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US Politics

Historic health care bill clears Senate hurdle

FALSE: 50.7pc so 'beet it, beet it...' heh heh glad you forgot 2000 Z (Wednesday Nov 25 | post #260)

Check the history of the I-35 bridge: Minnesota Republicans (majoriy in their Legislature) refused several Highway Dept requests for funding to renovate... Ztrue (Wednesday Nov 25 | post #69659)

Don, one of their saddest 'fallacies' is blaming the government for the errors of its ways... That is OUR fault. Every citizen. We were lucky to be born into a system that gave us the means to control ALL aspects of our government, and we don't. We don't 'vote for war' anymore. We accept that. I mean, we are 'desensitized' to the ways and means of being an influence as to all the 'end products' we receive from Gov't. "Go shopping", "Hate Dems!" "Reps Suck"... it's a SuperBowl Country, and the 'players' don't want you to change sports: they want to retain the only chance to be 'IN' the SuperBowl. That's what makes fun, watching at a distance... Z (Wednesday Nov 25 | post #69658)

I see the 'boys' gave you their favorite 'Christmas Ornaments'... adorning this post. You're right; I've spent a bit of time (which makes me lightyears ahead of one 'knowITall' on this list) researching the 'issues' behind this reform, and I think it's 90pc out of the 'Medicaid/are Reform Act' that Bush trumpeted... No one liked my joke about renaming this the CAMSHAFT-PISS Act... (booo-hooo) (back on p.3177 or so...) Don't forget this Bill 'satisfies' the Blue-Dog Democrats, who ought to be renamed the RED-Dogs... they're everything but Democrat. No country with any kind of 'Social Medicine' has broken 15% of GDP going to HCare, yet (CH is damn close, at about 14pc, but all the big Pharma's have an office near Basel). We, OTOH, are about to crack 20pc: to some of these guys, that makes their shares damn valuable (I'm not naming anyone...). To others, a disruption in the 'flow of money' related TO health would have effect on their Bottom-line (I can think of at least one poster)... Ask 'why' they don't want change, and they all parrot 'no more taxes!'. IF we ever had a UHC system, the taxes would be lower. Adding 'this' to 'that' (meaning faux reform to a bad system) is not going to solve things... but the day this bill passes, all HC Ins company stocks should rocket up a notch or two... Z (Wednesday Nov 25 | post #69657)

To Skeptic's Part TWO: (5) DU... I am interested in the number of 'scare tactics' that are claimed by Persons who are Rightistly-Challen ged (heh heh). There's a damn big difference between the information the soldiers receive (stay the F away!), at at least a command-level, and that which is dished out through the media, to convince guys like you about 'dangers' like that... You of course know why it's 'armor piercing', so I won't offer the knowledge you have already. And without offering me another source for the amazing stories of 'burning ejaculations' from returning Gulf and Iraq vets (just one example, to see if anyone read it...), not to mention birth defects of the most bizarre nature ... http://images.goog le.ch/images?q=pho tos%20DU%20birth%2 0defects...&oe =utf-8&rls=org .mozilla:fr:offici al&client=fire fox-a&um=1 &ie=UTF-8& sa=N&hl=xx-elm er&tab=wi And even if you have personal military experience, or not, we both know of the vast operations that 'stifle' information stemming from the Military machine... 'beware!' said Dwight, and I agree... (Besides, you've a couple PRO-nuke'rs on your side of this list? are you all aware that France has shut down 14 of its 58 Nukes in the last year??? Guess what that means? (I'll let you study the issue as you prefer)... plus 3M Island... Rocky Flats, Colorado... the list is long...) War is hell unless you have stock in the trade... it's a racket, a rip-off, and it should not be allowed for Bush to 'take it to the guy who tried to kill my father'... I've studied the Rules of War under Christopher Greenwood at Cambridge, UK... I can smell 'war crimes' a hundred km away... our hands are all bloodied... but that's no big deal for 'patriots'. (6) Why, Skeptic, did you write this? (Re: BP statistics) "All define R/P exactly as I posted ..." Is it trying to imply I was 'wrong' and you were 'right'?? The point to which you evidently wanted to neglect replying, was that I wrote: "BP claims an R/P of about 12 years..." Your original response to my idea was to 'doubt that they did (so)'. I proved it. (It's currently standing at 12.4) For 'known GAS reserves', we have about 11 years. I doubt that you want to doubt this, as well? ;-) I really thought you would have 'jumped up and down', because the page that shows R/P also shows that our Known Reserves climbed in the last six years (I figger), which confirms statements you made to that. BTW: we're nearly exactly "2/3rds" of imports... chapeau! (that's FR for 'hat's off to you) :-) 09,756,000 bpd crude 03,116,000 bpd 'products' (both relate to 'oil') 12,872,000 bpd imported (gross) 19,419,000 bpd consumed And we agree: no amount of drilling... Zdone (Wednesday Nov 25 | post #69655)

US Politics

Bill Maher: Climate Change Deniers Are "So Stupid They Make ME ...

