ShowMeBlog

Iowa Police Chief Accidentally Shoots Officer

2009-07-13T09:24:35-04:00

“CARTER LAKE, Iowa - A Carter Lake police officer is recovering after officials say the police chief accidentally shot him at police headquarters.
City Attorney Joe Thornton says Police Chief Shawn Kannedy was discussing firearms with two officers on Wednesday when Kannedy's weapon went off. Sgt. Dan Driver was hit in the torso.
Driver was taken to Creighton University Medical Center in Omaha, Neb., where he was reported in good condition.
Kannedy was placed on administrative leave.”

These sort of stories just make me crazy. I worked from 1972 to 2000 as a hospital security officer. I was armed. I was a small town police officer for ten years. Never did my firearm every go off accidentally.
   You never point a firearm at any person unless you plan to shoot them. You always treat the firearm as if it is loaded even when you know it is not. You never put your finger on the trigger until you are ready to shoot.
    I never showed my gun to people. I never talked about it with people.
    I did have to point my firearm at a few people over the years. I never had my finger on the trigger because I did not go into shoot mode.

    When I worked at Trinity Lutheran Hospital during the Republican National Convention (1976) we went to 12 hour shifts at the hospital during the convention. We had one officer that accidentally fired his 38 cal handgun. He said he was coming in to work and was on the stairs and the handgun fell and went off accidentally.
    The officer was a NRA member…he was always talking about guns..bringing in gun magazines…and showing his gun in the office.
    I told the boss he did not drop the gun and if he did it would not have gone off. The boss said oh yes that is what happened…the boss put out a policy statement saying all officers would only have five rounds in their weapon and have the chamber under the hammer empty. I told the boss it was a stupid policy and I would not follow it and that I had six rounds in my weapon and if he wanted to fire me to go ahead and do it. He did not fire me of course.
    A year or so later the office told me what the real story was about the accident. He was showing the gun to a fellow gun nut that worked as a respiratory therapist at the hospital when the gun went off.

During the time I was a police officer (Raymore, MO) one of the officers, that was a gun nut and always talking about guns, was showing his gun to someone on the midnight shift and it went off by accident and the round went through the wall into an office. Since it was midnights no one was in the office.

After the first year or two that I worked at TLH the boss had me do interviews when we were looking for new employees. The Director of Personnel told me in private that they liked it when I did the interviews because I did a better job. That made me feel pretty good.
When I did the interview and did my little talk and then asked the questions then when I asked do you have any questions…if the first question for me was something about the firearm that guy did not get hired.

OK I have vented on this subject…Like I said..I read these sorts of stories and it just drives me crazy.

If I had $25 (The Kiva Song)

2009-07-12T22:34:07-04:00

Using the tune "If I Had $1,000,000" by the Barenaked Ladies, here's Yassie and John’s tribute to the microlending website kiva.org--a place where you can make $25 loans to poor people around.

I wanted to let you know about Kiva (www.kiva.org), a non-profit that allows you to lend as little as $25 to a specific low-income entrepreneur across the globe. You choose who to lend to - whether a baker in Afghanistan, a goat herder in Uganda, a farmer in Peru, a restaurateur in Cambodia, or a tailor in Iraq - and as they repay their loan, you get your money back. It's a powerful and sustainable way to empower someone right now to lift themselves out of poverty.
I have six people that I have loans out to at this time. It is very easy to do and it helps people and makes you feel good.

There was an error while performing indexing

2009-07-12T22:07:00-04:00

I got my new 64bit install of Ubuntu upgraded.

Then I get an error that pops up and says "There was an error while performing indexing: Index corrupted" and it ask if you want to reindex. No matter what you say you get getting the message for awhile on the screen.
I am thinking what did I do wrong. I did a search on the Internet and found it is bug in Ubuntu 9.04. It has been reported and they are working on it. Sort of spoils my upgrade.

I felt pretty good today. I do feel guilty about not going to the training class to day. I guess I would feel worst if I had gone to the class and wet my pants on the way to the class. I do not think I could take waiting at a bus stop for 40 minutes with no rest room around.

I may feel good because I been drinking Coke today. I saw Coke at the store..I swear it was calling me...It taste so good...but I will have to try and go back on the wagon.

Smoking or gays?

2009-07-12T09:31:56-04:00

“WASHINGTON (CNN) -- You've seen the iconic picture of a soldier with a cigarette dangling from his mouth, but that could soon be a thing of the past.

