Dont Ask, Dont Care..... and the News!

Well, "Dont Ask, Dont Tell" was repealed, Yay? Boo? Snore?.... yeah, thats pretty much the broad stream of emotions. I am in the camp of not caring, so this particular topic may be short, or I may start to rant, or drift off, or something. Really im just doing this post to get something out there cause I havent had anything go out in a while that wasnt World of Warcraft related. Yeah, sad I know. But, here we go.

For those of you who dont know, "Dont Ask, Dont Tell" was Bill Clintons way of half-assing a solution to a growing problem. It still forbid homosexuals from being in the Armed forces, but it prevented the Government from asking sexual orientation, and encouraged service members to keep quiet about their orientation. And the Lame Duck congress just repealed the act. Some people feel very passionately about the issue, Friends and Foes alike who will probably try and draw me to their side (seriously, who wouldnt want my brilliant mind with them), so ill simply throw out my views on Same Sex Marriage right now. Marriage is and institution of religion, and Government simply recognizes the Union(for the sake of simplicity we will ignore civil marriages). Now there are religions out there that will marry a same sex couple, including some Christian sects which are primarily based out of San Francisco. Now the Government in recognizing one Religious Marital union over another would be in violation of the First Amendment. No, not freedom of speech. The First Amendment in its entirety reads, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or of the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances." The bolded part is important for the purposes of this discussion. Giving recognition to one union and refusing another is a blatant violation of that clause (in my opinion). Now this may be a bit murky since its 3:30am, but its stronger than the argument "love is love" or some of the other ones out there.

So with the new year comes our brand new health care!!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!..... yeah, I know... we are doomed!..... im bound to do a blog on it eventually... but dont wanna play that game

Also with the new year, ends a year of taxation, which means, we get to do our taxes soon.... which for me means a big time rebate.... or it better be.... If its not, ill do something drastic.... like blog about broad words like Hate and Love..... yeah, we dont want that, so Barrack, I know you are reading.... send me a nice ol check soon

There was a Rush Limbaugh sighting in the latest Family Guy Star Wars spoof, Its a Trap!. I thought it was quite amusing, but im a Family Guy Fanboy

Im seriously considering piling up a ton of crap to write about my current employer should things go very far south and I want to burn them... but who knows, maybe its just me being slightly annoyed.

So I've got my internship for this spring, with state Senator Harvey who tends to most of Parker and northern Douglas County, so im looking forward to that, still wondering what specifics ill do about that with my blog.

Im also considering the Warrior Dash Event, and I need to start training for it. Make it a test of my perseverence. Here is some info here www.warriordash.com

Thats really all I got... Maybe ill go to sleep now... who know....

so a belated Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Thanks for Reading

Yep, North Korea..... Again

No, the latest stand off isnt over yet. The two Koreas are still rattling their sabers, and the US is going to make sure that the South Koreans have a saber made out of pure 110% Classified Material. Hell, we will make sure they have two of them. In my previous blog I asked whether or not Obama would be able to stand fast (about 4 months after inauguration) and as we approach the end of his second year in office id say that he managed to show some force in the area following the North Korean artillery strikes on November 23rd, which I honestly thought was an appropriate showing.

Now the big time question here, is will North Korea go bonkers and invade the South, thus signing its own death warrant, or will it do what it has always done, piss off the South and the United States and sit down laughing like they are having a good ol time. Which will it be, who the hell knows. Its more likely that it will be the latter, I do think that whoever is in charge up there, Kim Jung Il, his surprisingly shorter son Kim Jong-Un, or even the Chinese, who ever it is is smart enough to know that a small handful of nuclear weapons wont stop the North from suffering the death of a nation if they are the aggressor in a war. Then again I said Obama wouldnt win the election after he picked Biden for a VP over Hillary. Just like how the economy took a crap before the 2008 election, something could happen that leads to war on the Korean Peninsula.

Now the South Koreans could in my quick study of their armed forces, easily crush any North Korean attack, and with thousands of US forces in the area, quickly take over the tragically impoverished nation. To put it this way, North Korea is a goner if they start anything. Or are they? Will the South Koreans really want to annex the conquered territories of the North after the war? North Korea is a nation full of almost 25 million impoverished and near starving people who have taken the back seat to an excessive military and nuclear program. Their GDP is about 40 Billion with a per capita of less than 2,000 US dollars. In comparison the South Korean economy has a GDP of almost 1 trillion, and its population of almost 50 million have a per capita of just over 20,000 US dollars. (Note, these numbers come from Wikipedia, so take them with a grain of salt). Would South Korea, as a nation really want to take on the burden of such an economically crippled country? Now let me note that that is not a comment on Communism, North Korea is not a communist state, North Korea in my view is a Military Dictatorship pretending to be a communist state.

But coming back to the here and now, all its going to take is one misplaced artillery shell, or one rouge general bent on glory, and then there will be war. Once invaded, the North Koreans will without a doubt use Nuclear Weapons to try and halt US-S Korean forces, then the US may retaliate by striking wherever the leadership is believed to be and major military positions. Now the good news, is that last I heard the North Korean nuclear bombs were far too big to be placed on the head of a missile (HA! like North Korea has a working missile program), so the expected use of the bombs would be defensive. IF they survived the initial US bombing campaign.

