TA,

I think I've got pretty good street cred on med-mal reform. I'll be happy to send you my scholarly research I did on the subject a few years back. Personally, I'd would treat tort-reform the way we do worker's comp and create a separate court system for it altogether.

Pascal, you're stark-raving nuts.
Tort reform is a red-hot issue for the neocons, far right and tea-party folks. The solutions are all over the board, but it's Issue No. 1 or No. 2 for many of them–if we believe their written and talk-show protestations.
Abdul, I'm sure your research varified that Indiana's med-mal laws were pioneering, and, basically, ineffective.
A separate court–now there's a great idea. With a judge who relaly “gets it.” Garden-variety judges, especially in this county, don't have a clue. Medical cases have become highly-technical, with hundreds of thousands of pages of evidence. The more sophisticated the tests/equipment become, the more complicated for we mere mortals to comprehend.
I was on such a jury about ten years ago. I took good notes. The forewoman was an Eli Lilly employee, and she guided us through much of the process. It was a nightmare. Still, our awards were capped by statute, and we were given strict instructions by the judge on that score.
Without scientific and medical background, how is anyone to judge these cases?
But, even so, in this state, there are stern caps. Which have rarely been raised.

TA, I'd venture to say that you have not taken a law school class of two semesters in Torts. I have. Now, between the two of us, who do you think knows what he is talking about?

She's not officially the candidate yet, but I think it is likely she will be.

Melyssa: It is not that easy for even a trained Constitutional lawyer to determine what is, and is not consitutional. If so, how is Sink-Burris going to know what five judges on the Supreme Court are going to say?

Additionally, DOMA is passed. If Democrats don't change it this year, the chance of it being changed in the future is next to nil. Not to mention, Indiana law already has a whole article saying who can, and cannot, marry.

Wow! TWO classes! When you're an anonymous nobody online like pascal is, you can claim whatever achievements you wish. Next pascal will tell us all about his 17 college degrees, his fabulous wealth, 3 nymphomaniac girlfriends and the never-ending supply of Cheetos in his basement !

They have different views on 2nd amendment. This is a good way for the candidates to bring up these differences…..I was mentioning this since Abdul mentioned they didn't go after Coats and his lobbying…this would be a good way for other candidates to go after Coats on the 2nd amendment.

We want the best candidate. A question that differentiates a candidate is a great question. I don't want it to wait until after the Primary for others to find out that Coats isn't a supporter…..After the Primary, it is too late….

While I'm beyond aghast at Democrats expanding government without a single vote of bipartisan support during an economic crisis- I can't condone a Republican out-of-town lobbyist anymore than a corrupt Republican prosecutor. You think I don't like Dan Coats, wait until the negative campaigning starts in the general election.

However, I'd take any of them if it keeps Ellsworth out. THAT, is the name of the game: What can you do to keep out those who are more influenced by plane rides with the President than what their constituency wants done?

As was said during drivetime radio last week, “This is not an election to vote Libertarian.” I'm a dues-paying member, but voting Libertarian this time helps ensure life gets even scarier- as it did when we DIDN'T elect the far-from-perfect: John McCain.

That was a bright move, wasn't it?

With due respect to the extremes of the political pendulum, swinging further sure hasn't made it better. It's just making those wascally Wepublicans look less imperfect.

Melyssa, I love you for your predictability, and as a Democrat, I hope you do vote for the Libertarian.
But you're shooting yourself in the foot, if I read your views correctly here. Ala Perot 1992.
But have at it!

The Constitution was written so that regular people can understand it. Most of the people we have in office now as D's and R's don't understand it as evidenced by how they vote to fund illegal war, etc.

TA, I'm not voting again for another R or D if there is a qualified Libertarian running. Votes for R's and D's created the very mess that is America today. And until a whole lot of other people do the same, I don't see much hope for America's improvement.

Isn't the definition of crazy to keep doing what you've always done and expecting a different result?

I must go and skulk in my tent because TA says I am wrong. With friends like Wilson11,000, fool, and purveryor of lies there isn't much to say other than to let the fool know that two semesters of Torts pretty much covers the whole law of Torts in Law School. Not that Wilson11,000lies could ever get into a decent law school even with Judge O'Conner's help.
As for taking unnecessary costs out of society, the law of Torts as it has been expanded over the years would be an excellent place to begin and medical malpractice torts would have the largest initial payoff. Think about a rational system and then we would not have ever heard of John Edwards.
The numbers of newly minted parasites would also begin to decline almost immediately.

You're saying Bob Barr cost McCain the election? Um, ok…

It's going to be a Coats/Bates race…they will have the most cash

Abdul, You dropped the ball again. I mean the Indystar beat you to the punch.

