291 posts tagged “news”
Live Army press conference -- the suspected shooter was not killed, he was shot and is in custody and in stable condition. But the name that had been released was correct. I'm sure he wishes he'd been killed or he will...
No reason to believe terrorism the motivation.
So I slept for 10 hours, not too bad given I'd not slept for a day. I come downstairs and do my wake up routine -- turn on the tv which had been set to MSNBC before sleep, head to the kitchen to pour myself a cup of chocolate soy milk mixed with iced coffee, head to the bathroom to grab an anti-seizure pill, and plop down on the couch to see what the news is. Breaking news -- a press conference. Now in this day and age, EVERYTHING is BREAKING NEWS with red text. But, no this IS breaking news. 40 some people shot at Fort Hood. *blink* What? How? Huh?
MSNBC is saying that there are possibly three involved but they've gotten the name of one, he'd been a Major, and oh, hell... an Arab sounding name. Well, I'll do what I never do, I'll find FOX News. Surely that will be fun. The guide says that Glenn Beck is on. Doubly fun. Except that Shepard Smith was on air. If anyone on that channel is actually "Fair and Balanced" it is him. He was saying they'd just gotten the shooter's name and unlike the other networks he was not going to release it until the Army released it officially. *blink* Go Shep. He would say that he had been told that the man was an Army Major who didn't want to go to war, because Kay Bailey Hutchinson confirmed that to him on air. If Shepard is ever let go from Fox, I'd not mind seeing him on MSNBC. He's good.
So an Army Major psychiatrist shoots 40 some people with handguns on the biggest Army Base we have (or one of the biggest -- is it the biggest? I think it is). Good advertisement for guns. War. Etc.
Apparently he didn't want to go war. He was one of the people that the ones going to war and coming home from war talked to. The reports are that he dealt with many PTSD patients. And then we tell him it's his turn. And this is what happens.
I hope that the victims who are wounded heal quickly. I hope the families of the dead get the support they need.
The man who did it, he was a murderer and a coward. If he wanted out, he should have only taken himself. But, I can't say that I'm surprised that someone like him would snap. Even doctors are human. Do we really think it's wise to sit someone down back here at home with people who are telling them horrific stories of war day after day after day after day and then announce hey buddy, time for you to go over there? I'm fairly certain that it's actually not uncommon for people like psychiatrists to counsel one another -- because of the things THEY take on in their jobs.
What a tragedy all the way around. For someone who was devoted to helping people to take such a turn. For all of those lives to be lost. Sad, sad, sad.
Douchebag alert. I don't really care about sports, but I do love bringing douchebags to your attention. So my douchebag of the day is CNBC's Darren Rovell. Who the hell is he? No clue. Just a douchebag. I love that word. Why is he one? Because America won the NYC men's marathon for the first time since 1982. *cue the evil music* or did we? Not so much according to Darren Rovell. It doesn't REALLY count as an American victory because the winner, Meb Keflezighi, IS an American citizen BUT he wasn't BORN here, he CHOSE to become an American citizen (he's lived here since he was 12 or something). So he's not REALLY one of ours. Yeah. Darren Rovell, douchebag.
What's that? You have a hard time believing he was that blunt? His own words here. He's such a douchebag that he ends it by announcing that he won't be breaking out his red, white, and blue until someone who was BORN here is on that winner's podium.
Pilots --
NBC is reporting that those pilots were out of touch for what an hour? because they were using the bathroom and breaking out their laptops for mundane work tasks like looking at work schedules. Uhh... That must have been a hell of a bathroom break and on hell of a complicated work schedule to go over. You're PILOTS. I know that traffic isn't as bad as say LA freeways. But you're operating some sort of a vehicle. You don't friggin have BOTH pilots off peeing and playing solitaire at the same time for an HOUR.
Reid grew a pair?
Senator Reid just announced that there will be a Public Option in his health care bill, with an Opt Out option for states.
October is almost over -
I'm still convinced I'll take part in NaNoWriMo, despite the fact that I've never written a story (maybe in like 1st grade -- back when they forced you to and called it homework). I've been trying to at least think about it. Surely it's not cheating to think ahead. And so far I've come out with a very vague concept -- the three main characters, the general idea of what the story will be, and that's it. I kind of hoped I'd figure out how I'd want to end it as that's actually major I think for what I do with the middle -- but it's not coming to me yet. Hrmph. If you're playing along and are going to give it a go, feel free to add me (DelusionalAngel) as a writing buddy so I can cry over how much faster you write than I do ;) I MIGHT even let a few trusted read what I write if they ask -- though as I said, I've never written a story and expect suckage to occur.
