HealthCare.fail

Declaring Victory! - Tom Maguire

We have something else for which to be thankful this weekend - Team Obama claims to have won their recent battle against HealthCare.fail:

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration said on Sunday that it had met its goal for improving HealthCare.gov so that the website now “will work smoothly for the vast majority of users.”

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Left unanswered - whom do they imagine they are kidding? Reality will overtake their BS quite quickly, and the legacy media seems to have put down the pom-poms and embraced the notion that there is a real problem here.

Obamacare's architects plugged their ears and misled public - Michael Barone

Central to the goal of Obamacare's architects, universal health insurance, was preventing the possibility of exit. Its individual mandate meant everyone had to sign up for insurance.

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If Obamacare's architects were keen on preventing exit, they blithely ignored voice. The legislation was unpopular when it was proposed, while it was passed and in the months and years afterwards.

Barack Obama seldom mentioned it in the 2012 campaign except for the provision allowing “children” under 26 to stay on mommy and daddy's policies.

The architects of Obamacare also had to deal with loyalty.

Polls have consistently shown that about 80 percent of Americans are satisfied with their health insurance and doctors. They have chosen each at one point or another and were not eager to change absent some serious aggravation.

Indemnity! Whiskey! Sexy! - James Taranto

One reason medical policies are so expensive is that their purpose is twofold. They provide not just indemnification against risk--that is, true insurance--but also payment for routine expenses. You can't buy medical "insurance" without buying an expensive service contract. That was true to some extent before ObamaCare. But that law makes the package more expensive for everybody by mandating both more services and "free" ones, and more expensive for the young in particular by jacking up their rates so as to subsidize higher-risk policyholders.

At the same time as ObamaCare raises the cost of having insurance, it reduces the risk of going without insurance--the reason why doing so "sucks!" As blogger Michael Eades points out, lacking insurance no longer makes you uninsurable. If you pass up insurance in 2014 and are diagnosed with a serious condition, you may face burdensome out-of-pocket expenses--just as you would have before. But ObamaCare promises that you'll be able to buy insurance in 2015, and at the same price as if you were still healthy.

The Ascent of Magical Thinking

Obama: The Myth of the Master Strategist - Jonah Goldberg

Often in error but never in doubt, Barack Obama could walk into the Rose Garden and step on a half-dozen rakes like Foghorn Leghorn in an old Looney Tunes cartoon, and the official line would be, “He meant to do that.”

And the amazing thing is that so many people believe it. “Mr. Obama is like a championship chess player, always several moves ahead of friend and foe alike. He’s smart, deft, elegant and subtle,” proclaimed then–New York Times columnist Bob Herbert in 2009. It’s an image of the president that his biggest fans, in and out of the press, have been terribly reluctant to relinquish — because it confirms the faith they invested in him. Nobody ever likes to admit they were suckered.

But the fiction of Obama as a man three steps ahead has taken a terrible beating if you have eyes to see it.

A new theory of liberalism - Scott Johnson

A recent sad experience with a friend undergoing rehab has left me with another analogue. I now think liberalism is an addiction and displays all the behaviors commonly associated with addictive behavior.

Well, not “liberalism” per se. That policy-agenda is really an elaborate metaphorical delusion built to camouflage the true drug these poor souls crave so desperately: moral superiority.

It’s as powerful as heroin or cocaine. It supplies a terrific high: all sense of personal failure, betrayal, guilt, ineffectiveness, irrelevance, of being nothing and nobody, disappears in a flash. Instead our hero feels extraordinarily good about himself. He is helping. He is compassionate. He is without sin. He is sensitive, caring, part of the solution and not the problem. He feels handsome, daring and heroic. He thinks it will get him laid. How could he not love this?

He cannot see the harm he is doing, either at the micro level or at the cataclysmic macro level; he cannot see how his “generosity” with other people’s money, for example, has devastated the black community, turned it bitter, hopeless, impulsive, violent and addicted itself to free stuff from the gub’mint as well as the crutch of “racis” to justify everything.

