What about when its too late to not get a pet? I have one and he was recently diagnosed with epilepsy, this was after $3000 worth of test and that was our last bit of money. now he's getting bad seizures and we had to do emergency vet care that we knew we couldn't afford and we are now another $600 in the hole and this is just the beginning. we can't afford this. We love our dog and are broken up over this and we don't know what to do. we are worried we won't be able to find someone to take him from us that can care for him properly and we know that we can no longer care for him properly. So far we can't find anyone to take him and if we keep him that means when he has more problems or more seizures since the medicine doesn't completely keep them from happening it just controls them to make them less severe, so when he does have them we can't afford to take him in to the hospital when he has more than 4 in a day (he has cluster seizures). We are very torn as to what to do, it seems as though euthanizing him may an option because what kind of life is that if he needs medical attention we can't give him because we don't have the money.

First of all, if someone is young and healthy and doesn't want health insurance (maybe they get sick once a year and it doesn't benefit them to pay for a policy), why should they HAVE to buy it? The answer is that those young and healthy people spending $X,XXX a year on health insurance, but only using a very small amount of it, will be paying for the people who use more than their $X,XXX of health insurance. How is that democratic? Let me put it this way...say you take great care of yourself. Don't smoke, don't drink alcohol, workout, take vitamins, get plenty of rest, go to your wellness exams, blah, blah, blah. Your neighbor, on the other hand, stays up late, parties all night, smokes like 2 packs of ciggarettes a day, drinks like a fish, never works out, smokes something out of a pipe, and has already had a heart attack or two. It's his right to treat his body however he wants.....right, but still pay the same amount of insurance premiums you do? I believe our health insurance industry needs reform. How about starting with taking the government's hands out of it? The government isn't a business. Businesses create jobs and produce something, whether it be a product or a service. The government creates jobs, sure, but doesn't produce a single product or service. Yet they suck the money out of the businesses that DO produce a product or service in the form of regulations, taxes, and CAFE standards. Here's my other major problem with this whole 'health care' reform: I know a girl who is 29, married and has 3 kids. Her last 2 kids were very pre-term due to her hereditary high blood pressure (which she knew about after the 1st one). She doesn't plan to take any precautions to not get pregnant again, even though she would be risking her life and the baby's if she did. Not my problem. I love her and I would never want anything to happen to her or a baby of her's, but ultimately it's her decision. Also, she is receiving Medicaid for herself and her 3 kids and lying to get it. She sent an e-mail out about how she can't wait for universal healthcare (but aren't we really talking about health 'insurance' and not 'care'; let's face it...we can get health 'care' in any emergency room in the US). Her point is that her family can't afford $200/month for insurance, and she asked "how are we supposed to afford health insurance?" I answered her back and said "It's all about priorities...you have 2 vehicles, a motorcycle (that has been wrecked and repaired), 2 laptops, and 2 flat-screen TVs. If health insurance was a priority for you, you would give anything to have it, and maybe forgoe things that aren't essential to living." She is representative of SOOOOOO many people! Cell phones, fake nails, expensive hair-dos, cars, computers, iPods and what-not are a bigger priority to them than health insurance. And these are the people that are screaming for universal health insurance when they already have it! See, they have this misconception that it will bring their standard of care up. But in reality, it will bring everyone else's down to their level. My parents, my sister and her family and my brother all have Tricare (military insurance). You can't find a doctor, dentist or pharmacy within 20 miles of my house that accepts it. Why? Beacause they never pay what they say they will, and payments are 6 months behind.

A real challenge huh?. snicker. I'm sure it'll all work out. Fingers crossed.

Thanks, guys! Q Re: Mollugo verticillata: Why the different growth pattern? To me, this ---> http://www.asergeev.com/p/xl-2012-1070-18/college_station_bastrop-green_carpetweed_mollugo_verticillata_near.jpg  looks quite different from this---> https://www.minnesotawildflowers.info/udata/r9ndp23q/pd/mollugo-verticillata-12948.jpg ). The former is what's growing around here; compact clumps with all leaves more or less the same size.