Re: The thread about the thread Re: DeLong on health insurance reform
On Sun, 10/25/09, Bruce Bostwick lihan161...@sbcglobal.net wrote: On Oct 25, 2009, at 8:06 PM, Deborah Harrell wrote: Hey, guess who's posting from home for the first time? (I did have some serious help getting stuff hooked up, and I still hate this laptop's 'finger mouse.' -- hmm, hadn't thought of what that conjures up, but it's entirely apt...) You mean one of these? http://xkcd.com/243/ coughs Er, not exactly...more like the...oh, never mind! Debbi Washing With Virtual Soap Maru ;} ___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
RE: The thread about the thread Re: DeLong on health insurance reform
Well, Julia, in my experience (is that abbreviated IME?), it doesn't get better until they go to college, and even then they come home and disrupt your schedule =+)). I *still* wonder where the time goes, but I know way too much of it disappears into my computer screen. Mothers of young children all need a wife, IMO. I have a theory about working mom's and nanny/housekeepers that run along those lines... Amities, Jo Anne evens...@hevanet.com It's amazing what you find needs doing when you finally have all your kids in school for a full day for the first time ever. I might have most of it done by the time school gets out in early June! ___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: The thread about the thread Re: DeLong on health insurance reform
Julia wrote: It's amazing what you find needs doing when you finally have all your kids in school for a full day for the first time ever. I might have most of it done by the time school gets out in early June! I've heard the same thing about retirement; my brother-in-law and his brother, both firefighters, retired this past year and both of them say they've never been busier. That's the kind of busy I need... Good to hear from you all that haven't posted much, maybe we can get a rip roaring discussion going. Anybody over hear read Banks' new one? Doug ___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: The thread about the thread Re: DeLong on health insurance reform
Doug Pensinger wrote: Julia wrote: It's amazing what you find needs doing when you finally have all your kids in school for a full day for the first time ever. I might have most of it done by the time school gets out in early June! I've heard the same thing about retirement; my brother-in-law and his brother, both firefighters, retired this past year and both of them say they've never been busier. That's the kind of busy I need... Good to hear from you all that haven't posted much, maybe we can get a rip roaring discussion going. Anybody over hear read Banks' new one? Doug _Transitions_. I bought it two months ago, and have been so busy that I'm only 50 pages into it. But so far, I like it. I think in both cases, it's sort of a deferred maintenance problem. When you finally have time, there's a BIG backlog to deal with. ---David ___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: The thread about the thread Re: DeLong on health insurance reform
On Sun, 10/25/09, Doug Pensinger brig...@zo.com wrote: snippage Good to hear from you all that haven't posted much, maybe we can get a rip roaring discussion going. Anybody over hear read Banks' new one? Hey, guess who's posting from home for the first time? (I did have some serious help getting stuff hooked up, and I still hate this laptop's 'finger mouse.' -- hmm, hadn't thought of what that conjures up, but it's entirely apt...) Debbi Posting Like A Newbie Maru ___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
RE: The thread about the thread Re: DeLong on health insurance reform
-Original Message- From: brin-l-boun...@mccmedia.com [mailto:brin-l-boun...@mccmedia.com] On Behalf Of David Hobby Sent: Sunday, October 25, 2009 7:48 PM To: Killer Bs (David Brin et al) Discussion Subject: Re: The thread about the thread Re: DeLong on health insurance reform I think in both cases, it's sort of a deferred maintenance problem. When you finally have time, there's a BIG backlog to deal with. ---David ___ Yes. And in our case, it was compounded by our daughter refusing to sleep in the room she shared with her twin brother, starting about 5 weeks before school started. The project to get the spare room fixed up to be a bedroom for a 6-year-old took a big chunk of time, and that wasn't quite finished until about 4 weeks later, partly because there were some hard deadlines for 2 other projects in the meantime. :P I'm thinking about what has to be done in the breakfast nook at this point, and figuring that maybe I'll work on it for an hour tomorrow, or maybe I won't. (I think that 2-3 hours will have it *done*, but the first hour is going to be a bear.) Julia ___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: The thread about the thread Re: DeLong on health insurance reform
