Posts by Anony Mous

46

Canadians and Europeans, what do you think of your national health care ?

by RubaDub in

jw
friends

we have been in a battle over health care for so long here in the us regarding public, private, gov't subsidized, obama care, medicare for all, and just about every permutation of the above.. we hear the horror stories here that people wait 20 years for a check-up (ok, bit of an exaggeration), but you get the point.

one side tells us that canadians flock across the border when they are sick and need to see a doctor.

the other side says that is simply not the case.. so tell us, if you live under one of the government systems would you replace it?

Anony Mous

Does anybody in the US actually go bankrupt over medical bills? I find that very hard to believe since insurance policies have a relatively low limit, even the worst plans have a maximum out-of-pocket cost of <$12,000 which is basically your average "disposable income" in the US.

And as pointed out before, if you're actually poor, you don't pay for medical care; Medicaid/Medicare accounts for ~70% of all hospital cases (but only 40% of hospital income).

Most actual research I've found concedes that people going bankrupt over medical expenses already maxed out or overspending habitually, basically they teeter on the brink of bankruptcy and then something bad happens and they blame 'medical bills' for the resulting bankruptcy. But they're not actually poor enough to be on Medicaid/Medicare.

But you have the same problem in Europe or Asia, except, you can't discharge your taxes to the government in bankruptcy.

46

Canadians and Europeans, what do you think of your national health care ?

by RubaDub in

jw
friends

we have been in a battle over health care for so long here in the us regarding public, private, gov't subsidized, obama care, medicare for all, and just about every permutation of the above.. we hear the horror stories here that people wait 20 years for a check-up (ok, bit of an exaggeration), but you get the point.

one side tells us that canadians flock across the border when they are sick and need to see a doctor.

the other side says that is simply not the case.. so tell us, if you live under one of the government systems would you replace it?

Anony Mous

If you're a middle income earner in the US there is no excuse not to get health insurance. If you make less than 150% of the "poverty line" (which comes to ~36k/y) you qualify for Medicaid and emergency rooms are free by law.

My maternity rates were based on a graph from UNICEF that compared North America to Europe (which includes Eastern Europe where it is not great) The problem with some of these graphs is that the number is so low the EU stopped reporting altogether in official death stats, some since 1995.

46

Canadians and Europeans, what do you think of your national health care ?

by RubaDub in

jw
friends

we have been in a battle over health care for so long here in the us regarding public, private, gov't subsidized, obama care, medicare for all, and just about every permutation of the above.. we hear the horror stories here that people wait 20 years for a check-up (ok, bit of an exaggeration), but you get the point.

one side tells us that canadians flock across the border when they are sick and need to see a doctor.

the other side says that is simply not the case.. so tell us, if you live under one of the government systems would you replace it?

Anony Mous

As an expat from a European country myself, I like the US health care system a LOT better. First of all, I'm no longer paying 50% of our income to health care and then still have to pay into private health insurance just to get additional coverage. Yes, we still pay for health insurance after the government 'pays for it'

But when I came here, my personal healthcare improved so much. Before, I had to go to a hospital and wait for hours just to see a specialist, here I got a grown in toenail surgery for less than $1000 without any wait time and no insurance.

Compared to Europe, insurance is dirt cheap, once you take the actual cost of care from your taxes into account, Europe is paying at least half as much in personal health insurance. Look at this graph: https://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2011/06/07/business/07economist-bartlett2rev2/07economist-bartlett2rev2-blog480.jpg

Dentists are amazing too, ever wonder why in the UK (and the rest of Europe) dental care is so bad? We see dentists once every 2 years and cleanings are considered 'cosmetic' and cost extra unless you have a private insurance.

But you don't have to believe me, look at outcome statistics, the US has the lowest mortality numbers for major diseases like cancer by like 4x, maternal mortality is the lowest by orders of magnitude and

Some examples from my own life:

When I was a child, I had to go from the school to a hospital, the janitor had to drive me to the hospital in a bus while I was heavily bleeding because the ambulance didn't deem someone who could still walk as a case for the ambulance to handle.

