February 16, 2008 archive

Feb 16 2008

A Discussion for Thought

The following is a short discussion, abit of a long read, by two Vietnam Veterans, on a VFP/VVAW, group board. The first post is a copy of a question asked and answered by another Vietnam Veteran. The two posts following that are a reply to the original than an answer to that reply.

I would hope that it might help our present Brothers and Sisters, serving in Theaters of War and when they return from, to help find the answers to any questions that may be.

With the Mutiple Tours, Extended Tours, ever Changing Reasons For, and the initial ignorance of what type of Conflict they were led into, as this countries military had already had a long running battle with Guerilla/Insurgent warfare and those lessons still aren’t being applied, there will be many more questions that need answering than even we ‘Nam vets have been seeking answers for, to the closed ears of our Government and the People of this Country.

Feb 16 2008

The Weapon of Young Gods #10: It’s Quiet Up Here

I know Grandma’s here when I arrive because the wind chimes are ringing. My grandparents’ one-story, Camelot-era ranch house is halfway up a tastefully crowded hill in South Laguna, and it catches the breeze coming right in from the ocean. If there’s no wind, the courtyard is still and silent as death, and I’d know she’d be off somewhere else, but today the chimes tinkle as I open the gate, and leaves float across the yard and an occasional olive plops down from the tree standing in the middle of it all. I take Mom’s key to her ex-in-laws’ house out of my pocket, wrench the massive front door open, and enter the musty, stuffy darkness that my father grew up in. There’s a little light coming in from the glory of Outside, and I pick my way with care through the gloomy kitchen to the back door. It’s very quiet, but not absolutely, so before I go back outside I say it softly, the same way I always do when I come here alone.

Previous Episode

Feb 16 2008

Weekend News Digest

Weekend News Digest is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 In Kosovo, it’s ‘Independence Eve’

By WILLIAM J. KOLE, Associated Press Writer

18 minutes ago

PRISTINA, Serbia – Tiny Kosovo – poor, mostly Muslim but feverishly pro-Western – braced itself Saturday for a historic declaration of independence from Serbia, a decade after a war that killed 10,000 people and years of limbo under U.N. rule.

The province’s bold bid for statehood, expected Sunday, and its quest for international recognition set up an ominous showdown with Serbia and Russia. Moscow contends the move will set a dangerous precedent for secessionist groups worldwide.

Revelers took to the streets in giddy anticipation. Prime Minister Hashim Thaci – a former leader of the guerrilla Kosovo Liberation Army – marked the eve of the new nation’s birth by visiting a village where Serbian troops massacred ethnic Albanians in 1998.

Feb 16 2008

Let Us Not Talk Falsely Now

“There must be some way out of here,” said the joker to the thief, “There’s too much confusion, I can’t get no relief.  

Businessmen, they drink my wine, plowmen dig my earth, None of them along the line know what any of it is worth.”

“No reason to get excited,” the thief, he kindly spoke,

“There are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke.

But you and I, we’ve been through that, and this is not our fate, So let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late.”

All along the watchtower, princes kept the view

While all the women came and went, barefoot servants, too.

Outside in the distance a wildcat did growl,

Two riders were approaching, the wind began to howl.

Bob Dylan – All Along the Watchtower

Let-us-not-talk-falsely-The-Hour-is-Getting-Late

Feb 16 2008

Dirty Rotten Bastards

I try to be even keeled.

After all, I have been watching this shit, this slow erosion of the HUMANITY part of our country, of our laws and politics, for all of my life. The death of individual rights by fiat of evil executives and judicial rulings and now for the last seven horror filled years, the brutal assault on everything that some of us hold dear about America, everything that is high and noble, about our Constitution and the Bill of Rights, and the wonderful Declaration that made all of this possible.

I have watched them take, or try to take ALL that is good about America away, out back, to be thrown in the dumpster. The things that set America apart from all the other nations…the written and codified guarantees that the Person was and is more important that the State. That Freedom was more important than government. That government itself ONLY existed to raise up and protect The People, and was not an entity unto itself…with it’s needs and wants transcending and trumping those of the citizens it was created to serve.

Feb 16 2008

Out of Habit

Originally posted as part of Teacher’s Lounge at Daily Kos

Habit took over again on Thursday.

For no apparent reason other than it has been done for the past 120 weeks in a row, I started preparing another Teacher’s Lounge.  I started gathering links.  Unlike most weeks, however, I read few of the diaries at those links beyond the point of determining their subject matter.  I suppose that means some of them may be misplaced.  Truth is that my threshold of caring has drastically diminished.

And that’s not a good state of mind to be in.  It is not conducive to a job well done.

