Gooch

Somebody needs to be the voice of reason and just tell her that they'll provide pain management for the rest of her natural life and nothing else.

Many years ago when I worked in radio, I ran the "Dr. Dean Edell Show". Once I can recall him mentioning research that many times European doctors do not tell elderly, terminally ill patients of their illnesses or of heroic treatments. They can't be treated anyway. Doctors are intelligent, responsible, folks who we trust with discretion in decision making. I can't say those things about any governing official I've ever met.

That is the image that I have when I think of government-sponsored entitlement healthcare. I'm not opposed to entitlement healthcare in its entirety--many procedures, including some kinds of preventative medicine, vaccinations, and providing for the effective treatment of communicable disease, clearly pay for themselves in savings--but viewed in context of how poorly Medicare is administered, I think that there's good reason for concern about how these new policies will be implemented.

You'd have a hard time finding someone that wants to deny another healthcare. It's like opposing ending world hunger. A geat idea. But not practical.

I don't understand this concern. Even if people are given a "public option" (like Medicare), if there's a market for private healthcare, someone will provide it. So where does rationing come in? If you've got the means to have healthcare now, and you want to continue paying for private insurance or private healthcare, I'm sure someone will provide it. That's the whole idea of a market economy. And don't tell me our entire market-based economy is going to disappear because of Obama's so-called Socialism; we all know that's ridiculous.

No politican will tell you this. But we should fear un-rationed care as much as rationed care. Why? Because un-rationed care will lead to shortages.

Think of it like this. If we made food free. "Customers" could choose from any items in a grocery store without regard to price. The store would quicly run out of lobster, the best cuts of meat, and highest grades of fish. Thus, these foods would only be available to the the lucky first-in-line, or those with "friends" in the grocery store.

When healthcare is perceived to be free, nothing prevents "customers" from abusing the system by overusing it - depriving it to others that actually need to access the system. The effect is the same as we have now. Only a finite number of "customers" will receive the limited amount of available services.

Not sure where it started, but it was co-opted for the bank bailout in the form that Gooch read.

Thank you as well RedScare. That is the exact context!

I've heard that too, but I think it was "profits are privatized and costs are socialized" and it was in reference to the climate change debate, but the same principle applies here too.

Ah. Thank you August. I still wish I knew whom to accredit it to. Afterall, in today's economy, credit is EVERYTHING!

Also, I don't think most people view saving a life as simply delaying the inevitable, unless that person is indeed elderly and loosing their functions as part of normal aging. Even so, I don't think it's a health insurance company's role to determine whether someone is too old or unnecessary to deem worthy of saving.

It is inevitably a morbid discussion. It's unscientific... but as I look back on friends/family that have died prematurely:

6 - were involved in car vs. car accidents.

1 - was killed in a solo bike accident (with helmet).

2 - were killed in a car vs. bike accident.

1 - died in a aircraft crash.

2 - died of heartattacks. Both had regular physicals that did not detect any problems, one had an EKG for his race driving physical only 3-months prior.

1 - had cancer, but was treated to the gold standard.

0 - died because of lack care, or an insurance company limiting care.

To my mind... the biggest threat to one's longevity is likely commuting to work every day (by car or bike). If I could get a guarentee of no automotive accidents, but I never get to see a doctor again... I'd take that deal. To paint the current situation as if people are dying en masse because of lack of proper care doesn't match my observations.

Great, now I can't get that Jim Carrell Band song out of my head!

Correct! My economics teacher* says that everyone's both a capitalist and a socialist (at least in office) and socialism ≠ Democrats.

I don't know who to cite, but I've read: "In the 'American Way' profits are capitalized and losses are socialized."

It's hard to put a positive spin on people who die because of our healthcare system.

Excluding malpractice... no one dies because of our healthcare system. Age, heart disease, cancer, automotive accidents, and the like kills people. Not our healthcare "system". Our healthcare system causes none of those things, and ultimately prevents death from none of them. No amount of reform will change that, nor prevent a single death from occuring. Delay it... perhaps. But given that the majority of the medical care over a lifetime is received in the last 3-years, that record is far from perfect. We shall all die in the end. Not even Obama can deliver everlasting life.

There is nothing good about a country with a bunch of sick, unhealthy, unhappy, or almost dead folks.

But is that really an accurate vignette of our nation? I haven't seen anyone dying a death from pestilence in atleast a week!

For someone with the capacity to articulate a positive message, Obama seems to be cultivating a mood of self-loathing pity and (IMO false) misery. As someone that loves this country, it's bounding on offensive. Is it really so bad here? America is a damn good place that provides amazing opportunities to lift oneself above the need for subsidized living. And we have the illegal immigrants to prove it.

