Irish Dreamer - Been There, Done That

Congratulations to the Pittsburgh Penguins!!
Another #1 Pgh Team.... Now the Pirates better try harder....
ALSO.... To Hossa... NA NA NA!!!!

Yeah.... I'm beginning to think I'm getting to old to keep going through all the sh*t this machine puts me through I admit, some of it is my own fault, afterall, I was dumb enough to download something very bad!
I did expect my very expensive security system would catch it though. My free one always did!
I got rid of the free one when the conficter arrived and I got scared and Lo & Behold....
My new, expensive, 2 year Norton+ caused my PC to freeze and crash!!
After paying $170 (which I was told was cheap) and finding out all they did was ERASE everything on my PC I still had problems. They installed my old free virus protecter again which was ok but Norton refused to give me a refund ($214)after only a week, and I could no longer get any sound in windows or AOL and had to take it back AGAIN! Now AVG stopped working...they no longer supply it free so once again i bought another one. This is my 3rd PC and I love it...hopefully it will work for the rest of my lifetime...
After all..... I'm already OLD

Three slain officers shared a devotion to the badge
Two of them left behind wives and daughters, the third leaves a fiancee.
As tragedy often does, the day began with the routine.

Pittsburgh police Officers Paul Sciullo II and Stephen Mayhle were about an hour short of ending their overnight shifts yesterday when 911 dispatched them to 1016 Fairfield St. in Stanton Heights at 7:05 a.m. The call, described as a domestic argument between a mother and son with no weapons involved, was also heard by Officer Eric Kelly, who had just finished his 11 p.m.-to-7 a.m. shift.

Still in uniform but driving his own white SUV to his Stanton Heights home, he decided to swing by Fairfield to back up his fellow officers from the Zone 5 station in East Liberty.

With 14 years on the force, Officer Kelly knew domestic calls can be the most dangerous an officer faces. This call would underscore that sad truth.

Within minutes, all three officers were fatally shot by the subject of the domestic call, later identified as Richard "Pop" Poplawski, 22. A discharged Marine, he adhered to a number of right-wing conspiracy theories and expressed fears of a "Zionist nation" revoking his right to own guns.

Police said Mr. Poplawski knew his mother had called 911, knew officers would come to his house. He apparently lay in wait, armed with an AK-47 assault-style rifle, a .22-caliber rifle and a revolver and wearing a bulletproof vest.

Mr. Poplawski shot Officer Sciullo in the head when the officer reached the doorway, police Chief Nate Harper said. He shot Officer Mayhle, who was behind Officer Sciullo, in the head as well, the chief said.

Officer Kelly was shot just after pulling up to the scene. Gravely wounded and lying in the street, he used his radio to report that officers were down. Other officers risked their lives to get Officer Kelly out of danger. They succeeded, but he later died.

The shootings started a four-hour siege in which Officer Timothy McManaway was wounded in the hand while trying to help Officer Kelly. Officer Brian Jones broke his leg when a fence collapsed as he was trying to secure the back of the scene.

Mr. Poplawski also was wounded multiple times in the leg. He was in fair condition in UPMC Presbyterian.

Before surrendering, he exchanged hundreds of rounds of gunfire with SWAT officers from his bedroom window, while calling friends and telling them he was going to die, that he had been hit in his bulletproof vest and in his leg, and that he loved them.

The event transformed a once-placid neighborhood of well-tended homes and manicured yards into what resembled a war zone. Bursts of gunfire broke the morning calm. Hundreds of heavily armed, heavily saddened officers from numerous agencies flooded the area.

"We woke up at a quarter after seven and all I heard was 'boom, boom, boom!'" said Scott Bisceglia, 40, who lives a block away at Antoinette and Oglethorpe streets. "It was a war zone."

Drew Stadler, 34, who also lives on Oglethorpe, said he saw the gunman repeatedly firing an automatic weapon from a double window above the garage of the house. Gunfire pinned down several SWAT officers, who used shields for protection, Mr. Stadler said. A SWAT sharpshooter positioned himself on the roof across the street, targeting his rifle at Mr. Poplawski's house.

By late morning, one armored police vehicle had pulled in front of the house and another was on the hill overlooking Fairfield Street while officers attempted to negotiate his surrender.

Neighbors, including many who know Mr. Poplawski, said they were terrified and stunned. Mr. Poplawski's mother, with whom Mr. Poplawski had a strained relationship, was not hurt and hid in the basement of the ranch-style home until he came to the doorway, hands raised, and gave himself up.

"Today has been indeed a very difficult day," Mayor Ravenstahl said later. "This week no doubt will be a very difficult week. But I believe as Pittsburghers always do, we will get through this, we will be united, we will remain strong and we will always remember these officers and the ultimate sacrifice they made."

Chief Harper, his grief palpable, noted the dangers of police work and referred to the fatal shooting of four Oakland, Calif., police officers two weeks ago. But, he added, "You never would think this type of violence would occur in the city of Pittsburgh."

Indeed, never before in the city's history have three officers lost their lives in the line of duty during a single incident. The last line-of-duty death was in 1995.

That all changed yesterday. No one knew why.
Fallen Heroes