Opuscula What’s in a name? Is ginger ale sans Ginger ginger ale?

ACCORDING TO USA TODAY¹,

A New York woman filed a lawsuit this month against Canada Dry®, claiming its ginger ale doesn't contain ginger as advertised.

WHAT ARE THE ingredients in regular Canada Dry ginger ale?

According to the Canada Dry², the “ginger ale” contains

Carbonated Water, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Citric Acid, Natural Flavors, Green Tea, Sodium Benzoate (preservative), Ascorbic Acid (vitamin C), Calcium Disodium EDTA (to Protect Flavor)

ON THE OTHER HAND, the Canada Dry container clearly shows that the drink is Made from Real Ginger.

So, does it or doesn’t it contain ginger?

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The history of Canada Dry ginger ale harks back to 1907 when, according to ThoughtCo.com,³ John McLaughlin, a Canadian pharmacist, invented the modern Canada Dry version of ginger ale.

Shall consumers ignore another discrepancy between the Canada Dry label that claims the drink has been around SINCE 1904 while the drink’s history only dates back to 1907? (See image, above; click on image to open in new window.)

Ginger ale is, by some accounts, an import from Ireland. Others⁴ contend it is an English invention. In any event, it is a variation on a ginger beer recipe.

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I am neither a lawyer nor do I play one on tv so I won’t be judgmental in this case.

Canada Dry, the company, is between the hammer and the anvil (a/k/a a rock and a hard place). On the one hand, it clearly states on the container that it is “Made from Real Ginger” but the ingredients don’t specifically list ginger as an ingredient.

Is ginger covered with what this scrivener terms “weasel words,” unidentified “Natural Flavors”?

According to the suit¹, the complaint states that

"Canada Dry Ginger Ale is made from carbonated water, high fructose corn syrup, citric acid, preservatives and 'natural flavors,' i.e., a flavor compound comprised predominately of flavor extracts not derived from ginger, and a minuscule amount of a ginger flavor extract."

How much of “ a minuscule amount of a ginger flavor extract” will it take for a judge to rule for, or against, the defendant?

In Jewish law, which may or may not have any bearing on this case, a quantity of less than ¹/₆₀th of the total product it is as if the product had nothing of the ingredient in question. If the product had more than ¹/₆₀th, then the ingredient in question counts.

How U.S. Federal law measures the impact of an ingredient, even a minuscule amount likely will pay a major role in the judge’s decision.

What could happen is that the results of the trial (and all the following appeals) could impact products labels – forcing manufacturers to specifically list ALL ingredients by name, even those in “minuscule amounts.”

7Up® also lists “Natural Flavors” in its ingredient’s list.

While ginger apparently has certain medicinal properties⁵

Possible health benefits include relieving nausea, loss of appetite, motion sickness, and pain. The root or underground stem (rhizome) of the ginger plant can be consumed fresh, powdered, dried as a spice, in oil form, or as juice. Ginger is part of the Zingiberaceae family, alongside cardamom and turmeric

is the amount of ginger in ginger ale sufficient to be effective?

As for this scrivener, I prefer cold, unsweetened tea infused with cloves or plain ol’ water out of the tap.

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Sources

1. http://tinyurl.com/y8pqkhzy

2. http://tinyurl.com/ybkwyd33

3. http://tinyurl.com/ybey4tk4

4. http://tinyurl.com/ybpkmjnf

5. http://tinyurl.com/y6vp3n3c

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Comments on ginger ale

Opuscula I really hate Telephones

THERE ARE SEVERAL REASONS I DISLIKE DOING BUSINESS via the telephone.

1..Noise on hold
2. People who don’t speak my language
3. People who are not even on my CONTINENT
4. Having to explain my situation again and again as each new person pretends to care
5. Knowing in the end it will be a (s)he said-I said confrontation.

I much prefer written communications.

Email is great. It is fast, it is (relatively) free, and a complete history of the conversation can be kept together as one contiguous “string.”

Snail mail is OK; it’s slow and increasingly expensive. (I remember 7¢ airmail stamps and “penny” post cards.)

When it is in writing, there is less opportunity for “weasel wording.” No “You misunderstood” or “The issue was not fully explained.” There is proof, be it pencil, pen, or crayon on paper or digital images that can sent back and forth or printed on paper.

The main problems with email are two:

1. The email address of the actual responder is is hidden from the person who wants to communicate via this medium (e.g., Joe CustomerService), and
2. The email is ignored at the destination.

Even with Delivery and Read receipts, the email version of certified and return receipt mail there is no absolute proof the missive was read and acted upon. ’Course that can happen with snail mail, too, but it has proven to be less likely.

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What prompts this rant?

Medicare; specifically Aetna Coventry’s Summit Medicare Advantage plan.

My Spouse has a Coventry “regular” plan via her employer.

She’s about to (reluctantly) turn 65 years young and she wants to change to a lower cost coverage (than her employer-subsidized) insurance.

The problem is that Coventry is a capitated plan. (See Medicare plans: Beware the plan is not “capitated” (http://tinyurl.com/ycmmlw42) for a explanation of “capitated.”)

While it has the providers my Spouse wants and needs, her Primary Care Physician (PCP) cannot refer her to a critical specialist. This specialist is so important to her that she is – albeit most reluctantly – prepared to give up her excellent long-time PCP to keep the specialist.

That’s just half of the problem.

IF she gives up her long-time and trusted PCP, where will she go?

She will have to call each prospective Coventry PCP to ask: Can you refer me to my critical specialist? (She already asked my PCP’s office if he could refer a Coventry-covered patient to the Spouse’s critical specialist. The answer: “No.”)

Coventry sales people cannot (or will not) tell her which PCPs can refer to which specialists.

Can I go to the hospital with which I have a positive experience?

Both the specialist and the hospital are on Coventry’s Providers’ List.

HOWEVER, the hospital’s list of accepted insurances shows the Coventry plan is accepted only at a limited number of facilities in the hospital system; not the nearby main hospital.

Trying to contact Coventry via email is “mission impossible.”

Coventry is – alas – not unique. It may be one of the worst in so far as getting a written response to a written question, but it is NOT unique.

She has called Coventry and failed to receive a satisfactory response.

Can she go to her hospital of choice? According top Coventry, yes; according to the hospital (see image above), no.

Since that discussion was on the phone, who knows what actually was said. No record.

Could my Spouse’s PCP try to get permission from Coventry to refer her to the critical specialist, even though the specialist is not on the PCP’s capitated list? According to the PCP’s referral person, “We can try.” The logic being that the Spouse has been under the specialist’s care for several months, with many more months’ care anticipated.

Still, Coventry seems better than Florida Blue. The Blue Cross/Blue Shield’s web site shows that all of her doctors are available, but when we talked with a Florida Blue representative (see Don’t trust Medicare info On the Internet at http://tinyurl.com/y8yzl4eh ) we found out that NONE of what appeared on the firm’s web site was accurate. The Florida Blue clerk with whom we spoke told us that the hospital was not on the plan’s list, yet the hospital’s list of insurance shows that almost ALL of the Advantage plans ARE accepted. Of course the hospital system’s web site could be wrong.

Even when dealing with a representative “face-to-face,” there is no guarantee the information will be accurate; they are, after all, only sales people, and likely only part-timers or new hires, depending on the “season.” The Medicare “season” starts in mid-October and ends on Pearl Harbor Day; somehow that day seems appropriate.

