The grumpy thread

[yes oui si]

I heard on the TV tonight (therefore it must be true) that for certain Anti-Cancer drugs it costs the Tax-Payer up to £90,000 per year to keep 1 patient alive. Let the patient pay. It's not me who has Cancer now, is it? (Please don't bombard me with messages saying how a loved one has Cancer and I've offended someone..... I know it's out there... I'm just having my 2 cents!!!)

It's what separates us from the savages... And the septics.

 

*n

[Negative Creep]

So if you broke your leg tomorrow you'd be happy to pay the hospital bill?

[theorganist]

So if the patient can't pay, are he/she is to be allowed to die!

 

Why do prescription drugs cost so much money? I tend to think that the Pharmacutical companies are taking the mickey, somewhat!!

[CreepingJesus]

Fuck this.

[cobblers]

I think vectras are proper good. Discuss.

 

[overheadvalve]

Fook it, i don't want anyone to take a fence

so i moved it on and out.

Life is too short....

[MrDuke]

I think vectras are proper good. Discuss.

 

 

 

Vectras are yet another proof of the government's constant inability to look after the needs of the working classes, and it's all the fault of them fat communists in America, FACT. Bring back hanging/where's Maggie when you need her/send 'em all back home/this never happened before the war/etc etc. Just THINKING about those WING-MIRRORS makes my BLOOD BOIL.

 

[Negative Creep]

I'm pretty sure the Vectra is more than fulfilling the needs of the local council estate

[overheadvalve]

I think vectras are proper good. Discuss.

 

 

 

Vectras are yet another proof of the government's constant inability to look after the needs of the working classes, and it's all the fault of them fat communists in America, FACT. Bring back hanging/where's Maggie when you need her/send 'em all back home/this never happened before the war/etc etc. Just THINKING about those WING-MIRRORS makes my BLOOD BOIL.

 

If that was an msd then it's a terrible waste!

[ashmicro]

The car in the pic appears to have Swiss plates. I didn't think they allowed that sort of thing.

[Cavcraft]

The car in the pic appears to have Swiss plates. I didn't think they allowed that sort of thing.

 

It's the taxi that Dignitas use to collect you from the airport.

[RoadworkUK]

The car in the pic appears to have Swiss plates. I didn't think they allowed that sort of thing.

 

It's the taxi that Dignitas use to collect you from the airport.

 

Yeah, just in case you were having a last minute change of heart.

[yes oui si]

It's what separates us from the savages... And the septics.

 

*n

 

Horse crap. You're a victim of Joseph Goebbels-quality government media indoctrination - the BBC. The ignorant the world over think that the US doesn't have a safety net for health care, because it listens to stupid fools on the Beeb and Idi O'Bumpass. But even Idi knows what I know: no human being in the US, whether there legally or illegally, goes without health care in case of injury or life-threatening illness. Period. We, the taxpayers and insured, have our taxes and insurance rates increased accordingly.

 

Just because a government (like, oh, Cuba or the UK) has a single-payer system in the form of the gummit, doesn't mean the health care is worth a spit. Ours is. When the former PM of CannyDuh needed a heart bypass, did he stand in line like a good Canadian is told to do? Did he, huh? HELL NO! Being a liberal hypocrite (they go together frequently), he bailed on his home country's gummit healthcare system and flew to Florida for some of that "septic" cruel and unusual healthcare.

 

LOL!!!!!!

The only real problem with the NHS is excess of middle management... Which is being dealt with. Your comments about people getting paid the same whether they let patients live or die are crossly misinformed and downright offensive.

 

Are you seriously trying to say that the average American is registered with a doctor who they can visit at any time for any medical reason? I'm not talking about "in case of injury or life-threatening illness" - if the Average American who can't afford health insurance has a throat infection, or a niggling back pain issue, are they able to walk into their doctor's surgery with an appointment, be seen in an unhurried manner, be given the same level of treatment irrespective of their income, receive treatment free of charge (apart from perhaps a small cost for a prescription) and go home knowing that if they needed to, they could do the same thing again the next week? And the week after and the week after that... And the week after that. With zero additional cost to the individual

 

It was my understanding that UNDERinsurance was a grave problem in the states also.

 

I broke my neck a few years ago, I was dealt with brilliantly by the nhs - they saved my ability to walk to start with. And the cost to me? About £15 for enough paracetamol, ibuprofen, codeine, diclofenac and oxycodone to fell a herd of elephants. How much would that cost in the states?

 

Be honest with yourself, Norm; you live in a country with a lower life expectancy than CHILE, with rampant infant mortality and where medical bills account for nearly half of those who file for bankruptcy.

 

If that's the alternative for my country and my people, I'll stick with the nhs that I know and love.

 

*n

[autofive]

getting up at stupid oclock to do an 'afternoon' car boot sale to pay for my car tax

 

a full day of: "will you take 50p for it?"

