There are those who have fallen for the false, artificially created dichotomy of Republican-Democrat and those who have realized that the real problem is politics as an industry.
What really needs to be done is to wipe out the concept of two parties both of which are so ossified in untenable positions that the combination is destroying the Republic.
1. Term limits for Congress. 12 years. 2. Campaign Finance Limits. 100 dollars per candidate/person. 3. Eliminate Gerrymandering. Districts must be drawn that are representative of the state's demographics. 4. Eliminate the electoral college.
This disclaimer is just a re-statement of current law. It just warns people of the actual facts of what happens when they disclose information to third parties.
This information is already available on multiple sources and on Healthcare.gov. I am fucking tired of these articles that have NOT been researched or are published with the intent of misleading people.
Plan information from Healtchare.gov without signing in:
The actual fact is that healthcare.gov. in the first two weeks of operation has made plan price comparisons FAR easier than it has ever been. This could be a major consumer positive event in healthcare.
Congress is ALREADY required by the ACA to use the plans available from the exchange.
Whomever tells you they have an exemption is a fucking liar.
What is now on the table is whether or not Congress (including the staffers who are not particularly well paid) will get a subsidy like everyone else who has employer covered healthcare insurance does.
> What the government is essentially saying with this is "we can present 'a witness' (the phone records) but won't allow the opposing side to 'cross-examine' said evidence to cast any doubt that it isn't true."
Not true at all. The defense certainly can challenge the accuracy of the evidence. What they don't have is standing to challenge the government supoena of the evidence. Basically once you disclose the evidence to a third party you lose any right to claim privacy on something unless there is some kind of privilege, such as doctor patient in force.
It's actually horrifying that Slashdot is getting so wrought up over this. It's old law, i.e. United States v. Miller (1976).
Now some people have proposed that this be updated for more modern times. Something that's worth discussing. But the idea this is new is poppycock.
You are still going to need a parking lot. Presumably it will be sized for the number of occupants so the area will be the same.
Long ramps between levels will really suck. Suppose the office you want to go to is directly above yours. Now you have to walk to where the ramp is, negotiate the ramp, and then return.
If you are on say the 4th floor and want to cross the courtyard and go to an office on the 4th floor on the other side navigating 8 ramps would really be a PITA.
The surface area of this design is also an issue because it affects ecological footprint. A long relatively thin cross section is the worst possible.
Right. And a cube of the same area per floor would have a maximum distance between offices on a given floor roughly 1/5 that of this foolish design.
Not to mention the sprawl of this monstrosity. It appears from the drawing to have only 4-5 floors. By increasing the number of floors to say 20 you could also markedly reduce the average distance between offices.
For Cuba socialism was a big improvement over the previous regime. I know, one of my friends in college was a refuge.
The inner cities were crime-infested neighborhoods populated by people born there to parents born there before welfare. All welfare is and ever will be is an effort to relieve some of the pressure. Go read about living conditions during the Guilded Age.
Unfortunately some of your links regarding education don't work because the Teahadists have the government shut down. Really, though it has always been broken in the US. Back in the 1960's it was ineffective too. It isn't a matter money. It's a matter of too much local control. Places like Massachusetts which have a relatively enlightened citizenry do far better than the Red States in terms of the education. In terms of human development and well being it just sucks to live in a Red State.
Nobody is making them come to the US. It is and has been since WWII the best place to live and work in technology and the sciences.
By far.
While the public schools have below average results as a whole, schools in affluent suburban areas, especially university towns are as good as any in the world. America is far more diverse than most nations, and that diversity accounts for a lot when it comes time to look at rankings in the education system.
US research universities are absolutely world leading. Cal Tech was recently rated #1 in the world by the Times University rankings, and 7 of the top 10 are US universities.
The Academic Ranking of World Universities done by Shanghai Jiao Tong University gives 17 of the 20 rankings to US universities.
In reality it is incredibly one sided. Something like 80% of Nobel Prizes are won by people working in the US.
It is true other countries do need to improve their support for world class research, but getting torqued off because the US is doing something important very well is just being an ass.
Even private corporations that outsource key components of their business frequently have problems. Thus the current private sector trend for insourcing. If you want to see how bad things can get in the private sector, take a look at the Dreamliner. It really is an eye-opener when one of the largest, best run private sector companies goes through a disaster like that. There are always added costs when you outsource something that you have the ability to handle internally.
So what the heck makes you think that outsourcing should be the default for governments? There the impedance mismatch is far worse than in the private sector, making the likelihood of efficiency much lower.
Sometimes you do need to outsource, such as in cases where you are procuring weapons systems. But the reality is that these situations are guaranteed to stick you with great inefficiencies.
No, the idea that government should outsource everything doesn't make any sense.
One of the ideas in the healthcare meme-o-verse is that private industry can do it better.
