Something I heard today on the radio

I know this is unlike my usual Mondays, but this really hit hard when I heard it on the Mark Levin show.

A Letter, Mark read back in April, from US Army Infantryman Sgt. Eddie Jeffers who was serving in Iraq. Sgt. Jeffers was killed in Iraq on September 19, 2007; he was 23.

(5/2/07) - A Letter from US Army Infantryman Sgt. Eddie serving in Iraq

I stare out into the darkness from my post, and I watch the city burn to the ground. I smell the familiar smells, I walk through the familiar rubble, and I look at the frightened faces that watch me pass down the streets of their neighborhoods. My nerves hardly rest; my hands are steady on a device that has been given to me from my government for the purpose of taking the lives of others.

I sweat, and I am tired. My back aches from the loads I carry. Young American boys look to me to direct them in a manner that will someday allow them to see their families again...and yet, I too, am just a boy....my age not but a few years more than that of the ones I lead. I am stressed, I am scared, and I am paranoid...because death is everywhere. It waits for me, it calls to me from around street corners and windows, and it is always there.

There are the demons that follow me, and tempt me into thoughts and actions that are not my own... but that are necessary for survival. I've made compromises with my humanity. And I am not alone in this. Miles from me are my brethren in this world, who walk in the same streets... who feel the same things, whether they admit to it or not.

And to think, I volunteered for this...

And I am ignorant to the rest of the world...or so I thought.

But even thousands of miles away, in Ramadi, Iraq, the cries and screams and complaints of the ungrateful reach me. In a year, I will be thrust back into society from a life and mentality that doesn't fit your average man. And then, I will be alone. And then, I will walk down the streets of America, and see the yellow ribbon stickers on the cars of the same people who compare our President to Hitler.

I will watch the television and watch the Cindy Sheehans, and the Al Frankens, and the rest of the ignorant sheep of America spout off their mouths about a subject they know nothing about. It is their right, however, and it is a right that is defended by hundreds of thousands of boys and girls scattered across the world, far from home. I use the word boys and girls, because that's what they are. In the Army, the average age of the infantryman is nineteen years old. The average rank of soldiers killed in action is Private First Class.

People like Cindy Sheehan are ignorant. Not just to this war, but to the results of their idiotic ramblings, or at least I hope they are. They don't realize its effects on this war. In this war, there are no Geneva Conventions, no cease fires. Medics and Chaplains are not spared from the enemy's brutality because it's against the rules. I can only imagine the horrors a military Chaplain would experience at the hands of the enemy. The enemy slinks in the shadows and fights a coward's war against us. It is effective though, as many men and women have died since the start of this war. And the memory of their service to America is tainted by the inconsiderate remarks on our nation's news outlets. And every day, the enemy changes...only now, the enemy is becoming something new.

The enemy is transitioning from the Muslim extremists to Americans. The enemy is becoming the very people whom we defend with our lives. And they do not realize it. But in denouncing our actions, denouncing our leaders, denouncing the war we live and fight, they are isolating the military from society...and they are becoming our enemy.

Democrats and peace activists like to toss the word "quagmire" around and compare this war to Vietnam. In a way they are right, this war is becoming like Vietnam. Not the actual war, but in the isolation of country and military. America is not a nation at war; they are a nation with its military at war. Like it or not, we are here, some of us for our second, or third times; some even for their fourth and so on. Americans are so concerned now with politics, that it is interfering with our war.

Terrorists cut the heads off of American citizens on the internet...and there is no outrage, but an American soldier kills an Iraqi in the midst of battle, and there are investigations, and sometimes soldiers are even jailed...for doing their job.

It is absolutely sickening to me to think our country has come to this. Why are we so obsessed with the bad news? Why will people stop at nothing to be against this war, no matter how much evidence of the good we've done is thrown in their face? When is the last time CNN or MSNBC or CBS reported the opening of schools and hospitals in Iraq? Or the leaders of terror cells being detained or killed? It's all happening, but people will not let up their hatred of President Bush.

