155: Yeah, we all need someone we can Durp on. And if you want it, baby, well you can Snark on me

[Someone]

Eh, it gets the job done. Considering that the only reason for ketchup is to kill the taste of whatever you're putting it on.

[Someone]

True. Ketchup is like a blindfold before a firing squad, only for the faint of heart who can’t stand to know what’s coming. Salt is the only condiment I need. Salt for my fries, and for my wounds if need be too! Give me salt or give… IDK, one of the trolls an eyeful of mustard?

[Someone]

Magiver just can't not be Magiver,
https://boards.straightdope.com/t/po...olitics/965165
(He starts pontificating at #209.)

[Someone]

actual snark! LOL

[Someone]

Fish on!

If only there was a way for you to research stuff before you post your rambling thoughts.

This quiet electric motorcycle is helping Ukrainian snipers fight back against the Russians

https://boards.straightdope.com/t/po...ics/965165/311

[Someone]

I was going to post about his ramblings yesterday, but was too tired. There aren't enough rolleyes to describe his proposition that since the doors open out from the classroom, using a vehicle to break down walls would've been the preferred approach.

[Someone]

The thought of 19 brave cops cowering in the hall until the shooting stops makes me wonder just how braveTexas cops really are.

[Someone]

Originally Posted by Someone

The thought of 19 brave cops cowering in the hall until the shooting stops makes me wonder just how braveTexas cops really are.

On the surface it certainly sounds deplorable. But I am wondering if there are nuances & technicalities that could explain some of their actions. It will be interesting to read the official report. Am guessing it will contain lots of "lessons learned."

[Someone]

I assume the nineteen brave cops would have given their lives to save a child if their bosses hadn't threatened them in some way.

[Someone]

Originally Posted by Someone

On the surface it certainly sounds deplorable. But I am wondering if there are nuances & technicalities that could explain some of their actions. It will be interesting to read the official report. Am guessing it will contain lots of "lessons learned."

Considering their compatriots in the fucking Border Patrol got sick of their whinging and cowering and blasted right past them to do the right thing I'm pretty sure the cops don't have a leg to stand on. And just in that thread--well, when LEO has lost Smapti then it's all over but the credits.

[Someone]

Originally Posted by Someone

Fish on!

https://boards.straightdope.com/t/po...ics/965165/311

You know, as Excusegiver gives excuse after excuse for why we shouldn’t judge the officers for waiting out side as children were bleeding to death, I’m reminded… of how upset s/he was in the aftermath of the *Champlain Towers South collapse, that the authorities wouldn’t undertake to search the remaining building again and again before bringing it down, even as it was dangerously unstable and threatening rescue/recovery operations.

So, it’s like cats and dogs might be roaming the hallways of a building that could collapse at any moment on actual people outside? Send in the first responders to rescue them! Children bleeding to death inside a school? Well… let’s not judge the police so harshly for taking their own sweet time about going in for them, amiright?

Anyway, Excusegiver came to my attention in the tower collapse thread, and joined the 49'ers not long after.

*ETA: See, for example,

[Someone]

Tomato ketchup is rather plebeian, I much prefer a nice banana ketchup.

[Someone]

Oh, if only you were kidding.

[Someone]

Heinz. Because Hunts is for C****.

[Someone]

Catfish?

[Someone]

Catsup

[Someone]

Originally Posted by Someone

Heinz. Because Hunts is for C****.

And Magiver isn't the only one defending the cops in that thread, although he's probably the most obnoxious. TriPolar and wguy123 are right there with him.

But I don't think they have the same history of trolling that Magiver does.

[Someone]

Also The_Librarian, who thinks it’s unfair to criticize the police response unless you have video evidence of responding to a similar situation and doing better yourself. I don’t know what they are like in other threads, so for now I’ve only put them on ignore for three months.

[Someone]

That's the problem with the dope. Too many posters there who you really want to reach out and touch with a clue by four.

[Someone]

Considering he brings up George Floyd, I wonder if HoneyBadgerDC is preparing for another of his "black people just need to act more like white people" speechs.

[Someone]

Yeah, you're not kidding - HBCC:

People were given the impression that police killings were a common occurrence. It was highly exaggerated yet in this particular case it took just that to effect change.

[Someone]

Originally Posted by Someone

Also The_Librarian, who thinks it’s unfair to criticize the police response unless you have video evidence of responding to a similar situation and doing better yourself. I don’t know what they are like in other threads, so for now I’ve only put them on ignore for three months.

