What would you do ?

Now we get to the audience participation part of the blog..

1.  Think about the following question and give me your answer and why in the comments.
2.  Forward a link to this blog to people you know.  I'd like to get as much input from as many different people as possible on this.

Okay here's the deal.  This is the choice I face.  I just wonder what you guys, people who's opinion I respect, would do in my situation.  What exactly is my situation you ask ?

I have Multiple Myeloma, which recently claimed Gerraldine Ferraro, there is no cure, only life prolonging treatment.

I just finished a year of chemo, Velcade and Cytoxan, and at this point the doctors tell me they've "knocked it down".  I'm not "in remission" as there is now such thing with multiple myeloma.  So I will NOT need a bone marrow/stem cell transplant now.  I will eventually.  The disease will come back and I'll have to go on full blown chemo, until that doesn't work.  Then it's a Autologous HSCT.

The choice that I (and in this poll, you) face is this.

No Chemo: Your Quality of Life will improve as chemo won't be kicking your ass every other month, you'll still be tired and weak from the disease.  You'll get monthly blood tests and the disease will (generally) return quicker than if you had gone on maintenance chemo, and you will most likely have to go on full blown chemo sooner. 

Maintenance Chemo:  That's four weeks on, four weeks off.  Quality of Life won't be a nice as No Chemo as every other month it will be back to the suck.  The upside is that you'll generally keep the disease "down" longer.  Meaning it will be "later" before you have to go on full blown chemo again.

That's it.  Either way you'll end up on full blown chemo, until that doesn't work, then it's a stem cell transplant.

It's the choice I have to make.      I have to make my decision 11 April.  I'll let you know what I've decided then.  In the meantime,  I'd like to hear what you would do and why.

Earth Hour

Since I don't have the funds to buy a Ford V-20 GaiaHumper , I'll have to settle for celebrating  Eurf Hour in one of the ways suggested by the fine folks of APS.

I'm also open to other ideas that you can put in the comments !!!

Why What Happened in Japan is an Endorsement of Nuclear Power

The death toll from the Earthquake and Tsumani in Japan is currently estimated to be approximately 10,000 with at least another 10,000 missing.  There are nearly 500,000 homeless, some living out of doors, unsheltered.  Getting food, medicines, clothes and other needed supplies is a major hurdle and causing more people to die every day.

Yet what has all the media attention been  focused on?  The nuclear plant, that has only claimed 31 lives with 134 receiving significant doses of radiation, and a few hundred people maybe 1,000 at most will die from radiation causes.

Compare those numbers:
20,000+ dead and missing  vs 31 dead with maybe 1,000 more later
500,000 homeless, suffering and dying.

And where's the focus again ?

The Enemy Of My Enemy.....

is my friend.

I haven't posted simply because 1) I've been tire shopping (more on *that* later) and 2) I can't believe what is/has transpired in and around Libya.

And because it's personal between Quadafi and me.  The fucker almost killed me. (1)

So yeah, given the chance, I'd make the bastard take a dirt nap, if it was the last thing I ever did.

But the way we're going about doing it, it's the "Uphill Backwards Amateur Hour !!".  Remember when Reagan bombed Libya after the Berlin Disco bombing.  He was on TV that night saying "YOU'RE G-DDAMNED RIGHT I ORDERED THE CODE RED!!!!" and had the evidence to back it up. Go watch that video.  That my friends is distilled, 100% pure, I'd-follow-him-through-the-gates-of-hell-in-gasoline-soaked-underoos, leadership.

The way "we're" doing this makes it looks like the Europeans and the UN are dragging us into this.  It feels like that if this goes pear shaped Obama can say "Hey, don't look at me, this is Hillary's War."  If it goes well it boosts his "Hawkish" street cred. Well we might have dithered long enough to give Gadhafi a chance to regain control and do a Saddam after Gulf War I on those that have opposed him.

Meanwhile the lack of American leadership is truly telling. Everyone has their finger on their nose and making someone-not-me-farted faces.  The Germans want out of any NATO involvement, the Italians want NATO in charge or their airbases (which happen to be closest) are off-limits.  The Brits want Quadafi assassinated, which we quickly disavowed (Thank you, Senator Church), and the French want to run the operation by committee, which worked out so well for them in 1871, 1914, and 1940, 1954, and 1958, among others, off the top of my head.

We're not even a week into this and it's a fustercluck.  Why ?  Because of a complete and total lack of American Leadership.  And just who is the American Leader.  Remember that it's the guy who *you* wanted to answer that 3am phone call.  Well it's still ruttin' ringing, and no one is picking up !!!

