MrRain422

So Ichiro is getting a gigantic new contract from Seattle. Kind of hard not to think that it's no coincidence that the announcement is following so closely behind Hargrove's resignation.

Patient satisfaction is inherently misleading, because, well, it only accounts for patients. The biggest problem with healthcare in this country is that there are millions upon millions of people who never get to be patients because they have no coverage. The people who have no health care do not get weighed into the "patient satisfaction" equation. This is certainly true, although I still don't think that it means that the rankings are completely meaningless. Just because they may not be perfect does not mean that we can't learn anything at all from them.

I think we're arguing from completely different premises here. I personally think that health care is a right and not a privilege for only people who can afford it, and so even the most well concocted privatized system is flawed (and our system is a loooooooooong way from the most well concocted privatized system). But sure, I agree that the U.S.'s flawed system is not necessarily indicative of all privatized systems. I also never made that claim to begin with. Are you arguing that quality health care is as subjective as musical taste? That there is no objective way to measure the qual

I just get really tired of people citing the shortcomings of Canada's or Germany's health care systems when arguing against socialized medicine. It is a fact that those nations (among many others) have better health care systems than we do. I believe the most recent studies have the U.S. at thirty-seventh in the world. And yet people continually claim that we have the best health care system in the world. Based on what? Just saying it doesn't make it so. And of course the other nations that we sometimes look to on this issue do not have perfect systems. But just because we are looking

Tell me about it. I think that they probably would have had another good one in them if not for their tragic end. "Mighty KC" is still one of my favorite songs of the '90s. I sort of like both Knitters discs, although I guess the second one isn't as exciting as the first.

Adventure is not as good as Marquee Moon, but it would be absurd to expect it to be. With MM, you're talking about a perfect album from front to back, among the best ever made. Adventure is merely a great album, but not classic like it's predessor. But it's way too good for Television to be brought up in this thread. Anyway, I'll add For Squirrels.

I have to feel pretty good about my team sweeping the best team in baseball going into the All Star break. The second half of the season is going to be great!

Is anyone watching the White Sox/Twins game? I've just been following the linescore online since I'm at work, but it looks like a crazy game.

Last year I think there was just beer.

Hahaha, is that true?

Oh yeah, the rest of the band was excellent too, I just tend to notice good guitar playing more than any other instrument.

That's got to be the big winner, except that the flukiness is mitigated a bit by the fact that there is pretty much zero chance that Anderson wasn't 'roided up that year. Beltre and Erstad may have been in their big years too, but it's nowhere near as obvious as Brady Anderson. Aside from the fact that his numbers that year were incredibly out of whack with the rest of his career, he also looked like this:

The Greatest Baseball Player in History, Neifi Perez, has been suspended for 25 games for amphethamines.

Bjorn is the voice of reason on this thread. Seriously, a lot of people get caught up in drugs. It's not necessarily a reflection on their parents, and I don't think it's anything that Al III even needs to be ashamed of. He's got some problems, he's getting help, so what?

I do remember from when we went a few months back that the guitar player was wicked good.

You're crazy talk.

You're allowed to go get your license renewed before the actual expiration date, you know.

Roth sure loves that "rocket surgery" line.

That's fair. The WaPo series sure did do a solid job of demonstrating just how much control Dick Cheney has had over the most critical issues. I have very little doubt that the actual crimes were orchestrated by Cheney, but I also don't doubt that he was certain that Bush would keep Libby out of prison before they acted on anything, whether by actually bringing Bush into the fold, or simply because he knew that Bush would do whatever he wanted. Bush is guilty of being an accomplice to the obstruction of justice either way as far as I'm concerned.

The biggest issue here, though, is that this whole scenerio has to make one wonder how much direct involvement Bush had the whole time. It just reeks so badly of a situation where Bush told Libby to do whatever he had to do to accomplish their political goals, with the assurance that he would never see prison. Clinton's pardon of Rich is very questionable, but unlike the Libby situation, the President issuing the pardon was not involved in the actual crime. To me, that's a pretty critical difference.

Yeah, I'm not saying that the subpeonas will necessarily result in anything, I just meant to point out that the Democrats are in fact pursuing the issue. And Leahy has said that he is willing to vote to hold them in contempt of Congress if they do not cooperate. Of course a whole lot of other people would have to also vote that way in order for anything to happen, but he's trying.

The Democrats are pursuing the wiretapping issue as we speak. Patrick Leahy just issued subpeonas to Dick Cheney's office regarding the program.

I hope you had a great one, Chris. Happy (belated) birthday.

Sorry I missed it.