A new study commissioned by the Pentagon and the Department of Veterans Affairs recommends a complete ban on tobacco, which would end tobacco sales on military bases and prohibit smoking by anyone in uniform, not even combat troops in the thick of battle.

According to the study, tobacco use impairs military readiness in the short term. Over the long term, it can cause serious health problems, including lung cancer and cardiovascular disease. The study also says smokeless tobacco use can lead to oral and pancreatic cancer.

The Defense Department's top health officials are studying the report's suggestions and will make recommendations to the Pentagon's policy team and Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

The study recommends phasing out tobacco products such as cigarettes and cigars over a five- to 10-year period…”

    The CNN story goes on to say that many in the military object to a ban on smoking.

    The military is so upset with the idea of gays in the military, and we know that about 10% of the military is gay, I think we should offer a deal …It could be you can smoke if you agree to gays in the military. Smile

     I was never in the military and I do not and never had smoked. I think smoking is very bad for health. If you put a ban on tobacco I fear you will just have people smoking and hiding it.
    When I started working hospital security you could smoke in the hospital. Years later you could smoke in certain areas. Then it got were you could not smoke in the hospital period. One hospital that I worked at did not allow smoking in the parking lot.
    The hospital that did not allow smoking even in the parking lot, Menorah Medical Center, I worked for them part-time for a year. When I got hired in they had just had a major fire caused by smoking. One entire floor was shut down due to major fire damage.
    I can remember making my rounds inside, I was working midnight shift, and coming to a dark ICU waiting room and I could see the glow from a cigarette. The guy smoking put the cigarette under a sofa in the waiting room when he say me. We also had people at that hospital disconnect smoke detectors so they could smoke in a bathroom.
   During the day time when you drive down Troost, a street in front of MMC, you would see a mass of people in white uniforms smoking on the sidewalk. On midnights we let people smoke right outside the door in the parking lot. We had cameras and microphones at the doors. The area was a high crime area if we had made people walk out to the street we would have seen some of them back smelling of gun smoke and with bullet holes in their lungs.

Yes smoking is very bad for people. I do not know what the answer is with a smoking bad. Like I said I do not smoke.

I do know a major medical problem for the military and that is Alcoholism. Heavy alcohol and binge drinking happen all the time the military. I worked with a number of guys that were retired from the military and they suffered from Alcoholism. I think every hospital that I worked at had one or more security officers fired for being drunk on duty. I had family members that had been in the military and drank like fish. One got his 20 years and retired but I do not know how he made it. I was drunk all the time. I had an uncle that was a hell of a nice guy but he was in WWII in the USMC and was in heavy combat and he did not drink when he went in the USMC. When he came out of the USMC he was a falling down, in the gutter, drunk. He was that way all his life. He never got any help for his problems.
Both my mother and father suffered from Alcoholism. It killed my father at age 65. They were not in the military but I have seen up close and personal the damage that alcohol does to people, family, kids and the nation.
In the ER of hospitals are filled every night with people drunk. You want to reduce health care cost do something about Alcoholism. I hated to go to work on Friday and Saturday night. I knew when I got to work there would be drunks waiting for me in the ER and I knew that I would be fighting them and arresting them.
We all know about Prohibition in the United States. I know we have problems with Alcoholism in the military. I do not see anything happening because it is a “third rail” issue. No one in Congress wants to touch that third rail issue. If President Obama wanted to do something about Alcoholism in the United States and the military think about what would happen. He would have every NASCAR fan, football fan…hell he would have everyone after him. Anyone could beat him in an election. Hell I could run and beat him if he stood up and took on Alcoholism.
If it between smoking and alcohol I think the military should start working full time and hard to cut down drinking in the military.
I think the states should start taxing alcohol more and more. The federal government should tax more but needs to hang back and do it on a much smaller scale because we do not need it to become THE issue that decides who is elected to Congress or who is elected President of the United States.

This post is so long I do not remember if I told you or not… I do not drink. I never had been a drinker. I can remember as a small my father letting me have a drink of his beer. I also remember that the first word I could spell was “beer.” That is before I started school. I must have been 3or 4 years old or younger. Jim, my father, would tell Betty, my mother, to get some “ B E E R” at the store. He would spell it out. I am not sure how long it took me to learn that it was beer and then he would spell it and I would say it.

