Lighten Up People...

I'm speechless.

Take a look at this link. Come back and comment. Maybe I'll be able to say something in a little while, but this is absolutely ridiculous!

Teddy Bears and Mental Illness

UPDATE

I guess that I just have to stop reading the news each day and shut myself off from society...or I'm going to have an anxiety attack? Who would I sue?

Check out another story of a lady that just needs to chill out a leetle beet!

Give Your Neighbors Cookies...Go to Jail

See you on the high ground...

MajorDad1984

Okay...I'm Confused!

I just got done listening to President Bush's 5th State of the Union address to a joint session of congress and millions of people watching on television.

I think that he did a fine job letting people know about his vision (never do get to specifics in a State of the Union address) for the next four years.

One of the centerpieces of his speech was his proposed reform for the Social Security system. I'm a complete believer in the establishment of personal savings accounts that will be passed on from generation to generation...and grow at a much larger rate than the current social security funds that simply pass along to the government and not a worker's family when they pass away. I'm one of those government workers that is enrolled in the "Thrift Savings Plan" where 13% of my pay (because I want to contribute that much to MY OWN RETIREMENT) goes into any of five different funds. I've been participating in it for nearly 10 years...and I've saved quite a chunk of change. This money, plus my pension, plus social security should make for quite a comfortable retirement for MajorMom and myself.

What I thought kind of disingenuous of the Democrats that moaned and groaned when President Bush explained why the problem of Social Security should be fixed now. I'm not going to add a link for you to follow to read what I'd like you to read...but I would encourage you to go to your favorite search engine...and enter the following words and press the search button.

Enter: Clinton "Social Security"

Just like that...and read about the plans and concerns that President Bush's predecessor had to say about the state of Social Security and the fact that it is/was/might be headed for a train wreck some 40 years into the future. For some reason, I would believe that the Dems would have been applauding at some of these words.

In any event...I'm interested in hearing what you might think about the issue of Social Security or any of the issues that the Democrats seem to want to hold so near and dear when they're in power and in control, but turn their backs on when the Republicans might actually make some headway in solving.

See you on the high ground...I'll be the one playing with the "time value of money" calculations...

MajorDad1984

And here is the rest of it.

Homespun Blogger Symposium Question XI

Do you think that the elections in Iraq vindicated President Bush's
decision to invade Iraq?

Well, I'll have to put my bottom line answer to this week's question
right up front.

I don't know yet. We all won't know for quite some time I believe.
(That's a couple of years for you impatient Americans that want
EVERYTHING RIGHT FRIGGING NOW!)

We are operating in a region where time isn't measured in days, weeks,
months or even years. We're working in a part of the world where
decades are considered winks of the eye....centuries getting closer to
a measure of time that is understood.

The problems that have plagued the Middle East have been there for
hundreds and thousands of years. This is not a new problem; it's just
an interesting twist on an old one! Probably the most recent twist
was the way the lines were drawn carving up the old Ottoman Empire at
the end of World War I. Throughout the Middle East, the League of
Nations got it wrong and we've pretty much been on the receiving end
ever since. In its present configuration, the "League" ain't making
much forward progress in the region either. Surprised? So, let's
just say that one day of free voting alone isn't going to change
thousands of years of history quickly. With time, the vote will be
seen as the first step in a journey in the right direction.

Secondly, we're going to be hounded from now until the cows come home
about when American troops will be withdrawn from Iraq. Again, it's
far too early to even discuss a withdrawal when the Iraqis barely have
a government in place and a constabulary force capable of enforcing
the rule of law. In the absence of Saddam's iron fist, chaos has
ruled with various factions trying to fill the power gap. Until the
Iraqis can enforce the law of the land, I don't believe we're
overstepping our bounds. I agree that we should stand ready to turn
control over to Iraqi forces as they prove their mettle, but we should
also stand ready to show them what well led soldiers are capable of
doing too. As we dissolved the previous regime's military (not unlike
taking away the toys of the Luftwaffe and Wehrmacht at the end of
WWII) it will take time to ensure that Iraq places the right people in
the right positions of authority to prevent a military coup in the
near term.

Finally, the Iraqi people that have lived under a monarch, under an
empire, and under a military dictatorship for so many
years...democracy and freedom are probably VERY STRANGE to them. We
take for granted the many rights we are guaranteed under the
Constitution. This Sunday was the first time the Iraqi people have
voted in a "real" election in a generation! It is guaranteed that
nobody will receive 100% of the vote this time, like Saddam had done
in the past.

So let's let this question simmer on the back burner for awhile before
we make our final call on this.

Do I believe that we're on the right track with Iraq? Absolutely.

Do I wish we could find the missing WMD? Of course.

Do I think we need to continue to crack down on illegal and unsanctioned proliferation of WMD? No doubt!.

New and Interesting Ways to Pick Your Pocket...

Now this is what I like to hear...congressmen conspiring to take more of the money I earn out of my pocket. Check this sh*t out!

It Worked to Finance the Spanish-American War

Why don't we just go to this length? All our employers can pay our ENTIRE salaries to the federal government...and then they can send US what the state doesn't need, what the local governments don't need....and we can all live at the same economic level!

Gee, that would really boost productivity, wouldn't it?

Puzzled on the high ground.

MajorDad1984

And here is the rest of it.

