Attacking Syria? Why?

So apparently I have been asleep at the switch for the last couple of years. Imagine my surprise when I finally found out just how dangerous Syria is to the US. I could never have imagined how a country so far away from us could be such a threat to our national sovereignty. I'm guessing that they are massing off the east coast, getting ready to invade? No? Then why are we bothering to get involved in their civil war? Why are we siding with Al-Qaida? I thought they were the bad guys. Oh ,I get it ,they are only the bad guys when it's convenient!

By the way, a thought kind of occurred to me, where is the actual proof of chemical attack by the Assad regime? Yes, we have pictures of bodies, but we don't know who did it. We have rebels ,who are trying to overthrow him, make the claim that he has done this but no actual proof that he is the one responsible. Now I understand that they have a panicked cell phone call from a commander demanding to know who did the attacking but still we have nothing but assumptions. It might have been the rebels trying to force our hand. It may be nothing more than a big set up. I am not saying that the man is some sort of saint but it seems to me that if you are going to risk starting WW3 you ought to have a bit more then he said, she said, going on.

It also seems to me that we are being just a bit on the arrogant side as well. Our leaders seem to be under some delusion that if we strike them that they, and their allies, won't strike back at us and our allies. Syria along with Iran, Iraq and I believe Lebanon, have already stated that they will attack Israel if we strike Syria. Russia and China, who are staunch supporters of the Syrian government are warning of dire consequences if we do this. I am not suggesting that we back down from any one but I am saying we don't need to get involved in another war there or anywhere else for that matter and this may get very ugly and out of control very quickly.

It's amazing to me that an administration that was so hard on Bush and his administrations lack of real proof on chemical weapons in Iraq is so eager to jump all over this. Saddam Hussein had used chemical weapons on his own people and the Iranians during their long war and the proof was out there but we did nothing about it until he threatened the middle east oil supply. What makes this attack so much different? Is it because Assad isn't an ally?

It's also amazing to me just how quiet the American public is. I remember hundreds of thousands of protesters marching and protesting in the US and around the world. I remember seeing pictures of Bush and Cheney with Hitler mustaches and slogans that went something to the effect, they lie and people die. Where are the protesters? Where is code pink? We have the potential of entering into one of the nastiest wars since Vietnam and I hear nothing but crickets.

Well ,I have spoken my piece ,and while I am saddened by the deaths of the Syrian people, I have an extreme hatred of war, I don't think it's our place to police the entire world and I believe that this one has the possibility of biting us back.

Peace Out.

No More

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This Is What America Could Be

“What we have here , in this neighborhood, is what America could be. Those words were said to me almost 30 years ago by an elderly black man in Detroit while he and I drank a beer on his front porch, talked and watched the neighbors pass by. I was there for a room mates wedding, as his best man, and this was the first time, away from a military base, that I witnessed such a diverse group of families all living near each other. He pointed to the house across the street and said to me; there lives an elderly woman ,that at the time of her moving here, had never met anyone who was black because the whole area was white. But as things changed she went with the flow and was now a good friend to him and his family. He then proceeded to point out various houses and people and tell me how all of them, ethnically speaking, were different and yet all of them had adjusted and everyone looked out for each other. He then repeated what he had said earlier about how all of America could be this way if we all chose it to be like this. This was a man old enough to have had grand parents that were slaves and yet he didn't focus on that instead he looked for the good.

This past weekend ,during an annual gathering in the north country, I was reminded of the truth of that once again. As I said in an earlier post I have a very diverse group of friends. For many of them, it goes way beyond friendship to being family.

Between rain drops and down pours, high winds and cold, we managed to have a couple of bon fires, lots of food and beverage. Some of the kids were even crazy enough to get into the water even though the air temperature was about 60-65. We had a good time.

But it's really the people involved that made this a good time.

This group consisted of black, white and Hispanic. We are a group from three states and two countries. We are a group of people who are liberal, conservative and libertarian. We have folks that are Christian, others that are close to being atheists, and some of us who practice Reform Judaism. We are a group who has everything from small children to elderly and handicapped. We are from Brooklyn, From the coast of Maine, Vermont and Ontario. We discussed everything from politics to religion and conspiracy theories. We laughed ,we joked, and we remembered days and times gone by. We talked about issues that the politically correct would say we couldn't and yet there was no anger no finger pointing or accusations, why? Because what we have is love and respect.

