FORT HOOD, Texas (AP) – A 49-year-old brigadier general who died Friday in Afghanistan of apparent natural causes is likely the highest-ranking military officer to die in that conflict, according to military records.

via US Army: Brigadier general has died in Afghanistan.

At 49. Wow.

Condolences to his family.

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A historic Colt .45-caliber, semi-automatic pistol stolen more than 30 years ago from a Medal of Honor winner in South Carolina has been returned to its rightful owner.

The gun and owner were reunited after a history buff in Medford, who bought the old handgun in an online auction last month, tracked down the retired Marine whose name is engraved on it.

via Actions that make heroes | MailTribune.com.

Go, and read how Former Marine (and then US Navy Warrant Officer) George Berry did this wonderful thing.

HT: Jim in Plano

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In Memory of SPC David Lee Leimbach

Read it and just try not to weep.

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And, another new world dawns: North Korea announces their first nuclear weapons test.

The USGS page, confirming a seismic event of 4.2 magnitude, has maps.

I’d be willing to bet a lot of people on the Pacific rim didn’t get much sleep last night.

Update: in the chance this was a fizzle and not fissile, maybe someone was trying to dismantle it.

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On September 8th, CNN reported this:

PORTLAND, Oregon (AP) — A nurse returning from work discovered an intruder armed with a hammer in her home and strangled him with her bare hands, police said.

Guess what?  He was a hired killer, sent to end the life of our brave nurse by her ex-husband!

Michael James Kuhnhausen Sr. first hired Edward Dalton Haffey to mop up the mess at Fantasy Adult Video.

Police say he then hired Haffey, a convicted felon with a long criminal history, to kill his wife.

Kuhnhausen, the estranged husband of the emergency room nurse who strangled an intruder in her Southeast Portland home last week, was charged early Thursday with criminal conspiracy to commit murder and attempted murder.

Detectives say Michael Kuhnhausen, 58, helped disarm the security alarm at the Southeast Alder Street home earlier in the day and let Haffey in. Haffey waited with yellow rubber gloves and a claw hammer for at least four hours until Susan Kuhnhausen arrived home from work.

(click the Oregonian logo above to read the whole story).

Read to the end for her new answering machine message.

Wow.  I guess he didn’t warn his hired killer she was tough.

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via CNN: Police: Nurse, 51, kills intruder with bare hands

PORTLAND, Oregon (AP) — A nurse returning from work discovered an intruder armed with a hammer in her home and strangled him with her bare hands, police said.

Susan Kuhnhausen, 51, ran to a neighbor’s house after the confrontation Wednesday night. Police found the body of Edward Dalton Haffey 59, a convicted felon with a long police record.

…
Haffey, about 5-foot-9 and 180 pounds, had convictions including conspiracy to commit aggravated murder, robbery, drug charges and possession of burglary tools. Neighbors said Kuhnhausen’s size — 5-foot-7 and 260 pounds — may have given her an advantage.

“Everyone that I’ve talked to says ‘Hurray for Susan,’ said neighbor Annie Warnock, who called 911.

“You didn’t need to calm her. She’s an emergency room nurse. She’s used to dealing with crisis.”

I have ticked off nurses before, and wondered if they could actually kill me.  Now I know.

hat tip to reader Andy

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Oh, our reservoirs are still fantastically behind, and the ground looks like Apollo 11 moon dust  when trodden upon (just like it does in Fort Stockton; story some day), but at least we’re getting some water.

Weird how the end of a drought can make your week.

(picture from the WeatherBug)

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BRISBANE, Australia (AP) — Steve Irwin, the Australian television personality and environmentalist known as the “Crocodile Hunter,” was killed Monday by a stingray during a diving expedition, Australian media said. He was 44.

Irwin was filming an underwater documentary on the Great Barrier Reef in northeastern Queensland state when the accident occurred, Sydney’s The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported on its Web site.

The Australian Broadcasting Corp. said Irwin was diving near Low Isles near the resort town of Port Douglas, about 1,260 miles north of Brisbane.

A helicopter carrying paramedics flew to the island, but he died from a stingray barb to the heart, ABC reported on its Web site.

Pericardial tamponade is the diagnosis that jumps to mind, though there are several others. 

Update: Dr. Rangel has the analysis covered here. (via Kevin, MD)

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This is not to say that the unpleasant experiences don’t happen; they do.  This is not to say there aren’t decidedly unpleasant people; there are.  Stress ‘accentuates the personality’, and some personalities don’t need sharpening to cause pain.

I tell you this to explain, oddly, why I’ve decided not to rant about some recent interactions with the people referenced above.  The rant is my post of choice, and it’s odd but I don’t want to right now.  That’ll change, but it’s foregone currently.

Maybe I’m growing up, or old, or just bored / boring, but for now I’m going to let it go.

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I elected to share them with you when, on going back to the patient’s room, the patient’s family member asked me to recount them so he had them right (he wasn’t asleep during the reduction, like the patient).  Smart fellow, and attentive.  He has them and it’s only fair you do, too.

So, here they are, the Three D’s of Effective Leadership: Decide, Delegate, and Disappear. 

Decide: you cannot lead without making a decision.
Delegate: Leadership is different from management.  Delegate so you can Lead.
Disappear: Nobody goes to the delegate when the leader is around.  Let the delegate work.

So, there you are.  Use your new powers for good, and not evil.

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