I loved this car .............

One of the best cars I have ever owned, a Chevy Sprint, peppy, to say the least, small, yes, fancy, no, comfortable, questionable, but, PEPPY, extremely yes.

I had a courier route years ago, used this, five days a week I drove every night to Columbus, Ohio, taking specimens to a lab over there, that could not be processed locally.

Traffic was no problem, zipped in and out with the best of them. Not one problem in five years, no nothing, so I decided it was time to quit, and I did. It was almost like a   l   o   n   g   way home.

The only problem I had with my Sprint, opening the hood, incessantly, all of the time  ... why, I would stop for something ..... "Hey, neat little car, what kind is it?"

"It's a three cylinder Chevrolet Sprint."

"How many gotta see this!"

And, I would open the hood ......... "Well I'll be danged!"

GREAT gas mileage, I don't know why  they don't sell them today. I guess there are some other three cylinder cars on the market though, but, I have heard, not as peppy.

I am sooooooo tired of this commercial ...

Just once, I wish the lion would put at end to this commercial. I have seen it a thousand time, and the camera work is so phony.

You really have to look to even see who the things is for, briefly at the end, I think maybe they don't want you to know who is paying for it.

I will be happy when they put it in the trash, forever.

I think it is a Ford commercial. 

Obama’s turncoat team: Closest advisers now outspoken critics

Unlike Hillary Rodham Clinton, former Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta probably won’t be settling his differences with President Obama with a hug.

Mr. Panetta this week became the latest former top adviser to train some political friendly fire on Mr. Obama, unleashing a devastating critique of the president’s shortcomings as a leader and describing him as someone who “avoids the battle, complains and misses opportunities.”

In interviews to promote a new memoir, the former Democratic congressman, CIA director and Pentagon chief also took issue with Mr. Obama’s military strategy, saying the president harmed U.S. credibility by drawing a “red line” against Syria’s use of chemical weapons and then failing to back it up with military force when Syria crossed that line in 2012.

“It was damaging,” Mr. Panetta told Yahoo News. He said Mr. Obama “sent a mixed message, not only to [Syrian leader Bashar Assad], not only to the Syrians, but to the world. And that is something you do not want to establish in the world: an issue with regard to the credibility of the United States to stand by what we say we’re gonna do.”

Specialists on the presidency say it’s unusual, but not unprecedented, for a high-level presidential adviser to criticize his old boss publicly while the president is still in office. Mr. Obama has now been the target of criticism from former aides ranging from Mrs. Clinton, his first-term secretary of state, and former budget director Peter Orszag to former Defense Secretary Robert Gates and even longtime political adviser David Axelrod.

Stephen Hess, an analyst at the Brookings Institution who served in four administrations, said it’s especially striking to hear the criticism coming from an aide with Mr. Panetta’s stellar reputation as a “truth-teller.”

It happened in Marion, Indiana .............neat story

It was just like any other order for Indiana Domino’s delivery driver James Gilpin, until it wasn’t. Gilpin walked away from his mid-morning order for two pies totaling $12.50 with a $1,248.68 tip, nearly $100 in gift cards and thousands of encouraging notes.

It was all part of a lesson at the nearby Indiana Wesleyan University in Marion during the weekly mandatory chapel service. Keith Newman, CEO of Residential Education, wanted to pass along a lesson that stood out to him recently.

“When I do any kind of teaching, I try to use stories because that’s the way I learn. I think stories are great, but if you can show somebody a story, it’s even more powerful,” Newman told ABC News. “And if you can involve them in the story, it’s even more powerful. So we had the chance to act out a story.”

Newman heard a pastor teach the saying, “Do for one what you wish you could do for everyone,” and he wanted to pass that along to the university’s students.

“You can get overwhelmed that there are so many needs out there and things you’d like to do, but you can’t for everybody,” Newman said. “So his message was a simple one; that just because you can’t do everything doesn’t mean you can’t do something. So do for one what you wish you could do for everyone.”