A quick question on bike trail safety/etiquette, to which there may be no "right" answer: If I'm a walker/jogger on a bike trail, do I:

A. stick to the left of the path (like I would if I were walking on a street), facing oncoming traffic, so that I can step off the trail and out of the way when a bike is coming?

B. stick to the right of the path (like I would on a jogging trail), so I'm heading the same direction as the bikes, as bikes can pass me on the left?

I guess there's a third option - C. I shouldn't be walking on the bike trail any more than I should be biking on the Boulevard jogging trail - but it seems like A is the functional equivalent of C given that I wouldn't be "in the way" of any bicycles.

I'm not looking to start a bikers vs. joggers/walkers argument - I'll probably be on the trail on my bike more than I'll be on it as a pedestrian - I was just hoping to find out if there's an accepted bike trail convention to follow when I'm a pedestrian. The predictability of convention seems to be the key to safety when it comes to the mixing of people and wheels...

Best advice is do just you would driving on the road. Stay to the right allowing faster traffic to pass on the left. It's the biker's duty to pass safely, or yield if necessary. C. - is not an option. You have as much right to be there as anyone on a bike.

Speculation here and here is that it will be called "Burgerzilla".

I doubt it will remain "Burgerzilla" for long. I once got a Cease & Desist letter from the studio that owns the Godzilla rights for a screen name that was _zilla. For some reason they are very protective of that mark.

I'm going to say one thing on this thread then never reopen it again. For all those that want the government to run their healthcare need to remember something...

Keeping in mind that GWB (who liberals consider an idiot got elected TWICE).... Sarah Palin could win in 2012, 2016, or 2020. Do you really want to risk having her in charge of your healthcare?

Unrideable means there's a possibility your tires will pop, or having to stop every 10 seconds because of objects in your path.

By your definition it qualifies. In fact, that pic was taken while waiting for a flat to be fixed. It's off the training route because of all the pinch flats. Not to mention the taint busters. Sorry I couldn't take pictures of all the potholes. I've only got a 4M SD card.

It's usually not that busy either so it is likely you'll be on the stable portion more often than not.

Exactly. You end up riding in the street. Kinda defeats the purpose. And really ticks off drivers when you have a biker in the car lane with "perfectly good" bike lane. Bad situation all around.

Hopefully your BO smells like peppermint and the road grime smells like honey. Seriously, if the bus is competitive in terms of time, then wouldn't you rather have the opportunity to sit down and let someone else drive?

Yes! I poop rose petals too! Seriously, any bike commute in HOUTX longer than about 3min requires a shower unless you work outdoors. I'd prefer to ride than sit. Just a lifestyle choice.

Downtown to the Energy Corridor would be a reasonable commute by bike!? If you're going that far, why not just use the new bike racks on METRO buses?

Ya! It's only about 17 miles. That's about an an hour, maybe hour+15. Figure waiting 20min for a bus to turn up at the pickup point and 20min at a transfer point and the bike is competitive.

Before you add up of those miles-and-miles of Houston bike lanes you need to subtract the ones that are unridable. Like this one on Morningside...

The sub-roadbed's actually collapsed in numerous spots between Main and Rice Village. Looks like the city got tired of doing maintenance on it, so they gave up and turned it into a bike lane. The bike lane on Weslyan also comes to mind as dangerously narrow and too rough to ride with any rapidity. That isn't to say that HOUTX doesnt' have some nicely constructed and executed bike lanes. The ones on 12th that link up to Post Oak then Memorial are excellent. Unforutnately it's illegal to ride on Memorial just a few miles west of the tie-in, so I'm not quite sure their purpose. To be fair, just about all of the goofiest lanes pre-date the current bikeways coordinator who's working very hard to secure improvements. This one actually *gasp* rides a bike.

What makes HOUTX so unbikable are the lack of complete routes. For example, there is no thru-route from Downtown to the Energy Corridor via bike lanes. That would be a reasonable commute, but there's no good way to do it without taking a very tortuous route, or being forced to navigate over-crowded streets. Again this isn't entirely the City of Houston's fault, as the Memorial Villages forbid bikes on the road.

Good point that the signs serve to remind drivers to share the road.

Works great on Heights Blvd.

Just a few thoughts:

1)Case-Schiller doesn't even cover Houston

Correct. And when I wrote of rising inventories, that would be nationally. However...

For Houston, the latest inventory numbers are from June, 2009. Total inventory: 45,989. DOWN 14.5% from June 2008. Not sure where you came up with increasing inventories. [...] Sales of single-family homes for the greater Houston area continued to improve in June, with the highest volume recorded since August 2008 and the highest median price in history.

