OT: Hurricanes Lounge XLVI: Really, It's All About Beer and Bojangles

[LakeLivin]

In the name of love?

Before you break my heart.

 

[Finlandia WOAT]

 

[Unsustainable]

 

[HisIceness]

Before you break my heart.

Think it o-o-over

 

[AhosDatsyukian]

Was at the airport for over 12 hours yesterday into this morning and now have to go back, wish me luck

 

[Blueline Bomber]

Was at the airport for over 12 hours yesterday into this morning and now have to go back, wish me luck

It’s from Airplane. Get it?

 

[AhosDatsyukian]

View attachment 949340

It’s from Airplane. Get it?

Yup, I’m a pilot and have seen it 100 times and love it

 

[tarheelhockey]

Girl unresponsive 3 months after crash caused by suspect in Trump assassination attempt

For the first time, we're hearing from the mother of the 6-year-old girl who was seriously hurt in a car crash in Martin County in September.

www.wptv.com

Now this is interesting. I don't know how they're going to stretch this, because all evidence seems like it's quite a stretch.

TLDR: The 2nd assassination attempt on the orange guy caused the police to shut down roads. A driver was distracted (apparently, she was trying to pick up a water bottle that had fallen beneath her seat) and caused an accident, not expecting the road to be shut down. This accident put a little girl in a (currently) 3 month coma. They're trying to charge the would-be assassin (Routh) with attempted murder of the little girl.

Oh, and the accident happened 35 minutes AFTER Routh was taken into custody.

The minute she admitted to reckless driving, that case was over. What a waste of resources.

 

[Blueline Bomber]

The minute she admitted to reckless driving, that case was over. What a waste of resources.

Yeah, like I said, I don’t know how they’re going to argue Routh was responsible here. I know there are situations where if someone gets injured or dies while a crime is committed (like say the shock of a bank robbery gives someone a fatal heart attack), the person committing the crime would be held responsible for the death. So I guess the argument would be if Routh hadn’t tried to assassinate Agent Orange, the roads would have never been shut down, thus the accident wouldn’t have occurred, and the girl wouldn’t be in a coma.

But as you said, the other driver admitted she was distracted, and the accident occurred well after Routh was in custody, so it’s a stretch to hold him responsible. If we’re going to allow a Rube Goldberg, chain of responsibility like that, the simple act of running in the park could get you a murder charge. After all, what if you run too close to a tree, that happens to be housing a beehive, and those bees then sting a nearby officer that has a deadly bee allergy?

 

[tarheelhockey]

Yeah, like I said, I don’t know how they’re going to argue Routh was responsible here. I know there are situations where if someone gets injured or dies while a crime is committed (like say the shock of a bank robbery gives someone a fatal heart attack), the person committing the crime would be held responsible for the death. So I guess the argument would be if Routh hadn’t tried to assassinate Agent Orange, the roads would have never been shut down, thus the accident wouldn’t have occurred, and the girl wouldn’t be in a coma.

But as you said, the other driver admitted she was distracted, and the accident occurred well after Routh was in custody, so it’s a stretch to hold him responsible. If we’re going to allow a Rube Goldberg, chain of responsibility like that, the simple act of running in the park could get you a murder charge. After all, what if you run too close to a tree, that happens to be housing a beehive, and those bees then sting a nearby officer that has a deadly bee allergy?

Dovetailing the earlier conversation, my guess is the girl’s coma is more than the family can afford to treat, and this is their Hail-Mary shot at shifting liability to someone else. This sort of thing happens a lot when liability insurance is in play.

 

[HisIceness]

Was at the airport for over 12 hours yesterday into this morning and now have to go back, wish me luck

I hope it wasn't Charlotte. Our airport sucks

 

[Blueline Bomber]

https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/22/us/nyc-subway-fire-woman-death/index.html

So, NYPD, you wanna spend some of those resources you had on the CEO killer on this crime? Because if shooting a rich guy counts, I'd definitely say setting someone on fire qualifies.

 

[NotOpie]

Finally caught up after a week or so off of HF 26......not political, just an observation about health care and health insurance costs.

In my simple mind the issue is that EVERY SINGLE INPUT adds mostly unnecessary or excessive costs to the system:

1. Unhealthy lifestyles of the typical American
2. Profit motive for both health insurance companies and health care provider entities
3. Compliance and regulatory requirements on health insurance companies (which are primarily state-based as almost all insurance is regulated on a state-level basis, at least initially)
4. Cost inflation from health care providers in attempts to cover non-insured or underinsured patients.
5. Extensive regulatory requirements for health care providers (Medicare, Medicaid, ACA mandates, etc.).
6. Malpractice insurance and, frankly, the malpractice lobby that is the US Bar Association (legal lobby)
7. Bureaucratic inefficiencies endemic to regulatory entities

and what may be the primary cost driver.....expectation of....no, actually the demand for miracles from our health care system.

To me the lobbying issue is more about protecting the status quo.....

