No Shot = No Job

Being "right" can't be cashed or deposited at a bank.

If you don't have a job, you don't have a way to meet your financial responsibilities, including but not limited to paying for mortgages / rents / cell phones / TVs / Christmas presents / food. Yet, the 50ish workers that were fired because they refused to have a flu shot apparently think they can pay for those things because they are "right" about not wanting a flu shot. You can read the article here: Essentia fires about 50 workers over refusal to get flu shots The Duluth-based health system says many employees ultimately got vaccinations, and that patients will be safer. By Jeremy Olson Star Tribune November 21, 2017 — 9:44pm

My opinion? I get a flu shot each year; Karen had an allergic reaction a few years ago and doesn't get one.

Seven Years of Lies Cease with a Rumored Deal

Seven years. That's how long Republicans have declared they will repeal & replace ObamaCare. All they could talk about was doing so and that's all it has turned out to be: talk. Instead of having a plan, instead of laying out a clear roadmap, the Republican Senate leader - Mitch McConnell - is reduced to a rumored backroom deal with Democrat Senate leader Charles Schumer, though this is a rumor, per the article Rumors of a Deal Between McConnell and Schumer on Obamacare Non-Repeal.

A rumor.

Seven years of promising to do something has been reduced to a f-cking rumor.

Really?

As expected, people are not happy:

• 7 Year Obamacare Repeal Promise BROKEN by Senate
• Glenn Beck RIPS the GOP on Healthcare and it’s Fantastic

Might as well write the obituary for rock and roll!

---

---

Line 1 - Kiss' Rock and Roll All Night

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Line 2 - The Who's My Generation

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Line 3 - Neil Young's My My, Hey Hey (Out Of The Blue)

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Line 4 - David Bowie's Future Legend

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Line 5 - Billy Joel's It's Still Rock and Roll to Me

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Line 6 - The Rolling Stones' It's Only Rock 'N' Roll (But I Like It)

---

Line 7 - AC/DC's For Those about to Rock, We Salute You

---

Defense Against Obamacare Hypocrites

Erick Erickson pointed from his article - http://theresurgent.com/defense-against-obamacare-hypocrites/ - to this article - Self-Righteous Sanctimony from an Obamacare Hypocrite - and it has opened my eyes to http://www.chrisjacobshc.com/, which is a website I plan to visit frequently. After only knowing of its existence for a few minutes, I am in love with Chris Jacobs' writing style, which is engaging. I can follow the flow of his argument easily and not just because I agree with him - I enjoy the writing style, as much as I enjoy the writing style of Phillip Swicegood - http://theresurgent.com/cruz-failure-is-not-an-option/ - regardless of its much shorter length.

I love writing that engages me and asks me to commit.

Seven Years

Should be Easier

Passing health care reform is hitting major snags even though Republicans control the House, the Senate, and the Presidency. Why? From what I've read, it's because the health care reform bill is riddled with issues that are not looking out for the American people. What I find interesting is Obamacare has been around for, what, 8 years, and Republicans have criticized it for, what, 8 years, but now, when presented with a majority in all branches of government, there is not a health care reform bill that can generate support within the Republican party. Read about the issues here:

1. McConnell Faces Major Road Block In Passing Senate GOP’s Obamacare Repeal Bill
2. Senate GOP updates health care bill to include 6-month lockout for uninsured

I find all of this fascinating and I will be interested to see what happens next.

Not Peachy News

Aetna leaving Iowa ACA exchange market in 2018

More Political Funny Stuff

It's funny that someone has to actually write this about the leader of the greatest nation on earth, no?
From http://theresurgent.com/a-galaxy-note-7-for-the-president-please/

---

The single greatest thing President Trump could do to improve his Presidency would be to stay off Twitter. There are times he has positively moved the needle on the medium. The media seems increasingly inclined to go down rabbit holes in pursuit of silver bullets to topple his administration. The President, with one tweet, can send the press corps scrambling. He can transcend media narratives, create his own, and bypass the traditional press to get his message out in 140 characters.

---

Editor's Note: Since this is tap dancing in the landmine of politics, check out all the articles that have been posted to The Resurgent website about obamacare - it is quite enlightening. Here's the link: http://theresurgent.com/tag/obamacare/

5 x 3 Years Ago...

