Zguy28

ugh. Really do not like arachnids. I was cooking on my grill recently when I heard something plop onto the concrete patio next to me. It was a blue mud dauber and big wolf spider. Apparently she was trying to carry Mr. Wolf off the roof but exceeded her load capacity and they both fell and were rolling around. Sprayed them both.

Can't stand that place. Used to like Carrabas at first, but now the pepperoni on the pizza is like the cheap store-bought pouches. Ugh. A friend of mine got severe food poisoning from one last night. Ended up in the ER. I admit I was thinking to myself "that's what you get..." even though I felt bad for her.

They should do a TNG based off the new movie timeline. Ships are bigger and badder. Maybe instead of Picard, in this timeline Jack Crusher never died?

the simple fact is someone is gonna get squeezed....who is a ongoing question

Well, my BC/BS premium just increased $1,000 annually or $40 a paycheck. And deductibles almost doubled from $400 to $750 for each of my five family members. I think I got squeezed.

Does your premium change? (Sheer curiosity...not a partisan question, I swear.)

I'm not sure yet. Haven't checked, but I'm sure it has. Seems like it has every year. Not that it has much to do directly with my premium, but I remember when my first kid was born in 2001, it cost us almost nothing. The second cost us $600 in 2004. The third was over $1000 in 2006. I'd hate to see now if I had another one.

EDIT: It hasn't been released for 2014 yet, but looking back, my premium in 2011 was about $3500, 2012 was $4700 and no change for 2013. Same plan all along.

Just got a notice from my employer, whom I have BC/BS of California through.

This excerpt is in the PDF:
 

There are many forces at play in the U.S. health care system that impact costs, but at the forefront is health care reform. Passed in March 2010, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is ushering in the most significant change in employer-provided benefits in the post-World War II era. 

 

Beginning in 2014, additional ACA provisions take effect that more directly impact the costs and coverage of employer-provided health plans. These include a wide range of plan design changes aimed at standardizing health coverage, new wellness features, compliance-related notices, additional reporting and disclosure requirements, plus new fees and plan costs.
 

The bottom line is that the medical cost trend in the U.S. is continuing to rise, and the new ACA fees are increasing this trend. This new world of health care delivery necessitates change.

 

No, the bottom line is that my individual deductibles for the five people in my family are going from $400 annually to $750 annually. I wish I knew how much was because of which thing.

I don't know we seem to have done pretty well with oil gold, and silver goods which are all inelastic.

We don't have a free market healthcare system since the turn of the 20th century when specialization made healthcare too expensive for indivisuals to afford. Since that time we have had a collective healthcare system where healthy people pay into the system to care for those who get sick... The big difference between our collective system and that of the rest of the industrial world is our system is designed not to deliver good but to deliver profits, which it does exceedingly well. The rest of the world uses systms of universal coverage designed to deliver services, which they do much better and more efficiently than we do.

So those are really the two choices before you, a collective system designed to deliver profits, or a collective system designed to deliver services. The Obama care attmpts to reform the for profit system to ensure more services are delivered... It still leaves in tact a fatally flawed system which today wastes about half of the money it absorbs, based on the experiences of the rest of the industrialized world and is the greatest long term financial threat our nation faces.

http://articles.latimes.com/2012/aug/08/opinion/la-oe-dalrymple-british-health-system-20120808

I tried to read this thread and my eyes started burning from all the bold text.

I said it then, and I'll say it again, Danish people are not amused. :mad:

Danish people everywhere are not amused.

I'm still waiting for the normal burgundy jersey with gold pants to reemerge.

I apologize if this has already been mentioned in this thread, but has anybody watched the "human weapon" show on History Channel?

They had a great episode on Escrima last night, which is mostly known for stick fighting. They demonstrated how it was more than that, and also involved grappling. There was one move that was actually scary how easy it would be to kill or paralyze a guy who attempted to take you down.

http://www.history.com/minisite.do?mini_id=54986

Wrestling can leave lives on the ropes

Lex Luger tumbles from fame and fortune, but still counts his blessings

Seeking stability

Luger, a Buffalo native, banged around in the Canadian Football League and the United States Football League as an offensive lineman before trying his hand in a Florida wrestling circuit.

Luger still looks good as he sits behind a desk at Western Hills Baptist Church in Kennesaw. His face is tanned and heavily creased, the body lean and his biceps still resemble bowling balls.

But when he gets up to walk, he hobbles like he's 80. He has put in for hip surgery with Social Security.

Luger was as big as they came in the 1990s and rolled through millions of dollars, he said.

Life on the circuit was exciting and exhausting. Some years he was on the road 300 days a year. There were 5 a.m. flights, daytime gym work, shows at night, parties in some hotel or penthouse.

And then repeat again and again.

He needed help to keep up with the pace.

"Steroids were there as a shortcut to get size," he said. And then there's the pain from the never-ending body slams and pile drivers. "You start with a painkiller for bumps and bruises. And then you need more. It's never enough."

Those on the circuit were a family, "a dysfunctional family" he said. Everyone wants a piece of a superstar. "There's a lot of leeches, losers, cruisers and abusers."

"I found no matter how hard you chase it, it's never quite enough," he said. "Money makes you more comfortable being miserable."

