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Angry about being fire when he refused to stop trying to convert coworkers to Islam, Alton Nolen decided to return and cut off the head a former coworker and stabbing another former coworker at a Oklahoma business. Nolen is now charged with first degree murder and assault.

Authorities say Nolen converted to Islam and radicalized while in prison. However the FBI and the Department of Justice is treating this as a case of ‘workplace violence.’

Unfortunately, he wasn’t employed at the time so the idea this was ‘workplace violence,’ is absurd. This was an act of ‘terror,’ plain and simple.

Political correctness is going to get us all killed.

In an appearance on MSNBC, Florida Congressman Dennis Ross said banning flights from West Africa to the U.S. makes sense and said he plans to introduce a bill doing so once the House reconvenes in November. However a self-righteous journalist has to score points by being exact, arguing semantics.

“There are no direct flights that come to the United States from West Africa,” rebutted New York Times reporter Jeremy W. Peters on the same program.

Meanwhile, sick people from West Africa are still making their way to this country. Peters behavior reminds me of the old joke where two hunters stood around arguing about what sort of tracks they had found, meanwhile a speeding train comes along and kills them both.

But go ahead — ignore the ABC News report the says health officials in Senegal credit border controls in aiding that country in declaring itself Ebola free.  Senegal implemented border controls in August.

We could learn something from this — but our leaders are too pretentious to listen.

Please explain to me again jus’ how ‘conservative’ Nevada’s Governor Brian Sandoval is. Back when he was first elected I wrote that he is really a ‘progressive,’ pretending to be something he’s not.

Recently, as I drove along Mill Street, approaching Kietzke Lane in Reno, I saw a billboard for his re-election as governor. I couldn’t help but make the link in my head…

I’ll let you finish connecting the dots.

Oh, fuck me! I jus’ put Kay on an flight so she can meet her sister for a cruise in the Gulf of Mexico, then I hear this…

“A health care worker who may have handled a specimen from the Liberian man who died from Ebola in Dallas is on a cruise ship in the Caribbean,” reports USA Today. “Industry giant Carnival says the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notified it late Wednesday that a passenger on the Texas-based Carnival Magic was a lab supervisor at the Dallas hospital where Thomas Eric Duncan died from the disease earlier this month. Carnival says the unnamed woman has been placed in isolation on the ship and has shown no signs of illness.

Then I saw this from the NY Post:

“A passenger died on a Nigeria-to-JFK flight after a vomiting fit Thursday — and a top lawmaker said officials gave the corpse only a “cursory” exam before declaring that the victim did not have Ebola. Rep. Peter King said in a letter to Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection that the handling of the remains exposed serious flaws in airport preparedness for an Ebola outbreak. Between 70 and 100 passengers a day arrive at JFK from the Ebola epicenter countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, King noted, and they have access to public restrooms and mingle with other travelers before their first screening.”

And now President Barack Obama is naming Ron Klain, a former chief of staff to Vice President Joe Biden and a trusted adviser at the Obama White House, as the point man on the U.S. government’s response to the Ebola crisis. What the hell does a political insider and lawyer know about controlling a possible pandemic?

I swear I’m about to go bat-shit crazy as I can’t figure out why this is happening to us – the U.S.

So often anymore, people get wrapped up in the politics of a subject that they miss the actual message and thereby the real threat of the matter as is the case with Ebola. It doesn’t matter if an infected person’s spittle when sneezed or coughed is considered ‘airborne,’ or not!

I don’t care if the CDC claims it is transmitted only by contact with bodily fluid, they’re arguing semantics and creating chaos with their double-speak.

What matters is the possibility of transmission. And because it is not know for certain if Ebola can be transmitted via ‘airborne transmission,’ it is best to err on the side of caution.

That means the message needs to be about is what sort of protective equipment healthcare workers are using and the training needed to use that equipment. The message should also help calm fear, but that’s not what is happening.

The message needs to be simple and I think the UK Guardian got it right: “The Ebola virus is transmitted in the bodily fluids of people who are seriously ill, who are likely to be vomiting, bleeding or have diarrhoea. Blood, faeces and vomit are the most infectious fluids, and in late stages of the disease even tiny amounts can carry high loads of virus.”

“But a nurse who got a patient’s blood on their hands could wash it off with soap and water without any ill-effects,” the report continues. “He or she would become ill only if they had a cut or abrasion on their hand or touched their mouth, eyes or nose, which would allow the virus to pass into their bodily fluids.”

They add, “It can take two to 21 days for symptoms to show, although usually it is five to seven days. Typically, the first signs are a fever involving a headache, joint and muscle pain, sore throat and severe muscle weakness.

“Many of those symptoms are similar to flu, so Ebola is not immediately obvious, though it should be suspected in anyone who has been in west Africa recently. After that come diarrhoea, vomiting, a rash and stomach pain,” says the Guardian.

See, simple!

