Starting with Congressional ObamaCare carve-outs.
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It’s no secret that I get annoyed every time Congress passes legislation that provides that it doesn’t apply to them.
See Should lawmakers (and regulators) have to eat their own cooking?
So, I was delighted when President Trump tweeted over the weekend:
“If a new HealthCare Bill is not approved quickly … BAILOUTS for Members of Congress will end very soon!”
Here’s the back story …
You have to trust me on this one …
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Yeah, I’m still watching America’s Got Talent .
I watch it so that you don’t have to … except for the highlights that I dish to loyal readers.
Here’s a hilarious one for you, whether you’re pro-Trump or anti-Trump …
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The back story:
When the Singing Trump walked on stage for his first audition, the crowd booed loudly … remember, it is an NBC show.
Australian “Mel B.” – former Spice Girl and now an AGT judge – joined the booing and gave him a disqualifying ‘red X’ as soon as he started his act. Politically motivated?
The other judges passed him on to the next round.
This time, crowd was friendlier and Mel B. said
“I have to eat my words and apologize. You’re just like ‘him’ and you entertained us with the best 2 Backstreet Boys songs ever.”
End the week with a smile (and maybe a laugh).
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The past couple of weeks of Repeal & Replace has been annoying along several dimensions.
Foremost, all of the chatter has been about health insurance, not healthcare … just fiddling with who is going to get stuck paying … moving nickels around.
Woefully little talk about how to improve healthcare delivery.
That’s not surprising since the Senate’s fillibuster rules require 60 votes to pass any legislative action.
Keep in mind that Obama had 60 Senate votes in 2009 and 2010 … thanks to the DOJ sidelining Ted Stevens and Al Franken pulling a narrow upset in a disputed election.
Today, there are 48 Dems who reliably vote in lemming-like lockstep against anything the GOP proposes.
Even if centrist Dems were to band together with moderate GOPs, the middle-of-the-roaders wouldn’t have enough votes to get a sensible proposal enacted. It would be squashed by either the ultra-conservatives or the ultra-liberals.
So, the GOP-controlled Senate has its hands tied … it has to work through the “reconciliation” process which, by definition, just moves nickels around.
I think its time for McConnell to go nuclear…
Now, students can access an inventory of exam answers.
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In a prior post Why Johnny can’t write … we reported that high school teachers are assigning fewer writing assignments … in part, because many students simply Google the topic and plagiarize much of their work.
And, they can do so with a high degree of impunity, knowing that teachers and administrators will look the other way rather than go through the aggravation of prosecuting a case of academic dishonesty.
OK, that’s essays and term papers.
But, tests that students take should be relatively clean, right?
Not so fast, cheating on tests has always been around, but now it’s going high tech …
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Forever, teachers have provided students will sample test questions and libraried past exams.
Students have passed the word to fellow students about tests – how hard? what topics? what questions?
Now there’s a high tech turbo-charger.
In the old days, students might try to slip a note to a fellow test-taker with answers.
Not a prevalent problem since the process was easily detected with documented evidence – the captured note.
Teachers now report that some students will use their cell phones to take a photo of their answers and instant message them to a classmate across the room.
Hit delete and the electronic evidence is gone.
Try to ban cell phones and hear a chorus of “But, it’s my calculator, I need it.”
Now it’s not just a few renegades in class sharing answers.
The process is escalating thanks to technology.
For example, there’s company called QEDed .”
“QEDed is a mobile app that allows you to share your questions and answers from same name courses such as Econ 101, Calculus 101 with schoolmates and new friends around the world.”
Sounds innocuous enough, right?
Here’s a nightmare scenario for teachers:
In real-time student test takers access a QEDed-like site and search for a similar question.
Ouch.
Of course, a defense mechanism might be having students surrender their electronic devices as they enter the test room.
Yeah, right.
Let me know how that goes …
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According to the National Health Care Management Association analysis of 2008 healthcare spending:
Here’s a (scary) chart that puts the program in context.
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Seriously, here’s a graphic of the ObamaCare organization structure and processes …
Here’s a link to enlarged version and another to a summary that decodes the chart and lists some of the bill’s key provisions.
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Take a quick glance at the flowchart and ask yourself: ”Think this will work?”
The bill’s laundry list special interest provisions caught my eye…
One of my current summer reads is “Presentation Zen” …
Theme of the book is that great slide presentations contain appropriate content arranged in the most efficient, graceful manner without superfluous decoration.
In Zen-speak, the key principles are: Restraint in preparation. Simplicity in design. Naturalness in delivery.
Now, to today’s point …
Recently, one friend said of another friend : He’s like an “infant-adult”.
