Veteran's Day Poppy - Captain Beefheart

I cry but I can't buy
Your Veteran's Day poppy
It don't get me high
It can only make me cry
It can never grow another
Son like the one who warmed me my days
After rain and warmed my breath
My life's blood
Screamin' empty she crys
It don't get me high
It can only make me cry
Your Veteran's Day poppy.

Secretary of State John Kerry Urges Military Intervention in Syria

TPM

“Make no mistake, in an increasingly complicated world of sectarian and religious extremist violence, what we choose to do or not do matters in real ways to our own security. Some site the risk of doing things. But we need to ask, ‘What is the risk of doing nothing?’,” Kerry said. “It matters because if we choose to live in the world where a thug and a murderer like Bashar al-Assad can gas thousands of his own people with impunity, even after the United States and our allies said no, and then the world does nothing about it, there will be no end to the test of our resolve and the dangers that will flow from those others who believe that they can do as they will.”

Does that sound like a good reason to start another war in the Middle East? To me, it sounds more like The United States insisting on being the policeman of the world. Of course, there probably is more to it, secret deals and hidden motivations, maybe CIA shit.

These are the kinds of wars we've fought recently, usually triggered by the natural resources that are at stake or the geographical control, never for the honorable reasons stated by lying politicians in Washington. Then, we get blowhard veterans like Moonshine coming around here boasting about how he personally fought in these questionable wars to protect my rights.

There hasn't been a war in our lifetimes that fits that bill. Not since the defeat of Nazism has there been an honorable war that truly put our rights as Americans at stake. So, forgive me if I don't buy into the nonsense of pathetic vets who join the service because there were no jobs at home or in order to get approval from daddy who was a whining Vietnam vet himself and then claim they were preserving our freedom and ensuring that we maintain our rights.

I don't buy it. And now with the addition of Syria as a possible venue of the next farce, unless North Korea or Iran take center stage again, it's about time for people to stop elevating these actions as patriotic endeavors.  They're not. 

The VA Letter about Gun Rights

The Gateway Pundit

This must be Barack Obama’s way of thanking our veterans for serving.
US veterans are receiving letters from the government informing them that they are disabled and not allowed to own, purchase or possess a firearm. If the veteran does decide to purchase a firearm he will by fined, imprisoned or both.
This comes on page 2 of the VA letter.



First of all, when you say, "veterans are receiving letters," it sounds like ALL veterans are receiving them or that random veterans are. That's the tip-off right there.  Pro-gun arguments that need to resort to that sort of exaggeration or mendacity are usually bogus.

Secondly, don't we have an alarming suicide problem among former military? Isn't it about time someone tried to address that?

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

Should Mentally Incompetent Veterans Retain Gun Rights?

The Washington Post reports

Should veterans deemed too mentally incompetent to handle their own financial affairs be prevented from buying a gun?

The issue, for a time last week, threatened to become the biggest sticking point in a $631 billion defense bill for reshaping a military that is disengaging from a decade of warfare.

Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., sought to amend the bill to stop the Veterans Affairs Department from putting the names of veterans deemed too mentally incompetent to handle their finances into the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, which prohibits them from buying or owning firearms.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., objected, saying the measure would make it easier for veterans with mental illness to own a gun, endangering themselves and others.

“I love our veterans, I vote for them all the time. They defend us,” Schumer said. “If you are a veteran or not and you have been judged to be mentally infirm, you should not have a gun.”

Currently, the VA appoints fiduciaries, often family members, to manage the pensions and disability benefits of veterans who are declared incompetent. When that happens, the department automatically enters the veteran’s name in the Criminal Background Check System.

Dan Gross, president of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, said gun control advocates consider the VA’s current policy reasonable.

“We’re talking about people who have some form of disability to the extent that they’re unable to manage their own affairs,” Gross said. “If you’re deemed unable to handle your own affairs, that’s likely to constitute a high percentage of people who are dangerously mentally ill.”

Coburn, and his NRA overlords, are really showing their true colors on this one. They have no concern for anything other than pushing gun rights, even if it means returning those rights to the worst of the worst.

The number of veterans directly affected by the VA’s policy doesn’t appear to very large. Only 185 out of some 127,000 veterans added to the gun-check registry since 1998 have sought to have their names taken off, according to data that the VA shared with lawmakers during a hearing last June.

Can you imagine how incompetent those 185 are?  We're not talking about people with mild mental problems who need a little help with their affairs.  These are the worst, most damaged 185 veterans out of 127,000. 

I find the extremism of the NRA and its minions truly shocking.  Don't you?

Please leave a comment.

Marine Corps Veteran of Afghanistan Killed By Police

Local news reports

Police fatally shot a Camp Pendleton Marine who struck an officer with a car in a parking garage in Palm Springs, authorities said Monday.

The Marine repeatedly ignored orders to stop after being approached by officers on bike patrol around 2 a.m. Saturday, the Palm Springs Police Department said in a statement.

One of the officers partially climbed into the passenger window to stop the car, but the Marine accelerated, striking the other officer, the department said. The Marine kept driving with the officer hanging out of the window until the car crashed near the garage exit, it said.

Both officers were treated for injuries at a hospital and released. They have been placed on administrative leave while the department investigates.

The Marine died at the scene and the lone passenger, another Marine, was not injured, authorities said.

"In the course of these events, fearing for their safety and the safety of others both officers discharged their weapons," the statement said.

This is one of those intrepid warriors that the rah-rah patriots over on TTAG were celebrating the other day. The picture would have been taken during basic training, about three-and-a-half years ago. He looks to have been just 17 or 18. I doubt very much if the following jingoistic nonsense applied to him.

To answer the call for service, to put on the uniform and steel yourself to step in harm’s way, is a step in beginning to repay the debt of honor owed to our ancestors.

No, most who join are too young to possibly have such lofty motives.  In fact, most join for the wrong reasons, usually to escape one thing or another. Then boot camp training and a year or so in a combat zone, who could possible be whole.  As former servicemen, it's all about aggrandizing what they'd done.

No, these guys, in most cases are not heroes to be honored but suckers to be pitied.  They fell into the trap set by old politicians who almost to a man had not served. As I said the other day, if you consider the foreign involvements we've been engaged in over the last 45 years, is there anything there to be proud of?  No, there's not.  And to have participated is not something to be proud of either.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.