A passenger from Frontier Airlines flight 1143 flew into Reno-Tahoe International Airport and was checked for Ebola. That is the flight the second nurse diagnosed with the deadly disease was on before being admitted to the hospital.

Officials say the individual does not pose significant risk and was released. What the hell does ‘significant’ mean and are they a risk or not?

“We currently have no reason to expect that this individual poses any risk to the community,” said Washoe County District Health Officer Kevin Dick. “The individual reported to a health care facility, was screened and released according to CDC directives. The CDC determined that this individual did not pose a significant risk.”

The second nurse shouldn’t have traveled on a commercial flight due to her exposure to the virus before her diagnosis, said Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the CDC. It was later confirmed that the CDC gave the nurse permission to get on the plane because she was showing no symptoms and her temperature hadn’t reach the threshold of 100.4 degrees.

First the CDC said Ebola wouldn’t come here, but it did; said it was hard to get, which it isn’t; said it wouldn’t spread, yet it has; and that they’re prepared for it, they’re not. Somehow — with the CDC involved in Washoe County’s decision making process – I don’t feel very safe.

It was Friedrich Nietzsche I believe who wrote: “A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything.”

While Nietzsche is one of my least favorite quotable people, his remark does sound like the world we are living in now. We were a nation that did not — and never did have the Ebola virus between its shores, and in less than 90 days not only has a patient died, two healthcare workers are ill with the disease and hundreds – if not thousands are at risk for infection.

Now we ‘re threatened with a disease for which our country is obviously and woefully unprepared to deal with, but now there is no way to stop it from spreading. This is because, due to political correctness, the U.S. failed to seal its borders and stop incoming flights from western Africa.

The first nurse had contact with only one person. Unfortunately that one person works in a place that employs around 23,000 people and only 16 are being ‘monitored’ by officials — whatever the hell that means.

Her dog remains quarantined at a nearby naval base.

The second nurse, now confirmed to have Ebola, flew from Ohio back to Texas on a commercial passenger jet, while she had a fever. The CDC wants to interview all 132 passengers who were on Frontier Airlines flight 1143.

No one is talking about the October 8th flight she took from the Dallas/Fort Worth area to Cleveland or where she stayed or who she visited, etc. And if she spent the night in a hotel or motel – is anyone thinking about the maid that removed the sheets from her bed?

It’s now estimated that if this scourge isn’t contained and killed, 980,000 people will be dead by the middle of January 2015. How many of us – you and me included – will be on that long list of nearly a million names?

Political correctness is not worth anyone’s life.

UPDATE 10/15/2014: A passenger on Frontier Airlines flight 1143 traveled to Reno, Nevada and was screened for Ebola. Officials say the individual does not pose significant risk, and was released. Fucking great!

At first I thought, “Now, who did I piss off and what did I say that caused this?”

Such is my first reaction to finding both my Facebook page and my WordPress site unable to load from my home computer. Aarrgghh!

My ‘outage’ began last night as the wind whipped through the Spanish Springs valley sending small rocks and tons of sand blasting into the side of the house – so much so that I was sure the paint would be gone by the time the sun rose. Fortunately, the paint held up – but now I need to find out where the wading pool came from and return it.

Turns out it wasn’t really an ‘outage’ nor is anyone angry with me (at least that I know of.) I figured this out by going to the local library and using one of the county’s computers to sign in to both sites this morning.

Once I was able to sign on there, I knew the problem was with my home computer. I ended up having to delete all my ‘cookies,’ ‘passwords’ and ‘content,’ then reapplying to all the websites (including WP and FB) that I usually visit daily.

So I will add this minor victory to my list of blessings for the day — you know the one that starts with, “Hey! I’m still alive, breathing and am able to stand up right.” Another blessing is the fact didn’t have to call my son to come save my ass from what I thought was going to be an eventual ‘blue screen of death’ situation.

Yay me!

We received this nice condolence card in the mail from our veterinary clinic:

Dear Darby Family –

We are sorry for your loss of Harley. We hope his paw print on the front of this card will serve as a small reminder of how much he meant to you.

Very sincerely –
The Staff of Baring Animal Hospital.

Thank you for your thoughtfulness.

During the early 80s Rush Limbaugh wrote his list, “The 35 Universal Truth of Life.” The first of these are “The greatest threat to humanity lies in the nuclear arsenal of the USSR.”

Back when he first put his list together ‘social media platforms’ like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and the myriad of blogs did not exist. In the early 80s, believe it or not, we still wrote letters on paper using pen and ink, mailing them at the post office, homes had ‘land-line’ telephones and only two or more TV’s per household.

These have been replaced by personal computing, email, instant messaging, blogging, cell phones, tablets and mobile apps. Likewise, the USSR no longer exists in the form we knew during the ‘Cold War’ years.

If I had my way I’d update that very first UTOL so it would read: “The greatest threat to humanity is political correctness as propagated by the social media.”