I know several people that had to appear in front of government panels to have their health care options decided, an appointment with those panels can take upwards of 9-18 months AFTER your primary care doctor decides to pass you on for some major surgery or disability. You can't get unemployment because you're "too sick" for one government doctor but can't go on disability because you're "not sick enough" according to another government doctor, if you are forced to work, you automatically lose both benefits and your disability case. Death panels are a necessary thing in socialist healthcare countries.

My brother, as a child, went to the emergency department for pediatric care with a compression injury (blood flow cut off, skin turning colors and at risk for necrosis). He was turned away from one hospital after 4 hours wait because after my parents discussed with the doctors (we were still JW's) about the blood transfusion issue, the hospital administration simply told us they didn't have sufficient funding for a no-blood surgery (which at that point, the government demanded hospitals follow all religious objections, regardless of the cost), and then we'd have to drive ourselves to another private hospital which took 2 more hours to see a doctor.

15

Russian raid on 50 Jehovahs witnesses

by Diogenesister in

there has been a raid on a large jehovahs witness gathering in norilsk, above the arctic circle, according to the moscow times.. a building with 50 jws inside was surrounded by masked, armed special forces forces who burst into the building and demanded they surrender all electronic devices.. i'll link the article but it's obviously going to drive these witnesses deeper into the religion.

not to mention the images conjured up in the report are likely to be used by watchtower as more fear mongering, since its very much like last year's terrifying assembly videos where witnesses were huddled in a field and surrounded with similarly masked, armed men.. https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2019/10/22/russian-special-agents-raid-jehovahs-witnesses-resort-as-crackdown-intensifies-a67855.

Anony Mous

In regards the criticism on the way they did it: Police have to be in full gear for these types of things because you don't want to be surprised. If someone gives you intel, it's not always correct, it could always be a trap.

As far as the rest, yes, we should condemn that Russia and Europe-Asia in general doesn't have freedom of religion, however the JW were warned on how they could avoid these situations. The WTBTS is explicitly avoiding compliance with local laws on family separation, child molestation and hate speech/extremism against other religions (which the EU also has but fails to enforce, France tried at least by revoking their tax exempt status).

The JW religion is allowed to exist if the congregations are allowed to exist independently from the WTBTS, not exfiltrate the tax exempt money donations from Russia to the US (which both in Russia and France have to be spent locally for 'charity' to be considered tax exempt) and they stop publishing 'incendiary' hateful language in their publications.

Freedom of speech is only a real thing in the US; Canada, the EU etc doesn't know freedom of speech in the way we are used to.

23

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is Dead

by cofty in

the so-called caliph, one of the most evil men in human history, has blown himself up along with three of his young children while being pursued by american special forces.. the ambition of isis was to expand the territory of the caliphate under the leadership of al-baghdadi to whom individual jihadists swear allegiance.

now isis have nowhere to call home and no leader.

what a pathetic bunch of losers.. they will of course appoint a new caliph and reprisal attacks will no doubt follow in western capitals by christmas but the more contemptible they appear they less likely it is that young men and women will join their delusional cause.. respect to the elite forces who hunted him down - those on the front line and the many intelligence specialists who made it possible.

Anony Mous

@redvip2000 - just because the media isn't reporting on it, doesn't mean it isn't being done. About a mile of border wall along the border with Mexico is constructed each day, according to the Pentagon.

https://www.defense.gov/explore/story/Article/1965907/dod-spokesman-provides-border-wall-update/source/GovDelivery/

28

Very weird "orb" experience last night....and i don't believe in paranormal

by Bad_Wolf in

jw
friends

so i got this night vision/security camera.

wyze is the brand.

this only happened once last night.

Anony Mous

It's dust, I have it on my home camera all the time. The IR LED reflects on "invisible" dust. Dust is everywhere.

24

Do You Think That Belonging To Certain Political Parties Suggests You Are Uneducated or Poor?

by minimus in

jw
friends

i hear some people say that if you are a republican or democrat that you must not be very educated, intelligent or monetarily stable.

