Promoted by GH.

[originally posted at dkos. There's quite a bit of current news on this subject, so I thought it was worth posting again here.]

The caller wasn't coherent.

All I could gather was that he'd been to Iraq and now he thought he was going crazy. At first he wasn't talking about what was wrong with him, but what was wrong with his insurance coverage. He was rambling, yelling, cussing, crying. I thought he was a recent veteran, but then it sounded like he was still active duty. I couldn't tell if he was out of the military or still in it.

He wasn't able to answer my questions, so I let him vent for a while. When he stopped to breathe I asked: "you mean you're active duty, now? You're in the military?"

Well sir, right now I'm AWOL.

Homemade "BumBot" Wages War on Riff-Raff

Using the control and a walkie-talkie, he approaches the vagrants around his bar and a local day care center to inform them via the robot's loudspeaker that they are trespassing on private property. If that doesn't do the trick, he gets rough with the water cannon. Apparently the robot has been so successful that the owner of the day care facility wishes she had three more just like it.

bumped by carol.

A few weeks ago I was talking with some people about Obama's A More Perfect Union speech, and the discussion led to a discussion of race in general...

It was one of those conversations that became a little heated, causing others who walk in on it to be taken aback. They weren't there to adjust to the slowly climbing temperatures.

Inspired by story nyceve wrote, I put together a couple of diaries about what Pacificare was trying to do to 17-year-old Nick Colombo, which was to deny a potentially life-saving cancer treatment.

I wrote one about Pacificare's Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Sam Ho and used parts of a previous diary about Cigna's CMO, Dr. Jeffery Kang, then a short one announcing that Pacificare had caved.

See all the other happy donkeys?

From Insurance News (dot) Net, an insurance industry trade site:

New ''Wellness Score'' from CIGNA Can Forecast Health Risks Years in Advance

BLOOMFIELD, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 8, 2008--What if you could see into the future and know more now about the things you’re doing – or not doing – that are likely to result in health risks and health care expenses down the road? CIGNA is giving its members the ability to do just that by launching its sophisticated, “next generation” health assessment and predictive capabilities.

It goes on to describe how vast majorities of people surveyed thought it would be beneficial to have in-depth assessments done online. They said they would follow online "coaching" programs to improve their future health outlook. Sounds fairly positive and benign so far. After all, I trust Cignachokegasp.

Supreme Court to consider Ten Commandments vs. 'Seven Aphorisms'
Must a city park that displays one monument also permit others'?

U.S. appeals court in Denver extended this free-speech rule to cover the monuments, statues and displays in a public park. It ruled in favor of a religious group called Summum, which says it wants to erect its "Seven Aphorisms of Summum" next to the Ten Commandments in Pioneer Park in Pleasant Grove, Utah.

...

Bumped -- GH

The above video is from the California Nurses Association web site. SEIU has a response video posted on their site:

Here we go again.

What is it, about one per quarter now? If this one goes as well as the first did - maybe buried in election hysteria instead of Christmas (the distraction that worked so well last time) - maybe they can squeeze in two or three more before Christmas '08.

What a quarter that will be!

::

Nyceve wrote [another] very important diary at dkos today.

Pacificare denies 17-year-old cancer patient lifesaving treatment
by nyceve