Saturday, September 30, 2006
Loves to drive
Boy, this guy loves to drive.
He just keeps on going. Irv Gordon, Volvo’s “Two Million Mile Man,” just became the “Four Million Kilometer Man,” breaking the four million kilometer barrier in the same shiny red 1966 Volvo P1800 he has been driving for more than 40 years.
If Volvo made a mini-van, I’d bought it.
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
Suicides all around
I’m obviously a little more sensitive to the word these days. It’s sad that even high profile figures are trying.
Flamboyant Dallas Cowboys receiver Terrell Owens tried to kill himself by overdosing on pain medication, police said, even putting two more pills into his mouth after a friend intervened.
Sadly, those around him seem anxious to cover up the truth.
Owens was hospitalized late Tuesday because of what his publicist said was an allergic reaction to pain medicine he was taking for a broken hand. Doctors reportedly tried to induce vomiting.
Here’s another random story of someone with similar circumstances to my brother-in-law’s last week suicide.
No Time to Say Goodbye : Surviving the Suicide of A Loved One ($US orders) is one of the few suicide specific books that is worth the read.
Monday, September 25, 2006
Betraying again
I have no time for those who can’t be trusted.
the first line of Leanne Domi’s allegations reads: “Tie Domi has committed adultery with Belinda Stronach.”
What a lesson she’s teaching her kids, and what a message she’s sending to her constituents. Pitiful.
State of the Social Union
Fred doesn’t have much good to say about today’s society.
Saturday, September 23, 2006
Collateral damage speaking
My brother-in-law killed himself Tuesday afternoon.
He did it in his van, in a small plaza parking lot.
He took some pills, and then lit a small, home made BBQ on the floor in the back.
Soon after, he went for the Big Sleep.
Someone must have called 911, because he ended up in the hospital, where they worked on him for over an hour.
His obit says he died suddenly, peacefully.
I wouldn’t call it peaceful.
Suicide is violent.
“He did it, didn’t he?”, my sister-in-law said when she saw the cops at her door.
They say successful suiciders try 8 to 25 times, on average. 70% of them are white males, most older. Since he matches the last two stats, I shudder to think of the other times he tried. I knew of only one other, last April.
Did you know it’s illegal to attempt suicide?
Images flash in my mind of him holding and hugging my children. Fresh ones.
Sounds of his voice thanking me profusely for helping him with his new job at my company echo eerily in my head. Haunting ones.
Wondering why anyone would go to the dentist (who scared the hell out of him) in the morning, only to polish himself off in the afternoon.
Wondering what the hell he was thinking when he decided to head out to the plaza. Wondering what his last thought was.
Wondering if he thought about any of the good things in his life. His wife, his daughter, my family, his new job, his expensive condo, his rags to riches story.
Wondering if we would have become better friends if he continued working at our company.
Wondering if we know anything about what bubbles beneath the surface of our closest family and friends. I doubt it.
I told others of his suicide. Both had their own tales of self-killers they knew. From this week.
We don’t read their “died suddenly” stories anywhere. Are we so ashamed or embarrassed? Why?
The first family dinner a couple of days later was funny. His name barely came up at all. Would it have been wrong to stand up and scream “What the hell is wrong with you people? Aren’t we going to talk about him at all?” I guess no one wanted to crack the ice, before it thickened and entombed his now finished life.
All those birthday parties he’s going to miss. All those Saturday morning coffee and donut visits he won’t be at. All those current event conversations we won’t have. All the lottery pools he won’t be in. All the holes in our lives he’s left.
Soon, anger and guilt will subside into sadness, compassion, and forgiveness. Final letters found will hardly answer the endless questions that we’d all like to drill him with. The what-ifs, the what-could-I-have-dones, the why-didn’t-he-want-helps will all vanish.
All that’s left is to pick up the pieces and carry on.
Because a bomb went off.
Thursday, September 14, 2006
Who Knew?
This is exciting.
‘The Who Channel’ to Launch September 21 Exclusively on SIRIUS Satellite Radio
Sure beats the Rolling Stones Channel.
If you don’t have Sirius radio, you’re missing out.
Shoot to kill
It’s unclear whether the cops killed the gunman, but even if they didn’t, their policy not to wait around until everyone is dead is a good one.
