A new “The Fine Print”
Archive for November, 2009
Did The ACLU Learn From Hitler?
Wednesday, November 25th, 2009Speaking Of Stupid…..
Monday, November 23rd, 2009Here is one from our friends north of the border. The lesson to be learned is — if you are going to make up being sick, don’t post pictures of what you really did while you were sick!
Canadian woman loses benefits over Facebook photo
Sun Nov 22, 1:20 pm ET
BROMONT, Quebec – A Canadian woman on long-term sick leave for depression says she lost her benefits because her insurance agent found photos of her on Facebook in which she appeared to be having fun.
Nathalie Blanchard has been on leave from her job at IBM in Bromont, Quebec, for the last year.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported Saturday she was diagnosed with major depression and was receiving monthly sick-leave benefits from insurance giant Manulife.
But the payments dried up this fall and when Blanchard called Manulife, she says she was told she was available to work because of Facebook.
She said her insurance agent described several pictures Blanchard posted on Facebook, including ones showing her having a good time at a Chippendales bar show, at her birthday party and on a sun holiday.
Blanchard said Manulife told her it’s evidence she is no longer depressed. She’s fighting to get her benefits reinstated and says her lawyer is exploring what the next step should be.
Blanchard told the CBC that on her doctor’s advice, she tried to have fun, including nights out at her local bar with friends and short getaways to sun destinations, as a way to forget her problems.
Manulife wouldn’t comment on Blanchard’s case, but did say they would not deny or terminate a claim solely based on information published on Web sites such as Facebook.
Water + Electricity = Stupid Naked Man
Monday, November 23rd, 2009I was just finishing up my shower when I noticed that the night light was loose in the socket. Being the anal retentive sort of guy that I am, I decided that that wasn’t right to have a loose night light, and that I must fix it. So here I was standing in water, naked as a jaybird and dripping wet, and playing with an electrical fixture. My first attempt to fix the wayward light was unsuccessful, as the light was still dangling out of the socket. Fine, I said to myself, I’ll show this socket, and proceeded to spread the prongs out a little so it would have a better fit. I stuck the nightlight back into the socket, but I had spread the prongs out a bit too much. With the night light still in the socket, I adjusted the prongs ever so slightly – and got one hell of an electric jolt coursing through my body. Did I mention that when I was touching the prongs I was still naked, wet, and standing in the shower? Luckily for me, when the current started passing through my body, I involuntarily jerked the night light out of the socket and broke the circuit. I cried out in pain, and crumpled on the bathroom floor. My middle finger on my right hand was throbbing with pain, as this was the part of my body that had made contact.
Let’s jsut say that paying with an electric appliance while standing in a pool of water is not the brightest thing that I have ever done. Since that fateful moment this morning, my entire right side has been experiencing pain, numbness, tingling, paralysis, and just hasn’t felt quite right. At one point in time this afternoon, my right side went lame, requiring to get out my trusty-dusty cane for support.
Yes, kiddos, standing in a tub full of water while touching an electric socket is a very stupid, and very painful, thing to do. I do not recommend it! Oh, and don’t make jokes about it, either, stuff like having “electric kisses” and being a new brand of superhero called “Electricman!” Such jokes don’t sit well with the wife and children.
Speaking Of Sarah…..
Friday, November 20th, 2009I personally don’t understand what all the fuss is about the Newsweek cover. I don’t think it is sexist at all. I think it shows a very health-conscious woman who is proud of that fact. If you look at that picture without knowing anything about her, you wouldn’t think you were looking at a woman in her mid-forties who has had five children. Most women in their forties who’ve had that many children are flabby, and I didn’t see a bit of flab in that picture. That shows immense dedication to health and fitness! Rock on, Sarah! I can’t speak for women, but I can say when I look around at men who are our age, and their general state of poor health, you look spectacular! Keep up the good work! If only the rest of us were as physically fit….think of all the money we’d save on medical bills!
Instead of socialized medicine, we all need to be fit and healthy!
Full Circle
Friday, November 20th, 2009Back in 1991, I would drive around in my white city car and listen to Rush Limbaugh while I did my field work. Fast forward to 2009, I now I find myself listening to Rush Limbaugh while I drive around in my white city car doing my field work. Back then, the city was Springfield, Illinois, and it was a Chevy Cavalier, and now the city is Tulsa and the vehicle is a Ford Taurus…..
