First from DJO:
And an oldie but goodie
I like turtles too, little guy!
I think we’ve talked about this before, but washing detergent is being used as a street currency.
“Tide bottles,” Ben Paynter writes in this New York piece, “have become ad hoc street currency, with a 150-ounce bottle going for either $5 cash or $10 worth of weed or crack cocaine.” It’s a huge problem for stores. In fact, one Safeway in Maryland was losing $10,000 to $15,000 worth of Tide merchandise a month, and it seems the detergent spree has spread from Maryland to the rest of the United States.
The reason? Turns out Tide is really easy to steal, and it re-sells at a premium, so street entrepreneurs, who are always on the lookout for low risk/high reward steals, have taken to Tide. Now, that’s what I call brand loyalty.
Everybody needs to wash their clothes, so detergents become a universal barter. Also I wonder for all the bottles stolen, how many are bought using public assistance monies, for the express purpose of buying drugs.
h/t Mrs. Weer’d
Two Monkey Stories. First an institute is going to discontinue using chimps for research:
After pressure from The Humane Society of the United States, Gilead Sciences has agreed to end the use of chimpanzees in research. The move comes after the animal-rights organization two months ago submitted a shareholder proposal urging the biotech to phase out the use of the primates in its medical research.
At the time, Gilead declined to respond to questions about the proposal or its use of chimpanzees. However, the Humane Society says the biotech reached out afterwards to maintain that chimpanzees were not currently being used for research and committed to refrain from doing so going forward. The decision is effective immediately.
If they aren’t using them, and can use a lower animal for similar research this is a very good move. This is one of the key ethical legs of animal research. Do as much research in-vitro on things like cell cultures, and then try to use animals of a biologically lower position whenever possible. Also reduction of numbers is a key factor. If you can get a statistically significant result with a cohort of 25 mice, don’t use 100 mice, and if you can accomplish the study using dogs or pigs, don’t use primates. Of course the Humane Society is against all animal testing, so I don’t trust them at their word.
Now onto airline refusing to ship research primates.
After more than a year of pressure from animal-rights activists, United Airlines has agreed to halt shipments of primates to or from medical research laboratories anywhere in the world. The decision means there are no longer any North American carriers that will transport primates for research purposes into the US or Canada.
In fact, only four carriers – Air France, China Eastern Airlines, Philippine Airlines, and Vietnam Airlines – continue to transport primates destined for experiments, according to the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, which had been pressuring United Airlines for more than a year to adopt the policy.
“It will be much harder for cruel experimenters to get their hands on monkeys to abuse now that United has joined every other commercial airline in North America in refusing to deliver primates to certain suffering and death in laboratories,” says PETA senior vp of lab investigations Kathy Guillermo. “PETA will continue to pressure the few overseas airlines—now numbering only four—that continue this inhumane practice.”
Nice, yeah I do medical research on animals not because it furthers human knowledge on health and development of new medicines and treatments for serious deseases, it just because it hurts animals and I LOVE that! BULLSHIT!
As I said above, institutions do all they can to limit primate research. Its not only ethical, but its cost-effective, still primates provide some VERY valuable animal data to medical researchers, and cutting off the supply chain will not only hurt research, but force the research to be done in other countries, often countries where the research may not be as easily trusted.
h/t Mrs. Weer’d
Firing Health Workers for refusing a flu shot:
Patients can refuse a flu shot. Should doctors and nurses have that right, too? That is the thorny question surfacing as U.S. hospitals increasingly crack down on employees who won’t get flu shots, with some workers losing their jobs over their refusal.
“Where does it say that I am no longer a patient if I’m a nurse,” wondered Carrie Calhoun, a longtime critical care nurse in suburban Chicago who was fired last month after she refused a flu shot….Most doctors and nurses do get flu shots. But in the past two months, at least 15 nurses and other hospital staffers in four states have been fired for refusing, and several others have resigned, according to affected workers, hospital authorities and published reports.
I certainly agree that health care workers should be strongly encouraged to be immunized, as they work in a place where infectious people, and people at the greatest risk for dying of the disease, will congregate. Still if the patients (and the general population, as they don’t become patients until they become sick) aren’t being forced to be immunized, then they are just as much of a disease vector as the workers.
Also with philosophies like herd immunity a few refusals (which what this whole article is about) isn’t going to matter.
It seems a shame to be making so much noise about this.
h/t Mrs. Weer’d
Another “Gun Death” from the “Religion of Peace”
A British judge on Monday sentenced a woman he called a “devoted and loving mother” to at least 17 years in prison for beating her son to death after he failed to memorize passages from the Koran.
