*Last night, my wife called me outside to watch bats flitting about. Pretty neat especially considering all the insects they eat.
*Former "Manson Family" member Susan Atkins, who stabbed actress Sharon Tate to death more than 40 years ago and is now terminally ill with brain cancer, has been denied parole. Atkins was 21 when she and other followers of Charles Manson participated in a two-night rampage that left seven people dead in August 1969. This is in contrast to the compassionate release of the "man" who was convicted of bombing Pan Am Flight 103 in December 1988, killing all 259 people on the plane and 11 people on the ground below in Lockerbie, Scotland. The difference? There are allegations that a deal was made in the latter case involving OIL!
*Interesting debate I have been having online about Ted Kennedy. Is he to be defined solely by Chappaquiddick, or should people consider all else he did? In a posthumous memoir, Kennedy says his actions on Chappaquiddick on July 18, 1969, were "inexcusable." He says he was afraid and "made terrible decisions" and had to live with the guilt for more than four decades. Too bad he couldn't say so while he was alive.
* Federal prosecutors hit Pfizer Inc. with a record-breaking $2.3 billion in fines this week and called the world's largest drugmaker a repeating corporate cheat for illegal drug promotions that plied doctors with free golf, massages, and resort junkets. Terrible... but how is that any different from what happens with politicians and their special interest groups and lobbyists?
*Acting on our impulses. A Georgia man allegedly slapped a toddler at a Walmart store because she wouldn't stop crying, authorities said. The man was arrested and charged with first-degree cruelty to children. According to the arresting officer, the child's mother said her daughter was crying as they walked down one of the aisles. The mother said a stranger later identified as Stephens approached them and said, "If you don't shut the baby up, I will shut her up for you."
*This offereing is sounding a lot like my weekly column (www.bermansbits.com)
*About that "person" who kidnapped the 11-year-old girl and held her for 18 years.... In 1976, he kidnapped a woman and raped her in a specially created chamber in Nevada not unlike the backyard warren he set up for Dugard. He was sentenced to 50 years to life in prison. Yet, incredibly, a parole board set him free after just 11 years! Take the small criminals out of prison and keep those in who should be there!
*I have 58 available channels, and for the umpteenth time, this morning contained an hour in which there was nothing I wanted on in the background! There are two movies coming on at 8AM I have to choose between.
*Speaking of movies, I decided on "Something Beneath," a horror movie. I love a good horror movie and can watch almost anything. However, in the news over the past couple of days, there was a story and video I couldn't watch. Chicago-based Mercy for Animals says its undercover videotape at Hy-Line North America's hatchery in Spencer, Iowa, "exposes one of the industry's best-kept secrets — that the egg industry tears male chicks' bodies apart in grinding machines while they are still alive." According to Mercy for Animals, male chicks are of no use to the industry because they can't lay eggs and don't grow large or quickly enough to be raised profitably for meat. That results in the killing of 200 million male chicks a year. The full story and lots of interesting comments can be found at: http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2009/09/01/eggs-hatchery-male-chicks-grinder-killed.html
*Later.
