Cover Your Bums

Something that is very important to not forget about the “health care bill” that passed the House, recently is that the “nuclear option” was used. They can give it a really nice name like “up or down vote” and it still does not change the fact that this option was used to pass it.

The big push that was made as the vote became closer was the “right-to-life” topic. Bart Stupak and his “anti-abortion” Democrats were promised that the president would sign an executive order, after the bill was passed, that would not allow public funds to pay for abortion. The problem is that they could not actually create any amendments or write any statutes to the existing bill to guarantee that.

No matter which side of the isle you fall on… “pro-choice” or “pro-life”… it should be agreed that public funds should not cover a procedure that is (and always has been) so polarized. Why should somebody who is “pro-life” be required to have even part of their taxes taken to pay for something that they are “totally” against.

What the people that voted for this bill do not seem to realize is that there are so many other aspects (other than abortion) to consider with what this bill will do.

Why should you, a person who takes care of themselves, eats right, and exercises regularly, be required to pay the health care bills of people that do not? People who smoke, drink, don’t exercise, and don’t take care of themselves will be subsidized (their bills will be paid) by money taken from you.

This “should be” just as much of a polarizing issue as funding abortion.

Pre-existing Conditions

For years and years, I’ve driven all of my vehicles without having car insurance. Getting coverage was just too expensive, and I hadn’t ever had an accident. I couldn’t justify paying so much money for something that I just didn’t need. I know that the state laws “require” all vehicles on the road to have insurance coverage, but I have never been pulled over for speeding, or anything, which would have required me to show proof of insurance.

Things all changed, the other day, when I was involved in a multi-car accident. There was a major amount of damage, but all of the people involved were alright.

Now, since there’s a law that requires insurance companies to accept people with pre-existing conditions, all is good! All I have to do is shop around for the best rate on insurance that I can get, sign the contract, and all of the repairs to my vehicle will be covered! It sure is great that the government is forcing these nasty insurance companies to pay my $2,000 repair bill, and all I have to do is pay about $400 for the six month contract.

Once the repairs are made, of course, there won’t be any reason for me to keep the insurance, so I won’t even have to renew the contract.

What? You ask, “Won’t the insurance companies lose a lot of money and possibly go out of business if a lot of people do this?” Well, of course they will. But why should I care? Once all of the insurance companies go out of business because they can’t afford to keep going, the government will take over. You know… the government… the ones that use the taxes that we pay them to pay their bills.

Of course, once the government “takes over” insurance, they’ll also have to cover those pre-existing conditions. The same thing will keep happening. Will the government be able to afford to keep running losses? Of course not. The national debt is already higher than ever before. They will have to try, though. Where will they try to get more money from? They’ll get it from the same place they always have… from the taxpayers. Of course, now that everybody from the insurance industry is unemployed, they’ll have to raise them to an even higher percentage than ever before.

Of course, everything that I wrote, above is not true, but hopefully you can see where I’m going. When the government forces a private industry into a business practice that will undoubtedly cause that industry to lose money, something is very wrong. Forcing insurance companies into covering people that they would not normally think about giving coverage to is very dangerous. Just look back and see what happened when lenders were forced to give loans to people that they would not normally take that kind of chance on. How many banks have failed since the start of 2009? Here’s a list.

See also: Insurers Gaming The Healthcare Bill

5 Auto Insurers Admit They Failed To Report

Baby Laptop – Netbook

A few days ago, I bought an Acer AspireOne. It’s one of those new Netbooks with the Intel Atom N450, running at 1.66GHz. It came with Windows 7 Started edition, 1Gb of RAM and a 140Gb HD. I only bought it for one specific reason and because of that, I’m sure that I’ll leave the OS alone. Although Windows 7 Starter seems pretty limited, it will do exactly what I need it to do.

The project that I bought it for will have the computer running, unattended, for months (and hopefully years) at a time. I’ve had it running since I pulled it out of the box (minus a few restarts because of software installs/uninstalls) and it definitely looks like it will do what I need it to do. There is very little heat generated, and I should be able to put it somewhere that will have very little airflow.

Even though I already use a full-size laptop, I found myself wanting to “move around” a little more with this little thing. It’s about half the size of my main computer (literally) and probably weighs one-third as much. The screen resolution leaves a bit to be desired (1024×600), but I realize that it’s not meant to be everything that a full-size computer is. For what I’m using it for, the resolution will work just fine, though. Actually, I’m turning the resolution down to 800×600 for this project.

When I get things where they need to be with this project, and leave the computer where it ends up, I will probably think about getting another one for personal use. Since I’m already mobile, and my main laptop goes everywhere with me, there might not be a reason for it, but we’ll see. If the project that I’m using it for takes off and works like I think it should, I’m sure I’ll be buying quite a few more or them.

EA Support or Lack Thereof

I’ve been a customer of Electronic Arts (EA Video Games) for many years, now. My wife and I have purchased all of the Sims games and expansions and we (at least “she” does) continue to play them, often.

I recently purchased a new game from them called Mass Effect 2. I had read all of the reviews, blogs, and anything else I could find, before making the decision to pay $59.95 for the “Digital Deluxe Edition”. That version allowed me to download the complete game and also came with a “Collector Gear and Sniper Rifle” and “Cerberus Network Activation”.

The reviews of this game made it hard for me to wait for the download, but as soon as it was on my computer, I installed it and fired it up. Starting Mass Effect 2 brought up a menu that allowed me to start the game, change the settings, etc. When I pressed “Play” my screen went black, as it was adjusting the resolution of my screen. Then… “Mass Effect 2 has stopped working”…

I tried many different things in order to try and get this game working, and nothing has worked. My computer is a Pentium CoreDuo2 2.2GHz proc with 4Gb of RAM, running 64-bit Windows7. After the first couple hours of trying to get it to work, I contacted EA Support. That was on 02/19/2010 @ 04:55 PM. Since then, I have contacted them four more times.

I have not heard from anybody at Electronic Arts, at all. I’ve been on the forums, searching in vein for a solution. At this point, it seems that I am out of luck.

I gave Electronic Arts $59.95, they allowed me to download a program to my computer that will not run. They seemingly refuse to answer any of my support requests. There is nothing at all that I can do about this, though. They “delivered” the software that I paid for (did they “deliver” or did I pick it up?… oh well, semantics.). Did they lay off all of their support staff, or what? The least they could do is email me back to tell me “Sorry… I guess it won’t work, and thanks for your money”, but I have not heard a thing.

Meanwhile, I’m out sixty bucks. I will say that because of this, it will be THE LAST time that I purchase anything from Electronic Arts.