Tuesday, August 14, 2012

We Humans are a Strange Lot

I think it's time to take a short break from blogging about politics, world events and history and take a quick look at a few stories that clearly demnstrate how strange people truly are...

Here is one that rates an "oops..."  In North Carolina, state Representative Becky Carney (who is a big time environmental activist) inadvertently cast the deciding vote to open up natural-gas hydraulic fracking in the state. The legislature had passed the bill earlier, but it was vetoed by Gov. Bev Perdue, and the House needed 72 votes to override the veto and enact the bill. Carney's tireless lobbying of colleagues appeared to have helped halt the overriders at 71 votes, but when it came time to vote, Carney accidentally pushed the wrong button and became the 72nd. She could be heard on her microphone in the chamber, saying, "Oh my gosh. I pushed green."

You may not know it but New York City's tap water is already widely regarded as world-class, in safety and taste (and subjected to a half-million tests a year by the city's Department of Environmental Protection). Apparently that isn't quite good enough for New Yorkers. Two entrepreneurs recently opened the "Molecule Water Bar" in the city's East Village, selling 16-ounce bottles of the same water for $2.50,.They say their water is extra-filtered through their $25,000 machine that applies UV rays, ozone treatment and "reverse osmosis" in a seven-stage process to create what they call "pure H2O." The owners of Molecule are a restaurateur/art dealer and a "social-justice activist" who is a "former world champion boomerang player".

Here's an example of what logical thinking is in beurocracies... William Voss is CEO of the Flight Safety Foundation, which relentlessly campaigns for improving airline safety regulations. He claims that his primary obstacle is ... safe airlines. You see, because the last major-airline accident in the U.S. was 11 years ago,  airlines have become complacent. "If anyone wants to advance safety through regulation," Voss said, "it can't be done without further loss of life." If that is true, let's hope he continues to have problems passing safety regulations...

Yet another woman made the news recently for having loaded up, over several years, in breast augmentation surgery. Paula Simonds, 44, of Miami, who is known professionally as model Lacey Wildd, is approaching her goal of having breasts large enough to place her in the top five in the world. However, the quest is upsetting her six kids (two young, two grown and two in high school). Currently, Simonds measures herself as an "L"-cup, headed for a "triple-M." My guess is that one reason her kids are upset is because they have to spend so much time helping her sit up...

The Judson Independent School District near San Antonio fired a kindergarten teacher in June for arranging an unorthodox solution to a colleague's bullying-student problem. The teacher ordered the class's 24 other students to line up and slap the bully (and encouraging the students to "hit him harder") to reinforce the message of "why bullying is bad." The article didn't say if the solution worked...

OK, enough for today. It's time for me to get back to the news and see what names the Democrats and Republicans have thought up to call each other today...



Live Long and Prosper....

No comments: