aerius

Sure, if that's how you define it. Those who can't afford insurance get bottom of the line medicaid, and no chance of getting admitted to say, The Mayo Clinic or something like that for specialist treatment even if they need it. They get sent to the nearest hospital which'll accept them even if the quality of care isn't sufficient. Those who can't afford good insurance end up in the same boat, hell, you even have a list of approved hospitals for each insurance plan, and if one of those hospitals doesn't provide the service which is needed you are still shit out of luck and paying out of your own pocket, ie, going in debt for a long time. Fact is the US system is designed for rich people, they have accesss to all the best clinics, they get to be first in line, and fuck everyone else who needs medical care. For rich people, the US has the best system in the world, for everyone else, it's pretty mediocre. The US consistently ranks in the bottom 1/3 or 1/4 among developed countries in life expectancy, infant mortality, medical sick days, incidences of cancer, diabetes, heart disease & stroke, and so on. And yet the still claim to have the "best" system.

The point is this, universal healthcare coverage means that all citizens are covered, hence, "universal". If there's 6.5 million people with no coverage, and only a million or so are illegals and therefore not citizens, that still leaves over 5 million citizens with no healthcare insurance. Therefore, it isn't a universal healthcare system.

Maybe you'd like to explain how it's universal healthcare when according to this article, there were 6.5 million Californians without any healthcare coverage at the beginning of this year.

I suggest checking your facts first. Look up the date when the universal health care bill passed in California. Then look at the date on the articles I linked. As of the end of August, the bill still hadn't been signed, though it's probably gone through by now. The incidents I linked to took place way before that.

Of course there's waiting lists, people who need surgery the most get first dibs. I don't see the problem here, they'll eventually get to you before things get too bad. Someone with a dislocated shoulder needs help a bit more than a guy like me who has a low-level nagging shoulder injury, he goes straight to the emergency room while I might have to wait a few weeks or months.

Got the link to the article on LA hospitals dumping patients on skid row. Absolutely fucking disgusting. Link #1 Link #2 Excerpt: This is your system at work. I have no words for this shit.

The big pharma companies have to pay for all those Viagra ads one way or another.

The depressing part is when you look at the bigger picture, we've arguably hit peak oil and thanks to climate change, possibly caused by global warming, many parts of the US are already running short of water. Seeing that the US needs to import over 2/3 of its oil, it ain't gonna be pretty.

There's no doubt our system has issues, that being one of them. But at least we're sorta taking steps towards sorting them out.

You need to get out more, Canada has just as much ethnic diversity as the US, though I do concede that we don't have the slums & ghettos which you have down there.

No doubt, I did choose those cases for dramatic effect, but the fact remains that it can and does happen. I have a relative in the US who works for a major insurance company, and though most of the fuck-ups aren't nearly that bad they're still inexcusable.

Also, let's look at results here. America tied with fucking Hungary & Poland in infant mortality US has shorter life expectancy than Canada Care to explain this?

Of course not. They shuttled to the nearest emergency ward when a treatable condition, such as an ulcer has degenerated to life-threatening levels. Patch'em up, kick'em out, and oh, here's a $100k bill you'll be paying for the rest of your life unless you declare bankruptcy.

The "Nanny State" argument, I was waiting for that one. You may be doing great right now, but shit happens in life, in 10 years you might have cancer and diabetes, your insurance company might just decide to drop you since you're now a liability to their profits. It can and it does happen, in fact it's a frequenct occurence in the US.

47 million US citizens without any medical coverage. Nearly 1/6 of your population. I suppose it doesn't suck compared to, I don't know, Nigeria?

I guess you haven't heard about Sick Kid's Hospital in Toronto. Generally acknowledged as the leading children's hospital in the world.

Maybe this would be a good time to point out how roughly 47 million Americans don't have health insurance, and even those who do are often majorly fucked up the ass when they have to make hospital visits. And how your per capita cost of health insurance is over $6000 a year while we're under half that. Oh, and how medical expenses are the #1 cause of bankrupsies in the US. Here's a hint, our tax dollars actually do something to benefit all citizens along with paying down our debt, yours just gets flushed down the drain in Iraq and funneled straight into the coffers of Halliburton, Exxon-Mobil, et al while the debt continues to skyrocket.

I'm a cheapass with access to several local surplus stores, so I can do it for about $100-150, plus the chassis. $10 UTC transformers, fuck yeah! Otherwise, you're probably looking at something like $800 for the audio transformers alone if you go for Lundahls, plus the cost of everything else. I'd ballpark the total cost at about $1200-$1500.

I've heard the regular & SE but not in the same system so I can't really make a comparison. However, I think $750 for the upgrade is kinda out there since the only changes are 2 caps and cryo'd tubes. You could probably swap the caps yourself, and if KG is right about cryo'd tubes, that's where most if not all of the differences will be.

Since you're Oakville now, you can always drop by My Kind of Music, they have the Capitole SE CDP and Prestige SACD/CD player in store and the owner's a great guy.

Let's just say I've acquired the schematics to Roam's P-P 50 amp, which he says can easily used with 45's if you need current production stuff, or with 12 or 6W6's if you're poor. I'm currently building a 12W6 version.

Question. Must it be a single ended amp?

That's a mercury vapour rectifier tube. Real fun stuff from what I've read. Dropping it would probably be a bad thing.

I don't know of anyone with a balanced vinyl rig, but I do know of a balanced phono preamp which you can get someone to build for you.

mirumu's list just reminded me, I actually still have cassettes lying around. Pearl Jam - Vs. & Ten CD and cassette Gn'R - Appetite for Destruction CD & cassette The Police - Regatta de Blanc CD & cassette, my cassette's worn to hell since I played it so many times in my youth Simon & Garfunkel - Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme CD & LP, a few pops on the LP, but it still sounds great