Nom de plume: Rivrdog

Huzzah!

Huzzah! News: I am discharged from the care of the Providence Cardiology Dept, which, having controlled my BP (but never having found out why it spiked), says that I have ZERO Peripheral Artery Disease, and am therefore cleared for UNLIMITED EXERCISE! ! ! !

I will decide which one of you gets to do that exercise. I would have decided by now, but it's been nap time....

That is all. Since it is now Cocktail Hour, a ritual I unfailingly observe with the dignity it requires, I might not get this decision done until Monday.

You will be kept informed.

(This Obama-style Life Management is sooooo easy!)

Monday Maudlin Meandering Manifesto

I have a few hours before the big fight to save the gudwife resumes, so here are some meandering thoughts I've been accumulating for a week or so.

• (Gun) Control: PawPaw skewers the traitorous Captain Mark Kelly with his sharp Acadian lampoon, and bastes him over a slow pit with his own juices. Laissez la Verite roule, monsieur!
• Our President: dares to flash his anti-semitism at Israeli defense policy. Here's a flash for YOU, Mister President: Israel is actually faced with nuclear annihilation should Iran get their nuke. We are only second on Iran's list. Being a small Nation, one nuke would do a lot of damage to the Israeli nation, whereas we could soak up one nuke and soldier on in the USA. If Israel is actually "beating it's chest", which I haven't seen, it's doing it as a means of issuing the strongest possible warning to Iran. Your "warnings" to Iran, Mister President, have no substance to them at all, and are taken as jokes, or worse, as Taqiyya in Qom and Tehran, so S.T.F.U., Mister President. BTW, the "beating the chest" remark is an obvious suck-up to Egypt's IMFWIC (Islamist mo-fo what's in charge) Morsi, and refers to his anti-semetic remark about the Jews being descendants of apes, so this is all about a bunch of anti-semites trying to one-up each other. Still think Obama isn't a closet Islamist?
• Nature musing: Do you read the venerable nature 'toon "Mark Trail" in the Sunday funny-papers? There is good stuff in there, and little of the usual earth-religion apple-crapple you get from other such sources. This weekend's enlightenment was about the genus Myocastor Coypus, better known by it's commercial name, Nutria, or it's local name, "water rat", except in Oregon, where "water rat" is the title given to OSU Beavers (by OU Duck fans, anyway). The story on the nutria was one of the usual meddling with nature and it's disastrous consequences. The prolific animal was brought here because of it's lustrous fur, and a commercial exploitation of that fur was made with varying success. Current exploitation of Coypus is to try to interest yuppies in eating it's flesh. One unscrupulous coypus farmer in Clark County, WA was discovered selling his skinned coypus carcasses to a local taco-shack chef, who put it in tacos and called it "pulled pork". While this sounds far-fetched, it's not, a good friend of mine from Seattle, down here to visit family, ate some water-rat tacos she picked up in Vancouver WA, got food poisoning from it, but had the left-overs to take to the King County medical officer, who positively identified it as water-rat meat, and had his counterpart in Clark County hammer the taco shack that sold them. I get a chuckle at the consternation of the enviros that all their precious wetlands are being done in by coypus, though, because, as the Wiki explains, they took care of this problem down Louisiana way by putting a bounty on the water rats, and .22s in the hands of hunters did the rest. Horrors! A GUN solution to a problem? Can't have that!

Well, it's getting on towards time to pester a few more medical staff about the gudwife's program, so I'll sign off for now.

All y'all keep your BeeEss detector screens on Double-Front, you hear?

Light at the end of the tunnel

My tunnel.

On 1-25-13, I first became aware that I had a severe hypertension (high blood pressure) issue going when I almost stroked out right here at Schloss Rivrdog, and the EMTs had to haul my butt to the ER.

Since then, with the help of my doc, I've been trying to regain control over the chronic hypertension, and bring it down with pharma help. That effort has been hit and miss:

