Look out…

The Ready Shot

this is an example of what happens with socialized medicine.  It is the natural outcome when someone other than you is in charge.

From the article on the BBC site:

People who are not in an at-risk group should be banned from having private flu vaccinations, the chairman of the Royal College of GPs has said.

Dr Clare Gerada told the Daily Telegraph allowing healthy people to buy the flu jab had compounded NHS shortages and left others vulnerable.

The Department of Health said it could not prevent pharmacies from selling the vaccine commercially.

No, the problem isn’t that people wanted it and were willing to pay for it….the problem is that the government didn’t spend the money necessary to get enough. Why? Who knows. Perhaps someone didn’t think they needed another 10 million doses. Perhaps they didn’t have the money. Does it matter?  The government system doesn’t have enough and people who were depending on someone else to do it for them will get left out.

Image from sullyt64 photography via flickr

Let’s get something straight

Case O' Guns

I don’t think gun control would have prevented the terrible horrible shooting that happened in Arizona.  Why?  Quite simply because criminals don’t buy guns (or magazines, or ammo, or anything else for that matter) from gun stores.  Remember, we call them criminals for a reason (they broke the law).  If they have broken one, what makes us think they’ll respect another.  All gun control laws do is take guns away from law abiding citizens who want the ability to defend themselves and their family.

BTW, it looks like the guy passed a background check anyway.  This guy, just like the VA Tech shooter, had been known to have serious mental problems.  Perhaps, as this writer suggests, there should be a way to collate that data and include it in existing FBI check to purchase firearms.  On the surface it looks good, but great care would have to be exercised to avoid people being reported and denied guns just because someone reported them at one time for something.  That would just be gun control in another way.  

The problem isn’t guns but the criminals.

[Update 2012-07-20 17:20:53]  There has been a shooting in a Colorado theater at the showing of the new Batman movie.  Of course, people are blaming guns.  I’ve talked about the inconsistency of some headlines in this post.

Image from gregory wild smith via flickr

400 Years of the King James Bible

InTheBeginningCover

2011 marks the 400th anniversary of the publishing of the King James Bible.  The BBC–and others–here in the UK are doing some special events to mark this.  Even if you don’t care anything about religion, there is more to this than you might think.  One of the things I found out when I read the book on the left–In the Beginning: The Story of the King James Bible and How It Changed a Nation, a Language, and a Culturealt –was how the translation helped shape English just as it was really beginning to take shape.  Many of the words and phrases we use were English translations of Hebrew idioms and phrases.

Urban Terror

urban terror lan party

With my switch to Linux about 6 months ago, one thing I missed was playing Call of Duty (no, I haven’t tried it in wine).  Just today, I found out about Urban Terror.  You can play it on Linux, Mac, and WIndows.  If anyone is interested…..

Image from kerolic via flickr

Groupon

Groupon

Anyone out there ever used groupon?  What has your experience been?  If you live in a “metroplex” type city and could go to 2 or 3 of the cities listed, what’s the best way to stay informed?

Image from dklimke via flickr

Waiting

Nexus S

Well, my Nokia e65 went on the fritz so I decided to get a new phone.  So, I ordered the Nexus S from Best Buy.  Ordered on the 2nd of Jan with a promise of 0-1 day fulfillment.  Their website hasn’t updated since then.  Tried to call them only to get some lame-o non-answer.  I’ll post more when I know it.

[Update 2011-01-11 15:42:40] Not only has it shipped, but it arrived prior to Best Buy even being able to tell me that it had shipped.  For more information, look here.

Image from isriya via flickr