Bogieblog

Well, It's Happened

The government mandate has hit where I work. Being a government contractor, all employees are required to be vaccinated - even those who work from home full time. Employees have until the end of November to accomplish this and provide proof, or provide proof that they are excluded from the mandate for health reasons. Although I am vaccinated so don't have to worry about it, I disagree with the mandate. My company has no choice, so I'm not faulting them, but the government.

We thought we had a worker shortage before with all sectors of the economy having a hard time filling positions in NH. I can hardly wait to see how many voluntarily leave my company, and how many people have to be fired when all is said and done.

At the same time as mandated vaccines, the government hasn't seen fit to open the northern boarder to fully vaccinated people yet. Sure, they can fly in, but they can't cross by land or lake. This makes absolutely no sense and does nothing but punish northern states who depend on commerce and tourism from our northern neighbors. Additionally, a lot of families reside across the boarder from each other but can't see each other. If vaccination is so great, why won't we allow vaccinated people in by modes other than air travel (which by definition, you are forced into close contact with others so more likely to come in contact / spread the virus). Argh, this just makes my head hurt wondering where logic is.

Team Names

This is for Cop Car, pertaining to her posts in the last two weeks. This is also to the The Weekend Pundit who had a post or two about this topic, but I'll be danged if I can find it again.

H/T to SIL in Derby who shared this on FN

 

Ethonol-Free Gas

The Weekend Pundit had a dialog this past Sunday about ethanol laden gas. Ethanol lowers our fuel efficiency in our vehicles, and attracts water which can cause corrosion. This is especially true for engines that aren't run every day (motorcycles, boats, snowmobiles, mowers, weed wackers, generators etc.).

Scary Yankee Chick says she can find pure gas fairly locally. I have wondered for years if the fact that I haven't gotten the advertised MPG out of my last two vehicles was due to my not having access to ethanol-free gas (cause you can bet your booty that athe testsing is run on pure gas!). I got either at the high end, or even bertter, MPG out of previous vehicles (pre-ethanol) because the roads I run have few stops and speeds of 40-55 MPH (the sweet spot for most car engines).

Anyway, for anyone interested, there is a petition at We The People to keep ethanol-free gas available. You will have to sign up (if you haven't already), but it is fairly straight forward. There is also a site that tracks were ethanol-free gas can be found in your state. To my surprise, I found 4 (last I knew there were 2 - both over 70 miles away). Unfortunatly none of them are in areas that I drive, but we do ride out into some of those areas occasionally.

 

Short Videos

Well, I already wrote a great post, then Typepad threw me out and lost the post. So now the short version; Chuck Woolery has videos up about all kinds of stuff of import today - the budget crisis, (so called) assault rifles, taxing the rich etc. You'll have to go find your own links though because I'm not looking them all up again!

 

Reminiscing

Hat tip to Tranquility Lost.

Funny, True, and Scary

Brent posted this up over at the Weekend Pundit:

I find that this sums up my understanding very well. Although I could comment on a bunch of other stuff brought up in that sentence, I will limit myself to the following.

When I became unemployed, I was told I could keep my health insurance if I paid the full price (COBRA). That is great, but the full price is more than I make on unemployment (literally!). So if this was 2 years in the future, and WS worked for a company that didn't offer insurance, we would be up a creek; if I didn't continue our insurance, I would be fined, or I could hustle tricks on the side to pay for food, rent, utilities and transportation (and at my age, those would be desperate guys!).

Fortunately, I am married, and although WS works for a very small company, with very crappy insurance ($5k deductible before anything is covered - for each of us), the cost is about 1/2 of what COBRA would cost (although more than what I paid when I worked), so 2 of my unemployment checks go to that. At this time we chose to have insurance, we are not forced. At other times in our lives we have chosen not to have insurance, or to only cover one person. This time, I thought about only covering WS, as I am so disgustingly healthy, which would have cut the cost down by almost another unemployment check.

If, instead of mandating insurance, the plan had come across ways to reduce insurance costs - especially for those who have no recourse now (work for a small employer, self-employed,  laid off etc.), I think the majority of us would be happier.

 

You Didn't Build That

Via The Weekend Pundit

Song of the Times

So I know the sopa/PIPA ado is done (for now, until Congress reworks it and hopes no one is paying attention except the PACS), but I just came across this on New Jovian Thunderbolt, and had to share.

 

Breaking News

Over at Instapundit, this gem:

REPORT: Khaddafy killed.

UPDATE: Reader Charles Katek writes: “Are all spellings of his name dead? Or just that one?”

Excuse Me?

Reid signals government jobs must take priority over private-sector jobs - The Hill's Floor Action.

I do believe Harry has been away from the private sector too long when he says things like this:

"It's very clear that private-sector jobs have been doing just fine; it's the public-sector jobs where we've lost huge numbers, and that's what this legislation is all about," Reid said on the Senate floor."

Yea, the new Teacher's contract, with new pay raises, and new steps so more teachers can get pay raises, passed. Meanwhile, in the private sector, almost no one is getting raisses at all, and most are getting anti-raises; that is if they are lucky and still have a job.

Meanwhile, via Powerline.

Yep, the private sector is doing just dandy compared to the public sector.