I recently read an interesting anecdote that illustrates some reasons why American healthcare is more expensive and at the same time, the only place in which you can get "better" care than in some of the European "socialist utopias." The reason for this is because socialized medicine restricts what medical services you can get in order to keep the costs low. In the U.S.A., people don't want that so they ask for both unlimited medical care and socialized medicine. At inflated prices. So the U.S.A. ends up spending much more than other places for medical care. But you have access to more services. This is the result of the unsustainable system in which we're living. It's an interesting anecdote, if you have the time to read it.

Also, you had said that "poor" people cannot afford the preventive approach, alternative ways to stay healthy. This is an inaccurate generalization, and completely untrue. But, still, even so, do you honestly think that the socialized healthcare systems in the European utopias that you mention would pay for preventative care like eating healthy food, doing yoga, seeing an acupuncturist regularly, buying herbs from a naturopath, going to the gym, or anything else that's not the "standard" and "approved" medicine that those health systems recognize as "legitimate" healthcare?

My Italian visiting friend happens to be a Feldenkrais practitioner. Do you think that European socialized healthcare pays for people to go see him to prevent later knee or hip replacements or back surgeries? Do you know what health "insurance" in these countries pays for or what it doesn't?

If anything, health insurance encourages people to not do these preventive things and just go see a doctor and/or take some pills because doing that is cheaper as insurance pays for it while they have to pay for the preventive stuff out of pocket. "Cut it or drug it" is the insurance company's motto. A socialized healthcare system would be no different.

It is truely a finely tuned machine. Never had a bad experience. You can tour it also. There is only one(I would hate to see this Mecca become a chain). It has been a few months since I had their grub. Where I live now takes me 45 minutes to get there. I might tell the roommate to pic up my favorite, gnocchi with homemade italian sausage smothered with cheese. He works 10 minutes from it. Now I am hungry.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=10f_1188034309

Pile Up on Italian Expressway

Sorry about the quality of this vid, appears to be condensation and rain on the camera lens.
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After slushy snow re-froze on this expressway in Porto San Georgio, Ascoli Piceno, Italy, it created an ultra-slick driving surface. The result was a multi-car pile-up that was captured by an unmanned traffic camera.

*length=3:57

"Italian douchebag" seems to sum him up (from this short glimpse of him at least).

Great last line. Funny that his title on the label beside his door reads "One cranky fake Italian."

Between being fit, having a cute doggy and speaking Italian, if he came to the states he'd have to beat off the women with a riot hose.

Race issues, meh. Let's talk about that blond bimbo that just sits there and adds nothing to the dialog. At least she's being seen and not heard. Thank god for the small things.

I'm just kidding. Man, I'm always kidding. Except when it comes to the police. Fuck those guys. Except women police. They're hot. Unless they're black. Then they're scary.

Black men, let's talk about black women. That's a double wammy.

@Velocity5: What do Asian and white parents think of that? (What I just said above.)

How about if you have both an Asian AND a white parent? And does it make a difference if it's an Asian mom and white dad versus a white mom and an Asian dad?

Do white women even marry Asian men?

Also, is the white parent Irish, Italian or Jewish? And is the Asian parent Korean or Malaysian? Because I don't think they count for your demographic. (Those are the scary whites and Asians.)

This type of person is pretty common in Britain. They mistake self satisfaction for happiness.
The illusion falls apart when they get to around 50.
It won't be long before she'll be sitting at an Italian marble work surface in her bespoke kitchen drinking Pinot at nine in the morning, calling her blind twelve year old Labradoodle “Darling”

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

Hey mister Italian ant eater, you've been gifted a 30 day charter membership by an admiring Sifter. Cheers!

There was a place near my house as a kid that was a mafia front business-You could bring your 1:32 scale cars and race them on their tracks.The whole place was full of kids and their dads and Buncha Italian guys hung out in there alla time prolly' organizing more crimes, while playing with their slots like teenaged boys.
Took us about a year to tire of that then on to new father'n son gigs....

Ant, you are just so damn cute. I've never asked somone what their favorite food is and gotten such an extensive list (and even more impressive...it's in alphabetical order) as a response before. I thought you might say "italian food" or something like that. YOU ARE ADORABLE. Hey, isn't curry too spicy for you?

I'll feed you breakfast....let's have...french toast with sliced bananas on top instead of syrup. Sound good? What do you like to drink?

5 more comments have been lost in the ether at this killed duplicate.

I love Italian hand gestures, they're my favorite thing.

I'm gonna wait til this 3rd season finishes and do a 3-season marathon-By that time the hash should be here

My roomys' been following this series like religion and now that peeps don't have to indulge in the anxiety associated with weekly installments, I don't bother-It's enough anticipatory torture enough for me watching the vegetables and herbs, grow.
Besides that, there are more interesting topics to discuss than entertainment trivia, right??

I still watch Deadwood again and again and again....can't get enough of the all-time best western drama ever rendered for television. Feature westerns have barely come close, MAYBE Leone...(suspension of disbelief goes out the window with his stuff though, once you realize all but a few cowboys are Italian)

@bareboards2

You might be interested to hear that here in Melbourne restaurants are importing Italian workers, but in Italy itself pizzerias are hiring Egyptians!