US Politics Mega-thread - Page 641

On November 22 2013 14:35 sam!zdat wrote:
fracking 100 percent safe, take it from our resident oil and gas lawyer

On November 22 2013 14:53 zlefin wrote:
you overstate the case xdaunt, not that more is expected of you. The safety of fracking done properly, and in proper places, seems fine; but there are too many places where they shouldn't be doing it and are doing so.

On November 22 2013 15:08 xDaunt wrote:

What exactly am I overstating? The incidence of mishap with fracking is incredibly low. Not that you'd know it looking at looking at eco-hippy websites, but there still hasn't been one case where it's been proven that fracking has contaminated ground water.

Shit happens in every industry. The fact remains that oil and gas companies have done a pretty good job when it comes to fracking.

Business groups ask Massachusetts congressmen for help obtaining Obamacare waiver

Twenty-five business groups, including several in Western Massachusetts, have asked the state’s congressional delegation for a waiver from a provision of the Affordable Care Act that affects how health insurers calculate premiums.

“Without this waiver, many small employers in this state will see their health insurance premiums increase by as much as 57 percent,” the groups wrote in a letter released by the Associated Industries of Massachusetts. “These steep increases are simply unaffordable for small employers and risk our impressive 97 percent coverage rate in the event that employers discontinue providing health insurance to their employees.”

The issue centers on the number of “ratings factors” a health insurance company can use in calculating insurance premiums. Under Massachusetts’ 2007 health care reform law, the state allows insurance companies to use 11 considerations, or “rating factors,” when determining the cost of a health plan for an individual or small group. These include things like age, industry, participation in a wellness plan, the size of the group insured by the plan and the use of a group purchasing cooperative to buy insurance. The national health care reform law requires insurers to use just four factors when determining the cost of a plan: age, geography, tobacco use and family composition.

Business groups have been warning for months that this could lead insurance rates to spike for some small businesses – even though some businesses and individuals could also see their premiums decrease. Gov. Deval Patrick asked the Obama administration for a waiver from the provision, and was granted a three-year transition period. The Massachusetts Legislature then passed a bill requiring Patrick to return to the federal government and ask for a full waiver. U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius denied the request. ...

On November 22 2013 15:15 Livelovedie wrote:


Don't they call this privatizing the gains, socializing the losses?

On November 22 2013 15:15 Livelovedie wrote:


Don't they call this privatizing the gains, socializing the losses?

On November 22 2013 15:20 JonnyBNoHo wrote:

I don't see why you would call it that.

Massachusetts Senate overwhelmingly approves minimum wage increase to $11 an hour

BOSTON — The Massachusetts Senate voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to raise the state's minimum wage from $8 an hour to $11 an hour over three years, giving a boost to nearly 600,000 workers and putting the state on track for the highest such pay in the nation. ... Link

92 percent of Massachusetts teachers ranked as proficient in new evaluations

More than 90 percent of teachers are making the grade and less than 1 percent are unsatisfactory, according to the results of the first new-and-improved teacher evaluations used in 213 school districts across the state last school year. ...

The most controversial part of the evaluation – using student test data to determine if teachers and administrators are effective – is not expected to be used until 2015. ... Link

On November 22 2013 15:23 xDaunt wrote:

Because it's hip to say shit that you don't understand.

I've found that I am a much happier poster in this thread when I ignore the one-liner trolls.

On November 22 2013 16:35 Danglars wrote:

Gotta include enough buzzwords to give all your friends the idea that they know what it is and agree with you, and all your enemies no idea of what you're actually meaning.

On November 22 2013 16:54 IgnE wrote:


Dude, what? What buzzwords? "Gains" and "losses"? Do you truly have no idea what his post meant?

On November 22 2013 15:46 zlefin wrote:
there's a large difference between not proven unsafe and proven safe, as you well know.

On November 23 2013 00:09 xDaunt wrote:

This is bullshit insofar as it's applied to fracking. Fracking has been proven safe. There have been hundreds of thousands wells drilled without contaminating the water table. I'll acknowledge that there's a theoretical risk of problems, just as there's a theoretical risk of getting a concussion from playing golf.

On November 22 2013 16:01 Scorpion77 wrote:
we need fracking, unless some scientific breakthrough in nuclear fusion occurs (which has been Coming Soon for >50 years)
the Green extremists are mostly new age hippies, nimbyists, luddites and radical cryptomarxists in my experience

On November 23 2013 00:09 xDaunt wrote:

This is bullshit insofar as it's applied to fracking. Fracking has been proven safe. There have been hundreds of thousands wells drilled without contaminating the water table. I'll acknowledge that there's a theoretical risk of problems, just as there's a theoretical risk of getting a concussion from playing golf.

So please, quit throwing this kind of crap that has no basis in fact.

EDIT: If anything, my analogy to golf probably doesn't work because the risk of getting a concussion in golf is comparatively too high.