Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Death Porn Control

The MSM have been in a total feeding frenzy over the Connecticut massacre since Friday and there are no signs of it dying down yet.  Death porn.  The perp, who sounds like one of those total losers, has now achieved national and even world wide notoriety.  Which is probably what motivated him in the first place. 
   One reason we have these horrible massacre is the media hype them so mercilessly and that attracts the unstable losers, who see themselves transformed from faceless non entities to world wide celebrities with a pull of a trigger.  They used to pot shot presidents (Lincoln, Garfield, Kennedy, and Reagan) but the Secret Service has tightened security and it's pretty tough to score these days.  Elementary schools are softer targets.
   We ought to do what we can to curb the flow of death porn.  The offenders should be mocked, and sponsors should make their voices heard too.  Fox TV News has gone pretty far overboard this time, with ceaseless drivel.  I'm not ready to scrap the First Amendment, so we can't make laws against death porn, but we ought to try social pressure.  It would be more effective than another "assault weapons" ban.
  

More Cannon Mountain Ski weather

It warmed up and rained.  It's raining now.  It got so warm that the snowmaking crew knocked off early last night. 

Monday, December 17, 2012

Cannon Mountain weather

We got an inch of snow last night, but it is warming up.  It was 26 early this morning and now it has warmed up to 34, too warm to make snow.  The weather forecasts are flaky, using words like warm and rain. 

Protons to the rescue

Something new in the never ending struggle to raise medical costs.   Someone decided that using a beam of high speed protons instead of  Xrays would improve radiation therapy.  They sold this idea around.  Trouble is, the machine to make the proton beam costs better than $100 million and is big enough to fill a gymnasium.  Whereas you can get all the Xrays  you want from a glass tube about the size of a cantaloupe.  Needless to say proton beam therapy  cost  $50,000 as opposed to half that for conventional radiation therapy.
   Now comes a study indicating that the results of the pricey proton beam therapy are no different from conventional therapy.  I could have told them that.   Radiation therapy works by using a beam of radiation to kill cancer cells.  It doesn't really matter if the cell dies from being hit with a proton or being hit with an Xray, dead is dead. 
   Perhaps we can  save some money and not put in any more proton machines. 

Sunday, December 16, 2012

Blood Dancing for Gun Control

That's what David Gregory did for an hour on "Meet the Press" this morning.  He had Diane Feinstein, senator from CA promising to ban "assault weapons".   Lotta welfare for lawyers there since there is no objective difference between a deer rifle and an assault rifle.  He had  Michael Blomberg, NYC mayor, pushing Obama for "more leadership on gun control".  Blomberg didn't actually come out and say just what he wanted to outlaw, which makes me think he fears the political damage he might incur if he made a substantive proposal.  Blomberg spent a lot of words trashing the NRA.  He doesn't seem to understand that the NRA is a democratic organization of gun owners who merely want to prevent people like Blomberg from confiscating their guns.  They have a large membership, which gives them power at the voting booth.  

Saturday, December 15, 2012

Ultimate Tearjerker, worse than Love Story

What Dreams May Come with Robin Williams, 1998.  I netflixed it by mistake.  The movie opens with a romantic meeting between Robin Williams and a beautiful loving young woman.  They court, they marry and things go well for years.  Then bad things happen, their two adorable teen age children die in a car crash.  Robin Williams is killed in traffic attempting to rescue a victim trapped in a wrecked car.
  The movie is a total downer from then on in.  It so depressing I turned it off before the end.   At least in Love Story they had good times together before Ali McGraw dies of cancer in the last reel.



Friday, December 14, 2012

The word you want is "horrible"

Bret Bauer said "Amazing" in conclusion of some of the Sandy Hook school massacre coverage this evening.  No Bret, it's not amazing, it's horrible.
   My sincerest sympathies go out the the parents and families of the slain.  It's totally inadequate, but it's the best I can do.  
   If the homicidal maniac who committed this atrocious crime had been under restraint in an insane asylum it would not have happened.