On Oct 25, 2009, at 8:06 PM, Deborah Harrell wrote: On Sun, 10/25/09, Doug Pensinger brig...@zo.com wrote: snippage Good to hear from you all that haven't posted much, maybe we can get a rip roaring discussion going. Anybody over hear read Banks' new one? Hey, guess who's posting from home for the first time? (I did have some serious help getting stuff hooked up, and I still hate this laptop's 'finger mouse.' -- hmm, hadn't thought of what that conjures up, but it's entirely apt...) Debbi Posting Like A Newbie Maru You mean one of these? http://xkcd.com/243/ The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed and hence clamorous to be led to safety by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary. - H.L. MENCKEN ___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: The thread about the thread Re: DeLong on health insurance reform
Julia Thompson wrote: ... I think in both cases, it's sort of a deferred maintenance problem. When you finally have time, there's a BIG backlog to deal with. ... Yes. And in our case, it was compounded by our daughter refusing to sleep in the room she shared with her twin brother, starting about 5 weeks before school started. The project to get the spare room fixed up to be a bedroom for a 6-year-old took a big chunk of time, and that wasn't quite finished until about 4 weeks later, partly because there were some hard deadlines for 2 other projects in the meantime. :P I don't know if that counts as deferred maintenance or not. But I guess it did from your daughter's point of view. : ) We are in the process of finishing a room move too, actually a swap, which added the difficulty that neither room was empty for long. Our older daughter is only here some weekends, so it was time for her to give up her big room, and let the younger daughter move into it. And of course we painted, and fixed furniture, and so on... I guess that was deferred maintenance, but we weren't the ones who deferred it. I'm thinking about what has to be done in the breakfast nook at this point, and figuring that maybe I'll work on it for an hour tomorrow, or maybe I won't. (I think that 2-3 hours will have it *done*, but the first hour is going to be a bear.) Julia Or maybe you deserve a break, who knows? ---David ___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: The thread about the thread Re: DeLong on health insurance reform
Debbi wrote: Hey, guess who's posting from home for the first time? (I did have some serious help getting stuff hooked up, and I still hate this laptop's 'finger mouse.' -- hmm, hadn't thought of what that conjures up, but it's entirely apt...) Congrats on the new job, and on getting your own rig. I'm sure you're not going to miss having to go to the library all the time. I would suggest a usb mouse. You don't want to know what I call those things. Doug ___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: The thread about the thread Re: DeLong on health insurance reform
At 11:08 PM Sunday 10/25/2009, Doug Pensinger wrote: Debbi wrote: Hey, guess who's posting from home for the first time? (I did have some serious help getting stuff hooked up, and I still hate this laptop's 'finger mouse.' -- hmm, hadn't thought of what that conjures up, but it's entirely apt...) Congrats on the new job, and on getting your own rig. I'm sure you're not going to miss having to go to the library all the time. I would suggest a usb mouse. You don't want to know what I call those things. Doug I call mine a trackball . . . . . . ronn! :) ___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
RE: The thread about the thread Re: DeLong on health insurance reform
-Original Message- From: brin-l-boun...@mccmedia.com [mailto:brin-l-boun...@mccmedia.com] On Behalf Of Jo Anne Sent: Wednesday, September 09, 2009 11:32 PM To: brin-l@mccmedia.com Subject: The thread about the thread Re: DeLong on health insurance reform David wrote: Hi. There I was, doing my bit to produce list traffic. Sorry... No apologies needed. I just remember so well person after person taking on JDG trying to talk about different stuff (abortion, death penalty, politics). While I think Dan talked the longest and the hardest, I came to feel the guy just got off on fanning flames of dissention. Sort of like what's going on now, IMO. And Yeah, the women probably are hiding. Just for the record, I wasn't hiding, I was buried in Things That Had To Be Done. Very seriously buried. And am now just reading this. (And there's another 3 or 4 Things That Have To Be Done in the next week or so that I'm neglecting right now in favor of trying to get somewhat caught up on this and one other mailing list that I'm usually totally on top of, to the point where my first post *there* in about 10 days got me a welcome back! from someone who'd apparently missed my posting.) It's amazing what you find needs doing when you finally have all your kids in school for a full day for the first time ever. I might have most of it done by the time school gets out in early June! Julia ___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: The thread about the thread Re: DeLong on health insurance reform
