Nah, the United States has gone well past "a lot of regulation" and straight to ludicrous regulation, a.k.a self regulation.
Note the astounding efficiency with which the oil industry in the United States produces crude under ludicrous regulation. Where else in the world can you walk down to the shore and pick up buckets of the shit? We don't even need super tankers any more, they'll just start refining the sea water from the Gulf of Mexico. How is that for keeping ahead of the technology curve?
I was at a linux install-fest a couple months ago where we were installing Fedora 12 and Ubuntu 9.10 on a pile of donated computers that were given to families that could not afford a new computer. Some of the kids there were swearing up and down by Ubuntu, how special and wonderful it is and how Fedora was no match.
While testing one of the Fedora systems one of the kids wandered by and exclaimed "Ubuntu!!!.... oh, that's Fedora". Silly kids.
The point of the story, other than some differences in file locations and scripts there is far greater similarity between Ubuntu and Fedora than there are differences. They are both using the same open source software. Its not like Windows vs OS/X. And selecting a brown color theme for your desktop is not some advanced futuristic feature. Grow up.
Re:Windows mirrors linux mirrors windows.
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Fedora 13 Is Out
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· Score: 4, Insightful
Microsoft takes something that works great from linux and makes it theirs and sometimes makes it better, most of the time worse. And the same goes for linux, sometimes it starts out worse and gets' better because they borrowed it from microsoft or sometimes makes something worse and makes it better then microsoft takes it.
From my experience Microsoft does borrow others ideas but usually they are in major releases when they need to have some bullet points to justify buying their latest software. Aside from the major releases Microsoft has a hard headed "not developed here" attitude that results in some crappy software.
One example where it took them ages to pull there head out, tabbed browsing.
Some examples where Microsoft is still producing retarded software: - Focus follows mouse. - Roll up windows. - Multiple desktops.
And the open source crowd, they not only borrow but they try lots of new ideas and are happy to significantly modify borrowed ideas and try new things. But sometimes the borrowed ideas are too similar to the garbage from Microsoft.
I.e. Trying to eliminate or hide the ability to perform tree / list file management in the Nautilus browser and instead opening new windows all over the desktop for each directory. Microsoft tried this crappy UI in Windows, it sucked, and it sucked just as much in Gnome.
The greatest benefit linux has going for it is the diversity in the software and the ability to choose and modify. This is a virtually non-existent feature in Windows and OS X.
You really need to move to the 21st century. PXE Boot and network install, there is no need to clutter the environment with CDs, DVDs or USB devices when you have a perfectly good network.;)
Apple took a bold move when they dumped their outdated and technologically inferior Mac OS and rather than starting from scratch they used open source (FreeBSD) at the heart of their new OS.
Another bold move when the Apple browser Safari was again based on an open source core (KHTML).
So I predict this new iPhone version will make the same bold and logical move and be based on..... Android 2.2!
I went through the stupid escalating cable pricing scam in the 1980s and vowed never to pay them another dime.
Tried DirecTV satellite and it seemed to be better on the price hikes but after a few years I tired of the lack of a la carte and having to pay for a ton of unwanted channels just to get the few I wanted. Dishnetwork was not a whole lot better but I could get the channels I wanted with a cheaper package and they had some HD programming.
But once OTA HDTV was rolled out by a significant number of the local channels I axed the dish and put a basic antennae in the attic. The reception, picture and audio are absolutely amazing. I have no idea why the OTA networks are not shouting this from the roof tops, they can compete directly with the cable and satellite providers as long as they bring the content.
And on the programming, I love PBS. The journalism is actual real journalism not some one sided hyperbole laced shouting match from a crop of dunderheads. The science and nature programs are also far superior to the hoax that most of the History/Learning/Discovery channel have become. No more UFO abduction or Nostradamus 2012 end of the world programs aired as factual issues we should be concerned with.
I am not sure where you are getting your definition of a "living document" but a quick google search for a definition says a living document is one that is edited and revised.
But definitions aside I think I understand your concern/complaint in that the meaning of the document is interpreted. To me, in reading the document, there are often cases where it must be interpreted and there must be flexibility in the meaning. Thomas Jefferson himself, a staunch opponent of a flexible interpretation of the Constitution, was willing to be flexible in order to approve the Louisiana purchase which he and others thought was an unconstitutional action by the Federal government.
