Opuscula Bills by Wilson, Wasserman-Schultz Won’t save any lives

BACK IN SEPTEMBER HURRICANE IRMA struck south Florida.

It knocked out power to many, including the Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills. The center is located directly across the street from a fully staffed regional Level 1 trauma center (Memorial Regional). The hospital, preparing for the storm, sent as many patients home as medically feasible; it had empty beds.

The loss of power ended up causing a number of residents to die unnecessarily.

Rep. Wasserman -Schultz, in whose district the facilities are located, and Rep. Frederica Wilson, who represents a Dade County district, each rushed to propose legislation to assure no more nursing home deaths would occur due to lack of electrical power.

Neither politico knows what she’s talking about.

THIS SCRIVENER was for many years an Enterprise Risk Management practitioner. I worked on plans for private industry, and for city and state governments.

Wasserman-Schultz and Wilson, who apparently know nothing about risk management but do practice knee jerk reactions, immediately demanded that legislation be passed that would require nursing homes and similar facilities to have standby power generators with sufficient fuel to operate for 90 hours.

Both Wasserman-Schultz and Wilson – despite being within a few miles of each other – independently proposed basically the same thing. There was a Wilson bill and a Wasserman-Schultz bill.

NEITHER BILL ADDRESSED THE REAL ISSUES

Over the years I have gained some experience with electric generators. As a young airman in Orlando FL, I remember sticking fuel tanks and confirming batteries were charged so I would not have to pull a rope – much like a lawn mower – to get the generators working. The generators – 13 of them – had to work; they were attached to 13 hospital wards, all of which were in use.

Later I worked for a manufacturing facility that had to have power 24/7/365 to maintain the production line.

Even later, I worked for an international shipping company that had to have power in order to maintain its database of in-transit containers. If the database was not up to date, Customs would fine the company … heavily.

In each case, there were policies and procedures (P&Ps) in place to assure

the generators had full fuel tanks
the fuel was free of water
the generators would start (push button starter or pull cord)
The generators were run for at least an hour once a month. When initially installed, they were run for 24 hours under full load.

The procedures required to conform to the policies were fully documented.

Procedure
Date
Person performing the procedure
Results

It makes no difference if a giant generator is sitting right outside the back door – not too close, the start-up noise could give an elderly person a heart attack – if the fuel is insufficient or bad, if it won’t start – automatically with a power outage or manually with a start button or pull rope – or if the machine gives out or burns up after “n” hours of operation.

BEYOND GENERATORS

In addition to P&Ps for power supplies, there also must be P&Ps to evacuate residents.

Know what resources have available space and trained personnel
Know how to move the residents – or, know people who have the expertise
Know when to move the residents; moving sick people is a “worst case” event
Know what is needed to relocate residents – ambulances, wheelchairs, etc.

The first needs to be determined as soon as the possibility of relocation is identified. For Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills, that moment came when the hurricane was forecast to hit south Florida; never mind where in south Florida. The risk, no matter how small, of the storm making a direct hit was sufficient reason to activate the risk management plan.

There is a Veteran’s Administration hospital in Pinellas County. Pinellas is a peninsula on a peninsula; it sticks out into the Gulf of Mexico.

Once a year, every year, the hospital administration “rounds up” local volunteers to practice evacuation techniques. Using volunteers eliminates the need to move real patients, Some volunteers are dressed up with moulages (fake, albeit real looking wounds). Doctors, nurses, aides, and technicians all are involved in the exercise; the local press covers the exercise as well.

BOTTOM LINE

The bills proposed by the two south Florida representatives will not save any lives and it will run into strenuous objections by the nursing home lobby, sufficient to either kill the bills or to drag out the process until another hurricane season has passed.

This simply is a case of people with a little power who don’t know what they are doing other than perhaps trying to grab headlines.

If the representatives wanted to do something useful, their bills should consider the foregoing and include a requirement – the absence of which would terminate Medicare, Medicaid, and other state and federal funding – that the plan be exercised at least once a year.

For an experienced planner, what is proposed here is just good common sense, and good business sense, too.

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PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

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Opuscula LibreOffice Writer Can act like Word Just add patience

I AM SLOWLY MOVING FROM Microsoft’s Word – I’ve used it since Ver. 1 – to LibreOffice. (I’m also moving from Microsoft Office’s Operating System (OS) to the Linux OS.

