NxaiPan

Even odds the guys responsible for this attack come from Derna, hence no one has come forward to claim the $.

Isn't Medford nutjob central even by Oregon standards?

I believe men get to share it with International Toilet Day.

And maybe more appropriately shares it with Missiles Day in Russia..phenaar, phenaar!

Really not sure that Twain, Thoreau or Dante are relevant to this discussion.

But on second thoughts you could perhaps paraphrase Thoreau's widely misquoted line: "I ask for, not at once no government, but at once a better government"

and this could read: "Iask for, not at once no healthcare, but at once for better healthcare".

Surely the point about US healthcare is that it is a bust (literally) and utterly unsustainable, and in need of a comprehensive reworking. Obamacare is obviously not perfect by why throw baby out with the proverbial and therefore use it as a startpoint for something better?

"...why throw baby out with the proverbial and therefore use it as a startpoint for something better?"

Because it's far worse than what we had, and a massive step in the opposite direction of where we need to go. It makes the original broken system harder to fix.

I wish people (and most Americans do by now) understood that Obamacare is nothing but welfare for the big insurance companies, big pharma, the health care providers, and all other big money interests. It is a pat on the back to the big campaign contributors. It makes health insurance more expensive when it was already too expensive and it forces those costs onto the public.

How else could the stock prices for the big health insurance companies be up 200% - 300% since this law was passed? I posted a link to prove that already.

DO YOU REALLY think that something which benefits only the big cronies of the politicians and greatly increases their profits at the expense of the people is good for the people?

Really?

So what is the best solution to this "broken system"?

I have visited China a few times ..

I had a discussion with Chinese lady about one baby rule .

"you can have two babies but you pay government 100,000 to have the second , you must both

have good jobs " ..

Just thought id say coz I heard it straight from my friend.. The reason the topic came up was coz they are just about to get married and have a baby soon after ..

They are in Shanghai , which could have different rules .( like the facebook one lol )

They wouldn't talk much about it ..

One thing sociologists (East or West, or both) would have a field day with if the CCP would let them is the effect of the OCP on the personality of the PRChina. It didn't take me long to be able to almost always identify the one child students in my classes because of their distinctive personality, or lack of one. Compared to students from two child families, the one child offspring is more quiet, reserved, withdrawn, distant, inward oriented, lonesome and lonely, set apart from peers, sometimes can be seen talking to him/her self even in public in an obvious slipup due to habits of isolated private personal behavior.

The PRChinese only child is minimally socialized, if that much, and is redefining the PRChinese personality heavily toward a general anomie. One only child university student I got to know well told me he was still ticked off at his parents because they never would let him have a dog for a companion of sorts.

The lonely crowd.

There is also the "Little Emperor" syndrome where the sole child become thoroughly spoiled.

Going down the S Korea route there is now enormous pressure on that sole child to perform academically.

Also what is termed the 4-2-1 paradox whereby this sole child may end up having to help out 2 parents and 4 grandparents as life expectancy grows as fast as birth rates decline.

It's insane. The world is already overpopulated, and more countries need to start a one child policy ( I can dream, can't I? ).

If it's just a matter of workers, there are around 70 million refugees that could be used for that.

The gender imbalance should be solved by enforcing the law, not allowing people to breed more mouths, and if millions of men won't be able to find wives, that's a good thing, as it will really reduce the population. Same thing is happening in India, as a result of selective abortions.

The world is not overpopulated yet, today it's more a case of misallocation of resources.

70 million refugees? Really, that seems a tad high. Countries like Japan with a falling population will need to rethink their draconian immigration policies or come up with some clever techno solution pdq, or they will be in all sorts of trouble.

It looks like that due to the gender imbalance in China even this lightening of the One Child Policy will have little impact:

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/acab0276-5112-11e3-9651-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2lJDTRisr

Sorry to have disappeared for a while...<<<snip>>>

No problem.

And now in my own words...