It's not that we agree on everything,we don't by any stretch, but we don't spend our time arguing over it we instead listen to each others perspective and views and generally speak to each other in a civilized manner. Notice I didn't suggest we don't do a bit of teasing and having some fun with it but we don't do it in a bitter and angry sort of way.

That is part of my reason for not understanding some of the so called “leaders” out there on either sides of the aisle, who scream and rant and rage, particularly when it comes to race. I am never quite sure what it is they hope to accomplish by making racially loaded comments. I could sit here and name names, but most of you already know the people I am talking about. So why is it then, if the average American can have friends and family that are from all races and walks of life, that people like these “leaders” are even listened to any more? They don't seem to understand that the real problem is the breakdown of the family and this is an issue facing all communities whether it's in the inner cities or in rural towns. This is not an issue that is just facing one race, it's affecting all races. This progressive idea of marginalizing men as being an unimportant part of the family structure has led to fathers skipping out on their responsibilities. At one time being a teen age mom would have been a scandal, now they make reality shows out of it and pay these girls to keep at it. Parents are not taking the responsibility for their kids and disciplining them when they need it, instead listening to those other so called experts who suggest that disciplining your children will do them more harm then good and then wondering why their kids are doing just about anything they wish and they are making the parents afraid. To make it worse we have Hollywood glorifying all of it.

You want to end all of this? Quit talking and start acting. Teach your children responsibility for their own actions and respect for others. Teach them love and not hate. They are your children if you don't stand up and do it who will? The government isn't going to do it and Holly wood glorifies all that is wrong so it all rests on you and me.

My children don't hate and neither do the children of my friends. We have all taught our children love and respect for others and themselves and we demonstrate that when we all get together. It can happen if you try and,as the elderly gentleman said to me all those years ago, this is what America could be.

The Story Of Uncle Iggy

This is a story about uncle Iggy. This is also a true and scary story of how uncle Iggy became a zombie. This is also a story on how uncle Iggy got away from being a zombie only to be attacked from a different direction by those who made him a zombie in the first place. So fill up your coffee mug get comfortable make sure you have your teddy bear and a warm blankie to keep you safe and I will present to you a modern day medical horror story.

A brief note: To the government agencies who are likely spying : Greetings! To the rest of you who are reading this I am not even beginning to tell you to stop taking meds or to ignore your doctor. I am giving you the story of uncle Iggy's decisions. Secondly while I may sound a bit tough on the doctors, the problem is not so much them, it's the fact that there are too few to go around and so they have to do things much quicker than they might actually like, having said that there is still no reason to be rude to a patient. End of Note.

Chapter One: In the beginning.......Isn't that a lovely way to start a story? Sounds almost biblical.....

There was a quiet humble man named Iggy, OK that’s not quite true because Iggy is a Marine and there is nothing humble about a Marine in full plumage. Iggy is a family man with a wonderful wife,gorgeous, intelligent, ( yes she is reading this) and crazy enough to put up with uncle Iggy. He has three children, one who is grown and gone and two at home that fearfully remember the days of him being a zombie. Some clarification, his wife was working in those days so the two youngest ate a lot of tuna and mac, NOT because he tried to eat them ,or anything quite that weird. They all lived happily ever after.....oops getting ahead of myself.....they all lived in Vermont just before the turn of the century,( I have always wanted to write that phrase), and all was well until Iggy got the bright idea to go back into the Marines. In all fairness that was prompted by a sudden lack of employment and a certain need to eat and see to it that the family had clothes and what not because ,as liberal as Vermont is, they still don't let you wander around naked, though if you do it in the winter they might just let it go just for the entertainment factor. So at the advanced age of mid thirties Iggy put on his nations uniform once again and took his family off to a new adventure in foreign lands such as California and North Carolina and all was well for a while.

Chapter Two: The attacks of 9/1/1

Leaving all humor for the moment, the attacks literally and figuratively rocked the world. Uncle Iggy's work load, as a platoon Sgt., tripled and as a result he became very sick, spent quite a bit of time in the hospital, and started the first of many medications. Things were not good. The government made sure that he was just well enough to send off to war and, just to make sure that he was really well protected, gave him various vaccinations, none of which had been actually approved by the FDA, and some of which he had had as a child, and sent him off to play in the biggest kitty litter box in the world. Spring break 2003 was about to start! They failed to mention that the “vaccinations” had side effects and possible complications. Uncle Iggy was not aware of any of this at the time he just knew that he hadn’t felt well since they had given them to him but being a good new zombie he didn't question it until several years later.