I know Word and I was comfortable with it. The only problem was that Microsoft kept mucking about with the User Interface (UI). With each new iteration of Word, I had to learn how to use it again.

That, and the fact that Microsoft’s Office – Access, Excel, Paint, and Word – are, to be kind, “’pricey.” Linux’ OS is free, gratis even. Ditto the LibreOffice comparable-to-MS Office suite.

I can open a Word file in LibreOffice Writer and vice versa. Since my main use for any “Office”is word processing, that is a critical consideration. As a former technical writer I no longer need heavy duty graphics and page composition (book making) software … but it is there for both MS and Linux OSs.

I was, however, having a problem with one “little” issue with LibreOffice (hereafter “LO”) Writer.

I create blog material using a word processor. (This was created using Writer.)

The file is dumped into Google’s Blogger.

Both Word and Writer can SAVE a file in HTML (web) format, but the amount of unnecessary coding “fat” bothers me sufficiently that I hand-code the HTML as I create the file. I know my most commonly used code

<B> - </B> = Bold Face
<BR> - </BR> = Soft return (line feed)
<I> - </I> = Italics
<SUP> - </SUP> = ^Superscript
<U> - </U> = Underscore
<UL> - </UL> = Indent

I also insert – after the fact – </P><P> in front of each new paragraph. I could do this manually, but it’s time consuming and can interrupt my chain of thought. I leave it until the end of the document and do a global search and replace.

It isn’t strictly necessary to include </P><P> in the document, but Blogger. seems to look better; a tad more space between paragraphs.

With Word, the Search for field was populated with ^p.

The Replace with field was populated with ^p</P><P>

Worked like a champ.

While many of Writer’s commands are identical to Words, e.g., Ctrl-B turns on boldface while Ctrl-I turns on italics, the ^p for paragraph was missing in Writer.

I asked on the normally helpful User Group and got an answer that was wrong.

Then, looking through some other LO documentation I discovered the answer.

Eureka!

Writer’s paragraph indicator is $ – a dollar sign.

I tried a number of combinations in the Search and Replace fields before I finally tried

Search: $ Replace: \n</P><P>

There IS one extra task.

Click on OPTIONS and check REGULAR EXPRESSIONS. (See screen capture, below)

I’m sure I’ll find more LO “got’chas” as I use the applications more and more, but I’m pretty sure I can, with a little effort, figure out how to make LO behave as MS Office.

No one said they were identical or even had to be identical (but it would have been nice).

There are benefits of using Microsoft’s Office suite, especially if the user has been using the applications for a long time.

But I remember that there was a steep learning curve when I first started with Word and a less-steep but bothersome RElearning curve with each modification of the User Interface.

I’m hoping that LO’s applications will have a stable UI over the years.

For what it’s worth LO runs under Windows and (I think) Mac OS, no "dual boot" required; it’s free to download and compare it to whatever is being used. There also are other OPEN OFFICE options besides LibreOffice, most of which are (a) free and (b) function on multiple platforms (e.g., Linux, Mac OS, and Windows). They may not be identical to the familiar shrink wrapped applications, but with a little patience and a little reading the documentation, who knows what will be taking up hard drive space in a few months.

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PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

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Opuscula American Holidays

All Americans have two “big” holidays and several “small” celebrations.

Easter, Halloween, Christmas and New Year’s Eve are NOT American holidays; they are originally pagan and now, for most Americans, “Hallmark” celebrations. Comparatively few Americans celebrate the days as Christian holidays.

The only two major truly American holidays are, in calendar order:

Fourth of July/Independence Day
Thanksgiving

That’s not intended to slight Veterans’ Day (nee’ Armistice Day), Memorial Day, etc., although most of those special days are not celebrated as intended; bar-be-ques, days at the beach, and similar activities replaced visits to cemeteries and honoring those who protected our liberties.

Aside from American Indians and some non-Indian sympathizers, Thanksgiving is almost universally celebrated in America with family gatherings.

There are a few religious folks who argue that Thanksgiving is not allowed because it smacks of being someone else's religion. These people are part of a very small minority, even within their own religion.

I wonder, however, as we sit around the groaning board, how many of us take time to express – even if only to ourselves – for what we are thankful, and from whence the bounty.

