#4
Yeah, Gorb, looks like it's shaped like a sailboat. Sort of a low-profile, camoflaged boat - a 'stealth' model.
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/22/2008 6:52 Comments ||
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#5
They are towed behind fishing and cargo boats and may not even have to come ashore, cut loose before docking in port, evading security measures. The islands have the shuttling down with some ingenius ways. A Jamaican diver was paid to weld a below-the water-line sealed ganja container to the hull, to be retreived underwater later, but he got caught.
Kolkata, INDIA - An Indian man who took an impersonator to court to get a divorce faces legal action after his real wife found out, lawyers said on Friday.
Sanjib Saha presented a woman as his wife in a lower court in the eastern city of Kolkata this month. Both said they sought a mutual divorce, something the court granted immediately.
Saha's real wife was then asked to leave the marital home. She has since appealed the ruling at a higher court, charged her husband with cheating and the original divorce was suspended. "The case exposed the legal loopholes in our system," Kaushik Chanda, lawyer of Saha's real wife, said.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/22/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
"After his real wife found out" >
AL BUNDY - "Oh yeah, Peg, and how are you supposed to stop me...........Yep, that'll do it"!
Republican presidential nominee John McCain today for the first time said he can now support a timeline to reduce the American presence in Iraq, specifically advocating the withdrawal from Iraq of Democrat presidential nominee Barack Obama, and several battalions of U.S. news anchors and reporters.
Its time to bring them home, said Sen. McCain at a news conference attended by a journalism intern from the Des Moines Register. The surge has worked, and its time to redeploy.
Sen. McCain said bringing Sen. Obama home would help to ensure that people in the U.S., who desperately need media attention, will get the help they deserve.
Our mainstream media forces are stretched too thin, he said. If news should break here in the homeland, whos going to cover it? Were vulnerable.
#4
There was also a line in "The Day the Earth Stood Still" that's pretty good. One man said, "Why doesn't the Government do something?" His wife said, "Well, Dear, they are only people". He then said, "People my foot. They're Democrats".
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
07/22/2008 17:54 Comments ||
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#5
WELL DONE, BEAVIS!
Posted by: JOMOSING bLUETOOTH ||
07/22/2008 18:57 Comments ||
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. . . let me quote from a press release I received by e-mail. I was moving quickly to delete it as is my custom but something caught my eye. I read,
Wesley Chinn, General Manager and Artistic Director of the new company, says of its inaugural production, I cant actually pretend to quote myself in a release Im writing myself just to satisfy the conventions of press-release style.
That prompted me, for now, not to block this sender from my inbox . . .
Posted by: Mike ||
07/22/2008 09:17 ||
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#1
I've always been amused by the custom in speeches and news articles to shore up one's point with by finding a quote by someone famous to make the point. It's as if the audience is somehow incapable of judging an idea for themselves. I'm glad to see this custom challenged. People need to learn to grow up and judge ideas on their merit, not based on what someone else thinks about them.
#1
He obviously has not been around an autistic child. Most, if not all, autistic children show symptoms at a very early age, before they have even developed any sense of what Savage is talking about. My neice's daughter is autistic.
Savage is a bugwit.
#2
He also hasn't bothered to consult anyone familiar with recent neuroscience data. There are clear differences between the neural connections among brain sub-systems in people with autistic spectrum disorders vs. the majority of humans.
In fact the neural connectivity of autistic children is - with regard to *some* features - somewhere between 'normals' and the most capable mammals. In particular, they tend to have fewer of the neural connections that in normals *suppress* a lot of memory or conscious awareness of details in the environment.
That suppression is what allows people to develop and use language and abstract concepts. Autistic children tend to be poor at those skills and, like animals but unlike most people, these children find it hard to filter out stimuli from the environment around them. What they get in return is, in many cases, savant abilities of memory or very specific kinds of computation (day of the week for any day in history or other dramatic but very narrow abilities).
#4
By chance, I listened to his show yesterday (I can't stand him0 and by no stretch of the immagination did he say that "autism is a fraud".
He asked a perfectly valid question: Is one out of 150 children really autistic? Just from my own personal experience that seems irrationally high. It could be true, but considering our society's propensity to become hysterical over alarmist issues promoted by the media and interest groups, should we not at least try to reconcile our own experiences with what we are being told?
He asked some really good questions about how the diagnosis is being determined, how subjective it is and pointed out how a misdiagnosis could severly label and damage a child for life. He never EVER said autism was a fraud!
More concerning to me, the woman that did come on his show was very slick and sounded like a professional spokesperson and her very agreeable and friendly point was that vaccines are what is causing autism. Sooo.... be careful before you sign on to this hysteria.
The ad council is currently pumping ads about the high rate of autism.
Lobbys and spokespeople are ready and waiting to bring this issue to the fore-front of the public's attention
I smell another hyped hysteria coming our way and I'm very concerned if the "cure" is going to be to encourage the public not to get vaccines.
But he needs to know that society to a large degree is judged by how they treat these little Angels.
This gift is sent directly from heaven. People do not know yet how to handle it or understand it.
#7
I catch him occasionally on the drive home. He can be very overbearing like Limbaugh, who's almost always overbearing and a real blow mouth whom I can tolerate for only about 20 minutes at a time. Fifteen of which are commercials. What I like about Savage is that he isn't afraid to attack Muzzies. And, of course, they have multiple lawsuits filed against him, like Steyn, in Canada. If, perchance, they win any of these, it would drastically impact free speech in the US. For that reason alone, I support him.
#9
Savage has been on a campaign for a long time about the over medication of America. He might have used some unfortunate hyperbole here about autism but he has made some points, one being that kids who grow up without fathers might have behavior problems so people start saying they have ADD or ADHD or whatever and start force feeding them pills when what they really need is a damn good whacking on the behind from their missing dad. Or, for instance, when I was a kid in school and somebody got out of control the teacher could send him to the principle's office for a meeting with the board of education which, as I recall, had a tendency to focus my attention very well because I wasn't sick I was just an active boy who needed a little discipline. They don't do that anymore. You all remember the saying that when you got into trouble at school you would be in even more trouble if your old man found out. Now the parents march into the principle's office and demand to know why the teacher is bullying their precious little angel or they get some doctor to put the kid on meds. Well, there might be some cases where the kid needs meds but a spanking, as invasive as it is, is nowhere near as invasive as drugs so maybe they should try that first.
