Welcome Home, Female Veterans

Welcome home female veterans.

Sent to fight illegal and immoral wars based on falsehoods, and serving in a system that condones and maybe even countenances rape, they now try to live under the burden of traumatic stress and become homeless after coming home.

Is this a great country or what?

[Even as the Pentagon lifts the ban on women in combat roles, returning servicewomen are facing a battlefield of a different kind: they are now the fastest growing segment of the homeless population, an often-invisible group bouncing between sofa and air mattress, overnighting in public storage lockers, living in cars and learning to park inconspicuously on the outskirts of shopping centers to avoid the violence of the streets.

While male returnees become homeless largely because of substance abuse and mental illness, experts say that female veterans face those problems and more, including the search for family housing and an even harder time finding well-paying jobs. But a common pathway to homelessness for women, researchers and psychologists said, is military sexual trauma, or M.S.T., from assaults or harassment during their service, which can lead to post-traumatic stress disorder.]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/28/us/female-veterans-face-limbo-in-lives-on-the-street.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20130228&_r=0

CSN: "49 Bye Byes"

"Jesus Christ was the first non-violent revolutionary."

Had to get taste of last post out of my brain.

The Stupidest Thing I've Ever Seen

Holy Christ on a communion cracker!

Actual living and breathing and presumably somewhat sentient parents enrolled their kids in Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) training classes and allow their precious progeny to enter combat in the freakin' octagon.  As if pee wee football not dangerous enough by causing concussions with effects accumulating over a lifetime to cause chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).

Your long suffering commentator shouldn't even have to break this down for the pencil neck geeks pushing/allowing their kids into MMA fights.  The bones, joints, ligaments, and tendons have to fully mature, allowing the possibility of greater injury more possible.

Extreme Youth Sports: Have they lost their minds?  Kids this age have little self control, especially in a situation bringing out aggression.  The "insane" arm bar the winner used could splinter one in a split second, and a kid using it is literally insane.

Years ago, I interviewed perhaps the greatest wrestler who ever lived: Lou Thesz.  Mr.Thesz wrestled freestyle and Greco Roman in high school and turned pro at age 16 in an age when even though outcomes came scripted, wrestlers had to protect themselves in case their opponent went off script, protect themselves with actual wrestling, not this showboat carnival crap purveyed to audiences today.  Damn youse, Vincent K McMahon Jr!

Mr. Thesz trained hard all over the world, becoming a hooker, one who knew wrestling moves called hooks, which could legitimately cripple people.  At the age of 83, he demonstrated the double wrist lock on me, and I felt how he could rip my arm out of my shoulder joint.

So yes, let your kids train in karate, wrestling, and the sweet science of boxing.

But let them in a ring for an actual fight?  Never in a million years, at least until they go to high school.

Just for grins, look at the beer swilling, overweight, cholesterol challenged white bums in the audience living their lives on gratuitous child on child violence, seen in 1st link above.

Pathetic slugs.
http://www.clickorlando.com/news/MMA-for-kids-exploding-in-popularity/-/1637132/18562986/-/omebvsz/-/index.html

People die doing this shit: http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2012/6/4/3062505/mma-dustin-jenson-death-editorial-stephen-koepfer

Junk Food Pushers

Imagine that, food companies in their greed make a science out of making crap food that has addictive qualities.  You really can't eat just 1 Lays potato chip.  Salt, fat, crunch and mouth feel combine to make our mouths water andour brains crave like Pavlov's salivating dog.

Don't buy the chips and candy.  Eat healthy and live better.

[....Mudd then did the unthinkable. He drew a connection to the last thing in the world the C.E.O.’s wanted linked to their products: cigarettes. First came a quote from a Yale University professor of psychology and public health, Kelly Brownell, who was an especially vocal proponent of the view that the processed-food industry should be seen as a public health menace: “As a culture, we’ve become upset by the tobacco companies advertising to children, but we sit idly by while the food companies do the very same thing. And we could make a claim that the toll taken on the public health by a poor diet rivals that taken by tobacco....”

