Melinda Musil dot Com

Posts Tagged ‘news’

I saw a piece on the news this week about Haiti- sort of a post-earthquake update. It’s very sombering and sad. Hard to believe that, once upon a time in history, Haiti was a very profitable country. Other countries sent ships there to buy gold, and Haiti would export gold bullion coins. They were “all that” in economics of the time, sort of an early gold ira. But all good things must come to an end, and it’s pretty easy to see how far down Haiti has fallen. Their economics are just so… tragic, really. So much poverty and other awful things going on. And so close to us. Wow.

Unless you live under a rock, I’m sure you have heard about the chaos surrounding Lindsey Lohan being sentenced to jail and drug rehab and alcohol rehab. I have two thoughts on this:

1) I don’t care. She’s the one who got herself into this mess and now she has to deal with the consequences. Doesn’t affect me.

2) It’s about time. She’s been behaving poorly for YEARS. Going to drug treatment will probably be the best thing that has happened to her. She created this problem when she didn’t treat her probation seriously. Maybe we won’t hear so much about her on the news in the coming months. (We can only hope!)

A good friend of mine got really good medical news today…

He and his wife are faithful members of my church.  His wife has already won a battle against cancer.  So when his doctor told him that he had an abnormality, a “possible cancer” that needed biopsied- well, suffice it to say that we all began praying (a lot!) for him.

He got the results of the biopsy today.

NO CANCER!!!

Praise God!

Everyone who gets happy news like this should get a free stay in an oceanfront myrtle beach hotel.  I know that’s what it feels like.  And really, when you get news like that- that’s when you can really celebrate and enjoy a myrtle beach hotel.  Too bad oceanfront myrtle beach hotels are not free!  If only!

Last night I got to go out with a friend for barbeque.  We are really close and get together for dinner fairly frequently, which is always interesting.  Our lives are not *that* exciting so we often don’t have that much to say, at least about what is going on in our lives, since not that much changes between dinners!  So it’s not real uncommon for us to discuss the latest national news or local news or whatnot.

So last night we were discussing credit cards.  We are both very lucky to have good credit, and to not owe any debt on any of our cards.  Debt is always bad, even with the best credit cards.  We are always amused to compare credit cards and to look at some of the crazy deals people are roped into.  We are not opposed to credit cards at all, but it is so ridiculous to see how so many people have just used their credit for such negative consequences.

I am watching the news, and they are doing a story about a local fire.  Thankfully no one was hurt in this fire- even the dog made it out safely.  But the house was almost totally destroyed.

It got me to thinking… How would I react if something like that happened to me?  I have to confess that I just can’t imagine going through something like that.  I do not want to be materialistic, and I’m not proud of it, but I can’t imagine losing my computer or my blackberry, much less my home.  I have so much respect for people who get through those experiences, because I just can’t imagine it.

I just heard on the news about a storm that flooded Atlanta and other parts of the southeast United States, causing both damage and death.

Now I don’t mean to be inconsiderate in any way.  I am saddened that anyone died or that anything was damaged.

However, it seems that it wasn’t long ago that the Southeast was really upset about a drought and telling us that they were going to run out of water (and of course we were all responsible, including those of us who do not live in the Southeast!).

So uhhh… what gives?

With this story in the news recently, I just feel the need to point it out on here.

I lived in Liberia for a time, and it is just so humbling.  We complain about when the electricity is out or when a toilet gets clogged, but in Liberia they do not even have electricity or running water.  We forget what a blessing it is to live in the United States.

There are many imperfections within our government, but for all our imperfections, life in America is still a thousand times better than many of our alternatives.

A man in Joplin, MO became so frustrated when his digital converter box wouldn’t work that he shot his tv.

He wound up in a brief standoff with police who responded to the shots fired call.

Oh yea, and he was drunk too.

*Sigh*
When I read articles like this, I just shake my head.  I don’t even know what to say…

Yes, you read that correctly.  A Florida-based company is actually suing for trademark infringement of the phrase “pull my finger”.  I don’t know who would want to claim trademark to that phrase, much less file a lawsuit based on that trademark.  Crazy people. *Sigh*

Perhaps it’s a bit late for this, but I want to tip my hat to all of there heros in the Miracle on the Hudson plane crash.  They are really too many to name:

• Pilot Sully Sullenberger
• Co-Pilot Jeff Skiles
• The other crew members and flight attendents
• The passengers on the US Air flight, whose calm demeanor helped keep everyone safe
• The “first responders” on the nearby ferries, who immediately began pulling people out of the water
• The helicopter pilots, rescue divers, and all other “professional” emergency responders

This list is absolutely not all-inclusive.  Events like these make me proud to be an American.

This is also why I tell my students we do those disaster drills in school.  We’ve all been through them- every school has fire drills, and depending on where you live, schools also have various severe weather drills (around here it is tornado drills).  Nowadays schools are also doing various “invader” drills.  But let’s be honest: How many students will experience a real fire or severe weather problem in school?  I certainly haven’t, and I’ve been in many schools for many drills.  So why do we do those drills?  Besides the obvious “training the students to get out of the school in case of a fire”, we’re also training the kids to react calmly in an emergency.  If you’re at the movie theater and someone yells “fire”, then hopefully you will know that you need to calmly leave the building in an orderly manner.  If you’re in your house and there is a fire, hopefully you will remember that you need to calmly get out.  If you’re on an airplane making an emergency landing, hopefully you will remember that you need to stay calm.  THIS is why we do disaster drills.