07:38 – Congratulations to the FBI and Boston Police. It took them only three days to identify and track down the two terrorists responsible for the Boston Marathon bombings. As I write this, one of the terrorists is dead, killed in a shootout last night, and the other is the subject of a massive manhunt. Unfortunately, a police officer was also killed last night and another seriously injured. Let’s hope the cops track down and kill the other terrorist before he hurts anyone else. In what comes as no great surprise, it appears that the two terrorists are brothers from Turkey or Chechnya, which means they’re almost certainly islamic.
08:31 – When I was adding money to Barbara’s PlatinumTel prepaid cell-phone account the other day, I checked their phone offerings. Barbara’s phone used to be my phone, so when hers died I just gave her mine. I’d intended to order another of the same model, but they didn’t have any in stock at the time. So I’ve been checking periodically to find that or a similar model. I wanted a clamshell phone with no gimmicks. All I wanted was a simple four-banger phone to make and receive calls, something that folded so that I could just put it in my pocket without worry about cracking the screen or whatever. But for several months PlatinumTel had nothing on offer other than models with slide-out keyboards and various smartphones. The other day they had $30 Alcatel One-Touch 665 phones in stock, so I ordered one for myself. I so seldom need a cell phone that this one is ideal. No contract, $0.05/minute, and very simple to operate.
11:09 – I’m hoping they don’t capture the second terrorist. That just means a trial and prison. That’s too good for him. Ideally, I’d take him alive and feed him, slowly and feet-first, into a wood chipper. But we all know that’s not going to happen. They haven’t even cut off the first terrorist’s head and posted it on a pike. So about the best we can hope for is that the cops shoot the second one and that he dies in agony before he gets to the hospital. The hospital! Why on earth did they even bother to transport the first terrorist to a hospital instead of letting him bleed to death on the street?
I’ve been reading The Grass Crown, the second in Colleen McCullough’s First Man in Rome series. Last night, I was reading a section covering the Social (Marsic) War. The Roman commander besieged an Italian town held by the rebels, who thought their water supply was secure. It wasn’t, but only because the Romans undertook a massive engineering feat to stop the flow of the river from which the town got its water. Eventually, they surrendered. The Roman commander proceeded to order the slaughter every adult male in town, and then turned out the women and children without food into the war-torn landscape to starve and freeze to death. Another Roman commander took another besieged rebel town, whereupon he set up an assembly line with 100 of his legionaries flogging all of the rebel men. After the flogging, they moved down the assembly line to another section, where 100 more of his legionaries beheaded those who’d already been flogged. The commander then turned the women of the town over to his legionaries to be raped and then killed. And, at that, the Roman commander was being merciful because these were Italians, who’d until recently been friends and allies of Rome. If he had wanted to, the Roman commander could have ordered all of the rebels to be crucified instead of being put to the sword.
This was during the late Republic. From Julius Caesar’s time onward, Rome had even less of a sense of humor about rebellion and particularly killing Roman citizens. Perhaps unsurprisingly, people thought long and hard before doing anything to piss off Rome. I think it’s time we considered emulating Rome in that respect. Crucifying muslim terrorists would be a good start.
21:17 – As of mid-afternoon, Barbara was planning to leave work at 3:30 and head home. We were planning to take Colin to the vet for his annual checkup. Then the USWS issued a tornado watch for the afternoon through 9:00 p.m., so Barbara called to reschedule the vet appointment for next Friday. At that point, she planned to stop at the supermarket on the way home and have a relaxing evening, assuming the hospital would release her dad tomorrow.
Relaxing evening. Some joke. The hospital decided to release Barbara’s dad this afternoon with almost no notice. So she went over there to pick him up and take him back to their apartment. But Dutch needs to be on IV antibiotics for a week or ten days longer, so the hospital was supposed to send a supply home with them. Barbara or Frances would have to change the supply container once a day. I wasn’t crazy about that idea. Someone who’s on IV antibiotics should be in the hospital, with qualified medical staff administering the drugs. The last time this happened, Barbara called in tears because she’d made one minor mistake in the procedure. She thought she’d killed her dad. I told her then that she or her sister shouldn’t be doing this; a nurse should be doing it.
