Author: sailorj

Where do I begin? I have a lot of ground to cover, so let’s start with the easy stuff.

Presidential Nominees
Democrats! Where is the field of nominees for President 2008? Do you think that I’m being premature? I don’t think so. In November it will be two years until the election, and it takes time for people to get to know the candidates, assuming that their will be many running in a primary. Democrats have an easy task in a way, since they don’t have to be in the shadow of the President.
If you want to inspire and win 2008, then you need to get to the next issue, party platform.

Party Platform
I always hear from the pundits that the candidates need to demonstrate what differentiates them from their opponent. It seems that everyone knows what the GOP is about, but the waters are quite muddied for the Democratic party. If you’re a Democrat, you recognize that there is a lot of good from the fact that there is a lot of diverse ideas that can fit within the party. Yet a concise platform is needed in order to get undecided voters, and unhappy voters to join up.

What are the issues that American’s care about?

• National Defense
• Health Care
• Taxes
• Social Security – Investments – Retirement
• Inflation – The Economy
• Employment – Jobs

What policies should the Democrats drive home with a specific plan in addition to the afore mentioned?

• Energy – Alternative Fuels
• International Trade Strategies
• Technology Development Strategy, in cooperation with NASA, The NSF, our National Labs, and the US Military.

Finally, there should be a stated preamble to all of this that speaks to the direct support of our Bill of Rights, and specifically the defense of the 1st amendment.

Ideology vs Policy
The GOP has a definite ideology, and it partially is influenced by religious conservatives, some might even say hi-jacked. Those ideologies include.

• Anti-Abortion (Pro-Life)
• Anti-Union (Pro-“Right-to-Work”)
• Anti-Evolution (Pro-Creationism)
• Anti-Homosexual (Pro-Family)
• Anti-Gun Control (Defenders of the 2nd Amendment)
• Anti-Secularism (Pro Religion in public life)

If the Democratic party wants to demonstrate how it is different, and serves the best interests of the country, it has to deal with each of these issues, as they are all decisive, emotionally, with voters.

Liberty and the future We have all lost freedom when the Patriot Act was enacted. While it can be argued that sweeping changes to the law are necessary, since these are changing times, well, maybe we should have debated that a little longer on how to do it. I worry about a future where people are afraid to speak their mind.

I don’t think that suspecting every American as a potential terrorist is the answer. We check you at the Airport, and now we can carry that into anything that we want as justification to search you. Heck, the books that you check out a the public library can be reported to law enforcement. Where are the defenders of the 4th Amendment? Will it be up to Judges to defend the 4th Amendment because poorly written laws are carried out, then challenged in court? Will this mean that those Judges will be accused of “activism” and “writing laws from the bench” when in fact they are making decisions based upon the US Constitution and Bill of Rights.

Benjamin Franklin and his fellow patriots believe in liberty so much that they were ready to defend it with their very lives. To give it up for anything would have been considered a treasonous act, and now we sheepishly believe that these desperate times have called for desperate measures, and we have willingly sacrificed what we spend 200+ years to earn.

Memorial Day

We remember our fallen commrades,
We remember patriots all.
From the beginning of our country,
Through wars and through peace,
They stood safeguarding freedom,
Paying the ultimate sacrifice.

This Memorial day shouldn’t be about cookouts and summer,
But inner reflection on how lucky we are
To live in a country where our fellow citizens have worked hard
To keep us free.

With comedians being accused of Treason, and a congressman promising a “guided tour” of the Whitehouse for donating thousands of dollars to some GOP fund, you’ve gotta ask yourself, what the heck is going on?

But I thought, if they really wanted to earn their keep, they might help out the Army meet their recruiting goals, which is down by over 40%. How can Congress help? Well, they need to show up at the local high school once a month to talk to high school seniors in their area about the virtues of military service.

Can’t you imagine it, 30 minutes, in front of the youth of America, flanked by Soldiers in uniform? The congress men could even dress up like Uncle Sam, and say, “I want YOU!” How can the people who would vote to wage war not have the guts to go out and recruit those who may give the ultimate sacrifice for one’s country?

If our politicians don’t have time to recruit the best and bravest of our country’s youth, then maybe they have time to attend a funeral to honor our nation’s fallen. After all, this is Memorial day weekend, and while we are at war, we should be mindful of the sacrifices that our Military are making every single day.

