deadissue.com

Back in the day Right thinker used to argue that pharmacists shouldn’t have to help women, or black people for that matter if they had a religous reason for being a douchebag. Looks like many christians thienk their religion allows them to be both a douchebag and a bad employee.

And, yeah I am trying to get right thinker to comment.

I got this from yahoo:

A social network. The Greenwich study also found that having friends was far more important to retirement bliss than having kids. Those who have strong social networks are 30 percent happier with their lives than those without a strong network of friends. Having kids or grandkids had no impact on a retiree’s level of contentment.

The article also mentioned that if your income is close to what you had before retirement you are more likely to be happy.
If anything kids and especially granfkids just add a lot of drama to peoples lives but little satisfaction, now dogs and cats on the other hand I bet lead to much more satisfaction in later years.

The we are mad all the time crowd has manufactured another contraversy, this time over imagined racism. If you have ever dated a drama queen you can understand how the conservative movement operates and at some point you have to learn to ignore the drama or you go crazy. The same can be said for the country, we need to ignore the drama and get back to creating a great place to live and work. if not we will probably go crazy as their is no way to satisfy a drama queen, or the conservative movement for that matter.

BTW Vilsack should be fired but that is another post.

If this guy wasn’t dangerous the story would be completely funny:

A California man, whose mother said he was upset about Congress’ “left-wing agenda,” allegedly opened fire on police officers during a traffic stop in Oakland early Sunday morning…
Another news story says Williams was arrested for a bank robbery in 2002. According to a Modesto Bee story from that time, one Byron Christopher Williams tried to rob a bank in Chowchilla wearing a blond wig, only to be laughed out of the branch by customers. He then allegedly robbed another bank and led police on a 100-mile-an-hour, hour long chase

I am surprised this guy couldn’t get a job working for the tea-party express, it seems like he would fit right in at a tea-party rally or a Palin book signing.

This has shown up in a lot of places and it is certainly worth talking about:

Paved roads, historical emblems of American achievement, are being torn up across rural America and replaced with gravel or other rough surfaces as counties struggle with tight budgets and dwindling state and federal revenue. State money for local roads was cut in many places amid budget shortfalls.

In Michigan, at least 38 of the 83 counties have converted some asphalt roads to gravel in recent years. Last year, South Dakota turned at least 100 miles of asphalt road surfaces to gravel. Counties in Alabama and Pennsylvania have begun downgrading asphalt roads to cheaper chip-and-seal road, also known as “poor man’s pavement.” Some counties in Ohio are simply letting roads erode to gravel.

The moves have angered some residents because of the choking dust and windshield-cracking stones that gravel roads can kick up, not to mention the jarring “washboard” effect of driving on rutted gravel.

But higher taxes for road maintenance are equally unpopular.

I spent quite a bit of time in Northern Kansas where it seems like all the roads are falling apart, but if you ask the residents about the situation they will blame the evil government and suggest that if the government would just stop wasting money on abortion, all the roads could be fixed. I think rural America is harmed far more by the lack of infra-structure than Urban areas that can figure out ways to finance new roads and other services. It is odd that rural Americans continually support policies that destroy their way of life.

The latest right-wing wierdness is that government, by trying to help people, is interferring with freedom of religion. I think what they are really afraid of, is that people will no longer have to depend on religous groups for help, and if the economy ever improves less people will have to depend on anyone. The goal of most religous groups is to get converts when they are down, what better way to get more converts than to have a bad economy.

No wonder republicans and conservitives seem to do everything to wreck the economy, it just saves more soul’s. This is part of the reason I don’t think religous groups help in foreign countries, they really don’t care about the lives of people they are far more concerned about their deaths. It is interesting that they are starting to admit it though.

The Eagles are saying Vick will be able to travel with the team. I get that Vick is innocent of the shooting until proven guilty, but the NFL doesn’t have to let him play until he proves that he wasn’t involved. the only way for that to happen is for the witnesses to the shooting to start talking and help the police arrest the real shooter.

My guess is that Vick and his enablers could talk people into cooperating with the police and until they do that the NFL needs to keep Vick off the field. And can we all agree Tony Dungy is not much of a mentor.

I have always thought one of the problems with medical research is that it is mostly done by people that couldn’t get into medical school, apparentely even people who do get into med school are pretty incompetent.

Why aren’t hospitals leaping to adopt these best practices?…. More than half of the 2,075 respondents, most of whom were infection control nurses employed by hospitals, reported that they use a cumbersome paper-based system for tracking patients’ conditions that makes it harder to spot infections in real time. Seven in 10 said they are not given enough time to train other hospital workers on proper procedures. Nearly a third said enforcing best practice guidelines was their greatest challenge, and one in five said administrators were not willing to spend the necessary money to prevent CRBSIs.

[Peter] Pronovost said part of the problem was that many hospital chief executives aren’t even aware of their institution’s bloodstream infection rates, let alone how easily they could bring them down. When hospital leaders decide to create a culture in which preventing infections is a priority, he added, nurses feel empowered to remind physicians to follow the checklist when inserting catheters, physicians are provided antiseptic soaps as part of their catheter kits and infection control personnel have the best tools to monitor patients.

I wonder if this isn’t also a problem of a for profit health-care system where a patient with an infection is going to spend a lot more money, so from the hospitals perspective an infection is a good thing.

The New York Times has an article on BP and some of the companies many screw-ups. What really jumped out at me was this paragraph:

Tom Kirchmaier, a lecturer in strategy at the Manchester Business School, said that Mr. Browne tried to run BP like a financial company, rotating managers into new jobs with tough profit targets and then moving them before they had to deal with the consequences. The troubled Texas City refinery, for example, had five managers in six years.

