phoenixvoice
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LGBTQI, Africa, everywhere
There has got to be a “happy medium” where gay folks are safe from death penalties and prison terms, but at the same time there are no drag queen story hours for toddlers nor prepubescent kids being recruited to find their lgbtqi “flavor.” Let’s go back to: “oh, yeah, there is a gay couple on the street. They are good neighbors and congenial folks. Kind of odd, but—whatever floats your boat.”
I have always been anti-war…but with two sons in the 18-26 age range, my anti-war tendencies have increased.
“Why Nearly Half Of US Online Job Postings Are Fake
One of my 18-year-old sons is looking for a summer job — for the last 8 weeks, and hasn’t had any success. He is a bit demoralized. He doesn’t drive, and so started by limiting himself to places very close by, and now is branching out to places one bus ride away. I suggested to him that it is very possible that many places posting job openings in fact have no such openings — they are just always fielding applicants so that when they need a new employee they have a wide pool to pull from. Each application takes a fair amount of time for my son to complete…and yet some computer likely weeds out his application, with his minimal experience (he completed a 4 week part-time internship last summer, and has occasionally helped me in my technology business,) so that, in most cases, his application is never viewed by human eyes.
DBS
To this day (and I’ve made many attempts) I cannot yet fathom the mind of someone who would do such a thing under any circumstances, whatsoever. Could YOU burn to death a hundred thousand innocent children just to make a political statement? Well that’s precisely what THEY did, which shows pretty unmistakably the sort of people who run this country, and who aim to run this world.Amen!
Tesla model s
I think that it is good for these cars to be developed. Many people like them and want one.
I don’t want one.
Too computerized, too controlled by the manufacturer.
Replacing the battery costs an ungodly sum of money.
Not designed for owner repair.
No thanks.Kunstler “motor-voter”, etc.
Wait a minute: it can be helpful to think something through before discounting it out of hand.
I don’t think completely automated voting roles are a good idea, however, I have observed a couple AZ state government interactions that give the state citizen the option of registering to vote, and they both make sense, for very clear reasons. Voting registration (or updates) can be done concurrently when getting a drivers license or state ID or registering a vehicle; they can also be done when applying or updating information for SNAP, TANF, or Medicaid. Party affiliation on the registered voter can also be changed at these junctures. This makes sense because these agencies (the AZ MVD and Department of Economic Security) verify identity, using birth certificates, Social Security cards, etc., the same sorts of documents used to prove citizenship for voting, verify current address, and both agencies require those with drivers licenses and/or state assistance programs to update their home address with the agency in a timely fashion. These are the same data points required for voter rolls to be kept current.
Now, at least in AZ, none of this is “automatic.” There is a box to check when doing these things that initiates the voter registration process or updates. It should not be automatic because voter registration and updates to the rolls should be left in the hands of the individual voter and never left in the hands of a bureaucrat who pays the salary of the software programmer.
Paul Craig Roberts
. I learned about modern day usury in May when my credit card bill did not show up. Perhaps it went into the spam or junk folders or fell victim to a glitch, all possibilities being joys of the digital revolution.
Interesting. When my action depends upon receipt of something and the consequences for not acting are significant, I do not rely on email — I insist on a notice via USPS. My power, gas, and water bills all still come in paper form…although I know how to access them online. My father also taught me years ago that for credit card holders who typically pay on time, the fees for an occasional misstep in paying a credit card bill can be waived by calling customer service and complaining. I wonder whether or not that is still the case?
Hmm.
The local Walmart grocery store (NOT a “supercenter”) was renovated last month, and now the parking lot has 18 designated “pick-up” parking spaces. There are 4 handicapped parking slots. I have never seen more than 3 people actually using the pick-up stalls simultaneously. Did Walmart plan for a future pandemic? I have decided to simply park in the pick-up spots regularly, as a form of protest. I can tell that I am not the only person doing this — there are routinely a few cars parked in those stalls with no one inside of them.
