July 2003, Week 5

Monday  July 28 , 2003

I don't feel old. I don't feel anything till noon.

That's when it's time for my nap.

Bob Hope 1903 - 2003

Christy met this guy and his wife at the "Camp Meeting" she just attended.

DESMOND DOSS, you can read the story here...

Christy is teaching for the next 4 days... it will only be a problem on Thursday when I have to go in for another pulmonary test in Panorama City.

Christian and "B" and Cindy had a hard morning, it's noon now and they appear to be getting along OK for the moment. I am going to take my bike out for a spin as soon as Christy gets home, I haven't been able to ride since she left. "B" needs to be on a short leash and there was no way to do that and ride.

It's 2000 and I still haven't gotten my ride in... exasperating...

"B" is really looking for trouble... He is picking fights with everyone... including Christy and I.

Tuesday  July 29 , 2003

I have always wished that my computer would be as easy to use as my telephone. My wish has come true. I no longer know how to use my telephone.

I worked at the PC most of the morning, we were having power outages in the afternoon because of thunder storms in the area... just rained a little up here today though... The storm took out my ISP up in Palmdale so I have been offline for a few hours now...

I got to ride my bike a bit today, I went to Riders Choice and ordered some saddle bags for my bike, I will need them to carry stuff up to Portland in three weeks... I could see the storm off to the east so I high-tailed it back here. Sometimes in the summer, when it's real hot in the desert it will draw moisture from the coast and thunderstorms will develop, if there is no moisture we get lightning and it starts fires all over the place, that's what happened up near Sequoia National Park a few years back, there were so many fires up there they couldn't fight them all, plus they were afraid the storms would start fires that would trap the firefighters.

I listened to a fella on NPR talking about how the CIA overthrew the Iranian Government back in the 50's (normally I would go to the Net an pull up NPR and search on "CIA Iran" and listen to that segment again but the ISP is still down, it's 2100 and it went down at about 1600... )

I bought my annual bottle of Southern Comfort last week, I opened it tonight and poured myself a double on the rocks... tastes so good... that's why I can only have one bottle a year, the last one I bought back last November, I had a bad sore throat and cough, why sip Robitussin when you can accomplish the same thing with something that tastes good, the bottle lasted me almost a week and a half. When I got out of the Navy I had a real problem with alcohol, it took me a bout three years to realize I was going overboard, I really was a stupid drunk... I though I was a real cut up but I was just a jerk. I still have a beer or two occasionally, and I do like a taste of wine periodically... the news says a little wine is good for the circulation, they don't tell you Welsh's Grape Juice will accomplish the same thing... I can keep a bottle of Merlot in the house because the kids haven't developed a taste for it yet but Welsh's won't last an hour.

Wednesday  July 30 , 2003

Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one getting burned.

Buddha (c. 566-480 BCE)

Logistics again, I had to have Mike and "B" to Kaiser for therapy at 1200. That means that I had to pick up Mike at school and it also means that I had to take Cindy with me, I left Christian, Calie, & Monica 13,11&10 home.... I left early to get the mail and I stopped and got Autumn a Hamburger Happy-Meal. I got "B" in to see BJ and left Mike in the waiting room (his choice) and took Cindy and Autumn to Sizzler for lunch (Autumn ate another meal, chicken this time)..."B" came when he was done with BJ. I picked up Mike and took him and "B" to JITB I got Autumn some more fries... When I left home I told the kids I left behind that the only rule was that they had to stay out of the pool, when I got home they were all in the pool...

Christy was preparing to go to Church for a business meeting and I got mad at Christian... he had thrown two pillows in the pool, he was splashing water out of the pool, he was dunking Calie and Monica (strictly against the rules) and when I told him to stop he said, we're just playing, I said "You are playing the girls aren't." He cussed at me and I told him to get out of the pool... (I had forgotten to give him his afternoon Ritalin ) I told him to wait on the porch while I got his medicine and he started to give me some lip again... Christian is the smartest kid in the house and at times the most defiant... I told Christy to "Take the little ***** with her." She tried and he flatly refused, She got mad and said ... well one thing led to another and said she was too upset to go to church. I finally talked her into going and Christian went with her, by this time the Ritalin was starting to work and you could talk to him without him getting insolent.