Chapter Three: War is hell but drugs are great!

Uncle Iggy, as you can Imagine, came back from war a very different man. Setting aside injuries and illness, he had to spend his time remembering all that he had seen and experienced and deal with a population of people who treated him like he was from Mars. In all fairness those who really mattered still treated him well, but having returned back to Vermont it really wasn't in his best interest to tell anyone that he had gone to war because the good and peaceful anti war demonstrators had already demonstrated just how much they loved military people by attacking national guard troops in uniform and ripping up flags. He didn't sleep much because of the rather intense nightmares and there really being no one that he could talk to that would understand. So uncle Iggy, as many veterans do, checked into the VA healthcare system and the zombification started in earnest. After going through a battery of physical and mental exams it was determined that what he needed was lots of drugs and that would take him to happy land where there were rainbows and unicorns. I know this to be a real place because the gummy bears told me so. Iggy, being rather tired and in pain, also being curious about unicorns and talking gummy bears,complied.

He had so many medications going at the same time that to this day he can't remember them all. He had meds for pain, for arthritis, to help him sleep, for stress, (there were several of those) and for various side effects that came along with the all drugs. It was total Zombie time. Uncle Iggy doesn't really remember a lot about went on at that time because he was so highly medicated but he did manage to pack on 50 lbs and his children got to learn about various combos of mac and tuna. His wife will tell you that his days were basically simple; He would get up have some coffee take his meds and by 10 am would be sound asleep on the couch. He would wake up just before she had to go to work and kind of muddle through the rest of the afternoon and almost be human just about the time to take another dose and go to bed. Now granted he wasn't a true zombie in that he didn't go out and eat brains, he didn't even know where his own were never mind having the ambition to go looking for any others, but his life was just about as close as you could come to it with out Will Smith showing up at the door to try and cure him.

Chapter Four: The wife intervenes and there is less zombie.

Uncle Iggys' children were finally saved by their mother. She somehow got through to that muddled, zombified mind that the children needed to eat something more than tuna and mac and that he needed to get off the meds and try something different. He listened. Out went the drugs, in came herbs and other more holistic remedies, and the zombification process stopped. I would love to tell you that the nightmares had all gone away along with the pain and illnesses, but life is rarely that kind to people, and so you have to make a serious choice, either live with what your dealt or live as a zombie, granted the zombie world did have unicorns and rainbows, but instead he chose to deal with it. Unknown to Uncle Iggy or his wife was that the next wave of zombification was about to begin

Chapter Five: The disease zombification.

Fast forward a few years and we find uncle Iggy getting better. He still has his aches and pains and still has to deal with the nightmares, though less frequently, and from time to time his magical mystery disease lays him out for a bit but over all he is doing better. He has tried to stay away from the VA as much as possible, opting instead for local witch doctors if at all possible while still going to the VA whenever absolutely needed. I am guessing that they don't really like that when you do this and that they must keep track of your absence because, in the words of uncle Iggy, “ when you do go to see them they seem to go out of their collective way to find something wrong with you, beyond what is already there.” The proof? New diseases coming out of literally no where. About 2 years ago uncle Iggy went in for his annual visit to the VA, it used to be every few months then six months and now it's usually about a year, got to love that government health care ( you knew I was going to say that somewhere) and in the course of things they did blood work on him. This was not a “fasting” batch of blood work, no this was right after a meal and after a rather interesting weekend of bonfires, food and beverage. Yet when it was done, even after he had told them of his maniacal weekend, they still listed it as fasting. Amazingly enough the blood sugar level was normal but they decided that there was something troubling about the liver enzymes and suggested that perhaps there was some kind of liver disease going on and that they needed to do more tests. Panic ensued ,the unicorns ran away and the rainbows faded. This is where the new attempt at zombification began.

Chapter Six: What the bleep is going on?

