Phi for All

It's the Bundt FTL Theory.

I guess I'm just not saying it correctly. I'm at a complete loss as to why an educated guy like yourself can't see his health insurance as part of his pay. Your boss could legally take some of your wages away too, it's not illegal. Many people get pay cuts. But the employer shouldn't get to tell you what your pay is spent on. It's still the employee's money the employer is messing with, and it's up to the employee to either stay or leave and find a job with better compensation. This whole thing wouldn't even be an issue if unemployment weren't so high. If an employer takes too much pay from you, you can file for unemployment even though you quit the job. In essence, you can show the Dept of Unemployment that your employer forced you to quit by reducing the compensation past an acceptable level, and that's the same as firing you (I think that percentage may vary by state). Do you think it's a gift because they call them "fringe" benefits? Or just because they call them "benefits"? Hell, when my car insurance company deducts the amount they'll pay for worn parts damaged in a collision, they call it a "betterment"! It's just a way to make things sound nicer. Employers HAVE to call health insurance a benefit so it doesn't get taxed like wages.

You're wrong. You're stating your opinions as fact, which means you have to back it up with satisfactory evidence when asked. You never do. Which means that you aren't participation in an actual discussion, you're just talking and waving your hands. That's preaching. It's never allowed here. This is a discussion forum. This section, like Philosophy and Politics, is meant for opinions. You can express your opinions anytime, but make a statement of fact and you should be prepared to back it up.

Exactly! The employee gets a better rate on health insurance due to the group coverage, and the employer doesn't have to pay wage taxes on the non-monetary compensation. It works for both sides, but it is NOT a gift. Employers offer competitive compensation to get the best workers. Workers need to stop seeing themselves as charity cases who should be grateful to have a boss who "gives" them health insurance. We work for that coverage as much as we work for the wages.

Ophiolite beat me to it, and with a much better explanation. I rather suspected this was some kind of attempt to bring up the old Electric Universe crackpottery again.

I don't mind people looking at my hard end.

If this isn't the answer, it should be. Very clever.

Is it a table of contents and some kind of mirror page in a book? I would then escape by reading it.

Why do I not feel inspired?

What, no cookie?

Reality TV is a total oxymoron.

The mirror casts no reflection since you have no light source. Since you also have no etc., I'm going to break the legs off the table, feel around for the nearest wall and lean the table top against it, making a door. I open the door and escape.

Do you understand what evolution is?

! Moderator Note Since you have a very specific question about evolution, I'm going to change the name of this thread to help get you specific answers. Please think about this on any future threads you start.

! Moderator Note You have opened two threads in the same section with the same name. To avoid confusion, and since the OP is more interested in a definition of life, I'm going to change the title.

He should be able to bank right or left by flapping just the opposite arm, shouldn't he? The extra lift on that side would create a turn, but I'm with you, I would want much more control even if I didn't gain much altitude. Actually, I'd want more responsive control at that height because I wouldn't have much time before hitting the ground.

I noticed the same thing, but it does seem as though he didn't need much control for this flight. He climbed when he flapped, he made no turns, and when he stopped flapping he lost altitude. I would like to have seen the footage from the ground camera shooting the entire flight, without all the editing between that and the helmet camera.

You may be watching the wrong kind. The pornography I've seen usually has more women in it than men.

If we could rehydrate ourselves by crying backwards, straws would look very different.

! Moderator Note This thread started out discussing creation, and has degraded into rehashing the tired old creationism/Intelligent Design garbage that has been refuted a hundred times here at SFN, and thousands of times by the scientific community as a whole. Our religion section is for discussing religion, not for trying to disprove accepted science (we have all those science sections and Speculations for that). It's been attempted and failed too many times for it to be interesting anymore. It's abundantly clear that creationists and creationism can only exist in a state of ignorance and denial. I urge everyone to study a thing before criticizing a thing. This thread is closed. Any further threads on creationism (which is completely different from creation) or Intelligent Design will be closed. Proponents don't listen and I'm sure the rest of us are tired of wondering when they will.

"Difficult" is too subjective. Organic life starting from inorganic matter is probably very improbable, but the improbability dwindles into insignificance after a billion years.

No one should have to put up with people who put empty boxes back in the cupboard.

You and your kids would probably end up flying too close to the sun, they'd melt and you'd be in the ocean....

"It's not like they are compensating you for anything." You HAVE to be joking! Good lord man, haven't you ever had an employer quote you what your total compensation is, with benefits? In my experience, they love to throw that number around. You are fast gaining a reputation for NOT looking at the evidence people provide to support their arguments. As was stated in the article I cited earlier, even fringe benefits are part of your pay, also called your compensation package. It's paid by the employer, sure, for the work that you do for them. If you're giving control of what you do with your compensation over to your employer, then why can't they tell you what you do with your money? With your bonuses? With your pension plan? Your medical insurance is part of your pay, so why should your employer get to dictate how you use it? Your employer basically pays you a total compensation of X. If X is strictly wages, then taxes must be paid on X by both you and your employer. However, if your employer pays you X - the cost of medical insurance but provides you with medical insurance, your compensation stays the same but your employer doesn't pay wage taxes on the insurance as well as writes it off on his business taxes. This is why many employers choose to do this, but it's still your compensation and it's not theirs to decide how you use it. Does that make more sense? http://economix.blog...e-worth-saving/ Bold added by me. If they try to do this, a mass protest from workers who know better will sweep the country demanding the compensation be increased in wages. If they're going to try to take back a big chunk without making it up to you, are you telling me you'll meekly accept that? Again, it's none of their business what you do with your health insurance. It was your compensation that paid for it, they should be grateful you all accepted the insurance instead of more pay, thus giving the employer a bonus tax deferment. It occurs to me that this might be a subtle ploy to reduce employee compensation across the board. If it can be tested with religious institutions, that sets a precedent for major employers to suddenly support pulling out of health insurance as a benefit. The Bell System pulled something like it during their divestiture. Before the Baby Bells, Bell Telephone rates included paying for anything that went wrong with the equipment they provided, including the line from their trunk to your home. Their telephones were practically indestructible because of this. When they were broken up into the independent Baby Bells to avoid monopolizing the industry, their rates stayed the same but suddenly the customer was in charge of anything that went wrong with the lines coming to the house and any equipment that went bad. Then they also started charging for the phones themselves, which were never again as durable. Most people didn't even notice, because Ma Bell always made it sound like the phones they provided were free. It represented a huge hike in the cost of the service without raising any of their advertised rates. Much wool pulled over many eyes.