What is interesting, is that for the 17 years in between, I did not listen to Rush Limbaugh. When Clinton was running for President, he turned me off with his personal nastiness towards the Clintons, especially Hillary. It’s one thing to disagree with someone’s point of view; it is quite another to resort to name-calling.
During the Dubya years, I would hear Rush when I was in others’ cars, and all I heard was a Republican ass-kisser and apologist, and it thoroughly disgusted me. While Dubya was not the Satan-incarnate that the left made him out to be, and while he wasn’t stupid by any stretch of the imagination, he did do some really stupid things, which is why I couldn’t vote for him. I will admit, however, that the country made the right choice both times, and Dubya’s second term turned out to be far better than his first. If I could go back in time and recast my vote, I’d vote differently. Twenty-twenty hindsight is remarkable, isn’t it?
Nonetheless, no one is perfect, not even me, and I can’t stand synchophants that completely overlook a person’s flaws. That’s why I don’t care for the Obamiacs, as they refuse to acknowledge their guy’s flaws. When all I’d hear every day were the Becks and Hannitys and Limbaughs never acknowledging the flaws in the GOP, I became quite disgusted. That’s why I enjoy Neal Boortz and Bruce Williams and Jim Bohannon so much, because they are willing to diss both sides of the aisle.
That being said, for some strange reason I started listening to Limbaugh again. No altruistic motive, I was just too lazy to change the channel. I don’t know if it is because I share the same level of concern and disgust with the present administration, or if they have tone down the rhetoric again, but I have once again become a Limbaugh listener. I’ve also started listening to Hannity, too. One thing I have noticed, is that they seem to be staying more focused on policy and issues rather than personality. I think that that is very important, as these are very troubled times. I’ve noticed that about the GOP in general, that it seems to have toned down the personal attacks. Perhaps they learned a lesson from the disastrous elections of 2006 and 2008. Perhaps its a reflection of the more genteel nature of Michael Steele. I don’t know what it is, but if the GOP keeps this issues-focused persona, they will get my support.
Meanwhile, on the otehr side of the aisle, the personal attacks against Sarah Palin are just downright ignorant and mean and show the petty side of the Democratic Party…..
It seems that everything is now reversed, and back to where it was in the 1980s, with the Republicans acting like the grown-ups and the Democrats acting like petty brats. Power does indeed corrupt!
Are Fat People Angry?
Friday, November 20th, 2009There has been a lot of controversy swirling around Mark Mangino, the football coach at Kansas, recently. Specifically, the controversy has to do with his anger issues, and how he bullies players, staff, and others, and whether or not he has lost the respect of fans, patrons, and players.
For those of you who don’t know a damned thing about football, before Mangino became coach, Lawrence was one of the apexes of the “Ames Triangle”, the land of lost football. (The other apexes being Iowa State and my dear old alma mater, Missouri.) In short, Kansas sucked. Bad. Of course, as a Missouri alumnus, I always enjoyed the fact that our hated rival, Kansas, was awful. During the nadir of Mizzou football (the wheels fell off of Woody’s Wagon), the one and only bright spot in an otherwise dismal fall was beating Kansas. Yes, getting smacked around by Barry Switzer’s Sooner thugs 77-0 was humiliating, but we always knew that we’d end the season on a high note by beating Kansas. Lose to Kansas, and the coach would lose his job.
But I digress…
Mangino is, well, to put it delicately, a rather large man. There is an urban legende that one time when he got lost in Kansas City, he asked a gas station attendent how to get back to 435 (the Kansas City beltway), and the attendent replied, “Cut your legs off”. Another version has the attendent telling Mangino to eat more salad. In defense of Mangino, Kansas City Star columnist Jason Whitlock attributed Mangino’s anger issues to his weight.
Weight issues are root of Mangino’s problems
By JASON WHITLOCK
The Kansas City Star
It’s the weight. That’s why Mark Mangino’s job is in jeopardy. That’s why Lew Perkins held a paper-trail meeting with Kansas football players Monday night.
If this is the end for Mark Mangino’s head-coaching career at Kansas — and it should be — his inability to deal with his weight problem is the cause.
This column is not an attempt to shame, embarrass or ridicule Mangino. As you know, I’m overweight. I’m a shade over 6 feet tall and this morning, I weighed 325 pounds. (Oh, that hurt to write.) I’ve been heavier. Much.
I can relate to Mangino’s struggle. He’s three or four inches shorter than me, and he weighs anywhere from 450 to 500 pounds. He’s a public figure in a demanding, high-stress job.