[eddyramrod]

Autofive, I'm well-and-truly with you there. After my parents died I had a load of stuff that I thought would boot, so I bought my Volvo estate to carry it, and when that proved inadequate ( ) a stripped-out caravan, for the Volvo to pull. Unfortunately all these preparations coincided with the start of the New Flood Age, where UK Summer directly equals Guaranteed Wet Weekend. So I didn't get to as many sales as I would have liked. But even with preparation consisting of hitching up the van the night before and setting my alarm for 0530, I found I was doing long days for bugger-all. Punters all want something for nothing. If you price it high they won't even look; if you price it low they'll still try and get it for half. In the end I got so fed up (the last month or so before we moved here) that I charity-shopped most of it, threw away the rest (which really went against the grain, I hate waste) and gave away both Volvo and caravan (Volvo only on our last day in the house, and then only when I finished going to the tip). I did keep the metal racking I'd built into the caravan though, and I'm using it here! So it wasn't all wasted.

 

And in other grumps: today is Mrs Ramrod's birthday and she's feeling lousy, not least because the skin on her face has gone dry and flaky in the last week. Also, we could be going out* tonight, if she feels better, but we're having to watch every penny at the moment. Bummer.

 

*Checking out a new pub quiz night with the friends we already quiz with elsewhere. Beware Of The Chillgrims! (That's our team name: all of it!)

[eddyramrod]

Cop shows. Having just posted in Grin abut The Sweeney and others... It can't be my imagination, surely, but it seems to me that in the last 20 years or so cop shows have gone from the likes of The Sweeney and The Professionals, to slow-moving cerebral puzzle-solvers like Morse, Frost and Dalziel&Pascoe. The clue is in the opening music. Listen to Morse, Frost or D&P, then listen to The Sweeney or The Professionals. If you'd never seen any of them before, and were just hearing the music, which would you sit down to watch?

 

We get a new Dallas-set show here, called The Good Guys. One of the buddy cops is Colin Hanks, son of Tom. The other cop, played with obvious relish by Bradley Whitford, is a throwback and drives a 79 Trans Am. So we get some high-speed driving round the mean streets of Dallas, sharp repartee and generally a lot of fun. It's easily my favourite current cop show, for obvious reasons. But! Who would order a 79 Trans Am... in grey?????? FFS! Black (I know, been done) red or white, certainly; blue possibly, they could even get away with gold as a Jim Rockford reference, but grey? It's as wrong as giving Gene Hunt a) a Quattro and the name Gene. In Manchester, in the 70s, yeah right. Not content with the colour heresy, the directors they use on TGG have no idea how to shoot a moving car. We get lots of flash-cuts of wheels, views down the wings (front and rear) and moments of drift. These guys really need to be sat down in front of compliations of Lewis Collins in a Capri. I mean urgently!

 

But it's still far and away the best cop show for many years, even including the first series of Life On Mars, and New Tricks (which I also like). It'll never win awards, they will go to the likes of Law&Order and Criminal Minds (almost 100% talk). I watch that for Kirsten Vangsness...

[Guest]

....we're having to watch every penny at the moment. Bummer.

 

Ah. *Hides eBay bill*

 

And our quiz name is normally 'We're Going To Quiz All Over This', because we're so hilariously funny.

[Cavcraft]

Car boot sales are a bleeding nuisance at times. I swear if you offered to give stuff away some of the morons who frequent boot sales would ask you to give them 50p on top.

[M'coli]

"Idi O'Bumpass "

"CannyDuh"

"gummit"

etc..

Norm, you don't half come out wi' some pish!

[Rocket88]

 

And poor Nick of broke neck fame will just have himself to argue with.... "rampant infant mortality"

 

Yes, peeps on welfare go into the hospital or physician every day for cold sores and hanging toe nails, and they get treated. They are abusing other people's generosity and tax burden. We call this "massive underinsurance". You in the UK call this "normal".

 

Those of us who hold a higher view of mankind aspire for people to secure their own insurance. Should the NHS provide national FREE auto insurance, hey, why not? How about national free homeowner/renters insurance?

 

Why are peeps thinking their hairy asses are entitled to FREE anything? There is no free anything, dipwad. Somebody ELSE is paying for your consumption of expensive care. That's OK if you're contributing (as in privately purchased insurance). It's a recipe for national bankruptcy and eventual "death care" for "FREE" systems, because people always consume more of what's free (to them) than they would if they had to PAY for it.

 

Which ice cream van is busier? The one that dispenses for "FREE" or the one that charges a quid per scoop?

 

Lots of things kill people more quickly than lack of long term health care. Why is health care deigned to be "free"? If I lack water or food, I can only last a few days. If I lack winter shelter, I might die in one night. If I am uneducated, I might mis-read an essential sign and step off a pier or crash into a wall to my demise. All far more immediately resulting in death than long term health needs. Even where I reside impacts how quickly I die, such as hard by an industrial park.