Read a new word "oleaginous" as in someone who, if you can imagine it, like Eddie Haskell grown up to be a Dick Chaney:

unpleasantly and excessively suave or ingratiating in manner or speech; "buttery praise"; "gave him a fulsome introduction"; "an oily sycophantic press agent"; "oleaginous hypocrisy"; "smarmy self-importance"; "the unctuous Uriah Heep"

A fun word, wish I could work it into a sentence...

Thursday  July 31 , 2003

Say oh wise man how you have come to such knowledge?

Because I was never ashamed to confess my ignorance and ask others.

"While we hoped that popular revolt would topple Saddam, we did not wish to see the breakup of the Iraqi state. Extending the war into Iraq would have incurred incalculable human and political costs. We would have been forced to occupy Baghdad and, in effect, rule Iraq. The coalition would instantly have collapsed, the Arabs deserting in anger and other allies pulling out as well. Unilaterally exceeding the U.N.'s mandate would have destroyed the precedent of international response to aggression we hoped to establish. Had we gone the invasion route, the U.S. could still be an occupying power in a bitterly hostile land."-- From "Why We Didn't Remove Saddam" by George Bush and Brent Scowcroft, Time Magazine, March 2, 1998, page 31

I was supposed to go in to Kaiser at Panorama City to get another more comprehensive Pulmonary test but I was up from 0300 being sick it was like having Whooping Cough... really awful... I spent the day trying not to cough or sneeze because my stomach muscles felt like I had been hit by a baseball bat

AUGUST

This is ripped off from the MEDIA WHORES site:

Note: This was written before September 11th, so don't
            write to explain that Barbara Olson is dead, OK?

 The Myth of the "liberal" media

 Let's do a "what if" so I can make a point. I think it's a good one.
 I think it's so good, I'd like to hear from anyone who disagrees.

 What if a show like Dateline did a "hatchet job" on George W. Bush?
 It wouldn't have to really be a hatchet job, but any honest appraisal of that idiot's
 qualifications would prove he's a non-thinking rich man's boy - and that's all.
 But what would happen if Dateline did an unflattering portrait of Bush?

 I'll tell you what would happen:

 Rush The vulgar Pigboy Limbaugh would spend at least three hours saying it wasn't true
 and he'd offer hours of rebuttal as to why Dateline was lying.

 Bill O'Reilly would spend at least an hour on his show saying
 it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Dateline was lying.

 Sean Hannity would walk all over Alan Colmes for an hour that night,
 saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Dateline was lying.

 Eva Von Zahn  would spend at least an hour that night saying it wasn't true
 and she'd offer rebuttal as to why Dateline was lying.

 The Beltway Boys would spend at least an hour that night saying it
 wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Dateline was lying.

 Brit Hume and Tony Snow would spend at least an hour on Sunday
 saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Dateline was lying.

 Juan Williams and Mara Liason would spend their entire allotted time
 saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Dateline was lying.

 John McLaughlin would spend at least an hour on his syndicated show
 saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Dateline was lying.

 Chris the Screamer Mathews would spend at least an hour on his show
 saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Dateline was lying.

 G. Gordon Liddy would spend at least three hours on his radio show
 saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Dateline was lying.

 Laura the Whore would spend at least an hour on her radio show
 saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Dateline was lying.

 Michael Medved would spend at least an hour on his radio show
 saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Dateline was lying.

 Sam and Cokie would spend at least an hour on This Whore
 saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Dateline was lying.

 George (Judas Maximus) Steffi and George (dumb as a chimp) Will
 would spend their entire allotted time swearing that it wasn't true.

