re suicide: I heard that the penalty for attempted suicide in the UK was hanging. It makes sense in a Douglas Adams way.

How much hidden costs are involved with US fuel? I refer to the costs involved with protecting the sources and transportation routes of oil that is subsidized by the US military. What does it cost for fuel when the military costs of protecting national and international acquisition of oil (and lots of other resources)?

Thom, compared to a motorcycle, I would MUCH rather be in an accident in a SmartCar.

The Bill that Jim Bunning made his stand against was ALREADY in existence 2 MONTHS BEFORE Congress passed Paygo. It was introduced on January 1st and dealt with extensions on Medicare payments to physicians, federal road construction, COBRA for unemployed, and unemployed benefits.

These were also EMERGENCY extensions and as "emergency" items they were EXEMPT from PAYGO (a new law passed by Congress to not borrow any money).

So, Bunning, who in the past has supported Bush's multiple tax cuts for the rich, which cost US $1.3+ trillion(passed by reconciliation), supported dumping taxpayer money into Pharma and Insurance companies through Medicare Part D, costing us $600 billion, and has previously supported extensions for the unemployment.

This man supported $2 TRILLION in unfunded BUSH bills, but steps on the unemployed families over $6.8 billion in emergency funds.

He demands PAYGO for a bill that is almost entirely exempt from PAYGO.

Even if it wasn't exempt, the bill was originated 2 months before PAYGO passed and only required 60 Senate votes to override PAYGO.

99 Senators were wiling to override paygo instead of sending the bill back to the House of Reps and costing valuable time.

The only item that may not have been "emergency" according to open congress is the medicare payments to doctors.

Now because of Bunnings amendment, they have to conference with the House and Vote again which will take how long?

Is the "so-called" Obesity Epidemic in fact a "real" epidemic caused by specific pathogens? Something involving obesity changed dramatically around 1980; obesity rates started climbing, wile morbid obesity went from rarely seen to commonplace. As usual, conventional wisdom - based on extending previous experiences and refined by self-proclaimed experts - blamed the victims for being "weak" and making "bad choices" in diet, exercise, etc. and therefore deserving of any discrimination, health conditions, abuse, or ridicule they received from more "virtuous" members of society.

(BTW It appears to me that the RW puts most of the blame on the victims, while those on the left place more on the corporate "enablers". Not that it really matters. What really matters is the science needed to move beyond these type discussions.)

The CW on obesity was, and still is, that we inherit our basic body types, tendencies towards being thin or gaining weight, and "choices" about things like diet and exercise determine weight and fitness. It's a bit more complicated with a few conditions (e.g. those of the thyroid) able to cause weight gain, not just the usual problem of weight loss (wasting) caused by many conditions and diseases. Of course, lots of profit for those with solutions using medicine, diet, and exercise. And plenty of guilt. All while ignoring that obesity was increasing worldwide, even in societies barely aware of the USA, much less its fast food or soft drinks.

This hunt for those to blame for bad behavior extended to the enablers -- fast food, TV and computers, irresponsible parents -- much as HIV was blamed on the gay lifestyle and drug use, autism on bad parenting and later on parental decisions to vaccinate or take some other action, anorexia on fashion models and advertising (ignoring that in the Middle Ages anorexia in young women was viewed a symbol of extreme piety).

It is very hard for individuals and societies to recognize and respond to new problems, new realities, new causes, new risks, new diseases, and we usually make really bad decisions collectively for much too long. Tactical nuclear weapons are a really bad idea. So are naked credit default swaps. It took over twenty years after "scientific proof" that most ulcers were caused by a bacteria and were curable with common antibiotics before that started becoming common practice among doctors.

The Obesity Epidemic was harder to spot and more-prone to moralizing than most things. All of the obvious causal factors probably contribute some to the general problem of obesity, but mostly involving "traditional" obesity. But none of those factors can account for sudden onset or very large weight gains, even in spite of much increased exercise and 700 calorie diets.

After nearly 20 years of careful research in animals and humans, we now have almost enough "proof" for the most sceptical that one contributor to the rapid rise in morbid obesity are viral infections, most likely involving the adenovirus AD-36 which was first found in humans in the late 1970's after possibly jumping from birds to mammals a bit earlier.

We know that animals infected with AD-36 gain nearly double the weight of identical uninfected animals on the same rations. Antibodies to AD-36 are found in nearly one third of the obese and only about 10% of the non-obese. These results are being confirmed in samples taken in widely differing populations around the world.

In the last couple of months, new studies in cell biology are unraveling related topics about how the body responds to pathogens and other stresses and the interplay with inflamation, autoimmune responses and disease, stem cell differentiation, and regulation of cell metabolism and functions. Really exciting stuff.

So what should be our response if they prove that roughly 30% of all obesity and as much as 70% of the most severe cases were caused by a virus, a virus whose other symptoms resemble "pink eye" or a mild case of "sniffles"?

Just search on "adenovirus obesity" and you should have all the peer-reviewed science you need.

My boyfriend has been unemployed for 17 months. He seeks out job posting every day. Spends hours customizing resumes to suit the head hunters and HR people and still no job. He's 55, well-educated and OVER-QUALIFIED.

But here in Silicon Valley, he's not alone. I'm dumbfounded by this statistic I keep hearing that people over 50 only have a 3% unemployment rate. The unemployment rate for over 50's here is 37% (as quoted a few months back in San Jose Mercury). Over 40's fare only slightly better at 35%.

Justin was relieved and saddened to receive news today that he's been accepted to a program for teacher certification. Relieved that it is a step in the right direction (we think) and saddened that this is the viable offer in 17 months. But he can't earn money as a math and science teacher for at least 2 years and then at a 1/5th of his former earning power.

