Happy Independence Day!

[David Schwab]

Happy 4th To our US members... and happy belated birthday Canada!

To everyone else.. have a drink!

Don't drink and wind however... you might hurt someone.

[SkinnyWire]

Amen. Happy 4th to all. I'll take a break from winding long enough to root for Joey Chestnut.

[gilligan]

Happy Independence Day too!

I hope we get to keep it that way!
Have a beer and celebrate!
Give a thought for our soldiers...and a prayer couldn't hurt!
Ron

[chevalij]

Happy 4th guys. And thanks David... luckily I've already recovered from my sunburned and accidently drunken 1st.

Happy 4th To our US members... and happy belated birthday Canada!

To everyone else.. have a drink!

Don't drink and wind however... you might hurt someone.

[kevinT]

Everyone have a nice holiday...

I was going to put up some images of hand injuries from fireworks, showing the possible dangers to a pickup winder's hand...but I was afraid Chevalig might heave his breakfast all over after a big night of partying.

[chevalij]

No I'm good now. Still don't want to see the pics though.... Not sure what happened on the 1st, but some idiot drank a full bottle of my Glenfiddich! For those that don't drink much or often, like myself, let this be a warning....

Everyone have a nice holiday...

I was going to put up some images of hand injuries from fireworks, showing the possible dangers to a pickup winder's hand...but I was afraid Chevalig might heave his breakfast all over after a big night of partying.

[David Schwab]

No I'm good now. Still don't want to see the pics though.... Not sure what happened on the 1st, but some idiot drank a full bottle of my Glenfiddich! For those that don't drink much or often, like myself, let this be a warning....

Hey! We don't need any bad news from Canada! That's why you guys exists... to show that nothing bad ever happens there and makes us feel like a bunch of drunken cowboys... Oh, and the healthcare thing...

The only time we see Canada on the US news is when there's an election! And watching the news in the NY metro area is like watching the film "Escape from New York"

We never watch the news in my household.

[chevalij]

Well, me getting drunk was about as bad as it got. It's okay, I'm a happy drunk Come on, NY can't be as bad as they portray it to be can it? How much is healthcare down there anyway? Say, for a family of 4...

Hey! We don't need any bad news from Canada! That's why you guys exists... to show that nothing bad ever happens there and makes us feel like a bunch of drunken cowboys... Oh, and the healthcare thing...

The only time we see Canada on the US news is when there's an election! And watching the news in the NY metro area is like watching the film "Escape from New York"

We never watch the news in my household.

[Stan H]

Happy Rockin 4th everyone!

[David Schwab]

Well, me getting drunk was about as bad as it got. It's okay, I'm a happy drunk Come on, NY can't be as bad as they portray it to be can it? How much is healthcare down there anyway? Say, for a family of 4...

NYC isn't that bad, but he news only shows bad stuff. They also only ever identify the race of a perpetrator if they have brown skin. You never hear them say "two armed white men..."

I worked in NYC for the past 8 years, and have been going there for the past 30. I never had a problem. It's better than it used to be though. Actually Newark NJ, which I live close to, has always been much worse as far as crime. Ten years ago my 86 year old mother was murdered in a robbery attempt, and she had nothing to steal.

Health care here sucks Canadian moose cock! Last year I checked and they wanted $1700 a month to insure a family of 4! Doesn't help you if you are out of work or self employed. And if you don't have insurance and try and get something from one of the State or Federal programs, they tell you that you aren't qualified if you make any money at all, because you make too much!

And when you do have insurance, the premiums that businesses have to pay keep going up, so they have to change insurance companies or programs, and then you lose benefits, and often have to change doctors... you hardly ever get vision or dental, and what they do cover keep having the co pay go up.

It's a real sorry situation for sure!

[SkinnyWire]

Yeah baby

Chestnut wins in "OT", keeping the mustard belt on home turf.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,376423,00.html

[chevalij]

David, I'm sorry to hear about your mother. Why would anybody attack a little old lady to begin with? That's just freakin sick. Toronto has it's share of killings (almost 80 last year), but they're mostly between rival "ethnic" groups or drug related. Random shootings/stabbings are almost unheard of.