#10
Gee, why didn't I think of that? Just whack all the kids who are autistic? You're all geniuses. No, you can tell the difference between a normal kid and one who falls on the autistic spectrum - which includes ADD and ADHD, whether people have admitted it yet or not. Why don't you just all run down to the special ed classes and cure all those kids under control. You'd do us all a favor.
#11
it always amazes me how hysterical people get on these subjects. He didn't say "just go wack the kids" now did he? We can never have important decisions on difficult topics because someone always freaks and ignores the important part of the topic and whips up a lynch mob to browbeat an emotional strawman.
The point is that there may be many children being diagnosed with autism that may not deserve to be saddled with this label for their entire life and have their childhood stripped from them with drugs. Can we just focus on them for one minute. No one, not even Savage, is saying that autism is a fraud.
#12
Diagnosis seems to me to be on of the biggest problems. Every kid who has something wrong with them that the doc cant pin down becomes "autistic".
Even the definition of autism seems to be up in the air as they keep expanding the disease to cover more and more kids. Do they even have any leads as to what causes it yet? I don't remember any cases of autism when I was young.
#13
He asked a perfectly valid question: Is one out of 150 children really autistic?
Mr. Savage is a chemist, not a psychologist, which predisposes him to misunderstand matters mental. (Daddy is a biochemist, so I stand firm on this statement from personal experience.) He is expressing an opinion, not a judgement.
The key visible characteristic of Asperger's Syndrome -- at the high-functioning end of the autism spectrum -- is nerdiness. How many nerds do you know? If the entire spectrum of "autism disorders" is considered, the ratio 1:150 is quite reasonable. Current statistics, based on various surveys done in several countries in Europe as well as the U.S., cluster around that number. However, as I understand it, about 75% of those are high functioning, able to function in the normal world to a greater or lesser extent, and to be trained to function better. However, it also must be admitted that there are some false diagnoses, generally to get help for kids who are borderline but need help. In the other direction as well -- high functioning Asperger's kids are generally diagnosed and medicated for ADD/ADHD, which is counterproductive. Lower functioning Asperger's and non-Asperger's autistics are obviously abnormal even to the untrained eye, and no amount of training will enable them to live independently.
There is no drug treatment for Asperger's Syndrome, although medicating for anxiety and depression is sometimes helpful. The key treatment is to teach them the rules of behavior that the rest of us pick up unconsciously. There are some drugs that appear to help some lower functioning autistics, but I believe that those work -- or don't -- on a case by case basis. Unlike, say, schizophrenia, where the response to a standardized drug regimen is immediate and obvious.
It has been demonstrated repeatedly that there is no connection between early vaccination and autism, but not everyone is up on the research... as in so many other things.
Recent brain scan research has demonstrated that the brains of those with ADD/ADHD and autism function significantly differently than those of normals. Some 25% of those with ADD/ADHD have brains that achieve normal function in early adulthood, ie they outgrow it. It has also been recently demonstrated via brain scans that Ritalin does actually act on certain areas of the brain in those with ADD/ADHD, but does not work on the brains of normals.
Yes, there are more troubled children in our society than there used to be, much of which could be avoided were they properly parented. BUT, our diagnostic and treatment toolkit contains much more sensitive tools than back in the day, and we are discovering treatable causes for behaviour that back in the day would have resulted in suicide or the unmarriageable and unemployable aunt/uncle who lived in the spare bedroom... or was sent away to an institution.
#14
Believe me, getting a kid labeled "autistic" is hard to do. The schools do not like to do it. My kid was on the borderline between moderate and severe, and the schools just barely scored him as autistic. And if the school system had gotten their wish, it would have been a disaster both for my child and whichever class he would have been put in.
As for the drugs: They are life-givers, not childhood-takers.
Any of you out there who think otherwise should go visit one of these classes sometime, otherwise you are just typing to see yourself type. I have yet to see even one single kid in these classes (and I've seen more than most of you) who didn't belong there. Not even one.
There are many more kids in regular ed that would be better-served by moving them into classes that can support their behavioral needs, even if they aren't as severe as those of autistics and those with generous doses of ADD/ADHD. These are the kids that the biases vetting process leaves behind because the schools system doesn't want to have to pay for them.
And there are more autistic kids today. The evidence for this lies in the fact that there are way more severely autistic kids today than a few decades ago. It's hard to misdiagnose a kid who sits in the corner drooling on a broken record every waking moment.
Savage is a moron on this subject. And I don't think you'll find a whole lot of parents of "successful" autistic kids who are against the drugs. Some kids don't need them. That's great. But when you give your kid a drug and he starts talking shortly thereafter, or stops beating his face, or stops picking his arms raw, or stops obsessing on bugs and throwing screaming fits wherever you go - then you'll be a believer. That is when these kids can start learning in a meaningful way. That is the way it is and everyone else can go and play.
As far as the racket is concerned, that argument is just a smoke screen for this moron. He was saying that these kids are just faking it or something. The "racket" comes in when you go to a speech therapist or psychologist or psychiatrist for help and they take your money and do not provide value in return when there are much better options available. This has nothing to do with the number of autistics out there.
#15
Gorb, you sound like you are talking about fairly severe and unambiguous cases of autism. I think what the article and most of the comments here are wondering about are the lighly autistic or borderline cases that end up getting called autism out of convenience or some need to simply label the problem and medicate. If the rates are as high as some of these people are saying, then the human race is going down the genetic crapper.
#16
Gorb states how hard it is to get a child diagnosed as autistic even when the symptoms are severe and unambiguous. While schools get money from the state for special needs students, it is never as much as it costs the school to set aside classrooms, hire teachers trained to work with such students, hire classroom aides for those mainstreamed, and purchase the specialized equipment required for each student.
I can equally personally vouch for the difficulty in getting a diagnosis for mild Asperger's Syndrome. In this case, while the child was always a bit eccentric, she functioned extremely well at a personal and academic level (a solid group of girl friends, high honors in the school's program for gifted children) until reaching high school, when all of a sudden, despite her very best efforts (and as she ended up a National Merit Scholar and graduated with honors, her best efforts should have been very good indeed), she found herself failing classes in which she should have been getting A's. It took three years and five therapists to tease out the cause of her difficulties, including getting beyond diagnosis and medication for ADD, which she does not have. While she got a lot of support from her teachers and guidance counselor, the school never did anything out of the ordinary for her.
Back in the good old days, she would simply have dropped out of high school and committed suicide. Thus solving the problem.
#17
Nobody wants a (*&%&^%(*&%^*(^ autism diagnosis. No insurance covers anything related to autism. The insurers are dumping the treatment onto the school systems which are overwhelmed with these cases. What the hell is Savage smoking?
