Bush's report card

Re: Re: anectdotes

well said.

they're not supposed to be. They are just anecdotes.

Interesting, considering you provided the answer yourself with the following statement: "We need to decide on a reasonable amount of tax money to spend and find ways to spend it more effectively." Think of it as a spending decision, not a military decision. He will make things clearer.

 

well geee papa. england? france? canada? russia? china? that should be enough comparisons for you. but hey, it's good to know that not ONE neuro physician in all of america was suitable to YOUR standards.

 

OK, my comment about your intelligence was too hasty. I am turning what you just said every possible way I can, it still sounds completely moronic. If you think I am complaining that my neurosurgeon could not fix me after the accident, you are just an angry idiot no matter how much I try to find you excuses. I had an injury that could not be reversed. Not even your God can do that. What does that have to do with the health-care system's deficiencies? When or where did I ever complain that they could not save me? Which one of my statements implied that the doctors are not good? For somebody who is always bragging that having a master's degree proves that he is intelligent, you have only demonstrated that you cannot to read.

Meanwhile, have you tried going to the hospital in the other countries you cited as examples? If not, what factors are you basing your comparison on? Just curious. Even assuming that you can come up with a valid justification (and I am not holding my breath for one), that leaves more than 100 countries for you to investigate.

Yes, I know. You are happy that I am in France right now. Now that I got the first part of your answer out of the way, please finish.

 

Papa, stop feeding the troll. He's not worth anybodies time.

 

no way papa. just illustrate for us our conversation where you felt compelled to go to france in the first place. you said the care was better over there did you not? well i'm just dying to know what better care you are recieving. enlighten me. (i am an idiot you know) so what's better? the nurses look better yes, but where is this better quality you were seeking? your injury is the most uncharted in all the world of medicine. so please, what is so much better than a frenck hospital?

i've watched you spitting venom now at the US, and american things for a while now. and frankly, i couldn't give a shit if you came back for your statements alone.

 

Shit has hit the fan.

 

Very easy to answer. If your years could process anything other than your own bullshit, you would have heard me tell you that my family felt the healthcare would be better in France and had been pressuring me for a year to try it. I came here for peace of mind. A dozen people could back me up here within five minutes, but they are all too smart to waste their time arguing with you. I just have nothing else to do.

Secondly, to answer your questions specifically, I had decent food (meaning less disgusting), more competent nurses, more knowledgeable physical therapists, never waited for x-rays (which sometimes were ordered at my request), could consult an eye doctor at the hospital, had a regular group meetings with everyone involved in my care to assess my situation, was visited by my doctor for an hour on a weekend to talk about my mental state, had nurses running around for a half-hour trying to find a hotel for Max McAllister, and I was discharged when I felt I needed to go to outpatient therapy. And these are just a few examples. Again, I never said the doctors are better or worse. Unless you can prove otherwise.

If you want to keep your tough guy reputation alive in this fantasy BBS world, don't challenge me to bring out private communications. Your first e-mail to me was long before my accident...

If you would rather act like a grown-up, answer the questions I asked earlier.

 

if i remember correctly you insinsuated that your staff here in the states was less than competent. hmmm. you did however add that the family thing was a bonus, that is true. but, overall you said that the care here in the states was less than adequate.

whatever.

feel free to hate on the US, after all it's not YOUR country is it?

oh, and you can show whatever e-mail you like.

 

Re: Re: Re: anectdotes

This is an easy game to play, but without merit. Individuals and governments and businesses budget money. The fact that some money budgeted for defense was unwisely spent doesn't mean it would have or could have been spent on healthcare.

 

Now I finally understand the difference between a liberal and a conservative. A liberal believes you are an idiot if you disagree with them and a conservative thinks you are an evil idiot... Man, they are soooo different.....

 

the "care" involves much more than just neurosurgeons. To use your favorite argument, "everybody knows that."

"Whatever" indicates you will not answer questions as usual. No problem.

FWIW, t316 asked me a few pages ago (in a nice manner) why I lived in the US. Did you practice selective reading again when you saw my answer or are you just really obsessed with the idea that only you have the right to criticize? Oops, that the was a question. Never mind.

