Ann Romney Might Be Trying To Save Us All

...from her own husband, that is.

Ann Romney's biggest concern if her husband becomes president would be his ability to maintain his "mental well-being," she said in an interview Thursday with KTVN in Reno, Nev.

Asked what her primary worry would be should her husband succeed in defeating President Obama on Nov. 6, Mrs. Romney replied, "You know, I think my biggest concern, obviously, would just be for his mental well-being."

"I have all the confidence in the world in his ability, in his decisiveness and his leadership skills, in his understanding of the economy, in his understanding of what's missing right now in the economy - you know, pieces that are missing to get this jumpstarted," she continued. "So for me I think it would just be the emotional part of it."

If I didn't know better, I'd say Ann was lashing out at her husband for forcing her to go through with this disaster, and that she's about one more awful week away from Honey Badger territory on the "give a crap anymore" meter.  I mean, I'd like to think that she's trying to heroically save America from her husband, but I think she's finally figured out that the presidency is Mitt's new trophy wife, and well, the whole hell and the scorning thing.

Hey, I'll take "petty revenge" or "dispassionate loss of campaign mode filter out of apathy" or even "honest screw-up" here too, don't get me wrong.  She's right about the mental health part.  Mitt's in no way emotionally ready for this job, even less so than Bush was.

Either way, Ann is turning in the campaign's secret weapon.

For President Obama.

Oops! Were You Using That Kidney?

An Ohio nurse accidentally put a kidney in the trash, prompting the University of Toledo Medical Center to suspend its live donor program as it investigates the incident.

Doctors tried to resuscitate the kidney, which came from a live donor, but it was rendered unusable.

“We cannot fathom the disappointment that those impacted have experienced over the course of the last week. The University cannot begin to express the sorrow that we feel that this unfortunate incident occurred. We apologize sincerely,” Dr. Jeffery P. Gold, University of Toledo chancellor and dean of the College of Medicine, said in a statement.

It's unfortunate, and would  be devastating to everyone involved.  Those who lost the donor and the person awaiting the transplant.   It's hard to fathom what goes on during a transplant.  It will be interesting to learn what the investigation reveals.  Right now we don't know who is to blame.

Best wishes to the person who is still next in line.

Oops! Airline Fluke Bills Passengers Repeatedly

DALLAS — Southwest Airlines says it has begun filing refunds to customers who were accidentally billed multiple times for a single flight, after a half-price online ticket promotion backfired.

The special sale designed to celebrate Southwest's reaching the three million mark in Facebook fans was supposed to give customers who booked flights on Friday a 50-percent discount on certain fares.

Instead, hundreds of frustrated would-be fliers wound up posting stories on social media about how their credit and debit cards were being repeatedly charged, in some cases 20 or more times.

Aggravating, but it happens.  They're making good on it, so while I can understand the frustration it will come out okay in the end.  Still, I can't imagine what I'd do if I checked my bank balance and saw I'd been billed twenty times for a flight.  I'm pretty sure I would faint after a long stream of poetic naughty phrases.

Follow Up To Marine Story

I got a few comments and quite a few emails about the marine story that ran yesterday.  Let me add just a couple of things, in a way that I think will reach most of our readers:

1.  I apologize for the soldier comment.  I do not come from a military family, and I did not realize that the word did not apply to all who fight on behalf of their country.  I used the wrong word, and would never intentionally offend anyone who risked life and limb to protect me.  I did not check dictionary.com before using the word soldier, but when I went there this morning it does clearly mention a person serving "in an army" and did give a general definition of someone with military skill.  I sent them a note explaining our conversation here, to make amends for what is clearly a common misunderstanding of how the word soldier applies to Marines specifically.

2.  I got a couple of comments that seemed to think I was saying this was unheard of for a Marine.  I did not intend to sound shocked beyond belief that a Marine would show this level of dedication.  I think it's amazing, generous and beyond awesome.  But I am not surprised, I simply felt it should be shared so we see another side, and can enjoy simple pride in the goodness of another person.

I hope that resolves the bulk of the comments, and thank you all for correcting my choice of phrasing.

Oops! Where Did I Leave That Kidnapping Victim Edition

NEW YORK -- An NYPD detective has been suspended without pay after a kidnapping victim was found tied up in his Queens garage, sources tell NBC 4 New York.