Admittedly, those preparing the feast (and cleaning up after) may have to look elsewhere for things to be thankful. A person with a terminal illness might not be in the mood to consider being thankful for the years of good health preceding the illness.

For all that, each of us must have something for which we are thankful.

Even the folks who have to labor on the holiday – be it the Fourth or Thanksgiving – should be thankful they have a job and income. As a reporter, I worked most holidays, big and small. That is, admittedly, a great deal different than slinging hash or pearl diving (washing dishes) at the local burger joint, but a job is a job. (Yes, Virginia, been there, done that.)

I prefer to shop at stores that are closed on the Fourth and Thanksgiving; I make it a practice to do all my shopping the day before, and hopefully my larder will be stocked sufficiently to get me to the following “the sales are over” day. (I stood in enough lines when I wore a uniform for my favorite “uncle” (Sam); I don’t need to do it again.)

U.S. citizens are not the only ones in North America to celebrate Thanksgiving; the folks north of the border also make note of their blessings on the second Monday in October The Canadians also are “ahead” of the U.S with Canada Day celebrated on July 1.

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PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

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Opuscula Selecting provider For Medicare plan

THE FOLLOWING are some considerations when selecting a Medicare Advantage plan.

Finding a plan in your area Medicare plans are location dependent. A plan that’s offered in Washington may not be offered in Florida. The best place to find out what plans are available in your area is to go to MEDICARE.GOV. Unlike commercial sites, Medicare.gov lists ALL the plans available in your area. Some commercial plans fail to tell you about plans that may be best for you.

Selecting a Primary Care Physician (PCP) If you have a PCP you want to keep, go to the web sites of the plan providers in which you are interested. Locate the plan's PROVIDERS LIST. This lists primary care physicians, specialists, hospitals, pharmacies, and other health care providers. Bookmark this page; you will come back to it when checking other providers.

Are the plan’s PCPs “capitated?” Some Advantage plans claim patients can see any specialist in their network. If the primary care physician is “capitated,” that physician has an abbreviated list of specialists to which you may be referred; the desired specialist may not be on the physician’s “capitated” list. Finding out may require a phone call or email to the plan and a call to the PCP.

Does the plan cover your prescriptions and what “tier” are the drugs? If you have long-term medications, go to the provider’s web site and find it’s FORMULARY page. Find the drug(s) you take and look at the drug’s TIER level. Most plans have four tier levels and most plans have $0 copays for Tier 1; some have $0 copays for Tier 1 and Tier 2.
To determine the copay for each tier, get the plans EVIDENCE OF COVERAGE from the plan’s web site. This is the MOST IMPORTANT document on the plan’s web site..

The Evidence of Coverage, EOC, is a Medicare-approved document that commits the plan to provide certain services at specific copays for the calendar year. The EOC may be downloaded from the web site; a hard copy will be provided if you sign up for the plan.

Providers may change, and modifications may be made to the formulary, but benefits are fixed for the duration.

About the EOC Most EOCs closely follow the same format. Benefits are alphabetized – usually in Chapter 4 of the EOC -- and presented as a two-column table or “chart.” The first item on the chart should be Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Screening with Services not covered as the final entry. (I found one EOC that failed to follow the standard; I quickly ruled that plan out as a possibility.) Many benefits, e.g., breast cancer screenings, PAP smears, colorectal cancer screening, and prostate screenings are $0 copay due to Medicare requirements.

Copays Copays – the patient’s out-of-pocket costs – vary widely. Most, albeit not all plans, have a $0 copay for routine visits to the patient’s PCP. Many have copays for visits to specialists. If you are like many seniors, PCP visits are frequent and specialist visits come with greater regularity than before.

Emergency room visits – always expensive for both the insured and the insurer – are discouraged for “minor” problems, e.g., URIs, cuts and abrasions, even cuts requiring sutures; instead plans wisely direct patients to urgent care facilities. Some plans cover an urgent care visit 100%, others require a copay that always is less than the copay for an ER visit. Most plans offer emergency care worldwide, so subscribers are covered no matter where they need medical care. All plans include the caveat: If you think the ER is necessary, GO!