Three of our kids have Aspergers, including our eldest, an occasional Burg reader and poster. We've had twenty years of muddle getting help and therapies for them, and are going through the extremely difficult time of transition to adulthood and independence.
My father is an Aspie. He became a chemist, an excellent one; but his social skills are very poor. He couldn't get along with co-workers. His company worked around him; they set things up so that he could do his work with the electron microscope and his other gadgetry and other people kept out of his way. Nobody knew he had Aspergers--it didn't make the diagnostic manual until 1995. If somebody had known what was going on with my dad, his personal life, and the whole family, would have been better off.
I can understand Savage's beef about over diagnosis. There's a parent from hell in the next school district east of us that says her kid is ten times needier than he is. This dame even wanted school staff to work with her kid on Saturday.
But he really blew his argument to hell with his rant about autism.
#19
My neice's daughter is not servere but not mild either. She is learning to function but the cost is high. Her husband has been a contractor in Iraq for the last 4 years (medical) because that's the only way they can pay for treatment. Schools do not provide the kind of education these children need and neither should they be required to. They moved from Columbia, South CArolina to Atlanta because that's where the best facility in the South is. She has made wonderful progress there. When she finally did start talking it was in complete sentences, not baby talk. All of us family help whichever way we can.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
07/22/2008 17:51 Comments ||
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#20
My sympathies to all those having to deal with such difficult circumstances. Life is already tough enough without adding such a major complication.
#21
, and no amount of training will enable them to live independently
That perception at root is the problem.
My brothers son was severely autistic/ has Aspergers Syndrome. His wife was convinced it was caused by vaccines. I looked into it and found there was no good scientific evidence for vaccines and I found the evidence compelling that vaccines cannot possibly the cause.
Anyway, my main point is that irrespective of the cause and underlying physiological mechanism (assuming there is one), Autism is a problem, because of their behaviour, and behaviour can be changed relatively easily.
Communicating this to my brother caused a major family rift. And his wife insisted they pursue their very expensive search for the cause.
Now several years later, his son is almost completely over his autism without drugs or any other intrusive procedures. The key was that my brother's son sees a buddhist monk a couple of times a week.
This is no way an endorsement of Buddhism as a religion, and I'll point out that I trained as a behavioural psychologist.
What I specifically said to my brother is, "You have to get him out of the environment where he exhibits the severe autisitic behaviour. Unless you do he will be like this for the rest of his life."
His wife interpretted this to mean I was blaming her and reacted strongly. In sense she was right, she (and my brother) was the cause. This is obviously too bitter a pill for many parents to swallow. Hence the search for causes and the reliance on medication.
It took my brother a couple of years to try my recommendation, but he did eventually with happy results.
#22
wow -that'quite a few children from rantburg readers, which is food for thought. It may be because, let's face it, nerds gravitate to sites like rantburg rather than MySpace. :-)
Like I said, I don't listen often and was forced to listen yesterday, but original point I was making it that Savage was clearly not saying that "autism is a fraud". Rather he was making the point that many of our high functioning nerds could be damaged by the diagnois. For example one question he pondered was if Einstein had been diagnosed with it. No matter how outrageous Savage is, it is a valid discussion.
But my concern goes one step further. It's always the same pattern. It starts with an public campaign blitz by the Ad Council and other public service announcements. Nothing wrong with that. That's a good thing. But when your radar should go up is when the next steps start to fall into place. Media Matters will scour the airwaves to latch onto an outrageous statement made by a celebrity that and hype it into a full blown blog/media circus. And next, highly professional spokespeople, lobbyists or others who stand to benefit from public funding or lawsuits are ready and waiting to call in to the talk shows and media shows for a full blown sh** storm using the comment as a spring board.
My concern is that the professional spokesperson that called into Savage was hyping that vaccines are the cause. Another poster pointed out that this has been debunked. But one only need look at global warming or Gore's stolen election to realize how little facts matter when hyping the public into a frenzy.
So my point was/is that if they are going to push the vaccine issue, as I am now suspicious, we should all be very concerned and not fall prey to the hype.
I don't know if that is really what is happening or not, but I was just pointing out that we should stay alert to the possiblity because Savage did not say that "autism is a fraud" and the woman who called his show was a very professional spokesperson attempting to pedal a fraud that will in no way be helpful to anyone, especially those who have autistic children.
#23
ALL of our four children have some type of problem, from my oldest who is 41 to our youngset who's 3. The most severe is our 34-year-old son who suffered extensive brain damage before we adopted him, and who now functions at an equivalent age of 12 to 15. Our youngest daughter suffers from moderate to severe dyslexia, has many of the symptoms of ADHD, and who is now about a third of her way through a 2-year technical study course at the college level. We don't know what Tim's problems are going to be, but we see the early symptoms of them in his everyday behavior. We've worked in the system and outside of it, and understand the good, the bad, and the very, VERY ugly that can take place. We made many friends that also adopted problem children, and we've watched those children develop over the years.
There are many, many children that are both mis-diagnosed, or over-diagnosed. We've seen it happen, we're not dealing with hearsay. We've had our own bouts with children that are autistic (and that had other problems equally as severe) when we were foster-parents for a private agency, and we know how difficult it is to meet the needs of those children. We've also seen the abysmal failure of "society" - especially the school system - where many of these children are "warehoused", with the minimum supervision, minimum education, and minimum stimulus that they need to succeed in life.
I haven't heard the Savage broadcast, and I don't plan to listen to it. If there's a transcript, I MIGHT read it, just to see what the fuss is all about. I do know, though, that there have been far too many times when doctors and other professionals have latched onto the latest "research" to explain problems they haven't the experience to diagnose correctly - unattachment, bipolar disorder, ADHD, and yes, even autism. It's ALWAYS best to be cautious about such labels, as they can criple a child psychologically, emotionally, and intellectually. I am especially leary of those that have a glib, single-point-of-focus for all of life's problems, such as the "vaccine causes autism" crowd. Every single person is different, from birth through life to death. Trying to label every child and put them into neat little groups is a stupid way to approach any problem that involves people.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/22/2008 20:01 Comments ||
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#24
Never knew so many on the 'burg have personal experience with autism. My hat goes off to you all.
Posted by: Swamp Blondie in the Cornfields ||
07/22/2008 20:34 Comments ||
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#25
Savage has been on the warpath for years about the over-prescription of drugs such as Ritalin and Prosac, particularly to children. And I think events are tending to support him more and more over time.
