Who do you trust when disaster strikes?

I'm seeing a lot of my friends posting support for the Red Cross, after the Hurricane Sandy slammed New Jersey and New York City.  I'm not such a fan.  The Salvation Army is a far more effective organization, without all the bureaucracy that the Red Cross has, and the money you donate does not get sucked up in administrative fees.  Catholic Charities also does a far better job than the Red Cross domestically.

For international disasters, I would never give a penny to the Red Cross, because it gets funneled through the IRCC, a hyper political organization that has made it a point to condemn Israel, and criticize American foreign policy.

If the spirit moves you to help the people who have been displaced and affected by Sandy, go to the Salvation Army's website and give generously. These are our friends and neighbors, and God forbid, we may all need their help sometime in the future.

UPDATE: The Salvation Army has far less overhead than the Red Cross.  Things to consider when you donate.

Survivor Philippines

I had an interesting  twitter exchange with some people who like, respect and often disagree with.  It started out as a silly tweet about the awful CBS series Survivor.  This Year is is Survivor Philippines.  What really bothers me about is not the location, it is a truly beautiful country with some of the nicest people in the world.  What really bothers me is that these attention whores looking for attention are living in luxury on a private island and not amongst the real Filipinos. My idea for "Survivor Philippines" would be somewhat more realistic.  Make 2 teams.  One gets dumped with 1000 pesos in a squatter camp on the Pasig River in Manila, and the other gets to live on the Islamist terrorist overrun Jolo Island working as a Christian missionary.

Of course I'm not too serious with these proposals, but the problem with these "reality shows" is there is no reality there.  It is all contrived in a sterile environment.  You want to see the wold as it is, travel with me.  We can go places that nobody has been to, and not play stupid games for media whores.  I like to see the good, the bad, and the ugly.  That is real tourism.

An Interesting Day Out

This morning I took a group of Boy Scouts out to the local nature center to do some upkeep on the place.  They were a good bunch of kids, and the older ones did a great job keeping the younger ones focused.  I ran the chipper and occasionally a chain saw.  I promised the kids that if they did a good job we would go to a place that has a pizza buffet afterwords, and that was a bit of a motivator.  Well this morning one of the parents called me and was alarmed that I would take their precious vegan child to a pizza parlor, and said that it was totally unacceptable. 

They do not approve of any meat or animal product in their diet, and expect their 11 year old kid to do the same.  This snotty woman insisted that I cancel my plan to treat the kids for an afternoon's hard work because of her lifestyle.  I (in a nice way), told her to go to hell and I'm taking them for pizza and if she didn't want him to go, she should show up at 3PM and pick up her son. 

Well, she did, made a huge scene, threatened me to sue for discrimination (how Orwellian is that?) and grabbed the poor kid, loaded him (who was in tears) in the SUV and drove out.  Of course her bumper was loaded with Earth First, Meat Is Murder (does that mean that fish is rape?) and the usual Coexist stickers. The other boys were speechless, and when we were at the pizza joint, Gary, the 17 year old said that was the strangest thing he ever saw.  Well, this awful woman was a buzz kill for everyone, and I feel sorry for her kid having such an awful mother.  What is wrong with these people?  Unless something changes this kid is going to grow all messed up.

I suspect today may have made for some interesting dinner time conversation at the kids' table.  I already had 2 parents call me wanting to know what the hell happened.  I explained, and  of course there was relief, since we all know this fanatical woman. 

Of course there was a Obama-Biden 2008 bumper sticker right below the Obama-Biden 2012 just below.

Mother Gaia is more important than the social development of a child I guess.  Liberalism is a mental disorder.