If someone is wielding a knife at a police officer and they are told to put it down – and instead they go into attack mode…I’d say it’s time for self defense and protection of citizens in the area.
from Chron.com -
LOS ANGELES — Police say at least 100 protesters are throwing eggs, rocks and bottles at a police station in the Westlake neighborhood near downtown Los Angeles, following a bicycle officer’s fatal shooting of a knife-wielding man.
[...]
Beck said the Sunday incident started when someone flagged down three bicycle officers to tell them a man was threatening people with a knife.
The officers approached the suspect and told him in Spanish and English to put down the knife, Beck said. Instead, Jamines raised the knife above his head and lunged at Officer Frank Hernandez, a 13-year veteran of the department.
On second thought, while he appears to be twisted, dangerous, and manipulative, he doesn’t seem to have the intelligence of a mastermind.
from the Guardian Nigeria -
IRANIAN President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has questioned the accepted narrative of the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, saying it was still not clear who was behind them.
“Something happened in New York and still nobody knows who the main perpetrators of that act were,” Agence France Presse (AFP) quoted Ahmadinejad as telling diplomats and newspaper editors late on Sunday while on a brief visit to Qatar.
“No independent people were allowed to try and identify the perpetrators,” he charged.
[...]
Ahmadinejad has on several occasions questioned the accepted version of the 2001 attacks by Al-Qaeda militants, which killed nearly 3,000 people in the United States.
In March, he referred to the attacks as “a big lie,” Iranian state media reported.
As a child, I spent many evenings walking fields with my brothers and sisters collecting jars of fireflies. While less time was spent on this activity with my own kids, we still took time to explore the wonders of the firefly. The difference was, this was a regular form of family entertainment for a country family back in the sixties compared to a family of the seventies and eighties. Today, I may have to look further than my back door for swarms of fireflies since I don’t live next to a farm field, but I can still find them. Do I believe we should stop development because there are less fireflies in my backyard? I have fewer cows near my home than I used to have as a child, too. Save the cows!
Tourniquets are only meant to stop bleeding temporarily. Complications may arise from tourniquet use. A tourniquet can’t be used to control all cases of bleeding. The way one is applied is important..since it can be applied very quickly, if one is put on too loosely it can worsen bleeding.
Can a tourniquet save lives? Yes, but remember, its use is limited to specific types of injuries. Read Understanding Tourniquets
Why am I concerned about tourniquets? Well, it’s more about the bleeding.
from News Daily -
Obama says his economic policies halted “bleeding”
“The steps we have taken to date have stopped the bleeding,” Obama said. “But strengthening our economy means more than that.”
[...]
Obama is trying to convince Americans that Democratic policies offer the best economic future for them as he seeks to turn back a strong challenge from Republicans for control of the U.S. House of Representatives and possibly the Senate.
In a year or two, the “local government” jobs that were saved or created may be hit again for loss or lay off. And as far as the middle class? The 9.6 percent jobless rate (especially for those who are not currently teachers, police officers, firefighters or those in road construction fields) has left many open wounds.
We’re still in a recession. People are working harder for their money, if they are working at all. If you are working, you may be working for less money. Have you changed your habits when it comes to spending or saving your money? If you were a spender before and have changed, will this experience have changed you for the future? Or will you go back to old habits when things improve?
I’m still living in my little house, driving my old car, being frugal and thinking about the near future. Has the recession changed your outlook for good? Does it depend on your age/generation?
—————————–
And, speaking of your money…
from RotorNews -
The Obama Administration is reported to be seriously considering a package of tax breaks to help stimulate the U.S. economy. With news of the economy taking a negative turn leading up to the midterm elections, the White House is hoping such a plan will work to their advantage in November. The tax breaks could add up to hundreds of billions of dollars and are intended to boost hiring and undermine the GOP argument that Democratic tax policies are harmful to small businesses. Tax breaks the White House is looking at include a temporary payroll-tax holiday and permanently extending the research-and-development tax credit that is currently expired.
Could you imagine being told you had to change the lyrics in those songs because a word had taken on multiple meanings? Or you just might not be able to sing one of those songs anymore?
A principal at a school in Australia has done just that – taken the easy way out, rather than give an explanation of the word “gay” in the song “Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree.”
from nwi.com -
Martin said he was playing a recording of the song for the students about a month ago when the line “gay your life must be” produced a flurry of giggles throughout the classroom. Some of the students use the word “gay” as a schoolyard taunt, he said, but don’t understand its true meaning. And so, to calm them down, he told them to swap in the word “fun” for “gay.”
“It wasn’t misplaced political correctness, it wasn’t homophobia, there was nothing really calculated in doing it,” he told The Associated Press. “I could’ve stopped the whole class and gone into a very caring, supportive explanation of gay being quite a reasonable choice in lifestyle that some people make, but I was only talking with 7- and 8-year-olds and I think that sort of thing is better explained more fully with parents.”
I used to sing that song in the U.S. in grade school back in the early sixties. We didn’t giggle back then. We didn’t use the word “gay” as a synonym for “fun” either. That was before our time. We just sang the song and blew it off. Same as we did the Flintstones. But we giggled if we had to say the word diarrhea during science back then in grade school. Kids will be kids. And we were told to stop giggling – it’s a word and a bodily function…get over it.
Principal Garry Martin of Le Page Primary School in Melbourne needs to grow up and get over it.
Everyone on board rig survived – no news on whether there is a leak.
To be continued…
__________________
Update:
from the Los Angeles Times -
In the wake of the BP catastrophe, this is an extremely disturbing event,” said energy committee chairman Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Beverly Hills), who has led an investigation into the BP spill. “I call on the administration to immediately redouble safety reviews of all offshore drilling and platform operations in the gulf and take all appropriate action to ensure safety and protection of the environment.”
[...]
We find it ironic that the explosion happened one day after the American Petroleum Institute, the oil industry’s trade association, held a rally in Houston, Port Arthur and Corpus Christi, Texas, to lift the moratorium on deep-water drilling in the gulf,” said United Steelworkers International Vice President Gary Beevers in a statement. “Instead of holding political protests, the API and the industry should be helping the government ensure all the rigs are safe to operate so the moratorium can be removed sooner.”
Whenever I think of the Oval Office carpet, my thoughts are tarnished by President Clinton and Monica Lewinsky and the antics that went on in that office. I just think President Bush must have had President Clinton’s carpetrolled up and pushed out the door the minute the final salute was given and Bill flew off into the wild blue yonder.
Why bring it up? Only because Maureen Dowd’s article in the New York Times is one of the most popular for being linked to by bloggers and for being emailed since it came out on August 31st. And becuse it’s timely.