Hospital stays When I was talking to sales people for my first Advantage plan I was concerned about hospital costs. Some had $0 for the first “n” days then high copays for additional days. The salesman told me – and after three major surgeries I confirmed he was correct – that most hospital stays are five days or less.

Everything else in the EOC deserves your attention since items that apply to you may not apply to others. The EOC’s “chart” is easy to understand and the plan’s Customer Service Reps (CSRs) are available via toll-free numbers for clarification.

I created a spreadsheet listing MY critical issues and then expanding the list by copying each EOC “chart” items. Since I was comparing a number of products, it took several hours, but in the end, I think it was worth the effort.

AGAIN, THE STARTING point is Medicare.Gov

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PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

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Opuscula No statute of limitations For sex-related crimes?

IT IS INTERESTING to watch both men and women come forth to claim they were abused by someone many years in the past.

It seems that the people seeking justice are behaving like wild animals who, having smelled their victim’s blood, rush to claim their pound of flesh.

I do not sanction sexual assault — not on women, not on children, and not on men. While adult males are most often accused, adult women and juveniles also commit sexual crimes.^{1, 2}

Women are not the only victims of rape although they unquestionably are the majority of victims. ³

My problem: apparently there is no statute of limitations on sexual assaults.

I AM NOT suggesting that a victim of sexual assault — or any other attack on his or her person — should remain silent.

What I AM suggesting is that claims of sexual assault — even in its broadest terms — have a reasonable statute of limitations.

Claims of sexual abuse of an adult — 18 and older — that occurred more than 20 years ago should be looked at skeptically.

For adults, if the victim has not come forth in 20 years and suddenly, when someone else claims to be a victim, the quiet victim finds a voice . . . that makes me suspicious that the latest person to claim abuse is simply climbing on the bandwagon; especially if — and it seems only of — the alleged abuser is a “high profile” personality.

AS FOR children, my suggestied 20-year limitation would start when the child reached 18, regardless of the age then the child was molested.

I think the term “abuse” needs to be narrowly defined.

The problem today is that one person’s abuse is another’s flattery. If a man tells a women she looks nice, is that sexual abuse or flattery? If a woman comments about how a man fills out his trousers — “Are you happy to see me, or …” is that sexual abuse? Depends on the man; a man of the cloth might take umbrage at such a remark; but then again, he might not.

If a girl wins a spot on the school wrestling team and during a contest a male opponent touches her in a way that might be inappropriate during normal (non-competition) times, is that sexual abuse? It could be, depending on the duration of the contact, but probably not. The same applies to the girl who is trying to pin her opponent.

For all that, “no” means “no” whether it’s a kiss in passing or an invitation to something more serious. No matter who the aggressor — and sometimes it is a female who may want to “tease” a male (or female) acquaintance.

RECIDIVISM⁴

According to SMART.GOV⁵, there is widespread recognition today that recidivism has a direct impact on public safety and that recidivism reduction should be a key goal of the criminal justice system. This is particularly true with regard to crimes that are sexual in nature, given their impact on individual victims and the larger community (see chapter 1, "Incidence and Prevalence of Sexual Offending," in the Adult section).
Unfortunately, recidivism remains a difficult concept to measure, especially in the context of sex offenders. The surreptitious nature of sex crimes, the fact that few sexual offenses are reported to authorities, and variation in the ways researchers calculate recidivism rates all contribute to the problem.

I do not continence sexual abuse by anyone, but I think we need better ground rules to define:

a. What IS sexual abuse and
b. An established statute of limitations to prevent the sudden “piling on” of long-silent victims that seems to designed to make headlines.

Maybe Abuser “X” did indeed violate someone’s (sexual) sensibilities, but it seems strange that Victim “A” suddenly comes forth after 20 or more years and after another person alleges abuse from Abuser “X”; I look at such revelations with a jaundiced eye.⁶

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1. Child sexual abuse: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_sexual_abuse

2. Statistics on Perpetrators of Child Sexual Abuse: http://tinyurl.com/y9vzustm

3. Statistics about sexual violence: http://tinyurl.com/y85vt6wg

4. Recidivism: http://tinyurl.com/zrrmmnc

5. Smart.gov: http://tinyurl.com/zbg72ls

6. Jaundiced eye: http://grammarist.com/idiom/jaundiced-eye/

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

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Opuscula In other words, Translation, please

THERE IS A PUBLIC LIBRARY almost within walking distance for me of my abode.

