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The Road Less Traveled
Author: BobR    Date: 01/16/2013 03:42:01

I had a blog planned for Wednesday. It was to be yet another screed on something or other political. That all went into the dumpster when I found out that a friend is succumbing to cancer, and Raine and I will not get the opportunity to see him again.

Some of you may know John - he went by "Bounced Granola" at the old AAP board. He was a good activist liberal. We got to meet him the first time at a protest march in DC back when no one knew Raine and I were having an online "relationship". We all had a blast. We thought for certain he had figured it out, but - he hadn't.
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93 comments (Latest Comment: 01/18/2013 19:57:19 by bird)

Ask a Vet
Author: TriSec    Date: 01/15/2013 11:06:45

Good Morning.

Today is our 4,118th day in Afghanistan.

We'll start this morning as we always do; with the latest casualty figures from our ongoing war, courtesy of Antiwar.com:

US Military Deaths - Afghanistan: 2,175
Other Military Deaths - Afghanistan: 1,081

We find this morning's cost of war passing through:

$ 1, 413, 410, 325, 000 .00

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114 comments (Latest Comment: 01/16/2013 04:25:36 by Will in Chicago)

Monday well wishing.
Author: Raine    Date: 01/14/2013 13:58:34

As of last night our beloved curmudgeon was still in the Hospital. I'm hoping to make contact with him today.

So for now, let's send out the vibes for his recovery.. and intestinal fortitude.

and to Modo!
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98 comments (Latest Comment: 01/15/2013 04:02:03 by Raine)

Open Sundee
Author: velveeta jones    Date: 01/13/2013 14:22:38

Chat amongst yourselves today as yours truly continues to fight this sick.

Herewith, a few topics, this one from the ever reliable Drudge Report:
Watch out Florida friends, drones will soon fly over your tanning towels on the beach.

The Orange County Sheriff's Office is experimenting with two surveillance drones that it hopes to turn loose over Metro Orlando skies this summer.

Sheriff's spokesman Jeff Williamson would not reveal specific uses for the drones, larger versions of which are known for flying over tribal regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan to drop bombs on suspected terrorists.

But Williamson did say Orange's remote-controlled planes would not be armed. The agency still needs approval from county leaders and the Federal Aviation Administration to use them. The FAA said it does not comment on drone applications.

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10 comments (Latest Comment: 01/14/2013 01:38:35 by TriSec)

Internets make people stupid
Author: TriSec    Date: 01/12/2013 13:51:16

Good Morning.

Ah, gotta love the book of face. In addition to our little corner of the internets, I've been able to connect to little-known cousins, other random relations, and some old friends that have scattered to the four winds since High School.

I'm even in touch with an unknown relative back in the mother country; the only thing we share is the last name. She can speak English, but most of her posts are in Tagalog.

Nevertheless, it's been quiet and benign...until today. Have you seen this drivel circulating around the internet recently?


GOOD INFORMATION TO SHARE…

A 10 year old boy had eaten pineapple about 15 days back, and fell sick from the day he had eaten. Later, when he had his Health check done... doctors diagnosed that he had AIDS. His parents couldn't believe it...

Then the entire family underwent a Checkup... none of them suffered from Aids. So the doctors checked again with the boy if he had eaten out...The boy said "yes". He had pineapple that evening. Immediately, a group from Mallya hospital went to the pineapple vendor to check.

They found the pineapple seller had a cut on his finger while cutting the pineapple, his blood had spread into the fruit.

When they had his blood checked... the guy was suffering from AIDS... but he himself was NOT aware. Unfortunately, the boy is suffering from it now.

Please take care while u eat on the road side. And please SHARE this to your family and friends.


Of course, this is utterly ridiculous. I didn't have to look at Snopes, but I did anyway.

Needless to say, I ripped my cousin a new one over this.

But isn't this really the problem? Remember when you had to read a newspaper or a book, and you had to go to the library to research things? That gave you a chance to slow down and think about what you wanted to say....gave you time to check a couple of sources for your information, and yes....maybe even gave you the chance to sound intelligent and articulate when you finally wrote that paper.

