Ya can’t win if ya dasn’t play

This is not pretty, however you look at it, but is an issue with many ethnic people. Lots of factors have contributed to the challenges, both now, and in the past, but the lack of donations and registrations by people with specific, racial tendencies can adversely impact their chances at finding matches and donors.

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Louisiana borrows the kid’s allowances

And here goes Louisiana:

LifeShare Blood Centers to start accepting 16-year-old donors
LifeShare Blood Centers in Louisiana said it will start to accept 16-year-old blood donors starting Wednesday. The new donors should have parental consent and meet height and weight requirements.  Bossier Press-Tribune (Bossier City, La.) (8/16)

They can’t take care of themselves and so have to turn to their children. 

Brain Injury Funds Diverted and ???

This sucks – and it’s been going on for awhile.  What is really odd is that no one seems to ever get to the bottom of this kind of VA problem.  I wonder how much it has to do with the autonomy of the VISN directors?

A letter to Shinseki from Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., and Rep. Brad Miller, D-N.C., centers on allegations from a former VA physician who says he was forced out of the agency in retaliation for raising questions about money for brain injuries, the “signature injury” of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center reports 10 percent to 20 percent of troops with combat exposure there suffered concussions from roadside bombs.

via Lawmakers: Brain Injury Funds Diverted.

Poll: Should the FDA Allow Gay Men to Donate Blood?

US News and World Reports’ Should the FDA Allow Gay Men to Donate Blood? – US News and World Report– includes a lame, circular argument from the World Federation of Hemophilia.  He basically says that gay men should be banned from donating blood because they are.  What he does not address is that the deferral is for a man, any man, that has sex with another man, even one time – ever.  This is illogical given that a man who has sex with prostitutes is deferred for one year.

There may be a reason to ban gay men, even in a committed relationship, but that is not the risk being measured.  Too many arguments, including this one, miss that point.

Unanswered questions about plans for military memorial

Got this message about a terrible fraud:

The Texas Attorney General is looking into documentation behind the United States Fallen Heroes Foundation.

What exactly is the United States Fallen Heroes Foundation?

Why does its founder use two names?

And is it a tax-exempt organization?

via Unanswered questions about plans for military memorial | Dallas – Fort Worth News | wfaa.com | Investigates.

Blood bank continues call for more African-American donors

Old problem that haunts everyone.  Now – who’s got a tactful way to address it and attract more of the right kind of donors?

Blood bank continues call for more African-American donors
The Blood Alliance is continuing with its campaign to encourage more African-Americans to become blood donors. The blood bank said donors from this group have consistently been low in numbers — 7% of the center’s donors last year were black. There is a need to increase the number of donors from this group, particularly since they can be the best match for sickle cell patients needing regular blood transfusions, the blood bank said.  St. Augustine Record (Fla.), The (8/5)

Lawyer Accused of Stealing $2M From Vets

POS and wife took more than two million from Veterans.  Any other reason to be deeply suspicious of lawyers in the VA adjudication process:

Joe Phillips, 71, and Dorothy Phillips, 70, who managed her husband’s small law office, appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Nancy Johnson, charged with conspiracy, misappropriation by a fiduciary, making materially false statements to a federal agency and tax fraud, according to federal officials.  via:

Lawyer Accused of Stealing $2M From Vets

Calling an idiot an idiot – a new strategy for the War on Scary Terror Monsters?

I’ve long maintained that your suicide bomber is not the brightest star in Allah’s heaven.  This article is great and calls into question the strategy of turning these religious idiots into some kind of supermen.  Short of actually starting a speed dating culture in these countries, pointing out how desperately stupid and uncool it is may be a great way of discouraging further jihad-ism.  Just in case you think this article exagerattes, please note that Ghulam Sakhi, a “senior Taliban commander” (read:  cowardly, bigoted idiot) was killed trying to hide in women’s clothing last week.  Ooh – that’s honorable eh?

it’s fair to say that the Taliban employ the world’s worst suicide bombers: one in two manages to kill only himself. And this success rate hasn’t improved at all in the five years they’ve been using suicide bombers, despite the experience of hundreds of attacks—or attempted attacks. In Afghanistan, as in many cultures, a manly embrace is a time-honored tradition for warriors before they go off to face death. Thus, many suicide bombers never even make it out of their training camp or safe house, as the pressure from these group hugs triggers the explosives in suicide vests

via The Case for Calling Them Nitwits – Magazine – The Atlantic.

Sam Seder on MSM Superstition

via YouTube – Gay is icky: Thats Bullshit.

S. Clemons: Wilkerson on Don’t Ask Don’t Tell

More evidence of the fact that it is, indeed, time to grow the fuck up:

In fact, our records demonstrated that if you categorized soldiers by sexual inclination and then checked all the factors of good soldiership against those categories, the very best peacetime soldier was a female who was a lesbian. Fewer absences-without-leave, fewer disciplinary actions in general, faster riser in the ranks, and totally dedicated to the job.

Oh yes, and incidentally, she was more apt to stay with the same partner over time than even a heterosexual soldier who was married. How interesting, we thought at the time.

via Wilkerson on Don’t Ask Don’t Tell: The Time Has Come – The Washington Note.