A world leader and an Oakland teenager
You may or may not remember that Ariel Sharon, former Prime Minister of Israel, suffered a massive stroke back in 2006. Although his family says that he sometimes moves his fingers or opens his eyes briefly, he has never regained consciousness. Tests show he has a bare minimum of brain activity. Now 85, his organs are failing and his condition is worsening.
Do you think he would have wanted to live on for seven years, in what doctors refer to as a persistent vegetative state? I don't. In his time he was a paratrooper, a brilliant military strategist and general, and then the leader of his nation. If there was even the tiniest glimmer of hope he might awaken and be the man he once was, then by all means, keep him alive. Sadly, that glimmer doesn't seem to exist.
If the family of Jahi McMath wants to keep her on a ventilator after doctors have told them she is dead, has no brain activity, and there is no possibility she will ever awaken, that's their prerogative. But should we be paying for it? I think they'll have the money to pay for it themselves at some point, since I'm fairly certain they will win a wrongful death suit against the hospital. Except of course, it's awfully hard to sue for wrongful death when the family insists the child is still alive.
There are a million conundrums in these cases. It is damn hard to decide when the time has arrived to stop spending precious medical resources to continue to try to save someone who is gone. Doctors should do everything humanly possible to try to save a life. Without regard to financial concerns. But when it is clear the person has gone, then continuing to try to preserve a corpse makes no sense to anyone but the loved ones.
I have no issue with hospitals spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to try to keep someone alive. But in a time where we're fighting about how to pay for the expense of healthcare, perhaps we should be talking about when the time comes to pull the plug. Never before a person is determined to have no hope of recovery. However, when you cross that line, the conversation needs to begin.
* * *
I took one last look at the list of notable deaths in 2013 and have these thoughts on some of them (nothing profound mind you, merely one last tribute):
Tony Sheridan - last living person to share performance credit with the Beatles until his death (Billy Preston being the only other performer to do so).
Ed Koch - a real character.
Hugo Chavez - I don't care what Sean Penn thinks, Chavez was a tyrant.
Paul Bearer - one of the most colorful characters in WWE history.
Joe Weider - an inspiration when it came to physical fitness.
Ruth Prawer Jhabvala - an amazingly talented writer, only person ever to win a Booker prize and an Oscar.
Roger Ebert - I feel bad for having been so harsh in my criticism of a film review published under his byline. He was a much better film critic than I will ever be.
Margaret Thatcher - I admire her for not having issues with the comic portrayals of her in films.
Ray Manzarek - an incredible talent.
Jean Stapleton - perfectly cast as Edith, no one else could have done so much with that role.
James Gandolfini - taken from us too soon, he had many more parts to play in the movies of the future. A great loss.
Corey Monteith - the real tragedy is that few will learn any lesson from his death.
Dennis Farina - his portrayals of cops and crooks were made so realistic by his years of service as a police officer.
Karen Black - I loved her in one of her last movie roles, a terrific actress.
Tom Clancy - my gratitude for his writings is endless. I have enjoyed many hours of pleasure reading his works.
Bill Sharman - a basketball genius.
Marcia Wallace - much more talented than she received credit for.
Paul Walker - a great tragedy.
Peter O'Toole - with all of his great roles, my two favorites are Lawrence of Arabia and Allen Swann.
* * *
Now that I've finished looking back at last year's deaths, I come to the topic of who will die today and in the 364 days to come this year. The "death pool" games are afoot. They all follow a basic premise of picking several celebrities who you think will die in the year ahead. Subtract their age at death from a base number (100, 90, 80, depending on whose game it is) and you can see their available points.
There's something morbid about this game and I've pretty much avoided it in the past. However, I'm curious about it this year and so I'm thinking of making some predictions, and even entering a contest or two. However, before I do I need to give it more thought.
What do you think about such things?
* * *
Random Ponderings:
Lots of people are high on more than sunshine today in Colorado.
Should Starbucks buy up the 99 Cents Store chain and rename them SmallBucks?
