Happy 12 day, everyone!
Enjoy it, because odds are none of us will live to see the next triple date (January 1st, 2101).
In other news, it is looking increasingly likely that SPEEA will strike. February 1st (2013) is being tossed around as a date.
I feel about the potential strike much the same way I feel about the fiscal cliff; it would be better if it didn't happen, but the people responsible (Boeing in the case of the strike, and the voters - especially those in Ohio, Florida, etc. - in the case of the fiscal cliff) have no one to blame but themselves if it does.
I already tried to avert one, and I'm making my support of SPEEA very visible at work as the best way I have to avoid the other.
We'll see... or maybe the Mayans actually were prophets and not the first cobol programmers and we won't see.
A few days ago the news reported that some government agency assured the public that the world will not end this december or anytime soon. NPR noted that while it was a bold claim it would be hard to hold them accountable if they were wrong.
Personally I don't believe the world will end on 12/21 or any nearby date, don't believe we'll go over the fiscal cliff, and don't believe we'll strike.
On the plus side, I can't be wrong about all three of those!
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Saturday, December 8, 2012
Gun Control in a Soundbite
“Anti-gun lawmaker caught trying to board airplane with gun.”
Illinois state senator Donne Trotter of Chicago, spent the night in jail after trying to go through a TSA checkpoint at O’Hare with a pistol in his bag. Yes, he admits owning the pistol and claims he forgot it was there. He has been an advocate for gun control and has opposed granting concealed carry permits since he joined the senate in 1989.
This, to me, shows a person who wants to prevent other people from having guns but also wants to have them himself – the classic ‘the rules don’t apply to me’ mindset. While it gets very little press attention, this is a very common attitude in the anti-gun community.
One of my favorite examples of this comes from fiction – the highly anti-gun TV show “The West Wing” featured an almost entirely anti-gun cast of characters, but the supposedly anti-gun president at one point commented that he didn’t want the Secret Service agents defending his daughter to be discrete about the fact that they were carrying firearms. ‘I’m carrying a fully loaded gun and the safety’s off’. Its fine for MY daughter to have people protecting her with firearms but not someone else’s daughter. Sure, its fiction, and The West Wing was infamous for getting their technical details wrong. Still, the show was highly accurate in presenting the attitudes and the level of information that the characters would have had they been real.
I’ll admit, there are things I feel safe and justified in doing that I do not feel are safe or justified for everyone. I do not, however, feel that there should be laws prohibiting them from doing such things. If there are such laws then they apply to me too and if I break them I deserve to be punished. In such cases I would prefer that any laws required training or a demonstration of competence (or both, of course) but protect the right of individuals who pass such tests to do the thing in question.
OK, that was a bunch of generalities. Let’s take an example. I think I’m a sufficiently skilled and conscientious driver that I should be permitted to operate a motor vehicle. I feel that quite a lot of people on the road should not be. I’d be very happy if in order to get a driver’s license you had to pass a period skills check that actually prevented a notable percentage of the adult population from driving. Said law would, of course, have to allow means by which someone could get training and experience in advance of the test (especially for first-time applicants). It would cost money to do this testing – so get part of it by increasing the license fee, and a bunch of it by increasing the gas tax or new car tax or something.
On the flip side, such a law would, in my opinion, be unconstitutional if applied to firearms – that pesky 2nd Amendment. Nevertheless I’d back a constitutional amendment that reasserted the individual’s right to keep and bear arms if it included a training/proficiency requirement. But I’d ONLY back a constitutional amendment to that effect – no lesser law could override the 2nd.
The law is the law, and Sen. Trotter would have done well to remember it.
Illinois state senator Donne Trotter of Chicago, spent the night in jail after trying to go through a TSA checkpoint at O’Hare with a pistol in his bag. Yes, he admits owning the pistol and claims he forgot it was there. He has been an advocate for gun control and has opposed granting concealed carry permits since he joined the senate in 1989.
This, to me, shows a person who wants to prevent other people from having guns but also wants to have them himself – the classic ‘the rules don’t apply to me’ mindset. While it gets very little press attention, this is a very common attitude in the anti-gun community.
One of my favorite examples of this comes from fiction – the highly anti-gun TV show “The West Wing” featured an almost entirely anti-gun cast of characters, but the supposedly anti-gun president at one point commented that he didn’t want the Secret Service agents defending his daughter to be discrete about the fact that they were carrying firearms. ‘I’m carrying a fully loaded gun and the safety’s off’. Its fine for MY daughter to have people protecting her with firearms but not someone else’s daughter. Sure, its fiction, and The West Wing was infamous for getting their technical details wrong. Still, the show was highly accurate in presenting the attitudes and the level of information that the characters would have had they been real.