The weight and the stress form a perfect recipe for depression. They can put your mind in a very negative place. They can make you moody and volatile.
Football is a violent game, oftentimes coached by grown men who strain to control their emotions. For every Bill Snyder, there are a handful of Mike Stoops, especially among assistants.
We’ve known since his arrival at Kansas that Mangino labors to contain his temper. He berated refs at his son’s high school football game. We’ve watched him verbally undress his players on the sideline. We’ve seen assistant coaches bolt the program and heard the behind-the-scenes stories about the abuse they endured from their head coach.
In more than seven years of covering Mangino’s Jayhawks, I’ve never heard anyone associated with the program describe him as “happy.”
Mangino coaches from an angry place. It’s not surprising, to me, given his weight problem.
You might be inclined to dismiss the alleged complaints of a few current and former Jayhawks who grumble that Mangino is physically and verbally abusive to his players. You might think it’s no big deal that a coach yells, cusses and puts his hands on his players.
It’s not that big a deal when the coach loves his players as hard as he pushes them. That’s what’s missing in the Mangino equation. Where’s the love?
Beyond X’s and O’s, good coaching is a transference of energy. It takes a massive amount of energy to impact 100 boys on a college campus. At his age (53) and weight, Mangino cannot sustain the necessary energy level to positively influence his players. His team is being engulfed by his negative energy, a dark spirit driven by his excess weight.
The signs of this can be seen on and off the field.
A loss to Texas on Saturday will be KU’s sixth straight. And the promised “historic” season has turned into a nightmare primarily because Mangino’s prized offense lost its swagger.
Part of the rift between the football and basketball players was a byproduct of Mangino’s players mirroring their coach’s mentality about the basketball program. Despite a $2 million-a-year contract and a $33 million football facility, Mangino has always felt undervalued and unappreciated at Kansas.
Relieving Mangino of his coaching responsibilities at this moment would be the humane thing to do for his health and a blessing for his career.
Two years ago, Mangino peaked, carrying the Jayhawks to 12-1, an Orange Bowl victory and a top-10 ranking. He didn’t get one job offer. It was the weight.
If he spent two years away from football addressing his weight problem, applied for a job at 270 pounds, he would be a can’t-miss BCS candidate. Heck, he would be a terrific choice to coach in the NFL.
Every problem he experienced at Kansas could be blamed on his weight.
I’d love for Mangino and Perkins to reach an amicable, fair settlement. It would not be good for Mangino or Kansas for Mangino to return next year. He can’t recruit this offseason with everyone knowing he’s in a likely one-and-done situation.
“I may have lost some people around here, but it’s not the players,” Mangino said Tuesday.
Mangino asked the media to interpret that comment. It sounds like an admission that he doesn’t have the support of his administration. KU has a new AD and chancellor since Mangino arrived. In many respects, Mangino’s demise at KU is/was inevitable.
He’s working for an athletics director (Perkins) who has personal, intimate knowledge of how weight affects job performance. Perkins once weighed more than 400 pounds. It’s unfortunate that Mangino did not turn Perkins into his strongest ally when it came to battling weight.
We know Perkins is a formidable foe.
Whitlock was roundly criticized by other sports columnists for “defending” Mangino and excusing his behavior. Mangino is just a bully, right? Whitlock has since written a subsequent column where he states just that, that Mangino is a bully, and for that reason the university should look long and hard at letting him go.
I agree with Whitlock’s first thesis. Perhaps, just perhaps, being grossly obese negatively affects your personality. Maybe, just maybe, if he lost a few hundred pounds and felt better about himself, he wouldn’t be suck a jerk. Perhaps and thin Mangino would be just as abrasive as the fat one, but I don’t think so. I think our personality, how we interact with others, is a result of how we feel about ourselves. If a person is miserable, that person tends to make everyone else around them miserable as well, as misery loves company.
My two cents on the Mangino saga. Make him lose weight and improve his health, and see if that doesn’t chill him out a bit. If it doesn’t, then fire him. If it does, then the university has helped save Mangino from himself AND would still have a damned fine football coach, an obvious win-win for all!
Couple Busted for Refusing to Pay Tip
Thursday, November 19th, 2009Here is a story from the NBC affiliate in Philadelphia. Throughout my adult life, I have been called a big fat jerk and cheap for not wanting to eat at any restaurant where the gratuity is tacked onto the bill. I have always argued that if the wait staff knows they will get a tip, they have no incentive to provide good service. Here is such a horror story.
