Ripped from the Headlines XIII

I've a lot to talk about this week so let's get right to it!

First off, I am still giddy after the news I heard late Wednesday that President Obama has stated that he supports same-sex marriage!  Now there are some who see this as some sort of political grandstanding but I really can't totally see it that way.  It seems to me that pro-LGBT folks already would vote for Obama over Romney so, if anything, this move might cost him votes.  Regardless of any outcome of this statement, I still have to say that it would have been safer to wait until after the election to say this so I think our President is really brave to speak up now - even if some say he had no choice after VP Biden made similar statements.  Kudos to the commander-in-chief!

USA Today reported earlier this week that the national Christmas tree that was planted on the White House lawn has died.  It replaced the previous tree which was destroyed by high winds in February of last year making it the second of such trees to die since Obama took office.  A friend of mine has quipped that he wonders how long before certain media outlets start making statements about President Obama declaring a war on Christmas.............. trees. (ba-DUM-dum)

In more serious news, I was saddened to hear of the death of the author Maurice Sendak who many will recognize as the author of Where the Wild Things Are and many other children's books.  Of course I remember that particular book and several others he wrote but for some reason - and I've no idea why - I always preferred Chicken Soup With Rice. (I'm really not a huge fan of actual chicken soup and especially not the kind with rice but I guess that is irrelevant.) I think I'll order some of his books for my granddaughter so she can enjoy them as well.  What are some of your favorite Maurice Sendak books?

On the political scene, it is now old news that Newt Gingrich has dropped out of the GOP race so it appears that - most likely - Mitt Romney will win his party's nomination for President. I say "most likely" because there are still some Ron Paul supporters out there who think that Paul has some sort of backroom delegate-collecting scheme up his sleeve or some such nonsense.  I'm not going to argue with them.  We'll just see what happens at the convention, alright?

Now Mitt Romney is not the Presidential candidate that I would prefer to win the election - as I'm sure surprises no one - but I really had to seriously wonder about this next article I came across.  It seems that some of Gov. Romney's former classmates had some stories about some pranks that he pulled as a student. Now I realize that boys will be boys but, frankly, I'm a little concerned about one of these "pranks".  It almost sounds like he was more of a bully than a prankster but I'm not exactly an unbiased individual in this case so you are free to draw your own conclusions.

This next story out of Arizona has me wondering if they live in the same century in that state.  Again.  Seriously - what the heck is going on out there?  Is the heat getting to folks or what?!?

No, it's not what you might think.  I'm not going to mention the fact that the governor has banned public funding of Planned Parenthood in the state.  Well.  I did mention it but I"m not going to elaborate.

What I'm talking about is a story about a girl who plays baseball for her high school team.  She attends a prep school called Mesa Preparatory Academy.  Her school has no girls softball team so she tried out and made the baseball team.  That team has made the state finals.  The problem?  The other team that made the finals from Our Lady of Sorrows Academy has decided to forfeit the game because they refuse to play against a team with a female player.  Seriously.  Story here.  All I'm going to say is that I find this absurd.  Baseball isn't a contact sport so I can't imagine what the problem is.  I feel sorry for all the players on both teams who worked hard and deserved to play that game.  Shame on those school officials who decided to make an issue over a player's gender.

Moving on to lighter fare, I came across this story out of the UK about a company that attempted to send a well-wishing form letter to an employee on his or her last day at work and accidentally sent it to 1,300 workers.  I'm sure the error was promptly corrected but I imagine that quite a few employees were taken aback when they received it!

And finally for all the Dr. Who fans out there, I found this small article about a company that has invented - or created, rather - an actual sonic screwdriver! I guess we can say that this is a case of life imitating art, right?  Or... borrowing ideas from art...  or television... or whatever.

Have a nice weekend, folks!

Image is in the public domain and was found here

An apology - sort of

So... I thought I should post an apology for not posting.  Then I thought that I shouldn't because I've never promised to post regularly in the first place and I should just create a post when I feel like doing so.  Then it occurred to me that it might be a while before that happens so here I am.

I'm not sure how I fell out of the habit of blogging, to be honest.  I think it might have had something to do with the anti-inflammatory drugs I was taking that seemed to make me tired and out of it - but only a little.  However, I've stopped taking them and I've still not started back up blogging.

