People always talk about the traditions of the rich to hold big charity fundraisers. I've always maintained that those are nothing more than a variation of conspicuous consumption. Certainly there are people like Gates and Buffett who seem sincere, but the average 1%er is simply showing up to be seen throwing cash away with their heart displayed proudly on their sleeve. And carefully preserving the receipt for tax time.

Almost downvoted your comment..but instead I'll kindly ask you to....
Please read the link above provided by @speechless

He could NOT have defended his actions under ANY circumstances. Physically abusing citizens and denying them their guaranteed rights against illegal search and seizure can NEVER be defended...and that's exactly what he did, he does not deny it, and said he would do it again, unless on camera, because he knows it 'looks' bad...(maybe because it IS bad?).
What happened was they saw 2 kids come out of the woods (from a party nearby) and saw what they thought was a gun in the back of the car the kids were approaching. For some reason, he thought that gives him the right to search the car, and beat the kids until they comply (or until he can snatch their keys). There was no report of any incident, he just needed to be a bully in hopes of finding something to screw them for, apparently because they didn't bow down and kiss his asshole (in their defense, they couldn't tell where to kiss since his entire being is asshole). (the gun was a .22, purchased that day, unfired, in box, with receipt, perfectly legal and never seen outside the car)

Knowing they were being recorded by their own cameras has not stopped MANY a cop from behaving atrociously in recent times, they just don't care most of the time, and get away with it nearly all of the time.

Oh man...how do I buy a bitcoin ATM? I want 7! I'll put them all in airports and just hope people never come back to redeem their worthless receipt.
I'm only 1/2 kidding about that. It sounds like a money printing machine.

Cast...muumph. Stunts meh, CGI FRIDAYS.... Jokes and gags?? (see Family Guy reruns)- Creator of Family Guy feature film destined to reign in first-place in next week's box receipts??...Death of comedy, art, and pop-culture on skids running downhill into a sewage-bilge pit.

If you watch this week's episode of Breaking Bad, it will all make sense. It's even funnier tho if you know the whole context.

Here's the synopsis for this week's episode in which wiki describes this portion of the story as follows:

"Walt and Skyler invite Hank and Marie to a restaurant. The Whites try to convince the Schraders to keep their children out of the situation, but the Schraders refuse to comply; Marie even states bluntly that Walt should kill himself to end it all. As the Whites leave, Walt gives his in-laws a DVD of his "confession." Playing it at home, Hank and Marie discover it is really a form of blackmail accusing Hank of being the mastermind of the Heisenberg empire and forcing Walt to cook meth for him. Hank then finds out that operation and therapy which made him walk again was paid at Walt's expense, from Marie's unwitting receipt of Walt's drug money, which gives credence to Walt's story and torpedoes his own credibility."

I don't think he's correct in how much things cost. Different hospitals in different locations in the U.S. charge considerably different amounts for say a hip replacement. You can't accurately generalize costs like this.

It's interesting to note that he says Americans go to the doctor less frequently than Europeans. It'd be interesting to find out the reasons why, if this is in fact the case. This goes along with what he says that Americans are not "sicker" than Europeans or "other people."

Also, to say Americans pay more for healthcare does not take into account how much Europeans pay in taxes in order to get whatever healthcare they get. So it's not clear where he gets that Americans pay more for healthcare or how he measures that.

Also, in places like Italy, you get "discounts" on healthcare if you don't ask for a receipt, pay in cash, etc., bringing costs down as the providers can then avoid having to report that income. For similar reasons, the statistics on how much people actually spend on healthcare doesn't reflect this underground economy.

He's correct that doctors are paid more in the U.S. There's also the IP/patent problem and the FDA and other trade restrictions that limit the availability of drugs which jacks up prices in the U.S.

He's also advocating cronyism here as a good way to lower prices, which, I assure you, is not a good way to go. I can tell you that doesn't lower any prices in the long run. But in the short run, it's like giving all government business to Walmart so that they can keep prices low. That works until ... they put competitors out of business. Then they jack up prices again, once their monopoly is ensured.
He, of course, advocates centralized planning to keep costs low. That's why Cuba has "cheaper" healthcare. That's also why Cubans are mostly poor.

The reason you can't negotiate effectively, as he says, is not because healthcare is different from any other service or good, but because of all the burdensome regulations and protectionism that surrounds it.
Basically he either doesn't know what he's talking about or he has some other agenda -- like, for example, being "hip."

I think he's also not talking about average individual healthcare costs, but how much the "country" as a whole, spends on healthcare, which is quite different.

If you are truly curious I hope you'll read everything.

TLDR Post Inc:

It's basically pragmatism and the slippery slope. You're making a registry of all the citizens who own guns. I mean have you ever applied for your firearms license before? Have you ever purchased a handgun? It's pretty crazy.