China's One Child Policy has been a classic example of too much, too late and with all sorts of (largely negative) unforeseen consequences.

Comparing the TFR (Total Fertility Rate, number of women born per woman) of China, Bangladesh and Thailand is illuminating:

1960: Thailand 6.2 China 5.5 Bangladesh 6.7 (peaking at 7.0 in 1970)

2011: Thailand 1.6 China 1.6 Bangladesh 2.5

In other words Thailand, starting from a higher level, has reached a similar level of fertility rates today to China without any need of a One Child Policy. Also it seems that "communists", buddhists and muslims are all equally capable of doing the right thing when it comes to population growth or lack of!

The answer is largely a result of 4 factors:

economic development

urbanization

enhances female education/status/job opportunities

serious fall in infant mortality (deaths before aged 1)

China's TFR peaked in 1966/67 at 5.9, had fallen to 4.2 by 1974 when the wen, xi shao (later, longer, fewer) anti-natalist programme was introduced, and was at 2.6 in 1979 when OCP was introduced.

The unnecessary role of OCP is highlighted in this link:

The field of demographics is always faced with confusion and half-truths. Have a go at this little quiz and see if you can do better than the chimpanzee which would score 4.5/9. Most people (especially the allegedly well-educated) seem to really struggle:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24836917

6 out of 9, at least I am brighter than a chimpanzee and it seems most university educated folk!

I personally agree with China (maybe the only time i have ever said that)

People shouldn't be allowed to reproduce the way we do. The higher the population density, the higher the poverty rate.

One child is plenty.

Imagine the world in about 8 generations if every two people only made one child. Let's do the math on that......

Mr Condom had the right idea during his campaign in Thailand. He did a lot of good for the country. We need more like him.

The average number of babies born per woman globally is now 2.5 on average. People make sensible decisions when they are empowered/able to do. Government enforced policies to either grow or shrink populations are rarely of any value unless accompanies by severe repression.

Drop infant mortality rates, educate women and allow them proper job opportunities, move people to urban areas, educate about and provide contraception, and hey presto birth rates fall and not a sight or sound of heavy handed government intervention. Mr Condom, Condoms and Cabbages restaurants etc, for once Thailand can call itself a true hub, the hub of non-repressive, effective population reduction.

PS population density is the number of people living per square km. Singapore, Hong Kong etc disprove the notion that high population density means poverty.

Wrong, wrong, wrong.

You state immediately above:

Section 1312(d)(3)(D) of Obamacare was actually inserted by Sen Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) in 2009 and remains in the law to this day. It would therefore seem the Democrats have been wailing about a provision that they (and they alone) passed into law, to be signed by a Democratic President

The first wrong is that virtually all the 535 Members of Congress wailed about the Grassley amendment, not only the Democrats. And the Republican Sen Grassley offered no serious opposition to the changes made to his amendment, cited in your post, which fact seriously suggests Sen Grassley's amendment was in the first place deleterious.

The second wrong is to lump Members of Congress and the professional staff as one group. The fact is Members of Congress always had radically superior medical care plans to those of professional staff, regardless of whether the professional staff were employed in the personal office of the Member or by a committee.

The third wrong is to omit the Republicans' duplicity led by Speaker Boehner and Sen Grassley, as noted by me concerning Sen Grassley and concerning Sen Grassley and Speaker Boehner in the link below.

There are many, many more wrongs in the post - and in other posts - but the three here will have to suffice as I haven't time or interest in refuting someone's every point. For instance, I'll not waste time countering one anecdote after another with an opposite anecdote after another - I rarely deal in anecdote for the obvious reasons, i.e., principally an anecdote is a cheap happenstance appeal to emotions that proves nothing beyond itself.

Boehner Secretly Defended A Special Obamacare 'Exemption' He Has Publicly Derided

"Get rid of the exemption for Members of Congress," Boehner said. "It’s a matter of fairness for all Americans."

