Leaderboard

I don't read the political forum. At times, this form is depressing enough.

Hey, it's no more of a stretch than the stuff over in the political forum....hmmm, maybe even more of a bummer.

Actually, President Carter's policy against reprocessing uranium was just extending a moratorium started by President Ford, 6 days before the 1976 election, based on the findings of a secret commission, the Ford/Mitre panel. Carter got a briefing from them after he became President and was so impressed that he extended it indefinitely. But no, I'm not automatically opposed to the election of a Republican President just based on Ford and his support for said moratorium. It still seems debatable whether those nations who went ahead with "breeder reactors" have gained that much from them compared to conventional use of low grade uranium, although the reduction in the volume of nuclear waste gained by them seems like an argument in their favor. Here's a link discussing the history and policy implications of those decisions. Two views on "breeder reactors". Just in case you're thinking that all democrats and environmentalists are opposed to nuclear, I'm a democrat who does support President Obama's new nuclear energy initiatives. This one was just announced a couple of days ago: DOE provides $2 billion loan guarantee for Idaho nuclear facility.

An Angel of God appeared to me in my cubicle today. With him he had 2 golden plates which shone as bright as the sun. On the left plate was written SEC WEST and on the right plate SEC EAST. He handed me the plates and told me all other speculation was wrong and I was to spread the good word on NCAA conference expansion. On the SEC WEST plate was written: Arkansas Houston LSU Ole Miss Oklahoma Oklahoma State Mississippi State North Texas I said to the Angel. "You must be wrong. Why are Houston and North Texas on this list? Surely they are not worthy?" The Angel stated "For Texas and Texas A&M shall leave to the PAC -10. No school worth having from the ACC will desire to join the SEC so the conference must look westward for large TV markets. There will be much sadness and gnashing of teeth in Waco and Lubbock." "But..but...TCU" I said. The angel admonished me stating "TCU is too strong a football program with too little television appeal. A weaker team with much more upside is desired. Also, purple is abhorrent to the Lord." On the SEC EAST plate was written: Alabama Auburn Florida Georgia Kentucky South Carolina Tennessee Vanderbilt To the Angel I exclaimed, "That conference is insane. That makeup is much too strong." The angel replied "Yes, but the Lord shall permit their male alum to marry their sisters...all of them. There will be no opposition." With that the angel disappeared. This is a true testimony.

It's tough enough to carry a high GPA without spending countless hours at practice,in the gym or traveling representing UNT. Congratulations to all 43 student athletes that were honored at this years Scholars Banquet. Link from MGS: http://www.meangreensports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?&ATCLID=204948728&DB_OEM_ID=1800

I've heard that other schools have music programs, but I've never heard them mentioned by name.