Has he been on TV like previous (*cough* Kennedy, *cough* Johnson, *cough*, Nixon, *cough* Ford, *cough*, Reagan, *cough*, Bush I, *cough* Cinton, *cough* Bush II) to explain to the American people why were lobbing cruise missles (at $1.1 a copy) at Mad Muomar ?  Has he even talked to Congress (or the heads of various committees) why we are sending American pilots into harm's way ?  Hello McFly ??

You can go elsewhere for his hypocritical prior statements and quotes.  I don't have TV and AT&T has been dicking around with my DSL (They *reeeeeaaaaaalllllllyyyyyyyy* want me to switch to Comcast), so I'm not as in tune with what our Fearless Leader is doing other the Macarena during Carnival in Rio.  Again, is this so he can say "Hey, I was out of the country when Gates and the Joint Chiefs wandered off the reservation !!"  ?? 

Dude, you are IT.  You can't vote present when American blood can and will be spilled.

Have you no sense of dignity, sir ?

Have you no honor, sir ?

History and the American people will judge.  And neither are kind.


As I posted a while back, if you're going to do it, the do it right, we should have done this when the rebels were gaining ground and Khadfafi was back on his heels.  And yeah, try to kill him, as a Colonel he's a legitimate military target (Thanks again, Senator Church).  But no, we had to dick around to wait and let the gorram UN finally tell us that he's a no-good-nick and needs to go. But only after killing a small forest and further screwing up traffic in New York City for a couple of weeks.

So Get on TV and show us your War Face !!  You've got a War Face, right ?


For those still unsure and some hints for our Fearless Leader here's Dave's Top Ten Reasons To Put JDAM in Khadffadi's Piehole.
1)  Pan Am 103.  I sooooooo wanted to see several flights of F/A-18's carpetbomb the airport when Abdelbaset Al-Megrahi was getting off the plane in Tripoli, with some Naplam as a nice lovely parting gift as they did a supersonic Fly-by.
2)  He's been in power since 1969 and there have not been any elections since then.
3)  I know people are worried about "Who takes his place ?"  Yes, that person could be worse, he could also be a helluva lot better. You spends your money and you takes your chances.
4)  When the French helped us in our Revolution, they didn't do it because they admired our ideals and principles, in fact if Louis the XVI knew what was going to transpire a few years later in his country, the Frogs would have been marching with the Redcoats.  The French helped us because the absolutely hated the Brits and were for anything that twisted the Imperial tail.
5)  A chance for elections.  Hey, freedom is messy.  Hopefully those that take power remember our assistance and respond accordingly.  Hell, they were begging for Obama to save their bacon when Gadfadi started to regroup.  This administration always seems to miss the opportunity to miss the opportunity.  
6)  Qadhaffi radiates the crazy.  So if he's gone, then a source of Middle East (and African) terrorism/pot-stirring goes bye-bye.
7)  Yes, Oil.  Maybe, just maybe we can go back to 35 cents a gallon (I can dream, can't I), but the markets hate uncertainity.  Uncertainty means higher oil prices, certainty means they come down and might even go lower.
8) We just barely missed him in '86, doesn't mean we can't try again in '11.  We can say that we have a long memory (Senator Church can go rut himself).
9) There's a real chance for a better world.  After what's happened in Iraq, Tunisia, and Egypt (and brewing elsewhere in the ME), it's worth a shot, and if they remember that it was Uncle Sugar that lent a helping hand, it *just* might be enough for the people to ignore the screaming beards that are always calling for jihad against the US.
10)  Remember Atticus Finch in "To Kill a Mockingbird" and the rabid dog ?  As they say in Texas "He needed killin'. ".

(1) In October of 1988 I had put in for leave over Christmas to go back to the States.  CPT White approved my leave so I checked into flying Space Available on a Military Airlift Command flight out of either Ramstein or Rhein-Main and was laughed at by the airmen that answered they phones at those bases.  I then went to the Scheduled Airline Ticket Office (SATO) and booked us on a flight to the US.  Then about a week or two before we were to leave, Laura McKnight talked to Mary Ann and convinced her to go to the Kristkindlemarkts in Birkenfeld, Idar-Oberstein and Trier and spend Christmas weekend in Germany.  So Mary Ann decided we should stay and I should save my leave. I volunteered to pull Duty Officer on Christmas Day, since Mary Ann and Laura would have been out shopping and sight-seeing that weekend, it would give whoever was on the duty roster that day with their family.  So now down in my basement in the banker's box labeled "Dave's Army Documents" are our death warrants.  The paperwork includes my canceled leave form, our flight reservations and the flight reservation cancellation form along with the credit card slips are in that box.  We were booked on Pan Am Flight 103 out of Frankfurt on 21 Dec 1988.  So yeah, it's personal. 

