So, I am getting away from why I started this blog. Was it for therapy? Yea, that’s it, that’s the ticket. It was for my random mind meanderings. As a way just to get my frustrations out.
Oh, that explains my daily rants. Ok, now we are getting somewhere. I had thought my thinking would have gotten more coherent by now, but obviously it hasn’t. My concentration last about half a second.
I read my original post tonight and realized I have not really made much improvement. If anything I think I have slipped further into the abyss. By that I mean the meds I have taken for this thing I have (Hep C) may have made me worse in some ways. I am still very anxious, can’t sleep. It is now 1:46 am. I have slept about 2 hours and will try soon to get more. George Noory and Art Bell have become my friends.
My Mental self has gone all miss wired. My thinking has not been the same since Nov 25, 1998. That’s the day I went into the hospital for meningitis. I should tell that story sometime, before I forget it. I don’t remember the whole episode anyway. I forced myself to go back to work too soon, and I think it hindered my full recovery. That’s when the anxiety began. Long story short, the Effexor seems to be working, on some days at least. I don’t think I will ever stop trembling.
I will occasionally feel like I want to break out and run off to the mountains and go hiking, but I soon realize I don’t have the Physical capacity to do so. I can only walk a block or so on level ground. Any kind of incline and will immediately start to grow weary, as if my legs can no longer support me. Of course my weight is a part of the problem. Since my transplant (oh, didn’t I mention I had a Liver Transplant in October 2004) I have gained back a lot of weight that I put on just before the transplant. I have not been able to lose any, even though I cut out sugar, salt, and anything that tastes good. L I am finally off the predisone, but even that has not seemed to have any good effect on my weight. Sure it helped when I was gaining, but now that I am off it, I still can’t lose the weight. I feel doomed to be heavy forever unless I can get enough strength to go hiking. But who am I kidding. Walks seem to be out of the question. I go for a walk and I feel like my legs are going to give out from under me.
I am tired all the time, but I can’t sleep. Ahhhh, so that’s why I am here, typing. My therapist and psychiatrist think I should be keeping a daily journal. Well maybe this will be it. I will try to stay away from my conservative rants, but it is hard living in Massachusetts as a conservative, in one of, if not the most liberal states in the country. I also feel very duplicitous because I am now living on disability which a no no to my own right wing beliefs. I am such a hypocrite (see Webster: a person who acts in contradiction to his or her stated beliefs or feelings). What’s a person to do?
That’s enough for tonight. I am thirsty and tired and sleepy, maybe I can get some sleep. I’ll take some lorazapam and hope for some relief.
Thursday, September 21, 2006
Social Security
Which Party Helped Social Security
More basic to the point, when Social Security was launched by FDR, the average life expectancy of an American was 62 years.
Sooooooo, you had money deducted from your earnings every month under the assumption that it would fund a pension that would begin-----you guessed it----when you reached the age when you would die.
Unlike private investment accounts, all of your "investment" is kept by the government when you die. What a neat scam.
SOCIAL SECURITY: Since many of us have paid into FICA for years and are now receiving a Social Security check every month -- and then finding that we are getting taxed on 85% of the money we paid to the federal government to "put away," you may be interested in the following:
Q: Which party took Social Security from an independent fund and put it in the general fund so that Congress could spend it?
A: It was Lyndon Johnson and the Democratic- controlled House and Senate.
Q: Which party put a tax on Social Security?
A: The Democratic party.
Q: Which party increased the tax on Social Security?
A: The Democratic Party with Al Gore casting the deciding vote.
Q: Which party decided to give money to immigrants?
A: That's right, immigrants moved into this country and at 65 got SSI Social Security. The Democratic Party gave that to them although they never paid a dime into it. Then, after doing all this, the Democrats turn around and tell you that the Republicans want to take your Social Security. And the worst part about it is, people believe it!
Pass This On
More basic to the point, when Social Security was launched by FDR, the average life expectancy of an American was 62 years.