Believe me Alcoholism is a major problem in the United States. My father had DWI arrests. My mother had a major car accident after she left a bar drunk. They used to take me to the bars with them. I know a number of times they left me in the car outside the bar. One time I got a nose bleed. I used to get a lot of nose bleeds when I was a kid.
I can remember when I became a Boy Scout I refused to go to the bar with them. I told them I was a Boy Scout and could not be going to a bar. They would leave me home alone. That was fine with me. I would read the dictionary and listen to march and classical music. About age 14 or so I got a shortwave radio and that became my hobby. That became my number one interest and activity.

Dual-Screen Blogging

2009-07-12T03:19:53-04:00

My son has turned me into a fan of TMZ. I check their site a couple of times each day.

It is 0300 hours and I am still up. I am not going to the CERT class and you have to attend all the classes and not miss one. So no CERT training for me.
In order to get to the class today I would have to get to the bus stop before 0600 hours. Then I would have to ride and wait 40 minutes for another bus. Sunday they cut back the number of buses and how often they run and even the routes.

My grandson decided he did not want my desktop computer in his room. I am not sure why. He said he wanted more room on his desk. So I got back that desktop but best of all I got back the HP w1907 monitor. I got it hooked up to my computer and I have two monitors again. It makes it much more easy for me to write the blog. I can be writing it like I am now on one monitor and look up information on the other monitor.
The computer I will use to replace the other older computer that my son uses in this room. The computer he has been using has been having problems.

This second monitor cable would not reach the computer so I had to move the computer and switch it around and the cables are a rats nest now. I am not sure how much longer I can stand to look at that mess.

I have had some problems with the 64 bit install of Ubuntu 8.04. There is still a problem with 64 bit drivers. I am wondering now if I can put in a Ubuntu 9.10 DVD and install it on top of the 64 bit version. It is scary…I do not want to wipe out my Windows install and I do not want to mess up the boot loader.

Since I installed the UPS we have not lost power one time. I want to lose power one time just so I can see this thing in action.
Yes, I have a pretty dull life.

Ubuntu 8.04 64bit

2009-07-11T20:42:27-04:00

My computer has been working great with Windows 7 RC. I am a fan of Windows 7.
I was sitting here and I just decided that I wanted to try Ubuntu 64 bit again. I have used Ubuntu a long time and have had it set up in the past on this computer to dual boot with Windows.
I knew there would be danger but I wanted to try 64 bit.
So I have just installed it here. When I re-boot I see a boot loader giving me the choice of Ubuntu or Windows but I have not attempted to get into Windows yet. Cross your fingers.

I have a DVD for Ubuntu 9.04 but it does not say 32 bit or 64 bit on it. I could not find it anyplace. My guess is that the install program might ask which you want but I had an old DVD of Ubuntu 7.10 64-bit so I decided to use it.
That install went OK. Then it told me there was a new version 8.10 and I installed it.
I am surprised I have not see any notice to upgrade to 9.04 yet.

I have not got Flash working yet and you need that for YouTube and lots of other stuff.

I did install Cheese and it works with my Logitech 9000 Pro.

Photo above taken just now using Cheese.

Zoo May Close, Kill Animals

2009-07-11T10:54:46-04:00

“BOSTON -- The Franklin Park Zoo, the only Boston institution of its kind, may be forced to close and euthanize some of its animals, zoo officials said Friday.

Without more state funding, zoo officials said that they will run out of money within months and have to close both Franklin Park and the Stone Zoo in Stoneham.

The zoos would be forced to lay off most of their 165 employees and attempt to find new homes for more than 1,000 animals.

Zoo officials estimated 20 percent of the animals would not find homes and could be euthanized…”

This is just more more thing that we have to thank President Bush and the GOP for doing for the nation…All over the United States cities and states do not have money to pay for basic services. It is the same here in Miami and in all of FL.
Part of the blame for this goes back to the start of the no tax movement. It started, if I remember correct, in CA. I knew at the time that it was a bad idea but it was very popular and spread all across the United States and it still has major support. It also became part of the GOP platform and movement. It has been bad for the United States.
Now tax reform was needed and government did need some controls and changes put on it…but the entire movement just became an anti-government right wing fuck the system revolt.
CA, where it started, has been suffering for years and right now CA is giving people they should be paying IOUs. Many of those businesses will go under and then they will not be paying taxes and the employees will not be paying taxes and will need help from the state. It is just one sad fucked up mess that we can thank the right wing Republicans for giving us.
Now it looks like they will be the cause of killing zoo animals. Just one more reason that President Bush is the worst president of all time and that fewer and fewer people now say they are a Republican.

