So horrible

'Massive traffic homicide investigation': 8 dead, dozens hospitalized in Ocala bus crash

My condolences to their loved ones. And no, to answer the question, their legal status means nothing. They have families. They were on their way to work, like any of us. They should never have had such a tragedy happen.

I should not disparage

An entire state just because they have trees that are deadly poisonous in every part.  I was just surprised by the sheer toxicity.  I'm used to something like that being in someplace like Australia,  where many things are poisonous.  So,  my apologies to any of you Floridians out there. And after all,  I've lived in Louisiana,  which also has gators and poisonous snakes,  the Mojave desert,  with its rattlesnakes,  and Kansas,  which has tornadoes.  So every place has its dangers.

I'm at an appointment with a friend,  and I'm a little sleepy.  My blood sugar's been a bit high lately,  and I've been normal to low today,  so I keep feeling low.  Funny how your body adjusts one way or the other after awhile.

Okay,  I need to charge the phone.  Fortunately I have a little portable charger a friend got from his workplace,  and it should have some charge left.  I'll write later.

One more reason never to go to Florida

Florida is the only Southern state I have not visited. Now I understand why I never should. Thank you, YKWIA, for this video of the deadly Manchineel tree. We have found the Dark Young of the Woods.

A heavy heart today

I have spent much of today absorbing the news about the ‪‎Orlando shooting‬ at a gay nightclub. At present reports, 50 people lost their lives, and over 50 were wounded. Each of those victims had people who love them, each life is precious, each death and injury changes things so quickly. It is the worst mass shooting in the U.S. ever, and seems to have had elements of hate crime and terrorism in terms of the actions of the shooter and those targeted. I am very sad over all of this. Here are my (admittedly unsorted) thoughts. One, I don't believe anyone really needs an AR-15, as it's only really good for acts like this-- I'm not saying to take all the guns away from folks who are rabid about guns, I just mean, really, there is only one thing this type of gun is used for, and that's mass casualties. Two, my heart goes out to those affected directly and indirectly by this tragedy, including those killed and injured, their families and friends, the people of Orlando, and yes, the family of the young man who did this horrible act. who lost a son, husband, and father, as well. They are all suffering. Third, actions speak louder than words or tweets. I was planning on giving blood soon (we have a drive scheduled for the 30th), and was going to go in earlier, but apparently they have what is needed for now in Orlando, so I'll keep to the original schedule. But I've gone to gay bars, I have dearly loved people in my life I love who are gay. This hits home. I feel I should do something. Prayers and thoughts and Facebook posts are fine, but in reality what each of us needs to do is take small actions each and every day against hate and intolerance on a daily basis, and do what we can to make the world a kinder, gentler place, and that includes voting for people who work to do so rather than blowhards who use mass murder to shore themselves up further.

[Found on the ACLU of Northern California's Facebook page; not sure if they made it or if they just shared someone else's graphic, but it really does sum up things.]

Go hug someone you love and tell the person they're loved. Go on, go do it now.

It's very sad

that you could just be enjoying a nice walk on the beach and a plane falls out of the sky and kills you. It's a freak accident, and I don't understand it, really. I do know I feel horrible for this wife and mother who was simply on a pleasant vacation to celebrate her wedding anniversary and now has lost both her husband and her child.

Oceana Irizarry dies after being struck by crashing plane

A girl who was struck by a plane that crash landed on a Florida beach on Sunday and killed her father has died of her injuries, police have said.

Oceana Irizarry, 9, was walking with her father Ommy, a US Army first sergeant, on a beach in Venice on Sunday when the plane struck them.

The other day

I posted this on Facebook:



I thought maybe I was being unfair. See, the story was of a baboon father that rushed to his infant's aid after the mother was killed by a lioness and it was being held in her clutches. I remember thinking, hey, the baboon gets it, why don't some men? And then I thought, gee, Lisa, that's awfully cynical. And then I saw this the very next day:

Deputies: Man Smothered Crying Son Over Video Game

Wygant said he was frustrated because the boy was crying uncontrollably, preventing him from playing his Xbox games, according to investigators. He covered the boy's nose and mouth for three to four minutes until he became lethargic, then placed him in a playpen and covered him with bedding, which was tucked around the boy's body and head, officials said.

Wygant didn't check on Daymeon for five hours, investigators said, while he played Xbox and watched three episodes of the television show "Fringe." By the time he checked on the child, Daymeon had turned blue and was unresponsive, they said.

