Categories
Personal

United instructs its flight attendants…

… not to yield to a higher medical authority.

Yes, that’s what I got from a 38 year veteran of United Airlines (flying home to Denver after a trip from Shanghai last night). She said she was specifically instructed by United not to yield a patient to doctors, nurses, paramedics, EMTs or first responders (who presumably, would want to take over a patient).

I also learned that flight attendants are trained in CPR and basic first aid only. There is also an AED in every plane.

How absolutely stupid! I invite comments to tell me this is not United policy, or this flight attendant was misinformed. From a legal perspective, this is also astonishing: imagine if you will a flight attendant turning away a veteran cardiologist in a heart attack patient.

Categories
Personal

A capella John Williams

John Williams may be the man, but this guy’s pretty good:

Categories
Personal

Sunrise in Boulder Heights

25121

Categories
Personal

International man of mystery

Oh behave!

Categories
Personal

Uh-oh

This might be me.

Categories
Personal

No crack in Flint

Categories
Personal

On Proposition 8 in California

Just wanted to put in my 2 cents against the folks overturning gay, lesbian and bisexual rights to marry in California. It seems strange to me that in the excitement of electing Obama, the “No on 8” group was poorly funded and organized. On the verge of two historic civil rights advances (well, technically speaking, the victory happened earlier in 2008), one was denied. As a libertarian (perhaps, a “liberal”), I am deeply opposed to any interference by the government in people’s private lives (I am a firm believer in the statement by Pierre Elliott Trudeau, former prime minister of Canada: “The state has no business in the bedrooms of the nation.”.)

So, I suppose the question is, who to blame for this silly Proposition passing? It’s easy to blame the african-americans, who voted 70% in favour of Proposition 8. However, I’m going to blame the Mormons on this one. They funded the Prop 8 team to the tune of $20M. How can a group so deeply committed to separation of church and state be messing around in the politics of California? Isn’t this a violation of their tax-free status? Also, I suppose I should place a portion of the blame on the “no on 8” team, who was underfunded, and by all reports, made no efforts to even make any tentative inroads into the african-american community.

Categories
Personal

One of these people is not like the others….

From this cartoonist.

In other news, I heard last night that Howie Mandel, a fellow Canuck, voted in this last election like me.

Categories
Personal

The New America: Blue shift

From the New York Times. Bluer indicates shift to Democrats from Republican, red indicates opposite, this is 2008 versus 2004. White indicates no change from 2004. After the break see the bubbles indicating actually vote and size of vote in 2008.

Categories
Personal

Neat ‘shopping