Archive for the ‘Walk of The Fallen’ Category

Has anyone in the USA totally missed the antics of the insane Fred Phelps, who leads his “church” of family and married-in members (he had eleven kids) to harass gays and lesbians with “God Hates Fags” signs at every possible event? And recently, he has taken to haunting military funerals and contends that American deaths on the battle field are God’s punishment for America not killing off homosexuality.

Odd take on war, is it not? After all, one could scarcely find a more homophobic and reactive population than the one in Afghanistan—and yet THEY suffer combat deaths as well. Phelps would say God hates Muslims, one supposes. In fact, Phelps would want you to know, God hates YOU and everyone else who is NOT a member of his church.

The man and his “church” are obnoxious and offensive in the extreme. And a dead Marine’s family is suing for emotional distress. They won, but a higher court threw out the award and declared the signs reading “Thank God for IEDs” and “God hates the USA; Thank God for 9-11″ are hyperbolic and protected speech. Now it goes to the Supreme Court. Phelps sent all his children to law school, one supposes he knew that sooner or later he would need the legal aid.

I feel that barging into funeral processions surely must violate something! Why is such obvious hate speech not illegal? It is a mystery to me. But I am sure with so many legal eagles in the family, he receives good advice on just how far to go in his hyperbole. They can thank their “God” for 9-11 and IEDs, for instance, but never advocate actual violence against the US government.

I fear that Phelps will win his case; after all, nothing he does threatens American corporations—the only “entities” this current crop of Supremely Asinine judges seem intent upon protecting. All the same, light a candle that some hook to hang Phelp’s legal head upon might be found!

I did not watch the Oscars. I spent Sunday in very arduous yard chores and Sunday night watching a pitiful version of Shakespear’s “As You Like It”. (Note to Ken B. –the Bard’s works are not intended to be musicals dressed up in Japanese Shogunate drag, ok?)

So, browsing the news this morning, I came across this phrase and was gobsmacked:

“The Hurt Locker” scored a victory for war-on-terror dramas, which until now had found little favor with audiences shell-shocked by nightly news coverage of the action in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

Excuse me? WHAT “nightly news coverage about action in Iraq and Afghanistan”? I have to say it is a rare damned day when the news even mentions how many Americans have died. And occasionally, when mentioning deaths, they note a “new offensive in Helmand Province” or the like, but that is pretty much all there is to it.

Note to self: don’t even bother reading the reviews OF the Oscars if that statement of drivel is any example of the accuracy. This pair of debacleswars are the most under-reported wars in my lifetime!

Again, dear readers, so many men have gone into that “breach” that carries them away from us; the moon grows old. Raise a glass in tears and tribute.

US Army Spc. Ian T.D. Gelig, 25, of Stevenson Ranch, Calif., died March 1 in Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his vehicle with an improvised explosive device.

The following two US Army men died in Afghanistan
on March 1st, when their unit was attacked with small arms and RPG fire:
Spc. Josiah D. Crumpler, 27, of Hillsborough, N.C.

Spc. Matthew D. Huston, 24, of Athens, Ga.

US Marine Lance Cpl. Carlos A. Aragon, 19, of Orem, Utah, died March 1 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan.

US Army Sgt. Vincent L.C. Owens, 21, of Fort Smith, Ark., died March 1 in Afghanistan, of wounds suffered earlier that day when enemy forces attacked his vehicle using direct fire.

Rifleman CArlo Apolis, 28, of South Africa, died in Afghanistan on March 1, when his foot patrol was attacked with small arms fire.

Cpl. Richard Green, 23, of Reading, England, died in Afghanistan on March 2, as a result of small arms fire.

US Marine Lance Cpl. Nigel K. Olsen, 21, of Orem, Utah, died March 4 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan.

US Spc. Anthony A. Paci, 30, of Rockville, Maryland, died March 4 in Afghanistan, of injuries resulting from a vehicle rollover.

US Army Spc. Anthony A. Paci, 30, of Rockville, Md., died Mar. 4 in Afghanistan, of injuries suffered during a vehicle rollover.

US Army Spc. Alan N. Dikcis, 21, of Niagara Falls, N.Y., died March 5 in Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his vehicle with an improvised explosive device.

To the Military commissary:

Ok, you had some GREAT products I Liked buying…organic stuff and no allergens; I was delighted, but couldn’t figure why the hemp milk wasn’t on the aisle with the other milk exceptions like soy and rice milk. And why was the great high fiber/protein flour not with the baking stuff on aisle 15?
Why was the delicious all blueberry juice not on the juice aisle? And NONE of it was on the special organic/alternative aisle! Instead it was in this obscure spot just where folks walk in…and PAST on their way to produce.