But new, leaked emails paint a different picture of how Boehner fought privately to maintain certain health insurance subsidies for federal employees under the Affordable Care Act.

The emails were first reported by Politico, which detailed how Boehner worked with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (R-Nev.) to preserve these subsidies that have become a source of controversy in Congress over the past few months.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/government-shutdown-obamacare-subsidies-boehner-exempt-2013-10#ixzz2lGHRi1jn

Try to get the fuller story please.

And do say hi from me to your good pal and close advisor Pinocchio.

If I am so wrong, wrong, wrong...why did you post this, this, this?

Members of Congress get free and complete medical insurance (without copays) to cover everything from a cold to a catastrophic illness, accident, disease.

Mark Twain is my guru now, but Pinocchio comes in handy from time to time.

Because that was one of the irrational and arbitrary ways medical insurance was provided to a select group in the United States before ObamaCare - a select group that abusively towards us selected themselves for the Ferrari style medical insurance program they provided for themselves only.

May I remind you that you were wrong to omit Republicans' initiative last month to negate the Grassley inclusion?

Completely wrong to have omitted the duplicity of Speaker Boehner and Sen Grassley in the so called "exemption."

And since when do you think or believe you own Mark Twain?

You quote Mark Twain again and I might zap you with Dante,

Or perhaps Thoreau.

Really not sure that Twain, Thoreau or Dante are relevant to this discussion.

But on second thoughts you could perhaps paraphrase Thoreau's widely misquoted line: "I ask for, not at once no government, but at once a better government"

and this could read: "Iask for, not at once no healthcare, but at once for better healthcare".

Surely the point about US healthcare is that it is a bust (literally) and utterly unsustainable, and in need of a comprehensive reworking. Obamacare is obviously not perfect by why throw baby out with the proverbial and therefore use it as a startpoint for something better?

I know this is speculation and a conspiracy theory to boot, but in the middle east everything is possible. False flag anyone?

http://www.debka.com/article/23455/Incredible-Beirut-bombings-killing-25-people-were-self-inflicted-by-Iran-and-Hizballah-as-a-diversionary-tactic

A highly sensitive Saudi tip-off reaching Western intelligence agencies, including Israel, on Nov. 14, gave advance warning that Iran and Hizballah were plotting a major terrorist operation in Beirut as a diversionary stunt, DEBKAfile’s exclusive intelligences sources report.

When did Debka last get one of their conspiracy theories right? Weren't they the mob that breathlessly told us the "WMD" in Iraq were about to be found throughout 2003?

If they really are ex-Mossad types they are giving that organization a bad name, or perhaps their inaccuracies are why they are ex-Mossad...

AAB doesn't exist because you can't find it on Google?

Added: From a briefing I receive:

Siraj al-Din Zurayqat, a cleric who is close to the Abdullah Azzam Brigades (AAB), has

already attributed the attack to Saraya al-Hussein bin Ali – AAB often attributes its attacks

to a sub-group and the name of this entity is consistent with a sectarian agenda. Zurayqat

was a member of Lebanon’s mainstream Sunni hierarchy prior to the outbreak of the Syrian

conflict but has since made statements on behalf of AAB, including threatening Hizballah

and warning Sunnis to prepare for conflict in Lebanon

And this is from a year ago:

Sheikh Siraj Al-Din Zurayqat, a Lebanese preacher and fervent supporter of the revolution in Syria, renews his call to Lebanon’s Sunnis to take up arms to balance the scales against Hezbollah, which is striving for dominion over Lebanon.

This is definitely a Sunni operation though, not sure where the false flag &lt;deleted&gt; comes from.

What's the briefing you get?

If, like me, you wish to explore alternatives to the Big 3, there's quite a good list here:

http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/09/world/iyw-how-to-help-typhoon-haiyan/index.html

And another one here:

http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=content.view&cpid=1659

No organization is perfect and slamming NGOs sadly just gives folks an excuse to do nothing and donate squat. Even 50% of something is better than 100% of nothing.