It is a myth because the books that Texas will receive will be a modified version of the base textbook. And the same goes for other states. They submit their requirements and the publisher modifies the base textbook to meet the requirements before publishing the state specific textbooks.
Where it may not be a myth might be in the cases where other states simply accept the Texas versions of the books and I suspect there are several states that will do just that.
Anyhow, myth or not other states can work around this absurdity but sadly it will be more difficult for the students in the states that accept these books to know that the education they are receiving will be ridiculed.
To be fair, the US didn't actually have paper currency until around the time of the Civil War.
I don't see the relevance of paper versus coinage, the fact remains that the United States did not use "In God We Trust" until the time of the Civil War and it was not official until 1956.
The coinage act of 1792 resulted in the creation of United States currency with no "In God We Trust".
The First Bank of The United States was chartered in 1792 and from what I understand had the approval to create official bank notes for the United States but I don't know that they actually did create any notes.
The fact is "In God We Trust" didn't even show up on paper currency in any significant numbers until the 1950s. So the motto on the currency is still a relatively new religious inclusion in light of over 200 years of history.
Progressivism has constantly encouraged us treat our laws as "living documents" from top to bottom which is basically a soft anarchy.
Which explains why Christian Conservatives would prefer to diminish the role of Thomas Jefferson as he seems to support this so called "soft anarchy".
"I am certainly not an advocate for frequent and untried changes in laws and constitutions. I think moderate imperfections had better be borne with; because, when once known, we accommodate ourselves to them, and find practical means of correcting their ill effects. But I know also, that laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths disclosed, and manners and opinions change with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also, and keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the same coat which fitted him when a boy, as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors." -- Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Kercheval, July 12, 1810
As long as other states are diligent in reviewing and specifying their standards I don't believe anyone needs to be concerned about the Texas standard making into other states curriculum. The Texas Tribune has an article where the textbook publishers were contacted and they confirmed that the claim saying Texas determines the content of other state's books is an urban myth.
But it is a sad day for the future students in Texas who will now have to endure indoctrination within their state and ridicule outside their state.
Little by little the United States of America is becoming the Corporate Socialist States of Jesus.
"In God We Trust" did not show up on United States currency until around the time of the Civil War and was not officially a motto on the currency until 1956.
Sadly there is a large segment of the population that believe the United States is a Christian nation because of things like "One nation under God" and "In God We Trust" but they never actually studied any real history and don't realize those statements are in our government because they put them there not the people who formed this nation.
The Noordas, along with their daughter, Val Kreidel, and James Stewart, another attorney from Ballard Spahr, were at a different location.
Via speakerphone, apparently reading from a script, Mrs. Noorda terminated President/CEO Yarro, CFO Darcy Mott and legal counsel Brent Christensen as officers of Canopy...
The Yarro et al lawsuit painted a picture of Val Kreidel, the daughter of Ray and Tye, as one of the driving forces behind the ousting of the executives...
Under the agreement, Yarro, Mott and Christensen received undisclosed sums, and Yarro was given all of Canopy's shares -- nearly five-and-a-half million -- of SCO stock, making him that company's largest shareholder....
Less than a week after attorneys formally announced a settlement, Val Kreidel, the Noorda's only daughter and a mother of four, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at her home in Huntington Beach, Calif....
In affidavits, employees stated that they attended a December 22 meeting in which they were "bullied" into signing a backdated document in the presence of attorneys. A day later, IT director Rob Penrose died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in his home, and soon thereafter five of Canopy's original employees voluntarily resigned.
SCO's case against IBM would have _some_ (and i say _some_) merit.
Actually, no, the Caldera / The SCO Group lawsuit never had any merit and it was learned through discovery that it was known by all the Caldera / The SCO Group insiders that there was absolutely no merit to their case from the onset.
Before this entire fiasco started it was known all the way to the top of their organization that there was no basis for their plans, yet they went forward with the scam anyway. Many people have lost their jobs, some have lost money and a few have actually lost their lives from this scam. If there were any justice this single fact uncovered in discovery would have resulted in fraud charges against the perpetrators of this scam long ago.
The page he linked was for all health care sections. Health professionals is the first listed subcategory that you could check in the pull down menu and had it's own report, separate from his link.
