New And Improved Rant Thread, now with 50% more profanity!

[BrotherMan]

goatse.cx

[Ymir's blood]

That's a shop. I've seen quite a few in my time.

[BrotherMan]

YOU'VE SEEN YOUR FACE QUITE A FEW IN YOUR TIME

[Ymir's blood]

NO U!

[Smilin]

$500.00 for an arbitration meeting??????

You're fucking kidding me....yes?????

Kiss my ass you bunch of blood sucking lawyers.....

[Ymir's blood]

I don't know that we've reached forty days and nights, but I'm finding at least two of every kind of bug trying to get into the house. Little ants, big ants, there was some sort of beetle that cot caught in a cobweb last night while I was trying to sleep. It was jumping up and down and making a clicking sound as its shell hit the floor. We're on the third storm today and another one seems to be moving through Tennessee. The second storm was shaking the windows

The flash flood warning keeps getting extended and now they're giving warnings about slides and falling trees due to the saturated ground.

[godfry n. glad]

Sonuvabitch. Some days it does just not pay to chew through the leather restraint straps.

After puking my guts out in a motel room in the tulies, my SO calls my doctor's office, where she talks to the service, who recommends that she call when we are closer, rather than three hundred miles to the east. We scrub vacation plans and drive home to Puddle City and get back in less than five hours. I call and ask for a 'walk-in' that afternoon, having been assured by my now retired doctor that I should do so. The scheduling desk shunted me to the 'advise nurse' who scheduled me in to the rotating urgent care patient care for 9:30 the next morning.

Strike One against US health care, in comparison to both France and Nova Scotia.

The next morning, I see doctor inside of fifteen minutes inside the clinic door. Good time. On par with Nova Scotia, but still not 'in room' care.

Cost: $25 out-of-pocket co-pay. Contingent upon proof of current health insurance. As yet undetermined cost charged to my insurance or charged back to me at a later date. Expected to be in the range of $125 additional cost.

Strike Two against US health care in comparison to both France and Nova Scotia: Total cost was $25 CDN, plus an additional $19 for antibiotics, in Nova Scotia, 35€ for an in-room consultation, diagnosis and treatment, and an additional 11€ for antibiotics, in France.

I was required to report to the clinic and the doctor inspected, questioned, consulted, examined and recommended a course which included a follow-up of a physical exam the next week with my regular physician, her co-physician in the practice. So, when I reported to schedulers desk and requested a complete physical with my regular physician the next week...she says the next one is available in....let's see...late August. I protest that that was not what the urgent care physician I had just seen suggested. From what I can determine from what the scheduler tells me, the physician treating urgent care patients for other doctors has no authority whatsoever. It is the dumbshit sheduler who does.

Strike Three against US health care in comparision to the provision of health care in both France and Nova Scotia. I was, in neither case, required to go through any more than a single piece of paper requesting personal health information for the doctor. I was not jerked around by any member of any staff. All directives followed were made by the physician in both France and Nova Scotia, never did any other person intervene or interfere with their directives or advice. Dealing with clinic staff AND insurance demands AND information privacy issues has made health care into a commodity service in the US. The payback is in the number of afflictions diagnosed and treated. This requires more tracking and billing staff. Ongoing chronic care is a regular payback benefit for a doctor...particularly one that requires regular visits and tests.....that's regular $$ in the American health care market.

Rather than treat the patient as a whole, they treat each and every symptom semi-independently and bill it to the insurance company that way. That's where the money is. If that isn't an invitation to unsavory practices, I don't know what is. These guys and gals already control entry into their tight-knit little circle of colleagues with a government-granted and recognized guild-control mechanism: professional licensing with all arbiters being physicians themselves. Neat, huh? Lawyers, accountants and engineers all do the same. Sadly, over the histories of all professional organizations, most have been corrupted from their original purpose at some point. The accountants have suffered most noticeably of late with the erosion of their ethical standards and reputations.

I suspect that there is an unconscious motivation for physicians to keep their patients dependent and frail. The more diagnoses for a patient should make them more valuable for the physician. Keeping them that way, without their dying, keeps the bucks rolling in. Y'all do know that physicians have abandoned the Hippocratic Oath, don't you? It was evidently deemed a curious fossil of the past...and, in some cases, I can see. However, the urging of the practitioner to "Do No Harm" has been jettisoned in the deal. I think that has led to a distortion of what the provision of health care should be...a perversion under capitalism, if you will, where the commoditization of health care promotes illness.

The focus of the reform of health care should include the de-corruption of the professionals in the field, in my estimation.

[Anastasia Beaverhausen]

Originally Posted by Ymir's blood

I don't know that we've reached forty days and nights, but I'm finding at least two of every kind of bug trying to get into the house. Little ants, big ants, there was some sort of beetle that cot caught in a cobweb last night while I was trying to sleep. It was jumping up and down and making a clicking sound as its shell hit the floor. We're on the third storm today and another one seems to be moving through Tennessee. The second storm was shaking the windows

The flash flood warning keeps getting extended and now they're giving warnings about slides and falling trees due to the saturated ground.

