Let’s go back a bit in history, all the way back to when Clinton left office, there was a surplus in our budget which hadn’t happened under either of the previous republican presidents. It took a liberal “tax and spend” democrat from the lowly state of Arkansas to actually put this country on the right path. Sure things weren’t perfect but they were pretty good and getting better.

In 2000 Bush ran against Gore as a “compassionate conservative”. He didn’t turn out to be either of those things. The United States quickly dove into that surplus and then started spending massive amounts of money all while cutting taxes. It’s the opposite of a “tax and spend” liberal. It’s a “borrow and spend” conservative. In fact, the US debt has doubled since Bush took office. (source)

Due to the complete and utter greed of Bush’s friends in business and coworkers in the government, every possible avenue of making money was exploited. Gambles were made with reckless abandon and the people in position to make important decisions about financial matters, made all the wrong decisions. I’ve actually been concerned for quite some time and in fact made a post right here on this blog back at the beginning of 2007 concerning this very topic. I quoted an article talking about the need to solve the problem now, not when the economy goes south. Here’s what I quoted:

The good news is that because the problem only grows more intractable with every passing day, our dithering politicians will have fewer options to chose from when the crisis hits thereby making their jobs that much easier. The bad news is that the more time we spend in denial, the less time remains for us to get busy and do something about it. There is even the danger that if we wait too long, we will face a potentially unfixable problem on the scale of what the Soviet Union experienced – catastrophic economic failure.(source)

So, this situation was easy enough to see years ago by experts and those experts were able to relay that information to the public that cared, including me. So how can the government not have known? The answer is they did and they didn’t care.

I don’t trust this government at all and I do not want to give them any more money. This government has screwed up the lives of so many people already that I’m not willing to let them touch any more of the taxpayers money. If I had a say in the matter, most of the executive branch of government would be impeached and perhaps jailed and members of the do nothing congress we have, would be relieved of duty. This goes for both democrats and republicans. I’m particularly disappointed that Barack Obama supports a bill like the one the Senate passed yesterday and the House will be voting on tomorrow.

Secretary Paulson actually has stated that he will be leaving his post in 4 months. We don’t know who will replace him. This proposed bill gives the person who will replace him an incredible amount of power. If you listen to some people talking about this “crisis” they seem to suggest that if this money isn’t handed over to the Secretary of the Treasury immediately, then the entire global economy will collapse and the world as we know it will be over. That’s a pretty significant level of trust we are putting on somebody who already has one foot out the door and then on the unknown individual who will replace him.

I suggest both presidential campaigns name the person they would choose to appoint to the position and let them start taking questions as to how they would handle things. It just makes sense that we should have this knowledge when our congressmen are voting for this bill and we as voters need to know before cast our ballot for president.

But back to the point, obviously $700,000,000,000 is a lot of money. A lot.
To put it into perspective, the Iraq war has cost this country : ###
(source)

My immediate reaction to the idea of spending $700,000,000,000 is “woah… is buying up bad debt really the best way to spend that much money?” I don’t know the answer to that question but neither does Congress. The fact that the Bush Administration is trying to hammer this legislation through without giving people time to think about it, makes me super suspicious about their motives. Bush has gone on TV a few times now and given ominous sounding warnings about the urgency of this crisis:

(youtube video)

The problem is, we’ve heard this before from the Bush administration… Colin Powell trotting out to the UN with a powerpoint slideshow talking about the urgency and need to invade Iraq and the hastily passed Patriot Act. Two examples of this routine leading us down a path that in hindsight we should not have followed.

They claimed last week that if the bill didn’t pass by tuesday of this week, the world would end. Or at least the economy would be beyond saving. In reality we are still fine. And we will be fine for quite some time. I hope congress will do some small things that will help the economy now, then once a new administration is able to come in, they can work on some plans that will actually significantly help the situation in the right way, with proper deliberation and some actual thought about the future.

I think about what a $700,000,000,000 investment in alternative energy research and development would do for our nation in the long term. I think about ways that money could be spent on a national health care plan and a real investment in education. These are things that will actually help our economy by creating wealth, not just taking good money and sending it after bad money.

I have several more thoughts on the topic, but it is getting late, and I’ve already said plenty.

