We agree on the “some” question. Seems reasonable when you’re rounding to the nearest five or 10, but not to the nearest whole number. For those of us old enough to remember, one of the most famous examples is Walter Cronkite announcing that President Kennedy had died, “some 38 minutes ago”. “Some” was not called for in that case.
Since Lori Lightfoot should be old enough to remember this song, she probably will not play the short card. Not that she would do that anyway… but as soon as I read that part of your heading, it’s the first thing that came to mind. https://youtu.be/8bfyS-S-IJs
“If he were a black teen” is a constant fallacy that keeps getting invoked whenever anyone proposes a “reversal” of identities in the Rittenhouse case: none of the actors involved in the case were black to begin with, and so a more accurate example of an alternate reality of that night would be: a young, white, gun toting representative of the ACLU or the Southern Poverty Law Center shows up to “police” the activities at a white supremacy rally, gets chased down and physically assaulted by some of the racist thugs at the rally, and shoots three of his white racist attackers in order to defend himself. This of course, describes to a tee what went down in Kenosha that night, but as Eric points out, the reaction from the left would be polar opposite of what it was in the Rittenhouse case, and I would include in that group the mainstream media which would certainly have spared no amount of sanctimony and bluster in portraying the shooter as a hero, and the street assailants as contemptible scum that deserved every bit of agony that they endured. Oh, and one more thing (apologies to Columbo), if it emerged that one of our hypothetical white supremacist/street assailants from this scenario were a multiple times convicted child molester, the mainstream media would have been blaring this detail from mountain tops, instead of burying it the way that they (mostly) did in the Rittenhouse case.
Restaurants: "A temp $2 fee" I'd rather have $1 for bread, increase my pasta by $1-1.50. I'm fine realizing prices are higher everywhere. The (Temp) and or fees always seem odd-ish. Maybe not as odd as the Tip Jars at McDonalds - but odd and out of place. All of those extra fee on plane flights always seem like a scam - as is the 'oil disposal fee' at oil change places. BABY WEIGHT: Sounds like the lifeboat. Someone needs to go overboard - old person or young person to save the other. Many will chose old person to go. I prefer the thinking of pilots - everyone onboard is a soul to save - regardless of any individual characteristics. JOURNALIST WRITING (or broadcasting media) - Why do they always choose one side to lead with vs always the majority. i.e 43% of Americans think POTUS or some other figure is doing a poor job. Why not say 57% of people think the person is doing well.
Thinking of Cronkite, too bad he’s not still around. What better person to cover a pandemic than someone whose name translates from German (spelled differently) as sickness or disease?
Speaking of German, did you all know that "Gesundheit" - which many people say to someone when they sneeze - means "health" in German? And the German spelling of Walter's surname is Krankheit.
Looks like the service industry is taking a page out of the hospital patient billing playbook where all sorts of mysterious fees (charges) show up on a bill. Hospital billing practices show how little hospitals and their physicians care about patient relations. Now it looks like the rest of the service industry is ready to send the same hostile pricing message. Not only are such practices bad for customer relations. They also deny customers a fair opportunity to price shop.
I naively hoped that hospitals and physicians would eventually embrace patient friendly billing similar to a restaurant bill. If a gratuity is automatically added, customers know about it in advance. But the trend appears to be moving in the opposite direction. If you need to charge more for a service, why not just do so without the games. Is that too much to ask of service providers?
I agree with your pricing comments. I also think that 'temporary macroeconomic' fees are an insult to patrons. as it pretends that there is a predictably short period of time before the dee will be eliminated or reduced. The fee will only go away when it is embedded in the prices.
I will be interested to see responses to your 'baby' thought experiment. But many people that believe that life begins at conception already oppose the existence of the tray. They might say that creating multiple embryos with the intention of freezing them, later selecting from them, and then disposing of the non-selected is already unethical and immoral. Also, the fate of the majority of the embryo's is already determined (they will be disposed of), there is no guarantee that any will ever be used, and the frozen souls are currently in limbo. So, the problem is narrower and favors the baby.
I think when discussing "fees" it is helpful to learn a bit about the Accounting angle for them, and the terms generally used. The "fees" make me think about "bundling" and "unbundling." There's also the term "overhead" which is supposed to collect all those legit businesses expenses which can't be accurately distributed among all the individual widgets or services the business sells. Stuff like office rent, utilities, stationery and postage, internet, and the like. A lot of the "fees" being discussed make me think the companies are trying to unbundle the whole durned package. It gets ridiculous.
With reference to the embryo thought experiment, I find it similarly illuminating that opponents of abortion do not seem particularly bothered that >50% of fertilized eggs fail to develop. If >50% of 6-week-old babies were dying of mysterious causes, there would be an enormous effort to address the situation. It seems clear that even staunch opponents of abortion do not really view the conceptus and the baby as equivalent.
Regarding the hypothetical about how many embryos = one baby: stupid game. The real issue is that:
- beings have the capacity for mind, objects do not
- beings have inherent rights, objects do not
- women are beings, nonsentient fetuses are objects
- women have rights, nonsentient fetuses do not
Therefore, until the fetus' brain develops the capacity for mind, the state has no authority to use it to infringe on the inalienable, inherent, and unenumerated right of a woman to control here own life that includes ending a pregnancy.
We agree on the “some” question. Seems reasonable when you’re rounding to the nearest five or 10, but not to the nearest whole number. For those of us old enough to remember, one of the most famous examples is Walter Cronkite announcing that President Kennedy had died, “some 38 minutes ago”. “Some” was not called for in that case.