On October 1, 1998, there were a lot of things going on in life. I began a new job, my second since leaving my first technical writing position in February. I had left Company #1 to go to Company #2, but they were having money issues - when you sit around waiting for the mail to see if anyone sent in a check, that's bad - so there was a lot of anticipation and relief that I was moving on. Alex was a mere 22 days from being born and Megan, our princess, was very excited to be a big sister.

Looking back on my life then is easy to do from where I sit now. I have been through a lot of crap since then, especially starting with October 2010 until May 2011. I am not boastful, but damn, I wouldn't go back for any reason I can conjure in my head.

I am happy. Home is good. Life is good.

And, just for the record, I didn't work on the conversion projects last night. I watched WWE Raw and then watched how the government is shutting down. I have to confess, I agreed with a "Democratic Strategist" (DS) who said that the Republicans are not being smart about this whole ObamaCare issue. He said they have tried to defund it 40+ times so yes, it's on record that they don't like it. It would be perfect for the Republicans to let ObamaCare "begin" and then, for the 2014 elections, run on the platform that "Hey, we voted against it and if you vote for a Democrat, you're saying you like it." The DS pointed out that if the Republicans would let ObamaCare fail instead of shutting down the government, they would be able to use that in the future. Instead, they are going to be known as the party that pouted, basically, and didn't get their way so they shut down the government and pouted. I don't normally agree with Democrats - after all, they think that killing a baby is a woman's choice - but I agreed with this DS.

I'm very curious to see when the government reopens.

Health Care Redux & Cleaning out my Inbox...

More Health Care Stuff...

I thought Laren's post below was very insightful...


-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+phanson=quintrex.com@lists.techwr-l.com [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+phanson=quintrex.com@lists.techwr-l.com] On Behalf Of Lauren
Sent: Monday, December 28, 2009 2:23 PM
To: techwr-l@lists.techwr-l.com
Subject: Re: Bad Salary Omens

On 12/28/2009 8:56 AM, Pro TechWriter wrote:
> Good GRIEF. There are admin. assistant jobs that pay more than this. What
> are they thinking?
>

They're thinking that writing is an easy job and anyone can do it.
Also, those jobs are offering double the minimum wage for many states.

http://www.dol.gov/whd/minwage/america.htm

Here's a funny. Currently unemployed Californians are now eligible for 99 weeks of nemployment. Unemployment insurance (UI) pays a maximum of $450 per week and a $25 stimulus payment from the federal government for $475 per week. This amounts to ~$11.88 per hour for a forty-hour work week, but the CA-EDD requires that people accept jobs that pay $11.25 or more per hour at forty hours per week. So the jobs you discussed pay more than UI. Now, would you rather have a job that does not pay well or stay home and look for a better job while earning just under the same amount as working? If the low paying job is offered to an unemployed person in California receiving UI benefits, then that person *must* accept the job.

http://www.edd.ca.gov/Unemployment/New_Federal_Unemployment_Insurance_Extensions.htm
http://www.edd.ca.gov/Unemployment/Federal-State_Extended_Duration_Benefits.htm

http://www.edd.ca.gov/Unemployment/$25_Stimulus_Payments.htm

Oh right, CA EDD twitters, http://twitter.com/CA_EDD.

Lauren

A great TWing link
http://www.ivanwalsh.com/2009/11/technical-writing-news-nov-27th/#more-3810

A great business article link:
http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/bregman/2009/11/how-to-talk-about-what-you-mos.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+harvardbusiness+%28HarvardBusiness.org%29

The Myth of Single Sourcing Documentation

Health Care & an Editor's Revenge & Concert Confirmation!

Here are some links to read to better understand the health care debate as well as some other news about my life.