Report: Story is grim for 6 library branches
Officials told locations need to close to avoid budget deficit
http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?A…

Now as a result of Gov. Mitch Daniels property tax caps debacle, libraries are the next casualty. Along with schools, police/fire, local government and property owners. This is actually getting scary. How many homeowners have lost their homes due to paying property taxes? Is there a list or websit somewhere I can look at? Keep up the good work Abdul.

Voting for L's usually gives us D's, unfortunately. And as long as you stay on this illegal war crap, you're going to turn off those on your side who are fighting to save this country from a real imminent threat–this administration.

Are you always so violent? Stay classy, rico, stay classy…

With few exceptions, like Ron Paul, we get crap no matter whether we vote for Republican or Democrat. I'm actually pretty happy with the Libertarian representation I'm getting from Councilor Coleman. For instance Coleman is defending 2nd Amendment rights when the mayor is not.

I worked my tail off in 2007 for Ballard and am not happy that he let Brizzi and other insiders pretty much take over his transition. Subsequently we got Bob Grand as our mayor. That's not what I worked for and who I voted for.

I'm not wasting my vote anymore on Republicans unless there is not a Libertarian in the race. RICO, you are trapped in the rut. Myself and many others are getting out of it.

Did you guys see this yet? The lefties have a site dedicated to crashing the tea parties next week. Here's a link calling for suggestions of disruptive activity to make the patriots look like racists among other things. Obviously if the tea party goers were racists for real, there would be no need to infiltrate, now would there?. You have got to read this to believe it.

http://www.crashtheteaparty.org/phpBB3/viewtopi…

Nope. Saying Bob Barr and people in the middle that bought what Senator Obama was selling cost the election. If any one political party were the “solution”, I wish it were the Libertarians. For the depths of what we're in currently, I don't think so.

TA I must have miscommunicated since I have no idea of what your education, if any, might have been. I don't generally talk about things of which I know nothing. I was taking issue with the local liar and fool, he of the 11,000 ghost jobs.
I guess I know more about Senator Edwards than you do. Learn from Rico what I already knew about the democrat scum. And, Rico, TA is a gold mine for HAITI relief. For every error of his he is supposed to donate money for the relief of Haiti. You caught him out before I could so I suppose he should annotate your name on his check stub. Of course, I suspect that he is an overly liberal democrat and won't pay for this tutoring that he badly needs.
So, TA, you are not Wilson, the liar and purveyor of lies? I never thought so but both of you are covered in the Bible. “A fool finds no pleasure in understanding, but delights in airing his own opinions”. However, in consolation, you did not win the fool of the year award as Wilson has outstripped you by many miles.
Fess up, admit you know very little about Edwards, the crook, thief, democrat leader, cheat, woosie. And, as I took Torts in a first class Law School, I'd match my understanding of it against your anytime (even though I do not practice). The idea that society is a joint stock insurance company to which all must be compelled to purchase insurance belongs to Prosser. Do you see any recent modern attempts along those lines?
I discern that the idea that other people should pay for your infirmities and those of your family is a core belief of yours. And, we are supposed to shell out because you thought that you were buying insurance for yourself and for them when you actually were and were not. You were overpaying for the insurance of you and your family with the extra being used. You were used. I don't think that is any excuse for you using others. (refer to Proverb 18-2 again).

LMAO, Pascal, so now YOU are lecturing ME or anyone else, on Biblical standards, applicability, and Torts? What else is up your sleeve? Spare me.

I know enough about Edwards to feel very badly for his entire family and his campaign folks, who were, at the very least, misled. His shame will be eternal, complete with out-of-wedlock child-by-mistress, a poor thing born into a crusty situation through no fault of its own. Alas, many are similarly thrust into this cruel world.

Your earlier posts were firm in the belief that your Torts knowledge surpassed mine, and you have yet to demonstrate it here, although posts are brief and not always indicative of breeding or education. Re-read your posts. For ease of scrolling, I did this clickity from your posts:

“…TA, I'd venture to say that you have not taken a law school class of two semesters in Torts.”

And you are quite simply wrong.

I am not Wilson, he is not me, and we're both probably thankful for that. He is not my friend, nor vice-versa. You just can't get away from the wide-brush thing, can you? Myopia reigns.

As for my infirmities, I'd usually agree with those who don't want to turn America into one giant mutual health insurance company. But for me, it came down to a matter of economics:

The current system's back-shop, i.e., bookeeping, payments, regulations etc.–is the world's worst. It's cumbersome and costly.

The delivery system is one of the best, if not THE best in the world, albeit oft duplicituous and bereft of proper resource allocation.