• First, the doc advised I double my dosage of Lisinopril, a secondary medicine I was on a small dose of. That made no dent in the raging readings at all. I was still averaging 170/106 or so.
• The doc recommended I change my Propranol to Propranolol Slow Release, but neither the Government nor the vast Kroger Pharmacy chain could find me any.
• Next, I bumped up my own dosage of regular Propranolol by 50%, and that seemed to be having an effect, but the Doc decided my 20+ years on that drug were done, so he ordered MetoToprol.
• I had to wait almost ten days for the MetoToprol to be issued by Express Scripts, the Medicare pharmacy. In the meanwhile, I DID achieve re-control with the regular Propranolol, albeit at near the max dose of 320 mg/day.
• Finally, the MetoToprol arrives, about ten days ago, and I start all over again when I dropped the Propranolol. The blood pressure shot back up to the 170/105 range. After 4 days, the Doc said double the MetoToprol, and I did, but to little discernable effect. I'm damn near an invalid now, afraid to do anything physical because the slightest activity would run my diastolic blood pressure over 105, so I mope around the house, taking a lot of naps and cutting my salt intake to almost zero.
• A week goes by, and finally the numbers start to come down, sort of: I start running the mid 150s over the high 90's, still not acceptable, but getting farther from the danger level. 
• Finally, in the past 24 hours, I've achieved 3 readings in the mid-120s over the mid/high 80's, more or less normal. Looks like the Metotoprol is finally getting the upper hand. I'm hopeful to have at least a week of decent BP before I go see the cardiologist in the first week of March.

Of additional note in this struggle: no cause has been identified for this spike in my previously-controlled BP. At the cardiologist, I will have a high-contrast CAT scan of my heart and it's arteries to see if I've any occlusions that need stenting or bypassing. I wanted to just go get a stress test, but my doc said I was too fragile for one, I needed to demonstrate total medical control of the BP. Meanwhile, DMV tells me I have to prove up my medical suitability to have a CDL by the end of this month, or they will rip off my Class Two rating, so I guess that's history. Driving bus or heavy straight truck to keep body and soul together is no longer an option. I can still operate my M35A2 as a private vehicle, but not as a commercial truck, which it is licensed for. There are some states I couldn't operate the M35 in at all, I'll have to study up on that.

The other thing that I'm sure you've noticed is that I've reduced my blogging presence by about half. This was deliberate in order to relieve the BP crisis. Yes, I do, in fact, get jacked up some when I blog, it's probably why the mind is still clear after all the toil I have put it through. I might have to re-open the bar at BlogStation Alpha, because decent booze is a reliable way to lower BP.

That is all, now you are updated on your blogger's blogging condition.

 

Related articles

Rivrdog re-railed and back on schedule!

Defining a "crazy" person.

I just had my breakfast, a fine Seafood Medley Quiche that the gudwife whipped up. While gobbling two servings of the delicious dish, Fox News was droning in the background, and the morning show hostess Megan Kelly was blathering on about the CT shooter's mental state. Autism and Asperger's kept coming up.

Two things:

We can only infer his mental state, we can't actually test it or quantify it.

We are entering onto a slippery slope here, and one that historically has led to implementation of dictatorship.

Josef Stalin, the worst dictator the planet has ever had to suffer, developed "Mental Health" in the USSR to mean adherence to his rule. "Mental health standards" were then enforced on the population of Russia and it's immediate neighbors. According to those "Mental Health Standards", everything from going on a local watch list to death at hard labor were sanctions for not being "Mentally Healthy".

We are but a short step away from Stalin's system.

Yes, we need better methods of delineating dangerous crazies, getting them help, seeing that they take the help offered, and keeping guns from them until they are well again. I think we all can accept that.

What we can't accept is any form of political control in the disguise of a "Mental Health" initiative. The Administration has already done that, defining PTSD as "crazy" after the Virginia Tech mass murder. The military, under orders of the Commander in Chief, then developed a system of assuming that everyone who has seen combat has PTSD until proven free of it. That's wrong, but after the horror of Virginia State, even the NRA was schmoozed into buying off on it. Now we prepare to do the same with various mental states, the majority of which are very minor, and which cause few problems in the perople who have these conditions. You may yell "Whoopee" as you slide your tobaggan down this slippery slope, President Obama, but those of us with historical perspective, and especially those of us with some Russian blood, are convinced that there is more likely to be dictatorship than salvation in this onrushing system.

Got that, Mister President?

I knew you would understand it. Dictatorship in any form is unacceptable in the USA, and it matters not whether the dictator's men wear soldier's coats or white coats. Ignore this, and soon we will be pining for the relatively-peaceful days of Columbine, Virginia Tech and Newtown.

Oh, by the way, Mister President, Scotland had a school massacre a while back, resulting in even stronger gun regulation in that already disarmed part of England. Gun crime has shot up since then, It has likewise shot up in Australia, Mister President.