 

Re: Re: Re: Re: anectdotes

"Would?" no. "Could?" yes. It's a choice.

 

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: anectdotes

Let me go at this from a different direction. Let's say we decide that %30 of last year's military budget was wasted on stuff that didn't work. If we take %30 of last year's budget, slash it from the military and give it to medical, have we now cut waste and error from the military? After all, we have now taken all that money they wasted last year, assumed they would waste it this year, and pre-empted that theoretical waste into a relative improvement of medical care. Therefore, they have no more wasted money.
All choices cannot be right, some must be wrong. You cannot undo the wrong decisions by wishing they had been made right.
That's what you are suggesting is possible here and I am saying that's disingenuous.

 

Take money from the military for not wisely spending it, and give it to the medical community who will wisely spend it? You're kidding right?

You really aren't from around here are you?

 

Let me take another shot at it.
Theoretical example:
Like in college, this is just a fictional example.

Yamabob's wife comes to him one day a few years ago. He's resting in his den because he just had the pins removed. She doesn't notice him stuffing an issue of Shifter Kart Magazine under his pillow.
She says" Bob, I've been running some figures here. Since you seemed to find it necessary to fall down each and every race weekend last year, then spent $15,000 for "the bike I always wanted" which you threw off the kink at Daytona 3 laps into first morning practice and totally wadded, we have had to expend a pantload of our hard-earned money for nothing."
"Rearsets' clip-ons, uppers, lowers, tanks, a new helmet almost every time you managed to get a knee down, which you then always followed with an elbow, a shoulder....."
"And the leathers, I think we bought Barnacle Bill a new Audi"
"And then there's the medical bills, getting by on short-term disability until you can walk without that cane, the air ambulance ride back to Cambridge, MA, the recuperative junkets to Tanglewood."

Bob interjects "but honey, I didn't intend to fall down all those times. We decided I would finally shit or get off the pot and spend two years doing some real racing. See if those 6 years as an amateur have paid off.

Spend the cash to get a decent bike, a new trailer, a new pick-up to pull it, cause it's so damn heavy.
An Easy-up with my team name on it, Team Yamabob.
Custom Vansons, say Team YB on the back.
My website, www.yama_buzz.com."

"I figured I'd just do it up right. I didn't intend to spend all that money on stuff which I just turned around and cracked, scuffed, twisted or snapped off. I just couldn't seem to stay on my wheels. It was like I was riding on K-Y Jelly or something. One weekend I forgot to lock-down the bike in the trailer and it cost me 3 grand before I even got near the track."
"But I guess, even though that wasn't my intention when I set out to turn Pro and win the AMA Horizon Award from outta nowhere and SHOW THEM ALL, I guess most of the money I spent was wasted. I got almost no track time the first year since I seemed to be either in the medical center or replacing bodyparts in the pits.
And then my second year lasted 15 minutes until I freaked out in T4 and threw right down into T5 at Daytona.
In all fairness to me, I did salvage the engine. Well, the lower end, actually, most of it anyway.
But the details aren't what's important, the reality is we spent a ton of money and have nothing to show for it but a trailer full of spares and a stack of x-rays. And my walker. Sorry about that."

Bob's wife looks at him sternly and says "I was looking through a report on last year's big movers on the NYSE. One of the top performers was this company that makes bodywork for Kawasaki Ninjas. Their stock went from $.56 a share two years ago to $3.36 this year, an increase of like, 6 times. Or something. Anyway, wouldn't it have been better to take all that money you spent depositing parts on racing surfaces and spend it instead on buying stock in that company? Instead of wasting it all due to bad decisions on your part, like, "Sure honey, I can get by with the slicks this morning, it's only sprinkling and this is just practice, anyway" we could have bought stock.
"Instead of wasting $32,412.00 on breaking 3 fingers, 5 ribs and your left leg in 6 places at various venues and spreading plastic along track surfaces from Shubenacadi to Moroso we could have had $194,472.00 to spend on ramps so you can get into the house for the next 6 months and we still would have a bunch left over to spend on medical care for the uninsured."
"Go back and change it, Bob. Make it so you didn't screw up all those times. Ride like Valentino freaking Rossi. If you hadn't spent so much time watching sky, ground, sky, ground, sky, ground, sky we would have been able to retire before we turn 78, so please, just go back and un-make all those bad decisions and don't waste that money."