We have got to stop letting people get our vote by not talking about issues and by not being honest with us. The Republicans had this system down pat. They just used buzz words and said the things that would get them elected and it worked for a time. We are paying for it now. Looks like little fuzzy zoo animals will pay for it now.

Amazon selling Windows 7

2009-07-11T08:29:34-04:00

I just got an email that Amazon is now selling Windows 7. You get 50% off if you order now. Supply is limited and release date is October 22, 2009.
I have not read all the details yet I just got the email. It looks like the three below are the full retail price.

Now those prices are if you are not up-grading. Here is the prices and details if you are doing an up-grade. One of them is a dis-count of 58%.

I am using Windows 7 RC right now and it is excellent. My feeling is that this is the first version of Windows that works. I started out using DOS and have used OS/2 and Windows from the start.
I have never used Apple OS.

Playing Games

2009-07-11T03:15:34-04:00

What does a fat old bald man do at 0300 hours? I started playing games at IWon dot com. It is 0311 I did not win any money or a prize so I guess I will go to bed.

Tomorrow….I know it is already “tomorrow” but I always count “tomorrow” as when I wake up. I worked the midnight shift for many years. It is hard on a person.
I worked for 11 years at one small hospital and I worked two 8 hour shifts and two 12 hour shifts each week. I would get off work at 0600 and go home and when I woke up that was “tomorrow” for me.

Good night all.. sleep tight and do not let the bed bugs bite.

I think I need Doxazosin Mesylate

2009-07-11T02:34:06-04:00

I am starting to have the same problem now that I am not taking the Doxazosin Mesylate. I am pissing often but not much is coming out and it is just in drops not in a stream.
I do not want to take the medication. I read about it the other day and it said not to take it if I am taking other blockers like it and I am ….
But I think if I do not take it soon… I am going to have major problems for the class on Sunday.
I am thinking just take it for the next three weeks… until I get the class done and then see a doctor and decide what to do about the medications that I am taking.
My doctor only has me taking Flomax every other day and I got a feeling that if I was taking it every day it might take care of my problem.

Hell, I just went ahead and took one of the Doxazosin Mesylate. If MJ could take all those drugs all those years I guess I can take one to keep me from wetting my pants so I can take a class on Sunday.
Man…it sucks getting old.
All my life I have been a person that would not take any pills..I just think you are better off not taking pill UNLESS you have to take them. There are many people that do need to be taking medications. It looks like for the last two or three years I have been one of them and I got the feeling I have not seen the end of it yet.

CERT class

2009-07-10T18:53:56-04:00

My grandson found out today that he is going to start getting un-employment money again. He will get it until October. I am not sure if this means that FL did accept the federal money or not.
Russell is talking about going in the military. He wants to go in for a number of reasons. One is that he can not find a job and one is that he wants some of the benefits of going in the military.

I put a Joomla! site back up again. I just wanted to pay with the Joomla! software again. It is a lot of work but it has so much power and if I was a little smarter I could do some pretty neat things with it.

I am feeling a little better now. I did not take the Doxazosin Mesylate last night. I said I was not going to take it anymore but I am worrying about Sunday. Sunday I will have my first CERT class and it is 8 hours. I have to get there by bus without a bathroom visit and then I will be in class for 8 hours and I do not want to be running to the bathroom all the time.

I am not in CA, I am in FL, but here is a little video that gives you a little idea of CERT training.

Masterbated using a dictionary?

2009-07-09T13:16:24-04:00

“SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – Do you use a sock puppet to secretly keep track of your frenemies?

Plan to spend your staycation watching vlogs and webisodes? Or perhaps you plan to signal a flash mob for a quick bite of shawarma.

If you're not entirely certain what all that means, turn to the latest edition of the Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, which has added about 100 new words that largely reflect changing trends in American society…”

I love words and Webster’s Dictionary. When I was little we had a very large dictionary. It was like the ones you would see on a large stand in a library. I would look up words in it. I would often just start looking up words one after another.
I think I was about 7 or 8 years old. I am not sure how I started or how long it lasted but I would drag the very large and heavy dictionary to the middle of the room, after my mother and father went to work, and lay on it and hump the book. Yes, I masterbated using a dictionary.
Now some of you are thinking he could not have been 8 years of age because his father and mother would not have left him alone when they went to work… Yes they did ..this was the old days folks..In fact when I was 9 or 10 years old my mother’s mother lived with us for a year or two and she fixed meals for me and read to me but I was in charge of her medication. She had an addiction to a drug so I had her medication and I would stay close to the house so I could hear if she rang the bell next to her bed and if it was time for her medication then I would give it to her. She died when I was about ten years old. No not from an over dose of her medication.

