Monthly Archives: October 2009

Please Pray

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One of my The Usual Suspects lost her husband this week, to a terrible disease.

Please, when you have time, can you visit geeeeeZ and leave your comments?

The specific post is here.

I cannot think of a greater loss than your husband, your wife, your soulmate.

Words escape me now.

BZ
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Questions For You:

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So here it is, Saturday evening — the sun hasn’t quite set yet but, from the window of my second floor where the computer sits on its huge antique rolltop desk, I gaze south through the thinning branches of the adjacent cherry tree and out onto the massive pines and firs on my property, I can see that the few deciduous trees have their leaves beginning to yellow and drop.

It’s the fall season, clearly here now. Time to reorganize the shed, take down the umbrella and chairs from my deck, stack more wood inside, make way for the rains that are apparently coming in a day or two. Information indicates these rains won’t be just a few drops; they’ll be consequential. And to that I say: fabulous. We can use the rain. In torrents.

Further, people up in the mountains where I live are saying this winter will be much wetter than normal and, in response, I say once again: fabulous. Send lots of rain. We need it. I won’t flood. It all runs downhill.

At my “new” job, getting days off is an Act of God. I don’t have sufficient juice to acquire all the holidays this year. At 30+ years in service I’ll be working Thanksgiving. I got Christmas day off, and the next day. I’ll be working New Years’ Eve, day, and the following day.
My Dad isn’t here, so Thanksgiving doesn’t mean that much to me. Christmas will be likewise diminished. I almost don’t want to acknowledge their existence this year. It won’t kill me to work the Holidays. It will just remind me of my rookie days on the department when I worked for the senior officers.
I decided to take some “hits” so that other supervisors with families could enjoy themselves.

Additionally, there are rumors flying about that all “discretionary” days off are about to be canceled; that is to say, if you hadn’t originally made your request for your union-guaranteed annual leave, any and all other requests for days off would not be granted — indefinitely. Essentially: all days off canceled.

What that means to me as an individual and as a supervisor: employees will always “manage” their leave. They’ll just call in “sick.” You can demand note after doctors note — but, of course, the employees know that the requirement for a note necessitates another visit to a doctor and another day in order to accomplish that.

Our morale will also tank, obviously. I’ve seen this all before.

While at work a few days ago, however, one of the facility nurses asked if I would like to take a flu shot for this year. I declined. It was quite the odd timing because, just the day before, I’d been to my chiropractor (Dr. Robert Graykowski, whom I would highly recommend) for an adjustment. All about him were signs indicating that flu shots were worse than the flu, as they contained thimerosal. Mercury is used as a preservative in thimerosal.

When I’ve had flu shots, I can’t specifically recall that I’d remained flu-free those specific years. One year in particular I recall I acquired flu-like symptoms about two weeks after my acquiring a flu shot. A reaction? Anomaly? Who knows?

CVS and Walgreen are already running out of seasonal flu shots — which, one must understand, are not the H1N1 vaccines.

Again, some people think the H1N1 vaccine “cure” is worse than the illness. The CDC remarks on H1N1 here.

You might want to read about some H1N1 vaccine risks here.

Another point here.

So, my final two questions:

1. Will YOU be acquiring a standard flu shot this year?
2. Will YOU be acquiring an H1N1 shot this year?

BZ
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Fed “Hate Crimes” Bill Passes

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Yesterday, the Demorats passed a bill in a manner I’d been assuming they’d perpetrate all along: they attached a rider to an otherwise remarkably popular bill in order to get the smaller bill approved. From AP:

WASHINGTON (AP) – The House voted Thursday to make it a federal crime to assault people because of their sexual orientation, significantly expanding the hate crimes law enacted in the days after Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination in 1968. With expected passage by the Senate, federal prosecutors will for the first time be able to intervene in cases of violence perpetrated against gays.

