http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/03/27/national/main4898503.shtml?source=RSSattr=HOME_4898503
"I was just doing my job!"
Phooey! All you needed to do was escort them into the damn hospital and let the Moats' say goodbye to a dying woman.
You're nothing but a merciless, pitiless bigot and no amount of trying to cover your tracks with excuses is gonna change that fact. In my opinion, you are morally and spiritually corrupt. You disgust me and I hope you get fired and banned from police work. You're unfit to serve!
Friday, March 27, 2009
Monday, March 02, 2009
Short Time Off The 'Net
In this economy, my hubby and I are struggling with the basics like keeping up on our house payments so it is with increasing frequency that I'm not able to afford my cable internet connection. I'm also unwilling to go back to the slower speed of dial-up not to mention the frequent service issues that go with dial up. So I've been reconciling myself to the fact that some months I may have to wait a few days before getting back. Other things, like paying for my dog's insulin, are more important.
Heresy? It nearly sounds like it but as an older person, I spent more of my life off the net than on it.
Heresy? It nearly sounds like it but as an older person, I spent more of my life off the net than on it.
Oooh Those Bank Execs And Their High Flying Ways
So Bank of America's honcho flies to Washington in one of the private jets held by the company. He said it was a 'time sensitive' thing so that makes it worth it instead of flying business class. It's a buncha bull. He could have been driven to the airport, made the flight, taken a taxi and gotten to his meeting with Congress on time.
He just doesn't wanna give up the perks. That tells me that he thinks he's too damn good for the rest of us! Given our country's economy, it rankles. Given that I'm broke and struggling, it rankles and I find I'm bitter.
I had a credit card with Bank of America. I'm paying it down slowly since I'm broke as hell and struggling to pay when I can. The amount is under two thousand. Not much, but with the interest that kept going up after missing payments following a long illness that ultimately left me unemployed for nearly a year... well... I reckon if the interest had been frozen at the 3% interest rate it was when I got the darned card (and regulated to stay at 3%), instead of the 29% it went up to, then I'd have had it paid off a year ago. I never abused the card either and had a great payment history for several years prior to getting sick.
I feel like we consumers are getting the short end of the stick. The profits from exorbitant interest rates are driving us down while the bank's highest ranking executives steep in unnecessary luxuries. And let's face it... we ordinary folks are never going to see the inside of one of those corporate jets in real life, much less fly in one! We get by flying coach when we have to. We get by driving more than we care to on our daily commutes. We get by using public transit like riding buses, street cars and trolleys in the places that have them.
What makes these executive's work so costly to us consumers? What do they do that is so beyond price? These high flying execs have made a passel full of bad decisions over the years costing their employers millions. If they get fired, they walk away with golden parachutes sometimes in the 10s of millions of dollars. If we ordinary people did that in our jobs, we'd be fired and our (by then) ex-employers would be looking to have us prosecuted and put in prison!
Why can't the bankers getting all this bail out money look at the things they've got on their calendars -- sponsoring golf tournaments, sporting events, concerts, & more -- and cancel them until things have turned around for the better? They need to shut down the corporate sponsorship of things that are nothing more than show -- a smoke and mirrors show at that!
In the over all scheme of things, I wouldn't bitch if B of A was sponsoring a city's public schools and funding applied science teachers in things like computers, biology, health sciences including nursing, pre-med, dental hygeine. We need schools teaching sciences like horticulture, agriculture, and animal husbandry, we need student learning engineering fundamentals so they can go to college and study biomedical engineering, electrical, mechanical and civil engineering and more.
I wouldn't gripe if they were sponsoring magnet arts schools either. I love watching all kinds of dance, seeing beautiful paintings and sculpture, and looking at beautiful design and crafts work in furniture, lighting, and that stuff. We need the arts every bit as much as the sciences.
I do mind them sponsoring the bread and circusses. I've actually minded for a long time, but given how close to the edge we all are, I think it's beyond unconscionable.
Why can't these bankers limit themselves to the things we ordinary consumers are already limited to so we can all get back in the business of producing?
He just doesn't wanna give up the perks. That tells me that he thinks he's too damn good for the rest of us! Given our country's economy, it rankles. Given that I'm broke and struggling, it rankles and I find I'm bitter.
