btq96r

  I'd be interested if they had a plate that recognized service in both Iraq and Afghanistan.  Right now it's either or, but plenty of post 9/11 veterans were deployed to both places.   Agree that the submarine plate is cool.  As it should be, that's an important duty those guys pull.

  It's not paranoia, it's called low-vis, and I practice it as well.

  The money people are paying their HMO's every month would just be routed to taxes and not the monthly bill, so, after that amount, only the rest would be a net loss to someones disposable income.    Also, there are differences in what levels of government can tax in other countries.  I think that only the federal government can tax income in Germany, with the Länder (their equivalent of our state level) having a small add on that gets collected (it amounts to only a few hundred euros difference based on location with this calculator).  Once the federal government is funded, the rest is then divided up on some kind of quota/apportionment system back to the states where they get to decide how to spend it.  Not sure how their VAT (sales tax) works.    Then there are the differences in that the German/UK model is paying for a cradle to grave welfare state.  I'm not advocating for that, just better healthcare since I see it as a public interest.  People should still have to work a job for a living, and if they aren't willing to, screw them.  Either way you're looking at a different system with different taxes and services, so a direct what they pay vs. what we pay comparison is too simplistic, IMO.     Fully agree that an independent 3rd party would be needed to do any kind of CBA for all this.  Finding enough people that can do it, but don't have an agenda would be the hard part.  Both liberal and conservative think tanks would want to stack the deck on that one.

  They weren't as good as BCBS from what the marketplace showed me on comparison.  I may get away from the marketplace next year depending on my employment situation after I finish undergrad work in the fall, we'll see.  Right now a lot of my "everyday stuff" is taken care of since I can see the doctors on campus at student health services for free, and only end up paying for tests, shots, and RX's.  That's helped a lot.   One thing that sucked is my CPA finished my taxes for the year, and I missed getting out of the "Medicare Gap" by only a few thousand, so I wasn't able to get any tax credits for my healthcare plan.

  I'd like to think it was simple ignorance, but I could believe lying too.  The "claim' is showing as pending online, but nothing is in yet.  So, I'll have to check it all when it hits.  Thanks.

  Every system has "rationing" to some effect.  It's either an individual budget choice, an HMO saying what they will or won't cover, or a government doing the same.

  Depending on what changes, I don't think income taxes would have to be doubled, but if there could be a public system that can deliver medical services at an acceptable level, then I think it's at least worth a cost benefit analysis of seeing how much taxes would have to go up.    I'm going to spend over $2,300 in 2016 for an insurance plan that doesn't pick up a dime unless my medical bills accumulate past $5,400.  That's basically to avoid going bankrupt by medical bills if I get hit by a bus.  Any office visits, RX refills, special tests, ect.. are all costing me now in addition to that $5,400.  Plenty of people are paying a lot more, and pooling that money into a public option may yield better results.  So, yeah, I'd say why not look at the pros and cons.   Like I said, Germany has a setup worth studying.  They've had some form of government provided healthcare since Bismarck set up their first system in the 1880s.  I think we can borrow at least a few ideas that make sense from them.  The ACA tried it a bit, but it was still a giant blowjob to the insurance lobby (risk-corridors for insurance companies is the most glaring one). http://www.commonwealthfund.org/topics/international-health-policy/countries/germany http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/04/what-american-healthcare-can-learn-from-germany/360133/   Letting the HMO's, who have a fiduciary duty to shareholders as priority #1 set the stakes hasn't been working very well, IMO.  We need to actively look at ways to find a happy medium between a private for profit industry bleeding us dry and an inefficient government run system that can't do anything right.

  I'm not convinced we have the "best medical system for a large country."  Based on what I read, I like Germany's model (mix of about 75% public and 25% private).  And, as mentioned above, the UK version is pretty good.   I will concede that it's all speculative, and that the US may be too large in population, sub-division (50 states each having a stakeholder claim), and political influence to be any kind of apt comparison.  I just know our system isn't automatically the best.  Maybe we have the best specialists on something like heart surgery or any other complex operation, but day to day routine care....hard for me to think so.   As to the selling vs. deceiving argument, the HMO's and the healthcare industry at large do more than enough deceiving and lobbying on the hill as well.

  It works well enough in the United Kingdom.

  Pretty much my situation, except I have a $5,200 annual deductible across the board in-network, and the co-pay takes it up to $6,400 out of pocket.  But it was the most affordable plan month to month for me.  I'm not mad so much that I have to pay out of pocket for the (relatively) small stuff, it's that I can't get a straight answer from medical offices who are more compartmentalized than the CIA.   And we wonder why so many people are ready to embrace a single payer system and get rid of such a mess. 

  I'm guessing Stones River was pretty crowded on Saturday with it being a Spring like day in January.  I can see a full firing line there being a concussive hell.   Maybe try it on less than perfect Sunday to see if you notice a difference.