That’ll teach him! Good thing she didn’t have a gun!
Via Sean
He has a play-by-play analysis. I just like that this debate is an ACTUAL DEBATE. Also its nice to see such a good fight done by a grassroots activist vs. a paid shill from the Joyce Foundation.
Hot Air is reporting about a Zach Snyder Star Wars Movie based loosely on The Seven Samurai by Akira Kurosawa.
This isn’t the Episode VII promised by Disney but something extra, suggesting they’re going to explore the “Star Wars” universe beyond the linear Obi-Wan/Anakin/Luke plot line. No surprise — when you’ve just bought Hollywood’s biggest cash cow, you’re going to want to milk it — but I’m still ambivalent. If they use generic Jedi characters then it could be that all you’re watching is a movie you’ve already seen except with lightsabers, which feels more like “Star Wars” licensing than a true “Star Wars movie.” If they use Obi-Wan et al. then the characters you’re familiar with risk losing some of their integrity, as if they’re just, er, action figures being made to act out whatever classic plot the studio thought would be neat to remake. Coming soon: “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” starring Han, Boba Fett, and Chewbacca?
Well first, Star Wars: A New Hope, was based loosely on the Kurosawa film The Hidden Fortress. Also his reference to “The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly” seems a bit silly, as its predecessor, “A Fistfull of Dollars” was a direct Kurosawa remake, matching down to the dialog and scene-for-scene.
Still I’m not terribly excited about yet ANOTHER “Seven Samurai” remake, as its been done to death. When the Pixar film “A Bug’s Life” is a “Seven Samurai” Remake, the story has been done to death!
Still the Jedi as envisioned by Lucas have always been a sci-fi take on the feudal Samurai of Japan….Still if they’re going to do a re-make story, “Tsubaki Sanjūrō” could use a fresh remake.
If you haven’t seen it yet, you really need to!
Seems most of them aren’t against guns, they just don’t want US to have them. And they certainly don’t want to stand up for that in any public way!
James O’Keef is an American Hero!
A 7-year-old boy is dead, and his mother and stepfather are facing murder charges after the child died following a severe beating, according to Metro Police….The child was admitted to the hospital November 29th with extensive brain swelling and in critical condition. Roderick died at 2 p.m. November 30th….The arrest report details the child’s injuries, including open abrasions on his buttocks, severe bruising to his thighs, marks and bruises on his back and shoulders and evidence of previous beatings.
Those who use the metric of “Gun Death” are ignoring these cases.
h/t Silver
She wants to hide her intentions:
Could the reason for this unreasonable resistance be that requiring background checks on all sales is an inconvenience? Not compared to burying your small child whose body was riddled with bullet holes. Could it be that some of these folks can’t pass a background check? I hope not. Could it be that private sellers don’t want to bother with paper work and the regulations that would go with the National Instant Check System? Since most businesses have to prove that they are operating in a safe and legal manner and not doing anything deemed unsafe to customers or taking advantage of customers, that would be a dangerous reason. Money? Would private sellers make less money if they had to follow procedures that licensed dealers now follow? In what way? Or do private sellers actually understand that they are selling guns to some folks who should not have them but it doesn’t matter to them as long as them make a sale? That would be serious.
Umm, Joan, you yourself have openly been in favor of confiscation, your compatriots in political office are in favor of confiscation. By requiring all sales to go through government channels you can build up a registry of both new guns being sold, as well as older guns being sold, or transferred via a departed gun owner’s estate. Then all you need is to send in armed agents to confiscate the guns.
Sure, when I sell guns I don’t want, I do it privately to allow the buyer to obtain the gun for a LOWER price than buying from a dealer who needs to pay employees and overhead costs, and for a HIGHER price for me who won’t be able to get as much when selling to a store, or paying transfer fees to cover the time and overhead of the shop dealing with me and my buyer.
But the real danger is confiscation, and you can say it all you want that you have no interest in taking our guns away, because you have both said you’re interested in confiscation, as well as support people who have said the same.
You ARE coming for our guns, and your dishonesty means we won’t play with you, nor will we compromise, even if the latest bill does not contain wording for confiscation, because that is your end goal.
Oh and she also cites that BS MAIG poll AGAIN. It isn’t true, but BOY they keep citing it.
Lastly I’ll end with her take on the debate:
Dear Jeff, I will not publish any more of your ludicrous comments. I only published this one as a prime example of the craziest of the fear and paranoia existing in America. Your comments, I believe, are called treason.
This is what we’re dealing with!