There has to be a mid-way point to be found between mandating contraception for nuns who have taken a vow of chastity and not providing birth control for employees who want/need it. I just don't know exactly where that point is.
Jay Mohr has shown again he has no class in taking a cheap shot at Alyssa Milano.
It's okay to be a huge fan of Breaking Bad, but making your own meth to sell is going too far.
The Duck Dynasty people are now adding shotguns, semi-automatic rifles and pistols and more to the list of things they turn a buck from. So what? Why should they be any different than Smith and Wesson, or Colt, or any of the others who make money selling guns?
Walmart sells donkey meat in China? Glad I don't live in China.
Rules are rules. When the Nets walked off the court before time expired, the game wasn't over. The refs can't just blow off part of a game, even if it is only 0.2 seconds.
It might be that working hard to lose weight is the best financial move you can make in 2014. One expert says that cutting the calories, which can cut food costs, also leads to lowered out of pocket medical expenses. Of course, if you don't have out of pocket expenses...
The new physical fitness standard for women in the Marine Corps of at least three pull-ups during fitness testing went into effect on January 1st. Now the new standard's implementation has to be delayed because half of the female recruits undergoing basic training can't do three pull-ups. Maybe with a little more training...
Rob Ford running for reelection might be the best entertainment available in 2014.
Jillian Michaels is giving advice on how to get the body you want. There's a woman whose body I'd like to have next to mine in my bed, maybe Jillian's advice will make that happen.
The Utah woman who had told the father of the child she was going to give birth to that she would share custody of him; who planned all along to give the child up for adoption, committed a really loathsome act.
An interracial couple in Georgia found the term "jungle fever" written on the tag the valet used to identify them and their car when they went to dine out, and they are understandably upset. The valet service that provides parking attendants at that restaurant has fired the valet in question. But I'm surprised that the woman said she was "...unaware racism is alive and well" which seems naïve. I hate the notion of racism but I know that it hasn't been eradicated in this country.
It is interesting to note that January 3rd is the date both Martin Luther and Fidel Castro were excommunicated by the sitting Pope.
* * *
January 3rd in History:
1431 – Joan of Arc is handed over to Bishop Pierre Cauchon.
1521 – Pope Leo X excommunicates Martin Luther in the papal bull Decet Romanum Pontificem.
1653 – By the Coonan Cross Oath, the Eastern Church in India cuts itself off from colonial Portuguese tutelage.
1749 – Benning Wentworth issues the first of the New Hampshire Grants, leading to the establishment of Vermont.
1749 – The first issue of Berlingske, Denmark's oldest continually operating newspaper, is published.
1777 – American General George Washington defeats British General Lord Cornwallis at the Battle of Princeton.
1815 – Austria, the United Kingdom, and France form a secret defensive alliance against Prussia and Russia.
1823 – Stephen F. Austin receives a grant of land in Texas from the government of Mexico.
1848 – Joseph Jenkins Roberts is sworn in as the first president of the independent African Liberia.
1861 – American Civil War: Delaware votes not to secede from the United States.
1868 – Meiji Restoration in Japan: The Tokugawa shogunate is abolished; agents of Satsuma and Chōshū seize power.
1870 – Construction of the Brooklyn Bridge begins.
1885 – Beginning of the Battle of Nui Bop
1888 – The refracting telescope at the Lick Observatory, measuring 91 cm in diameter, is used for the first time. It was the largest telescope in the world at the time.
1911 – A magnitude 7.7 earthquake destroys the city of Almaty in Russian Turkestan.
1919 – At the Paris Peace Conference, Emir Faisal I of Iraq signs an agreement with Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann on the development of a Jewish homeland in Palestine and an Arab nation in a large part of the Middle East.
1925 – Benito Mussolini announces he is taking dictatorial powers over Italy.
1932 – Martial law is declared in Honduras to stop a revolt by banana workers fired by the United Fruit Company.
1933 – Minnie D. Craig becomes the first female elected as Speaker of the North Dakota House of Representatives, the first female to hold a Speaker position anywhere in the United States.