There is a prima fascia reason for not taxing garage sales and the average person selling a few items on Craigslist: most of the time, people are selling used stuff that they themselves bought, and it is being resold for less than the original price paid. There is no profit.
Of course, with AI helpers, all transactions could be tracked and the AI could helpfully compute the depreciation on that $150 item resold for $35…and — just maybe — the AI could track the time the seller put into selling the item and determine whether or not the “profit” even recovers the time spent to sell it computed at minimum wage, etc. But is that the world we want to live in? Where everything we do it tracked and quantified by AI? Where we are hamsters in an AI cage?
Self-driving cars
…and then humans no longer learn to drive, don’t learn how to control their locomotion in that fashion.Evolved at the equator
Near the equator the temps don’t change much one way or the other, neither hot nor cold, staying near what is commonly referred to as “room temperature.” So, yeah, I’d say that suggests humans evolved at the equator, we tend to abhor large temperature swings.
Fish net master
This is the area where humanity shines — individuals who take the time to learn a craft or art or skill: visual artists, musicians, net throwers, actors, surgeons, teachers, etc., and through their diligence and dedication a beautiful synergy arises. The results are art and music and buildings, children taught and lives saved. We honor these people for their efforts and work, even when they have failings in their personal lives, because their social contributions are greater than their immediate social circle of family, close friends, neighbors, and coworkers.What happens when an AI produces visual “art” in seconds, commercial jingles and pop music, architectural plans, learning modules, and performs surgery? What is the point and purpose to learning to draw or paint or play piano if an AI can “do it better” or “do it for me?” Humanity will be tempted to take the route of the child of wealthy parents…who cannot give limits to the child because all limits are surmountable with money, and imposing a limit might be interpreted as withholding love. Hunter Biden who spends his life on hookers and blow and creating bad art because he never learned the value of persevering through adversity. It is in persevering through adversity and challenge that humanity becomes more than the sum of its parts.
My daughter is a visual artist. Like many of her friends, she has an instagram account. Apparently, Meta decided to use its users posts — including their original artwork — to train their AI models. https://mashable.com/article/meta-using-posts-train-ai-opt-out My daughter was telling me yesterday that, apparently, if an artist posts original work on Meta (FB, instagram, etc.,) all of their hard work put into developing their craft and style can be copied by AI, and used for AI to generate comparable art.
Ah, I get it.
The Dems say that if the Repubs discount Trump’s felony conviction then the repubs are destroying the country’s justice system. The pot calling the kettle black. Dems projecting their actions onto repubs. But not bothering to charge serial shoplifters — that preserves justice.I am reminded of a terrible argument with my ex years ago:
We were supposed to go to a small social event at a bar that we had organized. He was too drunk to get out of bed. I tried and tried to wake him, but he would not. So, I left him and the kids (with the ‘sitter,) and went on my own. He showed up about an hour later. I could tell that he was furious with me. Later, at home, he verbally let in on me, demanding to know how I could have been so irresponsible and inept as to not have successfully wakened him. I pointed out that he had been the one who had failed in the areas of responsibility and eptitude. He didn’t seem able to see my point. The argument dragged on and on until, exhausted, I decided to tap into my performance training and play the role of the “contrite wife” so that I would be left alone and have the opportunity to sleep.@ Thomas Kenney
Thanks for article yesterday on ai.
