Daily Archives: June 25, 2012

Help Harvest Hope feed those who need help

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And if you can’t give blood, maybe you can give to help the needy be fed.

Right after posting the thing about the need for blood, I read this appeal from Denise Holland at Harvest Hope Food Bank:

Two weeks ago, one night about 9:30 pm, returning from Walmart, I walked back into my house sobbing because my heart was completely filled with many emotions.  My husband looked at me confused, asking what is wrong as a trip to Walmart normally does not do this.

I sat down and told him the following very true, very moving story…I hope you will feel moved and called to action.

Upon finishing my shopping,  I got in a long checkout line in the non-food section.  I was there after 9pm to pick up a few last minute items for a children’s activity at church.  I was behind a young couple, with a small baby sitting in the infant portion of the buggy.  They caught my attention. I was struck at how much the young man with his wife reminded me of my own grown children.  A nice appearance, the young man had on athletic type shorts, a t-shirt and flip flops, the young lady had on jeans and a hoodie, the baby was clean and dressed in a little onesie.  As I stood there, I noticed a little more.  They were wearing very simple wedding bands, and the dad kept putting his hand on the back of his wife and child’s mother, saying “are you feeling ok?”  “Do you want to go sit in the car?” She did look in my opinion pale like she did not feel really great.  I heard her reply very nicely to him, “no I am fine” and smiled back at her husband.

Well naturally I started playing with the baby, making silly old lady sounds and faces to get the baby to smile and laugh.  The baby’s dad (obviously a little girl by the pink onesie) occasionally touched the little baby and bent down to kiss her neck of which she just giggled and smiled.  At one point he looked back at me and I said to him, “that little girl certainly loves her daddy’s kisses”. He smiled and said yes.  The couple then gave their attention to counting the items in their buggy and began a sorting process counting out 10 jars of baby food, separating them in rows in the buggy.  Then it struck me that all they had in their buggy was jars of baby food and several canisters of baby formula.  The mom and dad appeared to be in low conversation like they were worried and checking twice everything they had.  I continued to play (at a respectful distance) with the baby.

While I stood there, I prayed “Lord this could be my children” and I felt in my heart that they were concerned about the amount in their buggy…

To read the rest of Denise’s story, click here.

It’s a bit long, but here’s the upshot of it: The young husband is about to go away to serve in the military, and he and his wife were trying to stockpile plenty of food for the baby, as the Mom’s transportation options are limited. When they got to the register, they couldn’t afford what they had selected (nothing but baby food), so Denise paid for them.

But there are many stories like this in our community, and while she’s got a really big heart, Denise can’t help them all out of her own pocket. So help out Harvest Hope.

Emergency blood shortage! Please give…

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This came in this morning, and I meant to post it before now:

Columbia, SC (June 25, 2012) – The American Red Cross blood supply has reached emergency
levels with 50,000 fewer donations than expected in June. This shortfall leaves the Red Cross with half
the readily available blood products on hand now than this time last year.
The Red Cross is calling on all eligible blood donors – now more than ever – to roll up a sleeve and
give as soon as possible. All blood types are needed, but especially O positive, O negative, B negative
and A negative in order to meet patient demand this summer.
An unseasonably early start to spring may be a contributing factor to this year’s decrease in donations.
Many regular donors got an early start on summer activities and aren’t taking time to give blood or
platelets. In addition, this year’s mid-week Independence Day holiday has reduced the number of
scheduled Red Cross blood drives. Many sponsors, especially businesses, are unable to host drives
because employees are taking extended vacations.
Unfortunately, patients don’t get a holiday from needing blood products. The need is constant. Every
two seconds, someone in the United States needs a blood transfusion. Blood and platelets are needed
for many different reasons, including accident and burn victims, heart surgery patients, organ transplant
patients, premature babies – when there are complications during childbirth – and for patients receiving
treatment for leukemia, cancer or sickle cell disease.
“Every day, the Red Cross must collect more than 17,000 units of blood for patients at more than
3,000 hospitals and transfusion centers across the country. Of that, the South Carolina Blood Services
Region must collect approximately 500 units per day,” said Julie Weilacher, interim CEO of the
American Red Cross South Carolina Blood Services Region. “We need donors to make appointments
in the coming days and weeks to help us ensure that all patient blood needs can be met. Each unit of
whole blood can help save more than one life.”
“There is always the chance that a physician could postpone an elective surgery if the needed blood
products aren’t readily available or, in a worst case scenario, have to forego a more serious procedure
because of a shortage of blood,” Weilacher added. “Our goal is to ensure that doesn’t happen.”
Please give blood with the American Red Cross today. A blood donor card or driver’s license, or two
other forms of identification are required at check-in. Individuals who are 17 years of age (16 with
parental permission in some states), weigh at least 110 pounds and are in generally good health may
be eligible to donate blood. High school students and other donors 18 years of age and younger also
have to meet certain height and weight requirements. Call 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767) or
visit redcrossblood.org to make an appointment or find blood donation opportunities in your community.