The internet has taken all of that away from us. I could post right now "Supreme Court agrees with Taitz - moves to block Obama Inauguration" out on FB, and within the hour it would be re-posted to hundreds, if not thousands, of waiting sheep.

Nobody even thinks anymore, and I think this is the real symptom behind our dysfunctional government and society. You'd think that people would be smarter, but because "I saw it on the internet", it becomes the Gospel Truth. But I don't understand why information from one unreliable source would trump history, books, libraries, and plain old facts.

I suppose ol' Joe Goebbels had it right: “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”

But of course, this is why internet freedom is so important. In places like China or Cuba, where the net is controlled, so is information, and Mr. Goebbel's observation is actually in practice.

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5 comments (Latest Comment: 01/13/2013 14:08:19 by velveeta jones)

A Revolution for Sanity
Author: BobR    Date: 01/11/2013 14:02:37

It happened again: another school, another shooting... This time it was much smaller and apparently no one was killed. A student at Taft High School in CA went after his classmates with a shotgun. Besides the impact on the students, it put to rest two "truisms" being promoted by gun advocates. The first one is that armed guards are required to prevent these things at school. It turns out that the school did indeed have an armed guard (watch the gun nuts go after him as being incompetent). The second is that only a good person with a gun can stop a bad person with a gun. In this case, it was a teacher and a school supervisor who simply talked him into surrenduring.
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83 comments (Latest Comment: 01/15/2013 03:53:21 by Raine)

Disease of Apprehension
Author: Raine    Date: 01/10/2013 14:13:30

This was written by a friend. He has given me permission to re-post his words here. They are his own, but I admit that I agree with the premise. I don't think I could say it much differently than he did, but it coincided with some research I have been doing with regards to the gun debate we are having in this country...
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46 comments (Latest Comment: 01/11/2013 04:29:46 by Will in Chicago)

The Common Good
Author: BobR    Date: 01/09/2013 13:54:18

We face a lot of problems in our country. There's poverty, gun violence, racism, a dysfunctional Congress... and a media that breathlessly keeps the pot stirred up. There's a lot of fear because fear sells. Fear of not having enough money, of the shame of not being able to keep up with the neighbors, fear of "the others" with different skin tones or fashion choices or accents, fear of not getting reelected...

As Americans, we (and I am using "we" loosely here) balk at the changes that would help us. The Cold War has so ingrained a distrust of a powerful government, we label anything that helps us which is government-based as "socialism". We want government to leave us alone to live our lives. We value our freedoms to the point of detriment, to the point of nose-spiting-face. We point to the first Amendment to allow verbal bullying, we point to the 10th amendment to disallow federal programs.

And there are some among us that point to the 2nd Amendment to justify possessing as many weapons and of any variety as they desire. As was said on TV last night, they want it, they can afford it, so the government better not keep them from getting it.
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109 comments (Latest Comment: 01/10/2013 05:07:57 by Will in Chicago)

Ask a Vet
Author: TriSec    Date: 01/08/2013 12:22:37

Good Morning.

Today is our 4,111th day in Afghanistan.

We'll start this morning as we always do; with the latest casualty figures from our ongoing war, courtesy of Antiwar.com:

US Military Deaths - Afghanistan: 2,174
Other Military Deaths - Afghanistan: 1,079

We find this morning's cost of war passing through:

$1, 411, 113, 675, 000 .00


I'm going to have to leave it with just the stats. I have things bookmarked, but I can't get at them right now...and I completely forgot it was Tuesday today. (I've been so connected to my treatment cycle these last 5 months. I normally went on Wednesdays, but because of the holidays, my last one had to be re-scheduled to today. So my chemo-brain says it's Wednesday.)

In any case, you know where you can find your veteran's news by now.
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69 comments (Latest Comment: 01/09/2013 03:22:50 by Will in Chicago)

Let's get this week going...
Author: Raine    Date: 01/07/2013 14:02:02

First full week of the New year! What do you have going on?

I'm looking at a few stories, and I swear it's like nothing has changed with this new congress.

Shutting down government, birthrights crap, attacking women, Chuck Hagel is too liberal, evils of John Brennan and other assorted conservative nuttery.
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92 comments (Latest Comment: 01/08/2013 03:51:22 by Will in Chicago)

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