Feb 16 2008

TheGunSource.com – UPDATED

Statement from Eric Thompson, President of TGSCOM Inc., On the Tragedy at Northern Illinois University:

GREEN BAY – TGSCOM Inc TheGunSource.com has learned that Stephen Kazmierczak, who killed five people at Northern Illinois University on Thursday, had recently purchased two magazines and a holster from the TGSCOM Inc.web site www.topglock.com. TGSCOM Inc. also operates the Web site used by Cho Seung-Hui to purchase a firearm used in the in the Virginia Tech shootings last April.

Feb 16 2008

EXPOSED: The REAL 2008 Oscar Best Picture Nominees

The News Corpse Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is proud to present its Oscar nominees for 2008.

Feb 16 2008

Pony Party: Don’t look Now

That one just made me go a little cross eyed…..

That second one kinda just zoned me out out…

Should I have mentioned that if you’re hung over staring at that stuff might hurt?

Whatever you do DO NOT TOUCH THAT BUTTON….

Way to go you erased us all. Bummer.

Please don’t rec pony party, hang out chit chat, and then go read some of the excellent offerings on our recent and rec’d list.

Feb 16 2008

Pony Party: Your Morning Art

Morning. If I am up you should be up! Fall into that post Valentine’s Day funk yet or are you still cresting the wave of joy and after glow?

Have some morning art….

Mellow I am not awake music….

Random picture….

Show me your random art projects or pictures if ya got any. Please don’t rec pony party, hang out, chit chat and then go read the excellent offerings on our recent and rec’d list.

Feb 16 2008

Docudharma Times Saturday February 16

This is an Open Thread:

This is no terror ground

Or place for the rage

No broken hearts

White wash lies

Just a taste for the truth

Saturday’s Headlines: Democrats Look for Way to Avoid Convention Rift : Evolution Of a U.S. General In Iraq: In praise of … José Ramos-Horta: We can persuade Taliban to be peaceful – expelled UN man: Protests over Beijing games ‘will grow’ :Old questions hang over the new Kosovo: Coroners blame soldiers’ deaths on an acute lack of equipment: Africans unite in calling for immediate moratorium on switch from food to fuel: UN troops ‘trapped’ in Eritrea: Blast kills Islamic Jihad militant in Gaza: Feud leaves Haiti hospital half-built


Democrats’ wiretap stance endangers U.S., Bush says

Their refusal to extend warrantless powers increases the risk of attack on the nation, he says. Lawmakers accuse him of fear-mongering and say he has the tools he needs.

WASHINGTON — President Bush warned Friday that the United States was in “more danger of attack” because Congress failed to extend a domestic wiretapping law, while House Democrats said Bush had manufactured the impasse by threatening to veto a short-term extension.

“American citizens must understand, clearly understand, that there still is a threat on the homeland,” Bush said after meeting with Republican congressional leaders. Noting that the Senate had passed a bill extending the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court’s warrantless domestic wiretapping, Bush said House Democrats — protesting protections for phone carriers from privacy lawsuits — had blocked it.

“By blocking this piece of legislation, our country is more in danger of an attack,” he said. “By not giving the professionals the tools they need, it’s going to be a lot harder to do the job we need to be able to defend America.”

Feb 16 2008

Here lay we all

A friend of mine died yesterday, Valentines Day morning. She was at home surrounded by her sisters and held by her husband at the moment her body failed, as they sang to her and prayed. I sat in the hallway a few feet away and listened but did not impose myself to take up precious space at her bedside. She had pancreatic cancer that had remitted and recurred. Pain medication partially worked in the last few days, providing her hours or minutes of unconsciousness at a time but not in the final hour and a half of her life. Although unresponsive, she cried out strongly and often. Drowning finally ended her pain.

A couple of years ago she was diagnosed cancer and her prognosis was less than 5% chance of living beyond 6 months. Her treatment was first rate and with chemotherapy and surgery she went into complete remission. There wasn’t a trace of cancerous tissue in the organs that were removed, the therapy had been so successful, which is rare. However the treatment was so hard on her that she was left a shell of herself. We nearly lost her then and she almost succumbed to the trauma of the treatment. She had intense pride and it was clear she suffered greatly from seeing herself so feeble so she strictly limited her contact with anyone including old friends. Slowly she regained her health with many bumps along the way and only recently did we start seeing her back in her familiar settings. I saw her just before Thanksgiving as she made a point of coming to see me. She looked strong and had the old powerful and happy glint in her eye. She had always been a force to behold and she was back. I hugged her and told her how good she looked. I was happy to finally have her fully here among us again. Not more than a month later her diagnosis was changed again with no hope this time of survival. She went into bottomless depression and refused contact with anyone but her immediate family. Being a nurse, she even attempted push her family away and to find a facility to commit herself to that would oversee her care and allow her to deny her family the witness of the wrenching end she knew was coming. Of course that was far too much to demand of anyone and she was lovingly cared for at home by her family and hospice, but her passing has left wounds on those that were there. Hospice is a blessing, believe me.

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