regulator

You have obviously never spent much time in Texas. Although we don't have any 10k mountains, we have some 7k mountains and the whole state is far from flat. It is an exceptionally diverse state in terms of people and geography. I've been fortunate enough to travel alot outside the States in my life. I always describe myself as American when asked. people from Texas when asked, always reply they are Texan. i have never met people who have so much pride in where they live. every Texan in my business seems like a representative for the Texas tourist board. There must be something to that. I think Texans are embarrassed to be Americans. Or maybe they don't truly consider themselves Americans. We don't necessarily like being lumped in with you lower life forms. I'm pretty sure sharks pre-dated homo sapiens. Yep but they never evolved We don't need evolution. We have professional courtesy. This coming from the state that casey anthony hails as home... What a fantastic accomplishment.

Just remember when Bruce Lee was in his prime the editing dept had to slow down the framerate on his punches because the camera couldnt keep up.

I'm still laughing about that. I WANT CAKE! I WANT CAKE NOW!! I WANT IT NOW!

(CNN) -- A couple of weeks ago, Micha Rahder got a disturbing letter. It said that she no longer had health insurance -- and was required to as a graduate student at the University of California, Santa Cruz. The problem was -- it was her own school's insurance policy that was dropping her. Rahder, 30, was losing insurance because she had reached the lifetime limit of coverage under the University of California's student health insurance plan. She suffers from a rare disorder that requires her to get regular and expensive IV treatments every four weeks. Without treatment for her chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy -- a disease that attacks her nervous system -- she has lost the ability to walk and has had to have a guest lecturer come in to teach her class. She said she can't understand why she's in this predicament. "I initially thought Obamacare would take care of this, but somehow these schools have slipped out of it. I'm extremely frustrated," Rahder said. "Most people didn't know I was sick until this happened, and when I tell them why I'm sick, they can't believe it." Had she been insured elsewhere, she might have been protected from losing her health care coverage. Under the Obama administration's Affordable Care Act, or ACA, lifetime limits are supposed to be a thing of the past. But there are about 30 schools in the country, mostly in California and the Ivy League system, that offer students what is called self-funded student health insurance. Instead of using an insurance company, a university runs the program, and student premiums directly pay for it. Experts say it's a complicated system to run, but it's ultimately a lot cheaper for a school, because it eliminates the middleman of an insurance company About 300,000 students are covered by these plans. A proposed ruling issued by the Obama administration Wednesday determined these plans do count as "minimum essential coverage" but exempts them from having to meet the same standards of other health coverage. (The Department of Health and Human Services typically offers a period of public comment before issuing a final ruling.) That means self-funded student health care plans can continue to cap benefits like they did in Rahder's case. Those self-funded student plans are the only insurance-type programs in the country that don't have to provide the consumer protections guaranteed by the Affordable Care Act. "That's because they aren't really insurance plans," said Steven M. Bloom, director of federal relations, government and public affairs at the American Council on Education, a group that represents the presidents of the nation's higher education institutions. "They are not sold by an insurer. Only students can buy the plans, and the schools pay for them. I know it acts like insurance, but under the law it is not technically insurance. "That's a very lawyer-like explanation, isn't it? But that's what the law says," Bloom said. Early in the discussion about these particular plans, HHS didn't think it had the power to regulate them, Bloom said. "In order for these plans to have to follow the ACA, the regulations would probably have to change." Jen Mishory, a lawyer and deputy director of the Young Invincibles, an advocacy group for young people, said, "They are certainly advertised to students as health insurance plans, and they are called insurance plans when you sign up for them. Yes, there is a legal distinction here, but a legal technicality shouldn't shortchange students like this." Mishory added, "Students do tend to be healthier than the general population, but there are occasions when a student gets sick. We want all students to have the same coverage everyone else has." About 50 University of California, Berkeley students organized a rally in October to call for elimination of the lifetime caps on their student health insurance plans, and they're circulating a petition. Other schools in California are planning similar protests, Rahder said. Eliminating the caps could add expense to the programs though. And universities, in tight budgetary times, may not want to increase the cost. "Universities are big businesses. People sometimes forget that when they see the tweed and the elbow patches," said Dr. Bryan Liang, a lawyer and physician who specializes in health care law and teaches at California Western School of Law in San Diego. "But this is about profit, and these schools aren't insulated from the economic realities. If there is a way to lower costs, they will do what they can." Opinion: 'Obamacare' should be a GOP rallying cry In reading the Obama administration's proposed rule from Wednesday, Liang said he does believe HHS will continue to watch the situation carefully. "They don't want anyone to have to go back to the old system," he said. Bloom added that these self-funded plans do generally offer good health coverage. "I don't think you are seeing some kind of conspiracy in the way that the statutes are written. These plans are very comprehensive," Bloom said. "It doesn't mean it's not a tragedy if a student is in that situation where they come up against the caps, but in the grand scheme of things, this is a very small percentage of students that this impacts. You are talking about a fly on an elephant here." But it's big issue to Rahder, who cannot walk at the moment because she can't afford the treatment she needs without insurance. For now, she said she may have found an alternative insurance. It's more expensive, but her mom will help with the bills. Once she gets the treatment and can walk again, she said she will be out there protesting so other students won't experience what she did. "I mean, what is health insurance for if not to catch you in those rare cases when you do get sick?" she asked. "This seems outrageous and is really truly mind-boggling." http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/01/health/student-insurance/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

The Ravens D...in particular their pass rush doesnt match up well with mobile quarterbacks. I'm going with the 49ers by 4. Wanna elaborate on your 49ers cheating claim? Im sure whatever they did probably wasnt on the level of what the patriots have done in the past.

