Have to walk the talk, AED for idiots, too severe
Yesterday I received training on how to use an AED (Automatic Emergency Defibrillator). They recently installed an AED at our office. After receiving the training I wondered why it was necessary at all. It makes the process pretty much idiot proof as long as you can read and follow direction. The machine talks you through what to do. One thing I did not know was it actually will do a test to verify if the persons heart is actually stopped before it advises you to administer a shock.
So after work I had a running club board meeting to attend. It has become a tradition that I indulge in my once or twice a month McD’s habit before going to the meeting since I had an hour to kill. I approached a near by location and pulled into the rather lengthy drive thru line which had 5 or 6 vehicles in it.
As I was sitting there an eternal dialogue began in my head. I recalled my visit to the fair the night before and how I felt as I walked through the livestock area, specifically the miserable cow with it’s sad eyes. I was conflicted about indirectly contributing to the demise of such animals by buying and eating hamburgers from McDonald’s of all places, one of the great facilitators of feeding the population garbage food.
The habitual part of me argued that the burger, small fries and Diet Coke would taste good, plus I only have this junk once in awhile, anything bad if it is in small enough quantities or frequency is typically ok.
Well the logical part of my mind won out. I pulled out of the line and headed down to the nearby Subway where I had a 6 inch tuna (never saw a sad tuna) on wheat bread with tomato, lettuce and spinach. I washed it down with water.
I felt good about my choice and applying some willpower instead of just mindlessly consuming something that conflicts with how I really feel about animals in the food chain. Although I don’t know that I will ever declare myself a hard core pescatarian(fish as only meat) or vegetarian I hope that when given an option I will go the non-carnivore route.
Of course one established part of a non-meat diet are whole grains, especially wheat. This morning one of my bar buddies posted a video of a professor speaking about the real deal with today’s wheat.
Now I was already familiar with the genetic manipulation of corn and soy to maximize yields while making them immune to toxic weed killers. Well evidently the same sort of work has been done with modern wheat as well.
Of course this doesn’t really surprise me if I am being honest. You can be almost assured that anything that is mass produced by the food industry is going to have shit in it that if you knew about would give you pause.
Anyway, if you want to get more depressed about the state of the food industry, take a look at this.
There were two surprises in yesterdays NFL news. The first was the news that Tim Tebow was traded to the Jets. This didn’t seem to make any sense to me considering they just gave their starting QB, Mark Sanchez a huge contract extension that he really didn’t deserve based on performance. It seems like a horrible fit.
Sanchez has a history of having a rather frail personality. Having Tebow on the team means he will be constantly looking over his shoulder and the fans will surely be chanting for Tebow the second Sanchez screws up.
Then later in the day there was news that the Tebow trade was back in the air and he now had an option to go to the Jets OR the Jaguars. The Jags seemed to be a much better fit if for no other reason that the presence of Tebow would help pump some much needed excitement and attendance numbers into the franchise.
Well once again this morning the report is Tebow will be going to the Jets after all, that’s a real head scratcher for me. It certainly doesn’t make the Jets brain trust appear to be very sharp.
However the real shocker for me yesterday was the news that the league was suspending the Saints coach, Sean Peyton for the entire 2012/2013 season for his role in the team bounties. Evidently the defensive coordinator for the Saints, Greg Williams, was offering bounties for his defensive players to injure opposing QB’s to the point where they are knocked out of the game. Williams, who is no longer with the team, has been suspended indefinitely.
Anyway, I thought the suspension was really severe. The idea of bounties in the NFL is quite old. Hell I remember Buddy Ryan talking about them openly during his time with the Eagles. Well evidently in the new warm and fuzzy NFL this is a major no no.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think offering money for players to try to hurt an opposing team’s player is cool at all. I just think the year long suspension without pay (will cost Peyton 6 MILLION DOLLARS) is over the top.
Sure, suspend him for a few games him but don’t cripple the team for the entire year in the process. Hell they also took two draft picks away from the team in addition to a hefty fine.
Obviously this was intended to send a message. I am sure the rest of the teams in the league heard it loud and clear.