This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Author: Sporkmaster

  • School Board shooting on tape.

    Again I saw only a bit of this while in the Gym today, (one of the advantages of being behind so many times zones)

    It seems that a guy came into the School board armed with a handgun and randomly shooting it. The video is unreal to watch.

    The video shows 56-year-old Clay Duke, an ex-convict, walking into the meeting and scrawling the symbol from the film V for Vendetta on the school board wall before pulling out a 9-mm Smith & Wesson handgun. He then ordered all the women and non-board members out of the room.

    Board member Ginger Littleton returned and tried to disarm Duke by hitting him in the arm with her purse. Instead, Duke put her on the ground.

    But don’t worry the board members know who to thank for saving them.

    “It could have been a monumental tragedy,” Husfelt later said. “God was standing in front of me and I will go to my grave believing that.”

    Really? I thought it was the guys that placed the well placed shots that did it?

    “I don’t think anything was going through my mind, except for the fact that these guys were sitting ducks,” she said. “They were lined up like pigeons on a wire and I couldn’t leave them.”

    Duke’s wife said her husband was an excellent marksman and he probably missed the board members on purpose.

    Also the shooter had a past to boot.

    Duke had a troubled history. In 2000, he was convicted for waiting in the woods for his ex-wife with a rifle, wearing a mask and a bulletproof vest. She confronted him, then tried to leave in a vehicle, and Duke shot the tires.

    I wonder if this will change people’s thoughts about carrying concealed weapons?

  • House Passes repeal of DADT

    I saw this right before I left the Gym today.

    For the second time this year, the House voted to dismantle the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, giving the Senate a final shot in the waning days of this Congress at changing a law requiring thousands of uniformed gays to hide their sexual identity. The strong 250-175 House vote Wednesday propels the issue to the Senate, where supporters of repeal say they have the votes but perhaps not the time to get the bill to the floor.

    But you know what I really don’t care what the outcome of this is but, I am bothered by two things. One is that considering the statements about those that those that opposed it should consider leaving then what was the point of all those surveys put out on AKO? There are even emails going out to writers on Army Strong Stories.

    Hello Army Strong Stories Bloggers –

    The “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy continues to draw widespread national attention as politicians and senior military leaders debate whether to repeal the law. LTC Andre Dean has spear-headed a discussion on the debate through his latest Army Strong Stories blog post.

    Army Strong Stories is designed to harness conversation topics of this manner, and you’re encouraged to share your thoughts on this, and other topics, as active members of the blogging community. MAJ Benjamin Grimes has already added to the conversation, encouraging readers to share their opinions in his latest post: .

    Consider sharing your perspective on DADT either through blog posts or comments on other posts. As always, please be mindful of the blogging guidelines and be respectful of others when sharing your comments.

    – The Army Strong Stories Team

    So why go through all this effort if it is not going to change the outcome.

    Secondly I have to ask how well Afghanistan would be right now if the this same effort in fighting the Taliban as being applied to repealing DADT how better off we would be?

  • I called it, Rethink Afghanistan now targeting Tanks.

    A few days ago I made this comment about Rethink Afghanistan targeting out air support.

    I imagine that at this rate there will be protests that we are using lethal rounds when fighting that might go astray.

    Well now my fears are not unfounded with this new story from Rethink Afghanistan.


    NOT WORTH IT: Each tank sent to Afghanistan War cost taxpayers $4 million

    Yep now direct fire support cost too much, except that now we are only sending 13 tanks over there. But lets review. First they were against drones, then against Special Operations units, then the manned air strikes and now we are targeting Tanks. What next, the MRAP’s?

    It is bad enough that we are getting our legs kicked out from under us an wonder why we are having trouble standing.

    Added Sporkmaster    : December 20th 2010.

    It seems that the HIMARS rocket launcher is not worth it ether.

  • Red Cross: Only a political solution can work.

    Recently the International Red Cross put out this statement in regards to Afghanistan.

    Jakob Kellenberger says the spread of violence to more parts of the country has forced the International Committee of the Red Cross to open five new offices in Afghanistan since 2009.

    The aid group expects Afghanistan to be the single biggest item in its 1.2 billion Swiss francs ($1.2 billion) budget for next year.

    Kellenberger says only “a political solution” can improve the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan ten years after the U.S.-led invasion to topple the Taliban.

    Now I would like to know what they are considering as a political solution considering the corruption that is present in the Afghanistan government. If it got the money how would it would handle attacks to aid workers in Afghanistan. If you are not going to have a plan to protect your aid workers that finding funds to go over their is going to be the least of your worries.

    Also when the Red Cross gave medical aid to those that are responsible for attacking aid workers or having any indications of stopping it people get upset.

    The international Red Cross said Wednesday it would continue giving first aid training and kits to Taliban fighters in Afghanistan, despite drawing angry e-mails from around the world and criticism from an Afghan official after the practice was publicized.