If you think I was a very bad boy for using a dictionary to masterbate keep in mind that we had a very large bible and I never used it.

Doxazosin Mesylate

2009-07-09T11:47:03-04:00

The good news and the bad news…I took Doxazosin Mesylate and I could piss with a normal stream….The bad news…both my kidneys started to hurt big time. My entire body hurts. It has got to be the medication and I am going to stop taking it again.
The doctor has me taking a Flomax SR 0.4 capsule B-1 every other day. The next time I see the doctor I am going to see if he will make it every day.

My entire body hurts and my kidneys hurt big time BUT I can piss like a young man.

“Side effects of Doxazosin Mesylate:
SIDE EFFECTS: Common reactions include dizziness, fatigue, headache, shortness of breath, diarrhea, abdominal pain, edema (fluid accumulation) and low blood pressure. Doxazosin causes significant reduction in blood pressure after administration of the first dose (first dose effect). This reduction in blood pressure may be associated with dizziness and fainting, especially when rising from a sitting position. To avoid this, patients should rise slowly from a sitting position, start treatment with the 1 mg dose, and then doses should be adjusted upwards slowly. Priapism (painful, prolonged penile erection) and a reduction in white blood cells have been associated with doxazosin.” MedicineNet.Com

Taking Vicodin and Percocet off the marktet?

2009-07-08T19:45:12-04:00

On ShowMeBlog on July 1st I posted about a panel voting to do away with Vicodin and Percocet. That was is here. We got a couple of comments from people that say they need those medications for pain relief.
I been following the discussions of the issue on the news.
The way I understand it now is that people could still get the pain medication that they need now…but it would not contain acetaminophen. Vicodin and Percocet is a mix of two medications and one is the pain medication and the other is acetaminophen.
Now acetaminophen is very hard on the liver.
What the panel wants is to take out the acetaminophen and then the doctor and patient can decide just how much, if any, of the acetaminophen they should take.
So if they still call say Vicodin by that name you would take it and you could then take with it Tylenol, NyQuil, Pamprin or Allerest with it.
That sounds like a very good idea to me.
However I am not sure if it is the same panel or a different group they want to reduce the strength in the acetaminophen that you can buy over the counter without a Rx from a doctor.
Like right now you can buy Tylenol Acetaminophen Extra Strength (500 mg) over the counter. Due to the damage that acetaminophen does to the liver I suspect they want to reduce the strength.

Federal Police Officers!!!! Run for your life..

2009-07-08T15:45:10-04:00

Story Highlights

Plainclothes investigators test security at 10 federal buildings in 4 U.S. cities

GAO agents able to assemble components in restrooms, freely enter offices

GAO's report questions effectiveness of the Federal Protective Service

Sen. Susan Collins: Security lapses show "poor training, lax management" at FPS

    You can read the CNN story but I just got to put in my two-cents on the subject. At one time federal buildings were guarded by private contract guards from services like Pinkerton, Burns and others.
     The contract company would bid on the contract and the lowest bidder would get the contract. In a couple of years the contract would come up again and often one of the other guard services would bid less and get the contract.
     What took place most of the time is the guard working for the one company would just quit and go to work for the other company that got the contract. So it would be new company and same guards.
     The contract guards got higher pay because the government as part of the contract said that a certain percent of the money had to go to the officers.
      The guard company would say that they gave their guards training but in fact they gave none. I know I worked for years for them as a second job on my days off from my full time job. I worked for Burns, Pinkerton, Well-Fargo and many others. I also owned stock in a couple of them and I would see their report to stockholders and they would show photos and stacks of books and videos that they said they gave to employees as training. It never happened. One company showed me a 15 minute slide show one time and that was it.
       This may be more information than you want…smile
   Well there was was bombings of federal building back in the 60s or 70s. So the federal government decided that they needed better security. So they started up Federal Protective Service (FPS). I was one of the first to take the test and I passed and was on the waiting list. I never took a job because I could not afford to work as a GS4 or GS5. (I think that was an error on my part I should have taken the job they offered me. Just like when I quit the post office that was not a smart thing. You live and learn.)
   So they trained FPS officers and hired them in and started having them guard the federal buildings.
   Republicans in congress started to shit their pants. It was more federal employees and on top of the a “Federal Police Officers.” So it was political and there was freeze on hiring and things like that due to the Republicans.
   Then after a few years I read in the newspaper that their had not been any federal office building bombings and no problems so they were going to do away with the FPS. I know, it does not make any sense and was stupid.
   I found out later that what they did was just use what few FPS officers they had as supervisors over contract guards.
   It appears now that all that training that FPS got was not training on how to supervisor or check on contact guards.
   It looks like we have returned to the days when I took the test and wanted to get hired in to the FPS.
   Right now we have 1,200 FPS officers. It looks like we have 13,000 guards from private corporations. Why not just have 14,200 FPS officers? They would be well trained and they would have a good job and pretty good pay. It seems to me that would be good for them, good for the government and good for the nation.
   I am sure the Republicans have not changed their stand one inch. They would still yell about hiring government employees. They would still try and scare you by saying that it was Obama’s (black) Federal Police force. Most of them would not say “black” they would just sort of let the right wing do that for them in emails and tea-ball meetings.

