I've heard more than a few times the claim that Americans are especially prone to friendly fire. The claim is most often attributed to a friend who happened to serve in the Canadian or British military services, and I'm willing to take uncontested the fact that Americans have this REPUTATION.

But I don't believe it, and I won't believe it until some real statistics are shown.

Such as, how do these friendly fire incidents add up when you normalize for the size of the military? How about when you seperate the rate of inter-army and intra-army friendly fire?

It's an horrible event when any soldier dies at the hands of their allies. But if a country that fields 100,000 men and women DOESN'T have ten times the friend-fire incidents of their 10,000 strong ally, then I'll get worried.

Until I hear the numbers, I'm not convinced that the greater number of American friendly fire incidents is due to anything more than the greater number of American soldiers.

And the whole country breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that the only political party that could take on the Republicans has been handed over to someone who showed he knows how to remake a campaign. 2008 starts looking more and more interesting, to say nothing of the mid-term 2006 elections.

w00t!

(Even if you're a Republican, you must recognize the importance of a strong opposition to ensure that no party rules by defalt, but instead retains the will of the people to stay in power.)

Link

As I was talking with an Army Veteran friend of mine last night (in lieu of our wednesday night RPG game, naturally) I had an off-hand idea that I think deserves entry into my list of "good ideas if they could get past that wacky implementation phase."

Demilitarize the army.

By this, I don't mean throw down our guns and say "we'll never fight a war again!" Rather, I say let's turn our large, land-occupying force into something that's not intended to level countries. Either dramatically reduce the extant conventional force's numbers and create something new, or repurpose our oldest and most-maligned military branch to be a non-military "peacekeeping force."

The primary reason I think this is a good idea is to prevent any future prison torture scandals, or anything else of the kind. The new force would be closer to a massive police force that is loaned out to other countries as needed than a highly funded brute squad.

And, since it wouldn't be a military force, it could act domestically if needs be. We need to guard the mexican border for a month? Send in a few divisions of the Peacekeeping army.

The rest of the offensive military -- which would be all of the special forces and Marine Corps, and most of the Navy and Air Force -- would be a "kill it and leave" group designed purely to attack and destroy nations, armies, and giant lizards from outer space. They could drop any need to exercise respect towards the enemies of our country, and focus on executing the wars we send them on with all needed effeciecy.

And, once this stealthy fire-from-heaven shot-in-the-dark force does its work and we conqer the next country to find itself under a tyrant, we send in a different force whose every person trained and studied and views themselves as a keeper of the peace and not a killer of men.

The new force would be the left hand of American international power, intended to aid those in need be the need caused by the war-fighting right hand or some other disaster.

Just FYI.

I no longer work for UWNYS. My job of long suffering is over, and I no longer dread waking up to go to work in the morning.

I am now a bonna fide State Employee, albeit with a temporary contract instead of the regular "permanent" thing. Ah, well. Five months to convince them to keep me, and if not that then I get a new addition to my resume that doesn't have "secretary" attached to it at all. Yay!

(For the curious, I now work for the Tax Man.)

Nothing to see here. I came to my senses.

I'd reply to your last journal entry, but one of your friends has me marked as a foe. Well, three of them -- GMontag, jcast, & superyooser. The first two of which also won't be able to post in your journal, since I have them marked as foes in kind.

Were I able to reply, my reply would be along the lines of teh following:

Please explain what you mean. Do you want to connect to the 'net via your apple through your palm, or via your palm through your apple?

Though I don't have the fortune of using a Mac, my understanding is that (1) you cannot use a non-smartphone Palm to provide IP access to anything, even with a modem and (2) that if you can view it with the palm web browsers, you can view it with anything else that happens to share the same connection.

I know there are SD adapters for WiFi for the Palm, and if you get 'net access via a PC (or Mac, or phone) with bluetooth I don't know of a theoretical reason why your Palm couldn't access the 'net the same way. I do know that if your PC (et al) is blocked, your palm will be just as blocked as the packets have to pass through the PC to get to the 'net.

spell your name backwards.: treahcsreeM (Skip the "c" and all but the first "e" when you try and pronouce it)

• have you ever had a song written about you? Nope.
• what song makes you cry? The National Anthem
• what song makes you happy? Most of what I listen to.
• what's your all time fav. song? Don't know. New songs come out all the time.
• what do you listen to before you go to sleep? *CENSORED* (I'm the luckiest man in the world, remember?)
• height? just under 6"
• hair color? Brown
• piercings? one, in the ear. Blame Mrs. Planesdragon
• tattoos? None. Thought about one, can't find time + money + determination

r i g h t _ n o w . . .

