think the Commandante is hoping for the "Domain of Tacos."
Re: drug research... are you interested in protecting the patent on Prozac or the newer patent on The-Drug-Formerly-Known-as-Prozac-but-Now-Known-as -Serifem-Because-it's-Being-Marketed-for -PMS? The point, buried somewhere in there, is that the tech sector has no monopoly on illegitimate and anti-consumer patents. Eli Lilly's rife with 'em. This is an old drug, slipped into a capsule with new colors, and pushed hard on women whom Lilly felt would be stigmatized if they had to take Prozac for PMS. Nevermind that many of them may already be on Prozac for other problems and not realize that the combination of Prozac #1 and Prozac #2 could be lethal. Truth be told, there's growing evidence to show that either one alone could be lethal, too, butdon't say that too loud or you'll irritate Lilly's bottom line.
I got my ADSL hookup from GTE last fall, about a year before they spawned the corporate love child known as "Verizon." As much as I hate to say anything nice about the greedy capitalist swine, these folks got me hooked up within the 1 mo. promised. I have experienced exactly 4 service outages in the year since I got hooked up (disclaimer - 4 outages that affected me - others may have happened whilst I was sleeping or masturbating). It's not as fast as it could be - they want me to pay roughly twice as much as I currently pay to receive reasonable download speed. They even have good phone support (by phone company standards - max. 5 minute hold time in my experience). My fingers may rot off as I type this, but I've got nothing mean and nasty to say about GTE/Verizon. Yet.
WUCITA = Legislation co-sponsored by Senators Old Dirty Bastard and Ghost-Faced Killah, which declared possession of any open-source code within the realm of Shaolin to be unlawful.
Not to mention the corporate behemoths shoving ritalin down kids' throats. Another case of bad science (asking teachers and guidance counselors to diagnose psychiatric conditions) producing good profits for the drugcos.
Slashdot Mirror
The "business" of insurance has not, traditionally, been to selectively cover thoroughly-researched individuals to minimize its own risk while maximizing profit by insuring people who aren't in any particular need of the risk-sharing system (i.e., whose own risk is such that they will pay into but not take out of the pot). The business of insurance has been to pool the risk with wider coverage encompassing some uncertainty as to when the risk arises, and in which individual. The new privacy laws will hopefully prevent HMOs and traditional 3rd party payers from fishing for healthy folks and throwing those who are in need of coverage by the wayside. By way of honest disclaimers, I support, in theory, socialized common-denominator health care, with continuation of the for-profit system for non-essential facelifts, nosejobs, etc. As for the comparison to auto insurance, well that's a big fat red herring. Unsafe drivers are in a position of choice - drive safely or drive like a schmuck. Those who choose the latter arguably should pay more. Someone with Schizophrenia has no say in the matter, and cannot ethically be punished for being ill, by being charged exorbidant insurance premiums. Someday the majority of folks in this shithole of a country will realize that certain things are too valuable to be left to the corporate profit-mongers. Airline/travel regulation was one of those thing (thanks Crazy Ron!). Health care is another. Folks on /. like to bitch about Mister Bill and his digital tyranny. Well, Mister Bill's ideological cousins own your hospitals, your insurance companies, your HMOs. They could all use a good shot of Nader upside their microcephalic heads.
That said, I agree wholeheartedly with your notion that any rider should be related to the bill to which it's attached. But in the grand house of absurdity known as Congress, who's to say that anti-technology silliness is unrelated to pro-killbot-factory silliness? It's the damned Pentagram, er, Pentagon that didn't want citizens to have encryption in the first place.
Point of clarification - in the above mini-rant I refer to the blight of NORTH Carolina, aka jesse, and not the blight of SOUTH Carolina, aka methuselah thurmond. Here's hoping both are 6 feet under before they get within 6 feet of DC again.
Who needs porn when they're surrounded by all those tight, luscious, underage...
The man with the pubic hair-bearing coke can notwithstanding, you'd be hard pressed to find a conservative USSC Justice with much respect for Hollywood's "content." Forcing conservative religio-morality on others is much higher on these folks' agendas than helping Sir Studio BigWig to make more money to produce the vile filth they abhor.
The electronic locater chip could've helped tremendously. Too bad only one student volunteered...
Wrong - see Regents v. Moore (Calif. case several years ago, and currently the most-recognizable precedent in biologic property law regarding human subjects, or donors). In the Moore case, even though Mr. Moore had expressly DENIED permission for researchers to take tissue or blood samples for "R&D," they did so anyway, and after a couple of years found out that their discovery was worth billions. So at that point, being the nice guys theyt were, they went back to Mr. Moore and said "surely you must have been mistaken when you checked the no box instead of the yes box on our form." Mr. Moore said something to the effect of "Fuck you, you shitty bastards. You owe me lots of money." Judge said Mr. Moore will never see a penny. But he can always take comfort in the fact that his leukemia brought so much joy to these underappreciated researchers.
Odds aren't so slim. Research on Selenium performed over the past several years has shown remarkable efficacy in prostate cancer. Research on St. John's Wort is turning up the heat for FDA to take some initiative in regulation because of potentially fatal interactions with your "AMA approved" drugs. And lets not forget the alternative therapies that get out into "mainstream alternative" practice sans research, like the fine art of pressing children to death during "rebirthing" procedures. And would you ever take anything called "rolfing" seriously? Not unless it has to do with Muppet pianists...
