carpetmonster

It is. NBC briefly broadcast some cops talking to a woman who was screaming hysterically in her front yard a couple hours back and Mrs Bob is the spit of that lady from her social media pics. ETA - he's been pulled in. Genius took the highway fleeing to Wisconsin and his car pinged at an electronic toll plaza.

They are. The Mayor of Evanston's just been on the TV saying they're cancelling theirs so they're not going to have to use first responder resources that might be needed in Highland Park.

As much as it's funny that he's *still* insisting that the referees gave the Heat the 2006 NBA Finals over his Mavericks, hats off to Mark Cuban who's just launched a discount pharmaceutical company selling generics. He can get you 30 days worth of Gleevec cancer medication to you for $15 rather than $2500. - https://costplusdrugs.com/medications/imatinib-100mg-tablet/ Even just 24 paracetamols here is $6 over the counter at the pharmacy or supermarket versus 30 pence or so out of Boots'.

Having your healthcare being dependent on, and tied to your employment, is a fantastic way for the system to keep the minions productive.

When carpetmonster Jr was born we had *really* good insurance. We paid a $1000 co-pay and that was us. Got sent a copy of the facsimile bill the hospital had sent to the insurance company, for our own records. Totals out at $32.5k. Various line items, with line item 4 being anaesthesia - my wife didn't have any. They don't do gas and air there, it's an epidural or nothing and the Mrs did the whole thing with hypnobirthing and breathing because she's fucking mental. I phone the insurance company to tell them they need to go back to the hospital for a new bill. Lady explains I've paid my co-pay and I'm not on the hook for anything else. I tell her I know that but that the hospital are trying to bill them for something that didn't happen. She reassures me that they've got it all covered. I lose patience and tell her slowly and calmly no anaesthesia was administered, and she needs to go back to the hospital to tell them to stick their bill up their arse (and I did actually say that) and get a new one. She says 'Oh! Oh, thanks for telling us!' and seems really surprised that I've bothered to phone it in. Next week another facsimile bill appears in the mail with the anaesthesia removed and a new bargain basement price of only $26k. It's a fucking cartel. ETA - globally there are half a million medical-expenses related bankruptcies every year. All of them are in the US.

There is one. Federal minimum wage for a tipped job - so waiters, bar staff etc - is $2.15, which is why they work for their tips. For an untipped job - everything else basically - it’s $7.25 States and cities are allowed to set their own tho. In Illinois as a whole, that goes to $8 and $12 for tipped and untipped and then in Cook County (Chicago, essentially), it’s $9 and $15.

I’ve got a wisdom tooth that tries to kill me for a couple of days every 5 years or so and I skoosh some chloraseptic into cheap whisky for that bit of anaesthetic. It’s not bad.

Nice to see they’re inclusive of the Amish tho

https://www.npr.org/2022/06/30/1106866830/supreme-court-to-take-on-controversial-election-law-case

Andrew Rawnsley in today's Graun - https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jul/03/scotland-future-wont-be-settled-second-vote-on-independence

Nice. We're on the north side. We didn't know anything about the US education system, as to how do we get her into a good (public) school and then we discovered it was just like Scotland, you just need to be in the catchment area. The better half asked around the office and they all said Bell, Blaine, Burley and Coonley. We managed to get a place in one of those districts and we've just stayed put. She's just finished second grade and they reckon her reading level is about 2/3rds of the way thru third grade, so very pleased. The school also has a pretty good rep for being able to get kids into the selective enrollment high schools like Lane Tech and Walter Payton, so fingers crossed.

At my age, I've got long hair just because I'm surprised I've still got hair.

Oh, you reported me and a mod removed the post, cool. The only thing is that you quoted it, so folks can still see it.

A Buff works just as well and you don't look like Jack Grealish.