CHRISTMAS 2012
PEACE ON EARTH!*
*Maybe next year

The Pope tells Catholics to make a place for God in busy and fast paced world

The Pope tells Catholics to make a place for God in busy and fast paced world

East Coasters: Look how many snowstorms we may have to contend with in the next few days

We are going from a warm December.. to a frightfully cold period of time. Along with numerous chances for large scale snowstorms.

The first tonight —it’s minor. But it will be a white Christmas thanks to it (snow will easily brush off your car).. look for Santa’s sleigh tracks.

By the time the ball drops on 2013, we may be sick of snow already..

East Coasters: Look how many snowstorms we may have to contend with in the next few days

Christmas Eve 2012 is here.. Be safe everyone.

So my local Walmart had a mobile meth lab in the parking lot.. Merry Christmas.

Pretty big day in the Skook, even with it being Christmas..

It may be everyday that a meth lab in some town gets found, but not a mobile one. A meth lab on wheels.. 

Turns out that the owner of the vehicle was from Berks County. So Schuylkillians are in the clear on this one. But… it may be proof that you can find pretty much any item at Walmart.

This is it. 

NEWSWEEK is done.

At least in the print world.. 

Digital it will live. But thrive? I don’t know.

TINA BROWN said the Zeitgeist was against the publication. But why? Why not TIME magazine. 

I recall a few years ago when US NEWS AND WORLD REPORT died away from newstands, too. But what did that magazine offer? Morty Zuck had nothing but bucks.. nothing to give readers either besides long lists of the ‘best of’ that no one ever read. The people who made the US NEWS ‘best of’ lists probably didn’t even know that they made it..

TIME magazine is still alive. Thriving? I don’t know. They just chose BARACK OBAMA as their person of the year—a safe choice and predictable one.. Will they be next in the digital universe? Abandoning the stains of print in turn for the speed of the phone?

Lots of people will lament NEWSWEEK’s print passing. Some won’t. 

But one day, maybe when that solar storm does actually hit, we will yearn for the days of print. Yearn for the days when we can hold a magazine in our hands…

Or will we..

Reaction in India continues after gang rape on bus

There is so much anger in New Delhi that big protests are continuing in the city..

CNN reports:

Saturday’s demonstration was prompted by public outrage over what police said was the gang-rape and beating of a 23-year-old woman on a moving bus in the capital on December 16.

Authorities haven’t released the name of the rape victim, but protesters are calling her “Damini,” which means “lightning” in Hindi.

According to reports, the young victim of the rape had a metal rod inserted in her vagina and she suffered loss of her intestines..

There has been global anger with how Indian officials responded to the incident—such as questioning why she was out past 9pm with a male, ignoring her life threatening damages incurred by the incident..

Lovin' it? McDonald's serving up 'restructured meat technology' ..

Lovin' it? McDonald's serving up 'restructured meat technology' ..

And you thought your job stunk!

There are time you need to take news online with a grain of salt. And if it’s from the ONION you should just laugh, and not spread the headlines as though they’re true..

So when I read this SMOKING GUN story about a federal worker who was reprimanded for farting too much, I could not help but first think it was a joke. However, sadly in a way, as the story went on and copies of documents were referenced, it became clear that the Social Security Administration employee from Baltimore, really could not control his flatuence.

But the story of the man gets weirder.. According to a reprimand letter, he created a hostile working environment because of his repeated passages of wind.

And the office co-workers didn’t think grin and bear it.. No, they recorded the times and dates when he flatuated (is that a word?) ..

Now picture your own office, or workplace.. Picture a co-worker next to you breaking wind every half hour or so.. How long until you start keeping “documenation” on all of the times he farted in your space? Well, according to the SMOKING GUN expose, this SSA employee had 17 incidents on September 19, according to records kept by employees. And he even broke wind during a May 18 performance discussion!

There is now a legal fight taking place over the reprimand.. I don’t know how much further the public will be udpated on the farting government worker. But every time I see my social security deduction on future paychecks, I’ll raise a glass and bust an ass. Praise to the farting Social Security Worker! So misunderstood…

Another disgusting story about a shooting..
This time in rural Pennsylvania near Altoona..
Fox News reports:

A man fatally shot a woman decorating for a children’s Christmas party at a tiny church hall and killed two men elsewhere in a rural central Pennsylvania township Friday before he was fatally shot in a gunfight with state troopers.

So far it appears the shooter had no relationship with the victims..

Dreaming of a white Christmas? Your chances may have increased

Dreaming of a white Christmas? Your chances may have increased

The calendar now says winter, and the weather does too. The pale and hazy gray shade of winter setting it

Heading into the Christmas holiday season, it is important to remember what IS.. important in your life

I value a wonderful family, wonderful friends, peace, joy, happiness and sure a little fun now and then too.

But doesn’t it seem like this year has been tremendously bad? Maybe the world didn’t end up by God there’re times this year were we all sure felt like it would..

So that would be all the more reason to grab the hand of the person you love, spend time with the people you care about, and appreciate every waking moment because those moments are fleeting..