Now if the North decides to sit down and laugh. The western powers will to back to the negotiating table and pay attention to the poor little country. I believe that North Koreas provocations are nothing more than a cry for attention, a cry for attention from a small child with nuclear weapons. And as much as I want to slap the child or beat it with a baseball bat, I cant, because he will vaporize my ass. Oh well, I guess we will have to wait until Kim Jong gets really old, trips over his own bomb and takes North Korea down inadvertently

In other news!

I have the interview for my CU at the Capitol internship on Wednesday morning, we shall see how it goes, I got a good feeling, mainly cause 1) im awesome and 2) Its unpaid volunteer work so why wouldnt they take me

Did anyone else see the Avs- Blackhawks game this past monday, Hot Damn that was a good hockey game, the Avs won 7-5, if you have a chance try and catch the highlights on youtube or NHL.com

Another amazing thing about the Avalanche is that in the past 10 days they have out scored the Broncos 22-19... Big thanks to michellehayes19 for pointing that out on twitter, heh, I think its funnies!

Also, I noticed this tool on facebook the other night saying that Tim Tebow should have a chance to play for the Broncos because of his pro-life stance. yes I called him a tool, because he is one. The man is a professional athlete, it is how he plays on the field or that determines who he is as a Bronco, not how he votes or the causes that he argues for. This tool also went on to say something along the lines of "Support for Tebow is Support for beating women".... I went on to say, "Anyone against Tebow, is in support of murdering children", just to show how moronic and stupid he sounded trying to narrow down such a complex topic into one sweeping statement. end rant.

So next time im torn between talking about Wikileaks or the Health Care debate..... And I could also argue that this most recent congress was terrible long before the lame duck period.... choices choices......

Thanks for Reading

Hot Diggity Daffodils

Well I figured Ill give this blogging thing another shot because, well I dont really know, but perhaps we can all find out together. If it results in just me ranting to myself, well itll be therapeutic.... If im ranting towards others, well then itll be therapeutic and Ill be participating in an exchange of ideas.

Ive got 5 planned topics to blog about in the coming weeks, and they are.... (Drum roll)

1. Health Care, what do I really think about it

2. North Korea.... These guys again?

3. The Wiki Leaks issue..... the US Government has so many leaks its sinking faster than the Titanic

4. Immigration and the Dream Act

Oh Boy! Fun stuff.

Now we all get drained from the constant drag that is American politics, so I will also from time to time post things that have no relation to politics what so ever, with the sole exclusion of me possibly doing stupid and Illegal things, I am in college after all. And let the Imperative word there be Possibly

And now for this post to have some further meaning, I will post a excerpt from a paper I wrote for my World at War history class. I tried to apply one of the lessons from the First World War to our current situation in the middle east.

*******Even today the powerful nations have the plans for quick war with all potential enemies. These plans include great offensive pushes to win the war quickly. The lesson from World War I, to modify the plan when it isn’t working, has not taken root though. This can be seen with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The United States plans went flawlessly until the point of rebuilding the vanquished nations, and for so long the military sought to defeat the guerilla fighters as if they were regulars. The Surge worked in Iraq because of the imbalance in military resources, but it was a continuation of the established plan, simply magnified. In Afghanistan the United States is in a poor position as well. The significant advantage that NATO forces have is the massive disparity in resources between them and the Taliban. If the United States were to approach the situation from another angle they could see more results. With the Afghan economy amounting to an export of opium and dirt, there is a lot more money to be made fighting in the resistance than in the economy. If the United States would be able to help provide the Afghan economy suitable industry or agriculture for the economy to build on, the wealth and jobs in the nation would grow, therefore cutting the recruitment pool for the Taliban. However the commitment to a pure militarily offensive strategy hamstrings the ability to win the war.******

Any thoughts on that?

The Guantanamo Problem

So its January 28th, Gitmo is closed, and the world is back in order. Wait, what? The Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility is still open. That is right everyone, the United States is still holding terror suspects at Guantanamo. Now I'm not going to bash Obama for not fulfilling is promise, he like other politicans promises are like those of high school boys, only good until they get what they want. Obama did make strides towards getting the facilities closed, on his very first day and vowed that they would all be close one year later. He struggled that year with finding places for the detainees to go, then he moved on to the Economy and Health Care. While most of the people took the State of the Union address to prove that Obama has been ineffective as a President, I looked at the Gitmo issue. When the President issued his Executive Order closing down the detention facilities everyone assumed that it would be a simple issue, and that he wouldn't even need a year to fix the solution. Back when George W. Bush was in office he too wanted to close down the facility and like Obama, failed.

Letting go of your opinions on the two Presidents lets look at the issue from another angle. The situation at Guantanamo is a far more complicated than any civilian knows. When Obama was on the campaign trail making his promise to close down the Detention Facilities he did not have access to the details of the detainees. He likely didnt find out the whole picture when he was getting security briefings as President-Elect. Obama and the members of his administration probably didn't find out just how difficult this was going to be until February of 09. Fox News did some leg work for me and found out some information on the detainees, "So far, 44 detainees have been released from Guantanamo Bay under the Obama administration. There are 196 still in custody, about 50 of which are being held indefinitely without trial. Thirty-five are heading to U.S. trials and 110 will be transferred to other countries. "( Link )

This issue, mixed with my class on the Presidency brings up a whole new issue. What if we are too dependent on government to do things. Whether it be the complicated nature of dealing with terror suspects, or the far more complicated nature of health care. the Federal Government was established for specific reasons, to regulate commerce among the states and to provide a powerful and unified defense for the states. And over time the human desire for power has lead to an expansion of the role of government in our lives, some good, some bad. And right now it seems as though we are becoming far too dependent.