As I said right after Newtown, this isn't going to be about gun control unless it's just a pretext for that. The discussion needs to be about Crazy control, but there is just as much danger to the USA's freedom there. We tread very carefully now, or we lose it all.

On this solemn occasion (v.2.0)...

So, I just exercised my mind by writing a socio-philosophical piece, so I am not an Alzheimer's candidate (yet). But, when you're 69, you have to consider your frailty and you know that whatever is left of your life will not likely be much to write down. At 69, you've already done most of your good or bad works.

But then the gudwife mentioned one of our good friends in the yacht club who has Alzheimer's.  He's the third one to suffer from that brain-wasting disease in the last 5 years, in a group of only 50 or so families. The other two are already dead, and I watched them go from healthy, independent men to total dependence, minds shut down to their loved ones, and death. The third one is going that way.

The first one was a systems engineer in electrical control systems for industrial equipment.

The second was a retired City of Portland cop.

The third one is a retired Army Lt. Colonel.

All of them were my good friends, but I felt closest to the retired Col, because he and I shared the fighting of a war (he was an Artillery officer in 'Nam, among his other duties, and bright enough to be a Professor of Military Science at the end of his Army career).

All three of these people had a window of time to make a choice, and had they made it, there would have been much less impact on their loved ones at their end.

That choice is to accept the finality of Alzheimer's (no one recovers, once afflicted) and end their own lives while they were still in charge of those lives.

They failed to make that choice, and they condemned their loved ones to misery as a result.

How can a person do good works his/her entire life, and fail so miserably to be responsible at the end of it? Yes, I say FAIL, because any time one has a choice of paths, one path leads to a good end and one to a bad end. I challenge anyone to tell me that requiring your loved ones to put up with the personal anguish, the expense and the suffering involved in a loved one's end by Alzheimer's.

It's not right, don't do it.

The way I see it, you WILL be Judged on the avoidable suffering you inflicted on others, when it was your choice to end your life and cut off that suffering.

In our religions and in our philosophy of life, we have put far too much importance on our personal survival as an organism, and far too little importance on the impact of our lives on others. Our society can never be considered perfect or even good as long as we insist on inflicting years of misery on our loved ones just so some coroner or priest can write down that we died of "natural causes" instead of by our own hand.

We are fools, and uncaring fools at that. It should say so on our headstones.

"Death Panels" cranking up? Veterans to be their first victims!

I got this letter passed to me in an email from the Coyote Kid, who is retired USAF, but got his start as a grunt in 'Nam, so he's always a Marine first, and I don't hold it against him.

The letter is from a Vietnam vet, who had a strange experience at the hospital medical clinic just recently:

I  am a 67-year-old former Marine and a Vietnam veteran. And I say:
"Forget about living to age 75 in the USA!"

This  morning at Danbury Hospital here in Connecticut, I was scheduled  for
a cardio-lite stress test. This is a treadmill stress test  where nuclear
dye is injected into your bloodstream and you are  put in a CAT scan or
something similar in order to take a  picture of your heart. If all is
good, the heart shows up red;  if there are blocked arteries anywhere, the heart shows
up pink.  I have had three of these tests in the past twelve years due to
blocked arteries discovered in 2000. They use the test to  determine if I
need a "roto rooter" or a bypass  operation.

So,  I arrived for my previously schedule appointment at the hospital  at 8
a.m. this morning and in the process of checking in, the  lady in the front
desk said that my appointment has been  canceled. She made a call, spoke
with someone, and then she  handed me the phone. It was a nurse in the
Cardiology Department  who said that my medical insurance carrier denied the
procedure.

I  said, "It is a routine part of my heart maintenance program as  ordered
by my PCP and with approval from my cardiologist who is  the head of Danbury
Cardiology Department, which is right where  I am standing right now."

She  went, "Yes, but our request was  denied."

So  I said, "I have Medicare, so what is my backup insurance doing  denying
anything."

Then  the bombshell. . .she said, "It was the Medicare Board that  denied
the procedure."

At  that point, I turned to everyone behind me, and it was a long  line,
and I said to them "Well, you won't have to wait too long  today because my
stress test procedure was just canceled by a  Medicare Death Panel. I am only
67 so can you imagine what is  going to happen when we really get old?"

The  entire waiting room and everyone there from patients to staff  just
went dead silent.

Then,  I turned to the front desk staff and told them, "I guess I will
have to write a letter to the editor of the  Danbury News Times and call my
senators and congressman and let them know the Death Panels have  already
convened".

Then  I walked out.

