Archive for February, 2009

Obviously there has been a dirth of posting here, save the really necessary business of listing the dead.  Besides lots of ordinary every-day-ness of being, I have a confession to make:  I am depressed and pissed off way past my usual functioning homocidal daydreaming self.  Why?

Well, while I didn’t think the election of Obama was going to make the streets turn to gold and bluebirds sing on high, neither did I expect the GOP party to act like sullen schoolboys whose wrist rockets were confiscated after they used them to bust holes in the nations windows.  I admit, the current new-con Republicans never fail to amaze me with their steadfast desire to crash the nation instead of growing the hell up and acting like citizens of a planet in deep trouble.  Noooo, they all just want to “get theirs” and to hell with everyone else.  When certain Southern Gubenatorial critters refuse hand-outs even as their constituents struggle and brand things like scientific volcano monitoring as “pork”….well yeah, I lose focus and drift away in confusion.  That kind of monumental stupidity just makes my brain go into self-protective fetal positioning of some sort.

But, fortunately, better bloggers are chewing all the ass I just can’t bear to look at just now.  So, without further ado, let me give you a few links to read the solace that keeps me hanging on, since I can’t reach Jindal’s stupid neck.

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2009/02/jindal-versus-volcano.html

—Yes, Bobby, there IS a good reason to watch those goddamned flaming mountains and it is NOT for Moses bringing us tablets, ok?

http://ornerybastard.blogspot.com/2009/02/open-letter-to-governer-bobby-jindel-r.html

—-this is His Ornery-ness chewing away at the obviously necrotic brain mass allegedly lodged between Jindal’s ears.

And then, naturally….all the wonderful folks on my blogroll!  Thanks to Earthbound Misfit for highlighting the above links.  I just feel they cannot possibly get too much attention.

Also:

http://sayingnothingcharmingly.blogspot.com/2009/02/obama-pwns-jindal.html

—-Where Jindal is very charmingly handed his dumb ass!  And Christina points out that WE are the government and the obstructive GOPers need to be forcep’d out of the damned birth canal of American life!

And this, which I admit, made my brain curl tighter into fetal position—because goodness knows, voting “Democrat” was a traitorous act a few months ago, but now, actively encouraging military sedition or a coup is NOT?

And the Shaman sounds off at the Stupid:

http://shamanaqua.blogspot.com/2009/02/state-of-union-speech-kindaalmost.html

http://blog.badtux.net/2009/02/wingnuttery-in-action.html —-Wherein the bad, bad Penguin makes my head spin by describing how certain wingnuts are telling soldiers to not obey the “usurping CIC”.  Right.  Wing, that is.

Back to my “don’t look at the stupid” mode and into the sewing room now.  Can someone please send me a online game site where I can play “whack the stupid” or something…..cause honestly, these folks would crash not only the nation, but the WORLD rather than lose the ideology they have been spewing.  Talk about dangerous volcanoes….

My sabbatical is interrupted by stupidity.  Monday I had a surprise from the U.S. Post Office—the mail man I rather intensely dislike on my porch demanding $2.42 on a package that had been mailed by First Class Mail.  I had worked all day, had just bathed and fallen asleep in the tub and pulled on a nightie as I went down the hall to answer the doorbell.  So I wasn’t firing on all cylinders.  It seems the sender, a business in California, had committed mail fraud of a minor sort.  They had turned a Priority Mail envelope  inside out and used it….without paying the full Priority Mail price.  This is, apparently, a CRIME, even though the package was not in fact sent at priority speed.

I was pissed to be the one paying the extra postage since it was not my “crime.”  So, I did what good citizens are supposed to do: I wrote, I bitched, we called, etc, to the Post Office.  They said they were sorry, yes, the sender should really have had to pay the extra cost, but they had no option other than to dun us, the customer receiving the order.  I replied that if that was so, it was because the post office was lazy—after all, all packages require a return address, so the sender was not exactly unknown.

But further, I asked just how the hell they just “knew” this plain white package was one of THEIR envelopes and that they were thus entitled to more postage even though the faster service was not even USED.  After all, I wondered, it is the SERVICE that costs extra, not the damned box or envelope.  And, I informed them, I recycle and reuse boxes myself out of environmental concerns.  And if I do not need Priority Mail service, I do this by reversing the box myself—to it’s plain brown cover.