I dont' know the source of your stats. But typically, single-family homes does not include condos. While the "latest real estate summary" may paint a rosy picture; it paints a rosy picture only of SFRs. It is not directly indicative of the condo market. The condo market could be completely tanked and not show up in the SFR stats pointed to. Not saying the market is tanked (or not). Just that could be without the fanfare of grim market indicators. I didn't intend to imply anything deeper than that, sorry.

As a consequence, people are gravitating to houses, townhomes, or apartments, which are easily substituted for a condominium.

TheNiche is probably already aware but... it's worth remembering that housing statistics like months of inventory, housing starts, existing home sales, Case-Shiller indicies, etc. do not include condominiums. Even without them, inventories are still increasing. If condominiums were included the real estate picture would be that much more grim. Best of luck to the 2727 developers. They are going to need it.

That site used to be a creosote plant, I believe.

Good thing they don't have yards!

Friday night fireworks at MinuteMaid park? I definately heard them, but don't remember what time...

The Galleria area is not only famous it's shopping but also its gridlocked traffic. It's not unreasonable for people to react negatively to the (preceived) impending traffic situation.

Editor... you're doing a heck of a job. And I DON'T mean that in a GWB to Michael Brown sorta way Thanks for making this place so hospitable.

Knowing we will be confirming a racist and that the left field liberals think that is a good thing is just amazing...

It's not that she's a racist. She's their racist. It's the same concept as Congress. Polls indicate the public detests congressional over-spending. The same polls indicate most of the public loves their congressional members, because they do a lot for their home district. The irony is deafening.

The segement of American population that actually likes racism is incredibly small. Miniscule. But the segment that's willing to blind themselves, tolerate, ignore, or utilize it to advance their own personal political agenda is wide and stretches across both parties.

One has to wonder why Obama appointed someone with an overt history of stated racial bais. Appointing justices with obvious (though opposing) biases isn't the solution. It's the problem. Each side points the finger at the other and says "they did it, so we're going to do it back to them only more". It really is schoolyard tactics. I'm disappointed that Obama didn't try to change the trend of evermore biased appointments to the Court. He missed an opportunity to make an important change to our political processes. So much for the "new tone" in Washington.

There are even geologic processes related to bouyancy by way of which the crust of the earth can be shifted upwards or downwards over a fairly broad expanse. I don't know where the islands are that you were referring to, specifically, but as stand-alone evidence of Global Warming, they're pretty weak.

A lot of people don't realize that before laying a pipeline in the Gulf of Mexico, you must first do an archaelogic survey (by sonar, of course!). Partially, the purpose is to search for evidence of prehistoric civilization. Reading the reports is interesting. A very wide swath of the continental shelf was once not only exposed as dry land, but almost certainly inhabited. That's real climate change -not a degree over the last century.

Every major weather event now carries more expensive losses.

Of course they do. The price of housing, building materials, and personal property has increased dramatically over the past 50 years. When the media quotes XXX event as the most expensive in history, they aren't adjusting the $'s for inflation. That's an example of using statistical analysis upon a non-static system.

Using statistical methods (especially trending) for non-static sytems like climate is also frought with similar dangers. The stock market's been (mostly) up since March. But we cannot assume it will only continue to rise into the future. Trending is the wrong tool for the wrong job.

A proper dynamical model is required. Dynamical models are extremely sensitive to inputs that always contain the modeler's bias in setting up the inital conditions. Back when I was modeling groundwater contaminant transport I could justify and tweek the initial conditions and a host of assumed but unverifiable parameters to have almost whatever outcome I wanted. Those are the same numeric methods used for climate modeling. I don't have any experience with climate models but I'd be surprised if they could not be influenced similarly.

I do know this. Water vapour can hold, transfer, and transport a lot more heat than CO2. I've never heard a good explaination how the heat transfer effects of single-phase CO2 can overcome the self-dampening effect of two-phase water vapour in our atmosphere. Changing phases moves a looot of heat.

If in the Heights... don't care. Something tragic would be appropriate!

Of course it's gay. We stole it from New Orleans.

THANK YOU RED!!!!! Yes it is a stolen concept! Not many people know you are supposed to wear linen or searsucker to White Linen night or why your are suppposed to wear such attire. Here's a clue... it has nothing to do with the table cloth... just sayin...

Thanks for posting that Emme!

I noted earlier in this thread, but it may have gotten lost in the bike vs. driver feuding... I also heard from Peter Brown's office, who forwarded the information to both HPD and the Houston Bikeways cooridnator. HPD also followed up. All around a very nice response. It should be appreciated!