Nothing derogatory intended.
Just observing that the guys seemed to derive a “wow” from practically every experience.
That makes life a lot more enjoyable (I think).
And, it’s very Zen-like.
According to the book, Zen teachings often speak of the “beginner’s mind” or “child’s mind.”
Chatting with faculty colleagues, there seems to be a consensus that writing skills among MBA students have been declining.
I’m not talking about flowery prose and precise grammar.
I’m talking about logical argumentation … being able to explain why something is happening and what to do about it.
My hypothesis was that colleges aren’t requiring students to take courses (or demonstrate proficiency) in, say, critical thinking or logic … and that college students today aren’t required to write many papers that hone their thinking and writing skills.
Testing my hypothesis on a middle school math teacher-friend, I got a rude awakening …
It was DOJ action that changed the course of our nation in 2008 — giving us, for example, ObamaCare.
Flashback to 2008 … you know, the year that Barack Obama was elected.
Well, the DOJ didn’t indict Sen. John McCain for anything … nor did it overtly pave the way for Obama’s election.
But the DOJ did tilt the legislative scales in a defining way.
Who did they indict?
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The DOJ indicted Alaska’s Ted Stevens, the longest-serving Republican Senator in U.S. history. He was indicted during his 2008 re-election campaign.
What were the charges, what were the implications, and how was the case ultimately resolved?
Here’s the main reason why YOUR health insurance premiums have gone up.
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All the repeal & replace attention seems to be on the 20 million people who are getting insurance via Extended Medicaid or ObamaCare Exchanges.
Virtually no light is being shined on the vast majority of folks who are covered by employer plans.
Case-in-point: the soaring premiums being paid by employees … hardly the $2,500 reduction that was promised.
Here’s one of the reasons that premiums have gone up not down …
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Most people – probably bordering on all – would agree that people with pre-existing conditions should be able to get health insurance.
I accept that as a non-debatable point.
But, I got curious about the economics of so-called “guaranteed coverage”… i.e. how much does it cost, and who pays for it?
Specifically, for folks covered by employer plans, how much of their increase in health insurance premiums over the past couple of years is attributable to guaranteed coverage?
Let’s take a whack at the numbers …
Link-2-cell may be America’s best kept secret.
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For years, I’ve wondered why somebody hadn’t invented a way for my charging cell phone to ring in distant points of my home.
I was willing to sprint to the phone to answer it … but I didn’t want to carry it around … and I couldn’t hear the ring tone when I was in rooms across the house.
When I whined to a tech-savvy friend, he told me that I wasn’t thinking boldly enough … that a technology called Link-2-Cell was already in the market … and it did more than just ring across the house.
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Here’s the scoop …
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I finally chucked my landline.
Make that: I kinda chucked my landline … porting from a classic Verizon copper line to an Xfinity VOIP connection.
I know: that’s no big deal … and it’s still old school to maintain any kind of landline.
Stay tuned … here’s where the story gets interesting.
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I also bought a Panasonic Link-2-cell phone system (base station plus 5 handsets on sale at Costco for $85).
It looks like a standard Panasonic cordless phone set-up.
Of course, I can plug my Xfinity VOIP line into the base station … and it works just like an old fashioned landline system
But, it’s much more than that..
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Here’s the cool part:
I can link my cell phone (and my wife’s) to the base station via Bluetooth … just like they connect to our cars’ hands-free systems.
As long as the cells are within Bluetooth range of the base station, any incoming cell phone calls get routed to all 5 of the handsets.
Our ring tones play through the remote handsets (so we know which phone is getting the call)
… and we can simply pick up any of the handsets to answer the call.
When we’re at home, we can just charge our cells in their usual place … and our house phone system magically transforms to a cell-based distributed phone system.
That is quite cool.
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P.S. A landline isn’t required … the system can be used as just a cell call router.
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And, why I don’t care if Trump gets impeached.
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I had a few very interesting conversations over the past week or two.
They revolved around a couple of linked topics:
1) Buyer’s remose
2) Congressional gridlock
3) Impeachment
For what it’s worth, here’s how I come out on these topics …
A strong argument … but the data contradicts.
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One of my summer reads is a book called “The fuzzy and the techie” by Scott Hartley –formerly of Google & Facebook, now a venture capitalist.
Hartley’s basic premise is that, almost by definition, liberal arts majors acquire fundamental thinking and communication skills, such as critical thinking, logical argumentation, and complex problem solving.
Sounds good, but here’s the rub …
Casually chatting with a friend about the benefits (and liabilities) of a liberal arts degree, I mentioned a book called A Whole New Mind: Why Right Brainers Will Rule the World.