Sooooooo, you had money deducted from your earnings every month under the assumption that it would fund a pension that would begin-----you guessed it----when you reached the age when you would die.
Unlike private investment accounts, all of your "investment" is kept by the government when you die. What a neat scam.
SOCIAL SECURITY: Since many of us have paid into FICA for years and are now receiving a Social Security check every month -- and then finding that we are getting taxed on 85% of the money we paid to the federal government to "put away," you may be interested in the following:
Q: Which party took Social Security from an independent fund and put it in the general fund so that Congress could spend it?
A: It was Lyndon Johnson and the Democratic- controlled House and Senate.
Q: Which party put a tax on Social Security?
A: The Democratic party.
Q: Which party increased the tax on Social Security?
A: The Democratic Party with Al Gore casting the deciding vote.
Q: Which party decided to give money to immigrants?
A: That's right, immigrants moved into this country and at 65 got SSI Social Security. The Democratic Party gave that to them although they never paid a dime into it. Then, after doing all this, the Democrats turn around and tell you that the Republicans want to take your Social Security. And the worst part about it is, people believe it!
Pass This On
Friday, September 15, 2006
Political Correctness and the ACLU
I can't believe this...
I think we don't have a chance against our biggest enemy Political Correctness
and the ACLU
the Al-Qaeda Civil Liberties Union.
From the New York Post
A DEADLY KINDNESS
by RICHARD MINITER
September 15, 2006 -- GUANTANAMO BAY, CUBA
ON the military plane back from America's most famous terrorist holding pen, the in-flight film was "V for Vendetta," a screed that tries to justify terrorism. It was a fitting end to a surreal, military-sponsored trip.
The Pentagon seemed to be hoping to disarm its critics by showing them how well it cares for captured terrorists. The trip was more alarming than disarming. I spent several hours with Rear Adm. Harry B. Harris Jr., who heads the joint task force that houses and interrogates the detainees. (The military isn't allowed to call them "prisoners.")
Harris, a distinguished Navy veteran who was born in Japan and educated at Annapolis and Harvard, is a serious man trying to do a politically impossible job. I spoke with him at length, and with a dozen other officers and guards, and visited three different detention blocks.
The high-minded critics who complain about torture are wrong. We are far too soft on these guys - and, as a result, aren't getting the valuable intelligence we need to save American lives.
The politically correct regulations are unbelievable. Detainees are entitled to a full eight hours sleep and can't be woken up for interrogations. They enjoy three meals and five prayers per day, without interruption. They are entitled to a minimum of two hours of outdoor recreation per day.
Interrogations are limited to four hours, usually running two - and (of course) are interrupted for prayers. One interrogator actually bakes cookies for detainees, while another serves them Subway or McDonald's sandwiches. Both are available on base. (Filet o' Fish is an al Qaeda favorite.)
Interrogations are not video or audio taped, perhaps to preserve detainee privacy.
Call it excessive compassion by a nation devoted to therapy, but it's dangerous. Adm. Harris admitted to me that a multi-cell al Qaeda network has developed in the camp. Military intelligence can't yet identify their leaders, but notes that they have cells for monitoring the movements and identities of guards and doctors, cells dedicated to training, others for making weapons and so on.
And they can make weapons from almost anything. Guards have been attacked with springs taken from inside faucets, broken fluorescent light bulbs and fan blades. Some are more elaborate. "These folks are MacGyvers," Harris said.
Other cells pass messages from leaders in one camp to followers in others. How? Detainees use the envelopes sent to them by their attorneys to pass messages. (Some 1,000 lawyers represent 440 prisoners, all on a pro bono basis, with more than 18,500 letters in and out of Gitmo in the past year.) Guards are not allowed to look inside these envelopes because of "attorney-client privilege" - even if they know the document inside is an Arabic-language note written by a prisoner to another prisoner and not a letter to or from a lawyer.
