Everybody is somebody else's weirdo.
Dykstra
Note: This is an earlier edition of my regular daily post. I will post later night with available results and commentary
Image of the Day
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| Via LFC |
Usability of my WV Voting Machine Ballot
First, what I liked about this machine, which is different from the ones I've seen in Maryland over the past decade is that it simultaneously generated a viewable paper tape summary of my selections. Not quite touchscreen; you had to use a weirdly-shaped stylus to make your selections.
What I didn't like--what wasn't immediately obvious--is that the "cast your vote" button was enabled only on the last page of your vote summary. The "cast your vote" button appeared on the first page of the summary, but it just wasn't enabled. Whereas I've seen this conceptual model before, say, paging to the bottom of the software license agreement for iTunes or Adobe Reader in order to agree/start installation. I'm not sure why a voter can't submit his ballot from any interim vote summary page, but it seems to me a more intuitive interface would be something like you find in a self-serve parking garage or paid parking lot e.g., arrow signs to exits. So, for example, you could have a next page arrow icon next to the submit button on leading ballot summary pages. It just goes to show "common sense" design isn't always so common...
Bureaucracy Also Occurs in the Private Sector...
In mid-August, as most familiar readers know, I did not publish for a few days due to a family emergency in Texas. On my return trip to Pittsburgh, I found myself rescheduled 2 times by the airline, the second time which left me just 15 minutes between flights off different pavillions in Chicago. The airline agreed to reschedule me on a more realistic flight on a competitor airline. One complication: they had charged me a standard $25 baggage charge on a single hardback suitcase. The airlines don't exchange baggage; I had to go to baggage claim to reclaim my suitcase. I arrived finding it outside a closed baggage office--and worse, it looked as though the unlocked suitcase had been dropped or pried open at one end (I'm not sure it was TSA or the airline which caused the damage). I had to go to the other airline to check in with my damaged suitcase; to the airline's credit, they heavily taped the damaged end of the suitcase, but charged me a separate $25 baggage charge. The first airline's policy assumed that damaged suitcases occur at the end of travel, which meant filing my claim in Texas. After my trip home I filed a customer complaint on the suitcase and the related baggage fee. Here is their response;
We are deeply sorry that your travel plans were disrupted when we found it necessary to make accommodations for you on another carrier after your American Airlines flight was cancelled. We are sorry, too, that you were further disappointed by the collection of the baggage fees by that carrier. When we rescheduled you on another carrier, we were working hard to get you to your destination despite our off schedule operation. However, once your ticket is endorsed to the other airline, all their associated procedures and polices apply to your travel.
Nevertheless, we appreciate the point you've made about this extra expense and in order to refund the American Airlines baggage charge, please provide us with the other carrier baggage receipt for our accounting department.Notice first: not a word about the damaged suitcase (and no other follow-up in the weeks since the reply). I did not complain about being rescheduled, including through another airline. I only mentioned it for context. The point about the baggage fee is because the other airline told me there is no transfer of baggage fees and I had to pay a second fee and collect my first baggage fee from the source airline. The point is that the first airline collected a baggage fee but the baggage never left the airport. They never delivered my baggage anywhere but needed evidence of the second airline's baggage fee before they would refund my money? Really? Never mind they never delivered the baggage to the second airline, as I had specifically noted in my complaint. Actually, I think by the time I got this response, I had already gone onto my credit card account and disputed the charge.
Choose Life
Facebook Corner
(Judge Anthony Napolitano). Nurse Kaci Hickox Has Nothing To Apologize For
Judge Napolitano is spot on. Thank you for your consistent, principled stand for liberty and against the anti-scientific fear-mongers, including the right-wing authoritarians spamming your thread. I thank God for compassionate volunteers like Kaci Hickox who are a credit to their profession and for their courage to stand up against the fascists.
As an RN, I can tell you the woman is an embarrassment to the profession.
You're an embarrassment to the medical profession, and appeals to your "expertise" authority are bullshit. I have a sister and two nieces who are RN's, and I would support them if they contributed to contain the outbreak in West Africa and if and when they returned to the states.
(IPI). More than $0.70 out of every new education dollar already goes to teacher retirement costs.
At the rate pension costs are expected to increase, by 2029 the state will spend more on retirement costs than on aid to schools.