Jealous?

It sounds like this applied only to people being caught with a weapon...or did they go door to door asking for citizens to hand them over?

Heres a video of how to make a flame thrower with a super soaker http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yFUtJhUb7Q

--------------------------------------------- There are multiple scary looking guns in my house. One of which would make you crap your pants in a dark alley late at night. Even with your super-street-smart-awareness enabled. My wife sleeps just fine. My 4 year old granddaughter is unaware there are inantimate metal objects in a gun safe locked up. Just because there are some people who dont practice gun safety doesnt mean every single person is the same way. Thank you for playing the boring game...where you win everytime you play the same sad argument over and over again.

I don't think the drunk 49'ers fan will even remember what happened the next day.

So how does this new plan trying to be implemented work with inherited firearms? sorry its off topic...a little bit.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=b78_1359512511

http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/83056653/

I'm just trying to keep up with all the idiotic posts you generate.

I guess they feel they have to compete with the outright lies told by FOX. YAWN

Yes the side affects I have can be narrowed down into two categories: crazy dreams/night sweats constant thirst

There is no ongoing burden of proof. You just wouldn't be covered when you got lung cancer from smoking after claiming you don't smoke..... They aren't coming around doing lung tests. If you want to add drinking to the list go for it. People who claimed they didn't drink wouldn't have their liver transplants covered when they drink it to death....that's all it means. --------------------------------------------------- I've been on chantix for 4 months now. Even my farts are smoke free.

Just because I post an article doesnt mean I'm the smoke police. Feel free to either smoke or not smoke.

We're sorry. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9u0EL_u4nvw

I didnt divulge my stance on smoking. I know tobacco is one of the largest killers of people in the USA. However I dont like the fact that people can be singled out and forced to pay more. I just posted the article but I noticed you like to throw around the word YOU alot. What do YOU think about the government having control over the things you do? Will you be ok with it when skydiving is deemed unnecessary? Perhaps having all wine illegal? I didnt force anything on anyone. So stop pointing fingers.

How many dr's do you know that have assistants that hot?

First smokers then the obese then overweight people whats next...morbidly tall people?

Obamacare bans higher premiums or the denial of health coverage because of pre-existing conditions. But one group will still find themselves penalized: smokers. The new measures in the Affordable Care Act, which goes into effect next January, would allow health insurance companies to charge tobacco users up to 50% more for individual policies. And the costs of that rate hike would come entirely out of smokers’ pockets. A recent Associated Press report notes those surcharges, nearly $4,250 a year on top of premiums for a 55-year-old smoker and close to $5,100 for a 60-year-old, could impose a heavy financial burden on individuals with a tobacco habit "at a time in life when smoking-related illnesses tend to emerge." The ACA penalties could give added incentive to companies looking to sidestep smokers as potential employees. Smoker protection laws already exist in 29 states and the District of Columbia, but that might be changing. Oklahoma, for example, is considering a bill that would repeal those laws. "These are the kinds of protections you’d think we have for race and gender, not smokers," State Sen. David Holt told KFOR-TV. "Just as a smoker has made a choice, employers ought to be able to make choices too." Nearly 20% of people in the United States smoke. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says smoking also kills more than 440,000 people in the U.S. annually while costing the economy more than $193 billion each year in lost productivity and health care expenditures. And it says secondhand smoke costs -- from healthcare expenditures as well as illness and premature death -- amount to another $10 billion. Analysts say those statistics, along with the ACA penalties, are causing the insurance industry to look even closer at smokers. "If you are an insurer and there is a group of smokers you don't want in your pool, the ones you really don't want are the ones who have been smoking for 20 or 30 years," Karen Pollitz, insurance market expert with the Kaiser Family Foundation, told AP. "You would have the flexibility to discourage them." But there is optimism the ACA measures could also help more smokers kick the habit. The CDC says more than two-thirds of all smokers want to quit completely. And the American Lung Association notes all new private insurance plans under the ACA must cover treatments to help smokers quit smoking. And as the Washington Post’s Wonkblog points out,, ACA wouldn’t allow insurers to apply the full penalty against a smoker enrolled in a quit-smoking program. "We don't want to create barriers for people to get health care coverage," California state Assemblyman Richard Pan told AP. "We want people who are smoking to get smoking cessation treatment.” http://money.msn.com/now/post.aspx?post=4d0c1bda-98c3-4c2f-ab2b-d66160f6fe4d

The Butthole Surfers

that sock puppet is giving me a boner.