First, thank goodness no-one was killed outright, though I did read someone had a spine injury. Recovery hopes for all.

Second, the whole town could have been immolated from the force of the explosion, but the detonation happened just high enough only some came to the surface.

Lastly, had that happened, and we didn’t have dash-cam video to explain it, would Islamists have been the first blamed? Russia has had a bad time with them (though the US led war has seemed to concentrate their attention on us), but there’s no love lost. Nobody predicted this asteroid, so there wouldn’t have been an extraterrestrial source to blame. A million dead (Russians, sorry I’m not good at current old-USSR nomenclature) would be motivation for reprisal…

The curse about living in interesting times has landed on us, and we dodged a bullet this time.

Update: this is at least somewhat because I have read Tom Clancy’s Sum of All Fears

A Hero to me

A Fort Worth officer who was shot three times last week in Haltom City by a drug suspect left the hospital Thursday afternoon.

Officer John Bell was shot in the right eye socket, right hip joint and left hand on Jan. 29 while assisting Haltom City police.

Dozens of Bell’s colleagues stood at attention outside Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital and clapped and cheered as he got into his car with his wife, Barbara.

“A whole lot’s been made out of this, and I’m really humbled by it,” Bell said minutes after he was discharged. “Everybody’s so nice and saying, ‘You’re a hero.’ I don’t really consider myself that.”

via Fort Worth Officer Shot by Drug Suspect Released From Hospital | NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth.

Want to know how Fort Worth cops approach life? Watch the video.

I thought it must be a made-up word, but no (The Free Dictionary):

par·buck·le (pärbkl)
n.
1. A rope sling for rolling cylindrical objects up or down an inclined plane.
2. A sling for raising or lowering an object vertically.
tr.v. par·buck·led, par·buck·ling, par·buck·les
To raise or lower with such a sling.

The Parbuckling Project is a consortium of engineering talent with a truly vast (and challenging) task: remove the sunken Costa Concordia safely and cleanly. I had a look and marvel at the ingenuity.

Now let’s hope it works.

Credit where it’s due, this guy was a very imaginative organizer; too bad it was to fraudulently get money from the Government (us).

Texas Education Commissioner Michael Williams announced Thursday that he will strip the trustees of the El Paso Independent School District of their authority and that he is appointing a five-member board of managers to oversee the district for up to two years.The move comes in the wake of accusations that the trustees failed to catch a scheme tied to former Superintendent Lorenzo Garcia that either removed or advanced students who were not passing. Garcia is in federal prison serving a three-and-a-half-year term related to the scandal.

via TEA Commissioner Strips El Paso ISD Board of Authority — Public Education | The Texas Tribune.

Best of luck to that appointed board. Plenty of others were involved in this, and they’re going to have to be dismissed.

SHINER, TX — Hearing his 5-year-old daughter crying from behind a barn, a father ran and discovered the unthinkable: A man molesting her. The father pulled the man off his daughter, authorities say, and started pummeling him to death with his fists.

via No charges for Shiner, Texas dad who killed daughter’s alleged attacker | abc13.com.

In the early 80′s (1980′s, funny people) your humble correspondent worked as an EMT in an ED full time while going to school and getting a Paramedic registration (there was no licensure for Paramedics in Texas then). I was the 7P-7A guy on the 2on, 2off, 3on, 2off, 2on, 3off schedule we worked, and yeah, I can still say it quickly. Weird what we remember.

We had a couple of Detectives who liked to hang out in the ED after hours, never asked why. Neither was interested in the nurses (rare) and there were probably more appealing places for them to be, but when they were on and not actually working they were in the ED. In retrospect I’m of the opinion they were voluntarily pulling security for us, as we had no dedicated hospital security. And they were armed, we liked that in an unarmed ED.

They were funny fellows, I learned a lot vicariously through them about how the world works (and had no reason to doubt them, as my ED experience was educational and either entertaining or horrifying daily); they had a saying I remember to this day. It was a joke, but still.

“Well, we’ll write it up as ‘Needed Killin’, which is a misdemeanor, and give you a ticket”.

I thought of those guys, and that statement, immediately on hearing about this assault/death. Assuming the story as told is correct the no-bill from the Grand Jury makes sense and is correct. The family of the victim already has enough punishment (assaulted child and grief from the death, plus a Grand Jury); I have no idea how the family of the deceased deals with this. I hope constructively.

Nobody else needs killin’ over this. But maybe a ticket would be in order, just because.

[This is Humor. If you don't get it, don't write.]

You cannot make this up.