1938 – The March of Dimes is established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
1944 – World War II: Top Ace Major Greg "Pappy" Boyington is shot down in his Vought F4U Corsair by Captain Masajiro Kawato flying a Mitsubishi A6M Zero.
1945 – World War II: Admiral Chester W. Nimitz is placed in command of all U.S. Naval forces in preparation for planned assaults against Iwo Jima and Okinawa in Japan.
1946 – Popular Canadian American jockey George Woolf dies in a freak accident during a race; the annual George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award is created to honor him.
1947 – Proceedings of the U.S. Congress are televised for the first time.
1949 – The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the central bank of the Philippines, is established.
1953 – Frances P. Bolton and her son, Oliver from Ohio, become the first mother and son to serve simultaneously in the U.S. Congress.
1956 – A fire damages the top part of the Eiffel Tower.
1957 – The Hamilton Watch Company introduces the first electric watch.
1958 – The West Indies Federation is formed.
1959 – Alaska is admitted as the 49th U.S. state.
1959 – Separatists in the Maldives declare the establishment of the United Suvadive Republic.
1961 – The United States severs diplomatic relations with Cuba.
1961 – A core explosion and meltdown at the SL-1, a government-run reactor near Idaho Falls, Idaho, kills three workers.
1961 – In Finland's worst civilian aviation accident an Aero Flight 311 crashes near Kvevlax, resulting in the deaths of all 25 people aboard.
1962 – Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro.
1976 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights comes into effect.
1977 – Apple Computers is incorporated.
1990 – Former leader of Panama Manuel Noriega surrenders to American forces.
1993 – In Moscow, Russia, George Bush and Boris Yeltsin sign the second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START).
1994 – More than seven million people from the former Apartheid Homelands, receive South African citizenship.
1996 – The Motorola StarTAC, the first flip phone and one of the first mobile phones to gain widespread consumer adoption, goes on sale.
1997 – China announces it will spend US$27.7 billion to fight erosion and pollution in the Yangtze and Yellow River valleys.
1999 – The Mars Polar Lander is launched.
1999 – Israel detains, and later expels, 14 members of Concerned Christians.
2000 – The last original weekday Peanuts comic strip is published.
2002 – Israeli forces seize the Palestinian freighter Karine A in the Red Sea, finding 50 tons of weapons.
2004 – Flash Airlines Flight 604 crashes into the Red Sea, resulting in 148 deaths, making it the deadliest aviation accident in Egyptian history.
Famous Folk Born on January 3rd:
Cicero ("The welfare of the people is the highest law")
Josephine Hull
J. R. R. Tolkien
ZaSu Pitts
Marion Davies
Ngo Dihn Diem
Ray Milland
Victor Borge
Jack Levine
Vernon A. Walters
Bill Travers
Hank Stram
George Martin
Robert Loggia
Dabney Coleman
Bobby Hull
Stephen Stills
John Paul Jones
Victoria Principal
Jim Ross
Mel Gibson
Michael Schumacher
Matt Ross
Danica McKellar
Eli Manning
Movie quotes today are from 1974's "Earthquake" as Victoria Principal was in it:
Mayor Lewis: The governor and I aren't even in the same party. If this turns out to be a false alarm, he'll make me out to be the biggest fool west of the Mississippi.
Dr. Stockle: Second biggest. I'll top the list.
#2
Sam Royce: Barbara, take off your pantyhose, damnit! You too, c'mon, take off your pantyhose!
(Reporter's note: Royce, portrayed by Lorne Greene, needed the pantyhose to fashion a rope to lower his employees from one point on the stairwell to the next lower point that hadn't been destroyed by the earthquake)
#3
Remy Royce-Graff: [shouting] God damn it!
Stewart Graff: Your last words to me last night; your first words this morning. Ever thought about expanding your vocabulary?
#4
Remy Royce-Graff: If it wasn't 7:30 in the morning, I'd have a drink.
Stewart Graff: I didn't know you were a clock watcher.
Remy Royce-Graff: What did you say?