I agree with bigjim-ky. I don't remember anybody having autism when I was a kid. So why now? When I heard the PSA I thought to my self, this is a shakedown coming.
No doubt some people do have a real problem and need help. But no doubt some people also take advantage of the situation, especially the professional crusaders.
I have to admit I can think of at least a half dozen teachers who would have sacrificed the body part of your choice to have had me tranqed for the school year. I'm glad I'm not a kid today.
Parents in New York City said their children are getting their feet burned while playing on blistering hot playgrounds.
When I was a child my mother used to send (not take) me to the playground. This was at the elementary school, several blocks from our house. There the miniature me could play the day away.
There was a kid-powered merry-go-round that could be made to turn at dizzying speeds, teaching us all sorts of lessons about cetripetal and centrifugal force. Much childish amusement was to be had when somebody tossed his/her/its centripetal cookies after a good centrifugal spin. Or maybe it was vice versa. If you fell, you landed on asphalt, often skidding. It was good for you. Eventually the scar tissue built up and your knees became impervious to injury.
We had a set of steel monkey bars where we could climb perilously high, to stand up on the top rungs and hoot at the world, then hang upside down by the knees, prior to falling on our heads onto the hot asphalt. I sometimes think that experience, not drugs, is why the 60s happened.
We had swings, too. Good ones, real wood hung on good, thick chains, from tubular steel frames set in concrete. They were indestructible swings. You could swing just as high as it was possible for your kicking little legs to take you and then, after several good swings, at the very apex of the hilarity, you could leave that wooden swing seat and sail through the air. If you were lucky you'd land on the grass covering the hard-baked July soil. If not, you hit the asphalt and your swing stood a good chance of conking you in the back of the head. That sort of thing probably explains disco.
Perhaps most excruciating was the sliding board, a good 7- or 8-foot length length of polished steel that on a typical late July day could fry an egg before it made it all the way out of the shell. Many was the childish bottom, my own among them, that sauteed on that relatively short trip down the slide. By the time I got home from a day on the sliding board my Mom could use my butt to make gravy.
Now I look at my grandchildren and think how much they'd have liked that playground, where kids played with an absolute minimum of adult supervision. Our parents never sued the township for a few bruises. And the childish versions of us had something today's kids seldom get.
Scabs.
The parents and their supporters said more than a dozen children are scorched each year by hot playground equipment, particularly by black mats under jungle gyms and sliding boards. They said the city is ignoring a public health and safety issue.
Poor widdle beppies. We used to laugh at the brats that blubbered after an itty-bitty fall from the top of a 7-foot jungle gym onto the asphalt.
Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe said signs have been posted in playgrounds warning against going barefoot.
"Proper footgear must be worn at all times!"
He said his department was not going to remove the mats, calling the city's playgrounds "the safest in the world." Parks Department spokesman Jama Adams told the Daily News in Monday editions that there have been "no incidents reported" involving children being burned at playgrounds.
That tells me the kids are tougher than the grownups are.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/22/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Fred, I know exactly what you mean. I had much the same experience. My granddaughters live next door to a playground that is very nice - it has soft rubber mats, the various things are designed so that a kid would have to work hard to hurt himself.
By the way - worse than landing on asphalt was landing on loose gravel. That way, you ended up not only with scrapes, but an odd pebble or two or three embedded in your skin.
Posted by: Rambler in California ||
07/22/2008 1:08 Comments ||
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#2
You forgot the teeter-totters...large wooden beams where the game was to try and knock the top kid off by landing hard, or failing that by rolling off leaving him to plummet to the ground
#3
For those of us that grew up in rural America, there were similar "death defying" activities.
My mom's order of the day was 'go outside and play'. Running through woods, fishing, catching frogs, playing baseball, riding bikes down to the river - all without parental supervision, something that would never occur today with all the supermommies who invent a million excuses why their little precious can't take any risks at all.
We got stung by bees, bitten by ticks and mosquitoes and various other biting insects, fell out of trees we climbed, etc.
Still here to talk about it.
There is a series of magazine ads showing kids wrapped in bubble wrap. Show this to one of today's yuppy overprotective olympic mommies, and they actually consider the idea. (I've experienced this more than once.)
These overprotective parents aren't feminizing our boys, they're doing something far worse - emasculating them.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
07/22/2008 6:02 Comments ||
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#5
Playgrounds? The only time I got to go to a playground was at school during recess. At least our school was too poor to have asphalt. We had dirt. We had pine cone wars, dirt clod wars, played army (Civil War) at school. Almost every boy had a pocket knife. We were expected to act like boys and we did. Wimps.
#6
In Spain we played cowboys and Indians when we weren't playing sheriffs and outlaws. I had a toy colt 45 (won it in the raffle of a circus) who was about as big and heavy like a rela one. I absolutely loved it.
I guess today kids are no longer allowed to play at those games. Instead they play soacial assiatsnt and drunkard or "global warming activists and bush-haliburtono-hitlerists"
#7
The phone company strung new wire and gave us kids either the old or some scrap, I don't know which. Seemed like a good substitute for rope so we hung an old tire from a tree limb with it. Great swing for a while. Then we discovered metal fatigue. Just added to the thrill - tied off the break and tried to guess how long until it broke again. Or until the knots failed. Learned a lot that way. That which does not kill me makes me stronger.
Posted by: Menhaden S ||
07/22/2008 8:21 Comments ||
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#8
We at least you had dirt Glitle all we had were woven Sandspur turf, but we were damn glad to have even that.
#9
I always thought Noo Yawker kids were tough. (That's what my Brooklyn-born daddy told me, anyway.) If their mommies can't handle a little bit of heat from a rubber mat, they'd probably go apoplectic from some of the "character building" I got as a kid (wiping out on blacktop with the pointy rocks sticking out.....during a Phoenix summer.....the good thing is it kinda started the cauterization process and sped up healing. ;) )
Oh....and we had a way to deal with saute-ing your butt on the way down the slide. We'd pour sand on it and slide on that. It did a number on your clothes, true, but it kept your butt from sticking and made it marginally less hot.
Posted by: Swamp Blondie in the Cornfields ||
07/22/2008 8:27 Comments ||
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#10
Ah, come on people. This is deep blue country where newborns are becoming as rare as Northern Spotted Owls. Those that are able to escape the knife and suction that waited so many of their brethren even before they made it out of the womb, are nurtured in a sanctuary of artificial banality, created to insure that they at least some make physical adulthood in order to vote to keep the nanny state going. Therefore, the few, the vain, the cuddled are given every protection from the true nature of life. Heck, some day they may even run for President.