That's right: Accidentally or not, American lawyers are helping al Qaeda prisoners continue to plot.
There is little doubt what this note-passing and weapons-making is used for. The military recorded 3,232 incidents of detainee misconduct from July 2005 to August 2006 - an average of more than eight incidents per day. Some are nonviolent, but the tally includes coordinated attacks involving everything from throwing bodily fluids on guards (432 times) to 90 stabbings with homemade knives.
One detainee slashed a doctor who was trying to save his life; the doctors wear body armor to treat their patients.
The kinder we are to terrorists, the harsher we are to their potential victims.
Striking the balance between these two goods (humane treatment, foreknowledge of deadly attacks) is difficult, but the Bush administration seems to lean too far in the direction of the detainees. No expense spared for al Qaeda health care: Some 5,000 dental operations (including teeth cleanings) and 5,000 vaccinations on a total of 550 detainees have been performed since 2002 - all at taxpayer expense. Eyeglasses? 174 pairs handed out. Twenty two detainees have taxpayer-paid prosthetic limbs. And so on.
What if a detainee confesses a weakness (like fear of the dark) to a doctor that might be useful to interrogators, I asked the doctor in charge, would he share that information with them? "My job is not to make interrogations more efficient," he said firmly. He cited doctor-patient privacy. (He also asked that his name not be printed, citing the potential for al Qaeda retaliation.)
Food is strictly halal and averages 4,200 calories per day. (The guards eat the same chow as the detainees, unless they venture to one of the on-base fast-food joints.) Most prisoners have gained weight.
Much has been written about the elaborate and unprecedented appeal process. Detainees have their cases reviewed once a year and get rights roughly equivalent to criminals held in domestic prisons. I asked a military legal adviser: In what previous war were captured enemy combatants eligible for review before the war ended? None, he said.
America has never faced an enemy who has so ruthlessly broken all of the rules of war - yet never has an enemy been treated so well.
Of Gitmo's several camps, military records show that the one with the most lenient rules is the one with the most incidents and vice versa. There is a lesson in this: We should worry less about detainee safety and more about our own.
Some 20 current detainees have direct personal knowledge of the 9/11 attacks and nearly everyone of the current 440 say they would honored to attack America again. Let's take them at their word.
Richard Miniter (richardminiter.com) is a bestselling author and adjunct fellow at the Hudson Institute.
Richard Miniter (richardminiter.com) is a bestselling author and adjunct fellow at the Hudson Institute
I think we don't have a chance against our biggest enemy Political Correctness
and the ACLU
the Al-Qaeda Civil Liberties Union.
From the New York Post
A DEADLY KINDNESS
by RICHARD MINITER
September 15, 2006 -- GUANTANAMO BAY, CUBA
ON the military plane back from America's most famous terrorist holding pen, the in-flight film was "V for Vendetta," a screed that tries to justify terrorism. It was a fitting end to a surreal, military-sponsored trip.
The Pentagon seemed to be hoping to disarm its critics by showing them how well it cares for captured terrorists. The trip was more alarming than disarming. I spent several hours with Rear Adm. Harry B. Harris Jr., who heads the joint task force that houses and interrogates the detainees. (The military isn't allowed to call them "prisoners.")
Harris, a distinguished Navy veteran who was born in Japan and educated at Annapolis and Harvard, is a serious man trying to do a politically impossible job. I spoke with him at length, and with a dozen other officers and guards, and visited three different detention blocks.
The high-minded critics who complain about torture are wrong. We are far too soft on these guys - and, as a result, aren't getting the valuable intelligence we need to save American lives.
The politically correct regulations are unbelievable. Detainees are entitled to a full eight hours sleep and can't be woken up for interrogations. They enjoy three meals and five prayers per day, without interruption. They are entitled to a minimum of two hours of outdoor recreation per day.