That was bad enough, but it got worse. The hospital was supposed to send over a supply of the drug to Dutch and Sankie’s apartment, and then have a nurse come to teach them how to administer it. Well, the nurse showed up, but the supply of drugs didn’t. And to make matters even worse, the drug supply container has to be changed every 24 hours, at 8:00 p.m. Not during the day when the visiting nurse could do it, or at least Barbara or Frances could do it with less inconvenience, but specifically at 8:00 p.m., which means that Barbara or Frances would have to drive over there specially every evening at 8:00 p.m.
So of course my first thought was that they should just discard the first container before it was empty and substitute a full one, which would allow them to change the daily time from 8:00 p.m. back to something a bit more convenient. No dice, Barbara said. The hospital would provide only the number of containers needed to do things on the schedule they mandated.
Not that that turns out to matter much, because the hospital released Dutch knowing that he couldn’t even stand with his walker, let alone walk or even get out of a chair. Barbara assumed, of course, that they’d had him up and walking every day. They hadn’t. He’d been in bed constantly for the entire week. He’s completely helpless, and needs someone who’s able to physically manhandle him into and out of his chair and so on.
But of course the hospital never did bother sending over the drugs that Barbara and Frances are supposed to adminster. So I got a call from Barbara about 8:35, saying she was at the hospital emergency room with her dad, pleading with them to give him the drug that they say is so important he get at 8:00 every evening.
Then, adding insult to injury, the hospital tells Barbara that they wanted to release Dutch to a nursing home, but Barbara refused to allow them to do so. She told them that she’d done no such thing. When the social worker called earlier in the week, she said the hospital planned to release Dutch to a nursing home so that he could get physical therapy. Barbara told the social worker that the physical therapy, and occupational therapy as well, could be done at her parents’ apartment.
What concerned me the most was that Barbara said as soon as the emergency room gave her dad the IV antibiotic, she was going to drive him home. Presumably she intends to stay the night, since Dutch sure can’t be there on his own or with just Sankie. I told her she should tell the hospital to keep her father until he’s actually in a fit state to be discharged, and that doesn’t include being on IV antibiotics or being unable to rise from a chair. She said the hospital told her they couldn’t refuse treatment, but Dutch would have to pay for it. Bastards. They had no business discharging him in the first place.
Good news, first thing in the morning, thanks!
Although hard to imagine, I bet someone somewhere has some kind of apologia for these bastards. Within our own civilization, no doubt, too.
Breakthrough must have been those pics that went out yesterday, plus someone dropping a dime.
Yep. In an era when everyone has a cell-phone video camera and most commercial establishments have surveillance video cameras, it’s pretty tough to avoid being photographed, particularly at a big event like the Marathon.
As usual, the British press is doing a much better reporting job than Fox, CNN, or any US newspapers. They even posted much clearer images of the terrorists. For example, I didn’t see this image on CNN or Fox.
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02540/boston-suspects-2_2540712c.jpg
IIRC, I saw that image first at the Daily Mail site and then at the NBC one.
We’re seeing the new-generation terrorism tactics here in this country now; they’ve skipped the suicide bomber stuff and gone to the fighters. These guys will blow something up and then shoot their way out. Kind of surprising they didn’t whack the guy whose car they jacked.
I see from the photos that not only BPD and Feebies, but BU and MIT campus police were there, too; one MIT officer KIA. OFD worked as a campus cop out in Woostuh in the early 80s, at a university surrounded by a “crime impact area.” We were armed, trained and had city and state police jurisdiction powers. Gangs and robbers and rapists and suchlike, but no IRA or Chechen fighters roaming the ‘hood back then.
One of my brothers down there reports that his company is shut down today (they have buildings in Waltham and Cambridge) and he’s working from home. Local towns shut down; mass transit down; people at bus stops told to go home and stay home.
These guys supposedly Chechyan nationals from Dagestan; older kid a hardcore fanatic type; younger one a Boston Rindge Latin School kid, wrestling team, smart, nice boy, etc.
State Police saw them throwing another pressure cooker and grenades from their vehicle during the chase. Deceased scumbag had multiple explosion and gunshot wounds at local hospital. Other kid is on the loose, but not for long, I’m guessing.
This guy leads a charmed life this week:
http://kikn.com/man-miraculously-survives-boston-and-texas-explosions/
And now they’re hunting down a third suspect.