• what color pants are you wearing? blue jeans.
• what song are you listening to? "Am I Evil"
• what taste is in your mouth? saliva
• whats the weather like? Dark & Rainy
• how are you? annoyed at work & looking foward to the weekend
• get motion sickness? Nope.
• have a bad habit? coming into work late.
• get along with your parents? Kind of.
• have a big regret? Yes.

f a v o u r i t e . . .

• tv show? New TV shows come out all the time... but I have a fondness for fantasyish american dramas. Enterprise, Stargates, and Andromeda are all up there.
• conditioner? n/c
• book? From Darkness Into Light has a marked tendency to capture my imagination. Now only if I could find a publisher...
• non alchohol drink? Coffee
• alchohol drink? Irish Coffee
• things to do on the weekend? Write, RPG, and just hang out.

h a v e _ you _ e v e r . . .

• broken the law? Yep
• snuck out of the house? No need.
• ever gone skinny dipping? nope
• made a prank phone call? nope
• tipped over a port-a-potty? nope
• use your parents credit card? Akta Gamat
• skipped school? No
• fell asleep in the shower/bath? No
• been in a school play? no
• had a boyfriend/girlfriend? no/yes
• had children? no
• been in love? duh
• have a hard time getting over someone? yep - but wasn't romantic
• been hurt? "no, I've gone my entire life without pain" (of COURSE I've been hurt, nitwit!)
• gone out with someone you only knew for 3 days? Nope

r a n d o m . . .

• have a job? Yes. Want a new one.
• your cd player has what in it right now? Don't have one.
• if you were a crayon, what color would you be? That muddled color of many crayons doodled together.
• what makes you happy? See above, under "favorites"
• the next CD you're going to buy? Probably a blank to record onto. Maybe an album or some software.

w h e n _ was _ t h e _ last _ t i m e . . .

• you got a real letter? Don't recall.
• got an email? Yesterday
• thing you purchased? Cola.
• Tv program you watched? something on the History channel
• movie you saw in the theaters? Hero (didn't like that piece of Chineese propoganda...)
• kissed? Just now (wife came to get me from work)
• hugged? Just now (wife came to get me from work)
• song heard? Well, while filing this out the song changed...
• place you were [besides home]? Work
• phonecall? about five minutes (wife, calling to say "where are you" on cell)
• you were depressed? meh
• you were in the hospital? to visit friend

w h a t _ comes _ t o _ mind . . .

• car? I need to get my license...
• murder? must bury bodies...
• cape? Cod?
• penis? *censored*
• cell? a picture of an animal cell from a HS textbook
• shoe? a picture of my rotty shoes that need replacement
• fun? Wife
• crush? RPG spell of d00m!
• music? Wife playing fife & drum corp -- which isn't something I listen to for fun, in all honesty.
• chalk? a white stick used to draw on blackboards

n u m b e r . . .

• of time you've been in love? 1
• of girls you have kissed? 4?
• of boys you have kissed? 0
• of times your name has appeared in a newspaper? 0
• of scars on your body? a lot
• of things in your past you regret? you're not supposed to count those

d o _ you _ t h i n k _ you _ a r e . . .

• pretty? hah!
• funny? hmm...
• hot? nope
• friendly? y
• ugly? n
• loveable? y
• caring? y
• sweet? no, taste salty.
• dorky? I'm on /. ...

f a v o u r i t e . . .

• actor/actress? dunno.
• least favorite day? Monday
• flower? dunno
• jello flavor? pudding
• summer/winter? winter, yo.

p e r s o n _ who _ l a s t . . .

• slept in your bed? the wife (duh)
• saw you cry? the wife (duh)
• sent you an email? Shan, I think. (you don't know him)

h a v e _ you _ e v e r

• said i love you and meant it? duh
• went out in public in pjs? does answering you door in blue ducky PJs and a shirt count?
• kept a secret from everyone? State of human existance.
• been to new york? yep. (Mom hasn't been to the city, despite living in the state for 13 years now.
• to california? Used to live on Vandenburg AFB.

w h e n _ was

• last cigarrete? At least a year ago
• last cry? when I realized I wasn't going to ever get my lazy ass into the military
• last book read? Lord of Chaos
• last curse word uttered? the f word
• last beverage drank? that coke I bought...
• last food consumed? breakfast
• last phone call? didn't you already ask that?
• showered? too long ago
• last shoes worn? my raggedy ones
• last cd played? a friend played one last night...
• last thing written? comment in Sol's LJ.
• last word spoken? forgot
• last sleep? 12am - 8:30 am
• last im? noonish
• sexual fantasy? involves wife
• last ice cream eaten? forgot - must remedy that. Then again, it is winter.
• last time wanting to die? Unless you count video games and RPG characters*, never.