Is that really true? What country actually has a privately run health care system that works? Surely not the US, with its high costs and history of large groups not covered, and many who can't get insurance at all. And the mechanism where employers pay for health insurance is miserable. Being employed and having coverage should not be conflated, especially when so many are vulnerable to losing jobs when we go through an economic cycle.
What health care systems work well? Socialized ones.
Even in the US, with its horrifically high costs the best part of the health care system is Medicare.
The problem with your idea is that this site was NOT built by the government. It was built by private contractors in a competitive bidding process.
And you want to turn the police over to private contractors?
Lots of other things are done by private contractors for the government. For example most of the defense department procures everything it gets via competitive bidding from private contractors.
It isn't about the engineers. It is about their management.
Good management can build the Trajans Bridge in a year from rocks and trees.
Bad management can't build a web site. EVER.
IMP. CAESAR. DIVI. NERVAE. F NERVA TRAIANVS. AVG. GERM PONTIF MAXIMUS TRIB POT IIII PATER PATRIAE COS III MONTIBVUS EXCISI(s) ANCO(ni)BVS SVBLAT(i)S VIA(m) F(ecit)
There has never been a smooth transition. When the farms were mechanized we got major dislocations along with a vast increase in the wealth of America.
Slashdot Mirror
There are those who have fallen for the false, artificially created dichotomy of Republican-Democrat and those who have realized that the real problem is politics as an industry.
What really needs to be done is to wipe out the concept of two parties both of which are so ossified in untenable positions that the combination is destroying the Republic.
1. Term limits for Congress. 12 years.
2. Campaign Finance Limits. 100 dollars per candidate/person.
3. Eliminate Gerrymandering. Districts must be drawn that are representative of the state's demographics.
4. Eliminate the electoral college.
A lot of the states are using ehealthinsurance services for their exchanges.
You are right that the Feds should have done the same. I don't know if it would have saved money, but I bet it would have worked a lot better.
This disclaimer is just a re-statement of current law. It just warns people of the actual facts of what happens when they disclose information to third parties.
See US vs. Miller (1979).
Oh give me a break.
This information is already available on multiple sources and on Healthcare.gov. I am fucking tired of these articles that have NOT been researched or are published with the intent of misleading people.
Plan information from Healtchare.gov without signing in:
https://www.healthcare.gov/find-premium-estimates/
https://data.healthcare.gov/dataset/QHP ... /ba45-xusy
Example of plan information from 3rd party sources:
http://www.valuepenguin.com/
The actual fact is that healthcare.gov. in the first two weeks of operation has made plan price comparisons FAR easier than it has ever been. This could be a major consumer positive event in healthcare.
Don't use unencrypted sevices.
Use encryption supplied by 3rd parties that uses proveable algorithms.
Don't store your data on 3rd party sites.
Use open source software.
I really doubt they have better insurance than I do. Mine is a pretty fucking good Cadillac plan.
And yes they DO have to use the plans in the exchange.
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2013/aug/14/ted-cruz/sen-ted-cruz-says-obama-just-granted-all-congress-/
Healthcare.gov didn't cost 634 million. Even the article the submitter linked to says it didn't. It appears the actual cost is around $55 million.
http://ordinary-gentlemen.com/blog/2013/10/10/how-55-7-million-doesnt-equal-634-million
Congress is ALREADY required by the ACA to use the plans available from the exchange.
Whomever tells you they have an exemption is a fucking liar.
What is now on the table is whether or not Congress (including the staffers who are not particularly well paid) will get a subsidy like everyone else who has employer covered healthcare insurance does.
> What the government is essentially saying with this is "we can present 'a witness' (the phone records) but won't allow the opposing side to 'cross-examine' said evidence to cast any doubt that it isn't true."
Not true at all. The defense certainly can challenge the accuracy of the evidence. What they don't have is standing to challenge the government supoena of the evidence. Basically once you disclose the evidence to a third party you lose any right to claim privacy on something unless there is some kind of privilege, such as doctor patient in force.
It's actually horrifying that Slashdot is getting so wrought up over this. It's old law, i.e. United States v. Miller (1976).
Now some people have proposed that this be updated for more modern times. Something that's worth discussing. But the idea this is new is poppycock.
Please explain to me what the criteria are for 'waste' when you are facing an existential threat.
You mean like the Manhattan Project?
That must have not happened I guess.
1. Mammoth project from the start.
2. Government run.
3. Highly successful.
> In addition, our borders have allowed in a third of the population of Mexico without restriction
EH? There are have been about 11 million Mexican immigrants to the US. The population of Mexico is about 112 million.
That's my experience too. When it first opened about two weeks ago it was totally borked.
Now it seems to be OK. I've been able to register and go through the process of signing up. No more wait screens.
The news of course is behind a bit. It doesn't help that some people with a political agenda are calling it a failure.
It isn't.
You are still going to need a parking lot. Presumably it will be sized for the number of occupants so the area will be the same.
Long ramps between levels will really suck. Suppose the office you want to go to is directly above yours. Now you have to walk to where the ramp is, negotiate the ramp, and then return.