If you have ever been in the hospital for a major surgery on an individual plan or had to deal with individual coverage as a self employed person - you would be 100% behind this reform. Group plans are fantastic, I love my United EPO from my company... but when I was self employed for over a decade, I had some major issues with health insurance. I also broke a disk in my back and spent 3 years fighting the insurance company trying to get the surgery paid. During that time, my credit was dropped over 150 points - I was strung along with tactics to try and make me just give up and not bother them... it was devastating. The credit score problems affected my ability to get a job and a mortgage. And this was all for someone that HAD INSURANCE. The reform package is pretty crappy but it fights for the little guy. This is just the start, hopefully all of these money hungry insurance companies go out of business or clean up their acts. Doctors don't want to deal with many of them and the bureaucracy is just incredible. I spent countless hours and thousands of dollars erasing the problems that the insurance company caused for me. My stringing me along and denying my surgery, the insurance company kept sending me back and forth to different specialists trying to deter me. This just drove up the costs even more for them. It also caused me to be on pain medicine for an extended period of time and that created a whole different set of problems. Insurance companies would prefer for people to keep popping those pills rather than fix the problem, it makes the bottom line look better for their investors. I really do not know how anyone can defend the practices of for-profit health insurance companies. The entire system is set up to prey on the weak and make as large of a profit as possible. Higher profit means worse care. It is my PERSONAL experience. I also had a guy that worked for me when I owned the bar - he was dropped from his parent's insurance his Sr year... he figured that he was young and could make it for a year until graduating and getting a real job. His appendix ruptured one night and after 4 days in the hospital, luckily he walked out a healthy man. That healthy man officially had $127K bill to deal with. So a guy that had gone to college and worked his way through school to keep his debt low now graduated with $127K in debt (and counting as fees and interest started to pile up). He had to declare bankruptcy at age 22 and cannot purchase a car or a house. He had trouble finding a good job because employers do credit checks and are not concerned about how the bankruptcy occurred. These are two small stories regarding my personal experiences with the insurance and medical field industries. I could tell a few more stories about how my grandparents were treated by their insurance companies - eventually they dropped their private insurance in favor of Medicare. They were never happier - until their last breaths. My grandfather fought in The Pacific during WWII and had access to the VA Hospital but our family along with Medicare were able to give him a very nice assisted living center that had a dementia wing. None of that was possible with private insurance, it wasn't until we went with government programs that he could get the care he needed without wiping out his entire savings. Even with all the government help, we were paying out $3800 bucks a month for the facility. Similar story with my grandmother - I am sure that you get the point. My family has had bad experiences with health insurance companies. Consequently, my brother was in a car wreck and broke his neck. Our CAR INSURANCE (State Farm) treated him GREAT. They paid for everything and settled with him for a reasonable amount in case of future medical problems. So not all insurance is evil - and car insurance is a personal policy, not a group policy. I think that the problem is with a broken health care system that has to answer to stockholders looking for higher dividends and share prices. Insurance companies should probably not be publicly traded. I know that you ahve all heard stories and I seriously doubt that I have changed a single person's mind about the insurance business. It just astounds me when someone defends an insurance company in any instance. They would never defend you - they are not on your side. Oh - and yes, I am an Independent that likes some of the Tea Bagger message... I agree with a lot of what Paul has to say, proudly voted for George W Bush (both times) and would not change those votes for the world. I also voted for Clinton the second time around and proudly voted for Obama over the Ghost and Crazy Palin. I wish that people would think for themselves and not just be sheep to their party's messages. This is more propaganda and is horse hockey - it is all about money. If these insurance companies can't make money off of more sick people - those people are going to be better off finding new coverage. These companies will be showing their true priorities over the next few years. Individuals will be able to get better coverage by a system that cares about HEALTH rather than profit.

Dewey beats Truman!

Two words.

I would prefer 120 1-team conferences. Every team schedules who they want, when they want. OOC games are the most fun anyway so now all teams will have 12 OOC games!

I'm surprised you trust the democrat party. Didn't they give us the vacuum of leadership known as Jimmy Carter? I think just about every intellectually honest Dem would admit that was a HUGE mistake. Yet people (and from your views, I would assume you) still vote for democrat president candidates. Using your logic, the democrat party should have never been allowed to nominate a presidential candidate after Carter. If you make a mistake on the job, does that mean the people in your profession should never trust you again? Of course not, because that would directly affect you. Flawed thinking.

Who exactly is in awe of our music program? What other schools even have a music program?

--- I think most people agree with you nuclear power is the way to go......but..... can you trust those people any more than we trusted BP and Halliburton [both are involved in this platform mess along with another company ] ???. The nuclear screw-up would be worse. That is the real problem and we still remember the also "supposedly" impossible accidents at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl which wreaked the area so bad that it is still uninhabitable. ...that is the real problem... can we trust them to be careful and to follow the rules and plan for every possible accident which obviously BP and Halliburton didn't. ?? This accident is minor compared to what that could be. --- We also need to find better ways of disposing of the left over waste.. Eventually we will do exactly what you said.. --- Odd that the genius Palin has been very quiet about all of this...LOL

I can. Profit is a motivation for all businesses, whether it is selling health care insurance, auto insurance, widgets, or cheeseburgers. Profit ensures efficiency. Profit ensures quality control. Profit creates incentive to serve and keep customers. Profit creates incentive to do things better. Without profit, we would not have the medical innovations that we have today. Without profit, life-saving drugs may have never been invented. Without profit, cancer research would be 50 years behind where we are today. In fact, one can argue that not-for-profit health care is worse, since the motivation is to minimize costs and offer the minimal services necessary. Profit is not evil - it is the purest good.

I don't think that anyone is going to argue that health care is broken and needs overhaul. However, Bigger government is not the answer. I do not see how the federal government can run healthcare.

--Check out this one... A Vermont Yankee Power company had a tower collapse and worse while cleaning it up they discovered the ground was saturated with Strontium-90 which is known to cause cancer.. It appeared in today's paper. Not sure they can be trusted any more than BP et.al. [ can't find on web ] Nuke power makes sense but can't trust them to take care of business either.