The Sheriff’s Office in Polk County Florida still knows how to deal with someone who kills one of their own.
“I suspect the only reason 110 rounds was all that was fired was that’s all the ammunition they had.”
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,216898,00.html
” I think it’s time we considered emulating Rome in that respect. Crucifying muslim terrorists would be a good start.”
I have said this for many years. If we intend to run a world empire, then we must either crap or get off the pot; this means being RUTHLESS all the time to our enemies, who will be Legion. Or we can dismantle our 1,000 military facilities and bases around the world, bring our armies home to secure *this* country, and mind our own damn business for once. First order of business being to get outta the Sandbox and the Suck and quit taking our foreign policy cues from Israel’s Likud. We’d see our incidents of terrorism against us dwindle to nothing.
But our overlords and masters like to do everything half-ass instead and thus we have what we have here and around the world.
It’s also time we admit we were on the wrong side when the Russians were in Afghanistan and we’d do well to get on their good side right now; ditto the Chinese and the Persians. But don’t hold your breath.
First order of business being to get outta the Sandbox and the Suck and quit taking our foreign policy cues from Israel’s Likud.
Yup.
We’d see our incidents of terrorism against us dwindle to nothing.
I doubt that. They are very envious of our purported wealth and freedoms. They do not understand that our national credit cards are charged about four times over the max.
Why are we allowing Muslims asylum in the USA?
Well, I agree generally with OFD, but I’d leave the bastards with a little parting gift. As I suggested in the day or so after 9/11, a dozen or so 350 KT warheads TOT on Mecca, just as a warning shot.
As long as people elect people like this to office in our great country, we are dead:
http://politicker.com/2013/04/governor-cuomo-says-boston-bombing-part-of-new-normal/
“So much of society is changing so rapidly. We talk about a ‘new normal’ when it comes t0 climate change and adjusting to a change in the weather patterns. ‘New normal’ when it comes to public security in a post-9/11 world. Where these random acts of violence, which at one time were implausible, now seem all-too-frequent.”
What a tool! I am amazed that anyone would vote for this guy. And he will probably be our next President. I am looking for a “Hillary 2016” bumper sticker right now.
“…a dozen or so 350 KT warheads TOT on Mecca, just as a warning shot.”
Throw in Medina and some nice pinpoint spec ops attacks on selected leadership targets around the world but esp. in those areas.
Mrs. OFD and I have had inside contacts from within the Vampire State’s political “movers and shakers” off and on for years now and the rep on both Cuomos is that they are total scumbags, who would, and have, along with former Mayor Giuliani, stab anyone in the back in a nanosecond and/or throw anybody under the bus for any reason or no reason at all. Sonny is married, inexplicably, to one of the blonde hotties on the Food Network.
This country is so fah gone that having Cuomo or HILLARY! in the WH would be nothing special or especially exciting/dangerous. The whole thing is becoming a very bad joke now. Who would have possibly predicted twenty or thirty years ago that we’d have somebody like Larry Klinton there or someone with the outlandish name and beliefs of one Barry Soetero, a.k.a. Barack Hussein Obama? With a bipolar loose-cannon VP and a SecState “war hero” who lied about his service and threw another vet’s medals and decorations over the fence at that demonstration in Mordor years ago. Of course this is after the Klinton Kabinet that looked like, in the memorable description of NY DJ Don Imus, the bar scene in the Star Wars movie.
I’d say what my opinion of Governor Cuomo and what he said, but my Attorney advises me not to do so.
Because Americans have this incessant need to know WHY? It’s not enough that we punish someone. We want punishment AND an explanation. How many sobbing parents and spouses have we seen on TV agonizing over WHY it was their child or spouse that some horrific thing happened too? Even when criminals plead guilty we’ll still make them sit in court. People can’t wrap their head around the fact that many times there isn’t a good reason why. Sometimes the world is just a fucked up place with some fucked up people and shit happens.
” Sometimes the world is just a fucked up place with some fucked up people and shit happens.”
Words to live by.
Am downloading Windows 8 x64 Pro (3.3 GB ISO). Actually the level is controlled by your product key except for the Enterprise version. Am trying to decide if I upgrade my Windows 7 x64 or format and install.
Pray for me.
