Do you know this man?

He died on Monday at the age of 94.  Some may recognize his name but most won't.  Mikhail Kalashnikov designed what is arguable the most famous assault rifle ever created.  You may not recognize the name, but you almost certainly know the AK-47 assault rifle.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gr6eFXNq5Wc If you fast forward to 1:55 you can see the part of this clip that relates to the AK-47.  It is from "Jackie Brown", obviously a Quentin Tarantino film. 

Few people create something that changes the world in which we live.  General Kalashnikov did just that.  The AK-47 remains in use around the world more than six decades after it was first created.  It is incredibly rugged and reliable.  Drop it in the mud, pick it up and brush it off, and it shoots.

 

Possibly the only realistic image from any of the Rambo movies.  Stallone and his AK-47.  That dirty gun would fire.

 

 

When the Vietnam War began, the weapon of choice for U.S. infantry troops was the M-14.  It was too long, too heavy and was replaced by the lighter M-16.  But that still wasn't as good as the weapon of choice for the NVA and the Viet Cong.  Mikhail Kalashnikov changed the face of infantry weapons. 

 

* * *

 

Jahi McMath is the Oakland teenager who had something go horribly wrong during a routine tonsillectomy.  Now she's alive only because she is on a ventilator and on Christmas Eve, a pediatric-neurologist appointed by a judge has stated that the hospital's conclusion that she is brain dead is correct.

 

The family doesn't want to take her off the ventilator, as she would die almost immediately.  That's understandable.  They've talked about moving her to another facility.  I agree with her mother that the parents have every right to demand the hospital not remove life-support without their permission.

 

However, the question becomes one of who will pay for the continued care.  Health insurers have no legal or moral duty to continue to provide coverage to care for someone who is deceased.  Even in the face of those very rare instances where someone who was determined to be brain-dead came back to life, the hospitals involved had no obligation to continue to provide care without cost.  That isn't what EMTALA (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMTALA for an explanation of what that is) was designed for.  That isn't the goal of Obamacare.  The family can't afford to spend thousands of dollars per day to keep Jahi on that ventilator.

 

So how do we resolve this problem?  You can't make an arbitrary decision about how much time a family needs to come to terms with the death of a child.  Even when the child is an adult.  Different people need different amounts of time to mourn.  The other side is about dollars and cents, rather than deeply and strongly felt emotions and feelings.  That doesn't mean the issue of money is any less relevant.  If hospitals are forced to spend endless amounts of money to care for the dead, how many who are still alive will lose out on those precious hospital resources?

 

One week.  That's how long I believe a brain dead person should be kept on life-support before the family must move them to another facility at their own expense, or allow life-support to be terminated.  It isn't nearly long enough on the emotional level.  It isn't nearly short enough on the balance sheet level.  It's just a proposed compromise.

 

* * *

 

NSA leaker Edward Snowden is delivering the "alternative" Christmas message for Britain's Channel 4 and in it he said "a child born into today's world would grow up with no conception of privacy at all." 

 

I don't necessarily agree.  Most of the embarrassing revelations about people on social media sites involve their own words, photos or acts in public.  We should have absolutely no expectation of privacy when we are in a public place.  Technology didn't change that, although it did facilitate making it easier for an "ordinary person" to record public events.  But for as long as we've had cameras and audiotape devices, what we do in public has been fair game for anyone to record.

 

That doesn't mean a person can't have privacy.  Don't blog.  Don't use social media.  What you do in the privacy of your home is your business.  Government surveillance has no interest in anything you're doing that isn't a crime.

 

* * *

 

Random Ponderings:

 

Disputes between parents involving custody and visitation should not be fought on Twitter and in doing so, Charlie Sheen is being foolish.  What a surprise...not.

 

BCS bowl teams that can't sell their ticket allotments aren't the problem themselves.  The problem is better seats are available on the net at lower prices.

 

When I read that Gwyneth Paltrow had buried the hatchet with Vanity Fair's Graydon Carter, I was afraid she might have buried it in his skull.  But their feud is over.