Stewart Graff: [quietly] I said I didn't know you were a clock watcher.
Remy Royce-Graff: Don't you lower your voice to me!
Do you think he would have wanted to live on for seven years, in what doctors refer to as a persistent vegetative state? I don't. In his time he was a paratrooper, a brilliant military strategist and general, and then the leader of his nation. If there was even the tiniest glimmer of hope he might awaken and be the man he once was, then by all means, keep him alive. Sadly, that glimmer doesn't seem to exist.
If the family of Jahi McMath wants to keep her on a ventilator after doctors have told them she is dead, has no brain activity, and there is no possibility she will ever awaken, that's their prerogative. But should we be paying for it? I think they'll have the money to pay for it themselves at some point, since I'm fairly certain they will win a wrongful death suit against the hospital. Except of course, it's awfully hard to sue for wrongful death when the family insists the child is still alive.
There are a million conundrums in these cases. It is damn hard to decide when the time has arrived to stop spending precious medical resources to continue to try to save someone who is gone. Doctors should do everything humanly possible to try to save a life. Without regard to financial concerns. But when it is clear the person has gone, then continuing to try to preserve a corpse makes no sense to anyone but the loved ones.
I have no issue with hospitals spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to try to keep someone alive. But in a time where we're fighting about how to pay for the expense of healthcare, perhaps we should be talking about when the time comes to pull the plug. Never before a person is determined to have no hope of recovery. However, when you cross that line, the conversation needs to begin.
* * *
I took one last look at the list of notable deaths in 2013 and have these thoughts on some of them (nothing profound mind you, merely one last tribute):
Tony Sheridan - last living person to share performance credit with the Beatles until his death (Billy Preston being the only other performer to do so).
Ed Koch - a real character.
Hugo Chavez - I don't care what Sean Penn thinks, Chavez was a tyrant.
Paul Bearer - one of the most colorful characters in WWE history.
Joe Weider - an inspiration when it came to physical fitness.
Ruth Prawer Jhabvala - an amazingly talented writer, only person ever to win a Booker prize and an Oscar.
Roger Ebert - I feel bad for having been so harsh in my criticism of a film review published under his byline. He was a much better film critic than I will ever be.
Margaret Thatcher - I admire her for not having issues with the comic portrayals of her in films.
Ray Manzarek - an incredible talent.
Jean Stapleton - perfectly cast as Edith, no one else could have done so much with that role.
James Gandolfini - taken from us too soon, he had many more parts to play in the movies of the future. A great loss.
Corey Monteith - the real tragedy is that few will learn any lesson from his death.
Dennis Farina - his portrayals of cops and crooks were made so realistic by his years of service as a police officer.
Karen Black - I loved her in one of her last movie roles, a terrific actress.
Tom Clancy - my gratitude for his writings is endless. I have enjoyed many hours of pleasure reading his works.
Bill Sharman - a basketball genius.
Marcia Wallace - much more talented than she received credit for.
Paul Walker - a great tragedy.
Peter O'Toole - with all of his great roles, my two favorites are Lawrence of Arabia and Allen Swann.
* * *
Now that I've finished looking back at last year's deaths, I come to the topic of who will die today and in the 364 days to come this year. The "death pool" games are afoot. They all follow a basic premise of picking several celebrities who you think will die in the year ahead. Subtract their age at death from a base number (100, 90, 80, depending on whose game it is) and you can see their available points.
There's something morbid about this game and I've pretty much avoided it in the past. However, I'm curious about it this year and so I'm thinking of making some predictions, and even entering a contest or two. However, before I do I need to give it more thought.
What do you think about such things?
* * *
Random Ponderings:
Lots of people are high on more than sunshine today in Colorado.
Should Starbucks buy up the 99 Cents Store chain and rename them SmallBucks?
There has to be a mid-way point to be found between mandating contraception for nuns who have taken a vow of chastity and not providing birth control for employees who want/need it. I just don't know exactly where that point is.
Jay Mohr has shown again he has no class in taking a cheap shot at Alyssa Milano.