#11
We didn't live on a farm, but had good friends that did.
Jumped from the barn rafters into the haymow, climbed the concrete silo (on the outside, using the steel rings that held the whole thing together), threw rotten eggs and cow-pies at each other, and generally appreciated being alive.
In town, my playground experiences were similar to Fred's with the hot, hard, heavy and absolutely excellent equipment. The wife and I try to explain the 'play stuffs' we used and the grandchildren look at us like we were suicidal fools.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
07/22/2008 9:59 Comments ||
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#12
Nanny Bloomberg! I'm too stupid to make sure my kids wear shoes! Help me! Save my kids feet! Save me from myself!
#13
Fishing, hunting (with real guns), pickup football, baseball, basketball, hockey, hard outdoor work (for real money); those were the ways I spent my time as a kid. Hell of a lot better than playing Nintendo. Taught me a lot about what was real and what wasn't. Contributed mightily to the process that insured I would NEVER, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES IMAGINABLE, be a liberal.
#14
We had to walk to school in the dread San Diego winters, uphill, both ways. We couldn't afford shoes, so, to get traction on the icy hill, we wrapped our bare feet with barb wire... and books? Lemme tell you...
WTF is wrong with people nowadays? Bloombergitis?
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/22/2008 10:22 Comments ||
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#15
Folks, there is another creeping danger right underneath your kids' fingers. It is extremely dangerous even though there is a country wide ad campaign not just downplaying the danger but encouraging people and targeting kids in particular. It can be bought over the counter at any store in the nation. The threat: Chedder Cheese. Apparently this contriband is so dangerous it has even labeled 'Sharp' and 'Extra Sharp'. DO NOT let your kids put this menacing "Food Item" in their mouth or run carrying a block.
#16
You know what I saw last friday. An 8 year old on a horse. A real horse, a tall horse. This guy was working cattle, real cattle. And he was good at it. Me, I didn't get much more advanced than BB gun tag.
#17
If you could get a real gang of kids together, nothing beat a good game of Cowboys, Indians, Aliens, Nazis and Dinosaurs. That was some truly bad Saturday morning Sci-Fi theater, you betcha.
And then they opened up the quadruple feature Shaw Brothers Kung Fu cinema, and *really* rotted our brains. Sonny Chiba was a demigod.
#18
Fred, great inlines. Me too. Used to burn my ass on slides all the time. Now kids have water slides. We didn't and those suckers must have been at least 150 F. Same with jungle jims. So hot I had to drop off sometimes. I wish i knew how many times I fell off a merry-go-around. Damn we could get those spinning fast. Good memories. No wonder these kids are fat nowadays. Think about the calories we burned. Not to mention baseball, which we played almost daily. And, rode our bikes miles each day at the fastest speed possible. We had fun, entertained ourselves and burnt off fat. No wonder we could eat all the time. What a shame kids are not safe to play freely like we were. They sit in the house in front of a screen, like us oldtimers now. A great pity.
#21
Inevitable, more Gold's Gyms needed. The Obamamessiah will provide.
Posted by: AL Gore ||
07/22/2008 12:49 Comments ||
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#22
We took the chain guards and reflectors off our bikes, they look cooler that way. Had dirt clod wars, shot stuff with BB guns, played smear the queer, had GI Joe dolls, had a healthy love affair with Clint Eastwood and John Wayne, were actually afraid of the police, and relished the occasional nudie magazine we came across.
Things were much simpler back then, and it wasn't that long ago. I pity these kids, they'll be lucky if they all don't turn out to be browbeaten, metro-sexual, ADD patients.
Michigan summers were spent much the same way, including jumping off the M-89 Bridge at Yorkville into (only God knew how deep ) the river. Now there is a humungous chain link fence up across the entire structure, including land side approaches so the kids now adys can't do that.
no GFIs so you would find out what happened when a bobby pin was stuck in the outlet.
Lawn darts ( the game, not the airplane)
Lawn dart catching.
"Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe said signs have been posted in playgrounds warning against going barefoot. "
#24
We use to swipe wooden survey stakes and steel trash can lids and whale on each in "sword fights", have BB gun wars, full contact bicycle races, etc. This generation is going to grow up to be all metro-sexuals.
Posted by: Cowboy is a compliment ||
07/22/2008 14:53 Comments ||
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#25
heh - for real, we had a long concrete driveway, and would set up hockey nets, have bikes pull kids on skateboards with street hockey sticks and pucks. Fun and games til Brent got a compound fractured arm.
Street hockey meets rollerball meets chariot races....Nurse Bloomberg would faint
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/22/2008 15:50 Comments ||
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#26
As long as I've been a parent, and I've encouraged it in all 3 of my kids, I've said: if kids' knees and shins aren't covered with bruises and scabs by the middle of summer, they're not having enough fun.
#27
I had an alley to play in. Street hockey and running bases with the boys, climbing all over the playground equipment. Sand in my clothes? Ok, I was doing laundry by age 9.
I consider it a blessing that my kids have had a weed patch or small woods or something messy to play in, which was considered a no parent zone, except for special occasions when the kids let us see their scrap lumber forts.
#28
This cmoplaint is just stage one, preparing for a class-action lawsuit or something. I can just smell it. "Did you're child incur any harm by playing, or being unable to play on the hot playground?"
#29
I blame Dr. Seuss for the internets, scar tissue, discos, bad gravy, cold phone salesmen, yuppy perspective, thin scabs and drug addiction....
yep!
And today we gottem Gaul Dern overprotective mommies.. who don't know how important trying to fly from your own roof is... sheech..
**
Impressive inline Fred... a keeper.... ~:)
Posted by: Red Dawg ||
07/22/2008 17:23 Comments ||
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#30
I almost forgot a few things. We didn't have snow in South Alabama so we would get a cardboard box and "sled" down a hill on pine neetles. You can't steer a cardboard box. Those things could go awfully fast. One time we went frog gigging but there were so many water moccasins we quit trying to gig frogs and started gigging moccasins.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
07/22/2008 18:03 Comments ||
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#31
I got tossed off the top of one of those metal slides when I was a kid by another kid a year older than I was. I caught my breath, got up, and went right back up that slide.
That kid and I became best friends after that and we still get drunk together whenever I'm back in Ohio.
Nowadays that kid would've been suspended or expelled and I'd have been rushed to the hospital.
#32
Oh, and if anyone had seen what we did with our toboggans or why we lugged 5-gallon buckets of water a half mile or more out to the top of a hill in the dead of an Ohio winter we'd have gotten our butts tanned till the snow around us melted from the heat.
