Mental health Reform Needed Now

It is almost impossible for anyone to understand why the school massacre happened at Sandy Hook. It is time this country took seriously the identification and treatment of mental illnesses. We must modify the current over-reaching privacy and HIPPA related health care laws and allow mental health professionals, family doctors and family members who become concerned about a loved one to have quick and easy access to a 72 hour psych hold. We cannot afford to continue to squander chances to intervene before such unimaginable horrors occur. The recent headline, "Could school massacre be gun control tipping point?" should read "Could school massacre be mental health intervention tipping point?"

Why aren't schools locked down all the time?

They are talking on the news about how the schools in the district in CT have gone to lockdown following the shooting. Isn't that like closing the barn door after the horse runs off?

Wouldn't the schools be safer if they were locked all the time?

As a parent I would have no problem having to stop in a lobby or anteroom and speak to someone behind one of those security windows before being buzzed into the main building. A little determent could have saved a lot of lives today.

I'm going to speak with my Congressman and Superintendent of Schools. Maybe you should do the same.

Food for thought.

• Connecticut school shooting

Who the F#$K hurts kids?

So some idiot decided it would be a good idea to walk into a school in Connecticut and shoot some people. Teenagers are found guilty of murdering a toddler. A dad kills his kids b/c he loses custody in a divorce.

What the hell is wrong with these people????

Even before I was 5 years old I had it ingrained in me that you don't hurt children.
Its about the worst moral sin you can possibly do, and yet we hear about it again and again.

I blame parents. As a parent I spend a fair amount of time teaching my kids good moral judgment skills. I doubt most parents do the same.

You should raise your children to understand that some things are just NOT DONE.
It bothers me so much that I have quit watching TV series after they hurt a fictional child.

Society needs to realize that until we raise a couple of generations that abhor violence to children, we are going to keep having whackos make the news for beating, raping, murdering children.

As a father I want to always keep my children safe, what do you do when someone attacks their school while you're at work?

I'm going to go throw up, excuse me.

19th Bridge Collapse or Failure

Since 1990, by my best count, 19 major bridge collapses have occurred in the USA, the majority of which occurred since 2000. Our infrastructure is falling apart and Congress and our state governments are playing the part of Nero and sitting idly by while our country falls apart at the seams. This is what happens when social programs get more funding than roads.

But no worries, state officials say there is no environmental problem with a train-car of highly toxic vinyl chloride spilling into a local river. Nothing to see here, move along.

19 bridges in 32 years, thats about one every 1.6 years. So no worries, I doubt YOU will be on the next one to fall....right?

http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/30/us/new-jersey-train-derail/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

Really Congress?

The country is about to hit one of the biggest self-made roadblocks Congress has ever cooked up and they tell us that in addition to working through their secret tax negotiations with the President to fix all that ails us, they are also going to save millions by switching us to dollar coins and nickels made from steel.

DOES ANYONE ANYWHERE ACTUALLY THINK THIS MAKES SENSE?

We have ever-climbing debts, a gridlocked Congress that has done nothing about passing a budget for 3 years, a .gov that cant figure out how to not paint itself in a corner, a tax code that no one can understand and they think that a priority right now should be another episode of "shall we kill the dollar bill?"

Really? Really? I mean, come on now, do you think you can distract the American public at this point with that tired old gag?

News Flash, get us out of foreign wars (inlcuding the sooper secret ones) and we'll save $4 Billion a month, then axe a few other beloved items and suddenly we have a budget that meets tax revenue. The proposed coin measure would likely save $4.4 Billions OVER THIRTY YEARS.

FIX THIS NOW CONGRESS! Passing a (balanced) budget is one of the few tasks outlined for you in the Constitution.

For anyone interested in what I'm blathering about, A: pull your head out from under a rock and become aware of the issues fast approaching us in 2013 and B: click on the link below.
http://www.nbcnews.com/business/kill-bill-us-says-dollar-coins-would-save-4-4b-1C7350149

Alive and Well and Thankful

As we approach Thanksgiving, I just want to send a shout out that I am thankful for all my friends and family, and very thankful for the job I have had this past year. After bouncing between contract positions for 2 years, I think I finally found a place I want to stick with. Heres hoping the economy can keep its wits about itself and my job continues to like me as much as I like it.

I know I seemed to have died online, but I have been reading your posts (you know who you are). I have just been sooper busy with work and family and have decided to spend my free time with the kids and my honey. Keep up the free ice cream, my machine seems to be broken.  ;)

Happy Holidays to Jay G, JWR, Fred, Ryo, Linoge, Old NFO, Brigid, Tam, Pissed, Rob Allen, Wirecutter, Breda, Roberta, SayUncle, Excels at Nothing, ENDO, and all the rest who make me smile with all their online metaphysical and physical wanderings. You are all a part of my daily/weekly routine and even if I am only a virtual connection, I enjoy it.

Here's hoping we all enjoy 2013 even better!

Funny of the week: Act of Valor movie review

A little leap day smile from me to you by way of Tam, I wish more movie reviews were like this.  :)

Went to see Act of Valor at a matinee...from View From The Porch by Tam


Some thoughts:

•So none of the SEALs is Sir Anthony Hopkins. So what? I'll bet the Screen Actors Guild doesn't mail dues checks from Stallone and Schwarzenegger back un-cashed.

•The plot is not Hitchcockian: Some bad guys are going to try and do bad things to America. A bunch of SEALs are attempting to stop them, mostly by shooting them in the face. They don't sit around and anguish over the deep meaning of shooting terrorists in the face, either; they make like a Nike commercial and Just Do It.

•Wow.

•By the time the lights came up, you could hear a pin drop. It was a full five-Mississippi before anybody in the theater so much as moved to grab their coat.

•I am so used to watching gun handling in movies and thinking "You're Doing It Wrong!" that it was refreshing to see one that made me think "Huh. I'm Doing It Wrong."

•I will be going to see it again on the big screen. This is a big screen movie.

Gun ownership up, especially among women

A right not exercised soon becomes a privilege.
http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nbc-news-channel/45897106#45897106

But the anti-gunners tell me gun ownership is down
http://www.saysuncle.com/2012/01/05/but-the-anti-gunners-tell-me-gun-ownership-is-down/