Good Morning!

Ah, the early morning Saturday blog. By know you know the drill. I know I just posted about this two weeks ago, but thanks to the nature of platelet donation, I can go twice within a two-week period, but then I have to lay off for a month. In any case, it's still summer, the need is still great, and there's still a national shortage. So what are you waiting for?
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8 comments (Latest Comment: 08/06/2011 20:42:29 by Raine)

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64 comments (Latest Comment: 08/04/2011 20:59:22 by Raine)

Good Morning.

Today is our 3,058th day in Iraq, and our 3, 586th day in Afghanistan.

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

American Deaths
Since war began (3/19/03): 4474
Since "Mission Accomplished" (5/1/03): 4335
Since Handover (6/29/04): 3615
Since Obama Inauguration (1/20/09): 246
Since Operation New Dawn: 46

Other Coalition Troops - Iraq: 318
US Military Deaths - Afghanistan: 1,680
Other Military Deaths - Afghanistan: 931
Contractor Employee Deaths - Iraq: 1,487
Journalists - Iraq : 348
Academics Killed - Iraq: 448

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

$ 1, 229, 368, 600, 000. 00


Well, the debt package has passed the House (according to the news this morning), so it's on to the Senate. The NECN presenters were openly wondering if the Senate would be able to vote in time for the President to sign before the midnight deadline. We'll see.
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75 comments (Latest Comment: 08/03/2011 02:22:45 by Raine)

The other day I found myself in the chip aisle of the grocery store. I decided I needed to buy a bag of chips. But wait, Velveeta doesn't really eat chips on a regular basis, so what's going on? Why, I was only in this aisle because I was cutting through to the other side of the store to shop for dairy products; the chip aisle was just a handy pass-through. I could have used the cleaning aisle or the pet food aisle or the pharmacy aisle that is also laden with auto parts. (I sometimes confuse my night cream with Synthetic Transmission fluid since I'm at that age where I must endure the extreme heavy stuff). But I chose the chip aisle and found myself feeling the need for Jalapeno flavored Cheetos and Cool Ranch Ruffles.
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11 comments (Latest Comment: 08/01/2011 03:52:53 by Raine)

With the clock ticking away, and the country watching with grim pessimism, the U.S. House of Representatives continues to lock horns within itself, resulting in a deadlock of paralysis. Only a couple days remain for some sort of resolution to the debt ceiling problem, and a solution seems even further away than earlier in the week. At a time when pragmatism and compromise is required for the good of the country (and even the world), ideology seems to be trumping common sense, and even patriotism.
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77 comments (Latest Comment: 07/30/2011 01:00:09 by TriSec)