On 13/09/2009, at 2:27 PM, Ray Ludenia wrote: The change of seasons is not as obvious here as it seemed to be in the States as we toured around last year. We don't go from ridiculous negative temperatures to extreme heat as for example in Colorado. It's gradually getting warmer now (the low 20s C) and it looks like we might be expecting another horror bushfire season. Melbourne's dams are still below 30% full after 12 years of drought. I'm wondering how many more years it is before it gets through to people that it's looking like it's not just a deviation from the average, it's a climate shift to a hotter drier south-eastern Australia. And yeah, another horror season ahead. :-( Hopefully people will be better prepared for catastrophic conditions this year, and more inclined to arrange to be elsewhere on Red Alert days. Charlie. ___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: The thread about the thread Re: DeLong on health insurance reform
Ray wrote: The change of seasons is not as obvious here as it seemed to be in the States as we toured around last year. We don't go from ridiculous negative temperatures to extreme heat as for example in Colorado. It's gradually getting warmer now (the low 20s C) and it looks like we might be expecting another horror bushfire season. Melbourne's dams are still below 30% full after 12 years of drought. We're having a bit of a drought here in California as well, but nothing like what you're experiencing. Of course we experience nasty wildfires every year too. Um, I'd like my health care to be unnecessary! If only... If you mean do I like Australia's system?, then overall, I'd say yes. There is universal health coverage under the government mandated Medicare system, and as well as that, many people also to take out private health cover (which is subsidised by a 30% gov contribution). I won't go into detail here, but I encourage those on both sides of the debate to perhaps check out: http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/healthsystem-overview-1-Introduction or http://tinyurl.com/qppnmu This seems like a very reasonable system. Its obvious that there _must_ be some large degree of subsidy by the government because insurance companies can't make money insuring low and no income people. Being a government site, it perhaps paints too rosy a picture, but it does give the outline of the system. From discussions with many people during our US trip last year, it was amazing to us what a worry it was to US citizens about how to pay for their health care. Some of the premiums discussed were to our ears, unbelievable. Relying so much on employer-sponsored health benefits seems to me a strange system. The employed surely are far more able to pay for their own health coverage than the unemployed. Here in Australia, at least everyone is entitled to basic care, usually with little copayment required. It obviously does help if you can afford to take out private health insurance was well, as it increases the range of choices you have for treatment. The system here is a mess, a complicated mess. I agree that employee sponsored care is not the best approach, but how do you change it? The reform measures they're working on now are a strange amalgamation of public and private systems, but hopefully it will eventually lead to a system similar to yours. Doug ___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: The thread about the thread Re: DeLong on health insurance reform
Ray wrote: I fail to see what difference it makes how often I am involved. Surely this should be the case with or without my participation! Hi Ray, glad to see you're still hanging out. Are you ready for spring, or does it make that much of a difference? I know you were kidding, but as far as how often you're involved, I think it makes a big difference. The list is a better place when we get opinions from a myriad of sources and a myriad of opinions IMO. Anybody who was on the list before 6/00 knows what an interesting, vibrant community it was and what made it most interesting to me was the diversity. So how do you like your health care? Doug ___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: The thread about the thread Re: DeLong on health insurance reform