They will ignore the good news, because it just might show people that Bush was right.
America has lost its will to fight. It has lost its will to defend what is right and just in the world. The crazy thing of it all is that the American people have not even been asked to sacrifice a single thing. It's not like World War II, where people rationed food and turned in cars to be made into metal for tanks. The American people have not been asked to sacrifice anything. Unless you are in the military or the family member of a servicemember, its life as usual...the war doesn't affect you.

But it affects us. And when it is over and the troops come home and they try to piece together what's left of them after their service...where will the detractors be then? Where will the Cindy Sheehans be to comfort and talk to soldiers and help them sort out the last couple years of their lives, most of which have been spent dodging death and wading through the deaths of their friends? They will be where they always are, somewhere far away, where the horrors of the world can't touch them. Somewhere where they can complain about things they will never experience in their lifetime; things that the young men and women of America have willingly taken upon their shoulders.

We are the hope of the Iraqi people. They want what everyone else wants in life: safety, security, somewhere to call home. They want a country that is safe to raise their children in. Not a place where their children will be abducted, raped and murdered if they do not comply with the terrorists demands. They want to live on, rebuild and prosper. And America has given them the opportunity, but only if we stay true to the cause and see it to its end. But the country must unite in this endeavor...we cannot place the burden on our military alone. We must all stand up and fight, whether in uniform or not. And supporting us is more than sticking yellow ribbon stickers on your cars. It's supporting our President, our troops and our cause.

Right now, the burden is all on the American soldiers. Right now, hope rides alone. But it can change, it must change. Because there is only failure and darkness ahead for us as a country, as a people, if it doesn't.

Let's stop all the political nonsense, let's stop all the bickering, let's stop all the bad news and let's stand and fight!

Isn't that what America is about anyway?


I know many of you agree for the most part, but I felt it was good to get a reminder from one who we support. Thank you Father, for the men and women you have given us, to protect and defend this great country. Protect them, comfort them, and let them know, they are not forgotten.

A little on the lighter side

A man convicted of robbery worked out a deal topay $9600 in damages rather than serve a prison sentence. For payment,he provided the court a check -- a forged check. He got 10years.

A man went into a drugstore, pulleda gun, announced a robbery, and pulled a Hefty-bag face mask over hishead -- and realized that he'd forgotten to cut eye holes in the mask.

A man successfully broke into abank after hours and stole -- are you ready for this -- the bank's videocamera. While it was recording. Remotely. (That is, the videotaperecorder was located elsewhere in the bank, so he didn't get thevideotape of himself stealing the camera.)

A man successfully broke into abank's basement through a street-level window, cutting himself up prettybadly in the process. He then realized that (1) he could not get tothe money from where he was, (2) he could not climb back out the windowthrough which he had entered, and (3) he was bleeding pretty badly. Sohe located a phone and dialed "911" for help...

Two men in a pickup truck went to a new-homesite to steal a refrigerator. Banging up walls, floors, etc., theysnatched a refrigerator from one of the houses, and loaded it ontothe pickup. The truck promptly got stuck in the mud, so these brainsurgeons decided that the refrigerator was too heavy. Banging up *more*walls, floors, etc., they put the refrigerator BACK into the house, andreturned to the pickup truck, only to realize that they locked the keysin the truck -- so they abandoned it.

Since school has just begun:
Dear Dad,
$chool i$ really great. I am making lot$ of friend$ and $tudying veryhard. With all my $tuff, I $imply can't think of anything I need, $o ifyou would like, you can ju$t $end me a card, a$ I would love to hearfrom you.

Love,Your $on.

Dear Son,
I kNOw that astroNOmy, ecoNOmics, and oceaNOgraphy are eNOugh to keepeven an hoNOr student busy. Do NOt forget that the pursuit of kNOwledgeis a NOble task, and you can never study eNOugh.

