Liam Neeson needs to be the next Colonel Sanders

I think we can all agree that this needs to happen. Until it does, we will just have to settle for this.

Science: the inexact science

I can believe this shark is old:

It appears that its skin is beginning to decay while it is still alive. This article explains that the shark’s age was determined by assigning one year to every centimeter of the shark’s length. It then amazingly claims that the shark is 512 years old, while the headline proclaims it was “born before Shakespeare”! That is an astounding revelation and makes the mind really begin to think about all of the things that have occurred throughout history while this creature floated around the oceans. That all come to a screeching halt when reading this sentence:

Experts used its length - a staggering 18ft - and radiocarbon dating to determine its age as between 272 and 512 years old, according to a study in journal Science.

This goes from being an amazing story to not much of a story at all. That’s essentially claiming to have discovered a 170-year-old human, only to later admit that the person may only be 90 (which used to happen to Strom Thurmond quite often). I wonder if such imprecise measurements could be used in other professions. 

Track & Field Judge:

“The runner for Kenya has set a new world record in the 1-mile run with a time of 2 minutes and 48 seconds, but the time might have actually been 4:02.”

Police Chief:

“The suspect is between 4’2” and 6’11” with either long or short hair between the ages of 25 and 62, and is either black or white.”

Pilot:

“Today’s flight from New York to France will be approximately 3 hours.”

Everything is racist

Including cereal boxes. According to this story in USA Today, someone got mad at the racial insensitivity of a Corn Pops cereal box.

What struck Saladin Ahmed was that a single brown corn pop was working as a janitor operating a floor waxer. Ahmed, current writer of Marvel Comics' Black Bolt series and author of 2012 fantasy novel Throne of the Crescent Moon, took to Twitter Tuesday to ask, "Why is literally the only brown corn pop on the whole cereal box the janitor? this is teaching kids racism."

Ahmed is right. Here that Corn Pop is:

Hard to argue with that. And when you look at the entire box, that janitor is indeed the darkest one.

But what, exactly, is wrong with being a janitor? And the more I look at that box, he appears to be the only one who has a job and is being a productive citizen in the entire Corn Pop world. Is there really something bad about that? Would it really have been better if he had been one of the Pops dropping things from the top deck, vandalizing kiosks, or just generally causing a ruckus? Apparently, someone showing up to work and performing their job admirably among chaos has now become something to be ashamed of.

Pancakes

Several news outlets reported on a sorority girl who died following a pancake eating competition. It was reported that she choked to death, though the descriptions of the incident said that she collapsed and began shaking. That doesn't really sound like choking to death. Nor does the fact that she died three days later. But the most shocking thing regarding this story was that the Toronto Sun decided to run it this way:

That picture is completely unnecessary, insensitive and borderline offensive. We all know what pancakes are. That looks like an advertisement for pancakes. A very effective advertisement. Also, nearly every one of the stories decided after reporting her death to focus on the fact that her father died in 9/11. Is that relevant? Why not just go with this story?

Game 7

The Cleveland Cavaliers won the NBA title. Steve Kerr responds:

Not Your Job

Nobody should know or care how media members feel about a speech.  Report what was said in the speech and let your readers/listeners/viewers decide if they are "horrified" by it or not. Why is this so hard?

Liar

"I opted for convenience to use my personal email account which was allowed by the State Department because I thought it would be easier to carry just one device for my work and for my personal emails instead of two," Clinton said.

In 2010 when it was suggested that she might want to move to a secure email: “Let’s get a separate address or device”.

Transgression

Making widespread accommodations for transgendered people is ludicrous. These are people that need mental help. Every time there is a mass shooting, there is an outcry about how we don’t do enough for the mentally ill in this country.  So, why is it ok to ignore the obvious mental health red flags of someone who thinks they are something they are not?

