The difference is this: You can choose to not have a car, but you can't choose to not have a body which may become unwell of its own accord through various intereaction, enviromental or direct action by others upon it (unless there's some new whizzy way to not have a body and still function in and partake of the benefits of this world;o)
It is MY body...and I should be able to choose to do with it as I please. Why not give me OPTIONs...why not make the HSA laws even more accessible, rather than cut them?
If they want to play the tax game...why not let me save my OWN money pre-tax much easier...and use that to pay for my routine care...allowing me to have vastly cheaper insurance for only emergency needs? let me have MORE choice...not less.
It is my body and the US govt shouldn't have fuck all to say about how I treat it...or what I want to do with it...
What if I want to refuse medical help? Will they let me? I should be able to make my own decisions with my body, and live (or not) with the repercussions of said decisions.
I'm a grown adult....treat me like one and let me live with the results of the decisions I make.
The results of this are not going to be seen truly for years to come....and I foresee that this will have catastrophic results to our healthcare system, and our economy.
I see how well the US Feds have done with Medicare/Medicaid....(ugh what fiscal failures)....now, I get to have them directly fuck with my medical interests.
I'm glad I'll likely be dead, when the endpoint of all of them finally becomes all health care, doled out by the govt, in true DMV fashion.
Biggest piece of social legislation since FDR and it survives
Biggest fiasco we've seen in the US in ages.
Medical prices are already starting to rise due to this...and it is only going to get worse.
Medical insurance should not be tied to un-employment. And while doing all of this, they actually hurt beneficial programs like the HSA's and FSA's...that let you save for medical expenses pre-tax.
And now with this mandate upheld...well, the any pretense that the Feds adhered at all to the supposed limited power granted to them under the constitution is shredded.
Welcome to the new, imperial, all powerful US Federal Govt.
What we have sucks, and likely will never be able to be undone....so that real reforms that work can be put in place.
We're going to be discovering new repercussions from this monstrosity that is over 2K pages long, and largely unread even by those that passed it....
I for one look forward to our new DMV styled medical overlords. I hope I don't have to visit a medical center with an artery spouting blood....and get put at the back of the line because my paperwork wasn't filled out quite right.
You'll be subsidized if you can't afford it. Otherwise, it's pretty much like car insurance, so was the game already over decades ago?
But no one forces you, upon penalty...to buy car insurance. If you don't own a car, or if you choose not to drive on public roads (and, not all states mandate car insurance, if you can show you have money set aside for accidents).....
Which is counterpoint to granting tax breaks to get people to do something.
The point of taxation either way...should be to fund the govt to work....NOT to alter behavior. You should be free to live and behave as you wish...that is a part of freedom and the govt should play no part in trying to coerce you in any way...
In the UK we have car parks outside pubs, but generally people come in groups and assign a designated driver who does not drink. Either that or get a taxi.
Drink driving has become socially unacceptable in the UK.
Definitely not the case over here in the 'colonies'....in fact, mostly the opposite.
However, the attitude is a bit geographic.
I found that more people I met in the NE part of the US, and somewhat out west (been awhile since I was last out there) is somewhat less tolerant of drinking and driving...but in the middle and the south of the US, it is pretty much acceptable behavior, provided you aren't TOO drunk to drive.
I don't know anyone that drinks that does not drive home, at least most of the time. Just a fact of life.
My case is a bit more specialized, I live in New Orleans..which until a few years back, didn't even have an open container law...back then, you could drive with a drink open in the car and if you were about to get pulled over, you just hand your glass to a passenger.
They curtailed that a bit...but this is the land of the 'to to cup'.
I get so used to it...I often forget it isn't prevalent around the rest of the US>
Here, if you're leaving the bar, you just ask for a plastic "to go" cup, and they'll give you one to pour the rest of your drink into, to carry out with you. In NOLA, you are free to walk around with a mixed drink. wine or beer, no problem at all. It is cool to do that 24/7/365 here. Often, we all just order our last drink to go.....we have drive through daiquiri shops...drive through...you get drinks to go.
In New Orleans, there are hardly any 'liquor stores'....you can buy beer, wine and liquor in the grocery stores, the convenience stores.....etc.
I've grown quite used to the liberal laws for most everything in the city. I know there are a LOT of people that have drank and are driving on any given evening...but it isn't a problem here. No one worries about it, and frankly, I rarely if ever hear about accidents that are blamed on drinking....at least, nothing serious ever comes on the news about it very often. No more so, than other cities I've lived in that were significantly less tolerant.