Luger's fall was hard and quick. He got divorced and in 2003 he made an early morning call to Cobb County 911 saying his girlfriend, Elizabeth Hulette, known on the wrestling circuit as Miss Elizabeth, had passed out.

She was taken to Kennestone Hospital, where she died. The autopsy showed a mix of alcohol, painkillers and tranquilizers in her system.

He was arrested for possessing three kinds of steroids found in the home. Later, he got a DUI. "My life had fallen apart and I still didn't get it," he said.

A judge sentenced him to probation and revoked it in late 2005 when he went to Canada for a work appearance without court approval. An arrest and two strip searches later, the former Total Package was back in Cobb County Jail.

Luger credits Steve Baskin, the pastor of Western Hills Baptist, with pulling him from a terminal tailspin. The jail chaplain met Luger in early 2006 and sensed the former wrestler was spiritually wounded.

"Here's a guy who would have died or gone to prison," said Baskin. "He didn't have the skills to negotiate through his probation." Baskin said Luger had never learned to think for himself well enough to handle "regular" life experiences.

After Luger was freed, Baskin's friends — Doc Frady, pastor of Clarkdale First Baptist, and his wife, Jan — invited Luger to their home for a birthday party.

Luger learned the couple had been married 54 years and had lived in the same house for much of that time.

"It brought tears to my eyes," Luger recalls. "I didn't even know people like that existed anymore."

Luger lives in a spare bedroom in Baskin's apartment and is trying to figure out a path in life.

He'd like to help counsel those in trouble. Or maybe be a fitness coach. He even said he'd take clients out to the supermarket and show them what to buy. He's eager. He's uncertain. To him, regular life is a new business.

I was going to post something similar to part of it from another forum.

Ravishing Rick Rude — Died at 40 of an apparent heart attack in 1999, a bottle of prescription pills for his bad back at his side. The autopsy report said he died of "mixed medications." Rude was an admitted user of anabolic steroids.

Louis Mucciolo, a.k.a, Louie Spicolli — Died in 1998 at age 27 when he suffocated on his own vomit after ingesting massive amounts of Soma and alcohol. Investigators also found an empty vial of testosterone, pain pills and an anti-anxiety drug at the scene.

Brian Pillman — An admitted user of steroids, he died of a heart attack at age 35 in 1997 on the morning of WWF's In Your House: Badd Blood pay-per-view event.

Rick "the Renegade" Williams — Died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at age 33 after being released from his World Championship Wrestling contract in 1999.

"Mr. Perfect" Curt Hennig — Found dead of a cocaine overdose at age 44 in his motel room on April 10, 2003, the morning of a match. Hennig's father maintained that steroids and painkillers contributed to his death.

Rodney "Yokozuna" Anoa'i — Died of a heart attack in 2002 at 34.

Davey Boy Smith, "The British Bulldog" — Died of a heart attack at age 39 on May 17, 2002. An autopsy report indicated that past steroid use had likely played a part in his death.

Michael "Road Warrior Hawk" Hegstrand — An admitted steroid user, he died of a heart attack at age 46 in 2003.

Michael Lockwood, "Crash Holly" — In 2003, at the age of 32, he choked to death on his own vomit after ingesting 90 painkiller pills.

Jerry Tuite, "The Wall" a.k.a. "Malice" — Died at age 36 in 2003 of an apparent heart attack in his hotel room.

Raymond "Hercules" Hernandez — Dead of heart failure in 2004 at age 47.

Ray "The Big Boss Man" Traylor — Found dead of a heart attack in 2004 at age 42.

Eddie Guerrero — After a long battle with painkillers, he was found dead of a heart attack by his nephew in his hotel room at age 38. The first person his nephew reportedly called was Guerrero's best friend, Chris Benoit.

Chris Candido — Died in 2005 at age 33 from a blood clot after breaking his tibia and fibula and dislocating his ankle in a pay-per-view event.

Owen Hart — Fell to his death at age 34 in 1999 when the rigging that was lowering him into the ring malfunctioned.

And then there's the story of the Von Erich wrestling family.

Wrestling patriarch Fritz Von Erich, nee Jack Adkisson, had five wrestling sons: Kevin, David, Kerry, Mike and Chris.

David died in a hotel room in Tokyo at the age of 25 in 1984 just as he was embarking on a three-week pro wrestling tour of Japan. The official cause of death was acute enteritis, severe inflammation of the intestines.

Three years later, Mike committed suicide by overdosing on the tranquilizer Placidyl at the age of 23. After David's death, Mike had suffered a series of setbacks including a serious shoulder injury that had left him severely depressed.

Devastated by the deaths of his older brothers and frustrated by his own limitations as a wrestler, the youngest and smallest brother, Chris, shot himself to death at the age of 21 in 1991.

Two years later, Kerry, who had battled a long addiction to painkillers, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at the age of 33, leaving eldest brother Kevin as the only survivor of the sport that had defined his family.

And now Chris Benoit, his wife and son have been added to the long, unbearably sad list of victims claimed, in part, by the brutal chemical calculus that is professional wrestling.

:munchout:

I checked out that chat, the one thing I noticed was that the son was suffering from dwarfism, and that was reported by the police.