My town's police department thinks they're a bunch of fucking cowards. Mercifully, we've never had a school shooting around here and please may we never ever have one, but one of the cops did enter a burning house to save a child's life and got a citation for it. I mean, it's not on video, but the kid's, like, alive and stuff.

[Someone]

Originally Posted by Someone

but one of the cops did enter a burning house to save a child's life and got a citation for it.

A friend of mine is a volunteer fireman. A few years ago he was driving home from work when he saw smoke coming from a building. The building housed a welding business and there was a residence upstairs.

He called in the fire from his cellphone, then ran up the hill to the side stairs. He ascended the stairs, found an old woman passed out, and carried her to safety. Minutes later there was an explosion (bottled gases).

He saved her life. He didn't get a citation, instead he got grief from his health insurance who initially refused coverage for his smoke inhalation and other injuries because his policy through the volunteer fire department should be responsible, but they declined to cover since he was there before the VFD response.

[Someone]

Insurance companies being uncaring agents of evil is a whole different topic though isn't it? #2 reason for true universal health care is to get these slimeball companies out of business or at least out of health care.

[Someone]

I don’t see how this particular insurance company was being evil. If it was work related, a different insurance company would have been responsible. When it was determined that it technically wasn’t work related, they paid. What’s wrong with figuring out who should be paying before someone pays?

[Someone]

No good deed goes unpunished.

[Someone]

Originally Posted by Someone

No good deed goes unpunished.

Who was punished? The medical bills were paid once the two insurance companies worked out which one it should be.

[Someone]

I just found it funny. He saved a life, but instead of a commendation or citation, all he got was grief. Neither insurance wanted to cover his bills. It got as far as the hospital sending him to collections before somebody finally paid.

[Someone]

^ Sounds like punishment to me. I freely admit I'm not good at looking at these kind of situations dispassionately.

[Someone]

Originally Posted by Someone

I don’t see how this particular insurance company was being evil. If it was work related, a different insurance company would have been responsible. When it was determined that it technically wasn’t work related, they paid. What’s wrong with figuring out who should be paying before someone pays?

You missed a key point. Health Insurance Companies are Evil, this incident just one minor example of it. But I'll duck out of this thread now, I didn't even realize what thread I was in with my first post.

Runs away

[Someone]

Originally Posted by Someone

Runs away

To What Exit?

[Someone]

Originally Posted by Someone

I just found it funny. He saved a life, but instead of a commendation or citation, all he got was grief. Neither insurance wanted to cover his bills. It got as far as the hospital sending him to collections before somebody finally paid.

Even if there's a legitimate question of who pays, it shouldn't take that long to figure it out.

[Someone]

Originally Posted by Someone

To What Exit?

The nearest one?

[Someone]

Originally Posted by Someone

Who was punished? The medical bills were paid once the two insurance companies worked out which one it should be.

I'm only guessing, but it is a guess based on my own experience and those of others I know: the guy who saved the old lady was punished because he had to fight tooth and nail to get the ultimately responsible company to pay up.

Shortly before he died, my father racked up $30,000 in medical bills that clearly should have been covered. In fact, $30k was a bargain because it covered weeks and weeks of care in a hospital in Guadalajara - had he received the same care in the US it would have cost hundreds of thousands.

After his death my mother handed my all the medical bills and said, "here - you take care of it."

I spent close to THREE YEARS fighting with the insurance company. They claimed the lists of treatments administered were not detailed enough. They said the Spanish had to be translated into English and notarized. They said the physician's name had to be on the invoice for medications. They said the receipt didn't have the full name of the hospital on it. You name it - they threw up every single roadblock they could think of, no matter how ridiculous, to delay payment. I'm surprised they didn't say, "there's a coffee stain on this receipt, we can't pay it."

I had to initiate bringing in the state attorney general's office in the state where the company was located before they finally paid up. (A good thing, too, because I got a very sympathetic, personal letter from the AG's office explaining why they would love to go after the insurers but there was some loophole that meant they didn't have jurisdiction. Presumably the insurance company didn't know that.)

No one should have to go through that kind of shit.

[Someone]

Originally Posted by Someone

They claimed the lists of treatments administered were not detailed enough. They said the Spanish had to be translated into English and notarized. They said the physician's name had to be on the invoice for medications. They said the receipt didn't have the full name of the hospital on it. You name it - they threw up every single roadblock they could think of, no matter how ridiculous, to delay payment.

And with every layer of bullshit, another percentage of customers throw up their hands and say screw it. As long as this sort of thing is (barely) legal, it will keep happening. People get Employee of the Month awards for coming up with new wrinkles.