As for health insurance, of course all hospital and doctor treatment is free. Actually, if your company doesn't pick up the tab (mine does), you'll probably have to pay about $60 a month for Ontario Health Insurance. Doesn't matter if you don't have it, they'll still treat you, we just pay because we should. Most companies pick up full vision and dental. My wife and I have complete family coverage from both our jobs, talk about overkill. Hell, I get aromatherapy, massage, chiropractic, shoe inserts, you name it. Maybe I can adopt you?

NYC isn't that bad, but he news only shows bad stuff. They also only ever identify the race of a perpetrator if they have brown skin. You never hear them say "two armed white men..."

I worked in NYC for the past 8 years, and have been going there for the past 30. I never had a problem. It's better than it used to be though. Actually Newark NJ, which I live close to, has always been much worse as far as crime. Ten years ago my 86 year old mother was murdered in a robbery attempt, and she had nothing to steal.

Health care here sucks Canadian moose cock! Last year I checked and they wanted $1700 a month to insure a family of 4! Doesn't help you if you are out of work or self employed. And if you don't have insurance and try and get something from one of the State or Federal programs, they tell you that you aren't qualified if you make any money at all, because you make too much!

And when you do have insurance, the premiums that businesses have to pay keep going up, so they have to change insurance companies or programs, and then you lose benefits, and often have to change doctors... you hardly ever get vision or dental, and what they do cover keep having the co pay go up.

It's a real sorry situation for sure!

[David Schwab]

Maybe I can adopt you?

Wouldya?

[SkinnyWire]

As for health insurance, of course all hospital and doctor treatment is free.

Nothing is free, especially in Socialist societies. Don't mistake your good fortune, and probable lack of real health related issues thus far that would test that system, with a "free" and beneficent health care system.

An excerpt from the linked article:

http://www.city-journal.org/html/17_...ealthcare.html

"What I knew about American health care was unappealing: high expenses and lots of uninsured people. When HillaryCare shook Washington, I remember thinking that the Clintonistas were right.

My health-care prejudices crumbled not in the classroom but on the way to one. On a subzero Winnipeg morning in 1997, I cut across the hospital emergency room to shave a few minutes off my frigid commute. Swinging open the door, I stepped into a nightmare: the ER overflowed with elderly people on stretchers, waiting for admission. Some, it turned out, had waited five days. The air stank with sweat and urine. Right then, I began to reconsider everything that I thought I knew about Canadian health care. I soon discovered that the problems went well beyond overcrowded ERs. Patients had to wait for practically any diagnostic test or procedure, such as the man with persistent pain from a hernia operation whom we referred to a pain clinic?with a three-year wait list; or the woman needing a sleep study to diagnose what seemed like sleep apnea, who faced a two-year delay; or the woman with breast cancer who needed to wait four months for radiation therapy, when the standard of care was four weeks.

I decided to write about what I saw. By day, I attended classes and visited patients; at night, I worked on a book. Unfortunately, statistics on Canadian health care?s weaknesses were hard to come by, and even finding people willing to criticize the system was difficult, such was the emotional support that it then enjoyed. One family friend, diagnosed with cancer, was told to wait for potentially lifesaving chemotherapy. I called to see if I could write about his plight. Worried about repercussions, he asked me to change his name. A bit later, he asked if I could change his sex in the story, and maybe his town. Finally, he asked if I could change the illness, too.

... Nor were the problems I identified unique to Canada?they characterized all government-run health-care systems. Consider the recent British controversy over a cancer patient who tried to get an appointment with a specialist, only to have it canceled?48 times".


No doubt, America has some serious issues related to health care. Many can be traced to frivolous law suits and litigation driving up insurance costs, the more than $11 Billion a year to cover actual "FREE" treatment for illegal aliens, an aging society that thinks they need a pill for everything, etc. Also, focusing on overcrowded cities as examples of what's wrong nation-wide is a skewed way to look at things. That said, you really should look into what you define as "free" and what the real cost is. As sheeple similar to you, we'll follow suit here with Socialism. It appears to be an inevitability with all societies beginning as Republics and transitioning to "Democracies". We should, however, be in no rush.

Now, here's to the Republic. Happy "Independence Day", as was the original intent of the thread I think.

[Ruel]

Some fifty years ago, independence day in the Philippines was also celebrated every 4th of July, courtesy of our American colonial fathers. Happy 4th of July to you guys in the US!