While police and medics were clearing up that disaster, 27-year-old Matthew Mitchell attempted to navigate his Chevy Impala through the swirling sea of flashing lights of the fleet of police cruisers and ambulances on the scene. Unfortunately, he plowed into the life-flight chopper’s tail fin. (Damages to the chopper were minor and it was apparently able to whisk an injured woman to a local hospital.)

A DPS trooper on the scene quoted Mitchell thusly:

“Why was the helicopter flying so low?”

via East Texas DWI Mayhem Kills One, Injures Three, Damages MedEvac Chopper, Spawns Stupid Quote of Year – Houston News – Hair Balls.

Condolences to the family of the deceased.

via @Skepticscalpel on twitter.

A remarkably well written and approachable look at the Eurozone financial problems, and ours.

Merkel cannot say no. She leads the country whose arrogant un-neighborliness the European Union was set up to abolish. But she cannot say yes without violating the law and colluding in the looting of the people who voted her into office. So she and her government are in the position of a man who yearns to get divorced but has religious scruples against it.

via €gads! | The Weekly Standard.

First, a startling CT image at their site, and after you see that, a little Emergency Medicine:

Brazilian police have released X-ray images of an Irishman they allege swallowed dozens of cocaine capsules in an attempt to smuggle the drug out of Sao Paolo….

The medical images show 72 bags packed with the drug in his gastrointestinal tract.

via Coked up: Man had 72 drug bags in belly – World news – Americas – msnbc.com.

From the CT image (which is cool, go see it) this represents the forethought-involved “Packer”, as opposed to the ‘cheese it, it’s the cops, swallow the drugs’ “Stuffer”.

Packers think ahead, carry a lot of drugs, and (if memory serves) are more likely to die if their packaging ruptures. Stuffers, though, are much more likely to show symptoms, get brought to ED’s (via the cops), and live to stuff another day.

I wonder what 2 pounds of cocaine sells for in Ireland…  (It’s not enough to spend the rest of your life in a Brazilian prison).

Washington (CNN) – President Barack Obama enjoyed a beer with Dakota Meyer on the patio outside the Oval Office Wednesday. The president will present Meyer with the Medal of Honor Thursday during a ceremony at the White House.
…
“Meyer asked the staffer if he could have a beer with the President,” Carney said.

“POTUS invited Dakota to come by the White House this afternoon.”

via President pauses for beer with future Medal of Honor recipient – CNN Political Ticker – CNN.com Blogs.

Good for you, Mr. President.

This is the kind of thing I really like:

Nine years ago, an idea was hatched at Outback headquarters to send meals to troops in combat, starting with Afghanistan in 2002.

Outback co-founder, Trudy Cooper, told me that it was a natural thing to do since their headquarters is so close to MacDill Air Force Base.

“We already serve meals to our military, how hard could it be to take them meals where they fight?” she asked.

via Operation Feeding Freedom | A Soldier’s Perspective.

How hard, indeed.

Go, and read about their efforts, and this years’.

Then patronize Outback. They deserve it.

I try not to think about this, as it makes me sad and deeply angry. Neither is good for me in the long run. Embarrassingly, I have yet to watch United 93. I need to, but I don’t want to. I know I won’t be happy with my reaction. Tears and rage are a bad mix.

Yeah, lotta I’s in that paragraph. Others died, many were amazingly heroic, most were innocent victims. Life is like that, deeply unfair.

My post last year on this says most of what I have to say from a personal perspective. Nothing profound.

Since then a few friends, and a zillion people I’ve never met but owe a huge debt of gratitude to have literally gone to war to do their duty, and hopefully prevent a recurrence of a cowardly attack on the US. I think some luck and a lot of skill is why we haven’t been hit again. Thank Yous to all our men and women in uniform, then and now. I need to buy a lifetime of beers…

And, My First Haiku:

Never Forgive
and Never Forget.
Bin Laden is fishfood
I’m happy ’bout that.

Eternal Vigilance is the price of Freedom. Note: not giving away our rights in a vain plea for safety and security. Don’t let that happen.

A picture’s worth a thousand words a second…

via Ace.mu.nu

Seems like a lot to get into a tweet. I’d cut the guy some slack on that…

When Gov. Rick Perry emerged from back surgery on July 1, he tweeted that his “little procedure” — a spinal fusion and nerve decompression designed to treat a recurring injury — had gone “as advertised.”

The possible presidential contender didn’t reveal that he’d undergone an experimental injection of his own stem cells, a therapy that isn’t FDA approved, has mixed evidence of success and can cost upwards of tens of thousands of dollars.

via Perry’s Surgery Included Experimental Stem Cell Therapy — Rick Perry | The Texas Tribune.