[Someone]

I'm probably going to buy a warning for my victory dance in the Durham indictments post. Worth it, I guess.

[Someone]

Yup, that was a dandy fandango alright:

Aw, looks like Discourse won’t let me make more than four replies in a row. I was going to go through and mock each and every post from the fools who were hoping that THIS was going to be the magical moment when Trump would be proven vindicated and returned to office to preside over the breakup of Hillary’s Satanic pedophile ring. Sorry, fools. Not now. Not ever. You lost. Keep crying those beautiful tears while we laugh at your inbred stupidity.

That'll cost ya. Worth it, though.

[Someone]

Wow, WE let me slide on that one! I'm frankly surprised, but appreciative and resolving to try to not do that again outside the Pit.

[Someone]

Originally Posted by Someone

I'm probably going to buy a warning for my victory dance in the Durham indictments post. Worth it, I guess.

That was beautiful.

[Someone]

The mods are pretty good at not giving warnings to someone who doesn't usually cause problems. Unless you're a woman objecting to misogyny who offends the control freak, toxic masculinity of one certain mod. Hi chronos, ya asshole!

This happened several months ago. I'm still bitter, and while I said it wouldn't affect my posting there, it has. Still thankful to LHoD for his amazing support.

[Someone]

More a headscratcher than snark but ParellelLines has a weird view of scam-baiting as evil since it's scamming the scammer. Granted, he says it's a very very small evil but he feels even that is wrong.
Post in question.

In the traditional sense that two-wrongs don’t make a right?

Scamming a scammer = still being a scammer. But as I said, I’m not one to cast scorn, having done the same. And that in terms of moral harm, doing so to scum-sucking individuals who often are preying on the weakest members of society is a very, Very VERY minor amount in comparison.

I just don’t want to even to a minor degree be the same as that sort of scum anymore. I’m more impressed with a few anti-scammers who spend time trying to get them to think about what would happen to their own family and parents if they did the same. Not that most scammers have a heart to care by the time they contact us.

[Someone]

Some people live in a wonderful world where glitter farting unicorns pull golden carriages through fields of butterflies.
Others people choose to show scammers what it feels like to be scammed
I think we need more of the latter than the former.

[Someone]

Originally Posted by Someone

The mods are pretty good at not giving warnings to someone who doesn't usually cause problems. Unless you're a woman objecting to misogyny who offends the control freak, toxic masculinity of one certain mod. Hi chronos, ya asshole!

This happened several months ago. I'm still bitter, and while I said it wouldn't affect my posting there, it has. Still thankful to LHoD for his amazing support.

Chronos is a perfect example of the 'PhD' disease. He got his PhD [in physics] and thinks it made him an expert in everything. He works as a substitute teacher in the Cleveland, OH, school district. Make him a mod, and suddenly he knows everything. Yeah, right...

David Levy got a PhD in 'Mideval Liturature'. He knows that his 'claim-to-fame' is discovering 9 comets, including 'Shomaker-Levy-9.' He has a decenct claim to an actual PhD.

That 'Substitute teacher'? Not so much...

[Someone]

[QUOTE=Pixel;1760031]

Originally Posted by Someone

Chronos is a perfect example of the 'PhD' disease. He got his PhD [in physics] and thinks it made him an expert in everything. He works as a substitute teacher in the Cleveland, OH, school district. Make him a mod, and suddenly he knows everything. Yeah, right...

Nitpick: he doesn't have his PhD. He does have a master's degree, though. And is he teaching in Cleveland? I thought he was in Montana.

[Someone]

[QUOTE=Crafter_Man;1760061]

Originally Posted by Someone

Nitpick: he doesn't have his PhD. He does have a master's degree, though. And is he teaching in Cleveland? I thought he was in Montana.

Nitpick: It's masters degree. No apostrophe

Haj, MS.

[Someone]

OK, maybe he was working on it, rather than go it. But his 'Land of Cleves' custom title, and his talking about living in northern Ohio, plus saying he'd got the hell out of Montana should say it all about where he's living, now.

ETA: Last two posts fuck up the quote tags. Just sayin...

[Someone]

I honestly thought Chronos was an ivory tower PhD physicist. I had no idea he worked with high school kids. How does someone so clueless about human interaction function around teenagers?

[Someone]

He certainly has a PhD in assholery!

[Someone]

Wasn't Bone, Loach and Chronos modded about the same time? Who was it that flamed out (partially) here?

[Someone]

It was Bone. He showed up here and cussed someone out, then mysteriously quit the durp right after.