Meanwhile, they gave his job of 6 years to an H1-B visa engineer 1/2 his age from overseas that works even longer hours for less than 1/2 the pay.

That's the trend everywhere in the valley; hire much younger workers for a lot less money and work them to death, even on holidays.

Again please excuse typos. i'm using an ancient laptop with a cracked case that's cantankerous at best.

I have a few comments about the lies and misinformation regarding health care, but then I'm probably preaching to the choir.

First off, it's a complete misnomer to use the term "health care". It's disease management and it's for profit. Noboy should make profit off the suffering of others, but that's the underlying strategy of Disaster Capitalism (see Naomi Klein's book of the same title for more info)

I hold degrees Doctor of Chiropractic and Masters of Science in Traditional Chinese Medicine. My father is a retired surgeon, my mother a retired masters degreed nurse, so I've gotten the politics and seen the perks from both sides of the coin.

Today's guest doctor, an orthopedist from Atlanta, and his attitudes aren't that uncommon in the profession. Somewhere along the line, doctors of this ilk forget their oath of "Primum Non Nocere" and impart their own brand of predjudice, sexism and ageism on patients. They're bought and sold by big pharma, medical equipment manufacturers and insurance providers (despite their claims to be at odds with the latter).

It was my misfortune to personally experience just how many of this type actually exist when I torn an ACL (knee ligament) in 2005. I was demeaned and demoralized by a half dozen surgeons. I firmly believe there was deliberate and willful discrimination to cause suffering, loss of income and limit fair trade by preventing from practicing my professions. By the time I found a resepctful and compassionate surgeon, it was 15 months after the initial injury and I had injured other ligaments, tendons and muscle as well suffered nerve damage.

ACL reconstruction is a relatively simple outpatient procedure that's heavily dependent on quality, comprehensive rehab therapies to have a successful outcome. Physical therapists and PT assistants are another lot that lack compassion and competency on a large scale.

Long story short, I wound up a week in the hospital with a blood clot that was totally preventable, suffering the permanent effects of adverse medication reactions and unable to practice full-time or outside my own home where I can control exposure to the many allergens, gluten and chemicals that I now react to.

50,000 people die each year from complications of pneumonia or sepsis following inpatient procedures. The primary cause is poor sanitation and hygeine practices of the hospital staff. This is above and beyond the nearly 200,000 that die or are permanently disabled by so-called iatrogenic causes. Hospitals are death traps, great insurance or not.

I've personally ammended my advanced directive with a clause that states I'm not to be hospitalized overnight for any reason, even under full knowledge that no doing so might threaten my life. This may sound drastic to many of you but I'd rather take my chances than risk another nightmare that now causes me recurring night terrors.

I hear a lot about European or Canadian systems. I have friends from GB and CA that were shocked to learn that when an American needs a kidney transplant and the insurance company denies the procedure or only partially covers the costs, the family and friends are forced to hold fund-raisers, sell off their homes, cars, other assets and go irreversibly in debt to save their loved one.

I lived in Australia and was covered under their Medicare scheme. I've never received better care or felt more secure in my life. The doctors there weren't nearly as high-tech but they were far better, more compassionate doctors and rendered far better outcomes for me and my husband.

The system is not meant to optimize the best possible outcome or quality fo life for patients. Everything revolves around feeding the egoccentric doctors, administrators and insurance companies coffers so their quality of life attains the best possible outcome above and beyond their wildest expectations.

By no means do we have the best disease care system, simply because we are overflowing with expensive technologies. Medical doctors either forget their skills or they're not being trained to use them anymore. They can't diagnose a straight-forward case of anything without running expremely expensive diagnostics. Far too many tests have higher than necessary margin of error for false positives and conversely, false negatives.

The biggest downside to running all these tests is far too offen they're then used by the insurance companies against the patient. They use this backdoor info to fabricate "pre-exisitng conditions", raise the insured's risk to a higher than necessary tier of assignment so they can charge even higher premiums and/or exclude more comprehensive coverage.

Doctors don't rely at all on the most reliable tools available to them; their ears. They fail to get thorough patient history, history of the current complaint, family history or take the time to listen to all related symptoms and signs. They think they're infallible to the point of resisting pre-procedural checklists that could prevent many of those 200,000 "mistakes" every year. They even fail to have their support staff perform these tasks or follow up.

It will take more than a public option to provide all Americans with quality health care.

We need free education for all. That means chiropractic, Chinese Medicine, naturopathy, massage therapy and all other nationally recognised, licensed CAM (complementary and alternative medicine) practices.

We need to include all nationally recognised and licensed disciplines in a Medicare for all, non-profit system.

We need to require that all graduates of any of these programs provide care for a minimum of 2 years in an underserved area so all Americans get care.

We need to put an end to such drastic pay disparity between the specialities. Not that specialists shouldn't earn a higher salary juist not so obscenely.

We need to highly regulate and convert the malpractice industry to a non-profit system, not expand failed tort reform. For that matter, we probalby would be better off that all insurance be non-profit or returned to mutual benefit companies.

We need to get over the term "socialized" as misused for anything.

We need to realize human beings are our best and most valuable resource and treat them as such.

Thanks for reading my post.

@ED-- you have read The Monkey Wrench Gang - haven't you?

After we get rid of Jim Bunning in the Senate, can we petition MLB to have him removed from the Baseball Hall of Fame?

What I'd like to hear somebody ask Yoo or Bibey is whether a President from the Democratic Party is entitled to the same awesome powers as a Republican President. Somehow, I think I know what they'd answer - but I'd like to hear their explanation! :)

PS - I'm a former small business owner too.