Thank you for the correction, I didn't notice that. But yes, as you stated, it still does not include the health care insurance companies and if you look at the numbers for each category in the health care industry the professionals make up better than 50% of the donations with the next largest contributor in the health care category being the pharmaceuticals at about 20% then hospitals at about 14%.
As for the overall insurance numbers, you may want to notice the huge upsurge in democrat donations in the last election cycle, as they gained power.
Actually you can see this even in the health care numbers from the original post. Look at the individual categories and note how the swings in % Democrat and % Republican moves with the current controlling party.
A lot of that historical data that makes the Republicans look so bad may have a lot to do with the control they've had in the past 8 to 10 years. And while the grand parent post is wrong to say these corporations have not been throwing cash at Democrats it is definitely correct that for the recent decade they have thrown significantly more at the Republicans, and again, perhaps only because they have been in power.
Health Professionals != Health Insurance Companies
The chart you provided is a measure of donations by doctors, nurses, dentists, etc.
It appears opensecrets.org does not break out the health insurance specifically. So even the chart I provided does not provide the exact details but it seems rather obvious that from 1996 to 2006 the insurance companies were dumping 2X the amount of donations on Republican candidates than Democrats. It wasn't quite so bad in 2008. Well, it is more than bad, it is pathetic that the insurance companies are buying our "representatives".
Unfortunately it matters not, as much as people whine and moan this health care bill isn't bad for the insurance companies, in fact they are going to have 30+ million more people paying into their profit scam at their insane premium rates. If you want to know what the rates will be like just test the Massachusetts online insurance exchange for yourself to see what the currently uninsured can look forward to. For my wife and I the cheapest insurance I can purchase is $700 / month and reading the brief details of the policy it is crappy coverage. What a corporate scam.
This is not government take over of our health care, its a continuation of corporate take over of our government in the name of profiteering for a few.
Something else that is funny about this bill, I heard on NPR or the BBC that a provision in the bill to fix the Medicare Part D corporate scam where by the tax payer cannot negotiate drug prices was removed. I think this is the 3rd or 4th time somebody has tried to remove that stupidity from the 2003 Republican Medicare law, to no avail, it remains. So basically the bill still states that in the name of "competition" the price of drugs will be determined by the pharmaceutical manufacturers, pharmacies and the insurance companies while the payer, Medicare, will have no say and will simply pay what the corporations demanded.
Who is the moron that put that in the bill? When you buy a new car do you let the manufacturer, dealership and bank tell you how much you will pay for a new car? LOL
"fed lowers interest rates (aka prints money and" loans it "to banks), banks gamble with" money they borrowed from the fed ", lose, then federal government " loans the banks more money to free up credit and get the economy moving. "Who's really at fault here? not to mention we encouraged banks to lend to more people. Bubble created, bubble popped. and not all banks did gamble. we should have let those who were responsible, acquire the assets of those who weren't. but instead, we prop up the irresponsible banks" which used the freshly borrowed money meant to free up credit to buy each other instead. "it's a failure of government " to regulate bank activity, such as leveraging assets 35 times over and hiding the fact via subsidiaries of subsidiaries in what are legally questionable financing and accounting methods. "and soon enough, we're gonna pay an even bigger price" because to date nothing has changed and the questionable tactics continue without regulation, over site, investigations or even upholding existing laws. "And somehow it'll all get magically blamed on the free market, and on deregulation" when in fact there is no free market because the borrowing of fed funds at insanely low rates is only possible for a tiny minority of banking groups who paid for the deregulation by funding elections. "never mind we have a shit ton of regulation already in place" that either fail to be enforced, are side stepped using paid for loop holes, and is obviously ineffectual to any sane human being who dares to look beyond their favorite propaganda news programs and talk shows.
There is a common sense saying that we don't hear much these days, follow the money.
I have read and heard over and over again that somehow the poor people who manage to get a mortgage via government programs and incentives somehow decimated the economy even though their financial powers are minuscule. And all the while there is this small group of people paying for propagandising of the national media and politics in this country who are making unheard of profits from these scams.
Uh, yeah right, the poor people ruined the economy. LOL
The government should have let the entire thing implode. I agree with the fear of some that this would have resulted in an even more dire situation than we are now in but sometimes I think that is the only way to fix the insanity that has become the economics and politics of this country.