I had a credit card with Bank of America. I'm paying it down slowly since I'm broke as hell and struggling to pay when I can. The amount is under two thousand. Not much, but with the interest that kept going up after missing payments following a long illness that ultimately left me unemployed for nearly a year... well... I reckon if the interest had been frozen at the 3% interest rate it was when I got the darned card (and regulated to stay at 3%), instead of the 29% it went up to, then I'd have had it paid off a year ago. I never abused the card either and had a great payment history for several years prior to getting sick.
I feel like we consumers are getting the short end of the stick. The profits from exorbitant interest rates are driving us down while the bank's highest ranking executives steep in unnecessary luxuries. And let's face it... we ordinary folks are never going to see the inside of one of those corporate jets in real life, much less fly in one! We get by flying coach when we have to. We get by driving more than we care to on our daily commutes. We get by using public transit like riding buses, street cars and trolleys in the places that have them.
What makes these executive's work so costly to us consumers? What do they do that is so beyond price? These high flying execs have made a passel full of bad decisions over the years costing their employers millions. If they get fired, they walk away with golden parachutes sometimes in the 10s of millions of dollars. If we ordinary people did that in our jobs, we'd be fired and our (by then) ex-employers would be looking to have us prosecuted and put in prison!
Why can't the bankers getting all this bail out money look at the things they've got on their calendars -- sponsoring golf tournaments, sporting events, concerts, & more -- and cancel them until things have turned around for the better? They need to shut down the corporate sponsorship of things that are nothing more than show -- a smoke and mirrors show at that!
In the over all scheme of things, I wouldn't bitch if B of A was sponsoring a city's public schools and funding applied science teachers in things like computers, biology, health sciences including nursing, pre-med, dental hygeine. We need schools teaching sciences like horticulture, agriculture, and animal husbandry, we need student learning engineering fundamentals so they can go to college and study biomedical engineering, electrical, mechanical and civil engineering and more.
I wouldn't gripe if they were sponsoring magnet arts schools either. I love watching all kinds of dance, seeing beautiful paintings and sculpture, and looking at beautiful design and crafts work in furniture, lighting, and that stuff. We need the arts every bit as much as the sciences.
I do mind them sponsoring the bread and circusses. I've actually minded for a long time, but given how close to the edge we all are, I think it's beyond unconscionable.
Why can't these bankers limit themselves to the things we ordinary consumers are already limited to so we can all get back in the business of producing?
Friday, February 13, 2009
More Peanuts
http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/20090212_peanut_corp_in_hot_water/
:::shaking head in disgust:::
:::shaking head in disgust:::
Sunday, February 08, 2009
Writer's Block From Too Much To Choose From
I was on YIM the other day with my blog friend Divya who lives in London before work, chatting about writer's block. I realized there's plenty of fodder out there to write about, but I'm blocked. Maybe it's having too much to choose from.
I've noticed in the last few years, even when I go to the store, sometimes I wander for an hour or two just looking at the stuff on the shelves before finally making my selection. I'm thinking maybe too much choice is as bad in its way as too little choice is.
Then there's Madoff and other ponzi schemers being exposed. The ripple effect of their depredations is mind boggling and the harm they've done to so many American charities and philanthropic trusts is devastating on a long-term scale I cannot begin to wrap my brain around. The repercussions are manifold. Rabbi Marc Gellman's open letter to Bernie Madoff in Newsweek pretty well tackled it: "You betrayed charities whose good works you have extinguished in an afternoon. These betrayals are epic in their scope and dazzling in their utter lack of remorse or responsibility. There must be some new word invented to describe the way you have redefined betrayal. The Bible calls such things a toevah, "an abomination". It means an act so alien to our values and our natures that it cannot be understood or explained. You have committed an abomination. This is what you have done...." and that's only the beginning of Gellman's critique. Google "Marc Gellman on Madoff" and the first link will take you to the full letter.
There are a few things that have occurred in my own life time that I have viewed as an actual abomination. This is right up there on the list. So is the next item in my menu tonight.
Over the last few weeks we've been hit by yet another salmonella scare involving the Peanut Corp. of America in Georgia. What are these people thinking? One comment from the Associated Press said, "Food and Drug Administration officials earlier had said Peanut Corp. of America waited for a second test to clear peanut butter and peanuts that initially were positive for salmonella. But the agency amended its report Friday, noting that the Blakely, Ga., plant actually shipped some products before receiving the second test and sold others after confirming salmonella...