To illustrate his point, Newman ordered the two pizza pies on-stage during weekly chapel service, which is how Gilpin became involved.

“They pulled me out on stage, and the gentleman started talking to me for a couple minutes and then he announced that he had $1,248.86 for me. Everybody was cheering,” Gilpin told ABC News. “At the time I didn’t know what to think; it didn’t sink in until about two hours afterwards.”

In the time it took Gilpin to deliver the pizza, Newman had asked the nearly 3,000 students, faculty and staff present to donate any money they wanted for a tip, as well as write a note of encouragement on the note card they had all received upon walking in.

“I said to the students, ‘There’s no pressure, and if you think I’m crazy, don’t put anything in. It’s no big deal,” Newman said. “The students just kind of went nuts and stood up cheering for James. Some kids didn’t have money, but put in gift cards from their wallets.”

All in all, in addition to the $1,248.86, Gilpin received nearly $100 in gift cards and thousands of notes of encouragement.

“I thought it was very nice for an average Joe like me to get something like that. They didn’t know me from me Adam, and they just picked me out random and handed me the money. It was really nice,” Gilpin said. “It’s nice to know that there’s a lot of encouragement from Indiana Wesleyan and their students to do something like that. It couldn’t have come at a better time. I’m very grateful for what they’ve done for me.”

Gilpin plans to use the money to fix his car, for home improvements and toward Christmas gifts for his 6-year-old and 5-year-old.

It was a lesson well taught for everyone involved.

Ebola crisis reveals massive disparities in U.S. hospital preparedness

Some facilities run elaborate drills as others merely hand out flyers

A few days before the Ebola-infected Thomas Eric Duncan arrived in Dallas-Fort Worth Airport to reunite with his fiancee, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a sternly worded alert to the nation’s hospitals.

“Now is the time to prepare,” the memo said in bolded letters at the beginning of a detailed six-page checklist of steps that hospitals should take to ready themselves for a patient like Duncan. “Every hospital should ensure that it can detect a patient with Ebola.”

As is clear now, Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas was not ready to detect Ebola — they sent Duncan home with antibiotics after he showed up with a fever and vomiting, and acknowledged he had recently been in Liberia. He came into contact with dozens of people after that — including schoolchildren — before his disease worsened and he returned to the hospital in an ambulance.

On Wednesday, he died.

CDC Director Thomas Frieden called the hospital’s lapse a “teachable moment,” and the agency sent out another round of alerts to hospitals last week, again urging them to prepare themselves for the incurable and highly fatal disease.

But in the decentralized U.S. health care system, hospitals don’t necessarily have to take the CDC’s advice — and federal funding streams to help them do so have been slashed in recent years. The result is a health care system where some hospitals are running intense, life-like drills featuring hypothetical Ebola patients and others are just now beginning to send around memos on the topic.

“We hope that hospitals will disseminate this information to their staff members,” CDC spokeswoman Melissa Brower told Yahoo News in an email. But just in case they don’t, the agency also sends their messages to other groups, such as professional organizations for emergency room employees.

Aides knew of possible White House link to Cartagena, Colombia, prostitution scandal

As nearly two dozen Secret Service agents and members of the military were punished or fired following a 2012 prostitution scandal in Colombia, Obama administration officials repeatedly denied that anyone from the White House was involved.

But new details drawn from government documents and interviews show that senior White House aides were given information at the time suggesting that a prostitute was an overnight guest in the hotel room of a presidential advance-team member — yet that information was never thoroughly investigated or publicly acknowledged.

The information that the Secret Service shared with the White House included hotel records and firsthand accounts — the same types of evidence the agency and military relied on to determine who in their ranks was involved.

The Secret Service shared its findings twice in the weeks after the scandal with top White House officials, including then-White House Counsel Kathryn Ruemmler. Each time, she and other presidential aides conducted an interview with the advance-team member and concluded that he had done nothing wrong.

Meanwhile, the new details also show that a separate set of investigators in the inspector general’s office of the Department of Homeland Security — tasked by a Senate committee with digging more deeply into misconduct on the trip — found additional evidence from records and eyewitnesses who had accompanied the team member in Colombia.