I have had Medicare Advantage plans since 2010. None provide everything I want in a plan. One was capitated and limited my ophthalmologist options. Another, although not capitated, didn’t cover my specialists, and the most recent – and soon to be history -- has me traveling out of county to see most specialists. (The county to which I would need to travel has both high crime and terrible traffic, two reasons I am reluctant to travel to practitioners in that county.) The one plan that DOES meet 90% of my requirements insists on a prescription co-payment of $100 while almost every other plan offers the same medication at $0 co-pay.

Even in the heart of “Geezer County” there is no “perfect” plan, but I keep hoping and every year I compare many plans. I also compare auto and home owner plans – that’s just good business.

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PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

BCPLANNER: Comments on I hate telephones

Opuscula Mr. President, Pay your own Way to campaign

THIS IS AN OPEN LETTER TO CURRENT AND FUTURE U.S. PRESIDENTS:

It’s OK to campaign for yourself and your party’s candidates, BUT NOT ON MY DIME.

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As Mr. Nixon would say, “Let Me be perfectly clear,” this is not directed solely at the incumbent.

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I don’t care WHO is president – well, I do care, but this rant is non-political – and I understand you want to “pack the house” with people who believe as you believe – whatever that might be – BUT DON’T DO IT AT TAXPAYER EXPENSE.

Leave the jumbo jet on the ground.

While I think you OUGHT to fly commercial to see how “the other half” lives, if you must fly in a private aircraft, either

a. Get one of your wealthy supporters to foot the bill and use their corporate wings or
b. Use one of the government’s already owned C-37A (Gulfsteam G550) small (15-passenger) jets.

If you use a government jet of any size, pay for it out of your party’s budget, don’t expect me to foot the bill even if I support you and the party.

I know it has been Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for the president to spend the taxpayers’ dollars for non-governmental purposes, and yes, I know about “RHIP” (rank has its privileges), but you and those who went before have burdened the taxpayer with debt so monstrous that even our great grandchildren won’t be able to pay it off.

I know that parking a jumbo jet on some foreign country’s landing patch might impress some folks, but as far as this taxpayer can see, it only shows financial stupidity on your part. (Excuse me, it’s the taxpayers’ stupidity for allowing this largesse.)

That applies to anyone who travels in a jumbo for “prestige.” Spare me, spare my wallet.

Don’t tell us you need the space to kick back and either do a little work or, more likely, nap. The already owned G550/C-34A can be configured to accommodate the most self-important executive.

There is sufficient room on the already owned aircraft for a small security detail as well as comfort staff (a/k/a “flight attendants”). The security detail can be supplemented at the destination. (A sad state of affairs when a president’s life is at risk from crazies from the other party.)

The already owned aircraft are so dependable they are used not only by the U.S. government, but as regional jets for commercial airlines, both U.S. (e.g., Delta) and foreign.

While no one railed about previous presidents’ misuse – at least in my opinion – of government jumbo jets (I won’t mention flying a spouse to China allegedly for government work for which she had no credentials, or family vacations to Hawaii), the issue has now risen to become a political issue.

In Florida, a Democrat seeking the governorship is campaigning on keeping the incumbent from visiting his Florida home since his presence interrupts traffic flow and burdens police resources. Nothing ever was said when DC Democrats caused the same problems. What’s good for the goose, etc. apparently is not good when the traveler is of the opposing party. The gubernatorial candidate makes a lot of noise on a lot of issues over which a governor has zero control.

The bottom line: Given the state of the art of “small” corporate aircraft and the cost of maintaining and operating jumbo jets, no matter how “efficient” the aircraft may be, elected officials need to downsize their egos and, when hitting the campaign trail, for themselves or for other candidates, they should pay their own way.

If their party or their party’s Big Givers are willing to pay for a 7*7 jumbo with crew and all associated costs, well and good; THEN the politicians can fly around in a 7*7 (or equivalent European-made jumbo) to their hearts – and their budgets – content.

Just don’t burden me and my fellow taxpayers with the bill for private excursions.

Even on government business, opt for a more economical aircraft. It won’t damage America’s already tarnished image, indeed, it may enhance the image as people realize the U.S. government is thinking about the people who fund it.

Ecologists also will love the smaller, less harmful to the environment, planes.

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PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

BCPLANNER: Comments on Small jet

Opuscula A Funny thing About “SNP” Medicare Plans

AS I WAS RESEARCHING MEDICARE ADVANTAGE plans, I discovered something “interesting.”
Some “SNP” plans can cost more than “regular” advantage plans.

JUST WHAT ARE “SNP” plans? (That’s redundant, by the way.)

SNP stands for “Special Needs Plans.”

Who is eligible for SNPs

According to Medicare¹,

A special needs plan (SNP) is a Medicare Advantage (MA) coordinated care plan (CCP) specifically designed to provide targeted care and limit enrollment to special needs individuals. A special needs individual could be any one of the following:
1. An institutionalized individual,
2. A dual eligible, or
3. An individual with a severe or disabling chronic condition, as specified by CMS.

People certified as “Special Needs” can supplement Medicare with their state’s Medicaid program.

MediCARE vs. MediCAID

The Health and Human Services (HHS) web site² provides definitions for the two programs.

That begs the question, “What is a “dual eligible.”

Medicade.gov³ provides part of the answer:

Medicaid is a joint federal and state program that, together with the Children’s Health Insurance Program, provides health coverage to over^cq 72.5 million Americans, including children, pregnant women, parents, seniors and individuals with disabilities. Medicaid is the single largest source of health coverage in the United States.
In order to participate in Medicaid, federal law requires states to cover certain groups of individuals. Low income families, qualified pregnant women and children, and individuals receiving Supplemental Security Income (SSI) are examples of mandatory eligibility groups. States have additional options for coverage and may choose to cover other groups, such as individuals receiving home and community based services and children in foster care who are not otherwise eligible.

 PolicyGenius⁴ reports that

Medicaid requirements were standardized so any American making as much as 133% of the poverty line could qualify.

The same site lists general requirements for SNP recipients.

As a good rule of thumb, if you make less than 100% to 200% of the federal poverty level (FPL) and are pregnant, elderly, disabled, a parent/caretaker or a child, there’s likely a program for you. And if you make less than 133% of the FPL, there’s possibly a program for you, depending on whether your state expanded under Obamacare. In 2018, the FPLs (in all states except Alaska and Hawaii, which have higher guidelines) are:

g

I only checked one Medicare Advantage site’s SNP program. Still, I found it strange that a program designed to help the impoverished has a pharmacy deductible that non-SNP options lacked, particularly when medications are a major expense for the people covered by a SNP.

There ARE some no co-pay benefits that make the Special Needs Plans attractive, and what I saw were only the provider’s highlights; I did not check the plan’s Evidence of Coverage – the document that lists all benefits and co-pays.

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Sources

1. http://tinyurl.com/yal6zpcn

2. http://tinyurl.com/yczr3jkg

3. http://tinyurl.com/y7ymx8rz

4. http://tinyurl.com/ya8nvdq4

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

BCPLANNER: Comments on (entry name)

Insurer proves Don’t trust Medicare info On the Internet

I’VE SPENT SEVERAL DAYS staring at Medicare Advantage providers.
I THOUGHT I found a provider that met the basic requirements:

PCP-check
Specialists-check
Hospital-check.

I checked and double checked the information.

But just to be sure . . .