"...The salmonella outbreak has been blamed for at least eight deaths and 575 illnesses in 43 states. The Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation. More than 1,550 products have been recalled."
Frankly, I was gobsmacked in the market the other day seeing how many products had been pulled off the shelves because one of their listed ingredients were peanuts. Peanuts are one the US's staple foods & used as a primary, secondary or tertiary ingredients in food products. I counted over 50 familiar grocery items missing from the shelves including various brands of dog food from the pet food aisles.
The Peanut Corp. of America's second largest client was the USDA who purchased peanut products for hunger programs serving the country's poorer population. There are a lot of average joes out there getting USDA commodities now that they've lost their jobs & incomes over the last year or so. How cynical and criminal is this company? Too busy or committed with other things than to ensure they put out a safe, clean product? It takes a lot for the government to go after a company with criminal charges and that company sure has earned those charges in spades.
The news on crime has me just about convinced that our civil society is teetering closer to the edge of barbarism than ever before. I'm sure y'all can come up with your own lurid examples, so I'm gonna spare ya mine this time. There's plenty we should not tolerate that we do tolerate and vice versa. When is enough enough?
I've noticed in the last few years, even when I go to the store, sometimes I wander for an hour or two just looking at the stuff on the shelves before finally making my selection. I'm thinking maybe too much choice is as bad in its way as too little choice is.
Then there's Madoff and other ponzi schemers being exposed. The ripple effect of their depredations is mind boggling and the harm they've done to so many American charities and philanthropic trusts is devastating on a long-term scale I cannot begin to wrap my brain around. The repercussions are manifold. Rabbi Marc Gellman's open letter to Bernie Madoff in Newsweek pretty well tackled it: "You betrayed charities whose good works you have extinguished in an afternoon. These betrayals are epic in their scope and dazzling in their utter lack of remorse or responsibility. There must be some new word invented to describe the way you have redefined betrayal. The Bible calls such things a toevah, "an abomination". It means an act so alien to our values and our natures that it cannot be understood or explained. You have committed an abomination. This is what you have done...." and that's only the beginning of Gellman's critique. Google "Marc Gellman on Madoff" and the first link will take you to the full letter.
There are a few things that have occurred in my own life time that I have viewed as an actual abomination. This is right up there on the list. So is the next item in my menu tonight.
Over the last few weeks we've been hit by yet another salmonella scare involving the Peanut Corp. of America in Georgia. What are these people thinking? One comment from the Associated Press said, "Food and Drug Administration officials earlier had said Peanut Corp. of America waited for a second test to clear peanut butter and peanuts that initially were positive for salmonella. But the agency amended its report Friday, noting that the Blakely, Ga., plant actually shipped some products before receiving the second test and sold others after confirming salmonella...
"...The salmonella outbreak has been blamed for at least eight deaths and 575 illnesses in 43 states. The Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation. More than 1,550 products have been recalled."
Frankly, I was gobsmacked in the market the other day seeing how many products had been pulled off the shelves because one of their listed ingredients were peanuts. Peanuts are one the US's staple foods & used as a primary, secondary or tertiary ingredients in food products. I counted over 50 familiar grocery items missing from the shelves including various brands of dog food from the pet food aisles.
The Peanut Corp. of America's second largest client was the USDA who purchased peanut products for hunger programs serving the country's poorer population. There are a lot of average joes out there getting USDA commodities now that they've lost their jobs & incomes over the last year or so. How cynical and criminal is this company? Too busy or committed with other things than to ensure they put out a safe, clean product? It takes a lot for the government to go after a company with criminal charges and that company sure has earned those charges in spades.
The news on crime has me just about convinced that our civil society is teetering closer to the edge of barbarism than ever before. I'm sure y'all can come up with your own lurid examples, so I'm gonna spare ya mine this time. There's plenty we should not tolerate that we do tolerate and vice versa. When is enough enough?
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
A Day To Remember
I was so glued to the Inaugural events yesterday. I felt such joy at the whole thing and while I sure wasn't able to be in DC, I loved the pictures of joy on people's faces who were attending. You proud many!
