On airshows in general

MoonHowler

Every times I pick up a paper it seems that someone else has died at an air show.  The horrific accident in Reno this weekend is certainly one of the worst I can recall.  Even being a spectator at airshows and auto racing can be not just hazardous but also deadly. 

The images captured on video were something from a violent horrible movie that you won’t let your kids go see.  To date, 9 people have died.  many others have life altering injuries.  Eye witnesses spoke of limbs and other body parts being severed.  That is too grisly to even think about.  Meanwhile, in Martinsberg,  West Virginia, another pilot died when his plane crashed onto the runway after performing a perfect maneuver in the sky.  No one was injured other than the pilot and the show was not close to spectators. 

 

At what point do we decide perhaps airshows aren’t such a good idea?  How many people have to die? 

Should airshows and auto racing enact industry standards to at least keep spectators far enough away so they don’t become part of the risk?   What is the final injury count in Reno? 

 

From Gerry Connolly: Snakes on a Plane in Congress

MoonHowler

 

 

 

From the Gerry Connolly website:

Release: Snakes on a Plane In Congress
Sep 14 2011
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has held 22 hearings attacking federal regulations, but not a single hearing on job creation, Congressman Gerry Connolly, a member of the committee, lamented today.

Connolly said Wednesday’s hearing bordered on theater of the absurd when the majority brought in a snake breeder who urged Congress to repeal regulations associated with the Lacey Act of 1900, a law that controls the importation of dangerous and invasive plant and animal species.

The majority’s witness, David Barker of the Association of Reptile Breeders, argued for the elimination of an Interior Department rule that would ban the transportation across state lines of giant Burmese pythons and eight other dangerous snakes. “These pythons are the same snakes that are breeding rapidly, overrunning the Everglades, eating every animal in sight including large alligators, and establishing a permanent habitat in South Florida, according to the National Park Service,” Connolly said.

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New Shelter for Flood Victims: Heroes and Zeroes

MoonHowler
Flooded home picture from the News and Messenger

The flood victims will have a new temporary shelter as  of 11 o’clock this morning.  The new home will be at the First Mt. Zion Baptist Church on Dumfries Road.  Democratic State Delegate (52 district) Luke Torian, pastor of that church, said church leadership voted unanimously to provide the shelter. 

Del. Torian certainly has stepped up to the plate to provide community leaderhip in solving a critical problem.  We are fortunately to have him representing Prince William County both as an elected official and as local pastor.  This is certainly not the first time the good people of First Mt Zion Baptist have stepped up to the plate to highlight the needs of those less fortunate and those in temporary need.  They have been community leaders who have talked the talk and WALKED the WALK. 

Chairman Corey Stewart provides a stark contrast to those folks over at First Mt. Zion Baptist.  He simply could not take off his political hat long enough to show human compassion.  He had to play tough guy.  He said a curt NO when he should have said that county officials were doing all they could do to relocate the flood victims until permanent housing could be found.  Instead, he chose to look like some cruel Dickens character who directed the county to throwing families out in the cold.  He should have been right out there on the media front lines, appealing for housing and reassuring the public that the county was on top of  solving the problem. 

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Open Thread……………………………………Friday September 16

MoonHowler

The weather has finally broken.  It was down right chilly this last night and this morning.  What a nice break.  The dog run was very quick this morning.  They were sure surprised. 

Fall is in the air for sure.

 

FLOOD VICTIM RELIEF THROUGH PAYPAL

                                                                             http://www.poweredbyspark.org/

Maybe we should thank Pat

MoonHowler

Most of us were outraged over Pat Robertson’s words, giving the OK to divorcing a spouse with Alzheimer’s Disease. However, after thinking it over, maybe we should thank him.  He made us think of something that is fairly repugnant and he forced conversation.  We have probably had more discussion because of Pat’s ill-fated remarks than we have since Ronald Reagan announced he had been diagnosed with the disease. 

What do most of us know about Alzheimers?  Does it run in families?  Does it hit those in middle age?   Are there different types?  How many of us knew it was the 6th leading cause of death in the United States?  I sure didn’t. 

Are there legal reasons for divorce?  Will divorce protect the surviving spouse from liquidation of assets if the afflicted spouse has to be institutionalized for care?  That’s something to think about.  I know several folks who chose to shack up to protect their retirement assets since remarriage would kick them out of the system.  Can divorce provide the same safety net?