By  the time I got home the message machine was blinking. My PCP had
called and so did the hospital and guess what? Medicare decided  to
approve my stress test procedure, and I should get back down  to the hospital, and they
would fit me in right away for the  3-hour procedure.

I  called back and told them that I couldn't make it, I was going  fishing
because I didn't know how many more fishing trips I  could get in before I
went into cardiac arrest, but not to worry  about me costing the government
any money because I am a 30%  disabled Army veteran due to Agent Orange
poisoning which is  what caused this heart problem to begin with, and I
qualify to  be buried for free in a plain pine box in the cheap graves  section at
any national cemetery. I certainly don't want to cost  our government any
money. So, maybe we just won't do the  procedure anymore and we can use the
money to redistribute it to  all of the illegals to keep them alive so
they can mow the lawns  at the national cemeteries.

And  so this note is for everyone to know that the Death Panel crap  has
already started. And if we don't vote this guy and his  criminal cronies out
of office this November, then we should all  expect to die younger and as
completely broke paupers as the  country goes further down to hell.

Feel  free to distribute my note to anyone and make it your mission to  not
only make your vote count in November 2012 but on behalf of  all of us,
please also make an effort to help convince everyone  to NOT vote for the
present White  House occupant or any of his cronies in the November 2012
election if they want to receive proper medical care and expect  to live
to age 75 or older!




Another  forwarded email message from another  Marine:




Dr.  Suzanne Allen, the head of Emergency Services at the Johnson  City
Medical Center in Johnson City, Tennessee, was recently  asked if she has
seen any effects of ObamaCare in her  work.

Her  reply was: "Oh, yes. We are already seeing cutbacks on the  services
we provide. For example, we are now having to deal with  patients who would
normally receive dialysis, who no longer can.  In the past, there was always
automatic approval under Medicare  for anyone who needed dialysis -- not
anymore."

When  asked what the outcome will be. "The patient will die sooner  without
dialysis," she  replied.

What  about other services?

She  said that as of 2013 (after the election), no  one over 75 will be
given major medical  procedures unless approved by the government-appointed
local  Ethics Panel. These Panels will determine whether a patient  should
receive medical treatment or not. Dr. Allen points out  that most
life-threatening emergencies do not occur during  normal hospital business
hours, and if there are emergencies  that need to be resolved within minutes or few hours,
the  likelihood of getting these Panels' approval in time to save a  patient
life is going to be very challenging and difficult, if  not impossible.
This applies to operations such as stent placement, bypass  surgery, kidney
operation, or treating an aneurysm which are  normally covered under Medicare
today. In other words, starting  in 2013, if you needed a life-saving
operation, it is likely  that Medicare might not provide coverage anymore,
or ifit does, it will require approval by a government  appointed Ethics Panel if
you are age 75 or over.

When  in 2013? "We haven't been given a specific date, it could be in
January or July, but it's after the 2012 election," says Dr.  Allen.

This  is shocking to anyone who will be 75. Her advice? "Get healthy  and
stay healthy. We do not know the specifics of the actual  implementation of
the full ObamaCare policies and procedures;  they haven't filtered down to
the local level yet. But we are  already seeing severe cuts in what we
provide to the elderly. We  have refused dialysis to an individual who was 78 just
the other  day. We have also refused to give stents to a gentleman who was
in his late 80s. Every day, we are seeing these cutbacks aimed  at reducing
care across the board for anyone who is over  75."

This  is a death sentence to those who are over 75....perhaps you  should
pass this on to your friends who are thinking of voting  for Obama this year.
Regardless  if you have private health care coverage now (I have Aetna
Medicare Part B), it will no longer apply after 2013 if the  Ethics Panels
disapprove of a procedure that may save your life.  Scary!  Think about
how this applies to you, your parents, and your  other loved ones!

If  you didn't know about it, as Nancy Pelosi said, "Well, if you  want to
know what's in the bill, you'll have to read it...."  (after it was already
passed).

This  is an important reminder to stay healthy, and to get your plot  at
the nearest Forest Lawn Memorial Park now, while they are  still available
because the ObamaCare Plan is a death sentence  to those who are age 75 or
older!


Semper  Fi
Mofak
Back-to-Back  We Face the  Future

I have plans to fight these "Death Panels". The first is to start finding out who are on them, at first politely reminding those docs that they swore the Hippocratic Oath on their first day in Medical School, and it is a forever Oath, just like my Oath of Enlistment. If politeness doesn't work, well then, that's what street politics is for. That's what Grand Juries are for, because it is likely that ObamaCare rules will NOT protect docs who are sworn to uphold State constitutions which say for them to save all possible lives.

