This chart is a very eye-catching and jaw-dropping summary of the current financial status of the United States. I sure never thought I'd see this kind of mess in my lifetime, but here it is.
Showing posts with label OMG. Show all posts
Showing posts with label OMG. Show all posts
Friday, January 14, 2011
Saturday, November 20, 2010
We Live in a New Age of Touchy/Feely
OMG this is getting out of hand. Why in the hell don't we just get the top people from El Al and take notes? The most targeted airline in the world is also the safest? Maybe we should try some of their screening methods. No, that's crazy, what am I talking about? From the article below: "Anyone who sets off the metal detectors is required to go through a physical pat down, but the TSA says they use a less aggressive touch for children under 12."
Does it bother anyone else that a sentence like that is treated like a normal thing to say, given the actions described in the article - patting the genitals, running the hand between underwear and skin, etc.? Oh, and of course, we only do that to kids over 12. WHAAAAT?????? Would you let some uniformed screener dude or gal stick his or her hands down your 13 year old's pants? Isn't that what damn near bankrupted the Catholic Church? Doesn't that sort of behavior get you sentenced and called a "Registered Sex Offender"? Am I crazy? Sure, there was a guy who tried to make explosive underwear. Is groping every adolescent that wants to fly the only way to make sure he/she is not wearing a dangerous diaper?
Oh, and when did it become okay just because it is after age 12, to grope, pat, touch, etc. adolescent kids? It is just wrong. Oh, and much as I hate to mention it, what about past victims of sexual assault, trauma or rape - no matter what their age? Can you imagine having bad some horrific act done to you and then at some later point, if you want to fly, being forced to submit to what would WITHOUT ANY DOUBT be a SEXUAL ASSAULT were it not being done by TSA at an airport?
Since a guy tried to blow up a plane by putting a bomb in his shoes, will we soon be seeing foot fetishists not only relying on the removal and X-ray of the shoes, but requiring the person being screened to remove their socks and submit to a tongue inspection (to see if the foot tastes like explosives) of the foot?
I flew hundreds of thousands of miles for business and pleasure. I was always polite, and willing to do what was asked of me in the interest of security. I was waiting for a plane the morning of September 11, 2001, and I watched that day unfold convinced that I'd support whatever was needed to keep us safe in the skies and in the country. But now I am second-guessing my blind obedience. Why?
There are better, more effective, less personally intrusive ways to screen passengers and ensure safety than to commit battery and sexual assault. Plain and simple. When my daughter is 13 how can I take her to fly somewhere knowing what I know may very well happen? Will she be subjected to a virtually nude screening X-ray, visible to many? Will it be worse, where she's forced to get molested in order to fly? OMG! How did it come to this?
I think that there ought to be a hue and cry from sea to shining sea, insisting that the BEST and BRIGHTEST security experts available be immediately brought together to develop systems to keep us safe. Without having people putting their hands in people's underwear. Is that too much to ask? To fly without some guy or gal sticking their hand INSIDE your underwear, tapping and patting your junk?
It's time to examine who is making the decisions, writing and training the procedures, choosing the technology and bickering over whether the airlines, airports or TSA should pay for technology to make us safer in the air. All this virtually nude photography - will someone do a statistical analysis showing that a man is 12% more likely to be a terrorist if he "dresses right" (and by that I mean not that he buttons the right button with the right buttonhole, but that his junk rests naturally to the right side of the vertical midline of his body) - all this physical grabbing and groping...is this the best option we have for screening?
In a word: NO. It is not, and the people who can develop screening technology, use the currently available technology, and still keep us safe are out there, and they are willing and able. And it is a dirty secret that there are frequent breaches of the system we use now - both in tests and just when the person next to us says, "Oh man, I forgot to take this out of my briefcase!" and parts the top of the case to show a five or six inch knife.
We can do better, we can do better and be safe. And whether the person being screened is under 12, adolescent or adult, we can do it without battery, assault and sexual molestation. And we should. And though some of this post is amusing and meant to be so, the topic and the practices that caused me to write it are not funny. They are wrong. And a helluva lot of us better stand as tall as we have to and shout "NO! This is not acceptable, not in America."
Sunday, November 29, 2009
A Sad Hesitation
I took the kids to the movies and as we were leaving the parking garage I saw an officer stocking up his belt with equipment from the trunk of his car. Knowing what a terrible thing had happened earlier, and how hard it must be to pull on a police uniform and go to work, I wanted to say something. I stopped and said “thank you, officer, we are behind you”. He turned and looked, then gave me and my vehicle a careful once over before making eye contact with me and nodding in acknowledgement. I realized at that instant that the first thing that he thought when I spoke was ‘is this guy a threat?’ He checked me out, and noted the kids in the back seat before he nodded. I think he was glad to hear me express support, but I also think I gave him an adrenaline rush while he looked to see if I was going to turn out to be a bad guy.
