Comments | darklordmoeser: Don't let the libertarianism get in the way of facts

darklordmoeser

Don't let the libertarianism get in the way of facts

Jul 28, 2009 10:08

So, I decided to see how Penn and Teller's Bullshit was, as it seemed from its description like Mythbusters for actual myths, like UFOs and Chiropractic medicine. And it succeeds pretty well, it being pretty easy to go up to UFO people and ask them to tell their stories and realize that they all have their own story, which seems suspiciously like ( Read more... )

Comments 4

This is one of my soap box topics. I apologize for the wall of text. rowena_zane July 29 2009, 00:11:30 UTC

Insurance companies already do that - if you smoke, it effects your insurance. But perhaps you meant something federally mandated? Like that red meat? Don't floss? No daily vitamins? Are you overweight? Have a hamburger every once in a while? You don't see these as causing detrimental effects on our health care system? Think those people ought to pay larger portions of health care, too? I'd shudder to think what our health care system would turn into if the government decided that bad habits = higher costs per person. Insurance companies already do that ( ... )

Re: This is one of my soap box topics. I apologize for the wall of text. darklordmoeser July 29 2009, 02:35:04 UTC

My girlfriend works for BCBS, and they are actually taking steps to make overweight people pay a larger bill for their health insurance. The problems being of course, that BMI and the like are not perfect indicators of obesity and the like. Insurance companies don't like the idea of people gorging themselves into expensive disease, and I don't think it will even necessarily take the form of anti/nanny laws. Imagine if your insurance gave you a discount for having a gym membership, or chipped in for one. Its a lot of regs, but for insurance companies, whats another 2 or 3 pages to their thousands ( ... )

Re: This is one of my soap box topics. I apologize for the wall of text. kibarika July 30 2009, 02:34:16 UTC

I think that the trend we're seeing in NC of locations (universities, restaurants) voluntarily banning smoking from their premises is really the best of both worlds. A whole industry could spring up for cigar/cigarette bars, creating a sense of community and not forcing secondhand smoke on anyone. Smokers wouldn't be forced out of the non-smoking places - they'd just have to be more careful about WHEN they smoke. (i. e., not while they're on the premises) Smart business owners know their clientele and should be able to determine if they're going to lose customers by going one way or the other on the smoking issue ( ... )

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darklordmoeser July 29 2009, 13:50:40 UTC

That is part of the problem with research in general, positive results are always given more weight for grants. But the same is true in private research as well. The major reason drugs are expensive is because drug companies pay their employees based on how many drug prospects they turn up, so they don't weed any of them out till they get to human trials and half of them are super toxic ( ... )