To end, here is a short video of Eisenhower warning against the dangers of the military/industrial complex, and it’s scary accurate!

(youtube video)

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My thoughts on the “Bailout”

Saturday night was the big summer ending party for the staff. It was a great party with lots ‘memorable’ moments. I ended up staying at the place where the party was but woke up at 7:00am and decided to head home and sleep some more.

I was driving on the main road called Route 1 (two lanes) when a red pickup passes me on the left. There are yellow lines and its obviously a no passing zone, but he is going really fast. I slow down and let him by, but he keeps drifting further left until he bounces off a guardrail on the far side of the road. He then comes back into the oncoming traffic lane and then quickly drifts back off the left side of the road and hits a rock embankment at a slight angle and the truck goes airborne and then lands upside down next to the road. The weird thing is that between hitting the guardrail and then hitting the rock embankment he didn’t apply the brakes at all or appear to slow down. I’m guessing he was going about 40 miles an hour when he hit the rocks. It all happened very very quickly and the sound of the collision was super loud.

I immediately called 911, reported the accident, then jumped out and ran over to the truck. I couldn’t really see much because the roof was pretty smashed in. I could see a body and I heard some groaning. I told him that help was on the way and asked if he could hear me and how hurt he was, but didn’t get any responses. Another woman came over at that point and was dressed in nurse scrubs so I let her talk to him further. I couldn’t really tell the position of his body, I couldn’t see his head, but the airbag had went off and it was covered in blood as well as the rear view mirror. There was really nothing further I could do.

The ambulance got there really quickly and a bunch of cops came too. It was probably less than 2 minutes from the time of the accident to the arrival of the ambulance. Once the paramedics had arrived I went over to the cops and started explaining what happened. They took my info and then said they would call me later if they needed anything else. Then they suggested I go away because they were closing down the road and I shouldn’t be in the way.

This is when I wish I was taking pictures. I would have stayed and shot until there was nothing left to shoot, but since I had no way of doing that I got in my car and drove home and went back to sleep. When I woke up hours later I wondered if it had been a dream. Unfortunately it wasn’t. click here for more details and more pictures.

Obviously, I hope this guy survives, but I don’t think he is going to make it. After seeing the crash and the result of the crash, I’m not optimistic about his chances.

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Witnessed a crazy car accident

and I want to see this movie:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCDtdhiCm6A

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Sounds like a movie

Of course it will help Obama in the general election, but every democrat will support the nominee anyway, so this really doesn’t make a difference in any major way.

I never really liked Edwards. He just never seemed genuine to me. Then after his wife was diagnosed with cancer he decided to keep running for president anyway. That showed me what type of guy he is and it’s not the the guy I would want rrepresenting our country. Anyway, John Edwards sucks and I think he should just go back to being a lawyer.

UPDATE: Newsweek agrees with me pretty much exactly.

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John Edwards is a douchebag

So I have blue eyes. And according to an article in USA Today, I am related to every other blue eyed person on the planet.

Researchers in Denmark have found that every person with blue eyes descends from just one “founder,” an ancestor whose genes mutated 6,000 to 10,000 years ago. Before then, everyone had brown eyes.

Well this doesn’t come as a surprise. We are all related to one another anyway.

Something I hadn’t considered before was that my need for sunglasses in daylight is actually because I have blue eyes. It came up in conversation the other day. People that know me well, have seen me cringe and hide my face if I walk out the door on a bright day without my sunglasses. People that have been in my apartment know that I keep it dark and only turn on the lights if really needed. “It’s so bright!” is a common phrase that comes from my mouth. Sometimes I wear sunglasses when I’m driving at night because the lights from oncoming traffic bothers me a great deal. If I was stranded on a deserted island and could only have one item of choice, it would be a tough decision between sunglasses and shoes (the shoes thing is a whole other deal).

I’ve noticed that I have premature wrinkles around my eyes and I am willing to bet it’s because I squint too much and I squint too much because “it’s so bright!”

I wonder if this ultra-sensitivity to the light helps me to be a better photographer?

