joncr’s Comments

• Jan 27th, 2015 @ 5:27pm

  (untitled comment)

  on Major New Google Fiber Expansion Shines Massive Spotlight On Lack Of Broadband Competition
  I'm in one of the targeted Carolina cities, currently paying Time-Warner $75 per month for something around 20MMbps. No cable TV in that fee, just the net. (I cancelled cable three years ago and within a few months they'd boosted the cost of net-only to more than what I'd been paying for TV and net.)
  
  If/when Google runs fiber to my street, I'm in. I think I'll mail TW's modem back to them so I don't have to join the queue at the store.
• Nov 20th, 2014 @ 8:25am

  Nothing Labeled 'News' Is The News

  on Yet Another Study Shows US Satire Programs Do A Better Job Informing Viewers Than Actual News Outlets
  The thing the satire shows have in common with the shows that call themselves "news" is that both are interested in the actual news only as raw material for generating shtick and content that creates ratings and revenue.
  
  The satire shows set out to entertain by confirming and comforting the biases and egos of their viewers. The news shows do the same thing to stoke their viewers anger and indignation.
• Nov 15th, 2014 @ 4:01am

  Facile and Shallow

  on David Cameron Says People Aren't Radicalized By Poverty Or Foreign Policy, But By Free Speech Online, So ISPs Agree To Censor Button
  Blaming terrorism on foreign policy and poverty is facile. How to explain being poor and not agreeing with a nation's foreign policy and *not* becoming a terrorist? How to explain *not* being poor and becoming a terrorist? (Bin Laden was born into extreme wealth, and kept it.)
  
  And, shame, Oh Shame!, on David Cameron for proposing a policy despite Techdirt trashing it some months ago. Some flunky must have forgotten to put hard copy in the PM's briefing book.
  
  (Hmmm? By the logic of this column, I am now motivated to launch a DDOS attack on this site. Right? After all, jumping straight to crime when wh don't like something is only natural.)
• Nov 14th, 2014 @ 3:53am

  Their Business, Their Rules

  on Twitter Testing Secret Filter To Stop Abuse: Is That A Good Thing Or An Attack On Free Speech?
  It's their company. Their commitment to free speech is whatever *they* decide it needs to be.
  
  They're publishers. Users are just the saps who write their copy for free.
  
  If you don't want to be edited, get your own site.
• Nov 13th, 2014 @ 4:40am

  Sorry, We're Not Paying

  on DailyDirt: Healthcare Nightmares
  After surgery several years ago in an in-network hospital and and in-network surgeon, I was dinged for the entire anesthesiology bill because my insurance carrier and the anesthesiology firm that hospital used had failed to reach an agreement on new contract terms. That had occurred prior to my surgery, but no one at the insurance carrier or the hospital thought I needed to know.
  
  All the different people that attend you during a hospital stay work for a variety of businesses, not just the hospital. At least in this instance, the hospital did the billing and collection for all of them. I received a single bill with many line items on it, with no identification at all to indicate who was billing for what.
  
  It's impossible for a for-profit market-driven health care system to provide the care everyone needs. Unaffordable profit-producing prices will inevitably prevent some people from getting needed care.
  
  One example of the hidden taxes of our current way of doing health care: The director of a large local non-profit university hospital acknowledges it pads bills to insured/paying patients by $250-$300 million annually to recover losses incurred providing mandated free emergency room care. Six other hospitals of comparable size in this two-county metro area are doing the same thing. Do the math, and then extrapolate nationwide.