Christmas here

2009-07-08T14:23:04-04:00

It is just like Christmas here today. I got my UPS and my shaver. I love to buy things and get things.
I got the UPS all hooked up … I can not wait until we have power problems now… smile.. I dare it…I double dare it.
The shaver is on charge right now so I will give it a try later today.

I had to start taking the Doxazosin Mesylate today. I was taking 1/2 tablet each day but I took a whole one this morning and I am going to take a 1/2 one tonight and then I will go back to the 1/2 tablet each day.
I got enough for 19 days and then I got to talk the doctor into giving me a new Rx.

I am becoming my father

2009-07-08T03:19:35-04:00

    I was cussing the TV today. God, I am turning into my father. Smile
I had a lot to cuss about..but what good does it do to cuss at the TV set?

    Russell, my grandson, is now 21 years of age. God, I am getting old.

    My doctor told me to stop taking Doxazosin Mesylate and I am having trouble with urination. I need to go all the time and I do not go very much. I will give it one more day and then I will start taking the medication again. I have been off it for about a week and each day I am having more problems. I have BPH (benign prostatic hyperplasia).

I will be taking CERT training this month. I will have to go three days for a total of 20 hours. That is one reason I have to get my urination problem fixed. I can not be leaving the training each 30 minutes to take a leak.
I will try and take some photos and videos of the training.

I will be getting a Panasonic ES4026NC men’s shaver this week. I decided that it would be cheaper than buying blades. I can not afford to buy blades to shave with anymore.
I also got a HP 400VA UPS with surge protection coming this week. I can not take a chance with the power problems we been having and with FL weather. I will feel much better when I get it hooked up and working.

Watching the Michael Jackson Event

2009-07-07T14:33:50-04:00

I did not think I would be watching the Michael Jackson event but I am…I wish they would kick those people out that are yelling out during the event…The brothers look strange..like they got a uniform on..got a glove on one hand? What the fuck…
OK OK.. I Just turned OFF the Michael Jackson event.. Al Sharpton is speaking now. I will not listen to him and I will not watch him. He is a low life scum. I will not have anything to do with anyone that has anything to do with Al Sharpton.
So my watching of the Michael Jackson show is over with…

How people can have anything to do with a super racist like Al Sharpton I just do not understand.
There is not one good thing about Al Sharpton.

Watch coverage of Michael Jackson Memorial?

2009-07-07T12:08:05-04:00

The following is a comment from Dick Williams:

CNN POLL
How will you watch coverage of Michael Jackson memorial?
TV 13% 17488
Web 10% 13649
Not watching 78% 108297

A poll on CNN.com

Enough and too much. The guy was talented but left a murky and

tarnished legacy. All the negatives seem to be forgotten in the rush

to make him into a pop hero. I don't see that he used his celebrity

as some other rich celebrities have done -like Oprah, Bill Gates,

Angelina Jolie - all with a string of charitable works and

gifts. He used his money for a self indulgent lifestyle that ended

up destroying him.

Tuscany in Italy

2009-07-06T21:44:38-04:00

I was watching a travel show on TV today. It was on Tuscany (Italy). If I won a lottery I think I would go and visit Tuscany and look into living there full time.
I love cheese but I would have to learn to drink wine.
One thing that got my attention was that the government pays family farms money to help them remain small family working farms. What a great idea. We should have done something like that here in the United States.
Now I just need to win a lottery. Smile