#33
Me and my 5 brothers used to run around the house with sharp sticks playing 'guns' as we would shoot each other (bang bang!). That and sliding down a grass enbankment with a cardboard sled directly onto a street. Or riding our bikes down the middle of a busy street - right along the centerline with cars going past both ways on the way down to san sayers pits in Lake Washington (where the hydroplane races were held) where we would jump of the docks into the lake (with no lifeguard).
#34
I grew up in a rural area of central Louisiana. We'd go skinny-dipping in the local creek, and always had to post someone as snake and alligator lookout. We rode our bikes through the woods as fast as we could get them going. We built straw forts, had slingshot and chinaberry gun fights, and learned to throw an axe and crack a bullwhip. We'd sometimes get hurt, but no one ever died, even from scorpion stings, wasp stings, and the occasional fire ant nest. Too many of today's children aren't allowed to get dirty, and have virtually NO immunity from the rough, harsh, and sometimes deadly world they live in.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/22/2008 20:16 Comments ||
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#35
Mine was a BB gun, 2 dogs, a "Rambo" knife and the woods in the Ozarks. All day on the weekends and usually after school. I'd be out after breakfast and be back for dinner. Sometimes my dad would give his loud whistle to call me home and I would whistle back that I was on my way. The chiggers ate me alive more then once. I lived too far out to have friends my own age, but I learn to hunt, track, shoot id poison ivy and build fires better then anyone of my future friends. My dogs were my bestfriends and the woods keep me out of trouble and happy. After a bad divorce I moved back to Missouri and have taken up float trips, camping and hiking with my dog again. I also met a wonderful woman who enjoys the same by chance on the trail. Sometimes you can go back home.
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
07/22/2008 22:50 Comments ||
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Algerian authorities ordered the closure of two churches in the Algerian city of Tizi Ouzou last week for alleged missionary work, according to recent press reports.
The latest closures are a part of an intensive campaign to uncover conversion efforts in many Algerian provinces, especially tribal areas, resulting in 10 churches receiving orders to close since November.
Ministers of the two Protestant churches in Tizi Ouzou, 100 kilometers (62 miles) east of Algiers, were summoned by the authorities and charged with engaging in illegal practices.
They will hold an emergency meeting to discuss ways of resolving the issue with the authorities, the London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi reported on Monday.
Algerian Minister of Religious Affairs, Bouabdallah Ghulamallah, said the latest closure was ordered under the new 2006 law which limits non-Muslim worship to specific buildings approved by the state. The law, which also forbids non-Muslims from seeking to convert Muslims, was prompted by what officials have described as an increase in the activities of Christian evangelical sects. According to authorities, churches establish places of worship in remote areas, luring Muslims to convert to Christianity by offering them money and jobs in Europe.
Ghulamallah said the churches would reopen as soon as they obtained the required permits. In an earlier statement, Ghulamallah called the Anglicans in Algeria "outlaws" and accused them of trying to establish a non-Muslim minority in the country to pave the way for foreign intervention under the pretext of religious persecution.
There have been conflicting reports about the number of Christians in Algeria, which is almost totally Muslim. According to officials, around 11,000 Christians, including expatriates, live in the country of 33 million. But other sources say the number is much higher, attributing the increase to missionary activities.
The tension reached its peak a month ago when Algerian authorities asked the American bishop Hugh Johnson, 74, to leave the country after his residency expired. Johnson, who has been living in Algeria for more 45 years, filed a lawsuit and demanded the revocation of his deportation decree.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/22/2008 00:00 ||
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MANAMA Bahrain yesterday lifted the ban on import of Bangladeshi workers on condition that they provide a certificate of good conduct, a senior official said.
A ban by another name ...
The Counsellor and Charge dAffaires of the Bangladeshi Embassy, Mohammed Saiful Islam, told Khaleej Times that he received a letter from the General Directorate of Nationality, Passport and Residence at the Ministry of Interior confirming the governments promise to review the ban that was imposed two months ago after a Bangladeshi man killed a Bahraini.
I appreciate the tolerant approach of Bahrains government and I hope my community will return the favour by further dedicating its efforts for developments, he said, while thanking government bodies, especially Minister of Interior. Saiful hailed the generosity of the government for not imposing tough conditions as was discussed earlier.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/22/2008 00:00 ||
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A 60-year old Saudi man who was set to marry a 10-year old girl--he 'won' in a bet with her father--has postponed his marriage after protests from human rights groups, press reports revealed.
The fate of the little girl was decided after her father dared the elderly man to marry a second wife and teased him about being afraid of his current wife. The elderly man accepted the challenge and asked for his daughter's hand in marriage, Saudi newspaper Al-Madina reported. The father couldn't retract the challenge and accepted the proposal, asking for a 100,000 riyal dowry, the paper said, adding the two men finalized the marriage procedures and the couple even underwent pre-marital tests, which shocked staff at the lab.
The Saudi National Human Rights Association sent a letter to the Emir of the northwestern city Hail, where the girl lives, and to court to stop the union. The Association stated that the union is in violation of the international treaty for the protection of children from early marriages, of which Saudi Arabia is a signatory. The residents of Hail shared the same sentiments and were actually the ones who demanded that the Association intercede to stop the marriage.
Last March, the Association stopped the marriage of a 12-year old boy and his 11-year old cousin in the southwestern province of Jizan.
Saudi sociologist Abdullah Al-Harbi said that in these kinds of marriages the father technically sells his daughter, since the groom-to-be usually pays huge amounts of money to marry a younger girl to "satisfy his sexual desires." "These marriages usually end up in failure, and the girl usually goes through trauma due to living with a man who is much older," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/22/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
The important part of this story is that it was the social rejection of the marriage that prevented it, not the government action. The social sanction in a place is always far more powerful than the law. And this shows there is some social evolution taking place in Saudi.
Pakistan's immigration authorities issued immediate deportation orders yesterday for an American girl awaiting an uncertain destiny holed up in an Islamic seminary.
Muna Abanur Mohammed is among the eight students at Jamia Binoria, a leading madrasa in southern port city of Karachi, who were placed on a blacklist last month by Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, due to the expiration of their religious education visas to study Qur'an.
"Yes we have received the deportation orders but we will not hand her over," Maulana Mufti Mohammed Naeem, founder and head of the madrasa, a 12-acre sprawling walled compound seminary, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA). "No one could dare come near a one-mile radius of our compound," he said.
