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The Path of Anathema: First, Always Do Harm!

First, we had Unethical American Dentistry, and now — perhaps thanks to Obamacare — we have certain American physicians who are playing loosely with the truth when it comes to telling patients if they are “in-network” with their insurance plan, and providing the right, covered, care for their patients. “First Do No Harm” is not an oath to these doctors, it’s a cue down the path of anathema!

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No Pension for You

It has always been a fascination when I read about pensions — especially forced pension payments from those who are made to pay as a requirement of their continued employment, with some paying over $800 a month into State “pension” coffers — and how those workers are demonized by the Far Right who believe public servants and private pensioners are somehow taking advantage of those who do not pay into a pension program. Pensions are not payoffs or welfare. Pensions are earned investment money entrusted to public or private equity.


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The Mark of the “Letter J” and the Psychic Street Scam

I have a rather darling friend who prefers to remain nameless for the endurance of this story.  I reluctantly agreed to protect the identity of the innocent.

The other day, my lovely friend was walking in the Woodside, Queens area of New York City when a small woman approached and told my friend she was seeing “The Letter J” swirling around her.  Startled, and a little unsettled, my good friend — FOR SOME REASON! — confirmed to the tiny stranger that her name did, in fact, begin with “J” and the street scam was on!

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Computer Glitch Makes AMEX Serve an EPIC FAIL!

Today is April Fool’s Day, but what I am about to share with you has nothing do to with getting fooled — it is all too real and too corporate to rake any fun.  When American Express recently announced their Serve payment service for exchanging money, I was happy to sign up, just as I had done with Square last November.  I gave AMEX my banking information, a credit card and other personal identifying information.  After confirming two deposits in my bank account, I decided to take the next test step and transfer $10 from my bank account to my Serve account.  Oh, the woe that is me!

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Here is a McGraw-Hill Warning for Authors and Content Providers

In this WordPunk blog, we bluntly talk about the publishing industry, and on being an author, and how to value your work and why you must get paid on time.  Publishers don’t like authors and content providers to talk about contractual specifics because they prefer boilerplate contracts where everybody is paid the same — and nobody should ever blindly sign a boilerplate contract “as is” because there are always protections you need to ask for, and enforce, as an author and content provider that are not included in a boilerplate publisher’s contract.

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The Manna of Life: Bone Marrow and Supermodels

When I taught Public Health at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, I remember one day when the school was having a “Bone Marrow Drive” to help an employee stricken with cancer.  You could sign up for a free bone marrow screening to see if you were a match and, if you were not, your bone marrow would be placed in a database for future reference.  Bone marrow transplants are expensive, and painful, for both donor and recipient, but in many ways, that marrow is the manna of life.

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Slavery at Ten Cents Per Word

For at least the past 20 years or so magazine publishers have tried to get away with paying authors by-the-word at a dime per word and without any future rights reverting back to the author.

Not only is ten-cents-a-word an outrageously bad sum of non-money — it denigrates the idea of “the whole of the writing” by breaking down the craft into its tiniest bits and not even its architectural pieces.

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