Has he not been through enough already?!

So, the poor man makes through Navy SEAL training, gets deployed to Afghanistan, loses his entire team (men who were as dear to him as family) , is physically put through more than seems humanly possible, and still manages to survive to tell the story. As he is recovering physically, mentally, and emotionally, he is given a yellow labrodor retriever puppy that he named Dasy (an acronym from the nicknames of the four men that made up SEAL team 10). He LOVED this dog... well, a couple of weeks ago, 4 stupid boys stopped by his house in the middle of the night and shot and killed poor, little Dasy!
Here is the video clip of Glenn Beck interviewing Marcus Luttrell after the senseless killing of his dog, Dasy: Marcus Luttrell’s Dog Murdered by Punks in Texas (VIDEO)

A sad day for America

I knew that our new president had some wildly left-wing ideas, but his stance on stem-cell research is beyond what I expected for his first term. One writer for the Washington Post put it this way:

I am not religious. I do not believe that personhood is conferred upon conception. But I also do not believe that a human embryo is the moral equivalent of a hangnail and deserves no more respect than an appendix. Moreover, given the protean power of embryonic manipulation, the temptation it presents to science and the well-recorded human propensity for evil even in the pursuit of good, lines must be drawn... While I favor moving that moral line to additionally permit the use of spare fertility clinic embryos, President Obama replaced it with no line at all.

This is my favorite quote in the article:

Obama's address was morally unserious in the extreme. It was populated, as his didactic discourses always are, with a forest of straw men.

And the grand finale...

Obama's pretense that he will "restore science to its rightful place" and make science, not ideology, dispositive in moral debates is yet more rhetorical sleight of hand -- this time to abdicate decision-making and color his own ideological preferences as authentically "scientific."

Seriously, though, this is really sad...and scary!

Someone, PLEASE tell me it's a joke!

I had not had a chance until today to take a look at the $900 billion stimulus bill and all the provisions within it (I still have not read much of it). CNN was good enough to provide the public with a list of things some Republican Congressmen took issue with. I read through the list and was shocked and apalled to say the least.

Here is the list (courtesy of CNN.com):

• $2 billion earmark to re-start FutureGen, a near-zero emissions coal power plant in Illinois that the Department of Energy defunded last year because it said the project was inefficient.

• A $246 million tax break for Hollywood movie producers to buy motion picture film.

• $650 million for the digital television converter box coupon program.

• $88 million for the Coast Guard to design a new polar icebreaker (arctic ship).

• $448 million for constructing the Department of Homeland Security headquarters.

• $248 million for furniture at the new Homeland Security headquarters.

• $600 million to buy hybrid vehicles for federal employees.

• $400 million for the Centers for Disease Control to screen and prevent STD's.

• $1.4 billion for rural waste disposal programs.

• $125 million for the Washington sewer system.

• $150 million for Smithsonian museum facilities.

• $1 billion for the 2010 Census, which has a projected cost overrun of $3 billion.

• $75 million for "smoking cessation activities."

• $200 million for public computer centers at community colleges.

• $75 million for salaries of employees at the FBI.

• $25 million for tribal alcohol and substance abuse reduction.

• $500 million for flood reduction projects on the Mississippi River.

• $10 million to inspect canals in urban areas.

• $6 billion to turn federal buildings into "green" buildings.

• $500 million for state and local fire stations.

• $650 million for wildland fire management on forest service lands.

• $1.2 billion for "youth activities," including youth summer job programs.

• $88 million for renovating the headquarters of the Public Health Service.

• $412 million for CDC buildings and property.

• $500 million for building and repairing National Institutes of Health facilities in Bethesda, Maryland.

• $160 million for "paid volunteers" at the Corporation for National and Community Service.

• $5.5 million for "energy efficiency initiatives" at the Department of Veterans Affairs National Cemetery Administration.

• $850 million for Amtrak.

• $100 million for reducing the hazard of lead-based paint.

• $75 million to construct a "security training" facility for State Department Security officers when they can be trained at existing facilities of other agencies.