Oh, THATS why. So nobody noticed these great products and after four months you could drop them all because, riiiight, NOBODY bought them enough. Fuck you TWICE. You obviously WANT to lose customers so you can have the excuse to simply CLOSE the commissary that vulnerable lower ranking troops need desperately.

But hey, your prices don’t match Winco anyhow, because you have decided it is not “right” to COMPETE with local stores. But post-bound, cash poor young troops will be the ones that suffer, but hey, they are suffering already. Because your prices SUCK more and more the last few years.

Funny, it was ok to have carts labeled with store names and the high total prices posted UNTIL Winco stores opened, wasn’t it? They whip your ass on good produce and great prices. Winco is an employee owned chain and while they don’t have the same huge line of foods as the big chains like the expensive Top grocers, they do have as good or better product lines that the usual military commissary. YOU sell a lot of sugary crap and rotting produce and brand names that get ads.

This is why I buy coffee and a couple import items and very little else there now. Military families? Join a Costco. Hunt the local economies state-side. Do NOT trust and assume that the commissary and the post/base exchange are “there to serve” you with the best prices. They don’t give a damn about the best price, they cover their asses and obnoxiously presume they will always have the bulk of your business.

I don’t know quite how to feel about the downfall of Captain Holly Graf. On one hand, as a woman who served in the military, I find it humiliating that she failed in such massive fashion. On the other hand, reading about her command, I am glad it was finally ended.

She captained a Navy vessel and got compared to Capt. Bligh. Her crew did not mutiny, leaving her adrift; instead the Inspector General’s office was tipped off and she was investigated. And fired.

I briefly found myself wondering if a male officer would have been judged as harshly as she apparently was—she humiliated her junior officers in public and had a mouth apparently dirtier than mine. She threw things at subordinates and made people reconsider Navy careers. Generally, I don’t think I would have liked serving on her ship. She seemed competent in terms of her duties as an officer, but for the part about inspiring her subordinates by her leadership.

She chose to “win” through intimidation, domination, and humiliation. I am sure there will be feminists out there shouting that it is all because a woman should not swear “like a sailor”. But I don’t really think that was the point, a Captain is master (mistress?) of the ship; but it is not supposed to be in the dominatrix sense at all. A captain should inspire confidence in the crew; she demeaned and insulted her crew.

She came from an old Navy family, but apparently did not learn leadership technique there. Graf says she had high standards and that ‘readiness’ (for combat?) was her goal. I think that family history was a monkey on her back; she wanted to prove she could out-swear and out-tough any male officer. I am an old-time feminist; before the ones who decided being more ruthless skirted “men” was the way to do it. My era of feminists did not believe we had to become brutes to compete and succeed.

All I know for sure is that in my very ordinary term of service as a lowly NCO, I NEVER swore at a subordinate. I swore at a shovel, at my computer, at myself; but never at a person working with or for me. All her crew was “ready” for was to jump ship through transfers at the first opportunity. She gave women in service a bad name, a black eye, and in her wake— sighs of relief.

The topic of rape in the military, rape of female military members by male military members, has been discussed here somewhat frequently. What I find astonishing is that after years of war, it is only NOW hitting mainline media as an acceptable topic.

I have concluded that the media is useless. They literally “don’t ask” about anything they know the Administration doesn’t want to hear about at all. Everyone knew the Bush Administration didn ‘t give a shit about military rape. After all, if it is American on American, it causes no diplomatic furor, right? It isn’t as if those horn-dogs are attacking young Iraqi girls, right? Oh, wait, they did that TOO? And such thoughtful young troops, they were, too: killed the families to try to avoid an ‘incident’ that would embarrass the folks back home. Right.

American women in uniform have quite possibly died because of fear of sexual assault. After all, in an environment where it is 120 degrees, not drinking enough water predisposes one to heat stroke. But nobody will ever be charged for those “non-combat” deaths. Why did they not drink? Drinking plenty of water means you might have to use the latrine after dark. Using the latrine after dark means you might have to take one for the team because your “battle buddy” wants to be more than friends at work.

I have had an Iraqi War vet tell me they posted guards on the women’s tent in their unit. And gave the women knives or side arms when possible. Why? Because the contractor goons would drive up in their black SUVs and just “commandeer” women for a party—pretty much regardless what the women thought about it. So, it isn’t just military members willing to rape American service women.