How was this bill passed, you ask? Very simple. It was attached to a $680 billion defense authorization policy bill, HR 2647. The House passed the bill 281-146, with 15 Demorats and 131 Republicans in opposition.

This bill duplicates — imagine that — what already exists in 45 states. So now federal prosecutors could find themselves picking up what the the FBI says are roughly 8,000 hate crimes reported around the country in a given year. More than half of those are motivated by racial bias. Next most frequent are crimes based on religious bias at around 18 percent and sexual orientation at 16 percent — the lesser percentile.

If I were a state or local prosecutor? I’d step back from all of my so-called “hate crimes” and let the fed handle. Because, after all:

All victims are equal. Some are just more equal than others.

BZ
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Brett Favre At 40:

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Minnesota Vikings quarterback Brett Favre turns 40 this coming Saturday.

This past Sunday, he turned football upside down and set benchmark records all around.

ESPN’s Monday Night Football broadcast on October 5th, featuring Favre’s Vikings vs his long-time former team, the Green Bay Packers, garnered 21.8 million viewers, making it the most-watched cable television program in history. Ever.

Further, the game also trumped the ratings of every other major network that night, as well.

Once again, proving that old age and guile beat youth and inexperience every time. Aaron Rodgers performed well, but he’s no Brett Favre. And the Vikings walked away with a 30 to 23 win over the Pack — essentially, my favorite team.

Until now. Apparently I’m an acolyte of Favre. Because I only wish him to continue on to the Super Bowl. The Vikings won’t make it, of course, but I’ll still watch.

So fine, I can hear it now: yeah yeah yeah, Favre retired then unretired then retired then unretired. He’s a flake.

No. He’s a fine football player who still, at his advanced age (for football, at least), has the enthusiasm of someone in their twenties.

And THAT’S what attracts viewers to Brett Favre. And me as well.

People can tell fake from real; a genuine love of an avocation vs a tolerance or a false front. And Brett Favre still retains a youthful exuberance and enthusiasm that is still frothy, catchy, naive and immature all at once. He still — my God, can I say this? — loves the game of football. He plays for the love of the game.

And people sense his honesty.

Green Bay discarded him. So it goes. I submit that Brett has been renewed under the right team at the right time. The Jets didn’t do it. I believe the Vikings do.

You know what? He still has fun playing the game.

And that’s why people want to watch him.

BZ
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Obama: The Most Transparent Administration

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Really?

Then why are the Demorats fighting transparency?

The Sunlight Foundation has started an effort to get Congress to post bills online 72 hours before lawmakers vote on them.

Additionally, Representatives. Brian Baird, D-Wash., and Greg Walden, R-Ore., are circulating a petition among House lawmakers that would force a vote on the 72-hour rule.

Nearly every Republican has signed on (to this petition), but the Democratic leadership is unwilling to cede control over when bills are brought to the floor for votes and are discouraging their rank and file from signing the petition. Senate Democrats voted down a similar measure last week for the health care bill.

Hasn’t Mr Obama, Our Hero, learned anything from the prior administration that he so excoriated? Wasn’t it His idea to demand transparency during His tenure? Wasn’t this idea also mirrored by Speaker Pelosi?

Under Mr Bush:

» $700 billion financial sector rescue package, passed Oct. 3, 2008. 169 pages. Available online 29 hours before vote.
» USA Patriot domestic surveillance bill, passed Oct. 23, 2001. Unavailable to the public before debate.

And now, under Our Hero:

» House energy and global warming bill, passed June 26, 2009. 1,200 pages. Available online 15 hours before vote.
» $789 billion stimulus bill, passed Feb. 14, 2009. 1,100 pages. Available online 13 hours before debate.

All Demorats are urged to stifle this “transparency.”

So: why?

Because Mr Obama wants what He wants when He wants it. Any manner of close examination, rumination and inspection reveals all the dirty little secrets, the dirty little lies that He and His minions do not want exposed to the light of day.

It’s that simple.

“Transparency”?

Hardly.

BZ
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