FirstCircle

Yep, I'm now adding ND to my list of states to completely boycott with my tourist $. Fortunately, most of these states have about as much appeal as an un-flushed toilet so no great loss.

If only the rest of the military would Mann-up like this.

The California-based Raw Milk Institute called the warnings "clearly fearmongering." The institute's founder, Mark McAfee, told the Los Angeles Times this weekend that his customers are, in fact, specifically requesting raw milk from H5N1-infected cows. According to McAfee, his customers believe, without evidence, that directly drinking high levels of the avian influenza virus will give them immunity to the deadly pathogen.

By all means, drink up, morons, get the hell out of our gene pool, we've got enough troubles without your Dimwit DNA.

I refuse as well, and will continue to refuse, at least until my 1997 and 2005 vehicles can no longer be repaired for some reason. I'd love some EV tech but the idea of driving a Big Brother vehicle that's fender-to-fender loaded with spyware and "features" that can only be enabled via subscriptions is horrifying and dystopian. Also forget all the Big Screen distractions inside and all the self-driving antifeatures. At least 1/2 of my driving is done for pleasure and I expect to be focusing on the road and what's happening around me.

literally cutting of your own nose

"Literally"? Really? People lusting after BYD products have no noses now?

Just stay tuned for the show when/if the Orange Fascist gets into office again. Cuts to Medicare, SS, and a dismantling of the ACA will be top priorities, and then you're going to see huge increases in the numbers of homeless old folks. Grandpa and Grandma trudging their carts down the road, loaded with the sum or their earthly possessions, heading for the next place to sit next to traffic with a cardboard sign or heading for the nearest tent-city that hasn't been ripped apart by the cops. These income/benefits cuts (and similar - think Medicaid) will be savage for younger people too, but younger people can at least, usually, at minimum, get some kind of crappy job whereas older people, the vast majority of whom are on small, fixed incomes, will very often be unemployable due to illness or injury or (as should be obvious to anyone who pays attention) age discrimination. If that sub-minimum-wage job office job can be done by 20yo Sally or 70yo Sam, if that house-painting job can be done by 20yo Chad or 60yo Cindy, guess who's going to get the job and who's going to be unable to rent even a single-room flat because of no job, no income.

I point this out mainly because one seldom encounters articles that are sympathetic to the financial plights of older people - they're assumed to be all out playing golf at The Club all day, eating restaurant meals afterwards, taking long vacations whenever, just because, and living in comfortable, fully-owned houses with incomes that support their upkeep as well as the upkeep+use of that brand new gigantic RV parked outside. Oldster unemployment and poverty and medical debt and, ultimately Oldster homelessness, is just outside of the narrative.

Archive link: https://archive.is/Qsioy

Insurance companies still do many versions of this with a byzantine coding system, complex “out of network” exclusions, etc. Anything to deny a claim.

Yep. My criminal insurance company (CIC) marketing docs trumpeted how my ER costs were "fully covered" (which they're required to be by law, I think). That's obviously bad for profits, so the solution? Well just interpret any ER line-item (pick some expensive ones) as non-ER, even when they pertain to an ER visit, then charge the whole slew of separate copays/deductibles that go with the new interpretation. Profit! The hospital, which has a contract with the insurer, will cooperate and code all these line-item services with ambiguous language and codes, making them ripe for the picking by the screw-you insurance dweebs.

Oh, I can appeal the insurance decisions? Great. Appeal #1 is decided by the insurance company itself! 100% internal. Appeal #2 is done by a third party company, selected by the insurance company and paid by the insurance company. Think your state insurance commissioner is going to step in when foul play occurs? Think again. If they pay attention to you at all, they'll claim to have no "authority" to make "medical decisions" about the abuse the insurance companies subject you to, and if they do anything at all, it might be to write a mildly-stern email to the insurance company reminding it of your complaint and their supposed obligations. That's it, the commissioner's office is not on "your side" and even if it were to some extent, they'll claim to be "too overloaded" to do anything, anything like actually regulate the insurance companies, on your behalf or on behalf of the other millions of insurance customers.

Re: Fascism, Mussolini's full explanation/description is a very good read. Here's a version that a search turned up:

https://sjsu.edu/faculty/wooda/2B-HUM/Readings/The-Doctrine-of-Fascism.pdf .

Another: http://media.wix.com/ugd/927b40_c1ee26114a4d480cb048f5f96a4cc68f.pdf (Soames).

Got to hand it to the guy, he was well-educated and could write, which is more than you can say for his modern-day imitators, especially the loud, orange one.

Spamgourmet.com

No maximally-cruel executions for free-thinking (allegedly having or expression thoughts, or doing deeds, contrary to those mandated by some religion). Burning at the stake, totally fake, yeah.

Was not aware of Waydroid, thanks for the link.