 Bob Scheiffer would spend at least an hour on Face the Whore
 saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Dateline was lying.

 Tim the Catholic would spend at least an hour on Meet the Whore
 saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Dateline was lying.

 John Hockenberry would spend at least an hour on his show
 saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Dateline was lying.

 Ollie North would spend at least an hour on his radio show
 saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Dateline was lying.

 Robert Novak would spend at least an hour on his cable TV show
 saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Dateline was lying.

 Paul Weyrich would spend at least an hour on his cable TV show
 saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Dateline was lying.

 Still with me? We're close to the end...

 BSNBC's Brian Williams would spend at least an hour on his show
 saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Dateline was lying.

 Wolf the Whore would spend at least an hour on his show saying
  it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Dateline was lying.

 Bill Schneider and Candy Crowley would do an hour special on CCN
 (Clinton Cock Network) saying it wasn't true, and offering rebuttal.

 John Stossel would have a special on ABC:  Is lying OK for liberals?

 Then Howie Kurtz would spend 30 minutes on Reliable Sources asking
 if the media wasn't being too hard on a developmentally-disabled child.

 Barbara Olson would write a book condemning Dateline.
 Ann Coulter would write a book condemning Dateline.
 Laura Ingraham would write a book condemning Dateline.
 Peggy Noonan would write a book condemning Dateline.
 Andrew Sullivan would write a book condemning Dateline.
 William Safire would write a book condemning Dateline.

 OK, we're going to call the above "Exhibit A."

 Now, everyone on that list has done at least a dozen hit pieces on Clinton.

 My question is,   Where is "Exhibit B?"

 When those 38 people attack Clinton and his cock, who does the rebuttal?

 Even you ditto-sheep have to admit that nobody on that list
 has EVER defended a fabricated lie against the president.

 There is no "Exhibit B," because there are so few liberal voices on television.
 The closest you can get is Eleanor on McLaughlin or Geraldo, but there is barely
 a liberal whisper on television, even though there are DOZENS of right-wing,
 Smirk-apologist shows whose livelihood is lying about liberals.

 I don't think you ditto-heads can offer an answer.

  (Note: Clicking this button will send an e-mail to BartCop)

 Prove me wrong.

 For more BartCop rants, visit  bartcop.com

Conscientious objector

 When he knelt to pray that first night in the Army, they showered Desmond Doss with jeers and catcalls. When he quietly but firmly refused to pick up a rifle, they called him a coward. When Harry Truman decorated him with the Medal of Honor, they called Desmond Doss the unlikeliest hero.

 Although officially classified a conscientious objector, Doss saw himself as a conscientious cooperator, a proud noncombatant. Deeply religious and deeply patriotic, he declined the deferment offered him as shipyard worker in 1942 just as firmly as he refused to learn to shoot a rifle. A Seventh-day Adventist who daily read his Bible and said his prayers, Doss came to war to save lives, not to take them. He endured the harassment, fought attempts to discharge him as being unfit for service and trained to be a medic.

 Assigned to the 77^th Infantry Division and shipped to the Pacific, Doss served on Guam, Leyte and, finally, Okinawa. In the process, the tall, thin Virginian became the very symbol of courage and service to those who once jeered him.

 In May, 1945, the 1^st Battalion of the 307^th Infantry Regiment was ordered to scale the 50-foot Maeda escarpment on the southern end of Okinawa. A barrage of Japanese mortar and rifle fire met the Americans and the battalion was forced off the escarpment, leaving behind 75 wounded comrades and Desmond Doss. Working slowly and doggedly under continuous enemy fire, Doss dragged each man to the edge of the cliff, tied him in a rope sling and lowered him to safety. One by one, he rescued them all.

 Two weeks later, in another bitter fight, Doss rescued his badly wounded company commander. “He saved my life,” says Jack Glover. “The man I tried to have kicked out of the Army ended up being the most courageous person I’ve ever known. How’s that for irony?” 