So now uncle Iggy is concerned. Who wouldn't be? You can't live with out your liver and so ,as you can imagine, he worried. For several weeks he got to sit and stew over what might be wrong and his views of worse case scenarios made the movie 2012 look like a quiet stroll on a Sunday afternoon. Finally the time for the new round of testing arrives, an MRI, but before they can begin he has to have his blood pressure taken and more blood work. His blood pressure is through the roof so much so that they decide that the one med he is taking for “hypertension” is not enough and he needs to take another one along with it. Uncle Iggy is damn near in panic mode at this point because he is watching his body fall apart. If you had told him that his ears were going to fall off next he wouldn't have been surprised.

They ran the next set of tests on the liver and send him home and when the new med arrived, for the blood pressure, he eagerly took it thinking that the doc prescribed it and so therefore it must be necessary. Please keep in mind, dear reader, that uncle Iggy has no desire to die and wants to live to see his great ,great grandchildren so with that in mind he started taking the medication. It was a mistake but he didn't figure that out until just recently. Going back to the liver issue for just a moment, it turned out that uncle Iggy has a much larger liver than the average person and that it was perfectly fine, the enzymes were nothing more than a result of it's unusual size.

Chapter Seven: Another attempt.

Uncle Iggy was in trouble. Unbeknownst to him the newest zombie attack attempt had already started but he didn't see the warning signs. I suppose his first clue should have been the severe urge to wander around aimlessly and eat people brains but he seemed to miss that part and the part that showed he was gaining a lot of weight back that he had previously lost. Enter another blood test. This time it was for a arthritis clinic so there was no fasting needed however they treated it as such and out of no where suddenly uncle Iggy was now a diabetic because the blood glucose reading was high. Now just imagine if Uncle Iggy had a wife who was any less beautiful and intelligent, yes she is reading this, and who didn't have a memory that a computer would envy. He had forgotten the fact that they had eaten lunch just before that set of tests and might have been suckered in completely. As it was he was concerned enough so that when the new med came to try to lower the blood sugar he took it. It caused him severe headaches. That’s when his beautiful, intelligent wife remembered that they had eaten before the test so rather then going back to the VA for a med for the headaches he stopped taking the med and went herbal again. Meanwhile the weight gain was continuing.

Chapter Eight. It's all my fault?

Uncle Iggy wound up moving to another state and had to go to a new VA and was assigned a new doctor. O gentle reader please understand this is an example of government run health care at it's finest, while they may share information they don't actually READ the information. So rather then ask Iggy what had changed that might be the cause of the a fore mentioned weight gain, or checking to see if perhaps the medication might be having an adverse reaction, he immediately decided that Uncle Iggy must be sucking down copious amounts of Twinkies and Mountain Dew, which admittedly has it's appeal, though Uncle Iggy is more of an ice cream kind of guy, but if he had been doing that he would have literally been seeing the rainbows and unicorns mentioned earlier from a caffeine and sugar overdose. And so the doctor proceeded to chew Iggy out for gaining weight and suggested that if he wanted to get off of meds that he needed to change his ways and he wanted more blood work to be done to prove that uncle Iggy was indeed diabetic. He also upped the dosage in the newest med. So basically without checking all factors the doctor assumed and suggested that all the gain was nothing more than his fault. Upon leaving Uncle Iggy was furious. It not good to tick off uncle Iggy not to mention his wife.

Chapter Nine: Vindication

Upon arriving at their illustrious mansion uncle Iggy and his intelligent ( did I mention she is beautiful as well?) wife started to research the meds that he was on and low and behold they can cause weight gain and cause a rise in your blood sugar levels! Even better, when mixed with the diabetic medicine they wanted to give to him, it would cause all sorts of other adverse effects such as massive headaches! Now to me this is an amazing thing that two low educated people who are not being paid to research these things can find this information in short order, while the paid professionals can't or won't. So uncle Iggy stopped taking that medication as well and not only has he lost some of the weight that he had gained, it's only been a few weeks after all,the lab results came back and showed that there was nothing wrong with the blood sugar levels or enzymes or anything else of a blood work type nature. Vindication.

There is a moral behind this story, and it is rather simple: question everything. Don't assume that because you are dealing with a doctor, especially one being paid by the government, that they have your best interest in mind or that they know everything. Many of them do, many of them are good and honest people but it seems that the VA ( government run) has a highly disproportionate amount of doctors that treat you like you are nothing but a number and just try to hurry you through so they can get to the next patient. Second thing though, especially if your a doctor, make sure your patient doesn't write blogs, especially if you intend to insult them or belittle them in any way with out checking all the facts, because we will tell and loudly.