What happened next was not written down. But according to three participants, when Mudd stopped talking, the one C.E.O. whose recent exploits in the grocery store had awed the rest of the industry stood up to speak. His name was Stephen Sanger, and he was also the person — as head of General Mills — who had the most to lose when it came to dealing with obesity. Under his leadership, General Mills had overtaken not just the cereal aisle but other sections of the grocery store. The company’s Yoplait brand had transformed traditional unsweetened breakfast yogurt into a veritable dessert. It now had twice as much sugar per serving as General Mills’ marshmallow cereal Lucky Charms. And yet, because of yogurt’s well-tended image as a wholesome snack, sales of Yoplait were soaring, with annual revenue topping $500 million. Emboldened by the success, the company’s development wing pushed even harder, inventing a Yoplait variation that came in a squeezable tube — perfect for kids. They called it Go-Gurt and rolled it out nationally in the weeks before the C.E.O. meeting. (By year’s end, it would hit $100 million in sales.)

So why are the diabetes and obesity and hypertension numbers still spiraling out of control? It’s not just a matter of poor willpower on the part of the consumer and a give-the-people-what-they-want attitude on the part of the food manufacturers. What I found, over four years of research and reporting, was a conscious effort — taking place in labs and marketing meetings and grocery-store aisles — to get people hooked on foods that are convenient and inexpensive.] emphasis added to highlight greed

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/24/magazine/the-extraordinary-science-of-junk-food.html?pagewanted=all&_r=3&

Does Anyone Need More Star Wars Movies?

Oh please, God, make it stop.  Bought by Disney ensures even more dreck foisted on fans, then director's cuts with 30 more seconds of footage.

But Dan, some say, you have to see it in theatres for full effects. Me sa so sorry, why would I want to see Jar Jar Binx on a big screen.?

What next, Return of the Jar Jar?


Found at First Draft.

Why Do Abusers Always Love Their Victims?

Consider it a rhetorical question, for surely these abusive behaviors stem from control issues, plus an unhealthy dose of mental illness.  Considering my marriage to a bi polar female, I can almost sympathize because they can push every button and get on nerves you never even knew you had.

Like when the Patriots won their first Super Bowl, i woke up tp an unending stream of verbal abuse, with her screaming at me I planned to go to a party without her, an accusation with no basis.  We had steaks in the fridge and beer stocked up and that made my plans for the evening.  She still started screaming at me when I'd just opened my eyes.

Nevertheless, yelling at someone back does not elevate the level of discourse.

Finally, she followed her pattern, fleeing across the street to friend's house to complain about me.

Just a few hints in case any of y'all have domestic quarrels.  First, don't start playing Puddle of Mud's "Blurry" at wall shaking volume to prove your love.

Do not yell at your busybody neighbor suggesting anatomically impossible acts.

Do not piss off the police by telling them to get a damn warrant, even if they do knock on your door at 2 am while you lay on the floor in vodka induced stupor, even if the damn call to them got made at 2 in the afternoon.

Most importantly, don't tell the PoPo where she went, or you'll find yourself hauled to the hoosegow, ruining a nice buzz and judge will also prevent you from going back to your own damn house.

Foolish me; kept things together for a few more years, even though she'd flee at drop of a hat, like 2 days after I got out of the hospital after chest surgery.

Still, she had the nerve and me the lack of self esteem to go stay with her for a night during the worst of hurricane Charley in 2004.

Clue it might be over, if you have to put a knife under your pillow in case her ex con boyfriend made it down from Sanford to Orlando, it might be over.

But I never laid hands on her.

Hope they can find an electric chair big enough to fry this fat fuck.

[By Amelia Robinson
Staff Writer

During a self-described ‘walk of shame’ statement that seems more self-serving than apologetic, a 550 pound murder suspect shockingly declares love.

“I am sorry I took your world away from you Dawan. That was not my intent,” 39-year-old Dameon L. Wesley says into a WHIO-TV camera. “Love you with all of my heart. I am still in love with you. I guess God do get his justice and that’s why I am right here, right now. “

Police say Wesley, a convicted murder recently released from prison, on Sunday fired multiple shots into the head of 13-year-old Briona Rodgers , the daughter of Dawan Culpepper — the woman the suspect claims to love so much.