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Happy Inauguration Day
Well, lets see how this little revolution of ours pans out. Adios, George. Git yer ass gone and off to those new digs in Dallas. Welcome to the White House, President Obama! Today is all ceremony and stuff, but by noon, you'll be running the show. Good luck and may the gods bless your presidency.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
I Knew It
I knew when the story about Abu Ghraib first broke that the US had violated the Geneva convention and had committed torture. I was right! Damn it.
Friday, January 09, 2009
So Far, 2009
So how is your year going so far?
My walking program is getting back on track. It was pretty well derailed throughout most of 2008 following two sprains to my right ankle and a bout with plantar fasciitis - all of which had me hobbling instead of walking smartly for about 10 months or so. Going from being able to walk 3 miles a day fairly easily down to half a mile or less really hurt and I was often in tears from the pain of it. My dog tolerated the reduced pace only because it turned out she was coming down with diabetes and didn't have the energy to walk and play either.
I took a test this week for employment with the Census Bureau. I think I will need to retest because I could not complete the darn test within the half hour time that was allotted. That's kind of embarassing too. It was a short test and I got caught up in trying to break down the logic of a couple of the questions as well as reading a table that went to one of the other questions. Getting tangled on three earlier questions left me unable to finish the last 4 questions in time.
Theres a raft of new books out that I'd love to buy, but with the economy the way it is I will have to wait and hope I get a gift card for the bookstore, or wait longer until they come out in paperback. Ah well. It isn't as though we don't have unread books around here. DH and I both have a book habit. Maybe the secondhand bookstores will see some improvement in sales given the economy.
With more and more newspapers scaling back or going out of business altogether, we really need to save the funny papers. A lot of syndicated cartoonists are losing chunks of income when a paper folds or cuts back on features. I think we need the funnies -- all the way from the stoics like Gasoline Alley to the creepiness of Bizarro and inbetween. We need to laugh, we need the bad puns, the slice-of-life charmers not to mention satire and political cartoons as well. I tell ya, kids today are being deprived!
My walking program is getting back on track. It was pretty well derailed throughout most of 2008 following two sprains to my right ankle and a bout with plantar fasciitis - all of which had me hobbling instead of walking smartly for about 10 months or so. Going from being able to walk 3 miles a day fairly easily down to half a mile or less really hurt and I was often in tears from the pain of it. My dog tolerated the reduced pace only because it turned out she was coming down with diabetes and didn't have the energy to walk and play either.
I took a test this week for employment with the Census Bureau. I think I will need to retest because I could not complete the darn test within the half hour time that was allotted. That's kind of embarassing too. It was a short test and I got caught up in trying to break down the logic of a couple of the questions as well as reading a table that went to one of the other questions. Getting tangled on three earlier questions left me unable to finish the last 4 questions in time.
Theres a raft of new books out that I'd love to buy, but with the economy the way it is I will have to wait and hope I get a gift card for the bookstore, or wait longer until they come out in paperback. Ah well. It isn't as though we don't have unread books around here. DH and I both have a book habit. Maybe the secondhand bookstores will see some improvement in sales given the economy.
With more and more newspapers scaling back or going out of business altogether, we really need to save the funny papers. A lot of syndicated cartoonists are losing chunks of income when a paper folds or cuts back on features. I think we need the funnies -- all the way from the stoics like Gasoline Alley to the creepiness of Bizarro and inbetween. We need to laugh, we need the bad puns, the slice-of-life charmers not to mention satire and political cartoons as well. I tell ya, kids today are being deprived!
Wednesday, January 07, 2009
More Soup
My sister, the 'magnetic' one and me were having dinner a few weeks ago at a nearby Vietnamese restaurant. Over a bowl of steaming Pho, I told her that when I have ramen soup (which we all know is inexpensive and easy to make) that I liked adding some Vietnamese chili & garlic pasteand chopped baby bok choi to them to zip it up. I told her, "It makes 'em kinda special."
She cracked up. "Special? That's kinda sad," she said wiping her eyes.
There I was thinking I was easily pleased because comfort food is never sad.
She cracked up. "Special? That's kinda sad," she said wiping her eyes.
There I was thinking I was easily pleased because comfort food is never sad.
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