At Poole Hospital in England, patients were not served their traditional hot-cross buns on Good Friday because the manager of the catering department was worried that serving the rolls would upset non-Christian ethnic minorities. Foxnews.com has the full story...
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,265132,00.html
How many more examples of political correctness gone too far do we need before everyone is sufficiently outraged to stop this nonsense?
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Monday, April 9, 2007
More Money for New Orleans
Yet another story today on USAToday.com about the government and people of New Orleans asking for more money... this time in lawsuits against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. More than 70,000 claims have been filed, including one for $200 billion by Louisiana's attorney general and other by the city of New Orleans for $77 billion. Here's the link to the story with all the details...
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-04-08-katrina-corps_N.htm#uslPageReturn
This is beyond outrage. Will New Orleans' demand for money ever stop? The government and people there act like this is the first time there has ever been a natural disaster anywhere. It's time for this town to stop playing the victim and start helping itself.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-04-08-katrina-corps_N.htm#uslPageReturn
This is beyond outrage. Will New Orleans' demand for money ever stop? The government and people there act like this is the first time there has ever been a natural disaster anywhere. It's time for this town to stop playing the victim and start helping itself.
Friday, April 6, 2007
Car Chase
Four years ago, a 19 year-old Georgia woman was involved in a high speed chase with police after failing to stop when an officer tried to pull her over for speeding. The woman was driving her father's car. Police damaged it when they had to bump it, then smash in a window in order to arrest the woman. She has since pleaded guilty to DUI and evading police.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is now reporting that the father is suing his insurance company to get them to pay for damages to the car.
Full details are available here...
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/cobb/stories/2007/04/06/0406metchase.html
The only party who should be liable for any damages here is this man's daughter. The fact that he doesn't seem to realize that and wants someone else to pay for damages caused by her actions is an outrage.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is now reporting that the father is suing his insurance company to get them to pay for damages to the car.
Full details are available here...
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/cobb/stories/2007/04/06/0406metchase.html
The only party who should be liable for any damages here is this man's daughter. The fact that he doesn't seem to realize that and wants someone else to pay for damages caused by her actions is an outrage.
Thursday, April 5, 2007
Wrong Testicle
An article from the San Francisco Chronicle today tells the story of Benjamin Houghton, who recently had surgery to remove a painful and potentially cancerous testicle. Unfortunately, doctors at the VA Hospital in Los Angeles removed the wrong testicle by mistake. The story descibes the hospital's procedures that are supposed to avoid this sort of thing...
By its own guidelines and those of national hospital regulators, the VA hospital was required to obtain informed consent from the patient for the surgery, mark the operation site and take a "timeout" in the operating room to double-check that doctors were targeting the correct site, doing the right procedure and operating on the right patient. According to Houghton's medical records, all three of these steps appear to have gone awry.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/04/05/MNGFAP352U1.DTL&type=bondage
Mistakes like this are said to be rare, but it is an outrage that they happen at all, and that the hospital seems to have done such a horrible job of following its own procedures.
By its own guidelines and those of national hospital regulators, the VA hospital was required to obtain informed consent from the patient for the surgery, mark the operation site and take a "timeout" in the operating room to double-check that doctors were targeting the correct site, doing the right procedure and operating on the right patient. According to Houghton's medical records, all three of these steps appear to have gone awry.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/04/05/MNGFAP352U1.DTL&type=bondage
Mistakes like this are said to be rare, but it is an outrage that they happen at all, and that the hospital seems to have done such a horrible job of following its own procedures.
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
Food Labels
An Associated Press story on USAToday.com says the FDA has proposed relaxing its requirements for labeling food as "irradiated" (which is a technique used to kill bacteria that involves zapping food with radiation).
The new rules would apparently allow some irradiated food to be labeled as "pasteurized" instead (or to be labeled with a variety of other terms as proposed by food manufacturers) and would only require food to be labeled as "irradiated" if the radiation causes a material change to the product, such as to its taste, texture, smell or shelf life.
Even the FDA acknowledges that the new rule could confuse consumers, noting as follows in its proposal...
"Research indicates that many consumers regard substitute terms for irradiation to be misleading,"
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2007-04-04-food-radiation_N.htm
It is an outrage that the FDA would propose a rule that it knows will confuse consumers, and that they are even considering not required irradiated food to be labeled as such.
