Where’s the Outrage?

I went to the White Castle hamburger at the corner of Reading and William Howard Taft in Cincinnati today.

Everybody knows this location.

20 years ago, I would have known people at this spot. I had a job in college selling lottery tickets. Many older guys who drove bootleg cabs would buy tickets from me.  These men  hung out at the Reading and Taft White Castle. Now I bet they have passed on.

Today, I held the door open at the White Castle for a woman. I let her get ahead of me in the line. She said, ”bless you.” 

While her order was being taken, the lady’s phone rang. She took the call! She held up the line with a conversation.  This is what I got in return for my politeness. I had to wait longer for my White Castle.

Please don’t pick up your cell phone if you are ahead of others in a line or interacting with a human being who is trying to provide you with some service.  

Tags: General by Texas Liberal
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This was one of those very ugly crimes for which there is no good explanation.

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From NYT:

As a weekend of bloodshed gave way to a day of mourning, the sleep deprivation and public battering were beginning to take a toll on Mayor Cory A. Booker, his face a curtain of sadness and fatigue. A group of protesters on the steps of City Hall were calling for his resignation, while a large huddle of reporters down the street waited with unanswerable questions about Saturday night’s fatal shooting of three college students in a West Ward schoolyard.

Moments before Mr. Booker was to step in front of the cameras, a mayoral aide noticed two middle-aged women and a man sitting silently among the crowd — relatives of Dashon Harvey, 20, one of the shooting victims. Officials quickly ushered them to a back room to meet Mr. Booker, who offered his condolences and promised that the police would stop at nothing to find the killers.

Then the mayor asked if there was anything he could do; during a pause, Mr. Booker seemed to be readying himself for a scolding.

“I just want to say that I don’t blame you for what happened,” said James Harvey, the young man’s father, his eyes teary. “I blame the parents in this city for not raising their children right.”  (more…)

 

 Father blames parents [1:20m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Domestic Issues by ecthompson
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Difficult? That is the going excuse? I can imagine telling a patient that it would be difficult to stabilize his heart. We would have to use a bunch of different medicines. They all would have different side effects. I would have monitor several different things at once. That would be too difficult. The patient would make a bee line to the door and find someone who was willing to do the tough work.

If the bridge was difficult to inspect for whatever reason why weren’t arrangements made to make the job easier. There was a problem with pigeon poop and bat dropping. Why wasn’t the fire department called in to blast those areas with their high pressure hoses? There was also a problem with the motion of the bridge. Couldn’t you shut the bridge down for several hours in order to get the job done? Because this was an important high traffic bridge couldn’t we use a team of inspectors?

As a trauma surgeon, I always see danger. That’s my job. It seems like weighing the risks of not getting a quality inspection verses the benefits of knowing exactly what the problems are would be governor’s job wouldn’t it?

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From NYT:

In the past two years, Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota twice vetoed legislation to raise the state’s gas tax to pay for transportation needs.

Now, with at least five people dead in the collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge here, Mr. Pawlenty, a Republican, appears to have had a change of heart.

“He’s open to that,” Brian McClung, a spokesman for the governor, said Monday of a higher gas tax. “He believes we need to do everything we can to address this situation and the extraordinary costs.”  (more…)

 

 Bridge difficult to inspect [3:33m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Domestic Issues by ecthompson
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Here’s the deal.  756.  Period.  Some fans can be upset that Bonds took steroids.  I can tell you that steroids doesn’t make you wait for a good pitch.  Steroids doesn’t give you hand-eye coordination.  The bottom-line is Bonds isn’t an American kid.  He is Barry.  Live with it.

Congrats to Barry for 756!!

Finally, Bug Selig should be fired.  He clearly doesn’t understand the game.  The game is about hitting a baseball.  Barry has done that better than anyone else in the history of the game.

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From ESPN.com:

Barry Bonds hit No. 756 to the deepest part of the ballpark Tuesday night, and hammered home the point: Like him or not, legitimate or not, he is baseball’s new home run king. Bonds broke Hank Aaron’s storied record with one out in the fifth inning, hitting a full-count, 84 mph pitch from Washington’s Mike Bacsik 435 feet to right-center field.

 

 756 [1:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Sports by ecthompson
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I’m so disappointed. Where was Harry Reid? Where was the leadership that the Dems were supposed to show us? Voting for this is simply wrong.
Crooks and Liars have an excellent discussion. Think Progress has a little bit. I’ll have more soon.

From Think Progress -

USA Today:

A skittish Congress allowed itself to be stampeded last week into granting the president unfettered surveillance power. When it returns to Washington, it should do what it can to make sure that the sun goes down on this flawed measure. [Link]

Washington Post:

To call this legislation ill-considered is to give it too much credit: It was scarcely considered at all. Instead, it was strong-armed through both chambers by an administration that seized the opportunity to write its warrantless wiretapping program into law — or, more precisely, to write it out from under any real legal restrictions. [Link]

The New York Times:

While serving little purpose, the new law has real dangers. It would allow the government to intercept, without a warrant, every communication into or out of any country, including the United States. Instead of explaining all this to American voters — the minimal benefits and the enormous risks — the Democrats have allowed Mr. Bush and his fear-mongering to dominate all discussions on terrorism and national security. [Link]

Glenn Greenwald was on Cspan’s Washington Journal.  He gave a full throated defense of the constitution and didn’t give an inch to the Dems who caved into our President.

Glenn will be in Asheville on Sept.13 to lecture at UNCA and doing a book signing!!

 

 Glenn Greenwald on Washington Journal [1:27m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Domestic Spying by ecthompson
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