No draft here, nothing to see, move along...

So I was watching CSPAN tonight and as usual, I learned something.
[and I note here also as usual, something I wouldn't have learned on a network news broadcast]

I found out there are GI's wondering why they are being extended past the 24 months allowed by law.
I found out that the 'No Child Left Behind act' includes a clause that causes student's personal information to be sent to military recruiters. Nice.

Military service (and draft) entry maximum age raised to 39.

55 year old military retiree's getting called back up.

But hey, at leat we're defeating the 'Axis of Evil' and their weapons of mass destruction.

Let's recount:

'Axis of evil' according to Dubya.

Iran, Iraq, North Korea

Iran tells the U.S. to go piss up a pole, they're gonna do what they want, including develop their nuclear (note even they can pronounce it correctly) program. They hide Al Qaeda members, and who knows what else.

US Response, Sweet piss all.


North Korea, develops nuclear missiles, tells the U.S. to go piss up a pole.

US Response, Not much. Harsh words and removal from the Christmas card list.


Iraq, Gives up or destroys banned weapons after first Gulf war. Has ongoing inspections by the U.N., has the military capability of Latvia. Orders aluminum pipes 'to make weapons', oh wait, never actually did that. Ask Valerie Plame, assuming she's not dead.

US Response, Pre-emptive, war. No sign of WMD's, no Al Qaeda link, over 1000 wasted American lives, and thousands of Iraqi's dead. No end in sight. Declining troop levels. Backdoor draft tactics.


Thank goodness for term limitations.

Shut your mouth... [updated]

What the crap is wrong with people these days?
I mean just how many illiterates are we turning out of the schools these days, 50%? 60%?

There are no such words as:

expeshully
aks
supposubly
exsetra
newcueler

There are however these words:

Especially
ask
supposedly
etcetera
nuclear

There are plenty of others I'm hearing way too often, but these are the top offenders.
What really drives me nuts is hearing people who should know better. People who's job it is to communicate. Educated, intelligent people.

Oh, and I just heard one of the speech writers on 'The West Wing' misuse an expression all too commonly misused. He said "I could care less".
For the 90% of you who say this, use your brain, think about it. The proper expression is "I COULDN'T care less"!

As in, I couldn't care less if you are offended by this blog.


[update]

Oh yeah, for you slack jawed mouth breathers out there still trying to vomit out the english language, here's a few little tips for you.

A prostate is the gland up a man's butt that makes it hard to urinate when he get's older.
Prostrate is when you lie flat on your face on the floor and beg God not to kill you for being stupid.

Cavalry are the soldiers on horseback that come rescue you from getting a Darwin Award.
Calvary on the other hand is where Christ died.

I type what I think regardless of the consequences.
Irregardless is a non-existant word stupid people use when they really meant either regardless or irrespective.

My wife put's frozen hamburger in the microwave to thaw it.
Stupid people ask their wife to dethaw some hamburger for dinner. And you don't even really need to be that smart to figure this one out. I mean if thaw means to 'defreeze' something (why don't the stupid say defreeze?) then obviously dethaw (if it was a word) would mean to freeze something.

To be continued...

Saving Schiavo

I'm getting a little sick of all the uninformed opinions people seem to be throwing around these days. If you don't know what you're talking about, shut up. Check the subtitle of this blog...

Now let me say, I think that people should have and defend their opinions. BUT only informed opinions. We need to research our opinions, from multiple sources. NOT just the one or two sources that agree with what you want to believe. Then you can have an opinion.

A perfect example of this is the Terry Schiavo case. People are forming what is equivalent to the new Spanish Inquisition. I certainly believe that a person should be given every possible treatment, therapy, etc. However, the arguments being put forth by her so called defenders range from misguided and ignorant to outright lies and deceptions.

They paint her husband as some kind of money grubbing, heartless, uncaring killer who is bent on killing his wife without any effort to help her recover. The facts point to nothing of the sort.

The man spent years trying to help her recover. He tried dozens of therapies and treatments, including experimental neural stimulator implant surgery, various rehabilitative therapies, medicaitons etc.
He even went to medical school and became a licensed, registered nurse so he could care for her and better understand her diagnosis and treatment.
After _YEARS_ of trying everything, he realized that there IS NO HOPE OF RECOVERY!

