A month ago, we’re in the ER getting the first treatments for the wife’s meningitis.  She’s got the narcotic and antibiotic IV drip going, her fever is dropping, and the first test results are coming back confirming the meningitis inflammation in her skull after about 4-5 hours. 

But of course, the little room in the ER is, well, boring.  Nothing for me to do.  And I had gotten yelled at by security for standing just outside the room, watching the commotion because of "HIPAA regulations."  So now I have to stay inside the room with a potentially highly infectious disease.  At least the kept the door open!

Finally after about 7 hours, a new nurse comes on to the floor.  While getting the status updates on each of the rooms, she asks about the diagnosis in room 6.  That’s us.  Upon hearing it is meningitis, she comments that perhaps the door to the room be closed.  Thus preventing the spread of this potentially highly infectious disease.  Sure enough, someone runs over and now closes the door on us, leaving me in a dark, boring room.

A while later a nurse comes in to check the IV.  I ask the obvious, should I be worried about being enclosed in this room with someone who has a potentially highly infectious disease.  Please note that at this point we still have no confirmation on if it is viral or bacterial meningitis.

The response?  "You’re a close enough relative you have nothing to worry about."

Well, that’s a weird response, considering we’re not in, say, West Virginia, where we’d be related before being married.  And would that mean much of anything anyway?  Does the micro-organism decide it has already infected one family tree and go out looking for another?

A woman brings her deceased husband to a mortician and orders that he be buried in a blue suit. The mortician says, “wouldn’t it be easier to bury him in the black suit he’s wearing now?”

The wife says it would, but she hates the way he looks in black, and wants him in blue.

The night of the viewing, the wife approaches the mortician and says, “thank you for changing him into a blue suit. I know it must have been a chore, with the rigor mortis.”

He responded, “oh, it was no problem at all. Not long after you left, a lady came in with her deceased husband, he was
wearing a blue suit and she wanted him in black… so I just switched the heads.”

What’s wrong with this story?

A Qantas jumbo jet carrying 345 passengers made an emergency landing Friday with a gaping hole in its fuselage after a mysterious "explosive decompression," officials said. There were no injuries, but some passengers vomited after disembarking the Boeing 747-400, said Octavio Lina, Manila International Airport Authority deputy manager for operations. The cabin’s floor gave way, he said, exposing some of the cargo beneath and part of the ceiling collapsed. "There is a big hole on the right side near the wing," he said, adding it was 7 1/2 feet to 9 feet in diameter.

I can tell you what it is.  This story is completely unpossible!!  Such a thing could never have occurred. 

Why do you ask?

Think back a few years to the whole air marshal debate.  I don’t know how many times I was told that a small hole the size of a pencil caused by air marshals firing wildly at their targets would obviously blow up the whole plane.  Time and time again I was told by people with the air of authority that letting air marshals have guns on board aircraft was the stupidest idea ever.  That merely having a firearm on the plane would mean it had a 50/50 chance of coming down in tiny pieces.

So this must be part of a big conspiracy.  The crew was hypnotized and the aircraft was dismantled on the ground or something.  It’s 9/11 all over again.

Breaking News from The Gazette

The man suspected in the murder-suicide of three people this morning is the "Spam King" Edward Davidson, who escaped Sunday from a minimum-security federal prison in Florence, according to a source in the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

The Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Department is investigating the shooting deaths of Davidson’s family, including a 3-year-old girl, near this rural community 36 miles east of Denver. The source in the U.S. Attorney’s Office spoke to The Rocky Mountain News.

Sentenced to 21 months in prison for sending untold numbers of spam to everyone with an email address, he escaped by "walking away" from the minimum security prison, forcing his wife to help him.

I feel sorry that one of their children has died, and the other is hurt.  Somehow I don’t feel bad for the wife he killed, since she was fully aware of what he has been doing all these years.

Just unbelievable.

I won’t even copy it here.  It is that good.

You have to go see it at a big victory.

One of my posts has been nominated for the Watchers Council award for best post of the week.  I’m truly honored.

In a way, I’m almost more honored to be going up against Steven Den Beste. Now that guy can write in a way that you either agree with every single word, or you start frothing at the mouth that your cherished preconceptions are in any way incorrect.

Anyway, I wanted to spotlight all the posts so honored this week.  All worth reading!