THIS MORNING THE SPOUSE and I drove into another county to sit with a Florida Blue representative. We had an appointment, but the clerks were not ready for us.

Off to a bad start.

I explained that I had checked and rechecked my information early on the day of the appointment. All the doctors and the hospital checked out for both Florida Blue’s Premier and Classic Advantage plans.

We gave the clerk our list of things to confirm. The list started with the doctors and hospital and went on from there.

Absence of the doctors and hospital from the Florida Blue Provider’s List is a show stopper.

The clerk started down the provided list.

NONE of the doctors the Florida Blue web site repeatedly showed me as available on the Premier and Classic plans showed up for on the clerk’s computer.

Not one.

They DID appear for OTHER Florida Blue plans, the “extra cost” PPO plans.

“Well, the site is updated overnight,” the clerk told us.

OK, but I checked less than an hour ago, at 10 a.m. I replied. No overnight update here.

On line, all indications are that the practitioners found on the Provider’s List – accessed from the specific plan’s page – are for that plan. There is NO indication on the provider’s list that the provider is available only on a plan other than the plan which accessed the list.

BOTTOM LINE: NEVER trust a vendor’s web site.

I fail to see how lying to potential customers can benefit anyone; not Florida Blue nor the prospective client.

As soon as mid-October rolls around the “victim” of Florida Blue’s web site will have an opportunity to select another provider.

Florida Blue is not the only web site of which to be wary.

Other sites tell me that many of the doctors we want are on their list.

HOWEVER, some of these sites are capitated. See Medicare plans: Beware the plan is not “capitated” (http://tinyurl.com/ycmmlw42)

True, Doctor A IS on the plan’s provider list, but PCP B cannot refer a patient to Doctor A since Doctor A is not on the PCP’s abbreviated (capitated) list.

It is a pain in the posterior – that is not covered by any plan – but prospective clients need to beard the lion and visit the insurer’s physical site as my Spouse and I did this morning. Alternatively, have a representative make a house call. (Florida Blue does NOT offer this convenience; AvMed does and an AvMed representative is scheduled to visit. Will AvMed have the providers we need; its Provider’s List claims it has almost all the doctors. (Sadly, the list lacks an excellent PCP. Maybe it and the PCP’s practice will get back together for 2019.)

I am certain our experience with Florida Blue, AvMed, and Aetna’s Coventry – the capitated plan -- are not unique to the companies or to the geographic area.

How can you know if your PCP can refer to Doctor A? Ask the PCP’s referral person. The referral clerk is the only person guaranteed to know; the PCP probably has no clue – that’s why there is a referral person.

We almost signed up with Florida Blue because the web site showed us it has the doctors and hospitals we need. Had we signed up, in November the plan could have been unceremoniously dumped in favor of a more honest plan.

No matter what a vendor's web site claims – and this applies to ANY vendor – confirm your understanding with a person who has the authority to “put it in writing.”

Thanks to Florida Blue, lesson learned.

It will be interesting to see if Florida Blue does anything with its web site to correct the mis-information – assuming the clerk with whom we spoke this morning escalates the problem.

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PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Comments on Medicare plans – Part 2

Opuscula Medicare plans: Beware the plan Is not “capitated”

CAPITATION: of, relating to, participating in, or being a health-care system in which a medical provider is given a set fee per patient (as by an HMO) regardless of treatment required1

WHAT THAT MEANS TO the person considering a Medicare Advantage plan is that the plan may have 10,000 providers – physicians, hospitals, etc. – but an individual Primary Care Physician (PCP) may have a highly abbreviated list of only a few hundred specialists and a handful of hospitals from the plan’s Provider List.

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Double-checking a Medicare plan: Read Don’t trust Medicare info on the Internet (http://tinyurl.com/y8yzl4eh)

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HOW TO SELECT A PLAN
There are three plan documents to review before any decision is made. In order of review:

First: Provider’s List
Second: Formulary (drug list)
Third: Evidence of Coverage (EOC)

If the potential plan subscriber lacks any preferences re doctors and hospitals, it makes no difference which plan is selected.
On the other hand, if the potential subscriber has a preference for a particular PCP or specialist, or even a hospital, then the first thing to do is check the plan’s Providers’ List.
PROVIDERS’ LIST.
If all, or at least most, of the desired providers are listed, contact the plan and ask “Are the PCPs capitated.”
Very likely the prospective subscriber will have to explain to the sales person – sales folks always are the initial contact – about capitation. The easiest way is to ask: “Can the PCP refer to ALL providers listed on the Provider’s List? If the answer is “Sure, they can refer to all on the list,” you might want to get that in writing. About 50 percent of the plans reviewed this week are capitated. Of the non-capitated plans, only two claimed they had the required providers. One of the two did not, despite its web site's listings.

There is no need to list plans here since what is available in one area may not be available in another.

Once the plans have been winnowed out, the next step is to check the plan’s Formulary.
FORMULARY
A formulary is a list of prescription drugs covered by a prescription drug plan or another insurance plan offering prescription drug benefits. Also called a drug list.²
Are the pharmaceuticals – prescription drugs – needed on the list?
If they are, check the TIER LEVEL.
Tier levels determine the drug’s copay; the higher the tier, the more expensive the copay.
Be aware that not all plans are equal. One plan lists a specific drug as a Tier 2 for which there is zero copay. Another plan for the same geographic area lists the same generic drug as Tier 3 and demands a $100 copay for the same 90 day supply. (As it happens, a neighborhood pharmacy sells the same drug in the same quantity for less than $50.)
What is the copay for each tier? For that information the potential subscriber needs to locate the plan’s Evidence of Coverage.
EVIDENCE OF COVERAGE.
The Evidence of Coverage, a/k/a EOC, is the most important document the plan produces. The EOC tells everyone what benefits it will provide and what copays the subscriber must pay. The Formulary is “subject to change” as is the Providers’ List. Not so the EOC.
Most EOCs follow a fixed-by-Medicare alphabetical presentation.
That’s convenient when comparing plans. (LibreOffice Calc’s spreadsheet is great for this, and it’s free.)
Copays vary by plan. The ONLY document in which copays are “cast into concrete” is the EOC. Summaries are nice, but they lack the authority of the EOC.
GET THE DOCUMENTS
All the critical documents should be available online at the plan’s site. New documents usually are available in mid-October of each year. Medicare enrollment for people already with Medicare is between Oct. 15 and Dec. 7 (Pearl Harbor Day). For people joining Medicare at other times, check with Medicare.³
Plan documents normally are available online in PDF format. (Most browsers can display PDF, but in some cases the free Adobe Reader may be needed.) The documents also can be mailed on request.

The selected plan will send a printed copy of its EOC, Providers’ List, and, usually, its Formulary.

OTHER OPTIONS
There are two other options to a Medicare Advantage plan.

1. Original Medicare.
2. Medicare Supplement plans.

Original Medicare usually has higher copays and sometimes fewer benefits. The main advantage of Original Medicare is that it’s good everyplace Medicare is accepted: doctors offices, hospitals, etc. No concerns about “Will my plan cover this doctor or this hospital.”
Medicare Supplement plans are similar to Original Medicare in that the plans are accepted everyplace Original Medicare is accepted.
Supplement plans are provided by insurance carriers, many of which also offer Medicare Advantage plans.
The drawback to Supplement plans is they cost more than an equivalent Advantage plan; the user is paying for the freedom to go to almost any practitioner or facility.
THE PLACE TO START
Beware of commercial sites that offer to find the “right” program. They often don’t include ALL available plans.
The absolute BEST place to start looking for a Medicare Advantage or Supplement plan is the Medicare site, http:\\www.medicare.gov Accept no substitutes.