Some of the discussions these days on the economy remind me of a debate I had with a co-worker back when gasoline prices were sky rocketing for no apparent reason. He was certain the cause was Al Gore. WTF! The only thing I could tell him at that point was "follow the money" which only angered him more because the money obviously led to record breaking oil industry profits that dwarfed the GDP of many nations not the small green investing of one outspoken individual.
The co-worker later came back to ask me if I thought he was a moron, I wasn't quite sure how to answer, is a moron still a moron when they become self aware of the fact they are a moron?
Note to gangien, I am not calling you or anyone else a moron but open your eyes.
it actually overtakes dynamic current for realistic chip operation on something like a microprocessor; since most of such a chip is idle even at full load
I never considered gate leakage to be that much of an issue with power consumption, but I suppose when you have 47+ million transistors the tiny gate leakage current adds up.
Shop around for various providers and coverage levels.
Do the math to determine the value of the packages your interested in.
Keep in mind, insurance carriers are not interested in providing the best coverage for the best price, their objective is to profit.
If your family risk level is low you may be better off with a policy that mainly covers unexpected medical needs and use out of pocket cash to cover routine health care.
A comprehensive coverage package will be very expensive and the amount of coverage versus cost seems to vary greatly from state to state.
If your looking at an expensive comprehensive policy run the numbers and compare the expensive policy to a cheap one where you place the difference in monthly premiums into a savings account.
Of course the cheap policy with a savings account requires self discipline to maintain funding of the medical savings account. If you lack the discipline to manage finances responsibly then you may be better off with the expensive policy.
The article is very slim on details and dead wrong on some important facts.
The gate can be used the squeeze the electron channel to nothing without the use of junctions or doping.
The lack of a junction is not unique, ever heard of a MOSFET, "There is no pn junction, so there is no depletion region."
And I'm curious how they induce conductivity in silicon without dopants, considering that silicon is a semiconductor and a "semiconductor is a material that has an electrical conductivity between that of a conductor and an insulator", therefore "conductivity may easily be modified by introducing impurities into their crystal lattice" via doping.
And the article includes one other statement that is questionable in my opinion...
We have designed and fabricated the world's first junctionless transistor that significantly reduces power consumption... Another key challenge for the semiconductor industry is reducing the power consumption of microchips. Minimising current leakage is one of the main challenges in today's complex transistors
Gate leakage is an issue but the true bane of transistor power consumption is Rdson (resistance drain to source when transistor is on). The reason for the massive heat sinks and fans on processors today is not due to gate leakage its due to the resistance of the transistor channels and the various interconnects.
Current flowing through the resistive channel and internconnects in the millions of transistors in a processor generates heat for the same reason that a basic carbon based resistor connected to a voltage source will heat up. And increasing the doping level in the gates and poly silicon interconnects reduces resistance, with no doping it seems the problem of power loss through heat generation will only be worse.
The article is somewhat interesting and perhaps it is just a bad article lacking significant detail.
After 20+ years of employment and paying insurance premiums I am now in a position where I don't have an employer plan I can buy into, so I've ran the numbers as well. What I've discovered is...
1) If my employer had given my wife and I the health care insurance benefit in wages that I could place in a savings account instead of each of us paying a portion of the insurance premium I would have well over $100,000 cash in the bank to cover medical expenses.
2) A cash savings plan would not cover catastrophic events like cancer treatment or an organ transplant but for the vast majority of medical treatments the average person is likely to encounter it would be more than covered by such a cash savings plan.
3) After all the years of paying into a program and getting little back from it, when you reach the point in your life where you are more likely to need health care the health insurance companies dump you and the tax payer picks up the insurance tab via medicare / medicaid.
4) The current health care "reform" proposed by the U.S. Senate is similar to the program currently used in Massachusetts which after reviewing the programs available through the Massachusetts connector program turns out to cost the same as coverage in states without such a program but provides fewer benefits. Well the one benefit it provides is a government enforced mandatory revenue stream from the public to the insurance corporations.
As it stands the current health care insurance system is a complete scam ripping off virtually every citizen in the United States. And if they pass a law forcing everyone to start handing over their cash to corporations for sub-par coverage I suspect we are going to have a large percentage of the population that will become criminals over night.
Corporate communism is the wrong answer but it seems to be where we are headed while the talking heads and nut jobs are screaming about socialism.
