nickiwest

I feel like if we have a minimum age of 35 for a President, it wouldn't be unreasonable to have a maximum age of 70, which is double the minimum age.

I really think that anyone who is eligible to retire and draw Social Security should be aged out of public office. I wish that older people in government would retire and go enjoy their lives.

The Boomers got that opportunity from the generations before them. (Bill Clinton took office when he was 46. That was 32 years ago.) They have held on to power for far longer than is reasonable. Gen X never really expected to make a difference, but it would have been nice to at least have had the opportunity to try.

That was my immediate thought.

(Anyone reading this who doesn't understand, please trust me when I say that you don't want to. You can't unsee that, even 25+ years later.)

I assume they were trash-talking el presidente together, which could be political suicide for a Republican in Texas.

In some places in the US (I've never lived in NY, so I'm not sure if it applies there) when you file as an independent candidate, you have to produce a petition with a certain number of signatures with your paperwork.

This generally limits the number of crazy uncles who can appear on the ballot.

Instructions unclear; now I look like Nicolas Cage.

Since he has started signing some of his posts (like my mom signs her texts), I do wonder if the unsigned ones are posted by someone else. Or maybe he just thinks he should sign the Really Important Ones.

The bajillion stories in the comments about horrible experiences with math just reinforce the fact that I've made the right career choice.

I became an elementary teacher as a second career specifically because so many elementary teachers are absolutely terrible at teaching math. (Mostly because they don't actually understand the math that they're teaching. In my university cohort, almost 50% of my classmates failed the math entrance exam the first time. There was nothing more complex than 5th grade math on that test.)

Students should be allowed to use the strategies that work for them, and they should definitely never be punished for knowing math from higher grade levels.

If a student in my class knows something more advanced, I will challenge them to use grade-level-appropriate strategies to prove that their answers are correct. And if they demonstrate that they can do both, I'll give them more advanced work to help them grow.

That's a procedural rule I wasn't aware of. Thanks for the clarification.

I don't understand why literally every Democrat in the Senate didn't line up to filibuster this bill. Booker's performative filibuster was toothless. This could actually have done something to change public policy.

US expat in Colombia

For the general population, if you're sick you go to urgent care and maybe wait for several hours. If you need to see a specialist, those appointments can take a couple of weeks to a couple of months, depending on the type of specialty. Either way, the cost is about $3 (all prices are rough equivalents in USD) per visit to see a doctor.

My employer signed me up for private insurance that gives me "concierge service," so I have access to a different network of doctors with shorter wait times. If I'm sick, I can get a same-day house call. If I need a specialist, I can usually get an appointment in a two-week time frame. I pay about $50 per month for that (in addition to my normal taxes, which are used to fund the public system). My copay per visit, regardless of the type of doctor or procedure (exams, MRIs, etc.) is about $10.

One time, I paid out of pocket for an ultrasound because I didn't want to wait for the insurance company to approve it and go back for a separate appointment. It cost me about $25.

Same.

I'm no programmer by any means, but I've always been more tech-savvy than the average bear. I finally took the plunge and added a Linux partition to my computer because I read enough posts here that piqued my curiosity.

You jest, but I can assure you that alligator is delicious.