 

[skipnjump]

I hope it wasn't Charlotte. Our airport sucks

I thought Charlotte was an ok airport. Atlanta was awful in my traveling days.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

Finally caught up after a week or so off of HF 26......not political, just an observation about health care and health insurance costs.
<snip>

To me the lobbying issue is more about protecting the status quo.....

Of course it is. The medical insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies, and healthcare providers, who do most of the lobbying, are raking in profits while care and costs for citizens go up and up while coverage goes down. Why wouldn't they want to protect the status quo?

United Healthcare's stock was at about $32 when ACA started in 2010 and their profit was about $20B. The stock is now $506 and their annual profit is $90B. A lot of the "regulatory" and "Mandates" stuff is a smokescreen that companies and politicians use to try and misdirect people.

I'm not saying those mandates had no effect, as they certainly had some, but a "for profit" medical system, that pays millions to make sure law makers do nothing to change it, will always have increasing prices and decreasing quality of service. There's no way around it. The economics, as well as CEO compensation (which is often stock price driving) will drive companies to increase prices and lower service.

 

[DaveG]

I thought Charlotte was an ok airport. Atlanta was awful in my traveling days.

There's varying levels of awful in my experience. Charlotte's meh at best, but simply bad at worst. Atlanta and O'Hare take the cake for shitshows that I've been in and out of though.

 

[tarheelhockey]

This is a bit like comparing traffic in different cities. Atlanta serves literally twice as many passengers as Charlotte, so it will always be more of a zoo due to the sheer volume of activity there. But it’s also a pretty efficient facility, considering the volume it handles.

Charlotte, for its size, is a very poorly designed facility. I know they’ve done some steady expansion over the years, but it feels they haven’t been able to build their way out of the speed of growth. Too many people in too small an area and the design of the terminals just crams the foot traffic together into a mob.

For my money, RDU is the best airport in the country to have as your home airport (unless you’re a high frequency business traveler or something). It has just enough connectivity to get you where you need to go, usually direct. But it doesn’t have an overwhelming amount of traffic so it’s amazingly quiet and clean for its size. Being stuck on a delay in RDU is a reasonably pleasant experience compared to the hellish environments in larger hubs.

 

[NotOpie]

United Healthcare's stock was at about $32 when ACA started in 2010 and their profit was about $20B. The stock is now $506 and their annual profit is $90B. A lot of the "regulatory" and "Mandates" stuff is a smokescreen that companies and politicians use to try and misdirect people.

We're in agreement about the lobbying thing.

My comments about regulatory impact comes from a variety of places. My mom was a pharmacist. My dad was in the pharmaceutical business (primarily the wholesaler side of things). But I've had extensive conversations with my GP, an ER doctor, a urologist, a radiologist, even an oral surgeon. All have said that the regulatory environment, the mandates, and the compliance paperwork is egregious, time consuming and super expensive. It takes medical staff away from doing medical things.

Look, I'll never defend United Healthcare as I view them as the worst provider of health insurance that I've ever had to deal with. I think prior authorizations should be illegal. I think nobody should get between you and your doctor when it comes to your healthcare.

However, United Healthcare's value grew immensely since 2010 and was supercharged by something like 26 acquisitions that they did in the last decade and a half. The average price of those acquisitions was over $4 billion. It would take a seriously piss poor manager not to grow profit immensely given the growth through acquisition strategy. Again, not a defense, merely pointing out tangential factors.

Know that I'm not defending any of insurers practices. I'm merely pointing out that the profit motive is one of many factors in driving up health insurance and health care costs.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

We're in agreement about the lobbying thing.

My comments about regulatory impact comes from a variety of places. My mom was a pharmacist. My dad was in the pharmaceutical business (primarily the wholesaler side of things). But I've had extensive conversations with my GP, an ER doctor, a urologist, a radiologist, even an oral surgeon. All have said that the regulatory environment, the mandates, and the compliance paperwork is egregious, time consuming and super expensive. It takes medical staff away from doing medical things.

Sure, I don't disagree with that, but many of these things are profit driven. Let me give you two examples. I've been on statin drugs for 26 years. Over that time, I've had to switch twice because insurance said so as one became "cheaper" than the other. It wasn't medically driven. My doctor, then has had to take the time and effort to re-do the paperwork and I had to get extra blood tests after 6 months (thus driving more paperwork and costs) because he had to make sure it was working and not having adverse effects. More paperwork, more bureaucracy that was 100% profit driven.

A 2nd more recent example. My doctor closed down his practice and joined another practice. After 6 months, I get a call that I need to come in for a 6 month check-up because I'm on a regular drug. I told them, "I've been taking these drugs for 26 years and been on the current version for 7 years. I've never had to come in for a 6 month appointment just to get a prescription filled." Didn't matter to them, they said this was their policy. This would have cost me out of pocket and driven more paperwork and bureaucracy.

I refused because I had a 1 year prescription and had enough to make it to my annual appointment. I just had my annual appointment this month and asked my doctor about it. He came right out and said "It's all about making more money. They are making it harder for me to do actual medical stuff at the expense of more paperwork so they can make more money." He then proceeded to give me full year prescriptions so I wouldn't have to come in 6 months from now.