I am a frequent visitor to the library, a “habit” I acquired when I was in first grade c 1950 when the main library was a block down the alley from where I lived.

I’ll read almost anything, but I the favor mysteries that my neighborhood library conveniently marks with a blue dot. (It has colors for other genre as well.) I am working my way through the authors alphabetically.

Some of the authors are English, and their English is somewhat different than mine. Someone — Geo. Bernard Shaw and Winston Churchill have been credited, perhaps blamed — said that "England and America are two countries divided by a common language."

As a former technical scrivener writing to an international audience, I know some of the words the Brits used to identify what Yanks call something else.

As examples:

Bonnet = automobile hood
Knock me up = wake me at an agreed to time
Petrol = gasoline
Spanner = wrench

But every so often I encounter a new “Britishism.” Most can be figured out by the word’s context. Occasionally I’ll resort to an on-line dictionary, and worst case, I’ll turn to my aging unabridged dictionary.

J.G. Goodhind’s Walking with ghosts introduced me to “trainers.” From the context, I concluded “trainers” are the equivalent of “sneakers.” This in the first five pages.

A word I DID look up was “anorak.” I’m not certain this word travelled across the Atlantic — it allegedly came from Greenland — but it pops up in many stories penned in the UK. There, it means both the coat with a hood — a waterproof hoodie — or , according to Wikipedia, British slang which refers to a person who has a very strong interest, perhaps obsessive, in niche subjects. This interest may be unacknowledged or not understood by the general public. I have only read it in the first sense.

In the U.S. traffic goes around a circle; in England and elsewhere, they go around a “circus.” Why a “circus?” As an American by guess would be because the way inconsiderate drivers push their way into the flow with no concern for others’ vehicles. A circle/circus also may be called a “roundabout.”

When a European lives on the first floor, that person lives on what would be the second floor in the States. The European who lives at street level — American’s first floor — lives on the ground floor. If the building has many floors, it probably has a “lift” (elevator).

An umbrella is not a “bumbershoot — that is an American word. In England, an umbrella is a “brolly.”

“Bumbershoot,” for all its American background, led me to Glossary of British terms not widely used in the United States, a site that lists, I’m guessing, more than (never “over”) 100 Britishisms with translations into American English.

Having a decent vocabulary — gained mostly by reading books freely available from the local lending library — is a definite advantage when seeking employment. It puts the reader head and shoulders above many collegians, even those with masters degrees (too many of whom are unable to correctly spell or to put together a grammatically correct sentence)

If the job is in any place where the English ruled (except of coourse for the U.S.), British English is the common English. It pays to know some “Britishisms.”

Besides, sometimes it’s just fun.

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PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

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Opuscula Death penalty: Some thoughts

MOST PEOPLE EITHER ARE for the death penalty for certain crimes or against the death penalty for any crime.

Many countries have eliminated the death penalty. Some keep it on the books but don’t utilize it. A few, such as the U.S., have a mix, depending on the makeup of a state’s population. Israel, which has the death penalty for very specific crimes is considering broadening the crimes deserving of the death penalty. (The Israeli military courts can order an execution, but this never has happened.)

The bottom line question: Does the death penalty deter capital crimes?

WIKIPEDIA¹ provides an alphabetized list of countries with and without the death penalty. There are 58 countries that still have executions².

Amnesty International offers a table listing the “10 countries with the most executions” between 2007 and 2012³. China leads the list with “thousands” of executions.” Iran comes in at #2 with more than 1,600 suffering capital punishment. Amnesty fails to provide figures for terrorist groups such as Deash and Al Qaeda that regularly behead-before-cameras anyone who disagrees with their philosophy. That of course does not include the murders of “non-believers” committed by Daesh, Al Quida, and other Islamic groups’ followers,

There is an on-going debate: Is the death penalty a deterrent to capital crimes (murder, rape)? The Internet is replete with articles on both sides.

An Associated Press article in the Washington Post ⁴ states that “A series of academic studies over the last half-dozen years that claim to settle a once hotly debated argument _ whether the death penalty acts as a deterrent to murder. The analyses say yes. They count between three and 18 lives that would be saved by the execution of each convicted killer.

The reports have horrified death penalty opponents and several scientists, who vigorously question the data and its implications.

