To read the tribute to SFC Marcus Muralles, please click here
Wednesday, August 03, 2005
In The News
Here's a few things that caught my eye this morning. Let's start with some... shall we say "overzealous"?... police work:
- An eleven year old girl will be tried for a felony for throwing a rock at someone during a water balloon fight.
Maribel was arrested in April for throwing the rock at a neighborhood boy who had pelted her with a water balloon. The rock gashed the boy's forehead, and the girl spent five days in Fresno's juvenile hall and a month under house arrest after police said she resisted arrest and scratched an officer's arm.
What the story's not telling you is that she doesn't speak a lot of English and had no idea what the police were doing and it wasn't a water balloon fight but a water balloon attack on her. She was being teased and bullied by the kids in the neighborhood, and she thought she was defending herself. She meant no real harm- she just wanted them to leave her alone. And now she's being charged with a felony. That's just wrong. - In another potential overzealous moment, police tasered a 67 year old woman.
A 67-year-old grandmother who was shocked with a Taser stun gun after she honked her car horn at a police cruiser has been given a year's probation for sparking a quarrel with officers.
If you read the whole story, they wanted to give her a ticket for "improper use of a horn" and she didn't want to give them her ID. Really, guys... you need to have thicker skin than that... and, on top of that, they arrested her husband for "attempting to inflict injury on an officer" for shouldering one of the officers. He's 76 years old... how much of an injury could he inflict??? - The Highway bill has gimmes for almost every member of Congress.
The projects in the six-year, $286.4 billion highway and mass transit bill passed by Congress last week range from $200,000 for a deer avoidance system in Weedsport, N.Y., to $330 million for a highway in Bakersfield., Calif.
This is insane. Refabbing a warehouse? Dust reduction? Where is that line-item veto when you need it???
For the beneficiaries -- almost every member of Congress -- they bring jobs and better quality lives to their communities and states. To critics, they are pork barrel spending at its worst. - President Bush placed a call to the ISS yesterday.
The nine astronauts living aboard the shuttle Discovery and International Space Station received a long distance call from the U.S. President Tuesday congratulating them on their courage and successful mission so far.
I hate to ask... but... does the President have unlimited long distance?
“I want to thank you for being risk takers for the sake of exploration,” President George W. Bush told Discovery’s STS-114 crew and the station’s Expedition 11 astronauts. “Thanks for being such great examples of courage for a lot of our fellow citizens.” - In another story about the President, he's backing Intelligent Design.
President Bush jumped feet-first into the current debate raging in many states over how evolution should be taught in the nation's schools, when he said both the evolution and intelligent design theories should be presented to students.
I'm not going to get into a huge debate here over Creationism v. Evolution v. Intelligent Design v. Aliens v. whatever. That's not the point. Evolution has been taught as fact for far too long. There are many credible scientists (oh... and DARWIN himself!) who have real issues about the fundamental principles of evolution. It's about time that those doubts were brought up in more than just a post-grad seminar.
Speaking with reporters Monday, Bush backed local control of how the origin of life is taught, but parted with the scientific establishment on its evolution monopoly.
"I think that part of education is to expose people to different schools of thought," Bush said. "You're asking me whether or not people ought to be exposed to different ideas, the answer is yes." - One more Pres. story (well, in this post, at least)... He's back in Crawford... "vacationing":
President Bush is getting the kind of break most Americans can only dream of -- nearly five weeks away from the office, loaded with vacation time.
Uh... only in the media is what he's doing called a "vacation." A vacation is where you get away from work... relax. He's still doing his job, just not in the Oval Office. There is a lot to be said for the idea that he might get more accomplished in Crawford than in DC. There aren't as many distractions, less to take away from his truly important work. With technology the way it is, he doesn't need the White House to be the President.
The president departed Tuesday for his longest stretch yet away from the White House, arriving at his Crawford ranch in the evening for a stretch of clearing brush, visiting with family and friends, and tending to some outside-the-Beltway politics. By historical standards, it is the longest presidential retreat in at least 36 years. - Politicians are resorting to name-calling over policy debate. Yet another reason I could never be an elected official. And you can't just blame one side or the other. Both sides are guilty of it at one time or another. It just seems that it's been cranked up a notch lately.
The political attacks are "just red meat for the base ... encouraged by the bloggers and the party extremists," added Larry J. Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. Policy disagreements, Sabato said, can be "dry and wonkish," while "Everybody understands what it means to call someone a Nazi."
In other news, the sky is blue, and grass is green. (I do take exception at the thought that bloggers are encouraging this... unless he means that we're not letting them get away with outright lying anymore, so they have to resort to name-calling. Then I'll agree with him- when faced with facts, throw a tantrum and call people names. Yup... sounds about right...) - Susan Anne Catherine Torres was born yesterday, approximately two months permature.
A cancer-ravaged woman robbed of consciousness by a stroke has given birth after being kept on life support for three months to give her fetus extra time to develop.
Our thoughts and prayers continue to go out to the Torres family during this time of sadness and joy.
Susan Torres, whose plight has attracted support from around the world, gave birth to a daughter Tuesday by Caesarean section. The delivery went smoothly and the baby "is doing well," her brother-in-law, Justin Torres, wrote in an e-mail to The Associated Press. Susan Anne Catherine Torres weighs 1 pound, 13 ounces and is 13 1/2 inches long, he said. - And, finally, in our "suuuuuuure, we believe you" file... Kim Jong-il, North Korea's "Dear Leader" has an amazing memory, is multi-talented, and is giving Tiger Woods a run for his money.
"I remember all computer codes and telephones that workers are using now," Kim was quoted as saying on the Web Site "Uri-Min-jok-kiri" (www.uriminzokkiri.dprkorea.com), or "Among our People."...Kim pilots jet fighters, pens operas, produces movies and accomplished a feat unmatched in the annals of professional golf by shooting 11 holes-in-one on the first round he ever played.
Now, I've heard of people keeping their minds sharp and possibly fighting off diseases such as dementia and Alzheimers by doing crossword puzzles, so he might have a point about using your brain. But... 11 holes-in-one... was he playing putt-putt or something?
The Web Site said Kim told all workers they should develop their ability to memorize. "The memory of a person gets better when a person uses their brain often," he was quoted as saying.