Government is Magic - Daniel Greenfield

Healthcare.gov, like ObamaCare, was going to work because it was "good". Its goodness was by some measure other than result. It was morally good. It was progressive. And so the deity of liberal causes, perhaps Karl Marx or Progressia, the Goddess of Soup and Economic Dysfunction, would see to it that it would work. Karma would kick in and everything would work out because it had to.

This brand of magical thinking was once commonplace. It still is. And it's why things so rarely work out in some of the more messed up parts of the world. But the sort of attitude that would once have made anthropologists shake their heads is now commonplace here. Savages in suits, barbarians with iPads are certain that things will work because they have appeased the gods of modernity with their fonts, they have made a website that looks like a functioning website. And like the cargo culters who built fake control towers expecting planes to land, they thought that their website would work.

Competence is built on the unhappy understanding that things won't work because you want them to, they won't work if you go through the motions, they will only work if you understand how a thing works and then make it work by building it, by testing it and by expecting failure every step of the way and wrestling with the problem until you get it right.

The Great Prevaricator - Paul A. Rahe

He is, in fact, our first postmodern President, and he is always looking in the mirror. He believes that thinking makes things so. He believes that the most important part of the universe within which we live is the imagination. And when things go amiss, he is apt to tell his aides not that he or they have blundered in their deeds, but that they have "lost the narrative." Everything is always about the man his aides call "Obam-me." He is the Prophet of "Change We Can Believe In." Belief is the operative word.

If You Like Your Healthcare Plan ...

TOUGH LUCK!

If you only read one column on Obamacare, make it this one:
Obamacare laid bare - Charles Krauthammer


VIDEO FLASHBACK: Obama Promises ‘If You Like Your Plan, You Can Keep It’ at Least a Dozen Times - Andrew Kirell




Health Policies Canceled in Latest Hurdle for Obamacare - Alex Nussbaum

The Obamacare rollout is leading to the cancellation of hundreds of thousands of health insurance plans nationwide, contradicting President Barack Obama’s repeated pledge that people who like their coverage can keep it.

NBC NEWS: Obama admin. knew millions could not keep their health insurance. - Glenn Reynolds

President Obama repeatedly assured Americans that after the Affordable Care Act became law, people who liked their health insurance would be able to keep it. But millions of Americans are getting or are about to get cancellation letters for their health insurance under Obamacare, say experts, and the Obama administration has known that for at least three years.

When Fraud Is Legal - James Taranto

The regulation of commerce is a necessary and vital governmental function. Consumers and honest businesses need protection from unscrupulous market participants. That is nearly impossible when an industry is owned, or effectively controlled, by the government. To socialize an industry is to put it in a position to regulate itself. It legalizes fraud by recasting it as mere "political lies."

Senate Democrats supported rule that led to insurance cancellations - Chris Frates   

Senate Democrats voted unanimously three years ago to support the Obamacare rule that is largely responsible for some of the health insurance cancellation letters that are going out.

In September 2010, Senate Republicans brought a resolution to the floor to block implementation of the grandfather rule, warning that it would result in canceled policies and violate President Barack Obama’s promise that people could keep their insurance if they liked it. 

Lies of Obamacare, Documented - John Hinderaker

The basic idea underlying the rules is that if the pre-existing plans remained unchanged, they could continue. If, however, there was any significant change in coverages, co-pays, and so on, then the plan would become subject to all of the requirements of Obamacare (even grandfathered plans are subject to a number of Obamacare requirements). The problem is that the health insurance market is constantly changing, and it is typical for plans to change, to some degree, from year to year. So the administration looked at historical data to estimate how many employer-sponsored and individual plans would likely lose their grandfather status once Obamacare was implemented. The administration’s methodology can certainly be questioned, but the results were as has been reported.

