Moo! The Musings of a Plaid Cow

Next year. There’s always next year.

According to the news this morning, Mr Six will no longer be the face of the Six Flags amusement park. Good news for all of you who found him to be a bit scary.

An explosive vest is the new shotgun to the head. What a hell of a way for a Brother to leave.

Though I haven’t heard it yet, in a few weeks I’m sure that the Red Cross will suggest saving some of the money that was donated for hurricane relief for future projects. And they will be rebuked by the american people.

Would the Red Cross be better off today (and better able to respond) if they had not been required to distribute all of the funds donated around September 11th?

Question: Do you drink diet or regular soda?

After graduating college, and starting in the workplace I switched to diet.

Thanks to Greg for pointing to an article talking about soda replacing white bread as the leading source of calories in the American diet.

Question: What is you opinion on stem cell research?

The same as with any other activity: If, as a general rule, every person can say that “This activity does not infringe on my rights as a person”, then that activity should not be curtailed. There are exceptions to this rule, but all of them that I can think of are based on the concept of morality. And it is exceedingly difficult to legislate a shared morality, since it is a personal issue.

So, as far as President Bush goes, I will be happy to interview any and all people that would have been harmed had they been used for stem cell research (instead of starting life as a discarded embryo). So, if you started life as a discarded embryo, please leave a comment so that I can get a hold of you.

Students and faculty at some Massachusetts schools are trying to get military recruiters banned from the campuses. According to one student, the recruiters leave out many of the details, like the fact that “our lives might be in danger.”

If she thinks that is dangerous, apparently she hasn’t tried commuting on Massachusetts highways during rush hour.

According to a recent news story in Florida, a young girl is being denied an abortion by the state because she is “not able to make an informed decision because of her age and immaturity”. She’s thirteen, pregnant and living in a shelter for abused and neglected teens, without knowing her complete history, this may be one of the best decisions she’s made in a while. Or maybe, just a way to try to put the past behind her and start trying to live again.

I realized last night that there is a good reason I stopped watching the nightly “news”. It’s no longer about what important happenings are in the area, but rather how horrible life is for people since someone is out to get them. The three stories that I remember from last night:

Three seniors are complaining that thye are being forced to move out of their homes after many years (55 years in the case of the woman shown). She had raised a large family, but has lived alone since she was widowed 10 years ago. * She is being moved out of a three bedroom townhouse and been offered space in a one bedroom apartment in a highrise. * The townhouse is subsidised public housing. * There are many young families on a waiting list to get into town houses like this.

Some residents are complaining about the name of the new minor league baseball team, the Worcester Tornadoes. (In the mid 20th century, tornadoes decimated a good portion of central Massachusetts.) The residents feel that the baseball team owners are making light of the tragedy and are trying to profit off the misfortune of others. Residents noted that the name of “Warriors” also finished well in the voting (and wouldn’t offend anyone still alive).

Drivers across the Zakim Bridge were also complaining that snow that had stuck to the bridge supports was falling onto the road surface as the sun heated the bridge. The drivers interviewed were adamant that the city do something about this for the next time it happens. If these drivers are worried about falling snow, apparently they haven’t driven on the highway around the city where many people think that is is a great idea to not clear the snow off their car and cause white-out conditions on the roadway when is blows off as they speed down the road. (Or, more likely, the snow and ice blow off in large chunks which can completely block your windshield.)

With snow in the near term forecast again, I am reminded of two different stories that made the news during the past blizzard, where two feet of snow was dumped on Boston. (Living north of the Massachusetts border, we got around a foot of the fluffy white stuff.)

The first was people complaining that some of the local gas stations has run out of fuel. The snow packed (barely filling the pot-holes) roads and heavy congestion due to a lack of clearing of the snow from the roads had stymied many a delivery driver. Besides these reasons, the station owners also blamed local residents who had foresight to fill up before the blizzard, because not enough time was allowed to replenish supplies. Cry me a river and plan ahead.

The other interesting story was that of the Boston schools being open on the Thursday after the blizzard (on Sunday morning). They had been closed the first three days of the week and decided to open on Thursday, which turned out to be a mistake since six more inches had been predicted and was falling. So the superintendent got on the radio and announced that all students who were not in school that day would be marked “constructively present”. (Apparently the terms means something to the affect of: we know we said to be here, but we really don’t care if you’re not.) Parents were advised to use their own judgment on whether or not to send their children to class.