Sources say Ondre Johnson, a 17-year veteran of the Brooklyn North gang unit, was being questioned by internal affairs about his involvement in the kidnapping of a 25-year-old victim off the street early Friday morning.

A ransom note was left, and there is some confusion as to what this detective played in the kidnapping.  Several men have been arrested, including a cousin of the detective.

In the meantime, for the first time outside of a bad 80s movie, he has been "stripped of his gun and badge" while this is sorted out.

That's One Clever Little Kid

I bet this little guy has a bright future ahead of him, as long as he doesn't let his ability go to the dark side.  From USA Today:

At least five members of the British airline Jet2.com have been suspended after an 11-year-old runaway managed to board a flight to Rome without a passport, boarding card or ticket, theManchester Evening News reports.

The boy, named Liam, apparently slipped pass five control points at Manchester Airport on Tuesday by latching onto another family.

Britains's Transport minister, Justine Greening calls the incident 'incredibly concerning," the Evening News reports.

The newspaper says Liam apparently ran away from his mother while she was shopping near the airport and passed through security checkpoints without being asked for documents.

The newspaper says Liam then headed for a departure lounge and followed a family boarding the Jet2.com flight LS791 to Rome.

He charmed a few passengers, but eventually they figured out what was going on and alerted staff.  For as many things that could have gone wrong with a kid leaving his mom near an airport, this is a relatively good ending.  

Oops! Clerical Error Releases Accused Felon

A “clerical error” may have led to the mistaken release of a man accused of 19 felony child sexual assault charges that could carry a life sentence.

Prosecutors had deemed Antonio Alburquerque a flight risk and asked in a court document that he surrender his passport and wear a monitoring bracelet before bonding out of the Greene County jail .

In comments to authorities, Alburquerque, charged with multiple counts of deviant sexual contact with a minor, had made statements that he intended to move to Puerto Rico or the Dominican Republic following his retirement, which was imminent.

A glitch in the case happened when the prosecutor’s request for the special bond conditions never reached the court docket.

Springfield has struggled with many issues, one of them being competent staffing for public service.  I'm not being snarky this time, it's a known issue and has been for as long as I've read the paper.  Still, this is craptastic even by our standards.

Oops! Hitchhiker Shot Himself

On Monday, Ray Dolin of West Virginia grabbed national headlines when he claimed that he was hiking on Highway 2 in Montana — gathering stories for a memoir about how nice people are — when a man in a pickup truck pulled over and then shot him in the arm. What a story! Police even arrested a 52-year-old man under suspicion of assault, but he was cleared after a search of his truck turned up zero evidence. Under more interrogation, Dolin admitted to police on Thursday that he made the story up and he actually shot himself in the arm. Whether he lied to cover for his own foolishness or simply to grab attention we still don't know, but we do know that America is slightly less kind when people try to get other people in trouble for fake shootings. Police say the case in still under investigation, though there may be charges for Dolin in the work

Sorry, guys.  I manage to dodge most of these, but it seemed just ironic enough to be true.  I think he'll be plenty sorry that he tried to pull off this stunt.   I also hope the poor man who was arrested wasn't too rattled.  How terrifying that must have been when you're innocent.

Oops! In New Capsule Form

A CVS pharmacy in New Jersey made a little mistake and sent out a dangerous cancer drug in place of flouride.  They were pretty glib in their response, so much so that I almost wonder if their publicist doesn't work weekends.

The drug's side effects include blood clots and stroke, and the dosage would be devastating to a young child.  The official statement mentions human error and processes,  but doesn't indicate a lot of remorse or mention how many families may have been affected.

What will be interesting to know is how this happened so many times.  There are many safeguards to prevent just this type of mistake, what allowed this to occur over an extended period of time will likely be devastating to one of the largest pharmacy chains in the country.

Oops! Scared Of The Dark Edition

This poor kid.  I had something similar happen, and the worst thing of all is that time stops and you forget a new day will eventually come.  I bet he felt like he lived and died a thousand lifetimes in the hours he was locked in.

PHILADELPHIA -- A 13-year-old boy says he spent more than nine cold, hungry and lonely hours trapped in a stairwell at a Philadelphia school.