I also had the chance to meet George "Geordy" Williams once.  I ran into Kevin Burk during an field exercise and he introduced us.  Kevin and I had gone to MP Officer Basic together and Kevin and Geordy had gone to college together.  Kevin had the duty of serving as the Military Escort Officer for Geordy's body back to the states for his burial.  

Justice is long overdue.

An Open Letter from Colleen Lawson*

Dear Legislator: 

Could you please help me decide which of my kids lives to save? Here's the problem:

Last night yet another of my kids found himself on the goodbye end of a robber's gun as the robber slowly counted down "5 ... 4 ... 3 ... 2..."
 
I know you politicians told us "if it saves one life, then keeping guns away from law-abiding citizens is the right thing to do!" but I'm having a little trouble figuring out which life is the one to be saved. I've had most of these kids for 20 years or more, and I'm rather fond of them all.
 
My kid last night? It was his third time facing armed robbers in Chicago, in Illinois. Can you tell me how many times is just right and how many times is too many?
 
The one last night was in a convenience store at the time. He and his friend had gone into the store to buy soda, and they hid as the robber stuck his gun in the face of the store clerk and began counting down.
 
Do you give classes in hiding? Wait, that can't be right, cause many kids get found anyway, and it's not always easy to stay quiet if your heart is thudding and you're afraid. Maybe you give classes in what kids should do if they find themselves around guns. No, that's not right. State Rep. Annazette Collins proposed that idea, to keep kids safe and deglamorize firearms, and she was roundly trounced for the idea.
 
Mr. Legislator, all my kids have been robbed at gunpoint on the streets of Chicago -- well, all the young ones, who still live in Chicago. Does that mean that it's better for my kids to live someplace else? Wait, that can't be right, because you keep telling us that Chicago is a good place to raise children.
 
Is it best to just stay home? That can't be right, cause the first time he was robbed at gunpoint he was on the steps of his own house.

Maybe being in a group is best. No, that can't be right, either. The last time, three of my kids had grouped together for safety as they walked home from a friend's house. But their attackers had grouped together, too. Three unarmed victims, three robbers with guns, just over three blocks from home in what was once one of the three safest areas of the city.


Mr. Legislator, I have tried to keep my family safe by living in an area where lots of policemen live. But it seems to be open season on cops, too,in Chicago. Even Thomas Wortham, a cop who was also the son of a cop, was shot in front of his parents home as his father watched.


Should I try one of the other "safe" areas? No, less than twenty-four hours ago, an acquaintance of mine was in a group of 4 and got robbed in Lincoln Park by ... a group of 4.


Maybe only going out in daylight is the answer? Or maybe in an area that's more retail than residential? Gosh, that can't be right: Two of my girls were attacked mid-afternoon as they waited for a bus right outside a major shopping mall.


Perhaps you say that everything's fine because none of my kids were shot or killed, and because last night's robber chose to be contented with the money and goods, and let the clerk and customers go. But it would have been hard to say that as I wiped the blood from the face of the one who'd had her head slammed into the concrete sidewalk as she and her friends were robbed.


And that can't be right, anyhow, cause not everybody's kids escape uninjured.


Can you tell me if there is a questionnaire that we give to a criminal to determine which ones will be "nice" and not kill their victims? Just hurt them a "little" or leave them in fear for a while? How much is "a little"? How long is an okay "while"?


Maybe I've misunderstood the whole "if it saves one life" policy; Does it mean that, so long as it's MY kids life that's saved by being unarmed on the streets of Chicago, the disarmed citizen policy in Illinois is still justified? Which kid? What do I tell the siblings? What do I tell my neighbors, as they mourn for their slain kids?


What if it's your kid that gets killed or hurt, Mr. Legislator, and I'm unable to help?


A couple of these kids aren't mine by birth: they just hang out at my house cause they feel safe here. Should I tell them to stop feeling safe?


To me, they're all my kids, and I tell them every day how valuable they all are. One studies daily for her GED, one's in college to be a grade school teacher, one's still in high school, one works twelve hours a day helping underprivileged children, one's less than a semester away from getting his law degree. Should I ease up on the value talk? Should I tell them that, "Hey, folks die every day, that's just the way it is?" Devalue life a little bit so they don't think there's anything unusual about being helpless victims?