    So if you donate to the Red Cross there is a good chance your writing a check right over to the Taliban. So I can imagine that people might think twice about giving you money.

    The International Committee of the Red Cross is asking donors for an unprecedented 1.2 billion Swiss francs ($1.2 billion) to fund its humanitarian work next year.
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    The aid group justifies the 12 percent increase over last year’s appeal by saying that conflict situations are getting more complicated.

    Well keeping the fighters that are making the IEDs, suicide bombings and other attacks in the fight might have something to do with it?

  • Mefloquine, Guantanamo and TruthOut.org

    It seems that the newest story going around is a claim that we used Mefloquine on the detainees as a experiment of the side effects along with other reasons. TruthOut is even going to calling this “Pharmacologic Waterboarding”.

    Army Staff Sgt. Joe Hickman, who was stationed at Guantanamo at the time of the suicides in 2006, and has presented evidence that demonstrates the three detainees could not have died by hanging themselves, noticed in the detainees’ medical files that they were given mefloquine. Hickman has been investigating the circumstances behind the detainees’ deaths for nearly four years.

    This is what they are claiming is their smoking gun, a document (Page 18) that listed that all inmates that come in receive a total of 1250 mg of Mefloquine in a 12 hour period. All before they were tested for it. But I did a little digging found this that was published in 1994 giving out the exact dose in the exact same way with positive results. So there is no question about it does work.

    Now here is were it gets interesting. Truthout is claiming that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stated about Mefloquine.

    Mefloquine should only be used when other standard drugs were not available, as it “is associated with a higher rate of severe neuropsychiatric reactions when used at treatment doses.”

    Which they give a link that is dead, but the link that I found to the CDC states a very counter message under the info for Mefloquine.

    Now we get into the side affects Mefloquine. The info does say that anyone with certain psychiatric conditions should not take this drug. There has been a case studies and it does happen.
    But does the risk out way the benefits. Also if this is such a great drug, why do we see Doxycycline being used for overseas troops rather then Mefloquine. It seems that it was stopped being used as of 2005. But a Document made in 2009 still has left it a option if the person cannot take Doxycycline and does not have any contraindications to the drug.

    But according to TruthOut we never give Mefloquine to our soldiers.

    Another example of how the DoD approached malaria treatment differently for other subjects is in the case of Army Rangers who returned from malarial areas of Afghanistan between June and September 2002 and were infected with the disease at an attack rate of 52.4 cases per 1,000 soldiers.

    However, the Rangers did not receive mass presumptive treatment of mefloquine. They were given other standard drugs after laboratory tests, according to documents obtained by Truthout.

    But just a thought to throw out here, if a person has lived in a area where for the most part there are no major epidemics like the ones we are seeing in Haiti against someone who lives in the exact opposite I would imagine that the treatment would be different and more aggressive for the person that has not had any previous vaccinations before going to that area. We cannot assume that there is only a generic version of Malaria and it has never changed to suit to the demands of each environment that each person may have come from.

    Now what is the end result? Was there a better way of doing this? I cannot say with total assertion that it was but I do not see it as a secret lab to conduct SS like medical experiments on.

  • Fort Benning Protests, Told you so.

    In the golden promise of getting fatter in the celebration of Thanksgiving, I forgot to check what happened with the Protests at Fort Benning. I made a post about it a week before the event and some of the things did happen.

    But really the only people that really win are the people that rent parking spaces and sell food near the Victory Drive area.

    But that is not even the case as listed in a story for New York Times.

    The protest has brought the city as much as $2.2 million in business, more than twice what the annual Jehovah’s Witness convention did, said Peter Bowden, president of the Columbus Convention & Visitors Bureau.

    But…

    But the times, they are a changing. This year’s protest, the 20th, drew its smallest crowd ever over the weekend. Both the police and organizers agree that fewer than 5,000 people showed up.

    Signs of its decline were everywhere. At the Masonic lodge near the protest site, a local military family had hoped for a lucrative weekend selling hot dogs and drinks. They packed in 15 cases of water, but by Saturday afternoon only a dozen bottles had sold. They did not even bother on Sunday.

    Some other signs as well.

    Last year, more than 500 signed up to attend, mostly students from Catholic high schools and colleges. This year, only 128 were bused on base for the 90-minute session.

    The small crowd at the gates of Fort Benning disappointed Sheri Hosek, 39, who traveled from Dubuque, Iowa. She had heard about the event through her work with Franciscan nuns.

    “There was a lot of hype about it, but it feels like a much smaller presentation than I had expected,” Ms. Hosek said. “It feels more like a summer festival, a very liberal one of course.”

    But of course that it is not because people think what they are doing at Fort Benning is moronic but for other reasons.

    Others wondered if Latin America politics just are not capturing the attention of American youths as they once did.