"Yes we have received the deportation orders but we will not hand her over," Maulana Mufti Mohammed Naeem, founder and head of the madrasa, a 12-acre sprawling walled compound seminary, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA). "No one could dare come near a one-mile radius of our compound," he said.
Senior immigration officers at state Federal Investigation Agency, requesting anonymity, said they had no immediate instructions from the federal authorities to carry out any swoop against the madrasa to remove students holed up inside.
Meanwhile, a US Embassy official in Islamabad said they were closely watching the situation. "We are aware and monitoring the situation," Press Attache Megan Eliss said. A madrasa insider told DPA that the US Embassy was in constant touch with the girl.
So far, out of the eight students, two American teens, known as the Khan brothers, were removed last week by US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Pakistani authorities and sent back to Atlanta, Georgia, following the intervention by US Rep. Michael McCaul, a Republican from Texas.
Both brothers were evacuated following a documentary "Karachi Kids" shown by US-based Fox Television, which claimed that teens were forced to study at Jamia Binoria. Naeemi said the madrasa would try its level best to negotiate with the Pakistan government for an extension of Muna's visa.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/22/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Muna Abanur Mohammed is among the eight students at Jamia Binoria, a leading madrasa
#2
Anyone requesting a visa to visit Pakistan in order to go to this madrasa should have the Visa denied. Anyone that lies about their Pak visit to go to this Madrasa should have their passport revoked.
And anyone from the Madrasa trying to visit the US should of course be denied a visa.
#1
This is a lot more complex than what they are suggesting in the article.
As males age, they produce somewhat less testosterone, which is the male "master hormone", for which there are receptors all over the body. Males also contain a small and very precise amount of estrogen, and if testosterone is not available for their receptors, they are occupied with estrogen, often with very deleterious health results.
To make matters worse, as part of the aging process, males also produce an enzyme that converts testosterone to estrogen.
Athletes who are in non-regulated-competitive sports can take OTC synthetic enzyme blockers that harmlessly limits the loss of testosterone by conversion, preventing the harmful effects of too much estrogen.
Add to that the increasing amounts of chemically similar to human estrogen, plant estrogen, which is being artificially introduced into our food supply by farmers, who use it to increase plant yields, and there is the potential for serious trouble.
The problems associated with testosterone in older males may in fact be due to the conversion to estrogen, instead of the testosterone itself. By blocking the testosterone, it may prevent its conversion to estrogen, which may be the real culprit.
#2
well, I'm not giving up my weekly prostate checks
what?
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/22/2008 11:45 Comments ||
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#3
Anonymoose, bodybuilders have had that problem for years, mostly because they monkey around with their test levels on purpose. Anti-aromatase drugs prevent the breakdown to estrogen and can jump start the test production in the HPTA axis. I wonder if these guys are seriously overthinking prostate cancer treatment?
#4
Also known to bodybuilders is that whole wheat bread is loaded with estrogens, high enough in some cases to cause gynomastia in very sensitive guys.
From pits to the homeless to failing businesses - it seems the problems in Downtown Eugene never end. But Monday, the city council took a step toward working on at least one issue: criminals.
The topic: an ordinance that would ban anyone convicted of a crime like robbery or assault from downtown Eugene for 90 days. Supporters say it would be an effort to clean up downtown and discourage criminal activity and vandalism.
Right now, if a person is arrested of certain crimes they have to go through a trial process before any other action is taken. With this new ordinance, if the judge thinks there's enough evidence, anyone even charged with a crime would immediately be banned from the downtown area for 90 days. If they are found guilty, they would be banned for a year.
Likely unconstitutional. You can't ban accused (still presumed innocent) people from public places unless there is a danger, in which case, they shouldn't be out on bail. And guilty people who have served their time likewise can't be banned from public places unless they constitute a danger.
This proposal drew plenty of comments from downtown business owners. "We have customers being threatened," says Betty Snowden. "We have customers being cursed out and being hit. And we want to brag about our downtown core? We should be ashamed of ourselves."
The council voted to wait and hold a public workshop before making a decision on this ordinance.
We also heard from the other side. One man said if he was banned from downtown, he wouldn't have access to the bus station, couldn't use the library, or attend his church which happens to be in the downtown area. This has never been permitted by the courts as law, but has been permitted on an individual or group basis as injunction, which makes it almost unique as exclusively judicial law.
#1
Wow! Very frightening. The left touts itself as the big defenders of liberty and then when they realize they "ideals" have led to a society of criminals out of control, they resort to facist tactics such as this.
National guard in Chicago, road blocks in DC. Here's an idea: enforce the law, actually put away the lawbreakers, allow citizens and business owners to defend themselves and demand legal immigration, as these scofflaws are responsible for a large percentage of crime. What a mess these people have made.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
07/22/2008 10:11 Comments ||
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#3
Eugene is known amongst us as Berkley North. There aren't many in downtown Eugene that I've seen that look like they can make it on the outside. It's kind of a daycare for disabled with Berkley disease. I say let them be - less trouble for everyone if they stay there.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
07/22/2008 10:14 Comments ||
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#4
Do they have facial recognition cameras or something? Or are they relying on people to rat each other out?
Posted by: Grenter, Protector of the Geats ||
07/22/2008 12:05 Comments ||
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#5
It's kind of a daycare for disabled with Berkley disease lol! Too funny.
I don't think we should ignore them though. They have always been such idiots that no one every took them seriously. Then one day we woke up, looked around and realized their mess was now our mess. Ingoring them is like ignoring an outbreak of syphillis.
#6
Until you are convicted you are innocent.
When you have served your sentence you are square with the man.
These are elitist assholes trying to homogenize Eugene to their definition of "the right kind of people".
Raise the cost of living to outlandish levels if you must, but don't try to pass laws against poor people, cause that's what this really is. If you steal $5,000,000 from your investors you are presumed innocent found guilty. If you drink 7 beers and drive home you are a goddamned criminal unworthy of due process.
#8
Judges were, and sometimes still are, lawyers. All the lawyers and judges in the courtroom usually know each other and often hang out together. Judges get a major case of the red-ass when you try to cop out and use a public defender. Its like you are failing to properly play the game, and it will cost you big in terms of fairness. They take care of their own before they think about superfluous things like fairness or justice. Believe me, I learned the dynamics of the process real quick when I was younger.
Gas prices are too high for a day trip to Dewey Beach. They are too high for a quick visit to see a friend in College Park. They consume enough of 18-year-old Ashleigh Krudys's paycheck that she second-guesses her social plans. Oh, the horror! My expectations will not be fulfilled in the manner I was expecting!
Where's the femtoviolin?