I did a 20 minute google search to find out if my hypothesis was true, but it yielded no scientific studies to back me up; nor did I find any studies to contradict me. However, I did find a tons of anecdotal evidence that suggests people with blue eyes are more sensitive to the light. What do you think? What color are your eyes and do you have light sensitivity issues or know people that do?

Here’s a link to the wikipedia article on Eye Color for further reading.

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Blue Eyes? We are related and sensitive!

Muldrow is about halfway between Sallisaw and Fort Smith.

So I get my camera ready for action and I go out and take some pictures, but nothing is really happening yet, although the tornado sirens were going off. I shot this picture of the clouds.

You can’t tell from the picture, but there are two layers of clouds and each layer is moving a different direction and quickly, which means rotation.

But pretty soon, it got really dark and the wind started blowing. I hung by the front door of her house for as long as I felt safe, but once it started to hail, I went inside and hid out in the hallway. The power went out and so we were sitting around in the hallway fiddling with batteries and radios and flashlights.

I’m kicking myself for not grabbing my little video camera and recording the noise, but the wind and hail was about as strong as I’ve heard/seen it. It definitely had the roar of a tornado. I remember the tornado that hit Fort Smith and Van Buren in 1996 had a very similar vibe and did very similar damage.

Once the sound died down and we came out of hiding, we surveyed the damage. It was still raining very heavily so I donned a rain jacket, grabbed my camera and went out shooting!

This shot is a long exposure of a tree that fell and blocked the road. The power is still out at this point and it’s still raining. It was pretty much pitch black out, except for the lightening and people’s flashlights, both of which illuminate this shot.

This guy was in a state of shock. He just sat on the fence not knowing what to do. I was able to touch him and I took several shots of him without much a response. Eventually he did fly away though.

My sister’s house had some damage.

This is in the ceiling of her garage. The high winds blew many shingles off the roof and the rain came right through the attic and dripped out of the electric outlet.

There wasn’t really a whole lot for me to shoot, because it was raining and very, very dark. We knew the damage was pretty significant, but until we got some light we couldn’t tell how bad.

The storms lasted throughout the night and I didn’t get much sleep.

In the morning, I got up and went out to take more pictures. The storm knocked down tons of trees, but luckily none landed on the house.

This one did fall down into the yard and crushed the fence.

A neighbors mailbox

A neighbors house

Another neighbor’s house

So during the night, the constant rainwater dripping through the roof, into the attic, and through the ceiling, caused it collapse onto my sister’s car. Luckily, there was no damage to the vehicle.

Charlie helps me check out the damage. There were shingles everywhere.

That’s the tree from the earlier shot after it’s been cut up and cleared out of the road.

After checking things out in the neighborhood, we decide to go find something eat. There’s still no electricity in Muldrow so cooking isn’t going to happen.

Here’s some shots from around town.

After the tour, I help my sister’s husband put a tarp on the roof and chainsaw up some of the fallen trees.

By the time we finish, the power has been restored and I get to work finishing the edits on the photos from last weekend.

Here is a link to more info about the storm from CNN.com

From CNN:

In far east-central Oklahoma, Muldrow was particularly hard hit, with state officials reporting damage to more than 200 homes and businesses from straight-line winds. The city was pounded with heavy rains, marble-sized hail and sustained winds of more than 60 mph, Officer Jose Flores said.

I have heard that Fort Smith had incredible hail damage with car windows being busted out and any west facing windows on buildings and houses also being busted. The flooding is supposed to be pretty severe too, although at the time of this writing, I haven’t been over to my parents house to check out the damage.

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Tornado?/Hail/Flooding

Here are a few recent stories that have really made me question the sanity of the American Public.

Woman sits on Toilet for 2 years

800 animals found in mobile home

Mother throws her children off a bridge into traffic

Bailiff forgets about woman in holding cell

Add to those, the murder of a girl in Fayetteville, AR, by her ex-boyfriend, and you have just a crazy mixed up world.

Those are all only from the last day or two.

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Crazy People!

I always prefer to go shopping with a girl because they are so much better at it. I just kinda wander around in a daze and a few hours later I stumble out of the store with a bunch of groceries. I’m not really sure what happens inside. I’m surprised I’m able to feed myself.