Obama: The Myth of the Master Strategist - Jonah Goldberg


A Phalanx of Lies - Mark Steyn

But the entire premise of Obamacare was that, in order to cover (some of) the uninsured and (in many cases) uninsurable, other Americans were going to have to pay significantly more. Obamacare was always intended to be the Great Disruptor: Avik Roy reports that, by 2010, administration officials knew that 93 million Americans would lose their current plans under Obamacare. Small businesses are cutting back on full-time workers; medium businesses are dumping employees’ spouses and children from their plans; and the largest businesses are eating nine-figure bottom-line increases. 

Canceled health insurance plans add to angst of change - Lisa Stiffler

It started with the letter from his health-insurance company informing him it was canceling his plan and offering him a new one that’s nearly twice as expensive. Then the 60-year-old retiree from Mount Vernon heard about more people like himself with canceled plans and soaring premiums. Finally, he spent hours on the phone and computer trying — and failing — to find a new option that he likes.

“This whole experience has converted a lifelong Democrat into a foot soldier for the Republican Party,” Fullner said.

Sticker shock often follows insurance cancellation - KELLI KENNEDY

Dean Griffin liked the health insurance he purchased for himself and his wife three years ago and thought he'd be able to keep the plan even after the federal Affordable Care Act took effect.

But the 64-year-old recently received a letter notifying him the plan was being canceled because it didn't cover certain benefits required under the law.

The Griffins, who live near Philadelphia on the Delaware border, pay $770 monthly for their soon-to-be-terminated health care plan with a $2,500 deductible. The cheapest plan they found on their state insurance exchange was a so-called bronze plan charging a $1,275 monthly premium with deductibles totaling $12,700.

Obama’s Big Lie is destroying his credibility - Michael Goodwin

No president can lead from such a deep, discredited hole. And his ratings are likely to keep sinking because, once the Web site is fixed, millions more “shoppers” will get sticker shocks from the new policies ObamaCare requires. And next year comes the employer mandate, which will shake up the policies and prices of millions of others.

So Clinton’s advice that Obama “let them keep what they got,” is, in a vacuum, a perfectly logical escape route.

But even if it were possible, the reversal would be a dagger in the heart of ObamaCare. The whole Rube Goldberg scheme depends on using insurance policies to distribute wealth from healthy young Americans to older, sicker ones. Letting people keep the policies they have effectively repeals the president’s signature achievement.

Coffee

How to Make Perfect Coffee - Haft and Suarez

You're Doing it Wrong: Iced Coffee - Catherine Goldstein

Repainting Wood Siding

Employment Outlook

College graduates see pay drop 7.6% in last six years, report says - Shan Li

Between 2000 and 2012, the wages of fresh college grads dropped 8.5%, a roughly $3,200 decline for full-time workers. In the last six years alone, their pay fell 7.6%, according to a report from the Economic Policy Institute.

Last year, college grads earned an average $16.60 an hour -- about $34,500 a year.

“The wages of young graduates fared poorly even before the Great Recession began,” the report said. “They saw no growth over the entire period of general wage stagnation that began during the business cycle of 2000-2007.”

Mediterranean Diet

Landmark Study: Mediterranean Diet Cuts Heart Risks

The study lasted five years and involved about 7,500 people in Spain. Those who ate Mediterranean-style with lots of olive oil or nuts had a 30 percent lower risk of major cardiovascular problems compared to others who were told to follow a low-fat diet. Mediterranean meant lots of fruit, fish, chicken, beans, tomato sauce, salads, and wine and little baked goods and pastries.

Dr. Ben Carson on Obamacare

Dr. Benjamin Carson Addresses National Prayer Breakfast, Criticizes Obamacare - Real Clear Politics

DR. CARSON: Here's my solution: When a person is born, give him a birth certificate, an electronic medical record, and a health savings account to which money can be contributed -- pretax -- from the time you're born 'til the time you die. When you die, you can pass it on to your family members, so that when you're 85 years old and you got six diseases, you're not trying to spend up everything. You're happy to pass it on and there's nobody talking about death panels.