Finally, people divorce over mental illness and substance abuse all the time.  How many of us would chastise a person for divorcing a spouse who was institutionalized because of severe schizophrenia or  other chronic mental diseases that seemed hopeless?  We are very forgiving about that.  How is Alzheimer’s any different?

Maybe we should thank Pat for providing the impetus for discussion.   These are definitely discussions that should be taking place.  Until Pat shot off his mouth, we just weren’t talking.

Jackie we hardly knew ye

MoonHowler

 

“Jacqueline Kennedy: Historic Conversations on Life with John  Kennedy” has hit the bookstores and her daughter, Caroline Kennedy is hitting the TV circuit to promote the book. At the same time, Diane Sawyer has shown two episodes of the tapes released from the Jacqueline Kennedy interviews with Kennedy aide Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., just 4 months after the Kennedy assassination.

What strikes me the most about Jacqueline Kennedy is how demur she is and how very much she fit into the 50’s mold of the not so modern woman. Her roll as a wife was much closer to my mother’s roll as a wife than I would have imagined. Women in those days very much defined themselves through their husbands and for their husbands. As I watched the Sawyer shows I wanted to spring up through the TV and bellow at Jackie and tell her she was her own person. She was a “stand by your man” kind of woman and it was totally apparent in the interviews.

Jackie became a more independent woman as she aged. She metaphorsized more from a woman who was there to enhance and build up her husband to one who was her own person with her own identity. Caroline Kennedy had the sole responsibility of deciding whether to release the information in the interviews. She decided to release it all. What a gift she has given us with the bird’s eye look  into the lives of the two people who redefined the modern presidency in America. Jackie may become better known for her role as national historian than glamorous first lady. 

SAT scores drop to the lowest in decades

MoonHowler

Washington area schools got a big disappointing shock this week.  The SAT test results are in decline.

From the Washington Post:

SAT reading scores for graduating seniors this year reached the lowest point in nearly four decades, reflecting a steady decline in performance in that subject on the college admissions test, the College Board reported Wednesday.

In the Washington area, one of the nation’s leading producers of college-bound students, educators were scrambling to understand double-digit drops in test scores in Fairfax and Montgomery counties and elsewhere.

“Once you hit a certain mark, you want to maintain that,” said Frieda Lacey, deputy superintendent for Montgomery schools. “Don’t think the decline didn’t bother us. It really did.”

Nationally, the reading score for the class of 2011 was 497, down three points from the previous year and 33 points from 1972, the earliest year for which comparisons are possible. The average math score was 514, down one point from last year but up five from 1972.

The College Board attributed the lower scores to the growing diversity of test-takers, many of whom are less prepared for college-level work or are learning English as a second language.

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Flood Victims to be evicted by PWC on Friday

MoonHowler

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From insidenova.com:

An estimated 150 to 175 individuals from 35 to 40 families from the Marumsco and Holly Acres mobile home parks were left homeless when more than 10 inches hit the U.S.1 corridor in Woodbridge last Thursday. The heavy rainfall caused massive damage to the parks; 66 out of 108 units in the Holly Acres park were declared unsafe to inhabit.

Many of the displaced flood victims are staying at the Dale City Recreation Center because they have no where else to go.  This arrangement will be very short-lived because the county is shutting the shelter down at 5 p.m. on this coming Friday.

Those still staying at Dale City Recreation Center – between 35 and 40 families – have until Friday at 5 p.m. before they have to leave the Red Cross-administered facility. Many of those families came to speak to the board on Tuesday, relaying their plight.

 Prince William Countydoesn’t have Section 8 housing vouchers at this time. And Prince William Board of County Supervisors Chairman Corey A. Stewart reiterated to the crowd gathered at Tuesday’s meeting that the county could not provide permanent housing to the victims of the storm.

Residents and community activists appealed to the county at the BOCS meeting. 

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The New 800 Pound Gorilla

MoonHowler

When Corey Stewart attended the V.O.I.C.E. (Virginians Organized  for Interfaith Community Engagement)   symposium on October 5, 2008, he refused to work with V.O.I.C.E. on  housing and county dental care and was quite up-front about it.   He did say he would help set up meetings.  He then stepped outside of the agenda of V.O.I.C.E.’s meeting and said that there was an 800 pound ‘moral’ Gorilla in the room and implored that V.O.I.C.E. help him end the scourge of abortion.

