Officer Shoots Daughter Mistaken For Intruder
An off-duty New Haven police officer shot and wounded his 18-year-old daughter, apparently mistaking her for an intruder after she sneaked out of their Stratford home and re-entered through the basement.
Hey, I’ve got an idea! Know who it is before you shoot them. That way you only shoot a family member if you intended to shoot a family member.
Romney, Lauer Apologize For Not Wearing Seatbelts
After challenging New Jersey Gov. Jon S. Corzine for not wearing a seat belt, “Today” show co-host Matt Lauer apologized Wednesday for an interview with Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney in which neither man wore a seat belt while driving through New Hampshire.
Apologized to whom? His family? I don’t care whether Lauer wore his seatbelt. What is it with people making these blanket apologies? If you were a jerk about it in the past you should apologize for that. On wearing the seatbelt, you should simply acknowledge that it was stupid to go without.
As for Romney, his seatbelt usage is the least thing about him that worries me.
Administration Will Fight Voluntary BSE Testing
The Bush administration said today it will fight to keep meatpackers from testing all their animals for bovine spongiform encephalopathy.
Read that again, slowly. There is a company that wanted to test all its cattle for BSE, so you would have a choice to buy meat from a producer that was extra-careful regarding Mad Cow disease. Should be OK, right? They should have the right to distinguish their brand. You should have the right to choose, right?
The Bush administration is fighting them because large meat companies complained that they were afraid there might be public pressure for them to also test their cattle.
As far as freedom is concerned, Bush is an embarrassment. Look for the “So glad I voted for BSE” bumper stickers available at a Young Republicans meeting near you.
Next: FDA ordered not to test drug safety because knowing which drugs are actually safe would hurt the bottom line on drugs that aren’t safe.
Miss USA Booed Off Stage Because of Immigration Policy
“I don’t think they are booing because of Rachel,” said Donald Trump, co-owner of the Miss Universe pageant. “They are booing because of the immigration policy.”
Blaming Miss USA for immigration policy is like invading Iraq for something that al Qaeda did.
A man who may have exposed passengers and crew members on two trans-Atlantic flights earlier this month to a highly drug-resistant form of tuberculosis knew he was infected, and had been advised by health officials not to travel overseas.
This guy was warned not to fly, but flew anyway, exposing dozens of passengers and people in a number of countries to his resistant form of TB.
When the outbreak begins, how confident are you that the CDC, who could not seem to get this guy to cooperate, can put the breaks on it?
He told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he was planning to undergo an intensive 18-month treatment at a hospital in Denver, and that he did not understand why he was not ordered into isolation before he left for his wedding in Europe. “I’m a very well-educated, successful, intelligent person,” the man, who declined to give his name, was quoted in the newspaper interview as saying. “This is insane to me, that I have an armed guard outside my door, when I’ve cooperated with everything other than the whole solitary-confinement-in-Italy thing.”
What good is an education if you don’t appear to be able to use it? The question is about his lack of concern and willingness to expose others to his disease. TB dude, you get Aces Full of Links Asshat of the Week.
Posted by James at May 30, 2007 5:11 PMI’ve got an idea! Know who it is before you shoot them.Reminds me of Joe.
Any idea why my comments sometimes have the "Posted by" signature appended to the last line of the comments, rather than having it on a separate line?
Posted by: Barry Leiba at May 30, 2007 11:56 PMI think it has to do with the way Movable Type interprets html.
Posted by: James at May 31, 2007 9:52 AMFound a typo in Patient IQ Zero: "breaks" should be "brakes".
Posted by: Mike at May 31, 2007 10:23 AMThems the brakes. I mean "breaks."
Posted by: James at May 31, 2007 2:32 PMOk, well, I guess what they say is true: Guns don't kill people, people do.
On to Romney and his "apology." Nowhere in the various and sundry news clips could I find him apolgizing, which is fine, because like you said, who is he apologizing to? I wasn't offended by his stupid mistake, but it's wrong to report an apology when there wasn't one. All I could find was this:
Romney apologized for not wearing a seat belt, saying in a statement: "Sometimes I forget to wear my seat belt. For my own safety, I need to keep reminding myself to buckle up."
He said he has early onset Alzheimer's, but he did not apologize.
Onward to fighting mandatory BSE testing! I'm sure this has a lot to do with exporting product as well as selling it here in the US. As I recall, about two years ago, Japan wanted us to certify our beef as being BSE-free, and they're a huge importer of our beef. We said no, as I recall. Safety shmafety--where's the bucks (or beef, as it were)? I like your analogy vis drugs. Very good.
Speaking of BSE, let's segue to CJD and this interesting document that came across my email today:
http://www.fda.gov/cber/blood/fxivcjdassess.pdf
FDA DRAFT Risk Assessment:
Potential Exposure to the variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Agent in United States Recipients of Factor XI Coagulation Product Manufactured in the United Kingdom
Speaking of infectious diseases, on to Asshat of the Day. What stuns me is that he wasn't ordered not to fly. He was "advised by health officials not to travel overseas" and was told by officials they would "prefer" that he not fly.
Prefer? What? If he was thought to be enough of a risk to be quarantined after the fact, why the hell wasn't he quarantined beforehand? I'm assuming lots of thought has gone in to possible scenarios involving people with, say, Hanta virus or one of the many haemorrhagic fevers, so why weren't those put into place for this bonehead? (If you want more info on haemorrhagic fevers [think ebola, marburg, and friends], go here: http://www.who.int/topics/haemorrhagic_fevers_viral/en/)
He said he's "a very well-educated, successful, intelligent person"? He left out self-centered, pig-headed, and, I have to say, stupid (just because you've got velum don't mean you gots brains).
Posted by: Patti M. at May 31, 2007 2:56 PMI think the Lauer apology is for hypocrisy. He groused about Corzine and then did the same thing himself. And for that, I think a public figure, should apologize. Of course, he should also be sincere, and I doubt that he is. He's apologizing for being caught being a hypocrite.
Posted by: briwei at June 2, 2007 9:40 PMI agree with that. To the extent that I give a rat's ass about Matt Lauer at all, I'm glad he owned up to getting caught.
Romney, on the other hand, has a lot more to apologize about.
Posted by: Julie at June 3, 2007 1:17 PMThe Lauer apology does not appear to be for hypocrisy thought perhaps it should have been. He apologized for not setting a better example with the seatbelt thing. It stands independent of the hypocrisy. He might have been motivated by sensitivity of charges of hypocrisy, but he did not apologize for hypocritical behavior.
But one apology is as good as another nowadays, as long as you apologize. We are an apology-driven culture, lately.
In any case, it appears he was prepared to mention it right after the interview aired, but the negative letters started flowing in even before the segment had a chance to finish. That's what happens when you have so many people watching.
I know how he feels on a much smaller scale; I've had you commenters correct my spelling mistakes mere moments after I make a post.
Whenever that happens I just feel grateful I have readers who will bear with me through my horrible lack of proofreading.
Posted by: James at June 3, 2007 1:39 PM