Decisions, decisions, bad decisions
I made a bad call today. Confronted with a situation, I had a choice of how to respond and my response was not the best possible choice. I'm paying a price as a result. I should have remembered these words: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRNWFtgXo2E.
I was walking from my car to the VA medical center in West Los Angeles for an appointment. I had big plans for the day, go see a movie, run a few errands, come home and rest and then go play trivia with my friends. I was excited about the day.
There was a man trying to help another man right outside the main entrance. The man sitting on the edge of the planter had apparently gotten out of his wheelchair to sit there, but was unable to move himself into a position where he could remain sitting upright, without something behind him. The other man was trying to help him get to that upright position but couldn't do it alone. I had three choices. Ignore what I was seeing entirely and walk on by. Go inside the door and get some help. Try to help the one man lift the other. I chose the third option. It was not a pretty sight.
Five years ago, I could have just gotten up behind the man and lifted him into place by myself. That was then. Now, I exhausted myself trying to move the man around and was so worn by the exertion that I wound up having to cancel all my plans for the day. That was roughly five hours ago and I'm still exhausted from the effort.
Why did I make this bad call? Because I am apparently unwilling to recognize that my health problems have created limitations I do not wish to acknowledge. For a few moments after this bad call, I was afraid I'd have to go to the emergency room because of the difficulties I was having in breathing.
Hopefully, lesson learned. If I encounter a similar situation in the future, I will choose option 2 and get someone who is physically able to help.
* * *
I hate the fact that I'm in agreement with the National Organization for Marriage on any single sub-point of any issue, but they're right for once. The Obama Administration has no business choosing to "recognize" the marriages of same-sex couples in Utah that were performed after one judge ruled the state's constitutional provision limiting marriage to opposite sex couples was in violation of the United States constitution; and before the U. S. Supreme Court put a halt to those weddings, pending an appeal of that judge's ruling.
When DOMA, which was a horrible law, was finally overturned, I rejoiced. Same-sex marriages should be legal anywhere and everywhere. But as long as it remains an issue that states are allowed to determine on their own, then it is up to the states to make those determinations and to the federal government to follow its own "rules" on the issue.
The way it works now, if a same-sex couple was legally married in a state where same-sex marriage IS legal, the federal government treats them like any opposite-sex married couple. Without regard to which state they live in. That's how these Utah residents should continue to be treated until the appeals are exhausted.
It isn't that the idiots at NOM are right about same-sex marriage being wrong. It is that they are right that the action of the Obama Administration is an "overreach" of the President's powers.
* * *
Random Ponderings:
Shia LaBeouf is "retiring" from public life. That's a shame. I was wondering if he would wind up contracting Athlete's Tongue from having his foot in his mouth so frequently.
The Chevy dealer who is haggling with the owner of a nearly new Camaro Z1, after an employee of the dealership totaled it during an unauthorized joyride; needs to just give the man what he wants. The negative publicity caused by their niggling attitude isn't worth what they might save.
I may pay full-price to see a movie tomorrow. Aside from midnight shows, I haven't paid full-price for a movie ticket for at least 18 months.
In case I didn't mention this yesterday, there is no good reason to remake Point Break.
Joe Torrez is a Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fighter with a professional record of 1-5. But when four men broke into his home, intending to harm him, his fiancée, and a child, he fought them off, and one of the four wound up dead. Now he may face homicide charges? That makes no sense.
It's good to see Haley Joel Osmont working without having to see dead people or die himself.
I know Sarah Palin wants to wrap herself in the U. S. flag, but this is going a bit far:
FYI, the shoes were a gift from a relative.
I'd love to see Justin Bieber charged with a felony for throwing eggs at his neighbors house and causing more than $400 in damages.
If Washington can legalize pot sales for recreational use, then why shouldn't a pot business that delivers be legal?
Every Sunday, the L.A. Times publishes the names of military personnel who died while in Afghanistan. Why don't they publish the names of others who die while on active duty, like the four members of the crew of the Pave Hawk helicopter that crashed in England this past week?
* * *
January 10th in History:
49 BC – Julius Caesar crosses the Rubicon, signaling the start of civil war.
9 – The Western Han Dynasty ends when Wang Mang claims that the divine Mandate of Heaven called for the end of the dynasty and the beginning of his own, the Xin Dynasty.
69 – Lucius Calpurnius Piso Licinianus is appointed by Galba as deputy Roman Emperor.
236 – Pope Fabian succeeds Anterus to become the twentieth pope of Rome.
1072 – Robert Guiscard conquers Palermo.
1475 – Stephen III of Moldavia defeats the Ottoman Empire at the Battle of Vaslui.
1645 – Archbishop William Laud is beheaded at the Tower of London.
1776 – Thomas Paine publishes his pamphlet Common Sense.