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Sources
1. http://tinyurl.com/y7pmhbp8
2. http://tinyurl.com/yavjkaeb
3. http://tinyurl.com/ybof3f5a

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.
Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Comments on Medicare plans

Opuscula Scandal in media If Trump did What Obama did

WOULD-BE PRESIDENT-FOR-LIFE Barack Obama, speaking in South Africa, excoriates President Trump for failing to take Russian President Putin to task for trying to interfere in U.S. elections.
HYPOCRITE!

Obama interfered in Israeli elections. His efforts to get leftist Isaac Herzog into the prime minister’s residence failed and Benjamin Netanyahu stayed put.^{1, 2, 3, 4}.

Obama worked to oust Netanyahu by illegally funding – with U.S. taxpayers dollars – support for Isaac Herzog and the left-of-center Zionist Union party composed, in 2015, of the Israeli Labor Party, Hatnuah and Green Movement.⁵ Netanyahu’s Likud party grabbed at least 29 of the 120 Knesset seats; Herzog’s Zionist Union managed only 24.⁶

Obama was no more successful in his efforts than “The Russians” were in the 2016 U.S. elections. John Kerry was U.S. Secretary of State in 2015. Kerry, a “Two-State” supporter, continually blames Israel for the Palestinians’ intransigence to discuss a peace agreement.⁷ Never mind that this is a gross canard.

Not satisfied with interfering in Israeli elections, the Associated Press^A reports

Officials say the Obama administration in its waning hours defied Republican opposition and quietly released $221 million to the Palestinian Authority that GOP members of Congress had been blocking.

A State Department official and several congressional aides said the outgoing administration formally notified Congress it would spend the money Friday morning. The official said former Secretary of State John Kerry had informed some lawmakers of the move shortly before he left the State Department for the last time Thursday. The aides said written notification dated Jan. 20 was sent to Congress just hours before Donald Trump took the oath of office.

Fortunately, President Trump canceled this Obama largess of the American taxpayers’ money. The Times of Israel^B reports

>The Trump administration has informed the Palestinian Authority that it is freezing the transfer of $221 million which was quietly authorized by the Obama administration in its final hours on January 20, a senior Palestinian source has told The Times of Israel.
US officials conveyed to PA Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah on Tuesday that the funds were not expected to be handed over in the immediate future, said the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Obama’s muddled attempt to meddle in Israel’s election is nothing new.

The LA Times was one of several media outlets reporting on a database maintained by political scientist Dov Levin of Carnegie Mellon University.^{8, 9, 10}

Levin’s database, according to the Times, shows that

The U.S. has a long history of attempting to influence presidential elections in other countries – it's done so as many as 81 times between 1946 and 2000, according to a database amassed by political scientist Dov Levin of Carnegie Mellon University.
That number doesn't include military coups and regime change efforts following the election of candidates the U.S. didn't like, notably those in Iran, Guatemala and Chile. Nor does it include general assistance with the electoral process, such as election monitoring.

Embarrassing the U.S. A number of Democrats took issue with President Trump meeting with Putin. The meeting, they contend, lowers the U.S. in the eyes of the world.

Yet these same Democrats said nothing when Obama kowtowed to Saudi Arabian princes; princes of a country that is notorious for civil rights violations and a country that produced 9-11-2001.

Of course the princes were not the only ones to whom Obama bowed. The Atlantic¹¹ listed the following Obama bows:

2009: Obama bows to the Saudi King
2009: Obama bows to the Queen of England (Trump did not)
2010: Obama bows to a couple in Japan
2010: Obama bows to the mayor of Tampa
2010: Obama bows to the Chinese
2012: Obama bows to Mexico’s President Felipe Calderon
2013: Obama bows to then Cuban President Raul Castro

A FEW WORDS ABOUT OBAMA’S WALL

While Obama and the Democrats turn President Trump’s bordere wall into a Wailing Wall to reduce illegal immigrants, drugs, and weapons entry into the U.S., during Obama’s too long tenure in the White House he authorized US$75 million in aid to Mexico so Mexico could build a border wall on Mexico’s SOUTHERN border to keep out immigrants from Guatemala and points south.

Even Snopes¹² admits The State Department is planning to provide $75 million worth of assistance to Mexico in the form of U.S. training and equipment in a joint effort to help secure southern borders and deal with issues of drug trafficking and immigration. The funds were disbursed while Obama was in office.

Once again, the leftist were silent.

Once again, Obama placed others ahead of America.

Had he put America first, the money would have been spent on the Mexico-U.S. border and Americans (and possibly some illegal aliens already in the country) would have been paid to construct the structure; pay that would have returned a small portion of the funds to the U.S. Treasury in the form of the U.S. citizens’ payroll taxes.

FINALLY, SPYING & EAVESDROPPING

The UK’s Guardian¹³ reports that

The National Security Agency monitored the phone conversations of 35 world leaders after being given the numbers by an official in another US government department, according to a classified document provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden.
The confidential memo reveals that the NSA encourages senior officials in its "customer" departments, such as the White House, State and the Pentagon, to share their "Rolodexes" so the agency can add the phone numbers of leading foreign politicians to their surveillance systems.
The document notes that one unnamed US official handed over 200 numbers, including those of the 35 world leaders, none of whom is named. These were immediately "tasked" for monitoring by the NSA.



All the spying on our allies cited buy the Guardian happened under Obama’s tenure in the Oval Office.

Obama is a Democrat, therefore, Democrats were silent.

Anyone surprised?

---

I Cite My Sources

1. http://tinyurl.com/y7d57ogb

2. http://tinyurl.com/y77hgqht

3. http://tinyurl.com/y9x29b6e

4. http://tinyurl.com/zjxwujh

5. http://tinyurl.com/y7mm32n4

6. http://tinyurl.com/ybmlwhcw

7. http://tinyurl.com/y8ub42za

8. http://tinyurl.com/ycfjf32h

9. http://tinyurl.com/y99ourme

10. http://tinyurl.com/yc7e5hxs

11. http://tinyurl.com/y9qodvk8

12. http://tinyurl.com/yb9d3uej

13. http://tinyurl.com/zbuqn5m

A. http://tinyurl.com/jpzym3v

B. http://tinyurl.com/y8fmjg7s

All abbreviated links via TinyURL.com

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Comments on OK for Obama

OK for Obama

Enterprise Risk Management, BC, COOP Always read Insurance Small print

LATELY THERE HAVE BEEN SEVERAL ARTICLES popping up on AdvisenFPN’s¹ daily email that this or that insurance company is trying to avoid paying a claim.

Insurance companies, being in business to make money, go strictly by the contract. An omission from the contract, or if all the Is are not dotted and all the Ts are not crossed, the insurer is off the hook.

ADVISEN IS FOCUSED on insurance and the companies that write it. It is not particularly in the Enterprise Risk Management Business (ERM) except as it touches on insurance.

Insurance is – or at least should be – a major issue for ERM. Every comprehensive plan (read “Enterprise” plan) must include insurance coverage; it’s common sense (even if “common sense” is not so common anymore).

The more specific the coverage, the more critical the “small print.”

More than a few judges have made it clear that they do not like to read something into a contract that isn’t there in black and white; they hate verbal agreements.

