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Cat Takes Page from Dog Book – Saves Owner’s Life

The Reading Eagle reports that former nurse Claire Nelson was not feeling well one day last week when her normally quiet kitty, Rusty, became agitated and verbal. Nelson thought little of her discomfort and moved to lie down, but Rusty persisted and got his message through to her that all was not well. Nelson says she figured Rusty must know something she didn’t and so she called her doctor. While waiting for the bus, her pain worsened and she was forced to dial 9-1-1.

Now, a week later, the doctors tell her she suffered a heart attack while at home and has since undergone surgery to install two coronary stents.  Nelson rescued Rusty in 2009 from The Humane Society, and this year Rusty returned the favor. Continue reading →

Angel Island: The Guardian of the Western Gate

They huddled together on large steamboats, “eating wind and tasting waves” for nearly three weeks, before they finally saw land. They had scraped and borrowed funds to get on those boats to escape economic and political economic instability and to make a better life for their families back home. Many of them dreamed of Gam Saan, or Gold Mountain, thinking that this new land was filled with golden fields and rivers. But most would end up on a goldless, small island off the San Francisco Bay – Angel Island. Continue reading →

Jerry Brown Just Vetoed His Own Budget Plan

Today California Governor Jerry Brown vetoed a budget plan that in large part he put together. The original plan had called for spending cuts in the budget and a package of tax increases that would have been put up for a vote for all Californians to decide on. Republicans in the state assembly managed to block the statewide popular vote on the tax increases leaving only the tax cuts in the budget which alone did not provide a balanced and sustainable budget. I guess the Republicans think the people should not be allowed to decide to increase their own taxes to fix a massive budget problem. Bring on the bickering.  Source SFGate.  Comment

Scenes from the Vancouver Riots

In some corners of this messed up planet we call earth people are taking to the streets to riot and set fire to things because their government is trying to kill them. In Vancouver, though, people took to the streets to riot and burn stuff because their government set up big screen TVs in the streets so they could watch their beloved Canucks play Boston in game 7 on the Stanley Cup finals. Let’s have a look at some of the video footage shall we? It’s a riot roundup!

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Social Media Makes Being Unemployed Tolerable and Terrible

Hello Crasstalk viewers! As my inaugural post to this dysfunctional, yet entertaining community, I thought I’d kick off by relating my musings on the intersection of two subjects in which most hardcore bloggers are sadly familiar: social media and unemployment. As I’ve recently taken on a new hobby (drawing circles), I’ll start out with this diagram:


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Sarah Palin Writes Like an 8th Grader and Why This Isn’t as Funny as it Sounds

I’m not poring over all 24,000 Sarah Palin emails. That’s just lunacy. Especially since the political wonder team of Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore think it’s a repulsive thing to do, because if you can’t use Kutcher and Moore as a barometer then you’re just doomed. But one thing that caught my eye is what’s been reported about her writing ability. You would think that the same person who wrote speaking notes on her palm and who has a habit of saying the equivalent of monkey-speech after being hit in the head with a log, could barely pick up a pen without becoming confused – But you would be wrong, so very wrong.

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New York State Votes on Gay Marriage Tomorrow

As expected, New York State Assembly passed a gay marriage bill last night granting the right to same sex couples to marry, 80-63. Now it heads to the State Senate for a final vote. This isn’t the first time at the rodeo for same sex couples, as the Assembly previous passed a bill “allowing” same sex marriage in New York back in 2009, which, among a whole lot of party in-fighting, failed miserably in the Senate.

Back in 2006, New York’s highest court ruled there was no constitutional right to same sex marriage. In 2008, then-Governor Paterson issued a directive requiring New York to recognize same sex marriages performed in other states. (He didn’t see a difference). Continue reading →

Surprise! Kids on Medicaid Get Lousy Care

A newly released study by doctors at the University of Pennsylvania shows that kids on Medicaid wait more than twice as long to see specialists compared to children who are covered by private insurance. The truly disconcerting part of this story is that kids on private insurance were found to wait an average of 20 days for an appointment.  Though, even that pales in comparison to a denial rate of 66% for public insurance holders at the clinics the researchers contacted.

The solution to this, obviously, is more cuts to Medicaid! Get those poors out of the system completely, and the kids on private insurance might only have to wait two weeks to see the respiratory therapist!

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