April Fools!

Last year on March 31, a customer, Mr. Stewart, in a Scottish bank prevented a robbery from occurring. The man thought that it was an April Fool's Day joke, so when the robber claimed to have a gun in his backpack, Mr. Stewart just called the robber's bluff and took the bag away. I personally thought that this was hilarious. The robber obviously did not have everything together since he had just appeared in court on criminal damages and he had no gun on him at all. What I found even more amusing was that Mr. Stewart acted completely calm throughout the entire experience. Had I been in the bank, I would not have been brave enough to stop the man, and even if I did, I probably would have freaked out after I realized that it wasn't a joke. Mr. Stewart however, just walked right up and took the backpack away. Even after he found out that it was a real robbery, Mr. Stewart still didn't appear too shaken up. It must have been his lucky day...

Read the article at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/5077153/Man-foils-bank-robbery-after-assuming-it-was-an-April-Fool.html

Good Golly....

So apparently earning larger amounts of money in America is no longer a good thing. According to Obama if you do so you are "selfish and greedy" (im sorry Mr. Obama, How much do you make a year?). There is a huge issue going on with the company AIG right now and it's retention bonuses to employees (which were guaranteed in their contracts by the way). The government gave AIG a large some of bailout money to help during the econmoic crisis. The Obama Administration gave the company permission to use the money in part to pay the employees their promised retention bonuses, but when the public heard and became outraged, Obama's Administration denied ever giving the company permission to do so. Now the population is extraordinarily angry that these people were given their hard-earned promised money through the tax payer's dollars. The government is demanding that the recipients of the bonuses return them and there has been a proposed 90% tax on the money. It is even being demanded that the names of the people who recieved the money be released to the public. That would be horrible! There are already death threats out for these people! This is why I would like to talk about some letters that were written to the New York Times about the letter sent by "Jake DeSantis, an executive vice president of the American International Group’s financial products unit, to Edward M. Liddy, the chief executive of A.I.G." I personally applaud Mr. DeSantis for standing up for himself when his company wouldn't. I think that he earned the money that he recieved and that he shouldn't have to return it. So people are upset that it is taxpayers money, who cares? Its not like the money was gonna go to anything useful anyway (shall we send more to studying the smell of pigs? I think not). No one complained when money was sent out to the thousands of americans (most of whom dont even pay taxes) as a part of the stimulus package. Some of the letters that were sent in to the New York Times were from people who were saying that Mr. DeSantis' option to donate all of the bonus money to charity was selfish and that "his unwarranted self-pity and sense of entitlement truly poison the gesture." No Mr. DeSantis, it is not selfless to donate $742,006.40. We want that money to go straight back to the government to be used for more pork. I dont see any of these people donating anything they have to charity, so I think they need to get off of Mr. DeSantis' back. I feel like this whole AIG issue has gotten blown way out of proportion and has distracted the people from more important issues. I guess when you are "selfish and greedy" you lose anything promised in the Bill of Rights.

You can read Mr. DeSantis' letter at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/25/opinion/25desantis.html?ref=opinion
and the letters to the editor at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/26/opinion/l26aig.html?_r=1

About 130 years ago Queen Victoria still had many years left to rule, Stalin and Einstein were born, Edison invented the light bulb, and Sakhan Dosova was born. If Sakhan Dosova, of Kazakhstan, is really as old as she says she is, then she is the oldest person ever to have lived; beating an american who lived to be 114. Dosova claims that she has no secret to her long life. She has never been to the doctor. If she ever got sick, she would use "granny's remedies to cure [her]." Dosova also says that she has never eaten sweets. She doesn't like them. If she is telling the truth, Sakhan Dosova was of retirement age when world war two began. Thats amazing for a lady who never went to the doctor and lives in a cramped home in Kazakhstan. Still recovering from the negative publicity of the movie Borat, Kazakhstan is "checking the authenticity of the data on her case." I hope that it does turn out to be true. That would be some uplifting news for everyone to hear.

Read about her at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1164503/Is-woman-really-old-LIGHT-BULB-Oldest-person-world-set-celebrate-130th-birthday.html

I am un-patriotic

I thought that I was a patriotic American, but apparently, it is now "very, very patriotic" to be in our counrty illegally. According to Nancy Pellosi, the immigration laws that are currently practiced are "un-American." I wasnt the only one who was taken aback by these statements. Rick Oltman, who was filming the speech, said that he "was embarrassed by what she said" and that it was "insulting to American citizens who consider themselves to be patriotic, who obey the rule of law." I am not against immigration. I agree that this country was founded and developed through immigration, but I dont think that it is fair that so many people come into our country and get all the benefits of living here without having to pay taxes like every other American. This speech was given at a rally for the end of deportations. With the way that things have been going in the government, it is very possible that they may be successful. Who knows, the government might start giving illegal immigrants checks to stimulate the economy and we lucky Americans who are here legally will pay for them with tax increases.

Read the article at http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/03/18/pelosi-tells-illegal-immigrants-work-site-raids-american/

Important News!!

You can all relax! Facebook has posted in its blog that several drives failed last Friday, but that they are going to be fixed as quickly as possible! Apparently, the failure resulted in about 10-15% of users photos being lost. Facebook is on top of it though and all of your pictures will be restored. Is this really an issue that is worthy of its own article? I think that if so many people are addicted to Facebook that a few lost picures are a sign of the coming apocalypse, then maybe we shouldn't fix it. I have noticed that a lot of people cant even go to class without checking for notifications of their iphone. Even employers are able to rely on facebook to find things out about potential employees. I'm not against facebook. I think that it is nice to have an outlet that allows me to talk to friends occasionally, but they also invented telephones for that purpose. I just think that people need to chill out and step away from technology for a little bit. You can also talk to people in person if you go outside every so often.

If you really feel the need to read this article, you can check it out at http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=storage&articleId=9129263&taxonomyId=19&intsrc=kc_top

She will never live this down...

Here is a light-hearted story to brighten your Wednesday. A news anchor for CNN, Zain Verjee, made a comical slip-up not once, but three times while reporting on a story this afternoon. What she was supposed to be talking about was how a top airline was now selling peanuts on flights, but instead of saying peanuts she said penis. It might have been possible to overlook the mistake (possible, not probable), but she got tongue tied two more times. Its not all bad though. At least she is famous now.

Read the article at http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,504408,00.html
I also recommend watching the youtube video at the end of the article.

Assisted Suicide

Washington State has recently passed the "Death with Dignity" law which basically allows doctors to prescribe lethal medication to patients who have six months or less to live. The article, at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29454171/, mentions that this is a very controversial subject. In order to protect the rights of doctors, the law does not require anyone to participate. It is up to the doctor and/or the medical facility whether or not they allow the prescriptions to be written. After doing a little more research online, I found this website http://www.balancedpolitics.org/assisted_suicide.htm which discusses the arguments for and against the law. One of the reasons supporting the law that stuck out was that "tremendous pain and suffering of patients can be saved." While I do agree that no one should have to go through long periods of pain and suffering, I still cant support the law because of my religion, which, according to the website, is one of the main reasons for opposing the law; "Many religions prohibit suicide and the intentional killing of others." I don't think that it is fair that some people have to suffer before they die or become so ill that they are no longer themselves, but I think that as the option for lethal prescriptions becomes more popular among doctors, then it is possible that the prescription could be given out too readily and people who may have had a chance of living could die prematurely. A "six-month terminal diagnosis" isn't always accurate. I think that if there is the slightest possibility that the doctor could be wrong, then the prescription should not be given out. I guess this issue is like every other issue that is going on right now that has anything to do with religion meaning that it probably wont be resolved anytime soon.