Last podcast for the year. I cover the highlights of the year by month plus some of my favorite things that I did. I also get into what I am planning for 2024. I am wishing you all a happy New Year. Lets hope that this year is better than the last. But, let us not let fate determine that alone but do something about it.
Tag: 2023
January 5, 2023 – Happy New Years… You Deserve What You Get
These 20 new Oregon laws are going into effect in 2023 (msn.com)
I don’t know why I get suckered into paying attention to this stuff. It doesn’t change the water temperature in my pool. On the other hand, it is really revealing and annoying the things that our government finds important and spends our money on. Here is a summary of the nonsense.
| Law | Grade (-/0/+) | Analysis |
| Newborn Home Visits to be Reimbursed | – | Forces insurers to include up to three home visits in plans. Read: Spend more of other’s money |
| Lower the cost of one day fishing license | 0 | I am all for making fishing more accessible but that money goes for conservation. |
| Restitution payments to victims first | + | Victims are paid before court costs. Sounds like the intent of restitution |
| Department of Education composition matches state demographics | – | Like all affirmative action, I am not in favor quotas. Let’s focus on feeling better rather than results. |
| Workers compensation cannot be suspended without prior notification | 0 | Seems fair. I am sure most of this was used on people that probably milked the system |
| School board members must provide any conflict of interest, source of income, etc. | – | I am all for transparency, when equally applied. Why are we picking on one group specifically? What about all politicians? |
| Red light tickets can be issued by a clerk, not just an officer | – | I don’t believe in cameras. I don’t believe in lowering standards. |
| Department of Education will use standardized testing to develop future plans and measure effectiveness | – | So, they weren’t doing this already? And what have they been doing? |
| Dental coverage offed to members of COFA and do not qualify for the Oregon Health plan | – | These are non-US citizens that are earning less than 138% of the US poverty rate. What the…? |
| Evidence collected in a sexual assault investigation must contain a medical examination form | 0 | So, we were collecting samples without any associated information? Seems like we shouldn’t but a law was necessary? |
| The word Alien is now replaced with non-citizen | 0 | I guess this is so we can tell the difference of intent between space aliens and non-citizens if future law. |
| New position of Child Support Referee created. Can have adjudication powers | 0 | I don’t know enough about this or the system to know if this is good or bad. Presumably this adjust the judicial system burden. |
| Unlicensed real estate agent fines increase | – | I am not in favor of enforcing cartels. From my experience real estate agents don’t deserve what they get and there is no legal requirement to use one. |
| Voter registration can use Social Security Cards to verify identity | – | What a great idea. Let’s add more uncertainty into the process. Do you know how many people I know that have had their identity stolen? |
| Defines benefit year as Jan 1 with 52 contiguous weeks | 0 | Fine. We need to have common definitions for all of our entitlements. |
| Employers will require five days notice to force employees to work overtime | – | It is a wonder that there are any employers in this state. |
| Expands the list of occupational diseases for firefighters | + | This includes volunteer firefighters. I think first responders deserve some respect. It would be better to not have a list at all. |
| Restricts the amount of regulation local government can place on alarm systems and electric fences | + | Finally, something that actually restricts government. |
| Expands workers comp beneficiary list | 0 | In these days of gender/identity crisis, why not. My man servant deserves to be taken care of if I depart this earth. If we are going to sanctify this nonsense, we need to support it. |
Generally speaking, there is really nothing that is actually important here. I suppose legal clarity reduces loopholes and things but it is really amazing how many people really don’t understand the phrase ‘shall not be infringed’. For some reason, they interpret that to mean shall not be infringed in gerrymandered set of parameters like except if it is fully automatic or has a magazine that can hold more than 10 rounds or it is black or whatever.
My point is we can say something is that we can make a law that the sky is blue but then we will still have people that want to argue all of the fringe elements. Like, well it is actually black at night or gray when it rains or red at sunset. It is a never ending series of definition/loophole/denial or whatever process happens. So, while I ranked all clarification laws as neutral, they really should get a futile ranking.
There is something about incompetent’s ‘fixing their mistakes’. Have you ever observed this in real time? I have. The first thing is that they don’t actually understand the problem(s). But, like the Dutch Boy plugging the leaks, once they stick their finger in the hole, the other hand is high fiving anyone who walks by. The people walking by have spent the last hour staring at their phone and only look up to see our hero has plugged the leak while there are twenty five leaks behind them and a hundred ahead. After the high five, they go back to their phones and walk right through the mess.
End Your Programming Routine: I have to apologize. I think I got triggered when I read the list of laws that were going into effect. I shouldn’t be surprised or upset that idiots do idiotic things, it is their nature. I should have never looked at the list, but I couldn’t help myself. I wanted to know what new fun I was in store for. And now you do too.
January 3, 2023 – HTGR 2023
And… welcome to 2023. We are starting the year off by going back to basics by talking about planning. Not to mention, we are almost back to a normal schedule with a podcast on Tuesday. Listen today to learn how I plan to hit the ground running in the new year.
End Your Programming Routine: I have a cloud of tags when I am writing that show my top ten most commonly used tags in my blog. Planning makes that list. Despite that, I don’t remember the last time I wrote or talked about it. The new year is the perfect time to plan but so is any other time of year. The most important thing is to do it and then check up from time to time to see how you are doing.
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