I tend to agree with this article.

I reckon many Canadians are really enjoying this very different kind of ATTENTION towards their fine nation.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/hey_wait_a_minute/2013/11/rob_ford_makes_canadians_proud_the_toronto_mayor_s_antics_make_me_feel_less.html

But an alternate explanation presented itself to me the other day when someone asked, by way of Facebook, whether I wasn’t desperately embarrassed to be a Canadian this week. And plumbing the arctic depths of my Canadian soul, I discovered the truth: I have never been prouder to be a Canadian in my whole entire life.

"There's only one thing worse than being talked about...."

Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

Python were also decades ahead in terms of their humour, see this take on today's most popular pantomime baddies

wink, wink, nudge, nudge, say no more. Know what I mean.

Purley, mate.....famous for it....

If the fire alarm sounds because a fire has broken out, how do they put the fire out?

Shovel snow...?

What do guests do if they hear the alarm? Go outside and die of hypothermia? It must be safer to stay inside...

Maybe they'll use some material from Thaivisa.

Sadly quite a few TVF members might need a visit to the Argument Clinic. Sometimes it seems like we often just walk into the Abuse room when all that was wanted was an argument...etc That was never 5 minutes etc

And then there's just the complainers....

Westerners is one thing. Americans specifically visiting North Korea is a special situation.

Columbia is quite popular as a tourist and expat destination these days and it hardly belongs on the same list as North Korea.

BTW, ski resorts, schmi resorts -- there is no conceivable rationalization for the North Korean regime. This is a country where people are being sent to horrific prison slave work camps or even executed for watching South Korean action movies.

As I said scary places or once scary places. Reputations take a while to turn around. One of the main tour companies for NK trips says a third of their western visitors are American. Nothing like a piece of forbidden fruit!

http://travel.cnn.com/how-travel-north-korea-042681

No one, and certainly not me, is saying that the NK regime is anything less than repellent, but should that stop people from visiting? There was a similar, long running debate re people visiting Burma prior to the recent opening-up/reforms. Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest was always adamant that foreign visitors were a good thing for Burma rather than be seen as support for the regime.

Update on Mr Newman (perhaps they thought he was Paul Newman..the Great Leader is a bit of a movie fan)

http://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-north-korea-detainee-20131121,0,5057805.story#axzz2lIrAFCAB

He only has to give them his serial number. I hope he remembers it.

Unless he's giving them the number off his pacemaker, you presumably mean his service number, though the former could be an amusing one to give!

I do not understand why this man even wanted to go to NC. The war is not over and this old man talked about his role while there as a soldier. I don't understand why a US stupid sports star ended up there with the fat pig boy leader. I don't understand why American religious preachers go there. They are stupid and arrogant but I hope the old man gets home to his upper-middle class life style because of his age and learns a lesson.

I kind of agree. If he is being used as another pawn which seems likely, I wouldn't want the U.S. government to give up anything for him. He chose to go there to an enemy state of the USA and he knew the risks. Hopefully another good warning to other Americans -- don't go there! Period.

About 4000+ western tourists visit NK each year. They are now building a ski resort to attract more.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/22/north-korea-ski-resort-tourism-good

Visiting scary (or once scary) places can be fun as usually they are far less scary than people make them out to be (but still far fewer fellow tourists), unless you are either very silly or very unlucky.

Trips to Iran, Colombia, Guatemala, Algeria, Lebanon, Armenia, Kurdish area of Iraq are all quite feasible if you want something different.

OMG the ranting video looks like a clip from the Sopranos, and this guy is running Canada's largest city?! Whoever said that Bloomberg was dull needs to look north for a shot of what they could have had.

For the record, the poster 'folium' has been on my Ignore function for some time now.

I noticed his post of 09 Nov 05:51 only because it is quoted by the poster NxaiPan Today 05:19 (that's what the times to each post state).