Not long afterward, Doss was seriously wounded in the legs trying to shield three other men from a Japanese grenade. Six hours later, a party of stretcher bearers found him and began carrying him off the field. Doss spotted another American hurt worse than he was and insisted that they put him down and take the other man. As he crawled toward safety Doss was shot wounded again by a sniper.

 On the way out to a hospital ship offshore, Doss discovered that he had lost the Bible his wife Dorothy had given him. He sent word asking if the men could keep an eye out for it. The word passed from man to man, and an entire battalion combed the battlefield until Doss’s Bible was found. A sergeant carefully dried it out and mailed it to Doss.

On Oct. 12, 1945, Desmond Doss received the Medal of Honor (Citation) from President Truman. He would spend a total of six years in hospitals as a consequence of his wounds and a bout with tuberculosis. Today, almost totally deaf, Doss lives with his wife in the mountain community of Rising Fawn, GA, where he serves his church with all the quiet determination he once put at the service of his country.

 “I don’t think there is anyone who appreciates peace more than I do,” Doss once told an interviewer. “I am sad for the true heroes who paid the supreme price for our freedoms.”

Doss, Desmond T. Medal of Honor Citation

DOSS, DESMOND T.

Rank and organization: Private First Class, U.S. Army, Medical Detachment, 307th Infantry, 77th Infantry Division. Place and date: Near Urasoe Mura, Okinawa, Ryukyu Islands, 29 April-21 May 1945. Entered service at: Lynchburg, Va. Birth: Lynchburg,

Va. G.O. No.: 97, 1 November 1945. Citation: He was a company aid man when the 1st Battalion assaulted a jagged escarpment 400 feet high As our troops gained the summit, a heavy concentration of artillery, mortar and machinegun fire crashed into them, inflicting approximately 75 casualties and driving the others back. Pfc. Doss refused to seek cover and remained in the fire-swept area with the many stricken, carrying them 1 by 1 to the edge of the escarpment and there lowering them on a rope-supported litter down the face of a cliff to friendly hands. On 2 May, he exposed himself to heavy rifle and mortar fire in rescuing a wounded man 200 yards forward of the lines on the same escarpment; and 2 days later he treated 4 men who had been cut down while assaulting a strongly defended cave, advancing through a shower of grenades to within 8 yards of enemy forces in a cave's mouth, where he dressed his comrades' wounds before making 4 separate trips under fire to evacuate them to safety. On 5 May, he unhesitatingly braved enemy shelling and small arms fire to assist an artillery officer. He applied bandages, moved his patient to a spot that offered protection from small arms fire and, while artillery and mortar shells fell close by, painstakingly administered plasma. Later that day, when an American was severely wounded by fire from a cave, Pfc. Doss crawled to him where he had fallen 25 feet from the enemy position, rendered aid, and carried him 100 yards to safety while continually exposed to enemy fire. On 21 May, in a night attack on high ground near Shuri, he remained in exposed territory while the rest of his company took cover, fearlessly risking the chance that he would be mistaken for an infiltrating Japanese and giving aid to the injured until he was himself seriously wounded in the legs by the explosion of a grenade. Rather than call another aid man from cover, he cared for his own injuries and waited 5 hours before litter bearers reached him and started carrying him to cover. The trio was caught in an enemy tank attack and Pfc. Doss, seeing a more critically wounded man nearby, crawled off the litter; and directed the bearers to give their first attention to the other man. Awaiting the litter bearers' return, he was again struck, this time suffering a compound fracture of 1 arm. With magnificent fortitude he bound a rifle stock to his shattered arm as a splint and then crawled 300 yards over rough terrain to the aid station. Through his outstanding bravery and unflinching determination in the face of desperately dangerous conditions Pfc. Doss saved the lives of many soldiers. His name became a symbol throughout the 77th Infantry Division for outstanding gallantry far above and beyond the call of duty.