Need Free Health Care? Go To Jail

Verone didn’t want to scare anyone. He executed the robbery the most passive way he knew how. He handed the teller a note demanding one dollar, and medical attention. “I didn’t have any fears,” said Verone. “I told the teller that I would sit over here and wait for police.”

... he has a lot to say on the subject of socialized medical care. He suspects he wouldn’t be talking to a reporter through a metal screen wearing an orange jumpsuit if such an option were available in the U.S.

“If you don’t have your health you don’t have anything,” said Verone.
The man has high hopes with his recent incarceration.
He has seen several nurses and has an appointment with a doctor Friday.

The ideal scenario would include back and foot surgery and a diagnosis and treatment of the protrusion on his chest, he said. He would serve a few years in prison and get out in time to collect Social Security and move to the beach.

You can read the rest here.

Some questions:
-What would you do given this situation?
-Do you consider James Richard Verone's actions to be noble or costing tax payers money?
-Given his situation, what alternatives could he have tapped into to get the help he wanted/needed without committing a crime?
-If you were the judge, how would you handle his sentencing?

Woman With A Story Waiting To Be Told

Hajiyani Abeda fought against the Soviets in Afghanistan and now the Taliban. She is well past her youth and living and fighting in a place where women are barely allowed to leave the home, let alone command men in battle. One commander said of her, "We don't even think of her as a woman when she comes to these meetings," he said. When the Guardian asked how many fighters she had under her command, she raised a bemused eyebrow.

"These are all my fighters," she said...

You can read the rest here.

This is one biography I would love to read. Tim?

Some questions:
-Why do you think, in an Islamic culture, her gender is overlooked? (Do you think this honors what they believe to be God's word?)
-She has earned respect of men, are other women afforded that same opportunity in Afghanistan today?
-Would you read her story?

Russian Cloud Anomaly?

"Theories range from it being an alien mothership, proof of Russian weather modification technology - a weather weapon - or even a sign of the end of the world."

But meteorologists rejected theories of the supernatural calling it an optical effect.
The Moscow's weather bureau said several weather fronts had passed through Moscow as the sun shined from the west to cause the effect.
A spokesman for the bureau said: "This is purely an optical effect, although it does look impressive.
"If you look closer, you can see sun rays coming through that cloud. Most likely, the sun was setting when the video was being made."


You can read more here.

Some questions:
-Do you buy the UFO theory?
-Do you buy the "sunray's from the west" theory?
-What would you pose for a theory?
-At the end of the day, does this really matter?

Michael Jackson Most Wanted Love

"I am going to say something I have never said before and this is the truth. I have no reason to lie to you and God knows I am telling the truth. I think all my success and fame, and I have wanted it, I have wanted it because I wanted to be loved. That's all. That's the real truth. I wanted people to love me, truly love me, because I never really felt loved. I said I know I have an ability. Maybe if I sharpened my craft, maybe people will love me more. I just wanted to be loved because I think it is very important to be loved and to tell people that you love them and to look in their eyes and say it."

-Michael Jackson

One cannot read these words without feeling a tremendous sadness for a soul that was so surrounded with hero-worship but remained so utterly alone.

-Rabbi Shmuley Boteach

This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

-I John 4.9-10

Michael Jackson penned a song called Morphine. It is very telling of his final years. You can read the lyrics here and watch/hear the video (as long as it stays up) here.

You can read the entire article by the Rabbi here.

Some questions:

-How does this impact you?

-Do you think the lure of money and fame would have caused you to be an enabler to MJ?

-Does this make death a little more of a reality for you?

-Does how we live and what we believe in life really matter?

-If you had 15 minutes with MJ, what would you have told him?

Continental Pilot Dies Mid-Flight

A pilot at the controls of Continental Airlines Flight 61 has died during the flight.

Port Authority officials say the plane was en route to Newark Liberty International Airport from Brussels, Belgium.

Currently the co-pilot and a passenger who is a pilot is continuing the flight.

You can read the rest here.

Some questions:
-What do you do with the pilot's body?
-Why does the news outlet go for shock value: "Passenger helping to fly plane" sub headline?

Missing Link: FOUND

Scientists have unveiled a 47-million-year-old fossilised skeleton of a monkey hailed as the missing link in human evolution.

Researchers say proof of this transitional species finally confirms Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, and the then radical, outlandish ideas he came up with during his time aboard the Beagle.

"This little creature is going to show us our connection with the rest of the mammals," he said.
"This is the one that connects us directly with them.
"Now people can say 'okay we are primates, show us the link'.
"The link they would have said up to now is missing - well it's no longer missing."

"When Darwin published his On the Origin of Species in 1859, he said a lot about transitional species," said Prof Hurum
"...and he said that will never be found, a transitional species, and his whole theory will be wrong, so he would be really happy to live today when we publish Ida.
"This fossil is really a part of our history; this is part of our evolution, deep, deep back into the aeons of time, 47 million years ago.
"It's part of our evolution that's been hidden so far, it's been hidden because all the other specimens are so incomplete.
"They are so broken there's almost nothing to study and now this wonderful fossil appears and it makes the story so much easier to tell, so it's really a dream come true."

You can read more here.

Some questions:
-Does the article really say how the fossil is proof?
-Can a fossil that looks to have " human-like nails" and "opposable big toes" really fill the gap(s) that is/are in the fossil record- from species to species?
-Does this affect your beliefs?
-Is macro-evolution compatible with Christianity? (I have discussed this previously- just do a search up top with the keyword "evolution")
-What say you?

Filed In: Overly Understated

“The young naked man approached her with this poodle, and she immediately realized something peculiar,” Mast said.

Ya think?!

You can read the whole story here.

Some questions:
-I got nothing.

The Death Of The Sunday Paper

Final Edition from Matthew Roberts on Vimeo.

Very well done video chronicling the last days of The Rocky Mountain News. I highly recommend you watch it.

Some questions:
-Is paper dead?
-Will the next generation be completely digital?
-Will the Kindle's of tomorrow be the books of our children?
-Looking past nostalgia, would this be a good move for humanity?