“Before, our technique was to establish a perimeter around the place and wait for the SWAT team,” he said. “Now the first police officers go right inside. The way they acted saved lives.”
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
On Sheep, Wolves, and Sheepdogs
One Vietnam veteran, an old retired colonel, once said this to me:
“Most of the people in our society are sheep.
...that has certain relevance in light of this shooting.
At least four people were reported dead following a shooting spree Wednesday afternoon at a Montreal college.
Peak oil?
Don’t tell this to the end-of-the-world peak oil people.
The world has tapped only 18 percent of the total global supply of crude, a leading Saudi oil executive said Wednesday, challenging the notion that supplies are petering out.
They deserve it
Couldn’t have happened to a more deserving bunch.
So word that the eight women from the base had won big in Friday’s Super 7 draw was a welcome bit of good news for a close-knit military community.
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
What We Saw
A powerful eye-witness account home video of the WTC destruction.
via LGF
World according to Eric
Here is Margolis’ take on how things stand 5 years later.
There has been no successful attack on North America since 9/11, but the u.s. and Canada have generated new enemies
Trouble is, he makes a lot of sense. Wonder if that’s why so many disagree with him?
We knew this
More proof that all the totally ridiculous security measures at the airport are smokescreens to avoid the hard work of securing the airports.
It’s an image to keep in mind, next time we’re standing barefoot in the airport, one hand clutching our beltless pants to keep them from falling down.
Even as our toothpaste is being confiscated, our lattes being poured down the drain and our deodorant landing in the garbage bin someone could be tampering with the lunch trays about to be brought aboard the plane.
They should just give every third person a gun that boards a plane: that would be real security.
Monday, September 11, 2006
The man who knew
This guy doesn’t get a lot of mention when it comes to 9-11 and preventing the fateful day.
O’Neill’s story, as drawn from FRONTLINE’s research, reporting, and interviews with O’Neill’s friends and colleagues.
9-11
Mark isn’t sure the federal bureaucracy can see the obvious danger among us.
And, given that free societies tend naturally toward a Katrina mentality of doing nothing until it happens, one morning we will wake up to another day like the “day that changed everything.” Sept. 11 was less “a failure of imagination” than an ability to see that America’s enemies were hiding in plain sight.
Wednesday, September 6, 2006
Imagine inviting Hitler
At least one prominent politician is standing against the insane Iranian president’s visit to Harvard.
Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney is best known for his strong domestic conservatism. Today, he took a tough stand on a crucial foreign policy issue.
Tuesday, September 5, 2006
Iraq explained
All we hear on American news is Iraq, so you may as well get some background on the country.
Iraq is a big, diverse country at perhaps the most complicated juncture in its history.
Monday, September 4, 2006
Crickey!
At least he died doing what he loved to do.
Steve Irwin, the hugely popular Australian television personality and conservationist known as the ``Crocodile Hunter,” was killed Monday by a stingray while filming off the Great Barrier Reef. He was 44.
Sunday, September 3, 2006
A cakewalk
Mark comments on the two Foxies caught and released by the Palis...it was an odd case to be sure. His main theme is that the Islamists will have no problem getting us to convert, since we have no real beliefs in the first place. I’d agree that most Westerners worship at the consumer alter, but getting any of us to roll over to Islam is a bit of a stretch. I still think Fox paid off the kidnappers off big time.
Did you see that video of the two Fox journalists announcing they’d converted to Islam? The larger problem, it seems to me, is that much of the rest of the Western media have also converted to Islam, and there seems to be no way to get them to convert back to journalism.
9/11 Conspiracy Theories
Fred is sick of all the conspiracy theories.
Oh help. I am still getting nutcake email from the deranged telling me about various conspiracies involving those wretched buildings in New York. Stop sending them. My hard drive is not an asylum. I don&#xu2;019t know how to email Haldol. Try taking rat poison.
Deadly facts
Death is so mysterious.
6 Within three days of death, the enzymes that once digested your dinner begin to eat you. Ruptured cells become food for living bacteria in the gut, which release enough noxious gas to bloat the body and force the eyes to bulge outward.
via JWalk