*: I got so disgusted at how a friend was running his D&D game that I had a cleric decide that the shambling creatures moving towards him WEREN'T undead, and so turning wouldn't be a good idea, and so he would keep fighting until they killed him (me). So, what happened? The friend had an NPC show up out of nowhere and save the day, which convined me not to play in his RPG games anymore.

Since this is legislative and not really left-wing or right-wing, I'm not considering it a "political" journal

It's my opinion, as an American citizen, that we need to amend the Constitution. Each of the proposed changes is one that I feel would do the country good as a whole; comments are welcome, as always.

Amendment D1: The Equal Rights Act
Save in such cases that basic gender-based characteristics are relevant and crucial to the task, Congress shall make no law that differentiates between persons based on gender.

I don't care if it's moot. I don't care if it would damage special interests; as far as the government cares, except for parts specifically requiring breasts or a sexual organ my wife and I should be identical. (And note that "gender-based characteristics" are cruical to "marriage." If the above language does not seem to read that way, Congress will correct it.)

Amendment D2: Marriages and Civil Unions
Article 1: The word "marriage" shall mean only a union between a man and a woman, and no law shall be construed as to require the states to recognize marriages between couples of the same gender

Article 2: Any relationship between couples of the same gender by any state shall be recognized by all other states as a Civil Union.

Article 3: All marriages and civil unions shall be given the full weight of all endowed rights as determined by the state in which the couple spends the majority or plurality of each year.

Article 4: All Civil Unions shall be accorded full rights of marriage under the laws passed by Congress to apply to the many states, but only those laws within each state that the state itself gives to them.

No "gay marriage", but federal weight to civil unions and an out for states that don't want them.

Amendment D3: Protection of Citizens
In addition to the powers granted it in Article 1, Congress shall make such laws as it deems fit to protect the rights of all persons residing in the United States, as enumerated in this Constitution.

Enough stretching commerce to cover murder. We rely on the Bill of Rights to protect us from even the local town traffic judge -- let's give Congress the teeth to enforce and protect them.

Amendment D4: Abortion
Article 1: Congress shall make no law abriding the right of a competent woman with the consent of the father to prematurely end a pregnancy within the first three months.

Article 2: Congress shall make no law abridging the right of an unborn but viable child to be born, nor of fathers to have their children brough to term, save in such cases that are deemed medically necessary to save the life of the mother.

No abortion at all would be bad. No limits on abortion at all is bad. Men being unable to bring legal weight to save their children is bad.

Today, November 9, is one week after the general elections in the United States of America. As such, it's a good time to cap off my thoughts and move on with life.

To everyone in the circle: if you're still fed up with the election after a week, I suggest that you contact the local branch of your favored party and see what you can do to help the process in '02 and '04. If you prefer a minority party, find out what their relation is to their closest majority party--and if there isn't a branch of your favorite party nearby, either start druming up support or pick the local party that's closest to what you want.

Those of you that are just glad that this is over--well, it's over. (Yay!) But y'all knew that. If you didn't vote, please register while it's still fresh in your mind. Everyone would like it if "don't care" didn't win the Popular vote again in 2008.

Some final words for both sides of our two-party system:

Republicans: Congradulations are certainly in order. Even though the election was closely split, you managed to hang on to or increase your influence in mandate. You've got two years of majority rule, which means that you've got two years to switch my affiliation to the right. All you need to do is prove that you really are guided by morality, and the way to do that is to show that reason and understanding, not grandstanding and demonizing, are the tools you will use. There is no need to mark our enemys as evil or cowardly or weak-willed; focus on their actions and their actions alone, and leave the judgement to the God that I share with so many of you.

Democrats: You lost. You had a grass-roots movement, a Presdent who misled the nation, and a stronger dissent than any wartime President in history. It's time for you to fix your party, and if that means letting Howard Dean and John Stewart turn everything inside out, let them. In 2002 I want to hear about understanding, liberty, and fiscal responsibility--I want to hear about the freedom that our Christian heritage shaped for us, not the freedom that protects us from "those Christians". I want to hear that wrong things are wrong, but that outlawing some of them would be worse.

(Oh, and for everyone out there that's not a Christian: please don't be offended. Religion shows us morality, but morality is greater than religion ever could be.)

(Y'all know I don't ONLY talk about politics; originally posted at my LJ account)

As you may or may not know, Saturday was my 25th birthday. While I don't have the blessings of awe-inspiring birthdays that some of us have, I do occasionally get pleasantly surprised. And this time, it was a hoot.

