I know I'm not the only person who loves the end of each year with an overview of what transpired in the last 12 months. For me it's something that I looked forward to when Tom Brokaw ended his nightly news broadcast with a fast moving slide show of the notables who passed in the past year. Well, Tom's long gone - along with ">Brian Williams
LOCALS FROM WWL
As we prepare to close out 2015, we remember some of the New Orleanians we lost - from musicians and chefs to community leaders, broadcasters & journalists. While no list like this is ever complete, we pay tribute to some of them"> NOLA.com
Hollywood's lost
From CNBC, notable losses
famous deaths in entertainment
From Newsday. (Lillian Vernon died??)
There are probably overlaps here, , but I find it's always good to be sure to include everyone. Here's US Magazines "lost in 2015"
And last and least TV Guide's extensive list , which froze up on me. It has a lot of "I didn't know he/she died!" moments.
Happy New Year, Y'all
Wednesday, December 30, 2015
Tuesday, December 29, 2015
Charity at Christmas
December 29, 2015. The talk of Social Media today, a day I'd like to save for memory.
A nurse who works in the billion dollar LSU medical center nearby Charity was leaving work one night recently and saw this light on in Charity. Being smart, she caught a picture of it with her phone camera.
Here are her words:
...I work at an inner city New Orleans hospital that happens to be situated directly across from Charity hospital. Charity hospital has been closed, it's windows darkened, since hurricane Katrina, and is a gloomy and dreary sight on the best of days...at night it's down-right scary. Until tonight.
See, I park on the roof of my parking garage, and tonight as I was leaving work, I glanced over at the forgotten building, only to see the lights of a tiny Christmas tree! I wish the pictures did it justice. I don't know how it's lit. I don't know how it's even in there, but it made me smile just a little bit tonight!
It has been confirmed Charity still has electricity - TEN years after being "shut down".
Here's the answer to the light in the window from the 'big wig' at LSU "WDSU reached out to the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center for comment about the viral images. A spokesperson said it appears the hospital was broken into and the tree, or whatever it is, will be removed."
Later in the day, University Police went into the hospital and removed what turned out to be 2x4s wrapped in lights, officials said.
For those interested in the whole story of why Charity was shut down, here is a link to the story, it's ugly, but true.
Monday, December 28, 2015
Syria
Just a small video which shows some of what the brave Syrian refugees are going through.
Pray for them, please
Monday Morning Smile
Dang, I forgot to post this week!
Christmas was pretty dismal at our house last week: My daughter had a gallbladder attack (we think that's what it is), so we had two E.R. visits in two days, and she spent 5 days at my house recuperating. She's better now, but we need to find an experienced G.I. doctor in the New Orleans area. Any suggestions?
Here she is with her dog Jasper.
On Christmas Eve we had to put down Sam, our beautiful boy cat. He had Urinary Tract issues and a kidney infection.
As you can see, he was a beauty with a personality to match. He will be sorely missed.
Sorry to have missed the post this week. I will make up for it next week.
Happy New Years!!!
Christmas was pretty dismal at our house last week: My daughter had a gallbladder attack (we think that's what it is), so we had two E.R. visits in two days, and she spent 5 days at my house recuperating. She's better now, but we need to find an experienced G.I. doctor in the New Orleans area. Any suggestions?
On Christmas Eve we had to put down Sam, our beautiful boy cat. He had Urinary Tract issues and a kidney infection.
As you can see, he was a beauty with a personality to match. He will be sorely missed.
Sorry to have missed the post this week. I will make up for it next week.
Happy New Years!!!
Monday, December 21, 2015
Glad I'm not HIM
In ghe great state of OKLAHOMA this idiot was identified as a robber due to his lovely facial tattoos. Look
From WDSU.com , here's the story
A Tulsa, Oklahoma man has been arrested after a victim identified him by his facial tattoos.
Paul Terry and the victim's ex-girlfriend, Sonja Marie Moro, were both arrested after an investigation into a home invasion and armed robbery.
The victim reported that Moro and a man, identified as Terry, forced their way into his home Friday, according to court documents. Terry had a knife and demanded money, or he would stab him.
The victim gave his wallet to them and told Moro he would call police after they left.
The victim described Terry's horn tattoos on his face, which helped police identify Terry as a suspect.
The pair were arrested on complaints of robbery with a dangerous weapon.
From WDSU.com , here's the story
A Tulsa, Oklahoma man has been arrested after a victim identified him by his facial tattoos.
Paul Terry and the victim's ex-girlfriend, Sonja Marie Moro, were both arrested after an investigation into a home invasion and armed robbery.