The 24-year-old seemed to have no value for his son's life; it was all about what he wanted to do. I told YKWIA about this story, and he was of the opinion that this guy should 'have a testical-ectomy, and his penis too, and pee through a straw' rather than have any other children again. I can see his point. I definitely hope justice is served in this case. And no offence to the good people of Florida (and there must be some) but my goodness, what is it with Florida and these news stories? Any desire I ever had to visit the state dried up a long time ago. I've read so many stories, from shooting unarmed teens and people in theatres to extreme bullying by throwing accelerant on a kid and lighting them on fire. I know every place has its issues, but still. Maybe that's a little unfair, but that's how I feel.

Some heartwarming news for a change

(and from Florida, of all places. the land where they shoot you dead for the stupidest of reasons):

Drama on the expressway: Drivers scramble to save unconscious baby on 836

It was a sight that jarred motorists on the busy Dolphin Expressway.

Westbound traffic suddenly came to a standstill around 2:30 p.m. Thursday, and a woman sprang from her car, holding a baby, screaming for help.

Pamela Rauseo, 37, of West Kendall, quickly got that help for her 5-month-old nephew, little Sebastian de la Cruz, who was turning blue.

Rauseo said she was in a panic, thinking she could not let anything happen to the baby while in her care.

“My sister had trusted me with him,” she told reporters.

Drivers stuck in 836 traffic just east of 57th Avenue swung into action.

This woman took couponing a bit too seriously

Florida woman pulls gun after Walmart refuses coupon

Let's ignore the fact that Wal-Mart is the evil empire just now. Just because you have a gun, shouldn't mean that you wave it around at poor shop employees just because you're upset.

Definitely scary

Sinkhole opens under Florida house; man feared dead

The hole opened up in his bedroom and swallowed him up. Five people, including a two-year-old, made it out of the house, and surrounding houses were evacuated. I would say this is yet another reason not to live in Florida (I give you alligators, boas, and heat), but the same type of karst topography, where groundwater eats holes in the limestone below the surface, is found in Kentucky. (You might have heard of something called Mammoth Cave, for example, but Kentucky is riddled with caves.) And sinkholes happen here as a result. How horrible for the family. Police pulled his brother away from the sinkhole as he tried to find him because it was expanding and they feared he would be swallowed as well, and things remained too unstable to try to save the man.

Weird news of the day: old fashioned way to cut out the competition

Police: Florida pizza workers burned down rival store: One allegedly said that with Papa John's gone, there'd be more customers for Domino's

It happened in Lake City, Florida, and police are still looking for an ignition device the arsonists say they built but did not use scattered along I-75.

Okay, good night for real. And for goodness' sake, if you're in Florida, don't touch anything weird you might find along the interstate.

Amazing she survived, and with humour intact

Meet grandma who was stuck in swamp mud for 4 days: After surviving ordeal, she jokes that a mud spa is ‘not what it’s cracked up to be’

Florida needs a bevy of Maxine Grays

Did you ever watch the TV show 'Judging Amy'? The mother of the title character is a social worker working for child protective services who will stop at nothing to, well, protect children.

It's a shame Maxine is a work of fiction.

Father of dead girl, poisoned boy held on $1 million bond: Twins allegedly abused; judge criticizes child welfare workers

When a tip said the twins were kept in a bathtub taped with duct tape, a case worker was sent out to investigate. The father and the twins were missing. The mother said she and her husband were separated and she didn't know where they were. Authorities believe she was covering for him. She got irritated when the case worker tried to interview the other two children in the home, and the case worker left. When asked why she didn't pursue the matter, she said it was 9 pm on a Friday.

A few days later the boy was found with some toxic substance on him that has burned part of his body and was so awful responders were overcome and had to be treated from the fumes. The father was nearby, doused in gasoline, but hadn't gone through his apparent intent to kill himself. Inside the truck was the body of the boy's twin sister.

To make it worse, these were not their biological children. They were adopted, which means these parents went through a vetting process. And then, when the children needed protection the most, they were let down by someone who decided it was too late at night before a weekend to pursue the matter further or at the very least, notify authorities.

Wasn't Florida the state that lost a child completely in its foster system a few years back?

I realise it's a difficult job, sometimes without a great deal of training and often low pay. I couldn't do it. But some in the field shouldn't be in social services either. Really, heads should roll over this one. The system truly failed these children.

