This is a forum where I make random comments about my journey in life, rants, raves, opinions and observations. Why the name "Always-A-Comment." Because I always have a comment about everything. Created by Mike Hale, a "Cranky Old Guy" in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The opinions expressed herein are mine and mine alone, no offense intended. WARNING: I have a slightly warped sense of humor; but a serious and emotional side as well. Copyright 2014, All Rights Reserved (not that anyone cares).
I am a Vietnam Veteran and I support our troops. They are performing a tough job, and they truly believe in what they are doing.
I, on the other hand, do not support the 'war' in Afghanistan or Iraq, and haven't from the beginning. We have no right to be in either country. Both are in the midst of a CIVIL WAR. We should not be interfering in the internal matters of another country!
We are not the world's police force!
I do not believe that we have to worry about the Taliban interfering in the affairs of the United States. Al Quieda, perhaps. What we should be doing is having our troops reinforcing our own borders to prevent the infiltration of 'enemy' forces or other harmful individuals. We should strengthen our procedures to review and examine the credentials of anyone wishing to enter our country for whatever reason. In this way, we can assure that potential enemies of our state can be stopped at the borders / entry points to the U.S.
You thought Vietnam Veterans have 'problems.'
Those of us who were participants in the Vietnam War know the effect of combat on a person, both at the time of the action, and many years thereafter (PTSD). And, we only had a tour of 12 to 13 months, unless we volunteered for more tours.
Our current troops are mandated for many more tours than we had experienced, sometimes 2, 3, 4 or more tours in a combat zone. This takes a great toll on a human being!
The troops who have been 'at war' since 2003 are going to be affected even more than the vets of my generation with the effects of PTSD. You think my generation has 'problems,' just wait and see what comes from this 'war.'
We are already seeing what combat has done to some of our soldiers . . . . just look at the suicide rates. According to Congress.org more U.S. military personnel have taken their own lives so far in 2009 than have been killed in either the Afghanistan or Iraq wars so far this year.
And what about violence inflicted upon loved ones, family members or other persons as a result of our loyal, combat -stressed vets returning from a combat zone. It is horrific!
Enough is enough!
The people of Afghanistan and Iraq have their problems . . . let them resolve it on their own. If they want to war amongst themselves - let them do so. We don't need to send our tired and war-weary young people off to these countries just to be maimed or killed for people who don't care, either about their own country or killing or injuring our kids.
We need to leave.
I realize that we just can't stop today and leave; it takes time to organize and arrange the logistical nightmare to return our troops and their equipment (we paid for) to our country. We don;t want to leave this stuff there by any means.
So let's set an end date that we'll be gone, completely! How about by the end of 2010? It CAN be done, we just need to be firm and committed.
Let's tackle our problems, all of them, right here, in the U.S. We CAN do it.
I am thankful for my wonderful family, friends, colleagues, and all my God-given blessings. I am truly Blessed! I pray for all our troops and first-responders, especially for all those who work for us on holidays.
The Michigan Legislature is awash in a sea of broken promises: can't keep promises to our future - our kids' education; can't promises to do their job - make up a budget on time; can't show up to work when they have a responsibility to do so - taking off on a Jewish holiday (when they have a budget deadline!).
THIS IS A BUNCH OF NONSENSE! They are a bunch of limp legislators and wishy-washy workers! I ranted about their inability to meet a budget deadline last year, and they are doing it again this year.
The legislature works for us - we are their employer! I think it's time we fired these 'employees' (legislators) and get someone to do the job with responsibility to their employers - us, the citizens of Michigan!
What really burns me up (besides their E.D. - elective dysfunction) is that they have broken a promise to our children - the future of Michigan! The 'Michigan Promise' to provide educational opportunities to college and school children has been ripped from the proposed budget for 2010. Yeah, that's smart. Let's just cut, cut, cut - and run, run, run from meeting our obligations.
I am fed up with the direction our state is going. I know we are economically strapped, but so are the citizens. Should we raise taxes to meet our obligations? Perhaps. But how about doing it on: cigarettes, gasoline, sales, sporting events, etc. where discretionary income is spent. We are a tourist destination, why not raise taxes where visitors to our state help us out?
I cannot publish my true feelings (politely) as to how I feel about this fiasco. If you want to hear them, contact me, I'll be glad to share with you my unabashed feelings.
However, Jack Lessenberry of Michigan Public Radio has stated it best. Check out his comments HERE.
It is truly a sad state of affairs when individuals have to take this type of action to provide for their basic needs. I've noticed guys (mostly) posted at various street corners hoping that a passing motorist might stop and make a donation.