Essentially, the point is that instead of AI making it easier for humans to navigate the world as it is (which is difficult enough,) AI will increase complexity of laws and bureaucracy so that humans must use AI in order to navigate the world. It sounds like a world designed for AI, rather than a world designed for humans.@ dr d rich
A few weeks back I went to my daughter’s PCP practice to get a note that stated an obvious conclusion from her symptoms and positive-for-mono blood test results: her need for sleep may interfere with school. I brought the blood test results (test was ordered by an urgent care.). The doctor office wanted her to fill out questionnaires about depression and anxiety. I declined. (She had had a full physical two months prior and had discussed behavioral health specifics with a female doctor that I liked. This visit was with a newly-minted male NP. I wasn’t going to tolerate my daughter being grilled about depression and anxiety unnecessarily. Plus, due to her over-bearing father, my daughter tends to be uncomfortable around males, especially ones that she does not know.). They wanted me to write “declined” on the papers so that they could scan them in and prove that they had tried to get them filled out. I was incensed, but complied — I needed the note. The NP wanted the records from the urgent care and ER (she had gone for abdominal pain, spleen wasn’t enlarged enough to cause concern, just enlarged enough to hurt significantly.). I pointed out that I would need forms to fill out, as I had declined her data being put into the online health exchange. The MA got me the forms…pre-filled out to include every medical record under the sun and with no start or end dates. I was disgusted, and asked for blank forms, which I filled out in spartan-like fashion to include only the relevant data and I wrote in start/end dates. I asked, when are we going to get this note? Because I knew that getting medical records from the forms I filled out would take at least days, and I needed the note before the end of the school year so that her absences wouldn’t cause problems with the school. The NP did the exam, just at the end he stated that he needed to check one thing, moving her legs in a specific fashion, not telling us why, then telling us that it was to rule out appendicitis. But she/I has/have no appendix!, my daughter and I chorused — which showed that the NP hadnt looked too deeply at the medical record, because that had been reported in prior visits, under hospitalizations. The coup de grace was when the nurse came in with the coveted school note, (I *know* the NP didn’t view the records that I was required to request before writing the note,) giving us a lab req, pre-assigned lab appointment, and asking us to make a follow-up visit in 2 months. The NP had said nothing to us about follow-up labs nor a follow-up visit. I was disgusted that these steps would be taken without the provider bothering to speak with me about them. I made the appointment — with no intention of keeping it, knowing that I can easily cancel it online — went home, called the urgent care, (that also offers primary care one day per week,) and made an appointment for my daughter there, to initiate that office being PCP for my daughter.
I also now understand better what the online health exchanges mean — full access for *any* health care provider to the individual’s complete medical record with no start/end dates. I do not find that idea reassuring — I find it terrifying. The patient/individual cedes all control of their health data to the medical industry.
Thanks to Dr. John for the ethical skeptic articles yesterday.
UCLA medical students…perhaps by design? All they need to do is catalog symptoms and feed them into a computer which spits out diagnoses and treatments: this doesn’t take much.
(I saw this on display at my daughter’s most recent doctor visit…I’m finding her a new medical practice.)
that AI will be better than humans at everything,
No. AI is not biological, it doesn’t grow into awareness requiring nurture, it isn’t human.. It is a parody of humanity. And, as humanity’s golem, it can do a great deal of things. Some AI accomplishments, according to certain metrics, will be deemed as better than humans. But everything? I think not.
Woody Harrelson
To whom does he speak?
Yes, all economic classes buy a lot of toxic junk. This, often, could be easily stopped.
But not always.
Does he speak to those that have incomes above the median? If so, then yes, go for it: follow his suggestions.
But what about those of us with incomes below the median? Whose young children wear pajamas from Walmart or thrifted or hand-me-downs, that are impregnated with toxic chemicals to prevent the Jammies from burning? (WTF? Not a lot of open flames in our homes any more….) Not everyone can purchase Jammies of organic Cotten, carefully not marketed as pajamas so that they don’t have the toxic chemicals added as required by law. Sure, I can travel all the way to Whole Foods, purchase a bag of 10 organic corn tortillas without the junk and glyphosate, and fry them up for tostada night rather than purchase the ready-made tostada rounds from the Walmart a half-mile away, full of GMO corn — but the cost for the Whole Foods ones, per 6” tortilla, is about 10 times the cost of the ones from Walmart. Oh, and the Whole Foods tortillas must be refrigerated and used or frozen within about 4 days or they will mold — because they have no preservatives.
I hear this stuff and I hear, “Let them eat cake.”
Those who survive with incomes below the median can surely be smart, ignore the advertising, and reduce the toxins in their homes — and save money, too. But the idea that they can radically alter their purchases to influence the behavior of the large corporations is impractical on its face.