"CAUSE AND EFFECT"... for you its a 40min period? hehh heh heh heh... I didn't 'emote'... I gave you on-the-day press releases from the UN Agency your(my) gov't pays quite a bit of money to... (and of course for 14 of the last sixteen years, from Rep Congresses). I'll presume you didn't even read the facts... your 'job' here is to deny 'facts' exist! z (Wednesday Nov 25 | post #2218)

This is for Skeptic: (1) patents: Well, I can understand your 'license to sue', but there's also 'license' itself. They also serve as the 'Library of Progress', and the smart people in advancing fields are all over Db like WIPO's PCT library, so they keep abreast of developments in their field. I only ever ran one patent application (since I never took Patents in Law (reserved to pure-Pat. students)), and I did it for a neighbour, for his exciting watchmaker 'trick'. The sad thing was, I'd advised him in June 2004 to do so, he and his father took your side, we 'exposed the watch' in April 2005, and the day our expo died he went ape-çhit... (not against me, just HURRY! hurry!). So I took three weeks, enlisted the help of his FR partner (who guided all the FR-lang technical terms my way...) I charged him 10pc of what an attorney would have... and then he never paid the bill at the Swiss Pat. Office... so basta... you get what you pay for. You didn't identify the field in which you work, I don't' care if you do or not. Some patents Rock! for the full 20, some create the headaches you've identified... but some allow you to kick back at high altitude under UV radiation and rake n the royalties for a long time (aka Mr. Velcro; Mr Beer-can-thumb-tab ...). (2) Exxon/ESSO... fine... (3) Iran/VZ... new money? (heh heh)... S. Arabia... Old money? :-) (4) 'trash' ... don't you think I've faced enough BS from your 'gang of THREE' to load a sentence once every six posts? Especially on one of my core beliefs? You know what true 'Collateral Damage' is? FT HOOD. When our army kills innocents, abroad, that is great TRAGEDY (Over 100,000 civilians (maybe a half million?) in Iraq (about 1/3rd as many in Afghanistan (I *believe*)... when our army 'kills its own' here at Home, that is a TRAGEDY that will reoccur several times in the next dozen years... sad to say... be prepared for the mental strains of 'veterans' syndrome'. (b) When Sep 11 happened my bro (like you?) said "Bomb'm back into the STONE AGE!!" And I replied "Just where do you think Afghan. is right NOW (2001)?"... I repeat again, what I've typed here again: 'How are you (Bush-Cheney-Powel l-Rumsfeld) GOING TO get them OUT?' (Still waiting: maybe Obama will announce this week!) (c) I do not have to remind you that 'the Clinton military cuts' followed at >80pc reliability the CHENEY plan that was submitted to GHWB in 1991? Do I? Surely you remember that he was the source, Clinton 'accepted' the greatest parts of his plan and added to that, under a Republican Congress.... sigh.... (d) false(sort of) ALL the 'bombers 1993' are in jail, after convictions by US Fed Courts for terrorism: check your facts, I'm not the only one who... should. :-) My DG at WIPO was from the Sudan, after Clinton bombed them in 1998, my Sept 1 contract renewal got squashed for about three weeks... (e) Well 'my party' is used to cleaning up after profligate 'Budget-without-ta x' Republican pork-fests, although this one is worse than anyone could have imagined... BUT: you know in your heart that the Def Budget will NEVER be cut; that is what killed the Soviet Union, and what Bin Laden wanted... Bush did exactly that (what UBL wanted... as well as his daddy's company Carlysle Group... (sp?) Part two next... Z... (Wednesday Nov 25 | post #69653)

US Politics

The ZEN and RAN Discussion of Many Things

Happy THX day, RAN, to you and yours! Drew (Wednesday Nov 25 | post #157)

US Politics

Historic health care bill clears Senate hurdle

It should be renamed (from my glazed-eyeball review) The Compulsary Adherence for Maximized Systemic Health Assurance Financial Tax and Profitable Insurance Sector Security Act 2009 CAMSHAFT-PISS Act Z~~ PS: Maybe InbredGenie could agree with me on this... heh heh (Monday Nov 23 | post #204)

US Politics

Historic health care bill clears Senate hurdle

"Little boxes, little boxes, and they're all full of ticky-tack... " I'm certainly going to pass your words to the author of the Quote: Fffffkkkg George DoubleWar Bush... you have no idea how I feel about Islamic people. You don't know if I married one. If my Mother is one... but if you had a mind, you could be 'inquisitive'... For all you know, I may be a former member of the Executive Committee of a Swiss NGO trying to help Desert Countries to achieve Clean Water Self-Reliance (so some who live 'downstream' from Israel don't have to drink polluted, disgusting wastewater...)... Why do you hate GW Bush (aka DoubleWar)? There's got to be a reason... Maybe I should stare at your chosen 'name' again, maybe it's me that 'doesn't get it'... bwaaaaaaaaaahahaha haaa Znight (Monday Nov 23 | post #203)