The victim reported that Moro and a man, identified as Terry, forced their way into his home Friday, according to court documents. Terry had a knife and demanded money, or he would stab him.
The victim gave his wallet to them and told Moro he would call police after they left.
The victim described Terry's horn tattoos on his face, which helped police identify Terry as a suspect.
The pair were arrested on complaints of robbery with a dangerous weapon.
Wednesday, December 16, 2015
Monday, December 14, 2015
Tuesday, December 08, 2015
Monday, December 07, 2015
Friday, December 04, 2015
Louisiana's NRA Whores
Senate Republicans voted against barring suspected terrorists, felons and the mentally ill from getting guns on Thursday afternoon, parroting National Rifle Association arguments that doing so would strip some innocent people of their constitutional rights to gun access just a day after yet another massacre on U.S. soil.
I don't know about you, but I'm sick to death of the random, vicious killings increasing. SOMETHING has to be done, and we cannot rely on people that were elected by popular votes. This DOES suck, y'all
While the amounts aren't all that much, these members from Louisiana Senate and Congress received campaign money from the NRA:
David "diaper Dave" Vitter: $30,300
Bill Cassidy $14,500
Steve Scalilse $13,450
Charles Boustany $10,000
John Fleming $7,000
Here is a list of all the "Nay" votes from today. Any of yours there? Vitter & Cassidy are. Louisianians that are concerned with their votes, just click their name above and it will bring you to their webpage, where you can leave a message.
.
I don't know about you, but I'm sick to death of the random, vicious killings increasing. SOMETHING has to be done, and we cannot rely on people that were elected by popular votes. This DOES suck, y'all
While the amounts aren't all that much, these members from Louisiana Senate and Congress received campaign money from the NRA:
David "diaper Dave" Vitter: $30,300
Bill Cassidy $14,500
Steve Scalilse $13,450
Charles Boustany $10,000
John Fleming $7,000
Here is a list of all the "Nay" votes from today. Any of yours there? Vitter & Cassidy are. Louisianians that are concerned with their votes, just click their name above and it will bring you to their webpage, where you can leave a message.
.
Wednesday, December 02, 2015
Four Pro-Gun Arguments
From Rolling Stone BY AMANDA MARCOTTE
Well, guys, I hate to break it to you, but we heard you the first time. And the second time. And the hundreds of times since that our country has grappled with an individual eager to take out as many lives as possible with a firearm. We can recite your arguments in our sleep, and they haven't grown better through repetition.
1. "Guns don't kill people. People kill people."
This is a fantastic argument for those who can't tell the difference between one death and a dozen. Absolutely, a murderer can often kill one person or two with a knife before being stopped. But to really rack up those mind-blowing death counts – to make sure that many lives are destroyed and families ruined in the space of five or 10 minutes – you need a gun. If all you care about is apportioning blame and declaring that someone does or does not have murderous intent, then by all means, claim a knife and a gun are equivalent weapons. For those of us who are more worried about preventing unnecessary deaths than merely acknowledging the hate that resides in some people's hearts, however, the sheer amount of damage a gun can do is reason to limit who can get their hands on one.
2. "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun."
If you prefer pithy sayings to hard evidence, I can see why this would be convincing. But if you look at the real world, you'll find that far from being our only hope, good guys with guns are barely any help at all. No mass shootings in the past 30 years have been stopped by an armed civilian; in 1982, an armed civilian successfully killed a shooter, but it was only after he committed his crime.
It's not that there aren't enough guns, either. There are as many guns as people in this country, and fully a third of people are armed. Even when shootings happen in gun-happy places, where armed people are sure to be nearby, this vigilante scenario simply doesn't work. That's because pulling a gun out and shooting back in the chaos of a mass shooting just makes things worse, as was discovered when a would-be hero at the 2011 shooting of Gabby Giffords very nearly shot the wrong man. (The actual shooter was tackled by an elderly man.)
3. "But, mental health!"
Opponents of gun control love bringing up the problem of inadequate mental health care after a shooting. This is strictly for deflection purposes, as there is no indication that Republicans will ever work on meaningful reform for our mental health systems – which, it's true are woefully inadequate. It's an issue that only matters to them in the immediate aftermath of a shooting – then it's forgotten, until there's another shooting. Rinse, repeat.
