A Potpourri of Pope Stories for Sunday

Good Day World!

The Pope is welcome everywhere he visits.

I’m not a Catholic, or a particularly religious person, but I think he’s a nice guy.

I respect a lot of things he stands for – especially when it comes to helping the poor in this world.

In my humble estimation, Pope Francis is a “real” person. His compassion for all is a lesson for the leaders of the world. Here are seven examples of what I mean:

* Pope Francis in Philadelphia Mass Calls for Church to Place Greater Value on Women

* Pope Francis, in New York, Takes On Extremism and Inequality

* The Pope asks Who Am I To Judge?

* Pope Francis, in Congress, Pleads for Unity on World’s Woes

* Pope Francis to Congress: We’re All Immigrants

* Pope Francis on the True Meaning of Poverty

* Pope Francis Reminds the World To Care About Poverty

You don’t have to be Catholic to respect Pope Francis. His actions speak for themselves.

I agree with him – the man – because he’s not afraid to talk about global warming or capitalistic greed in one breath, and caring for the poor in the next.

Time for me to walk on down the road…

 

Hack! Hack! Whose there?

                                       Good Day World!

One thing should be clear to everyone. Anything can be hacked.

Cars/Jeeps; houses; PC’s; iPads; iPhones; Androids; banks; major retail stores; the U.S. The Pentagon; federal employees; The Stock Market, museums; Wall Street firms; adult cheating sites; 3-D printed TSA Master Keys for people’s luggage; schools, products; and FaceBook memberships.

That’s only a small sample of things that are hackable in your life.

In our high tech society we are vulnerable to hacking anywhere and at any time. Our lives are hacked. It’s all of our reality in the 21st century.

Hack! Hack! Whose there?

Take your choice:

Who hacks us?

Criminals, foreign countries; or pranksters who like to play politics and make ideological statements.

Time for me to walk on down the road…

 

Fiorina lied about Planned Parenthood tape during debate - her backers make up new one for her

Liar, liar, pants on fire, Fiorina!

In the last GOP debate conservative pundits applauded Carly Fiorina for her tough talk about Planned Parenthood. Too bad the film she described never existed!

Almost immediately after the debate, journalists, including those at Yahoo Health, called attention to the fact that the video Fiorina described during her debate performance does not exist.

Can that be any clearer? She lied. Her rant was dramatic enough, but bullshit.

So what’s her campaign supporters response? They make up a damning Planned Parenthood video out of thin air.

The video contains spliced-together video and audio from five separate places — all in the name of creating the footage Fiorina insisted existed during the past debate.

The video was made to prove Fiorina correct in the debate, but in reality, it resorts to the same methods as the Center for Medical Progress (CMP), the antiabortion activist group that used deceptive editing to create its now-discredited videos attacking Planned Parenthood. 

Fiorina’s super-PAC manufactured its own version of the alleged tape and posted it on the Fiorina campaign’s official YouTube channel.

It’s obvious, Fiorina has no shame, and no compunctions about twisting facts to fit her reality.

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Not Quite ‘Back To The Future’ But New Hoverboard is Close

Good Day World!

The new recreational sensation this season is hoverboards that are reminiscent of the one used in the movie Back To The Future. 

For those of you who haven’t yet seen one, a self balancing scooter is sort of like a skateboard that requires absolutely no energy from you to get going.

They are similar to that hoverboard that you dreamt of having as a kid. Now, who wouldn’t like to own one of these? They’re becoming extremely popular now especially that a lot of celebrities are seen around and are posting videos of them using these scooters.

Like the hoverboard from Back To the Future, these scooters operate based on your body movements.

The "self-balancing scooters" will go on sale at Wal-Mart starting around November 1, according to Sapna Maheshwari at Buzzfeed.

The electric scooters have been described as a "hands-free Segway." Executives at Wal-Mart anticipate this will be the hot new holiday item. The hoverboards will only be for sale on the website at first.