Dave Tibbs .... an old friend.

I saw a sign by the road the other day, and wondered if it could be for an old friend, who I have not seen for many years, Dave Tibbs.

So, I Googled and, sure enough, it was Tibbsy, a gentlemen I knew and had done work for in the past, primarily some printing, but he was also a big part of a Desert Storm parade and event that we held in Downtown Newark.

I liked Tibbs, he was always an "idea" man, always involved in something, always thinking ahead.

I have not seen him in many years, but if anyone, I know, would be a successful, respect, politician, it would be Dave.  This is not an endorsement of a candidate, just an evaluation of someone I know. He is a "born" politician and I hope he finds a home in politics.

He does not know I am doing that, probably doesn't even know I am still alive, yet, I could almost throw a stone and hit his house. We just have not bumped in to each other all these years.

I now will vote in this election, if nothing else, just to vote for Tibbs .... If anyone I know, is the epitome of a politician, it is Tibbs .... maybe that is what we need to get things done in Washington.

His website is HERE..

A slight trip down memory lane ..........

Well, I have checked the news, discouraging, but nothing new. Ebola seems to be the main topic, along with Obama. We could do an O thing if it was spelled Obola, Obama and Obola.

For some reason I woke up with OLD faamily names on my mind, names from back in the 30's. I thought of Warren Woggaman, Stoney Guild, Bob Wolf, the Schmalls, the Bureans, all old neighbors from my childhood, way back in the 30's.

Warren, I think, had polio, or some problem, he spent much of his life on his front porch. He was the first "invalid" I knew. Stoney lived next door, worked in a factory, somewhere. They had a daughter a little older, Margie, used to walk me to school. Bob Wolf and my Brother were friends, I think Bobby was a little younger. I know he was at my Brother's wedding, went to UD and played basketball.

His brother Dick, had an eye problem, had to hold his head way back. The Schmalls, three kids around my age. They were Catholic, the first Catholics I knew. They wore things around their necks and had strange things hanging on their walls in their house. They were close friends.

The Bureans, lived across the alley, three or four daughters, I remember Dorothy. I think she sometimes used to babysit for me. I was in their house a lot. They introduced me to "ironed bread." Yes, ironed bread. They used their iron, to iron the bread. I am not sure whether it was electric or whether they heated in on the stove. Not many have heard of ironed bread. I can still almost picture Dorothy, she resembled one of the Andrew Sisters, the one in the middle.

When we moved I lost track of most of them, they were friends and neighbors, but when we moved to a more affluent area, "Oakwood" .... where the rich folk lived, well, I don't know if it was us or them, but, we drifted apart.

I think all of those homes have been torn down to make room for a freeway, much of my old neighborhood is gone. I'm going to post all these names on a Facebook site, see if anyone remembers any of them .........................

Obama allies getting harder to find these days

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is finding himself with few friends in Washington.

His former Pentagon chief is criticizing his foreign policy. Longtime political advisers are questioning his campaign strategy. And Democrats locked in tough midterm campaigns don't want Obama anywhere near them between now and Election Day.

The disenchantment with Obama is in part a reflection of inevitable fatigue with a president entering his final years in office. But some Democrats say it is also a consequence of the president's insular approach to governing and his preference for relying on a small cadre of White House advisers, leaving him with few loyal allies on Capitol Hill or elsewhere.

"This president is supremely independent," said Paul Begala, a Democratic strategist and longtime adviser to President Bill Clinton. "In many ways that is a very good thing. He probably came to the presidency owing less to other people than any president in memory. The risk is that independence can morph into isolation."

Wal-Mart's insurance move reveals Obamacare truth

As the 800-pound gorilla of retailers, Wal-Mart made national headlines when it announced on Tuesday that it was cutting the health benefits for its 30,000 employees who work fewer than 30 hours a week.

A company blog post put the move down to rising healthcare costs, but the 30-hour cut-off gives a clue as to the real cause - President Barack Obama's healthcare reform.