Also, the "mental health" gambit, in this context, is always vague. What exactly is the plan? Round up everyone with a mental health issue and put them under lock and key? That amounts to 1 in 5 Americans, the vast majority of whom have no violent tendencies. Will we have some kind of extensive mental health registry? A lot of Americans who struggle with mental health are undiagnosed, though, and putting them on a government list that restricts their rights is not a great inducement to get a diagnosis. There are a lot of shooters in this country, so we have some pretty good data on mass shooters. And that data shows there's no reliable way to tell who is going to go off like this, and only 23 percent of shooters have a diagnosis. Even if all of those individuals got gold-star treatment, the system would only stop a few shooters.
4. "Second Amendment, baby."
Here's a good time to remind everyone that the Second Amendment was written by slaveholders before we had electricity, much less the kind of weaponry that would-be murderers can buy today. But sure, if you think it's that precious, we can compromise: If you love the Second Amendment that much, feel free to live in a powdered wig and shit in a chamberpot while trying to survive off what you can kill with an 18th century musket. In exchange, let those of us living in this century pass some laws so we can feel safe going to class, or the movies, or anywhere without worrying that some maladjusted man will try to get his revenge by raining death on random strangers.
Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/4-pro-gun-arguments-were-sick-of-hearing-20151001#ixzz3tD7MZMoX
Follow us: @rollingstone on Twitter | RollingStone on Facebook
Well, guys, I hate to break it to you, but we heard you the first time. And the second time. And the hundreds of times since that our country has grappled with an individual eager to take out as many lives as possible with a firearm. We can recite your arguments in our sleep, and they haven't grown better through repetition.
1. "Guns don't kill people. People kill people."
This is a fantastic argument for those who can't tell the difference between one death and a dozen. Absolutely, a murderer can often kill one person or two with a knife before being stopped. But to really rack up those mind-blowing death counts – to make sure that many lives are destroyed and families ruined in the space of five or 10 minutes – you need a gun. If all you care about is apportioning blame and declaring that someone does or does not have murderous intent, then by all means, claim a knife and a gun are equivalent weapons. For those of us who are more worried about preventing unnecessary deaths than merely acknowledging the hate that resides in some people's hearts, however, the sheer amount of damage a gun can do is reason to limit who can get their hands on one.
2. "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun."
If you prefer pithy sayings to hard evidence, I can see why this would be convincing. But if you look at the real world, you'll find that far from being our only hope, good guys with guns are barely any help at all. No mass shootings in the past 30 years have been stopped by an armed civilian; in 1982, an armed civilian successfully killed a shooter, but it was only after he committed his crime.
It's not that there aren't enough guns, either. There are as many guns as people in this country, and fully a third of people are armed. Even when shootings happen in gun-happy places, where armed people are sure to be nearby, this vigilante scenario simply doesn't work. That's because pulling a gun out and shooting back in the chaos of a mass shooting just makes things worse, as was discovered when a would-be hero at the 2011 shooting of Gabby Giffords very nearly shot the wrong man. (The actual shooter was tackled by an elderly man.)
3. "But, mental health!"
Opponents of gun control love bringing up the problem of inadequate mental health care after a shooting. This is strictly for deflection purposes, as there is no indication that Republicans will ever work on meaningful reform for our mental health systems – which, it's true are woefully inadequate. It's an issue that only matters to them in the immediate aftermath of a shooting – then it's forgotten, until there's another shooting. Rinse, repeat.
Also, the "mental health" gambit, in this context, is always vague. What exactly is the plan? Round up everyone with a mental health issue and put them under lock and key? That amounts to 1 in 5 Americans, the vast majority of whom have no violent tendencies. Will we have some kind of extensive mental health registry? A lot of Americans who struggle with mental health are undiagnosed, though, and putting them on a government list that restricts their rights is not a great inducement to get a diagnosis. There are a lot of shooters in this country, so we have some pretty good data on mass shooters. And that data shows there's no reliable way to tell who is going to go off like this, and only 23 percent of shooters have a diagnosis. Even if all of those individuals got gold-star treatment, the system would only stop a few shooters.
4. "Second Amendment, baby."
Here's a good time to remind everyone that the Second Amendment was written by slaveholders before we had electricity, much less the kind of weaponry that would-be murderers can buy today. But sure, if you think it's that precious, we can compromise: If you love the Second Amendment that much, feel free to live in a powdered wig and shit in a chamberpot while trying to survive off what you can kill with an 18th century musket. In exchange, let those of us living in this century pass some laws so we can feel safe going to class, or the movies, or anywhere without worrying that some maladjusted man will try to get his revenge by raining death on random strangers.
Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/4-pro-gun-arguments-were-sick-of-hearing-20151001#ixzz3tD7MZMoX
Follow us: @rollingstone on Twitter | RollingStone on Facebook
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