I agree that the loyalty statements in the parent post perhaps went a bit too far, however, there is a big incentive for an employer to keep their employees but not contractors.
Employers by law must pay FUTA to cover unemployment benefits. There are various factors that determine the rates an employer must pay but one of the factors is their history of employee lay offs.
If an employer lays off employees their FUTA rate will go up and the cost of doing business will increase.
If an employer cancels their contract with a freelance or temp agency there is no detrimental effect to their FUTA rates.
It seems quite apparent from Joe's ramblings that his tax issues stem not necessarily from any specific tax code but more from a deep seeded and long term intent to not pay taxes.
I also agree with you 100% on the question of health care coverage, but that is a topic for another discussion.:)
Slashdot Mirror
Nah, the United States has gone well past "a lot of regulation" and straight to ludicrous regulation, a.k.a self regulation.
Note the astounding efficiency with which the oil industry in the United States produces crude under ludicrous regulation. Where else in the world can you walk down to the shore and pick up buckets of the shit? We don't even need super tankers any more, they'll just start refining the sea water from the Gulf of Mexico. How is that for keeping ahead of the technology curve?
And pink is not a feature either.
Ubuntu 10.04
I was at a linux install-fest a couple months ago where we were installing Fedora 12 and Ubuntu 9.10 on a pile of donated computers that were given to families that could not afford a new computer. Some of the kids there were swearing up and down by Ubuntu, how special and wonderful it is and how Fedora was no match.
While testing one of the Fedora systems one of the kids wandered by and exclaimed "Ubuntu!!! .... oh, that's Fedora". Silly kids.
The point of the story, other than some differences in file locations and scripts there is far greater similarity between Ubuntu and Fedora than there are differences. They are both using the same open source software. Its not like Windows vs OS/X. And selecting a brown color theme for your desktop is not some advanced futuristic feature. Grow up.
Case in point, Ubuntu 9.10 Desktop
Because sometimes AC is about as smart as a box of rocks...
HDTV for your linux box
Here is a free clue, linux is not for you. Make sure you don't let go of Ballmer's/Job's hand.
Sounds like you have never used Fedora.
Fedora 12
Fedora 13
From my experience Microsoft does borrow others ideas but usually they are in major releases when they need to have some bullet points to justify buying their latest software. Aside from the major releases Microsoft has a hard headed "not developed here" attitude that results in some crappy software.
One example where it took them ages to pull there head out, tabbed browsing.
Some examples where Microsoft is still producing retarded software:
- Focus follows mouse.
- Roll up windows.
- Multiple desktops.
And the open source crowd, they not only borrow but they try lots of new ideas and are happy to significantly modify borrowed ideas and try new things. But sometimes the borrowed ideas are too similar to the garbage from Microsoft.
I.e. Trying to eliminate or hide the ability to perform tree / list file management in the Nautilus browser and instead opening new windows all over the desktop for each directory. Microsoft tried this crappy UI in Windows, it sucked, and it sucked just as much in Gnome.
The greatest benefit linux has going for it is the diversity in the software and the ability to choose and modify. This is a virtually non-existent feature in Windows and OS X.
You really need to move to the 21st century. PXE Boot and network install, there is no need to clutter the environment with CDs, DVDs or USB devices when you have a perfectly good network. ;)
Let me start some speculation here.
Apple took a bold move when they dumped their outdated and technologically inferior Mac OS and rather than starting from scratch they used open source (FreeBSD) at the heart of their new OS.
Another bold move when the Apple browser Safari was again based on an open source core (KHTML).
So I predict this new iPhone version will make the same bold and logical move and be based on ..... Android 2.2!
Go Apple! :) /me ducks for cover
I'll second that.
I went through the stupid escalating cable pricing scam in the 1980s and vowed never to pay them another dime.
Tried DirecTV satellite and it seemed to be better on the price hikes but after a few years I tired of the lack of a la carte and having to pay for a ton of unwanted channels just to get the few I wanted. Dishnetwork was not a whole lot better but I could get the channels I wanted with a cheaper package and they had some HD programming.
But once OTA HDTV was rolled out by a significant number of the local channels I axed the dish and put a basic antennae in the attic. The reception, picture and audio are absolutely amazing. I have no idea why the OTA networks are not shouting this from the roof tops, they can compete directly with the cable and satellite providers as long as they bring the content.