I wish I had a better vessel to express my appreciation, respect and support for the men and women who serve in our communities. I wish I could somehow bake enough pies, and like Santa I could magically reach each police station during each shift of every law enforcement agency in Western Washington. I’d hand over a warm pie, express my gratitude and support for the thin blue line and the heroes who man it.
The worst thing is, that I bet no one would eat the pies, and rightly so. I’m sure I’d be looked at, and rightly so. It is impossible for me to express my regard and hope that no further attacks occur. I also know that nothing anyone says can make this better. Nine children lost their mother or father today. Two women lost their husbands, one man lost his wife. So many lives forever changed, so much pain. I wish I could do more to support our law enforcement community, to somehow be of service. Still, I understand full well that now and for a while, should I slow or stop my car to quickly express solidarity with officers, I will be scrutinized. Someday, they won’t feel this strong need to check everyone they come in contact with. Someday, I hope, police officers will once again scrutinize lightly company he reaps.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Gang 'killed victims to extract their fat'
In Peru police arrested three men, and are looking for at least seven more in connection with a scheme to ‘harvest’ body fat from humans to turn into a wrinkle reducer. The black market in these fats has to this point been largely though of as an urban legend, since there is a plentiful supply of liquid fat available from donors. The arrests let us know that not only is the black market real, but at about $50,000 for two bottles of human body fat, it is lucrative anywhere, but particularly in locations where incomes are far less than in the US and Europe.
Many of us heard stories of the Boogieman as children. He seems to take on different characteristics depending on where one lives. In Peru, the Boogieman is the Pishtaco – a sort of demonic creature, said to resemble a human with white skin. The Pishtaco were said to murder Indians on the roads and trails, and mutilate their remains. When the Caucasian missionaries came they initially terrified many Incas because they resembled the white-skinned Pishtaco of legend. The missionaries were thought to kill peasants for their body fat, which they used to keep their oil lamps lighted and their church bells oiled.
I just cannot think of a single thing to say in commenting on this. It is hard to imagine that dozens of people could be murdered simply to harvest body fat for high-end wrinkle treatment. I wonder if this development will cause a decline in sales for the treatment, or if the pattern we saw with ‘blood diamonds’ – sales were not affected overall – and it will be something people express concern about but go right on with their purchases.
I guess I can think of one thing to say: It seems to me that this case cries out for the death penalty, and certainly it should be followed by extraction of body fat from the perpetrators of all these murders. It is amazing what our consumerism and vanity becomes as it ripples across the globe to lower income societies. Something we think little about because we can afford it, can be so extremely valuable in the second and third world as to cause murder – as in this case where the murdered number in the dozens. Does that make the men who killed and removed body fat modern-day Pishtacos? Are the people buying human body fat as anti-wrinkle treatments responsible in some way also? I have to say that I will be quite surprised if we begin to learn that similar rings are going on around the world, but instead of body fat their target is harvesting organs.
Monday, September 21, 2009
OMG Moment Number 631
Don't know if you ever read the FML (F*** my Life! FML link) website but sometimes it cracks me up. Now I know that some of you might not believe this one could happen, but let me assure you that it could. According to one poster at the site:
"Today, my girlfriend of a year broke up with me because I didn't fight some guy that started hitting her right in front of me... In a dream. She was totally serious. FML"
I can vouch for the story not being too unbelievable because I once had an employee who quit suddenly. I asked why, and she replied, "You were really mean to me." Surprised, and because I hardly ever had contact with her, I asked her when my meanness had occurred. "In my dream." I started to laugh, but she didn't. "You're quitting because I was mean to you in a dream?" I thought about it just in time to stop myself from explaining how crazy that is, because it occurred to me: ‘do I really want this mental giant doing client work’? The kicker was that she went to her psychic after the dream and the psychic affirmed her decision because it would be best for her to find a new dream boss who wouldn't be mean to her. True story. I nearly had a car wreck laughing about it.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Perhaps Darwin was Wrong…
If you like, watch all the comments in this video, they are a hoot. But please don’t miss the first speaker. I’d be happy to send a buck to the first person who can come up with any reasonable explanation of her comments. And all you slave-holders back east? We’re on to you now!
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Sunshine on Discovery Bay
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