April 15, 2013

Why? Why Not?

We, the USA is part of violent society....our society is violent. guns, more guns....200,000,000 guns...
..... A past president says he did nothing wrong by setting off endless violence in another country...( today, buried in the news, a bombing there, killed 25, or is it 30??) ...............................
...From the 60s thru today..it is violence...killings, more...killings..bombs..
Most of us are peaceful, but look around us. Lots of reasons why. How many did it take to do Oklahoma City? kill Dr King? escalate Viet Nam? ..etc.etc.etc....We are not without fault..Do you recall the bombing of the Pan Am plane? many do. Very few recall the orders of some U.S. Navy captain to shoot down an Iranian..(I think it was Iranian.). plane that would not respond to his demands to respond..He gave the orders to shoot that plane down killing all aboard..........It was said that the bombing of the Pan Am plane was in direct revenge of that move.......... ..We are not blameless..but today is hard to believe...just awful....again...and again...
...but who knows the reason why today?? ..I am just a retired public school teacher... I sure don't know...This what I feel today.
It is just so sad....and frightening..
We will find out why....soon enough....

April 15, 2013

Smile...this is music...Do Re Mi.. Give it a chance to load..please..Flash Mob it is called..

You won't be the first to watch it..but it made me smile..happy...from a play..Sound of Music..and a movie..too...


The Sound of Music.... Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein...a famous team... wrote the music and the words to this song...



The Sound of Music, Rodgers and Hammerstein's last work together, told the story of the von Trapp family. Starring Mary Martin as Maria and Theodore Bikel as Captain von Trapp, it opened on Broadway at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on November 16, 1959, garnering much praise and numerous awards. It has been frequently revived ever since. The show was made into a film in 1965 starring Julie Andrews as Maria and Christopher Plummer as the Captain. It won five Oscars, including best picture and best director, Robert Wise. Hammerstein died in August 1960, before the film was made, so when Rodgers wrote two extra songs for the film, he wrote the lyrics as well. The Sound of Music probably contains more hit songs than any other Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, likely because of the phenomenal success of the film version, which was the most financially successful film adaptation of a Broadway musical ever made. It also contained many memorable songs, including the title song, "Do-Re-Mi", "My Favorite Things", "Climb Ev'ry Mountain" "So Long, Farewell", "Sixteen Going on Seventeen", and "Edelweiss".

April 15, 2013

Homeless Man Who Returns Ring is Thrilled by Surprise Reunion With His Family

from: The Good News Network

http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/most-popular/homeless-man-who-returned-ring-is-thrilled-by-surprise-reunion.html

By Good News Network Tuesday, March 26, 2013


Billy Ray Harris, the Missouri homeless man who returned the engagement ring dropped in his donation cup by mistake, now has a part-time job, new friends, and tens of thousands of dollars that were donated by admirers. But, he says the best part is reconnecting with his beloved sisters in Texas.

A family reunion was planned for later this year, but the TODAY Show planned a surprise during an interview on Sunday, bringing him into the arms of his family for the first time in 16 years.

April 15, 2013

Woman Tracks Down Lifegard that Saved Her Nearly 50 Years Ago

Yahoo News:

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/woman-tracks-down-lifeguard-saved-her-nearly-50-001717211.html

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

In 1964, Eady Rothstein was just a 5-year-old girl hanging out with her family by a pool near Lido Beach on Long Island, New York.

But she fell into the water and nearly drowned before a 21-year-old lifeguard, Larry Brickman, saved her life.

And now, NBC 4 New York reports that nearly 50 years later Rothstein has tracked down the former lifeguard to thank him for rescuing her.

"I've always said I wanted to thank him, and I should do it," Rothstein said.

April 15, 2013

Former NY Drug Lord Turns Life Around Helping Seniors, Yahoo News:

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/former-ny-drug-lord-turns-life-around-helping-221210378.html

One day if we blessed, we all gonna get old." So says Tommy Mickens. Decades ago, Mickens was one of the top drug lords in Queens, where he ran a multimillion-dollar cocaine enterprise. These days, after serving 20 years in prison, he's doing his best to give back and do something positive by helping seniors to exercise.

"I always loved older people," he told Yahoo News. "I learned from older people, I wanted to find a way to help them. Help those who couldn't help themselves and bring it back to my community."
....................farther down........................................

According to an article from the New York Post, which served as motivation for this blog entry, Mickens's clients love him. "He’s our pride and joy," 73-year-old Daphne Avery told the Post. "We love him regardless of what he’s done—his past is his past. This is the present."

So what's a workout like with Tommy Mickens? "I work from the bottom up," he says. "I work with sciatica. Problems like cramps and muscle spasms. Work on fingers and hands and arthritis. And I do it all in 30 minutes, and it's fun for them."

"Seniors are like kids," he says. "They can sense when somebody's not real. And they can sense the love I have for my mom and for them. That's why they're so willing to work with me and they get better as time goes on. And I'm proud of them."

