Odds & Ends

Herself is in just that sort of mood today: inexplicably cranky. Therefore, with your pardon, I shall take this splendid opportunity to vent my spleen. I think I've had a little too much doggie-day- care. So,they are now exiled to the outdoors. That is,until there is sufficient screaming and bloodshed.

So just to catch up on some of the things that have been yanking my chain this past week, in no particular order:

1.Weapons Given to Iraq Are Missing :
GAO Estimates 30% of Arms Are Unaccounted For.
By Glenn Kessler,Washington Post Staff WriterMonday, August 6, 2007;

The Pentagon has lost track of about 190,000 AK-47 assault
rifles and pistols given to Iraqi security forces in 2004 and 2005, according to a new government report, raising fears that some of those weapons have fallen into the hands of insurgents fighting U.S. forces in Iraq.

Excuse me? Has lost track of ? But, by all means, let's declare war on Iran for providing weapons to the insurgents! and who was in charge of this? General David Petraeus! and who better to do evaluate the status of the war on terror. OMG

2. New Mexico News: last week 3 twentysomethings were arrested for a drive-by shooting in the Four Corners area of approximately a dozen goats,sheep and a family dog.
Good fun, that one-I say, draft them and let them do some shooting elsewhere.

3.Cry of the Wild

"Last week four gorillas were slaughtered in Congo. With hunting on the rise, our most majestic animals are facing a new extinction crisis."

Check out this story-- essentially animals are being murdered-not for ivory, pelts or food-but for sport. Why? Because so much logging has been allowed that there are now roads being built to the remote parts of the jungle; and on those roads, travel those who would kill for sport.
I don't even know what to say about this.

4. The Bridge Collapse in Minneapolis.
If you have followed the stories on the deterioration of our country's Infrastructure, then it must be as worrisome to you as it is to me that a significant portion of the country's bridges and dams are in dangerous condition. We won't need to be attacked by Al Qaeda, we can use our taxpayer dollars(at approximately $3000 per second) in the Middle East!! And let Mother Nature and our own decrepit infrastructure kill us 10-100 at a time. Of course, hurricanes, earthquakes and tornadoes could speed that up a little. Not to mention the fact that since 40 million people have no health insurance, population could diminish much more rapidly.

5.It's easy for soldiers to score heroin in Afghanistan (Huffington Post)

Simultaneously stressed and bored, U.S. soldiers are turning to the widely available drug for a quick escape.
The true extent of the heroin problem among American soldiers now serving in Iraq and Afghanistan is unknown. At Bagram, according to a written statement provided by a spokesperson for the base, Army Maj. Chris Belcher, the "Military Police receive few reports of alcohol or drug issues." The military has statistics on how many troops failed drug tests, but the best information on long-term addiction comes from the U.S. Veterans Administration.

For something a little more uplifting. I have some quotes that I rather enjoyed:
Pearls Before Swine by Julie Bergman

"I live at an intersection of politics and public service. Public service is all about action."
Who said that?
"Compromise, usually described as consensus rather than capitulation, has become a goal. And the cost of compromise to principles and to real lives, well that doesn't seem to matter."
or that
"...The way to build a fair and just society is not through baby steps, not through concession or incremental solutions, but with big ideas and with an obvious backbone to match."
or that
"The face of poverty in this country is a single woman's face. "

"We don't have universal health care in this country because powerful corporations who profit from health care beat us. The pharmaceutical companies stole our tax money when they successfully lobbied, maybe the better words are "bullied" and "threatened," their way into protecting their industry from that old free market practice of bargaining for the best price. And our tax money was stolen too by Bechtel and Halliburton and a handful of connected corporations, who sought and were rewarded no-bid contracts in Iraq from an administration that has taken very good care of its friends and its financial supporters while it has failed to protect the most needy among us. Closing childcare programs, cutting medical research grants, charging veterans enrollment fees to go to V.A. hospitals, ignoring the poor and exploiting the immigrant. We have a Supreme Court that could look blatant sex discrimination, just last week, in the face and with a wink, protect the employer from any more than the cost of six months of its conduct, but as a nation, apparently, we shrug. We let them keep their dimes, or in the real world their billions, and we promise to fight tomorrow."
So -do you think you know who said these things yet?
If not, read a little bit more and you will find out...
"Silence is betrayal on the War in Iraq. I am monumentally disappointed in the silence that emanated from Washington on the recent vote to continue funding without timetables for withdrawal. At the very moment when we needed leadership on one of the most important issues on the entire planet, we got silence. We needed uncompromising rage, and we got silence. We needed courage, and we got silence. And that silence was, have no doubt about it, a betrayal: of the soldiers, of the voters in 2006, of humanity and morality."
"... All of us who believe in justice, all of us who believe in an America that should be a moral, not just a military leader in the world, have an obligation to speak out."
***
"We don't need more rhetoric. I personally haven't any time for rhetoric anymore. And I don't think the people who count on us have time for it either.
***
Do you give up? All of these are recent statements made by Elizabeth Edwards out on the campaign trail.

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I just love it when somebody can articulate my thoughts better than I can, thank you, Elizabeth Edwards. Okay, my spleen is empty, and I feel better. I am going to make ready for my upcoming house guests. A Watts will be here within the next two weeks and then my brother will be here. Good times.