Family members say Wesley may have been in a conflict with Culpepper before shooting her daughter.

He also allegedly shot Culpepper’s niece Alonta Culpepper, 13, and a student at Wogaman School.

Briona died. Alonta is clinging on to life.]
 See more at: http://www.whiotv.com/news/news/commentary-550-pound-kid-murder-suspects-declarati/nWZ5G/#sthash.aFK0Qor2.dpuf

Stupid Crook News: Bad Parenting Edition

Thank God my folks never drowned me like an unwanted cat as acted out a mite bit as a kid and more so as teenager.  Did't wreck the car but had to get it towed after almost driving into ditch.

[SANFORD, Fla. —
A family trip to the theme parks ended with a mother being arrested after police said she left her children at a 7-Eleven in Sanford and told them to sleep in the woods.

The Seminole County Sheriff's Office said 32-year-old Tiffany Buffkin was heading back to her home in Jacksonville on Monday with her boyfriend and two children when investigators said an argument happened.

According to authorities, the boyfriend dropped Buffkin and her kids off at the 7-Eleven on State Road 46 and left.

"The female then indicated to the 13-year-old that the argument was his fault and his punishment was to sleep in the woods for the night," said Kim Cannaday of the Seminole County Sheriff's Office.

According to deputies, one of the kids was in the back sleeping while the other child was in the front of the store trying to call friends or relatives, someone to come pick him up.

The teen eventually made contact with deputies, who spent 30 minutes talking to him and his brother, trying to find where his mother had gone.

That's when deputies said the mother stumbled down the walkway and began to get angry and violent.

Deputies said Buffkin was belligerent and uncooperative, saying she even tried to bite a deputy.]
- See more at: http://www.wftv.com/news/news/local/deputies-mom-left-kids-sanford-7-eleven-told-them-/nWZ6g/#sthash.CttrzzPu.dpuf

Informed Comment from Juan Cole

Professor Juan Cole at Informed comment skewers and debunks ideas of lunatic neocons ad their fetish for unending war and fever dreams of world domination.

[The GOP Orcs have a further list of countries they’d like to invade and occupy.Senator Lindsey Graham added Pakistan to the list. Does anybody else in the known universe think it is a good idea for the US abruptly to go to war with the world’s sixth-largest country, which is a nuclear power, and which is backed by China? I mean, shouldn’t this man just be declared clinically insane and mercifully put in an institution instead of being allowed to strut the halls of power? ( South Carolina, by the way, has among the worst health statistics and the shortest life expectancy in the United States, so that you would think Sen. Graham might have other priorities than becoming a 21st century Lord Curzon.)

John McCain joked about bombing Iran. (A bomb strike on the nuclear enrichment facilities at Natanz near Isfahan would release massive amounts of toxins and likely kill 100,000 innocent civilians.)

The Senate in general is all for keeping several million Palestinians stateless and without basic civil and human rights, and for allowing the Israelis (many of them Americans or Eastern Europeans) to steal what’s left of Palestinian farmland. In the Senate’s racial hierarchy of power, Americans are on top, Arabs near the bottom, and Palestinians are in the toilet. The GOP senators are currently thinking up ways to punish the Palestinians for daring to assert their right to be citizens of a state at the UN.

Hagel’s ideas on foreign policy are pragmatic and cautious, and sane. The real reason that he had a hard ride in his confirmation was that the looney tunes Tea Partiers and Neoconservative dead-enders want to keep alive the insane options as long as they can, the dream of striding in camel boots and khaki through the halls of an abject Islamabad, the dream of reducing Iran to a less prosperous version of the Congo, the dream of erasing the Palestinians altogether, the dream of total and absolute global dominance.

Their sense of innate superiority makes them unable to look about a broken-down America, its treasury looted of trillions by crooked financiers, its 30,000 significantly wounded Iraq War veterans needing trillions in health care over the next decades, its bridges falling down, its school students illiterate in mathematics and science, its factory jobs shipped abroad by scheming corporations, its minorities increasingly denied the right to vote, and its industry spewing 5 billion metric tons of hothouse gases into the atmosphere annually, threatening to wipe out New Orleans and Manhattan with artificial sea level rises.