This seems to be the business model for most companies right now, maximize profits and deal with the bancruptcy later. I am amazed that people continue to see the market as infallible in the wake of the numerous dissasters of the past few years.

It is good to see Vick facing some consequences for his actions:

Micheal Vickhas been barred from traveling out of Pennsylvania by probation officials in the wake of a shooting after his birthday party last month, a Philadelphia TV station reported Sunday.

Vick, who must have travel plans approved, missed scheduled appearances this weekend at his own golf tournament in Atlanta and at a youth football camp in Raleigh, N.C., as he stayed in Philadelphia, his spokeswoman, Judy Smith said.

WCAU-TV, an NBC affiliate, reported Sunday that Vick is not being allowed to travel out of the state at this time.

I hope they don’t let him travel until the witnesses in his shooting case decide to talk about what they saw that night, and yeah what I am implieing is that Vick and his enablers, are discouraging people from talking about the incident.

This has been all over the internet:

The housing bust that began among the working class in remote subdivisions and quickly progressed to the suburban middle class is striking the upper class in privileged enclaves like this one in Silicon Valley.

Whether it is their residence, a second home or a house bought as an investment, the rich have stopped paying the mortgage at a rate that greatly exceeds the rest of the population.

More than one in seven homeowners with loans in excess of a million dollars is seriously delinquent, according to data compiled for The New York Times by the real estate analytics firm CoreLogic.

By contrast, homeowners with less lavish housing are much more likely to keep writing checks to their lender. About one in 12 mortgages below the million-dollar mark is delinquent.

It seems like it would be much harder to come up with the payment on a million dollar house than a fifty-thousand dollar condo, almost any job will pay you the four-hundred dollars a month you need to stay current on a small property, finding a job that pays enough to stay current on a million dollar home would not be so easy. In other words I think this is pretty much a non-story, accept maybe for the idea that housing bubbles should be discouraged in the future to avoid all the misery the foreclosure crisis causes at all levels of income.

Looks Like Vick may not be held accountable for this latest incident.

The Virginia Beach police say they are done with Michael Vick, and, maybe, done with the case that might have cost Vick his second chance in the NFL.

Police said reluctant witnesses and an uncooperative shooting victim have convinced the prosecutor’s office not to press charges against the shooter – even though they know who the shooter is.

It wasn’t Vick, according to a police statement.

It happened about 2 a.m. on June 25 near a club in Vick’s old stomping grounds, where Vick was attending a 30th birthday party thrown in his honor. And the victim, identified by Vick’s lawyer as Quanis Phillips, was part of the Vick posse convicted of dogfighting and related charges in 2007. Vick spent 18 months in prison as a result of those charges.

It seems a little strange that even the victim doesn’t want to cooperate and the police seem very happy to close this case. What really happened?

Most police departments wont even let a parking ticket go, but the Virginia Beech police seem happy to give-up on a shooting? This makes no sense unless someone with a lot of money wants this whole thing to go away and some powerful people are willing to help them do it.

Colorado Springs Colorado aspires to be like Somalia:

At Village Green Park, just off Carefree Circle on the city’s east side, weeds flourish, and stenciled onto a bathroom door: “Restrooms Closed Due to Budget Restrictions.”

“If you have kids who are potty trained, that’s a problem,” said Rachel Barker, 33, playing at the swings with her toddler. “There’s probably a lot of kids peeing in the weeds.”

Of the city’s 149 parks, only 15 are being carefully maintained by the city, and most of them are revenue-producing sports fields.

It is only a problem if you are potty trained?

Colorado Springs is fast becoming “Galts Gulch” where all the gifted go to pee in the weeds.

Looks like other people are starting to think it is time to cut Vick:

Last August, after the Eagles’ shocking decision to sign the reinstated Vick, Lurie spoke with unprecedented candor and visible anguish during a news conference at the NovaCare Complex.

Lurie talked about his own disgust with Vick’s crimes, about his misgivings when coach Andy Reid proposed signing the former Atlanta quarterback. He talked about sitting down with Vick and looking into his eyes for signs of remorse and “self-hatred” for his actions. He said it wouldn’t be enough for Vick simply to refrain from causing trouble…

To be blunt, it has been apparent all along that the Eagles were wrong. Vick has not been some “agent for social change” (in Lurie’s words). He made a handful of uninspired appearances, telling children they shouldn’t get involved in dogfighting. Vick did little, if any more, than most players whose contracts call for a few such public appearances every season.

I still think their may have been other reasons to sign Vick, mostly to keep him quiet about other players and dogfighting, and he has acted that way, not really seeming very sincere when he talks about errors in his past. Mostly he has talked about how bad it has been for HIM. I hope the Eagles cut him and let him write his tell all book, it beats having Vick embarrass the NFL by his presence in the league.

Another picture of Kip and Cory in the kitchen, apparentely we all like it there. They seem to be smiling for the camera today

Looks like Vick may be in more trouble than we thought:

A man named in reports as Quanis Phillips, one of his co-defendants in his 2007 dog fighting conviction, was shot near the restaurant on the night of the June 24 party.

Vick’s lawyer had said he left the restaurant long before the shooting and had no involvement in it.

But surveillance video from the restaurant reportedly shows Vick was still there just three minutes before the shooting.

Police say Vick has not been ruled out as a suspect or person of interest in the investigation.

Vick is on probation and is not supposed to associate with convicted felons.

(Bolding mine)
It seems like the story keeps changing and Vick seems to be looking more and more like he had a part in the shooting. This sort of reminds me of O.J Simpson where he just kept pushing his luck, until he wound up in prison for probably the rest of his life.

UPDATE: This article seems to imply the same thing.