Good to know the hot pepper sauce worked for you! My prob was the folks encouraging their kids to climb my fence for apples . . . I don't mind if they grab what they can reach, but please don't encourage all your many kids to climb my fence at the same time and start hanging off my tree . . .

Have to vote with your kids on homemade applesauce. Done right (as I'm sure you do) it is a real threat.

Several months ago, I traveled to a small town in IL that was known for all you can eat pork chops. The dinner included pork chops, mash potatoes and gravy, green beans, homemade cole slaw,  applesause and fresh from the oven biscuits. It was served family style.

Last year we went up to N. Ga and got apples and I made apple butter. He gets this big idea that he needs to get more food for me to can. Why do HIS ideas always involve more work for me?

In brief:  The circumstances in the 2011 shots-fired-into-the-WH incident coupled with the lackadaisical chase/response to the WH lawn/East Room & Green Room situation looks like a broader mess than supervision.  Now, we have the convict-in-the-elevator incident as well.  I want to shout "What is wrong with the Service?  What is wrong with the elite group that used to be synonymous with top-notch give-it-your-all performance?"  The Secret Service was justifiably regarded as the cream-of-the-crop; and, now, they can barely waltz across the lawn and into the building to catch the guy?  

Heck, when I attended a reception in the East Room in the mid-90s, the security was so extensive that you almost were afraid to sneeze for setting off some hidden alarm.  Who is guarding the President these days ... you know, these days when a Congressman from my state of Colorado (Rep. Lamborn of Colo Sprgs) even has the nerve to mention at a recent fundraiser for himself that he & other (unnamed) Congressmen have been talking with Generals lately & indicating that Generals who disagree with their Commander-in-Chief might make a splash by staging a mass resignation ... yea, what the h!*l is going on?  (BTW, when I read about the latest on TPM, a cartoon was reprinted underneath from the Boston Herald wherein the President is portrayed brushing his teeth while being asked if he has tried the new watermelon toothpaste.  A major paper ..., yep, that paper ran the cartoon.)

So, I'm ranting ... ranting with some of my old government employee colleagues ... and dumbfounded with disgust that these Service agents make the Ferguson police bunch almost appear competent.  Yet, I hear today that a retired Service officer is suggesting via WP Op-Ed Alan West (yes, West--the right-wing loon from Florida) as a possible replacement for the Director.

That's probably why they was no criminal prosecution in this case. But as it stands, that pilot and his wife will have to live the rest of their lives with the knowledge that their failures to take adequate and necessary pre-flight precautions undoubtedly contributed to the death of their young son. And that, in and of itself, can be its own very special brand of hell.

I would further agree that this story is sad, because it undoubtedly portends a potential tragedy in the making for some of these young women and their families. But that said, I'm at a point in my life where I must resist the urge to despair about matters over which I have little or no control. This is one of them.

Karim Pakzad, of the French Institute of International and Strategic Relations, said some young women had "an almost romantic idea of war and warriors.

"There's a certain fascination even with the head and throat-cutting. It's an adventure." Some may feel more respected and important than in their home countries, he added.

A little background:

Steve Stenger defeated the incumbent, Charlie Dooley in the primary. Stenger is white and Dooley is black. In MO you do not have to declare by party and every Republican I know crossed over to vote for Stenger, the Democratic candidate. It was the surest way to elect a Republican to the office.

Also, this is a well known fact about Stenger:

Stenger, a white Democrat, beat incumbent Charlie Dooley, an African American, in the August primary. During his campaign, Stenger touted the support of St. Louis County Prosecutor Bob McCulloch. McCulloch, who is leading one of the investigations into Darren Wilson, the police officer who shot and killed Brown, has faced criticism of his objectivity and repeated calls to step aside.
...
State Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal, a Democrat who represents Ferguson in the General Assembly, said Black residents are telling her they are "tired of the status quo" within the Democratic Party.

"This is organic," she said. "People on the ground -- and I am every single day -- they're just like, `I'm not voting for Bob McCulloch or anybody who supports him."
link

 

Grand jury considering the Ferguson shooting is being investigated for misconduct

In one of those messages, a person tweeted that they are friends with a member of the jury who doesn't believe there is enough evidence to warrant an arrest of the officer, Darren Wilson.

The same person who tweeted about being friends with a member of the jury has also tweeted messages of support for Wilson. link

We keep hearing that it's not an airborne virus.  That being said,

the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said,

"If a symptomatic patient with Ebola coughs or sneezes on someone, and saliva or mucus come into contact with that person's eyes, nose or mouth, these fluids may transmit the disease."

This happens rarely and usually only affects health workers or those caring for the sick.

Also to be noted, from the original link:

As you'll probably have noted, Ebola isn't very easy to transmit. The scenarios under which it spreads are very specific. And Ebola doesn't spread quickly, either. A mathematical epidemiologist who studies Ebola wrote in the Washington Post, "The good news is that Ebola has a lower reproductive rate than measles in the pre-vaccination days or the Spanish flu." He found that each Ebola case produces between 1.3 and 1.8 secondary cases. That means an Ebola victim usually only infects about one other person. Compare that with measles, which creates 17 secondary cases.

If you do the math, that means a single case in the US could lead to one or two others, but since we have robust public health measures here, it probably won't go further than that.

Since the original, let's-take-your-temperature-before-you-get-on-the-plane seems to have failed - mainly because with an incubation period of from 2 to 21 days, there's a big window within which people may be not be symptomatic - I expect there to be some new travel protocols.

That being said, the results reported in this study are horribly flawed with a deeply biased experiment group and no comparison statistics from other sports or occupations reported.

What's just so disgusting - and craven - is how long the league knew about the problem, how it actively put its own financial interests ahead of the health and well-being of the players, and that they did nothing until they were exposed and were pretty much forced to do something about it.