Okay then, we will have used the Soap Box and the Jury Box to no effect, and the Won bypassed/stuffed the Ballot Box, so what Box is then left?

You know THAT answer, readers.

Thursday Thuds, Labor Day Edition

Yep, it's early for Labor Day, but I might just be out for Dove season then...little buggers can make almost 60 mph, and they have only two bites of meat on them, but there are a LOT of them this year. Last week, there were dove and bobwhite quail EVERYWHERE we traveled East of the Cascades. I have the perfect gun for them, an antique L.C. Smith SxS 12, full & modified, and even though it is 97 years old, it has true-steel barrels, not Damascus, and will easily handle the low-base loads I hunt small birds with. In fact, it handles high-brass heavy duck loads just fine as well.

This weekend, I'm off to the High Cascades to attend a wedding. It will be the marriage of my best buddy's step-daughter. I've known her since 1985, and watched her grow up, from a precocious little girl who used to share her Mom's bathtub with my youngest (now Doctor) daughter, after playing outside and getting all muddy. Those were the days when my buddy was courting his second wife, a recent widow.

Heather grew up alongside my Erin, in the same day-care, in the same schools, and they went to the University of Oregon together to learn how to be liberals. Erin came out Cum Laude in Pre-Med and Microbiology, and Heather came out Cum Laude in Architecture. Both stayed on for a fifth year, Erin to get a business major added to her degree, and Heather to get her Diploma in Architecture, which takes graduate-level work.

Erin takes broken people and puts them back together in the ER, and Heather takes the dreams of companies for new office buildings, and breaks them, putting them back together with greater efficiency and better form to promote greater productivity and reduced cost.

Heather is an outdoor person, so she is getting hitched at a High Cascades resort which caters to sportsmen and women in all seasons. Photos may follow. I'm dragging Petey the Pop-Up camper up the mountain to serve as overflow lodging, and I have cooked a Chili for her Chili Contest:

Download TopGun Chili Reader (Open Office)

Download TopGun Chili Reader (PDF)

Without further ado, off to the Thuds.

Thud the First:

NBC News. They announced that they are covering exactly ONE hour of the GOP Convention on three nights. Said something about advertising revenue. OK, then they expect much better revenue from the (D)onk Convention a week later? They admitted that they will be covering much more of that Convention. Can you say In The Tank for Obama? I knew you could. This old fart thinks that if the press is going to shill for a political agenda, they ought to either admit it or quit it. Maybe, in the Second Republic, the next Constitution might actually figure out how to have a free AND non-partisan press.

Thud the Second: The Obama Administration, again. This time, they had their shill claim that Obama has "created more jobs than Ronald Reagan did", and is therefore, better for business. OK, if you buy that stinking pile of manure as the Truth, I have eleven, soon to be twelve bridges that I own here in Portland, and will make you a package deal, very cheap... Lessee here, what was the population of the USA back then as compared to now? What was the definition of a "created job" then as compared to now (hint: today, a "job" is today considered one half of one FTE (full time equivalent) for one month (15 days of work). In other words, seventy hours of work is a full-time job under Obama! This was the definition we were shown in the fine print back when the "shovel-ready" crap was being shoveled our way. I seem to recall, but can't find it, that the old Federal definition of a FTE was 2080 hours of work in a calendar year, and half-time (one half of one FTE) was 1040 hours. At least, that was what the last big Federal Jobs Program, CETA, was based on. Of course, all this begs the questions such as: government jobs vs. private jobs; creating jobs while stifling more than you create (with regulations), etc, etc, ad nauseam.

Thud the Third:

Mittens gets this one. The current best estimate of the GOP's electoral votes has the number at 191, with 79 more needed to guarantee a Romney win. So what does the Stupid Party do? They promise to fit a plank into their platform that calls for an abortion ban. Last time this issue was polled, I seem to recall that well over 60% of voters supported the Roe vs. Wade decision guaranteeing a woman's right to choose to abort or not. This issue is a loser for the GOP, because when push comes to shove in the voting booths in November, GOP voters are going to vote for Mittens whether that plank is there or not, but the tiny number of swing voters, those who are expected to swing this obviously-close election, might just see that plank as a sufficient negative not to pull the GOP lever. The GOP loads up it's gun, once again, and points it right at it's own foot. BTW, that THUD! you hear in November will be the Constitution taking it's last fall.

