Guilty, But Why Exaggerate The Charges?

OK, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has been found guilty on all 30 counts in the marathon-bombing trial.

What were those counts?  Let’s look at a few:

Count 1:  Conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction

Count 2:  Using weapon of mass destruction (pressure cooker bomb #1)

Count 3:  Used or carried firearm (pressure cooker bomb #1)

Count 4:  Use of weapon of mass destruction (pressure cooker bomb #2)

Count 5:  Used or carried firearm (pressure cooker bomb #2)

et cetera

(here’s a CNN link to a full listing of the counts:  http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/08/us/boston-marathon-bombing-verdict-list/index.html )

So, a pressure-cooker bomb is supposed to be a weapon of mass destruction — something the U.S. military was not able to find in Iraq after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein.  Really?  The Tsarnaev brothers were able to construct something that Saddam Hussein (with all of the resources of Iraq) could not?

And, those “weapons of mass destruction” are also considered firearms?  (So conversely, can firearms be considered weapons of mass destruction?  Watch out, gun owners.)

I did a quick Google search on “What is a weapon of mass destruction?”, and here’s the answer i got:

weap·on of mass de·struc·tion

noun

a chemical, biological or radioactive weapon capable of causing widespread death and destruction.

So, widespread death and destruction from pressure-cooker bombs?  I think not.  Only limited death and destruction.  And definitely not a chemical, biological, or radioactive weapon.

According to wikipedia:

A weapon of mass destruction (WMD or WoMD) is a nuclear, radiological, chemical, biological or other weapon that can kill and bring significant harm to a large number of humans or cause great damage to human-made structures (e.g. buildings), natural structures (e.g. mountains), or the biosphere.

[ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weapon_of_mass_destruction ]

What was the casualty list from the marathon bombing?  The tally varies.  Three people dead, 170 injured according to:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/17/boston-marathon-bombing-victims-stories-dead-injured_n_3099632.html

Wikipedia lists 3 people dead and 264 injured.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Marathon_bombings

A lot of casualties, no question; but was it from the use of weapons of mass destruction?  They were bombs, sure; but i think that calling each of the pressure-cooker bombs a “weapon of mass destruction” is a bit much.

What this basically means to me is that any charge in the Dzhokhar Tsarnaev court case that contained the words “weapon of mass destruction” was basically meaningless.  Which counts included those words?  Twelve counts (#s 1, 2, 4, 16, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30) included those words; eighteen counts (#s 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22) did not.

Any juror who voted guilty on the “weapon of mass destruction” counts was a tool, IMHO.

Well, at least eighteen of the thirty counts •did• mean something — that’s 60% of them — so i guess a (slight) majority of the verdict has significance.  The other 40%?  Not significant.

Close enough for government work.

(And believe me, i’m all for the full prosecution of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev for the bombing; but there’s no need to exaggerate the charges.)

I posted this picture back on Wednesday 10 July 2013 ( http://dsm32.blogspot.com/2013/07/a-mockery-pure-and-simple.html ), and the question still stands:

And the answer is still...

STAY AWAY from Bank of America ! ! !

Remember when banks used to be happy to house your money and pleased to do business with you?  Not so much anymore, especially with Bank of America.

My insurance company (United American) sent me a refund check yesterday, for some overcharge or other.  It was a Bank of America check, so i looked online and sure enough there’s a branch not half a mile from our apartment.

I walked there this afternoon to cash the check — figured i’d get some exercise and avoid the hassle of having to scan the check so i could submit it online to my Capital One 360 account (formerly ING); maybe i’d even think about switching my account from Santander, which is way on the other side of town.

But it turns out that the Bank of America branch won’t cash a Bank of America check ! ! !  (Not without a fee, at least, since i don’t have an account there.  Cambridge Savings bank was always happy to cash checks that my mother wrote me, even though i don’t have an account there — no fee.)

It’s a Bank of America check.  Why won’t Bank of America cash it?  Because they’re idiots, according to my wife.

It’s a $7 check, not likely to break the bank.  Why does Bank of America want to charge me a fee for doing what my insurance company HIRED them to do?  I guess it’s because Bank of America is greedy, greedy, greedy.  All they want is more money; they don’t give a damned about customers.

But now Bank of America will not (voluntarily, at least) get another PENNY of my business, and i will from now on go out of my way to publicize what a crappy bank they’ve become.

Never do business with Bank of America — my new motto.  (Heh, so much for me maybe opening an account there.)

I spit on Bank of America.  Ptooey!

How limited is Amazon’s “Kindle Unlimited”?

Maybe you've seen the recent promo-push for Amazon's new "Kindle Unlimited" program; i sure have.  The question:  Is it worth it?

So i did a quick check for ebooks i’m still looking for in the SEARCH bar of Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited:

There are NO ebooks in "Kindle Unlimited" by Steven Pinker, Daniel Dennett, Douglas Hofstadter, Andrew Radford, Paul Bowles, David Attenborough, Douglas Adams, Elizabeth Graver, Diane Ackerman, Susanna Kaysen, E. B. White, Mary Karr, Robert Heinlein, Bjarne Stroustrup, Walter Savitch, Adam Drozdek, Daniel Jurafsky, James Pustejovsky, or Richard Feynman — not a single one by any author i'm looking for!

There are only a few by Robert MacNeil (but not Breaking News the book i was really looking for), a few by Stephen Ambrose (but not Undaunted Courage), and a few by James Gleick (some good ones, though not The Information).

There was a good selection of J. R. R. Tolkien, however.  And there are probably lots of popular, everyday books — but those are exactly the kind you can get for free from your local library’s ebook service.

Amazon's “Kindle Unlimited” is *very* limited.  It includes a few good books and lots of second-rate ones that probably don't sell well to begin with; but IMHO it excludes most of the really good ones (the money-makers).  So don’t bother!  (Except for maybe a free trial, and then cancel. :-)

Southborough, MA moon photo, cropped

and when you crop the photo, the moon looks bigger . . .

a February 2007 morning

sometimes when you plan ahead a little (and remember where the moon sets from the previous year) . . .
[taken on a Sony camera in Southborough, Massachusetts]

Blue Monday no longer!

it's Wednesday (or Wodin's day), and Blue Monday (or Blue Moon day, even better!) feels far behind.  this picture is from Blue Monday morning, taken from our back deck.  we're moving back to civilization soon, or at least closer to it, and views like this won't be as close at hand.  Wodin, the Norse all-father, might not approve because our current locale somewhat resembles Valhalla (and our future neighborhood is a lot closer to Trader Joe's, which i doubt they have there, but i really like them).

speaking of Blue Moon, we'll be a lot closer to the site of Sandi's & my first date—Not Your Average Joe's, one of my favorite places to have a Blue Moon.  we'll probably be there in the spring, for our free birthday dinners (one of the perks of giving them your email), since our birthdays are close together.  and we'll be a lot closer to Concord, too.  good days ahead.

Obama's troubles vs W's troubles—Small Potatoes

Hmm, with all the current furor over the troubled roll-out of the Affordable Care Act (that is, the website for the health care exchanges), i was wondering how it compares to the troubles of the last administration (that of George W. Bush)...

The cost of developing the troubled website (by contractors with problematic histories):
   $600,000,000 (six hundred million dollars)

The cost of the Iraq war (over weapons of mass destruction that were never found):
   $1,000,000,000,000 (one trillion dollars)

So how much worse was George W. Bush's bungle than Barack Obama's?

One Thousand Six Hundred Sixty-Seven times worse! (approximately)

Like i said in the title:  Obama's troubles (in terms of his legacy) are small potatoes compared to those of George W. Bush.