There is enough to do at home, without small men from small states dreaming of world conquest. Hagel knows this, and so they smeared him with their slime.] emphasis added
http://www.juancole.com/2013/02/confirmed-nationalists-dominance.html

Voters Fire NRA Backed US Representative

Some days, you can find hope in headlines.  Voters, dragging the Republican't party out of the 19th century into the 20th.

[BIG NEWS -- Rachel Maddow reports on last night's special election for Congress in Illinois:

"Robin Kelly made her support for gun reform a centerpiece of her campaign. She was running against someone who had long touted her A rating from the NRA. And the A rating from the NRA lost -- the F rating from the NRA won."]

[In the special election to replace Jesse Jackson, Jr. in Illinois’ 2nd congressional district, former state Rep. Robin Kelly, a supporter of a federal assault weapons ban, cruised to victory in the Democratic primary tonight over a field of candidates including former U.S. Representative Debbie Halvorson. While Kelly’s victory was not altogether unexpected, her total vote share (52 percent in a multi-candidate field) was surprisingly strong, and followed an expenditure of more than $2 million in the race by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, according to the New York Times.

Citing her opposition to gun safety reforms and past support from the National Rifle Association, Bloomberg spent heavily to damage Halvorson’s candidacy, funding TV ads singling her out for attack. In the final two weeks of the campaign, the New York mayor explicitly backed Kelly as his candidate, and his financial support likely helped boost the size of her victory.]
http://www.salon.com/2013/02/27/nra_candidate_defeated_in_illinois/

Happy Birthday Johnny Cash

[John R. "Johnny" Cash (February 26, 1932 – September 12, 2003) was an Americansinger-songwriter, actor, and author[2] who was considered one of the most influentialmusicians of the 20th century.[3][4] Although he is primarily remembered as a country music icon, his songs and sound spanned other genres including rockabilly and rock and roll—especially early in his career—and blues, folk, and gospel. This crossover appeal won Cash the rare honor of induction in the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and the Gospel Music Hall of Fame.

Cash was known for his deep, distinctive bass-baritone voice,[a][6] for the "boom-chicka-boom" sound of his Tennessee Three backing band; for a rebelliousness,[7][8] coupled with an increasingly somber and humble demeanor;[5] for providing free concerts inside prison walls;[9][10][page needed] and for his dark performance clothing, which earned him the nickname "The Man in Black".[b] He traditionally began his concerts with the phrase "Hello, I'm Johnny Cash."[c], followed by his standard "Folsom Prison Blues".]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_cash

Rolling Stone picture gallery: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/pictures/photos-intimate-all-access-shots-of-johnny-cash-20101105?utm_source=dailynewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter

Another Reason Not to Go to NASCAR Race

You might end up with an engine in your lap.

Who the hell wants  to watch 4 hours of left turns anyway?

Will the Last Moderate Republican't Turn out the Lights When They Leave the Party?

Every time I think they've hit the bottom of crazy, they plumb new depths.

[Still, he tried to persevere. “My ‘youthful idealism’ was that the party was going to change—that the fever would break. Boy, was I wrong. I think back now on the craziness that freaked me out in the party in 2007 and 2008 and it looks like child’s play.” Now, in between his work in law school, he’s started documenting some of that in journalism on how Republicans in his home state “went off the deep end,” turning Arizona into “a national laughing stock”—an apostate’s and native’s testimony. One of his articles describes bills “cloaked in the language of the Constitution” but which are actually “trying to challenge the very premise that we can have a Constitution of the United States.” One would require the federal government employees to register with local sheriffs when carrying out government business in their counties. Another would criminalize the regulation of harmful (or “harmless,” as the bill puts it) emissions; a third would require the state attorney general to seize federal assests if it “increases the ability of this state to generate revenue.” (“What the hell does that mean, as a practical matter?” I asked. He answered, “That’s the point. This isn’t practical. It would mean trying to seize any federal land, including military bases, if the state thought they could make better use of it.”)

