Nail Gun Shorties

Just Say No….  to inferior drug tests that yield false positives.  Yet another reason that random drug testing is a Bad Idea.

Back to the Future:  As the economy continues to suck so badly we can no longer pretend it’s not already a recession, if not worse, some companies are reaching for the way-back machine to see if tried-and-true methods from the past might be the way to go right now.

Truckers don’t need sleep:  at least thats what new proposed Federal regulations (that courts have struck down multiple times) say.

How many times do I have to say this?  Insurance is not an investment!  Your insurance agent is not a financial advisor!  If he tells you he wants to sell you an “investment,” make him talk to your financial advisor (or toss him out of your living room). His job is to sell you insurance.  When you buy something from an insurance agent, you should get regular statements telling you what you owe and/or how much what you have is worth.  If you don’t get this regular statement, you should suspect that your insurance agent is a fraud

Speaking of things that are not investments:  Don’t buy stock in bankrupt companies.  It’s a sucker’s game. 

That’s not God talking:  Listen, if “God” is telling you to ram another vehicle at 100 MPH, you need medication.  Oh, and to get out from behind the wheel. 

At a complete loss for Christmas ideas?  You can donate farm animals to people in poor countries.  It may not be fun to play with, but you might be doing good for an entire village. 

A Prediction for GM’s Future: So, according to a colleague over at TMV,  “Mulally is coming by car from Detroit. Wagoner will drive a Chevrolet Malibu hybrid sedan for the 520-mile trek. Nardelli won’t travel by corporate jet, but a spokeswoman declined to elaborate on his travel plans, citing security reasons.”  First, Mulally and Wagoner never heard of car-pooling?  They are going to and from almost identical places at exactly the same time!  I bet they would save a seat for Nardelli, too!  But in any event, I hereby predict that after Mr. Wagoner has driven a Malibu hybrid on a  520 mile roadtrip, there will be a lot of tweaks if not a complete re-design next model year.

What Maha Said:  The “conscience” rule is trying to rise from the dead.  Never mind reality. I am totally with her on that last line: “There is a simple solution to health-care workers with a ‘conscience’ problem — find another line of work.” 

Speaking of Health Care:  yet more proposals to “reform” medical residencies are too little too late. The problem is not residency.  The problem is the $140,000 in student debt they have on average before they ever get to residency. Remember, internship and residency have been “employment” since the original Bush Administration.  You regulate those with the Department of Labor. 

And this person works at a university:  I was reading along when I found something mind-blowingly stupid.  Emphasis mine: 

“We’re having to cut classes and professors,” says [Patricia] Hurley [financial aid director at Glendale Community College in California]. “Tuition will go up. And our outreach efforts to high schools and into the community are being hampered because we no longer have the financial resources. All this is happening at a time when it’s critical to get the word out that college is still affordable.”

So let me get this straight, services are going down, tuition is going up, financial aid is getting harder to come by, but we need to make sure everybody knows they can still afford college. Riiiiight. 

Happy December, everybody!