.

do you think it’s proper to paint any person as less than favorable because of their political opinions?

Anony Mous

Not necessarily. It's an easy way of ignoring the people that aren't part of your group though.

The fact is that each party in a political party has policies aligned towards a particular group, as long as that group makes up a majority of the people. In the US the parties are somewhat divided across wealth distributions but there are many more axes that may align better with certain policies and people are the intersection of all those.

Democrats policies align well with those on or near welfare (expansion of it) and the ultra-rich (since they are benefiting by limiting trade through increased taxes on the middle class and government-approved/sponsored corporations).

On the other hand, Republicans have policies geared towards the middle class; reduction of taxes and free trade benefit small and medium sized corporations but this also includes the lower educated (manufacturing and starting businesses doesn't take a PhD).

It doesn't mean that Republicans are dumb and Democrats are poor, as a result of their policies part of their base makes up that demographic but it's by no means the entire party.

39

Candace Owens interviews Douglas Murray

by LoveUniHateExams in

yeah, so the candace owens show is apparently in london and douglas murray is the person interviewed.. they cover a range of topics that are current and connected to murray's new book (the madness of crowds: gender, race and identity).. i've not got his new book but it seems to be good.

owens and murray both make good points and it's a joy to listen to them together.. enjoy .... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4o9yqrby9q.

Anony Mous

ideologies as widely separated as Leninism and Nazism

There is not much separating Leninism and Nazism. They're both Socialist (Nazi = Nationalist-Socialist) and Socialist or Communist are interchangeable in Marxist theory.

Both Leninism and Nazism wanted a dictatorship with a socialist mode of production. Nazism leans more on the supremacy of a specific race of people and production in service of the state, while Communism leans more on the supremacy of a specific group of people and production in service of the people (which turns out in all communist experiments to actually just be the state).

Sure, they had different group identities they protected vis-a-vis persecuted but when you take away all identifiers and compare the two systems, they're pretty much identical.

There's an entire philosophical theory: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Nazism_and_Stalinism which everyone pretty much agrees - they're pretty much the same, if not comparable and if you're an apologist then you'll only be able to point out one of them is worse than the other.

9

Spinoza

by Hairtrigger in

did you know that when einstein attended some conferences in the numerous universities of the usa, the recurring question that the students asked him was:.

- do you believe in god?.

and he always answered:.

Anony Mous

Spinoza's god and Einstein's belief are relatively close to modern Judaism: God exists but he doesn't need you, be a good person and that will prove you believe in God, or 'everything you do could be an act of worship'.

Spinoza then takes it a step further and says "there is no virtue, you are absolutely free" which I personally don't believe is true. Sure, we are free to make our own choices, but without virtue those choices are unguided and would be of no consequence.

Now, I don't think we need a god to create or hold these virtues (which is the basis of all faiths), rather I believe these virtues evolved and are relatively plastic because otherwise we wouldn't be able to ask the question whether they're virtuous and if they didn't evolve, our virtues would be rigid throughout history. So virtues come from forming a society (they're necessary for each other), which flows into politics, the forces to change or defend these virtues which then flows into religion to codify and transmit the virtues.

32

District convention to be held in assembly hall instead of stadium

by NikL in

jw
friends

last night they announced that this summers district convention will be held at an assembly hall.. this is the first time i've seen this happen.

there are a couple of congregations in the same hall here and they aren't going to the same ones.

they are having multiple dates.. the hall they are going to use can only hold 1500 people max.. just wondering if maybe they just couldnt get anything bigger this year or if the falling numbers are playing a part in this decision.

Anony Mous

The conventions have been getting smaller in attendance year over year, using the same sites that used to hold "thousands" for a full week (when my parents were young) or 3 full (9am-4:30pm) days now only have to hold half of that for barely 16h in a long weekend.

Additionally, spaces have been getting a lot more expensive. With the economy doing well, more "worldly" conventions, games and entertainment are held and the prices go up accordingly while local councils want less and less to do with the never-ending money-pinching of the JW organizers.