And on the programming, I love PBS. The journalism is actual real journalism not some one sided hyperbole laced shouting match from a crop of dunderheads. The science and nature programs are also far superior to the hoax that most of the History/Learning/Discovery channel have become. No more UFO abduction or Nostradamus 2012 end of the world programs aired as factual issues we should be concerned with.
Yes, OTA HDTV absolutely rocks!
I am not sure where you are getting your definition of a "living document" but a quick google search for a definition says a living document is one that is edited and revised.
But definitions aside I think I understand your concern/complaint in that the meaning of the document is interpreted. To me, in reading the document, there are often cases where it must be interpreted and there must be flexibility in the meaning. Thomas Jefferson himself, a staunch opponent of a flexible interpretation of the Constitution, was willing to be flexible in order to approve the Louisiana purchase which he and others thought was an unconstitutional action by the Federal government.
It is a myth because the books that Texas will receive will be a modified version of the base textbook. And the same goes for other states. They submit their requirements and the publisher modifies the base textbook to meet the requirements before publishing the state specific textbooks.
Where it may not be a myth might be in the cases where other states simply accept the Texas versions of the books and I suspect there are several states that will do just that.
Anyhow, myth or not other states can work around this absurdity but sadly it will be more difficult for the students in the states that accept these books to know that the education they are receiving will be ridiculed.
I don't see the relevance of paper versus coinage, the fact remains that the United States did not use "In God We Trust" until the time of the Civil War and it was not official until 1956.
The coinage act of 1792 resulted in the creation of United States currency with no "In God We Trust".
The First Bank of The United States was chartered in 1792 and from what I understand had the approval to create official bank notes for the United States but I don't know that they actually did create any notes.
The Second Bank of The United States was chartered in 1816 with similar approval to create bank notes and did proceed to create notes with no inscription "In God We Trust".
The fact is "In God We Trust" didn't even show up on paper currency in any significant numbers until the 1950s. So the motto on the currency is still a relatively new religious inclusion in light of over 200 years of history.
Which explains why Christian Conservatives would prefer to diminish the role of Thomas Jefferson as he seems to support this so called "soft anarchy".
"I am certainly not an advocate for frequent and untried changes in laws and constitutions. I think moderate imperfections had better be borne with; because, when once known, we accommodate ourselves to them, and find practical means of correcting their ill effects. But I know also, that laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths disclosed, and manners and opinions change with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also, and keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the same coat which fitted him when a boy, as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors."
-- Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Kercheval, July 12, 1810
As long as other states are diligent in reviewing and specifying their standards I don't believe anyone needs to be concerned about the Texas standard making into other states curriculum. The Texas Tribune has an article where the textbook publishers were contacted and they confirmed that the claim saying Texas determines the content of other state's books is an urban myth.
But it is a sad day for the future students in Texas who will now have to endure indoctrination within their state and ridicule outside their state.
Little by little the United States of America is becoming the Corporate Socialist States of Jesus.
"In God We Trust" did not show up on United States currency until around the time of the Civil War and was not officially a motto on the currency until 1956.
Sadly there is a large segment of the population that believe the United States is a Christian nation because of things like "One nation under God" and "In God We Trust" but they never actually studied any real history and don't realize those statements are in our government because they put them there not the people who formed this nation.
http://www.digitaliq.com/parser.php?nav=article&article_id=431
Actually, no, the Caldera / The SCO Group lawsuit never had any merit and it was learned through discovery that it was known by all the Caldera / The SCO Group insiders that there was absolutely no merit to their case from the onset.
After intensive and expensive internal attempts to find something that could be used to sue linux user's for a SCO Tax the Caldera / The SCO Group investigation found absolutely *nothing*. ie no evidence of any copyright infringement whatsoever.
Before this entire fiasco started it was known all the way to the top of their organization that there was no basis for their plans, yet they went forward with the scam anyway. Many people have lost their jobs, some have lost money and a few have actually lost their lives from this scam. If there were any justice this single fact uncovered in discovery would have resulted in fraud charges against the perpetrators of this scam long ago.
Thank you for the correction, I didn't notice that. But yes, as you stated, it still does not include the health care insurance companies and if you look at the numbers for each category in the health care industry the professionals make up better than 50% of the donations with the next largest contributor in the health care category being the pharmaceuticals at about 20% then hospitals at about 14%.