I was informed that was an illegal act, that since the the box is Post Office property I may ONLY use it as a Priority container and pay the whole price…..FOREVER.  I find this utterly ridiculous and outrageous.  Once I have received a package, it would seem to me that the pieces of cardboard are MINE.  But no, it is “government property”?  How absurd.  So, my week began with paying postage for someone else’s recycling efforts theft of government property and the mid-week sees me being informed that I am a criminal myself for re-using a box?

Well, you know what, not only will I NEVER mail another package through the USPS, but I will also NEVER use another of their boxes.  So there you go USPS, if this is how you intend to protect your profits, you can kiss it goodbye.  You are an agency that is abusing your “government” status without providing anything but the most negligent service.  You do NOT investigate when my mail is stolen, for instance—-you recommend I rent a in-office mail box instead.  You do not investigate mail carriers who damage mailboxes on purpose or throw mail on the ground.  But you tell ME I am a criminal for re-cycling “your” property.  Kiss my ass, USPS…..oh, and by the way, that is protected speech—-being the government, you should know that, right?

That time again, those lost in the wars over the last moon phase….

U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Sean D. Diamond, 41, of Dublin, Calif.,  in  Iraq, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle.  He was from our local Ft. Lewis Army base.

U.S. Army Cpl. Stephen S. Thompson, 23, of Tulsa, Okla., died in Iraq of injuries sustained from a gunshot wound.

U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Raymond J. Munden, 35, of Mesquite, Texas, died in Afghanistan, of wounds sustained when insurgents attacked his unit using indirect fire

U.S. Army National Guard PFC Cwislyn K. Walter, 19, of Honolulu, Hawaii died  in  Kuwait, supporting the war in Iraq,  of injuries sustained from a non-combat related incident.

U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Timothy P. Davis, 28, of Aberdeen, Wash., died in Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when his vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device.

LCpl Stephen Kingscott, 22, of The United Kingdom died in Afghanistan in an attack using small arms fire.

U.S. Marine Sgt. Daniel L. Hanson, 24 (hometown unknown presently) died in Afghanistan in combat ops involving hostile fire.

Staff Sgt. Jeremy E. Bessa, 26, of Woodridge IL, died in  Afghanistan, when his military vehicle was struck by an improvised explosive device followed by small arms fire attack by enemy forces.

Master Sgt. David L. Hurt, 36, of Tucson, AZ, in Afghanistan, from wounds received during the same incident.

Staff Sgt. Mark C. Baum, 32, of Telford, Pa., died  in Iraq, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit using small arms fire.

My favorite mortar at Yorktown….where my son and husband re-visited in winter a few years ago.

Winters are good times to remember—past wars, past heroism, blood old in the ground.

Spring is coming.  Gardens and Labyrinths will be demanding time.  Also, projects of sewing and photography.

And winter launched the last guided germ missile, I have a cold and feel crummy.

Therefore, relative silence here will ensue for a while.  But hey, jump into the blogroll because ALL those folks have LOTS to say!  And better than I can say it most of the time.  Beads will be added to the monument as the count demands and I will post the moon phases lists as usual, and perhaps the occasional photo, but substantive wordy things are falling by my personal wayside for a while.

The news today made for a second Monday in the week.  Two sixteen year old girls found in the barracks room of a Ft. Lewis soldier—one of them dead.  It took the Army 36 hours (”because of the holiday weekend”??) to release this bit of news.  Obviously, two 16 year old females are not Army members.

They should not have been there at all.  No news has been released, but I rather imagine copious amounts of alcohol had a lot to do with one girl being dead and the other unconscious.  We go through the gates of Lewis a couple times a month.  They check all identification of all car passengers and if the car has no post ID tag, you go through only the front gate and get a pass.  I am imagining these girls went as passengers in a soldier’s car.  Why did some gate guard not wonder about the ages and what they were doing going on post? Oh yes, silly me, we don’t care about tipsy teenagers , we care about terrorists, right?  Neither of these girls looked “terroristical” enough to wonder about, one supposes.

Somebody’s little girl is dead.  Rest in peace, Leah King.  The other is “stable” in the hospital.  I hope she gets stable enough soon to tell what the hell happened, if she can remember at all.  No arrests have been made yet.  The crying has surely begun, however.  Justice will take longer.

Just my note to the troops, as a former troop, as a mother of both a daughter and two soldiers:  LEAVE THE JAIL-BAIT ALONE!  Don’t feed booze to ANY date to the point that she falls down.  You need more than a designated driver, you need a designated SOBER “Don’t be a frakkin’ idiot” person!