The insurance companies are making medical providers and patients jump through hoops which is also adding to the paperwork. It's not just the mandates (although that's part of it). That's my point.

Know that I'm not defending any of insurers practices. I'm merely pointing out that the profit motive is one of many factors in driving up health insurance and health care costs.

I agree, there are many factors, but when profit is involved in the medical field, it will always lead to higher premiums and lower coverage. If Ore-ida increases prices and changes from a 32oz bag to a 26oz bag to help profits, it's not a big deal. When medical providers do, it is a big deal and leads to ethical issues. We've seen that with United Healths auto-rejection of claims and more egregiously, Perdue Pharma's down right criminal approach to Oxycotin.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

By the way @NotOpie regarding the 1st item on your list: Unhealthy lifestyles of the typical American.

I'd like someone to do the economic analysis of giving free (or at least affordable with or without insurance) statin drugs and GLP1 drugs to any American who wants them vs. the impact on cost of health care. Cardiovascular disease (Heart and stroke) are by far the biggest health concern in the US and growing. These two drugs can make a huge difference on the cost of care when problems arise, which is growing.

As an example, I've been on statins since 1997. I have hereditary high cholesterol and heart disease, and back then, I went on a complete fat free, low sugar diet and exercised like crazy for 6 months. I dropped 20 lbs at the time and was in great shape. My cholesterol went from 290 to 285. My father was a mailman who walked almost 8 miles a day 5 days a week. Had a heart attack at 55 and after a quadruple by-pass, lived until he had a stroke at 84.

My sister, who is 3 years older than me, refused to take statins her whole life. Her doctor finally said in 2022 "Ok, I'll make a deal with you, get a calcium heart scan and if it comes back good, I'll never bother you again about statins". I had just gotten my scan in 2021 and it came back with a score of ZERO (no calcium buildup detected). She got her score and it was worse than 95% of women her age. She's now on statins as well as another drug (I can't remember the name).

I'll never tell anyone to take statins if they don't want to, but the stuff works. My doctor jokingly said "I wish they'd put it in the water, it would make my life easier".

 

[HisIceness]

True, airlines cram us in like sardines these days. 0/10 do not recommend.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

True, airlines cram us in like sardines these days. 0/10 do not recommend.

Back in the late 80s, they sometimes did make short trips with big planes. For instance, when I was interviewing for jobs, I had to fly from Cleveland to Detroit and it was in a huge plane. I think it was a 767, or maybe the larger variant of the 757. It was about 25% full. I suspect that they wanted the plane in Detroit thus why they used it because it was only about an hour flight.

That was about 4 years before Home Alone 2 was filmed.

I agree with you though. Flying in the 80s and 90s was different than flying now. They definitely pack people in as the seats are less roomy and I rarely encounter a flight that isn't full.

They've also kept increasing fees for things to the point where we feel they are "normal" now.

 

[skipnjump]

There's varying levels of awful in my experience. Charlotte's meh at best, but simply bad at worst. Atlanta and O'Hare take the cake for shitshows that I've been in and out of though.

Amen to that about Atlanta. It probably doesn't help my opinion of Atlanta that I had to sleep in the airport once.

 

[Negan4Coach]

I'm fairly certain the most recent mass shootings (or, at least, the ones that make the news cycle. There's too many to apparently cover them all, which is horrifying) have come from children with both parents. In fact, that's where they're getting the guns from 90% of the time. Parents that either don't secure their own guns well enough or ignore signs that their child might be troubled and buy them a gun of their own.

And it's ironic that you claim one side is pushing anti-gun laws as a solution while ignoring mental health treatment as another, when it's the OTHER side of that political system that is gung-ho about preventing that mental health treatment from happening:

205 Republicans Vote Against Bill to Expand School Mental Health Services

Republicans have spent months scapegoating mental health issues as a catch-all for problems like mass shootings.

truthout.org

For me, it all comes down to Sandy Hook. 20 children between the ages of 6-7 were killed and absolutely nothing changed. America made it very clear at that point that it believes guns are more important than innocent human lives.

You know, when Sandy Hook happened- I was sure it was curtains for gun owners. Like totally convinced. And then...nothing happened. Nothing. I was kinda surprised. I mean they even made a half-ass attempt to ban assault weapons in 1994 because of the Crack Wars (which had literally zero effect other than to change the cosmetic appearance of firearms).

At the end of the day- we've had free and unfettered access to semiautomatic weapons in this country since the end of WWI. And decade after decade went by with nary a school shooting until the 80s, when we had a couple, and then a few more in the 1990s, and then it wasn't until Columbine that they took off exponentially. While you can certainly take a look at the weapons, perhaps there are some other aspects of what is going on now to take a look at.

 

[Blueline Bomber]

It’s Christmas Eve. I’m not getting into gun control talk with you again. You repeatedly threaten vague violence against the hypothetical boogeyman that’s coming to take your guns, but you just admitted that one of the worst mass shootings in American history did nothing to move that needle. If it hasn’t clicked for you yet, it’s not going to.