2015 archive
Blue Shielding Its Profits 0
The California Franchise Tax Board has yanked Blue Shield of California’s non-profit status because, surprise, Blue Shield makes lots of profits. Blue Shield, natch, will appeal. Here’s a bit from the story:
“It also opens the door for us to challenge the tax exemption of a host of other not-for-profit companies that act as though they were for-profit companies by stockpiling cash and paying executives seven-figure salaries and having skyboxes,” said Jamie Court, president of Santa Monica-based Consumer Watchdog.
Court was referring to Blue Shield’s $2.5 million purchase of a skybox at Levi’s Stadium, the San Francisco 49ers’ new home in Santa Clara. Blue Shield has called the skybox a business expense needed to increase sales.
I am mildly surprised that Blue Cross did not justify the skybox at the football palace as a treatment for acrophobia.
Get Real 0
I did a year’s grad work at the University of Virginia.
If the Virginia Alcohol Beverage Control Board really wants to get serious about underage drinking in Charlottesville, they would close fraternity row instead of beating up random black students.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Stolen politeness.
(snip)
Anthony said he did not know where the handgun came from but he was “surprised” to see his friend in possession of a weapon. He said Israel did not tell him where the gun came from.
The juveniles involved in the gun’s theft have been identified by police and will potentially face criminal charges, the press release stated.
My New Toy (Updated) 0
My new computer, which I intend to use as my home file server, is due to arrive today. I told the vendor to put Slackware Linux on it. Slackware is the distro of iron: It always works and never breaks.
I shall retire my Dell Dimension 4700, which is ten years old (I got it from Second Source about seven years ago–if you are in Upper Delaware, Second Source is the place to go for used computers and computer repairs), wipe the HDD, and donate it to my local DAV thrift store.
Addendum:
It arrived, exactly as promised. And it rocks.
Zareason makes good boxes.
Food Chains 0
Kimberly Garrison of The Philadelphia Daily News looks into the agricultural industry and is distressed by what she sees.
But, at the bare minimum, shouldn’t the people who harvest our food earn enough to be able to afford to buy it? Whatever happened to fair pay for honest work?
I bet most Americans couldn’t last an hour, let alone an entire day, picking. I’m not even going to front like I could do it; I could barely survive the hayride and the fun farm day picking apples at the orchard. Yeah, right, live healthy and happily on a measly $10,000 a year. Honey, please.
When I was in college, I worked for three summers with a project providing basic health care to migrant workers, many of whom had been kidnapped or entrapped into joining a migrant crew. In their world, the company store was still a very real thing, used to keep them in servitude and penury.
It looks as if not much has changed.
Republican Sex Toys 0
Nothing To Do, Nowhere To Go 0
About the same.
(snip)
The four-week moving average, a less volatile measure than the weekly numbers, increased to 304,750 last week, from 302,500. . . .
The number of people continuing to receive jobless benefits declined by 11,000 to 2.42 million in the week ended March 7. The unemployment rate among people eligible for benefits held at 1.8 percent, where it’s been since early January.
Women as Brood Mares and Other Republican Nonsense 0
The Republican Party has some really strange hang-ups about sex.
The Golden Rule 4
Those who have the gold make the rules.
KCBS reported that the “no trespassing” signs outside the primary church for Archdiocese of San Francisco, Saint Mary’s Cathedral, did not mention what would happen to the homeless who tried to sleep under the cover of the building’s doorway.
Words fail me.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Politeness is essential to parenting.
The round traveled through a wall into a finished family room and struck his 10-year-old son in the face.
This is the ultimate confluence of gunnuttery and stupid: he is incapable of discerning whether the gun is loaded.