On the other hand, Zachary Rickens, writing on the PennLive site⁵ contends that “Death inflicted by the government in itself is cruel and unusual, a clear violation of all citizens’ Eighth and 14th Amendment rights. The oft-used justification for capital punishment is that it is justified retaliation for the murder victims. It is supposed to give the victim’s family a sort of closure, but retaliation is just another word for revenge. As Mahatma Grande once said: “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.”

It is worth remembering that the non-violent Gandhi told the Jews of Europe that they should surrender to the nazis and quietly die sans resistance⁶. Fortunately for Jews alive today, the Jews Gandhi wanted to die quietly disagreed. For Gandhi’s appreciation of Palestine, read “Where Tutu (and Gandhi) got it wrong” (LA Times at http://tinyurl.com/y8cmke2p)

http://all-that-is-interesting.com/gandhi-facts-quotes-dark-side

On the “no death penalty” side is AmnestyUSA⁷ that holds that “The murder rate in non-Death Penalty states has remained consistently lower than the rate in States with the Death Penalty.

“The threat of execution at some future date is unlikely to enter the minds of those acting under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol, those who are in the grip of fear or rage, those who are panicking while committing another crime (such as a robbery), or those who suffer from mental illness or mental retardation and do not fully understand the gravity of their crime.”

The ProCon site⁸ offers opinions on both sides of the issue. It may be the only site that provides sane, side-by-side arguments for and against the practice.

The financial cost of executing a person is a consideration for some over and above any moral convictions.

The Death Penalty Information Center⁹ claims that “Cases without the death penalty cost $740,000, while cases where the death penalty is sought cost $1.26 million. Maintaining each death row prisoner costs taxpayers $90,000 more per year than a prisoner in general population.” The statement did not specify if these were a nationwide average or state-specific.

Given the number of DNA tests that freed prisoners on death row, and the number of people committing capital crimes who are found mentally deficient, there seems to be ample grounds to carefully consider limiting application of the death penalty to a few specific crimes, terrorism being one.

While many death penalty advocates site the Bible’s “eye for an eye” as justification for executing a person who murders another, they fail to cite another Biblical admonishment. According to the Bible, before a person can be put to death, at least two eye witnesses to the crime must testify AND that the murderer was warned before the crime was committed that (a) murder is wrong and (b) the penalty for a murderer is execution. One witness is one witness too few, and sans a warning immediately prior to the crime, the death penalty cannot be invoked. It is said that the ‘eye-for-eye’ never was carried out; a monetary penalty equivalent to the value of the eye was ordered.

Something to consider.

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Sources

1. Wikipedia: http://tinyurl.com/nduz9jp

2. 58 countries: http://tinyurl.com/ya3y2qtw

3. Amnesty table: http://tinyurl.com/hz3wk89

4. Washington Post: http://tinyurl.com/ls5mgn

5. PennLive: http://tinyurl.com/yckuzkr8

6. Grande on Jews and nazis:

“Hitler killed five million Jews. It is the greatest crime of our time. But the Jews should have offered themselves to the butcher’s knife. They should have thrown themselves in the sea from cliffs…. It would have aroused the world and the people of Germany…. As it is they succumbed anyway in their millions.” http://tinyurl.com/y9vl2qug
If only the Jews of Germany had the good sense to offer their throats willingly to the Nazi butchers’ knives and throw themselves into the sea from cliffs they would arouse world public opinion, Gandhi was convinced, and their moral triumph would be remembered for “ages to come.” If they would only pray for Hitler (as their throats were cut, presumably), they would leave a “rich heritage to mankind.” http://tinyurl.com/k8swqaj
Gandhi wanted the victims of Nazism to remain courageous, and to adopt positive non-violence -the strength not to use force- in dealing with the killers. In 1938, just after Kristallnacht, when the Nazis systematically destroyed Germany’s and Austria’s synagogues, Gandhi wrote these shameful words where he urged Europe’s Jews to joyfully accept the Nazi onslaught. http://tinyurl.com/z62lr76
"If I were a Jew and were born in Germany... I would claim Germany as my home even as the tallest gentile German may, and challenge him to shoot me or cast me in the dungeon.... And suffering voluntarily undergone will bring them an inner strength and joy.... The calculated violence of Hitler may even result in a general massacre of the Jews by way of his first answer to the declaration of such hostilities. But if the Jewish mind could be prepared for voluntary suffering, even the massacre I have imagined could be turned into a day of thanksgiving and joy that Jehovah had wrought deliverance of the race even at the hands of the tyrant.” http://tinyurl.com/y9zlze8f