From Evanston to Arizona, the loss of sane Republicans has been Democrats gain. Arizona has sent a majority Democratic delegation to Congress (“because Republicans have nominated candidates so far out of the mainstream”); “We have great Democratic mayors in Tucson and Phoenix who are doing incredible things to make those world-class cities.” And Kleiner? Last year he served as issues director for a 2012 congressional primary race fought by the young Democratic writer Andrei Cherny. He is just the kind of super-smart, motivated, talented up-and-comer that any political party would want in its bullpen. Now the Republicans have lost him for good. How many more?]

http://www.thenation.com/blog/173040/moderate-republican-mugged-reality

Rundown Playboy Mansion

Another dream of mine dies: here I thought Hugh Hefner ad found the Fountain of youth: young women.  Nevertheless, all of us must surrender to dustt at some time, even if Hugh Hefner has several lifetimes supply of Viagra.

[This is when I started to get really bummed out. Nothing upsets me more than seeing something that was once glorious fall into decay. I nearly cried once while looking at one of those Us Weekly "Worst Celebrity Plastic Surgery" lists. 

Wandering through the house gave me a feeling not too dissimilar to when a relative dies and you have to go to their place and figure out what to do with their things. Except for, in this case, that dead relative was the magazine industry. Or something. I don't really know what I'm talking about. But the mansion was really, really sad. And it smelled like old man.]
http://www.vice.com/read/i-went-to-the-playboy-mansion-and-it-was-kinda-depressing

Republican't Damns President Cheney

If Rand Paul weren't so batshit crazy, I would almost support him.

[North Carolina Republican Rep. Walter Jones joked Saturday that if Congress won’t hold former Vice President Dick Cheney accountable for the Iraq war, God will, sending the hawkish veep to hell.

“Congress will not hold anyone to blame. Lyndon Johnson’s probably rotting in hell right now because of the Vietnam War, and he probably needs to move over for Dick Cheney,” Jones, a libertarian who is often critical of the war in Afghanistan, told a Young Americans for Liberty conference in Raleigh this weekend.

Jones also called the use of drones in targeted killing “absolutely unconstitutional,” warning the autonomous aircraft could be used against Americans in the future. “When that drone comes to America from a foreign country, we’re going to wonder what in the hell hit us. It was a drone,” he said.]
http://www.salon.com/2013/02/26/gop_rep_says_cheney_is_going_to_hell/

Dylan at Concert for Bangladesh

Dolphins Call Each Other by Name

Dolphins might indeed prove more intelligent than humans, with no wars or genocide to their credit.  of course with reports of Dolphins bullying their females and showing aggressive behavior at times, they might rank on par with we naked apes.

[Bottlenose dolphins have been observed to use distinctive “signature whistles” towards each other, says new research published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. That is, dolphins actually call one another by name, a behavior previously thought to only occur in humans.

Scientists have known that dolphins emit unique whistles that identify them to other dolphins. These can be heard up to 12.4 miles away, depending on the depth of the water and whistle frequency.

Stephanie King, a research fellow at University of St. Andrews, observed that the bottlenose dolphins actually copy the signature whistle of other dolphins when separated from them. This finding, she says in Discovery News, “supports our belief that dolphins copy another animal’s signature whistle when they want to reunite with that specific individual.”

King and her colleagues observed the copying of signature whistles both in wild dolphins around Sarasota Bay in Florida from 1984 to 2009 and in four adult male captive dolphins who live at Florida’s The Sea Aquarium. The keepers had given the latter four the names Calvin, Khyber, Malabar and Ranier but the dolphins were seen to have their own names for each other.]
Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/dolphins-have-their-own-names-for-each-other.html#ixzz2LwF1E5Vh

Adventures in Architecture; Aqua Tower in Chicago

[....The Aqua Tower, rising up in a dance of ever-changing concrete forms, is very different from its neighbours. Seen from the sidewalk, it really does have the look of a multi-layered Lake Michigan rock formation, albeit one that towers above the city. This is a Chicago landmark that has broken out of the city-wide straitjacket of right angles and smooth surfaces – as if Gaudi had taken up skyscraper design, or a spinning ballerina had morphed into a building...