"I feel like I'm not being a real teenager," said Krudys, of North Bethesda, who pays for gas with a full-time babysitting job and is college-bound in the fall. "When you watch movies and stuff, it's like everyone has their own car and everyone can drive and go where they want all the time." I should be able to do anything I want, whenever I want it, just like my parents did, except there were no cars then.
As the nation's unprecedented jump in gas prices takes a toll across the region, many teenagers say they, too, are feeling the pinch. Some have a harder time wresting car keys from their parents. Others are looking for second part-time jobs to help foot the bill. Some like their parents, for heavens sake, are using Metro more often or getting around in other gas-saving ways.
This reality check comes at a time in their lives when many think of driving as exciting: a symbol of age and hard-won freedom, a rite of passage, an escape. But the price of gas has tempered the thrill for many teens, especially those who use their own money to fill up.
They talk of fewer evenings out. Less cruising around. More riding together and pitching in to buy a few gallons. Welcome to the Democratic dream.
"You have to scavenge around for money every time you go out," said Gary Jones, 17, of Wheaton, who is headed to Bowie State University in the fall and who pays for most of his gas with his restaurant-job earnings. Sometimes his mother pitches in; sometimes he takes the bus. "You don't give anyone a ride unless they have $5 for gas," he said. I'm easy, but not cheap!
As a group, teenagers tend to be lower-paid on the job, face higher prices for car insurance and drive older, less fuel-efficient vehicles, they point out. Escalating gas prices come as another blow. It's just like, so UNFAIR! Wait'll I have kids. It won't be like this! "It's like I'm working to pay for gas, instead of McDonald's" said Jamel Douglas, 19, a graduate of M.M. Washington High School in the District who drives to Laurel for his job as a security guard. Lately, he said, he has given up weekend drives to Virginia. He and his friends walk when they can. For now, he said, "Our car-buying days are over." Don't worry dude; the Obamamessiah is coming!
Even when parents are willing to help, Alex Rodriguez of Riverdale said, it takes more money to make a difference. "You have to get $20 instead of $10," said the 18-year-old, who is looking for a job.
Allison May, also 18, drives siblings and does family errands in exchange for gas and also works at a restaurant. She said she cut back on celebrations after graduating in June from James Madison High School in Vienna. "I have a lot of friends in Maryland, and I didn't go to everyone's parties because it's half a tank both ways," she said. Carpool? Metro? Better to do without? You DID have a choice, didn't you, whiner?
May said she and her boyfriend take turns driving on dates. When she shops should she have any pennies left after paying for gas, of course, she looks for the shortest route, trying not to double back. "I try to map it out in my head so that I don't waste gas," she said. Never imagining she'd do that when gas was only $2.50 a gallon.
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/22/2008 07:05 ||
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#1
I overlooked even more crying, but this was pretty good:
Aly Massey, 18, of McLean, a college-bound student whose parents pay for her gas, has been inspired to cut back more by environmental concern than financial necessity. I used to like to drive around and think and listen to music, but I dont do that anymore, she said.
McLean, by the way, is NOT the 'poor side of town!
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/22/2008 7:24 Comments ||
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#2
O.K., just one more. Potomac is not known as a shantytown, either:
Jessica Fainberg, 18, of Potomac, a recent graduate of Winston Churchill High School, splits her gas costs with her parents, funding her share mostly with her two-days-a-week babysitting job in Germantown. But as prices rose, she has come up short. Half the time, I cant afford to even fill up my gas tank halfway, she said.
She said part of the problem is the vehicle she fell in love with: a Nissan Xterra. The first day I filled up, it was like $65, and I was like, Oh, man. But relief has come from friends who pitch in when she gives them a ride. And from holding back on her driving.
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/22/2008 7:27 Comments ||
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#3
A wise man once told me, and I passed it on to my duaghter:
If you can only afford half a tank of gas - make it the top half.................
#4
Hey, I think we found a way to solve the kid obesity problem! Take the keys and make the little snots walk to the mall!
Posted by: Swamp Blondie in the Cornfields ||
07/22/2008 8:12 Comments ||
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#5
Geez. Poor teens, can't have everything. It's so not fair!:( (I remember collecting quarters from everyone for gas back in the day. Gas was only 33 cents a gallon but quarters were scarce!)
#7
The kids where I live are really out of luck. You can't make them walk 6 miles to town on the shoulder of the highway. There isn't a movie theater or anything else for 20 miles in any direction. Sucks to be them, now they know how I felt growing up. Most jobs in the little town that is 6 miles from me are min. wage convenience store jobs that get taken up by 40 year old divorcees, so they literally have no job prospects or chance of a part time or summer job at all.
#8
my son's working a new job for $8/hr while he's attending college. $4+ gas is a hardship, and to kids, it's even harder. He's not whining, it's just a fact
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/22/2008 12:34 Comments ||
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#9
Electric Bikes are the answer. These teens need electric bikes.
BRAWLEY, Calif. (AP) -- A Mexican citizen accused of driving more than 20 illegal immigrants in a vehicle that plunged into a canal, killing six of them, has been arrested on suspicion of smuggling, federal authorities said Monday.
The crash happened Friday night shortly after the driver fled police in Westmorland, about 125 miles east of San Diego, said Lauren Mack, spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. According to the California Highway Patrol, the GMC Suburban overturned into the canal and was submerged after the driver failed to maneuver a curve in the road. An 8-year-old boy and his parents were among the dead; the boy's 12-year-old sister survived.
The driver was arrested Sunday at a motel in nearby Brawley, Mack said. The suspect, who has been caught eight times by the Border Patrol, claimed to be a juvenile. His name was not released.
Witnesses reported that 22 people, all believed to be Mexican, had been packed in the Suburban, Mack said. Alfredo Sevilla, deputy consul for the Mexican consulate in Calexico, said there had been 19 people inside. Five passengers were returned to Mexico, four were hospitalized, and three were being held as material witnesses, Mack said. The others apparently fled. None of the four treated at Pioneers Memorial Hospital in Brawley suffered serious injuries, Sevilla said.
Passengers told Mexican authorities they walked across the border at Andrade, Calif., near the Arizona line, and entered the vehicle when the driver stopped for them along Interstate 8, said Francisco Torres, another consular official.
Westmorland police ended a pursuit when the driver accelerated, Sevilla said.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
A 60-year old Saudi man who was set to marry a 10-year old girl--he 'won' in a bet with her father--has postponed his marriage after protests from human rights groups, press reports revealed.
"It's like I'm working to pay for gas, 