Interrogations are limited to four hours, usually running two - and (of course) are interrupted for prayers. One interrogator actually bakes cookies for detainees, while another serves them Subway or McDonald's sandwiches. Both are available on base. (Filet o' Fish is an al Qaeda favorite.)
Interrogations are not video or audio taped, perhaps to preserve detainee privacy.
Call it excessive compassion by a nation devoted to therapy, but it's dangerous. Adm. Harris admitted to me that a multi-cell al Qaeda network has developed in the camp. Military intelligence can't yet identify their leaders, but notes that they have cells for monitoring the movements and identities of guards and doctors, cells dedicated to training, others for making weapons and so on.
And they can make weapons from almost anything. Guards have been attacked with springs taken from inside faucets, broken fluorescent light bulbs and fan blades. Some are more elaborate. "These folks are MacGyvers," Harris said.
Other cells pass messages from leaders in one camp to followers in others. How? Detainees use the envelopes sent to them by their attorneys to pass messages. (Some 1,000 lawyers represent 440 prisoners, all on a pro bono basis, with more than 18,500 letters in and out of Gitmo in the past year.) Guards are not allowed to look inside these envelopes because of "attorney-client privilege" - even if they know the document inside is an Arabic-language note written by a prisoner to another prisoner and not a letter to or from a lawyer.
That's right: Accidentally or not, American lawyers are helping al Qaeda prisoners continue to plot.
There is little doubt what this note-passing and weapons-making is used for. The military recorded 3,232 incidents of detainee misconduct from July 2005 to August 2006 - an average of more than eight incidents per day. Some are nonviolent, but the tally includes coordinated attacks involving everything from throwing bodily fluids on guards (432 times) to 90 stabbings with homemade knives.
One detainee slashed a doctor who was trying to save his life; the doctors wear body armor to treat their patients.
The kinder we are to terrorists, the harsher we are to their potential victims.
Striking the balance between these two goods (humane treatment, foreknowledge of deadly attacks) is difficult, but the Bush administration seems to lean too far in the direction of the detainees. No expense spared for al Qaeda health care: Some 5,000 dental operations (including teeth cleanings) and 5,000 vaccinations on a total of 550 detainees have been performed since 2002 - all at taxpayer expense. Eyeglasses? 174 pairs handed out. Twenty two detainees have taxpayer-paid prosthetic limbs. And so on.
What if a detainee confesses a weakness (like fear of the dark) to a doctor that might be useful to interrogators, I asked the doctor in charge, would he share that information with them? "My job is not to make interrogations more efficient," he said firmly. He cited doctor-patient privacy. (He also asked that his name not be printed, citing the potential for al Qaeda retaliation.)
Food is strictly halal and averages 4,200 calories per day. (The guards eat the same chow as the detainees, unless they venture to one of the on-base fast-food joints.) Most prisoners have gained weight.
Much has been written about the elaborate and unprecedented appeal process. Detainees have their cases reviewed once a year and get rights roughly equivalent to criminals held in domestic prisons. I asked a military legal adviser: In what previous war were captured enemy combatants eligible for review before the war ended? None, he said.
America has never faced an enemy who has so ruthlessly broken all of the rules of war - yet never has an enemy been treated so well.
Of Gitmo's several camps, military records show that the one with the most lenient rules is the one with the most incidents and vice versa. There is a lesson in this: We should worry less about detainee safety and more about our own.
Some 20 current detainees have direct personal knowledge of the 9/11 attacks and nearly everyone of the current 440 say they would honored to attack America again. Let's take them at their word.
Richard Miniter (richardminiter.com) is a bestselling author and adjunct fellow at the Hudson Institute.
Richard Miniter (richardminiter.com) is a bestselling author and adjunct fellow at the Hudson Institute
Sunday, September 10, 2006
ACLU -- what we already knew
On January 17, 1931, the Special House (of Representatives) Committee to Investigate Communist Activities in the United States issued a report which stated the following: "The American Civil Liberties Union is closely affiliated with the communist movement in the United States, and fully 90% of its efforts are on behalf of Communists who have come into conflict with the law.