While I might consider doing just that, the skeptical side of me asks . . . " Is this true, does he/she really need the money for food, or will it be spent on alcohol or other drugs? If a job is offered, will the person accept?"
With this thought in mind, can one justify ignoring the plea and continue driving?
I have seen alleged "veterans" begging for assistance. And I've been tempted to help them. But I always come back to the rationale that these folks can be helped, if they only avail themselves of the various programs that are designed for this purpose.
So it is that with a bit of guilt that I continue on my way to my destination, hoping that another Good Samaritan will come along, offer assistance and help this poor soul to rebuild their life and self-esteem. But it won't be me.
So sad that I even think of the negative aspects of this situation. What have we become?
OK, as an American I have the right to discuss and debate issues of concern to me, especially those which may affect me personally. And I respect the rights of others to disagree with my points of view, this is a constitutional right.
However, the recent "discussion" at some of these town hall meetings has gotten out of hand. Yelling, hollering, shouting and drowning out those speaking is not in my way of thinking, not at all proper, and frankly is downright rude! I understand that some individuals have differing viewpoints, but loudness is not a method which can be utilized to convince me or others that you have an intelligent or rational point to make.
There is speculation that some special interest groups may be behind all the cacophony and chaos, and I tend to agree with this presumption.
On the issue of health care reform, I would not be surprised if some drug manufacturer or insurance lobbyists have something to do with all the hullabaloo. Not would I put it past any opposition party member organizations contributing to the uproar.
OK, let's debate and discuss . . . . . but let's keep it polite!
On the issue of health care reform, I'm sure we all agree that something has to be done, and I don't claim to have a solution (other than kicking out all the special interest groups and lobbyists from the discussion).
My wife showed me a column by Washington Post columnist, Charles Krauthammer "A better health reform plan" (August 7, 2009). I think it is thought-provoking and want to share it with you.
Health-Care Reform: A Better Plan
By Charles Krauthammer
Friday, August 7, 2009
In 1986, Ronald Reagan and Bill Bradley created a legislative miracle. They fashioned a tax reform that stripped loopholes, political favors, payoffs, patronage and other corruptions out of the tax system. With the resulting savings, they lowered tax rates across the board. Those reductions, combined with the elimination of the enormous inefficiencies and perverse incentives that go into tax sheltering, helped propel a 20-year economic boom.
In overhauling any segment of our economy, the 1986 tax reform should be the model. Yet today's ruling Democrats propose to fix our extremely high-quality (but inefficient and therefore expensive) health-care system with 1,000 pages of additional curlicued complexity -- employer mandates, individual mandates, insurance company mandates, allocation formulas, political payoffs and myriad other conjured regulations and interventions -- with the promise that this massive concoction will lower costs.
This is all quite mad. It creates a Rube Goldberg system that simply multiplies the current inefficiencies and arbitrariness, thus producing staggering deficits with less choice and lower-quality care. That's why the administration can't sell Obamacare.
The administration's defense is to accuse critics of being for the status quo. Nonsense. Candidate John McCain and a host of other Republicans since have offered alternatives. Let me offer mine: Strip away current inefficiencies before remaking one-sixth of the U.S. economy. The plan is so simple it doesn't even have the requisite three parts. Just two: radical tort reform and radically severing the link between health insurance and employment.
(1) Tort reform: As I wrote recently, our crazy system of casino malpractice suits results in massive and random settlements that raise everyone's insurance premiums and creates an epidemic of defensive medicine that does no medical good, yet costs a fortune.
An authoritative Massachusetts Medical Society study found that five out of six doctors admitted they order tests, procedures and referrals -- amounting to about 25 percent of the total -- solely as protection from lawsuits. Defensive medicine, estimates the libertarian/conservative Pacific Research Institute, wastes more than $200 billion a year. Just half that sum could provide a $5,000 health insurance grant -- $20,000 for a family of four -- to the uninsured poor (U.S. citizens ineligible for other government health assistance).
What to do? Abolish the entire medical-malpractice system. Create a new social pool from which people injured in medical errors or accidents can draw. The adjudication would be done by medical experts, not lay juries giving away lottery prizes at the behest of the liquid-tongued John Edwardses who pocket a third of the proceeds.
The pool would be funded by a relatively small tax on all health-insurance premiums. Socialize the risk; cut out the trial lawyers. Would that immunize doctors from carelessness or negligence? No. The penalty would be losing your medical license. There is no more serious deterrent than forfeiting a decade of intensive medical training and the livelihood that comes with it.
(2) Real health-insurance reform: Tax employer-provided health-care benefits and return the money to the employee with a government check to buy his own medical insurance, just as he buys his own car or home insurance.