1. http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/marketwire/0556598.htm
2. Health companies see relief in U.S. Senate bill
   http://www.reuters.com/article/Health09/idUSTRE5A83WD20091109
3. Health Care PASSES: The Scene In The House When It Happened http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/08/health-care-passes-the-sc_n_349783.html
4. CNN Artticle http://www.cnn.com/2009/OPINION/11/09/frum.trial.lawyers.victory/index.html
5. Here's a registered nurse's one-page explanation on Understanding HR3962: The Affordable Health Care for America Act http://www.emaxhealth.com/1506/72/34374/understanding-hr3962-affordable-health-care-america-act.html
6. A Toronto Star editor marks up the letter from the publisher announcing the outsourcing of editorial jobs: http://torontoist.com/2009/11/disgruntled_star_editor_takes_revenge.php
7. I wrote: Any chance of getting two passes - one for my friend?
   Papa Roach's publicist wrote back "Yes, you’ll have a pair of review tix."
   SWWEEEETTTTT!!!

More Health Care Stuff

From the 405 list, Michael Leventhal wrote this:

I saw this article and couldn't help myself. My apologies.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/12/alex-lange-denied-health_n_317337.html
A two month old baby couldn't get covered because he's too fat. Now, after the bad publicity, they'll be covering him.

And, given today's report by the health insurance industry, essentially saying, "If you pass the Baucus (e.g. -- weak) health insurance reform plan, we'll raise everyone's premiums by up to $1700 annually for a family, and $600 individually, going up to an additional $4,000 for a family and $1500 for an individual in 5 years," it may well be time to tell the for profit insurance industry to deal with government competition. I mean, doesn't this sound like an industry that knows it won't have to respond to any downward price pressure? Doesn't it feel like they know no insurance company is going to undercut their pricing?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091013/ap_on_go_co/us_health_care_overhaul_insurers

Quotes, Styles, Health Care, and My Top 25

First three quotes:

---

1. There are 2 theories on arguing with women. Neither works.
2. Life is too short for drama & petty things, so kiss slowly, laugh insanely, Love truly and forgive quickly
3. Woman inspires us to great things, and prevents us from achieving them.

---

Next, Word 2007 uses styles to control formatting. A lot of writers don't give a damn about styles. Case in point, there should only be 9 Heading styles:
Heading 1
Heading 2
Heading 3
Heading 4
Heading 5
Heading 6
Heading 7
Heading 8
Heading 9

---

Next, health care... Everyone knows something about this issue. Here's an article about why Congress has awesome health care: Health Care for the US Congress

---

Next, if I had to pick 25 CDs to take with me on a tropical get-away, given that there is already a stereo there, I'd pick these 25:

1. AC/DC - Back in Black
2. Anthrax - Among the Living
3. Fear Factory - Archetype
4. Black Sabbath - Paranoid
5. Dangerous Toys (self-titled debut)
6. Destroyer - KISS
7. Disarray - In the Face of the Enemy
8. Dokken - Under Lock and Key
9. Guns-in-Roses - Appetite for Destruction
10. Judas Priest - Painkiller
11. Scorpions - Love at First Sting
12. Megadeth - Rust in Peace
13. Metallica - And Justice for All
14. Metallica - Master of Puppets
15. Motley Crue = Shout at the Devil
16. Ozzy Osbourne - The Ultimate Sin
17. Pantera - Vulgar Display of Power
18. Queensryche - Operation Mindcrime
19. Ratt - Out of the Cellar
20. Riot - The Privilege of Power
21. Rush - Moving Pictures
22. Sacrament - Lamb of God
23. Sepultura - Chaos A.D.
24. Slayer - South of Heaven
25. White Lion - Mane Attraction

These are all CDs that I cherish.

---

Next, I was genuinely interested in the following snip that was passed along on an email list. I asked that the URL with this info be shared. First, the snip that got my attention:

---

Here's an example:
"January 12, 2007 - The U.S. House passed a bill that says the minimum wage in this country will rise over time from $5.15 an hour to $7.25. Included in the small print is the fact that the minimum wage will now include the islands of the northern marinas but it exempts American Samoa which is the only U.S. Territory not subject to minimum wage laws.
Why? Star-Kist Tuna is a major employer there, with its headquarters in Speaker Nancy Pelosi's district."

Here's the original story: http://preview.tinyurl.com/yeod65h

---

Next, here's a piece that I have a hard time agreeing with: http://preview.tinyurl.com/y85d7a4
I think it's stupid to not want our president to be successful. I think it's terrible to be happy Chicago didn't get the Olympics is anything but terrible. Shame on those that think Obama is not their president.

---

On on we go...