Under the Affordable Care Act, large companies are required, starting this January, to provide subsidised healthcare for every employee who works 30-hours a week or more.

If a retail empire built on low prices can't find a way around ObamaCare's added costs, we are all doomed”EditorialInvestor's Business Daily

As the Atlantic's David A Graham notes, many of the law's critics said the result would be that large companies cut the hours worked by their employees to fewer than 30 a week. Instead what appears to be happening is that big retailers like Wal-Mart, Target, Home Depot and Walgreens are simply doing away with the health benefits of their part-time workers entirely.

The part-time Wal-Mart employees - only 2% of the company's 1.3 million-person workforce - aren't without recourse, however. They can now enrol in the state and national healthcare insurance exchanges and are likely to receive government subsidies to help pay their premiums.

Whether this is a good or a bad thing depends a great deal on one's view of Mr Obama's healthcare reform and the quality of the private plans offered through the exchanges.

The editors of the conservative Investor's Business Daily are quick to assign blame, observing that Wal-Mart also announced it was raising the amount its full-time employees pay for their healthcare packages by 19% (an additional $3.50 (£2.18) a pay period, which still keeps their rates lower than the national average for retail employees).

"If a retail empire built on low prices can't find a way around Obamacare's added costs, we are all doomed," they write.

The Wall Street Journal's editors, also a conservative lot, say Wal-Mart's decision to "jettison" its part-time workers onto the exchanges is a rational response to the healthcare law's incentives.

"With a subsidized government alternative now open for business, and since corporations aren't liable for a penalty for not covering people who work fewer than 30 hours a week on average, cost-control logic says to send such coverage ballast over the side," they write. "The only question now is how many and how fast other companies partake of the new all-you-can-eat entitlement buffet. Get whatever you like, the bill's on taxpayers."

Pilot dies fighting California wildfire

The pilot of an air tanker battling a wildfire in Yosemite National Park in California has died after the plane crashed into a canyon wall on Tuesday.

The unnamed man was said to be attempting to lay down fire retardant to limit the spread of the blaze.

Rescue crews later found the wreckage and confirmed the pilot's death.

The National Transportation Safety Board will head an investigation into the cause of the crash, which has yet to be determined.

"I heard a large explosion, I looked up on the steep canyon wall and saw aircraft debris was actually raining down the side of the mountain after the impact," California Highway Patrol Sergeant Chris Michael told the Associated Press news agency.

"It appeared from the direction he was going, he was trying to make a drop down the side of the canyon when he hit the canyon wall."

Plan to name popular Hawaiian beach after Obama is a wash-out

(Reuters) - A Honolulu City Council proposal to name a popular Oahu beach after the first Hawaii-born U.S. president, Barack Obama, has been withdrawn after the plan met with little enthusiasm from the public, its sponsors said on Tuesday.

Council Chair Ernest Martin and co-sponsor Stanley Chang introduced a resolution last week to honor the commander-in-chief by renaming Sandy Beach Park as President Barack Obama Sandy Beach Park.

Located near Hanauma Bay on the east end of Oahu, the beach is known for a large shore break that makes it a favorite among body surfers, including, sponsors say, the president.

Obama is known to have body surfed at Sandy Beach while he was growing up, and has ridden the waves there while on vacation since being elected to the White House.

But according to a statement Martin issued on Tuesday, "public reaction to the proposal has been mixed."

"Most of the comments have raised the issue of historical and cultural sensitivity, and a number of alternatives have been suggested by the public," the statement said, adding that the two sponsors have agreed to remove the resolution from the council's agenda.

Reaction among beachgoers seemed sharply divided.

Ripley 10/8

Harvard Students Claim America Is A Bigger Threat To World Peace Than ISIS

Students at Harvard University claimed America is a bigger threat to world peace than the radical terrorist organization ISIS (the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) during a series of interviews at the prestigious Cambridge university. 

