“Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.” – Douglas Adams
That’s my prediction, anyway. An event similar to those at Virginia Tech, the Amish school, and Columbine will happen again. Probably sooner rather than later.
There are many reasons why I feel this way but I’m only going to discuss one of them here; the media.
In every mass murder at any location, one glaring factor has been the wall to wall coverage by the media. In most cases, the media gives the shooter exactly what he (they) want, fame. It doesn’t matter if they die carrying out their heinous act, what matters to many if not all is that their name will be on the lips of every talking head in this country.
The media has taken a disturbed loner like the shooter at Virginia Tech and made him into a household name. What’s worse, they showed the pictures her took and played the DVD he created over and over again.
This incident and others are prime examples of how to become famous in a short period of time. The vast majority of people won’t chose this path, but there are individuals out there who are mentally disturbed who just might look at all the media coverage and say, “That’s what I want.”
I’m not saying that media coverage should be banned. Not at all. But one thing the media needs to do is show restraint. Don’t say the shooter’s name over and over again. Don’t show his image over and over again. Limit the mentions of the shooter to only that which is absolutely necessary. Don’t give the shooter what he wanted even if he is now dead.
Not once have I mentioned the shooter’s name on this blog. Yet you all know who I’m talking about. It’s a tactic I wish the media would employ.
Yesterday, Natural Balance Pet Foods announced that they were recalling two kinds of pet food due to reports of pets vomiting and experiencing kidney problems after eating the food. The foods recalled are for all date codes of their Venison & Brown Rice dry dog and cat foods. They announced today that they were adding the canned dog food version to the recall as well.
Natural Balance, Pacoima, CA, is issuing a voluntary nationwide recall for all of its Venison dog products and the dry Venison cat food only, regardless of date codes. The recalled products include Venison and Brown Rice canned and bagged dog foods, Venison and Brown Rice dog treats, and Venison and Green Pea dry cat food. Recent laboratory results show that the products contain melamine. We believe the source of the melamine is a rice protein concentrate. Natural Balance has confirmed this morning that some production batches of these products may contain melamine.
This is the exact product I was feeding my dog just last week. I bought it at Petco because it didn’t have wheat gluten and had what looked like a more healthy ingredients list than other brands at Petco. It definitely had a healthier ingredient list than all types I could find at my nearby Publix.
Also from the Natural Balance press release:
The source of the melamine appears to be a rice protein concentrate, which was recently added to the dry venison formulas. Natural Balance does not use wheat gluten, which was associated with the previous melamine contamination.
None of Natural Balance’s other dry formulas, none of our other canned or roll products and none of our other treats are involved with this voluntary recall.
When the last bag of the Venison & Brown Rice dry dog food ran out I bought another bag of Natural Balance dry dog food. This time I bought the Potato and Duck dry food. Even though the press release indicates that only the Venison products contain the possibly contaminated rice protein, I still grabbed the bag and read the ingredients just to be sure.
Now I’m more determined then ever to start preparing the food that my dog will be eating myself. If I didn’t have a full day at work and elsewhere today and tomorrow I would have started it today. As it is, I won’t be able to start until Friday at the latest.
I’m just going to put this up with little comment. I will say that as much as I would like to slam anyone from Menu Foods for the pet food recalls, I don’t think that this is a smoking gun of their guilt.
Menu Foods CFO Mark Wiens appears to have been very open about the sale of the stock and it appears to be a case of bad timing. If the information indicates that there was something hinky in the sale, I’ll put it up here as well.
Does this mean I am absolving Menu Foods of blame in this incident? Hardly. I think that we are a long way from learning the entire story behind the contamination.
TORONTO — The chief financial officer of Menu Foods sold about half his shares in the company just three weeks before a massive recall of its pet food products, Canadian insider trading reports show.
CFO Mark Wiens sold 14,000 shares for $89,900 on Feb. 26 and Feb. 27. The shares are now worth about $54,000.
“He feels just awful that this link has been made,” company spokesman Sam Bornstein said Wednesday.
But Bornstein said Wiens faced a restricted window in which he could sell his shares.
A blackout period related to the company’s fourth quarter results prevented Wiens from trading until Feb. 19, Bornstein said. Wiens sought permission in writing from the CEO to trade then, a standard practice, he said.
Wiens currently owns about 17,000 shares.
Menu Foods began getting calls about sick cats around Feb. 26, but Bornstein said Wiens would not have known about them due to the size of the company. The calls didn’t cause alarm until a week later.
“He is a highly principled guy and for the amount of money that we are talking about, for him to imperil his career, it just doesn’t make any sense,” Bornstein said.
“He’s a leader of high standards in that company,” he said. “That sort of thing would just be completely out of character.”
Wiens called it a “horrible coincidence” in Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper. He did not immediately return phone calls Wednesday and Bornstein said Wiens didn’t want to talk about his shares any more.
Ontario Securities Commission spokeswoman Carolyn Shaw-Rimmington said the OSC routinely reviews insider trading reports and instances of unusual trading, but does not comment on individual cases.