1791 – The Siege of Dunlap's Station begins near Cincinnati during the Northwest Indian War.
1806 – Dutch settlers in Cape Town surrender to the British.
1810 – Napoleon Bonaparte divorces his first wife Joséphine.
1861 – American Civil War: Florida secedes from the Union.
1863 – The London Underground, the world's oldest underground railway, opens between London Paddington station and Farringdon station.
1870 – John D. Rockefeller incorporates Standard Oil.
1901 – The first great Texas oil gusher is discovered at Spindletop in Beaumont, Texas.
1916 – World War I: In the Erzurum Offensive, Russia defeats the Ottoman Empire.
1920 – The Treaty of Versailles takes effect, officially ending World War I.
1922 – Arthur Griffith is elected President of the Dáil Éireann.
1923 – Lithuania seizes and annexes Memel.
1927 – Fritz Lang's futuristic film Metropolis is released in Germany.
1929 – The Adventures of Tintin, one of the most popular European comic books, is first published in Belgium.
1941 – World War II: The Greek army captures Kleisoura.
1946 – The first General Assembly of the United Nations opens in London. Fifty-one nations are represented.
1946 – The United States Army Signal Corps successfully conducts Project Diana, bouncing radio waves off the moon and receiving the reflected signals.
1954 – BOAC Flight 781, a de Havilland DH.106 Comet 1, explodes and falls into the Tyrrhenian Sea killing 35 people.
1962 – Apollo program: NASA announces plans to build the C-5 rocket launch vehicle. It became better known as the Saturn V Moon rocket, which launched every Apollo Moon mission.
1972 – Sheikh Mujibur Rahman returns to the newly independent Bangladesh as president after spending over nine months in prison in Pakistan.
1981 – Salvadoran Civil War: The FMLN launches its first major offensive, gaining control of most of Morazán and Chalatenango departments
1984 – Holy See–United States relations: The United States and Holy See (Vatican City) re-establish full diplomatic relations after almost 117 years, overturning Congress's 1867 ban on public funding for such a diplomatic envoy.
1985 – Sandinista Daniel Ortega becomes president of Nicaragua and vows to continue the transformation to socialism and alliance with the Soviet Union and Cuba; American policy continues to support the Contras in their revolt against the Nicaraguan government.
1990 – Time Warner is formed by the merger of Time Inc. and Warner Communications.
1999 – Sanjeev Nanda kills three policemen in New Delhi, India with his car, an act for which he was later acquitted, resulting in a sharp drop in public confidence in the Indian legal system.
2005 – A mudslide occurs in La Conchita, California, killing 10 people, injuring many more and closing U.S. Route 101, the main coastal corridor between Los Angeles and San Francisco for 10 days.
2007 – A general strike begins in Guinea in an eventually successful attempt to get President Lansana Conté to resign.
2011 – 2010–2011 Queensland floods: Torrential rain in the Lockyer Valley region of South East Queensland, Australia causes severe flash flooding, killing 9 people.
2011 – Basque Euskadi ta Askatasuna calls for a permanent cease-fire.
Famous Folk Born on January 10th:
Princess Elizabeth of Great Britain
Jeremiah S. Black
Charles Ingalls
Frank James
Reinhold Sadler
Mary Ingalls
Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy
Ray Bolger
Paul Henreid
Bernard Lee (appeared in over 80 films that weren't "Bond" films, and his grandson Johnny Lee Miller was Angelina Jolie's first husband)
Gustav Husak
Yu Kuo-hwa
Jerry Wexler
Max Roach
Roy Disney
Al Goldstein
Willie McCovey
David Horowitz (given how conservative he is, hard to believe his parents were Communists)
Frank Mahovlich
Sal Mineo
Walter Hill
Jim Croce
Frank Sinatra, Jr.
Rod Stewart
Donald Fagen
Teresa Graves
George Foreman
Linda Lovelace
Scott Thurston
Pat Benatar
Bobby Rahal
Janet Jones
Kira Ivanova
Brian Lawler
Movie quotes today come from "Beverly Hills Ninja" just because I happened to pick it at random:
[Sensei asks Gobei to be honest to him when asking about Haru]
Gobei: I love my little brother. His determination is like a tiger, swift as a...
Sensei: GOBEI.
Gobei: He's fat. He's a fool. He's an embarassment to all ninjas everywhere.
#2
Haru: Sensei, she is incapable of such things. She is as lovely as a dove.
Sensei: It sounds to me you are being lead around by your short sword.
#3
Haru: Sensei, believe me, this woman's telling the truth.
Sensei: Haru, you're unable to tell truth from untruth.
Haru: That is impossible. My ninja intuition tells me this!
Sensei: Haru, you do not have ninja intuition! You do not even have NORMAL intuition!