Columbia, SC (June 25, 2012) – The American Red Cross blood supply has reached emergencylevels with 50,000 fewer donations than expected in June. This shortfall leaves the Red Cross with halfthe readily available blood products on hand now than this time last year.
The Red Cross is calling on all eligible blood donors – now more than ever – to roll up a sleeve andgive as soon as possible. All blood types are needed, but especially O positive, O negative, B negativeand A negative in order to meet patient demand this summer.
An unseasonably early start to spring may be a contributing factor to this year’s decrease in donations.Many regular donors got an early start on summer activities and aren’t taking time to give blood orplatelets. In addition, this year’s mid-week Independence Day holiday has reduced the number ofscheduled Red Cross blood drives. Many sponsors, especially businesses, are unable to host drivesbecause employees are taking extended vacations.
Unfortunately, patients don’t get a holiday from needing blood products. The need is constant. Everytwo seconds, someone in the United States needs a blood transfusion. Blood and platelets are neededfor many different reasons, including accident and burn victims, heart surgery patients, organ transplantpatients, premature babies – when there are complications during childbirth – and for patients receivingtreatment for leukemia, cancer or sickle cell disease.
“Every day, the Red Cross must collect more than 17,000 units of blood for patients at more than3,000 hospitals and transfusion centers across the country. Of that, the South Carolina Blood ServicesRegion must collect approximately 500 units per day,” said Julie Weilacher, interim CEO of theAmerican Red Cross South Carolina Blood Services Region. “We need donors to make appointmentsin the coming days and weeks to help us ensure that all patient blood needs can be met. Each unit ofwhole blood can help save more than one life.”
“There is always the chance that a physician could postpone an elective surgery if the needed bloodproducts aren’t readily available or, in a worst case scenario, have to forego a more serious procedurebecause of a shortage of blood,” Weilacher added. “Our goal is to ensure that doesn’t happen.”
Please give blood with the American Red Cross today. A blood donor card or driver’s license, or twoother forms of identification are required at check-in. Individuals who are 17 years of age (16 withparental permission in some states), weigh at least 110 pounds and are in generally good health maybe eligible to donate blood. High school students and other donors 18 years of age and younger alsohave to meet certain height and weight requirements. Call 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767) orvisit redcrossblood.org to make an appointment or find blood donation opportunities in your community.

For those who live in Columbia, there’s the Famously Hot Columbia drive at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center on Friday. For me, that’s about 10 days too early, but I plan to give as soon as my required 112 days have passed since I gave on March 19.

There are various other drives in the Midlands over the next few days, but the easiest thing is just to call the Red Cross and arrange to give either at the Bull Street HQ or any of the drives.

Yeah, but you’re not what I had in mind, Gary

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WARNING! THE ABOVE VIDEO IS EXTREMELY LOUD! So if you want to see it, turn your volume way down first…

Just before routinely deleting another release from Libertarian Gary Johnson, I glanced at the content:

June 25, 2012, Santa Fe, N.M. – In a new video, “The Vote for Freedom is Never Wasted,” Libertarian Party presidential nominee Gary Johnson has words for Democrats and Republicans who are worried his candidacy will take votes away from Barack Obama and Mitt Romney.

“I say, ‘Good,’” states Johnson in the video. The former two-term governor of New Mexico continues, “They deserve to lose your vote. Take as many votes as possible away from the people in both parties keeping us in a state of perpetual war, increasing unsustainable debt, record joblessness, and a bipartisan economic death wish ruining America for 330,000,000 of us.
“You have stated you want a third choice, and now you have one in me.”

Yeah. OK. Here’s the thing, Gary…

When I complain about the choices I have, it’s really not much help to offer me a much, much worse third option. I mean, by your logic, I should be happy for the chance to vote Nazi, or Communist, because it would be a third way.

The only thing worse than the two parties we have is pretty much every party that has emerged to challenge them in this country. Look at the biggest of the pygmy parties — the Libertarian. It takes the worst thing about the main two parties and takes it to a greater extreme. OK, the second-worst thing.

The second-worst thing about the Democratic and Republican parties is their drive toward ideological purity, as opposed to sensible, pragmatic approaches to policy. (What’s the worst thing? The worst thing is party solidarity — or whatever you want to call the phenomenon whereby a member of Party A greets the stupidest thing a fellow member of Party A says as wisdom, while dismissing as foolishness the wisest thing that a member of Party B says.)

Just because something is an alternative doesn’t mean it’s a good one. Not by a long shot. And in this country, the “alternatives” are generally just plain awful.

