Hat saves impaled man from bleeding to death

Wow... I don't even know what to say... Just read the article...
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(thecouriermail.com.au)

BIGGENDEN farmer Keith Weinholz can thank his trusty hat for saving his life.

When his neighbour's cow kicked out and sent a 2m drafting stick spearing through his throat and shoulder, puncturing his jugular vein, it was the string and toggle from Mr Weinholz's Akubra that stopped him bleeding to death on the spot.

"The stick took the hat string with it and the toggle," said Mr Weinholz yesterday as he resumed light chores around his Boompa property, west of Maryborough.

"It (the toggle) went against the jugular vein and blocked the blood flow."

The accident happened on February 7 this year as Mr Weinholz, 66, helped draft a neighbour's pet Brahman-cross cow from calves in a small yard.

"As I reached through the rail, she must have been a bit anxious and she kicked out behind and my stick came flying back at me."

The stick pierced his throat, damaging his vocal cords, penetrated his rib cage and punctured a lung.

Mr Weinholz said he was conscious the whole time and remembers being given relief for the excruciating pain when an ambulance officer arrived.

His condition was so serious that the Energex rescue helicopter flew a retrieval team to Bundaberg from Brisbane to accompany him to the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital for surgery when the stick was removed.

He spent nine days in intensive care followed by stints in Bundaberg Base Hospital and then Biggenden hospital where physiotherapy was started to try to get his voice back. He is still a bit husky and still suffering the physical effects of his brush with death, including slivers of wood in his healing wounds, but reckons he's "getting along okay".

Mr Weinholz said he had been able to resume one of his favourite past-times - dancing with his wife Audrey.

And he still has that lucky hat.

"Although it's missing a bit of the string," he said.

Stem-Cell Research: Immoral and Unnecessary

The House just passed a bill lifting restrictions on stem-cell research. Bush said he would veto it if it passed thorugh the Senate. Supporters say stem-cell research has great promise in leading to cures for various and sundry diseases. Opponents say stem-cell reserach is immoral because it involves the "discarding" (i.e. murdering) of embryos after they're used, or something like that.

I don't know a lot about stem-cell research, and I'm not sure what baby embryos have to do with discovering cures for diessaes. Although I have heard that stem-cells taken from livng adults are just as, if not more, effective than stem-cells taken from embryos. I do know that destroying life at any stage, even an embyonic stage, is murder, and if stem-cell research involves murder, then it's wrong.

I don't care if the end purpose is to save life. You're destroying life in the process---the opposite of what you say is the purpose. What if they discovered that blood sucked from one-year-olds is effective as a cure from cancer? Would people be supporing that? You bet not! Why? Because it's obvious that life is being destroyed in the process. Even though it's not as obvious, the embryos in stem-cell research are just as alive as a one-year-old baby. Besides, if adult stem cells are just as effective, why do we even need to involve embryos?

The bottom line is that I don't know very much about stem-cell reserach, but I know that it's wrong, and I support Bush's threat to veto the bill.

Edmond the Hun

More Opposition to Hardee's Commercial

Hey, I'm not alone. A "media watchdog group," whatever that means, is also griping about this upcoming Hardee's & Hilton commercial, likening it to "soft-care porn." They want the FCC to declare the commercial "indecent," and they think they can get a million people to support them.
Again, to contact Hardee's, go to: http://www.hardees.com/info/contact/ to ask them not to show this commercial.

Edmond the Hun

Current Events: Israel and Palestine

President Bush has been meeting with Palestinian leader Abbas, saying that Israel should give to Palestine land they took in a war in 1967. Not only is this idea just another disgrace to Israel and a display of ignorance of their difficult history, but it doesn't even make sense. Israel took that land (which they arguably deserved anyway) in a war forty years ago. Why should they give it back? Would President Bush suggest giving Arizona, New Mexico, and his precious Texas back to Mexico? Probably not. (that point was originally heard from Michael Savage, radical radio talk host who now and then makes a good point)

Mr. Bush, don't force Israel to give up more land that's not theirs. It will not cause peace. Radical Islamic groups are still sworn to wipe all of Israel off the map. Don't help them by wiping out part of it.

Edmond the Hun

Strange News: the Piano Man

Unnamed guy shows up at a hospital wearing a soaked suit and tie, not saying a word. They take him in, check up on him, and he's physically generally alright, but he still won't say a word. They give him pencil and paper, and he draws a detailed sketch of a grand piano. They show him a piano, and he sits down and plays classical music for two hours. In six weeks, he still hasn't said anything and all he's done is play classical music on the piano. he seems vulnerable and agitated, and has even cried some, as if he has been through some great trauma. Almost like he lost all his memory, except for playing the piano...

Where did he come from? What happened to him? More importantly, why was his suit and tie soaked? This is like something out of a modern thriller...

Edmond the Hun

Sex or Burgers: What Is Hardee's Really Trying to Sell?

Hardee's is at it again. This time it's Paris Hilton wearing a revoltingly revealing outfit. The commericals won't start showing until sometime in June. That's enough time for them to decide not to actually show them, right? I contacted Hardee's and told them I thought it was disugsting and inappropriate. And I'm part of the gender and age group they're trying to target...

I love Hardee's Thickburgers, and their loads of calories and fat. They are a little expensive, but they're delicious and large and filling! But sex and burgers are incompatible. Besides, even from a marketing standpoint, I don't see how they think this is going to help their sales. Young men aren't gonna see the commercial and go, "Wow, I wanna eat a new Thickburger cuz Paris Hilton was eating one." No, they're just gonna stare at her. If anything, she's a distraction from what they're really trying to sell: the burger. 'Course, who said the point of the commerical was to sell the burger anyway?

Click here to tell Hardee's to stop selling sex and return to the burgers.

At any rate, Hardee's is losing any respect and integrity I had for them. I still love their burgers, but there may come a point where I cannot support them. At least I don't go there often enough to worry about that yet.

Edmond the Hun

Troubled Writers - Another One Bites the Dust

If you paid attention in English class, you quickly discovered something that many writers have or had in common. (And, no, it's not that they wrote boring stories you don't understand.) They all had troubled childhoods! Poe's parents died when he was young, and he got drunk and married his cousin and died at a young age... etc, etc. And Poe's not isolated, either. I can't think of any other examples at the moment, but I know that writer after writer either had a troubled childhood or a troubled adulthood or died young or whatever---something unhappy!

Anyway, it's happened again. Some new dashing 33-year-old writer, Tristan Egolf, committed suicide last Saturday. His first novel caused critics to favorably compare his style to William Faulkner and John Steinbeck. Now I never heard of him while he was alive. But the point is: He was another writer, and he was another troubled writer.

I just can't figure out what writing novels has to do with living unhappy lives (or ending them)! It bothers me. Especially because I want to be an author. But more so because I love rationality and logic, and irrational things just bother me. If I had time I would research the lives of all these writers and isolate their forms of unhappiness. Some forms of unhappiness are unrelated to their actions---their parents dying, for instance. Some forms are related to their actions---getting drunk, or committing suicide. And of course there are many writers who didn't live such strikingly unhappy lives. But there are still too many that did.

I'm sure there's a logical reason for it. But until I figure out why, just memorize this axiom: Writers live unhappy lives.

I still want to be a writer, though. Now you know I'm crazy.

(Source: www.charlotte.com)

Edmond the Hun