Love,Dad

And...
At a recent open house at a suburban high school,a parent wandered into a teacher's office that was empty, and lookedaround the room. Posted on the bulletin board was a list of sentencesthat the teacher's students have written on exam papers throughthe years. Other teachers contributed to the collection, too. The parent couldn't resist copying the list of sentences, including thesegems of creativity:By Peter B. Taub

Charles Darwin was a naturalist who wrote the Organ of the Spices.
Benjamin Franklin produced electricity by rubbing cats backwards.
The theory of evolution was greatly objected to because it made men think.
Three kinds of blood vessels or the arteries, veins and caterpillars.
The dodo is a bird that is nearly decent now.
A thermometer is an instrument for rasing temperance.
To remove air from a flask, fill the flask with water, tip the water out and put the cork in quick.
A litre is a nest of young baby animals.
A vacuum is a U-tube with a flask at one end.
When you haven't got enough iodine in your blood, you'll get a glacier.
It is a well-known fact that a deceased body warps the mind.
The human is more intelligent than the beast because the human has more convulsions.
To remove dust from the eye: Pull the eye over the nose.
For head colds: Use an agonizer to spray nose until it drops into your throat.
For snake bite: Bleed the wound and rape the victim in a blanket for shock.
For asphyxiation: Apply artificial respiration until the patient is dead.
The process of turning steam into water again is called conversation.
A magnet is something you find in a bad apple.
Ammonium chloride is also silly maniac.
The school is ventilated by hot currents.
To collect fumes of sulphur, hold a deacon over a flame in a test tube.
Parallel lines never meet unless you bend one or both of them.
Typhoid fever may be prevented by fascinations.
Algebraic symbols are used when you don't know what you're talking about.
Geometry teaches us to bisex angles.
A circle is a line which meets its other end without ending.
Sound is a rapid series of osculations.
The moon is planet just like the earth only deader.
The pistol of a flower is its only protection against insects.
An example of animal breeding is the farmer who mated a bull that gave a great deal of milk with a bull with good meat.
English sparrows and starlings eat the farmer's grain and soil his corpse.
By self-pollination, a farmer may get a crop of long-haired sheep.
If conditions are not favorable, bacteria go into a period of adolescence.
Dew is formed on the leaves when the sun makes them perspire.
Vegetative propagation is the precess by which one individual manufactures another individual by accident.
Sea water is has the formula CH2O.
A triangle which has an angle of 135 degrees is called an obscene triangle.
The hydra gets its food by descending upon its pray and pushing it into its mouth with its testicles.
Blood flows down one leg and up the other.
The cerebrum is a cavity in the head.
The hookworm larva enters the human body through the soul.

Thanks to anvari.org

Worming Finale, until something else gets me fired up again

What happened to the report of our latest finding in the oldest ice core sample?
Why has no one said anything about the fact that the plant life contained within could only survive if the earth's temperature was at least 22 degrees warmer than what it is now?

The first results confirm that over the last 740,000 years the Earth experienced eight ice ages, when Earth's climate was much colder than today, and eight warmer periods (interglacials). In the last 400,000 years the warm periods have had a temperature similar to that of today. Before that time they were less warm, but lasted longer.

If you fill a glass with ice then top it off with water, when the ice melts, does the glass overflow? Why will the landmasses of the earth flood if a little bit of the glacier's freeze?

I heard from a climatologist this last week, that the increase in water depth will be a result of the expansion caused by heat, not the amount of ice that will melt. Still, I find it hard to believe a degree or two will cause that much expansion.

Why are the outskirts of the Antarctic getting warmer, while the center is cooling?
Doesn't this contradict the whole warming idea?

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-02/osu-atd021207.php
They are trying so hard to prove their theory, and continually come up short.

Why is some guy who helped develop the internet and lost an election the guru of global warming?

Because he is desperate to stay in the spotlight?

Why do some people have no personality?

Just a little jab at aforementioned person.

Why has no one ever included with those horrific pictures of polar bears floating on a block of ice, the fact that polar bears regularly swim over 20 miles at a time, and can swim over 60?

http://www.panda.org/about_wwf/where_we_work/europe/what_we_do/arctic/polar_bear/tracking/field_notes/index.cfm?uNewsID=110400
“Sea ice conditions can change quickly”


This is part of an article I found in Encarta. Notice that the last glaciation ended with a 13 degree rise in only 50 years. This is much more than our current 0.6 degree change in the past 120 years. Like I said in the beginning, I do not doubt a change in our current atmosphere, but I do doubt the effects of the Industrial Revolution.