FOR THE RECORD

Segway filed a lawsuit against major self balancing scooter producing companies for infringement of its patents. That lawsuit was filed against Inventist for creating a scooter with the same idea of the Segway.

Segway will probably chase down some of the other major producing companies in the upcoming days.

Time for me to walk on down the road…

The Catholic Church and Cash: Would Jesus Buy a Pontiff Doll?

(Pope Francis dolls are displayed at the World Meeting of Families souvenir store on Sept. 22 ahead of the Pope's visit to Philadelphia. Matt Rourke / AP)

                                        Good Day World!

Warning: if you’re a thin-skinned devout Catholic with no sense of humor or history don’t read this post!

As far as I can tell Jesus was poor.

Yet Roman Catholicism, which claims to be His church, is the richest of the rich, the wealthiest institution on earth.

Money flows in from individual donations from Catholics, government grants, the church's own investments and corporate donors.

Oh yeah…and from souvenirs of Pope Francis. The time-honored tradition of shilling for the church has been passed down from Pope to Pope for hundreds of years.

As you probably know, Pope Francis is doing the America gig right now. There’s been sightings in Philadelphia and Washington DC.

Really popular at the venues where Pope Francis is visiting are bobbleheads, life-size cutouts, rosaries, scarves, and ties with his likeness on it. Kind of like a superstar. Or, a professional athlete.

Bleacher Creatures is selling the papal "plushy" on their website, in case you can't get to one of the many venues in person. The site has sold over 50,000 pontiff dolls in five months, outstripping every other doll on the site.

All this pomp and business seems out of touch with Christ’s teaching. Can you imagine if he walked into one of the many palatial Catholic churches today? Or, the Vatican?

Better yet, what if Jesus returned today and asked for a dozen pontiff dolls for his disciples! NOT going to happen.

Time for me to walk on down the road…

 

 

I Was So Clueless That I Didn’t Know What ‘Yellow Face’ Was!

Good Day World!

Do you know how clueless I was?

I wasn’t aware of “yellow face” until I read this story and watched the video.

I’ve heard of “Black Face” and understand it’s now politically incorrect in the 21st century. Basically humor from the last 100 years ago, or so, is politically incorrect in today’s culture.

I find it sad that The Mikado, a Gilbert and Sullivan opera set in feudal Japan, won’t continue to be available to another generation of opera-goers because of racism charges.

Political correctness is going too far.

Chris Rock and Larry the Cable Guy won't book college gigs because, in their view, young people have been so indoctrinated in the PC mindset that it's not worth the agitation.

The "PC Police" patrol the world - mainly through social media these days - clamping down on anyone who makes comments they view as offensive or disparaging.

Author and filmmaker Jon Ronson wrote a whole book about it, called "So You've Been Publicly Shamed."

I may be publicly shamed for admitting I didn’t know anything about “yellow face,” but that’s the least of my worries…I need to know…are there “brown face” taboos too?

Time for me to walk on down the road…

 

 

Douche Bag Walking: Drug Company CEO Was Too Greedy and the Public Responded

The smiling man in this photo is one of the biggest douche bags you’ll ever meet!

Let me introduce you to former hedge fund manager Martin Shkreli – fraud, cyber hacker, stalker, and all-around liar. 

Before reading his brief backround bio I want to point out why he’s in the news, and why a presidential hopeful is calling for legislation against people like him.

Shkreli made headlines this week when it was revealed that his current company, Turing Pharmaceuticals, boosted the price of Daraprim from $13.50 to $750 per pill (!) after buying the drug from Impax Laboratories in August.

Shkreli jacked up the price of Daraprim 5,500 percent overnight, claiming he had to in order to make money. The reaction was immediate;

Presidential wannabe, Hillary Clinton, responded to the move by calling Shkreli’s action "outrageous." Clinton's comment, and her vow to introduce a plan to control drug prices overall, sent biotech stocks plummeting Monday.