Actually you can see this even in the health care numbers from the original post. Look at the individual categories and note how the swings in % Democrat and % Republican moves with the current controlling party.
A lot of that historical data that makes the Republicans look so bad may have a lot to do with the control they've had in the past 8 to 10 years. And while the grand parent post is wrong to say these corporations have not been throwing cash at Democrats it is definitely correct that for the recent decade they have thrown significantly more at the Republicans, and again, perhaps only because they have been in power.
BULLSHIT on your BULLSHIT.
Health Professionals != Health Insurance Companies
The chart you provided is a measure of donations by doctors, nurses, dentists, etc.
It appears opensecrets.org does not break out the health insurance specifically. So even the chart I provided does not provide the exact details but it seems rather obvious that from 1996 to 2006 the insurance companies were dumping 2X the amount of donations on Republican candidates than Democrats. It wasn't quite so bad in 2008. Well, it is more than bad, it is pathetic that the insurance companies are buying our "representatives".
Unfortunately it matters not, as much as people whine and moan this health care bill isn't bad for the insurance companies, in fact they are going to have 30+ million more people paying into their profit scam at their insane premium rates. If you want to know what the rates will be like just test the Massachusetts online insurance exchange for yourself to see what the currently uninsured can look forward to. For my wife and I the cheapest insurance I can purchase is $700 / month and reading the brief details of the policy it is crappy coverage. What a corporate scam.
This is not government take over of our health care, its a continuation of corporate take over of our government in the name of profiteering for a few.
Something else that is funny about this bill, I heard on NPR or the BBC that a provision in the bill to fix the Medicare Part D corporate scam where by the tax payer cannot negotiate drug prices was removed. I think this is the 3rd or 4th time somebody has tried to remove that stupidity from the 2003 Republican Medicare law, to no avail, it remains. So basically the bill still states that in the name of "competition" the price of drugs will be determined by the pharmaceutical manufacturers, pharmacies and the insurance companies while the payer, Medicare, will have no say and will simply pay what the corporations demanded.
Who is the moron that put that in the bill? When you buy a new car do you let the manufacturer, dealership and bank tell you how much you will pay for a new car? LOL
Democrat? Republican? All bought and paid for.
"fed lowers interest rates (aka prints money and" loans it "to banks), banks gamble with" money they borrowed from the fed ", lose, then federal government " loans the banks more money to free up credit and get the economy moving. "Who's really at fault here? not to mention we encouraged banks to lend to more people. Bubble created, bubble popped. and not all banks did gamble. we should have let those who were responsible, acquire the assets of those who weren't. but instead, we prop up the irresponsible banks" which used the freshly borrowed money meant to free up credit to buy each other instead. "it's a failure of government " to regulate bank activity, such as leveraging assets 35 times over and hiding the fact via subsidiaries of subsidiaries in what are legally questionable financing and accounting methods. "and soon enough, we're gonna pay an even bigger price" because to date nothing has changed and the questionable tactics continue without regulation, over site, investigations or even upholding existing laws. "And somehow it'll all get magically blamed on the free market, and on deregulation" when in fact there is no free market because the borrowing of fed funds at insanely low rates is only possible for a tiny minority of banking groups who paid for the deregulation by funding elections. "never mind we have a shit ton of regulation already in place" that either fail to be enforced, are side stepped using paid for loop holes, and is obviously ineffectual to any sane human being who dares to look beyond their favorite propaganda news programs and talk shows.
There is a common sense saying that we don't hear much these days, follow the money.
I have read and heard over and over again that somehow the poor people who manage to get a mortgage via government programs and incentives somehow decimated the economy even though their financial powers are minuscule. And all the while there is this small group of people paying for propagandising of the national media and politics in this country who are making unheard of profits from these scams.
Uh, yeah right, the poor people ruined the economy. LOL
The government should have let the entire thing implode. I agree with the fear of some that this would have resulted in an even more dire situation than we are now in but sometimes I think that is the only way to fix the insanity that has become the economics and politics of this country.
Some of the discussions these days on the economy remind me of a debate I had with a co-worker back when gasoline prices were sky rocketing for no apparent reason. He was certain the cause was Al Gore. WTF! The only thing I could tell him at that point was "follow the money" which only angered him more because the money obviously led to record breaking oil industry profits that dwarfed the GDP of many nations not the small green investing of one outspoken individual.
