The Insanity of what is going on in Haiti

A series of cargo flights containing a portable field hospital was denied landing privileges at Port au Prince. The planes have been forced to land in the Dominican Republic and the hospital equipment trucked overland. What is wrong with people? I know ramp space and such is at a premium at the airport, but surely this organization can be made an exception.

http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/press/release.cfm?id=4176&cat=press-release

Wings of Hope in Haiti

The organization Wings of Hope is a non sectarian organization based in the St. Louis metro area which provides pilot volunteers to fly humanitarian missions using small aircraft. They have missions all over the world. Right now, they are flying missions into Haiti and are functioning under an emergency budget and are seeking donations to continue their efforts. Since the begining of the crisis they have flowing over 20,000 pounds of cargo from both the Dominican Republic and Pureto Rico. Their emergency funds are rapidly being used up as high fuel and drug costs are taxing their usual donation base.

You are welcome to visit their website and see if you would wish to donate to their cause.

http://www.wings-of-hope.org/

They are a well established charity with hundreds of volunteers and missions in 43 countries.

Their efforts in Haiti are detailed in this report from the local NBC Affiliate in St. Louis.

http://www.ksdk.com/video/default.aspx?bctid=62065413001

A Very Good Blog - Move your money

http://tammidee.multiply.com/journal/item/653/Bill_Maher_Explains_Why_You_Should_Move_Your_Money_VIDEO

Global Warming - Ice Boxes to Eskimoes

Inuits need cash for freezers in warming Arctic

Posted Sun Dec 13, 2009 3:48pm AEDT

Inuit communities need funds to adapt to climate change in the Arctic, including measures to build communal deep freezers to store game, an Inuit leader said on Friday.

The Inuit, the indigenous people of Greenland, Canada, Alaska and Russia, have traditionally hunted for Arctic species from seal to polar bear, whale to caribou.

The Inuit Circumpolar Council's (ICC) Violet Ford says she sees climate changes "on a daily basis".

Ms Ford, who was born and raised in the Inuit community of Makkovik, says more funds are needed for adaptation and response to climate change in the Arctic.

"That should also be going to the Inuit communities as a response to climate change," she said.

"We need infrastructure. We want community deep freezers if the hunting patterns change so much that we can only go hunting a few times a year."

'Disappearing' culture

ICC chairman James Stotts says his 78-year-old uncle fell through the ice and froze to death at a time of year when the ice normally would be thick and safe.

"Inuits have to find other ways to store their meat. Some of our villages are literally falling into the seas because of erosion," he said.

Mr Stotts said he hoped governments gathered for the United Nations' climate conference in Copenhagen would come up with a "real deal ... something that really will work".

ICC vice chairman, Aqqaluk Lynge, said that the ice cap is melting much faster than before, which would raise ocean levels, reduce winter ice and threaten the Inuit way of life.

"The hunters' area is very large ... they drive around on dog sledges, but for us the dog sledges are disappearing," he said.

"That part of the culture is disappearing. We are paying for the changes already in many ways."

-Reuters

Why I hate football.

You know I live in St. Louis so there is enough said. Bidwell the clown pulled the Cardinals out and moved them to sunny Arizona where they still play in obscurity. We were lied to by the sports nuts in town who banded together, convinced the powers that be that if we built a decent stadium, the NFL would beat a path to our door. (If you build it, they will come). That the franchises were award to Carolina and Jacksonville proved that theory to be BS. Then we had to steal a team from LA. (We kinda got an out because the owner was from here). Then, after a couple of winning seasons including a Super Bowl, the team has fallen on hard times. Now with the passing of their owner, rumor has it that the team may move if vast improvements aren't made to our stadium. Hell the thing cost $300 million to build in the first place! They want to be premia donnas and I am sick of them. I am sick of football hogging my Sunday afternoons. I am sick of the evening news coming on at midnight because some damn jock can't tell time. I want my TV back.

Christmas Wishes

Today I feel blessed and fulfilled this Christmas. What happened was that my best friend got her Christmas Wish! Stephanie is my friend with Cancer and she isn't feeling well but she was ready to fly to Detroit to visit a friend so she could get a White Christmas. Being a child of the south, my friend didn't get very many of them, if at all. She would visit her Mom in Montanaevery Thanksgiving and then pray for snow. They'd get record snowfalls. Her Mom would say that everyone around would prepare for her arrival every year, and that the Lord answered her prayer big time.

Yesterday morning, she started to look for an airline ticket and was ready to buy one online when her cat Remi started meowing. He looked out the window, and outside she saw the most amazing amazing sight! It was snowing! In Dallas Texas where it had been in the 70's earlier in the week. When all was said and done Dallas had around 2 inches of snow with areas of up to 8 inches further to the west. She looked out and had her greatest Christmas wish! She lived through a White Christmas and it was a genuine one.

She called me to gloat about it of course. We have a good natured game of harping about the weather. I hate snow because I have to dig it out and drive in the crap and in general, its a royal pain. Whenever it snows here I like to rub it in and she just hates me for it. She called me and just went Naner naner naner, I got snow and you didn't.

I was just so glad she got her wish. I am sure a lot of people wished for it. I am sure a lot of people were inconvenienced. I know its hard to think of others in our world of selfishness. But in this world there are a few gems and I am so glad to know the sould of my friend who received such a simple gift from nature.

May you all have a blessed time as we celebrate the birth of one we call the Prince of Peace. May we remember His spirit and what He stands for as we go to the next year. May we have patience and love. May we remeber our fellow man. Our problems might seem overwhelming, but are trivial compared to someone facing mortality. Someday, we will all face that. I only hope that I can face that time with the strength of character my friend Stephanie has shown.

Its finally happened

Killer Tripped Up by His Own Baggy Pants

Sphere Staff

NEW YORK (Dec. 18) -- A career criminal massacred three members of a family in their apartment but fell to his death when he tripped over his own baggy pants.

The massacre occurred Thursday afternoon near a string of upscale shops on Manhattan's Upper West Side. Police said the attack apparently stemmed from botched drug ripoff.

"There is a significant amount of heroin found in the apartment," Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly told the Daily News.

David Karp, AP

Workers from the medical examiner's office carry the body of a murder suspect who fell to his death from an apartment building fire escape.

Police said Hector Quinones, 44, shot and killed Carlos Rodriguez Sr., 52, and his 24-year-old son, Carlos Rodriguez Jr., then stabbed to death the younger Rodriguez's grandfather, Fernando Gonzalez, 87, according to reports in the Daily News and the New York Post.

The elder Rodriguez's wife, Gisela Rodriguez, 49, and her daughter, Leyanis, 28, walked in on the carnage. Quinones heard keys in the lock and opened the door for the women, police said.

He shot the mother, who was grazed on the head by a bullet but managed to run from the apartment. The killer was just about the grab the daughter when his low-slung pants fell down and he tripped, the Post said. That gave the young woman the chance to run into a back room, where she found the bodies of her brother and father.

Quinones yanked up his pants and scrambled after Leyanis Rodriguez, who climbed onto a fire escape, screaming for help to construction workers on the roof of a nearby building, the Post said. The attacker followed her onto the fire escape, but once again his drooping pants fell and he tripped, plunging three stories to his death.

Estella Carrino, who manages a street-level bicycle store in the building, said she heard the body hit the ground.

"He had no jacket on and his pants were down. He was very dead," she told the Daily News.