Since Lori Lightfoot should be old enough to remember this song, she probably will not play the short card. Not that she would do that anyway… but as soon as I read that part of your heading, it’s the first thing that came to mind. https://youtu.be/8bfyS-S-IJs
"if he were a Black teen" carrying the same weapon the police would have stopped, arrested and/or shot him before he got close to any protesters.
“If he were a black teen” is a constant fallacy that keeps getting invoked whenever anyone proposes a “reversal” of identities in the Rittenhouse case: none of the actors involved in the case were black to begin with, and so a more accurate example of an alternate reality of that night would be: a young, white, gun toting representative of the ACLU or the Southern Poverty Law Center shows up to “police” the activities at a white supremacy rally, gets chased down and physically assaulted by some of the racist thugs at the rally, and shoots three of his white racist attackers in order to defend himself. This of course, describes to a tee what went down in Kenosha that night, but as Eric points out, the reaction from the left would be polar opposite of what it was in the Rittenhouse case, and I would include in that group the mainstream media which would certainly have spared no amount of sanctimony and bluster in portraying the shooter as a hero, and the street assailants as contemptible scum that deserved every bit of agony that they endured. Oh, and one more thing (apologies to Columbo), if it emerged that one of our hypothetical white supremacist/street assailants from this scenario were a multiple times convicted child molester, the mainstream media would have been blaring this detail from mountain tops, instead of burying it the way that they (mostly) did in the Rittenhouse case.
Steve, thank you for your accurate reversal-scenario and well-reasoned commentary on this.
Restaurants: "A temp $2 fee" I'd rather have $1 for bread, increase my pasta by $1-1.50. I'm fine realizing prices are higher everywhere. The (Temp) and or fees always seem odd-ish. Maybe not as odd as the Tip Jars at McDonalds - but odd and out of place. All of those extra fee on plane flights always seem like a scam - as is the 'oil disposal fee' at oil change places. BABY WEIGHT: Sounds like the lifeboat. Someone needs to go overboard - old person or young person to save the other. Many will chose old person to go. I prefer the thinking of pilots - everyone onboard is a soul to save - regardless of any individual characteristics. JOURNALIST WRITING (or broadcasting media) - Why do they always choose one side to lead with vs always the majority. i.e 43% of Americans think POTUS or some other figure is doing a poor job. Why not say 57% of people think the person is doing well.
Thinking of Cronkite, too bad he’s not still around. What better person to cover a pandemic than someone whose name translates from German (spelled differently) as sickness or disease?
Speaking of German, did you all know that "Gesundheit" - which many people say to someone when they sneeze - means "health" in German? And the German spelling of Walter's surname is Krankheit.
The intent is to convey wishes of good health, but the literal translation is "bless you".
Looks like the service industry is taking a page out of the hospital patient billing playbook where all sorts of mysterious fees (charges) show up on a bill. Hospital billing practices show how little hospitals and their physicians care about patient relations. Now it looks like the rest of the service industry is ready to send the same hostile pricing message. Not only are such practices bad for customer relations. They also deny customers a fair opportunity to price shop.
I naively hoped that hospitals and physicians would eventually embrace patient friendly billing similar to a restaurant bill. If a gratuity is automatically added, customers know about it in advance. But the trend appears to be moving in the opposite direction. If you need to charge more for a service, why not just do so without the games. Is that too much to ask of service providers?
I agree with your pricing comments. I also think that 'temporary macroeconomic' fees are an insult to patrons. as it pretends that there is a predictably short period of time before the dee will be eliminated or reduced. The fee will only go away when it is embedded in the prices.
I will be interested to see responses to your 'baby' thought experiment. But many people that believe that life begins at conception already oppose the existence of the tray. They might say that creating multiple embryos with the intention of freezing them, later selecting from them, and then disposing of the non-selected is already unethical and immoral. Also, the fate of the majority of the embryo's is already determined (they will be disposed of), there is no guarantee that any will ever be used, and the frozen souls are currently in limbo. So, the problem is narrower and favors the baby.
Interestingly, the only mayoral candidate that can claim to be a chance for a 'historic first' vote is Ray Lopez.
I think when discussing "fees" it is helpful to learn a bit about the Accounting angle for them, and the terms generally used. The "fees" make me think about "bundling" and "unbundling." There's also the term "overhead" which is supposed to collect all those legit businesses expenses which can't be accurately distributed among all the individual widgets or services the business sells. Stuff like office rent, utilities, stationery and postage, internet, and the like. A lot of the "fees" being discussed make me think the companies are trying to unbundle the whole durned package. It gets ridiculous.
With reference to the embryo thought experiment, I find it similarly illuminating that opponents of abortion do not seem particularly bothered that >50% of fertilized eggs fail to develop. If >50% of 6-week-old babies were dying of mysterious causes, there would be an enormous effort to address the situation. It seems clear that even staunch opponents of abortion do not really view the conceptus and the baby as equivalent.
Regarding the hypothetical about how many embryos = one baby: stupid game. The real issue is that:
- beings have the capacity for mind, objects do not
- beings have inherent rights, objects do not
- women are beings, nonsentient fetuses are objects
- women have rights, nonsentient fetuses do not
Therefore, until the fetus' brain develops the capacity for mind, the state has no authority to use it to infringe on the inalienable, inherent, and unenumerated right of a woman to control here own life that includes ending a pregnancy.