She then storms out of the room. Poor Bob.

(You do understand that this is just a made-up example and has nothing to do with Yamabob's real life, at least as far as I know.)

I think we can all agree here that Bob never intended his ineptitude at the track to plunge his family and friends who were dumb enough to lend him money for non-refundable entry fees into financial despair, especially when it would have been preferable to invest in the bodywork company and make a bunch of money instead of wasting a bunch and developing a funny gait.

Now Bob doesn't have a possible big nest-egg.
While he already collects a full pension after working 20 years for The People's Republic of Cambridge, where he finished his last 6 years as interim-assistant managing director general of the Department of Redundancy Department, located in the Tip O'Neil Federal Building in a 15' by 20' office leased for only 1.5 million a year, he still needs to supplement his income by working as a consultant to the same agency he used to manage. No one still has any idea WTF he does.
But that's another story.

Anyway,problem is, neither he nor his wife can change any of it. And they are only two people with a common purpose, they can make very direct financial decisions.

The part of the Federal government involved in protecting the states from a common enemy, which is that governments' original and primary purpose, is not involved in anything close to this sort of financial arrangement.

Let's now make Yamabob President. He is now Commander-in-Chief of the military. Unfortunately, no matter how much he may want to, he can't pull out his wallet and take the money wasted in the military and plow it into medical care. We elect a President here, not a monarch. He doesn't control all the purse-strings. No one person does, it was set-up that way on purpose. Being commander-in-chief of the military does not make him commander-in-chief of everything.

Even if he were, if he had the same amount of autonomy Bob has in the example above, he couldn't make such a change, after the fact, anymore than poor Mr and Mrs Yamabob could.

So to suggest that such a financially close interaction between these two interests coupled with the ability to go back in time and undo all errors in judgement might exist in the real world, as we know it, as what really exists as opposed to what you wish existed, is to ignore reality.
Poor Yamabob wishes he could have stayed on his wheels for more than 5 minutes at a time too, but that wish didn't save his ass from hitting the pavement at Summit Point.
Wishing we spent some military money on medical care for someone just has no basis in reality as it exists in our current form of government, a federation of states.
Even the government of France, which could more closely be compared to the government of California than our federal government in structure, could not pull this off.

Don't you think if Chirac could take money from the US military and give it to the UN to study hunger in third world countries he would?

Now lets fire Yamabob from his new job and give it to Chirac.
Under our system even the smartest and bestest, most diplomatic, worldly modern European leader of a 21st century super-power like France, couldn't go back and do everthing perfect and unspend Yamabob's money and spend it on a comprehensive prophylactic dental program for TeamAtomic's illegal alien relatives.

To suggest such a possibility as part of a logical argument is disingenuous. That is, you know intellectually that it is impossible but ignore that fact in presenting it as a valid part of your argument.
It is an unreal supposition.

If wishes were horses we'd all be riding.
Shit, we'd live in a world full of stables.

And Yamabob would be starting an equestrian team.

 

I don't think you guys understand my position on military spending (which is only one of the many ways governments mismanage taxes, btw). It's not just about the pure waste (e.g. Osprey tilt-rotor). It's also about excess. Would any country in the world be able to successfully attack the United States if the number of nuclear weapons or aircraft was half of what it is currently? I have no evidence to back this up, but my gut feelings says no.

 

In Your Corner:

Between jobs?

R.

 

"Liberals feel unworthy of their possessions. Conservatives feel they deserve everything they've stolen." Mort Sahl
not to hijack the thread, just ran across the quote

 

and I thought some of MY stuff was long-wnded, da---yammmm

 

"If you're in your 20's and you're not liberal, you don't have a heart. If you're in your 40's and you're not conservative, you don't have a head."

Winston Churchill