The whole shebang started on Friday, when I had a chance to chat with J--who among other things gave me some perspective on some social bits that makes me feel better about myself. (Thanks!). She also manged to spill the beans that my cat was bribed to distract me -- though about what I was usnsure, just that there was "something". (The cat, btw, has decided that my sitting in a chair and NOT rapidy typing is a sign that I'm free to pet him. Ah, well.)

When I woke up Saturday, and mulled around making some NPCs for my Exalted game, the most-excellent wife told me that she was heading out for some errands and work -- and quite amazingly gave me the firm impression that nothing all too special was going to happen this year. So, I took up P's invitation to hang out with him on my b-day: the man bought me beer and microwave chimichanguas, and managed to get me to while away five-seven hours at a few rather addictive video games. (If only I could substitute the hours I spend at work playing video games... ah, then I'd have time to play and still be creative.)

Now, I know P rather well and the man's cool -- but he's not as good a liar as the wife. I did have enough for my fiendishly-plotting novelist/gm mind to detect a plot, and so when T picked us up and said he wasn going to have to leave from the party early I wasn't surprised at all. (T, if you don't know, was born almost exactly one year after me: 80 was a leap year.)

So we get back to my apt, and not only is the entire public area CLEAN, but it's DECORATED!!! And there are various party goods, celebrations, and a no-killing-T cake with a shared happy birthday bit and enough candles to serve as a five-minute campfire. We blew out the cake, feasted on shrimp(1) and fake crab and other party goods, and generally had the sort of low-key party that I enjoy.

The real surprise came when it came around to open the gifts. T can let you know what he got if he wants; I was rather pleasantly surprised with an inundation of gifts. Apparantly, the Mrs. took the birthday money I was going to spend on not-drudgery, gathered a collection from the rest, and went to almost clean out a local game store's collection of Exalted books. And fifteen shiney new dice. (You can never have too many. I mean it--I'm approaching 100, if I haven't passed that already, and I STILL have room for more dice.)

So, T left, and M and I went out to get some alcohol -- a minor collection, which we mused over until well after everyone else dropped. And, of course, the highlight of the evening was seeing F, whom had slipped into the "might be a figment of my imagination" style of friednship. (I didn't poke him to make sure he was real, but the thought occured to me.)

Sunday is game day ("and the Lords said, honor the sabbath, and we honor the sabbath and the Lord and give thanks for the world he made us by pretending to live in a totally different world..."), and it was supposed to be AASB, same as every week. But since P & JS couldn't make it, we wound up doing some pre-gaming for the Wednesday Exalted game.

Much fun was had, A got his charater to Exalt in the kind of heroic shuffle that I might be bragging about for awhile, and both she-A and M got plenty of face time and some character development.

From My wife's livejournal

I have been watching Sen. Kerry concession speech and here is something that we all need to know.

A Quote from Sen. Kerry (I love DVRs)- "In an American election there are no losers because whether or not our candidates are successful, the next morning we all wake-up as Americans. That is the greatest privilege and most remarkable good fortune that can come to us on this earth. With this gift also comes obligation. We are required now to work together for the good of our country... America is in need of unity."

Sen. Kerry goes on to say that he hopes that Pres. Bush follows through with this ideal.

I *AM* the luckiest man in the world. :)

There's been some confusion about my last entry. So, at elmegil's request, here's a clarification.

When I say "stand by the President", I do NOT mean "stop thinking and treat the President like a King." I do not mean "think but don't dissent in public" and of course I don't mean "be careful what you think."

Americans who stand by their President do so by following his lead in the matters that are his purview, and by giving the country through him the benefit of all of our ability. And that includes telling him when he's wrong, telling others when he won't listen, and working to advance our own causes and projects even when he comes out against them.

More important that this, however, is that Americans recognize each other as Americans first, and partisans second. When John Kerry speaks to the nation in thirteen minutes, he will be speaking not just as the failed Democratic nominee, but as an American citizen who leads the opposition and will encourage us to embrace our fellow citizens as citizens.

George W. Bush is President, and will be sworn in again for another four years come January. Those of us who feel that he has done poorly since 2001 must now join hands with those of us who feel he has done well, so that the latter may show the former where they are wrong, and the former can show the President where he can do better.

As I said in my last entry, we're a democracy with two young democracies who will be looking to us as to what to do when the votes are counted. Those of us on the right can do nothing to show that we are any different than the tyrannies Iraq and Afghanistan endured for decades. Only those of us on the left can do so, by showing the Kurds and the Sunni Iraqis and the Taliban and the Zionists and the Palistenians that democracy means everyone speaks their mind and then follows the will of the majority.