7. AmnestyUSA: http://tinyurl.com/yd4wtpze

8. ProCon: http://tinyurl.com/y8gnfep2

9. Death Penalty Info Center: http://tinyurl.com/meztsze

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

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Opuscula U.S. media: Blind in one eye, Can’t see with other

Cite EU terror attacks; ignore attacks on Israelis

In a not-at-all-surprising evidence of “Israel doesn’t exist” thinking, U.S. networks, discussing the latest Islamist attack in New York City, cited similar attacks in Europe.

Israel, which has suffered similar attacks for many years, was ignored with the exception on one (1) instance noted by CNN.

But then, so was the alleged “white supremist” attack in Charlottesville, VA.¹

A quick sampling from the Internet

In 2016 alone, there were 12 vehicular ramming attacks and 100 stabbing attacks thwarted by security forces in Israel. From September 13, 2015 to August 2017, 55 people were killed in terrorist attacks and 812 people (including uninvolved Palestinians) injured. There were 184 stabbing attacks and 129 attempted stabbings; 161 shootings, 60 vehicular attacks, and one vehicular (bus) bombing – as well a higher rate of miscarriages, depression, and a 50% increase in post-traumatic stress disorder among young children. ²

In Israel, car-ramming attacks have featured heavily in a wave of Palestinian terrorism and violence that has killed at least 34 Israelis, two Americans, an Eritrean and a Sudanese since October last year. Some 215 Palestinians have been killed in the terror wave; Israel says most were attackers or would-be attackers who died in the course of carrying out attacks. Additional car-ramming attacks, some of them lethal, were carried out by Palestinians in Jerusalem and the West Bank in late 2014.

In May 2013, two Islamists smashed their car into British soldier Lee Rigby before attempting to behead him on a London street in broad daylight.

The pair, who were of Nigerian heritage, said they attacked the 25-year-old fusilier to avenge the deaths of Muslims at the hands of British troops.

Just 18 months later, a man claiming to be acting in the name of radical jihad ran over and killed Canadian soldier Patrice Vincent, also injuring a second man.³

A snapshot of planned and executed attacks on Israelis in Israel ... and elsewhere (including NYC): http://tinyurl.com/y9smgvdg ⁴

A Palestinian terrorist struck and wounded three soldiers as they walked with their unit on the side of Route 60, near the Shiloh junction in the West Bank around 3 p.m. on Thursday.

Two of the soldiers were seriously wounded, and were transported – one by helicopter and the other by ambulance – to Hadassah University Medical Center in Jerusalem’s Ein Kerem. The third soldier, Lt. Daniel Albaz, was taken to Beilinson Medical Center in Petah Tikva where he described for reporters how the white four-door car plowed into them.⁵

Benjamin Netanyahu, flanked by security service agents, spoke into the television camera. The truck attack that had just resulted in the deaths of four Israeli soldiers in the Jabel Mukaber neighborhood of Jerusalem was “part of the same pattern inspired by Islamic State, by ISIS, that we saw first in France, then in Germany and now in Jerusalem. This is part of the same ongoing battle against this global scourge of the new terrorism. We can only fight it together, but we have to fight it, and we will.” Netanyahu, speaking on January 8, was referring to the ISIS-claimed truck attacks in Nice, which left 86 people dead on Bastille Day, and in Berlin, which left 12 people dead at a Christmas market in the center of the German capital.

Anyone reading Netanyahu’s statement at face value would believe that the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) had inspired scores of Palestinians to conduct vehicle attacks in the group’s name. The Jerusalem attack was perpetrated by a 28-year-old Palestinian named Fadi Qunbar. While Qunbar may have been inspired by the extremist group—evidence for that is yet to surface—this is not the case more generally in vehicle attacks perpetrated by Palestinians, experts say. They say that ISIS and other jihadist groups witnessed the success of vehicle attacks used for years by Palestinians, and then adopted those tactics for attacks in Western countries.⁶

(CNN) Once again, a driver has plowed into a crowd of innocent pedestrians, turning a car into a lethal weapon.⁷

This time, it was in New York's lower Manhattan, where the driver of a rental truck drove down a busy bicycle path near the World Trade Center. The city joins a list of cities worldwide that have fallen victim to a growing trend.