So, I've come to the reluctant conclusion, that the industry cannot and will not police its own administrative nightmare. The cost has become unbearable, and government must step in to level the field. It is the leveler of last resort, the only one with enough skin in the game to make changes stick.

Lest every American-made produc tbe saddled with even more competitive global disadvantage than current practice.

I could be wrong. We will see. One thing is absolutely certain: the health insurers, and to some degree the admins for health practicioners, have had it their way for five decades. And look what we've got: last week, a simple blood test for HDL cost me $277 and 11 pages of forms. Here's the breakdown:

My insurance paid zero, because I haven't reached by $5,000 deductible yet. If it had paid anything it'd be 80% of the “Normal and customary” fee, which they judged to be about $155. $122 of fluff built into a system that couldn't provide me with a decent explanation. Multiply that over hundreds of thousands of procedures daily nationwide, about one-third with no nsurance whatsoever, and there you have it: admin oveerhead is already paying for the uninsured.

Why not fess up and make the system more transparent?

(Still with me, pascal, or are you back cracking the tort books?)

Hector, don't vie with Wilson11000 for fool of the year. Rico isn't THE source he is merely confirming the truth and TA's rather perfect ignorance that the scummy Edwards was a personal injury parasite.
” FYI, I think former Sen. Edwards (no hero of mine) made most of his money on accident cases…i.e., ambulance chasing. Not med/mal”. TA not thinking, TA dead wrong, Hector too if he believes the same quoted material. Rico only confirms what all thinking people know about former Senator John Edwards-media darling and coddled and protected by duh media as most dumbocraps have been. Thank God for the National Enquirer who has old standards of journalism.
“Pascal, you're stark-raving nuts.
Tort reform is a red-hot issue for the neocons, far right and tea-party folks”. It is also an actual issue. Unlike most posters here one does not have to be nuts to have an opinion on the matter and I thought it useful to point out that I do have an informed opinion on the matter. I suppose lawyers could take more than two semesters in Torts but I don't know why they would. The folks you suggest who have the issue as a red hot one likely have real world events that they use to base their opinions upon.
You fail to mention that your errors alone would make a great head start on the Haiti relief cause.
I would not know how to give you the demonstration of superiority that you desire, at least one that would stick and that you would not seek to squirm out of. EG both you and Wilson11000 haven't much regard for truth and often have the same positions on matters. He is a fool. You often say foolish things. Forgive me for equating the two of you. I accept that he is a fool and you are merely foolish at times…..the times where you write about what you do not know.
Government is the problem with health care. More government is not any solution to the problem. Deregulation offers promise and much lower costs but you still ought to pay out of pocket for a simple blood test same as you do for a toothache. I don't wish to pay a dime for either since it is your blood and your unbrushed teeth.
As to your HDL test a possible answer is this: the blood profile test used to be a CHEM 12 or some such jargon and the HDL number is just one item of some 20 or 30 items that go through an automated procedure. That is, the technology at one time did that and one dollar amount covered all of the tests. Now, my pathologist source at one time told me that the Pathologists Associated had charges that were obscene for this particular test-but that was years ago. You want HDL numbers for some reason (mine don't change much) you pay for the one test. There might not be a test for just HDL and very little demand for just that one number.
The field is open for you to develop a test for HDL alone and park the machines into evey gym in the country and make millions, or not.
Did you shop around for prices on your HDL test? Is there any reason why blood testing could not be a part of every pharmacy in the land-satisfying consumer demand? And, what is your beef anyway when you knowingly purchased a $5,000 deductible? Did you think, as most Obama supporters do, that anything with a Red Cross on it ought to be free? If you had purchased a zero deductible policy and one without co pays then you would have no beef at all (and no time to post here).
Prosser's tort text comes in the one volume, I think. I haven't seen it for years although I think I still have it somewhere. Prosser's text is being replaced in the better law schools and I have discussed my ideas about his Torts with the author of one of the replacing textbooks.
If you really want to know about how to fix things there is no dumbocrap you can turn to. My broad brush says that they are all corrupt and all of them have been purchased. You could begin with Imprimus articles (which are free) from Hillsdale.edu or download the written plan by Congressman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin who goes into considerable detail. He was the point man who demolished our affirmative action President (and from whom the dumbocraps stole some good ideas).
Ryan's Hillsdale article is February 2010 and worth a read.

Everybody on here has name either real or screen name. There is no reason to refer to anyone by their religion. I am offended by your doing that.

Finally listened to the whole debate, Abdul. Very interesting. Thanks for posting it.

Don't know if this helps, but Hoaglin To Go (downtown) has complete mastery of torta reform.