    “My generation is all over the place,” said Ben Johnson, 28, of Athens, Ga., who was grabbing a coffee in a hotel lobby near the base. “They are completely apathetic, or they’ve completely devoted their entire life to change.”

    But I like this line the best and will close out with it.

    On the anniversary the following year, a small group led by the Rev. Roy Bourgeois, a Catholic priest, held a water-only fast at the gates. He has since become an internationally known peace advocate and still lives in a small apartment near the gate.

    “Most of the young people in the crowd don’t even know who he is,” said Liz Loescher, 68, an eight-time veteran of the protest who runs the Georgia Conflict Center in Athens.

    Yep time to turnout the lights, the party is over.

  • Now our Air Support is in their sight.

    It seems that the group Rethink Afghanistan recently published this article DEATH FROM THE SKY: Dropping more bombs on Afghanistan won’t make us safer, but it *will* hurt civilians

    But while civilian casualties as a whole have continued to increase, the proportion attributed to PGF has decreased markedly over the past two years. PGF are currently responsible for 12% of the civilian casualties in Afghanistan, down from 39% in 2008. IMF efforts to reduce civilian casualties began in earnest in 2008, but a large part of this reduction is due to a fall in the number of airstrikes since a tactical directive was issued restricting their use in July 2009. However, this achievement may be in danger of reversal due to a dramatic rise in airstrikes in recent months. US forces dropped 2,100 bombs or missiles from June through September 2010 – a nearly 50% increase on the same period last year – and ISAF figures show that civilian deaths caused by PGF are up 11% on October 2009.

    But I have to ask with the current number of troops spread out as they are with the attacks increasing is there anyone shocked that the number of close air support missions have increased. But don’t tell them that because it clashes with their nice photo shopped image.

    Of course a image like that is getting the standard replies.

    1. It’s Bush’s war … he got us into this mess.. he is off touring with his new book… gmab

    2. This is the true image of war. Shame on you United States military!

    3. your troops are trying to help them ???? are you kidding me ? since when did they start helping Afghans rather then killing them? yeah they killed marines well why are they in ther…e first place ….? obviously for their own (Bush & Obama) agenda ……its easy to come and comment here but i would say rather then that go educate yourself ……they hate you they got a reason and thats your trooops killing innocent people.
    YOU OWE AFGHANS BIG TIME

    4. America should be shame of this Hitler did not killed that many people

    5. This war is insane!! We went for all the wrong reasons, died for nothing but to boost the incomes of government contractors and politicians and we are killing thousands of people!! How would we like it if they came here and started dropping bombs on our babies and shooting people in the streets!!! God it makes me angry.

    6.Bombing poor civilians living in mudhomes, barely eking out a living — by bombs that cost more than an American home — by ‘brave’ pilots looking at video screens from high above — so removed from the blasts that wreak havoc on people’s lives and psyches — while America at home disintegrates as a nation — when oh when do Americans rise up to reclaim their country from the criminals in suits and uniforms??? END ALL THE WARS NOW! REMOVE ALL THE CRIMINALS IN POWER. MAY PEACE PREVAIL.

    Yea makes me feel warm and fuzzy all over. I imagine that at this rate there will be protests that we are using lethal rounds when fighting that might go astray. Then they ask why things in Afghanistan are going as they are? I wonder why.

    Oh and just to remind why kind of support our troops receive.

  • And that what its all about.

    So once again the Rag Blog is leading the charge in the name idiocy. This time is claiming that the fighting in Afghanistan has nothing to do with Afghanistan, but the maintaining perpetual war for the sake of war.

    But George Orwell’s 1984 — now updated with important new books — illuminates the bigger picture: “continuous warfare” is the key to social control.

    It keeps the public frightened and dependent.

    Yea, this is the same conflict that was being referred to the Just war when compared to Iraq. Also the conflict that people think that we went in alone when in fact the UN passed a Resolutions 1378 and Resolution 1386 .

    Nowhere has our military madness become more transparent than in the Obama Administration. The “shellacking” the Democrats took this fall stems directly from Obama’s painfully visible failure to bring hope or change to a nation at war since 1941.

    At War for over 60 years? That is beyond a stretch, I would like know what war was going between 1953-1964, 1973-1990 and 1995-2003. I would also like to know what their definition of what is a War. Notice the following part below.

    Thus Afghanistan. Before it: The Cold War, Korea, Vietnam, Central America. After: Whoever else is handy.

    Yea, notice how they talk about we have been at War since 1941 and neglected to bring up one of the most bloodiest War is left out. Because depending on the conflicts a really bad day can be considered a good day. So how are you judging what is considered a war and what is not? I mean if we are counting every little military action as full blown war then we are really lowering the bar. Also the fact that the Korean War was a UN lead conflict and the UN also approved the Gulf War in 1991.

    But the bet part is thoughts like this one.

    War is a choice, and we need to stop choosing it.

    Yea…