Monthly Archives: June 2015

06.27.15
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Antivaxxers Child Dies in Spain

This story is sadly lacking in details, I have searched several links, all with scant information. All we know is an unvaccinated six year old boy contracted diptheria, and died from it. The first death there from diptheria in 29 years. 29 years, think about that for a moment. Why would it be 29 years since the last diptheria death? Maybe because vaccines work!

I have no way of knowing if the parents opted out because of religious stupidity or regular old run of the mill mill stupid. Either way we have a clear example among many of late, why vaccines are important. They save lives, and provide herd immunity among populations.

There is some good news here in the states, California is attempting to push a bill through that requires children in public schools to be vaccinated regardless of personal or religious reasons. The bill passed. It still remains to be seen if the bill becomes law.

There is no good reason not to vaccinate your children and many good reasons to do so. Only those innoculated against reason and evidence seem to think otherwise. If you think you have the right not to vaccinate your kids, fine. But do not think that means you have the right to mix your unvaccinated child into a population of vaccinated individuals. There are always a few who for whatever good medical reason cannot vaccinate.  When your right to not vaccinate endangers others, that is where your rights end. The rest of us have the right to keep your potential carrier out of the protected population.

And another thing. I have seen several kids through school, having been in two marriages, both with kids. When your kid gets sick, keep them at home! Do not send your sick child to school to infect the rest of the kids at school. Why on earth anyone would be so irresponsible is beyond me. I can’t possibly count the number of times one of my kids has come home with strep. The flu. Numerous stomach bugs etc etc. Keep your sick children at home! Once they have been fever free for 24 hours, you can send them back to school. They should no longer be able to infect other kids at that point. (at least that’s what I have been told by our family physician)

One link of several around about the child in Spain:

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/boy-dies-diphtheria-spain-parents-rejected-vaccine-32069410

This link has more info on the California bill:

http://www.latimes.com/local/political/la-me-pc-vaccine-mandate-bill-up-for-vote-thursday-in-california-assembly-20150624-story.html

06.26.15
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Marriage For All

In a landmark decision June 26/ 2015 the Supreme Court ruled in favor of gay marriage. It’s about time. I am not gay, don’t even have any gay friends (that I’m aware of) but this news brought a tear to my eye. Why? Because I know now an oppressed and often demonized segment of society has the freedom many of us have taken for granted. A freedom they have fought for for decades, a freedom denied them by the ultra conservative right, a freedom due to all in this country. Today I am proud to be an American.

It also pleases me that the ultra conservative types are frothing about the mouth right now. I am sure they are busy constructing strawmen to attack, setting up commitees to lobby, or scurrying to the hidey holes they live in. Faux News is probably having a meltdown. Their news personnel will be screaming that the sky is falling, the end times are nigh, and it’s all Obama’s fault!  The talking heads will explode. It is a great day to be a skeptic! A great day to remember for a long time.

I’ll be celebrating with a snort or two of Old Charter (8 year old Kentucky Bourbon with a wonderful sultry smokey after taste) in a bit. This is an occasion to celebrate, and to remember. I will be able to tell my grandkids that I saw Jordan play, saw Jeter retire, saw man go to the moon, and saw the biggest victory for gay rights ever.

Congratulations to those who would choose to marry.

06.25.15
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Just a Note to My Readers

I know I haven’t been very entertaining lately. Haven’t posted much. (until a few minutes ago with the Wal Mart thing) I just haven’t had time to do much of late. Heck I can’t even keep up with reading all of the blogs I have in my reader, let alone find or make the time to get any legitimate posting done. But I promise to work on it.

Just have to say that the friends, and followers, it seems strange to call people followers, but you know what I mean… I just want to say I appreciate you being there. The amount of followers I have is by no means a great number, but it has exceeded my expectations by a long shot, is still growing,  and I am grateful you found this blog entertaining enough to click the follow button. Thanks.