It is the ERM practitioner’s job to make certain the client/employer understands exactly what the insurance contract covers … and, more importantly, what the contract DOES NOT cover.

Who is qualified to know what is and is not covered?

Insurance rarely is within a CEO’s or COO’s expertise.

Perhaps the CFO or whomever is charged with contracting with an insurance carrier?

In many cases, it takes a team of experts to review a policy before the organization commits on the bottom line.

Who should be on this team?

At a minimum,

A lawyer well versed in insurance litigation
An independent insurance adjuster
A person or persons within the organization who is thoroughly knowledgeable about the organization’s operation
And, last, but not least, the ERM practitioner who also should have an understanding of all risks to business as usual

The time to adapt the insurance policy to the needs of the organization is BEFORE the policy is signed.

There is never a guarantee that there won’t be a dispute that ends up in litigation. No one – neither the organization nor the insurer wants the expense of a court proceeding – but if the organization’s insurance “committee” has done due diligence, the likelihood of litigation is greatly reduced, while the likelihood or prevailing in litigation is greatly enhanced.

Not only is insurance a part of a comprehensive ERM plan, it’s common sense at its best – providing the policies are carefully reviewed by an insurance committee (ibid.) before the policies are bought.

Insurance is both a risk and a risk mitigation factor.

Experienced ERM practitioners recognize that.

---

What coverage should an organization consider? As a start,

Business interruption insurance
Directors and Officers insurance
Disability insurance
General liability insurance
Life insurance (for critical personnel)
Personal injury insurance (for employees & guests)
Product liability insurance
Property (fire, etc.) insurance
Vehicle insurance
Worker Compensation insurance

The list is NOT “all inclusive.”

---

Sources

1. https://www.advisen.com/fpn_home/

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Comments on Insurance

Opuscula LibreOffice, MS Office Compared

IS THERE ANYTHING AS GOOD AS Microsoft Office?

Office has it all: word processor, spread sheet, data base, presentation application.

And they all work together.

What’s not to like?

IF YOU ASK ME, “What’s not to like” my answer is, in importance to me:

Constant modifications of the Graphical User Interface (GUI or “gooey”)
Cost of frequent “upgrades”
Sometimes incompatibility between current and previous iterations
Microsoft’s insistence on knowing everything about the user

I’ve been around computers for awhile. I’m no guru; I leave the geek stuff to my Second Born, but I well remember CP/M, Commodores, “Trash” 80s, and I’ve used applications running on CP/M, DOS, Unix, DEC Vax, HP-UX, Apple, Linux, Ubuntu, and of course, Microsoft. My first computer was a two-floppy CP/M all-in-one that included a green monitor and an Epson dot matrix printer.

ANYWAY, for the reasons above, I am migrating to LibreOffice. It may not have everything MS Office has, but it has what I need: word processor, spread sheet, data base, presentation application.

And they all work together.

Just like MS Office.

The actually work very similarly to MS Office. There ARE some differences in the UI (nee GUI) and somethings that work in MS Office may – as they did with me – force the user to seek help from a very active, and helpful, user group.

I hand code HTML for Google blogs. Converting hard returns in MS Word is a search and replace operation:
Find=^p
Replace=^p</P><P>.

Doing the same thing in LibreOffice is
Find=$
Replace=\n</P><P>;

I needed user group help to manage this, but having done it several times, it is as natural for me now as the MS Office process was.



Image capture with Win 10 Snipping Tool

Does MS Office even have a user group?

I use the word processor daily.

I use the spread sheet frequently.

So far I’ve only played with the presentation software and looked briefly at the database application.

I miss not having a hard copy manual to reference, but even Microsoft stopped producing them.

I find LibreOffice’s online HELP to be more accurate than Microsoft’s HELP. Very often with Microsoft I’ll be instructed to click on something that is not in my copy of the software. Maybe it was in a previous sub-iteration, but it was dropped – for whatever reason – in the version running on my computer,

I’m still running MS Windows 10 as the Operating System (OS). I bought a copy of Linux on a thumb drive, but it was missing a critical component. I could have downloaded the Linux OS and done away with Windows, but my son’s the computer mavin, I’m just a user.

Windows and Linux/Ubuntu can co-exist on the same hard drive if it has the capacity.

MS Office works on a Windows OS and a Mac OS.

LibreOffice works on Windows, Mac, and Linux/Ubuntu OSs. It is the same across the board, save for Mac’s unique keyboard.

MS Office saves files in MS formats, RTF, and text. LibreOffice save files in its OpenOffice formats AND MS Office formats. It also opens MS Office files. MS Office opens only MS Office formats, RTF, and text files.

The price is the same on all platforms: $0. (Donations accepted to support/encourage development at https://www.libreoffice.org/donate/.)

My copy of LibreOffice has been updated several times. There is no change in the UI. I did not have to RESTART after an update. And, unlike MS updates, I was asked if I wanted to install the update and when I accepted the update, it was completed in a minute or two – unlike MS Windows updates that seem to take 30 minutes or more.

I’ve been using MS Word since a 5 1/2-inch floppy was stapled into the November 1983 issue of PC World.¹ Word then ran on MS-DOS and IBM’s PC-DOS. It was the first WYSIWYG word processor that did not require a proprietary platform (e.g., Xerox).

Then a technical writer, Word was THE word processor of choice; writers could see italics, bold, underscore and evern ^super and _sub script. Today, only simple text editors such as MS Notepad and Gedit, lack WYSIWYG displays.

But that was then and this is now.

By the way, WYSIWYG is neither a MS or Apple invention. It first was implemented on a XeroxPARC computer. Turn the proprietary monitor on its side to see landscape format!

The only MS Office application I can’t seem to replace is Outlook. I tried several and none was satisfactory. Perhaps on a Linux/Ubuntu OS I’ll find something close to Outlook.

Bottom line: Yes, Virginia, there is – actually “are” – free alternatives to Microsoft Office. Likewise, there are free alternatives to Microsoft Windows (and Apple OSs).

Getting up to speed with LibreOffice is no more difficult than figuring out where Microsoft moved a favorite feature or function when in released its latest and, maybe, greatest upgrade.

---

Sources

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Word#Origins

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Comments on Office vs, Office

Enterp[rise Risk Management, BC, COOP Keep handbook Up to date Or face a judge

AN ARTICLE ON THE FISHER PHILLIPS¹ web site, Can You Be Held Personally Liable In An Employment Lawsuit? The Answer Lies Down A Rabbit Hole should prove interesting to anyone in any management position.

The article has two paragraphs that every Enterprise Risk Management, Business Continuity, and Continuity Of Operations (COOP) practitioner should take to heart and impress on the client/employer.

The article’s last two paragraphs are important to ERM, BC, and COOP practitioners and read:

To better protect yourself and the company, you should ensure your employee handbook accurately reflects the ever-changing laws related to protected classes and all forms of harassment. Second, you should schedule annual harassment and discrimination training with managers and non-managers. These training will act as a defense in the event of a discrimination or harassment lawsuit. Also, the training will put employees on notice that they may be personally liable for violations of both state and federal employment statutes.

Finally, there must be an emphasis, from the top down, to take responsibility for the company’s workplace culture. Remaining complacent exposes both companies and individuals to a disgruntled employee exclaiming “off with their heads!”

As usual, Advisen FPN² provided the link to this article.

Employee handbooks and other employee-related documentation often are overlooked by practitioners who only are concerned with “the usual suspects”: fire, environment, and perhaps a product failure.