It's okay to be a huge fan of Breaking Bad, but making your own meth to sell is going too far.
The Duck Dynasty people are now adding shotguns, semi-automatic rifles and pistols and more to the list of things they turn a buck from. So what? Why should they be any different than Smith and Wesson, or Colt, or any of the others who make money selling guns?
Walmart sells donkey meat in China? Glad I don't live in China.
Rules are rules. When the Nets walked off the court before time expired, the game wasn't over. The refs can't just blow off part of a game, even if it is only 0.2 seconds.
It might be that working hard to lose weight is the best financial move you can make in 2014. One expert says that cutting the calories, which can cut food costs, also leads to lowered out of pocket medical expenses. Of course, if you don't have out of pocket expenses...
The new physical fitness standard for women in the Marine Corps of at least three pull-ups during fitness testing went into effect on January 1st. Now the new standard's implementation has to be delayed because half of the female recruits undergoing basic training can't do three pull-ups. Maybe with a little more training...
Rob Ford running for reelection might be the best entertainment available in 2014.
Jillian Michaels is giving advice on how to get the body you want. There's a woman whose body I'd like to have next to mine in my bed, maybe Jillian's advice will make that happen.
The Utah woman who had told the father of the child she was going to give birth to that she would share custody of him; who planned all along to give the child up for adoption, committed a really loathsome act.
An interracial couple in Georgia found the term "jungle fever" written on the tag the valet used to identify them and their car when they went to dine out, and they are understandably upset. The valet service that provides parking attendants at that restaurant has fired the valet in question. But I'm surprised that the woman said she was "...unaware racism is alive and well" which seems naïve. I hate the notion of racism but I know that it hasn't been eradicated in this country.
It is interesting to note that January 3rd is the date both Martin Luther and Fidel Castro were excommunicated by the sitting Pope.
* * *
January 3rd in History:
1431 – Joan of Arc is handed over to Bishop Pierre Cauchon.
1521 – Pope Leo X excommunicates Martin Luther in the papal bull Decet Romanum Pontificem.
1653 – By the Coonan Cross Oath, the Eastern Church in India cuts itself off from colonial Portuguese tutelage.
1749 – Benning Wentworth issues the first of the New Hampshire Grants, leading to the establishment of Vermont.
1749 – The first issue of Berlingske, Denmark's oldest continually operating newspaper, is published.
1777 – American General George Washington defeats British General Lord Cornwallis at the Battle of Princeton.
1815 – Austria, the United Kingdom, and France form a secret defensive alliance against Prussia and Russia.
1823 – Stephen F. Austin receives a grant of land in Texas from the government of Mexico.
1848 – Joseph Jenkins Roberts is sworn in as the first president of the independent African Liberia.
1861 – American Civil War: Delaware votes not to secede from the United States.
1868 – Meiji Restoration in Japan: The Tokugawa shogunate is abolished; agents of Satsuma and Chōshū seize power.
1870 – Construction of the Brooklyn Bridge begins.
1885 – Beginning of the Battle of Nui Bop
1888 – The refracting telescope at the Lick Observatory, measuring 91 cm in diameter, is used for the first time. It was the largest telescope in the world at the time.
1911 – A magnitude 7.7 earthquake destroys the city of Almaty in Russian Turkestan.
1919 – At the Paris Peace Conference, Emir Faisal I of Iraq signs an agreement with Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann on the development of a Jewish homeland in Palestine and an Arab nation in a large part of the Middle East.
1925 – Benito Mussolini announces he is taking dictatorial powers over Italy.
1932 – Martial law is declared in Honduras to stop a revolt by banana workers fired by the United Fruit Company.
1933 – Minnie D. Craig becomes the first female elected as Speaker of the North Dakota House of Representatives, the first female to hold a Speaker position anywhere in the United States.
1938 – The March of Dimes is established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
1944 – World War II: Top Ace Major Greg "Pappy" Boyington is shot down in his Vought F4U Corsair by Captain Masajiro Kawato flying a Mitsubishi A6M Zero.