Just in case you haven't seen it yet:

*SLAP* - election's over, stop being a partisan asshole.

Until our President is sworn in and has a chance to prove himself a moron, I will respond to anyone who posts flagrantly partisan unamerican bullcrap by prefixing that same signature, possibly modifying it to fit the circumstance.

I encourage you do to the same.

Why? Well, partly 'cause I've always wanted to start a meme (a word used with a meaning is a real word, shove your biotech dictionary between that copy of fourty-year old USENET posts with "hacker" defined and your latin dictionary with "pagan"'s roots highlighted). The real reason, though, is more noble. To quote my livejournal:

Vote done, now we prove we're a democracy.
I voted. I could say who I voted for, but I'd prefer not to so as to keep partisanship low.

Within the next ten hours, all 300 million of our counrymen will either have voted or waived that right. If you didn't vote, please register ASAP so that you can vote next year. (Yes, I'll see about thumping again in 1, 2, 3, and 4 years.) If you did vote, cool--you exercised the most basic part of democracy, and voiced your opinion and gave your countryfolk the benefit of that opinion.

Starting today--not tomorrow, not January 2005, but TODAY--we get to move to the most difficult and pivotal part of a democracy. Accepting the result of this election and standing by our leadership, even when we disagree with them and find their personal affairs odious. We have two junior democracies that we crafted from tyranny in the last four years, and we need to set an example to the rest of the world, just as we have without fail every four years for the last two-hundred and sixteen years.

This is in response to btlzu2's latest journal. It's almost about politics, but in the non-partisan "civic duty" kind of way.

We live in a Democracy. Several interlated democracies, actually. Maybe more technically a democratic republic--whatever you call it, our system of law recognizes that power flows from the people; without their consent, even an absolute King is powerless.

Democracy can work one of two ways. Either we can all butt heads and all try pulling the country towards our own interest, or we can try and understand each other and find the middle ground. Every politician I've ever seen, including our current President and his most partisan neoconservative advisors, knows this and prefers the second method.

Unfortunately, when some unscrupulous bastard tries it the first way, everyone else has to follow suit or the democracy goes towards that way. Take a look at the recent pork-barrel tax bill if you don't believe me.

So, my point?

If you give up on understanding, and stop trying to find the middle path and trying to understand the other guy, you're giving up your civic and moral duty. You're as gutless and worthless as deserters in the army, bastards who lie to get out of jury duty, and small-minded bean-counters who insist that every minute of work be filled with activity.

If you give up on understanding the other side, please go out and commit some henious crime--steal a gun, buy & sell some drugs, something. Become a felon, and opt-out of the system. There's a marked problem in this country that's gotten worse every election, and if you're not part of the solution, then you're part of the God damn problem.

I just shut off my DVR'd copy of the VP debate.

I just can't take Cheney's hypocricy anymore. He deciries the 200k+ tax-roll back as "hurting small businesses", and then lambasts Edwards for setting up an S-corporation -- which is, btw, EXACTLY what should be done if your small business wants to pay taxes as a corporation rather than a millionare.

And in between those contradictory statements, the man calls Kerry "always on the wrong side of defense spending" and then turns around and says he's inconsistent!

This is John frickin' Kerry we're talking about--the vietnam vet who came back and asked Congress "how can you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?" Him standing up against military spending and military action is IN KEEPING with this record, and if anything proves him more consistent than Cheney himself!

Bah. And Edwards wasn't that good either. How hard is it to keep on topic, for crying out loud? How hard is it to say "if we only had the USA and Iraq fighting the terrorists in Iraq, you wouldn't call that a coalition."

And did this damn former trial lawyer even read the MA supreme court's brief? They used a SUPREME COURT decision to force their legislature to enact "marriage." A constitutional amendment is the ONLY thing that can assuredly overrule the SCOTUS on a matter of law, and if Edwards thinks that "full faith and credit" never applied to marries, can he kindly tell me what the point of the Defense of Marriage act was?

Still, Edwards hasn't made any foolish asperations as to his own quality, and he can probably spell "potato." But both men are fairly clearly of the "man, I can't kill the President--then that guy would be in charge!" type.

Random question: If both the pres. and veep. were to die now, would Collen Powell and a VP of his choice be added to the ticket? And if Powell picked McCain, would Kerry and Edwards just give up now?

(No, probably not. While the first ever black President would be something to try and run against for a MA blue-blood, the man did bring lies to the UN and has been called less-black than Bill Clinton.)