There is no logical reason to get health insurance through your employer. This entire system is an accident of World War II wage and price controls. It's economically senseless. It makes people stay in jobs they hate, decreasing labor mobility and therefore overall productivity. And it needlessly increases the anxiety of losing your job by raising the additional specter of going bankrupt through illness.
The health-care benefit exemption is the largest tax break in the entire U.S. budget, costing the government a quarter-trillion dollars annually. It hinders health-insurance security and portability as well as personal independence. If we additionally eliminated the prohibition on buying personal health insurance across state lines, that would inject new and powerful competition that would lower costs for everyone.
Repealing the exemption has one fatal flaw, however. It was advocated by candidate John McCain. Obama so demagogued it last year that he cannot bring it up now without being accused of the most extreme hypocrisy and without being mercilessly attacked with his own 2008 ads.
But that's a political problem of Obama's making. As is the Democratic Party's indebtedness to the trial lawyers, which has taken malpractice reform totally off the table. But that doesn't change the logic of my proposal. Go the Reagan-Bradley route. Offer sensible, simple, yet radical reform that strips away inefficiencies from the existing system before adding Obamacare's new ones -- arbitrary, politically driven, structural inventions whose consequence is certain financial ruin.
It's not that I don't have issues or topics to post, it's just that I am really enjoying being out on our deck this summer; and relaxing is just as soothing as releasing my frustrations in my blog.
Also, I haven't spent time reading a great piece of fiction in a very long time, and a friend of ours passed on to me about 31 books by the author, W.E.B. Griffin, and I have been engrossed in them for several weeks.
So, unless something really ignites a fire under me, I'll be relaxing out on the deck. I do, however, post brief bursts of thought on my Facebook page in lieu of longer thoughts here.
I am deeply concerned about how my fellow Veterans are being treated and the results of this lack of support.
PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), formerly called "shell shock" has long term effects. It is commonly known that many of our Vets who have served/experienced Vietnam have had trouble adjusting to life following their return from combat areas. When I was sent to 'Nam, I knew that I only had to be there for one year, and wouldn't be back, unless voluntarily.
I was 'young and foolish' back then and was enjoying the 'experience' of my assignment, so I asked to stay an additional 6 months. Little did I know how that might come back to haunt me, decades later.
Presently, we have troops that are being sent back to a war zone, over and over and over again.
This does not bode well. Look at the news headlines about the sad incidents that are being reported about troops who have 'cracked' over their constant exposure to combat. They did not have the 'relief' of serving just one tour of combat assignment, they keep going back time after time.
If you think the issues of Vietnam Veterans who are afflicted with PTSD, after only one tour are bad, just wait to see the results that our current veterans will display following recurring deployment into 'hell!'
Some of us are getting the help that is needed, as long as the $$$$ are there, but even that might be cut short by budget cuts. Imagine the amount of money which will be needed by our current 'Heroes?'
Will it continue? I personally pray that our service members of all ages will not be ignored, as I and my fellow Veterans were when we came home.
A friend sent me this, and I could not have said it better, so I am posting her comments here, as a guest blogger (Thank you, Jo!).
Okay, I need to rant.
I was just watching the news, and I caught part of a report on Michael Jackson . As we all know, Jackson died the other day. He was an entertainer who performed for decades. He made millions, he spent millions, and he did a lot of things that make him a villain to many people. I understand that his death would affect a lot of people, and I respect those people who mourn his death, but that isn't the point of my rant.
Why is it that when ONE man dies, the whole of America loses their minds with grief. When a man dies whose only contribution to the country was to ENTERTAIN people, the American people find the need to flock to a memorial in Hollywood , and even Congress sees the need to hold a "moment of silence" for his passing?
Am I missing something here? ONE man dies, and all of a sudden he's a freaking martyr because he entertained us for a few decades? What about all those SOLDIERS who have died to give us freedom? All those Soldiers who, knowing that they would be asked to fight in a war,still raised their hands and swore to defend the Constitution and the United States of America . Where is their moment of silence? Where are the people flocking to their graves or memorials and mourning over them because they made the ultimate sacrifice? Why is it when a Soldier dies, there are more people saying "good riddance," and "thank God for IEDs?" When did this country become so calloused to the sacrifice of GOOD MEN and WOMEN, that they can arbitrarily blow off their deaths, and instead, throw themselves into mourning for a "Pop Icon?"