• $110 million to the Farm Service Agency to upgrade computer systems.

• $200 million in funding for the lease of alternative energy vehicles for use on military installations.

"...and now we feel safe."

When people find out that I spent a little time in Iraq, inevitably they ask "so, what do you think about what we are doing over there?" Anyone who knows me, knows I am optimistic about what we've done in Iraq, but then again, I saw mostly good. I was never around for morter attacks or suicide bombings... So I am always happy to hear that there are Iraqis who agree with me. As the Iraqis are going through another iteration of elections, it is interesting to see how far they (and we) have come. One Iraqi, when talking about why he was voting for Maliki, said the following:
“I like him because he was successful in improving the security situation and started reconstruction. The important thing for us at that time was safety and now we feel safe.” I think that statement speaks for itself. For a country that has only ever known war, the ability to feel safe is huge! So, what do I think about what we are doing over there? I think we are doing a great job, and I look forward to a day when the Iraqi people can feel safe enough with their own government and military that our sons and daughters can come home for good.

Disturbing, but very funny!

I should probably be more disturbed than I am, but I am laughing too hard to take it at all seriously. Apparently PETA (people for the ethical treatment of animals) has sent a petition to Ben and Jerry's (yes, the ice cream company!), requesting them to switch to human breast milk, instead of cow's milk. Their reasoning is absolutely hysterical (except for the appeal to look at what they are doing in Switzerland - that was just SCARY!)... they even used the late Dr. Spock as an authority on the danger of cow's milk to children. It is a seriously FUNNY letter. You NEED to read it - oh, but one disclaimer first, you might want to wait if you are currently eating... it might make you sick. I know I was feeling a little queasy. Anyway, here it is, as posted on WPTZ.com:

September 23, 2008

Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, Cofounders

Ben & Jerry's Homemade Inc.

Dear Mr. Cohen and Mr. Greenfield,

On behalf of PETA and our more than 2 million members and supporters, I'd like to bring your attention to an innovative new idea from Switzerland that would bring a unique twist to Ben and Jerry's.

Storchen restaurant is set to unveil a menu that includes soups, stews, and sauces made with at least 75 percent breast milk procured from human donors who are paid in exchange for their milk. If Ben and Jerry's replaced the cow's milk in its ice cream with breast milk, your customers-and cows-would reap the benefits.

Using cow's milk for your ice cream is a hazard to your customer's health. Dairy products have been linked to juvenile diabetes, allergies, constipation, obesity, and prostate and ovarian cancer. The late Dr. Benjamin Spock, America's leading authority on child care, spoke out against feeding cow's milk to children, saying it may play a role in anemia, allergies, and juvenile diabetes and in the long term, will set kids up for obesity and heart disease-America's number one cause of death.

Animals will also benefit from the switch to breast milk. Like all mammals, cows only produce milk during and after pregnancy, so to be able to constantly milk them, cows are forcefully impregnated every nine months. After several years of living in filthy conditions and being forced to produce 10 times more milk than they would naturally, their exhausted bodies are turned into hamburgers or ground up for soup.

And of course, the veal industry could not survive without the dairy industry. Because male calves can't produce milk, dairy farmers take them from their mothers immediately after birth and sell them to veal farms, where they endure 14 to17 weeks of torment chained inside a crate so small that they can't even turn around.

The breast is best! Won't you give cows and their babies a break and our health a boost by switching from cow's milk to breast milk in Ben and Jerry's ice cream? Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Tracy Reiman

Executive Vice President

It just takes a little determination

Maybe I am just a littl messed up, but read the sentence below and tell me what your first impression is.

Two of the detainees — Ali Abdulla Ahmed, from Yemen (DOB Aug. 1, 1979) and Mana Shaman Allabard al Tabi of Saudi Arabia (DOB Jan. 1, 1976) — were determined to be dead at the scene. (full article)

When I first read it, I thought it was saying the detainees died by sheer will-power. Of course, that didn't make any sense, so I reread the sentence. It was obvious the second time, that the writer was saying third party came to check the check the status of the detainees and concluded that they were in fact dead. Still, if I was the author, I would have phrased it differently.