Seventh-grader David Fields says he was looking for a new way out of Roosevelt Middle School on Thursday afternoon but ended up locked inside an emergency exit tower when a door closed behind him.

Janitorial staff apparently didn't hear his cries for help. His mother, Angela Johnson, says workers wouldn't allow family members to look for him after he didn't come home.

Shortly after midnight they changed their minds and overheard him shouting for help.  He was out within 20 minutes, and his folks were greatly relieved.  With all the violent crime in this world, they had to have been terrified.  There should be an inspection done before locking up, so somebody has some explaining to do.  Still we'll call this a win because we have a happy ending.

StupidiNews! Oops Edition

The Marine Corps sent Purple Heart ornaments to folks who lost family members in the war.  A letter was written to the soldier as well.  An immediate apology and full acceptance of blame came in response to families who called. Out of 9,000 that were sent out, only about 1,500 were sent to the wrong families.  There isn't much else to say, all involved surely feel terrible.

Amazon is getting some really bad press after a move so bold you have to respect it even if it's evil.  If you went into a local bookstore and scanned a book and then purchased it at Amazon, you got 5% off.  It's dirty pool but it is inevitable that this war must happen.  Online shopping and retail stores have been fairly civil until now.  While "distasteful" according to the author of the article, it will eventually produce results the customers want and therefore will be successful.  The article also points out bookstores are lousy, inefficient and offer little outside of atmosphere.  That's mostly true, but I'm one of those people who likes to browse and flip through pages, and I can see the conflict between bare bones efficiency and the experience of wandering and the guilty pleasure of wandering the aisles and skimming with wild abandon.

Missouri discovers that at least seven prisoners were able to successfully collect unemployment benefits.  One guy tried and failed, which led to a new process that ran a check against prisoners.  Several inmates were successful, but will now have to pay the money back.  The total is estimated at $14,000.  They came thisclose to getting away with it too, if it hadn't been for those meddling kids.

Used Car For Sale, Half Million In Coke Thrown In For Free

The used Chrysler minivan came fully loaded, with power steering, foldaway seats, tinted windows -- and half a million dollars' worth of cocaine.

San Jose psychologist Charles Preston had no clue there was a cellophane-wrapped stash of "snow" hidden inside the frame when he bought the pristine-condition, 2008 van last year from Thrifty Car Sales in Santa Clara. True, the windows wouldn't roll down all the way. But he had no reason to suspect it was because the door panels were crammed with kilos of coke.

He found out 15 months later when he went to a mechanic to get his brakes checked, and immediately turned the contraband over to police. Now, he's terrified a drug cartel still may be gunning for it.

"They told me, 'You're so lucky, you'd be in jail for the rest of your life if you got searched in a traffic stop and they found this.' "

But they also told him something chilling: Take the van back in to the repair shop to check for tracking devices because somebody is probably looking for it. Then get rid of it.

Despite the No Country For Old Men feel this story has to it, it really is a miracle that he wasn't stopped and put in prison for life. The fact that the van is used to aid a charity adds a bit of irony to it. But thinking that somewhere, a really pissed off coke lord is looking for his stash... that is the stuff of nightmares.

Thank goodness it worked out well for this man. Now if you don't mind, my seat doesn't slide all the way back, I have to go check something out.

Oops! We Did It Again!

An autistic girl was asked to leave a store in Canada, due to a misunderstanding regarding her service dog.  There was no misbehaving, it seems an employee made a mistake and was a little enthusiastic about keeping order in the store.  The little girl was cool, her mom was good about it, and the store sent her a $25 gift card and an apologetic letter.

Sounds okay, right?  It was, until she went back and was asked to leave the store again.

On Sunday, Emily, Levi and her mother visited the store to use the gift card when they were told by store staff that Levi, whose harness identifies him as a service dog, was not allowed into the store.

"We were asked to leave the store," she said. "My child's service dog was not permitted in their establishment anywhere. And if that's true, then that includes my child because there is no separation between the two of them."

Emily said leaving the store made her sad.

"I was disappointed that I didn't get anything from the store, even my dress that my mom picked out nicely for me," she said.

Ainsworth described the incidents as uneducated and unfounded bullying.

"It's demoralizing," she said. "It's demeaning."

