Daily Archives: May 2, 2011
A few non-bin Laden related updates…
“Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you are a mile away from them and you have their shoes.”
- Jack Handey, Saturday Night Live
The news this morning and into the afternoon has been fairly single focused and I haven’t had a chance to get back to some things I’ve been discussing in the last week or so. I’m sitting over at Mellow Moods having a cup of coffee and a vegan sandwich (black bean burger with fruit and salsa roll-up) and their wifi is working… so here goes:
4 Days into my SuperFocus glasses…
Focusing... a snap!
I know I bored everyone over the last few weeks with my enthusiasm and expectations for the SuperFocus glasses I ordered and have bee. waiting for. Well, they arrived late on the 28th and I’ve been wearing them for a hair over four days now.
And they are spectacular!
It took a little over a day to get used to changing the focus manually depending on what distances I was looking at. And I found out that, unlike my old bifocals, there were at least five regular viewing ranges I use regularly: reading, short distance, average distance, driving and very long distance. I’m amazed at how minimal a concern as my daily crossword puzzle now doesn’t require squinting and tilting my head to make sure I was at the close bifocal distance. And I can actually read road signs quite a way down the highway now.
I really like them. My wife got so interested that she just made an appointment with her optometrist and will be ordering her own soon (right now she wears trifocals and has great trouble with computer-use distances.)
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Getting Excused From Jury Duty
I got called up for a month of Jury Duty in June and I had to call my Doctor and get a note about my ischemic seizures which can happen at any time (the meds I take have them pretty much under control, but I’ve had at least one in the last few weeks.) It would be awfully embarrassing to go into a seizure while watching testimony… not to 
mention the fact that there’s a lot of driving back and forth and my wife is convinced I’ll have an attack at 60 miles per hour.
Anyway, my Neurologist’s office is giving me the note to attach to the form I had to fill out. Apparently they do this kind of thing all the time.
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I’m working this afternoon on the basis of my podcast. I’m still very unsure of how everything is done, but I’m doing it live at 10 AM tomorrow. If you listen to it then, or get it later, please excuse my early user mistakes. I’ll get better.
A great piece of artwork by Lisa Casey at All Hat, No Cattle:
Lisa, you hit it right on the head. I’ll be so happy when All Hat, No Cattle is back in full bloom.
We all knew someone…
The final destruction of Osama Bin Laden has brought to my mind, of course, the 9/11 destruction of the World Trade Center and what… and who… was lost in that event of evil.
Many years ago I wrote, while living in Marlborough, CT, of the loss of Jim Hobin, my son Buddy’s basketball coach. Jim usually worked out of our little central Connecticut town, but on that day he had left early in the morning to get to the main office of the company he worked for in New York. In the World Trade Center.
It was a loss that everyone in Marlborough felt… this was a town united by the sporting programs for its children, by congregation for morning coffee in the bakery, by well attended selectmen’s meetings. 9/11 would always mean Jim Hobin’s death to us.
Related Articles
Quote of the Day – This sums it up
“Osama wasn’t a Muslim leader, he was a mass murderer of Muslims“
Indeed, Al Qaeda killed many more Muslims than Americans. Although Americans in the Middle East have been warned against immediate reprisals, The general response from local governments has been to congratulate Obama for the action and to breathe a sigh of relief.
Related Articles
- ‘Osama wasn’t a Muslim leader, he was a mass murderer of Muslims’ (dailykos.com)
- Obama Announces Death of Osama Bin Laden (theoraclemagnews.wordpress.com)
- Osama Dead: Long Live Obama (neerajbhushan.com)
- Osama bin Laden Dead, Obama To Announce (justjared.buzznet.com)
- U.S. warns of al Qaeda reprisals over bin Laden (ctv.ca)
- Full transcript | Barack Obama | Speech on Osama bin Laden’s death | White House | 1 May 2011 (newstatesman.com)
“Justice has Been Done” – Obama / Osama Bin laden has been killed.
Osama Bin Laden
I woke up this morning to the news I should have heard last night (I went to bed early) – Osama Bin Laden has been killed in a U.S. strike ordered by Barack Obama and based on US Intelligence. This was actually done on April 29th in an action that was kept in tight secrecy. It is notable that not even the Pakistanis were informed that this was going to happen (in the past, every time they were informed of such an action, Bin Laden curiously escaped just in time to save himself.)
Bin Laden Death Photo
From early reports, Bin Laden was shot in the head by a Navy Seal and, reportedly, he was hiding behind a woman at the time. The attack was made by four helicopters and a small team. No Americans were harmed. The US took custody of Bin Laden’s body after the attack and then followed Islamic law by having him buried at sea so that no tomb could be made on land… since Bin Laden was not a sailor, but the burial at sea was a traditional burial of an enemy.
Pakistan was informed after the action began. Al Qaeda, btw, has now declared war on Pakistan.
This attack plan began in June of 2009 when Obama ordered CIA director Leon Panetta to have as his primary goal locating Bin Laden. The plan was kept in complete secrecy – even from members of Congress – and no information was leaked before its occurence.
My wife’s comment this morning was “This will get Obama reelected.”
More later.
Related Articles
- White House: Osama Bin Laden is Dead (benzinga.com)
- Osama Bin Laden killed in Pakistan (pakistanic.com)
- US kills Osama bin Laden (prolificmovementblog.com)
- Morning Read: Osama Bin Laden (observer.com)
- Osama bin Laden killed by U.S. Navy Seals – No American Fatalities (devil67712.wordpress.com)
- Food for conspiracy theories – Osama bin Laden “buried” at sea (ktwop.wordpress.com)
- Al Qaeda Leader Osama Bin Laden Killed (news.sky.com)
- CNN: Osama bin Laden killed, U.S. has body (nj.com)
- Osama Bin Laden Dead, Body In US Custody, Obama Makes Statement, Interrupts Sunday Night TV (wtpotus.wordpress.com)
- Bin Laden compound on fire (wdsi.wordpress.com)
- Osama Bin Laden death Photo (pakistanic.com)
