RA, Isis & Nanük

Even when the bill comes due, at a trillion or two dollars over ten or twenty years, most people can be convinced to foot the monetary bill for what they believe is a just war. Those same people may be more reticent to send their sons and daughters into combat where many will come home with terrible wounds, lost limbs, and emotionally scarred, despite the number of American deaths being lower than in past conflicts.

Will those large numbers of wounded vets be eager to send their children into a future conflict, no matter how well equipped with body armor and the latest in battle rifles?

Markets made up of people can be influenced by more than just monetary costs. The all volunteer force is currently overwhelmingly made up of the poor and otherwise disadvantaged. Our recruitment efforts focus on this.

Parents will gladly pay extra money to send their kids to schools in better neighborhoods. They will also gladly pay extra for the poor of America to fight wars for them. I’m not convinced this added monetary expense will be enough to put a dent in warmongering.

It certainly didn’t seem to diminish the momentum in our most recent invasion of Iraq.

One reason I haven’t blogged as much anywhere — even on my own blog — for the longest time is because it just seems like there’s nothing to do except record our progress now that we, our rights, and Constitution have been flushed down the crapper.

I don’t know what can be done to turn it around, either, when we have the combination of idiot Senators making ridiculous comments about denying basic constitutional rights to U.S. citizens who commit crimes, and idiot Americans who line the streets and applaud the same people who were pointing guns at them and, whether permitted or not, searched their homes.

And, by the way, the whole point of whether these people permitted it, or not, is irrelevant. I’ve seen now two pictures of police officers lined up, pointing guns at residents, as they exit their homes with their hands up. The officers would not have cared if Bostonians allowed a search or not: they were going to do them anyway.

And too many people are okay with that.

It’s probably just dumb luck that we didn’t have any Dorner-style shootings of innocent citizens by trigger-happy police.

Second, the FDLA is a great program.

Third, and most importantly, don’t ever think it’s as easy as mentioning you want a lawyer and thinking they’re going to give you a phone to call one. You have to absolutely refuse to answer any of their questions until a lawyer is present. Believe it or not, the cops don’t like this. Sometimes they’ll just stop the questioning and leave it at that (without letting you call a lawyer). It’s not uncommon for them to screw with you, though (ie. asking for the name of your lawyer before you call anybody).

I’ve had clients call from the station and when I talk to the cops (and tell them not to ask another question until I get there) they’ll tell me that they can’t be sure I’m really a lawyer, or that my client “isn’t a suspect” so it shouldn’t much matter, etc.

Be persistent, regardless of what they tell you, or what you’ve previously told them.

Welcome to the U.S.A., where the fascist dictators are free to molest anyone who comes within view.

The real message, I suspect, is that it doesn’t give a rat’s ass for the poor and that anyone giving them sustenance induces them to stick around rather than either dying or migrating to a less heartless community. And of course, if they’re in a public park . . . .

Might have been OK if they were being fed on a poorly lit-street corner in a ghetto.

Like all rarely used laws, they are abused as in the case above. Only thirteen people have even been charged with adultery in NY. But there was an MD who would rape wives of staff at West Point a decade or three ago. He did this while they were in twilight sleep anesthesia. He got away with it because the women were pressured to drop charges of rape against the doc, by being threatened with being charged for adultery themselves.

{{{hugs}}}

Tasha & Buddy & Karen (Mum)

May the love you shared help soften the sadness you are feeling now and may someday soon you smile again when you think of him…that is what he would want…

Ripley had a pretty severe form of the disease, and he was on both Atopica and prednisone. That worked to improve his PCV, but we had to reduce the prednisone because it was causing havoc with his liver. As soon as we did, however, the disease came roaring back. There was nothing we could do.

Good luck with your kitty, I’m glad he’s hanging in there.

What a handsome boy he was. Our sincerest condolences.

This is a beautiful tribute and photographs.

All four of us were adopted as ‘older’ cats as well.

Purrs,
Mindy
Moe
Cookie
Mike