Thursday, April 24, 2014

Bonnie Scotland...

Bonnie Scotland...  From a collection of photos passed along by my card-carrying ancient-American mom...

Only in America...

Only in America...  Reader Jim M. sent this along:
Only in America ... could the rich people - who pay 86% of all income taxes - be accused of not paying their "fair share" by people who don't pay any income taxes at all.

Great gobs of groaners...

Great gobs of groaners...  Don't blame me!  Reader and friend Simon M. passed them along...
I tried to catch some fog. I mist.

When chemists die, they barium.

Jokes about German sausage are the wurst.

A soldier who survived pepper spray and mustard gas is now a seasoned veteran.

I know a guy who's addicted to brake fluid. He says he can stop any time.

How does Moses make his tea? Hebrews it.

I stayed up all night to see where the sun went. Then it dawned on me.

The girl said she recognized me from the vegetarian club, but I'd never met herbivore.

I'm reading a book about anti-gravity. I can't put it down.

I did a theatrical performance about puns. It was a play on words.

They told me I had Type A blood, but it was a Type O.

I dyslexic man walks into a bra...

PMS jokes aren't funny. Period.

Why were the Indians here first? They had reservations.

Class trip to the Coca-Cola factory. I hope there's no pop quiz.

Energizer bunny arrested: charged with battery.

I didn't like my beard. Then it grew on me.

How do you make holy water? You boil the hell out of it.

What do you call a dinosaur with an extensive vocabulary? A thesaurus.

When you get a bladder infection, urine trouble.

What does a clock do when it's hungry? It goes back four seconds.

I wondered why the baseball was getting bigger. Then it hit me!

Broken pencils are pointless.

Adventures with ObamaCare...

Adventures with ObamaCare...  So yesterday I sat down with a local (to Utah) health insurance agent (Sam), and went over my options.  Our timing on this is driven by both our move to Utah and the fact that my COBRA coverage (on my former employer's plan) is expiring in July.  Sam went over several available plans, all of which were both considerably less expensive and better (lower deductibles and caps) than anything I found in California.  He then advised me to create an account on the federal ObamaCare site (healthcare.gov), as that would be the simplest way for me to see all the plans available to me.

We went through the initial signup together.  It was fairly straightforward: we entered my email address, a password, and provided the answers to three security questions.  One of those questions asked for a date that was significant to me.  We chose a date and entered it as "mm/dd" (with a numeric month and day supplied instead of the letters).  Then the site told us that I'd be getting an email to validate my email address within 24 hours.  Sam told me what would happen after that, we shook hands and I left.

Later that day, I did get the validation email.  It had a link to click on to validate my email address.  I clicked, and instantly got a screen telling me that the server could not be contacted, and to try again later.  This morning I tried it again, and this time it worked.  Progress!

Then the site led me through a process to verify my identity.  This all worked fine until we got to the part where it asked me three security questions.  When I typed in the answer to the "significant date" question, an error immediately popped up telling me that my entry was invalid.  WTF?  I played around a bit with different values, and quickly found out that the "/" was causing that error.

So...

The ObamaCare site let me enter the answer initially as "mm/dd", but then when it was asking me the question again to verify my identity, it wouldn't allow the "/".  That means it is impossible for me to enter an answer that matches what I initially entered – and that means I always fail the identity verification.  And, naturally, that means I can't do anything else with my health insurance.

I've turned that problem over to Sam for resolution.  I hope he's got some trick up his sleeve, because I'm not seeing any way out of this Catch-22 situation.

My out-of-box experience with ObamaCare is bad.  I have fears that this won't end well...

So Obama flew over an Oklahoma Indian Reservation in a small private plane...

So Obama flew over an Oklahoma Indian Reservation in a small private plane...  Click to embiggen.  Via my card-carrying ancient-American mom...

Dalles Mountain Road...

Dalles Mountain Road ... is beautiful this year.  Via BPODMap...

The Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project...

The Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project ... isn't going to stop with Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery!

Germany discovers a sense of humor...

Germany discovers a sense of humor ... and loses faith in green energy.  Delingpole...

Obviously, there are more crazy people in the world than I had thought...

Obviously, there are more crazy people in the world than I had thought...

What are you going to do about it?


What are you going to do about it?  If a leopard steals your video camera, you're just going to have to hope the leopard tires of playing with your toy...

If you're struggling...

If you're struggling ... with what to get for my birthday or Christmas present, you wouldn't go wrong with one of these.  Turn your volume down before you watch it, unless you enjoy mind-numbingly bad sound tracks...

A collection of striking chemical reactions...

A collection of striking chemical reactions ... like the fantastic four color oscillating chemical reaction in the video at right...

Cool visualization of π...

Cool visualization of π... 

Trust me...

Trust me...  Watch this to the end – you'll like it!

The Obama administration leads the way...

The Obama administration leads the way ... to voodoo economics and the usual leftist dismissal of the idea that people will react to incentives.

Some day I will once again be proud of my government – but today is not that day.  And I fear that by the time that fine day arrives, the socialist wealth-redistributors will have redistributed my retirement savings to pay for their idiotic, ineffective, and expensive socialist schemes...

Cats are beautiful animals...

Cats are beautiful animals ... but they care about pleasing us (their owners) about as much as Obama cares about pleasing me – and that is very little!