john5746

Athena, You can't get a cpap machine, but I think you can buy the supplies without a prescription if you do not use insurance, at least I do.

I don't think we should pursue your definition of a free market. Businesses pursue profit, so if intellectual property can be stolen, then it has no value and therefore they should not invest in it. Innovation is very risky, high costs but with possibly big payoffs in terms of profit margin and market share. You will be taking away most of the payoff without removing the costs. That is a huge barrier.

To keep furniture from smelling ass.

I've been on CPAP for a couple of years now, so I feel your pain. Interestingly, my insurance charges supplies against my deductible, so this year I decided to buy them outside of my insurance. My supplier gave me two prices, one with insurance, one without(~20% less). Seems like the tubing is lasting at least a year for me.

Haven't been following the repubs too much, but I think Pawlenty will be the nominee. If not, at least VP. The pardon will hurt him in the primaries, but his pastor supporting the fight against global warming will be worse, IMO. If he can squeeze out of the primary race, I think these will actually help him in a general election and he would appeal to the swing voters better than the other candidates.

It might be helpful to think about what is needed for a "free" market. It isn't something that exists in nature. We need the concept of property rights, you think? Copyrights, trademarks and patents protect intellectual property rights. If you want to allow theft of intellectual property, why not theft of buildings? It is anti-competitive to not allow Microsoft to use guns and take over Google servers, but it would preserve fair competition, at least in my opinion.

We rejoice in victory over our enemies all the time, I don't see any issue with that. The guy is dead. He will no longer be able to spread his hatred. The world is a little better without him. I am happy about that. I don't need to drag his body down the street or torture him or lock him up like a dog to feel justice has been done. Just remove him. Maybe a "chat" with him would be informative, I think it more likely would be a huge distraction. I think everyone agrees to hold ourselves to a higher standard. I think we did hold ourselves to a higher standard in regards to this killing. We didn't bomb the city, block or even the house. The issue with islamic terrorism is deeper than just the west. They have issues within their own countries that serve as recruitment. They kill or cause the suffering of more muslims than any westerners. If we left the planet, they would still exist. I understand bombing children will cause hatred, but if killing a guy like this causes it, then so be it. I hold these moderates to a standard that would allow them to understand that this is a great thing. The US has made many mistakes, IMO. Iraq being the largest of them. I don't think this is one of them and I see no need to spend any energy on it. I hope to see our military go more towards this type of action and stop invading countries.

Good point. Some other reasons: 1) This would be the last place a fugitive would try to hide, so no one would look there. 2) We would never bomb such a place and if we did and made a mistake, it might plunge us into war or destabilize Pakistan. #2 really seems very plausible to me.

Promise the porcelain god that you won't do it again and ask for mercy.

Just read this on FOX: While working on another deep sea oil leak, BP has found what appears to be Bin Laden's body. Although his body is covered, we have determined that he is lying face down, but there appears to be a cowboy boot protruding from it...

Solar Leaf Cheaper Fuel Cell I came across these two articles recently and it has left me with the impression that we might see some big strides in the solar energy front in the next decade. The first is a solar leaf that can provide hydrogen and oxygen from water economically, the second is a fuel cell manufactured from reasonable materials. What do you think? If a President set a goal similar to Kennedy's man on the moon, could we make serious strides toward energy independence in a decade?

Kind of bothers me that his body was dumped. I was hoping they would grind him up and sell pieces on Ebay. My sunglasses were knocked off by a flying kitten today. Life is good. Seriously, how could someone not be happy about this?

It's all about the birth certificate! Obama is actually Osama! They exchanged faces and cleaned up the paperwork trail of the "real" Obama and now the exchange is complete. The ex-CIA agent is the President. God save us.

You mean a Nation of Christians. Yes, we do have separation of church/state, but some feel we shouldn't. Some feel that many of our problems are due to this separation. I'll just add: I think everyone agrees that in regards to the Middle East there have been injustices by/to everyone. I'll admit I don't follow Israel that closely, but from what I do know, I would hope if the US were in a similar situation, its citizens and government would act as well as them. More likely, we would see mushroom clouds.

Agreed. I can't make any sense out of it.