#4
Haru: Only when I cease to breathe will I be dead, Tanley!
I was walking from my car to the VA medical center in West Los Angeles for an appointment. I had big plans for the day, go see a movie, run a few errands, come home and rest and then go play trivia with my friends. I was excited about the day.
There was a man trying to help another man right outside the main entrance. The man sitting on the edge of the planter had apparently gotten out of his wheelchair to sit there, but was unable to move himself into a position where he could remain sitting upright, without something behind him. The other man was trying to help him get to that upright position but couldn't do it alone. I had three choices. Ignore what I was seeing entirely and walk on by. Go inside the door and get some help. Try to help the one man lift the other. I chose the third option. It was not a pretty sight.
Five years ago, I could have just gotten up behind the man and lifted him into place by myself. That was then. Now, I exhausted myself trying to move the man around and was so worn by the exertion that I wound up having to cancel all my plans for the day. That was roughly five hours ago and I'm still exhausted from the effort.
Why did I make this bad call? Because I am apparently unwilling to recognize that my health problems have created limitations I do not wish to acknowledge. For a few moments after this bad call, I was afraid I'd have to go to the emergency room because of the difficulties I was having in breathing.
Hopefully, lesson learned. If I encounter a similar situation in the future, I will choose option 2 and get someone who is physically able to help.
* * *
I hate the fact that I'm in agreement with the National Organization for Marriage on any single sub-point of any issue, but they're right for once. The Obama Administration has no business choosing to "recognize" the marriages of same-sex couples in Utah that were performed after one judge ruled the state's constitutional provision limiting marriage to opposite sex couples was in violation of the United States constitution; and before the U. S. Supreme Court put a halt to those weddings, pending an appeal of that judge's ruling.
When DOMA, which was a horrible law, was finally overturned, I rejoiced. Same-sex marriages should be legal anywhere and everywhere. But as long as it remains an issue that states are allowed to determine on their own, then it is up to the states to make those determinations and to the federal government to follow its own "rules" on the issue.
The way it works now, if a same-sex couple was legally married in a state where same-sex marriage IS legal, the federal government treats them like any opposite-sex married couple. Without regard to which state they live in. That's how these Utah residents should continue to be treated until the appeals are exhausted.
It isn't that the idiots at NOM are right about same-sex marriage being wrong. It is that they are right that the action of the Obama Administration is an "overreach" of the President's powers.
* * *
Random Ponderings:
Shia LaBeouf is "retiring" from public life. That's a shame. I was wondering if he would wind up contracting Athlete's Tongue from having his foot in his mouth so frequently.
The Chevy dealer who is haggling with the owner of a nearly new Camaro Z1, after an employee of the dealership totaled it during an unauthorized joyride; needs to just give the man what he wants. The negative publicity caused by their niggling attitude isn't worth what they might save.
I may pay full-price to see a movie tomorrow. Aside from midnight shows, I haven't paid full-price for a movie ticket for at least 18 months.
In case I didn't mention this yesterday, there is no good reason to remake Point Break.
Joe Torrez is a Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fighter with a professional record of 1-5. But when four men broke into his home, intending to harm him, his fiancée, and a child, he fought them off, and one of the four wound up dead. Now he may face homicide charges? That makes no sense.
It's good to see Haley Joel Osmont working without having to see dead people or die himself.
I know Sarah Palin wants to wrap herself in the U. S. flag, but this is going a bit far:
FYI, the shoes were a gift from a relative.
I'd love to see Justin Bieber charged with a felony for throwing eggs at his neighbors house and causing more than $400 in damages.
If Washington can legalize pot sales for recreational use, then why shouldn't a pot business that delivers be legal?
Every Sunday, the L.A. Times publishes the names of military personnel who died while in Afghanistan. Why don't they publish the names of others who die while on active duty, like the four members of the crew of the Pave Hawk helicopter that crashed in England this past week?
* * *
January 10th in History:
49 BC – Julius Caesar crosses the Rubicon, signaling the start of civil war.
9 – The Western Han Dynasty ends when Wang Mang claims that the divine Mandate of Heaven called for the end of the dynasty and the beginning of his own, the Xin Dynasty.
69 – Lucius Calpurnius Piso Licinianus is appointed by Galba as deputy Roman Emperor.
236 – Pope Fabian succeeds Anterus to become the twentieth pope of Rome.
1072 – Robert Guiscard conquers Palermo.
1475 – Stephen III of Moldavia defeats the Ottoman Empire at the Battle of Vaslui.
1645 – Archbishop William Laud is beheaded at the Tower of London.
1776 – Thomas Paine publishes his pamphlet Common Sense.
1791 – The Siege of Dunlap's Station begins near Cincinnati during the Northwest Indian War.