When "Happily Ever After" ends a little differently

For Web designer Patrick Moberg, then 21, from Brooklyn, it was love at first sight when he spotted a woman on a Manhattan train last November. But he lost her in the crowd so he set up a website with a sketch to find her --http://www.nygirlofmydreams.com/. Unbelievably in a city of 8 million people, it only took Moberg 48 hours to track down the woman.

The "dream-girl," Camille Hayton, said she dated Moberg for about two months but it just didn't work out, and now they are "just friends."

I just thought this was a great story (a little stalkerish, and not really something I would have necessarily appreciated, but cute in its own way). I think what I liked most though is that this fairy tale did not have the typical ending. I'm sure both parties are much better going their seperate ways, rather than having an elaborate wedding to create the illusion of the perfect ending. Instead, they lived happily ever after... single and carefree. =)

Justice prevails...

President Bush could have commuted the death sentence of Ronald A. Gray, a former Army cook convicted of multiple rapes and murders. But Bush decided Monday that Gray's crimes were so repugnant that execution was the only just punishment. Bush's decision marked the first time in 51 years that a president has affirmed a death sentence for a member of the U.S. military. (click here for full article)

Now, I love our military. And anyone who knows me can tell you that I have a special affinity for the Army thanks to my time in Ramadi. But there are some people, regardless of job title, who just do not deserve to live because of all the lives they have ruined. It may sound callous, but I do not think capital punishment is utilized often enough in this country. So, hats off to the President for actually making the hard decision and allowing the just punishment of one who destroyed the lives of multiple innocents!

Exciting times

It just makes my day to log-on to my computer in the morning and read about the success we are having in Iraq. The past month has seen a steady increase in these good news stories. Here is an excerpt from an article I read this morning:

The United States is now winning the war that two years ago seemed lost. Limited, sometimes sharp fighting and periodic terrorist bombings in Iraq are likely to continue, possibly for years. But the Iraqi government and the U.S. now are able to shift focus from mainly combat to mainly building the fragile beginnings of peace - a transition that many found almost unthinkable as recently as one year ago... That does not mean the war has ended or that U.S. troops have no role in Iraq. It means the combat phase finally is ending... The new phase focuses on training the Iraqi army and police, restraining the flow of illicit weaponry from Iran, supporting closer links between Baghdad and local governments, pushing the integration of former insurgents into legitimate government jobs and assisting in rebuilding the economy. (click here for full article)

These really are exciting times! It feels like we have been at war for a LONG time, but to finally see results makes it all worth it. Oh to go back over there and be a part of it all... *sigh*

18-year-old male stupidity has no gegraphic limitations...

It seems that no matter where they are located on the globe, 18-year-old males are universally prone to doing the dumbest things! In Australia, one such young man decide to play chicken with oncoming vehicles on Melbourne freeway. Not only was he not in a vehicle, he was barely even dressed, sporting only his underwear! He managed to live through the ordeal, but he was hit by a four-wheel drive vehicle and is currently in the hospital.
(Click here for Reuters article)

What is WRONG with people?!

Get out of the way, road rage. Here comes desk rage. Anger in the workplace -- employees and employers who are grumpy, insulting, short-tempered or worse -- is shockingly common and likely growing...

While reading the news online this morning, I came across this article about office rage. I, thankfully, do not have to deal with that. I love my co-workers, and everyone I work with has a generally good attitude (I mean, we all have our days... it's all about how you deal with it). I found it interesting though... I think the reporter hit on something when she wrote:

"Rudeness, impatience, people being angry -- we used to do that kind of stuff at home but at work, we were professional. Now it's almost becoming trendy to do it at work. It was something we did behind closed doors," she said. "Now people are losing their sense of embarrassment over it." (click here
for complete article)

As a society, we have done so much to rid ourselves of guilt and embarrassment that we have lost ALL sense of shame. There was a time when victims of various crimes didn't get the help they needed because of the shame they felt over what had happened to them - as if it was their fault. But unfortunately the pendulum has gone full-swing to the other extreme. Now people are not embarrassed over actions that should certainly cause them to blush. Will it ever swing back again? I wonder...

