shooting into space...

Hmmmmmm....
I am intrigued, perplexed, frustrated, and somehow slightly amused by this story about the malfunctioning satellite that will be falling to Earth sometime in March. In case you haven't heard, a US spy satellite packed with rocket fuel and top-secret imaging equipment that was sent into orbit in December 2006 never worked. It's been falling to Earth ever since it was released, but it's supposed to enter the atmosphere sometime next month. The military's response? Blow the dang thing up! Why am I not surprised?

I guess that probably is safer to shoot it out of the sky than risking big pieces of it hitting populated areas. I just read, however, that the mission to shoot it down, scheduled for Thursday, is going to cost about $40 million to $60 million!!!! So you're telling me that a top-secret satellite that took about a kabillion dollars to build and shoot into space takes $60 million to blow up? And once again, we wonder why our country is in such bad shape economically! Just think if we would have had that kabillion dollars plus the blow-up money for something like, oh I don't know, health care for the poor. Or counseling services for our troops coming home with PTSD. Or debt relief. Or road improvement projects in Charlotte. I really like the thought of that last one!

Oh, and by the way, it seems that we're not too confident that the first $60 million blow-up will work. It might take a second shot. Maybe this is what we get for being so nosy. hmmmmm.......

take back those beef livers...

I just read an article on cnn.com that 143 million pounds of beef has been recalled. "The amount of beef -- 143 million pounds -- is roughly enough for two hamburgers for each man, woman and child in the United States." Yikes! That's a lot of meat. The bad news is that most of it has probably already been consumed so there's not much we can do about it.

It was recalled because of sketchy practices used by one of the major slaughterhouses. It reminds me of reading the book Fast Food Nation which I highly recommend. I'm not really sure which is more disturbing; the fact that they have video of "workers kicking cows, jabbing them near their eyes, ramming them with a forklift and shooting high-intensity water up their noses in an effort to force them to their feet for slaughter" or the list of recalled items .

If you scan that list of beef items being recalled, you first see normal things like ground beef, steaks, etc. But if you continue reading, you find items such as beef cheeks, spleens, bile, small intestines, tongue trimmings, salivary glands, lymph nodes, tails, and blood.

The moral of this story? Check to make sure the meat packing beef lymph nodes you have in your freezer didn't come from Hallmark Meat Packing! I'm off to bed.

why don't you just kick my dog while you're at it?

Several residents were billed by Time Warner for cable equipment that was destroyed by a tornado earlier this month in Wisconsin. One lady was billed $2000 for a few cable boxes that were destroyed along with her house! When she called, a manager said there was nothing they could do. It appears, though, that Time Warner is changing its tune and trying to be a little more reasonable.

think twice before you steal...

I just read an article about a 33 year-old man who was caught stealing flea dip at a pet store. For his crime, he has to walk in front of the store for two hours per day wearing a sign saying that he stole and he was caught for the next few days. When asked if this will make him think twice before he steals again, he responded by saying, " I think twice before I steal always, I was just in a situation, and I messed up. I mean I ain't gonna steal no more."

I am glad that he always thinks twice before he steals.

FDA declares kid's cold medicine unsafe!

The FDA has now said cold medicine for kids under the age of 2 is unsafe. Here's an excerpt from an article on cnn.com.

"Parents should not give sniffling babies and toddlers over-the-counter cough and cold medicines -- they're too risky for tots so small, the government will declare Thursday.

The Food and Drug Administration still hasn't decided if the remedies are appropriate for older children to continue using, officials told The Associated Press.

Expect a decision on that by spring, the deadline necessary to notify manufacturers before they begin production for next fall's cold season.

For now, the FDA is issuing a public health advisory on Thursday to warn parents to avoid these drugs for children under age 2 "because serious and potentially life-threatening side effects can occur."

Another reason our government is broke...

Below is an excerpt from an article on cnn.com about a government program providing $40 coupons to us poor Americans who can't afford to upgrade our TV's to HDTV in time for the switch from analog TV that is taking place next year. My additions to the article are in bold.

"Congress, in ordering the transition to digital broadcasting, set aside $1.5 billion (that's billion with a capital B) for the coupon program, which will fund 33.5 million coupons and other costs.

The giveaway basically works under the honor system. (that sounds dangerous)

The first 22 million coupons will go to all households that request them. That includes a residence that gets cable service for one television but has a spare TV that still uses an antenna, for example. (oh, those poor suffering Americans with only one TV wired to cable or satellite)

The rest of the coupons, however, are meant only for those who do not subscribe to a pay-television service."

Hmmmm....what else could we do with $1.5 billion?

750,000 teachers could get a $2000 raise. We could buy about 2 million computers for classrooms. We could drill 1 million wells in Africa providing sanitary water to drink. You get the idea. So, if you know me well, you know I don't really watch TV. Reading about the money our government is spending to lead people to sit on their couches and watch ads that force them to grow more discontent with their small 35" analog TV's so that they throw the old ones away and buy newer, bigger HDTVs with their credit cards and go deeper in debt makes me not want to watch TV at all (except for Virginia Tech football and The Simpsons, of course)!