I think that if they are going to hold a moment of silence IN CONGRESS for Michael Jackson, they need to hold a moment of silence for every service member killed in Iraq and Afghanistan . They need to PUBLICLY recognize every life that has been lost so that the American people can live their callous little lives in the luxury and freedom that WE, those that are living and those that have gone on, have provided for them. But, wait, that would take too much time, because there have been so many willing to make that sacrifice. After all, we will never make millions of dollars. We will never star in movies, or write hit songs that the world will listen too. We only shed our blood, sweat and tears so that people can enjoy what they have.
Sorry if I have offended, but I needed to say it.
Remember these five words the next time you think of someone who is serving in the military; "So that others may live..."
Since we, the consumers & U.S. Citizens own the "NEW" General Motors, really shouldn't it be CM, for Citizen Motors?
Should that be the case, who do I talk to about getting a really good deal and a special discount? I would like a metallic blue Camaro SS, with delivery next week. Please load it with all the options, and bill me.
Have a Happy Fourth of July, and keep in mind the independence we have due to democracy. It may not be the best form of government, but it is the best we have. I wouldn't want it any other way.
We should be thankful of our freedom and not take it for granted; after all, citizens of other countries want what we have. This is evident by all those individuals who enter our country illegally.
Enjoy the holiday, keep safe, and remember all our patriots and heroes who gave unselfishly of themselves.
Summer means vacations and traveling. Retirement means one can travel anytime and anywhere. This summer, my lovely bride and I are taking advantage of this opportunity.
Consequently, my postings may be sporadic while I take this opportunity to enjoy life to the utmost.
It's happening again, as it always does when funds get tight, and budgets get thin.
Who do the bean counters point at as being expendable?
Public Relations and Marketing, that's who.
Just this week, we've seen a couple of prestigious non-profit organizations in Grand Rapids terminate their 'promotion' staff. This also happens within for-profit organizations as well. It is like 'they' are saying . . . "Well, we don't need to communicate with anyone now, because no one is buying anyway." You know what, this will be TRUE, as no one will buy, because THEY FORGOT ABOUT YOU - because you aren't keeping your name or product out in front of them!
Now is the time you should be presenting your name, product or purpose to the public!
You should be stepping up your advertising and marketing programs - to survive. If you don't, kiss 'it' goodbye - you'll be gone, along with others who have closed their doors.
This is from an old "PR Guy" who has seen it before.
Enjoy your day, guys . . . you probably earned it. Being a father is an accomplishment, and being a father has its' risks and heartaches, as well as joys and moments of pride. So . . . hold your head up high, puff up your chest and appreciate the gift of children.
In my case, I have a lot to be thankful for, my daughter has made me nothing but proud. She is her own person, and knows what she wants out of life. I hope she gets the break she needs to accomplish that goal.
Thank you, Sarah, for being such a great "Kiddo!" (Her only downfall, is that she inherited my 'sense' of humor.)
Just a few thoughts of randomness which have passed through my mind recently:
Why is it that when there is road construction on the Interstate Highways, there are miles and miles of orange cones or barrels, but no construction work within sight; but yet traffic is reduced to one lane for that entire length?
I love driving in Chicago, it's like being in a real, live video game. I wonder what my score is as I've been doing it since 1968 with no crash and burn?
Why are there TWO chocolate shops in Chicago - across the street from each other.
Our roads are in such poor condition in Michigan compared to Chicago . . . oh, wait . . . they have Toll Roads. Hmmmm, maybe not such a bad idea!
I'm so glad it is dark in theaters . . . some of the productions I've seen recently have made me tear up, and I hate to have people see tears streaming down my face in public.
I enjoy using the Dollar coins to pay for things, it is interesting to see the expressions on cashier faces. It was even better when they were first issued . . . cashiers thought the coins were quarters, and wanted more money; or the time the coins weren't accepted because they were "fake."
Why is it that some of our 'older' senior citizens feel they have a "right" to go directly to the head of the line, or ignore other people already present, just to get their immediate needs met. (Just because you may be older than me, doesn't mean you can just push your way in - I'm sorry that I was here before you).
There must be two speed limits. One I observe posted along the highway, and the other for those who must be more important than I (as they whiz by me on the road).
The old . . . "When you need one, they are nowhere to be seen."
Cops
Sales clerks
Wait staff
Taxis
Paper & pencil
Tissues for sneezing
Gas stations
Padlock keys
Power supplies / battery chargers.
Restrooms
Toilet paper or full paper towel dispensers in public restrooms
When you post something on CraigsList or in a classified ad . . . it never sells, or you don't get any response to your ad. Or when you call to respond to the ad, someone else already snatched it up.
Why is it when using electronic communication (texting, Facebook, Twitter), all the proper use of the English language, spelling, and punctuation is tossed aside by many?