This has GOT to be a good sign...

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki raised the prospect on Monday of setting a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops as part of negotiations over a new security agreement with Washington. (Reuters)

Before now, there has been no mention of the US ever leaving... not by the Iraqis anyway (let me clarify, not by the Iraqis we are backing).

While I support the war effort and our soldiers, marines, etc, over there, I will be very happy to see them come home (or in the case of some, to see them not have to go back for a third or fourth tour).

God bless our troops! And God bless America!

Note to self: do not iron for anyone but yourself

ROME (Reuters) - An Italian man was arrested on suspicion of kidnapping his ex-girlfriend from a pub, taking her home and forcing her to iron his clothes and wash the dishes, police said Monday. The 43-year-old man dragged the woman out of a pub in the port city of Genoa, shoved her into a car and took her to his home where he made her iron and wash dishes after threatening her, they said. Police arrived at his house after being tipped off by a friend of the woman who watched the scene at the pub. The man, who was apparently furious at his ex-girlfriend for leaving him, was arrested on charges of kidnapping, police said.

Ummm... excuse me, but did you miss the memo, sir? This is the 21st century and women have been liberated... ironing is not our responsibility anymore!

Quote of the day

And so the 154 people who survived a modern Titanic have fallen into that strange category of luck — the kind that would not be necessary had not horrendous bad fortune preceded it.

Wait, I forgot my memory at home!

Apparently, cell-phones and PDAs are to adults what video games are to children - brain cell killers. We no longer need to memorize phone numbers or anything else for that matter. We can store everything from birthdates to grocery lists on our little technological gadgets and then forget about it until the information is needed. Because of this phenomenon, people rarely try to memorize anything on a daily basis. To use a phrase I learned in my childhood, if you don't use it, you'll lose it. That is exactly what has happened to our society. The ability to remember the most basic things is disappearing. And the youngest are the worst off according to the recent study.

For all the talk of collaboration, lack of communication is still our greatest weakness

I read the following on ABC News and was amazed to realize we have learned nothing since 9/11.

U.S. law enforcement officials received intelligence reports two weeks ago warning of terror attacks in Glasgow and Prague, the Czech Republic, against "airport infrastructure and aircraft." The warnings apparently never reached officials in Scotland, who said this weekend they had received "no advance intelligence" that Glasgow might be a target.

C'mon, people! Let's get with the program!

Why did God make bugs?

I remember asking that question as a child, and thinking, if given the chance to make a world, I would make a bug-less one. I couldn't help but remember these childhood thoughts as I read about the new "synthetic" life scientists are trying to create and came across this line: "scientists want to create new kinds of bacterium to make new types of bugs." I may not have understood the ecological ramifications my bug-less world would have suffered, but I certainly do know now that everything man introduces has at least two bad side effects for every good one. I do not want some genetically engineered bug, created by a scientist in his little lab. I am still having a difficult enough time trying not to complain about the ones God made!

The Unforgivable Sin

There was a time in the not-so-distant past when society frowned upon certain activites that fell outside of the Judeo-Christian ethic. My grandparents' generation knew a time when everything (except churches) shut down on Sundays, when having a child out of wedlock was considered a shame, and sexuality in general was not spoken about in public. My parents' generation changed much of that. It was "cool" to rebel, to find one's self, and reject all that was held sacred by the former generation. Now my generation is reaping the "benefits" of all that "liberation." The current generations (X&Y) are rightly named. We are the generations without an identity. We have been given more than we need, and told the world revolves around us. Punishment is taboo because there is no such thing as wrong. No one is bad, just in need of medication or therapy. We are now the measure of all things. Without any kind of standard outside of ourselves to measure ourselves, we have no idea who we are. It is no wonder that my generation is turning back to the churches in search of something greater than themselves. Unfortuantely, many churches went the way of the world, accepting the ideas of love and forgiveness, but rejecting any ideas of law, holiness, and obedience, not to mention personal responsibility. In this environment, it easy to call yourself a Christian. It requires no effort and improves your approval ratings. There is only one commandment left, the breaking of which is the only unforgivable sin: "judge not, lest you be judged." Apparently Dr. Dobson has recently managed to gain some bad press by committing this great sin.