We're still standing

Time zones and end times

Well it’s tomorrow already in some places .. Has the world ended in Australia yet? Just trying to estimate my chance of survival ..

Christmas tragedies.. Why do bad things happen to good people? Why around holidays? 2012 has been a rough year.. Hasn't it?

Just got informed that a co-worker and good friend lost her sister in a rafting accident in another country.. I will obviously withhold personal information but… it made me feel awful.

I am not a doomsayer or someone who believes the end times are upon us.. but with news of national attention recently and even personal attention, it just isn’t good, is it? Tragic scenarios are playing out everywhere. This has been a rough year.
2013 almost here (yes already) so maybe things will improve. Right?
Right?….
Again… Right?
Maybe.
But as for the current time, we are dealing with an aftermath of a horrific shooting in Newtown, Connecticut  And whatever personal horror you are dealing with in your private life.

If we make it through December we’ll be fine.


[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGDo1Jybs_I]

TIME MAKES THE CALL: OBAMA THE PERSON OF 2012

A nightmare before Christmas

The President of the United States delivered a monumental speech last night during a vigil in Newtown, Connecticut. He was emotional. He seemed real. And he somehow was able to get back that old aura like he had during speeches in the past. He is a great orator. During this tragic situation, we need that. Sure, we need action, too.. but since action is so debatable, right now oration will due.. He invoked Jesus and children going to him.. then went on to name all of the children, by first name, who were gunned down by shooter Adam Lanza.

The world is beginning to know a little more about Mr. Lanza, and his mother. One story in UK media accuses his mom of being a hoarder worrying about the end of the world coming, or at least some type of end of the world-lite crisis. We don’t know much about him just yet, besides the occasional news media story of him being in a high school tech club, having emotional issues, playing video games. We do know, from various reports, that his mother took him to shooting ranges allowing him to practice his shots. Shots that would eventually change a small town and perhaps the nation…

I think there was a certain shroud of sadness across the Christmas landscape this weekend. I wrote about my trip to my local mall last Friday night. It was quiet and silent.. in parts you can hear a pin drop. I went, again, to another shopping center last night. While the crowd was in its typical rush for last minute gifts, there wasn’t much fun in the shopping experience. We all know what we are all thinking, We all have those children’s souls in our minds.  I think there’s a strong change that many across this country had nightmares. Perhaps the President himself.

We may all disagree on gun control issues. We can all have a certain point of view regarding mental health and how state and federal governments should deal with issues relating to it. And we may also all have varying beliefs when it comes to the national ‘morals’.. But suddenly we all have one thing in common: We weep for the souls who perished last Friday in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. Stories of heroism among the faculty make our eyes water.. but those awful stories of children being gunned down by a maniac in the school make us tremble in sadness and be silent in grief.

While Obama may have a master orator, there are still few words that can do much healing. Instead it the healing will come over time. It may never actually happen.. but families will come to grips with the scope of their loss. This Christmas has been ruined. I am guessing for hundreds of people, future Christmases will never get better. So many families that were planning happy and peaceful Christmases. Now they are planning somber funerals for lives gone too young.

The Lanza family will now be greeting this Christmas with loss, and perhaps shame. Their name now forever marked by the horror that were perpetrated and saddened by the loss of another…

We may have all been forever changed by this tragic shooting. But we don’t quite yet know how we’ve been changed. 

A range of emotions has taken over … but we don’t know what is flowing through our veins more: Anger, sadness, or a melancholy feeling that something has been lost in this country—what? we don’t know yet. It’s too soon to understand the blaze of feelings .. 

I cannot even imagine the pain, the ungodly pain, facing these families right now in Connecticut. 

I despise any person who steals the innocence of another. This situation is all the worse. Not only was innocence taken of the deceased, but the living will now keep this horrid memory in their minds for a lifetime …

We all may feel sadness and anger.. But we also collectively feel disgust. Disgust that someone can do this. Disgust that it happened.

We may have all cried out to God this weekend. Maybe some of us lost faith, or others were comforted by it. I don’t know.

It’s too soon to know.

We just know that something is different. And Christmas will never be the same.

‘Let the little children come to me,’ Jesus said, ‘and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.’

Charlotte. Daniel. Olivia. Josephine. Ana. Dylan. Madeleine. Katherine. Chase. Jesse. James. Grace. Emilie. Jack. Noah. Caroline. Jessica. Benjamin. Avielle. Allison. God has called them all home.

For those of us who remain, let us find the strength to carry on and make our country worthy of their memory.

PRESIDENT OBAMA. (via inothernews)

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9TByT3QlWc?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1&origin=http://safe.txmblr.com&wmode=opaque&w=500&h=374]

Maybe the world will end on 12/21? We are horrified by the loss of innocent life. Hillary Clinton passed out and has a concussion (I thought she’d be president in 2016) .. and Dick Clark has been dead for a while. With Ryan Seacrest ringing in the New Year, I don’t think there’s much of a chance we’ll make it through December. But if we do, we’ll be fine.

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)