Stewart received more than a few boo’s and hisses that day for saying no to the goals  of VOICE and for trying to push his own agenda on a group who were clearly meeting over a totally different set of objectives.  There were church representatives from all over the county and Northern Virginia who were meeting over the housing crisis.  Corey’s attempt at deflection was not met with good humor. 

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The Republican Debate: The Social Security Question and the Baby Boomers

MoonHowler

Social Security was the top question during tonight’s CNN/Tea Party Debate.   Everyone admits that there are serious problems with Social Security and that the program, as it exists, it not sustainable for those young people who are now paying in to it.

At least one  of the candidates has called it a ponzi scheme.  Others would give young people the option of putting their funds into private accounts.  There are many fixes out there being discussed.  However, none of the answers address how you fund for the people still in the program.  What needs to happen to Social Security and how can any candidate who wants to tweak Social Security get elected?  The baby boomers are going to be a serious force to be reckoned with. 

Anyone 50 to 65 is a baby boomer.  That is a rather huge voting  block.  I simply don’t think anyone who seriously challenges the Social Security is going to be elected.  There are too many boomers and seniors.  The boomers aren’t nuts and they will turn up the heat on this issue.   They have the numbers.  They have been paying in to a system for a life time and it is going to be pay back time.

What would you do if you were running for president?  How would you do the impossible?

Your Krystal Ball says to Beware of Unintended Consequences

MoonHowler

Former political candidate Krystal Ball is one of the new political commentators on MSNBC”s Dylan Ratigan Show.   This time a year ago, Ball was challenging an incumbent Republican for a house district seat that included a little chunk of Prince William County in the Montclair area.  Krystal Ball was just sticking a toe in the political water when a big bad alligator or two tried to nip it off. 

The Washington Post:

For Ball, those two appearances book-ended a strange year-long journey: from little-known Virginia congressional candidate to infamous Internet sensation to professional pundit, opining on nearly every subject on the news.

Ball has become a fixture on MSNBC, with a freshly inked contract to serve as a “contributor” and go-to “Democratic strategist” on the network. She appears to have a bright future in the world of political media.

Celebrity works in funny ways, and Ball acknowledged she wouldn’t be on the right path now if she had not become famous for the wrong reasons a year ago.

“I don’t think I would have ended up going in this direction,” Ball said, if she had not been the subject of an online controversy. “Because that was what got me on to a lot of these programs and sort of got me in the loop, and then after the campaign was over, they just kept asking me back.”

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Tough Consequences for Jerks

MoonHowler

From Huffington Post:

Military jets escorted an American Airlines plane to a safe landing at New York City’s JFK Airport on the 10th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks.

NBC LA reports that the two F-16 fighter jets were called into action after three passengers refused to come out of a bathroom on a flight originating in Los Angeles.

There was initially some confusion as to whether the jets had been called, with NBC New York noting that a security official first said fighter jets had been launched and then another security official said they had been set to launch.

A law enforcement official told the AP that the incident isn’t thought to be terrorism.

Pardon my stridency.  What is wrong with people?  3 people who will not come out of the bathroom? How much did it cost us, the taxpayers, to send up those F-16 fighter jets?  How about sending the jerks the bill for that scramble?  If they don’t pay it, get a judgement on them.  Furthermore, how about a year in jail?   I am also ready to ban people who do stupid things on planes from boarding a plane in the United States for life.

From NBCLosAngeles:

The three men were later questioned and released at the airport, an FBI spokesman said.

Passengers told NBC New York after landing that they didn’t even know there was an incident on board until they saw police meeting the flight on the ground.

The three men were drunk.  Each week we read about some fool who wants to do something incredibly stupid on an airplane.  It should be painful and expensive to be stupid.  I don’t care how stupid the rules get.  The airlines and the government rule here.  I have a choice whether to fly or not.  If I don’t like rules, I can stay off planes (and I do stay off these days). 

Why are three people in the bathroom?  Is this a mile high club with a kink or two?  Get a motel room, on the ground, jerks.   They should not have been released.  They should have to pay for the expense to the taxpayers.