Some Links to Others

I didn't set out to 'collect' links today but it seemed like they kept coming my way. First of all, those damn "activist" judges are at it again, this time (gasp) ruling that Microsoft cannot sell Word 2007. Seriously. Read about it here.

Moving on, Rock Gone Wild in Algona, IA, had been moved from Algona and now, officially, it is cancelled. People that have bought tickets are having difficulty, supposedly, getting their money back. There is a press release on their website about it.

I have tried to stay out of the whole national health care debate. However, I happen to have found my voice through Dave Nathanson:

---

-----Original Message-----

From: Dave Nathanson [mailto:Dave.lists@Nathanson.org]

Sent: Wednesday, August 12, 2009 1:52 PM

To: web405@lists.southland.net

Subject: Re: [Web405] [OT] free medical and/or dental health care

(stepping onto the soapbox in the frying pan)

This is why I firmly believe that Health Care (HC) reform should NOT
be about providing insurance for all. The insurance is part of the
problem. "Standard" allowed payout prices (big insurance co, medicare,
etc) is a big part of what raised prices. The insurance companies,
even if they are the almost bankrupt govt, are at cross-purposes to
the consumer. The better HC you get, the more it costs them, the more
they want to withhold services to reduce costs. A better way would
align the payor with the benefit. Think about it. If YOU got a bonus
every time you chose a cheaper service for people you didn't know nor
care much about... What would you do? That's the situation when any
insurance company or government program is in charge of your
healthcare spending.

For these reasons I feel it is important for the customer to have
control over, and for a disinterested 3rd party (insurance company)
not to have control over how your healthcare dollar is spent.


IMHO Healthcare reform should be about making it possible for
customers to price-shop. That is impossible now. Prices for common
procedures need to be clearly posted. That will let people choose how/
where to spend their money; so they can choose any provider they want,
and choose to go cheap, or full service. This will also enable medical
providers to compete based on price, which will drive prices down more
effectively than any govt insurance plan ever could... And without
stifling innovation, nor crushing competition. Some HC providers could
compete on cheapness, others on quality. Just like in every other
normal American business.

I really don't understand why all the HC reforms I hear about are all
about bigger insurance, reducing competition & reducing available
choices when a better solution seems so simple. Just make all HC
providers post their real prices, enabling cost/service comparisons.
Costs will come down as real competition increases. The consumers
benefit.

Dave Nathanson

Mac Medix



On Aug 12, 2009, at 10:22 AM, Gail Parker wrote:

Looking back over his long career, Potter sees an industry corrupted
by Wall Street expectations and greed. According to Potter, insurers
have every incentive to deny coverage - every dollar they don't pay
out to a claim is a dollar they can add to their profits, and Wall
Street investors demand they pay out less every year. Under these
conditions, Potter says, "You don't think about individual people.
You think about the numbers, and whether or not you're going to meet
Wall Street's expectations."

(snip)

---

Why shouldn't I know ahead of time how much something is going to cost? You go to have your car worked on, you get an estimate. Then you get other estimates. You make an informed decision. Easy. Someone responded to Dave, saying 'what if you are on the way to the hospital, how can you comparison shop?' You can't. There needs to be a separation in the health care debate because there are two issues:

1. Emergency care - I am dying. I need help 10 minutes ago.


2. Non-Emergency care - I am not dying but I need help soon. This also includes regular routine physicals and other appointments. Non-Emergency care should allow the consumer to shop around.

Think of it this way. You need a non-emergent procedure. There are two local doctors, in the same building, that do this procedure. Doctor Joe is charging $50 for a procedure and Doctor Frank is charging $100 for the same procedure. Both doctors will do the same thing to you. Why would you go to Doctor Frank? It'd be stupid to do so!

Moving along, I don't need this macro now, but someday I might.