Mark Corallo, a spokesman for Thompson, took issue with Dobson's characterization of the former Tennessee senator. "Thompson is indeed a Christian," he said. "He was baptized into the Church of Christ."

So, that's all it takes to be a Christian these days? Just be baptized. My church baptizes infants, so I guess we adults have nothing to worry about. It's already been taken care of. My salvation is secure. Glad I got that cleared up!

In other disturbing church-related news, "a tense dispute among Episcopalians and their fellow Anglicans worldwide over how they should interpret what the Bible says about sexuality and other issues." I'm not sure what there is to interpret. It seems like the question is more one of belief, not interpretation.

Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. I Corinthians 6:9-10

I think that verse kinda disqualifies a lot of people, but I don't know... maybe that's just my interpretation. Oh no! I just committed the unpardonable - but, wait... I've already been baptized. So, which trumps which? Don't judge me...

Putting things into perspective

"There were 75,000 abortions in Texas last year. If this incentive would give pause and change the mind of 5 percent of those woman, that's 3,000 lives. That's almost as many people as we've lost in Iraq."

The incentive Texas State Senator Dan Patrick is talking about is a proposal he has filed into legislation that would offer $500 to pregnant women who are planning to have an abortion if they deliver the child and put him or her up for adoption instead. While I disagree with the idea of paying people to do what is right, the quote got my attention because numbers he used to validate his point made me stop and think. We are so concerned about the lives we have lost to the war effort (and rightly so), but at least every life lost in Iraq was a life given. The soldiers sent over there knew when they volunteered to serve their country that death or severe injury were very real possibilities. These unborn children are not given that choice. If you walk around DC, you will see a variety of war protests, a silent protest in front of the Capitol, a rally with brightly painted signs on the mall, an old man, sitting vigil in front of the White House, but very few protest the killing of the unborn, and yet the casualties are so much greater (approximately 3,700 every day in the US). The comparison of numbers put things into perspective for me. It is one thing for a solider to give his life for his country... it is very different for a mother to give the life of her child for her own "quality of life." While we're out there running marathons to cure Diabetes, AIDS, and Cancer, maybe we could try to find a cure for selfishness. In the end, I think that is what will destroy this nation.

To read the whole article, click here.

The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. ~ John Stuart Mill

What ever happened to grammar?

As much as I hated parsing sentences in elementary school, it was better than the alternative. I am beginning to wonder if following the basic rules of grammar is a lost art. It is bad enough that half of America talks like a bunch of morons, either in grunts and single syllables, or in wannabe "academese" (i.e. using large words for the sake of using large words even if they do not convey the thought accurately, or fit in the sentence grammatically - my all-time favorite in this category is the use of nouns as verbs), but when it shows up in writing... It is just embarrassing!

This morning I was reading through Reuters Odly Enough and came across an article that began with the following sentence: "New Zealand opera star Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, who refused to perform with an Australian singer because his female fans threw underwear at him, on Wednesday won a lawsuit against her for pulling out of the concert." I was confused. So, I went back and re-read the sentence, parsing as I went. *the following is my stream-of-consciousness thought process* Subject = the opera star (Dame Kiri Te Kanawa). Ok, that's what I thought. She refused to perform with the Australian singer (the object of this sentence) for good reason (I'd refuse to sing with him too!). Now we come to the verb (won), which has to refer back to the subject (the female opera singer), but wait! The pronoun that comes next can't be right. Against her? She can't win against herself! The answer must lie in the last part of the sentence..."for pulling out of the concert." She is the one who pulled out, sho it must be him who won the lawsuit... *end of stream-of-consciousness* I read the rest of the article. It confirmed what I had already concluded. He won the lawsuit, and the journalist, who submitted the article to Reuters, doesn't know how to write.