These practitioners hopefully will intern with an experienced person. Taking an exam for certification is NOT the same as “real world” experience.

There are, an experienced practitioner knows, a number of employee-related risks every employer – and that includes the employer’s managers – faces.

Something as simple as completing an I-9 correctly.

Specifying the penalties for violating the rules set down in the employee documentation. It’s one thing to have prohibit sexual harassment in the workplace, but if there is no consequence if the prohibition is breached, the courts might look with a jaundiced eye at an employer’s defense.

I am not a lawyer or judge, nor do I play one on tv.

Management training needs to be included in all risk management recommendations. While in many cases, managers are exempt from personal liability, the employer still is on the hook for any damages that may be awarded. (Even having to defend is costly and takes critical personnel away from their normal duties.)

---

Sources

1. http://tinyurl.com/yaag2zcf

2. https://www.advisen.com/fpn_home/

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Comments on Employee Handbook

Letter from IRS gets “lost” Letter carriers Can’t decipher Address, ZIP

TODAY I RECEIVED A CERTIFIED LETTER from the IRS.

Fortunately, it was not for me.

The CERTIFIED communication from the IRS was initially MIS-directed to my daughter’s home.

Never mind that the intended person's address and my daughter's address are not adjacent – even the “+4” ZIP extension is many digits different.

How did I get the letter?

MY DAUGHTER MOVED and during a month-long transition, she had her mail forwarded to my address.

Over the years and across many states I have had mostly good letter carriers; the type you remember in December.

Here, in south Florida, save for one letter carrier who has since been reassigned to another route, many of our letter carriers leave a lot to be desired.

I signed up for “Informed Delivery” so I know what should be in my mailbox. Too often the expected mail arrives the next day – or it ends up in a neighbor’s mailbox.

Apparently letter carriers can neither READ Latin letters – the letter from the IRS had a printed, not hand-written, address -- nor know how to read the digits in an address and match them with the digits on a mail box.

Mind, these people allegedly took, and somehow passed, a Civil Service exam.

Is it any wonder that John and Joan Q prefer email to snail mail?

Not only is email faster and less expensive (figure in the cost of hardware, software, and an ISP), but if an email is incorrectly addressed, it “bounces” and a message immediately appears telling the sender than the mail failed to go through – and why.

With some email applications, such as Microsoft Outlook, the sender has the option of requesting notification when the email is received and when it is read.

The USPS offers a similar, for a fee, service. Certified mail is used in conjunction with a Return Receipt. (I wonder if the IRS got a return receipt and from whom.)

It seems more and more people who have important mail send it via a private company such as FedEx or United Parcel Service (UPS or “Brown”).

Does private mail cost more? Probably.

Does private mail arrive sooner? Probably.

Is private mail delivered more accurately, Hopefully.

The Post Office offers tracking of certified mail, but only to the extant of telling the sender if the letter was delivered or not. (Does the IRS know its mail was redirected? Did the USPS tell the IRS that the letter was delivered – it was, but to the wrong address.)

A letter carrier’s life is not a bed of roses.

In my neighborhood, mail is delivered in a small truck. It is not air conditioned – it’s amazing that no one can live without air conditioning in house, vehicle, business, wherever – and the letter carrier is liable to get wet during one of the regular deluges. (Pity the few carriers that still walk some of their route.)

What must aggravate the drivers – it certainly aggravates me – is when my neighbors park their trash cans in front of the mail box. Common sense – apparently not so common after all – would tell people to make sure the letter carrier’s truck has access to the mail box. Some carriers use the truck to push the cans away from the mailbox. Bravo!

The other day a neighbor hired a guy to install cable tv. The vendor parked right in front of the neighbor’s – and my – mailboxes; I didn’t get mail that day thanks to the neighbor and the vendor.

I suppose that reading and digit identification is “beyond the scope” of the Civil Service exam for letter carriers; it certainly seems to be for most of the ones delivering the mail in my neighborhood.

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PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Comments on USPS vs. IRS

Opuscula Talking heads: VaticinatorsOr clairvoyants

EVEN THOUGH THE TV NEWS IS MORE SLANTED than a high-mountain A-frame cottage, I still, reluctantly, listen as the “personalities” read what someone else wrote for them.

One of the (many) things that give me pause when the highly paid morons prattle on is their use of “will” and similar words that are supposed to convince this old newspaper reporter and editor that something slated to happen will occur as they predict.

ARE THEY LITTLE GODS or vaticinators? Clairvoyants?

The President WILL announce his SCOTUS candidate.

The boys WILL be brought out of the tunnel this time tomorrow.

Are they prescient that they can see into the future?

How do they know that what they so confidently tell me “will” happen will indeed happen, and at the time and place of their – or their writers’ – prediction?

There are plenty of “weasel words” that may be used to CYAssets if the expected event fails to materialize.

The President is expected to announce his SCOTUS candidate at 9 p.m.

If it doesn’t happen – what if North Korea decides to fire a missile toward the U.S. and the President – as the Constitution demands – dons his Commander in Chief hat and is too busy to make the SCOTUS announcement?

What if the space ship that “will carry a payload to Jupiter” blows up on the pad?

Something is scheduled to happen. Perhaps slated or even predicted.

Rather than will how about may or should or even is expected.

Perhaps these talking heads – or their writers – have crystal balls, ouija boards, or tarot cards tucked away off camera.

I doubt the talking heads (and their writers) are “just lazy.” I think they simply are ignorant. Their vocabulary often is little more than that of a fourth grader (I’m in mind of the “Are you smarter than a fifth grader” tv show).

Perhaps because what is said on air is so quickly forgotten there is little worry that someone – some curmudgeon – will call them on their faux pas. Unlike print where the error can be read for days and come back to haunt the writer and editor.

Maybe not.

The level of newspaper production – from news gathering to newspaper composition – seems to have fallen to a level that, were I still in the business, I probably would quit in disgust.

There ARE good reporters and there ARE good editors, and I’m sure there are a few cold type page compositors who take prided in their work, but they seem to be few and far between. They are as rare as the proverbial hen’s teeth in the electronic media.

When I was a newspaper printer I worked my way from a lowly job (bank boy) to stoneman.

Before my first reporting job I asked a very experienced rewrite man what I needed to be a good reporter: spell the person’s name correctly and keep the leed^cq to 10 words or less, I was told.

I don’t expect tv talking heads to be Bill Buckleys or Hubert Humphreys – although they could at least aspire to their erudition.

Where are Ralph Renick and Edward R. Morrow when you need them.

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PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Comments on Vaticinators

Opuscula Right diagnosis Needs patient’s Participation

EVERY SO OFTEN I get an email from the Silver Sneakers folks. Silver Sneakers is a program offered by many Medicare Advantage (and maybe Supplement) plans and it offers advice on many things to the geezer population. (I’m a geezer; it beats the alternative.

In the latest (e)mailing we are told, among other things, that patients (of all ages) should participate in their medical care – partner with the physicians treating this or than malady.

I was an military medic so I’m comfortable dealing with doctors and nurses.

To my Edward Bear mind, my doctors are consultants to the patient (me).

If I cannot work with a practitioner, I go elsewhere.

If a practitioner cannot work with me, I go elsewhere.

It is, after all, my health and my life.

Over my time with Medicare, I have had several Primary Care Physicians (PCPs).

