GOVEROTRAGEOUS: End employer-provided health care now

Monday, March 22, 2010

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2010/03/a_common_sense_idea_regarding.html

March 21, 2010
A common sense idea regarding health insurance
John Conlin

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End employer-provided health care now. Don’t tax it, end it. Company paid health insurance was never a planned policy. It was a response to temporary and artificial restrictions on wages during World War II. Wage controls were in place and companies discovered another method to compete for employees – company paid health insurance. This was deductible by the business as normal operating expenses, something not offered to the individual. We have lived with this monstrosity ever since.

*** end quote ***

Sounds like a good idea.

Think about it like “life insurance”.

It’s cheap, easy, and lightly regulated to prevent fraud. Even car insurance is better than what we have now. And, my favorite “pet health insurance”.

It’ll become available form credit unions, fraternal organizations, and yes even the AARP!

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POLITICAL: Reigning in corporate salaries; a modest proposal.

Monday, March 22, 2010

http://rss.macworld.com/click.phdo?i=24a69419b68dce263a006cdb9675b4a0

AT&T CEO’s pay jumps 35 percent to $20.3 million in 2009

from Macworld by Ann Bednarz

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AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson’s stock awards fell 8 percent in 2009, but he earned a cash bonus of $5.85 million that helped increase his total compensation by 35 percent.

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Corporations are are a gooferment creation. So, needless to say, they are screwed up.

It’s unseemly for ANY corporation employee to have a salary greater than that of the President.

The gooferment’s creation fails to align the interest of the owners and the employees.

The gooferment could correct that error with five year stock options as the manner of executive compensation. Or maybe, a mix of options that vest from 10 to 50 years? With a sliding scale, weighted towards the middle?

That could be done with the stroke of a pen.

If I was “king”, I’d have the “Sheriff of Nottingham” (aka the IRS) audit any company that pays salaries greater than that of the Prez.

How fast could things change?

How many lobbyists and politicians would have their pockets stuffed with cash to kill this?

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SOFTWARE: TextExpander problem

Sunday, March 21, 2010

TextExpander had a brain fart. Somehow all my snippets were wiped out.

Again!

Argh!

Don’t know why? Again!

I tried to find the correct file to restore. (Didn’t write it down last time.)

So, as usual, the fat old white guy injineer had his own recovery plan.

I built the import files so that I could recover it.

*** begin quote ***

I’m sorry to hear that. You’ll need to restore your snippets from your backup:
1. Visit the TextExpander system preferences
2. Click the Preferences tab
3. Hold the Option key and click “Enable TextExpander” (which will kill TextExpander’s background process)
4. Quit System Preferneces
5. Restore this file from your backup:
[Home]/Library/Application Support/TextExpander/Settings.textexpander
6. Visit the Preferences tab of the TextExpander system preferences
7. Click “Enable TextExpander”
Thanks for using TextExpander from SmileOnMyMac!
Regards,
TextExpander Support

*** end quote ***

My way is faster. I think.

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RANT: Rosie O’Donnell Back to Daytime TV; not on my TV

Sunday, March 21, 2010

http://showbiz411.wordpress.com/2010/03/19/rosie-odonnell-back-to-daytime-tv/

Rosie O’Donnell Back to Daytime TV
Published March 19, 2010 Television Leave a Comment

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Rosie O’Donnell is headed back to daytime TV.

My sources say that Rosie will fill the void left by Oprah Winfrey starting in the fall of 2011.

Rosie was overheard telling pals at Joe Allen’s restaurant in New York last night that deal is almost done to restore her to her place as Queen of DaytimeTalk.

*** end quote ***

REF: https://reinkefaceslife.com/2010/02/19/rant-queen-of-nice-calls-rush-limbaugh-a-junkie/

Sorry, Rosie, you fooled me once.

You and your talk show foil Garofalo.

When you needed the viewers, it was all sweetness and light. Once you didn’t you trashed the simpletons that believed you.

Well, sorry, fool me once.

And, it’s not a gay thing. See, when we watched you, we knew you were, you just took care not to rub our noses in it. Everyone is entitled to privacy and choices. Just not, a public lashing, gay or straight. I don’t want the airways filled with sex or invectives by anyone.

So, while I wish you no harm, don’t expect me to watch and enrich you.

Your time has passed.

And, as Judge Judy say, “… if your tongue came notarized.”

Don’t tell me it’s raining either.

Argh!

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GOVEROTRAGEOUS: “health care” slavery

Sunday, March 21, 2010

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/19/AR2010031901470.html

Is health-care reform constitutional?
By Randy E. Barnett
Sunday, March 21, 2010

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But making you buy insurance merely because you are alive is a claim of power from which many Americans instinctively shrink. Senate Republicans made this objection, and it was defeated on a party-line vote, but it will return.

*** end quote ***

This “health care” bill makes us slaves. Even more of a slave than we already are?

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INTERESTING: “Deal or No Deal” strategy

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Did you ever see “Deal or No Deal”?

As an IT Architecture / BPR kinda guy, I think you have to have a strategy to get through the game. (Hey, I play penny slots too. No genius here.)

The only way to get a MILLION is to have two MILLION cases at the end.

Strategy is critical to escape with a prize.

I think that can apply some elementary statistics or probability theory.

You can predict the “banker’s offer” approximately and that leads you to a process to play.