It certainly isn't for lack of topics to write about.  I copied links to several news articles early to mid-week last week thinking that I'd do my Friday "Ripped from the Headlines" post but I just never seemed to have the time.  I really don't understand why I feel that way.  I've no less free time than I did before.

So, yes.  I am fine and still around somewhere.  I've just not been here recently and I'm not sure when I'll return.

I hope it will be soon.

Atrocious Behavior by US Soldiers

In what universe is it alright for soldiers to pose with the dead bodies of human beings they have killed!?!?! (The story can be found here.)

Let me try to calm down and explain. The LA Times has printed photos that they say they obtained from a US soldier who, they report wanted "to draw attention to the safety risk of a breakdown in leadership and discipline".  They show several soldiers posing with bodies of insurgents in Afghanistan. Does this sound familiar to anyone else?

There is something seriously wrong with the US military if this sort of thing is considered acceptable by these soldiers!  Did we learn nothing from the atrocities committed at Guantanamo Bay?

I am disgusted. Totally and thoroughly disgusted.  What the hell is wrong with our military and don't try to tell me that this is an isolated incident!  No.  We need a real investigation into the behavior of our soldiers.  There is no excuse for this.

I am livid.

Ripped from the Headlines XII

Last week I started off with a warning to MAC users about a virus targeting those computers.  This week, I have another warning to MAC users:  If you discovered your machine was infected and used the Kaspersky Lab removal tool, it may not have solved your problem.  I'll leave you to check that out if it applies to you.

Moving on...  I have marvelous news from the world of science!  It appears that scientists may have been successful in developing a cancer vaccine!  More tests need to be done, but it appears that this vaccine targets a molecule found in 90% of all cancers. The vaccine would be used to destroy cancer cells in a patient and prevent the spread of the disease throughout the body.  Scientists are cautiously optomistic and state that these are early results and have yet to be published so we shouldn't get too excited yet. I'm really hopeful that this turns into something we can use down the road!  Hooray for science!

The Canadian mint has released the first coin in a series of limited edition glow-in-the-dark quarters! I am not making this up.  They feature the images of various dinosaurs and, when you turn out the lights, their skeletons glow!  I want to mock the Canadians for such an outlandish idea but I just can't.  I think this is just too cool to pan. I'd ask why the US hasn't come up with an idea like this but I think we all know the answer:  We take our currency (and ourselves) way too seriously here to consider something this fun. 

In politics, I'm sure everyone has heard by now that Rick Santorum has ended his bid for the Presidency, effectively making Mitt Romney the Republican nominee this time around.  Santorum stated that he was suspending his campaign but that he 'isn't done fighting'.  I'm not entirely sure what he means by that - and perhaps he isn't exactly sure himself.  Some are speculating that he will consider running in 2016 if Romney doesn't win the general election.  I think it is really too early to tell, to be honest.

So!  I guess now we can spend our time discussing who Romney will choose as his running mate.  I'm practically positive that it will be a woman if at all possible. Other than that, I would find it difficult to speculate as to who will be asked.  What do you all think?


Image is in the public domain and was found here

Saturday Six - April 8, 2012

1. How did you come up with the name of your primary blog? I used to blog over at Xanga and my name there was A_Strange_Wind_Blowing. (and this was shortened to Strange by my Xanga friends)  When I moved to Blogger, I kept the name Strange - as folks from Xanga knew me by that name. So.. Strange Ramblings became the name of my new blog.

2. List the links of all of the blogs you currently write. This is the only one.  I used to have a separate one for memes like this but I just combined them into one for simplicity.

3. Have you ever been dared to do something completely outrageous, and did you actually accept the dare? (You don’t have to specify what the dare was unless you want to.) I really can't think of anything that I've been dared to do that would have been outrageous.

4. What grocery store aisle do you tend to have the most difficulty avoiding? I don't avoid any of them but I don't stop at the bakery.  I certainly do not need pastries and such.

5. You’re going to pay to see a movie in a theater: are you more likely to want to see a comedy, a drama, an action movie or a “chick flick?” Most likely an action movie.  If I pay the money to see a movie in a theater, I'll choose one that makes good use of the large screen.