My relationship with some ended after my first visit. (In one case, a PCP set aside afternoon hours to meet with prospective patients. That got the PCP a gold star.)

The same holds for specialists.

I have on more than one occasion walked out of a dentist’s office because the dentist and the patient were not copacetic. (I have an excellent dentist now, thank you very much.)

The Silver Sneakers advice¹ to avoid a misdiagnosis – it turns out this is an all too common occurrence – is:

• 1. Be an Active Participant in the Process
• 2. Prepare for Your Appointments
• 3. Trust Your Gut—and Get a Second Opinion
• 4. Encourage Open Communication on Your Health Care Team

One thing I always do is make a list; sometimes I make a copy so the doctor can see my concerns as well as hear them from me. If your PCP says the specialist’s report never arrived, or was just note, contact the specialist and “prompt” the practitioner to get the information to your PCP . . . even if you have to hand-carry it to the PCP.

The complete Silver Sneakers article can be read online.

One thing not mentioned in the Silver Sneakers’ article – although I’m confident it was covered in another article – is to make certain all specialists send full follow-up reports to the PCP. It makes no difference if the PCP made a referral; the PCP must get the specialist’s report. The PCP is the health care coordinator.

Another person patients need to include in their health care is their pharmacist. While most medical practices have a copy of the Physician’s Desk Reference, the PDR, most physicians either don’t have time or don’t make time to look up a drug to see if it is compatible with other drugs that have been prescribed. This is especially important if the patient has multiple prescriptions from multiple doctors (e.g., the PCP and specialists). The pharmacist might warn against a medicine combination but the patient always should ask the pharmacist “Can I take this new R_x with the medicines already prescribed.” If the pharmacists recommends against the pharmaceutical “salad,” either ask the pharmacist to contact your PCP or do it yourself.

It is the patient’s responsibility to make sure the practitioner has all the information to make a diagnosis. It is the patient’s responsibility to challenge the practitioner; the practitioner is the patient’s consultant and while the doctor may be a “Subject Matter Expert,” the patient is the “customer.”

Never let a practitioner “stampede” a patient into something. Most Advantage and Supplement plans cover second opinions. If the patient and PCP come to a parting of the ways, most plans allow changing PCPs on the first of the following month (e.g., request new PCP two days before End of Month and on Day One of new month, you have a new PCP). Rapport with practitioners can play a major role in keeping geezers alive and well.

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Sources

1. http://tinyurl.com/y7b3dh2u

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Comments on Diagnosis

Opuscula Now I know why Americans can’t Speak the language

IT IS PRETTY SAD THAT a comic with a newsroom motif is a bad example of English usage.

I would object to the incorrect usage even if the cartoon was not Shoe and was not based, at least in part, on a newspaper (or perhaps blog) editorial department.

Yes, I know it’s just a cartoon, and I know the the cartoon above makes a point, but . . .

I CAN UNDERSTAND tv talking heads (and their script writers) not knowing the difference between robbery and burglary. I object when I hear the terms misused, but I “consider the source” and don’t (usually) complain to the station. (It would do no good in any event.)

Just for the record,

Burglary is typically defined as the unlawful entry into almost any structure (not just a home or business) with the intent to commit any crime inside (not just theft/larceny). No physical breaking and entering is required; the offender may simply trespass through an open door. Unlike robbery, which involves use of force or fear to obtain another person's property, there is usually no victim present during a burglary.¹

Robbery is The taking of money or goods in the possession of another, from his or her person or immediate presence, by force or intimidation.²

Theft is used widely to refer to crimes involving the taking of a person's property without their permission. But theft has a very broad legal meaning which may encompass more than one category, and multiple degrees, of crimes. Theft is often defined as the unauthorized taking of property from another with the intent to permanently deprive them of it. Within this definition lie two key elements:
1) a taking of someone else's property; and
2) the requisite intent to deprive the victim of the property permanently.³

Criminals BURGLARIZE property; they ROB people. THEFT is common to both.

EVERY journalist and editor, real or pseudo, should know the difference between the foregoing words. Given that “back in the day” (pre-Internet) editorial areas had at least one unabridged dictionary and multiple copies of “collegiate”-type dictionaries, copy editors expected reporters to use the correct word for the crime.

Unlike “dump” vs. “landfill,” there is no ambiguity. (Strictly writing, a “landfill” is a dump that’s covered with dirt.

I’m not sure today’s children read or even look at the comics. Newspapers have almost disappeared, and with them the comics page(s). No one reads the comics on radio (what’s a radio?) a la Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia⁴ during the newspaper delivery drivers’ strike of 1945. There ARE several comics web sites that host many comics, some even known to grandparents (e.g., Gasoline Alley, Alley Oop) and some new ones, many with a political agenda. But comics seem of no interest to today’s child, “married” as they are to Netflix and YouTube on their smart phones. If it’s not animated, it won’t hold a child’s attention.

It probably is better that the minors DON’T read today’s comics if the comics’ writers are as casual about the language as proven with Shoe. Our children – of all ages – are, by and large, language lazy. (I have two who have degrees in English; one teaches and the other traded his teaching job for a badge – less paperwork and politics, he claims.)

When words are misused they lose their meaning or their meaning, since English is a “living language,” changes to agree with the misuse. Case in point: “dinner” vs. “supper.”⁵.

How many know the difference between a “spade” and a “shovel”?

The answer is NOT Who cares?

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Sources

1. http://tinyurl.com/yd4trrmp

2. http://tinyurl.com/y7z8grat

3. http://tinyurl.com/yb7aunx2

4. http://tinyurl.com/ya8dtdbv

5. http://www.dictionary.com/e/supper-vs-dinner/

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Comments on Comics

Opuscula Pols, Journalists Could learn From Santayana

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana y Borrás¹

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IF THE MEDIA “EXPERTS” I see and hear are an example of “educated Americans,” then education in the U.S. is sadly lacking.
Not only are the experts ignorant – or if educated, then lazy – in American English, but their grasp of U.S. history is woefully inadequate.
There is, in this age of the Internet, no excuse for their ignorance.
Yet they are allowed, apparently by equally ignorant managers, to continue plaguing us with their lack of knowledge.

POLITICIANS AND “JOURNALISTS” are railing against the incarceration of illegal aliens; their special ire is directed at the separation of children from parents.
Courts separate children and parents on an almost daily basis.
Granted, the Feds are heavy handed and, also granted, the Feds stupidly failed to create a database to match children with parents; now, if the media is to be believed, some parents and children cannot be reunited. THAT, if true, is unconscionable. Whatever bureaucrat allowed that ought to be, at a minimum, fired.
The entire process has been one disaster after another.
Had anyone in Washington used common sense – obviously “common sense” is not a common commodity in and around D.C. – the whole episode could have been handled with only the most rabid leftists complaining.
It is interesting to note that when Barack Obama did the same thing the media – and leftists -- either ignored it or were complaisant.

FDR, the Democrats favorite president, interned Japanese-Americans, in some cases separating families and in some cases interning members of an American soldier’s family. He was afraid that these Japanese-Americans might be spies for the enemy. So much for protection under Constitutional law! To be fair, FDR also interned a few Italian-Americans and German-Americans as well.
FDR was above the law; he maintained a mistress (adultery) during his years in office. Eleanor kept her lesbian lover so perhaps it all evened out.
JFK was a known womanizer, but the media was silent. Teddy Kennedy managed, while drunk, to drive off a bridge, killing a woman, and William Jefferson “I never had sex with that woman” Clinton had his -- it turns out -- several moments of 'fame," but while a few of these peccadilloes were reported, none was treated as an on-going soap opera.
The media excoriated Nixon and LBJ – Nixon as a political conservative and LBJ because he wasn’t from the Northeast or California.