If I'm too plastered to drive...that is one of the times I will leave my car and call a cab.
But, years of experience...I know when I'm still ok to drive. I take back roads home, go speed limits (the only time I drive the speed limit is when I've had a few).
Let's face it..some people can and some can't drive with different amounts of intoxication. I've had people that scared the shit outta me driving with them after only a couple drinks...I've driven after quite a few of them, and people remarking how amazingly well I did...steady as rock, no swaying...etc.
Thing is..I don't know or associate with anyone that doesn't drink. No one I've ever known, went to a bar..and didn't drink. I've never known a so-called 'designated driver'.
Sometimes fun, can make a boring evening fun...certainly helps TV become more interesting. However...you're not generally gonna get laid drinking at home like you do at a bar, which is one of the main reasons to go.
get a designated driver
Doesn't work that well if you're a 'lone wolf' out on the prowl. And when with friends...well, they're all wanting to have fun too. I guess if you can manage to make friends with a teetotaler, that would help...but hard to find any of those in New Orleans.
take a cab home or the bus or he train
In most cities...no such things as a train home, and public transportation isn't really a viable option. Hell, the buses and all often stop way before closing time 2am or so...
In NOLA, we actually do have cabs as an option, and sometimes, I do take advantage of that...but all the time can get expensive. Most cities I've been too that aren't tourist meccas...cabs aren't really much of a regular viable option.
Besides, it isn't as easy to get laid trying to get the girl to go home with you in a cab...better to get her in your car and drive her home (her house is usually better).
I guess you don't drink or go out and party much...what you say 'sounds' reasonable, but isn't really practical in most cities in the US.
You go speeding around like a lunatic asshole and kill people.
Actually....that is the one and only time that I ever bother to try to follow the speed limits.
When I'm stone cold sober, I drive as fast as I like which is usually very fast. I only look at the speedometer when the radar detector goes off, or if on the highway, I know of a 'bear trap' from the CB radio. I don't drink and drive on the hwy, since I'm usually wanting to get somewhere fast, usually averaging 90-95mph most of the time. But around town, if I've been at the bar all night....I drive back roads, and go the posted speed limits.
They did not throw out these convictions only to save on paperwork.
More likely...they didn't want to throw them out because of revenue loss.
They're not interested in making the roads safer, they're wanting to protect their revenue stream.
I'd be willing to bet, that if you took all the revenue from driving infractions, and pooled them, and maybe gave it all back to the citizens that did NOT incur any infractions...rather than give it to the cops, you'd see a huge drop in the vigor and ferocity of our 'safety' officials in setting up all these traps, and the system not caring much about how realistic, accurate and fair they are....
It is always a bad idea to allow those that can impose power over you, directly benefit monetarily from said actions.
Depends on the age of the program. Most of the recent stuff (probably the past 20 years) that people watch (movies, etc) should be closed captioned by default. Hell, even the movie theatres support closed captioning (usually a mirror mounted on the seat back in front reflecting the back wall of the auditorium where a LED sign displays the captions).
Interesting...I've never heard of nor seen any type mirror system in any movie theater I've ever been in....and many of these are nearly brand new too...?!?
Closed captioning for live bands?!? Play that trumpet on stage, you'd better have some sort of closed captioning....
I feel for disabled people, but c'mon....can we use common sense?
And Netflix...is a private company...I could understand this maybe if it was a govt. entity, but how can they make a private company like Netflix alter their business model or software like this?
As a resident of Houston, New Orleans can eat shit and has no importance in the energy sector.
Aw...you're just still 'sore' about our gangs coming over there after Katrina, staying, and fighting with the domestic gangs of the area.
:)
As for energy....hmm, well, I guess we could shutdown the port, and turn off all the refineries here in the NOLA area...and could see just how important we are.
If only "just signing the guestbook" was as simple as it sounds. Go look up the actual process and you'll find out really quick why some people avoid the legal route: It's loaded with bureaucratic red tape & bullshit and, in the cases of some key foreign nations that supply many of our legals and illegals, chocked full of corruption right down to the bottom level of officials.
I agree, that the politicians need to get off their collective asses, and fix the process.
