BJ FOR A LIVING

Our govt. makes promises and then cheats any way they can. In
1957 I was making those promises to the members of the crew I was on.
Expexted 1st question- why is our pay so low. Answer to that and
12 other expected questions-"Well that is because of all the benifits
that you will recieve in retirement- 100% medical care for you and your wife, unlimited commisary privileges for you and your wife,
unlimited base exchange privileges for you and your wife, unlimited
space available travel world wide for you, unlimited use of military
recreational facilities for you and your wife. TAKE A LOOK AT IT.
100% means just that. No co pay , NO buy In, No short change.
Cost of living raises have NEVER covered TAXES-so 30 years after
retiring your "Trippled RET PAY" will buy 40% of what it would buy
the day you retired. Long term care is not covered at all. However
the "HOUSE OF THIEVES & THE HUNDRED BANDITS" have taken every thing
they promised the military for THEMSELVES, and few of them have been
shot at. From now on they should GO first. Dates back to Boy GEORGE
and the continential congress. JUST REMEMBER WHO PAYS THE BILL!

Are you sure your comment is directed at the right party?

I was diagnosed with a degenerative eye condition while serving in Korea within two weeks of my normal seperation in 1969. I was offered a medical discharge but would have had to extend my service by several months to get it. Probably very foolishly, I declined and accepted my normal seperation and discharge date. I have been trying to obtain my medical records for several years, but the VA declines to provide them. I do not want to think, but cannot help suspect, that the reason they have not provided them is to foil an application for disability. I do not want to think, but cannot help suspect, that they would even remove applicable sections to foil an application for disability. Ultimately, and this means within the coming year, I may have to try to accelerate the glacial pace at which they correspond [Nine months to answer a letter? Come on!] by appealing to the offices of my U.S. Representative and Senators.

In the several months after my original surgery in 1995, when I could not drive, read or do much more than navigate about a room cloaked from daylight (sunlight HURT), I received not one cent in public assistance. There was no help from the Social Security Administration. There were no food stamps. There was no assistance from the state department of vocational rehabilitation. There was nothing. And I had my poor wife drive me about and place phone calls as I groveled and begged. With two teenage kids at home and no income or disabilty payments to provide for my family, it was the worst time of my life.

The "social workers" from the VA declared that I was entitled to nothing from their employer. Were it not for independant veterans' representatives (people who represent our interests contrary to the desire of the Veterans' Administration) I would have been left totally isolated. And the government's position has been nothing but stonewall.

I'd heard that veterans of our defeated World War enemies, Germany and Japan, received better treatment than our own. I no longer doubt the truth of that statement.

I have a similiar situation with a knee problem. Not suitable for
world wide service, therefore not retainable, but if you can
stand on it and move-nada. Your Medical records may have been in
the St louis fire. Two things get your Senator to look into it, and
it may be possible even at this late date to change the status of your
discharge. Have the senator look into both. It is no freebie you
paid for it long ago.

I do not want to think, but cannot help suspect, that the reason they have not provided them is to foil an application for disability.

File the application. That is a sure fire way to get your medical records evaluated. I sincerely doubt someone in the VA is intentionally snowballing you. For your disablity to be considered service connected and compensable, there must be proof that your medical condition existed while you were on active duty. Once that is established have a civilian MD evaluate the severity of your current condition. He would need to submit a statement and connect your current condition to your military service. It is a time consuming but fairly straight forward process. FILE THE APPLICATION. That's where your legal rights start.

As a side note, even if it is established that your medical condition was NOT service connected, you can still apply for a VA pension. You would need to prove your financial need. Again, that process is pretty straight forward. Go to www.va.gov and read about it. Don't waste your time with Congressional fluff. All you will get is lip service.

Good luck to you

RB

I'm glad I posted here. You all have been most helpful. I wish us all good things for the coming year. We're overdue.

Igor

I believe the failure rate for start-up small business is very high. I forget the statistic, but I think it was something like 90%. That is, most people who start their own business fail. People who start with a high RoR may actually be at less risk than those who start conventional business.

Now later in the thread you made a comment about 1% being an excessively high RoR for big business like GM or IBM. I wouldn't be surprised if more than 1% of the DJ-30 have gone under at one time or another. Isn't there some current scandal about a firm called EnRon which went under.

BTW, I like you suggestion of increasing your bets as your bank increases, but at a slower rate, so that your betting fraction decreases.

You are adding in common sense and you math guys aren't allowed to
do that. Heresy!!!!!

that it's exactly the other way around ?

"You are adding in common sense and math guys aren't allowed to do that."

"I believe the failure rate for start-up small business is very high. I forget the statistic, but I think it was something like 90%. That is, most people who start their own business fail. People who start with a high RoR may actually be at less risk than those who start conventional business."

You're comparing AMATEUR entrepreneurs with PROFESSIONAL Bj players. The rational expectation theory applies to neither, not all players and business guys are equal. There specialty is different too, put an oil tycoon to run casinos and ev changes. You cannot calculate ROR without a confident ev estimation.

"BTW, I like you suggestion of increasing your bets as your bank increases, but at a slower rate, so that your betting fraction decreases."

I suggested this before with by combining CAPM model in finance with the life cycle investment theory. Reference is my debate about Markovs chains and Brownian diffusion with "The Mayor", post titled "Graduating from Blackjack". Maybe nobody understood me. I have the paper with the mathematical proofs to show that increase ROR/a declining Utility function.

I simply accept it as "given". If someone needs to even discuss it then they are nowhere near ready. I ate a free dinner tonight on a coupon I got in the mail and cashed $75 in coupons. I cashed several hundred on my last road trip. I take it as a given that anyone thinking about professional bj is already an expert comp hustler. If not, forget it. Nearly all expenses must be comped and all remaining expenses must be totally miniscule relative to your betting level.

They were big but their success was based on huge speculation. That company was playing with a very high ROR.

and implemented "National health care" or whatever he called it, we would all be getting this kind of medical care.

The Va seems to have always been the employer of last resort for medical professionals. How about a podiatrist who refuses to allow the removal of shoes in his presence? How about a psychiatrist [not my idea, all patients were required to undergo a mental hygene evaluation] who commits suicide? Both of these people worked at the clinic I attend.

Actually, I'm in favor of nationalized heath care. Close to one dollar in seven that Americans spent is for health care. This is more than a river of cash; it is the Amazon. America has the most expensive health care in the world. Compare it to countries without socialized medicene, where the free market controls pricing (like most of Latin America) and ours isn't two or three times as expensive; try ten or fifteen times. And American medical care is a bastion of wealth protected by the Republican Party. When Clinton suggested that Americans consider that they have the option to modify the systems that deliver their health services, the Republicans insisted that there be appointed a special prosecutor to search for a pretext to impeach him. They'd waited half a century to get a Congressional majority, and now they were going to show the country why they couldn't be entrusted with one. Meanwhile people like me are literally forced to go blind to fatten their patrons' wallets.

And to think I shook R. M. Nixon's hand in 1960, campaigned for Goldwater in 1964 and used my absentee ballot from the other side of the Pacific to put Nixon in office in '68. No one can tell me anything about Republicans; I was one for decades.