Category: bad news

how is that WAR ON DRUGS going?

On By Rick McIn bad news, economics, governmentLeave a comment

Sure the USA is losing the War in Iraq. More and more Americans want to walk away.

war-on-drugs.jpgBut the War on Drugs hits a lot closer to home.

• Price and purity estimates are a key barometer of cocaine availability
• Dropping prices are an indication of robust supply or weakening demand
• In letter to senator, drug czar says street price of cocaine fell last year in U.S.
• Disclosure may contradict U.S. claims $4 billion in Colombia aid stemming flow

U.S. drug czar’s letter: Cocaine prices drop – CNN.com

OK, $4 billion and street prices fall. Do you think supply rose? Or demand fell?

Maybe they should try EDUCATION of Americans.

There’s no WAR ON SMOKING and yet numbers of smokers have decreased long term.

image source

33 dead at Virginia campus

On By Rick McIn bad news, governmentLeave a comment

Sad. Sad. Sad.

I was just in a small University town near to where this happened.

It seemed idyllic at Penn State.

What a tragedy.

At least 33 people are dead and more than a dozen others wounded after a gunman opened fire at a Virginia college on Monday in what is being described as the worst campus shooting in U.S. history.

33 dead in ‘horrific’ campus shooting in Virginia

why do I blog?

On By Rick McIn bad news, blogsLeave a comment

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1) Vanity
2) Safe archive of personal photos, travelogues and musings
3) A (weird) kind of communication with friends & family
4) Connecting with friends I haven’t met yet
5) Sharing valuable info on Gymnastics Coaching and Hiking

I tell you this because I got “tagged”.

Russ Beebe, Founder of the California Wine Hikes site – is known on the intertubes as The Wine Hiker. (Drink in his wine hiking blog.)

I know what you are thinking …

If you have wine, why hike?

(A good question, Russ.)

I tell you all about Russ this because Russ has “tagged” me in one of those internet games for people who have too much time free in their real lives.

I answer the question, “Why do I blog?”, then tag 5 other suckers bloggers.

I inflict pay forward this question on to:

Ron at For Your Approval
Kate at Kate of Late
Rick at Nude Hiker
Rogier at Blue Peak

And a NEW friend …

Sandra at Florida Hikes

Kurt Vonnegut farewell

On By Rick McIn bad news, booksLeave a comment

Ron says it well.

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“I want to stand as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all the kinds of things you can’t see from the center.” – Kurt Vonnegut

One of my literary heroes died yesterday at age 84. Today’s New York Times has a good obit.

Vonnegut’s dark wit, playful voice and humanist values helped me and millions of other teenagers live through the 70s with our sanity intact. He was funny, imaginative and, above all, outraged to the core at the cruelty of war and the absurdity of existence.

He was a snarky, charming athiest; the Mark Twain of his time.

His work is probably one of the main reasons I became a writer, and when I think about it I realize that he’s with me every time I string a sentence together.

Goodbye, Mr. V.

Hi ho.

For Your Approval: And so it goes

official website – Kurt Vonnegut

The Most Hated Family in America

On By Rick McIn bad news, government, philosophyLeave a comment

Not Muslims. Not even close.

That would be the homophobic, anti-semitic religious lunatics of Fred Phelps’ Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas. (Independent Baptist church not affiliated with any known Baptist conventions or associations.) They are mostly one family.

These adults are as foul as any lunatic fanatics anywhere.

Sick, sick, sick.

I wonder how they celebrate Easter Sunday.

You need a strong stomach to watch this BBC documentary on YouTube called The Most Hated Family in America.

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Robert X. Cringely says Net Neutrality is toast

On By Rick McIn bad news, internetLeave a comment

Bad news.

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Meanwhile a LOT of gas has been and will continue to be spewed about network neutrality, which is the idea that ISPs should treat all packets equally. For the record, I am strongly in favor of network neutrality even if I see it as a fading hope. For the moment most ISPs have signed on to this notion, but I am here to tell you that’s not going to be the case long-term. The big ISP’s have long planned for the end of net neutrality and, whether it is next year or five years from now, most ISPs are ready.


In the end the ISPs are going to win this battle, you know. The only thing that will keep them from doing that is competition, something it is difficult to see coming along anytime soon …

I, Cringely | PBS

By the way, Cringely is a pen name. Many have written under the name for Infoworld.

The Cringely I like is brilliant tech journalist Mark Stephens.

After a financial disagreement in 1995, Stephens was dismissed from Infoworld, and was promptly sued by IDG to prevent him from continuing to use the Cringely trademark. A settlement was reached out of court that allowed him to use the name, so long as he did not contribute to competing technology magazines. As a result, Stephens’ writing as Robert X. Cringely regularly appears in publications such as The New York Times, Newsweek, Forbes, Upside, Success, and Worth. Stephens has also appeared as Cringely in two documentaries based on his writings: Triumph of the Nerds: The Rise of Accidental Empires and Nerds 2.0.1.

Stephens’ Cringely currently writes an online column for the PBS website called I, Cringely: The Pulpit, and has launched a new internet television show NerdTV, also for PBS.

Wikipedia

newspapers deserve to die

On By Rick McIn bad news, product complaintsLeave a comment

The one reason I might go to the Calgary Herald newspaper website would be to look up the answer to yesterday’s crossword puzzle.

Forget it.

The website is crap. STILL no RSS feed. Cluttered. Confusing.

This is a clever strategy to make you buy the actual paper. Or say screw it. I’ll read Google news Canada instead.

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the GREEN pendulum swings too far

On By Rick McIn bad news, health & fitnessLeave a comment

I can only imagine the stupid, wasteful things happening worldwide in the blind rush for anything green.

Downtown Ronnie tells me that fat cats in the Petro-toxin industry are even worried what wacky legislation might come down in Canada.

In what can only be considered a tidal wave of public opinion, a new Yale research survey reveals a significant shift in public attitudes toward the environment and global warming. Fully 83 percent of Americans now say global warming is a “serious” problem, up from 70 percent in 2004….

Reality Check: 83% of Americans Now Say Global Warming is a Serious Problem: BLOG: SciAm Observations

Complete Idiot's Guide to Saving the Environment

Complete Idiot’s Guide to Saving the Environment