EEOC Sues ACA Wellness Programs

The Quisling crony capitalists who gave aid and comfort to the passage of the Obamacare disaster have been stabbed in the back and are as angry as wet hornets.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)  is suing them — well Honeywell International and two smaller firms anyway but all are in its sights — for the “wellness programs” that were instrumental in getting the bossy-types on board for the “Affordable” Care Act.

It should be understood that the EEOC is under the auspices of the President.

Wellness programs give corporations a chance to question workers about the details of their personal lives, make them undergo screenings, and force them to attend weight-loss or smoking-cessation programs.

Obamacare allows huge incentives for those taking part in workplace wellness programs of up to 50-percent of their monthly premiums, deductibles and other costs. This means smokers and heavy people and people with pre-existing conditions face major financial discrimination, not to mention the invasions of privacy.

The also remarkably stupid American Disabilities Act of 1990 prohibits employers from discriminating against those with disabilities including blindness and mental retardation. This means they can’t require medical testing of employees. Further, the EEOC considers obesity a disability with regards to the act.

Oh, just watch the train wreck.

And this does not even attempt to address trying to get those with dangerous sex lives to change their ways.

The wise and simple solution is to completely ban the practice of employer-provided health care. Give raises to compensate for the loss of the benefits and let the workers buy their insurance in the same fashion they do their homes and food.

Most employers — the successful ones, the ones you want to work for — don’t care about your personal life. All they want from you is for you to show up on time and do what you are paid to do.

They don’t care about your skin color either or, generally, sex.

Get government out of hiring decisions.

EEOC Sues ACA Wellness Programs

EEOC Sues ACA Wellness Programs

Global Warming Afflicts Pennsylvania

Global Warming 2014

Proof positive that global warming afflicts Pennsylvania. Two days after Nov. 26 snowfall, the white stuff remained on the ground in Concord Township. Here, Miranda and Anthony give tips to their cousin Skyler about how to throw a snowball. Skyler is from Florida and it is the first time she has experienced snow.

Global Warming Afflicts Pennsylvania

Luzerne Workers Miss Paychecks When County Worker Takes Vacation

Employees of Luzerne County got their paychecks late this week when a county worker went on vacation and failed to approve an electronic transfer.

It almost makes Philadelphia look like a smooth operation.

Luzerne Workers Miss Paychecks When County Worker Takes Vacation
Luzerne Workers Miss Paychecks When County Worker Takes Vacation

William Lawrence Sr Omnibit 11-28-14

William Lawrence Sr Omnibit 11-28-14

Here’s a gift for the guy who has everything. The little country of Bhutan, north of India, once issued a postage stamp that was a tiny phonograph record. It played the Bhutanese national anthem.

Ferguson Considerations

Ferguson Considerations
By Chris Freind

Right on cue, Ferguson, Mo., erupted in chaos after the “No Indictment” grand jury verdict.

Two things are abundantly clear:

A. The system worked. Despite the certainty of riots, and the very real threat of harm to themselves should they not indict, the 12 grand jury members had the courage to make the right call.

B. Modern America has shown its true “colors” yet again, regressing further from the high point of the civil rights movement. A growing faction, through their actions and words, have completely rejected the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., wanting nothing to do with his belief in a colorblind society. Instead, they are choosing to fight, literally, for a segregated America, one that favors one class over another. To so callously trample on the sacrifices made by America’s civil rights pioneers is abominable.

Here are the black-and-white observations of the Ferguson debacle:

1. What genius decided to tell the world that the grand jury reached a verdict, but wouldn’t announce the decision until hours later? Doing so only increased the tension and allowed protesters to mass at key locations. Most idiotic, why would they wait until after dark to announce it?

Everything should have already been secured, begging the question: What the hell have they been doing for the last week? The evening announcement simply defied belief because it gave rioters the tactical advantage of operating with near-impunity, since the night provided a cloak of invisibility to their actions and identities. Brilliant.

2. What’s the point of mobilizing Patton’s Third Army if you take a hands-off approach from the get-go? Doing so was either sheer incompetence or a deliberate attempt to placate the masses. So the message is, no matter how big law enforcement’s presence, you can riot with without consequence if you just yell “racism” and “police brutality.” The bad guys gamed the system, and those in charge took the bait. So much for the National Guard and the governor’s “state of emergency.”

3. The national media has shown itself to be a laughingstock. The sensationalistic and often shoddy reporting is bad enough (sorry, but there were never “tanks” rolling through Ferguson). But their stammering, constant redundancy and overall inarticulateness demonstrated that without the crutch of a teleprompter, many are pathetic. And they should also get their hearing checked, since many kept asking questions that had already been answered. (For the last time: the vote of the grand jury, by statute, is confidential. Stop asking that question.)

4. Critics accused the prosecutor of giving too much information to the jurors. No, that’s not a joke, but an actual complaint. So in other words, providing every piece of evidence to get to the bottom of what really happened was a bad thing. The only people who could possibly make that argument are those whose minds were made up months ago, facts be damned.

5. Speaking of facts, only the grand jury had them. They sifted through mounds of testimony and physical evidence to determine which witnesses were credible, and just as important, which were not. Yet that is completely disregarded by many who, rather than accept the truth, want to blame everyone and everything for Michael Brown’s death. The rule of law is clear, and the grand jury made the right decision. The spectacle of people resorting to violence under the fallacy that racism was involved is more appropriate for some other spot on the globe. That behavior is inherently un-American.

6. Some have been protesting since the shooting took place Aug. 9. Since the jurors were the only ones with full knowledge of what occurred, what was actually being protested?

7. The Brown family didn’t help their cause by recently testifying before the United Nations Committee on Torture: “… we have to bring it (the shooting incident) to the U.N. so they can expose it to the rest of the world, what’s going on in small-town Ferguson.” They certainly have the right to disagree with the grand jury and the entire judicial process, but this is still America. We don’t answer to the United Nations for issues involving domestic law. That was a major mistake, as it alienated many who may have been sympathetic to the family’s plight.

8. The feds’ investigation is ongoing, but it shouldn’t be, as it violates Constitutional protections against double jeopardy. And the odds could well be stacked unfairly against Officer Darren Wilson if federal grand jurors, after witnessing the bedlam in Ferguson, are afraid of being responsible for another riot. We’ve seen it before, when Los Angeles policemen were imprisoned when a federal jury found them guilty in the Rodney King case after they were acquitted by the state. To think the federal jurors didn’t base their decision in light of the L.A. riots that followed is fantasy.

9. Finally, no matter which “side” one takes, Brown’s death is a tragedy. It’s time to address the many issues that have been given lip service but, in truth, ignored for so long, from education to incarceration. That conversation is one that requires difficult work, and can only be solved if people are willing to look at reality. But don’t hold your breath, for as a wise man once said: “There’s what people want to hear, there’s what people want to believe, there’s everything else – and then there’s the truth.”

The black and white truth is that, unless we genuinely commit to working together in a colorblind way, America will continue to burn.

Ferguson Considerations

Smoked Turkey Thanksgiving Feast

Smoked Turkey Thanksgiving Feast

Today’s Thanksgiving feast was a centered around a delicious smoked turkey by Chef Chris. The shrimp platter in the foreground was prepared by Chef Miranda who also baked what might have been the best pumpkin pie we have ever had.

Other desserts were a homemade apple pie by Mrs. Chef Bill Sr. along with a chocolate roll and lemon bars also prepared by Mrs. Chef Bill Sr.

The wine was a homemade Merlot.

And we must not forget to include the pierogies and kielbasa acquired from the Polish bakery in Booths Corner. Thank you Catherine.

And of course, Chef Bill Sr.’s  fruit salad with winter watermelon and cantaloupe, purchased from Gentile’s Market in Newtown Square.

Smoked Turkey Thanksgiving Feast

NFL Playoff Probability

The Eagles play the Dallas Cowboys at 4:30 this afternoon. Both teams have 8-3 records.

Since 2002 when the NFL expanded to 32 teams, six of the 144 playoff contestants reached the post season with but eight wins. As there have been  47 teams that finished the year 8-8 or 8-7-1 — that would be you Green Bay — the Birds would have about a 13 percent chance of making the playoffs if they don’t win another game.

If they just win another game that increases their chances to 42 percent as 16 of the 38 teams that wound up with nine regular season wins went to the playoffs in the last 11 years.

If they win 10 they have a 84 percent chance of making it  since 37 of 44 such teams did since the expansion.

It they win 11 it goes up to just under 97 percent chance. Only the 2008 New England Patriots, of the thirty 11-win teams failed to make the playoffs.

Every team with 12, 13, 14 or 15 wins made the playoffs as did obviously the regular-season undefeated 2007 New England Patriots.

The 2010 Seattle Seahawks made the post season with a 7-9 record. One could argue that that means there is a 2 percent chance of a seven-win team making it — there have been 39 seven-game winners since 2002– but as Seattle was the only  team in the league’s 93-year-history to reach the post-season with a losing record, we will suggest it is much less.

The NFL went to a 16-game schedule in 1978. Five years later, it expanded from 28 to 30 teams then to 31 in 1999 before reaching its present status.

It began having a 12 team playoff in 1990.

NFL Playoff Probability

NFL Playoff Probability

Happy Thanksgiving 2014

Happy Thanksgiving 2014

The poem below, Landing Of The Pilgrim Fathers, was written by Felicia Hemans, an Englishwoman who lived from 1793 to 1835. Happy Thanksgiving 2014. 

Landing Of The Pilgrim Fathers

The breaking waves dashed high
On a stern and rock-bound coast,
And the woods against a stormy sky
Their giant branches tossed;

And the heavy night hung dark,
The hills and waters o’er,
When a band of exiles moored their bark
On the wild New England shore.

Not as the conqueror comes,
They, the true-hearted came;
Not with the roll of the stirring drums,
And the trumpet that sings of fame;

Not as the flying come,
In silence and in fear;
They shook the depths of the desert gloom
With their hymns of lofty cheer.

Amidst the storm they sang,
And the stars heard, and the sea;
And the sounding aisles of the dim woods rang
To the anthem of the free.

The ocean eagle soared
From his nest by the white wave’s foam;
And the rocking pines of the forest roared–
This was their welcome home.

There were men with hoary hair
Amidst the pilgrim band:
Why had they come to wither there,
Away from their childhood’s land?

There was woman’s fearless eye,
Lit by her deep love’s truth;
There was manhood’s brow, serenely high,
And the fiery heart of youth.

What sought they thus afar?
Bright jewels of the mine?
The wealth of seas, the spoils of war?
They sought a faith’s pure shrine!

Ay, call it holy ground,
The soil where first they trod;
They have left unstained what there they found —
Freedom to worship God.

Happy Thanksgiving 2014