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Lister is having surgery tomorrow. His ear was swollen with blood this weekend. They decided he had earmites and shook his head so violently that he burst a blood vessel or something and would be fine -- except he was left with an ear that looks more like a puppy ear than a kitty ear, flopped over. They said to watch it. It keeps filling with blood. So now they they think he has an artery that is open and he needs kitty surgery basically. They have to go in and stitch it up. He may or may not end up left with the puppy floppy ear - the vet has had a kitty with this and it can be permanent. It's both cute and sad when he looks up at you with that ear flopped over. He's not in pain though, so that's good.
They're coming to my apartment in a few hours to green the place up. Well, these apartments are older. They want to upgrade the lighting fixtures and/or bulbs to be energy efficient -- Except they said if you put in newer fixtures those are exempt. Well the people who lived here before us put in the very fixtures that Brian LOVED from IKEA. So they're gonna let us keep those and only change the bathroom stuff (which I suspect means just the bulbs, maybe, not sure -- they are enclosed though and technically not sure you're supposed to use those energy efficient bulbs in those *edit* apparently the way to upgrade fixtures that are enclosed in the ceiling IS to just add new bulbs) and outside stuff. I'm surprised they're changing so much. I thought that it was as early as next year when we could have to move out, since they're gonna tear these down to build newer fancier "we can charge a fortune for waterfront Marina apartments" even though the newer expensive ones next door are all but empty. We're thinking that they're waiting another year to start since they did say 1-5 years and the economy here still sucks so bad, etc.
News round up. Yes, there are questions --
1. Those pilots who overshot their runway by 150 miles. WTF? People were guessing the pilot and co-pilot both fell asleep. That's re-assuring. They both sleep at the same time. Then a story came out that they were just in a heated discussion, so heated that they ignored their flight plan, finally look up an hey we missed our stop, let's u-turn. One of the pilots says Nooo, we weren't asleep or arguing. Being a news junkie my mind went hmm not sleeping, not fighting? Ohh sex scandal! Everything is a sex scandal! Mile high club! Orgy in the cockpit! So what's your guess? Sleep? Fighting? Just not paying attention? A card game? My guess makes for the best news.
2. OMG we're all gonna die from Swine Flu! Sorry, some of you guys called it that, changing it to H1N1 in the middle of the thing is stupid and not as catchy. In the Netherlands they call it the Mexican flu so as not to hurt pig farmers. I'm pretty sure we couldn't call it that here. So now it's all get a flu shot and a swine flu shot both. No don't! If you get the shots you'll get sick and die! If you don't, you'll get sick and die! OMFG either way, we're all gonna get sick and DIE DIE DIE!
So, what do you guys think of the hysteria? Are you going to get the shots? Do you usually get flu shots? Me? I actually am not one of those people who have strong opinions on vaccines in general. We got the required vaccines as kids and didn't all get autism. BUT, that said I only ever had a flu shot once. Got it for free while working at the hospital Seemed smart while working in a place full of sick people especially with my MS symptoms starting then (didn't yet know how sick I was, but knew that something wasn't right with me and was just starting to see doctors then so we figured well to be safe I should try to miss the flu). 2-3 weeks later? I got violently ill with the flu. The only time I was ever sicker was when I was jaundiced with the gall bladder stuff. I was almost ready to go to the ER. I was sure I was dying. So even though I'm first in line type because of the MS and Sarcoid? I'll pass. Back then after I recovered, everyone I talked to said yeah that's why I didn't get the shot, only times I ever got the flu was when I got the shot. Gee, thanks for warning me. If anyone in this house were to get the shots, I'd let Brian do it :P He's exposed to more people than I am anyway.
So MS is in the news thanks to swine flu and our friends in Florida. Seems voting is not the only thing they have wrong. Health care too. They're singling out MS in regards to how to ration health care if a swine flu pandemic hits. *blinks* Idiots.
Apparently they're preparing for their hospitals being too full and they want to know who they should deny treatments to. #1 on their list is apparently incurable cancer and #2 appears to be end stage Multiple Sclerosis. It's all over the news. Do they not educate people in Florida? Not even their doctors? Death by MS is so rare. In fact we don't really DIE FROM MS so much as... okay -- it's an auto-immune disease. The brain and spine control every organ, in MS they get scarred up and so everything goes wonky. We can have all sorts of issues. If we get infections or whatever it can be harder to fight. Our bodies often fight things that they should not fight and then hey when it comes time to fight what they should, well, it can be a bitch.
I'd never even heard the term end stage Multiple Sclerosis before today. BTW - people learn to enunciate. It sounds like half of them are saying IN stage and the first story that I saw, it wasn't clear what they were talking about so I was like "What in the hell is IN stage MS?" When they finally got to the talk of people who are dying of cancer, etc I went "Oooh, END stage, duh." MS is a horrible disease, it sucks. It makes my life a bitch. It's nothing like what people dying of cancer go through though, I'm sure. So few people die of it. Not enough to turn it into a national story about how there's enough of us dying that hey if there's a pandemic yeah between cancer patients and people dying of MS -- if we leave them out of the ERs we'll have room. Such bullshit. Now if they said something like we have a lot of MS patients who come to our ERs for IV treatments and during the swine flu season we would like their neurologists to keep them out -- THAT I could buy.
