james&olya

Thanks TBone. I have so much to do these days with new family but it is great to check in here now and then.

Yes very intense, I hear. My thoughts and prayers are with all those living in Kiev. I hope your fiance can get her visa and go live safely wth you.

When did he say he likes killing? You make a groundless assumption that you know how he stated that he was good at killing. War is hell. War involves the deaths of people, combatants and non-combatants alike in almost all wars in history. My guess is that, if he actually made that statement, that he said it in an ironic and regretful way. But I wasn't there so I don't really know.
A bigger issue for me is this whole concept of a "war on terror"! War IS terror. It is inherently an illogical construct and can be construed to give the war-mongers in Washington free reign to take action wherever they wish. This should be addressed by congress and a more specific definition of who, if anybody, we are at war with, be established. Then all other uses of drones to kill in foreign lands will be far less justifiable. Instead our idiot congress, led by that rabble-rousing tea party dimwit Cruz, tries instead to shut down our government to prevent fellow citizens from getting health insurance. There are real issues begging for congressional attention and honest, public debate, and this is one of them.

I can't resist responding. I almost always like Gary's posts even when I disagree. He isn't afraid to say what is on his mind! But Gary, if the FSU has male alcoholism rates 35 times higher than here than it makes that well over 100%! I know it is quite high over there but even here it is estimated by many to be between 5 and 20%, depending, of course, on how it is defined.
You may be right about threads like this attracting people who don't value any substance, if you define substance as it is often used in the term 'sustance abuse'! For my part I believe studies like this are very important in helping to put the brakes on those currently within our government and those aspiring to get there who seem to have little hesitation to force all the rest of us into accepting their moral codes as they write their versions into law. The reality is that churches are quite full of sinners and the real question is why they attract the sort of people they do.

I'm a former paramedic. And yes, like it or not,saving junkies was part of the job. Or any other unpopular group of people. Pre hospital care doesn't discriminate in the way John Doe sitting at home does.
I don't know why they are saying Narcan is new though. I graduated 27 years ago, and used it then in training, and many times on the street.
If they plan on giving that to non medical people, they better put this on the label: Stand back after administering. Patient will frequently come up swinging. You have just ruined the high they paid quite a bit of money for. Your efforts will not be appreciated.

Wait, people that believe in fairy tales have a higher rate of divorce than people that live in reality? Shocker!

Says the person who decided to write a few paragraphs in this thread. Never change, Gary.

When did he say he likes killing? You make a groundless assumption that you know how he stated that he was good at killing. War is hell. War involves the deaths of people, combatants and non-combatants alike in almost all wars in history. My guess is that, if he actually made that statement, that he said it in an ironic and regretful way. But I wasn't there so I don't really know.
A bigger issue for me is this whole concept of a "war on terror"! War IS terror. It is inherently an illogical construct and can be construed to give the war-mongers in Washington free reign to take action wherever they wish. This should be addressed by congress and a more specific definition of who, if anybody, we are at war with, be established. Then all other uses of drones to kill in foreign lands will be far less justifiable. Instead our idiot congress, led by that rabble-rousing tea party dimwit Cruz, tries instead to shut down our government to prevent fellow citizens from getting health insurance. There are real issues begging for congressional attention and honest, public debate, and this is one of them.

I have a problem with the military industrial complex in general. We are waging a perpetual war that only succeeds in creating more enemies than it destroys. We know this, yet we still are okay with spending billions of taxpayer dollars and sending our men and women in the service into harms way. Weaponized drones, if they are used in places where we already have an established war, are pretty much the same as any other weapon for me. But they were marketed to the American public very differently. Drones do not make our troops in Afghanistan or anywhere else safer, which their proponents all insist they do. We have less casualties these days because there are less combat operations. Period. But that would be the case whether we used drones or not. The enemy now seems to get more creative, like recently poisoning the drinking water supply at Marine bases in Helmand with antifreeze. Why isn't that story on the news, huh? Much of the ANF/ANA enlisted men are Taliban. That's not an opinion - it's just true. The only folks I see gaining from this long lost cause are contractors and aviation and weapons manufacturers, and their pocketed politicians on the beltway, of course.
But the drone usage doesn't end in Afghanistan. To go all over the globe killing people a secret court determines should die when we hardly see any evidence of wrongdoing, targeting all males of a certain age range because they "could" be insurgents, killing innocent people which ONLY emboldens our enemies and sends more locals to their ranks, and decimating the sovereignty of foreign governments who were once our allies in the never-ending war on "terrorism" (less true of Pakistan but more true of Yemen)? This is not acceptable, and it's not sustainable because we've created a perfect storm that has no end.

