Incontinence, Decrepitude, Senility and Death?

"As region's population ages, what does future hold for retirees?"

Just Get On the Ice Floe Already, Grandma

You'll forgive me, I hope, if I express the belief that this New York Times story is encouraging senior citizens to hurry up and shuffle off this mortal coil because they're taking too big a cut of the health care pie.

And why does it not surprise me that the writer, Daniel Callahan, is a co-director of the Yale-Hastings Program in Ethics and Health Policy? Seems to me that, whenever I see the word ethics invoked in an article like this, it requires some human being to die for the collective good, whether it is geezers (as here) or babies, as in discussions in the past by ethicists regarding post-birth abortions (their term, I call it infanticide).

Back To Work, Geezers!

The European model of social welfare from cradle-to-grave hits the wall:

The legislation is part of a radical shake-up in the Netherlands where Dutch policies to demand something in return for benefits have been cited as inspiration by David Cameron, the Prime Minister, for reform of the British welfare state.

The plans, drafted by Martin van Rijn, a Dutch health minister, would mean that recipients of social care would be "urgently requested" to carry out voluntary work to do something for society in payment for the benefits they receive.

"Loneliness could perhaps be overcome if the elderly helped pre-school children with language impairments improve their reading," his draft legislation, given to the Volkskrant newspaper proposed. "Or a retired accountant in a wheelchair could help out at the local councilﾒs debt advice service."

Unlike the Dutch unemployed, who can be obliged to do community service, the elderly, disabled or chronically sick cannot be forced to volunteer but local councils, who provide care, will be entitled to ask in an "intrusive manner" to work.

Yet Another Murder By One Of Obama's Sons

99-year-old Fannie Gumbinger won't make it to the century mark.

I wonder if the law enforcement agencies and the MSM will team up yet again to declare this yet another "random" murder with no racial overtones?

Jesus wept.

Video of the Day

I think you'll all love this:



h/t Amy Alkon.

That's What I Call a Really Slow Burn

"Court: 93-Year-Old Kills Wife Of 70 Years Because ‘He Couldn’t Take It Anymore’"

h/t Drudge Report.

She Had a Gun. It Wasn't Enough.

86-year-old Linnie Mae Ward followed the old rule that in a gunfight, the first rule is to have a gun. She also had the willingness to use it, and tried, when a man entered her bedroom and announced his intention to rob her.

The man rushed her as she attempted to bring her rifle to bear and overpowered her, then strangled her.

It's possible that he only wanted money, and didn't intend to kill her. Maybe she should have submitted, hoping for the best. She had the heart of a warrior, though, in her aged body, and though the spirit was willing, the flesh was weak, and she was unable to follow through on her effort to defend her home and her life.

God rest her soul.

The Brain Cells That Died First...

...were, apparently, the ones that reminded me to zip my trousers after urinating.

Because, more often than not these days, I forget to do so until I sit down somewhere, and notice the gape in my trousers.

*sigh*

And at age 50. Not encouraging.

The Result of Life Without Parole

"Inmates Over 50 Fastest Growing Prison Population."

That's the result you get when you discontinue the use of the death penalty and substitute "life without parole." You then have to accept that you'll be funding the care of those felons for the rest of their natural lives. Prediction: you'll see both liberals and conservatives clamoring for these senior citizen felons to be released; the liberals will demand it on "humanitarian" grounds, claiming the felons are now too old to harm anyone; the conservatives will demand it on economic grounds, not wanting the taxpayers burdened with their care.

He Brought a Sword To a Gunfight

In Winston-Salem, NC.

WINSTON-SALEM -- Winston-Salem police say a 67-year-old man has been shot to death after he attacked a man with a sword.

The Winston-Salem Journal reported that 56-year-old James Samuels was arrested Wednesday and charged with possession of a gun by a convicted felon and the sale and delivery of marijuana.

But police say Samuels will not be charged with killing Anthony Alphonzo McArthur because Samuels was acting in self-defense.

Winston-Salem police say McArthur had attacked Samuels with an 18-inch sword because he was unhappy with the amount of marijuana he purchased from Samuels.

Could just as easily call this one When geezers attack, I guess. Watching the Baby Boomers age ain't pretty.

Not Yer High-Speed Chase

She stabbed her husband and then tried to escape in her electric wheelchair.

I wonder if she tried to run over the cops when they tried to stop her?

Hell, If That Were the Secret...

...there'd be nonagenarian men everywhere.

Damn These Ageing Eyes

"Emerald ash borer confirmed in Smokies."

Of course I read it as Emerald ass borer and immediately pictured a weevil-like insect attacking a hiker...

Korean War Vet Shoots Home Invader

Shot him with a Luger that the old fellow brought back as a war souvenir.

It's too bad that Bob Strait in Tulsa, Oklahoma wasn't able to do the same thing.

Torpedoes and Flytraps

Stanly Rehder, a WWII Army veteran who's now in an assisted living home, has seen both in his life.

Folks may not know, though, that on Christmas Eve, 1944, Rehder helped save the lives of eight fellow GIs when a troop ship sank in the English Channel.

Rehder was 22, a graduate of New Hanover High School and a lieutenant with the 66th Division U.S. Army, when he boarded the Leopoldville, a Belgian liner converted to a troopship for World War II. He was napping as it made its way from Southampton, England, to Cherbourg, France, carrying more than 2,000 soldiers to join the Battle of the Bulge.

According to “Leopoldville: A Tragedy Too Long Secret” by Allan Andrade, the ship was only five miles from Cherbourg when it was struck by a torpedo fired by German U-boat 486.

In 1988, Rehder wrote an account of that night, titled “The Night Before Christmas.”

Click the link to read the rest.

Related gallery here.

Meth Lab In the Nursing Home

You know something is fundamentally wrong with this country when residents at a nursing home are manufacturing methamphetamine in their rooms.

We wondered why Mr. Dempsey was never out in the lobby with the other patients, snoring and drooling and pissing themselves...

A Blitch and a Son of a Blitch

Don't look at me, I didn't name them Blitch.

We'll call this one not quite a homonym.

Hmm, What's Going On Here?

The Geezer Militia plotting a McVeigh event?

And have any of you heard of this "online novel Absolved?"

update 1:Oh ho. It's written by Mike Vanderboegh of Sipsey Street Irregulars. I smell a Justice Department plot to shut Vanderboegh up.

update 2: Vanderboegh talks about it here.

update 3: For those wanting to read Absolved, David Codrea provides a link here.

Sad Headline of the Day

"Doctors ORDERED to treat elderly with respect... but shouldn't that go without saying?"

Yah, it should.

update: And in a related story, the Death Panels are hard at work, making sure that UK taxpayers' money is not wasted:

‘No there isn’t - he is a demented person, there’s no resuscitation needed.'

I'll Shoot You, My Pretty...And Your Little Dog, Too!

An old fellow in Hawthorne, Florida, had an argument with his wife that ended up with him threatening her (and her little dog, too) with a shotgun.