@ Red
I’m thinking the bar for the Turing test has been set pretty low as of late.Yes.
Another possibility is that humans have become so accustomed to the doublespeak that is encouraged by corporate America who gives no power to its employees actually working with customers that any computer who uses that style of speech is indistinguishable from a human doing the same.Related issue:
I get my federal tax refund in check form. I don’t deposit it in my personal bank account because there are judgments against me. (This fall I really need to declare bankruptcy and get this behind me.). I’d rather not lose a portion of the money to a check cashing place, so the past couple of years I signed the check over to my dad, he deposited it into his account, and once it funded he gave me the money. A few weeks back we went together to the local bank branch, and the bank manager told us that she has no idea why or when it started, but they cannot accept the deposit of a federal tax refund check into the account of someone not named on the check. Hunh? No recourse of action, the bank manager’s out was that “her hands were tied,” “she had no power,” she was, in essence, merely the errand-boy of a faceless bureaucracy.
My dad was displeased and called his broker (with the same bank) the next day. 2 weeks later we followed the broker’s advice: we traveled 2 miles down the road to a “premier branch” (which closes daily at 4 pm — convenient for retirees, inconvenient for the rabble,) and attempted the same procedure. The teller had no problem — did not have to call the bank manager over — and deposited the check. (I was reminded by the teller that once the check was deposited I’d have no access to the money. It’s alright, I said, I’ve known him a long time — I trust him. She’s my daughter, my dad added.)
On the way back to my house we discussed how the rules for the poor are much stricter than they are for those with money. Yet, those with money are the ones with the capacity to get the ears of elected lawmakers!
In the past week I also found out that Chase bank only allowed cash payments to credit cards from people named on the credit account and that ID must be provided to use cash to pay a credit card balance. All of this just makes me more determined than ever to continue using cash.
Labrador vs. border collie
It reminds me of how, sometimes, great intelligence is more of a hindrance than a help — the border collie just *knew* that he could cross without getting wet, but didn’t anticipate how great the challenge would be.My daughter has been sick with mono for six full weeks now, the extreme exhaustion stage has been for the last five weeks. She is in good spirits most of the time, but sleeps 11-15 hours per day. Needless to say, she is struggling to keep up with school. No clear end is in sight yet.
I can’t help but compare this to the ridiculous Covid scare. In my household, Covid as a “real” sickness, in the sense that we each got sick from it at least once and had symptoms that were undeniable, such as significant fever, temporary loss of taste/smell, etc. For my daughter, she had significant Covid symptoms that kept her out of school for two weeks…she finally was at my home, I gave her ivermectin when the Covid was lingering, and (wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles,) the remaining brain fog cleared up a few hours later.
This mono thing isn’t so scary — in the sense that it has been something with humanity for a long time, there is a fairly large body of human knowledge associated with it — but it is very significant and serious in a way that Covid was not. It can’t be shrugged off, cannot be ignored, and while it runs it’s course, mono is the most powerful contributing factor to her life. Everything else in her life right now has to be fit in around the biological imperative to sleep half of every day and the fact that even when doing so, she may still be sleepy during waking hours and find it hard to focus.
CO2/heat relationship
I was always aware of this. To me, the real question was: what happens globally if the CO2 goes up in a big way, but not following warming, rather from a different, (man-made,) source? No one knows the answer. Not knowing is uncomfortable.
Perhaps, the earth greens more, as plants have more abundant access to CO2. If that is the case, then it is a positive by-product in my book. The bigger concerns regarding fossil fuels have been various pollutions and toxicities that they contain or that occur in bringing them to the surface, as well as depletion over time and how our culture responds to that depletion.
If water has this memory, as described, then…
…there may be some real substance to homeopathy
…I wonder about drinking rainwater?
…how does one “structure” water? Play classical music for it before drinking? For how long?