However, until then...it *is* the current law of the land, and if we just start ignoring our laws and processes in place....anarchy, of which I feel we're actually seeing a taste of right now...
I mean...if we ignore these laws we don't like...what about others? Where does it stop?
While I'm sure there are some out there that are 'haters' as you put it....
I think the majority of US citizens are very welcoming of legal immigrants that come here and (hopefully) want to become American citizens...and meld into our culture.
We're especially welcoming of legal, documented immigrants that have education and skills.
I think for the most part, the main thing we care about for our immigrants...is to just sign the fucking guest book on they way in....you know?
New Orleans was built below sea level . . . I dont know of any other metropolotian cities built beloew sea level.
True..but then again...it was almost 300 years ago, before GPS and all the nifty tech tools we have now...and it was built where it is due to the important location, near the mouth of the MS river...hence, why the city is so important. It was just a bit disheartening to hear all the people, many from the NE saying "they shouldn't have built there, just leave, not worth saving...etc".
I guess many of the same people neglect the facts that NYC has pretty much the exact same disaster scenario, and are WAY overdue for a hurricane there...NYC can get hit by a medium level hurricane and if in the right place, kiss it goodbye.
Will people say it isn't worth saving, and they shouldn't have been built there too?
On a larger scale...do we say the same about the midwest in the country..when in recent years, flooding has knocked down cities there?
What about the panhandle area...prone to tornadoes annually? What about out west, where they seem to have annual problems with fires and mudslides....?
Seems like most of the country comes around for those areas...yet, NOLA, with its importance for energy and a great deal of commerce (not to mention the cultural influences on the whole US)....gets brushed off more easily.
Sorry...I still have some soft spots for the callous comments on this forum and other places when it hit.
PS. I believe Amsterdam is another city built far below sea level....and they had no problems doing what it took to built defenses against the sea for that little town....
I wonder how soon we'll have people posting, that those people on the east coast should have known better than to move hear that water, which could eventually rise and flood them...they should have never built there in the first place!!
Oh wait....that was only true for New Orleans with the Katrina fiasco...
Some old-timers once told me of a time when you could have friends and get invited to things without needing the services of a corporation that makes its money by knowing and selling every detail of your life, but I can't imagine how it was ever done.
Probably the same people that try to tell you folks used to have to get up, and walk across the room to change the channel on the TV.
:)
Yeah....I too remember the days of actually interacting with people on the phone or maybe by newfangled tech like email, to get together for events/parties....way back in the days of last weekend for me.
I've never had a FB account, and it sure doesn't seem to have hurt my social life any....
Slashdot Mirror
It is MY body...and I should be able to choose to do with it as I please. Why not give me OPTIONs...why not make the HSA laws even more accessible, rather than cut them?
If they want to play the tax game...why not let me save my OWN money pre-tax much easier...and use that to pay for my routine care...allowing me to have vastly cheaper insurance for only emergency needs? let me have MORE choice...not less.
It is my body and the US govt shouldn't have fuck all to say about how I treat it...or what I want to do with it...
What if I want to refuse medical help? Will they let me? I should be able to make my own decisions with my body, and live (or not) with the repercussions of said decisions.
I'm a grown adult....treat me like one and let me live with the results of the decisions I make.
The results of this are not going to be seen truly for years to come....and I foresee that this will have catastrophic results to our healthcare system, and our economy.
I see how well the US Feds have done with Medicare/Medicaid....(ugh what fiscal failures)....now, I get to have them directly fuck with my medical interests.
I'm glad I'll likely be dead, when the endpoint of all of them finally becomes all health care, doled out by the govt, in true DMV fashion.
Pardon the typo...that should be employment, not un-employment.
Biggest fiasco we've seen in the US in ages.
Medical prices are already starting to rise due to this...and it is only going to get worse.
Medical insurance should not be tied to un-employment. And while doing all of this, they actually hurt beneficial programs like the HSA's and FSA's...that let you save for medical expenses pre-tax.
And now with this mandate upheld...well, the any pretense that the Feds adhered at all to the supposed limited power granted to them under the constitution is shredded.
Welcome to the new, imperial, all powerful US Federal Govt.
What we have sucks, and likely will never be able to be undone....so that real reforms that work can be put in place.
We're going to be discovering new repercussions from this monstrosity that is over 2K pages long, and largely unread even by those that passed it....
