Recently in Therapy Category

I know that I'll be see as a "grinch" for this...but, the stupid...it burns!

I was out running errands with the mom today and she let me know that the War on Christmas is being fought right here in Chico. That's right, Dan Gamel's RV Center wanted to let you know, through the miracle of the television commercial, that they weren't afraid to say...wait for it...waaaaaiiiiiit foooooor iiiiiiit, "Merry Christmas." They also have no problem mentioning the G-word. You know, God!

Wow. Just...wow.

Thanks, Dan! To know that you are holding the line in this battle really warms my cold, black heart. What would really rock is if you went on the offensive, because the best defense is a good offense. I want your next commercial to tell people who don't celebrate Christmas that they can screw off because you don't even want their money. Yes Dan, it would be a Christmas coup! Strike fear into the hearts of pagans and blasphemers and atheists and the Jews! Let them see what freedom really is. Let all of Chico know that the only dollars you accept are the ones earned by people who have accepted Jesus Christ as their savior and the rest can just go buy their RVs from Satan.

Only you can save Christmas in Chico, Dan. Don't let Jesus down, Dan.

There are gay people. They live in every country. Get over it.

"The Holy See has reiterated on many occasions that the right to freedom of expression, sanctioned by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, is subject to just limits, in particular when the exercise of this right would offend the religious sentiments of believers," the letter said.

And what letter do we speak of? Why the letter that came out of the Vatican going all OMFG!!!11! over a gay pride parade in Israel. Nothing spreads the "good word" like being bitter that gay people can march in the streets. What century is this again?

This is my father's obituary from what I'm guessing is The Enterprise Record.

Richard Berry

ANDERSON -- Graveside services for Richard Lee Berry of Anderson, a victim of Monday's U.S. Plywood Novoply fire, will be conducted at 2 p.m. Thursday in the Anderson District Cemetery.

Ed Petersen will officiate. McDonald's Anderson Chapel is in charge of arrangements.

A native of California, Berry was born in Fresno Nov. 23, 1946. He was a resident of Shasta County for 20 years. He was 29.

Berry had been a Plywood employee for eight years. He was an Army veteran of Vietnam.

He leaves his wife, Mary of Anderson; one son, Patrick of Anderson; his father, Ernest of Summit City; his mother, Geraldine of Fresno; one brother, David of George Air Force Base in Victorville.

This article if from The San Francisco Chronicle and is reproduced in it's entirety without permission. It was originally published Wed., March 24, 1976.

Factory Blast Near Redding Kill 4 -- Smog Device Blamed

Redding

A dust explosion and fire killed four men and injured 11 others in a particle board factory near here early yesterday. A company spokesman blames it on a new air pollution control system.

"If we just had the old system, this wouldn't have happened, in my opinion," said Ed Shaw, operations manager for the U.S. Plywood Corp. "This wouldn't have happened three or four years ago."

The blaze destroyed most of the firm's Novoply plant; and company officials estimated damage at $9 million.

Shaw said sparks from a "rather minor" fire in a drier were sucked into the air pollution control system, designed to suck dust through pneumatic tubes into air bags.

An explosion in the air bag house was so powerful, Shaw said, it pushed burning material down the vacuum tubes to the forming line, where boards are formed from wood chips and glue.

All four bodies of the victims of the blast were found near the forming line, he said.

Three of the injured were flown to the St. Francis Hospital in San Francisco, where their condition was described as "very critical." Others were taken to a Chico burn center.

Although four bodies were recovered, no positive identifications had been made late yesterday. The Shasta county sheriff's office, however, identified four missing workmen as Alex Daskovitch, Barry Richard [sic], Bob Fraser and Jim Brock.

In addition to the 11 injured workmen, Rudy Zoellmer, 40, assistant chief f the Cascade Fire District, was hospitalized with a leg injury from falling debris.

The explosion and fire occurred at 12:58 a.m. while 50 workers were in the factory. One fireman said it was a "fantastic explosion," flames engulfing 30,000 square feet in 15 seconds.

Shaw said the blast will idle a force of 120 hourly workers and 23 supervisors.

An adjacent lumber mill and plywood plant were not damaged.

Our Correspondent

The worker incorrectly named as "Barry Richard" was Richard Berry, my father.

So, I have to admit that I'm a bit confused at Scott Adam's take on discussions about torture. He posted a question, would you sacrifice an entire city to avoid torturing one man, and then declared some sort of "knockout" victory when people didn't want to answer that question.

Why must that question be answered "honestly" before any other discussions can occur, other than it's his blog and he can play that way if he wishes? It does nothing to establish anything about torture other than perhaps the person answering is willing, or is not, to go exactly that far. It's a useless metric in my mind and the fact that he declares victory when you don't answer makes no sense to me. The question is loaded like a semi-automatic shotgun with the magazine restrictor removed since it implies that torture "works." In Scott's case it would "save" a city.

Why don't we ask if torture works before we ask people how far they will go with it? If it doesn't, the question almost answers itself, no? If it does, which by all accounts it doesn't (even the crooks in Reservoir Dogs know what you get from a torture subject), should we first ask why we don't already do it? I mean if we want to have real, honest debates about a topic why start out with all these assumptions? Cart? Horse? Any order will do these days?

If Scott is doing what I think he's doing, this is all just another of his "thought experiments," as I doubt that he isn any more capable of killing a man with a power drill than I am. Maybe Scott should just ask people if torture is an acceptable form of vengeance, since that seems to be the only thing that it has proven itself effective at. I think that would get a lot more honest answers and provoke a "debate" as heated as his one about it magically working to save entire cities.

Better still, Scott can start a "modest proposal" category on his blog. I suggest the first post be about eating babies. D'oh! Scott just scored a knockout on me...

Penny Arcade, in addition to bringing profanity to the masses, is doing some very cool charity work with children's hospitals. You can buy off Amazon wish lists setup by the hospital or drop some PayPal love on them.

Some time late Saturday night or early Sunday morning a really stupid person took our mailbox. I'm not happy about it. The rumors are true, the punishment is crazy insane -- "up to $250k or up to 3 years in gangster college."

But, tomorrow is a new day and we start it with a cheap, plastic mailbox. Wish it luck. It'll need it.