It just swept through here. It was pretty bad; the big creek in my backyard filled up in a matter of minutes.

[California Tanker]

Oh, hell no. Barbara Boxer just hit the top of my rant list.

She's in a hearing yesterday, a General Officer is answering her questions. She asks a question, he starts his response with 'Ma'am,' the regulation term in the military for a senior of the female persuasion. (i.e. female of 'Sir').

She interrupts: "Do me a favor. Could say senator instead of Ma'am It's just a thing, I worked so hard to get that title, so I'd appreciate it, thank you."

Heaven forbid that the General worked hard at all to make his rank, and that she did not do him the courtesy that she was demanding for herself.

NTM

[Ensign Steve]

LOL. Bitch.

[California Tanker]

Originally Posted by godfry n. glad

Sonuvabitch. Some days it does just not pay to chew through the leather restraint straps.

Definitely the healthcare scene needs work. I'm not sure about the solution, but things can't get much worse.

NTM

[Ymir's blood]

Originally Posted by Cynical-Chick

It just swept through here. It was pretty bad; the big creek in my backyard filled up in a matter of minutes.

It's not completely past Knoxville, be careful.

The lead elements passed to the south of here, but we're still going to get a lot.

Current Knoxville NEXRAD Radar Map : Weather Underground

[lisarea]

Originally Posted by California Tanker

Heaven forbid that the General worked hard at all to make his rank, and that she did not do him the courtesy that she was demanding for herself.

She didn't? Was she calling him Sir? Did they cut off the part where she said, "So what's the word, shitbird?"

And how did he address male senators? Was he calling them Sir or Senator?

It does sound silly out of context, but what is the context?

[Anastasia Beaverhausen]

The skies opened up when we were out to eat. Our table was right next to a wall of windows.

Did I mention that this restaurant is at the top of a large hill?

[Ensign Steve]

Originally Posted by lisarea

And how did he address male senators?

In California? Don't be silly.

Edit: Damnit, now you made me look it up! All I knew was that Boxer and Feinstein were the only two California senators I was ever aware of in my lifetime. Turns out they've both been in since 92, and they were the first two Jewish women in the Senate, and the first two female California senators. Go girls! I wonder if they're good friends. I never cared before, but now I'm dying for them to have a reality show. Damn you, CT and lisarea! (Is it a rant again, yet?)

[lisarea]

Originally Posted by Ensign Steve

In California? Don't be silly.

Yabbut they weren't in California. They were in AMERICA.

[California Tanker]

She didn't? Was she calling him Sir? Did they cut off the part where she said, "So what's the word, shitbird?"

And how did he address male senators? Was he calling them Sir or Senator?

It does sound silly out of context, but what is the context?

"Sir" would be the default position for a male Senator. My juniors address me as such, not as "Captain", and I address my superiors as "sir." Title is generally only used in the third person, or when a senior addresses a junior.

I would assume that for the majority of the hearings, that the Senator would have addressed the General as "General", given that "Sir" would be a statement of deference. The irony is that when she interrupted him and demanded the correction, she used neither "Sir" nor "General." Or even an 'excuse me.'

I wonder if they're good friends

Probably. They're from the same party with similar political policies, although DiFi is notably more military-friendly than Boxer is.

NTM

[godfry n. glad]

Originally Posted by California Tanker

Probably. They're from the same party with similar political policies, although DiFi is notably more military-friendly than Boxer is.

NTM

Probably because DiFi gets bigger payoffs from the MIC.

[Zehava]

Dell chat support monkeys have been pretty good, until today.

Fucking christ the hardware isn't even detected (the PCMICA slot is bad) reinstalling a driver for a piece of hardware that isn't there isn't going to do shit. It's a recurring problem on this model of Latitude (D630) previous Dell support techs have mentioned it.

Called tech support as well... no I'm not going to update the freaking BIOS. IT'S A HARDWARE PROBLEM FOR FUCKS SAKE.

[Lauri D]

It just doesn't seem right for them to have the fucking sprinklers on in the MIDDLE OF THE FUCKING DAY AT THE FUCKING CEMETERY. Can't they water at night?! Haven't they ever heard of water conservation? Do that shit early in the morning or early evening. So, you know, when a visitor just laid the flowers and is heading back to the car, the sprinkler doesn't make its next full revolution and soak her to the skin thereby forcing her to run willy nilly across the whole lawn and probably over other people's graves. That's bad luck.

[Ymir's blood]

Originally Posted by Lauri D

It just doesn't seem right for them to have the fucking sprinklers on in the MIDDLE OF THE FUCKING DAY AT THE FUCKING CEMETERY. Can't they water at night?!

What about the night time visitors? They won't have the sun to dry them out!