Top Stories

Ask me a trivia question

In the BBC production of 1984, by Orwell, (circa 1960) starring Peter Cushing: a) who played Symes? b) what was the name of (Cushing's) 'writing instrument' (not a pen) c) what blooper (hint: production equipment shadow) happens in one of the early scenes? BONUS question: Which star of Star Trek appeared at the Spring 1979 Univ. of Colorado TRIVIA BOWL, to 'guest announce' his most beloved episode, and, from a crowd of three thousand fans, ended up sitting on a bench talking to me, outside the auditorium, for twenty minutes, while a crowd formed around us, who he pretty much ignored? SUPERBONUS: what were we talking about? ZENcan't_wait (Monday Nov 23 | post #176071)

In climate science, **radiative forcing** is (loosely) defined as the change in net irradiance at the tropopause. "Net irradiance" is the difference between the incoming radiation energy and the outgoing radiation energy in a given climate system and is thus measured in Watts per square meter. The change is computed based on "unperturbed " values, as defined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as the measured difference relative to a base period. http://en.wikipedi a.org/wiki/Radiati ve_forcing I think the IPCC is what, in FR, would be the translation I screwed up above. ZENyaL8R (Monday Nov 23 | post #69523)

"Since 1990, the overall increase in radiative forcing caused by all long-lived greenhouse gases is 26% and the increase was 1.3% from 2007 to 2008. These latest figures, published today in the World Meteorological Organization’s (WMO) 2008 Greenhouse Gas Bulletin, confirm the continued trend of rising atmospheric burdens of greenhouse gases since 1750." [...] "The globally averaged mixing ratio of carbon dioxide (CO2) in 2008 was 385.2 ppm (number of molecules of the gas per million molecules of dry air), with an increase of 2.0 ppm from the previous year, continuing the tendency of exponential increase. CO2 is the most important human-emitted greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, contributing 63.5% to the increase in overall radiative forcing since 1750. Its atmospheric abundance was nearly constant at about 280 ppm before industrialization. During the time period 1979-1984 CO2 contributed 56% of the increase in radiative forcing caused by long-lived greenhouse gases. Since then CO2 has gained importance and during the five-year period from 2003 to 2008 CO2 was responsible for 86% of the increase in radiative forcing, which is more than four times superior to all other long-lived greenhouse gases combined. Since 1750, atmospheric CO2 has increased by 38%, primarily because of emissions from combustion of fossil fuels, deforestation and land use change." [...] "The combined radiative forcing by halocarbons is nearly double that of N2O. Some halocarbons such as chlorofluorocarbon s (CFCs), previously used as refrigerants, as propellants in spray cans and as solvents, are decreasing slowly as a result of the phase-out of these compounds through the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer. However, concentrations of other gases such as HCFCs and HFCs, which are used to substitute chlorofluorocarbon s, are increasing rapidly. These two classes of compounds are very potent greenhouse gases and together with sulphur hexafluoride (SF6) they contributed 8.9% to the increase in radiative forcing from 2003 to 2008, which is more than the contribution from N2O during this period." "But spokesmen from Exxon, in pink Tutus, came in and disrupted the press conference, doing a can-can and singing "Don't worry, Stock's splitting! Don't worry, stock's Splitting..." , witnesses said." Zen(why aren't I sleepy?) (Monday Nov 23 | post #69522)

FROM Swiss TV text news: (and translated from FR for you, only) The concentration of green-house gasses in the atmosphere attained a record level last year. The augmentation of CO2 registered by some 200 weather stations was the highest ever witnessed, announced the WMO (World Meteorological Org). "We are confronted with a scenario the most pessimistic as evoked by the Intergovernmental Group of Experts on the Climate (IGEC?), affirmed the WMO three weeks before the Copenhagen Summit. The average ('moyenne'; 'statistically' may not mean average?'median'?) of CO2, methane and Nitrous Oxide attained in 2008 the highest levels ever registered since 1750. Onward, Oh! my brothers, Oh! my sisters... into the reeking polluted future... WMO press release (EN) http://www.wmo.int /pages/mediacentre /press_re... Zzzzzz (Monday Nov 23 | post #69521)

US Politics

Bill Maher: Climate Change Deniers Are "So Stupid They Make ME ...

http://www.wmo.int /pages/mediacentre /press_releases/pr _868_en.html wmo press release z (Monday Nov 23 | post #2151)