On March 16, Menu Foods recalled 60 million cans of dog and cat food after the deaths of 16 pets that ate its products, mostly cats. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said tests indicated the food was contaminated.
Menu Foods was the first of at least six companies to recall pet food and treats made with the tainted Chinese wheat gluten. The company has recalled 100 brands of pet food, sold throughout North America under private and major labels.
The FDA has blocked wheat gluten imports from the Chinese company while it investigates.
This week, a large veterinary hospital chain says it recorded a 30 percent increase in kidney failure among cats during the three months that the contaminated pet food was sold.
Banfield, The Pet Hospital, based its analysis upon records collected by more than 615 veterinary clinics.
The analysis suggests that out of every 10,000 cats and dogs seen in Banfield clinics, three suffered kidney failure. The tainted food appears to have been more toxic to cats than to dogs.
Sometimes you have to call them as you see them. In this particular instance, I have to say “Bull!”
Yesterday Bush held a story conference in the Rose Garden. Sorry, but I can’t call what Bush did news.
Here’s the transcript from the photo and story telling op. If you want to watch the story being spun you can watch a video of it here. Both are provided by the White House. The only problem with the video is the sirens heard in the background.
Now, Bush sprinkles in just enough truth and news to make it seem like he’s telling nothing but truth and news. Instead, much of what he says is bullshit.
Let’s just take a single paragraph. In particular, this paragraph:
The bottom line is this. Congress’s failure to fund our troops on the front lines will mean that some of our military families could wait longer for their loved ones to return from the front lines. And others could see their loved ones headed back to the war earlier than they need to. That is unacceptable to me, and I believe it is unacceptable to the American people.
You can watch Bush say that single paragraph if you don’t feel like reading his whole speech or listening to the whole thing by clicking on the YouTube link below.
So where’s the bullshit? Well, think all the way back to Bush’s speech in January about having a “surge” of troops into Iraq. During his speech he didn’t say how he was going to “surge” the troops, but it was discussed shortly after the speech by military officials. According to an article posted by CNN.com in January,
To implement the Bush plan, which he outlined in a speech to the nation Wednesday night, officials said soldiers will spend three or four months longer on their Iraq tours, and the Pentagon is expected to have to activate more National Guard and Reserve units. – emphasis mine
Also, back on March 16, 2007, before Congress settled on a bill, the Army announced that they were sending their 3rd Infantry Division back to Iraq ahead of its original schedule.
Since Bush was already forcing military families to “wait longer for their loved ones to return from the front lines” and to “see their loved ones headed back to the war earlier” in order to provide the human resources for his “surge,” how are the Democrats to blame?
Also, if Bush vetos the bill, just who is keeping the funding from the troops? The Democratic Congress that approved the bill with the needed funding and sent it to the president? Or the president who vetoed the bill because it contained non-binding benchmarks?
What was that? Did I write that the bill contains non-binding benchmarks? Why yes, I believe I did.
From an article supplied by AP to CNN.com on March 29, 2007
In a mostly party line 51-47 vote, the Senate signed off on a bill providing $122 billion to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It also orders Bush to begin withdrawing troops within 120 days of passage while setting a nonbinding goal of ending combat operations by March 31, 2008. – emphasis mine
Yes, the beginning of the withdrawal is not non-binding. However it is 4 months from the signing of the bill if Bush would stop being a petulant child and sign the bill. If Bush really wants to call this a temporary troop “surge” then beginning to redeploy troops in 4 months would be in line with his terminology. Surge, after all, means temporary not permanent.
Today was the last day that the administrator of a school could inform a teacher that they didn’t have a position next year. Teachers at my school leave at 3:20. I went into a meeting with my principal at 2:30. At that meeting I was told that my position was cut from the budget for the up coming school year.
Now, to be completely honest, if he hadn’t told me my position was cut I was going to tell him that I was looking for a Staffing Specialist position at a different school for next year. I haven’t liked working for this man and I wanted a change. I also wasn’t all that surprised when he told me the position was being cut, either.
Even so, I’m a bit annoyed at the way this was handled. The week before Spring Break I had asked if my position was being cut. Currently my school has a large special education population and the district was moving two groups of special education students to new schools. Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) funding had been cut once again (thank you Iraq war). My position is funded by the IDEA for this school year but won’t be for next school year. Combine that with the programs moving to other schools and you get a much smaller special education base and a very large motivation for principals to cut the position at the elementary school level.
When I asked if the position was cut I was told “no,” that my position was “essential.” That was March 8th. My principal alluded to my duties being performed by the Guidance Counselor next year in a budget meeting this past Wednesday. I wasn’t at the meeting but I was told by a very reliable source that he said that the Guidance Counselor would be doing my duties “eventually.”
That’s where my problem lies. He hinted at the cut at a meeting nearly a full two days before saying anything to me.
If you work in the Orange County Public Schools system in Florida and know of a Staffing Specialist position that will be open next year, please let me know. I’m particularly interested in a position in a middle or high school.
