TSB wants to take this time to wish our Bloggers and your loved ones, a Merry Christmas and a Happy Holiday Season. I always worry about our Agnostic brothers and sisters. Please remember that there are many people less fortunate than those of us that work in this industry. Since Christmas is a time of giving, don't forget to give to your favorite local or national charity, every little bit makes a difference.
As usual we'll be having a tremendous family get together spanning three generations of Spine Bloggers. There will be good food, good drinks and plenty of laughter, what else is there to life? Take the time to be thankful that you have health, happiness and those that you love the most surrounding you tomorrow. Life is Great.
TSB
PS, And remember there is no groveling allowed, or Santa will be leaving a road apple in your stocking.
MERRY CHRISTMAS, HO! HO! HO!
Not to worry, MM. Its the self righteous and condescending 'concern' that you express that drives the open minded of us up a wall. charity and grace are not exclusively the domain of christians, catholics, muslims, jews, hindus, buddhists, mormons and on and on....I don't have answers. Merry Christmas, all the best in the New Year!
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas, MM. I truly enjoy your blog and I might enjoy the comments section even more. Happy to New Year to you and yours!
ReplyDelete"Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
and days of auld lang syne?
For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne,
We'll take a cup o' kindness yet
For auld lang syne
We twa hae run aboot the braes
And pou'd the gowans fine;
we've wander'd mony a weary foot
Sin' auld lang syne
We two hae paidled i' the burn,
Frae mornin' sun till dine;
But seas between us braid hae roar'd
Sin' auld lang syne
And here's a hand, my trusty friend,
And gie's a hand o' thine;
We'll take a cup o' kindness yet
For auld lang syne
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
and days of auld lang syne?
For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne,
We'll take a cup o' kindness yet
For auld lang syne"
Just curious, TSB, but do you also constantly worry about your Jewish brothers and sisters, or do we not deserve the benefit of your benevolent concern?
ReplyDeleteTo my friends from the Tribe of Israel
ReplyDeleteHoping Y'all or is it Y'all's had a Happy Chanukah and L'Chaim. You know what the famous Texas Jewboy (that's the name of his band for you sensitive bloggers) Kinky Friedman says, "The only currency I value is the coin of spirit, that's very important in my life.
See Y'all at Hunan Pagoda for Chinese tomorrow.
To all of the J-Dub bloggers---have a great day! It's just another Saturday for us!
ReplyDeleteCant make it one post without PC bullshit creeping in. Surprising? No.
ReplyDeleteCant make it one post without Tea-Party bullshit creaping in. Surprising?Not really, considering America's second-rate education system breeds ignorance.
ReplyDeleteAtheist:
ReplyDeleteI always worry about my staunchly religious brothers and sisters. Most only seem to care about charity and good will in men on the one day of the year. And their leaders who have so much to give -ever calculated the net worth of the Vatican?- do little but light a candle and present us with some old and worn cliches.
Nevertheless, enjoy the holidays!
Jews....
ReplyDeleteYou know your blog has arrived when Mel Gibson drunk-posts comments in it.
ReplyDeleteMy surgeon friend says I need an L3-S1 interbody fusion and he wants to "bilaterally" place screws "bicortically" at every level. Should I trust him or go to another surgeon? Everything I read is that screws are never placed bicortically at L3,L4,L5. He's got a really nice boat that I like to go in the summer. Also, he is going to do a posterior interbody fusion and L5-S1 and do a transoraminal interbody fusion and L3-L4, L4-L5 but he said he is going to use different "cages?" for each TLIF one from Spinewave and one from Stryker. What would Jesus do?
ReplyDeleteCorrection: America's second rate education system (or is it indoctrination system?) breeds liberals.
ReplyDelete8:23 AM: Not surprisingly, your correction defies reality. Liberals are bred in colleges and universities, not schools, as evidenced by electoral maps that show blue where voters have access to higher education and red everywhere else (e.g., Austin TX is blue, but the adjacent, redneck-infected surroundings are dark red).
ReplyDeleteDue to decades of GOP-inspired attacks on education, our current school systems do not have the capacity to produce thoughtful and intelligent voters, which are the staple of the Democratic party. This is why Republicans mock learning--it corrodes their potential voter pool and diminishes the occurrence of sheep that will support them at the polls. Case in point: Palin 2012.
MM,
ReplyDeleteThis is a good post. I have been harsh on you but you've gained some redemption. Like Big Oil, the insurance companies have no pressure to compete on price. Unlike auto insurance, where you've got lizards, cavemen and ducks pitching the lowest price ad nauseum, health insurance companies are basically playing in a locked game.
Let's say you and I had a business plan to start a discount healthcare insurance company. We would really need to be in at least 30-35 states to have a large enough draw against our take. So per this legislation you speak of, a start-up would need offices in each of those states, then register and maintain records for each state's insurance board and have a local office. So for arguments' sake let's say a million in overhead each year per state. You'd need to have $50M hard cash each year and 10 times that in backing. Talk about barrier to market...
So the answer is and has been to nationalize only a insuree's rights or protections as a patient, not the entire healthcare system. That way discount companies could provide coverage nationwide without having to drop $$ in overhead. My guess is that prices would come way down.
Ever wonder why you never see one oil company selling gas drastically lower than another. Two reasons: like the healthcare insurance industry, the barrier to market is so high there's no reason to compete on price. They've been colluding straight back to Standard Oil days. Second reason is that if an oil company tried to gain market share by dropping their price, Cheney would shoot them with the heart attack gun just like he got Ken Lay.
10:51...Standard liberal drivel. Your stats only show that college towns are more liberal than other areas. That is simply because those who work at colleges (and also throughout lower education) are liberals, as they cannot get off the teet of government. All of the other educated liberals you hold in such high esteem, graduate, then move into the private sector, and become conservative because reality sinks in.
ReplyDeleteI have met many morons that consider themselves part of the educated/elite that is such a bragging point to the left. Not only is Sarah Palin smarter, better looking and more successful than you, she would probably kick your ass. You and your elitist friends rely so fervently on the mainstream media to think for you, you can't come up with any original thoughts or draw your own conclusions about the people that are influencing our country.
Simply pathetic.
Hye, 4:35, are we elitists or socialists? Or are you just schizophrenic?
ReplyDeleteSarah Palin is simply a JOKE. She is a reality TV star, not a qualified politician or leader. Stop talking like she is even relevant.
ReplyDeleteIf you really understood history, you would know that those that try to force socialism on their countrymen have always been elitists.
ReplyDeleteReally, 8:02? Care to provide any specific examples?
ReplyDeleteAnd what, pray tell, makes Obama an elitist?
TSB, any info on this???
ReplyDeleteA major Boston teaching hospital has been cited by federal and state health inspectors after doctors operated on the wrong location on three spine surgery patients.
All three unconnected errors happened since September.
Dr. Kenneth Sands is the senior vice president of health care quality at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He tells The Boston Globe the surgeons apparently miscounted the patients' vertebrae and operated directly above or below where they were supposed to.
Two operations were conducted by the same surgeon. The hospital did not release names.
The hospital has procedures in place to avoid errors, and those procedures have been improved.
Sands says none of the patients suffered harmful effects as a result of the mistaken surgery. But a lawyer for one says the woman has experienced problems.