Council

• Wolf Howling - Deconstructing the Socialists War On Law & Order In Britain
• Done with Mirrors - Who knew?
• The Glittering Eye - "Vice President Gores ‘Space Race’ Energy Plan (Updated)"
• Bookworm Room - The moral of the story
• Rhymes with Right - Dems Email Hillary Supporters: We Own You — Now Support Barack!
• Cheat Seeking Missiles - Obama [spit] in Berlin: Wrong City, Wrong Time
• JoshuaPundit - Why Maliki Suddenly Wants A US Withdrawal From Iraq
• Colossus of Rhodey - Yet another rant
• Hillbilly White Trash - Can America "Get it back?"
• The Razor - Speak truth to power - just not to educators
• Soccer Dad - Horribly Wrong Part II

Non-council

• Stars and Stripes - Soldiers Recount Deadly Attack On Afghan Outpost by Stars & Stripes
• SF Gate - San Francisco: Sanctuary City Gone Awry
• Confederate Yankee - "Obama [spit] Overflies Iraqi Mass Graves"
• Confederate Yankee (2) - Mac & P.C.
• Colonel Robert Neville … - Spot the Smiley Fascism
• Alien - Chizumatic -  Ghosts of My Past
• Michael Yon -The War is Over. We Won
• Chronicle of Higher Education - Gone and being forgotten
• Right Wing Nuthouse - When it’s Obama’s War
• The Pirate King - Scientists are now admitting climate fraud
• Baseball Crank - Are We There Yet? Victory in Iraq and the 2008 Election

Obama [spit] whines that the troops prefer to watch Fox News.  He’s mystified, unable to believe it, and assumes that President Bush ordered only Fox News to play on military TV channels.

I mean, seriously.  You have study after study showing Fox News is the only media even close to center, and even it is slightly tilted left.

In fact, earlier today I was reading a site that had the media donations to political party.  Seems that the media gives more to Democratic candidates than even Hollywood.  But under both Fox and Fox News as the employers, not one donation to Republican candidates, but several thousand to Democrats.

You know live blogging, where you do constant updates to an event that is happening.  Lots of times it is drunken live blogging of political debates and such.

But have you ever heard of someone live blogging an Earthquake?

SEN. JOHN EDWARDS CAUGHT WITH MISTRESS AND LOVE CHILD!

Vice Presidential candidate Sen. John Edwards was caught visiting his mistress and secret love child at 2:40 this morning in a Los Angeles hotel by the NATIONAL ENQUIRER.

Yeah, I know everyone and their mother is commenting on this one.  Oh, except for the media.  Can’t let anyone know anything bad about a Democrat you know.

This is all so simple however.  Now that his show channeling dead people on SciFi channel is over, wants to become Vice President.  And he figured that the whole man-whore thing worked to get Bill Clinton elected. So he’d figured getting caught in a hetero relationship on the side while ducking out when his wife is undergoing cancer treatment would help his chances with the libertine left wing.

So since it is July, it’s the perfect time for me to catch a nasty cold.  Here’s what I’ve learned:

• ALWAYS buy the stuff they now have behind the counter, that has pseudoephedrine in it.  Phenylephrine containing meds, which are still out on the shelves, is apparently no better than a placebo.  The behind the counter stuff, sure its inconvenient, but it is so much better!
• Cough syrup: the base level Vicks 44 stuff has 30 mg of the dextromethorphan.  Nothing else has that much in a single dose. But as soon as you start mixing in the other ingredients for decongestants, pain, etc., the dose drops down to 10 mg.  I’d go for the straight cough syrup with nothing else in it, and take the cold pill for congestion, etc.
• … but you might want to just have a chocolate bar.  It seems that the amount of theobromine in 50 grams of dark chocolate works better than cough syrup.  And tastes better too!

You lost!

A Broadway mogul whose wife trashed him in a widely viewed Internet video was granted a divorce from her Monday. A Manhattan judge gave Philip Smith a divorce from Tricia Walsh-Smith on the grounds of cruel and inhuman treatment.

Suck it up… I mean, he has to give you three quarters of a million dollars. I’m sure the sex wasn’t that good.

I see a lawsuit coming. Well, it would have been a lawsuit, if the park was privately owned (since you normally cannot sue the government).

Some children are suffering severe burns while playing in city parks in New York City. Mind you, it is the middle of summer, and New York is currently experiencing an official heat wave. And, unfortunately, the children are being looked after by people who who must have been raised at the North Pole. Because, the rest of us, who have tried to walk on blacktop, in the middle of summer, have learned that it is incredibly hot on the feet. But, these caregivers, allowed their children to take off their shoes, and walk on the blacktop, during a heatwave, barefoot. And now, they are screaming that the city that the mats should be replaced by “cooler materials”. One word - shoes.