06.25.15
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I Was a Little Miffed in the Wal Mart Today

Now I’ll admit Wal Mart tends to get me miffed quite a bit, with their continuous shuffling of their inventory from aisle A to aisle Z, or the extremely annoying habit of carrying item X for the last 10 years, and no longer offering item X anymore. How about the fact that they start pushing x-mas crap in July? How about the fact that they start pushing Easter items as soon as x-mas is over? How about the fact they start pushing Halloween items the day after Easter? That might be a tad exaggerated, but not by much!

Or their notion of seasonal items. Seasonal items like x-mas decor or Halloween stuff I understand. I went there one fall day intending to buy a boat seat, they told me boat seats were seasonal. I still can’t understand how a boat seat is seasonal when the entire population here lives less than 10 miles from Ky. Lake? Ky. Lake is an enormous section of the Tn. river boaters of all stripes use all year long. No a boat seat is NOT seasonal, thank you.

Then they went with self checkouts. Nevermind the fact that if they would actually have a couple of people manning the 50 registers they have, there would be little to no waiting. Nevermind it’s a Friday afternoon and everyone has just been paid, pushing along carts filled to the brim with goods and they have 3 checkouts open and the lines are ridiculous, what are they thinking? No, what bugs me about the self checkout is this, they are training us to do the work for them! They don’t have to PAY someone to run a register if they can train YOU to do the work! I, having a bit of insight and the desire to see the common man/woman succeed, try to always use a checkout manned by a human being getting payed an hourly wage. I would not see them lose their jobs because of my inclination to be in a hurry. I have used the self checkout a time or two I’ll admit, but I prefer to have a human get paid to check me out, even if I have to suffer for 10 minutes of waiting to get it done.

None of these usual aggravations is my source or irritation today. What has me miffed? Advertising. Not signage, signs I have been conditioned to for decades, no we now have an array of TV screens dangling from the roof, or hanging on the rack at the end of the aisles. They continously blare commercials for products, or push all of the benefits and perks of having a Wal Mart card. Rather loudly. Rather obnoxiously. For whatever reason, today was the day it pissed me off. Then to top it off, someone got on the in store intercom and advertised again for the Wal Mart card!

I for whatever reason, feel like I am getting pounded unneccessarily and from all angles. I can’t get away from it! It pervades the once serene shopping experience. It grinds away at my conciousness, it grates my fricken nerves, it’s like only getting two hours of sleep and then being hounded by six children of their wants and needs all at the same time. Leave me the hell alone!

If in the next few days, any of my much appreciated friends, readers, followers of the blog, hear about some crazy guy with a ball bat busting up electronic advertising in a Wal Mart, you can say “Hey! I might know that guy!”

Seriously, where does this end? Where is the line? I have seen sci fi movies exhibiting all kinds of floating, flashing signs well beyond my expectation of advertising saturation. Is that really where we are headed?

All I know is this, in the interests of my personal health, via the significant increase in my blood pressure from being there, I will have to do much less shopping at the Wal Mart. I would rather suffer the small inconvenience of having to stop at two stores to get all of my shopping done, or pay a tad more for this or that item, than be hounded with electronic advertising the entire time I am in their store trying to spend MY money.

Another thought on advertising. I will not buy or wear any kind of advertising. No hats with Coke, or Budweiser. No shirts conveying any advertising message. I’ll tell you why. I refuse to advertise for these companies for free, let alone BUY the advertising items with my own money, and then wear them for free. These companies spend millions of dollars every year for advertising, why on earth would I do that job for them? For nothing? After paying for the advertising item? They should be giving these things away if they want people to advertise for them! Even then they would still have to pay me to wear it. Now if a shirt or cap had something to do with an activity or charity I might support, I could be convinced to wear it. Maybe. But Large corporations are getting no free ride from little ole me, and Wal Mart, already long since having been a source of aggravation, is going to see less of me in their stores. With all of the other things they do that bug me, this is the one that has done it.