ExpressJet's 9-hour Hell

( UPI Story behind the cut )

Nine hours is beyond belief. I can't imagine they're not going to get hit with multiple lawsuits over this gross insult - and as much as I abhor attorneys and frivolous lawsuits, in this case entirely deserved it would be.

It seems to me, this sort of thing is becoming more common over time.

"Had to keep them on the plane due to Federal Regulations," said the airline. Horsehockey, says I. You take them off the plane, you make arrangements for them to stay at a hotel, and you bring them back the next day when the TSB personnel have come back.

There need to be "Federal Regulations" in place that say you can't keep passengers on a non-moving airplane for more than three hours without giving them options, regardless of what's happening on the ground.

Hellfire takes out Afghan insurgents

Watch this video as a Hellfire takes out three insurgents placing an IED on a road in Afghanistan. What impresses me is the care with which they assess the situation, making sure the targets are not just random civilians burying their treasure or something. Once they've determined that the three of them have planted an IED, Foosh! Good night, Achmed! Hellfire indeed.



I rejoice in the death of no man, but this particular operation saved innocent lives. God bless our military!

♬ And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wash'd out their foul footsteps' pollution! ♬

Junk Science: Deceiving the American People

Time magazine just published this issue, the cover article of which screams to an America already 65% overweight and 30% morbidly obese: "Exercise won't help you lose weight."

Time should be ashamed of itself for foisting such a lopsided travesty off on a public already used to believing everything they read or hear in the Enquirer, Us, Cosmopolitan or Oprah. Why, if I read it on the internet, it must be true, right?

I don't have an alphabet soup after my name. Well, I do, but it's in the wrong field to make me a credible witness. Still, I've got some under-the-table experience in the field: having lost 32 pounds some years ago, and keeping it off until I suffered a divorce and self-medicated with Sachertorte and such things, in addition to working with a medical practitioner for 5 years and serving as her dietary counselor, I know whereof I speak.

Back in May, I posted this, in which I outlined a successful way of releasing weight and keeping it off. Nothing has changed. Excercise continues to be a critical part of weight release, regardless of what you may read in the above-mentioned article. Sure, increasing your caloric burn makes you hungry. But if you're eating a low-glycemic diet, you won't be spiking your blood sugar and setting off down the road to hyperinsulinemia. During my own journey, the more exercise I got, the faster I released weight. And the better I felt.

Despite the fact that almost everything stated in the article is true, wrapping it up in a populist ribbon designed to make the blubbery bulk of Americans sigh with relief and think they no longer have to exercise to release weight - and that, my friends, will be the guaranteed result - is disingenuous in the extreme.

Better information could have been disseminated in less than a paragraph. "Exercise is good for you: get off your fat backside and move. Just know that when you work out, you're going to get hungry. Have a healthy, low-glycemic snack and wait 20 minutes - you won't be hungry any more."

yarg snarl snap yarg

OW!

By Mogg's unobtainium claws! Tonight while slicing cheese for my supper, I managed to take a piece of skin about the size of a dime off my knuckle. Hurt like a bean sídhe and bled like a stuck pig. Hqiz, that slicer was sharp.

The sandwich was good, though. Now if my finger would just stop throbbing...