“American imperialism and our protection of oil interests in the Middle East are destabilizing the region and allowing groups like ISIS to gain power,” said one student. 

“As a western civilization we’re to blame for a lot of the problems that we’re facing now,” one student said. “I don’t think anyone would argue that we didn’t create the problem of ISIS, ourselves.”

EBOLA

Ebola virus disease (EVD), Ebola hemorrhagic fever (EHF), or simply Ebola is a disease of humans and other primates caused by an ebolavirus. 

Symptoms start two days to three weeks after contracting the virus, with a fever, sore throat, muscle pain, and headaches. Typically, vomiting, diarrhea, and rash follow, along with decreased function of the liver and kidneys. Around this time, affected people may begin to bleed both within the body and externally.

The virus may be acquired upon contact with blood or bodily fluids of an infected human or other animal. Spreading through the air has not been documented in the natural environment. Fruit bats are believed to be a carrier and may spread the virus without being affected. Once human infection occurs, the disease may spread between people, as well. Male survivors may be able to transmit the disease via semen for nearly two months. To make the diagnosis, typically other diseases with similar symptoms such as malaria, cholera and other viral hemorrhagic fevers are first excluded. 

EBOLA - ISIS -  .... new words enter our lives all the time, we go from one to another. Which of these two is the most dangerous? There is probably a subliminal similarity between the two, but I am not in a philosophical mood to determine that. They are both insidious. Either, or both, could be the ruination of civilization as we know it ..... or ..... maybe not.

Dallas Ebola Patient Has Died: Hospital

Thomas Eric Dunca, the first patient diagnosed with Ebola virus in the United States, died Wednesday morning, according to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas.

The hospital released this statement.

It is with profound sadness and heartfelt disappointment that we must inform you of the death of Thomas Eric Duncan this morning at 7:51 am. Mr. Duncan succumbed to an insidious disease, Ebola. He fought courageously in this battle. Our professionals, the doctors and nurses in the unit, as well as the entire Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas community, are also grieving his passing. We have offered the family our support and condolences at this difficult time.

Duncan, showed up at the Dallas hospital on Sept. 25 with a temperature of 100.1 degrees. He told the nurse he had recently traveled to the United States from Liberia, the hospital has acknowledged, but he was sent home with antibiotics when he would have been most contagious.

Duncan has been insolation at the hospital since Sept. 28. and had been given an experimental drug.

Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins released the following statement:

"My thoughts are with the family and friends of Thomas Eric Duncan at this time, especially his fiancée Louise, their son Karsiah and all those who loved him. We are also thinking of the dedicated hospital staff who assisted Mr. Duncan daily while he fought this terrible disease. We offer prayers of comfort and peace to everyone impacted by his passing."

The Centers for Disease Control has guidance for how to safely handle the remains of someone who dies as a result of Ebola. The body of someone who died of Ebola remains dangerous. The virus can live in bodily fluids and tissue so long as they stay wet and at room temperature..

Any hospital employees who hande the body of someone who died of Ebola must wear personal protective equipment, including a scrub suit, cap, gown over the suit, eye protection, face mask and more. They must remove their protective equipement in the prescribed manner and wash their hands very carefully.

Guidelines state that the body must be wrapped in multiple leak-proof plastic bags and disinfected.

The body must be cremated or immediately buried in a sealed casket. Mortuary personnel must take the same precautions as hospital personnel.

Obama Ebola Bumper Stickers Appear Around Los Angeles

Some Southland drivers seem convinced that the President’s policy on stopping the virus to-date have not inspired confidence

Vice President Joe Biden held up traffic around Los Angeles for a second day on Tuesday, but it was President Obama himself on the minds of many Southern California drivers as bumper stickers began appearing on area cars featuring the word Ebola with the Obama logo replacing the letter “o.”

The scathing stickers come on the eve of President Obama’s Thursday trip to LA for a fundraiser at the home of Gwyneth Paltrow and on the same day that the LATimes reports that it may be premature for Mr. Obama’s government to declare that the deadly Ebola virus is not transmitted by air.