1806 – Dutch settlers in Cape Town surrender to the British.
1810 – Napoleon Bonaparte divorces his first wife Joséphine.
1861 – American Civil War: Florida secedes from the Union.
1863 – The London Underground, the world's oldest underground railway, opens between London Paddington station and Farringdon station.
1870 – John D. Rockefeller incorporates Standard Oil.
1901 – The first great Texas oil gusher is discovered at Spindletop in Beaumont, Texas.
1916 – World War I: In the Erzurum Offensive, Russia defeats the Ottoman Empire.
1920 – The Treaty of Versailles takes effect, officially ending World War I.
1922 – Arthur Griffith is elected President of the Dáil Éireann.
1923 – Lithuania seizes and annexes Memel.
1927 – Fritz Lang's futuristic film Metropolis is released in Germany.
1929 – The Adventures of Tintin, one of the most popular European comic books, is first published in Belgium.
1941 – World War II: The Greek army captures Kleisoura.
1946 – The first General Assembly of the United Nations opens in London. Fifty-one nations are represented.
1946 – The United States Army Signal Corps successfully conducts Project Diana, bouncing radio waves off the moon and receiving the reflected signals.
1954 – BOAC Flight 781, a de Havilland DH.106 Comet 1, explodes and falls into the Tyrrhenian Sea killing 35 people.
1962 – Apollo program: NASA announces plans to build the C-5 rocket launch vehicle. It became better known as the Saturn V Moon rocket, which launched every Apollo Moon mission.
1972 – Sheikh Mujibur Rahman returns to the newly independent Bangladesh as president after spending over nine months in prison in Pakistan.
1981 – Salvadoran Civil War: The FMLN launches its first major offensive, gaining control of most of Morazán and Chalatenango departments
1984 – Holy See–United States relations: The United States and Holy See (Vatican City) re-establish full diplomatic relations after almost 117 years, overturning Congress's 1867 ban on public funding for such a diplomatic envoy.
1985 – Sandinista Daniel Ortega becomes president of Nicaragua and vows to continue the transformation to socialism and alliance with the Soviet Union and Cuba; American policy continues to support the Contras in their revolt against the Nicaraguan government.
1990 – Time Warner is formed by the merger of Time Inc. and Warner Communications.
1999 – Sanjeev Nanda kills three policemen in New Delhi, India with his car, an act for which he was later acquitted, resulting in a sharp drop in public confidence in the Indian legal system.
2005 – A mudslide occurs in La Conchita, California, killing 10 people, injuring many more and closing U.S. Route 101, the main coastal corridor between Los Angeles and San Francisco for 10 days.
2007 – A general strike begins in Guinea in an eventually successful attempt to get President Lansana Conté to resign.
2011 – 2010–2011 Queensland floods: Torrential rain in the Lockyer Valley region of South East Queensland, Australia causes severe flash flooding, killing 9 people.
2011 – Basque Euskadi ta Askatasuna calls for a permanent cease-fire.
Famous Folk Born on January 10th:
Princess Elizabeth of Great Britain
Jeremiah S. Black
Charles Ingalls
Frank James
Reinhold Sadler
Mary Ingalls
Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy
Ray Bolger
Paul Henreid
Bernard Lee (appeared in over 80 films that weren't "Bond" films, and his grandson Johnny Lee Miller was Angelina Jolie's first husband)
Gustav Husak
Yu Kuo-hwa
Jerry Wexler
Max Roach
Roy Disney
Al Goldstein
Willie McCovey
David Horowitz (given how conservative he is, hard to believe his parents were Communists)
Frank Mahovlich
Sal Mineo
Walter Hill
Jim Croce
Frank Sinatra, Jr.
Rod Stewart
Donald Fagen
Teresa Graves
George Foreman
Linda Lovelace
Scott Thurston
Pat Benatar
Bobby Rahal
Janet Jones
Kira Ivanova
Brian Lawler
Movie quotes today come from "Beverly Hills Ninja" just because I happened to pick it at random:
[Sensei asks Gobei to be honest to him when asking about Haru]
Gobei: I love my little brother. His determination is like a tiger, swift as a...
Sensei: GOBEI.
Gobei: He's fat. He's a fool. He's an embarassment to all ninjas everywhere.
#2
Haru: Sensei, she is incapable of such things. She is as lovely as a dove.
Sensei: It sounds to me you are being lead around by your short sword.
#3
Haru: Sensei, believe me, this woman's telling the truth.
Sensei: Haru, you're unable to tell truth from untruth.
Haru: That is impossible. My ninja intuition tells me this!
Sensei: Haru, you do not have ninja intuition! You do not even have NORMAL intuition!
#4
Haru: Only when I cease to breathe will I be dead, Tanley!
posted by me at 5:28 PM
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