I for one look forward to our new DMV styled medical overlords. I hope I don't have to visit a medical center with an artery spouting blood....and get put at the back of the line because my paperwork wasn't filled out quite right.
But no one forces you, upon penalty...to buy car insurance. If you don't own a car, or if you choose not to drive on public roads (and, not all states mandate car insurance, if you can show you have money set aside for accidents).....
I'd never heard of 'pinning' something to the task bar before this article....??
Healthcare should be disconnected from employment....
The point of taxation either way...should be to fund the govt to work....NOT to alter behavior. You should be free to live and behave as you wish...that is a part of freedom and the govt should play no part in trying to coerce you in any way...
And now...well, there is really nothing the feds can't tell us to do anymore....
When they can force you to buy something from a private company, game over.
Definitely not the case over here in the 'colonies'....in fact, mostly the opposite.
However, the attitude is a bit geographic.
I found that more people I met in the NE part of the US, and somewhat out west (been awhile since I was last out there) is somewhat less tolerant of drinking and driving...but in the middle and the south of the US, it is pretty much acceptable behavior, provided you aren't TOO drunk to drive.
I don't know anyone that drinks that does not drive home, at least most of the time. Just a fact of life.
My case is a bit more specialized, I live in New Orleans..which until a few years back, didn't even have an open container law...back then, you could drive with a drink open in the car and if you were about to get pulled over, you just hand your glass to a passenger.
They curtailed that a bit...but this is the land of the 'to to cup'.
I get so used to it...I often forget it isn't prevalent around the rest of the US>
Here, if you're leaving the bar, you just ask for a plastic "to go" cup, and they'll give you one to pour the rest of your drink into, to carry out with you. In NOLA, you are free to walk around with a mixed drink. wine or beer, no problem at all. It is cool to do that 24/7/365 here. Often, we all just order our last drink to go.....we have drive through daiquiri shops...drive through...you get drinks to go.
In New Orleans, there are hardly any 'liquor stores'....you can buy beer, wine and liquor in the grocery stores, the convenience stores.....etc.
I've grown quite used to the liberal laws for most everything in the city. I know there are a LOT of people that have drank and are driving on any given evening...but it isn't a problem here. No one worries about it, and frankly, I rarely if ever hear about accidents that are blamed on drinking....at least, nothing serious ever comes on the news about it very often. No more so, than other cities I've lived in that were significantly less tolerant.
If I'm too plastered to drive...that is one of the times I will leave my car and call a cab.
But, years of experience...I know when I'm still ok to drive. I take back roads home, go speed limits (the only time I drive the speed limit is when I've had a few).
Let's face it..some people can and some can't drive with different amounts of intoxication. I've had people that scared the shit outta me driving with them after only a couple drinks...I've driven after quite a few of them, and people remarking how amazingly well I did...steady as rock, no swaying...etc.
Thing is..I don't know or associate with anyone that doesn't drink. No one I've ever known, went to a bar..and didn't drink. I've never known a so-called 'designated driver'.
Sometimes fun, can make a boring evening fun...certainly helps TV become more interesting. However...you're not generally gonna get laid drinking at home like you do at a bar, which is one of the main reasons to go.
Doesn't work that well if you're a 'lone wolf' out on the prowl. And when with friends...well, they're all wanting to have fun too. I guess if you can manage to make friends with a teetotaler, that would help...but hard to find any of those in New Orleans.
In most cities...no such things as a train home, and public transportation isn't really a viable option. Hell, the buses and all often stop way before closing time 2am or so...
In NOLA, we actually do have cabs as an option, and sometimes, I do take advantage of that...but all the time can get expensive. Most cities I've been too that aren't tourist meccas...cabs aren't really much of a regular viable option.
Besides, it isn't as easy to get laid trying to get the girl to go home with you in a cab...better to get her in your car and drive her home (her house is usually better).
I guess you don't drink or go out and party much...what you say 'sounds' reasonable, but isn't really practical in most cities in the US.
Actually....that is the one and only time that I ever bother to try to follow the speed limits.
When I'm stone cold sober, I drive as fast as I like which is usually very fast. I only look at the speedometer when the radar detector goes off, or if on the highway, I know of a 'bear trap' from the CB radio. I don't drink and drive on the hwy, since I'm usually wanting to get somewhere fast, usually averaging 90-95mph most of the time. But around town, if I've been at the bar all night....I drive back roads, and go the posted speed limits.
