Obama and his Lying Issues

[rob]

USA! USA! USA! We're number 1!

[Fairweather]

Connecting the dots from opposite ends of the solar system is what thought leaders do.

 

(*The role of Doughnut Guy will be played by Marky Mark.)

 

[video:youtube]VAFwL-JDw7Y

[rob]

The key to a healthy populace is a workable exercise regime

 

[video:youtube]

[JasonG]

If your own health, well being and feeling good is not a good enough incentive, do you think fining people for being fat will?

 

Actually, yes. Greed is a powerful motivator. And this is not some fringe idea - most companies are adopting financial incentives (or "fines") to encourage employees to adopt healthier lifestyles. More importantly, it works:

 

http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=183047

 

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMsa0806819

 

http://www.forbes.com/sites/brucejapsen/2012/08/08/more-companies-offer-perks-to-lose-pounds-as-incentives-to-stay-healthy-increase/

 

 

[prole]

As long as it's a private employer, I'm cool with it. I mean, it's not like they have any control over someone's life or anything...

[rob]

I heard that *most* employers are now doing this

[prole]

And not a peep from the freedom fighters? Guess it's not on The Koch's radar for some reason.

[Fairweather]

Ha, are you Free Lunchers still on the Koch Bros thing? I thought you had redirected your requisite hate to some other person or object by this time. Well, anyhow, no I don't like private employers telling their employees what they can and can't do either. Not one bit. I used to work for one. You, on the other hand, seem more than willing to allow your precious government to "nudge" its citizens to do God-knows-what-next. Of course there is a difference: The private company can simply deny you a job--government can tax you out of your home or put you in prison if it fits the latest narrative. You see, it's really not so much the healthcare equity thing as it is the next thing--and the thing after that. You once mentioned that you're a big fan of "agrarian reform." Terrifying.

[rob]

Republican Utopia: expensive & private insurance, low minimum wages, cheap guns and copious fast food conveniently located near Walmart -- eat all you want, fellas, ain't nobody gonna tell you how to live your lives!!!

[Fairweather]

Some folks handle freedom responsibly--and some don't.

[rob]

Some folks handle freedom responsibly--and some don't.

 

Exactly! You gotta break a few eggs, right???? FREEDOM!!!

[prole]

Ha, are you Free Lunchers still on the Koch Bros thing? I thought you had redirected your requisite hate to some other person or object by this time. Well, anyhow, no I don't like private employers telling their employees what they can and can't do either. Not one bit. I used to work for one. You, on the other hand, seem more than willing to allow your precious government to "nudge" its citizens to do God-knows-what-next. Of course there is a difference: The private company can simply deny you a job--government can tax you out of your home or put you in prison if it fits the latest narrative. You see, it's really not so much the healthcare equity thing as it is the next thing--and the thing after that. You once mentioned that you're a big fan of "agrarian reform." Terrifying.

 

Please see: Slippery Slope

[prole]

And getting fired from your job for perceived misconduct and living under that threat is a real, far more regular life altering experience than getting slapped in prison for not paying your hypothetical punitive tax. Interesting that freedom advocates are so silent on the freedoms given away for 8, 10, 12 waking hours after clocking in at work. Oh, that's right, just quit...

[Fairweather]

Uh oh. Sounds like someone's just a little bitter...

 

Still, why is either sector telling folks how to live a good idea?

[rob]

Still, why is either sector telling folks how to live a good idea?

 

Why do we have laws telling people how to drive and shit, too? I mean, every man is an island and nothing I do affects anyone else!

 

Christie 2016!!!

[prole]

Well, I'm not sure what you have in your twisted mind what "telling someone how to live" is, but in this case it would help bring health care costs down while insuring all people's right to quality, affordable care.

 

Cue atrocity photo in 3,2,1...

 

 

[rob]

This is a guy who knows how to fix our healthcare problems!!!

 

 

 

[rob]

He has a lapel pin and everything!

[prole]

I don't think banning trans-fats is really having a detrimental effect on the lives of Americans' or freedoms do you? How about readily available opiates and other patent medicines? Exactly what slippery slope precedent was set there?

[AlpineK]

What's this a republican and former member of the cabinet calling for universal health care???

 

[img:center]http://media.bizj.us/view/img/857361/colinpowellbloomberg*304.jpg[/img]

 

Former Secretary of State and longtime Republican Colin Powell is calling for a universal health care solution in the U.S.

“We are a wealthy enough country with the capacity to make sure that every one of our fellow citizens has access to quality health care,” he said Thursday at a Seattle fundraiser for prostate cancer. “(Let’s show) the rest of the world what our democratic system is all about and how we take care of all of our citizens."

The retired four-star general, a prostate cancer survivor, spoke at the Prostate Cancer Survivors Celebration Breakfast, organized by UW Medicine and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

Powell took the opportunity to share some of his own experiences and to publicly call for a health care solution similar to those in Canada, Japan and other countries that have a universal, single-payer system.

 

Say it ain't so

 

Of course he's not a rich white male eh Fairweather

[Fairweather]

Still, why is either sector telling folks how to live a good idea?

 

Why do we have laws telling people how to drive and shit, too? I mean, every man is an island and nothing I do affects anyone else!

 

Regulating how people drive is quite a bit different than telling them what they can put into their bodies, no? For example, we recently legalized pot here in Washington State--a measure I supported. Are you saying we should reconsider this? Pot good--fast food bad? Cigarettes bad--sodomy good? Trans fats bad--100,000 prescription deaths/year is a-ok?

 

It gets complicated. Not something I'd expect the Free Lunch Party aka the Party of Simple Solutions for Simple People to be able to unravel. Still, with their insatiable need to control human behavior--a desire that probably exceeds even that of the evangelical right--this little exercise is certainly all about wasted keystrokes.

[prole]

In the case of trans-fats, it isn't so much telling people what they can't put in their mouths than it is removing a largely hidden, poisonous additive from the options available to the industrial food complex. It's really not that complicated.

[prole]

Whaaa! My Oreo left a grease stain on my napkin due to the absence of trans-fats!!! My freedoms are being violated!! What's next, death camps?!?

Edited December 6, 2013 by prole

[Fairweather]

In the case of trans-fats, it isn't so much telling people what they can't put in their mouths than it is removing a largely hidden, poisonous additive from the options available to the industrial food complex. It's really not that complicated.

 

I'll have to admit to being conflicted about government regulation/elimination of trans fats. Still, regulating or banning an ingredient in the private sector with cause in this manner is what government is for. What they are not for, IMO, is saying "we are banning this-or-that because it puts a financial strain on a healthcare system that we now totally control." One is a narrow door--the other is wide open.

Edited December 6, 2013 by Fairweather

[prole]

Well, we're currently paying higher insurance premiums due to the financial strain things like trans-fats are putting on the current health care system. Of course, the for-profits aren't complaining (doctors, maybe). It's pretty hard to imagine a scenario where your taxes go up by $11,000 a year (your current premium) and Wendy's starts getting raided by the Feds on a regular basis, but then your imagination is so much more vivid than ours when it comes to cooking up dystopian nightmare worlds from something as mundane as putting a cap on how much salt goes into a Cheeto.