If you are on say the 4th floor and want to cross the courtyard and go to an office on the 4th floor on the other side navigating 8 ramps would really be a PITA.
The surface area of this design is also an issue because it affects ecological footprint. A long relatively thin cross section is the worst possible.
Right. And a cube of the same area per floor would have a maximum distance between offices on a given floor roughly 1/5 that of this foolish design.
Not to mention the sprawl of this monstrosity. It appears from the drawing to have only 4-5 floors. By increasing the number of floors to say 20 you could also markedly reduce the average distance between offices.
Absolutely potty (toilet bowl like) design.
Unless you are on the first floor and can walk across a courtyard a ring is really a long building looped so the ends connect.
It seems very inefficient to me. A simple cube would very likely be far better than this design.
For Cuba socialism was a big improvement over the previous regime. I know, one of my friends in college was a refuge.
The inner cities were crime-infested neighborhoods populated by people born there to parents born there before welfare. All welfare is and ever will be is an effort to relieve some of the pressure. Go read about living conditions during the Guilded Age.
Unfortunately some of your links regarding education don't work because the Teahadists have the government shut down. Really, though it has always been broken in the US. Back in the 1960's it was ineffective too. It isn't a matter money. It's a matter of too much local control. Places like Massachusetts which have a relatively enlightened citizenry do far better than the Red States in terms of the education. In terms of human development and well being it just sucks to live in a Red State.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2013/06/19/red-states-rank-low-on-u-s-human-development-index/
Cherry picking data by city also doesn't change the fact the blue states do better overall when it comes to education.
http://www.topalli.com/blue/
The Postal Service worked better before it was privatized, if you hadn't noticed.
No nation on earth has a working private healthcare system. Even in the US the part of the healthcare system that works best is Medicare.
Nobody is making them come to the US. It is and has been since WWII the best place to live and work in technology and the sciences.
By far.
While the public schools have below average results as a whole, schools in affluent suburban areas, especially university towns are as good as any in the world. America is far more diverse than most nations, and that diversity accounts for a lot when it comes time to look at rankings in the education system.
US research universities are absolutely world leading. Cal Tech was recently rated #1 in the world by the Times University rankings, and 7 of the top 10 are US universities.
The Academic Ranking of World Universities done by Shanghai Jiao Tong University gives 17 of the 20 rankings to US universities.
In reality it is incredibly one sided. Something like 80% of Nobel Prizes are won by people working in the US.
It is true other countries do need to improve their support for world class research, but getting torqued off because the US is doing something important very well is just being an ass.
Even private corporations that outsource key components of their business frequently have problems. Thus the current private sector trend for insourcing. If you want to see how bad things can get in the private sector, take a look at the Dreamliner. It really is an eye-opener when one of the largest, best run private sector companies goes through a disaster like that. There are always added costs when you outsource something that you have the ability to handle internally.
So what the heck makes you think that outsourcing should be the default for governments? There the impedance mismatch is far worse than in the private sector, making the likelihood of efficiency much lower.
Sometimes you do need to outsource, such as in cases where you are procuring weapons systems. But the reality is that these situations are guaranteed to stick you with great inefficiencies.
No, the idea that government should outsource everything doesn't make any sense.
One of the ideas in the healthcare meme-o-verse is that private industry can do it better.
Is that really true? What country actually has a privately run health care system that works? Surely not the US, with its high costs and history of large groups not covered, and many who can't get insurance at all. And the mechanism where employers pay for health insurance is miserable. Being employed and having coverage should not be conflated, especially when so many are vulnerable to losing jobs when we go through an economic cycle.
What health care systems work well? Socialized ones.
Even in the US, with its horrifically high costs the best part of the health care system is Medicare.
Sometimes government does it better.
The problem with your idea is that this site was NOT built by the government. It was built by private contractors in a competitive bidding process.
And you want to turn the police over to private contractors?
Lots of other things are done by private contractors for the government. For example most of the defense department procures everything it gets via competitive bidding from private contractors.
OLED TVs are concave too.
Not sure I like it.
The first step towards that would be getting rid of the Board of Directors that is selecting the morons.
Seriously, HP has had about the worst corporate governance of any large company.
It isn't about the engineers. It is about their management.
Good management can build the Trajans Bridge in a year from rocks and trees.
Bad management can't build a web site. EVER.
IMP. CAESAR. DIVI. NERVAE. F
NERVA TRAIANVS. AVG. GERM
PONTIF MAXIMUS TRIB POT IIII
PATER PATRIAE COS III
MONTIBVUS EXCISI(s) ANCO(ni)BVS
SVBLAT(i)S VIA(m) F(ecit)
There has never been a smooth transition. When the farms were mechanized we got major dislocations along with a vast increase in the wealth of America.
cf. "The Guilded Age".
http://www.austincc.edu/lpatrick/his1302/agrarian.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilded_Age