Patrons claim service was so bad, they had to get napkins and silverware for themselves
By DAVID CHANG
If you’re frustrated by poor service at a restaurant, think twice before you decide to not tip. You may be in for a bit more than just a dirty look from the waiter.
“Nobody, nobody wants to be forced to pay a tip or be arrested for terrible service,” Leslie Pope said when her happy hour ended in handcuffs.
Pope and John Wagner were hauled away by police and charged with theft for not paying the mandatory 18 percent gratuity totaling $16 after eating at the Lehigh Pub in Bethlehem, Pa. with six friends.
Pope claimed that they had to wait nearly an hour for their order and that she had to get napkins and silverware for the table herself.
“At this point I became very annoyed because I had already gone up to the bar myself to have my soda refilled because the waitress never came back,” Pope said.
After the $73 bill came, the group paid for food, drinks, and tax but refused to pay the tip. After explaining the bad service to the bartender in charge, Pope claimed he took their money and called police. The couple was handcuffed and placed in the back of a police car.
“I understand that, you know, we didn’t pay the gratuity, but it was a gratuity, it wasn’t something that was required,” said Wagner.
The owner admitted that the group waited unusually long for their food, but said the pub was extremely busy that night. He said managers offered to comp the food, a claim the couple denies ever happened.
“Obviously we would have liked for the patron and the establishment to have worked this out without getting the police involved,” said Deputy Police Commissioner Stuart Bedics.
Police charged them with theft since the gratuity was part of the actual bill. However, it is doubtful that the charges will hold up in front of a judge. The couple is scheduled to appear in court next month.
Why should this couple have had to pay for crappy service? They shouldn’t have. Wait staff should be tipped on the level of service they provide; that is why it is called a GRATUITY! I will continue my one-person boycott of restaurants that tack the gratuity onto the bill….
Oklahoma Proud!
Thursday, November 19th, 2009If you drive the highways in Oklahoma, you will see billboards for one of the Oklahoma energy groups that say, “Oklahoma Proud!” After reading the rankings of the healthiest states, I am indeed “Oklahoma Proud!” Oklahoma is the 49th healthiest state! Yee haw! We are healthier than Mississippi! We also rank 49th in obesity! Wa hoo! You’re doing fine Oklahoma, Oklahoma – OK! At least until we all keel over from a cardiac!
Some Children Are Just Plain Evil
Thursday, November 19th, 2009A tragic story from my birth state. Having lived in Mid-Missouri for the better part of four years, I always thought of Cole County as very safe, and a place where major crimes rarely occur. I guess I was wrong.
Girl, 15, Charged as Adult in Murder
Police Say She Killed 9-Year-Old to ‘Know What It Felt Like’
By DAVID A. LIEB,
AP
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (Nov. 18) – Blessed with a Friday off school, 15-year-old Alyssa Bustamante dug two holes in the ground to be used as a grave, authorities said. For the next week, she attended classes, all the while plotting the right time for a murder, they said.
That time arrived the evening of Oct. 21, when Bustamante strangled 9-year-old neighbor Elizabeth Olten without provocation, cut the girl’s throat and stabbed her, prosecutors said. Why?
“Ultimately, she stated she wanted to know what it felt like,” Missouri State Highway Patrol Sgt. David Rice testified Wednesday during a court hearing over the slaying.
Rice, who interviewed Bustamante in the days after Elizabeth’s disappearance, said she confessed to investigators and led them to the fourth-grader’s well-concealed body in a wooded area near their neighborhood in St. Martins, a small town west of Jefferson City.
A Cole County judge ruled Wednesday that Bustamante, who has been held in Missouri’s juvenile justice system, should be tried as an adult. Hours later, the teen was indicted on adult charges of first-degree murder and armed criminal action for allegedly using a knife to kill Elizabeth. A judge later entered a not guilty plea on Bustamante’s behalf and referred her to the public defender’s office.
The court proceedings marked the first time that the suspect in Elizabeth’s death had been publicly identified since a two-day search for the girl by hundreds of volunteers. When they found Elizabeth’s body Oct. 23, authorities only said that a 15-year-old had led them to it and was in custody for the slaying.
Bustamante remained largely expressionless as she sat with her hands shackled around her waist in court Wednesday. She occasionally looked down beneath the brown bangs that covered her eyes and swallowed hard as a judge read the charges against her.
