Divemedic

Powerball is a multi-state lottery game. Since there are multiple states, the prizes are large. As I write this, the Grand Prize is $203 million. Now I know that the lottery is a tax on people who don’t understand math. (I play by buying one $2 ticket, because I get hours of entertainment out of daydreaming what I would do if I won, and hay, it’s only $2. Cheaper than the movies, or even a book.)

I was looking at the prizes and odds, and noticed something odd: California, even though they are playing the same game, awards different prizes. Check this out:

As you can see, the prize structure takes money from  the larger winners and redistributes them to the smaller winners. Matching 5 numbers without the powerball, or 4 numbers with the powerball in California means that 85% to 95% of your winnings will be confiscated (by the time you pay taxes) and the majority of that money will be given to the “less fortunate” people who matched fewer numbers.

It’s a metaphor for the entire state.

We had lightning hit the house yesterday. I was home when it happened. We were in the middle of a typical afternoon thunderstorm, the kind we have every afternoon in the Florida summer, when the entire outside lit up blue and there was LOUD thunder.

I later noticed that we were missing a channel from our surveillance cameras. Reviewing the footage showed a bright flash in every camera, and all of them went blank for about 5 seconds. When they came back up, channel 4 was missing. I assumed it was a failed camera. but changing the camera didn’t fix the issue. Luckily, my DVR is a 16 channel model, and we are not using all of the channels, so I simply moved the camera to another channel.

Upon further investigation, one of the arc plugs on one of my HAM radio antennas is blown. The radio equipment and other electronics are all fine, thus proving that my house is as EMP protected as it can be. 

It seems like every time my computer does an automatic update, my computer stops working. The updates are supposed to make your computer better and protect you from malicious code, but the cure is worse than the disease.

This time, Windows defender updated and my computer slowed to a crawl with choppy audio. It took me two hours to find the problem. I had to disable Windows Defender.

I have routinely denied and refused updates, but that only works for so long before it updates anyway.

The news media is infuriated because President Trump barred a reporter from the Whitehouse Press room, some reporters claiming he is taking unprecedented steps against the press.

They have short memories, because Obama did it, too.

Earlier in the month, we decided to head for our BOL as a bit of a summer fishing trip. It gives us an excuse to get away from the hot Florida summer. We were here for a bit when we got a bit of bad news: there had been a death in my wife’s side of the family. We headed to New York for the funeral. While there, we were invited to another of her relative’s home in Canada. We went back the BOL for a few days, and then headed for the Canadian house.

That is where we were when the shooting in Toronto occurred. The Canadian politicians were going ballistic. They were demanding a reinstatement of the long gun registry, even though the shooting was carried out with a handgun. They were talking about a total ban on all firearms within city limits of any large city. According to the locals, there have been over 250 shootings in Toronto this year. They are mostly blaming Americans.

In the lounge of the hotel, we met a guy who had to drive two hours and pay a $45 ferry toll to stay in the hotel overnight in order to see a specialist in the morning.

Also while there, we talked to a woman who received a knee replacement. She had been on the waiting list for two years before getting it. There have been papers and studies done that claim a waiting time of only 16 weeks for Canadian patients, but the studies themselves admit that the respondents to the survey are mostly younger. The wait times in Canada are determined by your age and health.  Younger, healthier people get priority over older, sicker people. The woman I spoke with was 71 years old when she was placed at the end of the list.

This makes a lot of sense. Medical care and the time of providers is a finite resource. Since there is only so much to go around, not everyone gets everything that they desire. There must be rationing of a sort. In the US, this is driven by two factors: the market and insurance. That is, financial reasons.

In Canada, since the cost of care is included in your tax bill, the government decides who gets and does not get care. Since older people tend to be more conservative, and Canada is run by liberals, guess who gets priority of care from the politicians who wish to be elected?

The press seems to have latched onto the use of life jackets in the recent capsizing of the boat in Missouri that claimed 17 lives, as if forcing every one to wear them would have saved everyone.

Marketing photos and videos, posted for years by the company advertising the rides, show people not wearing life jackets. Pace of the Highway Patrol said state law requires that the vessels have one jacket for everyone on board and that the jackets be readily “accessible,” not stowed under a seat.
This video from Ride the Ducks social media page about two years ago, for instance, shows a packed boat of tourists on a leisurely ride on calm water. Not a single person featured in the video is wearing a life jacket.

I don’t think it would have helped much. The vessel was an amphibious truck with a roof and windows. Wearing a life jacket in an enclosed vessel that has capsized makes escaping that vessel nearly impossible, as the swimmer cannot submerge in order to escape.

The real culprit here, in my opinion, is the Captain of the vessel who did not bother to check weather conditions before taking passengers out on the lake. The storm that caused the sinking packed winds at the upper end of Tropical Storm force, and warnings had been issued for the weather before the boat sailed.

When you are in an area where storms are frequent, like the Midwest, it is easy to become complacent and ignore storm warnings. In this case, the Captain’s complacency cost 17 people their lives.

The same judge who last month ordered FEMA to continue providing free hotels to Puerto Ricans for Hurricane Maria until July 24 has again extended the free hotels. At what point are people expected to get jobs and provide for themselves? Isn’t 11 months and $450 million of free housing enough time to find a job?

Last year, Trump tweeted out that “pedophiles” should get a fast trial and a fast execution. I am opposed to this. I once blogged about a young couple who were being prosecuted because they took revealing photos of themselves and texted them to each other. They were caught, and being prosecuted as adults for possessing, producing, and distributing child pornography. Should they be put to death?
What about the 14 year old girl who sent revealing photos of herself to her boyfriend? Should she be put to death? In this particular case the ACLU is defending her (even though I abhor them, the occasionally do some good).
It is unlikely that such a law would be constitutional, as the Supreme Court already ruled in 1977 that the death penalty was excessive for rape.
Not only that, but I am opposed to the death penalty because I don’t trust the government to be honest.

I ran into a Central Florida police officer recently. It was a social situation, and we got to talking firearms. He made a statement to the effect that machine guns and ‘silencers’ were illegal. I explained the law to him and, since he was a supervisor, offered to come into the police station with some NFA items as well as the proper paperwork, so that his officers would know the law and be familiar with the proper documents that are required.

Hes response: “No thanks, keep that stuff out of my town.” As if a person who has gone to the trouble of jumping through ATF hoops and is supportive enough of law enforcement to come in and train his officers is a threat to law and order.