I tried downloading it for one of our two desktops (other one is RHEL 6.4) and it sat and sat and hung and hung and was a miserable failure repeatedly. I finally had to get a DVD with it already on and do the upgrade from Win7. Same thing happened with Orifice 2010 and once again had to use a DVD. Their online method sucks rocks, at least in our experience.
Hope U have bettuh luck. Easier to do the upgrade but cleaner with the format/install deal. Also cheaper for the upgrade.
And once again I will point out that scanning documents via a Windows machine takes about ten times as long and ten times as much hassle and hoops to jump through as on a Linux box with Simple Scan. To give it credit, though; this time it saw the printer immediately via wireless and I didn’t even have to do the tedious Add Printer crap.
If it wasn’t for wife’s job we’d be a totally Linux household and the one stumbling block continues to be PowerPoint stuff that is a large part of her gig.
Hope U have bettuh luck. Easier to do the upgrade but cleaner with the format/install deal. Also cheaper for the upgrade.
I prefer cleaner but I am feeling too lazy to reinstall my stack of wares. Upgrade it is! I can always reformat next week (ouch!).
I am really getting lazy. I was an alpha tester for Windows 92. 93. 95. For over two years I was getting 2 or 3 CDs a month with new alpha releases. I would reformat and install just about every other release and then start the screaming about broken software. I have not been an alpha tester since then even though they offered. I was a beta tester for 2000 and XP. That was enough for me and I did file three bugs as requested.
I have a MSDN subscription so I can download just any operating system that MS makes. Just need a BIG pipe. W8x64 is coming down at 1.0 MB/s. Not very fast for 3.3 GB. Then I get to burn a DVD.
CISPA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyber_Intelligence_Sharing_and_Protection_Act
just passed in the people’s house again.
http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2013/roll117.xml
I wonder how long it will take to get The Great Firewall of the USA (sm) up and going? And all of ISP monitoring boxes that are probably already installed? I am not a fan of spying on people without a warrant. Some might even say that it is unconstitutional.
They had no business discharging him in the first place.
Welcome to the new healthcare system. The hospital is probably being forced by the Medicare people. I am surprised that they did not want to send him to a hospice or a rehab place. My knowledge of nursing homes is that they are for parking people who have nowhere else to go but, I have not been in a nursing home in a decade.
I will pray for your FIL and Barbara. I hope that this is resolved quickly.
Welcome to the new healthcare system.
It will get much worse under Obama’s plan, much worse. It will take days to get approvals for procedures from the plan administrators, all people sitting behind a desk with no familiarity with the situation, making life altering decisions. But hey, what does it matter. The president travels with three surgeons and several nurses. He sees no problem with the current system.
Assisted living is really what Dutch needs. Home care is just not going to cut it as the current situation will have a very negative impact on your lives. Remove the emotion from the decision, which is easier said than done.
My knowledge of nursing homes is that they are for parking people who have nowhere else to go but
Yes, for some. It is used as a facility for some that need treatment and will eventually get released. But for many it is the final stop on a journey that cannot be halted. An EOL holding tank.
Nursing homes are much better than what they were in the past. My aunt’s was clean, the residents well care for as far as basic physical needs. There were still some stupid decisions such as getting my aunt eye drops to help her dry eyes. Regardless, it is still a place where most go to die.
What is sad is the families that abandon relatives and never see them again. I was sort of that way but out of necessity. My aunt got very upset every time I visited because she did not remember me. My visits were very much counter productive and so I terminated the visits. My wife would visit once a week as my aunt tolerated her visits.
The last visit I made with my aunt was 4 hours before she died. I was on the way back from Nashville having received a call she was unresponsive and had been that way all day. When I arrived she was totally non-responsive and the staff said she was close to death. They said she was in no pain as they could tell by involuntary reactions. They had her on morphine. That was about 4:00P. I left as there was nothing for me to do. At 8:00P I got a call that she had died.
In some small way I think her last few sparkles of brain activity waited until I showed up and said goodbye. Who knows.
I remember when my grandfather died. True story. I woke up at 2:00A in the morning, wide awake, and muttered to my wife that I had a dream my grandfather had just died. I figured it was a weird dream and laid back down after my wife chewed me out for waking her. 10 minutes later I get a call from my mother that her father, my grandfather, had just passed away.