Apparently, women are a kind of flesh and blood “two-fer” in Iraq and Afghanistan. They get their military jobs done by day, and by night they serve other services seen as vital — sex toys! Because if they tell, their career is over. They are shipped out of unit to “protect” them, they are not given confidentiality or any other small comfort afforded civilian rape victims. They are viewed as trouble-makers.

Many years ago, when I was a military member, a male co-worker walked up as I stretched to reach something over my head. He slapped me on the ass, telling me it was too tempting to resist—it was “there”. I told him to get out of my sight by a count of three. He stood there laughing, right up until I threw a typewriter at him. Then, aggrieved, he told me he had ‘time in grade’ on me, thus outranked and and that I was out of line. Right. He filed a complaint for my ‘violence and assault’ against him.

He was complacent enough about his familiar act to admit he had slapped me on the ass. He got a rude awakening, since then my action was in my own defense. He was never allowed near me again. Unfortunately, the rapists on Iraq and Afghanistan KNOW they are doing wrong, and do it in darkness and solitude. But one attitude hasn’t changed a bit: the women they abuse are “there”…..apparently seen as for service on several levels.

I seriously advocate knives. Let those rapists explain why they need stitches. They might be as shut-mouthed about it as the soldier whose foot I once broke. He crept up behind me and seized me around the waist. I put my military heel into his instep with great force. He limped for weeks, but kept his mouth shut and kept away from me.

If the military doesn’t really want to ask, they can not ask about the wounds of men who don’t deserve the name!
Yes, I am advocating violence and bloodshed. Self-defense when the system is not defending you and penalizes you for being the victim is a sensible last resort. After all, the military loves to posit Christian ideals, right? Sexual purity is such an ideal, correct?
Guard that jewel between your legs, ladies—even if it means removing the jewels between HIS!

The picture heading this post is my personal favorite knife—hard to make me drop it with my fingers laced in those holes. And good for slashing.

I am too sore from last week’s hiking and the weekend yard work to be ambitious about much in terms of physical duties today. So, I am catching up on apparently rampant stupidity out there in the world. At the current rate or idiocy, we will need to light candles, not for magic purposes, but simply to find our way in the new Dark Ages! Hat-tips to the Bedazzler and Sonic at the Pagan/Wiccan message boards for some of these jaw-dropping bits of nutcake-ness.
Examples follow:

The Handmaiden’s Tale begins in Utah. The morons in the State House there have decided to criminalize having a miscarriage, so see to it you don’t fall down any stairs. Or maybe just keep it super secret if you become pregnant—don’t tell a soul! Cause heavens forfend if Mother Nature should spontaneously abort that fetus, as She does about half to two-thirds of the time; the right to lifers want you in jail for your uterine incompetence! You WISHED (witched?) that fetus to death, didn’t you?

This kind of lunacy would strike me as more heart-felt if any of these asshats gave a tinker’s damn about children already living and breathing on planet—-why not criminalize those who deny poor children health care, for instance?

And hey, public education delivers nothing but a class trip in grade 12, right? Again, Utah, really? They want to graduate you in 11th grade in Utah to shave money off the education budget. If I was faced with such a dire choice, I’d take kindergarten off the list, not senior year. But oh, that IS when students learn pesky things like their legal rights under the Bill of Rights, isn’t it? Yeah, dumb ‘em down so they make better church-going corporate clones. Dark ages, folks, devolution revolution!

The “party of Lincoln” wants naught to do with him? Say what? And burn those “Teddy” bears in effigy, too, because Republican Prez Theodore Roosevelt was guilty of “progressivism” ! Come on, you Grand Old Poops, those are the only contributions you have to polite American Society! But Glen-brain-dead Beck is haranguing his audiences about how they don’t represent what the GOP is all about. Well, no shit, Glen—it is now the Grand Oil Party, the Great Oligarch Patriarchs, the Gray Old Poofters (closeted, of course), any number of things that Lincoln and Roosevelt would not recognize at all!

And if you needed more proof that the ideals of the Medieval Era are returning to common conversation, look no further than the war crime trial against murderous Serbian Karadzic! His actions were “just and holy” because you know, the 21st century is just ripe for a new Crusade against those Islamic sorts, right?