Paleoclimatologists believe that, during the current Cenozoic Era, Earth's climate has been characterized by a series of glacial and interglacial cycles superimposed upon overall global cooling. Global temperatures progressively declined throughout the early Cenozoic and dropped quite suddenly about 2 million years ago, heralding a series of glaciations. However, fossil plants in coals from places such as northern Alaska, Greenland, and Svalbard (a group of islands belonging to Norway) suggest that there were warm episodes in the early and mid-Cenozoic Era as well.
The distribution of continents and oceans has changed throughout the Cenozoic Era until reaching that of today, with Antarctica becoming centered on the South Pole. About 30 million years ago, Antarctica had separated from South America and Australia; and a cold circum-Antarctic current was established. This isolated the continent from warm ocean currents and triggered the thickening and advance of the Antarctic ice cap. An extensive Antarctic ice sheet existed seven million years ago. Northern Europe and America moved northward into colder latitudes, and the ice sheets advanced from the South Pole.
The most recent glaciations have been more severe than those of the preceding portion of the Cenozoic Era. Because it is possible to date more of the events of the past 2 million years, much more is known about climate change during that period. The glacial-interglacial cycles have lasted about 100,000 years each, an interval that closely corresponds to the duration of changes in Earth's orbital position relative to the Sun. Evidence from deep-sea sediments reveals a pattern of slow advance of the polar ice caps, followed by sudden retreat due to rapid warming at the end of each glacial episode. The last major glaciation—10,700 years ago—ended with a 7°C (13°F) global temperature rise over a 50-year period.
Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2006. © 1993-2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.


http://www.globalwarmingheartland.org/?gclid=CJCz2pygt44CFQ9wZQodFhomcA
Another site that may be enlightening to those who have suspicions.

De-Worming Answers (First Installment)

Why have there been glaciers and rainforests in Wyoming?

From Mississippi to Wyoming, Plants Once Danced to Fast-Changing Climate TuneNational Science Foundation News Release November 10, 2005 Scientists have discovered the first fossil leaves from a period of rapid global warming 55 million years ago. The leaves tell a story about plants alive during that time: a fast-changing climate allowed southern-dwelling trees and shrubs to move north in a hurry. In fact, plants spread from the Gulf Coast to Wyo.--a distance of some 1,000 miles--in 10,000 years or less. A sudden global warming, called the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, or PETM, raised global temperatures as much as 18 degrees Fahrenheit (10 degrees Celsius).

Why is the current temperature so horrible?

Is Global Warming Always Bad?
http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=2872

Global Warming is Good for You
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,854050,00.html

Why was there a temperature drop at the beginning of the dark ages (When the world was falling apart)?

The population of the Roman Empire shrank from 65 million in 150 to 50 million in 400, a decline of more than 20 percent. Some have connected this to the Dark Age Cold Period (100-700), when there was a decline in temperature globally which reduced agricultural harvests.[3]

Why was there a temperature rise (yes, this is not the first time) at the beginning of the High Middle Ages (AKA the Age of Enlightenment)?

CO2 science http://www.co2science.org/scripts/CO2ScienceB2C/data/mwp/description.jsp

Why is there not more discussion on the fact that livestock cause more greenhouse gas than all of the vehicles on earth?

Rearing cattle produces more greenhouse gases than driving cars, UN report warns
29 November 2006 – Cattle-rearing generates more global warming greenhouse gases, as measured in CO2 equivalent, than transportation, and smarter production methods, including improved animal diets to reduce enteric fermentation and consequent methane emissions, are urgently needed, according to a new United Nations report released today. “Livestock are one of the most significant contributors to today’s most serious environmental problems,” senior UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) official Henning Steinfeld said. (Hehehehe… he said methane emissions)

Why do I actually want a Hydrogen car? Well, this one is just because I think it would be really cool.

http://www.gm.com/explore/technology/news/2006/fc_fleet_launch_091806.jsp

Does the fact that there is an increasing number of 98.6 degree heat sources on the earth have anything to do with it?

The more one contemplates the infinitesimal effect caused by our minute spatial quantity, the more one is led to generate a negative answer.