The so called defenders want to make false comparisons to other persons who have recovered from comas, vegetative states, brain injuries, etc. However these comparisons are completely and utterly without basis. She is NOT in a coma, she is not suffering an illness, she has permanant, irrepairable, irreversible brain damage.

When you cut your finger, or arm or other tissue, the wounded tissue, if treated properly can heal, and grow back and repair itself to some degree. This is NOT the case with brain tissue. Brain cells that die are not replaced. They are gone forever. In fact they dissolve and are absorbed by the body, leaving a hole in their place. Another unique weakness of brain tissue is that it is damaged when exposed to blood and other body fluids like spinal fluid. This is what makes strokes and burst aneurisms so devastating. The blood from these events passes the brains protective membrane that acts as a blood/brain barrier and makes contact with brain tissue, damaging and killing it. Normally oxygen, nutrients and waste pass back and forth from the blood vessels in the skull to the brain through this membrane. This keeps blood out of the brain tissue.

In Terry Schiavo's case, spinal fluid has flooded into the centre portion of the brain cavity and killed the brain tissue in that area. While the uninformed, uneducated among her so called defenders stupidly think that somehow some kind of therapy will magicaly make this tissue heal, they are utterly wrong. This tissue will not heal. In fact it no longer even exists. In the affected areas where the spinal fluid has invaded the brain cavity, the brain tissue has been killed and dissolved. There is only a gaping cavity where the brain tissue was. The cavity is now filled with spinal fluid.
You can't heal what doesn't exist. It's as naive and ignorant as waiting for your arm to grow back after being cut off. It can't and won't happen.
(See http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7328639/ and look at the CT scan photo yourself, or Google it and find other pics of the CT)

Schiavo's family has been very manipulative in their dealings with the public and the press. They show edited together videos that seem to show her reacting and interacting to stimuli from her family. They don't show or tell that these so called reactions are purely random, inconsistent, and rare.

It's very clear to anyone who cares to investigate the truth that Schiavo's condition is final, irreversible, and if not for mechanical intervention, would be fatal.
I'm for life. I don't ever call myself 'Pro-life' as that's a political term for a movement mostly consisting of people more full of emotion than knowledge, or compassion. I have no desire to lump myself in with the kind of moronic bastards that think it's a good idea to bomb an abortion clinic and kill doctors to 'save lives'. They're no better than those they hate.
However, I believe that, in general, every life deserves a chance. And that people have a right to decide their own lives. If you want your plug pulled when there's no chance of recovery, that wish should be honoured.

The reality is that Terry is already dead. Just her shell is left with it's poor confused brain stem dutifully making her heart beat and organs operate.

The rightous, compassionate thing to do is let her poor empty shell join her departed soul.

Adding up the sale of the Whitehouse...

Well, This administration never met a bribe it didn't like. If you can't believe how badly they are taking the country apart, then take time to do some research.

First, let's have a little background here...
The Bush campaign rewarded top fundraisers with special titles and other perks.
Someone who raised $200,000+ was called a Ranger (like Texas Rangers) and $100,000 get's you the title Pioneer.

The point of this is that if you watch what's going on with the administration, all the people and companies involved in this fundraising are getting everything they want. The Pharmaceutical industry is going to make billions on new prescriptions due to the prescription drug plan for medicare (which does nearly nothing to save those receiving it any money) and the upcoming (and very scary and Orwellian) New Freedom Initiative which will start putting our children on drugs this summer.

Many Pioneers and Rangers got Ambassadorships.

Of course no need to talk about what companies like Halliburton have gotten.

I think it'd be fun for everyone to scream at their local news agencies to run stories on this shameful sale of the Whitehouse.

Oh, and if you don't believe me, do your own research. Go look at the list of all the Pioneers and Rangers. (see Whitehouse for sale )
Then do a little research into how many of those people or companies benefit from the things this administration is doing. Especially how many benefit at the direct expense of the Citizens of this country.