Has everyone on the freaking planet gone nuts? Somehow, I just cannot see Jesus launching a war against another monotheistic faith that counts him as a major prophet; but hey, I am a damned and accursed pagan, what the fuck do I know? About twelve percent of world-wide Christians are crazy fundamental Dominionist murderous sorts; and about the same percentage of Muslims belong to hateful jihad-mad sects of Islam. Why can’t we round JUST those members of the respective faiths up and toss ‘em in a ring. I am pretty sure the rest of us, even we benighted pagans, could get along just fine after that!

But then, the bumper sticker seen this week defies that bit of common sense, I guess. It said “Liberate Constantinople!” I said, “Say what??” The reply was that Constantinople, once Byzantium and head of the Eastern half of the Roman Empire, had been under the ‘vile’ domination of the Turks for too long—time to return the city to it’s “Christian” beginnings.

Saaaay??? Has someone been burning history books again when I was not watching? Cause, damn, people—may I very gently remind you that the “Christian Era” is only 2010 years old and before the Roman Emperor Constantine decided to make it a new Roman capital it was a Greek city—Byzantium. And pagan. Not Christian at all. The star and the crescent were favored symbols of the city and they were said to be sacred to Hekate, the favorite deity of the city for her aid defending them against Alexander the Great’s similarly conquest minded father–Philip of Macedon.

So hey, yeah. Liberate Istanbul/Constantinople/Byzantium. Let’s take it back to it’s Hellenic (and pre-hellenic) paganism, shall we?

Honestly, evolve already. Or at least turn OFF the brain-lights so we will KNOW that nobody is at home. But hey, we have the final word from would-be-beauty-queen Lauren Ashley. This twatchen gives blondes a bad name; she thinks that the Bible is very clear and gays need to be put to death! As a friend said, she might want to duck a few flying stones herself; after all, it ain’t exactly kosher to be shaking your ta-tas in swimsuits in public either.

I just love Cafeteria Christians (yes, roasted with a side of sweet potato fries), don’t you? They cherry-pick favorite bits of murderous mayhem for holy reasons and never, ever examine their own “sinful” ways in the Gospel light. Oh, wait, there goes my Hellenic paganism bit again….that whole “examined life” was a Greek ideal, wasn’t it? Silly me, it’s all good if you are a blonde bombshell Christian with a big mouth and tiny brain.
Arete and hubris are lost concepts on those types…..I say hubris and hypocrisy, she says righteousness. Uh-huh, keep talking, Lauren—Jesus isn’t the only one listening.

The moon is full, bright in the sky to shine on new headstones. Raise a glass, honor the fallen; cry for the bereaved.

Lt. Douglas Dalzel, 27, of Bershire, England, died in Afghanistan on his birthday on 18 February, when an IED detonated and fatally wounded him.

LSgt. DAvied Walker, 36 of Glasgow, Scotland, was killed in a firefight on 18 February in Afghanistan during a ground domination patrol.

US Army Sgt. Michael D. Cardenaz, 29, of Corona, California was killed in Afghanistan on 20 February, when his unit was attacked with RPG fire.

SGM Florin Badiceanu, 31, of Romania, died in Afghanistan on February 23 when an IED detonated beneath his humvee.

US Army Cpl. Daniel T. O’Leary, 23, of Youngsville, N.C., died Feb. 23 in Iraq, of injuries sustained during a vehicle roll-over.

US Army Sgt. William C. Spencer, 40, of Tacoma, Wash., died Feb. 25 at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Landstuhl, Germany, of wounds sustained Feb. 20 while supporting combat operations in Iraq.

US Army Staff Sgt. William S. Ricketts, 27, of Corinth, Miss., died Feb 27 in Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit with small arms fire.

Again, that time of the month, the fourth Saturday, when I remind readers that war kills not only through bombs, bullets, accidents and illness; but also through despair and depression and PTSD. Give a thought to those suffering darkness of mind and spirit!

The Army released suicide data for the month of January. Among active-duty soldiers, there were 12 potential suicides: one has been confirmed as suicide, and 11 remain under investigation. For December, the Army reported ten potential suicides among active-duty soldiers. Since the release of that report, three have been confirmed as suicides, and seven remain under investigation.

During January 2010, among reserve component soldiers who were not on active duty, there were 15 potential suicides. For December, among that same group, there were seven total suicides. Of those, five were confirmed as suicides and two are pending determination of the manner of death.

It seems our former Vice President has had a mild heart attack. He is feeling better. Damn it all.

Yeah….proof good health care works; so many have died with fewer heart attacks and he lives on and on and on.
Light a candle! There are lists kept by candle light here….