As a hard core left-brainer, I take this one personally.
But, to be fair & balanced …
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Here’s the crux of the book …
The last few decades have belonged to a certain kind of person with a certain kind of mind — computer programmers who could crank code, lawyers who could craft contracts, MBAs who could crunch numbers.
But, the future belongs to a very different kind of person with a very different kind of mind — creators and empathizers, pattern recognizers, and meaning makers.
We are moving from an economy and a society built on the logical, linear, computerlike capabilities of the Information Age …
… to an economy and a society built on the inventive, empathic, big-picture capabilities of what’s rising in its place, the Conceptual Age.
Why the shift?
Because any kind of work that be reduced to repeatable rules and defined processes can be automated or shipped off-shore – even so-called knowledge work
Survival in the Conceptual Age requires thinking skills utilizing the right-side of the brain.
Specifically, “high concept” involves the capacity to:
- detect patterns and opportunities
- create artistic and emotional beauty
- craft a satisfying narrative
…. and to combine seemingly unrelated ideas into something new and distinctive.
Amazon link
What’s required to to succeed in Conceptual Age?
Chess players are smarter – DNA or training?
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Interesting article from the American Council of Science and Health …
A group of researchers examined people who do and do not play chess.
The question: are chess players smarter than non-chess players?
Here’s what the researchers found …
Ask them what their college major was.
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As the American Council of Science and Health puts it:
Though we don’t like to admit it, intelligence and IQ matter.
Creative people tend to have higher IQs.
Expertise, in any area, generally requires a higher IQ.
One research study concluded that a degree in math or physics takes an IQ of at least 120.
Taking the converse of that last point a step further, an analysis by Quartz indicates that a person’s college major serves as a good proxy for intellectual aptitude.
The Quartz analysis wasn’t able to determine the average IQ by college major, but it was able to triangulate from several cognitive metrics that all converged on a similar pattern.
So, extrapolating to IQ from a metric like SAT or GRE scores isn’t a big leap.
Let’s drill down on the findings …
Might induce some genuine empathy and motivate some constructive action.
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According to The Atlantic …
As a presidential candidate, Jimmy Carter criticized “exclusive private schools that allow the children of the political and economic elite to avoid public schools that are considered dangerous or inferior.”
When he assumed office in 1977, he did something remarkable:
He enrolled his 9-year-old daughter, Amy, in a predominantly black Washington, D.C., public school.
Amy became the first child of a sitting U.S. president to attend a public school since 1906.
She still is.
Gotta give the man credit for walking the talk.
Former President Obama?
Not so much …
A Dept. of Education study found that students in the nation’s capital that were provided with vouchers allowing them to attend private school made “statistically significant gains in achievement.”
Despite that finding, then President Obama curtailed the program … and turned around and enrolled his daughters in Sidwell Friends – the swank private school of choice for the DC elite.
So, it wasn’t at all surprising that several sources found that many of the Democratic Senators who voted against school voucher advocate Betsy DeVos –- opt out of the public school system and send their off-spring to private schools.
OK, maybe they really thought that DeVos wasn’t as qualified as Obama’s basketball buddy, Arne Duncan, who presided for 7 years over declining test scores and “failing schools” headlines.
Or, maybe their pro-choice inclinations don’t really extend beyond their family & friends when it comes to education.
As the USN&WR opined:
Education politics are big business in America, often pitting institutionalized interests like the NEA against parents and kids.
And, equally unfortunately, there are far too many people who are in a position to right the wrongs who are taking advantage of their ability to opt out of the discussion, at least as far as their own children are concerned.
Where education is concerned there’s one America for the elites, like members of Congress and the President, who send their children to private schools.
And, there’s one for everyone else, the regular people who are seeing the educational dreams they have for their children shattered on the altar of politics.
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So, what’s the answer?
Some insights on the science & practice of learning.
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Interesting article buried in the WSJ: “How a Polymath Mastered Math—and So Can You”
The subject polymath (a person of wide-ranging knowledge or learning) is Prof. Barbara Oakley.
To make her long story short, she was a self-proclaimed horrible math student in high school, dove back into math in her mid-20s, and is now an engineering professor..
“Her progression from desultory student to respected scholar led her to a sideline in the study of learning itself.”
She is the author of ‘A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science (Even if You Flunked Algebra)’ and ‘Mindshift: Break Through Obstacles to Learning and Discover Your Hidden Potential’.
Here are a few snippets from the article …
Here it is on the Washington Nationals’ Jumbotron …
And, besides being flashed to the crowd, here’s the bundle of loot that I got …
Take a moment to remember how lucky we are …
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