Bullshit. Greek finances have been in the crapper sense before the American real estate and banking blowup. The only dirty US player involved was GS helping the Greeks lie to the rest of the Euro group. Their own fault for believing anything GS says.

They all fucked themselves. The volume of bad real estate bonds issued by America pales in comparison to the volume of bad government paper that has crufted up the system for decades. In any case national banks are big boys and are responsible for managing their own risk.

Like the German banks are currently doing with the Greek deadbeats.

You are using an insane definition of 'wage slave'.

Someone who cannot quit their job is a 'wage slave'. They have no choices. You have tons of choices.

You are like the people that keep defining down 'rape'. Stop it.

Slavery is not any state short of the life of Riley. It is a terrible thing and you are not even in the neighborhood. Now quit slacking off on /.

Why didn't you just write "You're wrong, fuckface"? - It's much clearer yet equally vacuous.

The FCC made the right call in the US, they upheld the long established status-quo of the international market, but it's a hollow victory if you only have one ISP to choose from. The decision is kind of a surprise to me given the head of the FCC was an influential telco lobbyist prior to his appointment. In this case it seems to me the FCC are doing their job by telling telco's what to do, rather than the other way around (as one would expect with such blatantly insestious oversight).

A corporation is not a person, however that is not what is meant by 'corporations are people', the people in question are the people who start/run/own the corporations. Corporations are 1 or more people that own the corporation and the speech of the person that owns a corporation is limited by government, when government denies that person the right to use his corporation to express his view.

If you want to "make your own" copy of Windows 7, similar to the slipstreaming method, you can download a legit copy of Windows 7, SP1 but the updates much beyond that are missing.

The only way to make your own, is a very complex process, but you basically install Windows 7, install all the updates, then run a sysprep to remove all your customisations (but keep updates) then you boot off a bootable ISO and re-compress that install into a .WIM file and put that on your DVD / USB key. It's .. interesting but overly complicated.

Also a Windows 7 installable ISO, if you use an ISO editor and delete the fucking STUPID "EI.CFG" file (google it) from the ISO, when you install it will prompt you "which would you like to install" - from Home Basic up to Ultimate, saving you needing multiple forms of media (fucking Microsoft)
I do not however, believe you can install Windows 7 Ultimate, install patches, ("slipstream") sysprep re-compress back into a WIM file AND then install from a single ISO without EI.CFG - it will specifically install whatever version you've done your slipstreaming on, unfortunately.

Why can't these cocks make it easy? Single image file, installs any version, dependent upon key, and up to date?

WTF, read Dicken's, working conditions back then make today's Asian sweat shops look like day care centers.

I would want a policy that only covers major issues with a high deductible.

I'm interested to learn that you think you can tell the future. However, since I know you can't, I will simply point out that you don't understand the actual reason for insurance, a not uncommon failing among the young who have little relevant experience with disaster. This isn't betting, where you "win" if you can guess your disease. It's not supposed to be like a slot machine. This is about risk amelioration.

...if all the young healthy families did that...

... then there would be a lot of really nasty surprises for those "young and healthy families."

See, insurance isn't about what your condition is now. Insurance is about what your condition may become. So, when kid #2 develops a lymphatic tumor under their arm, instead of "parents tried to cheap out because they had a young and healthy family and now kid #2 can't get medical care", it is "off to a cancer specialist you go, #2, because we cared enough to see to it your risks were addressed."

Google has to get special permission to come into a community and put down lines. Just the community. Comcast, AT&T, etc can't say squat about it.

Now, with these new rules, these jokers actually has a mechanism to inhibit Google through the FCC. the FCC will be able to 3place conditions on Google too.

Nice.

Funny how those who got services/money/product from the ACA legislation are happy about??

Yes, it's really strange that those who needed healthcare are glad they were finally able to get it, isn't it? Weird! Gosh! Huh! How in the world??? (cough)

And the huge fucking mountain of folks that now enjoy $5k deductibles or insurance they did not need or want are not happy about it?

There are various deductibles. You choose the one you want. If you choose a 5k deductible, you're responsible for that choice. As far as insurance that's "not needed" goes, we don't know what we need because we have no way to tell what the future brings. The only way to determine what we probably or may need is via statistics. I trust the actuaries more than I trust my own judgement. Because I'm just that smart.

Are YOU getting other peoples money?

To directly answer your question, no, thus far and at the moment, I have not and am not. I've eroded my deductible a bit, probably won't work my way through it by the end of the year, barring unseen problems. Didn't last year, either. But of course I might very much benefit from "other people's money" at some point in the future.

That said, everyone in any insurance pool anywhere, ever, who makes a claim, is "getting other people's money." That's how insurance works. Similar for taxes. We all pay in, and in the case of the ACA, those who get the subsidies get the advantage of the payout. We do that when the loads are too great and/or too random for individuals to bear: infrastructure, military, healthcare (finally!), fire services, etc.

Why the fucking hell should my doctors have to be in some "POOL" anyway?

Well, for that, you want to look to your insurance company -- not the ACA. You can get plans where the doctor doesn't have to be in a network. The ones where they do use in-network doctors are generally less expensive though, so that may effectively be your answer. But it isn't the ACA that mandates pools. It's the insurance companies, and it's always been the insurance companies.

If you prefer to pay for other peoples medical care, great. Can you help me pay for mine?

If you're in my pool, then yes, I can and do help pay for yours. Again: That's how insurance works. If I'm not paying for you in the pool (different state, or different pool) even so I'm paying for other people's there -- and I have no problem with that. Likewise, in your state, in your pool, other people are paying for you. To the extent that my federal taxes (quite significant) are paying for your subsidy, I'm happy to do that as well. It's sure oodles better than thinking about what I'm paying for WRT various other government programs.

$1400/month with a $1500 yearly deductible for each family member.

The ACA requires that insurance costs are specifically limited for low-income individuals and families and there are tax credits. If you want me on your side here, you'd have to demonstrate that your income was low and your insurance costs were high and that the ACA didn't arrange for a circumstance to reasonably ameliorate your costs. Can you do that? I'd be very interested to learn the details, short of personally identifying data.

So yeah, you are happy about getting my money, and I am an asshole for providing it to you. thanks man.

Insurance is the way that congress decided this was going to operate. Given that, yeah, I'm happy to put the related money into insurance and into taxes as it lets me know that you and yours will be covered if that's needed. I'm sorry you don't feel the same way. I am pleased, however, that your feelings, as you expressed above, do not get to determine if other people get adequate healthcare.

You can't commute to the Bay on $50/day. Maybe with a geo metro and 5 hours a day driving. Amtrack is $40 one way. BART is about $12 round trip.

Such a shit job wouldn't be worth it.

Is Digital Rvier still around? I downloaded a copy of Windows 7 Home OEM about nine or ten months ago for my wife's shitty ASUS laptop (which is now going to get Linux Mint tossed on it and be transformed into a glorified video player).

These things (area, population etc) are numbers. They can be manipulated. Added, subtracted, multiplied and divided would be a good place for you to start.

Until you realize that you are wrong, the US is not like Japan and Europe, you will continue to be an abject joke.

You are having this discussion and don't know what an oligopoly is? Seriously?

And in other countries in Europe where the government ran the phone systems it took years and many bribes to get a new line installed.