1945 – World War II: Admiral Chester W. Nimitz is placed in command of all U.S. Naval forces in preparation for planned assaults against Iwo Jima and Okinawa in Japan.
1946 – Popular Canadian American jockey George Woolf dies in a freak accident during a race; the annual George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award is created to honor him.
1947 – Proceedings of the U.S. Congress are televised for the first time.
1949 – The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the central bank of the Philippines, is established.
1953 – Frances P. Bolton and her son, Oliver from Ohio, become the first mother and son to serve simultaneously in the U.S. Congress.
1956 – A fire damages the top part of the Eiffel Tower.
1957 – The Hamilton Watch Company introduces the first electric watch.
1958 – The West Indies Federation is formed.
1959 – Alaska is admitted as the 49th U.S. state.
1959 – Separatists in the Maldives declare the establishment of the United Suvadive Republic.
1961 – The United States severs diplomatic relations with Cuba.
1961 – A core explosion and meltdown at the SL-1, a government-run reactor near Idaho Falls, Idaho, kills three workers.
1961 – In Finland's worst civilian aviation accident an Aero Flight 311 crashes near Kvevlax, resulting in the deaths of all 25 people aboard.
1962 – Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro.
1976 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights comes into effect.
1977 – Apple Computers is incorporated.
1990 – Former leader of Panama Manuel Noriega surrenders to American forces.
1993 – In Moscow, Russia, George Bush and Boris Yeltsin sign the second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START).
1994 – More than seven million people from the former Apartheid Homelands, receive South African citizenship.
1996 – The Motorola StarTAC, the first flip phone and one of the first mobile phones to gain widespread consumer adoption, goes on sale.
1997 – China announces it will spend US$27.7 billion to fight erosion and pollution in the Yangtze and Yellow River valleys.
1999 – The Mars Polar Lander is launched.
1999 – Israel detains, and later expels, 14 members of Concerned Christians.
2000 – The last original weekday Peanuts comic strip is published.
2002 – Israeli forces seize the Palestinian freighter Karine A in the Red Sea, finding 50 tons of weapons.
2004 – Flash Airlines Flight 604 crashes into the Red Sea, resulting in 148 deaths, making it the deadliest aviation accident in Egyptian history.
Famous Folk Born on January 3rd:
Cicero ("The welfare of the people is the highest law")
Josephine Hull
J. R. R. Tolkien
ZaSu Pitts
Marion Davies
Ngo Dihn Diem
Ray Milland
Victor Borge
Jack Levine
Vernon A. Walters
Bill Travers
Hank Stram
George Martin
Robert Loggia
Dabney Coleman
Bobby Hull
Stephen Stills
John Paul Jones
Victoria Principal
Jim Ross
Mel Gibson
Michael Schumacher
Matt Ross
Danica McKellar
Eli Manning
Movie quotes today are from 1974's "Earthquake" as Victoria Principal was in it:
Mayor Lewis: The governor and I aren't even in the same party. If this turns out to be a false alarm, he'll make me out to be the biggest fool west of the Mississippi.
Dr. Stockle: Second biggest. I'll top the list.
#2
Sam Royce: Barbara, take off your pantyhose, damnit! You too, c'mon, take off your pantyhose!
(Reporter's note: Royce, portrayed by Lorne Greene, needed the pantyhose to fashion a rope to lower his employees from one point on the stairwell to the next lower point that hadn't been destroyed by the earthquake)
#3
Remy Royce-Graff: [shouting] God damn it!
Stewart Graff: Your last words to me last night; your first words this morning. Ever thought about expanding your vocabulary?
#4
Remy Royce-Graff: If it wasn't 7:30 in the morning, I'd have a drink.
Stewart Graff: I didn't know you were a clock watcher.
Remy Royce-Graff: What did you say?
Stewart Graff: [quietly] I said I didn't know you were a clock watcher.
Remy Royce-Graff: Don't you lower your voice to me!
posted by me at 11:13 AM
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