The really interesting part: “Now, lawmakers quietly are talking about raising fuel taxes by a dime from the current 18.4 cents a gallon on gasoline and 24.3 cents on diesel fuel.”

Yes, the feds are deciding that they need more of your hard earned money, this time by way of a largely “hidden tax”. So, these hypocrits have yanked all the bigwigs of the oil companies into their very public sessions. They have criticized them and derided them. All in a very public arena. All so that the lawmakers could go back to their constituants and show that they are fighting the evil oil companies. All because the oil companies get 8 cents a gallon in profit (some of which they then reinvest in other projects).

But the feds, who do no work for their share get over 18 cents a gallon free money. And the states take even more. And it is hidden from the taxpayers, because the stations are not allowed to break down the cost of gas (ie - actual charge + fed tax of 18.4 cents + state tax of variable cents = final charge amount).

In case you were curious, this is a breakdown, by state of gas tax charges from 2007:

http://www.commonsensejunction.com/notes/gas-tax-rate.html

Ok I know some people hate Starbucks …. although there is some evidence that Starbucks helps mom and pop coffee shops.  I love Starbucks, yum.  Not crazy about their regular coffee (except Verona), but love an iced grande hazelnut mocha in the summer and the non iced version in the winter.  Yes, I pay $4 for it, but don’t care.  It’s my money.

So I was dismayed to hear that they were closing stores.  Whew, no Colorado Springs stores are closing!  It is a good day :)  To see if they are closing your local Starbucks click here.

Rocky Mountain goats in the wild …

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Going, going, …. Chrysler is gonna be gone. Another blight for Delaware. They have basically lost DuPont (or perhaps completely, I have not kept up, sorry), and now their Chrysler.. GM is suffering too. (add my previous cancer item) and again… need reasons for us fleeing that place? I do feel for those back there.. it sounds like it is getting scarier, and scarier.. as though it could.. we did imagine it would get this bad! Yikes!

Well I guess they could renovate it into perhaps some schools.. that is something badly needed out there?? Couple make it into a NEW school district! it is HUGE enough.

Chrysler LLC said Wednesday that its Newark assembly plant and property, slated to close in late 2009, will officially be put on the market this week.

Hum then I see an article about the Chrysler plant planning to revamp for Hybrids…

The standard two-week summer-retooling shutdown of the auto factory that produces the Dodge Durango and Chrysler Aspen has been extended to eight weeks this year, partly to help whittle down the inventory of unsold SUVs.

But the downtime also will be used to change over to more fuel-efficient 2009 versions of the two slow-selling vehicles.

they are just about 2 weeks apart in articles.. so maybe they will not sell.. maybe DE can be spared this loss.. and perhaps Chrsyler can redeem itself.. and take step one of making vehicles that get better than 10mpg.. then work towards cars that last longer than driving off the lot. Baby steps…

via The News Journal

8 cancer clusters found in Delaware! Gee, now why did we flee that state again? How scary is this?

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This was a great comment to an article of McCain vs Obama [spit] on the war. And well said… rolling over won’t help us. We need to stand strong!

it is a well established principle that if you show weakness the enemy will become more aggressive. This is clearly illustrated in WWII. Hitler broke some rules and Europe did nothing. So he broke some more rules, and when he saw they would not react he moved forward with the most destructive war in the history of the world. When will we learn? America has to show strength and not allow the aggressive attacks of terrorism go unanswered. And when we do act, we must follow through. We are Americans, and we should not ever quite half way.

McCain’s comment

Democratic Sen. Barack Obama [spit] called it a costly distraction that must end, while Republican Sen. John McCain insisted it is a conflict the United States has to win.

and the wahhh roll over response of Obama [spit], no crap they are not perfect, but are we trying to fix them.. no we are trying to fix a PROBLEM!

Iraq is not going to be a perfect place, and we don’t have unlimited resources to try and make it one,” Obama [spit] said in a speech in which he also said the United States must shift its focus to defeating the Taliban and al-Qaida in Afghanistan.

McCain, Obama [spit] dispute merits of war | delawareonline | The News Journal

OK too demented not to share.. it was a top pick for youtube on our local Gazette.