The only surprise is it took this long

Google Buzz is officially on the chopping block

It's a product that never really saw any decent adoption, and it's been made obsolete by Google Plus.

My only request would be that they take some of the integrations they had with Buzz (like Blogger automatically cross-posting to your Buzz feed) and add them to G+.

QOTD - "The political ruling class has won" edition

Rod Dreher recounts a conversation he had with his son last night.

The take-away quote for me?

“No, seriously. You’re telling me this guy has never been elected to anything — and he wants to be president?”

I wonder what he would think of someone like Cincinnatus.

You Might Be An ER Physician/Nurse If...

I'm wondering how many of these Dr. J, Ambulance Driver, or TOTWTYTR empathize with:

1. You believe 90% of people are a poor excuse for protoplasm.
2. Discussing dismemberment over a gourmet meal seems perfectly normal to you.
3. You believe a good tape job will fix anything.
4. You have the bladder capacity of five normal people.
5. You can identify the positive teeth-to-tattoo ratio.
6. Your idea of a good time is a full arrest at shift change.
7. You find humor in other people's stupidity.
8. You believe in aerial spraying of Prozac.
9. You disbelieve 90% of what you are told and 75% of what you see.
10. You have your weekends off planned a year in advance.
11. Your idea of comforting a child is to place them in a papoose restraint.
12. You encourage an obnoxious patient to sign out Against Medical Advice so you don't have to deal with them any longer.
13. You believe that "Shallow Gene Pool" should be a diagnosis.
14. You believe the government should require a permit to reproduce.
15. You plan your dinner while performing gastric lavage.
16. You believe that "Ask-A-Nurse" is an evil plot thought up by Satan.
17. You believe that unspeakable evil will befall you if the phrase "Wow, it's really quiet" is uttered.
18. You refer to Friday as "Dump Day".
19. Your diet consists of food that has undergone more processing than most computers.
20. You believe chocolate is a food group.
21. You take it as a compliment when someone calls you a bastard.
22. You compliment complete strangers out in public on their "good veins".
23. You have ever referred to someone's death as a transfer to the "Eternal Care Unit".
24. You don't think a referral to Dr. Kevorkian is inappropriate.
25. You have ever referred to someones death as a "Celestial Discharge".
26. You have ever answered a "lost condom" phone call (See "Ask-A-Nurse" above.)
27. You refer to someone in respiratory distress as a "Smurf".
28. Your idea of a really good time is Duelling Shock Rooms.
29. You have ever wanted to hold a seminar entitled "Suicide: Getting it right."
30. You believe that "Too Stupid to Live" should be a diagnosis.
31. You have ever had to leave a patient's room before you began laughing uncontrollably.

(h/t to a friend from Dallas)

The lost art of opening doors

As the bus rolled into downtown this morning, one of the riders noticed that it had started raining. This set off a flurry of bag-searching, moaning and wailing as people that forgot to check the weather forecast realized they didn't have an umbrella to hand.

One of these was a lady sitting across from me, a casual stranger that I frequently see on the bus. We both work in the same building, and used to see each other on smoke breaks occasionally. She remarked that at least she didn't have far to run, because our stop was only 1/2 block from our building.

As I stepped off the bus at our stop, I shook out my umbrella and opened it. I then stood there waiting for her to debark, and held it up for her to stand under. She just stopped and looked at me like I was crazy, and then said "You don't have to do that." We walked the half-block to our building, and as I was putting away my umbrella she thanked me profusely.

What has the world come to when a gesture of common courtesy is no longer common place but instead has become as rare as hen's teeth? I am one of the few that I've seen at our office building that will hold doors, or help someone carry a package, or pick up a stray piece of trash. I think it is a sad commentary on our society that actions like this are treated as suspect. You are a misogynist, or have an ulterior motive, or a persecution complex, or something. It can't be that you're just being nice.

And we wonder why political discourse has devolved to the extent it has. There is no longer a middle ground; everything is black and white. You are for us or against us, and even if you agree with 99% of The Agenda®, that 1% where you differ will cause you to be ostracized.

Our system is broken. Or, better, the people that run the system are broken.

And I wonder if it's all because nobody holds open a door.

Film Review - Courageous

The Mrs. and I had a way-too-rare date night this past Friday, and we went to see the new movie Courageous. This movie is from the same group that did Fireproof. The general framework of the story is a group of Sheriff's  deputies that struggle with personal and work hardships and their faith.

It could be legitimately characterized as a sermon wrapped up in a so-so plot. To be fair, it was almost exactly what I expected. The story telling and acting were better this time around than they were in Fireproof. The cinematography was better as well, but still week. You can tell the Kendrick's are coming into their own, but are working with a smaller budget than the big movie houses.

I do like the subtle "twist" in the story line. By this, I mean that for me, my first impression (I didn't read the advertising slug for the movie, just heard radio spots) was that it would be about guys who exhibited courage in their careers. Knowing who was involved in the film, I should have realized that was a simplistic view. Instead, the movie takes guys in a demanding job, on where everyday courage would be expected, and then counters that by looking at what God's definition of courageous might be.

Is it more courageous to apprehend criminals, or to stand up for your family? What kind of courage does it take to make a stand and say "I will do what's right, regardless"? What sort of courage is required to say "No" to your kids now, so that you can "Yes" to them later?

Those are all questions this film attempts to answer.

All in all, I think it does a good job. Will the mainstream movie industry accept this film? Most likely not. On IMDB, it's receiving a little over a 6/10 rating, which is better than I thought it would have. This film is intended for a very specific audience, and in that regard it achieves what it sets out to do. In our theater, it seemed quite well received (there was a round of applause at the conclusion).

I can see this film being used as an outreach or challenge opportunity by churches, and not just a date night flick couples.

If Christian-centric morality plays don't turn you off, I can highly recommend this movie.

Overheard in the office

So, apparently a co-worker needed a different option for bus routes, because the one they were using just wasn't working out. Doing their due diligence, they researched all of the routes that had stops near their home, focusing exclusively on the "express" routes, instead of the "local" routes.

I overheard the following "rant" this morning:

So I was checking out the 2X, because it's supposed to be an "express", but it takes forever to get downtown. It picks up in my area, goes all the way out to the airport, and then heads downtown. Then on the way back, it leaves downtown, goes all the way out to the airport AGAIN, and then heads to my stop. Seriously. Why are they calling that an Express route?

According to the transit provider, the 2X route is called the "Airporter" or "Airport Express", with buses every 20 minutes that provide service to the Airport.

I just had to shake my head and walk away.

Confusion of terms?

During his energy policy speech today, Rick Perry apparently (according to a tweet from TeamRickPerry), said that he would use revenues from increased energy exploration to "pay down [the] deficit".

According to dictionary.com, a deficit is defined as:

def·i·cit

   [def-uh-sit; Brit. also dih-fis-it]  Show IPA

noun

1.

the amount by which a sum of money falls short of therequired amount.

2.

the amount by which expenditures or liabilities exceedincome or assets.

3.

a lack or shortage; deficiency.

4.

a disadvantage, impairment, or handicap: The team's major deficit is its poor pitching.

5.

a loss, as in the operation of a business.

Basically, it is the gap by which expenditures exceeds revenues. How exactly does one "pay down" an budgeting problem? You can pay down the accumulated debt, or you can use the revenues generated to fund some aspect of the budget, thus reducing the deficit, but there is nothing there to physically pay down.¹

And people wonder why Borepatch refers to the Republicans as the Stupid party.

¹Yes it's a minor nitpick, but if you're stumping to become POTUS, clarity of terms is rather important.