I see that the poster 'folium' in his post ignores Prez Woodrow Wilson and his policy of Self-Determination at the Versailles Treaty Conference of 1919.The World War II Atlantic Charter was a vital turning point of great significance, yes. That I did not mention it or Prez Wilson in my quoted post was my conscious choice and decision.

The poster 'folium' also fails to note the prudence and rational internationalism of the United States in refusing the French request in 1954 for the atom bomb to be used to save the soon thereafter failed French military campaign in Viet Nam (the decisive battle of Điện Biên Phủ).

Some respect would go a long way.

Not sure I intended to be some sort of delivery person! Either ignore someone or not!

Also not sure how my post could precede the time of one I quoted. It looks like the "one you wish to ignore" put their post up at 04:51 and mine was posted at 05:19, perhaps you haven't changed your clock yet!

While on the subject of self-determination, Wilson's passion for this subject led to the untidy break up of the Austro-Habsburg, Ottoman and German empires and the creation of a spineless League of Nations to police the shambles (largely unsupported by a post Woodrow USA). Result was the bundle of issues and conundrums that led to WW2.

As far as I was aware the victory of Mao in the Chinese civil war in 1949 led directly to increasing levels of US support both overt and covert to the French during the 1st Indochina War as fears over communism rapidly trumped principles about colonialism. Why else would the French have dished out in 2005 Legion d'Honneur medals to ex-CIA pilots who had flown multiple missions in support of the French, including air drops at Dien Bien Phu? Don't know about nukes but certainly the US took up the strain post the 1954 Geneva Accords and the initial MAAG sent by Truman in 1950 rapidly escalated to the more well known US full scale deployment to SE Asia.

Meanwhile back in India, the recent agreement re boundaries between India and China may indicate a reluctance to initiate conflict between these two, as it is obviously to neither of their benefit nor to the wider international community. China does seem to enjoy the neo-colonial role, majoring on resource extraction and trade rather than physical possession and does seem to be taking a leaf out of the US playbook in this respect.

well that's karma for you..god help these folk when they get old and sick a few years down the line.

The USA has existing Medicare for the age 65 plus.

But what happens if you have the misfortune to be sick, poor and let's say 55...?

Medicaid is for poor people who don't have health insurance. We need much more, but it is available.

Available? How? Where? For whom?

well that's karma for you..god help these folk when they get old and sick a few years down the line.

The USA has existing Medicare for the age 65 plus.

But what happens if you have the misfortune to be sick, poor and let's say 55...?

Ok so what is the answer to the lack of healthcare for some 49 million Americans?

Is it just a case of, tough luck, earn more and be able to afford the premiums?

Or is it a case of, if you can't hack it go somewhere else?

Is this just part of the American Dream?

Short answer is drug companies, medical device companies and ridiculous companies that provide low technology like beds, alcohol pads, gowns and etc. are gouging the consumer beyond belief. They have tremendous lobbying power. Who will stand up against them, hopefully the government will eventually. Private insurance just raises premium to cover their bs gouging and that will always be the case. Private insurance and self pay also subsidize the uninsured. The solution is to take it out of the private market to ensure consistent and fair pricing. This will never happen unless we get something like obamacare. I don't necessarily like it, but it is truly the only solution. The problem now is people are screwing it up because whack jobs and tea party folks are killing enrollment. Obamacare needs proper enrollment to correctly allocate risk and reign in costs issues. &lt;deleted&gt; got really messed up because lobby power whose financial lines were being impacted made it a personal financial issue which it should not have been. I can say without a doubt that Obamacare would have resulted in lower premiums for everyone in 3 years had it been implemented, but with all of the bs I do not think it can be implemented. The funny part is whack jobs and political nuts who are so opposed to it will actually be the victims of not having it in the future. They are just too short sighted or blinded by the passion to see it. I am okay either way, but at least I can call a spade a spade.

well that's karma for you..god help these folk when they get old and sick a few years down the line.