Our Military is made up of the finest Americans that ever volunteered to don the Uniform, and to wear it is an honor.

It seems that there was a time when people used critical thinking skills to contemplate there life’s endevors. Evading group think can be difficult if you are unwilling to open your mind to various opinions.

Today I ate dinner at in an Orlando “Bar and Grill” type chain. I just finished my reserve weekend, and was still in uniform. Suddenly a guy walks in, and sits down next to me at the bar, dressed in fatigues and wearing a fatigue hat. No rank ensignias, but the words US Army on everything. He proceeds to tell those of us sitting at the bar how he just came back from 18 months of “overseas” duty. And that he was an Airborne ranger. Personally, I wasn’t really sure I bought all that. He didn’t have that “clean cut” military look, quite honestly, but I listened to what he had to say. Maybe the fact that he insulted me by saying that he didn’t have any respect for the Navy, since we wouldn’t know what it would be like to be deployed for 18 months.

I listened to his crap about how the US doesn’t “fuck around” and we kick ass. So I asked him a reasonable question, “how do you feel about your fellow soldiers being used as policemen rather than soldiers in Iraq?” I figured if he was so war gun-hoe, he probably would be pissed that he couldn’t kill anyone. He’d have to try and work things out with the local civilian population.

His response was, “If you sign up, then you do what your told.” He just couldn’t understand that if you sign up for one thing and then are forced to do another, that maybe there could be something slightly to take issue with. And as a US citizen, you can think about that. Are we supposed to be in the business of Nation Building?

He just didn’t get it, and I figured that talking about the new Star Wars movie would just be too much.

Bottom line, it ruined my dinner.

Cheers,

J

I’m sure you’ve heard it said that art resembles life, or something like that. Well, it didn’t take very long for people to draw comparisons between Star Wars, and Iraq Wars. And while George Lucas wrote the movie during the Viet Nam war era, he mentions that similarities could be applied to today’s war. I’m sure that George Lucas was surprised when Reagan referred to the anti-ballistic missile system as the “Star Wars” defense system.

Could this be somewhat of the Catch 22 of the 2000’s? Catch 22 was made into a film, released in 1970, that followed the life of a WWII pilot who just wanted to go home, but couldn’t because of the dreaded Catch 22.

While Catch 22 poked fun at the military’s “circular logic”. The bigger questions are about who runs these wars? But at the end of the day, the people who watch a war movie and don’t realize that War movies are supposed to leave you thinking about how they affect the individuals involved have missed something. They should consider that the men and women who enter into battle in defense of their country are individuals with hopes and dreams and families. War movies generally show one side as good and one side as bad. Yet plainly, as shown in the current Star Wars movie, who is good and who is bad is a matter of perception.

Hope you don’t boycott Star Wars because someone else might have read something into the movie that you don’t agree with. After all, it is a movie, and a good one at that.

I was in Key West this last week. While visiting the Custom house, I saw a display that talked about Yellow Journalism and references to the USS Maine.

Here is the picture.
Well… it seems that in this modern era, Yellow Journalism has hardly gone away. But you know, it’s too bad that the term has not been used as of late.

I think that if we want a change from these news gathering/reporting organizations, then we need to call them what they are. Newsweek put American lives at risk, without having all the facts straight. So when I see Yellow Journalism, this Blog is going to throw out the YJ alert! This is kind of like a bullshit flag, except, I’ll keep it specific to YJ.

I think that when News outlets use there tremendous resources to arbitrarily get convince you to have a specific view, then they are guilty of this.

This goes beyond erronous reporting, this goes to the heart of journalism integrity, which many agencies have lost.

Wednesday, April 27th 2005, I had surgery to remove my Gallbladder. I am finishing up my first day of recovery. I am restless and bored for the most part. This is a great chance to watch some movies, and write in my blog, when I can stand the pain in my stomach from sitting up.

The reason that I had my gallbladder removed was because it became enlarged and non-functional. No one really knows why it stopped working, but after significant amount of testing, it was clear to see it didn’t work. The ironic thing was that there were no stones, but I did have associated pain.

I’m getting better, but it’s happening slowly.

Cheers,

J

It seems to me that passing a high school civics class should be a requirement for all Americans. I always find it interesting that there is this confusion about the “Bill of Rights”. Many Americans think that we have these rights. Well, maybe we have “infered” rights, but really, those savvy founding fathers had a better plan. They realized that the authority of the government is inherently given by the people. Without the people, our government doesn’t work. So with that premise, it’s easier to remember what the bill of rights say.