And to the Army—you already fucked around for 36 hours while some parent went up several walls wondering where a child was located.  Don’t even try to cover this shit up.  Someone was stupid, someone allegedly old and mature enough to be in uniform.  That means that someone is mature enough to take the responsibility and pay the price for a child being dead.

March 11th Update: The 19 year old boyfriend has been arrested for involuntary manslaughter in this case.  He apprently fed Leah Xanax and some other prescription pain killer that was crushed for her to inhale.  This resulted in her death.  He seems to have had a bit of a side-business going in illegal prescription drugs.

Sorry to be late posting….our router died and we couldn’t keep a connection long enough to get anything real done over the last couple days.

U.S. Army Spc. Peter J. Courcy, 22, of Frisco, Texas. died in Afghanistan of an IED attack

U.S. Army Pfc. Jason R. Watson, 19, of Many, La.  died in Afghanistan of an IED attack

The following four Army personnel were killed in Iraq by an IED:

Lt. Col. Garnet R. Derby, 44, of Missoula, Mont.

Sgt. Joshua A. Ward, 30, of Scottsville, Ky.

Pfc. Albert R. Jex, 23, of Phoenix, Ariz.

Pfc. Jonathan R. Roberge, 22, of Leominster, Mass.

U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Marc J. Small, 29, of Collegeville, Pa., died in Afghanistan during an RPG attack.

UK Army Pvt. Ryan Wrathall died in Iraq of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

WO Andrzej Rozmiarek of Poland died in Afghanistan in a vehicular accident.

Cpt. Patrice Sonzogni of France died in Afghanistan in an IED attack.

Marine Darren Smith of the UK died in Aghanistan of small arms fire.

….a new age began: the Age of Aquarius! I have been in a rarely euphoric mood for the last three days, in ignorance of the movement of the heavens around me until I read Shamanaqua’s blog this morning! Oh, that the song I have sung since my teen years has it right about this being a time of change and growth towards peace. And no, it doesn’t happen instaneously, but I have been surrounded in the scent of roses for two days now, even where none exist. Let it be…let it be…let it be!

As a very amusing friend said when asked if he was afraid of the Friday the 13th—I ain’t no Templar!  It was, of course, an October Friday the 13th when the nearly broke King Phillip IV of France decided to outlaw, arrest, torment and kill the Templars—oh, and seize their treasury!  Supposedly, this historical heist is the source of bad luck on Friday the 13th—at least one version of the “bad luck” legend.

I like Fridays.  Not only do I get my husband back from the bowels of corporate America on Fridays, but it is the day of one of my favorite deities: Freyja.  And I like the number thirteen, too, since numerologically it equals four.  Four is the number of the elements, and potent for power and stability (three legged tables tip more often than four, you know?) and I consider the day magically potent.

This year will have the maximum number of this superstition inducing day: three Friday the 13ths (today, March 13 and November 13) will send the willies up and down lesser spines.  Myself, I intend to make each of those Fridays  a day of magical practice. Hard times are upon us, make no mistake.  But that doesn’t mean we must passively hide beneath the bed or crawl into bottles of despair.  Give yourself that Hamlet speech about slings and arrows and take ARMS!

It is more empowering to fight what is causing you grief and suffering—even if only in prayer, meditation, or choosing the make a change you can personally effect.  Even planting a pot of bright flowers, lighting a candle against the many sorts of darkness will lift your spirits and open you up to new possibilities.  Apathy and paralysis serve nobody!

Three Friday the thirteenths.  Three days of effort to change luck, direction, and life!

Like many of you, I have watched the news footage of the terrible fires in Australia with growing dismay and sorrow.  The tinderbox of a continent is turning into a blackened ruin with bodies of humans and animals for emphasis on how much a disaster it all has been.

Australia’s government doesn’t like the word “drought” claiming it demoralizes people to hear that or see the word in print.  Maybe if denial wasn’t the first thing on the agenda of late, the poor nation would have been more prepared for the Damoclean sword overhead?

I am sympathetic and broken-hearted over the devastation “Down Under.”  The plight of the animals particularly crushes the spirit—those innocents who have no voice and no impact on the enviromental disaster that consumed them.  Video of wild koala bears drinking water from human hands underscores the sheer desperation—-not to mention the dimension of human responsibility.

We should all pay attention.  We should not consider this just, as Pink Floyd put it, “a case of others suffering” because if we keep treating the planet like a treasure box to be looted, we all could find ourselves in similar straits.