 

Maybe the fiasco with Target customer's charge cards will wind up improving security of credit/debit card purchases.  Then again, maybe we'll start using cash again.  I'm beginning to think the best way to shop is to have a debit card with your bank that you link to a pre-paid debit card, and you only load that card with the amount of money you want to shop with before going to the store.

 

Do people buy $500,000 Lamborghinis with the idea of using their flame-shooting exhaust pipes to cook with?  I don't think that's why, but someone did it with one.

 

Sometimes little things can make a big difference.  The theater I prefer going to is now charging $1 more than others in the same chain.  Worse yet, the mall where it is located is no longer giving three hours of parking for free.  Instead that's going to add $4 to that $1 cost.  So if I go to that theater 70 times in 2014, it will cost me $350.  I think I'll take my 70 movie visits elsewhere.

 

Flea is a great bassist, but a lousy judge of NBA coaching if he's calling for the firing of Mike D'Antoni.  He's got no players, it's a wonder they're as competitive as they are.

 

I don't get why anyone would want to do a send-up of "Ice Castles", but who am I to criticize someone's creative choices...oh wait, I'm a film critic.  That just means I should be offering critiques rather than criticisms.

 

Is Dave Hester, former member of the cast of A&E's "Storage Wars", related in any way to former Senator Bob Dole?  Both are fond of speaking about themselves in the third person.

 

Just what kind of games do reindeer play, anyway?

 

Bringing back Juan Uribe was the right decision.  I didn't realize that he hasn't made more than 10 errors in a full season since 2007 when he was a starting shortstop.  In three seasons with the Dodgers, playing all four infield positions he's made only 14 total errors.  He can do more than just hit.

 

It took more than 400 calls to 911 before authorities did something about the woman who kept dialing but never had a real emergency?

 

In the state of California, it is a travesty that four out of every five flowers used in building Rose Parade floats come from outside the U. S.

 

Did I just read an ad on Craigslist seeking a part-time administrative assistant with pay of $75 per hour for a 15 hour week?  Yes I did, and I think the poster left out a decimal point and a zero.

 

Why am I not surprised that Sarah Palin had not even read the comments of Duck Dynasty patriarch Phil Robertson before defending them?  Oh, because I think she's among the top ten on the moron list.

 

Yes, a bride really rode to her wedding in the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile, by choice.

 

* * *

 

December 24th in History:

 

640 – Pope John IV is elected.

759 – Tang Dynasty poet Du Fu departs for Chengdu, where he is hosted by fellow poet Pei Di.

1144 – The capital of the crusader County of Edessa falls to Imad ad-Din Zengi, the atabeg of Mosul and Aleppo.

1294 – Pope Boniface VIII is elected Pope, replacing St. Celestine V, who had resigned.

1777 – Kiritimati, also called Christmas Island, is discovered by James Cook.

1814 – The Treaty of Ghent is signed ending the War of 1812.

1818 – The first performance of "Silent Night" takes place in the church of St. Nikolaus in Oberndorf, Austria.

1826 – The Eggnog Riot at the United States Military Academy begins that night, wrapping up the following morning.

1851 – Library of Congress burns.

1865 – The Ku Klux Klan is formed.

1871 – Aida opens in Cairo, Egypt.

1906 – Radio: Reginald Fessenden transmits the first radio broadcast; consisting of a poetry reading, a violin solo, and a speech.

1911 – Lackawanna Cut-Off railway line opens in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

1913 – The Italian Hall disaster ("1913 Massacre") in Calumet, Michigan, results in the death of 73 Christmas party goers held by striking mine workers, including 59 children.

1914 – World War I: The "Christmas truce" begins.

1924 – Albania becomes a republic.

1929 – Assassination attempt on Argentine President Hipólito Yrigoyen.

1939 – World War II: Pope Pius XII makes a Christmas Eve appeal for peace.

1941 – World War II: Kuching is conquered by Japanese forces.

1942 – World War II: French monarchist, Fernand Bonnier de La Chapelle, assassinates Vichy French Admiral François Darlan in Algiers, Algeria.

1943 – World War II: U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower is named Supreme Allied Commander for the Normandy Invasion.

1951 – Libya becomes independent from Italy. Idris I is proclaimed King of Libya.