The co-worker later came back to ask me if I thought he was a moron, I wasn't quite sure how to answer, is a moron still a moron when they become self aware of the fact they are a moron?
Note to gangien, I am not calling you or anyone else a moron but open your eyes.
I never considered gate leakage to be that much of an issue with power consumption, but I suppose when you have 47+ million transistors the tiny gate leakage current adds up.
Shop around for various providers and coverage levels.
Do the math to determine the value of the packages your interested in.
Keep in mind, insurance carriers are not interested in providing the best coverage for the best price, their objective is to profit.
If your family risk level is low you may be better off with a policy that mainly covers unexpected medical needs and use out of pocket cash to cover routine health care.
A comprehensive coverage package will be very expensive and the amount of coverage versus cost seems to vary greatly from state to state.
If your looking at an expensive comprehensive policy run the numbers and compare the expensive policy to a cheap one where you place the difference in monthly premiums into a savings account.
Of course the cheap policy with a savings account requires self discipline to maintain funding of the medical savings account. If you lack the discipline to manage finances responsibly then you may be better off with the expensive policy.
The article is very slim on details and dead wrong on some important facts.
The lack of a junction is not unique, ever heard of a MOSFET, "There is no pn junction, so there is no depletion region."
And I'm curious how they induce conductivity in silicon without dopants, considering that silicon is a semiconductor and a "semiconductor is a material that has an electrical conductivity between that of a conductor and an insulator", therefore "conductivity may easily be modified by introducing impurities into their crystal lattice" via doping.
And the article includes one other statement that is questionable in my opinion...
Gate leakage is an issue but the true bane of transistor power consumption is Rdson (resistance drain to source when transistor is on). The reason for the massive heat sinks and fans on processors today is not due to gate leakage its due to the resistance of the transistor channels and the various interconnects.
Current flowing through the resistive channel and internconnects in the millions of transistors in a processor generates heat for the same reason that a basic carbon based resistor connected to a voltage source will heat up. And increasing the doping level in the gates and poly silicon interconnects reduces resistance, with no doping it seems the problem of power loss through heat generation will only be worse.
The article is somewhat interesting and perhaps it is just a bad article lacking significant detail.
After 20+ years of employment and paying insurance premiums I am now in a position where I don't have an employer plan I can buy into, so I've ran the numbers as well. What I've discovered is...
1) If my employer had given my wife and I the health care insurance benefit in wages that I could place in a savings account instead of each of us paying a portion of the insurance premium I would have well over $100,000 cash in the bank to cover medical expenses.
2) A cash savings plan would not cover catastrophic events like cancer treatment or an organ transplant but for the vast majority of medical treatments the average person is likely to encounter it would be more than covered by such a cash savings plan.
3) After all the years of paying into a program and getting little back from it, when you reach the point in your life where you are more likely to need health care the health insurance companies dump you and the tax payer picks up the insurance tab via medicare / medicaid.
4) The current health care "reform" proposed by the U.S. Senate is similar to the program currently used in Massachusetts which after reviewing the programs available through the Massachusetts connector program turns out to cost the same as coverage in states without such a program but provides fewer benefits. Well the one benefit it provides is a government enforced mandatory revenue stream from the public to the insurance corporations.
As it stands the current health care insurance system is a complete scam ripping off virtually every citizen in the United States. And if they pass a law forcing everyone to start handing over their cash to corporations for sub-par coverage I suspect we are going to have a large percentage of the population that will become criminals over night.
Corporate communism is the wrong answer but it seems to be where we are headed while the talking heads and nut jobs are screaming about socialism.
I agree that the loyalty statements in the parent post perhaps went a bit too far, however, there is a big incentive for an employer to keep their employees but not contractors.
Employers by law must pay FUTA to cover unemployment benefits. There are various factors that determine the rates an employer must pay but one of the factors is their history of employee lay offs.
If an employer lays off employees their FUTA rate will go up and the cost of doing business will increase.
If an employer cancels their contract with a freelance or temp agency there is no detrimental effect to their FUTA rates.
It seems quite apparent from Joe's ramblings that his tax issues stem not necessarily from any specific tax code but more from a deep seeded and long term intent to not pay taxes.
I also agree with you 100% on the question of health care coverage, but that is a topic for another discussion. :)