Here's a look at some recent similar attacks and the possible motives behind them.

CNN then lists a number of vehicle-as-weapon attacks; with one exception (Charlottesville VA) the vehicles all were driven by Islamists. The list includes (I = Islaamist attack):

— New York, October 31, 2017 (I)

— Barcelona, August 17, 2017 (I)

— Charlottesville (VA), August 12, 2017 (Racist)

— London, June 3, 2017 (I)

— Stockholm, April 7, 2017 (I)

— London, March 22, 2017 (I)

— Nice, July 14, 2016 (I)

— Berlin, December 19, 2016 (I)

— Columbus (OH), November 28, 2016 (I)

— Jerusalem, January 8, 2017 (I)

— St.-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec, October 20, 2014 (I)

All other attacks in Israel were ignored by CNN’s “journalists,” but other media ignored even that.

(CNN) Here is some background information on terror attacks involving vehicles used as deadly weapons by radicalized individuals or terror groups.⁸
Al Qaeda's Yemeni branch encouraged its Western recruits to use trucks as weapons. A 2010 webzine article, "The Ultimate Mowing Machine" called for deploying a pickup truck as a"mowing machine, not to mow grass but mow down the enemies of Allah."

In September 2014, ISIS spokesman Abu Mohammad al-Adnani called for lone wolf attacks using improvised weaponry, "If you are not able to find an IED or a bullet, then single out the disbelieving American, Frenchman or any of their allies. Smash his head with a rock or slaughter him with a knife or run him over with your car or throw him down from a high place or choke him or poison him."

While only a few of the attacks happened on U.S. soil, President Trump has called on Homeland Security to use extreme vetting for potential visitors and immigrants to the U.S. The left, as expected, objects to this as focusing on Islamists . . . despite the fact that of the majority of the vehicles were driven by Islamists.

NOT ALL MUSLIMS are jihadists, terrorists. I have known and worked with Muslims — some observant and some not — a number of times in the U.S. and ridden in Arab buses and taxis without concern in Israel. I do not believe “the only good (pick an attribute) is a dead (attribute).” AT THE SAME TIME, given the preponderance of attacks on “infidels,” — that is, anyone who is not a member of Daesh⁹ or similar extremist group — by Islamists, I fail to understand why the U.S., or any country, would welcome, sans “extreme vetting” by qualified personnel, people whose goal is to maime and murder the country’s citizens. I’m not convinced that Homeland Security has the ability to perform the vetting, but I am convinced U.S. embassies and consulates lack any capability in this area. Should the U.S. continue to let locals vet potential tourists and immigrants – that is, to this scrivener’s mind, akin to having the fox watch the chicken coop and, as the attacks around the world prove, not a satisfactory option.

Bear in mind that ramming vehicles into people is just one of many ways vehicles have been used by Islamists, Basques, home-grown crazies (e.g., Timothy McVeigh) and others¹⁰.

Resources

**1 New charges for Charlottesville car attack suspect James Fields Jr.: http://tinyurl.com/y96cnst4
**2 Sacrifice the Children: http://tinyurl.com/y769r4zx
**3. Before Nice, Palestinian terrorists used cars as lethal weapon: http://tinyurl.com/ybosng6r
**4 Jewish man among 5 Argentineans killed in NY attack: http://tinyurl.com/y9smgvdg
**5 Palestinian strikes three IDF soldiers with vehicle in west bank terror attack: http://tinyurl.com/qa8jrvo
**6 Experts say ISIS ramming attacks were inspired by Palestinians, not vice-versa: http://tinyurl.com/ycfos63f
**7 Vehicles as weapons: http://tinyurl.com/m4sr8e8
**8 Terrorist Attacks by Vehicle Fast Facts: http://tinyurl.com/ybshehae
**9 What does Daesh mean? ISIS 'threatens to cut out the tongues' of anyone using this word: http://tinyurl.com/o7dzwyq
**10 List of mass car bombings: http://tinyurl.com/ycxlzscc

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

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