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A Misleading TV AdI am still seeing TV advertisements from a well-known insurance company suggesting to shoppers for automobile insurance that they ‘only pay for what you need.’ In Florida, all the insurance ‘you need’ to put license plates on a car is a minimum of $10,000 of Personal Injury Protection (PIP) and $10,000 of Personal Damage Liability (PDL) coverage.
At best, that company’s agents will explain how inadequate those amounts are, and try to sell the shopper upward to more realistic amounts, contradicting their misleading advertisements. Those who just purchase only ‘what you need’ risk being personally sued for hundreds of thousands of dollars more than those unrealistic amounts in the event of an accident.
Just look at the six digit dollar amounts in TV ads from law firms eager to offer their services in such cases.
JL
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For Want of a Hearing Aid
Many years ago, his busy parents noticed that their young teenage son was very interested in creating hats and caps. Too occupied with their real estate business to do it themselves, they instructed one of the firm’s employees, unaware that the employee had a hearing problem, to enroll him in a millinary school. Consequently, the boy was sent off to a military academy, and he is now the President of the United States.
But he still loves to create beautiful red caps with quaint political statements included on them. That is his true passion, a vocation he unfortunately never got to fully practice because of that employee’s auditory problem, the root cause of most of our nation’s present challenges.
Okay, I just made that up. But the challenges are still there!
JL
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ICE is Difficult to Melt
Despite Democratic successes in reducing funding for the Department of Homeland Security, it appears that Department already has enough money stashed away from earlier appropriations in that ‘Big Beautiful Budget Bill’ to continue its ‘ICE’ activities by reducing expenditures intended for FEMA, the TSA, and the Coast Guard.
Professor Heather Cox Richardson continues to stay on top of this story in her February 13 posting of ‘Letters from an American.’ Click here or copy and paste https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/ on your browser line to access it.
JL
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Minneapolis Ain’t Vegas
What happened in Minnesota can happen wherever you happen to live in this country, so long as you trust Republicans!
The slogan suggesting that ‘What Happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas’ doesn’t apply to other parts of the United States. Just don’t believe what Republicans say … ever!
JL
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Filling Government Roles Effectively and Efficiently, Plus Artificial Intelligence
Once it is determined what the necessary roles for government are, a political decision as the previous Jackspotpourri pointed out, it has to be determined how to fill those roles effectively. This usually creates a need for hiring more government employees, or alternatively, outsourcing their tasks. Neither come cheaply.
Eventually, a pressure develops to fill these roles more efficiently as well, using fewer resources, both human and financial. That’s where politics re-enters the scene, with some willing to see those roles for government reduced, despite others still insisting on retaining them.
Now entering the mix is the use of Artificial Intelligence which might be able to bring about such efficiencies by reducing human labor and its costs; that however raises the possibility of unemployment for many.
Those who disagree with this theory point out that the Industrial Revolution of the 1800’s did not take away jobs, but actually created more of them, requiring more employees. We have to see how this turns out. That might be risky,
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And speaking of Artificial Intelligence, Maureen Dowd’s February 14 New York Times column is devoted to its dangers to humanity. Apparently, there are no limits nor guardrails to its capabilities, and those who manage it are primarily motivated by greed and a quest for personal power.
Check it out by clicking here or copying and pasting https://www.nytimes.com/column/maureen-dowd on your device’s browser line. If that doesn’t work, try a google search.
If that doesn’t bother you enough, the Times also featured an article on February 14 headlined thusly:
‘Homeland Security Wants Social Media Sites to Expose Anti-ICE Accounts.’
It went on to point out that ‘the Department has sent Google, Meta and other companies hundreds of subpoenas for information on accounts that track or comment on Immigration and Customs Enforcement ...’
Now that is frightening! It crosses the doorstep of violation of First Amendment rights.
JL
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Housekeeping on Jackspotpourri
Your comments on this ‘blog’ would be appreciated. My Email address is jacklippman18@gmail.com.
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More on the Sources of Information on Jackspotpourri: The sources of information used by Jackspotpourri include a delivered local daily ‘paper’ newspaper (now the South Florida Sun Sentinel) and what shows up in my daily email; that includes the views of many contributors, including the New York Times and other respected journals.
Be aware that when I open that email, I first quickly glance at and screen out those sent to my very old former email address and those considered ‘promotional’ by Gmail’s system as no more than advertisements or requests for donations. Besides these sources, I also utilize the Google search engine where I can look up any subject I want.
Lately, these search results have been headed by a very generalized summary clearly labeled as being developed by AI (Artificial Intelligence). On occasion I might use such search results, but when I do, I will say that I am doing so. Generally, however, I try not to use such summaries in preparing Jackspotpourri.
After such ‘AI’ search results, there follows the other results of my search. Unlike the anonymous AI-generated summaries, the sources of these results are clearly indicated, giving them a greater credibility than any AI summary. I feel that It comes down to who YOU want to be in the driver’s seat in seeking information: yourself or something else (Artificial Intelligence), the structure of which somewhere along the way had to have been created by others, with whose identity I am neither familiar nor comfortable. At least when I read a column by Timothy Snyder, for example, I know from where it comes, and to some extent, what to expect.
Caution should be exercised in using Artificial Intelligence.
JL
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