It claims to stand for free speech, free press, and free assembly; but it is quite apparent that the main function of the ACLU is to attempt to protect the communists in their advocacy of force and violence to overthrow the Government, replacing the American flag with a red flag and erecting a Soviet Government in place of the republican form of government guaranteed to each State by the Federal Constitution...
Roger N. Baldwin, its guiding spirit, makes no attempt to hide his friendship for the communists and their principles" In 1935, Baldwin (FOUNDER OF THE ACLU) wrote the following in his college yearbook: "I have been to Europe several times, mostly in connection with international radical activities...and have traveled in the United States to areas of conflict over workers rights to strike and organize.
My chief aversion is the system of greed, private profit, privilege and violence which makes up the control of the world today, and which has brought it to the tragic crisis of unprecedented hunger and unemployment...Therefore, I am for Socialism, disarmament and ultimately, for the abolishing of the State itself...I seek the social ownership of property, the abolition of the propertied class and sole control of those who produce wealth. Communism is the goal."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dude, I couldn't care less if it was 1935 or yesterday. HE SAID IT!!! Just look at the things they do. They removed the Pledge of Allegiance from schools and inserted Muslim Sensitivity courses in CA and VA for school children. They're a menace, but have so much damn money that nobody can fight them. They stand up for NAMBLA (if you don't know what that is, google it) and all kinds of other aberration. There are plenty of books out there exposing the fights they have fought as of late. The terrorists they defend, the little 8 year old girl and her family they tried to sue for wanting to sing a song that had the word "God" in it at her 3rd grade talent show. Yet the other 8 year olds were singing songs about pimps and hoe-slappin' and nobody seemed concerned. There's the face of today's ACLU.
It claims to stand for free speech, free press, and free assembly; but it is quite apparent that the main function of the ACLU is to attempt to protect the communists in their advocacy of force and violence to overthrow the Government, replacing the American flag with a red flag and erecting a Soviet Government in place of the republican form of government guaranteed to each State by the Federal Constitution...
Roger N. Baldwin, its guiding spirit, makes no attempt to hide his friendship for the communists and their principles" In 1935, Baldwin (FOUNDER OF THE ACLU) wrote the following in his college yearbook: "I have been to Europe several times, mostly in connection with international radical activities...and have traveled in the United States to areas of conflict over workers rights to strike and organize.
My chief aversion is the system of greed, private profit, privilege and violence which makes up the control of the world today, and which has brought it to the tragic crisis of unprecedented hunger and unemployment...Therefore, I am for Socialism, disarmament and ultimately, for the abolishing of the State itself...I seek the social ownership of property, the abolition of the propertied class and sole control of those who produce wealth. Communism is the goal."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dude, I couldn't care less if it was 1935 or yesterday. HE SAID IT!!! Just look at the things they do. They removed the Pledge of Allegiance from schools and inserted Muslim Sensitivity courses in CA and VA for school children. They're a menace, but have so much damn money that nobody can fight them. They stand up for NAMBLA (if you don't know what that is, google it) and all kinds of other aberration. There are plenty of books out there exposing the fights they have fought as of late. The terrorists they defend, the little 8 year old girl and her family they tried to sue for wanting to sing a song that had the word "God" in it at her 3rd grade talent show. Yet the other 8 year olds were singing songs about pimps and hoe-slappin' and nobody seemed concerned. There's the face of today's ACLU.
Thursday, September 07, 2006
Duck Tours
I went on a trip to Boston. Here is a picture of a Duck boat as it passes by me. I was in Boston for a viewing of the exibit of Body Worlds 2 on display at the Museum of Fine Arts.The above link will take you to the web page for the Duck RTours which were sold out for the day, by the time I checked it out. So, if you plan on going, check availability before you go.
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