TomAiello

Sorry. No excuses for missing that, since for us it's been a $15k burden in our latest move. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I am far less concerned about the conduct (private or public) of some random dude posting on this web site than the conduct of the President of the United States. You're suggesting they're both deserving of the same level of scrutiny? Why isn't CNN doing stories on each of us, then? -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Wasn't the original point that the costs of non-payment are born by the public either way--in the present system they're paid by the local hospital, and in a national system by the federal government? The costs are the same either way. Simply shifting them off the local hospital (by having the feds pay them) isn't going to reduce them. It just changes who foots the bill. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

You know a lot of doctors? I do, and whenever they gather socially, quitting medicine is one of the top conversational topics. Being a doctor is a miserable lifestyle. Do you work 11 or 12 hours a day? Plus work weekends a couple times a month? Get woken up by calls from work at 3am a couple times a week? Ever been stuck in town for 6 months because you can't find call coverage? Worked an 18 hour shift, driven 4 hours to a friends wedding, driven back and started another 18 hour shift, at the end of which you have to be on top of your game, or risk getting sued for a million bucks? The only reason people aren't bailing out right and left is that they had to take out hundreds of thousands of dollars in loans, and spend 12 years of their life, getting to this (miserable) point. And now they're locked in because they need to make enough money to pay off the loans. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

You just said that everyone will be covered by the national insurance, which is why the costs will move from the local to the national level. You are now saying that the mechanism that shifts the costs also somehow reduces them? How does that work? -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Who is the "you" in this sentence? -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Absolutely. It's your right to stay in your home. It's not your right to have someone else rescue you if things go badly. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

You've never been to a boogie? Trust them? It'd be a stretch to say "know them" in many cases. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Quote There are plenty of examples in this world of people who have done great damage to society and became obscenely wealthy in the process. (Enron, Halliburton... Interestingly, the thing that enriched Enron and Halliburton wasn't the market--it was abuse of government power. Get rid of the government power, and that problem kind of goes away, doesn't it? Virtually all the "market failures" I've seen touted in the press in the last 10 years or so have actually been cases of government power being corrupted to private ends, and for private gain. Which, coincidentally, is exactly what's happening with healthcare right now. Imagine if the government mandated that every American had to buy a car? Amazing boon for the auto industry? That's so far beyond their lobbying ability that it's not even in their wildest dreams. And yet, the health insurance industry is about to pull that one off. Talk about a massive abuse of public power for private gain. Getting Congress to pass a law requiring every single American to purchase your product. Wow. Just wow. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

There's no way of really knowing that without meeting the guy. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

It shouldn't be necessary, but obviously, it is. Therefore, I'm seeing this bill as a clarification of Full Faith and Credit, that a license issued by one state to a resident of that state, be it a drivers' license, marriage license, or a CCW/CHL license, should be valid in any other state. We can only wish... I'd love to see a more public linking of the CCW and marriage license issues. "Yes sir, your permit is valid in 50 states--so is those two guys' marriage certificate." -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

no, it's just a different word for the same same set of self delusion Would you say that meditation is a delusion? It takes no particular belief or faith in any supernatural force or system, yet millions (perhaps billions) of people view it as a spiritual experience. FWIW, the best description I've ever heard of what draws me to BASE jumping was offered by one of my students, who described it as "active meditation." A "spiritual" experience is entirely inwardly focused. It's an examination of yourself (your consciousness, your mind, whatever you want to call it). It doesn't have to have anything to do with any external factors at all. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Let me get this straight, you can be arrested for simply staying in your home and refusing to leave? -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

The real question is this: Will the total increase in costs from this phenomenon (unreimbursed care) be less if it's absorbed at the local hospital level, or less if it's equally dispersed across the entire nation? Or will the total cost be the same, regardless of the level it's paid at? Further, will the savings from pushing that cost to the federal level be sufficient to pay for the new federal bureaucracy necessary to administer that shifting of costs? -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Don't worry. I'm sure that's coming soon to a brave new world near you. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Definitely the voodoo chicken dance. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Thank goodness this guy is doing his job. I cannot imagine the pressure Obama and his guys are going to bring to bear on him. Remember what they did to the last guy who did his job, even though it involved finding out that one of Obama's supporters was crooked? I'm sure that's the kind of pressure he's facing. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

If your really want to shoot holes in the argument, just start looking at some of the crap that the UN has "passed". Healthcare is a right, Israel doesn't exist, and cats and dogs live together in harmony. Did I mention that the earth will cease and desist all future climate change? -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Why not define the term for yourself, and not worry about how other people define it for them? -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Ever have a look at the caliber of students who become doctors in the USA, and the amount of training our doctors have, compared with that in the UK or Australia? I'm not that familiar with Australia, but do you know what the English call the smart, motivated, hard working people--the ones who become doctors in the USA? Bankers. Which society is "better"? The one that steers it's best and brightest toward the practice of medicine, in which they help heal the sick and injured on a daily basis? Or the one that steers it's best and brightest toward generating paper fortunes? Seriously--what's your answer? -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

It's still present. Pick up a stick in your back yard, and that's an "arm". Same goes for your "right" to healthcare. Grab a bandaid at Walgreens--that's "healthcare." A right to bear arms does not mean a right to have the government buy you the gun of your choice. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Honorable people also use one login, per the form rules, rather than creating a new identity just to argue with, Captain. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Not to me. If that's redefining the term, then, yeah, I guess I am. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Um, don't we all do that, every day? -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I think you're spot on. I'm an atheist. But I've definitely found some very spiritual moments in my life. That's what draws me to jumping, actually. It's possible to be spiritual without being religious, and vice versa. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com