Quit bitching about people getting pensions. They stole the money from the pension fund and that is why we are in this mess. I don't see people complaining about SS when people get more out of it then what they put in. Another thing you all should be complaing about is where is all the lottery money going to??? I mean it was suppose to go to the schools. So where is all that money. If we had the lottery money and the federal money for our schools... They should have the best funded school. You people need to stop putting the blame on your peers and start blaming the politicians.
OP is full of shit. First, about social security: it's only the lower-income workers who can expect to receive more than they paid in. And you're wrong that most fiscal conservatives like myself haven't been bitching about the $40T-plus underfunding. Bush tried to reform in 2005 and never got to first base. The current administration is whistling "don't worry, be happy" even though social security has contributed to the deficit on a pay-go basis since 2010.
Second, the issue isn't liabilities, say from state loans from the pension plan. These didn't go away. The OP is math-challenged. The issue is UNSUSTAINABLE PROMISES, made with unrealistic investment return assumptions and bad actuarial statistics, including tenure of retirement and an exploding retiree base. The retirees and the unions should have been on top of this, and it's grossly unfair to expect future taxpayers to bail out corrupt political bargains.
The Fault lies with the Democrats , not the Retirees !!!
Unless the retirees voted/vote for the Democrats--and assuming they weren't responsible for failed union leadership that didn't ensure promises were made without commensurate funding on an ongoing basis. Asking future taxpayers to bail out past underfunding is unconscionable.
What should bother people is that a 19 year old, single mother with multiple children, who has never worked receives more combined funds in the form of welfare assistance than a teacher, police officer or fire fighter will receive from their pension after WORKING for 25 years and contributing to their pension
False choice. We need to reduce the parasitic class across the board.
Its the politicians that "voted" to STEAL...45 billion dollars of the teachers money that put Illinois in this mess. Each politician that voted to STEAL this money, THAT WASN'T THEIRS, should be sitting in prison right now. I'm not a teacher, but I have common sense. What they did was total corruption, and NO ONE is having these f*kers arrested. Wth is wrong with all you teachers out there? Get the best damned lawyers in USA and put these assholes in prison. I feel for you teachers, I truly do, but THEIR corruption, should NOT be paid back by the taxpayers. That's STEALING from US. Two wrongs NEVER make it right. Make it right by prosecuting them. Then suck it up like the rest of us hardworking people......and move out of Illinois and their continual bs....and start a better life in another state.
Another distraction argument from the corrupt parasitic class. Listen, self-serving jerk, the issue is not "your" "stolen" money; it's the fact you can't do simple math. It's OVERPROMISES made by corrupt politicians BOUGHT by thieving teacher unionists. They never put aside enough money to fund up to 30-year retirements paying more than a starting active teacher makes. You think you've "paid" for this retirement with 6% contributions? BULLSHIT! The taxpayer is being forced to make up for underfunding--and it has nothing to do with politicians "stealing" your (actually taxpayer) money. The government is still liable for any obligations it loaned from pension funds. The fact of the matter is that millionaires who have been paying maximum on the first $100K-plus won't collect more than $30,000 a year on social security, and social security isn't funded adequately. My position is that NO public employee deserves more in publicly funded pensions than they could equivalently get through social security assuming they had paid into social security instead. The last time I checked is after a bullish stock market run, Illinois has less than half the funds necessary to fund its pensions. Given the fact that down years in the market can eat up 20-30% of the pension base, it really needs to be funded more than 100%. You and your fellow parasites are truly screwed if we head into a global recession. This is a MASSIVE underfunding caused by excess expectations of investment returns (which allows the political whores to kick in less) and head-in-the-sand actuarial analysis, ignoring the vast aging Baby Boomer population and longer lifespans in retirement. Forget your retarded public school math; this is your real problem.
Just because you all think teachers got it made cause they work just nine months. What about the planning they do, they helping students they so. Many teachers families lose out on family time because they are trying to make your kids life's better. This state has been taking away Money from the teachers retirement fund for decades saying they will pay it back. Teacher put they own money into this fund!
Knock off the sob story, lady. We all work hard for our money. Loans are not "stolen"; they have to be paid off. The problem is that union demands and crony political whore promises are unsustainable.
Political Cartoon
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| Courtesy of Glenn McCoy via Townhall |
Linda Ronstadt, "I've Got A Crush On You"