Moving on
The liberals were enraged when President Trump wanted to close America’s borders to people from seven countries, not all of which as originally claimed and conveniently overlooked by the leftist media, were predominately Muslim.
In 1875, the Page Act banned ALL Orientals from entering the U.S.
The Chinese Exclusion Act was passed in 1882 that banned Chinese immigration. Why? The government decided the U.S. had enough coolies to build the railroads and wash clothes.
Racism? Of course.
More can be read on this site at http://tinyurl.com/ydf3hn75 .
While the U.S. was unable to prevent American Indians from living in their homeland, it DID take most of their land from them. The New Georgia Encyclopedia² states the reason the Cherokees suffered the Trail of Tears to Oklahoma was that The removal of the Cherokees was a product of the demand for arable land during the rampant growth of cotton agriculture in the Southeast, the discovery of gold on Cherokee land, and the racial prejudice that many white southerners harbored toward American Indians.
When the Oklahoma lands proved valuable, the Indians were moved again to less desirable lands.

Democrats – almost exclusively liberals – object to “Trump’s wall” to reduce illegal entry into the U.S. from Mexico.
Where were these Democrats when Obama spent US$75 million U.S. taxpayer dollars to help Mexico close its southern border to immigrants from Guatemala and Nicaragua. Rather than spend the dollars on the U.S.-Mexico border where it might have reduced illegal entry into the U.S. AND employed U.S. citizens building a wall with U.S. manufactured products, he wasted the money on a Mexican border that still has more holes than a Swiss cheese. Now the U.S. must contend with illegals from Mexico AND Guatemala AND Nicaragua.

Russian interference with U.S. elections apparently is accepted.
President Trump contends there was NO collusion between him and Putin or any of Putin's hangers on. So far, after months of investigations, there is zero evidence of collusion.
Still, the leftists and their media sycophants continue to try convict the President of something without a shred of evidence. A political witch hunt-- something with which both parties have vast experience.

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Sources
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Santayana; https://www.iep.utm.edu/santayan/
2. http://tinyurl.com/yc8p76oy

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.
Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

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Dear Microsoft I’d rather skip A good product Than give my info

I USED SKYPE FOR A LONG time. Then, no longer needing it, I REMoved it from my computer.

Needing it again, I tried to install the application on a Win 10 machine.

No way.

IT TURNS OUT that on May of 2011 Microsoft bought Skype for US$8.5 billion.

Good for Skype; bad for users.

Which, unfortunately, is pretty much SOP for things acquired by Redmond.

ANYWAY, I tried to download the latest and greatest Skype from the Skype site.

What I got was a pop-up telling me I had to download the Windows version from Microsoft.

To do that I had to use either my Skype ID or a MS account.

MS didn’t even LOOK at my Skype ID, insisting (despite offering me the Skype username option) that I MUST use an MS account.

I don’t HAVE, nor do I WANT, an MS account.

I have enough accounts – and related passwords – already.

Moreover, thanks to Microsoft’s

• Constantly changing UIs
• Expensive “upgrades” (that I usually neither want nor use)
• It’s generally heavy-handed dealing with customers (e.g., the demand that I have an MS account)

I am migrating – whenever possible – from all Microsoft products.

Don’t misunderstand, Microsoft does make some great products. IMO, Outlook email consolidator is the best on the Windows platform, and I’ve recently tried several others.

BUT, there ARE good options for Microsoft Office.

This is created using Libre Writer.

The purchase price was $0. Yes, Virginia, ZERO.

As an aside, LibreOffice is in many ways superior to MS Office.¹

Frequent upgrades are the same price – and so far, none of the improvements has mucked about with the application’s UI.

I’ve been using Word since a single 5.25” floppy was stabled into a popular computer magazine back in the late 1980s. WYSIWYG ! Amazing. (I’ll bet some readers don’t know that WYSIWYG means “What You See Is What You Get”; before word, non-proprietary monitors only displayed plain text.) Word then was a stand-along application; pre-MS Office.

Libre Writer – part of LibreOffice that also includes Calc (Excel work-alike), Impress (like PowerPoint), and Base (similar to Access), – has many of the same features and functions as MS Word. Ctrl-B=bold, Ctrl-S=Save, etc. The learning curve for Writer is minimal; certainly no more than trying to figure out where MS “hid” a feature or function when the latest version was released.

Calc also has a short learning curve. (I have not tried Impress or Base, but based on how Writer and Calc function, my guess is that an Access or PowerPoint user would feel at home after one or two sessions with the free software.)

LibreOffice has a very active User Group (UG) that offers help to fellow LibreOffice users.

LibreOffice is not the only MS Office substitute.

According to Digital Trends², MS Office alternatives include, in addition to the free LibreOffice (W/L), Free Office (W/A/L), WPS Office 2016 (W/L/A/I), iWork (Mac OS)

W=Windows, L=Linux/Ubuntu, A=Android, I=IOS

All LibreOffice applications can open and save in MS Office formats.

Not only do LibreOffice, Free Office, and WPS Office run on Windows platforms, they ALSO run under the free Linux (and Ubuntu) operating systems (OSs). Linux and Ubuntu can co-exist with Windows on the same computer. I would suggest trying the free office suites under Windows before adding another OS or replacing Windows with another OS.

TechRadar.com³ lists the same suites as Digital Trends, but adds Polaris Office. The TechRadar page provides some interesting – and for me, critical – information.

Some “free” suites burden the user with advertising; premium versions offer more capability sans advertisements.

• LibreOffice: No ads; all features and functions included
• Free Office: No ads with paid
• WPS Office: No ads with paid option
• FreeOffice: Paid option adds functionality

The bottom line is that MS Office, while still the 800-pound gorilla on Windows and Mac platforms, has competition and some of that competition is both excellent and free.

My next change will be to move to either Linux or Ubuntu operating systems. Both can co-exist with Microsoft. If I can find an email consolidator comparable to MS Outlook I’ll happily say good bye to Microsoft Office. Outlook is the only reason I keep the Microsoft Windows OS.

Final thought The reason this rant commenced was because I was not able to download the latest and greatest Skype sans a Microsoft account.

It turns out that, similar to MS Office, there ARE alternatives to Skype.

TechRadar.com⁴ lists best free Skype alternative 2018. The “MUD” site⁵ also lists several alternatives to Skype on Windows. Viber makes both lists. WhatsApp also makes both lists, but MUD notes that voice WhatsApp calls are only available on Android, iOS and Windows

There also are a number of Open Source (LibreOffice is an Open Source project) options.

OpenSource.com⁶ lists three solid alternatives to Skype, including

• Jitsi (runs inside a browser window)
• Ring (GNU/Linux, Windows, MacOS desktops and Android and iOS mobile devices )
• Riot (Chrome and Firefox browsers, MacOS, Windows, and Linux desktops and iOS and Android devices)

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Sources

1. http://tinyurl.com/ble7jpx

2. http://tinyurl.com/lvrfmhq

3. http://tinyurl.com/ycwnpwk3

4. http://tinyurl.com/y84qhw5n

5. http://tinyurl.com/yao4xzsv

6. http://tinyurl.com/yclsbbck

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Comments on Micrsoft Office