2.6% of the adult population is considered to be bipolar. There are many medications designed to treat this disorder, and most people would consider it irresponsible to go untreated.  Even rarer are those diagnosed as schizophrenic, at 1.1%. According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), Schizophrenia is a “chronic and severe mental disorder that affects how a person thinks, feels, and behaves. People with schizophrenia may seem like they have lost touch with reality.” Symptoms include: delusions and thought disorders (unusual or dysfunctional ways of thinking). Sound familiar?

So, while schizophrenia is a rare disorder, it is still nearly 4x more common than a transgendered individual.  Only 0.3% of the population is considered to be transgender. Instead of accepting this as a perfectly normal way of life, why not treat it for what it appears to be: a form of schizophrenia?

The acceptance of transgender identification is yet another example of providing little help for the mentally ill. Just because someone is not violent, doesn’t mean that they don’t need help. Placing a sign on a bathroom and welcoming them in does little to treat the underlying disorder.  There continues to be a stigma associated with mental health diagnosis/treatment.  Until we get past that, we will continue to be inundated with idiotic decisions like forcing children into a restroom or locker room with other children of the opposite sex.

Treatment is the key. The current plan appears to be worse than pretending that there is no problem at all. Embracing it as something normal would not be acceptable for someone who thinks they are a historical figure or that their neighbors are controlling their movements through magnetic waves, so why is it accepted for those with gender identity disorders?

NIMH offers this advice:

Here are some things you can do to help your loved one:

·         Get them treatment and encourage them to stay in treatment

·         Remember that their beliefs or hallucinations seem very real to them

·         Tell them that you acknowledge that everyone has the right to see things their own way

·         Be respectful, supportive, and kind without tolerating dangerous or inappropriate behavior

·         Check to see if there are any support groups in your area

That is what they recommend for schizophrenics. It appears appropriate for other situations, as well.

Trump v. Women .... Really?

According to Donald Trump, if abortions are banned, there needs to be "some form of punishment" for women who still have them.

That statement really set off a firestorm.  But what is so controversial about it? What other law in this country doesn't have some sort of punishment associated with it? You know.. besides entering the country illegally.

If alcohol were banned, there would be a punishment associated with possessing it. If green shirts were banned, there would be an associated punishment.  Without the punishment, there is no ban.

This is a completely fabricated controversy.



P.S.
I have really missed the boat on this election cycle during the past year.

Wage Inequality… A Civil Rights Issue?

Patricia Arquette accepted her Oscar Sunday night by calling for equal pay for women and claiming it is a civil rights issue.

We’ve all seen the studies that say women earn less than men, but it doesn’t necessarily mean it is the result of sexism. If you were to look further into the issue than just the raw dollar figures, you could probably find an explanation for the disparity other than a general “women are worth less than men” attitude from those doing the hiring.

For example (and these numbers are strictly hypothetical), you could take an actual job title like CEO and say that women CEOs earn only 70% as much as their male counterparts.  But if you get into the numbers, it may be that only 10% of the CEO positions in the country are held by women. And let’s say that the top 5 companies’ CEO positions were held by men. Often the bonuses they receive for company performance far exceeds their base salary. So even if a woman worked for a company with the highest percentage bonus payout and she had a higher base salary, she would still not be making as much as her male counterpart because the company simply doesn’t earn as much revenue as the others. In that scenario, the woman would still show up in a study as earning less money than a man for doing the same job even though the hiring entity gave her a higher salary and bonus percentage. Even if the bottom 5 paying CEO jobs were held by men, the average is still going to work in their favor. So the studies are true in a way, but it’s not necessarily a civil rights issue where women are being oppressed.  I’ll admit that I haven’t done the research, so I don’t know what the real reasons are, but I’m just pointing out that there could be very logical explanations for the differences other than overt sexism.

And now for some actual numbers. Looking at the highest paid models reveals that the top 20 earners are all female, with the top spot earning $47 million and #20 earning $3 million a year. The highest paid male model earns $1.5 million a year.  So, there's that.

I don’t really expect Patricia Arquette to be bothered to think about any of this, though.  And to be honest, she should get a lifetime pass based on True Romance alone.

Still, I have to say to her…