[Caligulette]

MOM! If you forward something that's been forwarded so many times that the actual message has dropped off in lieu of forwarded addresses and people's sig lines, then it is time to stop forwarding it.

DOCTOR: WTF? Am I going to be radiated or just what? Call me. CALL. MEEE!!!!!

WORK: Make up your mind - are we in dire straights or just what?

DUCKS OUTSIDE! Hush. Please hush.

[S.Vashti]

I'd like to rant about the people who are so wrapped up in their privilege and entitlements that they think it's reasonable to call a woman bitchy and unreasonable to insist upon a title she earned. Unfortunately, someone else ranted about it far better, and I have have only to copy it:

I recall there was an incident where a male progressive friend of mine, trying to be friendly at a fundraiser, called our mayor, Sheila Dixon, "Sheila". And she snapped at him, "That's Mayor Dixon." And from this he decided that she is an unadulterated bitch with attitude problems.

Mayor Dixon is black. And female. I could not get through this guy's head, or for that matter either my husband or my male housemate's head, that if a guy calls a guy by his first name, that signals solidarity, friendliness and familiarity, but if a white person calls a black person or a man calls a woman by a first name, it often signifies "I'm higher status than you"... so of *course* the mayor of frickin' Baltimore does not want to be called "Sheila" by a nobody who's a white guy. She might tolerate it from a black woman, because from a black woman it could, possibly, signify the same thing my friend *intended* it to mean -- friendliness and solidarity -- but she cannot afford to tolerate it from a white person or a man or especially a white man, because she has absolutely no way of knowing if this person would have addressed the previous mayor as "Martin" or as "Mayor O'Malley". If she lets someone address her with a name that *could* signify familiarity, or *could* signify superiority, maybe she could give them the benefit of the doubt and assume the familiarity, but *someone* listening to it will assume the superiority and that will harm her authority as mayor.

Also, I would like to physically smack any white man in Baltimore who ever, ever, *EVER* tells me that black women in Baltimore have attitude or "act entitled". Dude, you try being treated like dirt your entire goddamn life and see if maybe you develop attitude. And what you see as "acting entitled", I think is "making sure I get what's fair because I know damn well someone's gonna try to screw me out of what I deserve." If throughout your life, nearly everyone you meet acts as if of course you deserve to have the things you objectively deserve, you don't *need* to stand up and pre-emptively demand those things. If, however, you've lived your life in an environment where everyone assumes you're not as smart as you are, not as deserving as you are, not as skilled as you are, not as moral as you are... in fact are pretty much not anything positive as much as you are... I think it might lead you to demand that you get your fair share at points where white people will assume that everything will even out in the wash and no malice was intended and you give a little to get a little and blah blah blah, all the things that people who've grown up with the presumption that they will be treated fairly *can* believe.

That is not entitlement. That is the friggin' opposite of entitlement. Entitlement, dude, is when you think you have the right to call the mayor of a city with half a million people in it by her first name and then get mad that she doesn't think that's appropriate, even though you are just some guy off the street who does volunteer work for progressive causes.

If I were Senator Boxer I might not quibble quite so hard at the difference between ma'am and Senator, because ma'am does show respect... but if he was calling all the male Senators "Senator" then I might have pointed that out when I asked him to call me by that title, precisely so entitled white men wouldn't instantly assume I was a bitch.
Alara Rogers | 06.18.09 - 3:59 pm | #

[California Tanker]

no I'm not going to update the freaking BIOS. IT'S A HARDWARE PROBLEM FOR FUCKS SAKE.

As an IT tech, and speaking in a vacuum of knowledge of the D630's known issues, there is a very fuzzy line between firmware and hardware. Many symptoms of a hardware fault can be traced to a BIOS issue.

NTM

[California Tanker]

but if he was calling all the male Senators "Senator" then I might have pointed that out when I asked him to call me by that title, precisely so entitled white men wouldn't instantly assume I was a bitch.

That's a pretty major 'if'

The same day, two Admirals were being grilled by the Senate House Services comittee. Their method of address to male senators? "Sir"

According to the Army spokesman speaking on the issue afterwards, he confirmed that where the Army is concerned, 'Sir' and 'Ma'am' are acceptable terms to address a Senator.

[ETA]
I just looked up the Odierno/Colbert/Obama exchange on Youtube, and sure enough, after the initial acknowledgement, Odierno subsequently addressed the President as "Sir." If it's good enough for the President, why should it not be good enough for a Senator?

Either way, whilst addressing a Senator as "Senator" is not wrong, and if she's egotistical enough to demand to be addressed as such, she can do so, the manner in which she did was unacceptable. It would be like my demanding that a trooper address me as 'Sir' without addressing that trooper by rank. Or demanding that I be saluted, without doing the courtesy of returning the salute.

I recall once being called over by a sergeant on a range. True to protocol, I snapped to attention, and said "Yes, Sergeant." He says "Trooper, I know I'm a sergeant. You know I'm a sergeant. Let's save the movements for the parade ground"

NTM