Jwill's Log

Source: KCTV.com
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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — When shots rang out at a basketball game at a local community center Friday, one of the players risked injury to save a 6-year-old boy.

A really good story of a teenager who saved a six year old’s life from gunfire. A must-read.

Source: Boston.com, Wikipedia
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Read wiki on “Lame Duck”

In a bid to curtail the power of the office, [Massachusetts] House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo will ask lawmakers next week to vote on a rule that would return an eight-year limit to a speaker’s tenure, the same as the state Senate president.

The new Massachusetts House speaker has already got a good start in my book. I think one should always tip his or her hat to someone who seeks to limit the term of the position they are currently holding. I hope he is successful in his endeavor and that the powerful position can be limited somewhat.

Term limits are a funny thing. They are good because it keeps powerful political machines from taking root; instead of being able to be reelected indefinitely, a new person can eventually take office after a given number of years. This prevents an abuse of power. At the same time, however, it somewhat prevents people in office from doing everything that they wish to do. A good example for this is the office of the president. The Wikipedia article I have cited above (link here) talks about one of the downside of term limits, the lame duck status. Not only does the person have less political influence at that point, but also, the person in power can do things that (s)he may not be held responsible for. This would also happen, however, even without term limits and if the incumbent lost the next election. Even still, it would start later without the term limit.

I used to be against term limits for the president, but now I feel like every executive office should have them. This argument could very easily go both ways, however.

Source: DailyKOs.com
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An important political read about how conservatives are so iffy about spending money for a stimulus yet they agree with the war in Iraq. Barney Frank is spot on.

Source: Boston.com
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I’m a few days late on this one, but it’s still a story worth rehashing here on the blog. On Thursday evening, a T rider collapsed on the Red Line after the train left Harvard Square. MBTA officials stated that, after taking a look at him, that it was ruled that he was just drunk and did not need urgent care. Other riders didn’t seem to feel the same way, though. From the Globe:

But a woman who boarded the train at Harvard Square, Angie Puckerin, 56, described a maddening ride, in which a well-dressed man carrying a laptop computer clenched his fist and fell to the floor with his eyes squeezed shut. After passengers rushed to help and hit an intercom button to summon the crew, T employees took only a cursory look at the man at two different stops, Central and Kendall, before walking away, she said. One frustrated passenger even yelled out the train’s open doors for a doctor at Park Street, before the doors snapped shut and the train continued on.

I would have been freaked out myself. I mean, come on, drunk or not, the guy collapsed. At least get him to see a doctor or get someone to take a better look at him. People don’t just fall over for fun, and completely losing control of yourself and fainting isn’t exactly something that can ever be put aside for an appalling twenty-two minutes. That’s so long to wait for help that everybody could have watched a full half-hour show on DVD without commercials, had a jolly old time, and then think, “wait a second, he hasn’t gotten up yet”. I don’t care how serious or not someone’s plight is: if a guy collapses on your train service, get him off the train ASAP and get some help. Let doctors at a hospital or an emergency medical service figure out what’s wrong with him. Even if not for the passenger’s sake, for everyone else’s sake on the train. Everybody that saw this man on the floor was tense and scared. It presents a seriously bad image when you know someone needs medical attention, immediate or not, and you just keep on traveling through your stops like nothing happened. Hopefully with an article like the one I have cited in the Globe, they do more next time when something like this happens, no matter how trivial it is.