War and Terrorism... Who is at fault

Actually, if you trace it back far enough, I am sure we can find a way to blame this on Hitler....

I mean, if he won world domination, then the terrorists would not have struck against us, because we would all be one people. And without that attack against us, we would not have gone to war, therefore those people would not be dead. So blame Hitler.

But now, lets go more. If it wasn't for thousands of Americans and other countrymen from far off lands, then we would not have beaten Hitler. So, we should blame those from the WWII generation for fighting against Hitler, if he had won, would have made it so those attacks against American's and later the Iraqi citizens would have never happened.

But wait, shouldn't we really blame the Chinese for discovering gun powder? They are the ones who enabled all these human bombs and guns and other deadly actions to happen. That allowed Hitler to take over the world only to be thwarted by the Americans and other countrymen from far off lands. And as we know, with Hitler stopped that paved the way for the terrorist to attack America and for us to have to go to their land and fight them all. And because we are fighting them all, people are dying, but we should also remember if it wasn't for us giving the Iraqis that silly idea of freedom and democracy, then the insurgents would not need to strap bombs to their kids and send them into kill other people.

So yeah, Andy, that website is correct, it is all the fault of Bush.

MoveOn PAC

This is a joke. These two places are online petitions to get rid of DeLay and to stop the Nuclear Option in the Senate. But what is funny is they want 500,000 signatures in both. But if you go to the site and click Reload a bunch of times, you will see the number of current signatures go up and go DOWN!!!! So it looks like it is raising for a while then it will drop. The one for DeLay moves slowly and only goes up or down one or two at a time. The one for the Nuclear option goes up and down by hundreds. Sounds to me that they are doing something fishy.

http://www.moveonpac.org/delay/
http://www.moveonpac.org/nuclear/

Donkey Basketball stopped at Skyline HS

Article text from the Seattle Times online newspaper, the full story can be found at:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/eastsidenews/2002278945_donkey18e.html

Wednesday, May 18, 2005 - Page updated at 12:00 a.m.
Skyline school benches donkey basketball
By Cara Solomon
Seattle Times Eastside bureau

The fund-raiser at Skyline High School in Sammamish would have featured a game of hoops with players seated astride actual donkeys. Proceeds from "donkey basketball," which had been scheduled for yesterday, would have helped pay for the school's student-body activities.

But concerns over animal cruelty have stopped it in its tracks.

According to the district, a Skyline student brought his concerns to the school's Associated Student Body (ASB) last week, and the student council decided Thursday morning to cancel the event.

A few students at the school of more than a thousand complained about this. A few. Let's take that as ten, which I think is more than the real number, but it is nice and round. So, ten people complain that they think this is cruel to the donkeys.

On the radio I listened to a member of PETA and the local host talk about this. The lady from PETA said it was cruel in part because the animal does not know what he is doing out there. He is confused by everything. He is being laughed at by everyone.

I have a few issues with all this. First off when did the country decide that the majority no longer rules? I never got the memo. I never was told that when one person doesn't like something, we will cancel it because we don't want to force things that are offensive on someone who would be offended.

On a tangent now... one must choose to be offended. I need to post about that one of these days and explain myself. But those who are offended choose to be.

I am back... This was not cancelled because of someone being offended, but because of a concern over cruelty to the animals. Why would they schedule this and then cancel? If it was cruel, it would have been cruel before they scheduled it, not after someone brings it up. So a "few" people see this as cruel, therefore it is now deemed as such. Is that how hanging became "cruel"?

Anyway, the point I am trying to make is that we have become a nation of overcompensating rulers trying to protect the minority at the expense of the majority.

Next, there is PETA claiming that the donkeys are confused. When I moved to a new house I could say my dog was confused at first. She did not recognize her surroundings, but soon she learned her new surroundings and life was good.

So, you have these donkeys that are raised to play basketball. How can you say they are confused? That is what they have been doing their whole life. Sure, take a donkey from the Grand Canyon and put it on a basketball court, and it would be confused. There is a concern about the basketball hitting the donkeys. It is not like dodgeball where the basketballs are thrown at the donkeys at a high rate of speed. I am sure the donkey doesn't like it when the ball bounces off of him, but is that really "cruel"?

As for being laughed at, I bet the ones being laughed at are the people riding the donkeys, not the donkeys themselves. She did say that we should not in today's world use animals are workers. Police dogs - cruel. Service dogs - that is a grey issue. Horses pulling stuff - no need for it in a mechanical world. She made it clear that no matter what an animal is used for it is cruel unless the animal is allowed to roam free around the world. However, cutting off their sex organs is okay. I did learn that from her. We can choose to make the animal celibate for life, but that is all the power we have over animals.

The bottom line is that this is not cruel. PETA and those complaining don't know what it means to be cruel to animals. Look at what some kids in Seattle did in 1994. They beat a donkey to death. It was a donkey tied to a tree. There was an article I just read about some teenagers burning chickens alive and others were using lacrosse sticks to bat around some other chickens.

That is cruel. Playing basketball is not.

Washington State Democrats

So we have a situation in Washington where the democrats control the house, senate, and governor's mansion. With their control they keep raising the taxes. I-601 was put in place a few years ago by the voters of Washington. One part made it so the government had to get a super majority to raise the taxes. That is what the citizens wanted. The Democrats passed a bill that by-passed that and now they can raise taxes with a simple majority. The Democrats did not have enough to pass taxes with a super majority, but with this new bill they do.