I wanted to purchase a handgun about 10 years ago after I got held up. It took me over 6 months to get my permit. Then it took me about another month to be able to purchase a handgun.

The Process:
In order to get your firearms id card you have to apply for it. Part of the process involved me having a sit down "evaluation" with a detective that was basically an interrogation for about 30 minutes.

Then once that detective says "this guys not crazy" He takes his form and all my information and mails it to the FBI. Then I had to wait about six months for the FBI to say "this guys not crazy and/or a terrorist.

When I have my Firearms ID card I can buy a shotgun or a rifle if I want that's no problem. But if I want to buy a handgun (which I did) I have to go back to get a handgun permit. Luckily since I was applying for my firearms permit they also gave me one (read one) permit to buy a handgun. I could buy one handgun; If I wanted more I had to apply for ANOTHER permit. Not another Firearms ID Card just another Handgun permit.

So I take my permit and I purchase said gun. I can't purchase the gun after 5:00 PM because the NIC office over at the FBI closes and they have to call it in. Even AFTER they call it in I still had to wait like 6 days before I could pick it up.

I receive a copy of the permit (and a receipt) , the dealer gets a copy, and the last part gets sent to the FBI. Once the FBI confirms they have a copy of the permit (which includes the serial # that is on multiple parts of the gun) then and only then am I allowed to pickup my firearm.

So even if I sold it to someone everyone would know know who it belonged to beforehand.

I'm not sure how much more gun control you can have. The "gun" that needs the most "control" are handguns because they are used in almost all gun related crimes if you look at the stats.

I wont' get into hypothetical situations about how citizens could perform those checks or whatever. I just want to show how regulated things are already. The idea that I could purchase like 10 handguns and then re-sell them all to someone else and NEVER have it traced back to me seems almost impossible. Heck I doubt I could even get approved to own that many handguns!

Also:

I'm not a "giant conspiracy" kind of person. But I feel like with the way government has been going with Guantanamo, stop and frisk, not really enforcing a lot of anti-trust laws, not really prosecuting some of the big banks responsible for what happened, etc etc etc I just feel like there really an upward swing for government control and collusion with protecting their own interests and not the interests of the people.

I don't see the government as an instrument of the people anymore it just seems to be wealthy people patting each other on the back.

What happened in Boston really upset me where people were just pulled out of there houses at gunpoint because there "could be" a terrorist nearby.

I believe that Obama has a good reason for trying to put these tools in place and he has no motive behind it he is just trying to protect the American People in his own way. But I don't believe gun control will help at all and all it will do is put more of a hindrance on law abiding citizens. I'd equate these laws to Anti-Piracy solutions? Ala Sims3 and Diablo etc etc. It just punishes the actual customer NOT the criminal.

If you told me there was a way to ensure program the registry of gun owners could only be searched if the striations from a bullet were scanned that was used in a crime or something like that I'd be fine with it. But there really is no way to do that.

Sorry it was long but it's not really something I can just say something short.

I'm sure people will says "Well what are your guns going to do against tanks and helicopters and xyz xyz". First I'll point to Iraq and Afghanistan and how well those "wars" went. Everyone can agree it was a disaster and we probably made a lot of terrorists by just killing people innocent or not. The same thing would happen here in America.

Would the government actually TRY to take over? I don't' believe so because it's not in our best financial interests. Everyone wants to stay wealthy and some sort of civil war would be horrible for our economy. But I believe over time constantly just eroding our rights will just lead to that. People got pulled out of their homes at gunpoint and screamed at by police in boston and they were just like "Well the police are just trying to keep us safe!" I just find that creepy.

There's a saying blah blah blah doesn't go out with a bang it happens with a whimper. I'm not going to make myself look smart by googling the quote.

Anyway that's my whole post sorry if it's long but I'm tired. I would have put it in the discussion section but I'm not at the appropriate star level.

Just an Idea.... Why not put an automatic barrier strap/gate that opens up with a receipt barcode? just like in Car parks, Supermarkets, etc...?

So is this a "commercial" or is it "viral"?

Good program. Good PR. I'm glad they are doing this, and it will start to help to repair the Davis police's reputation after the recent pepper spraying of protesters.
That said. I have no problem with them issuing warnings or citations for people riding on the streets without lights or proper reflectors. Hopefully the viral video will have a broader positive effect than citations.
Another thing police could do with any sort of 'not up to code' violation, would be to issue a citation, but wave the fee if you can demonstrate that you have fixed the problem within 30 days.. for example, by mailing in a copy of the receipt for a bike light.

Relevant story: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/01/31/applebees-fires-waitress-for-exposing-pastors-give-god-10-no-tip-receipt/