Ainworth doubts the sincerity of the store's apology.

"Had they taken it with seriousness, then I think their staff would have become educated," said Ainsworth.

She's got a point. If the store had actually wanted to correct the problem, they should have taken steps to make sure that employees were made aware of the mistake so it did not happen again, least of all to the same child.

The parent company of Winners says allowing service animals in its stores is standard policy.

"We are looking into the particulars regarding this customer's experience and will reach out to her directly, as well as take whatever actions we believe are appropriate," said Doreen Thompson, TJX spokeswoman.

For those who do not speak corporate-ese, that's just a fancy way of saying, "Holy crap, you saw that, did you? Okay, okay. We'll do something this time."

Stupidity sale, 50% off! Though I don't think anyone's buying it this time.

Last Call

Oops!  Getting Ahead Of The Facts Edition brought to you courtesy of TMZ:

CBS's web series -- "What's Trending" -- tweeted an item which said, "Reports say that Steve Jobs has passed away. Stay tuned for more updates."

But almost immediately, they yanked the item and tweeted an apology of sorts: "Reports of Steve Job's [sic] death completely unconfirmed."

There is a vast difference between unconfirmed and not true, but so far other reports have failed to confirm Jobs has taken a turn for the worse.

Of course, Bloomberg accidentally published their obituary-in-the-works while updating the content, and  you can always check www.isstevejobsdead.com (their status is currently "nope") in a Google search to make sure.  Poor guy.  If he is as sick as he seems, it has to be unreal to know his health is being tracked so closely.

Oops!

Surprise!

A plane breaks in half and everyone survives, all 163 of them.  Check this out:

GEORGETOWN, Guyana (AP) — Flight 523 from New York had just touched down and passengers were applauding the pilot's landing in the South American country Saturday when something suddenly went wrong.

The Boeing 737-800 slid off the end of a rainy runway, crashed through a chain-link fence and broke in half just short of a deep ravine. Yet all 163 people on board survived.

I'm sympathetic to plane crashes.  I can control myself, but I am painfully aware of being in the air when flying.  These guys weren't in the air, but when all hell broke loose they were still faced with the big scary monster that every flyer has faced.  They were helpless and at the mercy of a malfunctioning plane, in this case heading towards a ravine.  There's some serious pucker factor right there.

This gets a super good karma thumbs up.   

Oops! That Was Dumb, Eh?

LONDON, Ont. - A memory stick containing the records of 4,500 kids has gone missing from a speech and hearing clinic at UWO, a thumb-sized example of how ever-smaller digital technology is heightening security risks.

Included among the records on the tiny storage device are 11 years worth of names, addresses, phone numbers, birthdates, doctor information, school and child-care information.  Also on the stick are 142 OHIP numbers.

The privacy breach should "never, ever, ever" have happened, said Ontario's information and privacy commissioner.

The clinic waited around two months before deciding to contact parents and employees.  Even more disturbing than their children's medical information being in a stranger's hands is the fact that they were not made aware immediately.   That is what takes a simple mistake and escalates it to unforgivable.

There are a million products that can keep your data secure.  The fatal flaw is that any system is only as strong as their weakest link.  You can have titanium Rambos and pirate ninja assassins every three feet, but it just takes one idiot who thinks they are smarter than the rules to bring it down.  The larger the institution, the more chances for an idiot to emerge.

... A Rant Continued

I'm not sure how the post from yesterday was cut short, I'm sorry about that.  Here is the rest of that train of thought:

... Highly abusable private data, who we talk to, what we say, where we are.  Already there are "helpful" services that allow remote "technical support" of devices.  That means we're one step away from

the day when law enforcement, without the burden of getting a warrant, can point a finger and snoop on anyone they please.  This remote support capability  means that our text messages, emails, control of our phone functions, pictures, instant messages, browser history and cookies, documents, music, videos, GPS location, call history, contacts, calendar and more will be subject to the whim of a power that does not have a counterbalance.  It is for the greater good that those rules are in place.  Backup services could become mines of information in the wrong hands.

The future of our lives will be digital.  We'll never gain privacy rights, this is a purely downhill ride.  This is not where we should start.  We're talking about setting a foundation that will protect us from unwarranted intrusions, pun intended.