Yes, that's all fine and good for citizens, but what should all the consumers do?
Finally, to the people who think that no-one should ever be able to end his own life of his own free will under any circumstances: get yourselves a few rounds of intensive chemotherapy/radiation/vector transfers or whatever, and see how sanctimonious you can be about the "sanctity" of life between the (not infrequent) episodes of bloody vomit. You'll sing a different tune when the melody is played by a mechanical ventilator.
Walk into any (name-your-favorite-or-most-hated-bookseller-here) and grab a copy of Derek Humphrey's book(s) on Physician Aid-in-Dying. There are some graphic examples and thorough instructions on how to end one's own life. The Hemlock Society exists to promote the availability of this information to those who may need it, as well as to those who may need to see it to realize that they didn't need it in the first place. Knocking off this website makes about as much sense as yanking Humphrey's book off the shelves, or outlawing the right to association enjoyed by the Hemlock Society. It is censorship, and it is wrong. Forcing your beliefs about the "sanctity" of life on those who disagree is irresponsible, at best.
I myself am not too fond of paying however much money for the privilege of reading the EULA only to determine that it was, in fact, written by cretinous baby-eaters, and that the now-opened product is completely unreturnable. UCITA - straight from the wrenching bowels of the law-talker industry to you.
Yes, Dubya and I think the media's treatment of poor dumb Dan was simply abominabable.
Now we will examine the Posterus Slashdoticus Ignoramus, hereafter known as Mustard. Posterus Slashdoticus Ignoramus are often seen ignoring the stuff they say in the sentence right before the one they're writing at present.
No personal offense intended, Mean Mr. Mustard. I rather enjoyed your post, actually.
I think I see a pattern, here. I, too, was slammed by AT&T after signing up for Worldnet internet access in late 1998. Eventually these AT&T bills started showing up, and I wrote them repeatedly to tell them they were not my phone company. Finally, a year and a half and 2 states later, I got a letter from their collections agency (read: kneebreakers) claiming that I owed them some absurd amount. This is the point at which the law turns to favor the consumer. NEVER let a collection notice go by without replying. When you tell them (within one month of receipt) that their charges are in error, they are legally prohibited from contacting you by phone or in person (!) until the matter has been researched and a conclusion reached as to the validity of the charges. If they are found to be valid, then all protections are off and you are liable to have your kneecaps busted if you don't either hire a law-talker or pay up. If you never hear back (which has been the case with AT&T's nonsense), you win. Moral of the story - AT&T linguates my anus.
Well thought out and well stated. I have a couple of minor quibbles: There were probably not too many other genetic tests involved, as the parents specifically sought to rule out Fanconi Anemia and were presumably not concerned with screening for other dioxyribonucleic nasties. It is also quite wrong-headed for people to assert that this child was conceived and born "for parts." The parts used were cells from the umbilical cord which would have been discarded (or, in most large hospitals, stored according to a contract with some biotech firm for future commercial use). I do think that the parents will have some careful tap-dancing to do when explaining this to BOTH of their kids later in life, but if they sling enough of that "love" crap around they should be able to satisfy the curiosities of both animated cell clumps.
Which of the United States' 50 "big government bodies" known as the Dept. of Transportation would get the TLD? I think the Commandante is hoping for the "Domain of Tacos."
Re: drug research... are you interested in protecting the patent on Prozac or the newer patent on The-Drug-Formerly-Known-as-Prozac-but-Now-Known-as -Serifem-Because-it's-Being-Marketed-for -PMS? The point, buried somewhere in there, is that the tech sector has no monopoly on illegitimate and anti-consumer patents. Eli Lilly's rife with 'em. This is an old drug, slipped into a capsule with new colors, and pushed hard on women whom Lilly felt would be stigmatized if they had to take Prozac for PMS. Nevermind that many of them may already be on Prozac for other problems and not realize that the combination of Prozac #1 and Prozac #2 could be lethal. Truth be told, there's growing evidence to show that either one alone could be lethal, too, butdon't say that too loud or you'll irritate Lilly's bottom line.
Hawking's British?!? Funny - he has almost no accent.
I got my ADSL hookup from GTE last fall, about a year before they spawned the corporate love child known as "Verizon." As much as I hate to say anything nice about the greedy capitalist swine, these folks got me hooked up within the 1 mo. promised. I have experienced exactly 4 service outages in the year since I got hooked up (disclaimer - 4 outages that affected me - others may have happened whilst I was sleeping or masturbating). It's not as fast as it could be - they want me to pay roughly twice as much as I currently pay to receive reasonable download speed. They even have good phone support (by phone company standards - max. 5 minute hold time in my experience). My fingers may rot off as I type this, but I've got nothing mean and nasty to say about GTE/Verizon. Yet.
WUCITA = Legislation co-sponsored by Senators Old Dirty Bastard and Ghost-Faced Killah, which declared possession of any open-source code within the realm of Shaolin to be unlawful.
And for their next cowardly maneuver... Chicken FCC
Change your name to Carbon Rod. Sure winner.
Not to mention the corporate behemoths shoving ritalin down kids' throats. Another case of bad science (asking teachers and guidance counselors to diagnose psychiatric conditions) producing good profits for the drugcos.