Millennial Double Whammy

The Millennial double-whammy = debt + no income

Harvard: Just 6 in 10 Millennials have jobs, half are part-time - Paul Bedard

A comprehensive new Harvard University report on Americans under 30, the so-called Millennials, shows that the economy is having a crushing impact, with just 62 percent working, and of those, half are toiling at part-time jobs.

The report, released by Harvard's Institute of Politics, paints a depressing economic portrait of young Americans, many of whom are stuck with huge college tuition bills and little chance of finding a high-paying job.

But over half, or 59 percent of those aged 18-29, have gone to college and The report reveals that time in college is a better sign of social status than income, mostly because jobs aren't available.

Check list for those just starting out:

[ ] Learn the word "retrench"
[ ] Avoid debt
[ ] Find a lucrative career-path (whether you go to college or not)
[ ] Start saving

Cash for Clunkers

Cash for Clunkers is a prime example of the law of unintended consequences in action. It reduced the supply of running used cars at a time when recession-minded buyers increased the demand for used cars. Anyone understanding the simple economic principle of supply and demand could foresee an increase in used car prices as a result.

It was also a colossal waste of real assets and highly destructive to the environment.

Whoops—'Cash for Clunkers' Actually Hurt the Environment - Takepart.com

Back in 2009, President Obama’s “Cash for Clunkers” program was supposed to be a boon for the environment and the economy. During a limited time, consumers could trade in an old gas-guzzling used car for up to $4,500 cash back towards the purchase of a fuel-efficient new car. It seemed like a win for everyone: the environment, the gasping auto industry and cash-strapped consumers.

Though almost a million people poured into car dealerships eager to exchange their old jalopies for something shiny and new, recent reports indicate the entire program may have actually hurt the environment far more than it helped.

According to E Magazine, the “Clunkers” program, which is officially known as the Car Allowance Rebates System (CARS), produced tons of unnecessary waste while doing little to curb greenhouse gas emissions.

The program's first mistake seems to have been its focus on car shredding, instead of car recycling. With 690,000 vehicles traded in, that's a pretty big mistake.

Other People's Money

Sooner or Later ... - Glenn Reynolds

Sooner or later, you run out of other people’s money. Something that can’t go on forever, won’t. Debt that can’t be repaid, won’t be. Promises that can’t be kept, won’t be.

Technology and Global Markets

As 2012 Comes To An End, The World Has Never Been Better - Ralph Benko

In 1990, the UN announced Millennium Development Goals, the first of which was to halve the number of people in extreme poverty by 2015. It emerged this year that the target was met in 2008. Yet the achievement did not merit an official announcement, presumably because it was not achieved by any government scheme but by the pace of global capitalism. Buying cheap plastic toys made in China really is helping to make poverty history. And global inequality? This, too, is lower now than any point in modern times. Globalisation means the world’s not just getting richer, but fairer too.

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Let it not be thought, however, that the laws governing Hippie Capitalism are somehow kinder, gentler, or more renewable, than that of Republican Square Capitalism.  To most everyone’s surprise it turns out that the laws of economics, being laws of nature, apply to all equally.  The law of supply and demand, like the law of gravity, applies to Progressives as well as conservatives.  (This is a fact mostly unnoticed, or at least unforgiven, by Progressive policy makers.)

Some years ago, Kvistad noticed that international suppliers were beginning to sell chimes almost as good as Woodstock’s, and more cheaply. The necessary response, as it turned out, did not involve redeploying to the city dump in search of more discarded lawn chairs.  “We had always manufactured our chimes right here, near Woodstock,” Kvistad told me.  “It was very gratifying to be able to provide work to skilled artisans here in my home town.  Yet it was clear to me that if we continued to make them here we soon would be out of business and providing no jobs at all.  So I sought out and found reliable, high quality, ethical suppliers — in China and Indonesia — and… between natural workforce attrition, people moving on or moving away, and retraining my team to handle the complexities of managing an inventory built abroad, I was able not only to keep jobs here in America but to generate more highly skilled, better paying, jobs right here.  It was a positive, not a negative, sum game.  (Emphasis added.)  We also sell in Europe, Canada, and are opening up a distribution center in the UK.  All of that goes to create more American jobs.”