Maybe they should make a Grocery Store for men. We could answer some questions from the computer about what meals we like to eat and then a list of numbers pops out. The aisles would be numbered and the products would be numbered and we just grab the right number. I know guys can handle this process. See the problem is too many choices. If everything had a number then we wouldn’t have to choose anything. We just grab the product with the corresponding number. No confusion. Over time, the computer would learn more about our eating habits and make suggestions as to what we will probably like.

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Grocery store shopping for guys

Since when do people have to get treatment for calling people gay? Like I said, it doesn’t even matter if the dude is gay or not, it doesn’t matter. What matters is people are entitled to opinions and freedom of speech and no one is required to be nice to their coworkers. Obviously it makes for a better working relationship to get along, but some people just get on your nerves. You should have the right to call them names and not be forced into therapy for it. Even if he hates gay people, he is entitled to that opinion too…

Sure, bring up your argument that ‘faggot’ is a derogatory term for homosexuality and that it might offend real gay people. Who cares if people are offended? When you live in a country with Freedom of Speech, sometimes being offended is part of the program. Get with it or get out!

Oh and before you start thumping your retard sticks and calling me a homophobe, I have no opinion on gay people other than consenting adults should be free to do whatever they want sexually without being hassled about it.

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Isaiah Washington doesn’t need therapy!

It’s a fairly complex question and the answer is even more convoluted and actually hasn’t even been established yet. The courts in some states haven’t had to define in yet but some states have had to take a look at their existing laws and then determine on a case by case basis what to do in situations like that above.

Of course, it is also a question of doing what is best for the kids. If a man serves as the father figure for a few years to kids that aren’t his own, where is the line? What exactly determines fatherhood? Genetics only? I guess I would probably lean more towards the man not being obligated in any way whatsoever to kids that are not his. It just really isn’t fair to the guy any other way. You shouldn’t be forced into fatherhood unless the kid is biologically yours or you legally adopted them as your own.

One thing that could help would be to have a required paternity test as soon as you know you’re pregnant or as soon as the kid is born. Sure this invades privacy a little bit, but once you’re talking about kids and parenthood, privacy concerns should be thrown out the window. I think children have a right to know who their biological fathers (and mothers) are and a required test would be an easy fix.

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Child support for a child that isn’t yours?

···This is a pretty famous event and rightfully so, but I hadn’t heard about it. For some reason I find real life crime dramas to be pretty interesting and like to research them. I think it has to do with the complex nature of bad guys. I find it way more interesting to find out what makes them go against the rules than to find out about the heroics of the people who try to stop them. That’s why I like to make movies that explore motive (see my short films on Herostatus.net).

···Anyway, the gist of the story is that a couple of guys try to rob a bank but the cops are able to surround the building before they can leave. So, the two bank robbers come out of the bank and are prepared to shoot their way out. And they have come prepared for battle. Each robber is decked in several layers of body armour from head to foot and carries fully automatic weapons loaded with armor peircing bullets. They proceed to shoot at anything that moves for 44 minutes. The cops handguns are no match for the two robbers. Eventually the robbers try to leave the bank. One on foot and the other in the getaway car. The guy on foot eventually shoots himself in the head with a pistol and the guy in the car runs out of ammunition, surrenders, then bleeds to death on the street from 29 bullet wounds that found their way through the armor.

(graphic source)

···The whole thing was shown live from news helicopters and is an incredible and sensational modern crime story. This wikipedia article has tons more info about it and I highly suggest looking over it.

···There are a few really interesting aspects to the case such as, the cops had to borrow some heavy weaponary from a local gunshop and then the gunshop was sued for not waiting ten days and doing a background check before handing out the guns to cops. The gun shop didn’t survive the lawsuit and is no longer in business. And speaking of lawsuits, the family of the second gunman sued the city of LA for not getting the suspect into an ambulance soon enough and cuasing his death.

···Also, supposedly, the SWAT team was stuck in traffic, hence the lack of skilled marksman taking headshots.

···This Youtube video, is pieced together from the various news cameras and is narrarated to summarize the events. It’s the best one I found, but there has to be better ones out there.