Thud Three-A, Bonus Thud: With the above turd stinking up it's pocket, it says here that Romney wants to get back to the Economy, stupid. Starting a hormone-fired fight within the GOP over Biblical issues isn't the way to do it, Mittens.

Thud the Fourth: Minor thud here, but wastes of resources gravels my butt. About 6 weeks ago, I sent Mittens a donation of $50. My spouse also sent him some $$$. Together, we get around 3-5 appeals per day in the mail. Mittens won't use window envelopes, so I have to shred the pre-printed forms in each appeal, the appeal letter AND the envelope from each one (my security program has as it's cornerstone that nothing with our names on it goes into the trash).

Thud the Fifth: Dregs of Sass-siety Edition: The porno industry is again facing a delay in filming caused by actors with STDs. This has happened before. In similar news, there is now a reported skin infection which can be gotten in tattoo parlors. Who could have guessed THAT? God may keep you healthy, but the Devil has a large bag of disease to take you, body AND soul. Forget that at your peril.

That will be all, readers. Enjoy your weekend. 

SCOTUS, tax assessor

In all my study of Government, I do not recall ever reading that the function of the SCOTUS was to assess taxes, but that is just what they have done. By approving the Mandate as a Tax, they have also set their stamp of approval on regressive taxation.

The youngsters will now be taxed to pay for geezer health, not just their own. How about those health-care premiums that YOU can't deduct as a medical expense now? Guess what, tax equity advocates? Since the mandate/penalty/tax has been confirmed as a tax, it will have to be treated as such, and made out as a deduction against personal taxes. At that point, tax equity rules say that the same expense on the private side will have to be deductible. This will blow a huge hole in tax receipts, and make our current, outrageous budget deficit seem small by comparison.

Let's not waste any more campaign time debating this issue. It's a done deal: we've just been hammered with a huge tax increase, and the GOP needs to hammer the issue of taxes until Obama cries "uncle".

On the trail of a new medical scam

....just heard on Fox News: if you are bitten by the Lone Star tick,which ranges over the Southeast and East Coast, you could suddenly become allergic to Red Meat!

All my BeeEss warning systems went off at once.

Why just RED meat? Why MEAT only? The human body assimilates meat protein and meat fat the same whether it is red or "white", fish or fowl, or even eggs. It's all animal fat and animal protein.

The foreign doctor interviewed didn't say anything about the mechanism of the allergic reactions involved, just said they would be horrible and they would prohibit one from eating RED MEAT.

The good Doctor wouldn't happen to be a PETA darling, would he?

ABC News did a piece on it yesterday, and their piece is full of doubts expressed by the original researchers. Of note: ABC did mention the "war on meat" in their first sentence. Excuse the ad-laden links.

Wednesday WTF

Okay, in a huge PR show by NASA, the Space Shuttle Enterprise is going to be displayed on the USS Entrepid in New York Harbor, and NASA has seen to it that the maximum amount of press exposure of it's trip to it's final display location is well-publicized.

So, this ayem, I'm eating my meager breakfast (yep, trying to unload all the Winter Blubber) and I see a film clip on TeeVee of the shuttle on a barge, being shoved upriver towards the berth where the Enterprise is displayed.

What catches MY eye? Not the always-impressive sight of the Shuttle, not the magnificent NYC skyline, but a huge mob of PASSENGERS on board the large barge transporting the shuttle.

So farging what, you say? Have you finally gone completely round the bend, 'Dawg, you ask?

Ummm, no.

It's illegal to use a freight barge for transporting passengers, and I seriously doubt that all those passengers could be designated as crew to make them legal to be there. These VIPs should have been on board a yacht or the passenger ferry which WAS keeping station with the barge tow.

There's a reason for this. Just google "ferry disaster", and you will see a list of why we have and enforce passenger vessel regulations. On that list, you will likely see where thousands to tens of thousands of humans lost their lives on poorly-regulated ferry systems, and those ferryboats were even designed as passenger vessels, most were just overcrowded and capsized in a seaway due to that overloading alone. In the USA, passenger ferries have to have special seaworthiness certificates not applicable to freight barges, there have to be liferafts available, etc.

"Nanny Mayor" Bloomberg is too busy trying to save us all from Big Gulps to see this potential disaster moving in his harbor, and moving only in the name of public relations, not any actual necessity. This is the precise reason you should never let a limousine liberal run anything except his or her own bank account.