Independence

I miss my Independence, I lost it when I had my Triple Bi-Pass in December of '07, and have not gotten in back since.

The time right after the operation I was almost afraid to leave the house. I was afraid to drive. I clutched my Teddy Bear that they had given me to protect my chest. Actually, he is looking at me right now, sitting in my Mom's very old rocking chair which she had as a child. He has been there, sitting, quietly, as a reminder, since I got home.

"Hey, Dad, come on back to New Jersey, Eminem is coming in for a shoot in two days."

"OK, see you in the morning."

No more, that youthful independence has left the building. I once drove to Tawas City, Michigan, to get a haircut. After my kidney surgery, years ago, with a catheter in my stomach, I drove to Northern Michigan, the catheter leaked, I turned around and came home.

For five years, some years ago, I did a "courier" route for a local lab, drove to Columbus each night, delivered "specimens" of all types, turned around and came home. I did a lot of that in a little Chevy Sprint, which is no longer made.

Right now, 9:30 in the morning, I am hesitant to drive to Valvoline and get a lube job done on our little Cavalier. It is three blocks away. Why, because Marilyn, my wife, is sleeping in this morning and I will have to go alone.

Maybe after 50 years of marriage we are a team, at least, I feel more secure when with her. And, she has a cell phone, I don't. It would be so easy, right now, to get up, walk the few feet to the car, drive the three blocks and get it done ..... but ..... there is that ...... leeeeeetle ...... bit of hesitancy on my part, I will be alone, no one with me, independent ..... and the frightens me, just a leeeeeetle bit, but, in my defense, I am 82, and those things happen ...... I guess. Apparently, I don't like ..... alone ..... anymore, at least, not like I used to. 300 miles for a haircut ...... ???????

Panhandler Caught Driving Fiat Is Confronted by Furious Man Who Gave Her Money

It's pretty hard to get away with scamming the public in a time when everyone has a cell phone with a camera. A woman in Oklahoma City found that out while begging for money on the street. 

The 78-year-old was holding a sign claiming she needed cash for food. According to Daniel Ayala, he had given her money on a few occasions even when he didn't have enough money to pay for his own lunch. 

The story could have ended there, but then one day Ayala noticed the woman sitting in the driver's seat of a bright red 2013 Fiat — not exactly what you would expect of a woman who begged for money. He couldn't contain himself and let the woman know how he felt by screaming at her in the parking lot.

Brandi Newman was there to witness the confrontation and captured it all on her cell phone before posting the video to her Facebook page on Oct. 1. In the profanity-filled video, which has been viewed more than 3.2 million times, Ayala tells the woman, "I work hard for my money" and "Thursday I did not eat to give you four dollars, and you drive a better car than me?" Ayala also threatens the woman, telling her that if he sees her in the same parking lot again, he will "bust a window."

Newman told KFOR 4 that she took out her phone to take a picture of the woman after realizing that she had been duped into giving the woman money, and that's when Ayala approached the car.

The elderly woman's grandchildren allegedly contacted Newman and told her that their grandmother has a panhandling permit and was not doing anything illegal. 

Ebola cost to W.Africa economy could top $32 bn

Washington (AFP) - The deadly Ebola epidemic could deal a $32 billion-plus blow to the West African economy over the next year if officials cannot get it under control, the World Bank warned Wednesday.

If efforts to halt its spread out of a three-country core -- Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea -- are not successful by December, the entire region faces a real threat of economic catastrophe, the Bank said in a new report.

"In broader regional terms, the economic impacts could be limited if immediate national and international responses succeed in containing the epidemic and mitigating aversion behavior," it said.

"If, on the other hand, the epidemic spreads into neighboring countries, some of which have much larger economies, the cumulative two-year impact could reach US$32.6 billion by the end of 2015."

The bank noted that small outbreaks in Nigeria and Senegal have been quickly stifled, showing the potential for fast and resolute reactions.

The disease has so far killed nearly 3,500 people, has already taken a toll on the economy of the three countries, stifling production and consumption.