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The North Hollywood Shooting

This wonderful feeling of freedom that puts a smile on everyone’s face. I slowly lifted off my seat and continued giggling. I just couldn’t believe it… to be honest with you, the whole thing is still like a dream to me… I was strapped in so tight that I couldn’t look outside. Finally when we were safe in the orbit, we were able to open our visors and to loosen our belts…

L.A. took his glove off and it started floating in the cabin. I could not stop giggling the whole time… I was finally able to take a look outside and saw the Earth for the first time… Tears started rolling down my face. I could not catch my breath… Even thinking about it now still brings tears to my eyes. Here it was this beautiful planet turning graciously about itself, under the warm rays of the Sun… so peaceful…so full of life… no signs of war, no signs of borders, no signs of trouble, just pure beauty…

How I wished everyone could experience this feeling in their heart, specially those who are at the head of the governments in the world. may be this experience would give them a new perspective and help bring peace to the world.

I used to want to be an astronaut. I wasn’t interested in science or being a pilot. I was interested in the experience. The feelings she describes in her blog are the same ones I wanted to experience. I think with the way things are going, space tourism won’t be only for the super rich when i’m older. I think they could probably get the price down to a million dollars a person by the time i’m 35. So in the meantime, I just have to figure out how to make a million dollars!

One very interesting side note to this story is that there is a musical group called Deep Dish and their website is www.deepdish.com. So this musical group wrote the offcial theme song for her flight into space.

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First Female Space Tourist

For those to lazy to click on the links below and read it, he was not killed by a crocodile, but instead by a Sting Ray. They claim it was a freak accident, but it was only a matter of time before some type of wild animal got the better of the man.

>On one occasion Leno asked Irwin to show how the sex of a crocodile could be ascertained. “I put my finger in here and if it smiles, it’s a girl,” Irwin said. “If it bites me, it’s a boy.”

(Source 1, Souce 2, Source 3)

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Crikey! The Croc Hunter has been killed!

“While I’m aware of the horrendous conditions that existed after Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans and left so many stranded without food, water, electricity and the basic necessities, I believe there is no excuse for intentionally killing another living human being,” — Louisiana Attorney General Charles Foti

AFP News Story
Reuters Story

My mother is an ER nurse and former paramedic so she has seen a lot of trauma. She is also a midwife so she has seen a lot of new life as well. I’m interested in getting her opinion on this whole matter, but I will give mine first.

The idea of a doctor purposely killing their patient is controversial any way you slice it, but I firmly believe that there are times when a doctor can and should ease the suffering. It is what they are supposed to do. Basic humanity demands it.

I’m not a religious person, but one of the main arguments against it is that it is up to God to determine life and death. But my counter argument to that, other than religion is a crutch in the first place, is that “it’s okay to put a dog or cat out of it’s misery, but not a human?” I would think it would be the other way around. We can ease the pain and suffering of an animal but not a person? Why is the HUMANE thing to do not reserved for HUMANS? It is absurd.

Now picture this scenario. You’re a doctor. A hurricane strikes the city. You’ve chosen to stay in the hospital and assist with patients. The city floods. The hospital loses power. The temperature rises to more than 100 degrees in the hospital. There’s no running water and sanitation is completely out the window. You’re working in the dark because there’s no lights. You’re stuck in the hospital with no help. Gunshots are heard outside the hospital. Patients are dying left and right. Food runs out. It’s been 4 days. Still no help. The patients are suffering. The heat is almost unbearable. Finally an evacuation is about to happen but some patients are too sick to move. If you leave them they will surely die.

As a doctor, it is your duty to relieve their suffering. When all other options are eliminated, it is okay to help them to a peaceful ending. The charges should not be brought upon the doctors and nurses who only did what they thought was the basic humanitarian thing to do, the charges should be brought upon the upper hospital staff who didn’t evacuate the hospital immediately when it was clear how terrible the storm was going to be. Also, charges should be brought upon the state government for not providing the resources needed to save the citizens of Louisiana.

“The state of Lousiana abandoned the hospitals, doctors, the nurses and these patients, They’re victims of the storm, not victims of homicide.” — Richard Simmons, lawyer for Doctor Pou

There were 45 bodies recovered from that hospital when they finally got around to cleaning up the mess. More than 200 sick and elderly patients died in their beds during and after the storm.

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Mercy Killing?