On Sep 13, 2009, at 10:21 AM, Doug Pensinger wrote: Hi Ray, glad to see you're still hanging out. Are you ready for spring, or does it make that much of a difference? The change of seasons is not as obvious here as it seemed to be in the States as we toured around last year. We don't go from ridiculous negative temperatures to extreme heat as for example in Colorado. It's gradually getting warmer now (the low 20s C) and it looks like we might be expecting another horror bushfire season. Melbourne's dams are still below 30% full after 12 years of drought. So how do you like your health care? Um, I'd like my health care to be unnecessary! If you mean do I like Australia's system?, then overall, I'd say yes. There is universal health coverage under the government mandated Medicare system, and as well as that, many people also to take out private health cover (which is subsidised by a 30% gov contribution). I won't go into detail here, but I encourage those on both sides of the debate to perhaps check out: http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/healthsystem-overview-1-Introduction or http://tinyurl.com/qppnmu Being a government site, it perhaps paints too rosy a picture, but it does give the outline of the system. From discussions with many people during our US trip last year, it was amazing to us what a worry it was to US citizens about how to pay for their health care. Some of the premiums discussed were to our ears, unbelievable. Relying so much on employer-sponsored health benefits seems to me a strange system. The employed surely are far more able to pay for their own health coverage than the unemployed. Here in Australia, at least everyone is entitled to basic care, usually with little copayment required. It obviously does help if you can afford to take out private health insurance was well, as it increases the range of choices you have for treatment. Regards, Ray. ___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: The thread about the thread Re: DeLong on health insurance reform
On Sep 11, 2009, at 4:35 AM, dsummersmi...@comcast.net wrote: As Obama said this morning, we should be able to civilly differ when strongly held opinions differ...particularly on a mailing list where RL is only occassionally involved. I fail to see what difference it makes how often I am involved. Surely this should be the case with or without my participation! Regards, RL. ___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
RE: The thread about the thread Re: DeLong on health insurance reform
No apologies needed. I just remember so well person after person taking on JDG trying to talk about different stuff (abortion, death penalty, politics). While I think Dan talked the longest and the hardest, I came to feel the guy just got off on fanning flames of dissention. Sort of like what's going on now, IMO. Well, not surprisingly, I differ. With respect to JDG, while we cannot really know the motivations of others, everything I see indicated that he expressed strongly held convictions that differed from yours. As Obama said this morning, we should be able to civilly differ when strongly held opinions differ...particularly on a mailing list where RL is only occassionally involved. For a while Brin-L was a place where I feel those exchanges could take place. I think the break point came with the big blow up..on Brin-L 1a. There were RL complications from that blow-up, and the list has not been the same since. Part of it is that, IMHO, IAAMOAC was so compromised, that it passionate discussions became more personal. Another part is that a number of regular participants left the list immediately. At the present time I, a former Obama delegate, is the closest thing to a long time conservative voice on this list (e.g. I was the one arguing strongly against the idea that Bush deliberately destroying the twin towers is as believeable as the official version of 9-11) . Like the blogosphererespect for differing opinions have diminished here. I would suggest that is part of the reason why contrary opinions are usually found with folks like John. This is not a friendly place for a conservative, even one who could find welcome among very prominent liberal voices. And Yeah, the women probably are hiding. I understand your problem with signal to noise, but when John isn't stirring something up, to first order, everyone is hiding. Back in April, there was not one post from a woman, and less than 50 from men. You and I probably define signal and noise differently, but those 50 posts contained very little new and interesting. Nothing wrong with them, just that they didn't say much. So, the signal is clearly down from what it was before the break-up. I'll agree the signal/noise ratio is down, but IMHO, the lack of signal is the biggest contributing cause. If you notice how many different folks posted in the last 6 weeks compared to the number of posters in April-May, you will see that a lot more people feel they have something to say now. Even you. :-) Dan M. myhosting.com - Premium Microsoft® Windows® and Linux web and application hosting - http://link.myhosting.com/myhosting ___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