....As it happens, Gang is immensely fond of birds. In the design of the Aqua Tower, she has paid careful attention to the way birds see – or don't see – sheer glass walls, helping them to avoid fatal collisions. (A building with a complex facade is much safer for them, as are irregular window bars; birds pick up on the irregularity.) In her office, Gang has a number of bird's nests lined up on a window sill; she says she admires their spare, essential beauty.]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2009/oct/20/aqua-tower-jeanne-gang

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aqua_(skyscraper)

10 Worst Foods for Your Heart

Oh crap, most everything I eat lands on this list  .Wonder if kosher dogs might provide better nutrition with less chance of increasing risk of heart disease and cancer.

Good thing I don't drink sodas.

[Hot dogs, bacon, sausage and deli meats -- even lean ones like turkey -- are made withloads of sodium and preservatives, often including nitrates and nitrites, both of which have been linked to heart problems. "With processing, you lose control over the quality of the ingredients," says Cynthia Thaik, M.D., a Los Angeles-based cardiologist.

Processed meats are also higher in saturated fat and lower in protein than any red meat you could prepare yourself, writes director of the Yale Prevention Research Center and HuffPost blogger, David Katz.

Not convinced to stay away? Processed meats have also been linked to a higher risk of diabetes and pancreatic cancer.]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/11/worst-heart-foods_n_2624859.html

Valentines not for a Day but Year Round

God bless these monks, priests, and other good Catholics following the Gospels.

[St. Valentine, the patron saint of love, was executed in Rome and buried there in the 3rd century. Much later an Irish priest was granted permission to exhume his remains, and now his skeleton lies under a church in Dublin.

In 1835 an Irish Carmelite priest, Fr. John Spratt, used his Irish charm to convince then Pope Gregory XVI to dig up St. Valentine’s remains and take them home as a gift to his fellow Irishmen and women....

In 1950 a statue and shrine was built to honor St. Valentine and placed in the church. As soon as people in Ireland realized that the saint of lovers was buried right under their noses they came flocking to the church to give up their amorous prayers to the saint.

Despite companies around the world cashing in on the romantic holiday, the Carmelite priests said they are staying well clear of the commercialization the holiday enforces and they plan to keep sales of Valentine memorabilia to a minimum.

"We do want to keep it on a level that it's not just 'Valentine's Day.' That would diminish the significance of the saint," said David Weakliam, another Carmelite priest.] emphasis added
Read more: http://www.irishcentral.com/roots/Romance-in-the-air-as-love-seekers-show-up-at-St-Valentines-resting-place-in-Dublin-190657821.html#ixzz2Lreygs64
Follow us: @IrishCentral on Twitter | IrishCentral on Facebook

Read more: http://www.irishcentral.com/roots/Romance-in-the-air-as-love-seekers-show-up-at-St-Valentines-resting-place-in-Dublin-190657821.html#ixzz2LrejDLOs 
Follow us: @IrishCentral on Twitter | IrishCentral on Facebook
http://www.irishcentral.com/roots/Romance-in-the-air-as-love-seekers-show-up-at-St-Valentines-resting-place-in-Dublin-190657821.html

Holy Gay Marriage, Batman!

[DC Comics has a surprise twist in store for the latest issue of their “Batwoman” comic: A gay marriage proposal.

In addition to a “massive conclusion to the current storyline as Batwoman and Wonder Woman struggle to defeat Medusa and a horde of villains,” readers will also see Batwoman pop the question to her longtime secret love, captain Maggie Sawyer. Sawyer once served on the supernatural task force with Superman, but was transfered to Gotham City to head their Major Crimes Unit. Oh, and have a tortured but super hot relationship with Batwoman!

DC Comics has been making a serious — if imperfect — effort at diversifying their super squad with reboots of various characters, Batwoman being just one.

And while the possibility of Kate (Batwoman’s real identity — don’t tell anyone I told you) and Maggie’s nuptials is a pretty natural part of their storyline, it also probably doesn’t hurt for DC to get a little good press on gay rights.]

http://www.salon.com/2013/02/20/dc_comics_has_gay_marriage_storyline_in_the_works_for_batwoman/