It seems to me that you can compare the offer based on picking a low or high case. Then you make the decision from that.

Suppose, for example, at any point in the game, the distribution of cases can tell you what to do relative to the offer.

The offer is “fair” if EV = ∑ (p sub i * V sub i) is equal to the Banker’s Offer.

When receiving the Banker’s Offer, one can calculate the EV (ALL) of the current set of cases, the EV (HIGH) dropping the highest case, and the EV (LOW) dropping the lowest case. In a truly random game, you can calculate the potential loss EV (LOW) – EV (ALL) . And the potential gain EV (HIGH) – EV (ALL).

The offer can then be subject to the same test.

IF there is only ONE high value, the OFFER is usually cut in half.

By comparing the potential gain versus the potential loss, that determines if the contestant should take the offer or not.

You can’t pick cases, (although 26 seems to have a MILLION more than probability would dictate), but you can have a money management strategy.

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POLITICAL: Obama’s NCAA Bracket

Saturday, March 20, 2010

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2010/03/obamas-ncaa-bracket-goes-bust-with-kansas-loss.html

Obama’s NCAA Bracket Goes Bust With Kansas Loss

March 20, 2010 8:43 PM

Joel Siegel and Karen Travers report:

*** begin quote ***

President Obama should hope that the big health-care vote scheduled for Sunday turns out better than his N.C.A.A. tournament picks.

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Hmm, hope it goes against him as well. For the country’s sake!

Is this the new Presidential “Kiss of Death”?

He threatened the D’s that if they didn’t vote for his healthcare bill, he wouldn’t campaign FOR them. Maybe he should have threatened TO come campaign for them if they didn’t vote for his healthcare bill instead.

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POLITICAL: Drew Cary and Reson save Cleveland — Part 3

Saturday, March 20, 2010

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9-ozphsuSk

Why not?

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INTERESTING: A taxonoly for conspiracy threories

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Since I stand accused as a tin foil hat, I thought I should embrace it.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/233518

Know Your Conspiracies
NEWSWEEK’s guide to today’s trendiest, hippest, and least likely fringe beliefs.
By David A. Graham | Newsweek Web Exclusive
Feb 12, 2010

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Like recurring nightmares, conspiracy theories aren’t necessarily gone for good just because they disappear for a while. They often come back, sometimes in slightly different forms. Their last golden age came during the middle of the Bush administration, which saw rumors from the political left about connections between the Bushes and the bin Ladens, insinuations about the military-industrial complex and the Patriot Act—actually, pretty much every plotline in Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11. Nothing breeds paranoid theories like political exile, which means that with Democrats back in the White House, it’s the right’s turn to take up the standard, a task it isn’t shirking. And of course, several leftist theories remain in circulation. If you’re having a hard time keeping all these paranoid points of view straight, here’s a handy primer.

*** end quote ***

*** begin quote ***

1. Barack Obama was not born in the United States
2. Anthropogenic global warming is a hoax.
3. Goldman Sachs intentionally created the economic crisis.
4. Democrats’ health plan will create death panels.
5. Barack Obama is a secret Muslim.
6. Sarah Palin is not the mother of her 1-year-old son, Trig.
7. ACORN is part of a liberal conspiracy to steal elections.
8. FEMA is establishing detention camps.
9. The Council on American-Islamic Relations is trying to infiltrate Capitol Hill and spread jihad.
10. Obama wants to conscript Americans into a civilian defense corps.
11. Time magazine wants to restrict the Internet to licensed users.
12. 9/11 was an inside job.
13. The Omnibus One-World Government, Unified Currency, Dollar-Abolishing, Free Trade–Advocating Theory of Everything

*** end quote ***

That’s a list; not a taxonomy!

What makes up a “good conspiracy”?

Buzz, coverups, and some truth in the the theory.

My taxonomy: (1) Government; (2) Political; (3) Historical; and (4) Miscellaneous.

(1) Government

(1-1) 9/11 Truthers have shown enough to convince me that we didn’t get the whole story.

(1-2) Did FDR deliberately provoke the Japanese to attack Pearl Harbor and act to ensure it was a disaster.

(2) Political

(2-1) “Barack Obama”. Not that he wasn’t born in the USA; I don’t know. Just that there is a tremendous coverup of all his documentation. AND, someone is spending a ton of money to keep it hidden.

(2-3) The “Progressive Movement” is a conspiracy to convert the USA into a Marxist state.

(3) Historical; and

(3-1) Kennedy Assassination. Does any one believe that Oswald shot a magic bullet from a terrible rifle at an angle at moving target?

(3-2) The Lusitania was carrying contraband arms and should not have been an incident.

(3-3) The Federal Reserve Bank is “The Creature From Jekyll Island,”

(4) Miscellaneous

(4-1) Man Caused Global Warming, Please come shovel out my sidewalk!

(4-2) Apollo moon landings were “staged”

Is there a better taxonomy?

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INSPIRATIONAL: Fess Parker, an American Icon

Friday, March 19, 2010

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8575904.stm

Page last updated at 09:41 GMT, Friday, 19 March 2010

Davy Crockett actor Fess Parker dies, aged 85

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Actor Fess Parker, famous for playing American pioneer Davy Crockett in Walt Disney’s classic 1950s TV series, has died in California at the age of 85.

*** end quote ***

An American icon.

A celebrity who was squeaky clean.

An example of the American hero.

Where are the replacements?

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