April 14, 2013

A Good News Story...I think you will like this..

I found this one at the Good News section of the Media Group,
four minutes..wonderful story that I think you will like...

OP by
OneGrassRoot

title:
Bullied Boy in New School Becomes "The Doorman" -- (kindness breeds kindness)


http://www.democraticunderground.com/1267393#post4

April 14, 2013

General Discussion...not a place for....Good News....

I've been there many times..so have you...now I got me a theory.. that they ..don't want to discuss ..Good News that is my theory...so here is ........ good news..
.....that is kinda OK>..so I put this one up....

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022666523

link on it and you will see it is about a couple of storms in the plains that may have begun to end a severe drought there..
....You think people would at least look at it...
.....................well...........
..........it has a very few views indeed and looks like it will not get no more.....cause it is on page three back...and going down quick....and............
......................... what do you think of that???

I had to point it out here...you will understand...eh????

April 13, 2013

Good News...Storm Brings Relief to Drought Areas in Parts of the Plains

http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/storm-brings-drought-relief-to/10121535


Storm Brings Drought Relief to Parts of the Plains



By Alex Sosnowski, Expert Senior Meteorologist

April 13, 2013; 6:35 AM




A wild storm, which brought a blizzard and severe thunderstorms this week, also delivered heavy rainfall (and snow) to some very needy areas of the Plains.

The storm has delivered a general swath of 1- to 6-inch rainfall or the liquid equivalent from portions of Wyoming, eastward to Iowa.

Many of these areas, especially locations from the High Plains to the Rockies, have been experiencing building drought since last summer

There have been improvements in all stages of drought over the much of the middle of the nation. This is the first week in many, where the drought status has improved in more places, rather than worsened.

April 13, 2013

Question of "Medical Ethics"..vs.."Doctor's Income"...What do you think????

Let us imagine this senerio....let us discuss it..

What if a new solution was found that would lift depression in 25 % of all cases. The solution was very very cheap, available to everyone and using/taking it was as simple as drinking....let us say.... ... 4 eight oz classes of water in the morning...and that the
solution was indeed just plain water.. ...now this was just water.. tap water....and it made people significantly healthier...

.If all the depressed people in the U.S.A drank this, they would be much healthier, and would go to the doctor 25 percent less...Psychiatrists would see their income reduced 25 percent ..Internists who depend on people who go on a regular schedule, would also see a reduction of 25 percent..maybe more...Here is the question:

Would doctors tell their patients about this discovery and encourage them to use it, if it indeed lessoned their income significantly?
Particularly psychiatrists..would they make sure their depressed patients drank their water, if no pharmacutical comapny was getting a cut, and the psychiatrists themselves would financially suffer, would they say to their patients..Did you drink your water today??? and really follow up on each person??? and the stuff really worked??? The patient says, "I don't need to come as often."...

Now what do you think the doctors would do??? It is just a question for discussion..nothing more..I often wonder about the doctors I've met..in many specialties...I just am not sure.. that is why I ask you...

April 12, 2013

Facebook Paid A Negative 40.4 Percent Tax Rate In 2012: Analysis ..Huffington Post

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/11/facebook-tax-rate_n_3060562.html

Huffington Post:

Here’s something to “Like" if you're Facebook: getting a tax rebate despite pulling in billions in profits. The social media giant paid a negative 40.4 percent tax rate in 2012, according to a report released Thursday by the Center for Tax Justice, a left-leaning research group. That’s way less than the estimated $1 billion tax bill of the company’s own CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg. How did Facebook manage to get $429 million back from the government on its more than $1 billion in profits? By writing off the value of the stock options the company gave Zuckerberg as part of his compensation, according to CTJ.

As Businessweek explains, this practice is perfectly legal. For tax purposes, corporations are allowed to treat executive stock options the same way they would treat regular compensation -- as an expense that cuts their profits. Facebook relied on just this break to reduce its tax burden in 2012, according to CTJ, and the company is able to do so because so much of its executive pay comes in the form of stock options.

A Facebook spokeswoman said in an emailed statement to The Huffington Post that in its early years, the company offered potential employees stock options as part of their compensation "in lieu of the cash it did not yet have," which the company says helps explain the company's broader tax situation.

"Facebook paid billions of dollars in federal and state taxes after its IPO on behalf of the employees who exercised stock options and as a result of RSUs vesting," the spokeswoman wrote. "Billions of dollars went to the US Treasury and the California state treasury, as well it should have. The way these taxes are collected changes over time, and that is likely to be the case with Facebook. It's a mistake to look at only the corporate tax revenue while ignoring the billions of taxes paid from initial shareholders."

Still, that doesn’t make the practice uncontroversial. Senator Carl Levin (D-MI.) has urged lawmakers to close this specific loophole loophole for years. His office estimated that Facebook got a $16 billion tax deduction as a result of the stock options loophole when the company went public in May of last year