Here I am, once again, unable to sleep. I'm tired but not sleepy. Does that even make sense. When I can't sleep, I try to distract myself. Tonights 'distraction' courtesy of Little Green Footballs (LGF), link on the side bar. The posts are, admittedly, right leaning. I don't define right and left very well. Each side has it's nuts. I consider myself in the middle. Just because it's on my TV doesn't mean it's true. I mean, come on, if I were to believe that, I'd believe Santa exists. I don't want to be 'political', I don't like to be 'political'. I've got to tell ya though, The far right conservatives are making more sense than the mainstream left. A few things on both sides irritate me.
1. We do not really elect our president. The electoral college does. This is 7th grade Civics class. What is the electoral college? Presumably, from what I remember in my Civics class, Our Representatives and/or Senators. Since then I have learned, each state differs on who does get to cast our votes. Basically each state gets as many votes as it has representatives and senators. This is where the get the pretty numbers on the election maps. Way back when we first started voting, each state's legislature appointed people to go to Washington to cast their vote for president. The state legislature was supposed to pick the people who would vote the way the legislature chose. It didn't always happen that way, it did a lot though. This is how it can appear that a president isn't elected but appointed by the majority color of the state. We didn't even have a 'popular' vote until later, I saw the classroom thing they did on C-Span. They did cite sources: the Constitution. If you don't know legal language well, it's hard to read. I know, I've tried. Too many words repeat themselves, making it difficult to translate. That's why we have the supreme court to do it for us when necessary. The purpose of our 'popular' vote is to tell whoever our representatives (in each state) to the electoral college are, how we WANT them to vote. They don't have to, we would like them to. I believe in my state, I really need to research it, that our representatives and senators cast that vote. This is why it does not really matter if some votes were uncounted. Or faked, whatever. Do we really think our elected officials will vote any way but the way they feel is right? If you do, you are just naive. Bottom line: we cannot tell them how to vote, we can only tell them how we, as a majority in each district, want them to. If you don't like the way your electoral college voted for president, you need to vote them out of office, not whine that your candidate didn't win because the election was hijacked. Get over it already!
There's a story developing, I use that term loosely, about a Communist who writes for a Communist Paper in Italy. It's unclear what she writes, does she do news or write a column? These are two different things. From all the interviews she's given, all the conflicting and changing stories, I seriously doubt she could be called a journalist. I stopped watching the news on my tv long ago because of crap like this. She got herself kidnapped. Yes she's quoted as saying they wouldn't kidnap me, I hate America. I also wonder if she really was kidnapped. Then again, I'm skeptical about many things. She's shown on kidnapper videos crying and pleading for her life. She gets out and says they wouldn't have killed her they said so. They gave me a necklace, see how nice they are. Overlooking the fact that these same people beheaded others, even her own countrymen. Overlooking the fact that these 'peaceful' people get uneducated idiots to strap on a bomb and run into the nearest populated area and kill themselves. Harming and/or killing many. Because she was that stupid, a Secret Service Agent for Italy is dead. There are conflicting stories about how much the military knew about her release. No where has it been proven that they told anyone they were going to run roadblocks to get her to the airport. Slow, fast, almost losing control of the car apparently all mean we were going really slow. First day she claims the troops were trying to assassinate her. How arrogant, she thinks we care that she's stupid and delusional. If we aren't doing that to our own people who demonstrate this kind of lack in intelligence, why would we do that to her? There was a tank, no a humvee, no just some guys with guns, apparently translates to 3 to 400 rounds of ammo. All of which just magically landed in the seat next to her, enabling her to grab handfuls. If you've ever even seen the 'making of' on a movie, you know a small gun will not do this. That bullet will embed into the metal. If it's a good bullet it will fly through the first layer and stop in the second, third, whatever layer of material, some even have the velocity to go out of the car too. It was a car, no truck, no SUV apparently has translated to I have no idea what kind of vehicle I was riding in. There's been pics. The first set were of the car she was kidnapped from. The second set had a few obvious bullet holes, but nowhere near 300. The one now claiming to be the real car has 2 obvious bullet holes. In the windshield. The pics aren't that great either. If we wanted her dead, she would be. No one would have called an ambulance to take her happy ass to the hospital. Wah! it took 20 or so minutes to get there. They were swerving potholes on a wet road in the dark with several roadblocks and she wants the ambulance to get there yesterday? If that car was riddled with bullets from a tank or an AK-47, she would be dead. From a tank, there probably would be no car. We see more damage to cars hit by bullets here in our very own US, than was in the 'official' car she was riding to the airport in. Why did they not stop? Road blocks are a common occurence on that road. I'd be prosecuting the driver of the car. Really, come on now, it's a freakin war zone. Combat. Where there are suicide car bombers, who don't slow down or stop. Did you really think that the military at any of those check points would let you just speed on down the road? If you do that at any one of our military bases here at home, you would be shot. Yes, I've been to a base. We have Ft. Leonardwood nearish here. My sister occasionally took classes there to further her MP investigator career/training. They had guns. At more than 1 spot. Yeah, we had to stop twice to get onto that base to visit. This is common. If you are that stupid, you deserve to be shot. Yes the death of the officer was tragic and an accident. No one has yet had the balls to come out and say 'An officer of the Secret Service of Italy should have known better. He should have taken the support of the escort at the Embassy. He should have made damn sure that driver would stop, or driven himself. He should have notified the US military and made damn sure that there would be no problem at any checkpoint.' Too bad he died and she got to hijack the tragedy of his death and make it a conspiracy. Our troops are certified regularly on their guns. Each one they touch. Separately. You really think a soldier that can't hit the broad side of a barn is going to recertified and allowed to hold a gun? No. They wouldn't be. There is a certain level at which you must be. You do have to come near the target. How near, I do not know. My sister qualified as a sniper on 5 or 6 different guns. She wasn't even one of those that would be on the front line. She was an MP. Her job was to investigate crimes reported. Her husband is also an MP. He's deployed in Iraq right now. I hope he hasn't heard a lot of the major news here in our country. It's demeaning. It's disgusting. Just because they chose to serve their country does not mean they don't have feelings. Each death over there is very hard for the troops. Every one of them. Depending on what branch of the military you are in, you have platoons or what have you. I'm just going to use that one. Each platoon is family. They are very close. When they are over there, away from all they hold dear, the platoon is their family. That is their support. Talk to a few veterans, you'll find that most, even now, keep in contact with each other. It is a disgrace that our media picks up stories like that writer who accused the military of trying to assassinate her. Do we not require them to investigate anymore?
No matter the reason we went there, the fact is we are there now. It is really naive to think if we meekly pull out and go back to our 'hidey holes' that they will leave us alone. Like many web sites have stated, we (the majority of the population) didn't even know they existed until they came here and attacked us. It has to stop. The terrorists must be stopped. The way the women are treated there is outrageous. If you want to wear a potato sack, so be it. You should not be forced to wear one. If you are raped, it isn't your fault. You don't deserve to be killed for it to preserve the 'honor' of your family. Adultery should equal divorce not death. In many places there is still female circumcision. For some reason it is believed that even after that is done a woman wants to have sex. The whole reason they do it is so they won't enjoy sex, it will be painful. Who wants that? Common sense people!
OK, I'll get off the soapbox now. Breathe, you're ok, you have survived. |