Consumers should always have complete and accurate information available on food product labels to allow them to make the most informed purchasing decisions possible.
The new rules would apparently allow some irradiated food to be labeled as "pasteurized" instead (or to be labeled with a variety of other terms as proposed by food manufacturers) and would only require food to be labeled as "irradiated" if the radiation causes a material change to the product, such as to its taste, texture, smell or shelf life.
Even the FDA acknowledges that the new rule could confuse consumers, noting as follows in its proposal...
"Research indicates that many consumers regard substitute terms for irradiation to be misleading,"
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2007-04-04-food-radiation_N.htm
It is an outrage that the FDA would propose a rule that it knows will confuse consumers, and that they are even considering not required irradiated food to be labeled as such.
Consumers should always have complete and accurate information available on food product labels to allow them to make the most informed purchasing decisions possible.
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
Airline Performance
The 17th annual Airline Quality Ratings were released yesterday, and overall performance of U.S. airlines is down for the third consecutive year. Performance fell in the areas of on-time arrival, involuntary bumping and mishandled luggage. An article on USAToday.com summarized some of the findings as follows...
• The industry had about 75% of their flights arrived on time, compared to 77.3% in 2005. Ten out of the 18 airlines had worse on-time arrival performance in 2006 than in 2005. Only three airlines had 80% or greater on-time arrival.
•The industry's rate of involuntary denied boarding worsened in 2006 — to 1.01 per 10,000 passengers from 0.89 a year earlier. Atlantic Southeast was the worst, with 4.47.
• The industry mishandled 6.5 bags per 1,000, up from 6 in 2005. Atlantic Southeast was the worst also in the rate of mishandled baggage — with 17.37 mishandled bags per 1,000 passengers.
http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/2007-04-02-airline-quality-report_N.htm
Given the unbelievably poor quality of airline service 4 years ago, it is an outrage that it has only gotten worse in the three years since.
• The industry had about 75% of their flights arrived on time, compared to 77.3% in 2005. Ten out of the 18 airlines had worse on-time arrival performance in 2006 than in 2005. Only three airlines had 80% or greater on-time arrival.
•The industry's rate of involuntary denied boarding worsened in 2006 — to 1.01 per 10,000 passengers from 0.89 a year earlier. Atlantic Southeast was the worst, with 4.47.
• The industry mishandled 6.5 bags per 1,000, up from 6 in 2005. Atlantic Southeast was the worst also in the rate of mishandled baggage — with 17.37 mishandled bags per 1,000 passengers.
http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/2007-04-02-airline-quality-report_N.htm
Given the unbelievably poor quality of airline service 4 years ago, it is an outrage that it has only gotten worse in the three years since.
Monday, April 2, 2007
Philadelphia Murders
CBSnews.com reported yesterday that the murder rate in the city of Philadelphia is currently averaging more than 1 per day this year, as it did last year. The story says that the murder rate in Philadelphia right now is higher than New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago. Philadelphia Mayor John Street had this to say...
"Well, I don't want to quarrel with you about the murder rate because for us, one homicide is too many. Just a few years ago homicides in our city was at a 17-year low. Well I mean there are a number of things that go into the homicide rate. There... this is... this is a social problem."
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/04/01/eveningnews/main2635629.shtml
The extent of the problem is dramatically depicted in this Philadelphia Inquirer map...
http://inquirer.philly.com/graphics/shootings_map/
With the murder rate rising so rapidly and half the killings remaining unsolved, this is a police department problem in addition to a social problem. And, whatever the cause, it is an outrage.
"Well, I don't want to quarrel with you about the murder rate because for us, one homicide is too many. Just a few years ago homicides in our city was at a 17-year low. Well I mean there are a number of things that go into the homicide rate. There... this is... this is a social problem."
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/04/01/eveningnews/main2635629.shtml
The extent of the problem is dramatically depicted in this Philadelphia Inquirer map...
http://inquirer.philly.com/graphics/shootings_map/
With the murder rate rising so rapidly and half the killings remaining unsolved, this is a police department problem in addition to a social problem. And, whatever the cause, it is an outrage.
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