Sometimes Mother Nature just needs a hand

Texas Tail Saves Florida Panthers, for Now

In a rare story of conservation success, a last-ditch effort to save the Florida panther has slowed, if not reversed, the marvelous animal’s decline.

Fifteen years ago, America’s last eastern panther population had shrunk to several dozen individuals, riddled with genetic defects and too inbred to survive much longer.

Conservationists introduced eight female panthers trapped in Texas. Between 1995 and 2003, the newcomers bred with native cats; as described in a September 24 Science study, the gene pool was replenished. The Florida panther’s future is hardly assured, but it certainly looks better.

(There's an adorable picture of three cubs in the article.)

Awww...

'Jarhead' bear gets out of a jam in Florida

A bear cub in Florida, which had a plastic jar stuck on its head for at least 10 days, has now been freed.

The cub, affectionately nicknamed "Jarhead", got its head stuck in the container while rooting through rubbish around the town of Weirsdale.

The cub was days away from death as he had not been able to eat or drink, biologists who rescued the bear said.

They sedated the mother bear before grabbing the cub, pinning his ears back and prising off the container.

There is a picture of the poor thing walking along with its head inside a jar. I'm glad they managed to free him.

One person with persistence can bring forth change

Just ask Paul Clark, known as 'the library guy', who spent his vacation time from his job as a systems librarian at the Florida State Capitol, silently pleading with lawmakers with a sign urging them to continue to fund the state's public libraries.

It worked. Lawmakers managed to preserve $21 million worth of state funding during their marathon session that ended at midnight on Monday, and Clark was referenced by the Senate budget chief.

Budding young sociopath or misunderstood and maligned?

18-year old charged in Florida cat mutilations

Police investigated over 30 cat deaths in the Miami area where residents have been horrified by a series of cat mutilations/deaths. Tyler Hayes Weinman was charged today with 19 counts each of animal cruelty and improperly disposing of an animal body and four counts of burglary in the deaths.

If the police have their man, then I hope they throw the book at him. Besides the general consideration of how this killer has upset lives of loving families who have lost their pets in chilling ways, research suggests that those who torture or kill animals often eventually make their way up to people. It is a red flag in the past of young sociopathic killers.

Of course, if he's being made a scapegoat and is innocent, that's wrong. And if he is innocent, it's a shame that police took him in for questioning on his prom night, in tuxedo, making him miss the dance.

But if he is guilty...thank the Gods they caught him now. I don't know what Florida or local laws are for animal cruelty--some places are very lax, others more stringent. But if he is guilty I'd like to see him in prison for a good long time.

Hurrah, let's hope they do the same here!

State moves to ban fake testicles on vehicles

That would be Florida, but we have plenty here. My favourite combination was the big red Dodge Ram truck I was saw with the great big testicles and the little tiny pug that kept jumping in the bed of the truck.

Yeah, doesn't that cry manly? I think it cries Napoleon syndrome.

Good night.

Disturbing

Videotaped Florida Teen Beating Prompts Calls To Block Violent Content

My favourite comment, by someone writing as 'Logic' (although I don't agree on the weapons part) was:

The video never made it on YouTube or MySpace but we should ban it because someone said they might do it.

By that logic, Weapons should be banned because kids have said they may want to use them.

Books should be banned because people talk about reading them.

And Love should be banned because people talk about making it.

Last I checked people are guity of the acts they commit not the acts they imagine or talk about. By all means let them post the evidence and get caught.

The Associated Press has a story that incorporates the video. The video itself was not actually uploaded to either site, both of which already have rules in place for reviewing or yanking videos such as this one. I don't think any other body need get involved.

I hope the six girls involved in the beating (and the two guys who stood lookout) get a good dose of justice. They're not going to get it from home, I believe. Apparently one mom went on a morning show defending her daughter, saying only one girl beat the victim at any given time; quotes of the girls at their arrest ('will I get out in time for cheerleading practice') and from MySpace don't show much bloody remorse.

The girl has lost hearing and sight on one side of her head and suffered a concussion. She could just have easily have died, having been slammed into a wall. Bullying has been around for a long time, and has always been disturbing, but beating someone within an inch of their life to make a good video shoot for 15 minutes of fame is even more disturbing.

Let's just say I'm not wishing them a happy time in jail. :)