 

Should the gummit be feeding us, housing us, re-locating us, and sending us to university for free too? Hey, why not? I might die otherwise! Well, fuck, how about free day care for the chillens, then? And free internet and phone service (how do I call an ambulance or inform myself of impending bad weather otherwise, the lack of which might kill me?)... It never ends, and soon you have given up all right to control your movements and make your own plans.

 

Because NHS and H&S determine such and such activities cost x-# of injuries which costs the state x-# of money, and so that activity is deemed illegal for regular schmoes.... you wait, Big Brother is already here. And you're loving the "freeness" of it. The other foot is yet to drop. But it will.

 

Say good bye to motorcycles, scuba, mountain climbing, private flying, club racing, and more... coming to a socialist "free" cost nation near you!

 

I don't think I've ever read such bollocks since the first chapter of George Bush's autobiography.........the difference between Britain and the States is that we have reached a point in civilisation where we no longer put a price on everything. Americans seems obsessed with the idea that someone might be getting a "free ride", and that that's unfair to everyone else. For all of it's faults [and there are many] our NHS /Welfare system is a sign of a civilised nation. As Chuchill said."America.........the only nation to go from barbarism to decadence whilst completely bypassing civilisation".

[M'coli]

Hmmm... It doesn't stop the Scandanavians getting up to all sorts of fun stuff.

[Cavcraft]

Norm, Norm, Norm, Norm Norm: my brother lives in America (and has for many years) and he said he'd sooner have the NHS than your system. Plenty of tales of people who can't afford medical insurance being left to cope on their own.

 

Over here (if nothing) else our taxes pay for the NHS and the vast majority of people who work in hospitals are far better people than some of us.

Yeah, we could argue those on benefits don't pay their way as such towards the NHS, but surely that's better than leaving them with no health or medical care?

[Cavcraft]

Actually, depending on your viewpoint, the NHS is being reformed because our esteemed leader says we're in the mire. How much we're in the mire depends on who you listen to or believe. Some of us cynical ones believe the figure could well be grossly inflated so those in charge can keep trying to shed jobs and services.

 

Either way I'd be far happier to keep the NHS than end up with America's system, thanks.

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

I bought another of those MP3/cassette player adaptors. Has anyone eve had one which works well?

 

They come with a bunch of cogs inside to simulate cassette spools but they're either noisy or (in this case) they trigger the auto-reverse mechanism over and over. In every case the adaptor works better with them removed. It only plays at full volume through one speaker but that can be sorted with the balance control.

 

Best thing though - £1.69 including post from eBay. How do you even make money selling these things?

[M'coli]

The make money on that one because it's a faulty return re-sold to unsuspecting ebayers, most likely.

[r.welfare]

My Poundshop-acquired adaptor has worked well for the last 2 years, used pretty much every day for 30 minutes each way on my commute, and on longer journeys too.

 

No issues with auto-reverse trigger and, sure, it's a little noisy, but as my car's done close to 170,000 miles it's drowned out enough by the failing door and window seal wind roar to be of any consequence. Seems to work fine in stereo as well.

[autofive]

I bought another of those MP3/cassette player adaptors. Has anyone eve had one which works well?

 

i use one in my cortina -works fine after i cleaned the tapehead

 

 

as for the healthcare argument; i dont use the NHS, i dont get free prescriptions (because im healthy, and have been for 40 odd years), nor free gegs or teethcare. i have paid into the NHS since 1985 and i dont begrudge a penny, nor the 'freeloading' sick people who use the NHS. The Welfare state was a promise made to returning soldiers and families after WW2, and (even though politicians whine about it) the system works well, the staff are well paid, the premises modern & hygenic and every UK subject (we are not citizens in the UK, but subjects of the crown) and visitors to the UK can use the facilities and services without issue. I have had private healthcare in the past, and found bupa hospitals just as good (but not better) than NHS ones. I much prefer the welfare state and NHS to the US system of credit card hospitals and health insurance. i say keep the NHS and keep it free.

 

 

oh and.... the car boot sale was crap I barely covered my costs, but I managed to tell 6 people of f**k off without incident, so not all bad

[Cavcraft]

I agree A5, but alas not all the staff are particulary well paid, especially when you consider what they have to do and the amount of grief they get from two bob muppets who treat hospitals like hotels.

Someone (very) close to me wants out as the wages don't unfortunately match the amount of grief they get but are worried because if another career didn't work out the NHS will only take them back on on a six month contract.

[autofive]

mmmmmmm, i hadnt considered the ammount of chew they have to put up with, but even so (and even with 6 month contracts) most NHS jobs are pretty secure, and job security is important if you have a mortgauge commitment every month

[trigger]

Does a week go by without someone starting Norm off about the NHS, It's a frickin car forum FFS!!!!