Gotta get the car home so I can get to work tomorrow.
If they didn't want people to drink and drive home, then they'd NOT have all those nice large parking lots outside of the bars.
Drive past one that's open....see the cars in the lot. Drive past after closing time...see how many cars have left.
Do you even slightly think that even a minority of those people drove home below the 'limit', or had a designated driver? Please...don't kid yourself.
It is behavior that is sanctioned, and yet prosecuted for high revenue gain...
More likely...they didn't want to throw them out because of revenue loss.
They're not interested in making the roads safer, they're wanting to protect their revenue stream.
I'd be willing to bet, that if you took all the revenue from driving infractions, and pooled them, and maybe gave it all back to the citizens that did NOT incur any infractions...rather than give it to the cops, you'd see a huge drop in the vigor and ferocity of our 'safety' officials in setting up all these traps, and the system not caring much about how realistic, accurate and fair they are....
It is always a bad idea to allow those that can impose power over you, directly benefit monetarily from said actions.
Kind of like when you were a teen and got home late, and the next morning, your parents asked when you got in.
You answer "Oh...around midnight".
3am *is* around midnight...you didn't lie, but if they make assumptions, its not your fault.
If she asks you "Is she prettier than me?"
Never answer these with the truth, if the truthful answer would be "no".
Interesting...I've never heard of nor seen any type mirror system in any movie theater I've ever been in....and many of these are nearly brand new too...?!?
Closed captioning for live bands?!? Play that trumpet on stage, you'd better have some sort of closed captioning....
I feel for disabled people, but c'mon....can we use common sense?
And Netflix...is a private company...I could understand this maybe if it was a govt. entity, but how can they make a private company like Netflix alter their business model or software like this?
The ADA is getting out of hand...
Aw...you're just still 'sore' about our gangs coming over there after Katrina, staying, and fighting with the domestic gangs of the area.
As for energy....hmm, well, I guess we could shutdown the port, and turn off all the refineries here in the NOLA area...and could see just how important we are.
I agree, that the politicians need to get off their collective asses, and fix the process.
However, until then...it *is* the current law of the land, and if we just start ignoring our laws and processes in place....anarchy, of which I feel we're actually seeing a taste of right now...
I mean...if we ignore these laws we don't like...what about others? Where does it stop?
I think the majority of US citizens are very welcoming of legal immigrants that come here and (hopefully) want to become American citizens...and meld into our culture.
We're especially welcoming of legal, documented immigrants that have education and skills.
I think for the most part, the main thing we care about for our immigrants...is to just sign the fucking guest book on they way in....you know?
True..but then again...it was almost 300 years ago, before GPS and all the nifty tech tools we have now...and it was built where it is due to the important location, near the mouth of the MS river...hence, why the city is so important. It was just a bit disheartening to hear all the people, many from the NE saying "they shouldn't have built there, just leave, not worth saving...etc".
I guess many of the same people neglect the facts that NYC has pretty much the exact same disaster scenario, and are WAY overdue for a hurricane there...NYC can get hit by a medium level hurricane and if in the right place, kiss it goodbye.
Will people say it isn't worth saving, and they shouldn't have been built there too?
On a larger scale...do we say the same about the midwest in the country..when in recent years, flooding has knocked down cities there?
What about the panhandle area...prone to tornadoes annually? What about out west, where they seem to have annual problems with fires and mudslides....?
Seems like most of the country comes around for those areas...yet, NOLA, with its importance for energy and a great deal of commerce (not to mention the cultural influences on the whole US)....gets brushed off more easily.
Sorry...I still have some soft spots for the callous comments on this forum and other places when it hit.
PS. I believe Amsterdam is another city built far below sea level....and they had no problems doing what it took to built defenses against the sea for that little town....
How in the world did we ever get musical beats....before computer software?
Hmm........
I wonder how soon we'll have people posting, that those people on the east coast should have known better than to move hear that water, which could eventually rise and flood them...they should have never built there in the first place!!
Oh wait....that was only true for New Orleans with the Katrina fiasco...
nevermind.
Probably the same people that try to tell you folks used to have to get up, and walk across the room to change the channel on the TV.
Yeah....I too remember the days of actually interacting with people on the phone or maybe by newfangled tech like email, to get together for events/parties....way back in the days of last weekend for me.
I've never had a FB account, and it sure doesn't seem to have hurt my social life any....