  Maybe next time, lead with this ^.  :D

To be sure, it's a copycat industry.  Making it look like current military issue equals sales dollars.  That includes the 1/7 twist that was for tracer rounds, which I'd imagine less than 1% of civilians ever fire from their own rifle.    The problem with the A2's in the military is a lot of them are just old and beat up.  Plus in the era of every sight, scope, or optic you could ask for, the fixed carrying handle is a handicap.  The Marines found a great compromise when the fielded the A4's, but even they have decided to go with M4 carbines as the standard infantry weapon.  Anything you can't hit with an M4 should be taken care of with a 7.62x51 rifle anyway...or an Apache.

The "good weather" was last week.  If this early spring keeps up, I'll have to start cutting the grass again.

Bumping this thread to share my tales of WTF...last Friday was my first experience dealing with the insurance process, and Judas Priest was it a clusterfawk.    At the recommendation of my everyday doctor, I went to see a specialist because apparently having high blood pressure (meds control it) and a good bit of sleep issues isn't good for me.  Seems that my thinking I was good to go with random naps to make up for a 3-4 hour night of sleep in the week, and catching up on weekends would be fine isn't a valid course of action by medical actions.  Thus, it's off to see if I need to be checked for sleep apnea.   Now, I had a feeling I'd be paying for most if not all of the visit, but what kills me is I couldn't get any kind of estimate for what I'm about to be charged.  The lady at the office reception window who checked me in gave me the number of the billing department, and the billing department (not in our state, of course) said they had to wait until they got the codes from the office to put a number on it.  So, with all that, all I let happen was a visit with the doctor, more a consultation than anything else where he asked me some questions, did the standard push tests (does this hurt), yadda, yadda.  So, I'm hopeful that I don't get a huge bill once it goes through everything.  Apparently it's going direct to the insurance company, who will pass on every bit to me, unless it gets to my annual cap which would make me have that stroke I'm trying to avoid.   So, my question is this...is this kind of hidden fee thing common if you need to see specialists like that?  I kept getting the "we don't know what the doctor will do" line, but how can there not be a basic office visit fee if no special equipment comes out or the visit is kept to <30 min?

  Listen to Christie's views on government surveillance, I'd say he's equally, if not more hostile to the 4th Amendment than he is the 2nd.  Because, you know...t€rrori$m i$ €vi£ and mu$t b€ d€f€at€d at a££ ¢o$t$.

Check the local pawn shops with an FFL. Since you aren't taking away from their main storefront business when transferring, they aren't needing to charge what they'd make as profit forba gun sale, or close to it as a transfer fee.

I don't Facebook, but I think I would find buying a gun on there only a step above doing it via Craigslist.  At least with places like TGO's Trading Post, or GunBroker you can look at peer feedback of a buyer/seller.  I'm pretty big on having some kind of verification system involved.   End of the day, their site, their rules as others have said.  I don't think it's a big deal for the gun market so much as a PR feel good for the anti-gun side.   I guess during the next AR scare, people are going to have to sell marked up black guns the old fashioned way.

I'm going to predict that this will become a cult classic for military vets, especially the Post 9/11 generation.   Past that, I'm unsure and it seems the people who made it couldn't care less.   Here's a behind the scenes video that's pretty cool to see.  Don't let the link put you off, you don't need to log into Facebook to watch it.  It's another NSFW masterpiece that makes me feel right at home. https://www.facebook.com/1037324099634240/videos/1122780104421972/       Watch the end of that link I posted above. :P

I think both of these things should be done anyway (though I'd put the cost of having the State Police at the gun show on the show and not the State Police Department's budget).  But what say ye, TGO?   In exchange, Republicans softened their stances on issues that have long been non-starters in the GOP-controlled General Assembly. Under the deal, the state would take guns away from anyone who was under a two-year protective order for domestic-violence offenses. And State Police would have to attend all gun shows to provide background checks for private sellers if they requested the service.

  Overall it was good, and apporiate, but this part annoyed me: It appears from your unconditioned revocation of reciprocity that a Tennessee resident holding a valid Tennessee permit for a concealed handgun could not even travel across Virginia to visit our nation's Capital without acquiring a nonresident permit from Virginia. Could this be true for Tennessee's Congressional representatives?   As if they're the main concern here.  They all fly to D.C..  None of them drive up I-81 to I-66 and waste 12 hours each way when their office funds cover travel.  They also have reserved parking spots at BNA from what one former staff chief told me.  They usually fly right into Reagan National and get a ride to their office, or just keep a car in their reserved parking spot at the Washington area airports.

Hmmm...might need a few of these. Thanks for sharing.

Almost forgot...Manny's House of Pizza on the first floor of the Arcade in Nashville is pretty good if you don't want a fancy setting.  It's a classic grab and go place.

I'm a fan of Mafiaoza's on 12th Ave. South. The rest of the menu is great too. Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk, because I felt that Oh Shoot wanted to know that particular bit of information.

They better keep that on the DL.  If it makes it to social media or god forbid duffel blog, they'll be down at the motorpool painting over it with a fine brush in full battle rattle.