No. That can't be right. Because that is exactly how you grow a criminal. You desensitize him to the value of life, take away his sense of what is right and what is wrong, and expose him to crime after crime after crime after crime until he sees no hope for the future and learns to either be a victim or to look for victims.


And that is exactly how you grow a victim. Let them know that there is no chance of anyone nearby who has the ability to help them if they find themselves at the mercy of an attacker. Gee, it sounds like the same thing you tell a would-be attacker, doesn't it? Let them know that they need have no fear of anyone being able to fight back. And they will come. And they do come. And keep on coming. There are entire blocks in Chicago where street attacks have occurred weekly -- WEEKLY, Legislator! -- for years without a single arrest being made.


Dear Legislator, please tell me what I am to say to my kids today, when they ask me why this keeps happening to them. I really want to know. I don't mean to cut into your busy day.  I just want to do what's right.


Don't you?


Maybe it would be easiest to just share with me what you tell your own kids and I will share it with mine.


I totally understand that your intentions were good when Illinois first believed that criminals would obey the same no-gun laws that the law-abiding follow ... but what do you tell your kids when they ask you why we have not ripped away that errant foundation as has every other state within America? What do you tell them when they ask how you will know which of them will be hurt or killed by an attacker, and how you have chosen that to be okay by you?


What do you tell your kids when they ask why we elected you, then gave some of you the right to conceal carry, and others of you the expense of a protection detail, and then nod our heads in submission as you tell the rest of us that it is better that we do not get the same ability to defend ourselves?


Criminals know that there are less than a thousand Chicago cops armed and able to stop them during any given shift these days.


I personally know thousands of Illinois private citizens who take their citizen responsibility seriously enough that 34 other states trust them to calmly, competently and maturely carry concealed firearms as they live their daily lives. The children in those states can stand on their own steps, shop in convenience stores and wait for busses near malls with the confidence that they and would-be criminals are constantly aware that someone may be right nearby to thwart an attack and help them stay safe. Someone who has so committed themselves to time, training and mastery of defense that they stand out easily as the calmest ones seen in an emergency situation.


But in Illinois, criminals and victims walk our streets with only the confidence that, unless you -- personally, Legislator -- stand in support of HB 148 and bring concealed carry to the lone holdout state of Illinois, no one will ever come to your children's aid if they, like my kids, find themselves at the mercy of an attack. This can't be right, can it?


Though I have taken the time to learn and master the calm and skill necessary to defend my family and yours, I cannot personally afford a security detail for my family at this time. If you won't allow me to defend my children - and yours - in the face of armed attack on the streets of Illinois, will you kindly share your protection detail with my family? My neighbor wants to hear your answer, too.


And, if you will not, then tell me, please: What shall I say to my kid today, as I help him through the sound he's heard again and again for the past 12 hours?


You remember -- the one that goes "5 ... 4 ... 3 ... 2 ...?"


How long should he wait for the final "click"?


How long should I?

*Colleen Lawson was one of the plaintiff's in the landmark McDonald Vs Chicago Supreme Court decision.

It wasn’t St. Patrick’s Day, but it was in an Irish Pub.

 

It wasn’t St. Patrick’s Day, but it was in an Irish Pub.

In Sachsenhausen.  Frankfurt.  Germany.

It was late winter/ early spring whenever Wintex/Cimex ’89 was, and it was still cold out at night..

It was me, 1LT Laura McKnight, CPT White, 1SG Cobb and commander’s driver PFC (or maybe SP4) Khoury.

It had been a long and boring exercise, but  I’ll tell that story later.

Finally it was over and we had a night *free* in Frankfurt, so what to do?

We asked around and the consensus was “Go hit Sachsenhausen, lots of bars.”  

So Laura and I hop the S-Bahn outside of Gibbs Kaserne take it to Konstablerwache to catch the U-Bahn, then it’s under the Main River and we’re in Sachsenhausen.  But before we leave the U-Bahn station we check to see when the last train leaves and it says something like 24:00. So we’ve got time to drink and maybe listen to some crappy German rock bands, before heading back to the Gasthaus for the night and then the two hour drive in a Volkswagen van back to Baumholder the next day.  The good news is that we can sleep in the van as it pokes along the Autobahn. 

Anywho, I can’t remember if Khoury (sorry dude, you’ll always be Khoury, I can’t call you Pierre, just habit I guess.) went with us of if we stumbled into one another in Sachsenhausen. Either way enlisted men and officers aren’t supposed to socialize, but we figured that since he was our troop and all alone in the big city, that maybe we should keep an eye on him so he wouldn’t get in trouble.  Yeah, that’s it.  That’s our story and we’re stickin’ with it.