On one side of the courtroom sat her mother and grandmother, who has been Bustamante’s legal guardian for about half of her life. On the other side sat Elizabeth’s mother, relatives and friends, several of whom wore pink — Elizabeth’s favorite color.
Bustamante was ordered held without bond pending her trial. If convicted of first-degree murder, she would be sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Witnesses at Bustamante’s adult certification hearing described a girl who was bright yet depressed and clever in a sometimes sneaky sort of way. She ranked in roughly the top third of her class at Jefferson City High School, the principal said, and had been in no trouble at school or with the law.
Yet Bustamante had tried to commit suicide at age 13 and had been receiving mental health treatment for depression and cutting herself, said David Cook, the chief juvenile officer in Cole County. Once, she led her family to believe she was attending a local church event when she instead sneaked off to a concert in St. Louis, about two hours away, Cook said. On one or two other occasions, Bustamante spent the night in the woods without permission, he said.
After her arrest, Bustamante tried to cut herself with her own fingernails while being held in juvenile custody, said her appointed juvenile defense attorney Kurt Valentine.
He argued Bustamante should remain in the juvenile system, where she could potentially be rehabilitated before being set free by age 21. Valentine warned that Bustamante would either kill herself or be assaulted and killed by others if she were placed in an adult jail cell or prison.
“We are throwing away the child and we are signing a death sentence for Alyssa,” Valentine said. “She is not going to survive her time in the Cole County jail.”
Cole County Sheriff Greg White said later that Bustamante would be held at a different, undisclosed location.
Cook recommended Bustamante be tied as an adult. Cole County Circuit Judge Jon Beetem agreed, saying the killing was vicious and that the state had no adequate facilities or services to treat Bustamante if she remained in the juvenile system.
Bill Heberle, with the Missouri Division of Youth Services, testified that the state has no secure facilities with fences for female juveniles. Youths in Missouri’s juvenile system generally are housed in group settings and are not typically watched by staff 24 hours a day, he said.
Associated Press Writer Chris Blank contributed to this report.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.
A few comments about this. First, we tend to have this fantasy view that small towns are safer than the big cities, that since everybody knows everybody, crime doesn’t happen. Once again, we find out that in the typical, normal crime, the perpetrator and victim know each other, that the random Manson family or Ted Bundy type crimes are the exception, not the rule. In other words, we should not let our guard down just because we know somebody. Take for instance the Fort Hood slaughter. Would a random stranger have even been allowed to get on the base with a weapon? However, since the shooter was an insider, known and trusted, he wasn’t given the same level of scrutiny that a random stranger would have been given, and the results were deadly.
Second, we always assume that a minor is not capable of intentionally doing bad things, that somehow, always, when a child displays psychopathic behavior, that there is always some “reason” behind it. Sometimes, the devil really did make them do it! When this girl attempted suicide, more than likely they assigned a counselor to hear who listened to her sad tales of abuse and trauma, and attributed her attempted suicide to being victimized by a trusting, caring adult. Maybe, just maybe, she was, well, nuts, and not rehabilitatable. Maybe, just maybe, not every person can be saved. I am not saying don’t try to save somebody; what I am saying is that if you put in a bona fide effort, and the same bad patterns keep repeating themselves, you just have to throw up your hands and walk away. If this 15 year old girl had been allowed to kill herself, then an innocent 9 year old girl would still be alive. Sometimes intervention does more harm than good.
The Clash Of The Titans
Tuesday, November 24th, 2009Now that Wal-mart has pretty much KOed all the other discount and not-so-discount retailers, not to mention grocery stores and warehouse clubs, they have their eyes set on a new domain – the Internet domain. In an effort to be your everything store, they are trying to expand their Internet presence by going penny-for-penny against the current “King-of-the-Internet” – amazon.com. This clash is causing me distress. You see, I’m not particularly found of Wal-mart, and avoid it like I do getting root canal (actually, I think a root canal is probably more enjoyable than shopping at Wal-mart, but since I’ve never had one, I am only conjecturing…), but I have some personal issues about amazon that prevent me from shopping there, namely my ex-wife works there, and since she works there, I will not buy anything from there. (Yes, I know, it is rather petty….)
So on the one hand, I want to avoid giving money to that monstrosity called Wal-mart, but on the other hand I don’t want to give my ex-wife a dime, either. So, I will continue to use e-bay, half.com, and other online merchants.
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