Let’s look at the 1st Amendment:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

This is some pretty straightforward stuff. Government should be restricted and forced to stay an arms distance from getting involved in the affairs of the citizenry. And Congress better not try to abridge our rights, because the Judiciary will strike down any attempt at doing that, or at least we should belive that they would.

As you read through the rest of the Amendments, you finally get down to numbers 9 and 10. While they are rarely quoted in their exact format, when you read them, you can plainly see that it was never the intent of the Federal Governement to usurp government at the lowest level, the people.

Amendment IX

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

Amendment X

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

Check out billofrights.com

I wonder how many Congressmen/women can tell you what the Bill of Rights even says.

Well, as we bear witness to the end of Terri Schiavo’s life, did we learn anything?

How will we remember this person? I hope that she become synonymous with the problems of bulimia, rather than this right to die case. If we are so concerned with saving lives, we need to start with saving people who could fall victim to a similar fate.

We need to ensure that we maintain a living will, and ensure that everyone in our family knows what our exact wishes are.

Maybe, we will use this as a time to reflect on the need to do more in the neurosurgical research departments so that maybe at the onset of a persistive vegetative state, we can have some progress in have a roadmap toward any sort of recovery.

Both the parents and husband of Terri Schiavo have gone through a very tough time, and now are in mourning. They no longer need the circus of the media to continue this charade of following a story. Both parties need to have the space to mourn as they need to without the prying eyes of the public, and if not for them, then out of respect for Terri herself.

I don’t see her as a public citizen. She didn’t ask for people to even know her name. It has only been through the court system and the media circus that has played through the political system that has enabled this to occur. We can’t fix the past. It’s over. But we can do something about the future. As quick as politicians were to “politicize” this situation, I don’t think we will see their same alacrity in doing anything more to save other people from a similar fate.

For those of you who feel that you need to place blame I say this! Go Away. Where were you 15 years ago? What did you do to save this person from being bulimic? There is plenty of blame to go around if that is what you chose to get out of her death, but we should consider something greater. Blame never solves the real problems.

In death, I hope this helps saves people from becoming victims of bulimia.
In death, I hope this sends out the message to young people to get a living will, or at least communicate to your friends and family very clearly, your final wishes.

It seems that people who have a political motive in the Terri Schiavo case would have us view anyone who is involved in this right to die decision as a murder. I’ve heard the term, court sponsored murder used. Yet our government seems to be in the business of life and death decision making everyday.

The business of War, albeit messy, is one where the government can make a conscious decision to have members of the society give up their lives to support the greater good of the society. During this current war with Iraq, we have had over 1500, young and healthy Americans give up their life. They will never see their families again. They will never have another birthday.

When you look at the Viet Nam Memorial Wall in Washington DC, you see the vast number of names, and it is emotional and overwhelming.

But my point is that we can easily ask the youth of this great nation to make the ultimate sacrifice, in the name of ideology; freedom, democracy, the American way, yet we seem so wrenched when it comes to ending the life of a person who has been in a PVS for an inordinate amount of years.

I suppose I am just upset that the energy that was spent to try and save this one person is never used to save a greater amount of people. What about the homeless, the underinsured, or victims of violent crimes, etc…? But it seems that the US Government, specifically the legislature, that is happy to stop the business of government on behalf of a single person. I don’t think that is right, unless the plan is to stop the business of government for every single case of its type. We have a court system that is designed to interpret the law, and it has done that many times over.

The other aspect of this whole right to die thing is that there are two sides of this debate, the right to life-rs, and the pro-choice communities.

I would imagine that the right to life side lives with a bit more hypocrisy than the pro-choice community, but none the less, they both have some. Right to life says life is precious, except in the case of the death penalty, then they say, fry ’em, and shooting/killing a doctor here or there seems to be part of the stamp of approval of the pro-life folk, as well as maintaining your dead pool online.

Now the pro-choice folks, say government stay out of my business, but then tend to walk the anti-death penalty line. Obviously the reason is to prevent innocent people from being executed. Yet there are times when justice is only served when the death penalty is carried out. While it is proven not be a deterrent for future criminal activity within the community, it does deter one person from committing that crime again.

The people have spoken, and overwhelmingly support the Florida courts rulings with the Terri Schiavo case. I agree with the majority on this one.