Any Geeks out There?

At the risk of sounding really geeky here...anyone out there care to give Linux a spin on their machine without going through the typical HELL of partitioning and formatting portions of their hard drives for use with LINUX?

Go to:

http://www.linuxiso.org

And download the KNOPPIX iso file. (This is a file format that allows you to download one file that can be burned as an image onto a CD.)

Once you have it burned to CD...place it in your CD drive and restart you computer. If all goes according to plan, your computer will boot into a LINUX environment...with no modifications made to your hard drive at all!

KNOPPIX found all my peripherals...network card and EVERYTHING.

Sorry...if I sound geeky, it's because I've never been able to get LINUX of any kind to run on my computers without a tremendous amount of hassle and pain. Wait, let me correct that statement. I've never been smart enough to get it to work even when I follow the instructions line by line.

Give it a try! You'll be amazed at how fast your machine will work under this operating system. If you have a number of old clunkers sitting around the house, you might consider pressing them back into service running some sort of LINUX.

See you on the high ground! I'll be the geek with the 17" neck!

MajorDad1984 And here is the rest of it.

Administration Rules Out Pullout Timeline

Well, I'm certainly happy to have found this article on MSNBC's news site:

Deadline for troop withdrawal ruled out.

I'm hoping that this is indeed the case, because I had heard reports earlier to the contrary. Earlier this afternoon it would have appeared that in the exuberance of yesterday's elections President Bush and Prime Minister Blair had come to some very wrong conclusions. While the elections were held, there are still quite a few hurdles that the new Iraqi government will have to get over with the Coalition at their side.

The first reports about the major coalition partners establishing some withdrawal timelines would have been wrong on a number of levels...allow me to point out some of the fallacies of getting out Iraq before our time:

1. If we're to remember our history...conflicts, grudges, and issues in "that part of the world" are not measured in duration in a matter of days, months or even years. Even the animals who use the handicapped as weapons have the patience to wait for the best opportunities to strike. If the Coalition and Iraqi government were to say that major units were to leave by the end of this year, they'd bide their time and sucker 'the good guys' into thinking that all was well.

2. Some of the points made in my reference article are quite sound indeed. We need to assist the Iraqi security forces to gain experience and confidence. Starting out slow in the more peaceful areas might just be the trick. It will also allow the more experienced and capable forces of the Coalition to concentrate on eliminating as many of the foreign influences that have been stirring up so much trouble where things are just a little bit hotter.

3. While I believe that we will one day leave Iraq to the Iraqis, I think it best to move slowly. As the new government is seated, I believe that we have to be very clear in our expectations. We have assisted the government to get to the point where it could be elected at the price of 1415 American lives lost and 10,000 wounded troops. While the Iraqis have sacrificed a great deal too, I think we've earned the right to strongly advise the interim government about how they might want to proceed towards complete independence. We are simply there to back up their play at this point.

It's been a long hard fight so far...and we probably have another 18 months to go before we really are able to draw down significantly, but the partnership between the Coalition and the Iraqis will have to work together to identify those points in time.

See you all on the high ground...I'll be admiring those with purple fingers!

MajorDad1984

And here is the rest of it.

Bad Taste at VMI?

Not to be outdone by the stupidity of Prince Harry...apparently cadets at the Virginia Military Institute have been accused of wearing costumes to a Halloween celebration within their own barrack this past October! Unfortunately, just like at Abu GrabAss prison in Iraq, someone with a camera decided to share photographs with the mainstream media. Here's the story!

VMI Cadets try to outdo British Prince's Stupidity

Okay, now that you've read and returned...let's go through some of the facts.

• The cadets were celebrating an accepted holiday inside the barracks where they live. This was not a "public" event.
  
  
• These cadets are probably only 17-23/24 years old at the most. We're not talking about completely mature adults.
  
  
• The inappropriate costumes in question include: Nazi blackshirts with swastikas, drag queens, a starving African, and some as "sailors" with red targets painted on their rear ends.

If we start pointing fingers at every college-aged student that makes an error in judgement, we're going to run out of fingers pretty damned quickly. Add to that college age factor, VMI is a school that imparts much more discipline and applies much higher standards than the average institution of higher learning. When you live in an environment like VMI, West Point or some of the other prestigious service academies...many times cadets/students look to inappropriate avenues to blow off steam. Like it or not, that's what happens.

I refuse to go into any of my past transgressions, but there certainly are skeletons in my closet when measured by today's yardstick of "political correctness." Did that make me a less effective combat leader during Operation Desert Storm? I don't think so. I'd imagine the families of the men I led in Saudi Arabia and that little diamond area disputed by Saudi and Iraq at the time are quite thankful that I was able to take their sons overseas and return them safe and sound. Had the youthful transgressions of my past been held against me perhaps those soldiers would have had a less effective, prepared leader in front of them that did NOT bring them home.

Before we go a little crazy in dreaming up the punishment for these cadets...let's try and remember that they're still gaining in the maturity that is preparing them for their futures. College students are works in progress. That doesn't mean that they get a "free pass" at every turn, but they do deserve a little more room to make errors than this article would lead me to believe.

From the high ground...I'll be the one with a Shiner in one hand...and a full house in the other! (Okay...I'll discuss a couple of transgressions)

MajorDad1984


. And here is the rest of it.