In response to the indignant public outcry, Shkreli changed course:

Drug CEO Will Lower Price of Daraprim After Hike Sparked Outrage

For the record; the average cost of brand-name medications rose 13 percent in 2013, according to a report from the Prime Institute at the University of Minnesota. New cancer drugs now cost over $100,000 a year.

In addition:

Read the affidavit claiming harassment by Martin Shkreli and see the related documents here.

Time for me to walk on down the road…

GOP Senators Fail to Infringe on Women’s Rights Today

I’m sick and tired of Republicans playing politics with women’s health.

They tried to pull a fast one in the Senate today but failed. The senate Republicans couldn’t get enough votes to pass their draconian ‘protection act” that would have implemented a federal 20-week abortion ban with incredibly limited exceptions.

When is the GOP going to learn that families, workers, and the economy should come before their silly ass politics that are plump with partisanship?

Right now we’re forced to watch a long line of show votes on an unconstitutional, dangerous bill to restrict women’s health and rights, and on defunding Planned Parenthood while taking away critical health care services millions of people rely on each year.

If a new budget is not approved by midnight on September 30, the government will shutdown, just as it did in the fall of 2013 when Republican leadership refused to initially negotiate on a budget deal that did not include defunding the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

We can thank the original idiot boy Ted Cruz (2013 shutdown instigator) for being the leading voice, of the Tea Party faction of the Republican party which has said they will not agree to any budget that does not include ending all federal funding to Planned Parenthood.

Two things Cruz and other Republicans fail to talk about:

1) The majority of funding Planned Parenthood received from the government goes towards Medicaid reimbursement. 

2) By law, no federal funding may be used towards abortion care. So what’s the problem? Hint: irresponsible ideology boosted by lies seeking to take away more women’s rights.

The entire Republican party should be ashamed of themselves if they hurt our economy again with another senseless shutdown where everyone looses except the rich pundits!

Time for me to walk on down the road… 

How Do You Get To Your Happy Place and Stay There?

Good Day World!

Today, I’m asking what makes you happy and how do you stay that way?

First, here’s a quick test to see what floats your boat!

Positive psychology guru, Martin Seligman studied happiness and found these characteristics of happy people.

Part of the reason happiness often feels so elusive is that we don’t spend time really focusing on what we need in order to cultivate that happiness.

When we’re bogged down at work or flustered with unsuccessful attempts, more often than not we mostly just wallow in those feelings of frustration and hopelessness, rather than taking a moment to question what needs to change.

Change that. Take the time to explore what you really need to make yourself happy.

Here’s another helpful article:

How to Find Out What Makes You Happy

Life’s too short to be unhappy. Don’t you agree?

Time for me to walk on down the road…

 

What do you look for in a news story?

                                Good Day World!

When I was a newspaper editor back in the late 1970s the already old adage; “If a dog bites man – no story. But, if man bites dog – then you have a story,” was used to teach journalism students the basics in news gathering.

That 20th century advise has been given steroids in the 21st century.

Journalism students today must compete with other extreme (man not only bites dog, but eats dog and wears it skin over his face) stories that need gotcha headlines.

What does it take to get your attention? Perhaps some of the examples listed below may apply:

Meth Lab Found in Taco Bell

Newly Released Dashcam Video Shows Police Shooting of Jonathan Ferrell

Man Accused Of Masturbating In Driveway 3 Times In A Week

Woman Tries Eating Crack Cocaine In Front Of Cops, Police Say

Florida Man Chews Off Fingerprints In Hopes Of Not Being ID'd

Headline writing has always been an art. Reading the evolution of headlines is a fascinating study into our culture. Try reading headlines from newspapers in the 1960s, or the 1880s, to see what I mean.

We are being bombarded from more news sources than ever before thanks to the internet and social media. The competition for your attention has never been greater.

If headlines today don’t instantly shock, disgust or amaze, they might as well be written in invisible ink!

Time for me to walk on down the road…