6. Have you ever accidentally referred to a current date with an ex’s name? Worse.  I called my fiance by my ex-husband's name. Twice. *blushes*


This has been the Saturday Six from Patrick's Place.

Ripped from the Headlines XI

I'm going to start off with a warning to Mac users.  There is a trojan called Flashback that is infecting Macs.  I know Mac-owners don't usually have to worry about viruses but this is one time you do.  Please go here and follow the instructions to check your machine.  Don't wait! Trojans are a nasty type of virus that copies itself all over your hard drive and can be difficult to remove!

I found a bit of craziness coming out of Arizona this week that I just have to mention.  I know that this is not the first time we've seen some ridiculous and unusual pieces of legislation from AZ but this is just nuts.  HB 2036  would actually presume that a woman could be pregnant 2 weeks before she actually has sex. Why?  Because a woman cannot get a legal abortion in the state of Arizona after 20 weeks gestation and apparently some folks think that 20 weeks cut-off isn't good enough. So, in effect,  a woman will not be able to obtain an abortion in Arizona after 18 weeks gestation if this passes.
You have to wonder why the folks in Arizona don't spend more time and money on educating the public on how to avoid unwanted pregnancies and less time on measures that create more and more obstructions to legally obtaining abortions.  I seriously think it would save time and money.  Oh, wait.  I forgot.  Sex is evil.  We don't talk reasonably about it in the US.  My bad...

In science news this week, fossil remains of a dinosaur related to the T-rex show that it had feathers!  It is widely known that dinosaurs are closely related to birds but there was no evidence that larger species were actually feathered. Yutyrannus huali, is the first large dinosaur fossil that proves that larger dinosaurs could have feathers, as well.  This is leading scientists to wonder whether T-rex itself was feathered!  Perhaps we'll have to change our idea of what this ancient creature looked like!

In US news, a waitress got quite a large tip but now may not be able to keep it!  A woman came into the restaurant and when she finished her meal and left, the waitress realized that she had left her left-over box on the table.  She dashed outside with it to return it but the woman insisted that she keep it.  She took it back inside and opened it up to find $12,000 in bills!  She didn't know what to do so she contacted the police and turned it in.  They told her that she could have it if noone claimed it in 90 days.  Now the police department has changed their mind and says that it is drug money and they will be keeping it.
I feel bad for the woman as she could have kept the money and not reported it but she did the right thing and now may not be able to get the money. Hopefully the police department will change their mind and allow her to keep the money.  It sounds like she could really use it.

And finally, let's take a look at the Republican primary! There were three contests this past Tuesday - Maryland, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia and Romney won all three! (delegate count can be found here)  The media is telling us that Romney essentially has the nomination wrapped up with these wins but.... Santorum is refusing to drop out of the race at this time. Frankly, I think that he will stay in the race until after the Pennsylvania primary in a little more than 2 weeks, but polls are showing that he may not win his home state.  Perhaps he's gotten too conservative for Pennsylvania.

Speaking of Santorum, I found this interesting quiz called Was it Ayatollah Khamenei or Rick Santorum where you are given 8 quotes and you have to decide who said them.  I only got 5 out of 8 correct. Please don't let the fact that it appears on a secular website dissuade you from taking a look.  The sources (and context) of the quotes are shown so I can't imagine there would be an issue with this.  I did find it eye-opening that it was difficult to decide which one said what!

Image is in the public domain and was found here

Saturday Six - March 31, 2012

1. What type of cookie do you most enjoy dipping in ice-cold milk: chocolate chip, Oreo or peanut-butter? I'm not much of a cookie-dunker but I'd have to go with the peanut butter.  Oreos aren't my favorite.

2. When is the last time you had one of those cookies with milk? Maybe around Christmas?

3. Who you are/were you closer to: your mother or your father? My father.

4. How do you take your coffee: cold or hot, sugar, cream, both or neither? I like hot, black coffee- no cream or sugar.

5. What word do you most wish people would stop using? I can't think of one right now.

6. How often do you floss your teeth? Daily.


These are the Saturday Six from Patrick's Place!