[Nefarious]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('DomusAlbion', '
') Soon you smokers will be societal periahs; shunned by the minions

[dinopello]

I've smoked cigs in the past, most recently earlier this year. I kind of enjoy it, although I usually feel a little bad right after and I always feel the need to brush my teeth immediatly after (so my dental care probably improved!). At peak I was maybe smoking a pack a week. I liked smoking after a meal or at night on the deck. If I had cigs in the house I would smoke them, but if I didn't have them, I wouldn't really crave them. The "lite" cigarettes made me feel ill, so I smoked Malborough 27 blend. If you look at their site, it seems to have less additives. Anyway, I decided to be healthier so I haven't smoked in 5 months or so. I've been spending time in a convalescent home lately visiting family. It does make you wonder what the point is in living so long. Ideally, everything would break at the same time and you die but it simply isn't the case. You go blind, you lose your mind, you can't walk, you can't breath, you are in pain, take your pick (except you don't get to choose). Is there any real study evaluating the net cost to public expenditure of someone who smokes vs someone who doesn't ? One that includes life expectancy and all the factors in both cases (including the taxes collected by the cigarette buyer ?)

[Thralen]

As Nefarious said, we are already Pariahs. We have been for years and years... I've been smoking since age 13, on and off until 18 then pretty much straight through to 42 (a couple of 6 month quits every now and then to make sure I can put them down if I decide I want to). I can tell you that somewhere around the beginning to mid 1990s smokers became horrible Pariahs. As time goes by it progresses further and further. It has always irritated me that government would tell restaurants that they cannot have a smoking section. I mean come on, the owner should have the say and then those that don't want to eat where people are smoking can go somewhere else. Watching the UK slowly go nanny state I unfortunately see the future of the USA, assuming we don't crash first. Rights are being ignored left and right, data is being skewed in studies to support the changes in law that the government wants to make, etc... Just a horrible decline in personal liberties. I almost (note: only almost) look forward to the country crashing just to stop the erosion of personal freedoms. Not that whatever we end up with after will be necessarily better but there is always a chance...

Sorry, got off topic there but yes we've been pariahs for years already.

Thralen

[Thralen]

Heh, Heh... I thought this might happen and noticed this today when I was pricing out some filter tubes online...

From one of my two favorite online tobacco stores:
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'F')armers Gold Full Aroma Pipe Tobacco 8oz is a full flavored domestic pipe tobacco. Comparable to Farmers Gold Full Flavor Cigarette Tobacco, suitable for RYO/MYO.

[vision-master]

Why not just smoke the pipe?

[Aaron]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Nefarious', 'S')ince I don't consider it a monkey on my back don't see why anyone else would.

Doctor asked me once if I smoked. Told her 2 packs a day firm. She said " you know it won't kill you earlier, you will just grow to be a very sick old man". I said " So you think I should bump it to 3 packs a day instead?"

[careinke]

After 99 failed attempts, I was able to quit my two pack a day habit, seven years ago. It was the second hardest thing I ever did, (Survival training as the Senior Ranking Officer was the hardest). I agree that generally ex smokers are as bad as a reformed whore in trying to influence other people to their newly found morality.

I REALLY enjoyed smoking. However, it really started taking a toll on my stamina and my wallet.

That said, as soon as they find a cure for cancer, emphysema, COPD, and the price drops significantly, I'm back to smoking in an instant!

[dukey]

Big story in today's news in the UK is thousands of old people with dementia, are being given anti-psychotic drugs which end up killing them.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'N')early 150,000 dementia patients each year are given anti-psychotic drugs unnecessarily, an official review says.

The figure represents four in five of all the people who are being prescribed the drugs in care homes, hospitals and their own homes to manage aggression.

The use of the drugs - dubbed a chemical cosh - is linked to 1,800 deaths as well as leaving people struggling after strokes and falls.

[frankthetank]

What are the drugs?

A person in my family has very advanced dementia (totally gone at this point) and has been on drugs for awhile now. All i know is that they made her gain weight...

[Carlhole]

HuffPo

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'p').s. -- Reading the comments, it's clear and understandable how raw this all is. Let me just be clear: I am not saying progressives did not put forth enough effort - not at all. I am saying progressives made a strategic mistake at the outset in trusting in the administration's political strategy and abandoning Medicare-for-all in favor of the public option, and that mistake sowed the seeds of the defeat that now looms. In no way am I letting the administration off the hook here. Given the administration's tepid support for the public option this fall (also duly noted in the comments), it is legitimate to ask whether they meant to trade away the public option all along. If so, in one sense their strategy might be said to have worked, if something in fact passes, but they tragically underestimated the appetite for real reform and squandered the opportunity this historic moment presented.

[frankthetank]

Well...in my state the welfare moms still get their babies paid for by the state...so as far as i see, the system is still a complete failure.

[PrestonSturges]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('frankthetank', 'W')ell...in my state the welfare moms still get their babies paid for by the state...so as far as i see, the system is still a complete failure.

[TreeFarmer]

I think a lot of people hear the promises of the progressives of how government run healthcare would be "cheaper" and yet more people would get coverage and they say to themselves; "this sounds like something for nothing." Now, being in the midst of the great housing bust "something for nothing" more people than usual are aware that you can't get "something for nothing." Therefore, they finally woke up on one issue and yelled STOP!

There is a reason for the old saying; "wish in one hand and shit in the other and see which one fills up first."

TF

[like_the_dinosaurs]

The only country in the western world not to have a comprohensive public health system. My Mother broke her leg not 5 months ago and within 2 hours (we live half an hour out of town) she was on an operating table.

Total cost for care : $000000000000000000000000.0000000

So you stick with your walmart hospital care if you want too.

[mattduke]

I can't wait for them to drop the obesity tab on me. Maybe the dollar will hyperinflate from the overspending before then.

[Tyler_JC]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('like_the_dinosaurs', 'T')he only country in the western world not to have a comprohensive public health system. My Mother broke her leg not 5 months ago and within 2 hours (we live half an hour out of town) she was on an operating table.

Total cost for care : $000000000000000000000000.0000000

So you stick with your walmart hospital care if you want too.

[MonteQuest]

A recent pool showed the majority of Republicans didn't think health care for everyone should be required.

I've talked to a lot of very conservative Republicans here where I live,and they say if the uninsured want health care and can't afford it, "that they should get a better job, so they can."

Seriously.

And how many people are going to like being forced to buy health insurance?

17% of your income or you get a fine or go to jail?

I don't see a bill getting passed. DOA.

[Tyler_JC]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('BlinkBlink', '
')
I've worked in both Australia and the U.S. On the surface there is less tax than there is in Australia however in practice I didn't see a lot of difference.

The U.S. has sales tax so you certainly have 'Goods' tax. There is state taxes and city taxes which do not exist in Australia.

The U.S. tax payer gets the worst value for money for the tax dollar then any other developed nation.

The Australian health case does us money. We pay 1.5% of our income once you're over the income threshold.

[smallpoxgirl]

The reforms being presented by the US government were pretty much akin to trying to solve gentrification by buying $1million condos for all of the homeless. It was a facially untenable promise that had to either get shot down now or fail in very short order because of the expense. Our healthcare system is a mess, and it desperately needs to be fixed. We need solutions that will reign in the use of overly expensive, and ineffective healthcare technologies. We can barely afford the system as it is now. Pretending we can give everyone access to the $1million ICU death without bankrupting ourselves is just silly. I'm still not sure what the game was all about, but the "reforms" the dems were fronting were never even remotely plausible.