Anyway we end up in the Irish Pub in Sachsenhausen. And it’s packed.  I mean wall-to-wall people.  Whatever the local fire marshal had deemed was the maximum safe occupancy had long ago been exceed, and then doubled.  Forget about finding a seat or a table, they’ve all been removed so that more people can be packed in.  Not our concern, the Guinness is good, and Laura has run into some Field Artillery Captain that she had a crush on/previously dated or some such.  So they wander away to talk.  Khoury has quickly ditched us and is hitting on the Frauleins.  So it’s just me and a really bad Irish Folksong singing, acoustic guitarist.   He was stuck back in like a tiny cave in the far end of the place, and was 1) Not happy to be crammed into the cave, 2) Really pissed that no one except me was listening to him, and 3) I was singing along to the Irish folksongs I knew.  Loudly.  In fact at one point he told me he was a solo act.  Fine dude, but I’m the only person in here even paying attention to you as everyone else is chatting up/hitting on one another and it’s so loud in here that even  *I* can barely hear you.    

Eventually Laura and her beau worm their way back through the crowd and she asks what time is it. 

Oh, crap. I check my watch 00:45.  Shit, we’ve got to get out of here and now to catch the last U-Bahn otherwise it’s a long walk back to Eckenheimerlandstrasse and the Gasthaus near Gibbs Kaserne.

Double shit, this place is packed and it’ll take 15 minutes just to get to the damn door.

I tell Laura to tell Captain Field Artillery she’ll call him later, I grab Khoury by the collar and pull his ear to my face and say:  “Do what I do, and say what I say.”  Khoury, being a highly trained MP just nods and prepares to follow my instructions.

Now Laura probably weighs all of 80 pounds soaking wet, thin as a rail.  So, I grab one of Laura’s arms and pick her up, Khoury grabs the other and lifts.  Laura is now off the ground, her head above the crowd.

And I scream “PREGNANT WOMAN GIVING BIRTH !!!!    PREGNANT WOMAN GIVING BIRTH “ and Khoury starts it yelling also.

Everything got quiet as everyone turned to look at the commotion and suddenly the crowd parts, like Moses parting the Red Sea.   People were looking at Laura and trying to figure out “Really, she’s the pregnant woman?” as we race outside with Laura being carried between the two of us. 

No time to laugh, we’ve got to get to the U-bahn station.  So slightly inebriated we run to the station, only to get there and be told by the cleaning crew that the last train left an hour ago.  Yep, we had screwed up reading the times and now we are looking a loooonnnnggg walk back.  Oh well, it’s not really all *that* cold out, and we’ve got all night.   I started to feel sorry for Khoury as he would have to drive the van the next day while we slept in the back.

So we head out of the station and stop to get our bearings. 

We see a US Army MP van come down the street.  Now, I never pulled MP Duty Officer in Frankfurt, but I’m pretty sure that Sachsenhausen isn’t in any patrol area as there were no US Installations south of the Main River.

I can’t remember which of us jumped out in front of the VW van (might have been all of us), but one of the MP’s sticks his head out the window about yell at us, then stops and wrinkles up his face and says “Khoury?  Is that you?”  Yep, now it is old home week and Khoury might be able to save our bacon.  Seems that they had gone through basic and AIT together.  So this guy and his partner are willing take us back to Gibbs.  I think the deal was that we didn’t see nothin’ or tell anyone about the nothin’ we saw.     

Whenever Laura and I talk, the parting comment is always “PREGNANT WOMAN GIVING BIRTH!!!!” 

Happy St. Pat's !!!  

*Believe it or not I couldn't find a picture of one of those crappy  USAREUR Volkswagen MP Vans.  Just that Danish one.   

ZOMG !!! RADIOACTIVITIES !1111ONEONE

Here's some more insight into what is going on at Fukushima and why we're not all going to die from glowing goiters in our necks. from someone else, a retired Air Force Officer who used to fly the WC-135 Constant Phoenix aircraft, so he knows a thing or three about radioactive clouds and from whence they came.

It's a refreshing insight from what you get from CNBABCBMSN.  Simply because if you do a google search on the "experts" that the networks are bringing in to spread the panic, you'll find that none of them have a degree or any experience with nuclear reactors.  No, they are all ANTI-Nuclear activists.  So there's complete impartiality and the voice of experience in all things Fukushima.

Not.