Rycona wrote:

I'm sure I'll be feeling better about America around 2008.

Don't count your chickens before they hatch.

I'm just glad I don't live in a Western European country like Germany or France where their social democracy has resulted in unemployment rates around 12% nationally and 25% for young adults.

I'm also glad I don't live in Canada because then I would be required to give up an excessively large chunk of my paycheck to pay for an inefficient healthcare system that leaves no choice for the patient and waiting periods for important surgery measured in years. The best way to make something be run poorly is give control of it to the government.

I'll take life in America any day of the week because of my easy access to the best education in the world, freedom of choice in attaining the best hospital care in the world, and the protection of the mightiest military ever known to grace the planet.

You ask what we could have? We could have the apathy of a broken welfare state within a decaying continent that has already seen its day in the Sun.

Mr. Bomberman wrote:

Just the thought of a possible black president brings me joy.

Rice 2008

I'm hoping for a Giuliani/Rice ticket actually

Sorry for the repost, but I had some trouble re-finding these videos.

Valdronius wrote:

When I shattered my wrist, I went to the hospital (eventually) and had x-rays and my surgery that day. I spent three days hopped up on Morphine, eating..., well..., for free, and all it cost me was $15 for the cast on my arm.

While you got cheap minor surgery (after waiting), other people are kept waiting even longer for major surgery.

For example, this man had to go to the US in order to get life saving brain surgery in a timely fashion:

http://www.onthefencefilms.com/video/brainsurgery.html

For a more comprehensive study with more examples try this short film: (the QuickTime version seems to work better)

http://www.onthefencefilms.com/video/deadmeat/

In this movie we see a woman who has been waiting over two years to have knee replacement surgery after getting her other knee replaced. One couple, when told they would have to wait two years just for a consultation for hip replacement surgery, went to Belgium instead to have the surgery immediately. Another man waited 18 months to get cataract surgery. In the meantime he was going blind. One elderly woman waited 16 months for knee replacement surgery. While waiting she got addicted to pain killers, which her doctor told her to expect to happen. She's had the surgery, but is still addicted. Now she's waiting for drug treatment. And finally, the film details a case of a woman who was waiting over two years for heart surgery, but died in the meantime after numerous cancellations of scheduled surgery.

These are peoples lives and careers at stake, but the bureacracy of the Canadian government makes people wait, while they often suffer, and in some cases die. In the US, people in similar situations have their surgery right away.

Isn't the free market a marvelous thing? It saves lives and unwarranted pain and grief.

Knyte wrote:

I went back to the Front Desk, and they told me the 1st opening they had was in 4 MONTHS!

When I'm talking about waiting multiple years for life saving brain and heart surgery, 4 months seems inconsequential for a vague symptomatology of pain.

Knyte wrote:

Yay, United States... You suck.

Now there's an appropriate and reasoned response.

America isn't perfect, but it has a hell of a lot more going for it than other countries. Remember, it can always be worse. You could be stuck starving in Africa, suffering civil war after civil war in South America, or lack basic rights such as freedom of speech, the press, religion, assembly, etc, in China.

Believe me, I look at medical records almost everyday for long-term disability cases that have resulted in litigation at work . I see knee replacement surgery, back fusion surgery, cardiac catheterizations, etc. All of these were done as soon as the treating physicians recommended it. These might have become borderline disability cases later on, resulting in our client being sued when benefits were terminated, but the bottom line is this is because their access to these procedures was easy and in almost every case led to improvement of their symptomatologies. These are only a small selection of the cases, as most don't result in litigation, but instead the patients getting better and returning to work.


By the way, what happened to your old sig? I liked that one, it reminded me of the nostalgia of my buddies wasting afternoons away in High School playing King of Fighters 95 on the PS1. May I suggest a Mortal Kombat Trilogy or Worms gif instead?