1953 – Tangiwai disaster: In New Zealand's North Island, at Tangiwai, a railway bridge is damaged by a lahar and collapses beneath a passenger train, killing 151 people.

1955 – NORAD Tracks Santa for the first time in what will become an annual Christmas Eve tradition.

1964 – Vietnam War: Viet Cong operatives bomb the Brinks Hotel in Saigon, South Vietnam to demonstrate they can strike an American installation in the heavily guarded capital.

1966 – A Canadair CL-44 chartered by the United States military crashes into a small village in South Vietnam, killing 129.

1968 – Apollo program: The crew of Apollo 8 enters into orbit around the Moon, becoming the first humans to do so. They performed 10 lunar orbits and broadcast live TV pictures that became the famous Christmas Eve Broadcast, one of the most watched programs in history.

1969 – Charles Manson is allowed to defend himself at the Tate-LaBianca murder trial.

1972 – Japan Airlines Flight 472, operated Douglas DC-8-53 landed at Juhu Aerodrome instead of Santacruz Airport in Bombay, India.

1973 – District of Columbia Home Rule Act is passed, allowing residents of Washington, D.C. to elect their own local government.

1974 – Cyclone Tracy devastates Darwin, Australia.

1979 – The first European Ariane rocket is launched.

1980 – Witnesses report the first of several sightings of unexplained lights near RAF Woodbridge, in Rendlesham Forest, Suffolk, England, United Kingdom, an incident called "Britain's Roswell".

1994 – Air France Flight 8969 is hijacked on the ground, over the course of 3 days 3 passengers are killed, as are all 4 terrorists.

1997 – The Sid El-Antri massacre (or Sidi Lamri) in Algeria kills 50-100 people.

2000 – The Texas Seven hold up a sports store in Irving, Texas. Police officer Aubrey Hawkins is murdered during the robbery.

2003 – The Spanish police thwart an attempt by ETA to detonate 50 kg of explosives at 3:55 p.m. inside Madrid's busy Chamartín Station.

2005 – Chad–Sudan relations: Chad declares a state of war against Sudan following a December 18 attack on Adré, which left about 100 people dead.

2008 – Lord's Resistance Army, a Ugandan rebel group, begins a series of attacks on Democratic Republic of the Congo, massacring more than 400.

Famous Folk Born on December 24th:

 

Philip Warwick

Benjamin Rush

Kit Carson (Brevet General although he could neither read nor write)

Emanuel Lasker

Juan Ramon Jimenez

Michael Curtiz

Howard Hughes

Ava Gardner

General George Patton, IV (like his father, recipient of not one but two Distinguished Service Crosses)

Mary Higgins Clark

Robert Joffrey

Janet Carroll

Mike Curb

Nicholas Meyer

Clarence Gilyard

Kate Spade

Ricky Martin

Stephenie Meyer

Ryan Seacrest

Riyo Mori

 

Movie quotes today come from "Die Hard", the ultimate in Christmas movies:

 

John McClane: You throw quite a party. I didn't realize they celebrated Christmas in Japan.

Joseph Takagi: Hey, we're flexible. Pearl Harbor didn't work out so we got you with tape decks.

 

#2

 

Holly Gennero McClane: I have a request.

Hans Gruber: What idiot put you in charge?
Holly Gennero McClane: You did. When you murdered my boss. Now everybody's looking to me. Personally, I'd pass on the job. I don't enjoy being this close to you.

 

#3

 

 Hans Gruber: Theo, are we on schedule?

Theo: One more to go then it's up to you. And you better be right, because it looks like this last one is going to take a miracle.
Hans Gruber: It's Christmas, Theo. It's the time of miracles. So be of good cheer... and call me when you hit the last lock.

#4

Dwayne T. Robinson: We don't know shit, Powell. If there's hostages, how come nobody's come to us with ransom demands, huh? If there's terrorists in there, where's their list of demands? All we know is that somebody shot your car up. It's probably the same silly son of a bitch you've been talking to on that radio.
Sergeant Al Powell: Excuse me, sir! But what about the body that fell out the window?
Dwayne T. Robinson: Well, who knows? Probably some stockbroker, got depressed.