But then why were material sacrifices sufficient in the past? Also, consider this: Why did God make us with "freewill" in the first place? Seems like this "freewill" is important. So, exercising this "freewill" and apologizing and asking for forgiveness would seem to be just as good if not better than thanking God for taking some torture for a day. I mean, if God can make all of these "freewill" apologies for himself, then there is no need for humanity period, so then it just seems to me that the decision for this payment is really arbitrary at best, but more likely just based on the animal and child sacrifices of the past.

I think agnosticism is just intellectual honesty in regards to beliefs without evidence. So, I think it is a good philosophy in that it should keep one humble in regards to their beliefs. However, you shouldn't look at these as a personal attribute, but as approaches to certain beliefs. I would think most people would hold all of the different flavors of agnosticism, depending on the claims considered. For example, I am Ignostic regarding the claim of an abstract God, Apathetic towards the Deist God, Agnostic atheist towards the Abrahamic God. One issue with agnosticism is people tend to think it reduces everything to a 50/50 proposition. If you are not sure, then there is a 50/50 chance that there is a teapot circling Jupiter? Humility comes at a price and that price can be large if you are dealing with monkeys and bombs.

IMO, a company that doesn't pollute in order to lower costs would be an exception. I have worked for a few Fortune 500's in my day and I have seen decisions made that were to the detriment of the environment and possibly consumer safety, in order to make the numbers. In fact, in one case, part of my job was to provide statistics that would satisfy QA to avoid excessive recalls. These were rather small cases, I doubt any CEO would even be aware of the situations - but that is partly the point. If the numbers are good, the top doesn't ask questions and everyone is happy. These kind of bottom line decisions are made all the time. Anyone who has been under pressure in a job should understand that without regulation or some threat, it is just too difficult to expect the B workers to do the right thing. Keeping production costs down is the constant pressure applied daily. The competition is making a better or sufficient mouse trap at lower costs - that is what you fight against. Not who does it greener or nicer, etc. You make some good points in regards to markets, etc. But statements like this are right up there with not believing in evolution.

It looks like he would have a hard time convincing most people that he is in fact the creator, judging from this thread.

this moron understands the constitution better than Graham, apparently.

As others have said, not possible - best we could know is it is one powerful being. If I became convinced, then I would hope that omnibenevolence would be included - that would make the other attributes much more palatable. I would follow him either way though, eternal punishment isn't my cup of tea. Why Justin Bieber? How may I serve you?

For me, I don't see much point in being offended by works of fiction. I do realize that unfortunately, some people are offended, so I can have empathy for them and adjust accordingly. So, I enjoy Christmas just as anyone else, but I do know some non-Christian religious people and I understand that they may not feel the same way. So saying "happy holidays" seems very reasonable to me. If someone is offended by that, well they can join the Taliban.

I'm thinking it will be political suicide for Obama to really address the deficit, but at this point, he may go down anyway. I am thinking we got Obama 8 years too late. I think he would have been good in 2000, but now the government does need to get smaller. Not saying we shouldn't invest in the country, but big new things like the rail systems, etc - maybe they need to be offset by double the cuts to even be considered. Maybe he is just playing it safe, knowing the republicans are going to cut and complain no matter what he does. But at this point, I'm calling him a one term president - unless the economy really roars back or someone like Palin is the opposition. We really need to make some major adjustments and the leader should at least try.

Ok, I've been properly spanked in regards to Americanization, thank you. When you live in the greatest country of all time, you sometimes forget about the other little people out there. THAT WAS A JOKE. In regards to polls, well if it were a poll of the world, I would disagree. I can't help it if people lie or don't understand what they believe. Many people all over the world still have issues accepting evolution and I think most Christians believe a zombie is possible. So I'll relax on the fundie talk, but I won't try and make cover for the religion as some great standard of rational belief. I didn't do that. Try decaf. Anyway, let's see if I can get back to topic. The methods of science and religion are different, so I think they will always have some contradiction, unless the religion follows science or is just watered down to poetry.

link Wow, this guy is an idiot. Every time he makes a statement, the people hope he is going to resign, instead he just fans the flames. If he is going to do more of this, he should release his statement prior to the speech.