It is a bad US policy, I totally agree. I can't hear any Republican politicians complaining and asking for a policy change, can you? Why is the opposition so silent on this issue?

Is there a problem if men take family leave? More fathers should take an active role in the rearing of their offspring. After all 3 of my kids were born, my wife took off 12 weeks and then I took off for 6 weeks. And yes I got paid for it. I don't see a problem with staying home to raise the future leaders. If family values are important and not just a "coined" phrase to sound compassionate, all the "family value conservatives" should be embracing this.

My employer provided policy has covered maternity and women wellness exams for as long as I have it. That's been long before Obamacare came along. Of course I have no use for these coverages but I suspect that my female co-workers that have the very same policies available to them might need them. I also suspect that there are coverages in these policies that are of no use to women and yet they purchase these same plans that have these services covered. It's been that way for as long as group health insurance plans existed. What's the issue?

Those are our kids the ladies are giving birth to, Charles. Immaculate conception is a myth.

FMLA has nothing to do with Obamacare.

The same thing George Zimmerman was convicted of

And she has been working and receiving whatever other benefits are in her contract! Which she has EARNED!

I've seen some people freeloading to the point it makes my stomach turn. Married dude, 4 kids, 3 ex wives, he doesn't work, his wife works 3 jobs to support him and his son, doesn't pay child support for any of his kids, doesn't bother with the kid he has with his current wife, brags about this to anyone who listens to him. I've told him to his face, I hate he does this because it hurts those who actually need help, instead of just being a lazy slob.
All I know is I pay my bills, I take care of my wife and kids, I do what's right. I don't complain about other folks because they have their lives to live. If the system changes and they could weed out all the freeloaders, I'm all for it.

believe me, i'm well aware. it's disgusting.

So, you're saying the government gives between 8-10k a year and you don't have to work? Wow, why didn't I know about this?
I've shopped in grocery stores outside of the commissary, and the folks who use WIC or food stamps never get the good stuff, from what I've seen.
I've had money taken out of my check since I was 15, yet if it goes to support those who can't work, who am I to judge?
You never know why folks are in the positions they are in. If it bothered me as much as it does folks that complain about it all the time, they should ask these people in line buying the good stuff why. You might get more than you bargained for.

i have been paying medicaid tax since i entered the work force. i have always been in the position to work. not everyone else has been so fortunate. how do you know that the people who need assistance haven't worked for it or earned it? you don't. i am not of the belief that poor people are lazy and worthless. i come from poor people that work for what they do have. i was raised that if you have more than you need to get by, you give someone else a helping hand. i believe healthcare is a right, and being 'the greatest country in the world' we shouldn't have a single sick person untreated or suffering from lack of care.
healthcare should be dirt cheap. if everyone paid toward costs the individual burden for all is less. single payer is the way to go.

ooooooooh. i see. you think i don't have enough wealth to be considered a real time player in the game. it's true that i do not have any wealth. but that doesn't mean i don't know the game. you're dead wrong there, cleo.
i've been paying for my health insurance for sixteen years. i've never gone on any sort of assistance my entire life. my parents could have, many times, growing up - but they didnt' either. why don't you climb down off that high horse and tell me how is aca made for me and folks like me? i don't need anything from you, and honestly i'd rather die from a curable disease than take anything that i haven't worked for or earned.
as far as your kool aide nonsense..you've been chugging from your own doomsday cup. i was simply offering a different flavor.

So you are one of us libs who really are not that happy with the ACA and its reliance on greedy private insurance companies, and would much rather get a true progressive program like 'Medicare-for-all' or even a government run health service like they have in our US military! Good for you!

I am watching Vermont. They are planning true universal health insurance to begin in 2017. Details still need to be worked out but they at least are trying a sane approach. While the ACA is a step in the right direction it is still too invested in our private insurance companies that have so severely distorted US health-care. The most ridiculous idea is to just go back to what we had before ACA. The system was/is broken and needs to be completely rebuilt!

I am watching Vermont. They are planning true universal health insurance to begin in 2017. Details still need to be worked out but they at least are trying a sane approach. While the ACA is a step in the right direction it is still too invested in our private insurance companies that have so severely distorted US health-care. The most ridiculous idea is to just go back to what we had before ACA. The system was/is broken and needs to be completely rebuilt!