I’ll admit, there are things I feel safe and justified in doing that I do not feel are safe or justified for everyone. I do not, however, feel that there should be laws prohibiting them from doing such things. If there are such laws then they apply to me too and if I break them I deserve to be punished. In such cases I would prefer that any laws required training or a demonstration of competence (or both, of course) but protect the right of individuals who pass such tests to do the thing in question.
OK, that was a bunch of generalities. Let’s take an example. I think I’m a sufficiently skilled and conscientious driver that I should be permitted to operate a motor vehicle. I feel that quite a lot of people on the road should not be. I’d be very happy if in order to get a driver’s license you had to pass a period skills check that actually prevented a notable percentage of the adult population from driving. Said law would, of course, have to allow means by which someone could get training and experience in advance of the test (especially for first-time applicants). It would cost money to do this testing – so get part of it by increasing the license fee, and a bunch of it by increasing the gas tax or new car tax or something.
On the flip side, such a law would, in my opinion, be unconstitutional if applied to firearms – that pesky 2nd Amendment. Nevertheless I’d back a constitutional amendment that reasserted the individual’s right to keep and bear arms if it included a training/proficiency requirement. But I’d ONLY back a constitutional amendment to that effect – no lesser law could override the 2nd.
The law is the law, and Sen. Trotter would have done well to remember it.
Thursday, December 6, 2012
This is what you voted for
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Obamacare is a fundamentally bad plan and unconstitutional to boot.
But this post is just about Point A.
Walmart will be cutting health care coverage for a large number of its workers, and reducing the hours of many so that it can cut their benefits too.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/01/walmart-health-care-policy-medicaid-obamacare_n_2220152.html
This is fully legal under Obamacare, and the taxpayers will be picking up the tab.
In other words thanks to the wonder of Obamacare Walmart will save money and its workers will get fewer hours and less benefits. But you should remember that our glorious leader is for the poor and middle class people of this country, not the rich. That’s why his signature legislation will benefit the millionaires who run Walmart while imposing another financial burden on the middle class taxpayers and making life harder for the poor.
I’m not defending what Walmart is doing, but I’m sure they’ll be just the first of many companies to do this. I get bitten by this two ways – the federal government is going to need to raise more money to pay for the increased number of people getting some healthcare on the government’s dime, and the insurance companies are going to up prices since the government dime doesn’t go very far in healthcare. If you think Medicare is a great plan I urge you to consult with someone familiar with the billing side of it – providers like, say, paramedics often have to have that familiarity since if we don’t do our documentation “right” (i.e. to arcane government standards) Medicare won’t pay our employer.
But this post is just about Point A.
Walmart will be cutting health care coverage for a large number of its workers, and reducing the hours of many so that it can cut their benefits too.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/01/walmart-health-care-policy-medicaid-obamacare_n_2220152.html
This is fully legal under Obamacare, and the taxpayers will be picking up the tab.
In other words thanks to the wonder of Obamacare Walmart will save money and its workers will get fewer hours and less benefits. But you should remember that our glorious leader is for the poor and middle class people of this country, not the rich. That’s why his signature legislation will benefit the millionaires who run Walmart while imposing another financial burden on the middle class taxpayers and making life harder for the poor.
I’m not defending what Walmart is doing, but I’m sure they’ll be just the first of many companies to do this. I get bitten by this two ways – the federal government is going to need to raise more money to pay for the increased number of people getting some healthcare on the government’s dime, and the insurance companies are going to up prices since the government dime doesn’t go very far in healthcare. If you think Medicare is a great plan I urge you to consult with someone familiar with the billing side of it – providers like, say, paramedics often have to have that familiarity since if we don’t do our documentation “right” (i.e. to arcane government standards) Medicare won’t pay our employer.
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
From the Frontlines: Good Yule
I went to Good Yule this year with the expectation that I would be doing a lot of entertaining – both before and during the feast.
As it happened I only performed once (Save me a Seat in Valhalla), but I had fun anyway.
With my unexpected free time I entered the games championship. I won twice and lost twice in Byzantine Chess (often known as round chess or circular chess), and concluded that bishops in Byzantine Chess are weak and pitiful. I also taught a young girl how to play. I was a finalist in the Tafl tournament (a Norse game), finally losing to the champion in a sudden death round. I also taught three people how to play Tafl.
After the feast I helped with cleanup. I had no idea the Barony owned so many dishes.
As it happened I only performed once (Save me a Seat in Valhalla), but I had fun anyway.
With my unexpected free time I entered the games championship. I won twice and lost twice in Byzantine Chess (often known as round chess or circular chess), and concluded that bishops in Byzantine Chess are weak and pitiful. I also taught a young girl how to play. I was a finalist in the Tafl tournament (a Norse game), finally losing to the champion in a sudden death round. I also taught three people how to play Tafl.
After the feast I helped with cleanup. I had no idea the Barony owned so many dishes.
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