Very interesting idea.Eurovision 2024…
Um…I have a degree in music & theatre, and have loved musical stage performance since I was very young. Sometimes I perform. I am not a prude. I’m not Christian, although I have respect for most Christian tenets, and abide by them and model them to my children — I am not immediately horrified by Wiccan and devil/demon imagery, although it can rapidly descend into territory that I consider problematic.This Eurovision thing is disgusting. Do people actually enjoy it? Or is it just like the emperor’s new clothes?
Can we have a folk music revival already? It would be nice to get back to people simply getting up in front of others with acoustic instruments (amplification is fine, but not the type that fries ears and tingles arm hair,) and singing songs.
That’s it…dropping the little technical things…that contribute to a rounder comprehension of the subject.
This is what I have seen generally over the last 20 years in the tech industry. In the 90s, in order to use a computer on the internet one had to have basic understanding of what a modem is and does (connect to a phone line, dial a number, negotiate connection with a server, and translate telephone signals as digital data), what a web browser is and its constituent important parts (address bar, web address, back button, reload button, bookmarks, http vs. https,) and how to navigate a basic file system graphically using Windows Explorer or Apple Finder. Now, none of these are formally taught, and the software is often written to obfuscate these functions. As a result, users often perperually feel like they are floundering in a shifting sea, just going wherever the current takes them…and they believe that this is “normal” and expected. I have found myself tutoring recent college graduates of PA or nurse practitioner school on basic computer functions — people who used laptops to graduate from college.
Aspnaz
I think they are really referring to how this stuff is made.I think that you must be right. Spouse purchased an oil extractor. So far we’ve tried it on walnuts, and I may try it on the sunflower seeds once the flowers are spent — it would seem odd that home-extracted sunflower oil would be problematic.
Biden economic advisor Jared Bernstein
I don’t think that the problem is stupidity. It is more like perfidy. I think that the man fundamentally understands how ridiculous the reality of the Fed is, how the US money begins as debt, rather than with sovereign money printing. He truly believes that current reality is a fundamentally flawed situation, but his job depends upon him defending the status quo.I’ve had a very busy week, haven’t had a chance to really suss out the college protesters thing….but I think that
Were all the paid college “protestors” these past weeks that aren’t going to college for the purpose of passing this bill?????
hits the nail on the head, and is just one more nail in democracy’s coffin.
@ The Markster
Thank you for pointing out the music & dance achievements of Europeans so that I don’t have to. Much of the great black music has come into existence because of the fusion of European musical styles and disciplines with African traditions brought by slaves to the US. Without the influence of both traditions we would not have jazz, soul, rock’n’roll, R&B, etc.
Case in point: most people are familiar with the musical form of a round. (I.e., the way Row, row, row your boat is often sung.). The African version of a round is heterodox: everyone in a group sings the same song, in multiple keys, multiple speeds, starting and stopping at will. For the ear trained in Western music, this has an interesting effect, and can be appreciated. However, compare and contrast this with a contrapuntal fugue by J.S. Bach for organ.
Music is an art form where there are always those at the fringes pushing for “new sounds” and/or for rediscovering or reinventing old musical ideas. Since “new” is always distinct in some way from “old,” and Western Music is usually the “old” that is being referenced, “new” music is underpinned by its references to Western Music and does not exist without it.
I never took a class on statistics — I took calculus in high school and subsequently majored in music, lol. So, when Ed Dowd talked about the life insurance actuary deaths for ages 25-44 being “10 standard deviations above the norm” I had absolutely no frame of reference to use to understand what he was saying. I simply thought, well, that sounds like a great deal, and he seems very worked up about it. Today, I was helping one of my sons to learn a topic for his high school math class. It was explaining how “standard deviations” work. Wait a minute, I thought. And looked up what Ed Dowd had said (my son was growing very irritated, as I was not focusing on the lesson at hand.) TEN standard deviations above the norm. Oh, hell — now I understand what he was talking about! That is outrageous! It should be at the top of every news outlet.
Instead it is buried.
There is still some use for public education. 🙂
So here is an interesting thought for comment:
My political leanings are toward classical liberalism, but I respect conservatism, as I was raised in a conservative home, and I see the value in it. There is variety of political leanings in the TAE commentariat, which is refreshing.
