Thursday, July 5, 2012

FRIDAY FAST ONES

1.)  Ever notice that if a letter comes in the mail marked Personal and Confidential you can be sure it is junk mail?

2.)  There were 2,100,000 viewers of the HBO series premier of "The Newsroom."  Sad that there are less than 100,000 viewers of the Rachel Maddow Show which is excellent real live reporting 5 days a week.

Sadder still that O'Reilly over on Fox gets 2-3 million viewers.

3.)  A 14 year old ballet dancer sponsored an online petition to get Seventeen Magazine to stop photoshopping their models - and it worked.

The Seventeen staff has signed an eight-point Body Peace Treaty, promising not to alter natural shapes and include only images of "real girls and models who are healthy."  Next they are going after TeenVogue.  Hopefully the advertisers will take notice of this desire for the natural.

4.)  I keep hearing negative things about "small" employers looking for ways to evade offering health insurance as the Affordable Care Act requires.  What is it to these employers to offer insurance?  There is no mandate that they pay any part of it.  They simply have to use their position as employers to offer plans which would not be available, or as inexpensive as when offered as a group plan.

I set up the insurance plan for our tiny company (3 employees and the owner) It took very little time and cost nothing to arrange. I made some adjustments to our payroll software and the deductions and tax info are automatic.  So even administrative costs aren't a valid argument.  Any ideas about this?  Educate me.

5.)  So glad the spell check is back...the function has been missing from Blogger for a week or so.

6.)  An odd week with a day off in the middle.  No complaints that it is the weekend again!  Enjoy.




6 comments:

Nan said...

IMHO, the small employers trying to evade something (even an imagine something) comes down to some people just being basically cheap and selfish. There are always going to be some employers who don't want to provide any benefits whatsoever so go looking for excuses (no matter how feeble or illogical) not to. Those are the same employers who pay the absolute lowest wages they can and then complain about the quality of their workforce, totally ignoring that the old truism that you get what you pay for applies to employees, too.

lisahgolden said...

You are so right about #1.

I'll be watching your comments to see if anyone can come up valid reasons behind the insurance fussing. I don't get it either.

hokgardner said...

The holiday in the middle of the week has completely thrown me off, even though I don't have a real schedule to stick to.

smalltownme said...

Good to hear your perspective on #4.

shrink on the couch said...

RE: #4
Interesting because Mort Zuckerman was ranting on cable news this week about how the uncertainty of what it will cost small businesses to provide health care coverage to their employees is a huge determining factor regarding decisions to hire new positions. This was in response to the mere 80000 jobs added (once again, slow economy is all Obama's fault). But maybe it's different with 50+ employees? Is there a mandate at that point where employers must pick up part of the tab?

Jenn @ Juggling Life said...

The whole insurance thing is just ridiculous--anything to make sure the system has some losers.

I did not like Fourth of July on a Wednesday at all--plus it was really crummy weather here.

J'adore Rachel Maddow.