-----Original Message-----

From: Word-Pc List

On Behalf Of Marta Cepek

Sent: Wednesday, August 12, 2009 2:27 PM

To: WORD-PC@liverpool.ac.uk

Subject: Re: Need VB Help with Looping


Here you go, as a standalone, or copy the whole with/end with into your
existing macro:

Sub Spaces2Tabs()


'5 spaces = 1 tab

With Selection.Find

.Text = " "

.Replacement.Text = "^t"

.Forward = True

.Wrap = wdFindContinue

.Execute

While .Found

.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll

.Execute

Wend



'tab+space = 1 tab

.Text = "^t "

.Replacement.Text = "^t"

.Forward = True

.Wrap = wdFindContinue

.Execute

While .Found

.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll

.Execute

Wend



' 2 tabs = 1 tab

.Text = "^t^t"

.Replacement.Text = "^t"

.Forward = True

.Wrap = wdFindContinue

.Execute

While .Found

.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll

.Execute

Wend



End With



End Sub

Cheers!

Marta

-----Original Message-----

From: Word-Pc List [mailto:WORD-PC@liverpool.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Brown, Donald

Sent: August 12, 2009 2:17 PM

To: WORD-PC@liverpool.ac.uk

Subject: Need VB Help with Looping


I import text documents and convert to tables. I have been able to do
the conversion, but now looking for some way to make it more efficient
and basically clean up the macro. Since I am converting this to a table
I am separating text by tabs. The problem is that I have set up to
replace all spaces to tab. That is, I start with 40 spaces and repeat
this over and over to get down to 2 spaces.

What is the syntax to set a loop and replace spaces (starting at 40)
with a tab until there is 2 spaces left?

Don


Also, good news! The recession should end this quarter, per PC Magazine. That's fine by me! My only concern is this: I cannot stay afloat at work. It seems to hit me every so often that I have way too much to do and not nearly enough time to do it. I put some numbers together today regarding my latest new project.

The amount of work I have in front of me is staggering. There are 2021 topics to evaluate, 1810 graphics, and 3730 places to replace the name of their company with my company and no, it's not a simple find and replace because their name is used in the navigation to their program on the Windows Start menu and, frankly, we may not follow their exact path. There is, probably, 6 weeks of work. If I started on this on Monday, 8/17, and only worked on this for the next 6 weeks, I would have 3 days until 10/1/09. That would be my goal - to plow through this project as quickly and as forcefully as I can. However:

1. There are still 5 "other" hot projects that are going to take at least 40 hours each.
2. There are going to be UI changes I need to develop.
3. There are going to be CDs of our next release to assemble and burn.
4. There are going to be other projects that I know Development is working on but haven't arrived in my department yet that will require my attention.

So "if you can't do it all" is what I am told, who is going to do it? I can tell you that aside from the cow-orkers that were talking about bird shit a few weeks ago, there is not a single bored sole in my employer's building. Everyone is busy - everyone has hot projects.

On a related note, I was in a session at our client conference today - each August, our clients come to town to hear about what we've accomplished and what we plan to do soon - that included our CEO talking about our corporate direction. Without revealing specifics, there is a HUGE project that we, as a company, need to complete. We have talked about it and talked about it and FINALLY have the pieces of the puzzle in the same building - all we need to do is to figure out the frame of the puzzle so its innards become clear. That's when it became very clear to me that we, as a company, need a corporate vision as to what we want to do. We need 100% buy-in. We need to set priorities on projects so that we are focused on our highest priority #1. We need to plan to dedicate resources to the projects that need to be done and, where we fail sometimes, not pull people to Hot Project #2 when Hot Project #1 also needs to be completed. We need to budget our time and not require each other to put in 40 hours in 2 days in order to meet an insane deadline. We need to have more parties - like $1 bowling @ Westdale - and to enjoy life. My friend Phil said he had too much work to do so he didn't go to our banquet last night. We need to find a way to not put each other in that situation.

And, on the subject of last night's banquet... I was hypnotized. People tell me that the following happened:

1) I was told I would win a car and when I did, I was supposed to say what kind of car I won. I said a Lambourgini. I was asked what accessory I wanted with my car and I said, "My wife." Then I was pulled over from speeding. When asked why I was speeding, I said that I was late for work. "Where do you work?" "At the best company on Earth."

2) When someone said our city, Person A stood up and asked, "Who's your Daddy?" I then stood up and said, "I am." And each time I stood up, I was more and more agitated. I told the hypnotist, "You need to tell him to shut up."

3) I played a balloon as a guitar for an Elvis song and a Shania Twain song.

That was about it. There is a DVD and I'd like to see it.

Anything else?