My family is still very conservative. We look at the world around us and we agree on many, many things. Except one big issue: the conflict in Gaza. They express beliefs repeatedly that serve to justify Israel destroying Gaza and Palestinians generally by stating that the Palestinians historically did not want a two state solution, that the Palestinians want to slaughter all Israelis, and therefore it is justifiable that Israel protect itself. I can only get them to go as far as admitting that there must be many innocent Palestinians that are being killed (but then they start talking about Hamas using the innocent Palestinians as “human shields.”)
I can tell that here, commenting at TAE, are some conservative-minded folks that do not support Israel. (Often, IMO, this is taken too far, with rhetoric condemning all Jews, which I find as mind-numbing as the Israeli rhetoric condemning Palestinians as “animals.”) I am curious about the conservative thought process that decouples support for Israel from the conservative mindset. I would like to plant seeds in the minds of my conservative family that will help them to realize that Zionists are not their friends, but rather weasels that will betray them, and that the framing they have accepted about the conflict in Gaza is deeply flawed. Ideas, anyone? (I wonder if that is exactly what Tucker Carlson was trying to do when he interviewed a Palestinian Christian leader in Israel, questioning the unswerving loyalty that so many American Christians have for Israel.)
FYI: The noose is tightening for those who use cash
This may be the last year that I get a fat tax refund thanks to the refundable portion of the child tax credit and the EITC. I’ve been needing to declare bankruptcy for a few years now, due to debts stemming from a family court costs that I was obliged to shoulder, and so I am essentially “unbanked.” My tax refund comes in the form of a check. It is too large to cash at a grocery store, too large to cash at Walmart. Tax refunds cannot be direct deposited into an account that doesn’t include the name of the person on the refund. Since the 2008 crash, banks must deposit checks into an account prior to dispensing the cash. My (common law) spouse’s credit union’s policies do not allow it to be endorsed it over to him. The US Government no longer has accounts at Bank of America held in such a way that they will cash government checks. For the past two years, I have gone with my father to his current bank, Wells Fargo, shown my ID, and endorsed my check to him. A week later my father pulled out all of the check funds in cash and gave them to me. Two days ago we went to do this again. No go. The bank manager explained to us that she does not know what was done in the past and does not know the reason why, but they do not accept endorsed deposits of government checks. WTF? I am now looking for the most economical check cashing place, so that I lose the least amount of this check, and my dad is checking with his broker. In the envelope with the check was a little flyer from the government, encouraging me to get a bank account….. Soft coercion. I weary of this.
I find the Kunstler piece included today to be in poor taste. Perhaps it is because the caricature is of college students when my own children are so close to that age. It frustrates me that my own children would be lumped in. One son, who has struggled mightily with the rules and demands of school, has purple and blue fading out of his hair, but has nearly finished graduation requirements. I now acknowledge that his challenges probably fit under mild “autism,” and they are probably the result of vaccine injury. My other son will be in college in four months, and I am observing the hoops that he has to jump through just to avoid living on campus. Someone designed this system to funnel all of the young college entrants into on-campus housing, where indoctrination is easier to accomplish. From my daughter I have insight into the minds of the caricatured collegiate women, from two years younger. Her friends have been indoctrinated by their own parents from infancy to believe that it is a mortal sin to utter the “n-slur” or “r-slur.” They believe that if Trump becomes president again that he will dismantle the three branches of government. They are vaxxed to the max. The sins of the parents will be visited upon the children. Sure, the college kids are adults and responsible for their actions, and yet, they lack the life experience to even begin to understand that they have been molded to be someone else’s tools. Now they go to college and instead of expanding their minds, the more blinders are placed upon them. Scorn doesn’t seem appropriate for them — I feel scorn for the collegiate administrators and professors.
Scorn—pity—sympathy—empathy—unity. To overcome the problems arrayed before us, unity is our best bet. Unity often cannot be achieved…but perhaps we can take a step away from scorn and start feeling pity?