So, now we have a 9 1/2 cent gas tax. But gas station owners cannot raise the price by 1/2 cent, so in reality it will be a ten cent increase in taxes on our already high gas prices.

They also passed a "sin" tax that will cover tobacco, alcohol, and even canned meats. WHAT??? It is a sin to eat meat from a can?

Rather than finding a way to balance the budget without tax increases, they choose to again raise the taxes. That is the answer for Washington. Raise, raise, raise.

A couple radio show host from 570 KVI are talking about a new website, http://www.nonewgastax.com/home.htm, that is going to attempt to get a citizen initiative to repeal the gas tax. A few years ago there was a proposed 9 cent increase. The people said NO. The government then raised it by 5 cents anyway. Now they want 9 1/2 cents more.

I love living here, but there is so many things that can be done to make this situation Washington with the continued taxation better.

Writer's subject covers his death

While reading through the Urban Legends Website I came across one about a person who wrote about not wearing seatbelts, and then dying in a car accident because he was not wearing a seatbelt.

Derek Kieper, 21

I looked into it a little bit more. His name was Derek Kieper, 21. He was a junior at University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He has a Four-Point-Oh grade point average. He had five majors: Economics, history, sociology, psychology, and political science. He wrote for the school newspaper, the Daily Nebraskan. He was right of center on political issues and sounds like pretty outspoken on campus.

On September Seventeenth of ought-four he published an opinion piece titled "Individual rights buckle under seat belt laws"

In the opinion piece he wrote, in part: (The full text can be found at The Daily Nebraskan)
I'm from the school of thought where everyone should have the right to do as they please as long as they are not infringing on the rights of other people. This comes from the political philosophy that inspired our founders and freedoms.

The duty of government is nothing more than to make sure everyone's rights are protected and not infringed upon. Uncle Sam is not here to regulate every facet of life no matter the consequences.

No law, or set of laws, has made the government more intrusive and ridiculous than seat belt legislation. Nothing is a bigger affront to the ideas of freedom, liberty, yada, yada, yada. Whether you are a pinko liberal or a right-wing whack job, there are plenty of reasons for just saying to hell with seat belt laws.

As laws become increasingly strict for seat belts, fewer people will respond positively by buckling up in response to the laws. There seems to be a die-hard group of non-wearers out there who simply do not wish to buckle up no matter what the government does. I belong to this group.

What frightens me more about safety belt laws is the intrusion they represent to Americans. Democrats should take notice. Choice is an important aspect of freedom - choice to do as I see fit with my body and being.

Yet, the government has decided that I do not have the choice to drive around without my seat belt. And if I want to be the jerk that flirts with death and rides around with my seat belt off, I should be able to do that, too.

He included stuff about the tax money that was being used make this law happen, and stuff about states' rights. I mainly focused on his personal choice issues as written. I know it is good to wear a seat belt and that it will save lives. Many of the deaths due to lack of seatbelts come from bodies hitting the windshield and others come from being partially ejected and then the car lands on top of you. Some others come from being thrown free and sailing head first into a rock or a tree or a telephone poll or another car or something else.

I usually wear a seatbelt. The only time I leave it off is when I go from the store to my house on the backroad where I am the only one driving. But, the point is should the government FORCE people to wear seatbelts. As Aaron, my old neighbor said, "what if that my way of seeking thrills? Some people bungee jump, I don't wear a seatbelt." It is not the job of the government to save people from themselves. That was never a function of government, nor should it be.

So, I agree with Derek that it should be personal freedom to wear or not to wear. I choose to wear. He chooses not to wear.

On January fourth of ought-five Derek was riding in a Ford Explorer with two friends. They were buckled up, he wasn't.

It was about Three o'clock am when the Ford Explorer hit a spot of ice, skidded off Interstate Eighty just outside of Lincoln and rolled several times, throwing Derek out of the car. The other people in the car lived.

Pretty interesting.

Murder victim's 911 call was a prank?

So there is a story about a man names David Steeves. He was nineteen years old. He was in the trunk of his mom's car when he called Nine-One-One in Elgin, Ill. They asked him where he was but he said he did not know he was in the trunk of a car. He at one point said "Oh my God, you gotta please help me. Please help me. Oh my God, Please help me. God." He knew he was on South Street. The police spent about ten minutes and the chalked this up as a prank call.

About six days later he had not been seen until they found him shot to death in the trunk of his mom's car.

Sounds like a horrible and sad ending to such a young life. Then you learn more about it. He was in a drug deal and the dealers decided to throw him in the trunk, rob him, and kill him.

Another case of criminal on criminal crime. Those kind of crimes that makes me just think to myself that maybe if he wasn't doing drugs he would not be dead right now. It is the kind of thing that makes you shrug your shoulders and move on with life.

Now, that the deed has been done, I hope that the murders get the death penalty. That would take care of three criminals. One has been taken care of, and the rope will take care of the other ones.

I seem like I don't care about criminals, huh? Well, you're right. Like Charlie Daniels said "Take a big tall tree and a short piece of rope. Hang 'em up high and let 'em swing 'till the sun goes down."