Kvistad’s action provides empirical proof, as if more were needed, of Tamny’s Law (named for the editor of Forbes.com Opinion who has reiterated this observation ad infinitum, and, one hopes, will continue to do so until the policy elites come to grips with reality): “Technology erases unnecessary work so that we can constantly migrate toward more productive pursuits. We destroy jobs to create better ones.”

Michael Saylor Channels Joseph Schumpeter In His Vision Of An Abundant, Cyber Future - John Tamny

Saylor writes of an agricultural revolution that was thousands of years in the making, and that smothered productivity for so much individual effort geared toward growing and finding food. The United States used to be very much an agrarian society, yet Saylor writes that agriculture workers as a percentage of the U.S. labor force today are less than 1%. Put simply, the mass destruction of farming jobs allowed for the redirection of precious human capital toward more productive, higher value work.

So while Americans were the certain beneficiaries of farming advances that freed up their labor, Saylor writes that 36.7% of the worldwide labor force is still stuck in agriculture. That sad number is about to shrink, however. As Saylor puts it, “I believe that mobile computing is the tipping point technology for the larger Information Revolution.” In our pockets in the form of smartphones is increasingly powerful software that will drive “an explosion of start-up companies that will enter markets that previously had high barriers to entry.”

Removing Fedora

I'm removing Fedora from the family desktop in favor of Ubuntu:

1. First, read the uninstall instructions from Fedora.
2. That explains that the Windows recovery disk is needed. Find that.
3. You may also need the admin password. Find that if needed. 
4. In order to avoid getting half way through and ending up with an unbootable system, insert the disk and restart the computer. At the first screen press Enter. Then press F12 to select the option to boot from the CD/DVD. If it boots from the recovery disk and everything looks good, restart the machine back to Windows.
5. Follow the Fedora uninstall instructions to start diskmgmt.msc.
6. In the Disk Management GUI, two partitions have a blank field for the File System. One is nameless with 500 MB and another is named E: with 23.11 GB.
7. Follow the instructions to delete these two partitions.
8. Use the instructions to start diskpart.
9. I followed the instructions to extend the volume for C: but got the error message:

   DiskPart failed to extend the volume.
   Please make sure the volume is valid for extending.

10. Come back to this later since it isn't absolutely required. It just wastes space.
11. Restart the machine and hit Enter at the first screen. Then press F12 to boot from an alternate device. Select the CD/DVD drive and boot to the setup utility. 
12. It's a complete mystery to me how fixmbr was completed, but after booting from the disk and looking for the right options as described, the machine successfully booted to Windows XP.
13. After booting to XP and checking that I could successfully reboot to XP without any problems, I went back into diskmgmt.msc.
14. At first I tried creating a partition from the 500 MB unallocated space and then extending that into the 23 GB space. Same error as above.
15. Then I figured out that the 23 GB region was already allocated as a partition. I deleted that partition so it became unallocated, and automatically merged with the prior 500 MB region.
16. I selected that region and created a single new E: volume using the menus in Disk Management.

Install and Set Up Ubuntu

Then install Ubuntu via Windows through the wubi download. The installer automatically located the E: volume, so I installed it there.

Then I just needed to configure the network printer.

1. Open System Settings
2. Click on Printers
3. Using all of the defaults from the menus didn't work.
4. Change the device URI to http://192.168.1.130
5. For Make and Model, click Change
6. Select Brother (forward)
7. Select Brother HL-2170W Foomatic (forward)
8. Apply the settings and print a test page.

To make Ubuntu the default OS at boot time, see these instructions.

In order to set the hostname, start a terminal and do 'sudo vi /etc/hostname'.In there, change the host name to new name. The do 'sudo vi /etc/hosts' and change the 127.0.1.1 name to the same thing.