Yes, but respect is something you EARN, not something you’re born with
I see it a little differently. There is a basic level of respect that is granted to someone without knowing them, simply because the person is a living being. For example, when I pass someone I don’t know on the street, and we nod to one another, acknowledging the other person. Then there is the respect that is earned over time. We may hold some individuals in very high regard due to the individual earning (more) respect over time. And then there are the people that I hold little to no respect for because the person has lost my respect due to their own misbehavior (such as my ex, or my paternal step-grandmother who at the big family Christmas party long ago gave me the same useless gift that was received by thirteen year old girls because at age 26, graduated from college, I was unmarried and, I suppose, therefore not an adult in her eyes.)
There are people who, through prejudice, disrespect those whom they do not personally know or of whom they have no information. This is common, and is the basis for the cries against “discrimination.” Ironically, those who loudly protest discrimination of one flavor are often hypocrites.
SOME people work and it’s stolen. SOME people receive and do nothing
But isn’t that the way it is with ALL economic systems? The difference is primarily who works, who steals, who receives, and who does nothing. And, often, it is a matter of perspective how the labels are applied within any given system.
Come to think of it, according to the signs that have popped up at hospitals and urgent cares and the like since Covid, failure to respond to a health care worker’s instructions or not following their requests can be considered “aggressive behavior” under the law. This is not heading to a good place.
Kris Mays
I weary of “officials” summarizing facts for me. There is always an agenda…it is always a form of soft coercion. So, she says that those indicted conspired to not allow Arizonan votes to count in the 2020 presidential election…and that is doublespeak for…what exactly? Would I summarize the facts viewed by the grand jury in that fashion?Another example:
Daughter has been experiencing abdominal pain from an enlarged spleen, a side effect of mono. It was becoming pretty painful yesterday, so at night we went to the ER to have it checked out. For reasons that I’m not going to currently guess at, the hospital no longer bothers to supply forms at the outset, when I could read them at my leisure while I am waiting for hours, before I am uncomfortably dozing off in a chair. No, instead the forms appear after four hours, after my daughter has been examined by the doctor. I am given an iPad with the form loaded onto it, and expected to sign with my finger. I hate writing with my finger, and the no-battery stylus in my purse does not write on iPads. For the second, the hospital person tells me that the form “is so doctors can talk with one another.” I remembered that, wait, I need to READ this stuff first (I was a little groggy at 1 am,) and saw that the form authorizes my daughter’s health information to be put into an online health exchange. I have to formally decline this once a year at her primary care physician. “No,” I replied, “it’s not. It’s to put my daughter’s data into an online health exchange.” The hospital person said, “But…” ( I don’t recall the specifics.) I interjected: “No — I’ve had three notices in the past 6 months about my data being breached online. No data online is safe.” So, instead there was document #3, which looked like the standard stuff about billing insurance. I signed that. Come to think of it, I didn’t read much of it…it was probably the standard stuff. I forgot to ask for copies. A few minutes later the nurse came in the room with physical papers. The first was a simple form to sign (with a pen! A pen that glided and wrote well!). It had a single sentence: I have read the discharge instructions and have had my questions answered. She asked me to sign and then explained that after the signature she would review the papers with me. I objected and pointed out that I couldn’t sign that I had read documents and had my questions answered before I actually saw the documents. She seemed irritated with me, took back the stack of papers, and reviewed them. I signed afterwards. I had no questions.I suspect that one large contributing factor to these practices are the software EULAs that we began clicking “I agree” to back in the 90s. I weary of this. Paperwork isn’t fun, but abbreviating the part where the signee actually reads the document before signing is the wrong part to cut short. (A realistic solution is to keep documents short and devoid of complex legalese.). I long for the day when the courts begin to systematically void these documents because of deceptive practices on the part of the companies pressing for quick signatures.
Waiting for signatures until the signee is exhausted and almost ready to leave is a strategy to obtain signatures without the signee having adequately reviewed the document. What is being hidden?