ONE Democratic leader backs Tinubu

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Harry Ott broke with the establishment pack today:

Columbia, SC – House Minority Leader Harry Ott (D-Calhoun) endorsed Congressional candidate Gloria Bromell Tinubu in the race for South Carolina’s Seventh District on Monday. Tinubu faces Myrtle Beach lawyer Preston Brittain in a runoff on Tuesday.  Ott released the following statement:

“I am proud to announce my support for Gloria Bromell Tinubu in Tuesday’s Democratic runoff.  Mrs. Tinubu won the initial primary with over 52% of the vote and I believe it would be wrong to reverse her victory. The people of the seventh district have spoken, and they have chosen Gloria.”

“It is time for Democrats to come together and rally behind Gloria Tinubu as our nominee.  It is critical to be unified as a party through November and to elect a Democrat who will fight for full employment, improve our public education system, protect medicare and social security, and advocate for investments in highway infrastructure.”

###

So that’s Harry Ott and the AFL-CIO on one side, and John Spratt, Jim Hodges, Vincent Sheheen and John Land… and I suppose we should include Dick Harpootlian… on the other.

And tomorrow, we’ll see just how much pezzonovante endorsements are worth in the Democratic Party these days.

My very life is thine, my liege! But $3? I dunno…

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POTUS and I are so close, he knows he can ask me for anything. Even three whole dollars.

The leader of my country, the most powerful man in the world, needs my help! Right now! Time to mount my steed and prepare to lay down my life for the sake of God, country, the girl next door, and Mom’s incomparable apple pie!

Brad –

If you’re with me, then I need you right now.

We’re just days away from the mid-year fundraising deadline — this is the biggest test yet of our commitment to win in 2012. We can’t fall short on this one.

Donate $3 or more right now to elect a Democratic majority in Congress.

Thanks,

Barack

Schwinngg! goeth my sword as I withdraw it, and…

…wait a sec….

Three dollars? That’s what this is about? Three dollars? What kind of cheapskate country is this when our supreme leader himself sends up the Bat Signal to get my attention, and all he wants is three lousy semolians?

I mean, if he wanted a sawbuck, would he land Marine One on my lawn and approach my front door on his knees?

Of course, you’ve guessed by now that this message is not actually from Barack Obama, but from the anonymous dccc@dccc.org, and this is another one of a certain type of political fund-raising message that is more about getting me (or, if I were some other person perhaps, keeping me) in the habit of giving. In other words, it’s not about the money, it’s about conditioning. Sort of like all those begging emails Joe Wilson sent out asking people to give him money to help defeat the existential threat of Phil Black in the primary earlier this month. It’s not that he needs the money; he just needs you to keep giving.

Yet another of democracies more bizarre aspects.

Court strikes down parts of Ariz. immigration law

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As I run out of here to go to Rotary, I toss this up for discussion:

Court rejects parts of Arizona immigration law

The Supreme Court on Monday rejected much of Arizona’s controversial immigration law, but upheld other provisions, giving a partial victory to the Obama administration.

The court ruled that Arizona cannot make it a misdemeanor for immigrants to fail to carry identification that says whether they are in the United States legally; cannot make it a crime for undocumented immigrants to apply for a job; and cannot arrest someone based solely on the suspicion that the person is in this country illegally.

However, the court let stand the part of the law that requires police to check the immigration status of anyone they detain, if there is “reasonable suspicion” that the person is unlawfully in the United States. Even there, though, the justices said the provision could be subject to additional legal challenges. The court said it was “improper” for the federal government to block the provision before state courts have a chance to interpret it and without determining whether it conflicts with federal immigration law in practice….

The court also said the biggie — a ruling on Obamacare — is coming up Thursday…

Drat those computers! They’re so… stupid…

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I hope Marvin the Martian will forgive me for paraphrasing him with such liberty.

But that’s what came to mind when I saw my latest job tip.

As I’ve told y’all, back when I was unemployed, I signed up for all kinds of services that would give me a heads-up on jobs that would be a good fit for me. Or rather, on jobs that some software decided would be a good fit for me. Which is where the entertainment value lies, which is why I don’t take the trouble to get off these email lists.

Today, the very first tip that CareerBuilder.com gave me was “Head of Investor Relations.” Which cracked me up by itself. Applied to me, that is. But then, giving it a chance, I clicked on it to find the nugget, the correlation, that caused this tip to come to me. Perhaps, I thought, it was investor relations in a field that otherwise was just me all over. Here’s what I found:

[The company in question] is the world leader in the design, development and manufacture of arc welding products, robotic arc welding systems, plasma and oxyfuel cutting equipment and has a leading global position in the brazing and soldering alloys market.

You read that, and immediately my mug pops into your head, right?

Somewhere, there’s someone that job description was written for. And I hope they find each other, and are very happy. But it ain’t me, babe.