Yes MS is a horrific disease and yes right now I get so dizzy I can't stand for long, I whine, I feel like hell, I get tired, I cannot walk for long, etc etc. BUT, I'm not dying. I probably won't die of it. To even hint that "end stage Multiple Sclerosis" is some sort of a major issue, big enough that if you have a pandemic it's #2 behind cancer in how to free up hospital beds... ?? Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Yes, a few will die from complications related to having MS but MS is NOTHING like cancer. There's really NO such thing as terminal MS. If something happens and you get sick, having a screwed up immune system from something like MS and a brain and spine scarred to hell and back - yes, that might speed up your death. MS is NOT really terminal itself anymore. Maybe in the way way past. Florida -- get your heads out of your asses and educate yourselves. I could probably name a dozen illnesses myself where the patients would be at bigger risk being in the hospital during a swine flu pandemic and/or who would bring you more patients taking up more beds than terminal MS patients.
Well then Brian's dad's visit can be summed up in a few words -- The weekend of the Balloon boy. No, really. He got here on the day the Balloon Boy story broke. He even flew in via Denver and was pretty much at that airport about the time that drama was unfolding and probably would have had his flight impacted, except his flight was affected by mechanical problems instead sooooo, he had no clue that was all going on until he got here.
Friday Brian took him to Disneyland. My health and sleep was too messed up and they both agreed it was for the best. They hit a traffic jam due to a car accident, missed a turn off, hit another traffic jam due to a car show. Got to Disneyland after oh, something like 4 hours of driving. This is about 2 1/2 - 3 hours longer than it should take. Then despite our best guestimates of what the crowds should be on a Friday in October they were way way higher. They thought I'd have been miserable.
Saturday was their go walk around the beaches and mall day.
My time with his dad was more of talk about news events, etc. I heard a few minor Brian stories, etc. It was a nice visit.
Then as he's leaving -- Balloon Boy is a hoax. I wished him a nice flight and told him at least there shouldn't be any Balloon Boys to disrupt his flight now. Brian wasn't so sure they'd not be out there trying to escape. I pointed out they'd need to build a bigger balloon -- especially now that the cops say that balloon could have only held someone who weighed up to 37 pounds.
It has been widely reported they were trying to get a reality show. DO NOT GIVE THEM ONE. Do not reward this behaviour. Also, test that kid, seriously did they give him something to make him puke? Good job to the PD out there. They planned this for two weeks, to try to get a tv show? Sick sick sick to use little kids like this. To use resources like this. Ugh.
Out of the mouths of babes... at :40 the kid says he stayed hidden because "you said we did this for the show". This from a family that had been on a reality show twice. Busted?
So insurance companies released a report saying that if you reform health care they're going to screw a lot of people and do things like jack up premiums -- by a lot. If you don't reform health care they've already proven that they will screw people by doing things like jacking up premiums -- by a lot. Good luck with that. I've seen numerous people who claimed that they on the fence about public option saying you're pushing them to consider supported it now. Good job. Admitting your whole goal is to screw the consumer is obviously the way to go.
Apparently they didn't think it through very well. Their real goal was to push for a stronger mandate. The report was supposed to show that the the personal mandate is too weak. You have to force us ALL to buy their product or well hey if they don't have each and every American paying for their product why in the hell will they lower costs? Nevermind the fact that they already have a pretty sweet deal in the current joke of a bill that they all but helped write. Maybe it's some kind of a joke. If we pretend we're against it Americans will support it. Either way, it's a horrible PR move.
We're going to screw you if you reform us, we're going to screw you if you don't. I've never seen a better invite for a "government takeover of healthcare" as they like to call it. Obviously they're flat out telling us that they're going to do whatever they want no matter what, with or without new reforms. Health isn't something I like companies screwing with. I've been there. I've had mine screwed with. It's not a game.
This article in the NY Times claims that a judge starts out by saying that judge is rebuking the state government. Funny, I read it as more as him insulting voters.
I will give him that it IS stupid that my state passed a law taking away gay rights during the same election where we gave chickens new rights. Bad wording but that's how it's seen, in the simplest of terms.
In a state with some of the highest taxes in the country is it really wise to basically say well if the voters didn't have to vote on tax increases we could fix this? So you want to change it, strip that law, increase taxes even more and *poof* like magic CA is all better? Riiiight. I'm sure that'd really be a brilliant solution. Jackass.
One of the most expensive states to live in. Where tons of people are losing their houses. With double digit unemployment in many cities. With some of the highest taxes already. The answer is to take away the ability of the voters to vote on tax increases so you can raise their taxes again and all better? And people think fires and quakes are our biggest threats.
