The Good, The Bad, The WTF

The Good:

·         Since 2006, the U.S has slashed CO₂ emissions by 7.7% or 450million tons, more than any other country.  Biggest driver?  The switch from coal to natural gas.

·         The 1^st Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last week that DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act) is unconstitutional.

·         According to Bloomberg News, since March the world is consuming less oil than is being produced.

·         In 1958, NBA player Cincinnati Royal Jack Twyman became the legal guardian to his paralyzed and unable to speak teammate Maurice Stokes who had been injured at the end of the season.  As the Sporting News described it “Here was a 23 year old white man adopting a 24 year old black man.”  The 78 year old Twyman passed away last month after a successful NBA, announcing, and food wholesaling careers.   Class act and great human.

The Bad:

·         May, the Erie School Community District banned, Todd Parr’s bestselling children’s book ‘The Family Book,’ because of a page that says “some families have two moms or two dads”.  It was banned after a few parents complained to the school board.  School Board President Charlie Brown, no joke, decided to enact the ban.

·         According to CNN, 1 in 5 Americans admits to have urinated in a public swimming pool.

·         The 21 Jump Street movie.  Jonah Hill is a nice supporting actor, but clearly not capable of carrying an entire movie.  Oh, and Rob Riggle has the villain?  Was Kevin Nealon busy?

·         Cardinal Timothy Dolan, an outspoken critic of President Obama’s contraception plan, while serving as Milwaukee’s archbishop in 2003 allegedly paid a number of accused pedophile priests as much as $20,000 to stop resisting their defrocking.

·         Under a Romney tax plan, compared to an Obama tax plan, President Mittens would save $5million on his tax bill.

·         Bank of America executives failed to disclose mounting losses at Merrill Lynch prior to asking BofA shareholders to approve the acquisition.  These unknown $Billions of losses led to BofA requiring $20Billion in TARP money.  Too big to fail apparently means too big to prosecute under Sarbanes Oxley, the law enacted after the Enron collapse, that is there to prevent shareholders from getting raped by management.

The WTF:

·         The Siletz tribe of Native Americans has been told by the state of Oregon that they can no longer use the nickname “Warriors” for its sports teams because such names are considered offensive. 

·         17 year old Florida high school student Michael Rudi was suffering an asthma attack and the school nurse would not allow him to use his inhaler because his mom hadn’t signed the proper forms.

·         Davis High School in Utah was fined $15,000 because it’s vending machines dispensed soda during lunch in violation of Federal nutrition guidelines.  The WTF moment?  Apparently you can buy the can of Coke or Pepsi or whatever BEFORE lunch and consume it during lunch but you can’t buy it DURING lunch.

·         A sure sign of American Exceptionalism: a recent Gallup poll showed that 46% of Americans believe God created humans in their current form in the last 10,000 years.

·         A Burger King hamburger in the 1950’s was 2.8 ounces and 202 calories. Today, a Burger King¨ hamburger is 4.3 ounces and 310 calories. During the 50s, McDonald’s sole offering of fries was a 2.4-ounce portion with 210 calories. Today, fries come in orders as large as 7 ounces with 610 calories.

·         According to the Daily Beast, among 35 national newspapers and magazines, 81% of the quotes  about abortion came from men.  And in stories about birth control, 75% of the quotes came from men.